| Key Term |
ātman |
| Hover Popup Choices |
personal self; the self; ātman; bdag; བདག་; self of persons; a self |
| 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 |
| Karl Brunnhölzl's English Term |
identity |
| Jeffrey Hopkin's English Term |
self |
| Gyurme Dorje's English Term |
"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. |
| Rangjung Yeshe's English Term |
essence, self-entity, identity. |