3 jewels
Buddhists take refuge in three completely different expressions of woke up thoughts: buddha, dharma, and sangha. Each of those is a valuable and essential ingredient of the Buddhist path, and so they’re referred to as the three jewels.
3 poisons
The three poisons — greed, anger, and ignorance — are the power of ego’s three fundamental attitudes — for me, towards me, and don’t care. All unwholesome states of thoughts (kleshas) are variations on these three themes.
4 divine abodes
The divine abodes (Pali: brahmaviharas) are 4 prized feelings or mindstates that give us a framework to domesticate optimistic behaviors and decrease dangerous ones. They are referred to as the “divine abodes” as a result of they’re the mindstates during which all of the enlightened ones reside. They are also referred to as the “four immeasurables” or “four limitless ones” as a result of they symbolize love and goodwill towards all sentient beings, with out restrict. The 4 are: loving-kindness (Pali: metta), compassion (karuna), sympathetic pleasure (mudita), equanimity (upekkha).
4 Noble Truths
The Four Noble Truths are the Buddha’s fundamental educating, encapsulating the complete Buddhist path. The first reality explains that life includes struggling, misery, and dissatisfaction. The second reality says the reason for this discontent is self-centered craving and ignorance. The third reality says that we are able to understand the top of struggling. The fourth reality tells us that freedom comes by working towards the Buddha’s Eightfold Path.
5 precepts
The 5 precepts are the 5 guidelines that kind the inspiration of Buddhist morality. The precepts are: not killing, not stealing, not misusing intercourse, not participating in false speech, and never indulging in intoxicants. Many new Buddhists tackle the 5 precepts with their refuge vow. Interpretation of the precepts varies extensively from individual to individual and faculty to highschool, with some Buddhists adhering actually and others taking the precepts as solutions.
5 skandhas
Sanskrit — The 5 skandhas are the constituent elements that make up dwelling beings. Skandha means “heap.” They are known as heaps as a result of they’re collections of elements with none central core. The 5 skandhas are: kind, feeling, notion, formation, psychological formation, and consciousness.
6 transcendent perfections
In Mahayana Buddhism, the bodhisattva practices the six paramitas, or transcendent perfections. These are a path to enlightenment, the fruition of the bodhisattva method, and a method to learn sentient beings. They are generosity, self-discipline, persistence, exertion, meditation, and knowledge.
12 nidanas
Sanskrit — The 12 nidanas, that are pictured because the outer circle within the Wheel of Life, describe the chain of causation by which the cycle of demise and rebirth often called samsara is created. They are also referred to as the 12 hyperlinks of dependent origination. With fundamental ignorance as the primary trigger, every hyperlink within the chain is each the results of the earlier nidana and the reason for the following.
Abhidharma
Sanskrit — The early Buddhist teachings on psychology.
ahimsa
Sanskrit — The precept of non-violence in direction of all sentient beings (together with oneself!). The follow of constructing acutely aware the place we hurt and attempting to keep away from or not less than scale back it.
(a-)kusala
Pali; Sanskrit: (a-)kuśala — Kusala means “wholesome” or “skill-ful.” What motion or in-motion brings extra happiness and peace into the world? Akusala is the alternative of that.
ānāpānasati
Pali; Sanskrit: ānāpānasmṛti — Mindfulness of respiration; additionally rendered as mindfulness with respiration.
anatta
Pali — Not-self. Non-identification with a everlasting self. We can get all philosophical concerning the query whether or not there’s a self or not however on the core of this idea lies the query: Does making this (thought, emotion, expertise and so on) into who I’m deliver extra struggling or extra ease and freedom? Anatta is one in all Buddhism’s “three marks of existence: dukkha, anicca, anatta.
Avalokiteshvara
Sanskrit — The bodhisattva of compassion. Also widely known by names such as Chenrezig in Tibet, Kanzeon/Kannon in Japan, Kuan Yin or Guanyin in Chinese Buddhism, and others.
bardo
Tibetan — Bardo is the intermediate state or gap we experience between death and our next rebirth. More generally, the word bardo refers to the gap or space we experience between any two states. The lesser-known bardos described in the traditional Buddhist texts include the bardo of dreaming, the bardo of meditating, and even the bardo of this life — which is, after all, the intermediate state between birth and death.
bhavana
Pali, Sanskrit — Meditation, cultivation, practice, (mental) development. For example, as in “Metta Bhavana”: Loving-kindness follow/cultivation. Bhavana is one in all “three meritorious acts:” dana, sila, bhavana.
bodhicaryavatara
Sanskrit — The title of Shantideva’s famed textual content, translated in English as A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life.
bodhicitta
Sanskrit — “Enlightenment mind”; the way of thinking of the bodhisattva, striving towards enlightenment and infused with the compassionate motivation to assist others.
bodhisattva
Sanskrit — Literally, “enlightenment being.” In Mahayana Buddhism, one who practices with the vow and motivation to place others earlier than oneself, which can embrace forgoing enlightenment till all others have achieved it. In different Buddhist faculties, the time period is usually used to refer particularly to the historic Buddha, Shakyamuni, earlier than his enlightenment.
brahmavihara
See: 4 divine abodes
buddha
Sanskrit — Buddhism teaches that all of us stay in a fog of illusions created by mistaken perceptions and “impurities” — hate, greed, ignorance. “Buddha” is a title for one who’s free of the fog. It is a Sanskrit phrase meaning “a person who is awake.” Buddhas are sometimes additionally known as Tathagata (Sanskrit), “one who has gone.”
Most of the time, when somebody says “the Buddha,” it’s in reference to the historic one who based Buddhism, Siddhartha Gautama.
buddhanature
Depending on who you ask, buddhanature is a type of seed of buddhahood, or it’s a reason for it, or possibly it’s the inspiration on which all of it rests. Dogen, the founding father of Soto Zen in Japan, wrote at size about how buddhanature is, in the end, simply every little thing — it’s a synonym for actuality itself.
Chan
See: Zen
Chenrezig
See: Avalokiteshvara
Chandrakirti
Person — Seventh-century scholar of Madhyamaka, or Middle Way, teachings.
chöd
Tibetan — Spiritual follow developed by Machig Labdrön (1055–1145) that, as Lama Tsultrim Allione writes in Lion’s Roar journal, seeks to “nurture rather than battle our inner and outer enemies, offering a revolutionary path to resolve conflict and leading to psychological integration and inner peace.”
compassion
Compassion (Pali: karuna) is the want that others be free from struggling. It is the second of the 4 divine abodes.
Dalai Lama
Person — The Dalai Lama is the religious chief and former political chief of Tibet. “Dalai Lama” is a title. The present holder of the title, Tenzin Gyatso, is the fourteenth Dalai Lama. Though the Dalai Lama is probably the most well-known Buddhist determine on the earth, he isn’t the chief of Buddhism. The Dalai Lama’s official position is as a senior monk within the Gelug School of Tibetan Buddhism. The Dalai Lamas are additionally believed to be manifestations of Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion. The present Dalai Lama has stated that the road of Dalai Lamas could finish with him.
dana
Pali — One of the paramitas, or perfections, dana is the advantage of giving or generosity. (See additionally parami/paramitas and 6 transcendent perfections.)
Dedication of Merit
At the top of a meditation, dharma speak, or retreat we often supply a dedication of benefit. When we’re meditating or listening to teachings, we’re cultivating healthful qualities that can profit our expertise of awakening. We don’t need to hold these advantages to ourselves as a result of we all know separation is illusory; we’re all linked and what we wish for ourselves, we additionally need for others as a result of there is no such thing as a separate self. We dedicate the benefit of our follow to others to share its fruits.
Deva
Pali — Celestial beings or gods whose luck additionally hinders them from perceiving the reality of struggling, and thus, from attaining full religious liberation as effectively.
dharma
Sanskrit — The teachings of Buddhism. Can additionally consult with non-Buddhist teachings and insights.
dukkha
See: struggling
Dzogchen
Tibetan — The follow of “Great Perfection” or “Great Completion.” As Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche wrote in Lion’s Roar, “Dzogchen is treasured above all other practices in the Nyingma school of Vajrayana Buddhism because it helps us connect directly with our own enlightened nature.”
Eightfold Path
The Eightfold Path is the Buddha’s information to awakening. It contains eight steps that may be divided into three sorts: the event of knowledge, which incorporates proper view and proper resolve; moral conduct, which incorporates proper speech, proper motion, and proper livelihood; and meditation, which incorporates proper effort, proper mindfulness, and proper focus.
empathetic pleasure
Empathetic pleasure (Pali: mudita) is pleasure for an additional’s happiness. It is the alternative of jealousy. Empathetic pleasure is the third of the 4 divine abodes.
vacancy
Emptiness is the central perception of Buddhism, and what makes it distinctive amongst religions. According to Buddhism, neither we, nor different beings, nor any phenomenon within the universe, has a everlasting, separate, and unbiased core, soul, or identification.
enlightenment
Enlightenment (Sanskrit: nirvana) is liberation from the cycle of struggling. Some Buddhists additionally consider that enlightenment is our inherent nature. Nirvana actually means “extinguishment,” and is interpretted because the extinguishment of ego.
equanimity
Equanimity (Pali: upekkha) is the expertise of true neutrality — an evenness of thoughts undisturbed by damaging feelings. Equanimity is the fourth of the 4 divine abodes.
gatha
Sanskrit, Pali — A brief verse, recited or just recalled, meant to name us to the current second and strengthen our intention to follow.
Guan Yin
See: Avalokiteshvara
guru
In Vajrayana Buddhism, a guru is a trainer whom college students regard as enlightened. This is a sophisticated type of follow, and it’s endorsed that college students train warning earlier than accepting a guru. In precept, gurus are devoted to serving to others and adept at serving to their college students understand their true nature.
hara
Japanese — The religious middle of the physique, typically thought of to be “located” barely above the navel.
hiri
Pali — Self-respect, internal compass, or consciousness about what sort of actions we really feel proper about doing and which not. Usually listed along with ottapa as “twin states” or “guardians of the world,” as they’re related to skillful actions.
perception
Insight (Pali: vipassana, Sanskrit: vipashyana) is the direct instinct of the character of phenomenon. Insight and tranquility are the 2 qualities of thoughts which are developed in meditative follow.
kalpa
Sanskrit — An unfathomably lengthy time period, generally outlined as 16,000,000 years.
kalyana-mitta
Pali — One concerned in religious friendship, which means mutual help and friendship with a peer on the Buddhist path.
Kannon
See: Avalokiteshvara
karma
The legislation and workings of trigger and impact. The legislation of karma says that each one issues are interconnected, all actions have penalties, and all penalties are the results of previous actions. Buddhism additionally teaches that, whereas karma may be very advanced, optimistic actions typically reap optimistic penalties and damaging actions typically reap damaging penalties.
karuna
See: compassion
kleshas
Sanskrit — Often known as “defilements.” As Pema Chödrön has put it in Lion’s Roar journal, klesha “refers to a strong emotion that reliably leads to suffering. It’s sometimes translated as neurosis. In essence, kleshas are dynamic, ineffable energy, yet it’s energy that easily enslaves us and causes us to act and speak in unintelligent ways.”
koan
Japanese — As Bodhin Kjolhede, abbot of Rochester Zen Center, put it in Buddhadharma: The Practitioner’s Quarterly, “the word koan, or gongan in the original Chinese, means a public case or precedent. We look back to the precedent, to the understanding of the masters, as a starting point.” Koans are generally understood—or slightly misunderstood—to be riddles, and as such to be “solved.” But they don’t seem to be mental workouts; they’re alternatives to have interaction in and domesticate non-dualistic considering.
Kuan Yin
See: Avalokiteshvara
lojong
Tibetan — Literally, “mind training.” Lojong is a Tibetan Buddhist follow whereby one contemplates a collection of 59 slogans designed to assist substitute damaging psychological habits with optimistic ones.
loving-kindness
Loving-kindness (Sanskrit: maitri, Pali: metta) is the want that one finds happiness. It is first of the 4 divine abodes. Loving-kindness is a well-liked meditation follow, centered on producing goodwill towards others.
Madhyamika
Sanskrit — “The “Middle Way” or “doctrine of emptiness” credited to Nagarjuna.
Mahamudra
Sanskrit — A type of meditation taught within the Vajrayana, it begins with shamatha or calm abiding, and in time helps the practitioner develop readability and perception into vacancy, or shunyata.
Mahayana
Sanskrit — A later growth in Buddhism that sometimes emphasizes the best of the bodhisattva. In Mahayana Buddhism, usually the aim is liberation for all sentient beings, slightly than liberation for people. Pure Land and Zen are each examples of Mahayana faculties.
maitri
See: loving-kindness
mantra
Sanskrit — A collection of syllables (usually, however not all the time, Sanskrit) meant to be recalled/recited as a part of contemplative follow.
Mara(s)
Sanskrit — When singular: legendary demon who tempted Siddhartha Gautama, the historic Buddha to stray from his meditative aspirations; when plural (maras): could consult with a number of sorts of temptors or temptations.
meditation
Buddhist meditation is the follow of deliberately working together with your thoughts. Basic Buddhist meditation begins with practices to assist calm and focus the thoughts. From there, you may start to analyze the character of actuality and develop perception. The most typical type of meditation is breath meditation, during which you relaxation your consideration in your breath. Many faculties emphasize different types of meditation in addition to — or as an alternative of — breath meditation, corresponding to chanting, koan follow, and yoga.
metta
See: loving-kindness
mindfulness
Mindfulness (Pali: sati, Sanskrit: smrti) is the power to deal with an object. Mindfulness is important to growing knowledge, and “right mindfulness” is without doubt one of the elements of the Eightfold Path. Mindfulness is intently related to perception, or vipassana. Sati will also be translated as “awareness.”
monkey thoughts
The unsettled and stressed nature of thoughts. In Buddhist philosophy, consciousness is symbolized by a monkey inside a home, with the home windows representing the senses.
mudita
See: empathetic pleasure
Nāgārjuna
Person — Buddhist thinker (150-250 CE), credited with founding the Madhyamaka college of Mahāyāna Buddhism.
nāgás
Sanskrit — legendary half-snake, half-human deities of the underworld.
nekkhama
Pali — Renunciation.
nibbana
See: enlightenment
nirvana
See: enlightenment
ottappa
Pali — Ethical dread that arises once we think about {that a} beloved and revered trainer or buddy would find out about one thing dangerous we did or intend to do. Their figuring out how a lot this motion will likely be dangerous to us hurts them as a result of they love us and need nothing however the most effective for us.
Usually listed along with hiri as “twin states” or “guardians of the world” as they’re related to skillful actions.
panna
Pali; Sanskrit: prajna — Wisdom, perception, discernment, figuring out by the felt sense (not considering-based mostly). One of the paramis. Part of the Noble Eightfold Path.
papañca
Sanskrit — As the Buddhist scholar Andrew Olendzki writes, “This term is used to describe the tendency of the mind to 1) spread out from and elaborate upon any sense object that arises in experience, smothering it with wave after wave of mental elaboration, 2) most of which is illusory, repetitive, and even obsessive, 3) which effectively blocks any sort of mental calm or clarity of mind.”
parami / paramita
See: 6 transcendent perfections
Parinirvana Sutta
Sanskrit — The closing educating, or sutra, of the Buddha, given at his entrance into closing nirvana, or demise.
paticca-samuppada
Pali — “Dependent origination,” the chain of causation. Also often called interdependent origination.
piti
Pali; Sanskrit: priti — Experience of extra bodily skilled bliss or happiness that arises as meditation deepens. Stimulating, energizing, arousing. Associated with the jhanic states.
prajñā
Sanskrit, or paññā (Pāli) — Wisdom.
rebirth / reincarnation
Traditionally, Buddhism teaches that beings are reborn after they die. Some faculties of Buddhism don’t concern themselves with the thought of rebirth, and a few trendy analysts argue that the Buddha taught it just because it was the accepted perception within the India of his time. Most Buddhists, nonetheless, see it as central to the Buddhist teachings. Buddhists typically favor the time period “rebirth” to “reincarnation,” as reincarnation generally implies the existence of a soul. Buddhism teaches that there is no such thing as a soul that’s reborn — simply the phantasm of a person.
rigpa
Tibetan — As pertains to Dzogchen teachings, figuring out the character of the thoughts.
samadhi
Sanskrit — meditative absorption.
samatha
See: tranquility
samsara
Sanskrit — The ongoing cycle of life: beginning and demise and rebirth. Due to our ignorance, we undergo this cycle with a way of struggling and dissatisfaction. Buddhist follow is, to place it very merely, about undoing our ignorance and transcending our conventional relationship to samsara.
sangha
Sanskrit — Sangha is a neighborhood that practices the dharma collectively. It’s one of many Three Jewels during which Buddhists take refuge, together with the buddha and the dharma.
Saraha
Person — Considered to be one of many founders of the Mahamudra custom, and was the guru of Nagarjuna.
sati
See: mindfulness
Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta
The Great Discourse (of the Buddha; (Majhima Nikaya 10)) on establishing mindfulness; also referred to as the Four Foundations of Mindfulness.
sesshin
Japanese — Zen meditation retreat.
Shantideva
Person — Eighth-century Indian adept and writer of A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life.
shunyata
See: vacancy
sila
Sanskrit/Pali — Ethics, moral conduct; morality. One of the three meritorious acts: dana, sila, bhavana.
Siddhartha Gautama
Person — Siddhartha Gautama, also referred to as Shakyamuni Buddha or just the Buddha, which means the Awakened One, was a religious chief from the Indian subcontinent who lived roughly 2,600 years in the past. He is especially identified for teachings on the Middle Way and the Four Noble Truths. Buddhism was based on his teachings.
struggling
“Suffering” is the most typical translation of the Sanskrit phrase dukkha, which can be translated as dissatisfaction. Dukkha describes the sense that have is suffused with unsatisfactoriness — starting from delicate states like longing and ennui to excessive states like grief and agony.
sukha
Sanskrit — Bliss, pleasure, ease.
sutras / suttas
Sanskrit, Pali — Discourses of the Buddha; that’s, oral teachings attributed to him.
Tara
Sanskrit — Legendary feminine bodhisattva often called the “Savioress,” representing the female facet of compassion.
Tathagata
See: buddha
Theravada
The longest-surviving college of Buddhism, with a powerful emphasis on preserving the Buddha’s teachings as they’re discovered within the Pali Canon.
tonglen
Tibetan — Tonglen actually means “giving and taking.” It is a meditative follow of visualizing oneself accepting the struggling of one other, reworking that struggling into happiness, and returning that happiness to the opposite. Tonglen is a way for growing bodhichitta.
tranquility
Tranquility (Pali: samatha, Sanskrit: shamatha) refers back to the psychological peace and stability developed in meditation. Insight and tranquility are the 2 qualities of thoughts which are developed in meditative follow.
upaya
Sanskrit — Skillful means; to be employed by each the Buddhist practitioner and the Buddhist trainer.
updana
Sanskrit, Pali — Clinging, greedy, attachment.
upeksha
See: equanimity
Vajrayana
Sanskrit — Literally, “diamond vehicle.” A later-growing custom of Buddhism, most famously related to Buddhism in Tibet and the Himalayas, that emphasizes esoteric teachings. Considered an extra type of Mahayana, the Himalayan Vajrayana custom consists of the Nyingma, Kagyu, Gelug, and Sakya faculties.
vedana
Sanskrit, Pali — Feeling/sensation.
vipassana / vipashyana
See: perception
virja
Sanskrit — Energy, zeal, enthusiasm, diligence. An angle of gladly participating in healthful actions. One of the paramis.
yana
Sanskrit — “vehicle” to enlightenment; as in Buddhism’s three yanas: the of yana of particular person liberation, the Mahayana, and the Vajrayana.
zafu
Japanese — Meditation cushion.
zazen
Japanese — Zen seated meditation.
Zen
Japanese — A Mahayana college, originating in China, that emphasizes meditation follow (zazen) and a “direct pointing to the mind” over doctrinal information. Zen is the Japanese time period; it’s identified in China as Chan, Vietnam as Thien, and Korea as Seon.
