Please check I have the right translations for these words?

[davidbrookesuk]

Hi everyone!

 

I'm about to move to Xi'an, Shaanxi to work.  Whilst I was there I thought it would be a good time to get my second tattoo, as my first is related to Buddhism.

 

My first tattoo is the dharmachakra, which has 8 spokes that refer to different aspects of the Buddhist eightfold path.  I thought my second tattoo would be the eight words that represent each aspect.

 

I've spent some time online and I've found some words in Chinese script that seem to be correct translations, but I don't speak the language and wanted to check I had the right nuance/meaning. 

 

I've attached a file with the 8 words and translations.  I'd REALLY appreciate it if someone could tell me whether I have the correct meanings or not.

 

Note:

 

"View" as in my personal view/philosophy/outlook

"Speech" as in to talk, not to give a speech

"Mindfulness" as in awareness (of the present)

 

Thanks again, so much!

 

David

davidbrookesuk@gmail.com

 

Dharmachakra tattoo.docx

[fanglu]

Do the red lines mean you only intend to get that part of the character tattooed (because it looks like a stylised version of the relevant English letter)? If so, I would have thought whether the character you based your symbols on are right or not is kind of beside the point.

 

Edit: According to wikipedia, the eight 'folds' in Chinese are: 正見、正思惟、正語、正業、正命、正精進、正念、正定. These are translations from Sanskrit, not English, which is why they are different from what you have suggested, which are (not very good) translations of the English terms into Chinese.

[davidbrookesuk]

The red lines aren't relevant.

Thanks for your help with the Chinese wiki info. Each of these begin with the same symbol (sorry, I can't copy paste here using my phone) - it kind of looks like the English IE ... Does this symbol mean "right"/"correct" by any chance?

[Tiana]

David, a brief look at your list has told me that you're in a risky business, as some of your translation is clearly not what you wanted.

(For example: "View" (as in my personal view/philosophy/outlook) is not 查看

"Speech" as in to talk, not to give a speech, but 演说 is kind of "to give a speech").

You should give your future tattoo more thought but if you must have it right away, then those words as cited by fanglu above are a safer bet.

[davidbrookesuk]

Thanks Tiana,

 

I'll be in China for a few years yet so I'm in no hurry!  I wanted to come places like this to check with people who know what they're talking about first.

 

Can you offer me any alternatives to what I already have?  Are any of them correct?  When you say Fanglu's options are 'a safer bet', does that mean they're closer to correct, or that they're correct?

 

Any help is appreciated

[imron]

Does this symbol mean "right"/"correct" by any chance?

Yes it does.  Be careful though, chopping it off just to get the part that is not repeated will not have the effect you intend and will result in a different word.

 

For example, in English if you dropped 'right' from 'right view' you are left with 'view'.  If you drop '正' from ‘正见’  you are left with ‘见’ which means 'see'.  Likewise dropping 'right' from 'right mindfulness' gives you 'mindfulness', but dropping ‘正’ from 正念 gives you '念' which means 'read out loud'.

 

So, just be mindful that you can't just go mixing and matching Chinese characters and dropping ones off and/or adding ones one without possibly changing the meaning completely.

[Tiana]

David,

The words to be translated are in a system of 8, within the context of Buddhist teaching, so you can't really translate them as discrete words (They don't make sense translated independently of one another, and the translator needs to know them not only as words, but also what is meant by them in the Buddhist context).

For this reason, correction of what is on your list doesn't work. If I were you, I'd look for specific translations of the dharmachakra (like that cited in post #2), and choose one I like among the translations found, but not attempt to change anything within the translations.

[davidbrookesuk]

Thanks everyone, that's super helpful!

 

Thanks so much!