Property:Gloss-def
From Buddha-Nature
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T
Most commonly a reference to a class of female deities. A group of eight matrikas were in particular worshiped in north India and also make their appearance in Buddhist tantra, though such a popular tradition never existed in Tibet. Although important in the Indian tantric traditions, in Tibet they have lost much of their distinctiveness and are barely distinguishable from dākinīs. Nevertheless, appeasing angered matrikas, and requesting their forgiveness and protection, is a regular part of protection rituals +
Most commonly, in a Mahayana context, this refers to the aspiration to become enlightened so that one may free all beings from samsara. This relative bodhicitta is sometimes contrasted with ultimate bodhicitta, the mind of a buddha, which is free of all misconceptions. Within the higher tantras bodhicitta can also be a euphemism for semen +
A compilation of translations into Tibetan of teachings attributed to the Buddha. There are a number of editions, varying in terms of the quantity and the quality of certain texts, which include Dergé, Narthang, Peking, Lhasa, Coné, Ugra, Phudrak, and Stog Palace +
The "night of [the end of] time." One of the fearsome forms of Durga, consort of Śiva, otherwise known as Bhairava. Cakrasamvara, who conquered Śiva and took on his form, is portrayed as crushing both Bhairava and Kālaratri underfoot +
Literally "entering a town," it was also known as parakāyapravesha (gzhan gyi lus la jugpa), "entering another's body." This was a practice designed so that one could transfer one's consciousness into another vacated body, either temporarily or for a lifetime within that body +
This may refer to any circle or circular arrangement, but in Buddhism it most frequently refers to an arrangement of deities, with a central deity in the center and including the palace they are situated within and around. Three dimensional representations of these are made, but more familiar is a two-dimensional diagram, that uses certain established procedures for representing three dimensions. These diagrams are intended as aids for the visualization of the deities and palaces and are not themselves the objects of meditation, apart from when they serve as the locus for the deity in empowerments +
The most common term used to refer to the buddhas in Tibetan, though the Sanskrit jina is in the West most commonly associated with Jainism. Its etymology refers to being victorious over one's own ignorance and defects, but unlike the English "conqueror" it is solely used for someone who has attained spiritual liberation. Son of the conquerors (rgyal sras, jinaputra) is a less-frequent and patriarchal synonym for bodhisattva. While some Mahāyana masters, such as Asańga, did not believe enlightenment was possible in a female body, other Mahayana texts, such as the Vimalakīrti Sutra, explicitly countered that view +
These are thirty-seven aids to enlightenment for śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas: (1-4) the four mindfulnesses, which are of body, sensations, mind, and phenomena; (5-8) the four eliminations, which are eliminating the bad that has been created, not creating the bad that has not been created, creating good that has not been created, and increasing what good has been created; (9-12) the four bases of miracles, which are aspiration, diligence, contemplation, and analysis; (13-17) the five powers, which are faith, diligence, mindfulness, meditation, and wisdom; (18-22) the five strengths, which are also faith, diligence, mindfulness, meditation, and wisdom; (23- 29) the seven branches of awakening, which are mindfulness, wisdom, diligence, joy, being well trained, meditation, and equanimity; and (30-37) the eight branches of the noble path, which are right view, thought, speech, effort, livelihood, mindfulness, meditation, and action +
Mythical supreme bird; the enemy of serpents, with a divine semi-human form +
The physical body of a buddha. Vajraḍākinī. See Vajravārāhī +
This land where the tantras were promulgated and preserved—which is also called the land of dākinīs—has a quasi-mythical status in relation to the Tibetan tradition. It has, however, been identified as the ancient Buddhist kingdom of Udyana in the Swat Valley of northwest Pakistan, though there is no evidence for the practice of higher tantras there. More recent research has brought attention to the region of Orissa (renamed Odisha in November 2010) on the eastern coast of India, which has had a number of variant names but was known as Oddiyāna up to at least the fourteenth century. It was a center for the practice of the higher tantras and was the region where many Buddhist tantras, such as Kalācakra, originated. Lake Chilika, the second largest lagoon in the world, matches the legend of Oddiyānas lake. pandita. A title given to an individual recognized for his or her learning. It has entered the English language as pundit, which is the Hindi form +
Nirvana comes from the term "to blow out," as in extinguishing a candle, and therefore means "extinguishment" or even "extinction" in the sense of ending the succession of lifetimes and their cause. The Tibetan interpretative translation means "transcending samsara +
In deity meditation, the deity imagined by oneself is named the commitment being, though rather than "commitment," the meaning of samaya (dam tshig) here is more likely "symbol," as the deity one imagines is the symbol of the actual deity +
Literally, "realm of willow trees " On the summit of Mount Meru, it is the realm of Vajrapāṇi +
This can refer to the three Pitikas of all Buddhist traditions though it is sometimes used to refer to the Mahayana alone. It is synonymous with the sutra tradition, or Causal Vehicle, in contradistinction to the tantra, or Vajrayāna +
This term can mean the entire expanse of phenomena, but also the "essential element" of phenomena, which is emptiness, or an indivisible union of emptiness and fundamental clarity +
The section of the Buddhist canon containing the rules governing the monastic communities and the extensive narrative literature that surrounds that code of conduct. The Tibetan collection of texts under this rubric contain all the sutras of early Buddhism, which in earlier collections form the sutra collection +
A pupil of the Madhyamaka philosopher Nāgārjuna (second century C.E.), he is the author of such Madhyamaka texts a sFourHundred Verses. A later Vajrayāna master of this name who is the author of texts quoted within this volume has been conflated with this earlier Āryadeva +
The concepts of one who does an action, the action itself, and the object of the action. See p. 178 +
Vidyādhara, or "knowledge holder," became in Tibetan an honorific address for a tantric master +
