This work follows standard texts or transliterated forms of the various languages encountered. (These are Charles Muller’s Digital Dictionary of Buddhism (http://www.buddhism-dict.net/ddb/) for Sanskrit, pinyin for Chinese, and the Pali Text Society’s Pali-English Dictionary for Pāli.)
Sanskrit and Pāli terms, with diacritic marks, not naturalized, are (i) italicized throughout and a translation given in parentheses (without diacritical marks) on the first occurrence, for example, Saddharmapuṇḍarīka-sūtra (Sutra on the White Lotus of the True Dharma); (ii) without diacritic marks if naturalized, for example, Lotus Sutra; and (iii) those terms not italicised in general use, for example, Mahāyāna and karma. I make an exception of terms and titles that have been used by authors in various forms, including those without diacritical marks and with or without hyphens “-” between words, etc., in the cited references. For example, Saddharmapunḍarika-sutra, Saddharmapundarika Sūtra, Saddharma-Puṇḍarīka-Sūtra or Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtra. Between Sanskrit and Pāli, I tend by common practice to follow the Sanskrit versions, except where there is clearly a Theravāda or Pāli context, and where it makes no sense to introduce spelling inappropriate to the tradition.
Chinese terms not commonly used in English are italicized throughout and followed by Chinese characters with a translation given in parentheses on the first occurrence, for example, Nian
Given names of individuals and dharma names of masters, names of places, as well as certain Buddhist terms, are also not italicized. Also, Chinese names and terms will be presented in one compound word according to their Chinese meaning or pronunciation, and then followed by Chinese characters at the first occurrence, for example, Shixian
I make an exception for names with spellings based on the Wade-Giles transliteration system as used by authors in the cited references, for example, Sheng Yen
The transliteration of Amitābha Buddha
In the footnote references for non-Chinese authors, I use surnames only. For most authors whose surnames and given names are Chinese/Japanese/Korean, both names are used, with surname followed by given name. Authors with a Chinese/Japanese/Korean surname and foreign given name are listed in the Western order (given name followed by surname). Traditional Chinese characters are used, except in the References, where simplified characters are used for works published in the mainland People’s Republic of China.