First questions, How is it golden and who decided it has to be a rule? It appears the name emerged in England or the continent just a few centuries ago. Wouldn’t it be more of an appeal or an exhortation rather than something as legalistic as a ‘rule’? I don’t know exactly how the name got started, do you? Every religion may agree with some formulation of it, but that doesn’t mean they have to know what it’s called.
Here is a sometimes quoted verse, originally from a Vinaya text, or so I believed until I located it in the Prajñādaṇḍa, a work credited to Nāgārjuna:
thams cad chos ni mnyan par bya //
thos nas rab tu gzung bya ste //
gang zhig bdag nyid mi 'dod pa //
Listen with care to all the Dharma teachings.
After learning them, they must be fully adopted.
Whatever you do not wish for yourself,
those things you must not do to others.
I see a fault in my translation, since it fails to convey how the statement in the first two lines connects to the last two.
Dharmamitra, an automated online translation service that manages in several languages of Buddhism including Tibetan, did this:
Practice the Dharma in all ways.
Having heard it, uphold it well.
Do not do to others
What you yourself do not wish for.
Now another often-quoted verse from the Tibetan translation of Śāntideva’s Bodhisattva Way of Life (Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra), Derge Tanjur, Toh. no. 3871, fol. 28v.3:
འཇིག་རྟེན་བདེ་བ་ཇི་སྙེད་པ།།
དེ་ཀུན་གཞན་བདེ་འདོད་ལས་བྱུང་།།
འཇིག་རྟེན་སྡུག་བསྔལ་ཇི་སྙེད་པ།།
དེ་ཀུན་བདག་བདེ་འདོད་ལས་བྱུང་།།
'jig rten bde ba ji snyed pa // de kun gzhan bde 'dod las byung // 'jig rten sdug bsngal ji snyed pa // de kun bdag bde 'dod las byung //
I translated it:
Whatever satisfaction we find in this world
arises from wishing well for everyone else.
Whatever dissatisfaction we find in this world
arises from wishing happiness for ourself.
Now Dharmamitra’s version of the same:
Whatever happiness there is in the world
all comes from wishing others to be happy.
Whatever suffering there is in the world
all comes from wishing oneself to be happy.
Much recommended
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Appendix
ཐམས་ཅད་ཆོས་ནི་མཉན་པར་བྱ། །
ཐོས་ནས་རབ་ཏུ་གཟུང་བྱ་སྟེ། །
གང་ཞིག་བདག་ཡོད་མི་འདོད་པ། །
དེ་དག་གཞན་ལ་མི་བྱའོ། །
thams cad chos ni mnyan par bya | |
thos nas rab tu gzung bya ste | |
gang zhig bdag yod mi 'dod pa | |
de dag gzhan la mi bya'o | |
You should listen to, and then fully accept,what the guiding pri[n]ciple of everything is:What you do not like [to be done to] yourselfthat you should not do to others.
Or, if you prefer, from his German book, p. 208 verse 212:
Vernimm die Quintessenz des Rechtes
und nach dem Hören merk sie dir:
Was du nicht willst, das man dir tu,
das füg auch keinem anderen zu!
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Imagining you might find the contrast amusing or instructive, nearly two centuries ago the Hungarian Alexander Csoma de Körös, the reputed father figure of European Tibetology, translated both of our verses in his grammar book: A Grammar of the Tibetan Language in English, Baptist Mission Press (Calcutta 1834; reprint New Delhi 1983), at p. 165:
Hear ye all this moral maxim,
and having heard it keep it well:
“Whatever is unpleasing to yourself
never do it to another.”(Do unto others as you would be done by.)
Whatever happiness is in the world, it has all arisenfrom a wish for the welfare of others.Whatever misery (distress) is in the world,it has all arisen from a wish for our own welfare.
“All those who suffer in the world do so because of their desire for their own happiness. All those happy in the world are so because of their desire for the happiness of others.”
A Response from Kurt Keutzer
- Kurt had a key role in the development of Dharmamitra, so his comments are specially valued.
Since the release of our MITRA translation tool (dharmamitra.org) in November of 2023, I have been involved in many wide-varying discussions regarding the utility of machine translation of dharmic texts. I’ve also conducted a semi-formal survey with a variety of translators who tried MITRA to see how it impacted their productivity, and the results were encouraging.
As a point of departure, I’ll take the position that many find that machine translation makes them more productive translators. For me this is just an observation, not a philosophical position.
However, the premise above begs the question: is the productivity of the translation of dharma something we should be concerned about? Dan Martin questions this when he writes in his blogpost: The Golden Rule, Machine-Translated
My thinking is, you have to breathe with the text to begin with, not add the breath in later on. If you start with a sow’s ear, it will never quite make it to pursehood, while the attempt may take more time than you were bargaining for. If engaging beauty and strict accuracy are your aims, you may get there quicker by doing the work yourself.
Dan’s description of the process of translation immediately reminded me of some artists' description of the process of painting: no short cuts are to be taken. Their view is that the best works of art come from preparing and stretching the canvas yourself, using natural pigments and preparing them from the primitive ingredients (e.g. lapis lazuli) yourself, underlying sketches must be made freehand, and so forth. They argue that the long periods of concentration during these processes creates a mental state that prepares one for the act of painting and these processes shouldn’t be abbreviated.
I must have mused about this for over a month when I had the thought: But wait, are translators of the dharma more like artists or more like apothecaries? The latter gives the image of an individual who has received a prescription to prepare from a doctor and must precisely translate it into the required medicine.
I’ve truly been blessed with so many teachers, but no one impressed on me the notion that dharma is, first and foremost, medicine for the ill, than Kunzang Dechen Lingpa. Although Rinpoche was very careful about the transmission of his own teachings and terma, nothing ever overshadowed the notion that sentient beings were ill and dharma was a medicine that could cure their suffering.
So, if we imagine translators as more like apothecaries than as artists, isn’t productivity a natural concern? Most of us have been pressed to do translation on demand. For me it most often comes in the form of a lama saying “Oh, I know the empowerment is on Saturday, but I just found the sādhana that I’d like everyone to practice.” More generally only a small portion of the dharma, at least in the Tibetan corpus, has been translated. Isn’t translating the remainder with some productivity a natural concern?
One might naturally think that I’ve tipped my hand and shown my own prejudice on this question with the last couple paragraphs. However, I find myself contemplating one more consideration: who is the patient? Who is actually taking the medicine?
The translations in the Library of Tibetan Classics are for me a great example. No matter how long I anticipated these translations, I don’t think I’ve read a single one from cover to cover. More generally, I wonder how many of these translations have ever been read in their entirety by anyone other than the author and an editor or two. So, perhaps it is the translator who is the principal beneficiary of these translations, and, if that is so, shouldn’t the translator have the prerogative to take as long as they like in producing the translation? Moreover, perhaps the preparation of the medicine is the most important part of administering the treatment.
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An added note: The lecture Kurt makes reference to is an upcoming Goodman Lecture by Catherine Dalton, “Study and Translation as Buddhist Practice,” to be given on October 5, 2024.
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November 15, 2024: Also, A.Z. told me you can now get a Chrome extension for Dharmamitra as this may have some advantages to offer, especially if you plan to be a frequent user.
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November 21, 2024: To know Prof. Emeritus of the University of California (Berkeley) Kurt Keutzer's undoubtable bona fides, just listen to the introduction to his keynote lecture “AI, Machine Learning, Deep Learning.” If you are not part of the Computer Studies community, it may be enough to hear the first ten minutes to get some idea of what these experts see themselves doing.
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December 14, 2024: Amanpour & Co. had an interview with Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO, where he is credited with the words, ”I have high confidence that we can imbue our machines with the intrinsic goodness that is in humanity.” We would love to have reasons to be assured his confidence is not misplaced.
Today, just a few days after posting, I wasn’t surprised to hear the newly picked Vice Presidential candidate for the Democratic Party of the United States, Tim Walz, invoke the Golden Rule in his first speech in that role. However, I don't feel the need to point out that he misquoted it as saying, “Mind your own damned business!”
ReplyDeleteOh, and I just noticed this essay by philosopher Soraj Hongladarom: “How Buddhist Principles Can Help Shape a More Ethical AI,” posted at BuddhistDoor (July 31, 2024). Just copy&paste the title into the browser and you'll get there. It concludes similarly about the need to convince the bots that treating humans nicely would be a good thing.
ReplyDeleteYes, the Golden Rule is an appeal, exhortation, and rule, one derived from long acquaintance with the human condition and the workings of societies, wisdom in its truest sense manifest as the regulator of action, speech and thought.
ReplyDeleteHi rTen, I think I haven't looked at your logic for at least seven years. Still going strong, marvellous! I am writing to tell you (actually I know that you knew that already, because in 2008 we communicated about him in private) that the United Nations officer cum Indologist is called Ludwik, not Ludwig. Strange, I know, perhaps a scribal error at birth?
ReplyDeleteMoreover, try Dharmamitra again with your two verses. Do you notice the difference...? Presumably evidence of further studies on the machine's part...
All the very best from Raj Kapoor