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Glossology

Table of Contents

Glossology is a rarely-used word that means the study of the meanings of the words of a language or the terms used in a science. I think it is an ideal word for describing what this section is doing.

This section is organized this way:
[ ] Tables of Comparative Vocabularies of the various translators organized by "Dhamma" (major category of Practice or building-block of the system) with the individual Pali terms therein linked to
[ ] Individual pages discussing that term. Links from that page lead to:
[ ] the various "Dhammas" to which that term belongs,
[ ] discussions of that term on the main website,
[ ] Suttas in the Sutta Index that deal with that term, and to
[ ] whatever other helpful material can be found.
Approaching it from the other end, Pali terms and major concepts that come up in the course of discussions, within suttas, and so forth will be linked to the term or Dhamma in the Glossology.

The contents listings below (containing both Dhammas and individual terms) should serve as a general all-round subject index. It deliberately contain numerous redundancies. Included will be the term (or terms) for the Dhamma in Pali, and the most commonly used English Language term (or terms).

I have decided to include all the well-known (and at least one of the...um...lesser-known translators for each dhamma even when there is no translation by that individual for that dhamma. I will do this by "constructing" what their translation would have likely been based on the way they use the sub-terms elsewhere. This has at least one problem: Some, if not most, translators are inconsistant in their use of terms across their own translations (I am certainly one of those!), so there is no real assurance that the constructed translations would be as the translator would have rendered the Dhamma. What this Will do, however, is give us at least a clue as to how the translator was thinkiing about the system as a whole. This is the real point of this section.

Please be aware that by the nature of the materials being presented in tabular form, horizontal scrolling will often be needed.

One thing I would like to introduce at this point is the idea that there is no sense, when dealing with translations, in attempting to determine which One Single word is the best translation. I think a better approach is to view the various translations of a term as a "spectrum" of meanings encompassed by the Pali term. This does not mean that some translation may not be incorrect; but only that many translations may be correct but limited in scope. The reader should, in his own thinking either be using the Pali term understanding this scope, or be picking what he feels is the best term, understanding that it should not be held on to ridgedly.

The intent here is only to discuss terms that qualify as dhammas and their sub-categories. For other terms used in the suttas, see the very good general glossary at Access to Insight: A Glossary of Pali and Buddhist terms
and/or Buddhist Dictionary Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines, by Nyanatiloka

Pali Terms

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Saturday, April 26, 2003 9:46 AM