Vyañjana
(Redirected from Seed syllable)
vyañjana (T. tshig ’bru ཚིག་འབྲུ) is translated as "word," "inflected word," "letter," "sound," "syllable," etc.[1][2]
Deleanu (2019) states:
- In a strict grammatical sense, vyañjana refers to a ‘consonant’. Literally, it means ‘becoming manifest’. This alludes to the nature of the consonant which is incapable of standing alone and manifests itself phonetically when pronounced together with a vowel...
- [In the context of the four reliances], however, the word is used in a more general sense of ‘letter’ contrasted to the ‘[ultimate] meaning’ or ‘spirit’ of the Teaching. [...] The primacy of the meaning over the letter is a common theme in Mahāyāna literature.[3]
In tantra, this term can refer to a "seed syllable" for a sadhana practice. In this context, the "seed syllable" is the "syllable from which the deity is manifested during the development stage."[1]
This term is also used as a synonym for (or abbreviation of) the term anuvyañjana ("minor mark").[4]
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1
tshig ’bru, Christian-Steinert Dictionary
- ↑
tshig ’bru, 84000 Glossary of Terms
- ↑ Deleanu 2019, p. 3 fn. 3
- ↑ Buswell & Lopez 2014, s.v. anuvyañjana.
Sources
Buswell, Robert E.; Lopez, Donald S. (2014), The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Princeton University- Deleanu, Florin (2019), "How Gnosis Met Logos: The Story of a Hermeneutical Verse in Indian Buddhism", Journal of the International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies, XXIII
Further reading
vyanjana, Wisdom Library
Main Seed Syllables, Rigpa Shedra Wiki
