Ātman
From Tsadra Commons
| 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. |