Property:Gloss-def
From Buddha-Nature
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The generic name used for Cakrasamvara and other higher tantra deities. Like the dākinīs, herukas were originally terrifying supernatural creatures of the night, in this case specifically vampires, in that they drank human blood. The name is linguistically of South Indian, not Sanskrit, origin, and the term was translated independently into Chinese and Tibetan as "blood drinker." However, along with the dākinī, in the antinomian world of tantra they became embodiments of enlightenment +
See six perfections +
A general term for any god or deity, but is particularly associated with the gods in Indian mythology who possessed the amrita, or nectar of immortality, that the asuras kept trying to steal, without success. By extension it refers to any being who has been reborn in a samsaric paradise +
Vajrapāni is a wrathful deity that first appears in Buddhist literature as a bodyguard of the Buddha. With the rise of the Mantrayāna, he is promoted to the level of bodhisattva, and his presence in the audience of the Buddhas teachings is an indication that the sutra or tantra contains mantras +
The "source of phenomena." This is depicted as the tantric symbol of a triangle, which also represents the female genitalia. A more elaborate form is the crossed triangles forming a six-pointed star, representing an aerial view of an inverted pyramid containing the deity, which is upon a triangular base. dhātu (khams). "Element," which can refer to buddha nature, the quintessential nature of the mind, and also to the elements of sensory perception of which there are eighteen: the six consciousnesses (the five sensory consciousnesses and the mental); the six sensory organs, including the faculty of the mind; and the six objects of perception, including mental phenomena +
The word vāyu can mean air or wind, or even the god of the air. In the context of the higher tantras it can simultaneously mean the external element of air, the breath, and the winds or energies that flow through the body that cause digestion, defecation, and so on. These grosser winds can be transformed into wisdom winds thorugh[[sic]] completion-stage practices +
Followers of a tradition based on a text commonly referred to as the Vibhāsa, which was a compilation of Abhidharma teachings. vaiśya. The third of the four classes of Indian society; this is the merchant class and was the most important strata of society as a source for followers of Buddhism and Jainism +
A systematic breakdown of an individual into five psychophysical "heaps": form, sensations, identifications, mental actions, and consciousnesses +
A later subdivision of the form body of a buddha, which in earlier Buddhism meant solely the physical presence of the Buddha in this world. As Mahayana and later tantric literature were derived primarily from visions, these immaterial manifestations became an additional subdivision of the form body. As these beings were free of any of the failings of a human body, such as the sickness, aging, and death that afflicted the buddhas form body, they were known as "bodies of complete enjoyment" [of the qualities of buddhahood]. This was then an essential category for establishing the canonical nature of these later teachings +
This is a euphemism for a consort in sexual practices, also called a vidyā (rig ma, lit. "knowledge [lady]") and a prajñā (shes rab, lit. "wisdom"). All these terms are naturally feminine nouns so that they can be both abstract terms and signify actual females +
The buddha of long life. Amitā yus is the sambhogakāya form of Amitābha and is commonly propitiated in long-life rituals +
"Disciple." The word is derived from the verb "to study" and also "to hear," and the Tibetan translation is "one who listens and hears." This general term was used in contrast with those who attained enlightenment without a teacher, the pratyekabuddha, with whom the śrāvaka exemplifies the Hīnayāna. In early Buddhism the path of the śrāvaka was the direct path to liberation, while a bodhisattva, committed to becoming a buddha and not just free of samsara, had to accumulate merit for many eons +
Generally refers to the deities that are kings of the four directions. Their paradises are at the foot of Mount Meru so that each king looks out over one of the four directions +
Members of a no longer extant school of thought, with portions of its texts surviving only in attacks upon it by its opponents. It denied that a god or karma created the world or that there is a life after death +
In Buddhist texts, this most often refers to the teachings of the Buddha, which are exalted for their power to liberate from suffering. In Sanskrit this is the general term for "truth" or "religion," but it has many meanings. For instance, it can refer to all phenomena that exist, and also, more specifically, the phenomena that are perceived within the mind alone and not by the senses. In English it tends to refer specifically to Buddhism +
The desire realm, form realm, and form-less realm. The desire realm includes all the six existences including some of the devas, such as those in the Tusita and Trāyastriṃśa paradises. The form realm devas are more subtle in their forms and longer lived, and find their abode in the paradise of Akanistha. Beings in the formless realm have no bodies and rest for thousands of eons in blissful samādhi +
Literally, these are empty (stong pa), very empty (shing tu stong pa), great empty (stong pa chen po), and everything empty (thams cads tong pa). These are alternative names for appearance, attainment, increase, and luminosity, the visions that arise during the process of death. +
This is the third of the four classes of tantras following the action (kriyā) and performance (caryā) tantras. Compendium of Truths, the principal yoga tantra, presented itself as a method for liberation, unlike the earlier practices that used ritual and mantra for worldly goals +
One of the central gods in the Hindu pantheon today. He had not yet risen to an important status during the Buddhas lifetime and only developed his own significant following in the early years of the common era +
A class of demons in Indian culture, and though there are various types of them, the most known are the ferocious man-eating kind +
