Property:Gloss-def
From Buddha-Nature
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The primary "defiling emotions" or "emotional obscurations" that lead to demeritorious actions, the creation of negative karma, and ongoing bondage and suffering within samsara. The ''kleshas'' are listed in a threefold group — passion, aggression, and ignorance — and in a fivefold grouping, the three mentioned plus pride and jealousy or paranoia. In the Hinayana the ''kleshas'' are abandoned; in the Mahayana, they are transformed; and in the Vajrayana, their essence is realized to be nothing other than the immaculate wisdom of a buddha. +
nine yanas; "Vehicle." ''See'' nine yanas; three yanas. +
The line of incarnations (''tulkus'') that has reigned as the supreme head of the Karma Kagyü lineage. The Karmapa incarnations began with Gampopa's disciple Tusumkhyenpa in the twelfth century and continue down to the present in the person of the seventeenth Gyalwang Karmapa. +
The condition of humans and other sentient beings who have yet to achieve enlightenment. Samsara is based in ignorance; is characterized by endless, repetitive suffering; and is perpetuated through intentional actions that create karma. Buddhist tradition describes six kinds of samsaric destiny: the six realms of hell-beings; hungry ghosts; animals; humans; jealous, warring gods; and gods. (Sometimes the gods and jealous gods are put together, yielding five realms.) The Buddhist path leads to nirvana or liberation, a state in which the causes of samsara are gradually eliminated and its ignorance, suffering, and creation of karma cease. +
The ''paramitas'' are Mahayana practices carried out by bodhisattvas for the benefit of others on the long road (through three incalculable eons of rebirths) to the complete and perfect enlightenment of a world-redeeming buddha. In the most common listing, they include generosity, discipline, exertion, patience, meditation, and ''prajnaparamita'', or transcendent knowledge. The first five ''paramitas'' are considered relative practices that one carries out, while the sixth is the ultimate ''paramita'' of the realization of emptiness, or ''shunyata''. +
The "lineage of the ancients" or "Old Translation school," one of the four principal schools of Tibetan Buddhism and the only one to emerge from the first spreading of Buddhism to Tibet in the seventh to ninth centuries. It is understood to have been founded by Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava) with the help of Guru Rinpoche's consort Yeshe Tsogyal, twenty-five great disciples, and numerous other devoted practitioners. +
These are the five types or "heaps" into which all human experience can be exhaustively grouped: form, feeling, impulse, karmic formations, and consciousness. According to Buddhism, in our experience there is no substantial or continuous "self," only the five ''skandhas''. No self is to be found within the five ''skandhas'', nor do the five ''skandhas'' as a group make up a self, nor is a self found outside of them. This is one of the proofs of "no-self," the realization of which brings liberation. +
One of the three most important celestial bodhisattvas in Tibetan Buddhism (along with Avalokiteshvara and Manjushri). Vajrapani is considered to embody the enlightened quality of spiritual power. +
Emptiness. In the Mahayana, ''shunyata'' is said to be the ultimate nature of "what is." Phenomena are "empty" in the specific sense that they have no enduring essence that can be objectified, conceptualized, or named. What they inherently are is, thus, utterly beyond language and the ability of the mind to grasp. This "ineffability" of things is experienced by the thinking mind as utterly empty, but by the nonconceptual, inherent wisdom of our buddha-nature as "inseparable appearance and emptiness." In other words, while things are empty in the way stated, they continue to appear, "beyond thought." +
The Buddhist community. In the strictest and probably earliest sense, ''sangha'' refers to the group of highly realized beings whom we may supplicate in our practice. The term also refers to specific monastic communities and their ordained membership. Next, ''sangha'' can indicate the members of a particular community of disciples of a certain teacher. Finally, and most broadly, ''sangha'' indicates the entire collection of those who have taken refuge and are considered Buddhists. +
(1357-1419 CE). The founder of the modern Gelug lineage. Trained as a Kadam monk, Tsongkhapa was troubled by the laxity and abuses he saw in the Buddhism of his time. To rectify this, he instituted reforms in monastic discipline (requiring greater fidelity to the monastic codes), in scholarship (upgrading the rigor of monastic scholarly training), and in Vajrayana practice (restricting tantric practice to monks who had proven ability in monastic discipline and scholarship). He was a brilliant scholar, a powerful teacher, and a prolific author, and his innovations and interpretations of Buddhism set the standard for the Gelug order down to the present day. +
Each of the three ''yanas'' has its characteristic vow: refuge in the Hinayana, the bodhisattva vow in the Mahayana, and the ''samaya'' vow in the Vajrayana. The ultimate meaning of ''samaya'' is the commitment to maintain one's view of the sacredness of all of reality and always to act in accord with that. This translates into many much more specific ''samaya'' commitments, such as the vow to carry out one's practice for the rest of one's life, to respect one's teacher, and never to malign or harm one's companions on the tantric path. Since it is impossible for ordinary practitioners to keep ''samaya'' for very long, many practices are given in the Vajrayana to repair one's ''samaya'' breaches and cleanse one's being. +
Mind or heart. One of the many terms for "mind" in Buddhism, chitta is a general word for mind that includes all its aspects, although most often in Tibetan Buddhism it designates the conditioned or unenlightened mind. +
(1808-1887). A great Nyingma scholar, practitioner, teacher, and author who lived in eastern Tibet. Although a high incarnation (''tülku''), he abjured the customary pomp and circumstance associated with his station and spent most of his life meditating in lonely places, wandering abroad, begging for his food, sleeping in caves and ditches, and helping the common people wherever he could. He is especially renowned for his instruction on the Mahayana and Vajrayana, and his "Teaching on the Three Words that Strike the Heart" is a much-loved Dzogchen classic. +
The founder of the Madhyamaka, or "middle way school". +
In the Nyingma lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, the path is described in terms of nine stages, or ''yanas'' (lit., "vehicles"). The first three represent the pretantric vehicles (''shravaka-yana, pratyekabuddha-yana, bodhisattva-yana''); the second three include the three "outer ''yanas''" (''kriyayoga-yana, upayoga-yana'', and ''yoga-yana''), while the final three comprise the "inner yogas" (''mahayoga-yana, anuyoga-yana'', and ''atiyoga-yana'', also known as Dzogchen). These final three of the nine ''yanas'' represent the characteristic and advanced Nyingma tantric practices. +
The Sakya, the Kagyü, and the Kadam/Gelug schools. +
In order to become a Buddhist, a person takes refuge in the three jewels of Buddha, dharma, and sangha. Each of the three jewels has an outer and an inner meaning. The outer buddha is Shakyamuni Buddha, the historical founder of the tradition and the lineage he left; the inner buddha is the buddha-nature within. The outer dharma is the body of Buddhist teachings, while the inner dharma is the experience of the practitioner. The outer sangha is the community of practitioners; the inner sangha is the quality of integrity and mutual respect among dharma practitioners. +
''See'' three bodies of the Buddha. +
The most commonly used rendering of the Sanskrit ''tathagatagarhha'', which means, more precisely, the embryo or the womb of the ''tathagata'', or buddha. The concept of buddha-nature points to the fact that all sentient beings possess within them, at their core, the essence or essential nature of a buddha, which is wisdom united with compassion. The Mahayana path is understood as the gradual shedding of the adventitious defilements that cover the buddha-nature and hide it from our experience. A fully enlightened buddha is a person from whom all the defilements have been removed. +
