Yuanli as LumaLark uses it
What LumaLark means by yuanli, why the English pages say intention, and why this page does not define the term for the Buddhist contexts it also belongs to.
Scope of these accounts
- Community or institution
- Buddhism
- Period
- Contemporary (2000 onwards)
- Region
- China
Direct answer
Yuanli is the term LumaLark uses for the theme a piece is organised around — a word the wearer chooses to keep near, not a property of the stone. On the English pages the same theme is called an intention. That choice of English word is a brand decision, made for readability; it is not offered as the one correct translation.
The two characters also have a settled reading in Buddhist vocabulary, where together they name the strength that comes from a vow. Four reference works gathered by the Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts agree on it, and the oldest of them anchors the reading in a classical text rather than in modern usage.
That reading is reported here because it is what the sources say — it is not what LumaLark means by the word, and this page does not present the brand's use as continuous with it.
How the term is handled in each language
This table scrolls sideways on narrow screens.
| Decision | Label | Language | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| adopted | intention | English | Chosen for a jewellery audience and to keep the emphasis on the wearer’s own framing. Recorded as a brand decision, not as the standard translation. |
| not settled | — not published — | Japanese | The written form already carries an established Buddhist sense in Japanese; adopting it directly would conflate the brand term with that sense. No decision has been taken, so no Japanese label is published. |
| adopted | yuanli (simplified form) | Chinese (Simplified) | The original written form of the brand term. |
| adopted | yuanli (traditional form) | Chinese (Traditional) | The same word in traditional characters, not a separate term. |
Sources for the statements on this page
- LumaLark uses yuanli for the theme a piece is organised around: a word the wearer chooses to keep near, not a property of the stone. — LumaLark's own decision; no external source
- The English pages call that theme an intention. The choice of English word is a brand decision made for readability, and is not offered as the one correct translation of yuanli. — LumaLark's own decision; no external source
- This page reports what the reference works say the two characters mean in Buddhist vocabulary, but does not adopt that reading as the brand's meaning and does not speak for that tradition. Reporting a reading is not adopting it. — LumaLark's own decision; no external source
- DILA Glossaries for Buddhist Studies — the entry yuanli as given by four reference works: Ding Fubao’s Dictionary of Buddhist Studies, the Digital Dictionary of Buddhism, A Glossary of Kumarajiva’s translation of the Lotus Sutra, and Soothill & Hodous, A Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms — Locator: DILA Glossaries, entry yuanli — the four dictionary entries returned for that term
- DILA Glossaries for Buddhist Studies — the entry yuanli as given by four reference works: Ding Fubao’s Dictionary of Buddhist Studies, the Digital Dictionary of Buddhism, A Glossary of Kumarajiva’s translation of the Lotus Sutra, and Soothill & Hodous, A Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms — Locator: DILA Glossaries, entry yuanli — Ding Fubao’s Dictionary of Buddhist Studies, citing the Da zhidu lun, scroll 7
Why the English pages say intention
LumaLark uses intention on its English pages because it reads plainly to a jewellery audience and keeps the emphasis on the wearer's own framing. That is a choice made for the brand rather than the standard translation of yuanli, and it does not settle how the term should be rendered anywhere else.
This page does not rank the alternatives or say what each of them would lose. That would be a claim about what the word means, and no source here supports one.
What this page does not define
This page defines a brand term, and separately reports what the reference works say the same two characters mean in Buddhist vocabulary. The two are kept apart on purpose: reporting a reading is not adopting it. LumaLark does not claim that its use of the word carries the religious sense, does not present a piece as a religious undertaking, and does not borrow the authority of that tradition to support any statement about a product.
The two readings do differ, and the brand's is the narrower and the more recent of them.