Ātman
Key Term | ātman |
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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. |