[Buddha-l] FW: Three year Research Associate, UK, Indian & Buddhist theories of self

[Richard Hayes]

On Thursday 02 August 2007 23:52, Alex Wilding wrote:

> The OED, however, also suggests a connection with "Hallo" from OHG. halâ,
> holâ, emphatic imperative of halôn, holôn to fetch, used esp. in hailing a
> ferryman.

Buddha-l is such an education place, eh? (Well, it's not really a place at 
all, but indulge me.) I have known for a long time that the standard 
southwestern United States greeting, "Howdy", is short for "How do you do." 
So until just now I had assumed that "Hello" was just a short form of "How 
the hell are you?"

> Faith-oriented Buddhists may therefore find it a useful preliminary call
> before the mantra from the Heart Sutra.

Good idea. Since the "gate gate" part is the vocative singular feminine of 
gataa (gone), it could be translated as "goodbye". So the Heart Sutra mantra 
could be abbreviated to "Hello. Goodbye."

It has always seemed to me that instead of saying "goodbye" (short for "God be 
with you"), really sincere Buddhists should say buddhabye. 

adios (er, abudo),
Richard