What does Oja mean?

Q & A
1

Can someone give bit more info about the word Oja?
Can I see Oja in inanimate objects. say a rock?
Ojā: ‘nutriment’ synonym of āhāra, is one of those 8 minimal constituent parts, or qualities, of all materiality, to wit: the solid, liquid, heat, motion; colour, odour, taste and nutriment. This is the ‘octad with nutriment as the eighth factor’ ojatthamaka-kalāpa also called the ‘pure 8-fold unit’ suddhatthaka-kalāpa being the most primitive material combination. For further details, see: rūpa-kalāpa.

http://what-buddha-said.net/library/Buddhist.Dictionary/dic3_o.htm

2

ojā
feminine
nutritive essence; juice.

ojā
feminine
strength, but only in meaning of strength-

Vedic ojas nt., also BSk. oja nt. Divy.105; fr. *aug to increase, as in Lat. auges, augustus & auxilium Goth. aukan (augment), Ags. ēacian; cp. also Gr. ἀέςω Sk. ukṣati & vakṣana increase

Source: SuttaCentral

Modern science uses the words gum, resin, sap, latex and mucilage very specifically according to the distinct properties of each. No similar distinctions can be detected between ikkāsa,jatu, ojā and sajjulasa,the names given in the Tipiṭaka for the substances extracted from or exuded by various plants.
(…)
Ojā means “nutriment” and was sometimes used to mean tree sap. Ikkāsa had some adhesive properties because it would be mixed with whitewash to help it adhere to a surface.

Source: SuttaCentral

The term can be found in its isolated form in the pali original for DN21 and AN6.60 (as far as Google / SC could find! :slight_smile:)

3

It appears Oja has the ability to create another pure 8 -fold unit.
I wish to know more about this.

4

:confused:

5

This sounds like an abhidhamma complication. I don’t think this octad is found in the original suttas.

with metta

M

6

Yes it is Abhidhamma.
Are we allowed to talk about Abhidhamma in Sutta Central?

7

Yes I heard this from a video presentation of a Sri Lankan monk.

8

I think nothing stops us from doing so. The only point is that possibily this is actually commentary stuff which ends up being a mixed bag. If you cannot find it in SuttaCentral.net but can find it in VRI’s http://www.tipitaka.org for example, the chances are that this is the case.

Now, if you check the Suttas and Vinaya texts the term is used in a very straightforward way, as per the dictionary definition I shared above.

Maybe your question was just a rhetorical one. So please, don’t feel constrained and share with us what you’ve got! It seems to me what you heard on the topic rang a bell on you and you wanted to talk about it here. Please do so! :slight_smile:

P.S.: A Google search into tipitaka.org does indeed retrieve many more occurrences of the term, mostly in texts clearly of commentary and sub-commentary nature. Unfortunately there are no English translations for those available!