Edith Scholl - Words For The Journey: A Monastic Vocabulary

A Cistercian Publications title published by Liturgical Press

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2009 by Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, microfilm, microfiche, mechanical recording, photocopying, translation, or by any other means, known or yet unknown, for any purpose except brief quotations in reviews, without the previous written permission of Liturgical Press, Saint Johns Abbey, PO Box 7500, Collegeville, Minnesota 56321-7500. Printed in the United States of America.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Scholl, Edith.

Words for the journey : a monastic vocabulary/Edith Scholl; foreword by David N. Bell.

p. cm. (Monastic wisdom series ; no. 21)

ISBN 978-0-87907-021-2 (pbk.)

Ebook ISBN 978-0-87907-967-3

1. Catholic ChurchTerminology. 2. TheologyTerminology. 3. Latin languageChurch LatinTerms and phrases. I. Title. II. Series.

BX841.S36 2009

255dc22 2009013885

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

David N. Bell

Lung.pa re.re skad.lugs re/
bLama re.re chos.lugs re//

It is perhaps unusual to begin the preface to a book dealing with Cistercian theology, spirituality, and practice with a quotation in Tibetan, much less one that is not translated. Yet there is a method to my madness, and those who have tried to pronounce or mispronounce the sentences (Tibetan pronunciation is as wicked as English) may be interested to learn that it isor used to bea well-known Tibetan proverb. It means To each region its own dialect; to each monk ( lama of any monk or lama is essentially his, or, in the case of Tibetan nuns, her own. The reason why it is his or her own is simple: language. The Tibetan Buddhist Canon was, to a large extent, translated from Sanskrit, and the technical terms in both languages are replete with multiple layers of meaning. Sometimes those meanings are not the same in both languages, and one person will interpret a term in one way, another person in another.

We have just the same problem in English. According to the Christian Scriptures, one of the key commandments is to love ones neighbor. But what does this mean? The only word on which one might agree is your, but when we come to love and neighbor we are in deep trouble. What is love, and who is my neighbor? If the injunction bids us leap the fence between my house and that of, let us say, an attractive woman who lives next door, pounce on her unsuspectingly, and rape her on the spot, then I clearly have a problem. If, on the other hand, it means that I first check to see that my neighbors are good Christians, and then wave to them and wish them well on a Sunday morning on their way to church, I also have a problem. Love and neighbor are terms of unqualified richness, and we must remember that when Jesus of Nazareth was asked by a certain lawyer, Who is my neighbor? he cheated. He did not answer the lawyer directly, but spoke a parable (Luke 10:25-37), and parables are subject to even more levels of interpretation than the terms we are investigating. On the other hand, the saving grace of the commandment comes in the two words at the end. It does not enjoin us simply to love our neighbor, but to love our neighbor as ourself (Matt 19:19 and parallels). But that, alas!, simply makes the commandment even more problematical. How and in what way and to what extent should we lovewhatever that meansourself? A reader might be more at home in Tibetan.

Other terms are just as difficult. What is Truth , said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer. Personally, I do not think he was jesting, but wanted a clear and straightforward response. If he had asked Jesus of Nazareth What are facts? Jesus would have had little problem in replying. That St Johns is the capital of Newfoundland and Labrador is a fact. That a hundred cents make a dollar is a fact. But truth and facts, though overlapping, are not the same thing, any more than veritas and factum (or, indeed, res ) are synonyms in Latin.

Those who wish to study non-Christian religions are faced with just the same problem. All religions, without exception, are replete with technical terms which, if they can be translated into English at all, can be translated only in a gravely limited way. Three examples will suffice: dharma in Hinduism and Buddhism, dao in Confucianism and Daoism, and fan in Muslim mysticism. It is perfectly possible to translate these terms as rule, way, and annihilation, but in all cases one barely scratches the surface of what the term really signifies. Indeed, the scratching of the surface itself can sometimes be grossly misleading.