Property:Gloss-def
From Buddha-Nature
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Generally, this term is used as in dharmacakra pravartana ("turning the wheel of dharma"), which refers to teaching the dharma. More technically, it can refer to the heart cakra. +
Friendliness to oneself, the prerequisite for compassion for others. Maitrī also means the intention that subsequently manifests as compassion. +
A semiwrathful heruka. "He" is an exclamation of joy. Hevajra transforms sense pleasures and form into joy through realizing the identity of form and emptiness. He is depicted in four, six, and twelve-armed forms, dancing in union with his consort, Nairātmyā (T: bdag-med-ma; nonego). Hevajra was the yidam of Marpa the translator. Marpa's family of nine was said to be the Hevajra maṇḍala itself. His wife's name was Dagmema, Tibetan for Nairātmyā. +
A doctrine emphasized in mahāyāna, which stresses that all conceptual frameworks, including the dharma system of the hlnayanists, are empty of any "reality." As a realization, it grows out of the awakening of prajñā. First, at the hīnayāna stage, one's personal existence is seen through. Subsequently, the experience to which one clings is also dissolved through awareness. This is the realization of egolessness of self and a portion of egolessness of dharmas. At the mahāyāna level, through prajñā and compassion, the practice of the pāramitās, the practitioner cuts through the remaining subtle watcher. In vajrayāna, śūnyatā is equivalent to the feminine principle-unborn, unceasing, like space. +
The principle of offering has several levels of application, generally based on generosity and surrendering one's ego-clinging. Outer (material) offerings of anything desirable in the world are given as expressions of gratitude, appreciation, and nonattachment. Inner offering is giving up the attachment to one's body. Secret offering is surrendering the ego reinforcement that we derive from dualistic emotions. The "fourth" offering is recognizing the inseparability of offerer, offering, and the recipient in things as they are. All the above offerings are referred to as "faith offerings" (T: dad-zas) and are made out of devotion to a guru or a deity.<br> Other types of offerings are made for the benefit of others. The merit of "food offerings" (T: gshin-zas) is dedicated to benefit dead persons in need. "Ransom offerings" (T: sku-glud) are made in instances where a person is possessed by a spirit, with the intent that the spirit will accept the ransom offering in lieu of the possessed person. +
The highest of the rūpadhātu deva realms, but usually used to mean the highest buddha realm. +
One who practices tantra or vajrayāna. +
A realm of the ḍākinīs. +
A term that refers to great bodhisattvas. +
A type of empowerment for a student to practice or study a particular text or sādhana. It is often given for an abbreviated sādhana or for a practice that has no abhiṣeka connected with it. A permission-blessing is often given as a reading transmission. +
A type of Buddhist text; generally a commentary or a philosophical treatise. +
A term applied to Bodhgaya, the seat or residence of Śākyamuni Buddha, and also applied to Tsurphu, the residence of the Karmapas. The implication is that the Karmapas are buddha in person. This term also can be used to mean the lotus posture used in meditation practice. +
Things as they are. Synonomous with That and dharmatā. +
An ascetic practice in which one takes only prepared food pills as sustenance. The food pills form a graded regimen. One starts with pills made of vegetable matter and gradually works up to pills made entirely of minerals. +
The five skandhas are aggregates of dharmas, which make up the individual and his experience. They are form (S: rūpa; T: gzugs), feeling (S: vedanā; T: tshor-ba), perception (S: saṃjñā; T: 'du-shes), formation (S: saṃskāra; T: 'du-byed), and consciousness (S: vijñāna; T: rnam-par-shes-pa)<br> In the confused state, we cling to one or another aspect of these five as a concrete self. When the skandhas are actually seen, no self is found in them, singly or taken together. Moreover, one does not find an individual apart from them. In vajrayāna, they are correlated to the five buddhas of the maṇḍala. +
A disciple of Śākyamuni, whose request is the occasion for the Buddha's uttering of the ''Samādhirāja-sūtra''. Gampopa is said to have been an incarnation of him. +
A circle of eight mantras. +
A universal monarch. When Prince Gautama was born, it was foretold that he would become either a world enlightened one or a universal monarch, a king who propagates the dharma. This can be seen as a secular equivalent of enlightenment-one whose reign ushers in a golden age of civilization and culture. +
The earliest literary evidence of vajrayāna surfaced in India around the middle centuries of the first millenium. Since this yāna consists of oral instructions and secret teachings, which would only have been given privately to a few of the most advanced students, or even to a master's single dharma heir, it is difficult to know how far back in history the tradition goes. Professor H. V. Guenther dates Śrī Siṃha, a great master of the ati lineage, at 52 A.D. It is quite likely that the availability of literary evidence really marks a second or third stage in the spreading of vajrayāna. From great masters like Śrī Siṃha or Saraha, who lived in solitary circumstances and had only a few disciples, vajrayāna entered the monastic framework, and from there, masters began to systematize it and make the teachings more accessible to a wider range of students.<br> In general, vajrayāna instruction is of two kinds: instruction meant to be understood the moment that it is shown, for giñed students capable of instantaneous enlightenment; and instruction by graded stages of practice, for those who come gradually to enlightenment.<br> From India and Central Asia, vajrayāna spread to Tibet, China, Japan, and Southeast Asia. Although anuttarayoga tantra was taught in China, it was not widely practiced and does not survive today. The japanese Shingon ("true word," i.e., mantrayāna) school, transmitted by Kobo Daishi, includes teachings of the lower tantras but not those of anuttaratantra.<br> It is said that Śākyamuni manifested as Vajradhara in order to teach vajrayāna. The tantras do not tend to present a dialogue between wakefulness and confusion, as in the sl1tras. Rather, vajrayāna presents the actuality of fruition. +
A vajrayāna meditation practice where one visualizes the cutting up and offering of one's body. Lord Atīśa said that surrendering and offering one's own ego-clinging is the most effective way to overcome the four māras. This practice was often performed in fearsome places. Chö teachings were introduced into Tibet by Pha-dam-pa-sangs-rgyas, and were spread by his chief disciple, the great woman teacher Ma-gcig-labs-sgron-ma. +
