Is there a Buddhist teaching that captures this modern psychological observation: Ulterior motives eventually surface? One may publicly pursue a modest or secondary benefit while privately driven by another, more self-serving aim. For a time the arrangement can remain hidden—even from oneself. Yet once circumstances become complex, resistance grows, and other people fail to cooperate, the concealed agenda often announces itself through disproportionate conflict. Buddhist traditions do not usually frame the issue in modern therapeutic language. Yet taken together, Buddhist ethics, mindfulness, and epistemology offer a remarkably subtle account of how hidden motives form, how they reveal themselves, and how they may be relinquished. Intention Governs Outcome Early Buddhism places intention (cetanā) at the center of moral life. Karma is not merely what one does, but the intention animating the act. As the Dhammapada opens: “Mind precedes all phenomena… if one speaks or acts wit...
Translation, Authority, and the Risk of Meaning: From Mahāvyutpatti to the AI Era The formation of the Mahāvyutpatti was not merely a lexical project but an institutional response to a perceived risk: that the Dharma, once transferred across languages, could be altered not by loss but by misinterpretation. Indian paṇḍitas and Tibetan translators alike understood that translation was not a neutral act. It was a site at which meaning could either be preserved or quietly transformed. A foundational principle preserved in Tibetan scholastic culture states: ཚིག་མ་འཁྲུལ་ན་དོན་མི་འཁྲུལ། དོན་མ་འཁྲུལ་ན་ལྟ་བ་མི་འཁྲུལ། ¹ If the words are not mistaken, the meaning is not mistaken; if the meaning is not mistaken, the view is not mistaken. This formulation reflects a concern inherited from Indian epistemological traditions: that linguistic precision is not merely technical, but doctrinal. A shift at the level of terminology propagates upward into philosophical error. Translation, ...