Question

The reflection when bowing to the Sangha goes similar to this: "On the highest level the Sangha is of good, upright, correct, dutiful conduct." Would you know what the different words mean?

Answer

Again, as I mentioned a few minutes ago when there's a big listing of things in the scriptures - let's go for a bigger one, the Kalama Sutta has ten points in it - some of them will look very similar. Now, this is the English translation, what the Pali word actually meant in the Buddha's day, we don't actually know 100%, it's a dead language. The language he actually spoke, was not Pali, it was one of the ancient Indian languages and it's dead, nobody knows it. There's no way we can actually prove that the Pali words are absolutely the same as the English translations that we have today. So don't worry too much about separating some that look the same, don't worry about it, take it as a general thing. With the traditional chant for the Sangha, the Noble Ones, the people who have been enlightened partly or fully, it expresses how wonderful they are. That's the basic essence. Upright, correct, dutiful, good, these are words, take it in a general form, don't try to separate them; but in a general form these are wonderfully good, kind people.

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