‘Asoulity’ as Translation of Anattā: Absence, not Negation

This paper seeks how best to capture in English the Buddha’s concept of anattā. First, the Brahmanic concepts of anātman and ātman are contrasted with the concepts of anattā and attā in Buddhism. Pointing out that the prefix a- in anattā is used by the Buddha in the sense of ‘absence’ rather than ‘n...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Sugunasiri, Suwanda (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Simon Fraser University, David See Chai Lam Centre for International Communication 2011
In: Canadian Journal of Buddhist Studies
Year: 2011, Volume: 7, Pages: 101-134
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
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Summary:This paper seeks how best to capture in English the Buddha’s concept of anattā. First, the Brahmanic concepts of anātman and ātman are contrasted with the concepts of anattā and attā in Buddhism. Pointing out that the prefix a- in anattā is used by the Buddha in the sense of ‘absence’ rather than ‘negation’, the term ‘asoulity’ is proposed as best capturing the sense of the term, in the contexts of both sentience and dhammā (phenomena). In a theoretical thrust, distinguishing between anātman 1 and 2 in Brahmanism and attā 1 and 2 in Buddhism, a linguistic concept, zero-seme is introduced. The autonomous nervous system that responds to stimuli without an inherent centre is posited as an analogy of anattā.,
ISSN:1710-825X
Contains:Enthalten in: Canadian Journal of Buddhist Studies