The following table indicates Pali words, their usual English translations, better translations and comments on what is actually meant in the suttas:
| dukkha | suffering; stress; unsatisfactoriness |
dukkha; bummer |
Dukkha is best left untranslated. It does mean both "suffering" and "stress", but it also means "unsatisfactoriness" - basically "getting what one does not want" and "not getting what one does want". It covers all those little niggling feelings that life is not perfect. If you really want an English word, the best one is the slang bummer. |
| vedana | feeling | vedana; "the feel" |
Vedana does NOT mean emotions - it means simply pleasant, unpleasant, or neither-pleasant-nor-unpleasant. It is the first impression a sense contact makes: "I like it" or "I don't like it" or "I don't care". Emotions are mental formations (sankhara) not vedana. |
| sañña | perception | perception cognition |
Sañña refers to the ability of the mind to name or categorize or identify a sense impression. It's the labeling of our experiences. |
| sankara | formations; compounded things; intentions; mental activity |
concoctions; fabrications |
Sankara gets translated in a number of ways depending on the context. But the Buddha used a single word in all those contexts! Better translations would be "concoctions" or "fabrications". Both of these words fit in all those contexts and also have the sense of "not quite true" which I think is an important aspect of sankara. |
| dhatu | element | aspect; characteristic | Element implies an existing thing - a mistake the Abhidhamma makes. See MN 115.4-9 where there are many kinds of elements given, given in terms of aspects or characteristics. See also PTS PED for dhâtu, 2.a: "natural condition, property, disposition; factor, item, principle, form." |
| metta | loving-kindness; friendliness |
unconditional love | "Loving-kindness" is a good translation, but a bit on the wimpy side. Metta is the same as the Greek agape which is best translated as "unconditional love" - loving someone just because they are a someone, not because of what they can or might or did do for you. |
| mudita | sympathetic joy; empathetic joy; joy at the good fortune of others |
appreciative joy | The later commentaries indicate that one always feels mudita for others - but the suttas indicate that one does all 4 Brahma Vihara practices for oneself as well as others. Thus "appreciative joy" more closely captures this emotion. |
| nibbida | disenchantment; revulsion; disgust |
disenchantment | Revulsion has too strong a negative connotation. Disenchantment is much better - one experiencing nibbida towards X is no longer enchanted by X, the spell (enchantment) has been broken. |
| vitakka & vicara |
thinking & pondering; initial attention & sustained attention |
thinking & pondering |
These two definitely mean "thinking" and "pondering"/"examining" or perhaps sometimes even "initial thought" and "applied thought". However according to the commentaries, when they are used in the description of the 1st Jhana, they mean "initial attention to the meditation subject" and "sustained attention on the meditation subject". But there is much evidence in the suttas that the commentaries are wrong - see for example SN 21:1 and SN 40.1. |
| piti | rapture; euphoria; ecstasy; interest; pleasure; |
glee | Piti comes in many grades and shades, all the usual translations can possibly apply. But it has an excited quality to it that "glee" captures better than any of the usual translations. |
| satipatthana | foundation of mindfulness | looking after mindfulness | Altho "foundations" is traditional, but it's not really accurate. Satipatthana is probably a compound of sati + upatthâna. According to the PTS PED, upatthâna means "attendance, waiting on, looking after, service, care, ministering". So the Satipatthana Sutta would be "The Discourse on Looking After Mindfulness" or "The Discourse on Taking Care of Mindfulness" |
| bhava | existence; being; becoming |
becoming | "Becoming" captures the broader sense of bhava much better. See Thanissaro Bhikkhu's excellent book on becoming. |
| amata | deathless | deathless; timelessness |
Amata literally means deathless, but in classical Vedic texts this refers to an essential timelessness preceding and underlying the world of human experience. At times, the Buddha perhaps used the word in this way also - experience of and in "the ceasely changing now." |
| atammayata | non-identification | non-concocting; non-fashioning |
Literally: "not made of that", which implies that "non-identification" would be less helpful than "non-concocting"/"non-fashioning". The quality of experience prior to, or without, subject/object duality. |
| asava | outflow; taint; effluent; canker; fermentation |
intoxicant | From the PTS Pali-English Dictionary: "technical term for certain specified ideas which intoxicate the mind (bemuddle it, befoozle it, so that it cannot rise to higher things). Freedom from the 'Âsavas' constitutes Arahantship." |
| tathagata | the Tathagata | a tathagata one-arrived-at-Truth |
Often said to be how the Buddha refered to himself. However this assumes he was saying "the Tathagata" - but there aren't any articles ("a", "an" or "the") in Pali. It seems more likely the Buddha was refering to "one who has arrived at the Truth" (i.e. an awkaened one) rather than using it specifically to refer to himself. Tathagata seems to be somewhat the same as arahant - tho perhaps with overtones of "a fully realized one," and/or "a spiritually perfected one." |
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/ Revised 02 Jan 12