Can someone help out on English translation of this phrase,thanks in advance ?

This originates from buddhist concepts.

It means to say that a person is fed up of the impermanence of things and fed up with the many disappointments of life.

One may go into monkhood after realising these facts.

Long story cut short.

Where did you learn this phrase ?

Either 天龙八部 (Tian Long Ba Bu - "the 8 steps of heavenly dragon") or 射刁英雄传 (Se Diao Ying Xiong Zhuan ).Dali Kingdom's original crown prince gave up the throne to became a monk because he 「看破世塵」.

Those are nice novels that you are reading do follow up on 神雕侠侣 (Shen Diao Xia Lu)

《天龙八部》and《神周侠侣》is two wonderful novels wrotten by the Hongkong writer 金庸jinyong, in china if you tell somebody else you is a guy fromDali(大理), and your first name is Duan段, you will be asked if you are descendent from the royals, and if you can do the 一阳指yiyangzhi, a kongfu of let a man die simply by a finger tip, because everyone who haveviewed the book 《天龙八部》will supposed all the 段s from Dali had been the royalty before, and they all learned the 一阳指yiyangzhi and the 六脉神剑liu mai shenjian——the two of the most powerful konnfu. But I can tell you they are both imaginative, and they are not true exist.

And 大理dali is a town in the province of 云南yunnan, a very fantastic place, a very beautiful scence where was the capital of former 大理国(the country of Dali) which was conquered by the empire of Mongolia, and this happened in 1253.

I know this because I am a chinese guy who you can guess from my poor expressions of English.

haha!I see many people got a wrong meanning,this sentence should translate like
"I always believe the principle
there is no ever friends and enemies between two countries,no absolute axiom and justice,never changed is the benefits of sate."
my english is not good,i hope you can understand.

I am sorry but you're the one who got the meaning wrong.

This phrase is famous whenever buddhism comes into play and denotes that life is impermanent. Our money, reputation, fame, beauty, happiness etc are impermanent and usually leads one to lead a monastic life.

reaching enlightenment!
Don't care about daily life necessity anymore.

Agree with xng's interpretation.

看破 can be equated with 看透 in that one has looked past, seen through or penetrated the meaning of something.

世尘 is a Buddhist term referring to the impermanent, material world... (the Sanskrit term eludes me at this moment)

Once you've looked past the material world, you realized the impermanence of everything in it...

I see the misunderstanding. What you have translated is peepee's signature quote:
我相信一個原則:國與國之間，沒有永遠的朋友和敵人，沒有絕對的公理和正義，永恆不變的只是國家利益.

which is also very interesting.


Do you recall the Sanskrit word for it by any chance?

It means someone feel like boring with the life, he knows every tactics between human, tired with all the social relationships and manners. Then he wants to get "away from keyboard" , to be a daoist or a buddhist monk is the next step especially in acient china, but unfortunately many chose to suicide in modern days.

in short, it can be translated into " get disappointed or boring with the society"

I re-read my post and I think I made an error. I was referring to the more common 尘世 rather than 世尘 （although both are related).

尘世 is a term explicitly used in the 大智度論 (Sanskrit: Māhaprajñāparamitopadeśa). Again, I cannot find the Sanskrit for this term but it is usually interpreted as referring to the impure world, defiled, material, etc...

世尘 can be interpreted as being that 尘 which exists in the secular world, with 尘 being either artha (material object) or rajas (pollution).

Hope I didn't confuse you even more. I'm by no means an expert and hope somebody can chime in to help.

Do you mean "看破红尘"?

My translation would be "to disillusion in the impure world".

"看破"simply means "to see through". Then what is "红尘"？

Please refer to this link:
http://www.dizang.org/wd/wd/011.htm

According to the article, "看破红尘" does not have a Buddhist root, rather it reflects the influence of Chinese Taoism philosophy.

"红尘" (which literally means "red dust") first appeared in 《西都赋》by 班固 of western Han dynasty. It was used to describe the crowd, the noise and the prosperity of the capital city Chang An (Now "Xi'an "). But later on, it has been widely used to refer to the materialistic world.

"看破红尘" initially means a person becomes tired of living in a rich yet meaningless life and chooses to live as hermit.

However, most people think this expression originated from Buddhism, and interpreted it accordingly as " to see through the world that is filled with impurity", or simply "to disillussion and to become a buddhist". And this has become the most common understanding and usage of "看破红尘".

Most people are not tired of living a rich life. Name me any rich people who is tired of a rich life ? Why would a rich person lead a meaningless life when he can enjoy all the riches in the world ? The devas in the deva world are never tired of having what they want.

Except for highly enlightened being like gautama buddha who sees the impermanence of things.

The phrase come about when you realise that your rich life, power, fame is not permanent (it is taken away from you), your beauty is not permanent (when you grow old) etc. and that the only way to gain permanent happiness is through breaking away from the cycle of life and death.

In order to do that, becoming a monk is an initial step towards permanent bliss. Nobody wants to live a life as a hermit without any concrete reason.

I can certainly give you a list containing the names of a dozen people who gave up their rich lives and became hermits. But that would not be very helpful in determining whether or not they did so because they were tired of a rich life. Based on what they've said or wrtten, it is reasonable to say that many people, pursue a hermit lifestyle not because they hate the rich life itself, but rather due to the guilt and stress entailed by the process of acquiring and maintaing their fortune.

There are different forms and levels of enlightenment. Becoming a monk is not necessarily the only way to achieve enlightment.

Taoism and Buddhism share many commonalities which can be found in all cultures and faiths. "Great minds think alike", it is not suprising to see similar phrases from both sides.