GLOSSARY
GLOSSARY
ABHIDHARMA (Skt.): one of the three “baskets” of teachings from the sutras, relating to metaphysics and wisdom.
AGGREGATES, THE FIVE: the traditional Buddhist division of body and mind. The five are form, feeling, discrimination, compositional factors, and consciousness.
ARHAT (Skt.): a practitioner who has achieved the state of no more learning in the individual liberation vehicle.
ARYA (Skt.): a superior being, or one who has gained a direct realization of emptiness.
ASPECT (Tib. nampa): the part of the consciousness that acts as intermediary, allowing the perception to apprehend its object.
BODHICHITTA (Skt.): the mind that spontaneously wishes to attain enlightenment in order to benefit others; the fully open and dedicated heart.
BODHISATTVA (Skt.): someone whose spiritual practice is directed toward the achievement of enlightenment for the welfare of all beings; one who possesses the compassionate motivation of bodhichitta.
BODHISATTVAYANA (Skt.): the vehicle of the bodhisattva, or the bodhisattva’s path.
BUDDHA, A (Skt.): a fully enlightened being: one who has removed all obscurations veiling the mind and developed all good qualities to perfection; the first of the Three Jewels of refuge.
BUDDHA, THE (Skt.): the historical Buddha.
BUDDHADHARMA (Skt.): the Buddha’s teachings.
CALM ABIDING (Skt. shamatha, Tib. shiné): meditation for developing single-pointed concentration (samadhi), the mind that is totally free from subtle agitation and subtle dullness.
CESSATION: the end of all suffering, usually references the third of the four noble truths—the truth of the cessation of suffering and its causes.
CHITTAMATRA (Skt.): the Mind-Only school; the third of the four Buddhist philosophical schools studied in Tibetan Buddhism.
CYCLIC EXISTENCE: See samsara.
DEPENDENT ARISING: origination in dependence on causes and conditions.
DESIRE REALM: the world system in which we live, said to be dominated by sensory experiences.
DHARMA (Skt.): literally “that which holds (one back from suffering)”; often refers to the Buddha’s teachings, but more generally to anything that helps the practitioner attain liberation; the second of the Three Jewels of refuge.
DHARMAKAYA (Skt.): “truth body”; along with the rupakaya, one of the two bodies achieved �ހwhen a being attains enlightenment; this is the result of the wisdom aspect of practice.
EPISTEMOLOGY: the study of how the mind acquires and validates knowledge.
FALSE VIEW OF THE TRANSITORY COLLECTION, THE: the ignorance that innately misapprehends the self as existing independently or inherently.
FORM REALM: the second of the three states of existence of sentient beings, said to be inhabited by beings of great concentration and with few sensory distractions.
FORMLESS REALM: the third of the three states of existence of sentient beings, said to be the peak of cyclic existence, a realm of pure mind.
FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS, THE: the first discourse of the Buddha; the four noble truths are the truth of suffering, the truth of the origin of suffering, the truth of the cessation of suffering, and the truth of the path leading to the cessation of suffering.
GELUG (Tib.): Tibetan Buddhist school founded by Lama Tsongkhapa, one of the four Tibetan Buddhist schools; the others are Sakya, Nyingma, and Kagyu.
GESHE (Tib.): the title of a teacher in the Gelug sect who has completed the most extensive monastic and philosophical training.
GOMPA (Tib.): prayer or meditation room in a monastery, literally the place (pa) for meditation (gom).
HIGHEST YOGA TANTRA: (Skt. anuttarayoga tantra); the highest among the four classes of tantra; the others are action (Skt. kriya), performance (Skt. charya), and yoga tantra.
INDIVIDUAL LIBERATION PRACTITIONER: a practitioner on the path to liberation, as opposed to a universal vehicle practitioner, who is on the path to full enlightenment.
INHERENTLY EXISTENT: existing from its own side, without depending on causes and conditions or on a labeling conception.
INTERMEDIATE STATE (Tib. bardo): the state traversed by a sentient being between death and the next rebirth.
KARMA (Skt.): literally “action”; the natural law of cause and effect whereby positive actions produce happiness and negative actions produce suffering.
KARMIC IMPRINT (Tib. bakchak): the energy or propensity left by a mental act on the mindstream that remains until it either ripens into a result or is purified.
LAMA TSONGKHAPA (1357-1419): a preeminent Tibetan scholar and tantric master and the founder of the Gelug tradition.
LAMRIM (Tib.): the graduated path to enlightenment—the progressive presentation of the Buddha’s teachings propounded by the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism.
LAMRIM CHENMO (Tib.): The Great Stages of the Path; the extensive lamrim text written by Lama Tsongkhapa.
LORIG (Tib.): literally “awareness and knowledge”; the preliminary monastic course before studying Abhidharma and Pramana, the two main approaches to the mind.
MADHYAMAKA (Skt.): the middle way; the highest of four Indian philosophical schools taught in Tibetan monasteries.
MAHAYANA (Skt.): literally the Great Vehicle; representing one of the two main divisions of Buddhist thought; Mahayana is ���practiced in Tibet, Mongolia, China, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan; the emphasis of Mahayana thought is on bodhichitta, on the wisdom that realizes emptiness, and on enlightenment.
NIRMANAKAYA (Skt.): emanation body; one of the two aspects of the form body (rupakaya) of a buddha, the one that can be seen by ordinary beings.
NIRVANA (Skt.): liberation; a state of freedom from all delusions and karma, and from uncontrolled rebirth within cyclic existence (samsara).
NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH, THE: the discourse of the Buddha in which he explains the various attributes we need to develop to attain freedom from suffering; they are: right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration, right view, and right thought.
PALI: the ancient Indian language used in the earlier (Theravada) Buddhist canonical texts.
POISONS, THE THREE: common name for the three root delusions of ignorance, attraction, and aversion.
PRAJNAPARAMITA (Skt.): the perfection (paramita) of wisdom (prajna); body of Mahayana sutras explicitly teaching emptiness, while implicitly teaching the paths of the bodhisattva. The Heart Sutra is one example.
PRAMANA (Skt.): valid knowledge; the study of how the mind can know something incontrovertibly.
PRASANGIKA MADHYAMAKA (Skt.): the Middle Way Consequence school; the higher of the two subdivisions of Madhyamaka school, as opposed to Svatantrika Madhyamaka.
REALMS, THE THREE: the three states of existence in which sentient beings abide: the desire realm (our world system), the form realm, and the formless realm.
RUPAKAYA (Skt.): form body; one of the two bodies a buddha gains upon attaining enlightenment (the other is the dharmakaya); the result of the method side of the path.
SAMBHOGAKAYA (Skt.): enjoyment body; one of the two aspects of the form body (rupakaya) of a buddha, which can be seen only by arya beings.
SAMSARA (Skt.): cyclic existence, the state of being constantly reborn due to delusions and karma.
SANSKRIT: the ancient Indian language used in Mahayana texts.
SAUTRANTIKA (Skt.): the “Sutra-System” school; the second of the four Buddhist philosophical schools studied in Tibetan Buddhism.
SEALS, THE FOUR: the basic Buddhist tenets, also called the four views or four axioms. They are (1) all compositional phenomena are impermanent, (2) all contaminated phenomena are, by nature, suffering, (3) all phenomena are empty of self-existence, and (4) nirvana is true peace.
SHAMATHA (Skt.). See calm abiding.
SHASTRA (Skt.): a classical Indian commentary on the teachings of the Buddha.
SUTRA (Skt.): an actual discourse of the Buddha.
SUTRA PITAKA (Skt.): one of the “three baskets” of Buddha’s teachings; texts containing of his public discourses.
SUTRAYANA (Skt.): the vehicle of the Mahayana that takes the Buddhist sutras as their main textual source.
SVATANTR���IKA MADHYAMAKA (Skt.): the Autonomy school, the first subschool of the Madhyamaka, the other being the Prasangika Madhyamaka.
TANTRA (Skt.): literally, “thread or continuity”; a text of esoteric Buddhist teachings; often refers to the practices themselves.
TANTRAYANA (Skt.): (also Mantrayana, Vajrayana) the vehicle of tantra.
THERAVADA (Skt.): One of the schools of early Buddhist thought; the emphasis of Theravada thought is on liberation, rather than enlightenment; the name more commonly used in Tibetan texts, Hinayana (“Lesser Vehicle”), carries an inaccurate connotation of inferiority.
TRIPITAKA (Skt.): the “three baskets” of the Buddha’s teachings; the way in which the Buddhist canonical texts are divided: the Vinaya Pitaka (relating to behavior), the Sutra Pitaka (relating to concentration), and the Abhidharma Pitaka (relating to metaphysics).
TWELVE LINKS (OF DEPENDENT ORIGINATION), THE: the series of causes and effects that keeps us locked in cyclic existence. See note 15.
UNIVERSAL VEHICLE: See Mahayana.
VAJRAYANA (Skt.): (also Mantrayana, Tantrayana) the vehicle of tantra.
VAIBHASHIKA (Skt.): the Great Exposition school; the first of the four Buddhist philosophical schools studied in Tibetan Buddhism.
VALID COGNIZER: a mind that knows/apprehends its object correctly.
VINAYA PITAKA (Skt.): one of the “three baskets” of Buddha’s teachings, its focus is ethical behavior, such as monastic and lay vows or the administration of monasteries.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Dreyfus, Georges B. J. Recognizing Reality: Dharmakirti’s Philosophy and Its Tibetan Interpretation. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1997.
Gyatso, Tenzin, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. MindScience: An East-West Dialogue. Ed. Daniel Goleman and Robert A. F. Thurman. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1991.
Rabten, Geshe. The Mind and Its Functions. Trans. and ed. Stephen Batchelor. Le Mont-Pelerin, Switzerland: Editions Rabten Choeling, 1978; reprinted 1992.
Shantideva. A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life. Trans. Stephen Batchelor. Dharamsala, India: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1981.
Tsering, Geshe Tashi. The Four Noble Truths. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2005.
Yeshe, Lama Thubten. Becoming Your Own Therapist. Boston: Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive, 2003.
INDEX
A
described
Abhidharmakosha (Treasury of Valid Knowledge)
Abhidharmasamucchaya (Compendium of Valid Knowledge)
addiction. See also al���coholism
afflicted indecision
afflicted view
alcoholism. See also addiction
always-present mental factors
cause of
dealing with
logic and
meditation and
mindfulness and
patience and
regret and
suppression of
apprehending condition
aspect, concept of
B
Bodhicharyavatara (Guide to a Bodhisattva’s Way of Life)
C
categorical generality
Chatushataka (Four Hundred Verses)
Chittamatra school
cognition. See also pramana (valid cognition)
collective generality
Commentary on Valid Perception (Pramanavarttika)
feelings of superiority as a obstacle to developing
the goal of genuine
Compendium on Valid Perception (Pramanasamucchaya)
consideration, for others
continuity, density o���f
correctly assuming consciousnesses
D
nonviolence and
on the three categories of Buddhist literature
deception, six sources of
densities, four
discontentment
doubting consciousnesses
E
eightfold path. See noble eightfold path
emotions. See also specific emotions
negative
environmental issues
epistemology. See also knowledge
concept of aspect and
described
four densities and
generalization and
negation and
perception and
sevenfold division and
extreme view
epistemology and
karma and
F
false view, of the transitory collection
families
four densities
Four Hundred Verses (Chatushataka) (Aryadeva)
four noble truths. See also truth
afflictions and
correctly assuming consciousness and
described
Freud, Sigmund
function, density of
G
general examination
generalization
goals, working toward long-term
Guide to a Bodhisattva’s Way of Life (Bodhicharyavatara)
H
attachment and
epistemology and
I
illness. See also medicine; suffering
inferential cognizers
intermediate-state being
J
K
described
epistemology and
faith and
ignorance and
intention and
mental disposition and
knowledge. See also epistemology
L
love. See also loving-kindness
loving-kindness. See also love
M
Madhyamaka school. See also Prasangika Madhyamaka school; Svatantrika Madhyamaka school
described
epistemology and
maitri. See also loving-kindness
meaning generality
direct perceivers and
emptiness and
epistemology and
ethics and
freedom from objects during
Lama Yeshe on
love and
mental factors and
memory. See also recollection epistemology and self-cognizers and
mental direct perceivers
mental disposition
mental factors. See also mind
always-present
derivative mental afflictions
described
main
object-ascertaining
pyramid of the three trainings and
traditional eleven positive
variable
metta. See also loving-kindness
mind. See also mental afflictions; mental factors
body and
as clear and knowing
generalization and
main minds and
monastic study of
nature of
primary
reasons for studying
mistaken consciousness
mistaken views
N
natural condition
negation, implicative /nonimplicative
Nhat Hanh, Thich
non-ascertaining consciousnesses
nondeceptiveness
nonmistaken, use of the term
novelty
O
ascertaining
attachment and
attention and
concentration and
density of
epistemology and
feeling and
hidden
mind and
necessity of
P
parenting. See also families
perception. See also epistemology
basis of
novelty and
sevenfold division and
use of the term
Perfection of Wisdom Sutra (Prajnaparamita Sutra)
permanence. See also impermanence
pramana (valid cognition). See also cognition
Pramanasamucchaya (Compendium on Valid Perception)
Pramanavarttika (Commentary on Valid Perception)
Prasangika Madhyamaka school. See also Madhyamaka school
precise analysis
Prajnaparamita Sutra (Perfection of Wisdom Sutra)
R
racism
realistic schools
realms, three
recollection. See also memory
repeated familiarization
view
S
seals, four
self. See also ego; selfish concern
-centeredness
concept of, reification of
-esteem
extreme view and
-importance
-knowing direct perceivers
-preservation
-worth
sem
epistemology and
sleep and
sense direct perceivers
space, clarity of
spiritual, use of the term
subsequent cognizers
bodhichitta and
epistemology and
origin of
truth of
sutras, described
Svatantrika Madhyamaka school
T
tantra. See also Vajrayana (tantric) texts
three poisons. See mental afflictions
three zones
trainings, three, pyramid of
truth. See also four noble truths
of suffering
two types of
V
Vaibhashika school
Vajrayana (tantric) texts. See also tantra
valid direct cognizers
valid direct perceivers
valid inferential cognizers
value judgments
victory, offering, to others
view(s)
afflicted
extreme
mistaken
right
of superiority
vows, purification of
W
whole, density of the
wi���sdom
World Trade Center attack (2001)
wrong consciousnesses
Y
Yeshe, Lama
yoga tantra. See also tantra; yogic direct perceivers
yogic direct perceivers. See also yoga tantra
Z
zones, three
