Property:Gloss-def
From Buddha-Nature
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With the development of higher yoga tantras, classifications arose to distinguish newer tantras from their predecessors. The stress on the female deities in such tantras as Cakrasaṃvara resulted in their being termed yoginī tantras. A later classification, which has become dominant in the Tibetan tradition, names this group mother tantras to contrast with Guhyasamāja and Yamāntaka, which are classed as father tantras. The mother tantras are traditionally said to stress wisdom while the father tantras stress method +
The six types of existence in samsara are rebirth as a hell being, preta, animal, human, asura, or deva +
"Lord of Secrets" is a common alternative name for the deity and bodhisattva Vajrapānī (see glossary entry), who is said to have been the compiler of the tantras +
Feminine: yakṣi or yakṣiṇī. A class of supernatural beings, often represented as the attendants of the god of wealth, but the term is also applied to spirits. Though generally portrayed as benevolent, the Tibetan translation means "harm giver," as they are also capable of causing harm +
Most commonly it means a race of celestial musicians. Literally, however, it means "smell eater," and it is found as the term for the consciousness in between death and birth: the consciousness that enters the womb. The consciousness during that period is said to gain its sustenance from smells +
Synonym for buddha. In contrast with rishis, who had received their knowledge through divine revelation, munis and buddhas understood deeper meanings within the Vedic rituals from their own understanding. While buddha has the meaning "awakened," muni has more of the meaning of "inspired." The Tibetan translation literally means ' able one." +
This is the "second turning of the Dharma wheel" and includes such Mahayana sutras as the perfection of wisdom sutras, and the earlier sutras on emptiness that feature the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī prominently. Though the subjects are varied, including such sutras as those on Amitābha and his pure realm, this group of sutras is seen as emphasizing emptiness as represented by the Madhyamaka texts of Nāgārjuna +
As with the dākas, earlier Indian and Buddhist literature represent dākinīs as malevolent devourers of humans. This aspect still survives as the class of dākinīs known as flesh eaters. In the antinomian higher tantras, these creatures became guardians of secret teachings. Wisdom dākinīs (jñānaḍākini) are those who have attained buddhahood and manifest in the form of a dākinī in order to benefit beings. Similarly women who are enlightened, especially if they are not ordained, are known as dākinīs, including the mothers and consorts of lamas. The term has thus come to have a wide application, with numerous exegeses as to their symbolism +
The "truth body" of a buddha, in contradistinction to a buddhas corporeal form body (rüpakāya). Dharmakāya originally referred to the teachings themselves, which remained as the Buddhas presence or body even after his form body was gone. As the term evolved, it came to be a synonym for ultimate reality, or emptiness, and the realization of these in the mind of a buddha +
The name first appears in Indian literature in the Vedas as the deity of the jungles, outside civilization. He became a principal deity much later and eventually, under the name of Śiva, one of the most important deities in India today. The tantric deity Cakrasaṃvara is said to destroy Rudra/ Siva, but then adopts his body, sacred sites, and so on. In Tibet, Rudra is most often used as the symbol of powerful, self-fixated, deviant mind +
The Buddhas first five pupils. They are said to have been his followers while he practiced asceticism but abandoned him when he rejected that path. After his enlightenment, they became his followers once more. They feature in stories of previous lives of the Buddha but do not play a prominent role after this initial year of his teaching +
An epithet for the Buddha +
Concepts of reification, which conceive something to be other than what it is, such as the assumption of permanence +
Before the rise of Śaivism and Vaiśnavism eclipsed them, Brahmā and Indra were the two principal deities in Indian religion, and are therefore featured in the life story of the Buddha, asking him to teach, for instance, after he attained enlightenment +
In deity meditation, the wisdom being is the actual deity itself, which is imagined to blend with the visualized deity in order to inspire the confidence that one actually is the deity +
"Slayer of Death." This tantra has been retrospectively classed, along with the Guhyasāmaja, as a father tantra. More than in other tantras, there is an emphasis on the power and efficacy of sorcery practices in Yamāntaka literature. Also known as Vajrabhairava, he is considered the wrathful from of Mañjuśrī +
These are areas in the mandala of such higher tantra deities as Cakrasamvara. They are situated around the deity's palace in the four main and the four intermediate directions. In India, charnel grounds were where bodies were brought to be cremated or left to be devoured by animals. They were believed to be both terrifyingly haunted places and propitious places for the practice of the higher tantras +
One of the terms used for such tantras as Guhyasamāja and Cakrasaṃvara as they began to become prevalent from the eighth century onward. This is in relation to yoga tantras, indicating that they are an advance upon them. These tantras are the pinnacle of the fourfold classification of tantras commonly taught in Tibet, and they also comprise the central diet of most Tibetan Buddhist yogins who do sādhana practice +
The term vidyā can be interpreted as knowledge, a magical spell or mantra, or even as a consort (in which case it is translated into Tibetan as rig ma). See also knowing +
A class of demons, dating back to the Vedas, whose name is derived either from their yellow color (pita) or their appetite for flesh (piśa). The Tibetan translates according to the latter meaning, rendering the term as "flesh eaters," although there is no direct correlation in Tibet's own culture +
