Property:Gloss-def
From Buddha-Nature
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The meditational tutelary deity that embodies a practitioner's enlightened being. Through meditating on the ''yidam'', the practitioner is enabled gradually to disengage from his or her illusory, personal "self" and identify more and more fully with the buddha-nature within. Each Tibetan school has its most characteristic ''yidams'', upon which most members of the school will meditate at one time or another. In addition, practitioners are often given a specific ''yidam'' that most closely reflects their own as yet hidden enlightened qualities.<br>Tantric meditation on the ''yidam'' typically contains two phases, ''utpattikrama'' (the stage of generation) and ''sampannakrama'' (the stage of completion). In the first, one visualizes the deity with all of his or her accoutrements and performs various ritual activities, including refuge, generation of ''bodhichitta'', confession of misdeeds, offerings, and praises, culminating in visualizing oneself as the ''yidam'' and reciting his or her mantra. In the completion stage, one dissolves the visualization and rests one's mind in emptiness, realizing the inborn wisdom that is immaculate and out of which all phenomena arise. +
One's principal teacher. ''See also'' guru. +
The beings who live in the six realms of samsara. ''See also'' samsara. +
One of the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The Sakya school has origins in the teachings of the Indian ''mahasiddha'' Virupa (ninth or tenth century) and was brought to Tibet by the Tibetan Drokmi (993-1077). The Sakya school is particularly renowned for its ''lamdre'' (path and fruit) teachings that combine Mahayana and Vajrayana into a unified synthesis. +
another name for Vajrayana. +
The various possible states of existence within samsara. +
'See'' dharmachakra. +
The "inner fire" that is aroused in the practice of the inner yogas, an important domain of practice in Tibetan Buddhism. +
The three primary ''kleshas'' of greed, hatred, and ignorance. +
The Indian ''siddha'' who brought Vajrayana Buddhism for the first time to Tibet, in the eighth century CE. His traditional biography says that he was miraculously born in a lotus, adopted by king Indrabhuti in Northwest India, and brought up as a prince. His unconventional behavior led to banishment, and he spent the rest of his life roaming the charnel grounds, jungles, and wastelands, learning from ''dakinis'' both human and superhuman, and practicing the tantric teachings. During his wanderings, he met and trained many disciples. At the request of the Tibetan king Trisong Detsen, Padmasambhava went to Tibet and was instrumental in the establishment of Buddhism there. He is considered the founder of the Nyingma tradition and also its principal guru, and many liturgies and meditations invoke his presence and request his blessings. +
the designation given to those Vajrayana practitioners in India who were considered to have attained the complete perfection of enlightenment. The ''mahasiddhas'' were people from all castes and walks of life who followed a tantric guru, practiced meditation intensively, attained realization, and themselves became gurus to others. In the tradition, a group of eighty-four ''mahasiddhas'' was especially well known, all of whom are reputed to have lived in India between the eighth and the twelfth centuries. +
One of the eighty-four ''mahasiddhas'' or enlightened tantric masters. Saraha is known in Tibetan Buddhism as the "grandfather of the ''siddhas''," indicating a belief that his life falls rather at the beginning of the tradition of ''mahasiddhas''. He is particularly known for his instruction on Mahamudra, given in ''dohas'' (collections of realization songs). +
These are: (1) the knowledge and ability to perform wonders; (2) the knowledge of births and deaths of all beings; (3) the ability to hear all sounds throughout the three-thousandfold universe; (4) the knowledge of one's own and others' past lives; and (5) the knowledge of the minds of others. +
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). +
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. +
The teachings of expedient meaning are, for example, the instructions on the Four Noble Truths, the aggregates, the dhatus, and so forth, which insofar as they do not express the ultimate truth are of provisional validity only. They are nevertheless indispensable in that their purpose is to lead beings gradually on the path, bringing them to greater understanding and final accomplishment. Contrasted with the ultimate or definitive meaning (''nges don''). +
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. +
Dualistic thought processes that apprehend subject, object, and action as being truly existent and that thus act as obstructions to the mind's omniscience. +
(seventh century C.E.). One of the greatest masters of logic in the tradition of Dignaga. He was the author of numerous works, the most celebrated of which is the ''Pramanavarttika (tshad ma rnam 'grel)''. +
A term coined by the Sautrantika-Svatantrikas to refer to phenomena considered as conventionally existent by virtue of their defining properties and functional efficiency. +
