Three concepts of Buddhist philosophy: «thought», «mind», «consciousness» (the problem of translation)
Sententiae March 31, 2026 Anastasia Strelkova 1 citation
The paper analyzes three key concepts in Buddhist philosophy of consciousness—citta, manas, and vijñāna—and examines challenges in translating them into Ukrainian. It argues that adequate translation requires comparing terms across Pali, Sanskrit, Chinese, and other traditions, and translating the entire system of Buddhist terminology rather than isolated terms, to avoid incompatibility. The author applies an original approach to Buddhist "philosophy of emptiness," interpreting it broadly as a union of three constituents: emptiness of things, emptiness of concepts, and emptiness of consciousness. An analysis of a passage from Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakośa (II.34) illustrates the need for systematic translation.