From the ground of awareness stabilized by shamatha meditation, vipashyana (insight meditation) arises as the wisdom of discernment that recognizes the true nature of all inner and outer phenomena. +
The five individual and five circumstantial endowments of a precious human birth: (i) in a human body; (2) in a "central place"; (3) with senses intact; (4) with right view; (5) with devotion, or irreversible confidence; (6) with the Buddha having been born in this kalpa; (7) with the Buddha having taught the Dharma; (8) in the presence of the Dharma; (9) among practitioners of the Dharma; and (10) with compassion in the hearts of the teachers. +
Three "bodies" of realization — dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, nirmanakaya — connected with mind, speech, and body of existence. Dharmakaya refers to the "body of reality," or fundamental essence; sambhogakaya to the "body of complete enjoyment," or nature of the essence; and nirmanakaya to the "emanated body," the action, or compassion, aspect of nature and essence together. The indivisibility of the three kayas is the ''svabhavikakaya'', also referred to as the "essence body." +
The form, formless, and desire realms are the three basic manifestations of samsara. Human beings are born into the desire realm, which expresses itself as the six realms of existence. +
The vajrayana teachings given by the Buddha in his sambhogakaya form. Tantra, meaning "continuity," refers to the expression of innate buddha nature in tantric scriptures. Tantra can also refer to all the resultant teachings of vajrayana as a whole. +
(1646-1714) Also known as Minling Terchen Gyurme Dorje, an incarnation of Vairochana and one of the greatest Nyingma lineage holders and discoverers of hidden teachings. He was a teacher/disciple of the fifth Dalai Lama and founder of Mindrolling Monastery in central Tibet. +
A form of sacred architecture representing the pure presence of the Buddha and embodying essential principles of the body, speech, mind, qualities, and actions of enlightenment. +
The freedoms that make it possible to bring one's human existence to fruition. The first three refer to freedom from birth in the three lower realms. The fourth is freedom from birth in a barbarous place; the fifth, freedom from birth in the god realm; the sixth, freedom from wrong view; the seventh, freedom from birth in a place without a buddha; and the eighth, freedom from being born deaf and mute. +
"Awakened heart" or "enlightened mind." It relates to the mahayana principle of loving-kindness and genuine compassion, the generation of which cuts through selfishness and dispels the ignorance that grasps at individual liberation. +