It's the Connection, Not the Language

Today’s entry is a follow-up to the entry “Does the Language Really Matter?” and the ensuing comments by some readers. I am also responding to a related question about why everyone does not chant “Amitabha” instead of chanting in other languages. Two readers also essentially asked the same question. As one asked, “why the original Sanskrit Name, as given by Sakyamuni Buddha, was changed, given that the Name is said to be so centrally important. The Vietnamese Name doesn't sound much like 'Amitabha' at all. Is it really just as effective?”

My response is that I am not a scholar in ancient languages, but from what I understand we do know not for certain what language the Buddha spoke because his teachings were initially an oral tradition. However, many Buddhist scholars believe that Sakyamuni Buddha spoke various dialects of Prakrit Magadhi as he traveled around India and Nepal.

The specific language or dialect he spoke would have been the local one. So when he spoke in one area, he spoke in one language or dialect and in another area he spoke in another language or dialect. The Buddha himself would have said what came to be pronounced in Sanskrit as “Amitabha” differently to different people.

So we really do not know how he pronounced “Amitabha Buddha” or in how many different ways!

The Chinese sutras were translated, with some words being transliterated, from the Sanskrit versions. So the Chinese deliberately chose to not translate some words, but to try to pronounce them as close to the Sanskrit as they could. But different languages require different sounds.

For example, I was trying to teach another nun how to pronounce stollen with a German pronunciation. She could not say it as a German would because some German language sounds are simply not naturally made by Chinese speakers. So even with the most diligent effort, someone who speaks German will probably pronounce “Amitabha” differently than someone who lives in India. Or in Botswana.

To further complicate things, people who speak the same language have different accents or dialects. Someone who speaks Cantonese will pronounce words differently from someone who speaks Mandarin. Also, there is the time factor in pronunciation. Language pronunciation changes over the centuries and especially over millennium. Try to read a Shakespearean play as William wrote it and you’ll see how much the English language has changed in just four hundred years.

As to the language we chant in, that can depend on where we practice. I chant “Amituofo,” which is Chinese, not because I think Chinese is superior to other languages, but because I live and practice with people who speak and chant in Chinese. When I go to a Vietnamese Buddhist center, I chant “Adida Phat.” When in Japan, I’d chanted “Amida Butsu.”

All things considered—the Buddha himself spoke different languages and dialects, what is easily said in one language will be pronounced with an accent by the speaker of another language, accents and dialects are found even in the same language, and pronunciation changes because of the passage of time—I think it safe to say that no one is saying “Amitabha Buddha” like Sakyamuni did almost 3000 years ago. Or as beings throughout the ten directions have chanted the name since “Amitabha Buddha” fulfilled his vows and became a Buddha many billions of years ago.

So we’re back to sincerity and doing the best we can regardless of our current circumstances. I chant “Amituofo” to form a connection with him by mindfully saying his name. My American accent doesn’t matter. My sincerity does. The name is a tool, a term. And so I’m okay language-wise because Amituofo is looking for sincerity, not perfect pronunciation. And just as a mother recognizes a call for help from her baby who is not calling her by her proper name, Amitabha Buddha, who has been waiting uncountable lifetimes for us, hears our calling him. And he responds.

Comments

[Judy]

Thank you Venerable, I have often been overly attached, or so I feel, to the necessity to get all areas of my Practice perfect...for example, I rue my problem with prostrating. You words here reassure me that my sincere heartfelt intention in all areas, providing I am trying to my full ability, is as important as my physical, or verbal, ability to perform the Practice.. Is this so?
Amituofo

[Venerable Wuling]

Judy,

Yes, physical limitations due to age or illness are just that--physical. It is our mind that forms the connection with Amituofo. Years ago, Teacher told me that it was not even necessary for westerners to do prostrations. It's not something that comes naturally to us. So if people were uncomfortable, no problem. It mattered more that they chant and live morally. Our practice centers on where the mind is, not the body.

What is important is our sincere intention to be reborn in the Pure Land and our aspiration to help all beings. Remember the account of the woman who only had a few cents and yet she used them to buy oil for an offering lamp to the Buddha. The next morning, hers was the only one still glowing with light. It was her sincerity that made her lamp outlast all the others.

[Shinyo]

This is a good point. It reminds me of a story where a Buddhist master is sailing and he hears a monk chanting with wrong pronunciation. The master goes to the island to teach the monk the proper way to chant. Later, after the master had left, the monk came flying on a cloud to ask the master again what was the proper pronunciation.

I don't remember exactly how the story goes and I've heard two different versions. It was funny because I read one version and a few days later, I heard the other version at the temple I go to. This is interesting because its something that I used to worry about too.

Namo Amida Butsu
Shinyo
http://shinyo-gassho.blogspot.com/

[benny]

as i was chanting,i commonly chanted namo amitabha today i was chanting amitufo without realising and i asked myself that same question.if amitufo/amitabha was named in another language we'd do the same thing.
Like the verse i read it says. "everything is created from the mind alone"

[Venerable Wuling]

Shinyo,

Thank you for a wonderful story!

Benny,

Exactly. The longing to be in our true home forms the connection.

[kinder teacher]

I heard that story too!! The version i heard was that the cardinal came to the island to teach this priest how to pray. The priest forgot what the cardinal said. Then the priest ran to the boat and asked the cardinal what were his instructions. He could not hear the cardinal so he got closer to the boat and found himself walking on water talking to the cardinal. When the cardinal saw this he said "son whatever you are doing is just fine, forget the instructions i tried to give you."

I loved that story. I just chant and get into the peace of the moment and sometimes i goof. I forget to do some movement at some time in a ceremony or i pronounce wrongly. Not with the intention to mess up just that it happens. I try to listen to rest of the group and then try to chant and listen and chant but then i lose the grove or peace of the moment because i am struggling to follow the rules. I have found it better to just be at peace with the moment because when i lose that peace then i wonder where it went and i struggle again.

I remind myself "oh by the way self this is all happening inside my own mind, there is no struggle" then i laugh at myself. That does not go over too well in a group of chanters. I have a great time in my own mind trying and not trying to get it right veres just being peaceful and in the moment.

Being internal is a trip.

kinder teacher

[Linda]

Thank you Venerable Wu Ling for making it possible for me to finally put to rest my niggling doubts about chanting in a language other than Sanskrit, which were the legacy of my years in another tradition, and which have, until now, persisted despite previous explanations.

It does make complete sense to me now that a perfectly enlightened and compassionate being such as Amitabha Buddha would a) know when someone is calling upon him, regardless of the form the call takes and b) respond to any sincere and heartfelt call. It's now very clear to me that this Buddha Name recitation is a totally different thing to repeating a mantra, where there is much stress on correct language and pronunciation. It feels very freeing for me to really know that we are not going to succeed or fail based on getting it "right" but that there will always be a deepening connection with Amitabha Buddha in response our true inner feeling and aspiration. This is so wonderful! Kind of like having the perfect parent who never judges but only loves, and that all we have to do is open up to that love. Thanks for your patience in explaining this so clearly.

[Venerable Wuling]

Linda,

I'm delighted the explanation helped!