Three gunas
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Please consider making little donation to help us expand the encyclopedia and pay for our server costs because as a Buddhist monk I don't have money and struggling to pay the server costs. Enjoy your readings here and have a wonderful day!
or card
PLEASE HELP
EVERY LITTLE DONATION MATTERS
Three gunas (Tib. ཡོན་ཏན་གསུམ་, Wyl. yon tan gsum) — mentioned in the Samkhya philosophy:
- rajas (Tib. རྡུལ་, Wyl. rdul)
- tamas (Tib. མུན་པ་, Wyl. mun pa)
- sattva (Tib. སྙིང་སྟོབས་, Wyl. snying stobs)
Translations
- S. Dasgupta, in his A History of Indian Philosophy, translates sattva as “intelligence stuff”, rajas as “energy-stuff” and tamas as “mass-stuff.”
- In their translation of the Bodhicharyavatara, the Padmakara Translation Group call sattva “pleasure”, rajas “pain” and tamas “neutrality”.
- Jeffrey Hopkins translates them more literally as motility or activity (rajas), darkness (tamas) and lightness (sattva).