Talk:Uposatha

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Ambiguous use of "sabbath"?[edit]

Article currently reads "In pre-colonial Burma, Sabbath was a legal holiday that was observed primarily in urban areas, where secular activities like business transactions came to a halt.[7] However, since colonial rule, Sunday has replaced the Uposatha day as the legal day of rest." Is this an oversight, wherein "Sabbath" was written for "uposatha", or were the upposatha days in pre-colonial Burma truly called Sabbath days? I don't know if Sabbath is commonly used in a wide sense to mean any religious rest-day, but it certainly does have a narrow sense of being either Judeo-Christian or Pagan. --Ajasen (talk) 05:27, 7 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

When rendered into English, the Burmese typically translate Uposatha days as "sabbath." Perhaps this is a carryover of British influence, but it's pretty standard to use Sabbath or "Buddhist Sabbath" instead of the more cumbersome "Uposatha." I readily found some instances in the Myanmar Times, a local English language newspaper:

"People who are not interested in partying go to monasteries to keep the Sabbath (eight precepts) or go to meditation centres to purify their minds." [1]

"“We normally open every day of the year except the Sabbath but I’m still not sure what’s happening on election day,” he said." [2]

Hope that helps! --Hintha(t) 04:35, 20 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Plan to re-write possible copyvio text[edit]

The current article reads:

Uposatha days are times of renewed dedication to Dhamma practice, observed by both lay people and monastics throughout the world of Theravada Buddhism.

For monastics, these are often days of more intensive reflection and meditation. In many monasteries, physical labor (construction projects, repairs, etc.) is curtailed. On New Moon and Full Moon days the fortnightly confession and recitation of the Patimokkha (monastic rules of conduct) takes place.

Lay people observe the eight precepts on Uposatha days, as a support for meditation practice and as a way to re-energize commitment to the Dhamma. Whenever possible, lay people use these days as an opportunity to visit the local monastery, in order to make special offerings to the Sangha, to listen to Dhamma, and to practice meditation with Dhamma companions late into the night.

This is a verbatim copy from the first two-and-half paragraphs of John T. Bullitt's article, http://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/dhamma/sila/uposatha.html. As indicated in an earlier version of this article, this copying does not seem to violate www.accesstoinsight.org's own rules as indicated at http://www.accesstoinsight.org/faq.html#myweb which states:

May I copy your pages onto my website?

Yes, provided that you make them available free of charge. I also ask that you please post a simple notice somewhere on your website acknowledging that the materials came from here. Although I don't require it, as a service to your visitors you might also consider including a link to http://www.accesstoinsight.org, so that your visitors can easily get hold of the most up-to-date editions of these texts (I steadily receive corrections and revisions from translators, authors, and publishers). Finally, please make it clear to your visitors what material on your site comes from here and what comes from other sources.

Nonetheless, it would probably be more in line with WP etiquette and policy and WP readers' expectations for this article to be re-written with original text. If no one else does so, I hope to do so sometime in the next few weeks. Heads up! Cheers,
LarryR^(Talk) 04:24, 27 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

AtI's copyright policy is quite generous, but we still can't meet their requirements, and so our having this text contravenes their copyright. I'll put it up for deletion.—Nat Krause^(Talk!) 04:57, 27 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Makes sense. Thanks Nat. For what it's worth, per the copyvio notice, I've started a re-write at Talk:Uposatha/Temp. - LarryR 12:37, 27 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The rewrite currently lists 18 bibliographic sources and has 28 end notes. I'm thinking it's relatively stable for the moment (at least as far as WP articles go). (Thanks too to Sacca for sharing his Vinaya references/knowledge and real-world experience!) It's been over a week since the copyvio notice was first posted. Please replace. Thanks! LarryR 23:33, 5 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Done, and thanks for the awesome work, LarryR! --Aguerriero (talk) 23:59, 5 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]