Soul after the sixteenth century

If we had translated Zen Buddhist texts, and other Buddhist texts before the sixteenth century, the word xin/hsin or citta would be rendered, more than likely, as soul or spirit, even will, depending upon the context.  Thomas Szasz notes in his book The Meaning of Mind:

The birth of the concept of mind as an entity and of the noun "mind" as its name is a symptom of the metamorphosis of the medieval, religious view of the world into the modern, scientific view of it. As a noun, the mind resembles its predecessor, the soul, each naming an unobservable entity. Only in its verbal form—as in "never mind" or "minding the baby"—does the word "mind" have an observable meaning.

Such a shift has only served to distance Buddhism from its spiritual roots.  When the Buddha said, “Without a liberated mind (vimuttacitta), I say, one is not a great man (mahapurisa), he should be read as saying, “Without a liberated soul, I say, one is not a great man.”  This is because citta in many contexts stands for soul.  But it also stands for spirit which has been defiled so that spirit is unable to recognize itself free of self-inflicted distortions.

In commentarial literature we discover that “attâ’ti cittam,’ that is, “The âtman is the citta.”  Again, in an earlier time this might have been translated as the anima is the spirit or soul.  For the ancient Indians, âtman meant not a self or an individual but rather the principle of animation (cetanatattva) which is completely spiritual.  Western translators mistakenly translate âtman with the word “self” which despiritualizes and shoves âtman into the psychological category of ego and all that term stands for.

For the Indian mind the âtman is more like the radio signal which the psychophysical organism, like the radio, amplifies.  Although, this analogy is oversimplified, it serves to illustrate the difference between spirit and the psychological self.  This is why it is wrong to say the Buddha denied the self.   The Buddha is only teaching us to spiritually distinguish between the animative principle, the âtman, and the animated which is not the âtman. 

 

Comments

[Electric Black]

(Sigh.) Why are you asking me to come back? I still quit and I'm still fine. End of story. Dickheads. Also, Mas, I am not interested in what you think.

[Mas]

Electric Black: it is the demons in you, tortured by a little bit of meditation (ie. the collecting of the shattered mind) that are reacting like they are here... your reaction is proof that the meditation worked.

I suspect you abused drugs in the past, that's why your mind is so hyperactive and scattered.

I'm also guessing you live unhealthy probably bad diet, vitamin D deficiency, hyperthyroidism, I don't know what. Go see a doctor.

if you abandon the Dharma just because your mind-demons are kicking and screaming then you're not grabbing the only hand that wants to save you in an ocean you're drowning in

[Electric Black]

I quit and am fine. If any honest people read this...the religious world has many predators. Dark Zen is not a true religion. The Zennist is lying.

[Mau]

lol

[MStrinado]

E. Black

What ward number are you writing from???