On Translating “Buddha”
Bhikkhu Bodhi
Abstract
Translators of Buddhist texts into English have rendered bodhi and its
cognates, particularly buddha, in two different ways, each based on an
implicit metaphor. Bodhi has been translated as “enlightenment” and
“awakening,” buddha as “enlightened one” and “awakened one.” While
the former alternative in each pair prevailed among earlier translators,
in recent years a swing has taken place to “awakening” and “awakened
one.” The argument offered to support this change contends that these
words are more faithful to the root budh from which they are derived than
“enlightenment” and “enlightened one.” In this paper the author argues in
defense of “enlightenment.” He bases his defense on three grounds: (1)
the meaning the words “enlightenment” and “awakening” bear in ordinary
English diction, and how those meanings relate to the descriptions of
the Buddha’s experience of bodhi found in the Nikāyas; (2) the actual
meaning of the Pāli-Sanskrit root budh and its derivatives such as bodhi
and buddha, which he maintains primarily signify understanding or
perceptual knowledge rather than awakening; and (3) the imagery used
in the texts to convey the “flavor” of the Buddha’s attainment and his
function in relation to the world.
From the Buddha’s first sermon onward, the entire history of Buddhism flows
from the experience the Buddha underwent in his thirty-fifth year while seated
on the bank of the Nerañjarā River near the village of Uruvelā. He called this
experience anuttarā sammā sambodhi, and it was by virtue of this attainment
. (19): 5–78. © Bhikkhu Bodhi
ON TRaNSlaTINg “BUddHa”
that he could describe himself as a sammā sambuddha. Anuttarā is an adjective
meaning “unsurpassed, supreme,” and sammā an indeclinable that might be
rendered “perfect” or “complete.” Both words describe sambodhi, a prefixed
form of the noun bodhi, from the verbal root budh. The prefix sam is a mere
intensifier, adding a sense of fullness to the base noun.1 The word buddha itself
is a past participle of the verb bujjhati, from this same root.
Translators of Buddhist texts into English have rendered bodhi and its
cognates, particularly buddha, in two different ways: bodhi as “enlightenment”
and “awakening,” buddha as “enlightened one” and “awakened one.” Both
English words are figurative, each based on an implicit metaphor: the former,
a movement from darkness to light, from ignorance to knowledge; the latter, a
change of mental state, from sleep to full awareness.
already the early translators of Buddhist texts into English differed in their
choices among these renderings, and a single translator might even switch from
one to the other. Max Müller, in his Chips from a German Workshop (1872), wrote
that “Buddha is an appellative meaning Enlightened” (p. 209) and that gotama
“claimed the name of Buddha, ‘the Enlightened’” (p. 244). But in his translation
of the Dhammapada (1881) he rendered Buddha as “the awakened.” T.W. Rhys
davids, the founder of the Pali Text Society, uses “Fully-enlightened One” for
sammā sambuddha and “supreme and perfect enlightenment” for anuttarā sammā
sambodhi in his anthology, Buddhist Suttas (1881, p. 47). But in the first volume
of his Dialogues of the Buddha he translates sammā sambuddha as “all-awakenedone” (1899, p. 67). F.l. Woodward, the early translator of the Saṃyutta Nikāya
(“The Book of the Kindred Sayings”), uses “enlightenment,” while E.M. Hare,
the early translator of the aṅguttara Nikāya (“The Book of the gradual Sayings”),
uses both “awakening” and “enlightenment,” even in the same volume.2 I.B.
Horner consistently uses “awakening” and “awakened One.”3
among translators working in Sri lanka, both Westerners and Sri lankans,
“enlightenment” and “enlightened one” prevailed through most of the twentieth
century. The german monastic pioneer, Nyanatiloka Thera, in his Word
of the Buddha uses “enlightenment” as a rendering for bodhi, though in his
The explanation of sam at Vism 201–2 as representing sāmaṃ, “by himself,” is probably a
mere word play. There is no essential difference between bojjhaṅga and sambojjhaṅga, but sam
merely adds the nuance of fullness.
2
See for instance Gradual Sayings 3:175–77, where “awakening” is used, and 3:2, 22, 117,
where we find “enlightenment.”
3
See for example her translation of the Mahāvagga, 1951:1.
1
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ON TRaNSlaTINg “BUddHa”
explanation of “Buddha” he recognizes both: “Buddha or Enlightened One—
literally, Knower or awakened One.” His pupils, Nyanaponika and Ñāṇamoli,
consistently use “enlightenment” and “Enlightened One” in their writings, as
do the leading English-speaking Sri lankan monks of the post-colonial period,
such as Nārada, Piyadassi, and Walpola Rāhula.
In recent years, among scholars and translators a swing has taken place away
from “enlightenment” toward “awakening” for bodhi, and from “Enlightened
One” to “awakened One” for buddha. The rationale for this shift is succinctly
stated by the prominent philologist, K.R. Norman, another former president of
the Pali Text Society:
The translation “enlightenment” is normally reserved for bodhi
or sambodhi, but it is somewhat misleading in that the root budh
which underlies these words has no direct connection with “light.”
The root means literally “to wake up,” or metaphorically “to wake
up (to a fact), to know it,” and “awakening” would be a more literal
translation of bodhi. The past participle buddha is used actively to
mean “one who has awakened, one who has gained knowledge.”4
This trend continues, with “awakening” and “awakened one” now the
preference of such scholars and translators as Rupert gethin and the bhikkhus
Ṭhānissaro, anālayo, Ānandajoti, and Sujāto. The large encyclopedic volume
called The Buddhist World also consistently uses “awakening” for bodhi, on the
grounds that the Sanskrit root budh literally means “to wake up.”5 gethin, the
current president of the Pali Text Society, explains the meaning of buddha in
reference to what he sees as the underlying metaphor:
In brief, the word “buddha” is not a name but a title; its meaning
is “one who has woken up.” This title is generally applied by the
Norman 1993:129. See too Norman 2006:38–39. In the latter passage Norman says that
“enlightenment” is misleading because it can be confused with the word’s use to describe the
European intellectual movement of the eighteenth century. I don’t see this as at all problematic,
for our minds can easily separate the two spheres of reference. The more serious problem with
“enlightenment” is that it conveys a particular mystique, signifying a state that defies rational
comprehension. But “awakening” has the opposite drawback of suggesting a state of mere
heightened awareness or a sudden recognition of our existential plight rather than a deep, inwardly
transformative level of understanding.
5
Powers 2016:5.
4
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ON TRaNSlaTINg “BUddHa”
Buddhist tradition to a class of beings who are, from the perspective
of ordinary humanity, extremely rare and quite extraordinary. In
contrast to these Buddhas or “awakened ones” the mass of humanity,
along with the other creatures and beings that constitute the world,
are asleep—asleep in the sense that they pass through their lives
never knowing and seeing the world “as it is” (yathābhūtaṃ).6
Outside the scholarly world, in popular presentations of Buddhism,
especially in the West, the words “awakening” and “awakened” have
triumphed over their older competitors. This may have been partly driven by
the observations of the scholars cited above, but the change in preference may
also have occurred because, for most people, the idea of awakening is more
accessible, more concrete, and more “hip” than the rather mystifying idea of
“enlightenment.”
While the choice of renderings for the Pāli-Sanskrit terms at issue here
depends to some extent on the understanding and temperament of the translator,
I believe there are sound reasons for preferring “enlightenment” to “awakening”
as a rendering of bodhi or sambodhi, and for preferring“enlightened one”
to “awakened one” as a rendering of buddha. In this paper I want to argue
the case for these preferences. I will base my argument on three grounds:
(1) the meaning these terms bear in ordinary English diction, and how those
meanings relate to the descriptions of the Buddha’s experience of bodhi found
in the Nikāyas; (2) the actual meaning of the Pāli-Sanskrit root budh and its
derivatives such as bodhi and buddha; and (3) the imagery used in the texts
to convey the “flavor” of the Buddha’s attainment and his function in relation
to the world.
1. Dictionary meanings
It may be hazardous to choose between these two alternatives—“enlightenment”
and “awakening”—on the basis of formal dictionary definitions. Such definitions
hardly provide a secure basis for accurately rendering words with extremely rich
meanings coming from an ancient spiritual tradition rooted in a culture very
different from our own. However, while such definitions cannot be treated as
decisive, they might still prove helpful in weighing the relative strengths and
drawbacks of the alternatives.
6
gethin 2008:xxxii.
55
ON TRaNSlaTINg “BUddHa”
Consider, then, the definitions of the two words found in the online MerriamWebster dictionary:
Awakening: (1) a rousing from sleep; (2) a rousing from inactivity
or indifference, a revival of interest in something; (3) a coming into
awareness.7
Enlightenment: (1) the state of having knowledge or understanding;
(2) the act of giving someone knowledge or understanding; (3) a
movement of the 18th century that stressed the belief that science
and logic give people more knowledge and understanding than
tradition and religion; (4) Buddhism: a final spiritual state marked
by the absence of desire or suffering.8
I am not concerned here with the fact that the dictionary gives priority to
the literal meaning of “awakening” and lists the “final spiritual state” prized by
Buddhism under “enlightenment” rather than “awakening.” On this latter point,
it’s likely that the dictionary is simply following the precedent established by
earlier translators. I want to focus, rather, on the contrast between awakening as
“a coming into awareness” and enlightenment as a “state of having [or acquiring]
knowledge or understanding.” as I see it, the salient difference between these
two definitions is that the former suggests an abrupt glimpse of insight or a
change in level of consciousness, while the latter points to thorough and stable
comprehension.
Now let us see how the Buddha described his attainment of anuttarā sammā
sambodhi. The classic description comes toward the end of the first sermon, the
Dhammacakka-ppavattana Sutta. Here is the passage, with the term in question
left untranslated:
“So long, monks, as my correct knowledge and vision, in the above
three phases and twelve aspects, was not thoroughly purified in
regard to these four noble truths, I did not claim that I had attained
the unsurpassed perfect sambodhi in this world with its devas, Māra,
and Brahmā, in this population with its ascetics and brahmins, its
devas and humans. But when my correct knowledge and vision, in
7
8
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/awakening
https://www.learnersdictionary.com/definition/enlightenment
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ON TRaNSlaTINg “BUddHa”
the above three phases and twelve aspects, was thoroughly purified
in regard to these four noble truths, then I claimed that I had attained
the unsurpassed perfect sambodhi in this world with its devas….”9
The passage in the sutta that precedes this showed that the fully purified
knowledge and vision of the four noble truths unfolded in three phases: (1)
knowledge of the referent of each truth; (2) knowledge of the task to be
performed in regard to each truth; and (3) knowledge that the task in regard to
that truth has been completed. When these three phases are applied to the four
truths, the twelve aspects of the liberating knowledge emerge. as to the tasks,
the truth of suffering must be fully understood; the truth of its origin, namely
craving, must be abandoned; the truth of its cessation, nibbāna, must be realized;
and the truth of the path must be developed. Only when he fulfilled these four
tasks—a complex, interrelated process—could the Buddha claim that he had
attained the unsurpassed perfect sambodhi.
Elsewhere in the canon the Buddha provides other grounds for the claim
that he has attained perfect sambodhi, all based on his clear understanding of
fundamental principles. These may be seen as alternative ways of describing
penetration of the four noble truths, opening up other perspectives on the scope
of this liberating knowledge. One sutta describes his sambodhi as understanding
the gratification, danger, and escape in regard to the five aggregates. The
gratification (assāda) consists in the pleasure and joy that arise on the basis
of each aggregate; the danger (ādīnava), in the fact that the aggregates
are all impermanent, unsatisfactory, and subject to change; and the escape
(nissaraṇa), in the removal of attachment to the aggregates. The Buddha then
9
SN V 422–23: yāvakīvañca me, bhikkhave, imesu catūsu ariyasaccesu evaṃ tiparivaṭṭaṃ
dvādasākāraṃ yathābhūtaṃ ñāṇadassanaṃ na suvisuddhaṃ ahosi, neva tāvāhaṃ, bhikkhave,
sadevake loke samārake sabrahmake sassamaṇabrāhmaṇiyā pajāya sadevamanussāya
‘anuttaraṃ sammāsambodhiṃ abhisambuddho’ti paccaññāsiṃ. yato ca kho me, bhikkhave, imesu
catūsu ariyasaccesu evaṃ tiparivaṭṭaṃ dvādasākāraṃ yathābhūtaṃ ñāṇadassanaṃ suvisuddhaṃ
ahosi, athāhaṃ, bhikkhave, sadevake loke … ‘anuttaraṃ sammāsambodhiṃ abhisambuddho’ti
paccaññāsiṃ.
Note that in the construction anuttaraṃ sammāsambodhiṃ abhisambuddho, the past
participle takes its cognate noun as its own object. Similarly, in the phrase tathāgato anuttaraṃ
sammāsambodhiṃ abhisambujjhati, the indicative verb takes its cognate noun as its object.
despite the wording, what the Buddha understood beneath the Bodhi tree was not the awakening
or enlightenment itself—which would be circular—but such things as the four noble truths and
dependent origination.
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ON TRaNSlaTINg “BUddHa”
issues a declaration that explicitly connects his attainment of sambodhi to an
understanding of the five aggregates from these three angles:
“So long, bhikkhus, as I did not directly know as they really are the
gratification as gratification, the danger as danger, and the escape
as escape in the case of these five aggregates subject to clinging, I
did not claim that I had attained the unsurpassed perfect sambodhi
in this world with its devas…. But when I directly knew all this
as it really is, then I claimed that I had attained the unsurpassed
perfect sambodhi in this world with its devas….”10
The same template about correctly understanding gratification, danger, and
escape is applied to the four material elements (SN II 170), the five spiritual
faculties (SN V 204), and the world as a whole (aN I 258–59).
another sutta about the five aggregates states that the Buddha could only
claim to have attained unsurpassed perfect sambodhi when he had understood
each of the five aggregates by way of four aspects: its content, its origin, its
cessation, and the path to its cessation (SN III 58–61). Still other suttas connect
the Buddha’s sambodhi to his discovery of the interconnections between the
ten or twelve factors that make up the sequence of dependent origination, in the
orders of both arising and cessation (see SN II 5–11, SN II 104–5).
These suttas make it clear that the Buddha’s attainment of unsurpassed
perfect sambodhi involved a thorough, profound, and accurate understanding
of fundamental existential matters—an understanding that culminated in the
proclamation: “My liberation of mind is unshakable; this is my last birth; now
there is no further existence.”11 The fully purified knowledge and vision of the four
noble truths, as we saw, was complex, involving twelve aspects. The liberating
knowledge of the five aggregates was also complex, involving either fifteen aspects,
by way of gratification, danger, and escape in regard to each of the five aggregates;
or twenty aspects, by way of content, origin, cessation, and the path to cessation in
regard to the aggregates. Similar kinds of complexity apply to the understanding
of the four elements, the five faculties, and the world as a whole. and certainly
discovering the conditional relations between the factors of dependent origination
involved an extremely sophisticated and complex process of discernment.
SN III 28,19–31.
at SN III 28,32–33, SN V 423,10–11: Akuppā me cetovimutti; ayamantimā jāti; natthi dāni
punabbhavo.
10
11
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ON TRaNSlaTINg “BUddHa”
at this point we might ask: “Which term, ‘awakening’ or ‘enlightenment,’
better captures the complexity and comprehensive range of the knowledge and
vision that constitutes the unsurpassed perfect sambodhi? Is that attainment best
viewed as an abrupt ‘coming into awareness’ of these matters or is it better seen
as ‘a state of having [or acquiring] knowledge or understanding’?”
The answer is not unequivocal. It seems that “awakening” better captures
the element of discovery involved in the attainment of sambodhi, and to that
extent might be justified as a rendering of the word. But “enlightenment” better
conveys the depth, complexity, stability, and liberating efficacy involved in
the Buddha’s consummate achievement. The Buddha did not merely “awaken”
to the four noble truths; he gained a thorough, lasting, and multifaceted
comprehension of them, and only on that basis could he begin his task of
teaching and guiding others.
This would apply not only to the Buddha’s attainment but also, to a lesser
degree, to the achievement of his disciples who reach arahantship by following
the path he made known.12 For disciples, the full realization of liberating
knowledge proceeds through four stages: stream-entry, once-returning, nonreturning, and arahantship. In the light of these distinctions, it may be more
plausible to associate the word “awakening” with the attainment of streamentry than with arahantship. The four Nikāyas themselves do not use the word
sambodhi (or even bodhi) as a designation for stream-entry.13 In these collections
this word seems to be confined either to the Buddha’s unique achievement of
buddhahood or the attainment of arahantship by disciples. Nor do the suttas use
some other Pāli word for the knowledge of stream-entry that conveys the literal
meaning of “awakening.” Nevertheless, the texts do depict the attainment of
stream-entry as a sudden breakthrough to the truth of the dhamma, an initial
discovery of things not known before, and in that sense this attainment might be
described in English as an “awakening.”
12
The commentaries recognize three kinds of bodhi, which they call sāvakabodhi, attained by a
Buddha’s disciples; paccekabodhi, attained by paccekabuddhas; and sabbaññutā, “omniscience,”
or sammā sambodhi, attained by a sammā sambuddha. See for instance Sv I 161,1–2, Spk II
340,29–30, and Sv-pṭ II 115,2.
13
This is in contrast with later exegetical works, such as Nidd1 456,9, which defines bodhi as
the knowledge in the four paths: bodhi vuccati catūsu maggesu ñāṇaṃ. Nidd1 481,24–25 defines
sambodhi in the same way.
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ON TRaNSlaTINg “BUddHa”
To get some sense of what this attainment involves, consider the story of the
householder Upāli’s conversion to the dhamma (MN I 379–80). Upāli had been
a follower of the Jains who tried to defeat the Buddha in debate. Having crushed
Upāli and won his confidence, the Buddha gives the householder a sequential
discourse on his teaching that concludes with the four noble truths. Then, “just
as a clean cloth, rid of stains, would perfectly take up dye, so, while Upāli was
sitting in that seat, there arose in him the dust-free, spotless eye of dhamma:
‘Whatever has the nature of origination all has the nature of cessation.’”14
although the image used here is not one of waking up from sleep but the opening
of an eye, this gain of the dhamma-eye might reasonably be described as an
awakening, as an abrupt insight into something previously unknown that sets
the disciple on the irreversible path to liberation. The stream-enterer has not yet
attained sambodhi, but is described as being “fixed in destiny, having sambodhi
as destination” (niyata sambodhiparāyaṇa), bound to attain it in seven more
lives at most.15
While the word “awakening” might well characterize this sudden
breakthrough to the truth of the dhamma, in my view it does not adequately
represent the comprehensive and multifaceted cognition attained by the
Buddha and the arahant disciples. If we go back to the definitions offered by the
Merriam-Webster dictionary, that attainment, a state of profound knowledge
and understanding, is better represented by the word “enlightenment.”
Illustrating these stages by means of everyday experience, we might compare
the attainment of stream-entry to awakening from sleep, when we open our
eyes to the sound of the alarm clock, and the attainment of sambodhi to turning
on the light after one has gotten out of bed. One “awakens” by achieving
stream-entry, at which point one emerges from the somnolent condition of
an ordinary worldling and arrives at the irreversible path to the final goal.
Then, by attaining arahantship, one turns on the light, flooding the mind
with liberating knowledge, with “enlightenment,” just as the electric light
illuminates the room.
14
MN I 380,3–7. Seyyathāpi nāma suddhaṃ vatthaṃ apagatakāḷakaṃ sammadeva
rajanaṃ paṭiggaṇheyya, evameva upālissa gahapatissa tasmiṃyeva āsane virajaṃ vītamalaṃ
dhammacakkhuṃ udapādi: “Yaṃ kiñci samudayadhammaṃ sabbaṃ taṃ nirodhadhamman”ti.
15
Sattakkhattuṃparamatā. See SN II 133–38.
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ON TRaNSlaTINg “BUddHa”
2. The verb budh and its derivatives
The case for using “awakening” rather than “enlightenment” as a rendering of
bodhi often rests on the argument that the verbal root on which the noun is
based, budh, means “to awaken, to wake up.” I quoted Norman earlier, who
writes that “the root means literally ‘to wake up,’ … and ‘awakening’ would be
a more literal translation of bodhi.” Numerous other authors as well who use
“awakening” for bodhi and “awakened One” for buddha base their renderings
on the premise that these are more faithful to the literal meaning of the words
than the alternatives, “enlightenment” and “Enlightened One.”
But is it actually the case that budh necessarily means “to awaken” and that
its derivatives are intended to convey the idea of awakening, either literally or
figuratively? If we examine the various usages of words derived from budh in
the Pāli Canon and its commentaries, it would become clear that “to awaken”
is only one meaning of this verb and not at all the one most prominent in these
texts. In fact, I have not been able to locate in the Nikāyas any occurrences of
unprefixed verbs based on budh that have the literal meaning of “awakens.”
But before we turn to the suttas, let’s first see what grammars and dictionaries
have to say about this family of words. The Saddanīti, a Pāli grammar composed
in Myanmar in the twelfth century, by an erudite monk named aggavaṃsa,
explains the root budh thus:16
budha avagamane. avagamanaṃ jānanaṃ.17
budh in [the sense of] understanding. Understanding is knowing.
after listing words based on the root budh, in the same section the Saddanīti
explains the meaning of buddha as “one who understands the truths, one who
causes the population to understand, or else one who has known everything
that can be known with wisdom ripened by the pāramitās.”18 For the word
bodhi, the relevant explanations that it offers are: (1) the path, because of
the statement that “the knowledge in the four paths is called bodhi,” and
16
I am thankful to Bryan levman for providing me with scans of passages from Helmer
Smith’s edition of the Saddanīti and for discussing the meaning of these passages with me in
correspondence.
17
Smith 481,25 (§1132). For the Myanmar version, see CST 4, Saddanītippakaraṇa
(Dhātumālā), 228.
18
Smith 481,28–482,1: Tatra buddho ti “bujjhitā saccānīti buddho, bodhetā pajāyāti buddho,”
atha vā pāramitāparibhāvitāya paññāya sabbampi ñeyyaṃ abujjhīti buddho.
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ON TRaNSlaTINg “BUddHa”
(2) the omniscient knowledge, because of the statement that “the one of
excellent vast wisdom reached bodhi.”19 In both instances, bodhi is equated
with a type of ñāṇa, “knowledge,” and no connection is made with the idea
of “awakening.”
In the next section, the Saddanīti analyzes the root budh in the sense
of bodhana, which can mean either “understanding” or “leading to
understanding.”20
budha bodhane. Sakammakākammako’yaṃ dhātu. Tathā hi
bodhanasadduccāraṇena jānanaṃ vikasanaṃ niddakkhayo ca
gahito, tasmā ‘‘budha ñāṇe, budha vikasane, budha niddakkhaye’’
ti vuttaṃ hoti. Bujjhati bhagavā dhamme, bujjhati pabujjhati
padumaṃ, bujjhati pabujjhati puriso, buddho pabuddho, bodheti,
pabodheti iccādīni.21
Budh in [the sense of] bodhana. This root is both transitive and
intransitive. Thus by the utterance of the word bodhana, “knowing,
blossoming, and the ending of sleep” are included. Therefore, it
is said: “Budh in the sense of knowledge, budh in the sense of
blossoming, budh in the sense of the ending of sleep.” The Blessed
One understands phenomena; the lotus blooms, blossoms; a man
wakes up, awakens; woken up, awakened (or understood, realized);
causes to wake up (or: causes to understand), causes to awaken (or:
causes to realize),” and so forth.22
19
Smith 482,12–14: “Catūsu maggesu ñāṇan’’ ti āgataṭṭhāne maggo. ‘‘Pappoti bodhiṃ
varabhūri sumedhaso’’ ti āgataṭṭhāne sabbaññutañāṇaṃ.
20
Following Cone 2020: 596.
21
Smith 483,24–29 (§1133). For the Myanmar edition, see CST 4: Saddanītippakaraṇa
(Dhātumālā), 230.
22
I translate in accordance with the punctuation of Smith’s edition. The punctuation in
the Myanmar edition differs. Smith has the causative form of the last two verbs, whereas the
Myanmar edition has bodhati, pabodhati. I take it that these examples should be divided into
five sets: the first, with the Buddha as subject, has the transitive verb with dhamme as object; the
second has padumaṃ as subject with two intransitive verbs; the third has puriso as subject with
two intransitive verbs; the fourth has two past participles, which are ambiguous and can mean
either “woken up, awakened” or “understood, realized”; and the last set has two causatives, which
are also ambiguous, either “wakes up, awakens” or “causes to understand, causes to realize.”
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ON TRaNSlaTINg “BUddHa”
according to this explanation, awakening from sleep is a possible meaning
of budh, but a meaning subordinate to that of knowledge. Even though the
Saddanīti admits meanings of budh that convey the idea of waking up, these are
differentiated from the meaning that applies in the case of the Buddha’s bodhi,
which is that of understanding, knowing, or realizing.
In his Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Monier-Williams lists as possible
meanings of budh and the derivative verbs: “to wake up, be awake; to observe,
heed, attend to; to perceive, notice, learn, understand, become aware of; to know
to be, to recognize as.” apte, in his Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary, lists
“to wake up, awake” sixth among possible meanings of budh. In first place
he has “to know, understand, comprehend,” and in second place “to perceive,
notice, recognize.”
In the new Dictionary of Pāli, Margaret Cone gives four meanings for the verb
bujjhati, citing copious examples of each meaning from the texts: (1) realizes,
becomes or is aware of, recognizes; (2) understands; (3) realizes, understands,
the true nature of the world of experience, understands saṃsāra and the way
to release from it; and (4) wakes, opens, blooms.23 as can be seen, the sense
of “wakes up” comes in the fourth place. She cites only a few texts illustrating
this last meaning, none from the Nikāyas themselves. For the past participle,
buddha, she has “who has great understanding, wise … esp. who has understood
the true nature of the world of experience, who has understood saṃsāra and the
way to release from it.”24
It is obvious from such a varied list of meanings that, whatever connection
budh and its derivatives may have with the idea of awakening, this is a secondary
sense of the word. What unites the various words based on budh is the idea of
being aware, of being cognizant. In the Pāli texts, the primary meaning of budh
in most ordinary usages is not “to awaken” but “to understand, to know directly,
to realize.”
a brief survey of the verb and its derivatives as used in conventional
discourse, without reference to higher spiritual attainments, will confirm this.
Here I offer a few examples of the non-technical use of the verb bujjhati, with
the Pāli followed by my own translation. In each case I highlight the English
word that renders bujjhati.
23
24
Cone 2020:588–89.
Cone 2020:590.
63
ON TRaNSlaTINg “BUddHa”
littaṃ paramena tejasā, gilamakkhaṃ puriso na bujjhati.
(dN II 349,4–5)
The dice is smeared with intense burning [poison],
but the person swallowing it does not know this.
suṇoti na vijānāti, āloketi na passati;
dhammasmiṃ bhaññamānasmiṃ, atthaṃ bālo na bujjhati.
(SN I 198,32–33)
He listens, but does not understand;
he looks, but does not see.
When the dhamma is being spoken,
the fool does not understand the meaning.
sārattā kāmabhogesu, giddhā kāmesu mucchitā,
atisāraṃ na bujjhanti, migā kūṭaṃ va oḍḍitaṃ.
(SN I 74,10–11)
Smitten with pleasures and wealth,
greedy, dazed by sensual pleasures,
they do not realize they’ve gone too far
like deer [that enter] the trap laid out.
atha pāpāni kammāni, karaṃ bālo na bujjhati;
sehi kammehi dummedho, aggidaḍḍho va tappati.
(dhp 136; see too Th 146)
But while doing evil deeds,
the fool does not know [this].
The witless one is burned by his own deeds,
like one burned by fire.
te abhāvitakāyā samānā abhāvitasīlā abhāvitacittā
abhāvitapaññā abhidhammakathaṃ vedallakathaṃ kathentā
kaṇhadhammaṃ okkamamānā na bujjhissanti.
(aN III 107,1–5)
Those [monks of the future] who are undeveloped in body,
conduct, mind, and wisdom, while engaging in talk on the
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ON TRaNSlaTINg “BUddHa”
abhidhamma, in miscellaneous talk, will slip into a dark dhamma
but will not realize it.
Still more passages could be cited to support my point, but these should
suffice to make it clear that bujjhati does not necessarily mean “awakens,”
which is in Pāli actually a secondary meaning of the verb. In each of
the passages cited, to translate bujjhati as “awakens,” though possible,
would strain ordinary English usage. Here, the sense of “directly knows,
understands, realizes” is far more natural and appropriate. But if bujjhati,
in these commonplace contexts, can bear this meaning, it seems reasonable
to suppose that in relation to the exalted achievement of the Buddha and his
arahant disciples, bodhi, the noun based on this verb, should mean “deep
knowledge, comprehensive understanding, true realization.” This accords
with the definition of bodhi that Cone offers in her multi-volume Dictionary
of Pāli. In the sense relevant to this discussion she defines bodhi as: (1) “the
supreme understanding by which a man becomes a buddha; the understanding
of the true nature of the world of experience, of saṃsāra and the way to
release from it; the omniscience of a buddha”; and (2) “that understanding
gained by an arhat.”25 In my view, “enlightenment” captures these senses far
more successfully than “awakening.”
Verbs and verbal derivatives from the root budh do occur in the Nikāyas
with the literal meaning of “to awaken,” but in such cases they are formed with
a prefix, either paṭi or pa. Thus it is said that one who has mastered the mindliberation of loving-kindness “awakens happily” (sukhaṃ paṭibujjhati; at aN IV
150,13, and aN V 342,6). One who has seen beautiful scenery in a dream, having
awakened, does not see anything (so paṭibuddho na kiñci passeyya; at MN I
365,31).26 The same verb, paṭibujjhati, is used elsewhere in a context where it
best corresponds to the English word “recognizes” rather than “awakens.” Thus
in a sutta on “future dangers” (at aN III 105–6) the Buddha warns the monks:
tāni vo paṭibujjhitabbāni; paṭibujjhitvā ca tesaṃ pahānāya vāyamitabbaṃ;
“those [dangers] should be recognized by you, and having recognized them,
you should strive to abandon them.”
Cone 2020:596.
See too Sn 807: supinena yathāpi saṅgataṃ, paṭibuddho puriso na passati; “having
awakened, a person does not see what was encountered in a dream.”
25
26
65
ON TRaNSlaTINg “BUddHa”
In several places we find a derivative of budh with the prefix pa used figuratively
to mean “awakens,” in contrast with those who are figuratively said to be asleep:
yesaṃ dhammā appaṭividitā, paravādesu nīyare;
suttā te na ppabujjhanti, kālo tesaṃ pabujjhituṃ.
(SN I 4,4–5)
Those who have not penetrated things,
who may be led into others’ doctrines—
asleep, they do not awaken:
it’s time for them to awaken.
In this verse it is not clear whether the infinitive pabujjhituṃ means “to
awaken” in the sense of attaining bodhi or simply “to recognize,” to see one’s
own heedlessness, arouse a sense of urgency, and begin walking the Buddha’s
path. given that the people referred to have not even started to engage with the
practice, the latter seems a more cogent interpretation.
It remains a question whether the simple verb bujjhati (or its derivatives)
is ever used in the Nikāyas to mean “awakens” in the literal sense. I have not
been able to locate any such occurrences, and Cone does not give any in her
comprehensive dictionary. In any case, since the simple verb often occurs in
conventional discourse in the ordinary, non-technical sense of “know, understand,
realize,” with no implication of “waking up,” there is no justification for insisting
that, in relation to the Buddha’s exalted attainment, bodhi must convey the sense
of “awakening” to the dhamma. In this context, its usage is better matched in
translation by the meanings it bears in conventional discourse in the passages
cited above, that is, as understanding and direct perceptual knowledge, though
at a higher level—precisely the sense conveyed by “enlightenment.”
To further support my contention that words based on budh need not imply
the sense of awakening, let us consider another word derived from this root that
has no overtones at all of awakening, not even figuratively. This is the noun
buddhi. The word occurs in mainstream Indian philosophy and psychology as
well as in Buddhist texts. Monier-Williams, in his Sanskrit-English Dictionary,
defines buddhi as “the power of forming and retaining conceptions and general
notions, intelligence, reason, intellect, mind, discernment, judgment.” Strangely,
while the word is so close to buddha, it is seldom found in the Nikāyas. The few
places where it does occur regularly—the Jātakas and the Apadāna—are likely
somewhat later than the oldest strata of the Sutta Piṭaka.
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ON TRaNSlaTINg “BUddHa”
The meanings listed by Monier-Williams are relevant to the sense of buddhi as
found in the Pāli canonical texts and commentaries. One such occurrence is in the
Lakkhaṇa Sutta of the dīgha Nikāya, where buddhi occurs among a group of desirable
qualities that the future Buddha sought to promote in others (dN III 165,11–12):
saddhāya sīlena sutena buddhiyā,
cāgena dhammena bahūhi sādhuhi.
With faith, good behavior, learning, intelligence,
generosity, righteousness, and many [other] good qualities.
The word appears too in the Theragāthā (v. 75), ascribed to a monk named
Susārada:
sādhu suvihitāna dassanaṃ, kaṅkhā chijjati buddhi vaḍḍhati;
bālam pi karonti paṇḍitaṃ, tasmā sādhu sataṃ samāgamo.
Excellent is it to see the well disposed; doubt is cut off,
intelligence grows. They make even the fool turn wise; therefore
it is excellent to meet good persons.
In both passages, buddhi apparently represents a disposition of character, akin
to faith and generosity, and thus might be seen as the intellectual acuity needed to
grasp matters pertaining to the moral and contemplative life. This nuance is best
conveyed by the word “intelligence,” though intelligence with a moral and spiritual
orientation. In this respect buddhi differs from bodhi, which is a specific spiritual
attainment rather than a capacity. It would hardly make sense to translate buddhi
as “awakening,” despite its origins in a root that sometimes means “to awaken.”
We might perhaps take buddhi to be the faculty needed to arrive at the experience
of bodhi, that is, as the spiritual intelligence capable of grasping liberating truth.
This interpretation is borne out by the commentaries, which include
buddhicariyā—the practice of intelligence—among the prerequisites for
attaining buddhahood. It is said that during his career as a bodhisattva, while
fulfilling the pāramīs, the future Buddha had to reach the pinnacle in the
practice of intelligence before he could attain buddhahood.27 The dīgha Nikāya
subcommentary subsumes buddhicariyā under “the perfection of wisdom”
Ud-a 134,8–9: buddhicariyaṃ paramakoṭiṃ pāpetvā anuttaraṃ sammāsambodhiṃ
abhisambujjhi.
27
67
ON TRaNSlaTINg “BUddHa”
(paññāpāramī yeva), explaining it to mean “the practice of knowledge by way
of knowing the operation of kamma, acquaintance with blameless occupations
and sciences, acquaintance with the aggregates and sense bases, etc., and
investigating the three characteristics.”28
The buddhicarita, the intelligent temperament, is one of the six character
types in the scheme adopted by the Visuddhimagga (Vism 101–8), the type
distinguished by prominence of wisdom (paññavā buddhicarito). The qualities
typical of such a person include openness to advice, associating with good
friends, moderation in eating, mindfulness and clear comprehension, and wisely
directed endeavor. again, these all support the interpretation of buddhi as a
character trait, in contrast with bodhi, which is the event of acquiring supreme
knowledge, understanding, or realization, or the knowledge so acquired.
The point I wish to make in referring to these sources is that the word buddhi
is also derived from the root budh and the verb bujjhati, yet has no connection
to the idea of “awakening.” If that is the case with this word, there is no cogent
reason to insist that bodhi and buddha must figuratively convey the idea of
“waking up.” If we can translate buddhi as “intelligence” or “a capacity for
understanding,” then we can take bodhi as the act or process of understanding
that culminates in transcendent liberation.
3. Metaphors and Imagery
The Pāli suttas abound not only in doctrinal expositions, dialogues, analysis, and
practical instructions, but also in similes, metaphors, and word plays dazzling
in their diversity and vivacity. Now if the Buddha had used the words bodhi
and buddha to indicate that his liberating realization was one of “awakening,”
we would expect to find the Nikāyas abounding with similes and metaphors
that illustrate his attainment of anuttarā sammā sambodhi as an act of waking
up from sleep. Similarly, we would also expect to find the state of ignorance
to be compared to sleep. Yet, contrary to these expectations, it is hard to locate
in the Nikāyas even a single passage that unambiguously uses the imagery of
waking up to represent the Buddha’s attainment of bodhi, or a single passage
that unambiguously uses the imagery of sleep to represent the state of ignorance.
Rather, the imagery used to illustrate the Buddha’s realization of bodhi centers
Sv-pṭ I 131,15–20: kammassakatāñāṇavasena, anavajjakammāyatanavijjāṭṭhānaparicayavasena, khandhāyatanādiparicayavasena, lakkhaṇattayatīraṇavasena ca ñāṇacāro buddhicariyā.
28
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ON TRaNSlaTINg “BUddHa”
around light, luminosity, and radiance, and the imagery used to characterize
ignorance and delusion is that of darkness. These images occur repeatedly and
abundantly, which entails that we must look at bodhi as suggesting “the light of
knowledge” rather than a metaphorical waking up from sleep.
as a precaution against misunderstanding, I must make it clear that the root budh
and the words derived from it in no way denote the ideas of “light” or “illumination.”
There is no etymological connection in Pāli between such words as bodhi or buddha
and the various words that signify light—āloka, pabhā, obhāsa, and so forth.
Similarly, while the English word “enlightenment” is based on the word “light,” the
sense of light inherent in the word serves merely as a metaphor for the illumination
of the mind by understanding and does not entail an inner vision of light.
There seems, however, to be a universal tendency cutting across cultures
to depict the acquisition of knowledge by means of imagery that evokes the
idea of light. In English this connection is established by actually embedding
the word “light” in “enlightenment” in whatever way that word is used. In the
Nikāyas, though the words for “light” and “knowledge” are not etymologically
related, the connection between them is consistently established by means of
imagery and metaphor. This confirms, to my mind, that the translation of bodhi
as “enlightenment” is more faithful to the imagistic dimension of the Nikāyas
than “awakening.”
let me now cite some examples from the texts that support this suggestion.
The standard canonical account of the Buddha’s attainment of sambodhi explains
it as the acquisition of three kinds of clear knowledge (vijjā): the recollective
knowledge of his own past lives, the knowledge of how beings pass away and take
rebirth in accordance with their kamma, and the knowledge of the destruction of
the āsavas, the primordial defilements that bind the mind to the cycle of repeated
birth and death. Each knowledge is said to have occurred during a different watch
of the night. Significantly, the acquisition of each knowledge is depicted by the
image of light dispelling darkness. Thus, at the conclusion of the third knowledge,
the knowledge of the destruction of the āsavas, the Buddha declares: “This was
the third clear knowledge attained by me in the last watch of the night. Ignorance
was banished and clear knowledge arose, darkness was banished and light arose,
as happens in one who abides diligent, ardent, and resolute.”29
29
MN I 23,25–28: ayaṃ kho me, brāhmaṇa, rattiyā pacchime yāme tatiyā vijjā adhigatā, avijjā
vihatā vijjā uppannā, tamo vihato āloko uppanno, yathā taṃ appamattassa ātāpino pahitattassa
viharato. See too MN I 117,19–22, MN I 249,18–21, aN IV 179,8–11.
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ON TRaNSlaTINg “BUddHa”
Following the attaining of sambodhi, the newly enlightened Buddha
contemplated dependent origination in direct and reverse order. Thereupon he
recited “an inspired utterance” (udāna), in which he uses the image of the rising
sun to illustrate his attainment:
yadā have pātubhavanti dhammā, ātāpino jhāyato brāhmaṇassa,
vidhūpayaṃ tiṭṭhati mārasenaṃ, suriyo va obhāsayam antalikkhaṃ.
(Ud 3; Vin I 2)
When indeed things become clear
to the ardent meditating brahmin,
he stands dispersing Māra’s army,
like the sun lighting up the sky.
The next major event in the Buddha’s career took place at Bārāṇasī, where
he “set in motion the wheel of the dhamma” by expounding the four noble
truths in three phases and twelve aspects, as we saw above. Citing each of
these aspects in turn, he says: “In regard to things unheard before, the eye
arose in me, knowledge arose, wisdom arose, clear knowledge arose, light
arose.”30 We here see the three cognitive terms—ñāṇa, paññā, and vijjā—
associated with two metaphorical terms, cakkhu, the “eye” with which one
sees the four noble truths, and āloka, the “light” of knowledge that illuminates
the truths. It was the clear knowledge and vision of the four noble truths in
these twelve aspects that entitled the Buddha to claim that he had attained the
unsurpassed perfect sambodhi.
Toward the very end of the Dhammacakka-ppavattana Sutta, after the deities
have applauded the Buddha for setting in motion the wheel of the dhamma,
the narrator reports that “a measureless great radiance appeared in the world,
surpassing the divine majesty of the gods.”31 This again suggests light as the
most fitting symbol for the perfect sambodhi of the Buddha. In fact, another
sutta tells us that such a “measureless great radiance” occurred along with his
attainment of sambodhi itself (at aN II 131,15–16).
In his relationship to the world, the Buddha is depicted not as one who wakes
people up from sleep, but as one who dispels darkness by shedding light, that is,
SN V 422.
SN V 424,5–7: appamāṇo ca uḷāro obhāso loke pāturahosi atikkamma devānaṃ
devānubhāvaṃ.
30
31
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ON TRaNSlaTINg “BUddHa”
the light of wisdom. We are told that there are four kinds of light—the light of
the moon, the light of the sun, the light of fire, and the light of wisdom—and the
foremost of these is the light of wisdom (aN II 139,25–28). The last is the light
that the Buddha provides: “The sun shines by day, the moon shines by night, the
warrior shines in his armor, the brahmin shines in meditation; but all day and
night, the Buddha shines with splendor” (dhp 387).
a sutta in the Sacca-saṃyutta states that before the sun and moon arise in the
world, sheer darkness prevails, but when they arise they produce a manifestation
of great light and radiance, dispelling all darkness and gloom. The same holds
by analogy with the Buddha:
When the Tathāgata arises in the world, the arahant, the Sammā
Sambuddha, then there is the manifestation of great light and
radiance; then no blinding darkness prevails, no dense mass of
darkness. Then there is the explaining, teaching, proclaiming,
establishing, disclosing, analyzing, and elucidating of the four
noble truths.32
The stock expression of appreciation uttered whenever an inquirer is won over
after listening to a discourse by the Buddha again brings in a simile involving
light. The new disciple states: “Master gotama has made the dhamma clear in
many ways, as though he were ... holding up a lamp in the darkness for those
with eyesight to see forms.”33
Texts that describe the Buddha as a light-maker (pabhaṅkara), a source of
radiance, recur often, most prominently in verse. Thus we read:
yadā ca buddhā lokasmiṃ uppajjanti pabhaṅkarā,
te’maṃ dhammaṃ pakāsenti dukkhūpasamagāminaṃ.
(aN II 52,25–26)
When the buddhas, the makers of light, arise in the world
they illuminate this dhamma that leads to the stilling of suffering.
SN V 443,10–15: yato ca kho, bhikkhave, tathāgato loke uppajjati arahaṃ sammāsambuddho,
atha mahato ālokassa pātubhāvo hoti mahato obhāsassa. neva andhatamaṃ tadā hoti na
andhakāratimisā. atha kho catunnaṃ ariyasaccānaṃ ācikkhaṇā hoti desanā paññāpanā
paṭṭhapanā vivaraṇā vibhajanā uttānīkammaṃ.
33
For instance, at MN I 290,5–7: andhakāre vā telapajjotaṃ dhāreyya, cakkhumanto rūpāni
dakkhantīti. evamevaṃ bhotā gotamena anekapariyāyena dhammo pakāsito.
32
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ON TRaNSlaTINg “BUddHa”
In the Yakkha-saṃyutta a young spirit praises the Buddha to his mother:
esa devamanussānaṃ, sammūḷhānaṃ pabhaṅkaro;
Buddho antimasārīro, dhammaṃ deseti cakkhumā.
(SN I 210,22–23)
He is the light-maker for bewildered devas and humans;
the Buddha, bearing his last body, possessing eyes, teaches the
dhamma.
It is not only the Buddha himself who is said to be a maker of light. The
arahant disciples are also said to be light-makers. The Itivuttaka says that those
monks accomplished in conduct, concentration, wisdom, liberation, and the
knowledge of liberation, who teach, encourage, inspire, and delight others with
their teaching, can be called “dispellers of darkness, makers of light, makers of
luminosity, makers of lanterns, torchbearers, makers of radiance.”34
If sambodhi is understood as “awakening,” and the Buddha as “an awakened
one,” then it would follow that ignorance (avijjā, moha) should be compared
to sleep, and the Buddha’s task would be to wake others up from the sleep
of ignorance. as Rupert gethin, quoted above, puts it: “In contrast to these
Buddhas or ‘awakened ones’ the mass of humanity, along with the other
creatures and beings that constitute the world, are asleep—asleep in the sense
that they pass through their lives never knowing and seeing the world ‘as it is.’”
While sleep seems a fitting symbol for ignorance, somewhat surprisingly we
do not find in the Nikāyas clear-cut passages that describe ignorance as a state
of sleep. Rather, when ignorance is represented symbolically, it is depicted as
a state of darkness.
Thus in the stock description of his sambodhi, quoted above, the Buddha says:
“Ignorance was banished and clear knowledge arose, darkness was banished
and light arose.” The sutta that compares the Buddha to the sun and moon says
that his arising in the world drives away darkness and gloom. The Itivuttaka
compares delusion to blinding darkness, and one who destroys ignorance to
the rising sun that dispels darkness.35 In the Theragāthā and Therīgāthā, too,
34
It 108,6–9: tamonudā ti pi vuccanti, ālokakarātipi vuccanti, obhāsakarātipi vuccanti,
pajjotakarā ti pi vuccanti, ukkādhārā ti pi vuccanti, pabhaṅkarā ti pi vuccanti.
35
It 84,27–28: andhatamaṃ tadā hoti, yaṃ moho sahate naraṃ. mohaṃ vihanti so sabbaṃ,
ādicco v’ udayaṃ tamaṃ.
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ON TRaNSlaTINg “BUddHa”
when disciples attain arahantship, they often describe their experience, not as a
waking up from sleep, but as “splitting the mass of darkness.”36
generally in the Nikāyas, when the imagery of sleep is used, it symbolizes, not
the state of ignorance, but heedlessness and laziness, and it is then contrasted, not
with bodhi, but with heedfulness (appamāda) and wakefulness (jāgariya). The
Dhammapada (v. 29) says that the wise person is “heedful among the heedless,
wakeful among those asleep” (appamatto pamattesu, suttesu bahujāgaro).
another verse says that death carries off one with a mind of attachment as a
deluge carries off a sleeping village (dhp 47). The Uṭṭhāna Sutta (at Sn 333)
exhorts disciples to rise up and cast off sleep, for sleep (that is, heedlessness) is
useless while one is still stricken with the darts of defilements.
4. Some Ambiguities
although I said above that it is hard to find even a single passage in the Nikāyas
that unambiguously uses the imagery of waking up to illustrate the Buddha’s
attainment of bodhi, there are two passages that may involve a word play between
bodhi and waking up. One is the verse cited above that uses the verb pabujjhanti
(in the negative) to describe “those who have not penetrated things.” In the
counterpart verse that follows, “those who have penetrated things well” (yesaṃ
dhammā suppaṭividitā) are called sambuddhā who, through correct knowledge,
“walk evenly amidst the uneven.”37 It is possible that here sambuddhā is part of
a word play that contrasts these “awakened ones” with the others who have not
penetrated things and are therefore said to be asleep. This, however, is far from
certain, and sambuddhā may have been used simply in the sense of “those who
have become enlightened” without intending a contrast between “awakened
ones” and those asleep.
The second ambiguous example is found in the Māra-saṃyutta. The Buddha
has spent much of the night pacing back and forth in the open air. as dawn
arrives he enters his dwelling and lies down, intending to sleep. Just then Māra
appears and ridicules him for sleeping after the sun has risen. The Buddha
replies: “With the destruction of all objects of attachment, the Buddha sleeps.
What is that to you, Māra?”38 Here, too, it is possible the Buddha is saying that
For example, tamokhandho padālito at Th 128. See too Th 627 and Thi 3, 28, 44, 120, 174
SN I 4,6–7: te sambuddhā sammadaññā, caranti visame samaṃ. See too the sutta that
follows this one, which differs only in a single word.
38
SN I 107,25–26: sabbūpadhiparikkhayā buddho soppati kiṃ tav’ettha māra.
36
37
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ON TRaNSlaTINg “BUddHa”
as an awakened One, who has eliminated all attachments, he is entitled to sleep
after sunrise. But seeing a contrast here between “awakened” and sleep may
be reading more into the verse than is intended. The Buddha may simply be
referring to himself by his familiar title, without positing a contrast between his
status of being “awakened” and his sleeping at dawn.
It is in the commentaries that we find occasional attempts made to draw
out from the words bodhi and buddha the nuance of being “awake.” Such
passages, however, should not be used to claim that these words, as used in the
canonical texts, intentionally conveyed this meaning. One of the methods of the
commentaries, in its analysis of terms, is to elicit from the word being examined
all its possible implications, whether these are actually intended by the original
or not. Such explications often rely on fanciful word plays, such as we also find
in canonical texts.39
When commenting on the word bujjhati, the commentaries, in a stock
passage, draw out a meaning related to waking up:40
bujjhatī ti kilesasantānaniddāya uṭṭhahati, cattāri vā ariyasaccāni
paṭivijjhati, nibbānam eva vā sacchikarotī ti vuttaṃ hoti.
bujjhati: what is meant is that one rises up from the sleep of the
continuum of defilements, or one penetrates the four noble truths,
or one realizes nibbāna itself.
although this explanation of bujjhati provides three alternatives, we can
discern here a progression of increasing depth. The most elementary stage is
rising up from the sleep of defilements, which might be seen as the initial step
in arriving at bodhi; the next step is the penetration of the four noble truths, the
cognitive act entailed by bodhi; and the third step is the realization of nibbāna,
the result that follows when the four truths are fully penetrated.
The commentary to the Mahā-niddesa also draws a connection between
buddha and awakening:41
cittasaṅkocakara-dhammappahānena niddāya vibuddho puriso
viya sabbakilesaniddāya vibuddhattā buddho ti.
See the etymologies of the Sabhiya Sutta (Sn 3.6) for a good example of canonical word plays.
The same passage is found at Ps I 83,13–15, Spk III 138,16–18, and in still other commentaries.
41
Nidd1-a 441,32–34.
39
40
74
ON TRaNSlaTINg “BUddHa”
Just as a person awakens from sleep by abandoning the factors that
constrict the mind, so one is a buddha by having awakened from
the sleep of all defilements.
The Mahā-niddesa itself, however, in its detailed explanation of the word
buddha, uses two agent nouns derived from the root budh, bujjhitā and bodhetā.
The former is based on the simple verb bujjhati, the latter on the causative
bodheti. Here is a translation:
He is a buddha as one who understands (bujjhitā) the truths, as
one who causes the population to understand (bodhetā); as allknowing, as all-seeing, as not being guided by others, as one who
has blossomed, as one whose āsavas are destroyed, as one without
defilements, as one utterly devoid of lust, hatred, and delusion, as
one utterly without defilements, as one who has gone by the oneway path, as one who attained the unsurpassed perfect sambodhi….
Buddha is a name pertaining to the end of emancipation, a
designation accruing to the buddhas, the blessed ones, along with
realization, with the obtaining of the omniscient knowledge at the
foot of the bodhi tree.42
The words bujjhitā and bodhetā might have been rendered into English as
“one who has awakened to” the truths and “one who awakens” others, but those
choices would not necessarily be entailed by any indication in the Pāli that the
words are derived metaphorically from the idea of “waking up from sleep.” In
fact, since the rest of the explanation revolves around the themes of knowing
and understanding, with no suggestion that the Master was figuratively called
“buddha” because he awakened from sleep, it seems highly unlikely that this
idea was ever intended. The main emphasis of the passage is on the attainment
of knowledge and purification as the defining marks of a buddha rather than
waking up from the sleep of ignorance.
Nidd1 457–58: bujjhitā saccānīti buddho, bodhetā pajāyāti buddho, sabbaññutāya buddho,
sabbadassāvitāya buddho, anaññaneyyatāya buddho, visavitāya buddho, khīṇāsavasaṅkhātena
buddho, nirupakkilesasaṅkhātena buddho, ekantavītarāgoti buddho, ekantavītadosoti buddho,
ekantavītamohoti buddho, ekantanikkilesoti buddho, ekāyanamaggaṃ gatoti buddho, eko anuttaraṃ
sammāsambodhiṃ abhisambuddhoti buddho…. vimokkhantikametaṃ buddhānaṃ bhagavantānaṃ
bodhiyā mūle saha sabbaññutañāṇassa paṭilābhā sacchikā paññatti, yadidaṃ buddhoti.
42
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ON TRaNSlaTINg “BUddHa”
Conclusion
The purpose of this paper is not to reject “awakening” point-blank as a rendering
for bodhi or “awakened one” as a rendering for buddha. The choice between
the two alternatives—“awakening” vs. “enlightenment,” and “awakened one”
vs. “enlightened one”—depends largely on the personal predilection of the
translator and the response the rendering is intended to evoke in the reader or
listener. My purpose has been, rather, to dispute the claim, put forth by several
recent translators and scholars, that “awakening” and “awakened one” are more
faithful to the literal meaning of the original words, bodhi and buddha, and
therefore that “enlightenment” and “enlightened one” are misleading renderings
that should be discarded in favor of the alternatives.
This claim rests on the contention that such words as bodhi and buddha,
based on the verbal root budh, should be rendered in accordance with the root’s
meaning, “to awaken,” which such translators take to be its original sense.
against this claim, I have come to the defense of “enlightenment” for bodhi
and “enlightened one” for buddha, basing my defense on three grounds. The
first, which uses dictionary definitions of the alternative English words as the
standard, maintains that “enlightenment” better captures the nuance of bodhi
as it is described in a number of passages in the Nikāyas, which show that
achievement to be a profound act of understanding with a comprehensive range.
“awakening,” on the other hand, as suggesting an initial flash of insight or a
sudden shift in level of consciousness, serves better in my view as a way of
characterizing the attainment of stream-entry than as a rendering for the bodhi
of the Buddha and the arahants.
My second argument is that words derived from the root budh do not
necessarily carry overtones of “to awaken” either literally or figuratively. In
the Pāli Nikāyas and commentaries such words, as they are found in ordinary
discourse, usually convey the simple sense of “to know directly, to understand, to
realize.” a case in point is the word buddhi, which clearly signifies the capacity
for intelligent understanding, with no nuances of “awakening” at all.
My third argument is based on the imagery—the metaphors and similes and
figures of speech—used in the texts to illustrate the meaning of bodhi. If bodhi
were intended to convey the sense of “awakening,” we would expect to find the
Nikāyas teeming with images of the Buddha as one who has “woken up,” and
of the condition he has eliminated, ignorance, compared to a state of sleep. Such
imagery, however, is most conspicuous in the texts by its almost total absence.
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ON TRaNSlaTINg “BUddHa”
The plain fact is that, apart from a few ambiguous passages, the Nikāyas do not
depict bodhi as an act of awakening and ignorance as a deep sleep. Instead, the
language used to depict bodhi and the Buddha himself draws upon images of
light and radiance: the sun rising and lighting up the world, a lamp brought into a
dark room, and so forth. In relation to others, the Buddha is not one who awakens
them from sleep, but one who dispels darkness (tamonuda), who illuminates their
minds with the light of knowledge, that is, one who enlightens them.
Thus, when the ascetic gotama arrived at the deer Park in Isipatana and
claimed to be a buddha who had attained unsurpassed perfect sambodhi,
it is highly unlikely that the five mendicants, his first disciples, heard him
saying, “I have woken up. I have arrived at supreme awakening.” It is far
more probable that they heard him saying, “I am one who has known. I have
arrived at supreme knowledge.” and this supreme knowledge, this anuttarā
sammā sambodhi, I maintain, is better represented by the English word
“enlightenment” than by “awakening.”
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