ངོ་སྤྲོད་སྤྲས་པའི་རྒྱུད།

From Rangjung Yeshe Wiki - Dharma Dictionary
Revision as of 00:47, 10 October 2009 by Vajrallan (talk | contribs) (etymology)
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I suggest that conscience in its original meaning of consciousness is very close etymologically to both rig pa and vidyā. Vid- rig- and -science all three mean knowledge. So that one might find that consciousness can be slightly better than awareness for translating rig pa.


As i was writing and researching this intervention i realized that in French conscience is quite definitely a good simple translation for rigpa. It might have been too obvious to be seen... -We don't have another equivalent of awareness. Conscience also has a moral weight, but psychology, and philosophy, have almost steered the word back to cognition.
en.wikipedia.org has a discussion of the history of the words coscientia and conscius.