Meaning Of Baap

[Richard W]

Wolf5370 says, in Foods that Monks Eat, 'I have seen the word "sin" above, this is not a Buddhist word.'. Now the Thai word บาป is normally translated as 'sin', and that has always seemed a very apposite translation when I have heard my wife has use it. My wife is Buddhist, and was not educated at a Christian school. How should I have understood this word? The word itself comes from Sanskrit & Pali paapa, but 'evil' seems too strong a term to translate in the contexts I have heard it used in Thai.

[chanchao]

I think it's exactly 'sin' in English. Any other translation would just reduce clarity for English speakers?

Cheers,

Chanchao

[john b good]

I think it's exactly 'sin' in English. Any other translation would just reduce clarity for English speakers?

Cheers,

Chanchao

Thats what my English - Thai dictionary indicates as well.

Not that there is much "baap" in Thailand mind you........

[snowleopard]

Now the Thai word บาป is normally translated as 'sin'

My wife is Buddhist, and was not educated at a Christian school. How should I have understood this word?

I think it's exactly 'sin' in English. Any other translation would just reduce clarity for English speakers?

Cheers,

Chanchao

Thats what my English - Thai dictionary indicates as well.

Not that there is much "baap" in Thailand mind you........ 

I think Chanchao's definition is right on the money.Sin=บาป=sin!

"Sin" is an abstract word in all languages and it's meaning is relative.

One reason for the relativity is that mores vary from one society to another.

The word "sin" is a concept that carries a different meaning for everyone and the idea is conceived differently in every mind,so the rest of the discussion is about semantics!

The concept of "sin" has to do with how a particular brain has been wired due to its genes and then how that brain's mind has been conditioned with religion,education,experience and other interactions with its surroundings.

The English word "sin" could mean the following things to different people of various faiths,creeds and philosophies,but doesn't necessarily have to do so because all of the 6-7 billion individuals who now inhabit our World are genetically different from one another and with different back-grounds too!

1.Sin for a Buddhist=Could be his/her having done a bad deed and wasted a bit of the good karma stored away in the "karma account".

The bad deed has depleted the account and the account should then be replenished with deposits of good deeds and by making merit;eventhough,a particular sin cannot be undone and cancelled out with good deeds!

2.Sin for a Christian=Could be that the believer has either committed a venial sin so that he/she must be subjected to a scorching session in purgatory;or he/she has committed a mortal sin which,of course,lands the sinner in the Netherworld with the Devil himself.

3.Sin for a Muslim=Could be that he would be rewarded with fewer virgins up in heaven after he has heroically died for Islam!!

(As for females,I'm not sure if a sin committed by a woman here on Earth might result in her atoning for that sin by becoming one of those virgins,given away as reward to fanatics,so she can be deflowered up in Heaven?? )

4.Sin for an Atheist=His/her having broken the "Golden Rule" and thus having become a small participating part of the bigger part that is the bad or evil itself.

Cheers.

Snowleopard.

[RamdomChances]

Asked the missed what " บาป" "Baap" meant, she replied "to do bad" sounds pretty much like sin to me.

But as a devout atheist, I dont look at the word "sin" in any religious context.

[Johpa]

Asked the missed what " บาป" "Baap" meant, she replied "to do bad" sounds pretty much like sin to me.

But as a devout atheist, I dont look at the word "sin" in any religious context.

i think her translation "to do bad" is much better than "sin." I like to translate it as to simply do wrong ( is that Tammy Wynette singing in the background?). There are many situatons where you can tell someone that their actions are the wrong thing to do while using the term "sin" in the same situation would not be correct. Of course most "sins" in the Christian world are indeed baap, but not all actions that are simply the wrong thing to do are Chirstian sins.

[sabaijai]

George McFarland's Thai-English dictionary (p481) translates it as

P.S. n. sin; wickedness; vice; v. bad; vicious; wretched; villainous; depraved (S.E.D. p. 618)

Ratchabandit says (my translation of the Thai):

n. a principle act/action against the teachings or against religion proscription; evil

Sounds pretty equivalent to the English word 'sin' to me. Of course in modern Buddhism it's not very fashionable to use the word.

Then again, it depends on how you define the English word 'sin'. I'm sure you could find volumes of debate as to its meaning and import in Xtian literature.

[NaiGreg]

Off topic a little bit ...

because all of the 6-7 billion individuals who now inhabit our World are genetically different from one another and with different back-grounds too!

Actually, modern anthropologists (with DNA analysis tools) have discovered that all of the world's 6-7 billion homosapiens all come from exactly TWO (and ONLY two) original families in Central Africa. Facinating discovery! Yes, there are gene differences, but they are considered trivial (e.g. hair color, skin pigment, etc.)