Theos-Talk Archives (October 1996 Message tl00648)

In message <3.0b23.32.19961025003815.0069cb04@mail.deltanet.com>, "Eldon
B. Tucker" <eldon@theosophy.com> writes
>I'd tend to disagree that we can simply adopt English terms. Using
>Sanskrit terms allows us an excellent opportunity to present the
>basic doctrines in words that aren't buried in negative connotations
>in English.

I left the theosophical classics alone for many years in my youth
precisely *because* the Sanskrit terms were too many, too often used,
and very difficult to follow in their explanation.  With Kabbalah, which
I found more congenial to western thought, a maximum of (say) 20 Hebrew
words which could be seen as the "labels" for thought which words
represent more than sufficed.  And even those, I later discovered, could
be rendered into meningful and accurate Englsih equivalents *by those
who knew what they were talking about.*
>
>
>Terms like "demon" in Greek mean one's Higher Self or Guardian Angel, but
>Christianity has twisted the term into meaning "devil", and so people
>automatically associate devil worship with the word.

Scholars usually render this as *daemon* and italicise it, and in
popular works will add a footnote explaing what you have pointed out.
Modern bible translators are likely to translate it into its modern
equivalent, usually "spirit" with a small "s."

Sigh.

Alan
---------
THEOSOPHY INTERNATIONAL: Ancient Wisdom for a New Age:
http://www.nellie2.demon.co.uk/
E-mail: TINT@nellie2.demon.co.uk