[Tlhingan-hol] The Dhammapada: A Klingon Translation, verses 1-2

[Michael Everson]

On 20 Dec 2011, at 22:34, Josh Badgley wrote:

> Awakened is only one meaning. 

It is the central one, and it precedes Buddhism. 

> Buddha comes from the verb bujjhati which means "to be awake, to be enlightened, (acc.), to perceive, to know, recognise, understand" (PED).

Pali bujjhati is a Pali formation of Sanskrit budhyate, which again goes to the root budh- 'to wake, wake up, be awake'. Budhyate is a passive 'to be awakened or restored to consciousness'. 

> In the Path of Purity it states "Or alternatively, he discovered (bujjhi) the four truths by himself and awakened (bodhesi) others to them, thus and for other such reasons he is enlightened (buddha).

That is 'awakened'. 

> And in order to explain this meaning the whole passage in the Niddesa beginning thus: 'He is the discoverer (bujjhitar) of the truths, thus he is enlightened (buddha). He is the awakened (bodhetar) of the generation, thus he is enlightened (buddha)'

Well, this is the usual way of employing rhyme and folk etymology to get one's point across. "Buddha" is still "budh + ta", and the rousing to enlightened consciousness is analogous to rousing to waking from sleep. Which is why "budh" was used to describe this. 

> I chose jIvHa'wI' because I liked the way it was defined in the Tao Te Ching.  It seemed to mesh nicely with the above definition of buddha

Well, I would not consider Daoism to be a very good glass with which to peer at Buddhism. jIvHa'wI' does not imply a rousing to transcendant consciousness, but 'the one who has undone ignorance'. Doesn't that just imply "being aware of some facts"? One might relieve such ignorance by reading a manual or being shown something by someone. That's a lot different to the base idiom of "buddha". 

Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com/