Free Chinese & Japanese Online Dictionary

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Mandarin Chinese information.
Old Wade-Giles romanization used only in Taiwan.
Japanese information.
Buddhist definition. Note: May not apply to all sects.
 Definition may be different outside of Buddhism.

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There are 1 total results for your The Meaning of Life search.

Characters Pronunciation
Romanization
Simple Dictionary Definition

緣覺


缘觉

see styles
yuán jué
    yuan2 jue2
yüan chüeh
 engaku
pratyekabuddha 辟支佛; 辟支迦佛; 鉢剌翳伽陀 (鉢剌翳伽佛陀) In the early translations it was rendered 緣覺, i.e. enlightened through reasoning on the riddle of life, especially as defined in the twelve nidānas. Later it was rendered 獨覺 or individual enlightenment, i.e. one who lives apart from others and attains enlightenment alone, or for himself, in contrast with the altruism of the bodhisattva principle. The term pratyekabuddha is not limited to Buddhists, but is also general for recluses pondering alone over the meaning of life, an illustration being the rhinoceros, which lives in isolation. The non-Buddhist enlightenment is illusion, e.g. from observing the 'flying flowers and falling leaves'; the Buddhist enlightenment arises from pondering over the twelve nidānas. As a degree of saintship it is undefined by early Buddhism, receiving its definition at a later period.

Entries with 2nd row of characters: The 2nd row is Simplified Chinese.

This page contains 1 results for "The Meaning of Life" in Chinese and/or Japanese.



Information about this dictionary:

Apparently, we were the first ones who were crazy enough to think that western people might want a combined Chinese, Japanese, and Buddhist dictionary.

A lot of westerners can't tell the difference between Chinese and Japanese - and there is a reason for that. Chinese characters and even whole words were borrowed by Japan from the Chinese language in the 5th century. Much of the time, if a word or character is used in both languages, it will have the same or a similar meaning. However, this is not always true. Language evolves, and meanings independently change in each language.

Example: The Chinese character 湯 for soup (hot water) has come to mean bath (hot water) in Japanese. They have the same root meaning of "hot water", but a 湯屋 sign on a bathhouse in Japan would lead a Chinese person to think it was a "soup house" or a place to get a bowl of soup. See this: Japanese Bath House

This dictionary uses the EDICT and CC-CEDICT dictionary files.
EDICT data is the property of the Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group, and is used in conformance with the Group's license.

Chinese Buddhist terms come from Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms by William Edward Soothill and Lewis Hodous. This is commonly referred to as "Soothill's'". It was first published in 1937 (and is now off copyright so we can use it here). Some of these definitions may be misleading, incomplete, or dated, but 95% of it is good information. Every professor who teaches Buddhism or Eastern Religion has a copy of this on their bookshelf. We incorporated these 16,850 entries into our dictionary database ourselves (it was lot of work).



Combined, these cover 1,007,753 Japanese, Chinese, and Buddhist characters, words, idioms, names, placenames, and short phrases.

Just because a word appears here does not mean it is appropriate for a tattoo, your business name, etc. Please consult a professional before doing anything stupid with this data.

We do offer Chinese and Japanese Tattoo Services. We'll also be happy to help you translate something for other purposes.

No warranty as to the correctness, potential vulgarity, or clarity is expressed or implied. We did not write any of these definitions (though we occasionally act as a contributor/editor to the CC-CEDICT project). You are using this dictionary for free, and you get what you pay for.

The following titles are just to help people who are searching for an Asian dictionary to find this page.

Japanese Kanji Dictionary

Free Asian Dictionary

Chinese Kanji Dictionary

Chinese Words Dictionary

Chinese Language Dictionary

Japanese Chinese Dictionary