Property:Gloss-def
From Buddha-Nature
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The four great Madhyamika arguments used to prove that phenomena are without intrinsic being. The first is the so-called diamond splinters argument. This addresses the question of causes and shows that it is impossible for phenomena to arise produced from themselves, from something else, from both self and other or uncaused. The second argument deals with effects and demonstrates that it is impossible for effects, whether existent or nonexistent, to be produced. The third examines both cause and effect together and refutes the production from any of the four alternatives. The fourth investigates the nature of phenomena and is divided in two separate arguments: the argument of dependent arising and the argument of neither one nor many. +
The teachings of the ultimate or definitive meaning expound the ultimate truth, or emptiness, in direct terms. They are contrasted with the teachings of expedient meaning. +
Dualistic thought processes that apprehend subject, object, and action as being truly existent and that thus act as obstructions to the mind's omniscience. +
Universal ideas and mental images of phenomena (''don spyi''), as contrasted with real, individual, concrete objects. See also Specifically characterized phenomena. +
These are innumerable mental factors or events concomitant with the consciousness (the main mind), which can be gathered, according to Asanga, in fifty-one principal ones. These are again subdivided into six groups: (1) five omnipresent factors; (2) five object-ascertaining factors; (3) eleven wholesome factors; (4) six root defilements; (5) twenty lesser defilements; and (6) four variable factors. +
A technical term of Buddhist epistemology, referring to the consciousness that detects globally the presence of an object, while the different types of mental factors (''sems byung'') apprehend and react to particular aspects of that object. +
According to the teachings of the Mahayana, the transcendent reality of perfect buddhahood is described in terms of two, three, four, or five kayas, or bodies. The two bodies, in the first case, are the dharmakaya, the Body of Truth, and the rupakaya, the Body of Form. The dharmakaya is the absolute, "emptiness" aspect of buddhahood and is perceptible only to beings on that level. The rupakaya is subdivided (thus giving rise to three bodies) into the sambhogakaya, the Body of Perfect Enjoyment, and the nirmanakaya, the Body of Manifestation. The sambhogakaya, or the spontaneous clarity aspect of buddha hood, is perceptible only to highly realized beings. The nirmanakaya, the compassionate aspect, is perceptible to ordinary beings and appears in the world usually, though not necessarily, in human form. The system of four bodies consists of the three just described together with the svabhavikakaya, or Body of Suchness, which refers to the union of the previous three. When five bodies are mentioned, this means the first three kayas together with the Immutable Diamond (or Vajra) Body (the indestructible aspect of buddhahood) and the Body of Complete Enlightenment (the aspect of enlightened qualities). +
A disciple of Vasubandhu; one of the great figures in the Buddhist logical tradition and a formidable defender of Buddhist doctrines against Hindu opponents. Together with Dharmakirti, who appeared a generation later, he effected a far-reaching reform in Buddhist logic along epistemological lines. +
Longchen Rabjam (1308-1363) is regarded as the greatest genius of the Nyingma tradition, an incomparable master and author of over two hundred and fifty treatises. Longchenpa's wide-ranging commentaries cover the whole field of Sutra and Mantra, in particular the teachings of the Great Perfection, but also such topics as history and literature. +
This term has a very wide range of meanings. In general, it refers to all the "elements" that the mind can consider or investigate-from the senses and their objects to the postmeditation experience of a Bodhisattva residing on the grounds of realization. +
Also called Yogachara, this philosophical school of the Mahayana asserts the self-cognizing mind as the ultimate reality and identifies emptiness as the absence of the subject-object dualism that overspreads and obscures the underlying pure consciousness. Although this school is usually traced back to Asanga and his brother Vasubandhu (fourth century C.E.), who base themselves on the scriptures of the third turning of the Dharma wheel, such as the "Sandhinirmochana-sutra", the Chittamatra, as a tenet system, is more accurately associated with the sixthcentury master Dharmapala. +
Translated also as boundless thoughts, they are four highly virtuous states of mind, regarded as immeasurable because they focus on all beings without exception and are productive of boundless merits. They are: love, compassion, sympathetic joy, and impartiality. +
Name of an ancient Indian philosophical school professing materialistic nihilism. The Charvakas denied causality, the law of karma, and the existence of past and future lives. +
A term coined by the Sautrantika-Svatantrikas to refer to phenomena considered as conventionally existent by virtue of their defining properties and functional efficiency. +
A negation in which the possibility of another (positive) value is implied. For example, in the statement "It isn't a cat that is on the roof," the presence of a cat is denied, but in such a way as to suggest that there might be something else. Compare this with the statement "There is nothing on the roof" This is a nonaffirming negative (''med dgag''), which negates without implying anything else. +
A term used in Buddhist logic and epistemology. Literally, the Tibetan word ''ldog pa'' means "reverse." An isolate of an object (sometimes also called "distinguisher") is defined as "that which is the reverse of what is not that object." In other words, it is the equivalent of a given object in purely conceptual terms. There are different kinds of isolates, and, generally speaking, they are used in Buddhist logic to explain the possibility of predication in the absence of universals, the reality of which, on the whole, is denied, in Buddhism. +
This term has different meanings. In the Hinayana context, it refers to the cessation of afflictive emotion brought about by wisdom. The cessation itself is the "small nirvana" of the Shravakas and the Pratyekabuddhas. +
Subdivision of the Sammitiya school, the distinctive tenet of which was the assertion of a quasi-permanent self, neither different from nor identical with the five aggregates. It was for this reason universally attacked by other Buddhist schools. +
the followers of Sammita. This Hinayana group (of which no original writings have survived) seems to have been large and, to judge by the Tibetan name ("honored by many"), prestigious. It is divided into three subgroups or lineages: (1) Kaurukullaka (''sa sgron ril gnas pa'i sde''); (2) Avantava (''rung ba pa'i sde''); and (3) Vatsiputriya (''gnas ma bu ba'i sde''). +
One of the oldest and most important systems of the Indian philosophy, of which Kapila was the first exponent. It is a rationalistic interpretation of the Upanishads and posits two fundamental principles of matter (prakriti) and of mind (purusha), both of which are regarded as ultimately real. +
