# Review Findings for 78 *Understanding Bodhicitta* Reviewer: independent translation review (source.dj vs target.dj) Date: 2026-08-07 Method: full line-by-line comparison of all 537 source/target line pairs (blank-line alignment verified 1:1; all 19 blockquote headings match; every paragraph spot-read against the source, including all truncated long lines). Overall verdict: the translation is complete (no missing sections, no added material), doctrinally sound, and fluent. No critical errors. Two major accuracy defects and one omission need fixing; the rest are consistency and polish items. Note: edit-suggestions.dj (2026-08-06) reports "no must-fix issues" — this review found two must-fix items it missed (Major 1 and 2). ## Critical None found. No doctrinal inversions, no dropped passages, no fabricated content. All scripture quotes checked against their Chinese sources render correctly (e.g. *Avatamsaka* "忘失菩提心…是為魔業", *Diamond Sutra* Subhūti passage, *Lamrim* common/uncommon cause, 受持菩提心 vow text). ## Major ### M1. 阿蘭那 rendered as "forest dwelling" (wrong word, internally incoherent) Location: target.dj line 407 (§VII.5, Diamond Sutra Subhūti quote): "…the World-Honored One would not say that Subhūti is one who delights in forest dwelling. It is because Subhūti truly has nothing practiced that he is called one who delights in forest dwelling." Problem: 阿蘭那 is *araṇa* ("non-contention"), not *araṇya* ("forest"). The same quote explicitly says two sentences earlier that Subhūti attained "the samādhi of non-contention" (無諍三昧) — so "forest dwelling" is both a mistranslation and contradicts the passage's own logic (the sutra glosses 阿蘭那 precisely as freedom from conflict, "實無所行"). Fix: "…the World-Honored One would not call Subhūti one who delights in dwelling free of contention. Because Subhūti truly dwells nowhere / practices nothing, he is called one who delights in dwelling free of contention." (Cf. Red Pine: "foremost in the practice of no-contention.") ### M2. Factor-of-ten errors in the eon-count chain of the first analogy Location: target.dj line 169 (§IV.1, 初發心功德品 analogy). Problem: the chain is correct up to 百億劫 ("ten billion eons", ✓), then inflates by 10×: - 千億劫 → "a trillion eons" — should be "a hundred billion eons" (千億 = 10¹¹). - 百千億劫 → "a hundred trillion eons" — should be "ten trillion eons" (10¹³). - 那由他億劫 → "nayutas of billions of eons" — 億 here is a hundred million (10⁸), as the translator correctly rendered two clauses earlier ("a hundred million eons"); should be "a hundred million nayutas of eons". - 百千那由他億劫 → "a hundred thousand nayutas of billions of eons" — same correction ("a hundred thousand nayutas of hundred-millions", or better: keep "nayuta" and the Chinese-style multiplier). Fix: re-render the whole chain with one consistent numeral convention (億 = hundred million everywhere), e.g. "…for ten billion eons … a hundred billion eons … ten trillion eons … a hundred million nayutas of eons … a hundred thousand nayutas of hundred-millions of eons …" ### M3. Omission: "每次三遍" dropped from the refuge-recitation instruction Location: target.dj line 249 (§V.1): "we should recite day and night, three times each session". Problem: source 應晝夜各念誦「…」三次，每次三遍 = recite three times (each day and each night), three repetitions each time. The "three repetitions per recitation" detail is lost, changing the practice instruction. Fix: "we should recite day and night, three times each, three repetitions each time: '…'" ## Minor ### Terminology / consistency 1. 我法二執: rendered "the two attachments—to self and to phenomena" at line 37 but "the two graspings of self and phenomena" in six other places (lines 101, 103, 301, 371, 437, 439). Unify to "two graspings" (matches 我執 "self-grasping" used throughout). 2. 優波尼沙陀 (line 173): transliterated "Upaniṣad / upaniṣadth / upaniṣadfold" — collides with the Upaniṣads and coins awkward forms. Fix: "one upaniṣad part … an upaniṣad-fold … Upaniṣad is a Sanskrit numeral, the largest unit of quantity" — or use "upaniṣat" and gloss "a large numerical unit (not the Upaniṣads)". 3. 億 rendered inconsistently: "hundred million" (line 169) vs "koṭi" (lines 233, 235, 357). At line 233, 二百一十億諸佛刹土 → "two hundred and ten koṭis of buddha-lands" assumes 億 = koṭi (10⁷); the same passage is often rendered 21 billion (億 = 10⁸). Either is defensible, but pick one convention and apply it everywhere; add a translator's note for 233. 4. 《略論》 (line 271) rendered as "the *Lamrim*", indistinguishable from 《道次第》(the 廣論) cited at lines 11, 203, 205, 399, 447, 451. Fix: "the *Abbreviated Lamrim*" (or *Lamrim Chungba*). 5. 正性離生 (line 219) → "definitive separation" loses 生 (birth). Fix: "the stage of definitive deliverance [from rebirth]" or "definitive freedom from birth". 6. 覺有情 gloss (line 375): "The term 'bodhisattva' comes from the Sanskrit *bodhisattva*, meaning awakened being." Redundant (English term = Sanskrit term) and 有情 is dropped. Fix: 'The term "bodhisattva" comes from the Sanskrit *bodhisattva*, "awakened sentient being" — one who is awakened and awakens others.' 7. 支那內學院 (line 63) → "Chinese Inner Studies Institute". Conventional English name: "China Institute of Inner Learning". Fix to the attested name. 8. 《顯揚聖教論》 (line 213) given as *Ārya-śāsana-prakaraṇa-śāstra*. The standard reconstruction is *Āryavācāprakaraṇa-śāstra* (Sakuma). Verify against the project's Sanskrit title list and correct. 9. 《大乘本生心地觀經》 (line 373) → "*Mahāyāna Sutra on the Contemplation of the Mind-Ground*" drops 本生. Fix: "…Contemplation of the Originally Arisen Mind-Ground" or keep short title and note the full title once. 10. 攝受最勝 (line 259) → "supremacy of inclusion". Awkward; the item means being sustained/gathered by non-conceptual wisdom. Fix: "supremacy of being sustained" or "supremacy of embrace (by non-conceptual wisdom)". 11. 因地: "causal ground" (5×) vs "causal stage" (line 413). Unify; "causal stage" reads more naturally in English (e.g. "in his causal stage, Amitābha was the monk Dharmākara"). 12. "buddha-name recitation" (line 47) vs "Buddha-name recitation" (line 131): capitalization inconsistent; unify. ### Fluency 13. Line 311: "Just as it takes two pieces of wood rubbed together continuously to produce the spark of compassion and wisdom." — sentence fragment (a "just as" clause with no main clause). Fix: "It is like drilling wood to make fire: two sticks must be rubbed together continuously before the spark of compassion and wisdom can be struck." 14. Line 61: "believing the treasury of Buddhist art holds rich treasures" — treasury/treasures redundancy (source: 佛教藝術殿堂中有豐富的寶藏). Fix: "believing the halls of Buddhist art hold rich treasures". 15. Line 13: "only the Chan and Pure Land schools maintained the widest influence" — "only … widest" jars. Fix: "only the Chan and Pure Land schools retained wide influence" or "…exerted the widest influence". ## Completeness Verified complete: 537/537 line alignment, all ten sections (intro through §X Q&A) and all 19 subsection headings present in matching order; every paragraph accounted for with no additions or deletions beyond M3 above. The Q&A section's eleven exchanges are all present and correctly attributed (學員/法師 → Student/Venerable). ## Terminology (positive confirmation — no action needed) Consistent, standard renderings throughout: 發心 aspiration; 菩提心 bodhicitta; 凡夫心 ordinary mind; 出離心 renunciation; 空性見 view of emptiness; 我執 self-grasping; 遍計所執 imagined nature; 願/行/勝義菩提心 aspiring/engaging/ultimate bodhicitta; 七因果 sevenfold cause and effect; 增上意樂 extraordinary attitude; 自他相換 exchanging self and other; 三輪體空 threefold purity; 無緣大慈、同體大悲 unconditional great compassion and shared-essence compassion; 趣寂聲聞 śrāvaka fixed on tranquillity; 國王/船夫/ 牧人式發心 king-like/boatman-like/shepherd-like aspiration; 五種性 five lineages; 十二種最勝 twelve supremacies; 四弘誓願 four great vows; 十大願王 ten great vow kings. Sanskrit names all correct (Pūrṇamaitrāyaṇīputra, Dharmamati, Dharmākara, Lokeśvararāja, Gaganagañja, etc.). The 三十六萬億一十 一萬九千五百 Amitābha count (line 419) is computed correctly.