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The focus on correct pronunciation here has always bothered me in a particular way: the Heart Sutra ends in a Sanskrit mantra -- "gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate

by gfaure 5y ago

The focus on correct pronunciation here has always bothered me in a particular way: the Heart Sutra ends in a Sanskrit mantra -- "gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā", or "gone, gone, far gone, awakening, svaha". But in each of the languages that inherited the Chinese rendering of the Heart Sutra -- Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and others -- the mantra is pronounced completely differently, by the principles of sound change over the centuries! In fact, the Japanese rendering is "gyatei gyatei haragyatei harasōgyatei boji sowaka", while the Korean rendering is "aje aje bara-aje baraseung-aje moji sabaha". Each of these is in turn the Sino-Xenic reading of the same Chinese transliteration of the mantra: 揭諦揭諦波羅揭諦波羅僧揭諦菩提薩婆訶. So I wonder, if you believe in the power of the sound symbolism of the mantra, why was it ever acceptable to transliterate the Sanskrit into Chinese, and from there into a multitude of other languages?

demetrius 5y ago
> why was it ever acceptable to transliterate the Sanskrit into Chinese I'd say it wasn't transliteration, it was just writing. Sanskrit was written with local script throughout the world. Unlike some other languages, which have strong affinity for one script, Sanskrit can be written with lots of scripts (e.g. Burmese, Tibetan, etc.). So Chinese characters were probably perceived just as another way of writing, not as some kind of vulgarisation. Sure, in the end the pronunciation drifted in unexpected ways. But I think it's not because people used Chinese characters, but because the knowledge of Sanskrit in China, Japan or Korea was not that widespread.
stazz1 5y ago
thinking from a purely vibrational point of view, maybe it's more-or-less the same punch because when one says "wom wom wom" or "nom nom nom" we're still getting similar propulsions in vibratory-space. +, the real tone is intention.

by gfaure 5y ago

demetrius 5y ago

> why was it ever acceptable to transliterate the Sanskrit into Chinese I'd say it wasn't transliteration, it was just writing. Sanskrit was written with local script throughout the world. Unlike some other languages, which have strong affinity for one script, Sanskrit can be written with lots of scripts (e.g. Burmese, Tibetan, etc.). So Chinese characters were probably perceived just as another way of writing, not as some kind of vulgarisation. Sure, in the end the pronunciation drifted in unexpected ways. But I think it's not because people used Chinese characters, but because the knowledge of Sanskrit in China, Japan or Korea was not that widespread.

stazz1 5y ago

thinking from a purely vibrational point of view, maybe it's more-or-less the same punch because when one says "wom wom wom" or "nom nom nom" we're still getting similar propulsions in vibratory-space. +, the real tone is intention.