にも after the 連体形 of a verb and sentence

Question

I started reading 三人法師　by Tanizaki Junichiro and I came accross this sentence :

高野の山へ集って来たからにはどうせ世を厭う人々ではありながら、同じ厭離の願いを遂げるにも座禅入定の法もあれば念佛三昧の道もある。

I interpret this sentence as :

While they are people who will hate the world anyway now that they have gathered at the mountain of Takano, even to achieve (同じ厭離の願い) if there is a 座禅入定の法, there is also a 念佛三昧の道.

So I have a few questions:

• What is a good translation for 厭う（いとう）? It means "to hate" but it also means "大事にする" as I saw in the dictionary so I can't put my finger on a good translation, or a good way to interpret this word.

• What does 同じ厭離の願い mean in this sentence ?

• And I see にも as のにも without the の but I am not sure, as I have never seen にも directly after a 連体形 without の. But it reminds me of には which I read somewhere that is a contraction of ためには or のには. Am I correct on this ?

• I think I translated properly but the whole sentence doesn't make much sense, can anyone correct me please ?

Thanks!

Answer 1

高野の山へ集って来たからにはどうせ世を厭う人々ではありながら、同じ厭離の願いを遂げるにも座禅入定の法もあれば念佛三昧の道もある。

While they are people who will hate the world anyway now that they have gathered at the mountain of Takano, even to achieve (同じ厭離の願い) if there is a 座禅入定の法, there is also a 念佛三昧の道.

What is a good translation for 厭う（いとう）? It means "to hate" but it also means "大事にする" as I saw in the dictionary so I can't put my finger on a good translation, or a good way to interpret this word.

I've never noticed they are the same word, but from the context, we naturally think that this 厭う means to hate or dislike.

(In どうせ世を厭う人々, this 厭う isn't necessarily talking about the future; Japanese verb forms don't tell tense by itself. The speaker is just presuming.)

What does 同じ厭離の願い mean in this sentence ?

And I see にも as のにも without the の but I am not sure, as I have never seen にも directly after a 連体形 without の. But it reminds me of には which I read somewhere that is a contraction of ためには or のには. Am I correct on this ?

同じ厭離の願いを遂げるにも, without の, it's just a style; it's the same as
同じ厭離の願いを遂げるのにも or
同じ厭離の願いを遂げるにしても.

We often say 同じことをするにしても, and
seldom say 同じことをするのにしても.

They are saying, even in (the same) doing[realizing a wish of escaping the worldly world]
--- This is the premise.

And the writer continues to say there are two ways to do it.

Answer 2

厭う is not hating something actively or strongly; rather, it's trying to keep emotional distance from something. 世を厭う in this context refers to keeping distance from secular life and entering the priesthood to achieve 解脱/悟り, which is a kind of "liberation". 厭離の願い refers to the same thing. FWIW, I didn't know 厭う can also mean 大事にする. 体を厭う makes little sense at least to me.

• AからにはBだ: "Considering the fact A, B", "A indicates B", "Now that A, B".
• dictionary-form + には: "In order to ～". に marks a purpose, and は marks a topic. The nominalizer の is not necessary in this case. And here も is replacing は for emphasis.

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• ～も～ば～も: "not only A but also B." Don't use if to translate this pattern.

My translation attempt:

Considering the fact that they gathered at Mount Koya, they must be ones who have forsaken the secular world, after all. Still, in order to achieve 厭離の願い, there are not only 座禅入定の法 but also 念佛三昧の道.

Where 座禅入定の法 refers to achieving 悟り via silent zazen, and 念佛三昧の道 refers to achieving 悟り via intensive nenbutsu.