Huge difference in meaning in translation

Sanghamitta

I'm reading Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation of the Connected Discourses, and in 16.10 the translation is "...women are foolish." I refuse to believe an enlightened being can categorize women in such a harmful way. I know I'm projecting my 2021 sensibilities onto a person who lived in 500 BCE. 

I checked out the Sujata translation (SN 16.10) and he says, "that woman is foolish." Whew. That feels better. I would even go further to say that she is acting foolish, without branding her as foolish. 

Our times are especially tuned to these issues. The Buddha of the first translation might say also that men are foolish until they are enlightened. Or humans are foolish. 

The woman in question was upset that Mahakassapa gave a talk instead of Ananda. Her name was Thullatissa, and in the next section (SN16.11) she "falls away from the holy life." It doesn't say why. Presumably she didn't leave because she didn't get to hear her favored speaker.

Wishing to hear Ananada speak instead of Mahakassapa implies she doesn't want to hear about the vinaya, and perhaps was struggling with the vinaya. The asceticism, or the social rules or the fact that women have more rules. Perhaps she did not want to pretend to be inferior to all male monks. Was she an early feminist? You could spin it off along that kind of story but that's reaching a bit. 

But just for a lark I took a look at the Eight Garudhammas. It turns out they are contested. Bhikkhu Analayo doesn't think they were in an earlier version.

Looking at the exact 8, I wonder what the manatta punishments. I can only find one place where they say that they lead to the 13 punishments, but doesn't say what those are, and I can't find out what those are. Instead of going into that, it seems better to just reject the whole idea of the Garudhammas.

Again, I'm just trying to make it make sense with my mind a quarter of a millennium later, and I'm not sure how useful that is. I'm not ordained in any tradition, so there is no point in listening to me, as I'm not certified as an expert. 

I explore these issues for my own part, and share them because I feel generosity is the giving of the self, in part, and I wish for all beings to become enlightened. The altruism in the spiritual path counteracts the spiritual individualism.