Posts filed under 'Sanskrit'

Translating a Fundamental Spiritual Text: An Interview with Dr. Karl Brunnhölzl

January 2, 2020 | in Interviews | by Chime Lama

I see no contradiction between the rigorous academic approach and the more intuitive and experiential approach of the Tibetan tradition.

The 2019 Khyentse Foundation Prize for Outstanding Translation was awarded to Dr. Karl Brunnhölzl for A Compendium of the Mahāyāna: Asaṅga’s Mahāyānasaṃgraha and Its Indian and Tibetan Commentaries (Shambhala Publications, 2018), a monumental three-volume work and the first complete English translation of the fourth century C.E. text. Originally written by a philosopher and spiritual teacher, it presents an extensive overview of the Yogācāra School of Mahāyāna Buddhism, which explores the nature of consciousness, existence, and spiritual practice.

Upon accepting the Khyentse Foundation Translation Prize, Dr. Brunnhölzl said, “I feel very honored and privileged to receive this award—more importantly though, the prize highlights the major significance of the entire Yogācāra tradition in general, as well as Asanga’s Mahāyānasaṃgraha, and specifically its commentarial tradition as being a major Indian Buddhist system of thought and practice that has been vastly influential over many hundreds of years in numerous countries. It is my wish that these volumes may be a small contribution toward Yogācāra receiving the attention and appreciation in the English-speaking world that it deserves.”

In light of the new wealth of knowledge that Dr. Brunnhölzl has made accessible to English readers, and with the wish that it reaches knowledge-seekers new and old, I gladly share this most timely and opportune correspondence.

Chime Lama (CL): Dr. Brunnhölzl, given that you were trained as a medical doctor, what made you shift your career path in favor of religious studies?

Karl Brunnhölzl (KB): Many people ask me that question, mostly because they find it strange to give up the well-respected, well-paid, and (mostly) beneficial profession of a physician in order to pursue something more “ethereal.” I became a Buddhist during my medical studies in 1983, and was even considering quitting to become a Buddhist translator, feeling that this was my true calling. However, my teacher gave me the good advice to finish medical school and study Buddhism afterwards, while having a solid financial footing. And so I did that for twenty years: working half the year as a doctor (in others’ clinics) and going to Nepal and India in pursuit of Buddhism for the other half. That proved to be a viable way of pursuing my religious studies, rather than having to quit due to lack of funding, like many others I know have had to do. READ MORE…

Contributor:

Chime Lama

Languages:

Sanskrit
Tibetan

Place:

Tibet

Writer:

Asanga

Tags:

Buddhism
Sanskrit
Tibetan literature
translation theory

Translating Longing : A Novice Translator’s First Transgressions

November 12, 2015 | in Essays | by Gnaomi Siemens

"In the text the girl sings: This earth cell is old—I am full of longing. She is under the oak. There is ambiguity. "

I’m translating “The Wife’s Lament,” from the Anglo-Saxon (among other poems), and—though I am in the habit of calling my drafts “transgressions”—there is a palpable sense of longing breaking through which I think may be possible to understand. What I mean by “even now,” has to do with the ideas of immediacy prevalent (one could say saturated) in the current collective consciousness.

I just read an article eulogizing the long email. And who even talks on the phone anymore. We interact in quick bursts, with no breaks. Both of these things being, of course, enemies of longing. We do not allow ourselves the luxury of longing. For to long, literally, takes “length.” Long stretches of absence and time—for which nobody has time for anymore.

The girl I’m trying to write (the wife lamenting) gets left to long by herself under an oak tree. This oak tree intrigues me. There is so much symbolism here. Pagans had their sacred groves. Druids had oak knowledge. I have also read about the linguistic link between the Celtic word for oak and the Sanskrit word for door—the connection between knowledge and doors apparently reaches pretty far back, but the other thing has to do with the oak as a portal, a door to another world. In the text the girl sings: This earth cell is old—I am full of longing. She is under the oak. There is ambiguity. Is she even alive?

Epic India in Verse

May 7, 2015 | in Reviews | by Farisa Khalid

Reviewing Poetry of India: Anthology of the Greatest Poets of India, ed. Paul Smith (New Humanity Books, 2014)

A few months ago, a friend of mine who was curious about the nuances of Indian culture asked me to explain the artistic differences between North and South India. I realized it was a loaded question, and I could only give him a general overview of similarities and differences between north and south, Aryan and Dravidian, and Central Asian, Persian-Turkish influences versus Burmese and Sri Lankan. I felt I had a vague generalist understanding of my country of origin, though my answers seemed to satisfy him.

It is exceedingly difficult to encapsulate the cultural diversity of the Indian subcontinent, spanning across India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, with a cultural nebula across Burma, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. To travelers like the seventh-century Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang (the 14th century Central Asian [Uzbek] warrior), the marauder Timur (the subject of Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine) and even Mohandas Gandhi, returning from years of living among the racist Boers of South Africa, India remained a baffling and exotic mystery to the intellect and senses.

Fortunately for us, a book like Paul Smith’s massive anthology, Poetry of India: Anthology of the Greatest Poets of India, gives curious readers of Indian culture and literature an adequate place to start. Paul Smith is an Australian poet and scholar of Indian and South Asian literature. He has translated the works of Rumi, Hafiz, and Nizami, as well as the works of various other Sufi and Persian poets. In this anthology, he delves straight into the complexities of Indian literature, Sanskrit poetry from South India and the Deccan states, medieval Tamil poetry, and poems by well-known nineteenth and twentieth-century poets like Makhfi, Ghālib, Tagore, and Iqbal.