When I lived in Japan I had no interest in Buddhism. It's sad, now I do, and so much of the language is influenced by Buddhism. There is a word ("gedatsu") whic

When I lived in Japan I had no interest in Buddhism. It's sad, now I do, and so much of the language is influenced by Buddhism. There is a word ("gedatsu") which if pronounced according to the rules of converting Chinese characters (kanji) to their Japanese pronunciation would be kaidatsu. The word means enlightenment. It harkens back to a different era in the language when people could recite 800 page books from memory.