མ་རྟག་པ་ཉད་ཀྱ་མད notes.49

notes.49

49. āśrava­jñāna­prahāṇavaiśāradyam. A less precise translation would be “confidence in their knowledge of the abandonment of negative influences.” This is a problematic phrase within this interpretation of the caturvaiśāradya that is unique to The Sūtra on Impermanence. The equivalent in the standard list of the four confidences would be sarvāśravakṣaya­jñānavaiśāradyam (s.v. this entry in Mvy 130 (S. 132)), “confidence in the knowledge of exhausting negative influences,” which seems to be the intended meaning of āśrava­jñāna­prahāṇavaiśāradyam. However, prahāṇa in Sanskrit Buddhist literature generally, and in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, is not related to the Sanskrit term prahāṇa (“abandonment”), but rather the Pali term padhāna (“effort”), an important technical term. It seems that whoever added this explanation of the four confidences in the Sanskrit transmission of The Sūtra on Impermanence conflated the correct BHS usage of prahāṇa for the standard Sanskrit usage. This may bolster the conclusion we take from the manuscript evidence that these four terms laying out the four confidences were possibly later additions to the text.