Abstract

This article, based on the mentioned text, discusses the style of translation and philosophical research of an eminent Austrian indologist Gerhard Oberhammer. A number of impressive German equivalents of Sanskrit technical terms pro­posed by him is examined. 1. Sanskrit sañjñābelongs to general scholarly and philosophical vocabulary, but it is used by Brahmanist authors mainly in a semi­otic sense, viz., “[technical] term” whereas their Buddhist opponents meant it’s mental counterpart “definite perception”. Indologists before Oberhammer were inclined to biased one sided translations. Oberhammers’ Sprachvorstellung (“lin­guistic perception”) unites both of them. 2. Smṛti (literally – “memory”) is ren­dered by Erinnern with a very appropriate connotation “Interiorisation”. 3. Bhā­vanā is translated not by usual and vague “meditation”, but by Darstellung and Vergegenwärtigung. The main conclusion of the author is reformulated by me as follows: any project of an ultimate personal intimacy have as its prerequisite a variety of transcendence and is therefore realizable only within a spiritual path. I totally agree. The pertinence and profoundness of this statement is substanti­ated by the comparative historical facts and speculations of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition unknown to Oberhammer.

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