overall sense of purpose

22:15 Dec 11, 2012 

wäre dann die Ü. Wo kommt da jetzt das deathless Nirvana ins Spiel.

20:46 Dec 11, 2012 

Hello,

I just heard the audio seminar again and now I heard the phrase "sense of overall purpose". I hope this one makes more sense.

09:59 Dec 11, 2012 

Hello Markus, I think Usch Pilz’ suggestion “das Ziel allen Strebens” is an excellent translation of what is meant, but do be aware that the nuance of “sense of purpose” in English, when properly used, always refers to the feeling of determination or usefulness within a person or community — i.e., to have or to lack a sense of purpose (synonym: a sense of direction (in life)) — and that the phrase does not normally take any object describing the actual goal; it is rather a general description of the condition of (not) feeling useless/purposeless.

It may be that the lecturer who coined this, or others from whom he picked it up, was not a native speaker of English and had something akin to Ziel/Lebenszweck in his head anyway. But it would be rather odd if a native speaker of English were to be using the phrase “the overall sense of purpose is …” + a destiny or goal. If that is the case, then the use of this as a set phrase presumably derives from a translation from Pali or Tibetan that has become a standard phrase in discussing Buddhism in English.

00:51 Dec 11, 2012 

21:46 Dec 10, 2012 

Sehe ich auch so. Das Ziel allen Strebens.

20:25 Dec 10, 2012 

Bestimmung/Ziel/Lebenszweck