Hello guys,
I’m looking for a translation of the following Buddhist dictum into Ancient Greek (preferably Attic Greek, but I’d also very much like to see other suggestions): ‘Body like the mountain, heart like the ocean, mind like the sky.’ I have some ideas of my own, but I’m not confident enough of my Greek prose composition skills. Thanks for your response!
All best, Δ.
Why not Pali? Fake Greek tats are so not cool.
Who’s talking about a tattoo?
In English at least, the quote seems to have entered print in 2002 with Ken McLeod’s “Wake Up To Your Life: Discovering the Buddhist Path of Attention,” pg. 58. It hit the internet in 2009, and is now usually credited to “Dogen.”
From McLeod’s book:
Going by the above interpretation of the incomplete sentences (Yoda-speak), I’d guess something like:
τὸ σῶμα ὅμοιον ἔστω ὄρει
τὸ πνεῦμα ὅμοιον τῷ πνεύματι
ὁ νοῦς ὅμοιος τῷ οὐρανῷ
Maybe one had better translate τὸ πνεύμα ὅμοιον τῷ ἀνέμῳ, otherwise the phrase isn’t quite clear.
ὡς μὲν βουνὸς ἀκίνητος.
ὡς δ’ ἄνεμος πλανώδης.
ὁ δὲ νοῦς εὔδιος.