Theos-Talk Archives (February 1995 Message tl00132)

Re E-W and his Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation.

Actually, after looking at the translation given by E-W and his
Tibetan translators, and the new translation by Robert A.  F.
Thurman (see near the back of his The Tibetan Book of the Dead,
Bantam, 1994) I can see that Reynolds has a good point.

Let me give you an example.  Here is the first line of the text
by each:

E-W: "To the Divine Ones, the Tri-Kaya, Who are the Embodiment of
the All-Enlightened Mind Itself, obeisance." (p 202)

Thurman: "Homage to the Three-bodied Deity, intelligence's
natural clarity!" (p 227)

As you can see from the differnce in the opening line of the
text, there is a very big difference.  I would agree that
Thurman's translation is a lot more true to Buddhism and he also
has the backing of H.H.  the Dali Lama, who provides a glowing
foreword to his book.

          Jerry S.