# Vietnamese (Chữ Nôm): the way to see/feel



## BongSau

Hello everyone

I'm glad there are forums and communities like this, as i need help with designing a logo that has to do with vietnamese Chu Nom characters and im not sure if the characters i used actually have any coherent meaning when they are combined like this. The order could be totally wrong, or maybe even the combination of these 2 words.






The logo i posted here is not the final one, im gonna carve it and use it as an ink stamp for business cards.
The 1st character means "to see/to feel" and the 2nd one means "the way". 
The meaning i want to convey is "the way to see/ to feel"
Maybe i should have them in a different order, maybe not, but i like the way they are right now.

I'm fully aware this is a very specific and difficult matter for most people but i need all the help i can get


My source for the characters is chunom.org

Any help would be appreciated.

Have a great day  y'all


----------



## Cardinal101

Hi BongSau- I'm not familiar with the actual Chu Nom characters, but I am fluent in Vietnamese, so maybe I can help with the word order.  To convey the meaning "the way to see/to feel", in Vietnamese the word order would be like "cach nhin thay".  The first word "cach" means the way, and the second word "nhin thay" means to see/feel.  If you reverse the word order to become "nhin thay cach", as the logo currently stands, then the meaning becomes "to see the way" or "to feel the way".  Hopefully this is helpful, and best wishes for your business!


----------



## fdb

What does "the way to see" mean?


----------



## Cardinal101

Hi fdb- Hopefully BongSau will check in soon, because I'd love to hear more about this phrase.  Personally, the phrase "the way to see/feel" feels very Buddhist to me, and one almost has to "feel" it rather than think about it.  I remember "the way" in Buddhism tends to refer to a "path", or a way of being.


----------



## BongSau

Hi, thanks for the responses.

Yes i am quite interested in the idea that the way can also mean the path, or a spiritual path, or way of being. That is my intention for using it in this way.
The logo is for my photography work.
The photos i choose to exhibit have more or less some kind of meaning. 
Meaning can provide context, feelings, ability to remind you of something, or simply touch you in your heart, 
and this character "to see/to feel"  has a double use and that is why i like it.

So.. the way of seeing/feeling

But it is also interesting to have it in the reverse order.  Well most people are not gonna notice the difference anyway but im doing it for me in the end.

  My work -    billy-pham-photo.blogspot.   com
And while i am not really familiar with Budhism, i do have an old GFX work i've done with Buddha and it's somewhere on the first page. 
The background photo is actually taken from an animal farm that today serves as housing for a respectable Buddhist community in Germany. It's just a part of the building that has not yet been utilized from the community.
I hope none takes offense because of how i portrayed Buddha. I've done it with pure intentions.


----------



## Cardinal101

Hi BongSau- Very cool!  It sounds like the meaning of your Chu Nom logo is very well thought out, and the logo will complement the feeling that your photography evokes.  Very artisitic photos by the way, you have great work!  Hope to see you again on the forum!


----------



## newname

BongSau said:


> Hi, thanks for the responses.  Yes i am quite interested in the idea that the way can also mean the path, or a spiritual path, or way of being. That is my intention for using it in this way.


  If you mean to use the words as quoted above, 'Cách nhìn' are not the words you want, because they are everyday words - purely Vietnamese. 'Nhãn Quan' are the best words, but they are borrowed from Chinese. 'Huệ Quan' are the words used by Budhists and also borrowed from Chinese.  Hope this helps.


----------



## BongSau

Thank you all so much, this has been a great help for me, though i still need some more research about this.
I  might be coming back sometime in the future, when my vietnamese will  get better and i need advice in regards to more complex language  problems.
I am half Vietnamese and half Greek btw, but my vietnamese is very limited.


----------



## Radioh

newname said:


> If you mean to use the words as quoted above, 'Cách nhìn' are not the words you want, because they are everyday words - purely Vietnamese. 'Nhãn Quan' are the best words, but they are borrowed from Chinese. 'Huệ Quan' are the words used by Budhists and also borrowed from Chinese.  Hope this helps.


Never heard "Huệ Quan" before. Well, guess that because I don't pay much attention to Buddhist. I live and I learn!


----------



## BongSau

So, regarding the research on the logo I have concluded that these characters are apropriate for the meaning i want to express which is "the method/way/path"  and  "to see/observe/perceive"

Can't be 100% sure if this is he best way to go, but i have done my best. Now the problem is the order in which they will appear.
Any opinions?

見
道

http://nomfoundation.org/common/nom_details.php?codepoint=898b&img=1
http://nomfoundation.org/common/nom_details.php?codepoint=9053&img=1


----------

