Skip to main content

Righting a wrong: ☸Dhamma needs to be left untranslated

"dhamma" is an overloaded word with 4 general categories of meaning.
It's understandable that translators want to give it the most specific and precise possible translation of "dhamma" in any given passage, to make the meaning in context more clear.

The problem is, 'dhamma' often straddles several of the 4 possible meanings, simultaneously. So when translators commit to one specific meaning, it loses the other ones. Often, 'dhamma' in context primarily and foremost, refers to the Buddha teachings, his ☸Dhamma.

Often in the suttas, translators translate that 'dhamma', instead of teachings, as 'thing'. Here is a prime example, in SN 54.1 the important samyutta on 16 APS breath meditation. I believe all english translations, have 'dhamma' translated as 'thing' here.

That's wrong. The primary meaning here, is ☸Dhamma (buddha's teaching). Calling ☸Dhamma a dhamma (thing), would be like calling Buddha, "that guy", or "bro", or "some dude." It's disrespectful and a really bad idea. Not because of adherence to rites and rituals and social norms of respect, but because it loses the important connection with samma sati (right remembering), and the 7sb (awakening factors) samadhi machine architecture. Sati takes ☸Dhamma as its input, and then feeds the ☸Dhamma to the 2nd factor in 7sb, ☸Dhamma-vicaya-sb, etc, to lead to samadhi, upekkha, and arahantship.

I intend to restore the ☸Dhamma in all pali to english suttas, and leave all Dhamma and dhamma untranslated, as it was intended by the Buddha.

Here is an example of justice being done:
(instead of one-"thing")



(4👑☸) → SN 54.1 🌬️😤      AN   DN   KN   MN   SN   (⤴)

SN 54.1 🌬️😤


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Advice to younger meditators on jhāna, sex, porn, masturbation

Someone asked: Is porn considered harmful sexual.activity? I don't have a sex life because I don't have a partner and I don't wish to engage in casual sex so I use porn to quench the biological urge to orgasm. I can't see that's it's harmful because nobody is being forced into it. The actors are all paid well and claim to enjoy it etc. The only harm I can see is that it's so accessible these days on smart devices and so children may access it but I believe that this is the parents responsibility to not allow unsupervised use of devices etc. Views? Frankk response: In another thread, you asked about pleasant sensations and jhāna.  I'm guessing you're young, so here's some important advice you won't get from suttas   if you're serious about jhāna.  (since monastics are already celibate by rule)   If you want to attain stable and higher jhānas,   celibacy and noble silence to the best of your ability are the feedstock and prerequiste to tha
Post a Comment
Read more

SN 48.40 Ven. Thanissaro comments on Ven. Sunyo's analysis

This was Ven. Sunyo's analysis of SN 48.40: https://notesonthedhamma.blogspot.com/2024/05/exciting-news-honest-ebt-scholars-like.html And here is Ven. Thanissaro's response to that analysis: I think there’s a better way to tackle the issue of SN 48:40 than by appealing to the oldest layers of commentarial literature. That way is to point out that SN 48:40, as we have it, doesn’t pass the test in DN 16 for determining what’s genuine Dhamma and what’s not. There the standard is, not the authority of the person who’s claiming to report the Buddha’s teachings, but whether the teachings he’s reporting are actually in accordance with the principles of the Dhamma that you know. So the simple fact that those who have passed the Buddha’s teachings down to us say that a particular passage is what the Buddha actually taught is not sufficient grounds for accepting it. In the case of the jhānas—the point at issue here— we have to take as our guide the standard formula for the jhānas, a
Post a Comment
Read more

1min. video: Dalai Lama kissing boy and asking him to suck his tongue

To give more context, this is a public event,  * everyone knows cameras are rolling  *  it's a room full of children * the boy's mom is standing off camera a few feet away watching all of this * the boy initiated contact, he had already had a hug with Dalai Lama earlier and then asked Dalai Lama for another hug which triggered this segment  17 min. video showing what happened before that 1 min. clip and after, with some explanation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT0qey5Ts78 16min talk from Ajahn Acalo with his thoughts on Dalai Lama kissing boy, relevance to Bhikkhu monastic code, sexual predators in religion in general, and how celibate monastics deal with sexual energy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK2m0TcUib0 The child's comments about the incident in a filmed interview later https://www.marca.com/en/lifestyle/world-news/2023/04/18/643eba5d46163ffc078b457c.html The child: It's a great experience It was amazing to meet His Holiness and I think it's a great ex
Post a Comment
Read more