Ātman

+ Add to BuNay
View on BuNay

Key Term	ātman
In Tibetan Script	བདག་
Wylie Tibetan Transliteration	bdag
Devanagari Sanskrit Script	आत्मन्
Tibetan Phonetic Rendering	dak
Chinese Script	我; 灵魂
Chinese Pinyin	wǒ; línghún
Japanese Transliteration	ga
Korean Transliteration	a
English Standard	self
Term Type	Noun
Source Language	Sanskrit
Basic Meaning	Though it can simply be used as the expression "I" or "me", in Indian thought the notion of self refers to a permanent, unchanging entity, such as that which passes from life to life in the case of people, or the innate essence svabhāva of phenomena.
Has the Sense of	The notion of ātman is often equated with the Western notions of an eternal soul.
Related Terms	anātman;svabhāva
Definitions
Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism	See page 78: In Sanskrit, “self’ or “I,” with a similar range of meanings as the terms possess in English, but used especially to refer to a perduring substratum of being that is the agent of actions, the possessor of mind and body (nāmarūpa), and that passes from lifetime to lifetime.

Though it can simply be used as the expression "I" or "me", in Indian thought the notion of self refers to a permanent, unchanging entity, such as that which passes from life to life in the case of people, or the innate essence (svabhāva) of phenomena.

Though it can simply be used as the expression "I" or "me", in Indian thought the notion of self refers to a permanent, unchanging entity, such as that which passes from life to life in the case of people, or the innate essence (svabhāva) of phenomena.

Though it can simply be used as the expression "I" or "me", in Indian thought the notion of self refers to a permanent, unchanging entity, such as that which passes from life to life in the case of people, or the innate essence (svabhāva) of phenomena.