[Buddha-l] liturgical languages

[Stanley J. Ziobro II]

On Fri, 13 May 2005, jkirk wrote:

> Yes, this strikes me as an important difference. There seems to be a subtle
> difference between glossing bodhi as "enlightened" and glossing it as
> "awake." Awake suggests and ongoing process, whereas enlightened with its
> past perfect ending suggests a concluded state, thus subjecting the process
> to essence and therefore contradicting the anatta and anicca propositions.
> ("Awakened" also is a past perfect, so I'd jettison it in favor of merely
> using "awake" for bodhi and for a Buddha----one who is awake.) The teachings
> on practice would thus seem to me to favor "awake" as a process or ongoing
> condition descriptive of bodhi, from which "things" or "life" become freer
> from delusion than otherwise, but is also a state that is never finished
> until parinirvana, as in the case of the Buddha.

Joanna,

In the case of the Buddha's parinivana, would that not also ultimately
indicate an accomplished state, thereby subjecting the process of
enlightenment to some essence and, as you note, contradict the anatta and
anicca propositions?

Regards,

Stan Ziobro