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<SPAN class="Apple-style-span">hi - I think that "blessing" is a later version of "blissing", although I have no citations to show this. The link between the Romance idea of wounding (cf Fr la <I>la blessure</I>) and blessing also seems significant.</SPAN><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-style-span">I think that the verbal (<I>dicere) </I>part of benediction is the reason why the bookheavy Christians seek to emphasise this translation. It was no surprise to me, as a semilapsed Cahtholic Buddhist, that Benedikt, who was previously head of what used to be the Holy Inquistition, and who is a fine scholar too, chose such a name. </SPAN></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-style-span">In Tibetan we have a big postHippy problem in translating the spiritual language into English. The word which is translated by blessing, <I>sbyin rlabs</I> (pron "chin lap") means literally "waves [rlabs] of gifts [sbyin]". the word for empowerment (ie the transmission of these spiritual gifts, in the form of a religious practise, by a lama to a student) is called a <I>dbang </I>(pron "wang" - sinologists take note!), translated variously as "empowerment, power - both religious and secular &c".</SPAN></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-style-span">The modern Tibetan adjective <I>sbyin rlabs can </I>(pron "chin lap chen) has the meaning "generous, charitable", which is clear from the Tibetan etymology but shows up some of the difficulties translating (in all respects) the ideas of one culture into another.</SPAN></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-style-span">Returning briefly to the western classics, the differences between <I>eulogy </I>and<I> benediction </I>are also interesting. Eulogies are generally secular, I think, while benediction is almost exclusively religious - significant cultural differentiation perhaps between the (pre)modern ideas of the Greeks and the Romans.</SPAN></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-style-span">Si<BR><DIV> <SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><DIV>---</DIV><DIV>Körnerstraße 1, 01407 Leipzig, Germany</DIV><DIV>cell: 0049 (0)1627 325868</DIV><DIV><A href="http://www.qamutiik.net">http://www.qamutiik.net</A></DIV><DIV>skype: wickhamsmith</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV><BR></SPAN></DIV>
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