I think I know some of these, but the rest are a translation muddle. The west seems to **not** attempt to translate nirvana, sangha, dharma, mantra, mudra, buddha, bodhisattva (and probably a few more) and that for me is actually helpful. I expect that some of these correspond to multiple Pali/Sanskrit words.
**Enlightenment**. In English, it is an anachronistic reference to the European age of Enlightenment.
**Meditation**. This word predates the west's contact with Buddhism. I have no idea what non-Buddhist baggage it brings along.
**Loving-kindness**. This sounds like Christianity projected on Buddhism.
**Soul**. Seems like this is atman, but everyone seems determined to call it something like "self," which is for a man-in-the-street just a reflexive pronoun. (Does the self exist? Well, as much as any other pronoun, like "he" or "they")
**Reincarnation/rebirth**. Synonyms in man-in-the-street's English, but I've seen people argue passionately how Buddhism believes one but not the other, sort of like believing in leasing but not renting (which are synonyms).
**Repentance**. I know for sure this is a big deal in Chinese Buddhism.
**Pure/Purity**. Means scrubbed clean of earthly dirt. I know this is a metaphor, but somehow, after 2000 years it falls as flat as if I tried to use a computer metaphor to explain to a 500BC farmer how the brain and cellular DNA works.
**Heaven/Pure Land**. Sukhāvatī comes to mind, but I'm not sure if this is a specific pure land, or the jargon for pure lands in general. Again, 'pure' makes it sound either homogenous or really well scrubbed, like a hospital. I'd rather just use whatever jargon word the originators used.
**Deity**. This in man-in-the-street English mean a god, or God, just like the one's the Christian's pray to. In Vajrayana, people seem to argue that yidams are something else.
Asked by MatthewMartin
(7221 rep)
Aug 9, 2014, 04:27 PM
Last activity: Nov 8, 2019, 07:50 AM
Last activity: Nov 8, 2019, 07:50 AM