"Dhamma" Names

[Jhanon]

To Jhananda (and others who have knowledge of or ideas on the subject),

I am interested in how you came up with your name "Jhanananda" or "Jhananda." You have answered me before, but I am sorry to say I've been unable to retrieve it from both my digital and organic memory banks. I picked my forum name in inspiration of yours and jhana, but it is so close to "jhana" that Google assumes someone means "jhana ecstatic meditation" not "jhanon ecstatic meditation." I hope you see my issue.

I've briefly studied how the older Buddhist traditions do it. But, I wonder, not only for sake of pseudonym allowing one to publish works across the net or in paperback anonymously, how we might bestow or come up with a name for members?

Keep in mind I do not mean the name only must be "Dhamma." It can come from any tradition or anyway. I think "divinely bestowed" would be ideal, if one with attainment was able to access intuitive insight in the matter relatively easy and with confidence it was unpainted by identity.

I think the sooner I and others decide on a name, the more continuity one may have in publishing videos, books, booklets, pdf's, and so on. Please also keep in mind that an individual would not associate the GWV with any creation the GWV didn't sign off on. As an aside, Alexander I hope you publish or give permission to publish your works someday. Are you perhaps waiting for something?

Thank you, friends.

[Jhanananda]

One need not have a dhamma name, nor, as you wrote, does it need to be from Buddhism.  I have several spiritual names from different traditions.  How I came up first with "jhanananda", then jhananda" was in recognition that jhana had been demonized by most branches of Buddhism, thus it was almost never used in a name, and I realized that my work was to bring back jhana and mysticism as a religious movement. 

The suffix 'ananda' is a common suffix in Buddhism, and refers to Ananda, the personal servant of Siddhartha Gautama in his later years.  So, I put the two together, then I contracted it by removing one of the 'an's.  I take both spelling variants as mine, to avoid confusion in the search engines.

There was a woman Buddhist monk from England, who took a train to China before WWII, and was ordained there as "Jhanananda."  She returned to England and spent her last days there as a Buddhist nun.

[Alexander]

The word "ananda" also means bliss. So another meaning I like of Jeffrey's name is "the bliss of jhana" (jhana + ananda).

As an aside, Alexander I hope you publish or give permission to publish your works someday. Are you perhaps waiting for something?

Yes, the time has not come.