Volovsky wrote: ↑Fri Dec 14, 2018 1:31 pm
ToVincent wrote: ↑Fri Dec 14, 2018 12:35 pm
When you add the participial kṛt affix ण ṇa, to the root वा √ vā, to make the noun निर्वाण nirvāṇa, you still have to give the affix a meaning.
In the word nirvāṇa, there is the meaning of the preposition, the root, and the affix. So, strictly speaking, the affix is not a noun, but it has this meaning. Maybe I should have used "knowing" instead of "knowledge", to make it more "agent like".
Not like this. Affix doesn't have a special meaning, different from the root. For example: the word "kindness" has affix "ness", which turns "kind" into an abstract noun. You cannot interpret it as noun "ness" or "nest"
I just wanted to equate paññā/prajñā with "the knowledge of prāṇa". Not with the vagueness of "wisdom".
But from where does "prana" come from then in your definition? Why is it "knowledge of prana"? Why not "knowledge of (let's say) space"?
Instead of the Kṛt affix, whose meanings can be various, in its general function of making the compound the agent of the verb ; I will take the more simple example of the Taddhita affix "a" that can give different new meanings to a word when used, but whose principal meaning is commonly given as: "descendent of", "follower of", or "belonging to".
Affixes are not devoid of underlying meanings.
Let's consider the Kṛt affix "at" in bhavat.
bhav + at = bhavat ("becoming" or "being", in the sense of "something or someone who becomes or is").
Isn't there in that affix, the underlying meaning of the root "अत् at", that means "to go" ? - The idea of a process "going on".
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Let's put it simply.
Is paññā/prajñā "Wisdom" - or- Is paññā/prajñā the "knowledge of prāṇa".
That was the idea behind my lousy formulated title.
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Why breath and not space?
Because √ अन् an and वा √ vā convey the same underlying meaning.
BREATH