December 2005 / This morning, while I was practicing Soi Ho^`n, or The Concentration of Spiritual Energy exercise, I did what I shouldn't have -- I let my mind wander. First, with the words Soi Ho^`n. Literal translation: Illuminate the Soul. Then, the word Nam of the mantra Nam Mo^ A Di d+a` Pha^.t [not the right spelling, but for internet, it's good enough]. Nam means South, and it denotes fire in the mantra. The main idea is the continuing vibration of m, like a humming, mmmmm... There are other equivalents of Nam, such as OM or AUM.
One theory about OM. It's an ancient word or sound. The O is silent, the shape of the open mouth. The M is the humming vibration. Thus, it also means God, or God's name, which shouldn't be said outloud. We have omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent to describe God, for example. Amen has its root from Om too, I think.
AUM, according to Hindu explanation, represents three aspects of God. A (Akar) is the creative vibration. U (Ukar) is the preserving vibration. And M (Makar) is the destructive vibration. The attributes of the 3 Hindu gods, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. Their pitches differ. A is high-pitched. U is somewhat lower. And M is a low, deep sound, describing as the all-dissolving vibration.
None of those trivia would be of interest to you if you didn't care about metaphysical stuffs, of course. But as I let my mind drift away, I found more peculiar words and translations, Vietnamese and English.
-- pha?i / tra'i which mean right / left and also correct / wrong. What's so wrong about left?!
-- ma(.t tro*`i : the sun. literal translation: face of God (or face of Heaven). o^ng Tro*`i : God. literal translation: Mr. God ( or Mr. Heaven). Also mean God, we have Thu*o*.ng d+e^' (High King) and Chu'a (Lord).
-- for America, Hoa Ky` (Flower Flag) and My~ (Beautiful). Hie^.p Chu?ng Quo^'c is meant to translate The United States, but chu?ng has a racial element and not geographical one.
-- con ca'i : biological children (different from con ni't : children in general). con and ca'i by themselves are just articles, like the or a, used for animals or things. Their combination is quite meaningful, however. Why?
-- to^.i nghie^.p ! : Pity! This one expression is a bit deceiving if you broke it down. What a pity! means entirely different compared to to^.i (sin) and nghie^.p (what you are designated to because of your own bad karma). So, instead of expressing sympathy, we might unknowingly be saying: "Hey. Your sin. You deserve it" . Yes? No?
-- ye^u : love. ye^u : demon. Need I say more!
-- thu*o*ng ha.i : have pity, compassion for. thu*o*ng by itself can mean both compassion, love and also injury (as in bi. thu*o*ng). ha.i only means harm. So, How can their combination have the opposite intention?
-- ngang tra'i . Now how do you translate this? Not as smooth as it should be? Or difficult if not impossible to solve? Entangled? Well ngang means horizontal, tra'i means left and/or wrong. How in the world can a horizontal and left thing mean what it means?! And no, their opposites of do.c, pha?i (vertical, right) don't produce anything intelligible.
Ah, what's in a word but what one perceives and interprets by/for him/herself. What's in a number? 13 is bad luck. 666, the Antichrist. 7, a lucky number. Or 8, for the Chinese. And now it seems for the rest of the world as well. Have you noticed lately that the 1-800 numbers have more and more becoming 1-888 numbers?
We Vo Vi practitioners call our guiding master Tha^`y Ta'm, Be' Ta'm, or O^ng Ta'm. Translations I've found so far just keep Ta'm, which means number eight. Master Tam, Baby Tam, Mr Tam. Would it be weird if someone called him Master Eight, Baby Eight, Mr Eight? He did joke about his other name Vi~ Kie^n, as Viking, during the Vo Vi Conference 2001. Number 8 is also two zeros, which means double nothingness. Or if you turn it 90 degrees, it's the symbol of eternity.
What's my name? Ta. means thanks. Tha'i means many. So, I guess I'm Many Thanks. It suits me. I'm always thankful, grateful for what I have. And what I don't have.
By the way, what does the X in Xmas stand for? Christ is X ???
