Property:Gloss-def
From Buddha-Nature
This is a property of type Text.
T
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 +
These are the signs, or marks, of a great being. There are thirty-two primary and eighty secondary features. The Buddha is said to have had all these features, such as the mark of wheels on the soles of his feet. There were also 216 birthmarks that were considered as "auspicious signs." In the Vajrayāna, they are said to be possessed by all the deities. +
Our present age, the fourth of four ages, when the teachings of the Buddha have degenerated, realizations have become difficult to attain, and lifespans have become relatively short +
"Noble one." This term is applied to those who have reached the path of seeing on whichever vehicle they follow. In terms of the Mahayana path it is synonymous with bodhisattvas. +
Literally, "highest." This is the highest paradise in the form realm and thus the highest physical residence in samsara. It became further elevated in the yoga tantras as the abode of Vairocana and the source of the yoga tantras. In the highest yoga tantras it is the abode of the ultimate Buddha Vajradhara and is entirely outside samsara. +
Transliterated into Tibetan as there was no equivalent Tibetan word, in India it has been used for a variety of flowers, but in Tibet it is usually taken to refer to the blue lotus''' (''Nymphaea caerulea'') +
The Buddha, the "sage of the Śākyas." As the Buddha was from the Śākya clan and had gained enlightenment through his own contemplation, he became known as the muni of Śākya, or Śākyamuni +
More fully known as the four truths of the noble ones. These are: the truth of suffering, the truth of the origin of suffering, the truth of cessation of suffering, and the truth of the path to that cessation +
Buddhavacana, the "word of the Buddha," is the term for the texts represented in the Kangyur. Although all these teachings are not represented as being taught by him directly, they nevertheless express his viewpoint +
"Middle Way." Here it does not mean the middle way between asceticism and hedonism as propounded in early Buddhism but the middle way between existence and nonexistence, particularly as advanced in the philosophical tradition descending from Nāgārjuna. Schools of Tibetan Buddhism differ on the exact interpretation of the Madhyamaka view, but the Kagyü school takes literally the teaching that all phenomena are neither existent nor nonexistent +
The Tibetan means "clear light," whereas the Sanskrit may more correctly be translated as "brightness." Luminosity is too soft a word, but it has gained common usage to describe this vivid aspect of the nature of the mind in contradistinction to its emptiness +
