Bīja
From Tsadra Commons
| Key Term | bīja |
|---|---|
| In Tibetan Script | ས་བོན་ |
| Wylie Tibetan Transliteration | sa bon |
| Devanagari Sanskrit Script | बीज |
| Romanized Sanskrit | bīja |
| Chinese Script | 無漏種 |
| Chinese Pinyin | zhongzi |
| Japanese Transliteration | shuji |
| English Standard | seed |
| Richard Barron's English Term | potential(ity) |
| Jeffrey Hopkin's English Term | seed |
| Dan Martin's English Term | seed |
| Ives Waldo's English Term | seed; germ; grain; semen; bindu; seed syllable |
| Term Type | Noun |
| Source Language | Sanskrit |
| Basic Meaning | seed |
| Definitions | |
| Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism | See page 119: In Sanskrit, “seed,” a term used metaphorically in two important contexts: (1) in the theory of karman, an action is said to plant a “seed” or “potentiality” in the mind, where it will reside until it fructifies as a future experience or is destroyed by wisdom; (2) in tantric literature, many deities are said to have a “seed syllable” or seed mantra that is visualized and recited in liturgy and meditation in order to invoke the deity. |
| Rangjung Yeshe's English Term | 1) seed; germ, seed-corn, corn, grain. 2) potential(ity); seed, 3) seed syllable |
| Other Definitions | Jeffrey Hopkins clarifies: "In the Mind-Only (sems tsam, citta-mātra) school, this is a synonym of bag chags; in the Consequentialist (thal 'gyur, prAsaGgika) school, it is not the same as bag chags." |
