忙 忙 撥 草 去 追 尋
busy busy pulling grass go chase search
水 闊 山 遙 路 更 深
water wide mountain distant path deeper
Category: zen
Writing the Ox, the short version (just the titles)
十牛圖
十 (shí: ten) / 牛 (niú: ox) / 圖 (tú: picture/diagram)
尋牛序一
尋 (xún: to search) / 序 (xù: number) / 一 (yī: one)
心經: How to write “Heart Sutra” in Chinese characters
The last two characters in the first line of the Heart Sutra are 心經: 摩 訶 般 若 波 羅 蜜 多 心 經ma ha ban ya ba ra mil ta shim gyong The first of these characters is 心 (xīn), is the Chinese character for “mind” and also for “heart”. The character 心 is actually used to translate two different Sanskrit words in […]
The Heart Sutra text
1—————————————————————————————– 摩 訶 般 若 波 羅 蜜 多 心 經 ma ha ban ya ba ra mil ta shim gyong great prajna para mita heart sutra2—————————————————————————————– 觀 自 在 菩 薩 行 深 般 若 kwan ja jae bo sal […]
波羅蜜多, Part Two (how to write पारमिता/pāramitā in Chinese characters)
蜜多 is the second part (the third and fourth characters) of 波羅蜜多, which is the Chinese transliteration of पारमिता/pāramitā. 蜜 (pinyin: mì) is the Chinese word for “honey”. It can also be used to refer to the color of honey, or to anything that is sweet. It is made up of three characters stacked one […]
波羅蜜多, Part One (how to write पारमिता/pāramitā in Chinese characters)
So far I’ve done the first four characters in the first line (the title) of the Heart Sutra in Chinese. The next four characters comprise the Chinese transliteration of the Sanskrit पारमिता (pāramitā), which is 波羅蜜多. Just to make sure we are all on the same page, here is the first line of the Heart […]
般若: How to write प्रज्ञा (prajñā) in Chinese characters
The first two characters in the Heart Sutra are 摩訶, which is the Chinese transliteration of महा (mahā́), which in English means “great”. The third and fourth characters are 般若, which is the Chinese transliteration of प्रज्ञा (prajñā), which in English means, more or less, “wisdom”. But actually it’s best not to assume that prajñā […]
The amazing adventures of Zen Master Moheyan in Tibet, Part One
Once upon a time Zen was very popular in Tibet. That is to say, it was popular in the way that Country Music is popular. Some people really liked it, but others weren’t so sure. The early history of Zen in Tibet is actually a lot like the early history of Zen in China. In […]
寫經 (Sutra Copying)
寫經 (pinyin: xiě-jīng) literally means “copy sutra”. Koreans pronounce it as sagyeong (사경). In Japanese Buddhism it is pronounced shakyo. And to keep us on our toes, the Japanese use two different Chinese characters: 写経 (don’t ask me why – but the first character, 写, is the cursive form of 寫, and the second character, […]
南無阿彌陀佛 (Homage to Amita Buddha in Chinese Characters)
Transliterating Sanskrit with Chinese characters is pretty interesting. Here I’ll look at one significant example: how to write “Homage to Amita Buddha” in Traditional Chinese characters. First up is “homage”, which can also be translated as “bow to” or “take refuge in”. The Sanskrit for this is नमः (namaḥ) or नमो (namo). This is transliterated […]