Property:Gloss-def
From Buddha-Nature
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T
the Buddha or awakened teacher, the Dharma or teachings, and the Sangha or community of fellow practitioners. These three form the essential basis for successful spiritual practice. +
A wrathful male yidam, symbolizing the masculine principles of skillful means and energy. The Tibetan name, "trag thung," signifies one who drinks the blood of clinging to self. Chakrasamvara, Hevajra, and Hayagriva are some examples of Herukas. Heruka also refers to the wrathful and semi-wrathful deities who appear in the bardo of dharmata after death. +
The six dimensions of samsaric existence within the Desire Realm: (1) the god (deva) realm, brought about by pride; (2) the fighting or jealous god (asura) realm, brought about by jealousy or envy; (3) the human realm, brought about by desire; (4) the animal realm, brought about by ignorance and stupidity; (5) the hungry ghost (preta) realm, brought about by greed; (6) the hell realm, brought about by hatred and aggression. The first three worlds are known as the upper realms of samsara, and the last three are known as the lower realms. +
It often refers to the buddha field of Buddha Amitabha, known as the Pure Land of Great Bliss, Dewachen. But it can also refer to other buddha fields, or pure places where Buddhas abide. +
The four steps used to purify and eliminate negative karma: (1) the power of confession, where one admits negative actions of body, speech, and mind committed in this life and in all prior lives; (2) the power of regret, where one understands the suffering and negative karma one has created, and sincerely regrets having committed the action; (3) the power of resolution, firmly resolving never to repeat the action again, even at the cost of one's life; (4) the power of reliance, praying to the buddhas and bodhisattvas for help and support in one's effort to abandon all negative karma. +
One of three realms of existence within samsara, comprised of the gods, demi-gods, humans, animals, hungry ghosts, and hell beings. It is called the Desire Realm because beings are reborn and experience suffering within this realm due to gross attachment and desire. See also ''Form Realm'' and ''Formless Realm''. +
The three prerequisites for tantric practice are: empowerment or initiation into the particular tantra; the oral transmission blessing, in the form of a ritual reading of the tantric sadhana to be practiced; and the oral pith-instructions on how to correctly perform the practice.
:During an empowerment, the Vajra master goes into the various samadhis required in the practice, wherein he energetically and symbolically transmits the experience-the fruit of the practice-to the initiate. The initiate is usually unable to sustain the peak of this experience, but this transmission blessing plants a seed, or experiential frame of reference, to be deepened through continued practice, until the experience is finally stabilized and ripens into full perfect realization. +
The experience of the true, unfabricated, and uncontrived nature of mind, present throughout all of samsara and nirvana. There are two aspects to clear light: empty clear light, which is like a clear open sky; and manifest clear light, which appears as the five lights, images, and the like. +
In Buddhist cosmology the number of world systems throughout the universe is one thousand cubed, or one billion. +
Great Vehicle. The Mahayana teachings were first revealed by Arya Nagarjuna between the first and second century C.E., in south India. The legends say that Nagarjuna, who is sometimes called the "second Buddha," traveled to the realm of the nagas or water serpents, and there retrieved the Mahayana teachings of Buddha, which had been entrusted to the nagas' safekeeping until the world was ready to receive them.
:These teachings were named the Great Vehicle (to enlightenment) because of the greatness of the aspirations of its followers, in contrast to that of the Hinayana or "Lesser Vehicle."
:This great aspiration is characterized by the path of the bodhisattva, which has been described by E. A. Burtt, " ... the bodhisattva has transcended the state in which he is concerned for his own salvation; he is committed to the eternal weal of all living beings, and will not rest until he has led them all to the goal. On attaining enlightenment he does not leave the world behind and enter nirvana by himself; he remains in the world, appearing like an ordinary person, but devoting his compassionate skill to the aid of others. He shares and bears the burden of their sufferings, in loving union with them, instead of merely giving others an example of a person who has overcome the causes of suffering for himself." (''The Teachings of the Compassionate Buddha'', p. 130).
:For this reason the Mahayana is often called "the path of compassion." By following the path of the bodhisattva the goal of Buddhahood or full and total spiritual awakening, equal to that of the historical Buddha, can be attained. +
The highest god realms, where beings have cut off attachment to both the Desire and Form Realm objects, but are still fixated on the bliss of meditation. They have no bodies, since they have transcended form. +
Complete and perfect enlightenment. +
One of the two main stages of tantric practice. In the completion stage of Mahamudra, one dissolves the visualization of the deity and mandala established in the generation stage, and does formless meditation on the non-dual nature of mind.
:"Completion stage with signs" refers to the highest levels of tantric practice, where the emphasis is on working with the prana, nadis, and bindu. The goal is to change ones karmapranas into jnanapranas, transforming one's ordinary body, speech, and mind into the body, speech, and mind of a Buddha. This phase of practice is also called tsa-lung, meaning nadi-prana or channel-wind practice; it is the central focus of all Six Yo gas of Naropa. Tsa-lung practice requires prior mastery of the generation stage to achieve success.
:"Completion stage without signs" refers to the practice of Essence Mahamudra, which is the essential view of Mahamudra, introduced directly to the student without dependence on intellectual or philosophical reasoning. +
The bodhisattva of compassion, Chenrezig in Tibetan. Avalokiteshvara is considered to be a historical person, one of Shakyamuni Buddha's main disciples. The Dalai Lamas of Tibet are considered to be nirmanakaya emanations of Avalokiteshvara, as are the Gyalwa Karmapas of the Karma Kagyu lineage. +
Union. The practices of Vajrayana, through which one awakens to one's innate union with the unborn nature of ultimate wisdom. Some yogas emphasize working with the body, as in yantra yoga and prostrations; others emphasize the breath, as with mantra and pranayama practice; others emphasize the mind, as in quiet seated meditation. However, none emphasize one part to the exclusion of the others; each yoga serves to train all three components of body, breath, and mind, to bring the yogi to full realization of the true nature of existence. +
Impure winds. The pranas moving in the left and right channels, as well as in the rest of the 72,000 channels, are impure karmapranas, or winds giving birth to dualistic concepts. They perpetuate the concept of a separate, inherently existing self. From this fundamental fixation on self we create the idea of others; we divide others into friends, enemies, and those to whom we are indifferent; from this we develop the three poisons of attachment, aggression, and ignorance. Thus we develop and perpetuate our existence in samsara. See also ''jnanaprana''. +
The Hinayana teachings are the sutras taught by Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha, to the monks and lay people who followed him. One collection of these scriptures was later recorded in writing as the Pali Canon. The Hinayana tradition includes many of the Buddha's basic teachings, such as the Vinaya or rules of moral discipline for monks and lay people, the Four Noble Truths on the origin and cessation of suffering, the Noble Eightfold Path on the right way of life, and the ''Dhammapada''.
:Although the virtues of loving-kindness and compassion are taught within the Hinayana, meditation, mindfulness, non-attachment, and strict moral discipline are emphasized as the keys to developing penetrating wisdom, which would lead one to nirvana or liberation from suffering. The Hinayana is often referred to as "the path of renunciation," and those who accomplish this path attain to the level of Arhatship by means of the path of the Hearer (Shravaka) or that of a Solitary Realizer (Pratyekabuddha). +
(pronounced Ree-may) was a movement for intersectarian harmony and cooperation, rekindled and revitalized in the nineteenth century by several of Tibet's greatest masters. Led by Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye, the greatest scholar and eclectic master of the time, he and others collected and compiled the complete teachings, transmissions, empowerments, and meditation practices from all the various orders of Tibetan Buddhism. This collection was called The Five Great Treasures. Their goal was to eliminate the sectarian divisions and often bitter rivalry among the various schools, and to revivify the emphasis on the actual practice of the teachings. +
Greed, hatred or aversion, and ignorance. Buddha taught that from these three all the suffering of samsara arises. +
Also known as the Six Perfections or Six Transcendent Virtues. Cultivation of the six paramitas is the basis of the Mahayana, the path of the bodhisattva. The six paramitas are: generosity, patience, ethics or moral discipline, joyous effort or diligence, meditative concentration, and wisdom. +
