EOB:Naming conventions

For traditional Buddhist terms, this site generally follows the naming conventions used in the Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, though there are exceptions.

Hence, in most cases, this site uses Sanskrit names as the main title for Buddhist terms. Following the main title, articles typically show the Pali, Tibetan and Chinese cognates for Sanskrit terms. For example, the entry for the term sattva begins as follows:

sattva (P. satta; T. sems can སེམས་ཅན་; C. youging/zhongsheng 有情/衆生) ...

In the above example, P., T., and C. are abbrevations for the words Pali, Tibetan, and Chinese, respectively. Hence, in the example above, we have:

Sanskrit term (P. pali term; T. Tibetan term (in Wylie and Tibetan script); C. Chinese term (in phonetic form followed by traditional Chinese characters)

In many cases, the Sanskrit and Pali cognates are the same. In this cases, the Pali cognate is omitted.

In some cases Japanese and Korean cognates are also included; in these cases the traditional Chinese characters are included following these additional cognates.

For Buddhist terms for which there is a generally accepted English translation, the article title may be rendered in English.

The reasons for relying on the Sanskrit terms for the majority of terms are best explained by the authors of the Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, as follows:

No single language crosses all of the linguistic and cultural boundaries of the Buddhist tradition. However, in order to present Buddhist terms that are used across this diverse expanse, it is convenient to employ a single linguistic vocabulary. For this reason European and North American scholars have, over the last century, come to use Sanskrit as the lingua franca of the academic discipline of Buddhist Studies. Following this scholarly convention we have used Sanskrit, and often Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit forms, in our main entry headings for the majority of Indic-origin terms that appear across the Buddhist traditions. Pāli, Tibetan, or Chinese terms are occasionally used where that form is more commonly known in Western writings on Buddhism. We have attempted to avoid unattested Sanskrit equivalents for terms in Pāli and other Middle Indic languages, generally marking any hypothetical forms with an asterisk.

As indicated in the above statement, using Sanskrit names for Buddhist terms allows people of different cultures, who speak variety of native languges, to share a common vocabulary of Buddhist terms.

A further note regarding the English translations of terms: many terms do not have direct English equivalents, so they often prove difficult translate. Hence, it is often the case that there is no consensus among scholars and practicing Buddhists regarding the best English translation for a given term. So the use of Sanskrit names also provides clarity in this regard.