[Buddha-l] Bhagwan, etc.

[Richard P. Hayes]

On Tue, 2005-04-12 at 19:40 -0600, jkirk wrote:

> But I wonder if any contemporary Buddhists, say in Bengal, would refer to
> the Buddha as Bhagwan. I doubt it because they tend to be theravadins and
> don't go in for making the Buddha into a deity.

Well, if they are Theravadins they probably chant "namo tassa bhagavato
arahato sammaasambuddhassa" at least a few times every day. I think
anyone who is familiar with Buddhist texts in Indic languages would feel
quite comfortable with bhagavant as a form of address for the Buddha,
since it is the form of address most commonly used and appears
repeatedly in liturgy.

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico