EASY WAY TO UNDERSTAND BUDDHISM IN DEPTH – LEARN SINHALESE LANGUAGE OF SRI LANKA – SINHALESE IS A DIALECT OF MAGADHI - MAGADHI IS THE LANGUAGE OF ALL BUDDHAS

By Dr Ishantha Siribaddana

If you are someone who is determined to understand Buddhism in depth or looking to find the path to realization in the shortest way possible, the best approach is to learn the Sinhalese language of Sri Lanka. Sinhalese is the only existing direct dialect of Magadhi in the world today. Magadhi is the language that all Buddhas have spoken, as well as the mother tongue of Gautama Buddha. All thipitaka dhamma is written in the Pali language is being gradually developed from Magadhi language. Most of the Sinhala words also comprise Magadhi sounds.  

A Magadhi word is a collection of sounds, and each and every sound of a Magadhi word has a deep concept of Buddhism behind it. Therefore, behind a single word of Magadhi lies a vast meaning of Buddhism. Pali is a language that was developed by combining a few Magadhi words together to rhyme nicely and facilitate easy memorization. Pali is similar to a modern computer coding language. Directly translating Pali or Magadhi into English or any other language does not provide a profound understanding of the concept behind the word. To explain most of the Magadhi words, Lord Buddha recited a complete sutta.

Let's take a word as an example: Samadhi. The direct translation of Samadhi is "Access to insight." However, this translation does not capture the full meaning of the word. Samadhi is a Pali word, and to explain it, Lord Buddha preached a full sutta called the Samadhi Sutta. Once you read the Samadhi Sutta, you will be able to understand the depth of the word Samadhi. That is not just the meaning of the direct translation. The meaning of Samadhi is too profound, and it is one of the main practices someone should undertake to understand the path to realization.

The above example is sufficient for you to understand that a direct English translation is not enough to grasp the profound meanings of the concepts of Buddhism. Once you learn Sinhalese, you will be able to break down the Pali word into its constituent parts, as follows: Samadhi = San + Ma + Dhi. The above three words are Magadhi words, and the meanings of all three words are easily explained in Sinhalese and Magadhi languages.