āśvāsa-praśvāsa (3061)

āśvāsa-praśvāsa
Entry 3061, Page 110, Col. 1

(ASvAsapraSvAsa, ASvAsa-praSvAsa)
āśvāsa-praśvāsa¦ (Pali assāsa-passāsa), m. dual or pl., breath; usually used without clear indication of dif- ference between the two terms, like ānāpāna, q.v.: LV 251.15--16 nāsikātaś cāśvāsapraśvāsāv uparuddhāv abhū- tāṃ; 252.3 °sā ūrdhvaṃ śiraḥkapālam upanighnanti sma; as separate words, 259.7 āśvāsaviprahīnaḥ praśvāsa- varjitu; Mv ii.124.10 (and ff.) mukhato nāsikāśrotrehi ca āśvāsapraśvāsā uparundhi (1 sg. aor.); Mv iii.179.19 °sehi tathāgataṃ upahanati; Śāl 78.3, 17 kāyasyāśvāsapraśvā- sakṛtyaṃ; Sādh 61.19 °sādikam; the verb uśvasati, q.v., [Page110-b+ 71] corresponds to āśvāsa in Mv ii.208.3--4 āśvāsapraśvāsā uparuddhā…no pi uśvasati na praśvasati (the two verbs repeated twice in lines 8, 9), cf. LV 189.12 ucchvasantaṃ praśvasantam, rendered by Tib. dbugs dbyuṅ zhiṅ rṅub breathing out and in, but in line 15 below praśvasantaḥ is rendered dbugs dbyuṅ, breathing out (implying that ucchvasantaṃ was understood as breathing in); ucchvāsa- praśvāso (sg.) also occurs, seemingly = āśvāsa-pra°, Śikṣ 42.5; in Sādh 146.17 ff. it is entirely certain that praśvāsa is understood as outbreathing and āśvāsa inbreath- ing, tadanu tan mithunaṃ praśvāsavāyurathārūḍhaṃ nāsikāvivareṇa niḥsṛtya…sattvānāṃ kāyavākcittāni vi- śodhya gṛhītvā ca punar āśvāsavāyum āruhya tenaiva pathā svahṛtkamalakarṇikāyāṃ praviśet; consistent with this is AMg. ussāsa (and relatives), which BHS usage would clearly have associated with āśvāsa, and which acc. to Ratnach. means breathing in; Pali tradition is indeter- minate, see Vism i.272.1 which states that Vin. comm. defines assāsa as outgoing, passāsa as incoming breath, but that in Sutta comms. (Suttantaṭṭhakathāsu) the reverse is taught (the passage is misunderstood by PTSD and Pe Maung Tin; uppaṭipāṭiyā = Pkt. upparivāḍi, inverted, transposed). Tib. regularly āśvasati = dbugs brṅubs (or cognate) breathe in Mvy 1173, 1175, etc., praśvasati = dbugs phyuṅ (or cognate) breathe out Mvy 1174, 1176, etc.; it therefore supports Sādh 146.17 ff., and incidentally the equation of āśvāsa with āna and praśvāsa with apāna (see ānāpāna). How old this interpretation is remains uncertain, esp. in view of the fact that in Pali the comms. differed; Buddhaghosa himself, in the Vism. passage cited, declines to arbitrate between the two opposing views. Whatever may have been the meaning of the two terms, it seems clear that the cpd. (like ānāpāna) was commonly used in the sense of breath, collectively and as a whole.

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