User talk:JALockhart/Archive01 200504–

Hi! Welcome to Wikipedia. Hello, welcome to Wikipedia. Thanks for your contributions so far. It's nice to have a Japanese translator aboard, especially vis a vis some of the Buddhism-related articles that I work on (I know a bit about Chinese myself, although not enough to be a translator). Here are some links you can take a look at if you want ideas for things to do:

If you want, you can also refer to this sort of page:

Although it's not really necessary to read that stuff unless it comes up somehow. Sometimes it's better just to pick up that sort of information by watching other users. If you have any questions, you can always ask me on my talk page or see the Wikipedia help pages. A couple more things, in case you're wondering:

You can sign your name using three tildes, like this: ~~~. If you use four, you can add a datestamp too.

If you made any edits before you got an account, you might be interested in assigning those to your username (although you don't have to if you don't want to. Most people don't.)

Cheers, Nat Kraus e 08:37, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for the tips and encouragement. I have read much of the references you cite—most of the conventions seem not only quite reasonable, but for the most part in line with conventions I'm already accustomed to following, though I imagine I will wind up deviating from something once in a while.

One question: when is it appropriate to sign things? Since I haven't seen anyone sign articles or changes they've made to them, I assume that is one place not to sign.

Meanwhile, I look forward to contributing constructively. Over the next several months, workload permitting. I will probably contribute quite a bit to the glossary of Buddhist terms and concepts and would appreciate your guidance here as far as keeping within the bounds of NPOV, but being able to point out interpretations that are specific to the school(s) that I know. Also, I can provide the Chinese characters and their Japanese readings for many concepts. (Can't help, though, with the Chinese readings; I can read Chinese only to the extent my Japanese permits it, which ain't much!)

Again, thanks; and best regards -- Jim_Lockhart 09:15, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Good question. You should sign pretty much everything you write on Talk pages but you should never sign anything in an actual encyclopedia article (I have seen people do this once or twice, but it's definitely wrong and you should remove it if you see it -- the "page history" is there to list authors). I'll be happy to keep an eye on your glossary contributions, and I'll try to provide Chinese readings for the characters you add (I have the opposite problem with Japanese characters, myself!) - Nat Kraus e 09:25, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

From Talk:Nichiren Buddhism

The mantra he expounded on 1253 April 28, Nam-Myōhō-Renge-Kyō, expresses his devotion to that body of teachings. ....

If this is the fourth month in the lunar calendar, this is not the same as 'April'. What would be the correct Gregorian date ? Is this anniversary celebrated today in Japan ? If so, when ? -- PFHLai 03:34, 2005 Apr 22 (UTC)

It is the 28th day of the fourth month by the lunar calendar. I don't know when this would be according to any other calendar, and have never see it expressed anywhere. To my knowledge, there is a three to five week shift between Japanese lunar months and Gregorian months, so the actual date was probably in May or June. In my experience with Nichiren Shoshu temples, celebration of events in Nichiren's life usually take place according to the current Gregorian calendar. Priests have told me that the actual date is not so important—that it's the content (i.e., recalling the event and its significance) that's important to them. The only exception seems to be Taisekiji's celebration of O-eshiki (御会式), the celebration of Nichiren's 13 October 1282 passing. Although local temples hold the celebration on a weekend within about a month of 13 October, Taisekiji's celebration is held on the lunar-calendar anniversary.

If you think it would be appropriate to dig up the lunar-calendar date, I will research it. Jim_Lockhart 04:30, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Thank you for the clarification, Jim_Lockhart. I wonder if the 1253 entry on the April 28 page should be considered incorrect. And, if there are celebrations nowadays held on dates according to the Gregorian calendar, would it be appropriate to feature the 'founding of Nichiren Buddhism' as a Selected Anniversary on the MainPage on April 28 ? Is this event celebrated ? Is there a page on the celebration ? Hmmm.... I do have one slot open. What do you think ? -- PFHLai 05:31, 2005 Apr 22 (UTC)

Some might consider the entry on the April 28 page is a little off, depending on what their interpretation of Lotus Sutra is: from Nichiren's POV, as I understand him, the invocation is the Lotus Sutra for his time period. Attention is probably a typo for intention, no? I would reword it as follows:

1253 - Nichiren, a Japanese Buddhist monk, propounds Nam Myoho Renge Kyo for the first time and declares it to be the essence of Buddhism, in effect founding Nichiren Buddhism.

To clarify: Nam Myoho Renge Kyo does not, by itself, constitute True Buddhism, which in a narrow sense comprises Nam Myoho Renge Kyo plus two other elements, and in a broad sense comprises Nichiren's lifetime of teachings.

As to whether the date is celebrated: It certainly is among practioners of Nichiren Buddhism, but it is probably close to unknown among the rest of the population; for instance, it is not marked on calendars.

If a date in Nichiren Buddhism were one of celebration, it would be 13 October, the date of Nichiren's passing and far-more significant religiously than 28 April. Some aspects of it seem almost like Christian Easter, in that it is considered an occassion for celebrating "the True Buddha's (=Nichiren's) eternal life."

HTH, Jim_Lockhart 06:33, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I have changed the line on April 28 as you have suggested. As the founding of Nichiren Buddhism on April 28 is not too notable, I'll put the item on the back burner, and feature it as a Selected Anniversary only if I can't find anything better. I'll look into the October 13 date when the time comes. Thank you very much for your help. You've been a great help, Jim Lockhart. Happy editing. :-) -- PFHLai 06:56, 2005 Apr 22 (UTC)

Hey, no problem :). I'll see if I can pull something together—a description of the event and its signficance, or something like that—before 13 October rolls around. And happy editing to you, too! Regards, Jim_Lockhart 08:24, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Image source

Thank you for uploading Image:Taisekiji-tatchu-sakura-Sanmon(s).JPG. Its copyright status is unclear, so it may have to be deleted. Please leave a note on the image page about the source of the image. Thank you. --Zzyzx11 (Talk) 06:05, 21 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Gave it a shot. Let me know if this is still insufficient. Jim_Lockhart 06:34, 21 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Bonze

Say, if you get a chance, could you look at bonze and see if you can determine which, if either, of the sets of characters there are correct? Thanks. - Nat Kraus e 18:03, 15 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

To my knowledge, bonze comes from bōzu (坊主), which is a more-or-less derogatory Japanese word for priest (it's also a diminutive for little boys). The words cited on the disambiguation page, 凡僧 and 梵僧, though both pronounced the same (bonsō), have distinct meanings, though there is some overlap in that they both refer to Buddhist monks or priests. They are rare words seldom heard today. HTH, Jim_Lockhart 19:25, 15 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Well, the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica believes that "bonze" (an expression which I've never heard before today) comes from a Japanese "bonsO", a "mispronunciation" of Chinese "fan sung", meaning a religious person. It doesn't give characters, but both 凡僧 and 梵僧 are read in Chinese as "fan seng", although, of course, neither of them means "a religious person" precisely. I guess the upshot is that the 1911 EB is not all that reliable on this sort of subject. - Nat Kraus e 21:10, 15 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Heh, heh. I wonder about that every time I see "EB 1911" in a credit line! Have a good one. Jim_Lockhart 12:29, 16 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Buddhist terms and concepts

Thank you for helping to re-shape the Buddhist terms and concepts article. (Reading its discussion page, I had thought that nobody would be interest in making it more "presentable".) At the moment, I'm just trying to re-arrange it into a table form and "impose" a certain system so that future additions would be easier. In the process of doing so, I may fix some obvious errors and/or add a few details (particularly in other languages) if my aging eyes notice. I see that your Japanese background would come in very handy at checking the validity of the few Japanese terms I've added. Could you please, do that?

I also noticed that, at the intro blurb, the original writer had intended that "Cn" is used for Chinese (of all forms - traditional, simplified, pinyin..., I presume), "Jp" for Japanese, "Tib" for Tibetian... which are not the system we use here in Wikipedia. Do you think we should change it?

I also noticed that you have put the Chinese characters in front of "Cn" in some cases. Care to explain why?

Regards, Mekong Bluesman 15:55, 28 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I've just gone through the whole article to try to give it some consistency with the representation of CJKV terms, which you may have noticed by now.

I saw your tables and thought they made the article much earlier to read. One suggestion: Can you make the cell sizes consistent from section to section?

On the question of Cn, Jp, Vi (etc): I think consistency with the rest of Wikipedia would be best. I was more concerned at the moment with giving the renderings more consistency and neglected to check for the standardized abbreviations.

I moved the kanji strings in front for all entries because they are used in all four CKJV languages, so it seemed to me a bit illogical that they should be presented as if they were used only in Chinese.

Also, I noticed several spots where someone had inserted the wrong CKJV for certain terms, I suppose on an assumption that Sanskrit/Pali <> English equivalences always map to the same CKJV terms, which they sometimes do not.

I've inserted Japanese for all terms that I know or could verify. I'm not very strong in Zen, which is why I did not add kanji for several Zen terms.

I hope this answers your questions. Please drop me a line if I can help in some other way. Best regards, Jim_Lockhart 16:40, 28 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the reply (and the notifying email). Yes, I agree that the CKJV languages should be grouped together, something I had thought doing but, somehow, had forgotten. (First, the eyes; now, the memory!)

Do continue to revise my edits, particularly about Japanese terms.

I will try to finish tabulating the article for now. Once done, I will look at ways to pretify it, e.g. keeping the same cell size.

Regards, Mekong Bluesman 08:58, 29 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I think that Round 1 is pretty much done. Beautifying of tables have been achieved, various errors and spellings have been edited... I even added a few more phrases.

Round 2 won't be started soon since my fingers are bickering for a rest. Do have a quick look when I take a hard-earned break, will you?

You also wrote:

I'm also wondering whether it wouldn't look better to style the CJKV words like this:

漢字
- Sz: hanzi
- Ja: kanji
- Ko: hanja
- Vi: chữ nôm

I like the idea, and have comtemplated on it, but found out that, although 90% of the times it follows the rule, Vietnamese is not a strict CJKV language. Case in point: it has 2 words for "Buddha", one is Phật which comes from the Chinese character, the other one is bụt which comes from the Sanskrit/Pali's "buddha".

But... perhaps 90% of the times is more than good enough.

Regards, Mekong Bluesman 12:53, 30 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I think what you've done is a great visual improvement.07:34, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

O(o)edo

I have trouble remembering which things are Oedo and which are Ōedo. The comedy show, I thought I remembered, and by luck I got it right. For the record, I struggle around 50-50... Cheers! Fg2 11:45, 27 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Image copyright problem with Image:Taisekiji Hoanden.JPG

Thanks for uploading Image:Taisekiji Hoanden.JPG. However, the image may soon be deleted unless we can determine the copyright holder and copyright status. The Wikimedia Foundation is very careful about the images included in Wikipedia because of copyright law (see Wikipedia's Copyright policy).

The copyright holder is usually the creator, the creator's employer, or the last person who was transferred ownership rights. Copyright information on images is signified using copyright templates. The three basic license types on Wikipedia are open content, public domain, and fair use. Find the appropriate template in Wikipedia:Image copyright tags and place it on the image page like this: {{TemplateName}}.

Please signify the copyright information on any other images you have uploaded or will upload. Remember that images without this important information can be deleted by an administrator. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. Thank you. Stan 16:08, 21 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Small issue concerning external links

Hi,
The ja: link at Backpacking (wilderness) is labeled as "mainly describing travel". Could you please figure out whether it belongs where it is, at Backpacking (travel), or just at Backpacking? I've watchlisted your talk page; you may reply right here. --Smack (talk) 03:28, 24 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hi. The article at the other end of the ja: link is about Backpacking (travel), although it also begins with a disambiguation paragraph that explains the essence of Backpacking (wilderness) and redirects readers to pages on hiking and mountain climbing, which it says subsume Backpacking (wilderness). I think you can safely leave the ja: link as it is. HTH, Jim_Lockhart 04:12, 24 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]