User talk:Brspirit

Talk:interbeing
Hi. First of all, it looks like this is still a noun even if it has no plural. Secondly, you say that this word was "introduced into a vocabulary" by somebody. Can you show evidence in print? Was there a book, a news article? Have other people used the word, outside this author's circle? This kind of information is what we need to create a reliable entry. Equinox ◑ 01:41, 9 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Hello again - thank you for your rapid response. I defer to your greater grammatical wisdom. Noun it is - I'm new to this whole world and didn't quite realize what I was doing...
 * As for books and articles, a quick googlebooks search turns up many books that use the term, most are by Thich Nhat Hanh, who coined the term, but there are several others, including, funnily enough, "the complete idiot's guide to Buddhism" by Gary Gach, which gives a fulsome definition and says the word wins his vote for entry in the next edition of the dictionary.
 * I'm not sure how you would usually format citations or usage so I just include the link to the search I just did: http://www.google.com/search?q=interbeing&btnG=Search+Books&tbm=bks&tbo=1
 * I'm not sure how you would usually format citations or usage so I just include the link to the search I just did: http://www.google.com/search?q=interbeing&btnG=Search+Books&tbm=bks&tbo=1
 * I'm not sure how you would usually format citations or usage so I just include the link to the search I just did: http://www.google.com/search?q=interbeing&btnG=Search+Books&tbm=bks&tbo=1


 * Most of the books are related to Buddhism, but this is natural as it is a Buddhist technical term. Interestingly though the term has been taken up by other disciplines, such as ecology and feminism. Many thanks again for your help with this. --Brspirit 02:21, 9 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Okay, so this relates to the founded in the 1960s (trusting Wikipedia here), and it seems to be a calque from Vietnamese "Tiếp Hiện", where the two words mean, respectively, something like "connect, contact, continue" and "current, now". One Web site claims that "Tiep means 'to be in touch' with ourselves in order to connect with the source of wisdom, understanding, and compassion in each of us [and] our physical world [...] Hien means the present time. Unless we live in the present moment it is difficult to 'be in touch' with the joy and suffering that co-exist within our selves and the planet."
 * The next steps (and we have these rules so that we don't just add any old word that anybody invents -- unlike, say, Urban Dictionary) are to decide (i) is this proposed sense different from what we already have ("(religion) A state of connectedness and interdependence of all phenomena"); (ii) is that existing sense actually correct; and (iii) where can we get sources that meet WT:CFI (the rules about what we can quote and use) for either of them?
 * My feeling is that the answer to (i) is yes, they are not really the same thing (your sense seems to be something an individual is supposed to know or feel, and not an abstract "state"), but I'm not sure about (ii), because it might just be that somebody was trying to define the same thing and didn't quite get it right. (iii) takes some work. I'm pretty sleepy so I'll try to come back to this later. Equinox ◑ 02:35, 9 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Thanks, I appreciate your precision. I think it's some combination of (i) and (ii) - it is used, as you say, as something an individual is supposed to know or feel, but also as an abstract "state", and in that sense the existing definition is a good start but can be developed.
 * "Tiep Hien" is a term in Sino-Vietnamese, which Thich Nhat Hanh then used "interbeing" to approximate. And it that sense it does relate to the founding of the . But "interbeing" was a term he had already coined as a translation of the Sanskrit term "sahabhu", which historically predates "tiep hien" by several centuries. The Buddhist literature relating to "sahabhuhetu" is extensive, but as far as I am aware, "interbeing" is the only attempt to translate directly the term.
 * I'm also sleepy so I'm going to abandon this for now but I look forward to continuing later on...
 * Thanks again --Brspirit 03:14, 9 October 2011 (UTC)
 * I'm also sleepy so I'm going to abandon this for now but I look forward to continuing later on...
 * Thanks again --Brspirit 03:14, 9 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Thanks again --Brspirit 03:14, 9 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Coming back to this briefly: how would you define the word, and what sources have taught you that definition? Equinox ◑ 00:18, 14 October 2011 (UTC)