Property:Gloss-def
From Buddha-Nature
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"Restraining or controlling the breath " This refers to specific breathing practices, primarily involving breath retention. The Tibetan is literally "life effort" referring to the deliberate control of the "life" breath +
The term can technically be applied to anyone who has taken the bodhisattva vow to attain buddhahood in order to benefit beings, but it usually refers to the deity-like beings who have reached the bodhisattva levels (bhūmis). +
The paradise ruled by Māra at the apex of the desire realm. The name of the paradise, which means "control over the emanations of others," reveals its superiority over the paradise below, where beings can create miraculous manifestations but not control those of others +
The "way of mantra"; a synonym for tantra, the esoteric vehicle of Mahayana Buddhism +
The Tibetan canon of translations of commentaries on the Buddhas teachings. It also includes some non-Buddhist works of literature on subjects outside the scope of Buddhist practice, such as astrology, medicine, grammar, and prosody +
See bindu; tilaka +
This term is difficult to translate due to its multiple meanings, which include "worship," "attendance," "service," and even "approach," a literal rendering of the Tibetan. It primarily refers to the practice of reciting a great number of mantras in conjunction with meditation on a specific deity. This is understood as both a process of familiarization to bring one's mind closer to the deity and thus to the nature of one's own mind and, in a dualistic sense, a propitiation of the deity. In the more dualistic approach of the lower tantras, this propitiation of the deity ultimately results in the deity's appearance to the devotee to grant a boon or siddhi +
This refers to the "precious human existence," which is free from eight states that prevent being able to practice the Dharma: being born in hell, as a preta, as an animal, as a long-living deva, in a time when a Buddha has not come, as a *savage" (i.e., in a land without the Dharma), having wrong views, and having impaired faculties. The opportunities are five from oneself: being human, in a land with the Dharma, having all one's faculties, not having done the worst karmic deeds, and having faith. The second five are from others: a Buddha has come, he has taught, the teachings remain, the teachings has followers, and there is a teacher that guides us +
This is synonymous with Cittamātra, the tradition based on the teachings of Maitryanātha, Asaṅga, and Vasubandhu, with an emphasis on all phenomena as being a mental experience. It remains a strong influence on the Kagyü tradition. See also Cittamātra +
Usually, this refers to the first Madhyamaka philosopher, who lived around the second century before the Mahayana arose as a distinct identity, but there are other authors of the same name, particularly a tenth-century author of tantric works. The Tibetan tradition assumes all Nāgārjunas to be one author +
Cognate with the English yoke, it has the meaning of "union." The Tibetan translated it as "united" ('byor) with the natural state (rnal). It is also glossed as the active form sbyor ba, which conveys such meanings as "application," "practice," and "endeavor." +
Literally "cobra." The worship of the cobra as divine was an important part of Indian culture and remains particularly strong in southern India. They are considered to have a divine form and to live in an underground world, and as they appear everywhere during monsoons (in fact because their nests flood and they are driven up into such places as human habitations), they were considered to control the rains. Also skin illnesses, which can resemble snakeskin, were considered to be caused by the cobra, and therefore in Tibet nāgas are considered responsible for illnesses such as leprosy. In China nāgas were identified with dragons, while Tibet identified them as river deities (klu) whose homes are under the ground where springs are located. Nevertheless the cobra element remains as part of their identities, and they are still called "hood endowed," referring to the cobras flattened neck or hood +
This is synonymous with Indrabhūti, but it does not refer to only one person. In the Guhyasamāja tradition he is the King of Oddiyāna, who first received these teachings. There was also an Indrabhūti who studied under Tilopa. Another Indrabhūti was the King of Zahor, which is variously identified as the eastern region of present-day Bihar and with the Kangra valley in Northwest India. +
One proceeds through the four stages of the path of engagement as one comes closer to the path of insight, which is also the first stage of the bodhisattvas. The first path of engagement stage is heat (drod). It is said to be like the heat created when sticks are rubbed together, which presages the appearance of the fire. In the same way, there is here, through mental stability and realization, the omen of the coming "fire" of the wisdom on the path of seeing. The second stage is summit (rtse mo), when one's good karma or virtue becomes perfected. The third stage is patience (bzod pa), when one becomes unafraid of one's realization of emptiness. The final and culminative stage is supreme qualities (chos mchog), when one has attained the highest qualities possible prior to becoming an ārya. +
This could literally be translated as "concentration," meaning when the mind is completely focused. It therefore refers to a state of meditation free from distraction +
In earlier literature this was a terrifying being of the night that fed on human flesh and haunted the charnel grounds, but nowadays dākas are protectors of the Vajrayāna teachings, though they are often eclipsed in this role by their female counterparts, the dākinls +
In deity meditation, the samādhi being is the insignia and/or syllable in the deity's heart, symbolizing its essence, as opposed to the form, and is so named because that is what the mind concentrates upon during the practice +
Torma is Tibetan for a ritual offering cake usually made of barley flour and butter and often elaborately designed and subject to detailed explanations. The Indian precedent, the bali, was simply a baked circle of bread, and so the uses of the word torma in English translations of the canon are somewhat anachronistic. However, they can be taken in a general sense to mean a ritual food offering. Trāyastriṃśa. "Thirty-three" paradise. Situated upon the summit of Meru, it is the realm of Indra. The name "thirty-three" alludes to the number of deities living in that paradise +
Refered to by many Western practitioners as ashay, a single stroke that resembles the vertical stroke used in Tibetan calligraphy to mark the end of a verse or as the equivalent of a comma or period. The representation of the letter A by a single vertical line is a practice used in the Vartula script. Here it is used to represent the caṇḍālī flame at the navel, which is a thin vertical that narrows to a point at its apex +
This refers to the "first turning of the Dharma wheel" and includes all the sutras and Vinaya of the earliest Buddhist schools. The teaching of the four truths, which is the teaching the Buddha gave to his first five pupils in Sarnath, is considered representative of these teachings +
