Buddhism Summary in one page (printable)

AV
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Very nice :slight_smile:

If you’re open to feedback, there are a few things that came to mind for translation. These are minor, but they are also major as they are core doctrinal concepts that can be easily misunderstood with less accurate and out dated translations. If it is useful, here it is :slight_smile:

four foundations of mindfulness

This translation is not an accurate representation of the suttas, as has been discussed and known for a while now. The short story is that ‘foundation’ translates ‘patthāna,’ which is one of the word-play etymologies given in the Theravāda commentaries. But the actual undebatable etymology is from ‘upatthāna’ (‘upatthitassati,’ ‘satim upatthapetva,’ Skt. ‘smrtyupasthāna,’ G, ‘spaḏoṭ́haṇaṇa’). The more accurate rendering is probably ‘establishing’ or ‘establishment.’

Body … feelings … mind … in and of itself

Ven. Sujato’s translation is ‘an aspect of the body, feelings, mind …’ This is certainly the more obvious reading. If you want to know why, there has been writing about it here. But needless to say, satipatthana meditation is about picking an aspect of experience and meditating (i.e. continually observing/being mindful of it). Translations which try to explain the refrain as referring to anattā and what have you are influenced by later commentarial understandings of it as an insight practice.

craving for sensuality

I think this is not bad, but just wanted to point out that similar to ‘becoming’ (see note below on that word), ‘sensuality’ seems to have the connotation of the pursuit of, indulgence in, desire for, etc. sensual pleasures. So it is more of an activity. We don’t crave to pursue sensual pleasures, we just crave sensual pleasures. The craving then gives rise to the pursuit when we act on it. Likewise we don’t crave for the process of becoming X, we crave to be X, and that leads us into the pursuit of that process. So I think ‘kāma-tanhā’ would better be rendered ‘craving for sensual pleasures,’ and ‘bhava tanhā’ as ‘craving for existence / craving to exist / craving for life,’ etc.

‘Sensuality’ seems to be an ambiguous word though and I believe it has sometimes shifted in meaning in Buddhism. But usually when people use ‘sensuality’ even in Buddhist contexts they are referring to a mind state that values, pursues, or indulges in sensual pleasures. And so that would actually be the craving more than the sense pleasures themselves. Like “craving for craving for sense pleasures” — which is not quite what’s intended.

conceit or excessive pride (mana)

In English, ‘conceit’ does generally mean ‘excessive pride.’ The reason it’s used as a translation for māna because of its etymological relationship to ‘conceive’ and ‘concept.’ In Pāli, māna means measuring oneself against others, either superior, inferior, or equal. So it is not just excessive pride, but also low self-esteem or a sense of oneself being equal to others (in terms of a sense of self).

Mind and matter

I would avoid translating ‘rūpa’ as ‘matter.’ This is another subtle conversation though.

Six Sense Bases

‘Base’ is another rendering of āyatana which is not really an accurate translation as much as it is a translation of commentarial exegesis. A more accurate word is ‘domain,’ ‘field,’ etc. ‘Sphere’ is sometimes used and is okay.

Clinging

See this post on for minimal explanation of how ‘clinging’ is not accurate for ‘upādāna.’ ‘Grasping,’ ‘appropriation,’ ‘uptake,’ etc. are more accurate renderings.

Becoming

See this post here on why this is not a satisfying translation for ‘bhava.’ Again, big translation decisions like these have had a lot of detailed discussion, so I won’t try and summarize here. But ‘existence,’ ‘continued existence,’ or even ‘life’ are more accurate translations.

Dissatisfaction

‘Dissatisfaction’ is a mental state, emotion, or feeling. ‘Dukkha,’ however,’ also applies to phenomena irrespective of one’s mental reaction. It is often given with a list of synonyms in the suttas to help clarify its meaning and connotation: words given as synonyms are ‘misery,’ ‘affliction,’ ‘dart,’ ‘tumor,’ etc. See SN 22.31 for example where the four noble truths are taught, but instead of ‘dukkha’ the word ‘agha’ is used in its place, meaning ‘misery,’ ‘suffering,’ ‘wicked,’ etc.

All the best

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