Difference between revisions of "Glossary"

This is the meditation of directly observing the mind without engaging in any analytical or intellectual activity. (Thrangu Rinpoche, Transcending Ego, 102).

Tibetan Noun

abhidharma

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अभिधर्म

ཆོས་མངོན་པ།

阿毗达磨

Basic Meaning:

Abhidharma generally refers to the corpus of Buddhist texts which deals with the typological, phenomenological, metaphysical, and epistemological presentation of Buddhist concepts and teachings. The abhidharma teachings present a meta-knowledge of Buddhist sūtras through analytical and systemic schemas and are said to focus on developing wisdom among the three principles of training. The Abhidharma is presented alongside Sūtra and Vinaya as one of the three baskets of the teachings of the Buddha.

Sanskrit Noun

actualized enlightenment

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始覺

Basic Meaning:

Actualized enlightenment is enlightenment that is attained through practice. It is contrasted with original enlightenment, which is the mind's innate purity in its natural state. Ultimately, there is no difference between them. Because of the presence of ignorance, sentient beings are blind to their true nature. By removing that ignorance, one actualizes enlightenment.

In the scriptures:

Grounded in the original enlightenment is nonenlightenment. And because of nonenlightenment, the process of actualization of enlightenment can be spoken of.
~ The Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna

Chinese Noun

advaya

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अद्वय

གཉིས་མེད་

不二

Basic Meaning:

Literally, "without duality," it refers to that which is indivisible, in that it is not divided into two.

Sanskrit Adjective

amalavijñāna

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啊摩羅識, 無垢識

Basic Meaning:

The ninth consciousness, the immaculate pure mind.

Simplified English Usage:

At the moment of enlightenment, the eighth consciousness ceases, replaced by the ninth, the immaculate consciousness of a buddha.

Sanskrit Noun

Anuyoga

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अनुयोग

ཨ་ནུ་ཡོ་ག

Basic Meaning:

The second set of the three inner tantras and the eighth of the nine vehicles according to the Nyingma tradition. Anuyoga includes many yogini tantras and focuses on the Completion Stage practices of sacred channels, energies and essential fluids and espouses the actualisation of empty bliss.

Sanskrit School

anātman

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अनात्मन्

བདག་མེད་པ་

无我

Basic Meaning:

The nonexistence of the self as a permanent, unchanging entity.

Sanskrit Noun

arhat

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अर्हत्

དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ།

阿羅漢

Basic Meaning:

A person who has reached nirvāṇa by eliminating the three poisons of attachment, hatred and ignorance having followed the path of seeking individual liberation as a Śrāvaka or a Pratyekabuddha. An arhat, thus, is a person who has overcome the cause of rebirth in the cycle of existence and will not take an ordinary birth again.

Sanskrit Noun

Atiyoga

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अतियोग

ཤིན་ཏུ་རྣལ་འབྱོར།, ཨ་ཏི་ཡོ་ག

Basic Meaning:

A system of esoteric thought and practice associated with the Nyingma tradition and equivalent to Great Perfection, it is considered as the pinnacle of the nine vehicles or paths one can follow to reach Buddhahood. The system focusses on the pure, luminous and empty nature of the mind as the ground reality which must be realised through the path of trekchö and thögal practice.

Sanskrit School

avidyā

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अविद्या

མ་རིག་པ་

無明

Basic Meaning:

Literally "unknowing," it refers to a lack of knowledge or misunderstanding of the nature of reality. As such, it is considered to be the root cause of suffering and the basis for the arising of all other negative mental factors.

Sanskrit Noun

bhūmi

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भूमि

ས་

Basic Meaning:

A plateau of spiritual development.

Sanskrit Noun

bodhi

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बोधि

བྱང་ཆུབ་

悟, 菩提, 覺

Basic Meaning:

Enlightenment or awakening. In Tibetan it is translated as "purified" (byang) and "perfected" (chub), which corresponds to Siddhartha Gautama's achievement of purifying all obscurations and perfecting or attaining all qualities associated with a buddha.

Simplified English Usage:

". . . all beings, regardless of birth, race, social status, and gender, are capable of the attainment of the state of human perfection known as enlightenment."
(Source: page 192, “Liberation: An Indo-Tibetan Perspective” by José Ignacio Cabezón. Buddhist-Christian Studies, Vol. 12 (1992), pp. 191-198 Published by: University of Hawai'i Press Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1389971)

Sanskrit Noun

bodhicitta

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बोधिचित्त

བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།

菩提心

Basic Meaning:

The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution.

Simplified English Usage:

Thought of awakening

Sanskrit Noun

bodhigarbha

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बोधिगर्भ

བྱང་ཆུབ་སྙིང་པོ་

Basic Meaning:

An alternative term for tathāgatagarbha found in early Nyingma sources. Though it is back-translated as bodhigarbha, this term does not seem to be found in Sanskrit sources. However, in other contexts, the Tibetan byang chub snying po is often used to translate the Sanskrit term bodhimaṇḍa, which is often translated as the "seat of enlightenment."

Tibetan Noun

Bodhisattva

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बोधिसत्त्व

བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།

菩薩

Basic Meaning:

A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses.

Sanskrit Noun

Brahman

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ब्रह्मन्

ཚངས་པ།

Basic Meaning:

Brahman is the universal principle, supreme truth or ultimate reality in the Hindu religion considered to be absolute, eternal and blissful. A metaphysical concept, it is described as the single binding unity behind the diversity of all that exists. In Buddhism, while this metaphysical principle is not presented, one finds frequent mention of the deity named Brahmā, who is the personification of this principle.

Sanskrit Noun

buddhadhātu

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बुद्धधातु

སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཁམས་

佛性

Basic Meaning:

A synonym for tathāgatagarbha widely used throughout the East Asian Buddhist traditions, as found in its translations as the Chinese term fó xìng and Japanese term busshō.

Sanskrit Noun

byams chos sde lnga

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བྱམས་ཆོས་སྡེ་ལྔ་

Basic Meaning:

This refers to a series of five texts that, according to the Tibetan tradition, Asaṅga received directly from Maitreya in the pure realm of Tuṣita.

Tibetan Text

bīja

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बीज

ས་བོན་

無漏種

Basic Meaning:

A seed, commonly used figuratively in the sense of something which has the potential to develop or grow, and likewise as the basic cause for this development or growth.

Sanskrit Noun

Cittamātra

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चित्तमात्र

སེམས་ཙམ་

Basic Meaning:

Though it is sometimes used synonymously with Yogācāra, it is in fact one of the more prominent philosophical theories associated with this school. It asserts that the objects in the external world with which we interact are actually mentally created representations appearing as those objects. The character of these perceptions is predetermined by our own karmic conditioning that is stored in the ālayavijñāna.

Sanskrit Noun

dharmadhātu

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धर्मधातु

ཆོས་དབྱིངས་

法界

Basic Meaning:

The fundamental expanse from which all phenomena emerge.

Sanskrit Noun

dharmakāya

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धर्मकाय

ཆོས་སྐུ་

法身

Basic Meaning:

"Truth body" or "true being" — One of the three bodies of a buddha. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, it often refers to a kind of fundamental principle or the true nature of reality itself.

Sanskrit Noun

dharmatā

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धर्मता

ཆོས་ཉིད་

法性

Basic Meaning:

The true nature of phenomenal existence.

Sanskrit Noun

dhātu

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धातु

ཁམས་

界

Basic Meaning:

A fundamental component or essential constituent.

In the scriptures:

The dhātu of beginningless time

Is the foundation of all phenomena.
Due to its existence, all forms of existence

And also nirvāṇa are obtained.
~ The Abhidharmamahāyānasūtra, as cited in the Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā, Chapter 1, verse 149—152. Translated by Karl Brunnhölzl.

Sanskrit Noun

dpyad sgom

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དཔྱད་སྒོམ་

Basic Meaning:

Analytical meditation is a technique involving critical analysis that focuses the mind on a specific contemplation, such as impermanence.

Simplified English Usage:

"Furthermore, broadly speaking, if [we look at this] from the perspective of the use of the terms “analysis” and “resting,” meditations that involve critical investigation must be considered analytical meditation, and meditations during which we settle into the natural state and rest must be resting meditation." (Dakpo Tashi Namgyal, Moonbeams of Mahāmudrā, Elizabeth Callahan translation, 89)

In the scriptures:

If you discriminate that phenomena are identityless

And meditate by discriminating them in this way,
This is the cause for the result of attaining nirvāṇa.

Peace will not come about through any other cause.
~ pp 273, Brunnhölzl, Karl, The Center of the Sunlit Sky: Madhyamaka in the Kagyü Tradition. Nitartha Institute Series. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2004.

Tibetan Noun

Dzogchen

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महासन्धि

རྫོགས་ཆེན།

Basic Meaning:

Dzogchen is an advanced system of meditation techniques to reveal the innate state of perfection primarily, but not exclusively, espoused by the Nyingma Buddhist tradition and the Tibetan Bön tradition.

Tibetan Noun

ekayāna

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एकयान

ཐེག་པ་གཅིག་པ་

一乘

Basic Meaning:

The notion that ultimately there is only one vehicle, or means, of achieving enlightenment.

Sanskrit Noun

Geluk

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དགེ་ལུགས་

Basic Meaning:

The Geluk tradition traces its origin to Tsongkhapa, who propagated a modified version of the Kadampa lojong and lamrim teachings. It is the dominant tradition of Tibet, having established its control of the government under the figure of the Dalai Lama.

Tibetan School

gotra

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गोत्र

རིགས་

種性, 鍾姓

Basic Meaning:

Disposition, lineage, or class; an individual's gotra determines the type of enlightenment one is destined to attain.

Sanskrit Noun

Great Madhyamaka

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महामध्यमक

དབུ་མ་ཆེན་པོ་

Basic Meaning:

The term Great Madhyamaka is utilized in different contexts depending on the tradition. In the Jonang tradition, it generally refers to the Zhentong Madhyamaka philosophy as it was developed and systematized by Dölpopa. In this context, the Great Madhyamaka refers to the presentation of ultimate truth, while Madhyamaka describes the emptiness of the relative level of truth. In the Nyingma tradition, Great Madhyamaka refers to the subtle, inner Madhyamaka that unifies the philosophical positions of Nāgārjuna and Asaṅga. This is presented in opposition to the coarse, outer Madhyamaka that is the dialectic approach of Prāsaṅgika and Svātantrika. In the Kagyu tradition, the term is used in a similar vein in that Madhyamaka is used to refer to philosophical inquiry, while Great Madhyamaka is used to refer to the view arrived at through yogic accomplishment. However, in all of these traditions, Great Madhyamaka is heavily associated with buddha-nature (tathāgatagarbha) and the definitive status of these teachings.

Tibetan Noun

guṇa

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गुण

ཡོན་ཏན་

功德

Basic Meaning:

The qualities or attributes of an enlightened being.

Sanskrit Noun

guṇapāramitā

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गुणपारमिता

ཡོན་ཏན་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་

功德波羅蜜

Basic Meaning:

In the Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra it is explained that the dharmakāya of a buddha possesses the four perfect qualities of purity, bliss, permanence, and self.

Sanskrit Noun

gzhan stong

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གཞན་སྟོང་

Basic Meaning:

The state of being devoid of that which is wholly different rather than being void of its own nature. The term is generally used to refer to the ultimate, or buddha-nature, being empty of other phenomena such as adventitious defiling emotions but not empty of its true nature.

In the scriptures:

Since adventitious, relative entities do not exist at all in reality, they are empty of their own essences; they are self-empty. The innate ultimate, which is the ultimate emptiness of these relative things, is never nonexistent; therefore, it is other-empty.
~ Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen, Collected Works ('Dzamthang ed., 1998), Vol. 6: 416. Translated by Douglas Duckworth in "Onto-theology and Emptiness: The Nature of Buddha-Nature." (2014), page 1075.

Tibetan Adjective

gzhi

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གཞི་

Basic Meaning:

The foundational basis of both saṃsāra and nirvāṇa. It is often used as a synonym for tathāgatagarbha and dharmadhātu.

Tibetan Noun

Hīnayāna

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हीनयान

ཐེག་དམན།

小乘

Basic Meaning:

The mainstream teachings and the early schools of Buddhism which primarily taught individual liberation through practice-focused renunciation and monasticism, considered lesser than the later movement of the Greater Vehicle (Mahāyāna), which professed enlightenment for all sentient beings and promoted compassion.

Sanskrit Noun

icchantika

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इच्छन्तिक

འདོད་ཆེན་, འདོད་ཆེན་པོ་

一闡提

Basic Meaning:

Literally, "those with great desire," icchantikas could be rendered as hedonists or addicts. However, the term is generally used to refer to those who, due to their insatiable desire, are incapable of enlightenment.

Sanskrit Noun

Jonang

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ཇོ་ནང་

Basic Meaning:

The Jonang tradition was established by Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen, a thirteenth-century Sakya monk famous for his Zhentong teachings. The Jonang teachings and monasteries were suppressed in Tibet in the seventeenth century but survived in Amdo.

Tibetan School

ka dag

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ཀ་དག

Basic Meaning:

Primordial purity is a term found in the Dzogchen tradition and refers to the empty nature of phenomena which is experienced through the practice of cutting-through meditation (khregs chod). It is often juxtaposed with spontaneous presence (lhun grub).

Tibetan Noun

Kadam

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བཀའ་གདམས་

Basic Meaning:

The Kadam tradition, which traces its origin to the teachings of Atiśa, was the first of the so-called New Schools of Tibetan Buddhism, traditions which arose during or after the Second Propagation of Buddhism (phyi dar) in the tenth century.

Tibetan School

Kagyu

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བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་

Basic Meaning:

The Kagyu school traces its origin to the eleventh-century translator Marpa, who studied in India with Nāropa. Marpa's student Milarepa trained Gampopa, who founded the first monastery of the Kagyu order. As many as twelve subtraditions grew out from there, the best known being the Karma Kagyu, the Drikung, and the Drukpa.

Tibetan School

kleśa

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क्लेश

ཉོན་མོངས་

煩惱

Basic Meaning:

Often referred to as poisons, these are a class of disturbing or disruptive emotional states that when aroused negatively affect or taint the mind.

Sanskrit Noun

kun gzhi

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आलय

ཀུན་གཞི་

Basic Meaning:

Although it is commonly used as an abbreviation of ālayavijñāna (kun gzhi'i rnam shes), in later Tibetan traditions, particularly that of the Kagyu and the Nyingma, it came to denote an ultimate or pure basis of mind, as opposed to the ordinary, deluded consciousness represented by the ālayavijñāna. Alternatively, in the Jonang tradition, this pure version is referred to as ālaya-wisdom (kun gzhi'i ye shes).

Tibetan Noun

Kālacakra

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कालचक्र

དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ།

時輪

Basic Meaning:

Can refer to either the Kālacakra Tantra and its derivative texts or to the systematic tantric tradition based on these texts, as well as the deity Kālacakra upon which the associated practices are centered.

Sanskrit Noun

lam rim

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मार्गक्रम

ལམ་གྱི་རིམ་པ།, ལམ་རིམ།

Basic Meaning:

Lam rim refers to the stages on the path and, by extension, more commonly to the genre of teachings which contain practical instructions for training on the stages of the path to enlightenment. Related to the blo sbyong practice, it is particularly known among the Kadampa and Geluk schools. Tsongkhapa's Byang chub lam rim chen mo is the most well known in this genre and the term lam rim is often used specifically to refer to this text.

Tibetan Noun

Madhyamaka

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मध्यमक

དབུ་མ་

中觀見

Basic Meaning:

Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā.

Sanskrit School

Mahāmudrā

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महामुद्रा

ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ།

Basic Meaning:

Mahāmudrā refers to an advanced meditation tradition in Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna forms of Into-Tibetan Buddhism that is focused on the realization of the empty and luminous nature of the mind. It also refers to the resultant state of buddhahood attained through such meditation practice. In Tibet, this tradition is particularly associated with the Kagyu school, although all other schools also profess this tradition. The term also appears as part of the four seals, alongside dharmamūdra, samayamudrā, and karmamudrā.

Sanskrit Noun

Mahāyoga

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महायोग

མཧཱ་ཡོ་ག, རྣལ་འབྱོར་ཆེན་པོ།

Basic Meaning:

This is first one of the inner tantric schools according to the Nyingma tradition. Mahāyoga includes two sub-sections of the tantras which includes eighteen tantras and the sādhanās that includes the eight sādhanā practices. Mahāyoga focuses on the Development Stage and espouses the view of equality and purity in which equality refers to equal nature of phenomena in being empty and purity refers to all appearances being inherently enlightened energies. The Mahāyoga path leads to four stages of vidyadharas.

Sanskrit School

Mahāyāna

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महायान

ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ།

大乘

Basic Meaning:

Mahāyāna, or the Great Vehicle, refers to the system of Buddhist thought and practice which developed around the beginning of Common Era, focusing on the pursuit of the state of full enlightenment of the Buddha through the realization of the wisdom of emptiness and the cultivation of compassion.

Sanskrit Noun

Mahāyānottaratantraśāstravyākhyā

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महायानोत्तरतन्त्रशास्त्रव्याख्या

ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པ།

Basic Meaning:

This is the title of Asaṅga's commentary to the Gyü Lama that is given by Tibetan sources instead of the Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā.

Sanskrit Text

neyārtha

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नेयार्थ

དྲང་དོན་

Basic Meaning:

Refers to something that is taught for a specific reason, rather than because it is entirely true.

Sanskrit Noun

ngo bo

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भाव

ངོ་བོ་

Basic Meaning:

Essence or the most basic, fundamental nature or natural state of being. It is often used as a synonym for rang bzhin.

Tibetan Noun

Ngok Tradition

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རྔོག་ལུགས་

Basic Meaning:

Ngok Lotsāwa Loden Sherab's "analytic tradition" of exegesis of the Uttaratantra; one of two major Tibetan traditions of exegesis, both stemming from students of Sajjana.

Tibetan Noun

nirmāṇakāya

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निर्माणकाय

སྤྲུལ་སྐུ།

化身

Basic Meaning:

An fully enlightened Buddha is said to have the power to manifest in many forms in order to help the sentient beings. The emanation body of a buddha, as the third of the three bodies of a buddha, refers to the many forms in which a buddha can manifest and which are accessible to ordinary sentient beings. Buddhist scholars present four types of emanation bodies: emanation as supreme being, emanation as rebirth, emanation as artisan and emanation in diverse forms.

Sanskrit Noun

niḥsvabhāva

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निःस्वभाव

ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་མེད་པ་

Basic Meaning:

Lacking inherent existence.

Sanskrit Adjective

niḥsvabhāvatā

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निःस्वभावता

ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་མེད་པ་ཉིད་

Basic Meaning:

The state of lacking a truly independent existence.

Sanskrit Noun

niṣprapañca

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निष्प्रपञ्च

སྤྲོས་བྲལ་

Basic Meaning:

Freedom from conceptual elaborations.

Sanskrit Adjective

Nyingma

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རྙིང་མ་

Basic Meaning:

The Nyingma, which is often described as the oldest tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, traces its origin to Padmasambhava, who is said to have visited Tibet in the eighth century.

Tibetan School

nītārtha

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नीतार्थ

ངེས་དོན་

Basic Meaning:

Refers to a teaching that is literally true.

Sanskrit Noun

original enlightenment

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本覺

Basic Meaning:

According to East Asian Buddhism, the intrinsic enlightenment of all sentient beings. This is obscured by the many stains present in the ālayavijñāna. When these are purified, the natural state of enlightenment is recovered, a status known as "actualized enlightenment."

In the scriptures:

The essence of Mind is free from thoughts. The characteristic of that which is free from thoughts is analogous to that of the sphere of empty space that pervades everywhere. The one [without any second, i.e., the absolute] aspect of the world of reality (dharmadhātu) is none other than the undifferentiated dharmakāya, the “essence body” of the Tathāgata. [Since the essence of Mind is] grounded on the dharmakāya, it is to be called the original enlightenment. Why? Because “original enlightenment” indicates [the essence of Mind (a priori)] in contradistinction to [the essence of Mind in] the process of actualization of enlightenment; the process of actualization of enlightenment is none other than [the process of integrating] the identity with the original enlightenment.
~ The Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna

Chinese Noun

paramārthasatya

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परमार्थसत्य

དོན་དམ་བདེན་པ་

眞諦, 第一義諦

Basic Meaning:

"Ultimate truth" or "absolute truth"; the reality of things as they truly are.

Simplified English Usage:

"There is no higher truth to be seen. The mind that sees that reality experiences truth as it is. Thus it is called "ultimate truth," the essential mode of existence. For all other truths, their mode of appearance and their essential mode of existence are incongruent. Thus, they are called deceptive and superficial." - The 14th Dalai Lama, Transcendent Wisdom (1988)

In the scriptures:

Relative and ultimate,

These the two truths are declared to be.
The ultimate is not within the reach of intellect,

For intellect is said to be the relative.
~ The Way of the Bodhisattva, Padmakara Translation Group, 2008, page 229

Sanskrit Noun

paratantrasvabhāva

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परतन्त्रस्वभाव

གཞན་དབང་གི་རང་བཞིན་

Basic Meaning:

The second of the three natures, according to the Yogācāra school. It is the dependent nature that is used to describe the relationship between mind and its objects, though there is a clear emphasis on the latter. Hence, this nature is concerned with the nature of seemingly external objects that arise in dependence upon causes and conditions.

Sanskrit Noun

parikalpitasvabhāva

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परिकल्पितस्वभाव

ཀུན་བཏགས་ཀྱི་རང་བཞིན་

Basic Meaning:

The first of the three natures, according to the Yogācāra school. It is the imaginary nature which is falsely projected onto an object out of confusion.

Sanskrit Noun

pariniṣpannasvabhāva

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परिनिष्पन्नस्वभाव

ཡོངས་སུ་གྲུབ་པའི་རང་བཞིན་

Basic Meaning:

The third of the three natures, according to the Yogācāra school. It is the perfect nature that represents the most authentic understanding of phenomena, which is classically defined as the complete absence of the imaginary nature within the dependent nature.

Sanskrit Noun

paryudāsapratiṣedha

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पर्युदासप्रतिषेध

མ་ཡིན་དགག་

Basic Meaning:

A negation that denies one thing in such a way that it clearly implies another.

Sanskrit Noun

prabhāsvaracitta

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प्रभास्वरचित्त

འོད་གསལ་གྱི་སེམས་

光明心

Basic Meaning:

The luminous aspect of mind that is often contrasted with its empty aspect. It is often used figuratively to reference the cognizant, or knowing, aspect of mind and sometimes more literally as the natural luminosity of mind and luminous wisdom that is experienced in meditation.

Sanskrit Noun

prabhāsvaratā

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प्रभास्वर

འོད་གསལ་

光明

Basic Meaning:

In a general sense, that which clears away darkness, though it often appears in Buddhist literature in reference to the mind or its nature. It is a particularly salient feature of Tantric literature, especially in regard to the advanced meditation techniques of the completion-stage yogas.

Sanskrit Noun

prajñā

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प्रज्ञा

ཤེས་རབ་

般若

Basic Meaning:

One of the key terms for wisdom or knowledge, most often having the sense of insight, transcendent knowledge, or perhaps gnosis. In some contexts it can also refer to cognition or intellectual understanding.

Simplified English Usage:

Three types of wisdom (prajñā) are distinguished in Buddhist teachings: wisdom developed through study or learning, wisdom developed through reflection or analysis, and wisdom developed through cultivation or meditation.

Sanskrit Noun

Prajñāpāramitā

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प्रज्ञापारमिता

ཤེར་ཕྱིན་, ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་

般若波羅蜜多

Basic Meaning:

A class of Mahāyāna sūtras which represents some of the earliest known literature of this genre of Buddhism. There are around forty texts associated with this category, though the most widespread is the exceedingly brief Prajñāpāramitāhṛdayasūtra, popularly known as the Heart Sūtra. This class of literature is typically associated with the second turning of the dharma wheel and especially with the teachings on emptiness (śūnyatā). As such, these texts were the primary scriptural source for the philosophy of the Madhyamaka school.

Sanskrit Noun

prakṛtisthagotra

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प्रकृतिस्थगोत्र

རང་བཞིན་གནས་རིགས་

本性住種性

Basic Meaning:

The potential for awakening that is inherently present in all beings.

Sanskrit Noun

pramāṇa

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प्रमान

ཚད་མ།

量

Basic Meaning:

In the Buddhist literature on pramāṇa, it refers to cognition that correctly apprehends its object without any deception or mistake. Such correct cognition include direct perception and inferential cognition.

Sanskrit Noun

prasajyapratiṣedha

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प्रसज्यप्रतिषेध

མེད་དགག་

Basic Meaning:

A negation that merely denies the existence of something without implicitly suggesting an alternative.

Sanskrit Noun

pratipakṣa

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प्रतिपक्ष

གཉེན་པོ་

對治

Basic Meaning:

An antidote or remedy that contributes or supports the elimination or pacification of a particular ailment or affliction.

Sanskrit Noun

Pratyekabuddha

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प्रत्येकबुद्ध

རང་རྒྱལ།, རང་སངས་རྒྱས།

緣覺

Basic Meaning:

Pratyekabuddhas are saints who, in their last birth in the cycle of existence, are said to become enlightened through solitary practice on the nature of dependent ordination. These saints are said to appear when there is no buddha around and work either alone or in small groups.

Sanskrit Noun

pratītyasamutpāda

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प्रतीत्यसमुत्पाद

རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་བ་, རྟེན་འབྲེལ་

緣起

Basic Meaning:

The notion that all phenomena arise in dependence on causes and conditions.

In the scriptures:

Because there are no phenomena
That are not dependently arisen,
There are no phenomena
That are not empty.
~ Nāgārjuna. Mūlamadhyamakakārikā Chapter 24, Verse 19.

Sanskrit Noun

pāramitā

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पारमिता

ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ།, ཕར་ཕྱིན།

波羅蜜

Basic Meaning:

The six or ten types of practices which lead an individual to Buddhahood. The practice of perfections is particularly important in Mahāyāna Buddhism in which the entire path of the Bodhisattva to reach full enlightenment is included in the six or ten perfections. The six perfections are that of giving, of discipline, patience, zeal, meditation, and wisdom. The perfection of skill-in-means, aspirations, power, and pristine wisdom are added to them to make ten perfections.

Sanskrit Noun

rang stong

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རང་སྟོང་

Basic Meaning:

The state of being empty of self, which references the lack of inherent existence in relative phenomena.

In the scriptures:

Since adventitious, relative entities do not exist at all in reality, they are empty of their own essences; they are self-empty. The innate ultimate, which is the ultimate emptiness of these relative things, is never non-existent; therefore, it is other-empty.
~ Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen, Collected Works ('Dzamthang ed., 1998), Vol. 6: 416. Translated by Douglas Duckworth in "Onto-theology and Emptiness: The Nature of Buddha-Nature." (2014), page 1075.

Tibetan Adjective

rgyu'i rgyud

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རྒྱུའི་རྒྱུད་

Basic Meaning:

The mind's natural mode that abides as suchness, which remains unchanged from the state of an ordinary being up until enlightenment.

Tibetan Noun

Sakya

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ས་སྐྱ་

Basic Meaning:

The Sakya tradition developed in the eleventh century in the Khön family of Tsang, which maintained an imperial-era lineage of Vajrakīla and which adopted a new teaching from India known as Lamdre.

Tibetan School

samudānītagotra

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समुदानीतगोत्र

རྒྱས་འགྱུར་གྱི་རིགས་

習所成種性

Basic Meaning:

A potential or disposition that is acquired, accentuated, or developed through past karmic actions.

Sanskrit Noun

Sangpu Neutok

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གསང་ཕུ་ནེའུ་ཐོག་

Basic Meaning:

Sangpu Neutok is an important monastery in central Tibet, just south of Lhasa, that was founded in 1072 by Ngok Lekpai Sherab, a disciple of Atiśa, and developed by his nephew, Ngok Lotsāwa Loden Sherab. Originally a Kadam monastery with two colleges, it evolved into a monastery that includes both Sakya and Geluk traditions. At its peak in the 11th to 14th centuries, it was one of the most highly esteemed centers for monastic education and the study of Buddhist philosophy in all of the Tibetan plateau. Many influential philosophers of the time studied there.

Tibetan Place

Sarma

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གསར་མ།

Basic Meaning:

The new Buddhist schools which began to rise in the second millennium in Tibet after Buddhism declined in the ninth century as a result of the fall of the Yarlung dynasty. The Sarma schools were mostly based on Buddhist teachings freshly received from India and Nepal in contrast to the revival of the old teachings which already existed in Tibet.

Tibetan School

sarvākāravaropetāśūnyatā

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རྣམ་ཀུན་མཆོག་ལྡན་གྱི་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་

Basic Meaning:

As opposed to a mere voidness, this phrase refers to an emptiness that is endowed with enlightened qualities and attributes.

Sanskrit Noun

saṃbhogakāya

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संभोगकाय

ལོངས་སྐུ།, ལོངས་སྤྱོད་རྫོགས་སྐུ།

報身

Basic Meaning:

The physical form of a buddha which resides in a pure buddha realm, possesses the marks and tokens of an enlightened being, teaches Mahāyāna teachings to a retinue of Bodhisattvas for eternity. This embodied form of a buddha is the source from which all the forms of emanation originate.

Sanskrit Noun

saṃvṛtisatya

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संवृतिसत्य

ཀུན་རྫོབ་བདེན་པ་

世俗諦, 俗諦

Basic Meaning:

"Relative truth" or "conventional truth"; the erroneously perceived reality common to the unenlightened.

Simplified English Usage:

Without a proper understanding of the vast aspects of the relative truth, meditation on Emptiness can be misleading and even dangerous.

(Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso, Progressive Stages of Meditation on Emptiness, 1988)

In the scriptures:

Relative and ultimate,

These the two truths are declared to be.
The ultimate is not within the reach of intellect,

For intellect is said to be the relative.
~ The Way of the Bodhisattva, Padmakara Translation Group, 2008, page 229

Sanskrit Noun

sems nyid

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चित्तत्व

སེམས་ཉིད་

Basic Meaning:

Commonly found in Dzogchen and Mahāmudrā literature, this term denotes the true, natural state of mind as it is. Often used in these traditions as a synonym for buddha-nature.

Tibetan Noun

sugatagarbha

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सुगतगर्भ

བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་

Basic Meaning:

Literally, the "essence" or "heart of the Bliss Gone One(s)," a synonym for tathāgatagarbha that is likewise often rendered into English by the term buddha-nature. Though it is often back translated into Sanskrit as sugatagarbha, this term is not found in Sanskrit sources.

Sanskrit Noun

svabhāva

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स्वभाव

རང་བཞིན་

自性

Basic Meaning:

The nature or essence of a thing, which originates only from itself and is not dependent on any external entities, causes, or conditions.

Sanskrit Noun

svasaṃvedana

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स्वसंवेदन

རང་རིག་

自證分

Basic Meaning:

An important term for the Yogācāra that refers to a consciousness of consciousness itself, or how one knows that they know something. It was a hotly debated topic that was disputed by followers of the Madhyamaka. In Tibet it would later become a common Dzogchen term, though with the entirely different meaning of one's own innate awareness (rig pa), a crucial concept in the Dzogchen teachings.

Sanskrit Noun

sādhana

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साधन

སྒྲུབ་ཐབས།

修行

Basic Meaning:

Sādhana refers to a method of practice through which one can actualise a specific spiritual result, and by extension to the texts and manuals which present such methods. A sādhana in the Vajrayāna Buddhist context generally involves the worship and visualisation of a tantric deity, chanting of mantras, and associated practices. The practice often begins with verses of taking refuge and cultivating altruistic thought, then carrying out meditation on emptiness and the mandala of deity, seven-part worship, chanting of mantras, and finally the dissolution of the deity which was visualised.

Sanskrit Noun

sūtra

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सूत्र

མདོ།

佛经

Basic Meaning:

Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon.

Sanskrit Noun

tantra

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तन्त्र

རྒྱུད།

密宗

Basic Meaning:

Tantra, when juxtaposed with Sūtra, generally refers to the scriptures and texts which discuss esoteric topics. While the term is used to refer to texts on other topics, it is mostly used to refer to the genre of scriptures and texts on themes and topics associated with Vajrayāna Buddhism.

Sanskrit Noun

tathatā

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तथता

དེ་བཞིན་ཉིད་

Basic Meaning:

Suchness itself, absolute reality, or thusness, as in the ultimate state of being of phenomena.

In the scriptures:

Since the perfect buddhakaya radiates,
Since suchness is undifferentiable, And because of the disposition,
All beings always possess the buddha heart. Ratnagotravibhāga, Verse I.28
~ When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 356–57.

Sanskrit Noun

tathāgatagarbha

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तथागतगर्भ

དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་

如来藏

Basic Meaning:

Buddha-nature, literally the "womb/essence of those who have gone (to suchness)."

In the scriptures:

Son of good family, the True Nature (dharmatā) of the dharmas is this:
whether or not tathāgatas appear in the world, all these sentient beings contain at all times a tathāgata.
~ Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā 73.11-12. As translated in Zimmerman, A Buddha Within, 2002, p 40.

Sanskrit Noun

tattva

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तत्त्व

དེ་ཁོ་ན་ཉིད།

Basic Meaning:

The reality or the objective state of things as they are. In the Buddhist context, it refers to the ultimate nature of things although what exactly suchness means would depend on the philosophical position of the specific schools. The Middle Way school, for instance, consider emptiness as the suchness of all things.

Sanskrit Noun

tha mal gyi shes pa

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ཐ་མལ་གྱི་ཤེས་པ་

Basic Meaning:

A Mahāmudrā term for the basic state of consciousness that has not been fabricated or altered in any way.

Tibetan Noun

thugs dam

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ཐུགས་དམ།

Basic Meaning:

Persons who have experience in meditation on the nature of the mind or emptiness are said to be able to remain in a meditative equipoise after death. Although they have stopped breathing and are clinically dead, they are said to be able to retain their body without decay, often with lustre and flexibility. They are believed to have actualised their buddha-nature at the time of death and attained the state of enlightenment.

Tibetan Noun

tridharmacakrapravartana

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त्रिधर्मचक्रप्रवर्तन

ཆོས་འཁོར་རིམ་པ་གསུམ་

Basic Meaning:

Three successive stages of the Buddhist teachings. Though they are traditionally attributed to the historical Buddha, modern scholarship tends to view them as developmental stages that occurred over the course of an extended period of time, with interludes of several centuries, in which we see major doctrinal shifts often based on seemingly newly emergent scriptural sources.

In the scriptures:

From the seventh chapter of the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra:
Then the Bodhisattva Paramārthasamudgata said to the Bhagavan, "Initially, in the Vārānasī area, in the Deer Park called Sages' Teaching, the Bhagavan taught the aspects of the four truths of the Āryas for those who were genuinely engaged in the [Srāvaka] vehicle. The wheel of doctrine you turned at first is wondrous. Similar doctrines had not been promulgated before in the world by gods or humans. However, this wheel of doctrine that the Bhagavan turned is surpassable, provides an opportunity [for refutation], is of interpretable meaning, and serves as a basis for dispute.

"Then the Bhagavan turned a second wheel of doctrine which is more wondrous still for those who are genuinely engaged in the Great Vehicle, because of the aspect of teaching emptiness, beginning with the lack of own-being of phenomena, and beginning with their absence of production, absence of cessation, quiescence from the start, and being naturally in a state of nirvana. However, this wheel of doctrine that the Bhagavan turned is surpassable, provides an opportunity [for refutation], is of interpretable meaning, and serves as a basis for dispute.

"Then the Bhagavan turned a third wheel of doctrine, possessing good differentiations, and exceedingly wondrous, for those genuinely engaged in all vehicles, beginning with the lack of own-being of phenomena, and beginning with their absence of production, absence of cessation, quiescence from the start, and being naturally in a state of nirvāna. Moreover, that wheel of doctrine turned by the Bhagavan is unsurpassable, does not provide an opportunity [for refutation], is of definitive meaning, and does not serve as a basis for dispute.
~ Translated from the Tibetan by John Powers, Wisdom of Buddha (1995), pages 139-140.

Sanskrit Noun

trikāya

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त्रिकाय

སྐུ་གསུམ།

三身

Basic Meaning:

The three enlightened forms of a buddha one attains when one becomes fully enlightened. They include the truth body (dharmakāya), enjoyment body (saṃbhogakāya), and the emanation body (nirmāṇakāya). The three bodies comprise the many qualities and powers associated with buddhahood and thus are the result sought through Mahāyāna Buddhist practice.

Sanskrit Noun

trisvabhāva

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त्रिस्वभाव

རང་བཞིན་གསུམ་

Basic Meaning:

According to the Yogācāra school, all phenomena can be divided into three natures or characteristics: the imaginary nature (parikalpitasvabhāva), the dependent nature (paratantrasvabhāva), and the perfect or absolute nature (pariniṣpannasvabhāva).

Sanskrit Noun

triviṣa

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त्रिविष

དུག་གསུམ་

三毒

Basic Meaning:

The three poisons are a reference to the afflictive emotions of rāga (Tib. 'dod chags), dveṣa (Tib. zhe sdang), and moha (Tib. gti mug). These three detrimental states or afflictive behavioral patterns are difficult to definitively translate, and thus there are several common English variations of this group of three, such as desire, aggression, and bewilderment, or attachment, aversion, and delusion. It is useful to think of these three as a process that involves our insatiable urge to possess that which we desire and the ensuing aggravation that arises when we don't get what we want or have what we don't want forced upon us. Yet we are oblivious to the futility of these conditioned responses due to our lack of discernment, and thus we mindlessly continue to get caught up in this causal nexus.

Sanskrit Noun

triyāna

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त्रियान

ཐེག་པ་གསུམ་

三乗

Basic Meaning:

Commonly seen in a Mahāyāna context, the three vehicles are the Śrāvakayāna, Pratyekabuddhayāna, and Bodhisattvayāna, which reference the three different types of Buddhist practitioners. However, these three vehicles can also reference the three types of Buddhist teachings of the Hīnayāna, Mahāyāna (or Pāramitāyāna), and the Vajrayāna.

Sanskrit Noun

Tsen Tradition

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བཙན་ལུགས་

Basic Meaning:

Tsen Khawoche's "meditative tradition" of exegesis of the Uttaratantra; it is one of two major Tibetan traditions of exegesis, both stemming from students of Sajjana.

Tibetan Noun

Uttaratantra

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उत्तरतन्त्र

རྒྱུད་བླ་མ་

寶性論

Basic Meaning:

The Ultimate Continuum, or Gyü Lama, is often used as a short title in the Tibetan tradition for the key source text of buddha-nature teachings called the Ratnagotravibhāga of Maitreya/Asaṅga, also known as the Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra.

Sanskrit Text

vajrapada

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वज्रपद

རྡོ་རྗེའི་གནས་

Basic Meaning:

Literally, vajra-footing, or base. In the context of the Ratnagotravibhāga, this is the name given to the seven subjects that are addressed in the treatise. These seven are the buddha, dharma, saṅgha, the element (dhātu), enlightenment (bodhi), enlightened qualities (guṇa), and enlightened activities (karman).

Sanskrit Noun

Vajrayāna

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वज्रयान

རྡོ་རྗེ་ཐེག་པ།

金剛乘

Basic Meaning:

The esoteric Buddhist tradition which developed as a syncretic system involving deity worship, use of mantras, physical energy, and mystical practices. It is also known as the mantra tradition and the tantric school as a result of being based on texts known as tantras.

Sanskrit Noun

vinaya

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विनय

འདུལ་བ།

毘奈耶

Basic Meaning:

Vinaya refers to the corpus of Buddhist teachings on moral discipline and precepts and is one of the three canonical sets of teachings alongside Sūtra and Abhidharma. It also refers to the monastic tradition which has been passed down since the Buddha's time until our time.

Sanskrit Noun

viparyāsa

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विपर्यास

ཕྱིན་ཅི་ལོག

顚倒

Basic Meaning:

The misperception or incorrect view a person has of reality, which must be overcome by having correct understanding and right view. The four well known incorrect views are seeing impermanent phenomena as permanent, dissatisfactory nature of things as blissful, impure things as pure, and illusory things as absolute and real. However, in the context of buddha-nature theory or other systems, there are also other forms of misconceptions which contradict with objective reality.

Sanskrit Noun

visaṃyogaphala

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विसंयोगफल

བྲལ་འབྲས་

Basic Meaning:

One of the five types of effects, or fruitions. It refers to an effect that arises from removing that which obscures or hinders it.

Sanskrit Noun

Yogācāra

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योगाचार

རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྤྱོད་པ་

瑜伽行派

Basic Meaning:

Along with Madhyamaka, it was one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu around the fourth century CE, many of its central tenets have roots in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and the so-called third turning of the dharma wheel (see tridharmacakrapravartana).

Sanskrit School

āgantukamala

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आगन्तुकमल

གློ་བུར་གྱི་དྲི་མ་

Basic Meaning:

Mental stains that are not inherent to the nature of the mind but are temporarily present as the residue of past actions or habitual tendencies. It is sometimes iterated as adventitious defilements (Skt. āgantukakleśa, Tib. glo bur gyi nyon mongs), which references the fickle and temporary nature of disturbing emotions that lack an ultimately established basis for existence.

Simplified English Usage:

Even though defilements exist, they are adventitious [to the buddha-element, because the buddha-element] is naturally pure.

Sangpuwa Lodrö Tsungme, Wangchuk, Tsering trans. The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows (2017), page 32.

In the scriptures:

All beings are buddhas,
But this is obscured by adventitious stains.
When those are removed, they are buddhas at once.
~ Adapted from Snellgrove, The Hevajra Tantra: A Critical Study, 1959, page 107

Sanskrit Noun

ālayavijñāna

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आलयविज्ञान

ཀུན་གཞིའི་རྣམ་ཤེས་

藏識, 阿賴耶識

Basic Meaning:

A neutral base consciousness that is posited as the storehouse for the seeds of past karmic actions in which they remain in a latent state until the circumstances arise for them to ripen as karmic consequences.

Sanskrit Noun

ātmaka

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आत्मक

བདག་ཉིད་ཅན་

Basic Meaning:

Literally, the state of possessing a self. It is usually used to denote something which is endowed with a certain innate, or natural, attribute.

Sanskrit Noun

ātman

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आत्मन्

བདག་

我, 灵魂

Basic Meaning:

Though it can simply be used as the expression "I" or "me", in Indian thought the notion of self refers to a permanent, unchanging entity, such as that which passes from life to life in the case of people, or the innate essence (svabhāva) of phenomena.

Sanskrit Noun

āvaraṇa

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आवरण

སྒྲིབ་པ་

Basic Meaning:

Literally, that which obscures or conceals. Often listed as a set of two obscurations (sgrib gnyis): the afflictive emotional obscurations (Skt. kleśāvaraṇa, Tib. nyon mongs pa'i sgrib pa) and the cognitive obscurations (Skt. jñeyāvaraṇa, Tib. shes bya'i sgrib pa). By removing the first, one becomes free of suffering, and by removing the second, one becomes omniscient.

Sanskrit Noun

śrāvaka

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श्रावक

ཉན་ཐོས།

聲聞

Basic Meaning:

The disciples of the Buddha who aspire to attain individual liberation or nirvāṇa. The final goal of the Hearers is to become an arhat, a state in which one has totally eliminated the inner problems of attachment, hatred and ignorance, the main causes for rebirth in this cycle of existence. There are four stages of a śrāvaka path including eight phases.

Sanskrit Noun

śūnyatā

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शून्यता

སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་

空, 空門

Basic Meaning:

The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics.

In the scriptures:

Form is emptiness; emptiness is form.
Emptiness is not other than form; form is not other than emptiness.
~ Heart Sūtra

Sanskrit Noun

Noun

'jog sgom

This is the meditation of directly observing the mind without engaging in any analytical or intellectual activity. (Thrangu Rinpoche, Transcending Ego, 102).

འཇོག་སྒོམ་
'jog sgom
स्थाप्यभावना
sthāpyabhāvanā
Jok gom
stapyabavana

placement meditation

Noun

abhidharma

Abhidharma generally refers to the corpus of Buddhist texts which deals with the typological, phenomenological, metaphysical, and epistemological presentation of Buddhist concepts and teachings. The abhidharma teachings present a meta-knowledge of Buddhist sūtras through analytical and systemic schemas and are said to focus on developing wisdom among the three principles of training. The Abhidharma is presented alongside Sūtra and Vinaya as one of the three baskets of the teachings of the Buddha.

ཆོས་མངོན་པ།
chos mngon pa
अभिधर्म
abhidharma
Chö ngonpa
abhidharma
阿毗达磨
āpídámó

abhidharma

Noun

actualized enlightenment

Actualized enlightenment is enlightenment that is attained through practice. It is contrasted with original enlightenment, which is the mind's innate purity in its natural state. Ultimately, there is no difference between them. Because of the presence of ignorance, sentient beings are blind to their true nature. By removing that ignorance, one actualizes enlightenment.

始覺
shijue

shikaku
actualized enlightenment

Adjective

advaya

Literally, "without duality," it refers to that which is indivisible, in that it is not divided into two.

གཉིས་མེད་
gnyis med
अद्वय
advaya

不二
bu’er, bù èr

funi
nonduality

Noun

amalavijñāna

The ninth consciousness, the immaculate pure mind.

dri ma med pa'i rnam shes

*amalavijñāna

啊摩羅識, 無垢識
amoluo shi, wugou shi

amarashiki, mukushiki
immaculate consciousness

School

Anuyoga

The second set of the three inner tantras and the eighth of the nine vehicles according to the Nyingma tradition. Anuyoga includes many yogini tantras and focuses on the Completion Stage practices of sacred channels, energies and essential fluids and espouses the actualisation of empty bliss.

ཨ་ནུ་ཡོ་ག
anu yo ga
अनुयोग
Anuyoga
Anuyoga
Anuyoga

Anuyoga, Subsequent Yoga

Noun

anātman

The nonexistence of the self as a permanent, unchanging entity.

བདག་མེད་པ་
bdag med pa
अनात्मन्

dakmépa

无我
wúwǒ

muga
selflessness

Noun

arhat

A person who has reached nirvāṇa by eliminating the three poisons of attachment, hatred and ignorance having followed the path of seeking individual liberation as a Śrāvaka or a Pratyekabuddha. An arhat, thus, is a person who has overcome the cause of rebirth in the cycle of existence and will not take an ordinary birth again.

དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ།
dgra bcom
अर्हत्
arhat
drachöm
arhat
阿羅漢
ā luó hàn
阿羅漢
arakan
arhat

School

Atiyoga

A system of esoteric thought and practice associated with the Nyingma tradition and equivalent to Great Perfection, it is considered as the pinnacle of the nine vehicles or paths one can follow to reach Buddhahood. The system focusses on the pure, luminous and empty nature of the mind as the ground reality which must be realised through the path of trekchö and thögal practice.

ཤིན་ཏུ་རྣལ་འབྱོར།, ཨ་ཏི་ཡོ་ག
ati yoga, shin tu rnal 'byor
अतियोग
atiyoga
atiyoga
atiyoga

Utmost Yoga

Noun

avidyā

Literally "unknowing," it refers to a lack of knowledge or misunderstanding of the nature of reality. As such, it is considered to be the root cause of suffering and the basis for the arising of all other negative mental factors.

མ་རིག་པ་
ma rig pa
अविद्या
avidyā
marikpa

無明
wú míng

mumyō
ignorance

Noun

bhūmi

A plateau of spiritual development.

ས་
sa
भूमि
bhūmi

ji
developmental stage

Noun

bodhi

Enlightenment or awakening. In Tibetan it is translated as "purified" (byang) and "perfected" (chub), which corresponds to Siddhartha Gautama's achievement of purifying all obscurations and perfecting or attaining all qualities associated with a buddha.

བྱང་ཆུབ་
byang chub
बोधि
bodhi
Changchub
bodhi
悟, 菩提, 覺
jué, pú tí, wù
悟り
satori
enlightenment

Noun

bodhicitta

The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution.

བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།
byang chub sems
बोधिचित्त
bodhicitta
jangchubsem
bodhicitta
菩提心
pútí xīn

mind of enlightenment

Noun

bodhigarbha

An alternative term for tathāgatagarbha found in early Nyingma sources. Though it is back-translated as bodhigarbha, this term does not seem to be found in Sanskrit sources. However, in other contexts, the Tibetan byang chub snying po is often used to translate the Sanskrit term bodhimaṇḍa, which is often translated as the "seat of enlightenment."

བྱང་ཆུབ་སྙིང་པོ་
byang chub snying po
बोधिगर्भ
bodhigarbha
jangchub nyingpo

quintessence of awakening

Noun

Bodhisattva

A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses.

བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།
byang chub sems dpa'
बोधिसत्त्व
bodhisattva
jangchub sempa
bodhisattva
菩薩
pú sà
菩薩
bosatsu
Bodhisattva

Noun

Brahman

Brahman is the universal principle, supreme truth or ultimate reality in the Hindu religion considered to be absolute, eternal and blissful. A metaphysical concept, it is described as the single binding unity behind the diversity of all that exists. In Buddhism, while this metaphysical principle is not presented, one finds frequent mention of the deity named Brahmā, who is the personification of this principle.

ཚངས་པ།
tshangs pa
ब्रह्मन्
Brahman
tshangpa
Brahman

Brahman

Noun

buddhadhātu

A synonym for tathāgatagarbha widely used throughout the East Asian Buddhist traditions, as found in its translations as the Chinese term fó xìng and Japanese term busshō.

སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཁམས་
sangs rgyas kyi khams
बुद्धधातु
buddhadhātu
sangye kyi kham

佛性
fó xìng

busshō
buddha-element

Text

byams chos sde lnga

This refers to a series of five texts that, according to the Tibetan tradition, Asaṅga received directly from Maitreya in the pure realm of Tuṣita.

བྱམས་ཆོས་སྡེ་ལྔ་
byams chos sde lnga

jam chöde nga

Five Dharma Treatises of Maitreya

Noun

bīja

A seed, commonly used figuratively in the sense of something which has the potential to develop or grow, and likewise as the basic cause for this development or growth.

ས་བོན་
sa bon
बीज
bīja

無漏種
zhongzi

shuji
seed

Noun

Cittamātra

Though it is sometimes used synonymously with Yogācāra, it is in fact one of the more prominent philosophical theories associated with this school. It asserts that the objects in the external world with which we interact are actually mentally created representations appearing as those objects. The character of these perceptions is predetermined by our own karmic conditioning that is stored in the ālayavijñāna.

སེམས་ཙམ་
sems tsam
चित्तमात्र
cittamātra
sem tsam
chittamatra

weixin

yuishin
Mind-Only

Noun

dharmadhātu

The fundamental expanse from which all phenomena emerge.

ཆོས་དབྱིངས་
chos dbyings
धर्मधातु
dharmadhātu
chöying

法界

expanse of phenomena

Noun

dharmakāya

"Truth body" or "true being" — One of the three bodies of a buddha. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, it often refers to a kind of fundamental principle or the true nature of reality itself.

ཆོས་སྐུ་
chos sku
धर्मकाय
dharmakāya
chö ku

法身
fǎ shēn

hosshin
true being

Noun

dharmatā

The true nature of phenomenal existence.

ཆོས་ཉིད་
chos nyid
धर्मता

chönyi

法性
fǎ xìng

hosshō
nature of reality

Noun

dhātu

A fundamental component or essential constituent.

ཁམས་
khams
धातु
dhātu
kham

界
jiè

element

Noun

dpyad sgom

Analytical meditation is a technique involving critical analysis that focuses the mind on a specific contemplation, such as impermanence.

དཔྱད་སྒོམ་
dpyad sgom

che gom

analytical meditation

Noun

Dzogchen

Dzogchen is an advanced system of meditation techniques to reveal the innate state of perfection primarily, but not exclusively, espoused by the Nyingma Buddhist tradition and the Tibetan Bön tradition.

རྫོགས་ཆེན།
rdzogs chen
महासन्धि
mahāsaṅdhi
dzogchen

Great Perfection

Noun

ekayāna

The notion that ultimately there is only one vehicle, or means, of achieving enlightenment.

ཐེག་པ་གཅིག་པ་
theg pa gcig pa
एकयान

tekpa chikpa

一乘
yīchéng
いちじょう
ichijō
single vehicle

School

Geluk

The Geluk tradition traces its origin to Tsongkhapa, who propagated a modified version of the Kadampa lojong and lamrim teachings. It is the dominant tradition of Tibet, having established its control of the government under the figure of the Dalai Lama.

དགེ་ལུགས་
dge lugs

ge luk

Geluk

Noun

gotra

Disposition, lineage, or class; an individual's gotra determines the type of enlightenment one is destined to attain.

རིགས་
rigs
गोत्र
gotra

種性, 鍾姓
zhōng xìng

potential

Noun

Great Madhyamaka

The term Great Madhyamaka is utilized in different contexts depending on the tradition. In the Jonang tradition, it generally refers to the Zhentong Madhyamaka philosophy as it was developed and systematized by Dölpopa. In this context, the Great Madhyamaka refers to the presentation of ultimate truth, while Madhyamaka describes the emptiness of the relative level of truth. In the Nyingma tradition, Great Madhyamaka refers to the subtle, inner Madhyamaka that unifies the philosophical positions of Nāgārjuna and Asaṅga. This is presented in opposition to the coarse, outer Madhyamaka that is the dialectic approach of Prāsaṅgika and Svātantrika. In the Kagyu tradition, the term is used in a similar vein in that Madhyamaka is used to refer to philosophical inquiry, while Great Madhyamaka is used to refer to the view arrived at through yogic accomplishment. However, in all of these traditions, Great Madhyamaka is heavily associated with buddha-nature (tathāgatagarbha) and the definitive status of these teachings.

དབུ་མ་ཆེན་པོ་
dbu ma chen po
महामध्यमक
Mahāmadhyamaka
Uma Chenpo

Great Middle Way

Noun

guṇa

The qualities or attributes of an enlightened being.

ཡོན་ཏན་
yon tan
गुण

yönten

功德
gōng dé

kudoku
enlightened qualities

Noun

guṇapāramitā

In the Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra it is explained that the dharmakāya of a buddha possesses the four perfect qualities of purity, bliss, permanence, and self.

ཡོན་ཏན་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་
yon tan pha rol tu phyin pa
गुणपारमिता
guṇapāramitā

功德波羅蜜
gōngdébōluómì
kudokuharamitsu

perfect qualities

Adjective

gzhan stong

The state of being devoid of that which is wholly different rather than being void of its own nature. The term is generally used to refer to the ultimate, or buddha-nature, being empty of other phenomena such as adventitious defiling emotions but not empty of its true nature.

གཞན་སྟོང་
gzhan stong

zhentong

other-emptiness

Noun

gzhi

The foundational basis of both saṃsāra and nirvāṇa. It is often used as a synonym for tathāgatagarbha and dharmadhātu.

གཞི་
gzhi

shi

ground

Noun

Hīnayāna

The mainstream teachings and the early schools of Buddhism which primarily taught individual liberation through practice-focused renunciation and monasticism, considered lesser than the later movement of the Greater Vehicle (Mahāyāna), which professed enlightenment for all sentient beings and promoted compassion.

ཐེག་དམན།
theg dman
हीनयान
hīnayāna
thekmen

小乘
xiǎo chéng

Lesser Vehicle

Noun

icchantika

Literally, "those with great desire," icchantikas could be rendered as hedonists or addicts. However, the term is generally used to refer to those who, due to their insatiable desire, are incapable of enlightenment.

འདོད་ཆེན་, འདོད་ཆེན་པོ་
'dod chen, 'dod chen po
इच्छन्तिक
icchantika
döchen, döchenpo
ichantika
一闡提
yī chǎn tí

issendai
incorrigibles

School

Jonang

The Jonang tradition was established by Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen, a thirteenth-century Sakya monk famous for his Zhentong teachings. The Jonang teachings and monasteries were suppressed in Tibet in the seventeenth century but survived in Amdo.

ཇོ་ནང་
jo nang

jo nang

Jonang

Noun

ka dag

Primordial purity is a term found in the Dzogchen tradition and refers to the empty nature of phenomena which is experienced through the practice of cutting-through meditation (khregs chod). It is often juxtaposed with spontaneous presence (lhun grub).

ཀ་དག
ka dag

kadak

primordial purity

School

Kadam

The Kadam tradition, which traces its origin to the teachings of Atiśa, was the first of the so-called New Schools of Tibetan Buddhism, traditions which arose during or after the Second Propagation of Buddhism (phyi dar) in the tenth century.

བཀའ་གདམས་
bka' gdams

ka dam

Kadam

School

Kagyu

The Kagyu school traces its origin to the eleventh-century translator Marpa, who studied in India with Nāropa. Marpa's student Milarepa trained Gampopa, who founded the first monastery of the Kagyu order. As many as twelve subtraditions grew out from there, the best known being the Karma Kagyu, the Drikung, and the Drukpa.

བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་
bka' brgyud

ka gyu

Kagyu

Noun

kleśa

Often referred to as poisons, these are a class of disturbing or disruptive emotional states that when aroused negatively affect or taint the mind.

ཉོན་མོངས་
nyon mongs
क्लेश
kleśa
nyönmong
klesha
煩惱
fànnǎo

bonnō
afflictive emotions

Noun

kun gzhi

Although it is commonly used as an abbreviation of ālayavijñāna (kun gzhi'i rnam shes), in later Tibetan traditions, particularly that of the Kagyu and the Nyingma, it came to denote an ultimate or pure basis of mind, as opposed to the ordinary, deluded consciousness represented by the ālayavijñāna. Alternatively, in the Jonang tradition, this pure version is referred to as ālaya-wisdom (kun gzhi'i ye shes).

ཀུན་གཞི་
kun gzhi
आलय
ālaya
kunzhi

universal ground

Noun

Kālacakra

Can refer to either the Kālacakra Tantra and its derivative texts or to the systematic tantric tradition based on these texts, as well as the deity Kālacakra upon which the associated practices are centered.

དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ།
dus kyi 'khor lo
कालचक्र

dukyi khorlo

時輪
shí lún

Wheel of Time

Noun

lam rim

Lam rim refers to the stages on the path and, by extension, more commonly to the genre of teachings which contain practical instructions for training on the stages of the path to enlightenment. Related to the blo sbyong practice, it is particularly known among the Kadampa and Geluk schools. Tsongkhapa's Byang chub lam rim chen mo is the most well known in this genre and the term lam rim is often used specifically to refer to this text.

ལམ་གྱི་རིམ་པ།, ལམ་རིམ།
lam gyi rim pa, lam rim
मार्गक्रम
mārgakrama
lamrim
mārgakrama

stages of the path

School

Madhyamaka

Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā.

དབུ་མ་
dbu ma
मध्यमक
Madhyamaka
uma

中觀見
Zhōngguān Jìan

Middle Way school

Noun

Mahāmudrā

Mahāmudrā refers to an advanced meditation tradition in Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna forms of Into-Tibetan Buddhism that is focused on the realization of the empty and luminous nature of the mind. It also refers to the resultant state of buddhahood attained through such meditation practice. In Tibet, this tradition is particularly associated with the Kagyu school, although all other schools also profess this tradition. The term also appears as part of the four seals, alongside dharmamūdra, samayamudrā, and karmamudrā.

ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ།
phyag rgya chen po
महामुद्रा
mahāmudrā
Chagya chenpo

Great Seal

School

Mahāyoga

This is first one of the inner tantric schools according to the Nyingma tradition. Mahāyoga includes two sub-sections of the tantras which includes eighteen tantras and the sādhanās that includes the eight sādhanā practices. Mahāyoga focuses on the Development Stage and espouses the view of equality and purity in which equality refers to equal nature of phenomena in being empty and purity refers to all appearances being inherently enlightened energies. The Mahāyoga path leads to four stages of vidyadharas.

མཧཱ་ཡོ་ག, རྣལ་འབྱོར་ཆེན་པོ།
rnal 'byor chen po
महायोग
Mahāyoga
naljor chenpo
Mahāyoga

Great Yoga, Mahāyoga

Noun

Mahāyāna

Mahāyāna, or the Great Vehicle, refers to the system of Buddhist thought and practice which developed around the beginning of Common Era, focusing on the pursuit of the state of full enlightenment of the Buddha through the realization of the wisdom of emptiness and the cultivation of compassion.

ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ།
theg pa chen po
महायान
mahāyāna
thekpa chenpo

大乘
dasheng

Great Vehicle

Text

Mahāyānottaratantraśāstravyākhyā

This is the title of Asaṅga's commentary to the Gyü Lama that is given by Tibetan sources instead of the Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā.

ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པ།
theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos rnam par bshad pa
महायानोत्तरतन्त्रशास्त्रव्याख्या

Noun

neyārtha

Refers to something that is taught for a specific reason, rather than because it is entirely true.

དྲང་དོན་
drang don
नेयार्थ
neyārtha

provisional meaning

Noun

ngo bo

Essence or the most basic, fundamental nature or natural state of being. It is often used as a synonym for rang bzhin.

ངོ་བོ་
ngo bo
भाव
bhāva
ngowo

essential nature

Noun

Ngok Tradition

Ngok Lotsāwa Loden Sherab's "analytic tradition" of exegesis of the Uttaratantra; one of two major Tibetan traditions of exegesis, both stemming from students of Sajjana.

རྔོག་ལུགས་
rngog lugs

ngok luk

Noun

nirmāṇakāya

An fully enlightened Buddha is said to have the power to manifest in many forms in order to help the sentient beings. The emanation body of a buddha, as the third of the three bodies of a buddha, refers to the many forms in which a buddha can manifest and which are accessible to ordinary sentient beings. Buddhist scholars present four types of emanation bodies: emanation as supreme being, emanation as rebirth, emanation as artisan and emanation in diverse forms.

སྤྲུལ་སྐུ།
sprul sku
निर्माणकाय
nirmāṇakāya
trulku
nirmāṇakāya
化身
haushen

keshin
emanation body

Adjective

niḥsvabhāva

Lacking inherent existence.

ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་མེད་པ་
ngo bo nyid med pa
निःस्वभाव
niḥsvabhāva

lacking intrinsic nature

Noun

niḥsvabhāvatā

The state of lacking a truly independent existence.

ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་མེད་པ་ཉིད་
ngo bo nyid med pa nyid
निःस्वभावता
niḥsvabhāvatā

absence of own being

Adjective

niṣprapañca

Freedom from conceptual elaborations.

སྤྲོས་བྲལ་
spros bral
निष्प्रपञ्च
niṣprapañca

nonconceptuality

School

Nyingma

The Nyingma, which is often described as the oldest tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, traces its origin to Padmasambhava, who is said to have visited Tibet in the eighth century.

རྙིང་མ་
rnying ma

nying ma

Noun

nītārtha

Refers to a teaching that is literally true.

ངེས་དོན་
nges don
नीतार्थ
nītārtha
ngedön

definitive meaning

Noun

original enlightenment

According to East Asian Buddhism, the intrinsic enlightenment of all sentient beings. This is obscured by the many stains present in the ālayavijñāna. When these are purified, the natural state of enlightenment is recovered, a status known as "actualized enlightenment."

本覺
benjue

honggaku
original enlightenment

Noun

paramārthasatya

"Ultimate truth" or "absolute truth"; the reality of things as they truly are.

དོན་དམ་བདེན་པ་
don dam bden pa
परमार्थसत्य
paramārthasatya
dön dam denpa

眞諦, 第一義諦
dì yī yì dì, zhendì

daiichigitai, shintai
ultimate truth

Noun

paratantrasvabhāva

The second of the three natures, according to the Yogācāra school. It is the dependent nature that is used to describe the relationship between mind and its objects, though there is a clear emphasis on the latter. Hence, this nature is concerned with the nature of seemingly external objects that arise in dependence upon causes and conditions.

གཞན་དབང་གི་རང་བཞིན་
gzhan dbang gi rang bzhin
परतन्त्रस्वभाव
paratantrasvabhāva
zhenwang gi rangzhin

dependent nature

Noun

parikalpitasvabhāva

The first of the three natures, according to the Yogācāra school. It is the imaginary nature which is falsely projected onto an object out of confusion.

ཀུན་བཏགས་ཀྱི་རང་བཞིན་
kun btags kyi rang bzhin
परिकल्पितस्वभाव
parikalpitasvabhāva
kuntak kyi rangzhin

imaginary nature

Noun

pariniṣpannasvabhāva

The third of the three natures, according to the Yogācāra school. It is the perfect nature that represents the most authentic understanding of phenomena, which is classically defined as the complete absence of the imaginary nature within the dependent nature.

ཡོངས་སུ་གྲུབ་པའི་རང་བཞིན་
yongs su grub pa'i rang bzhin
परिनिष्पन्नस्वभाव
pariniṣpannasvabhāva

consummate nature

Noun

paryudāsapratiṣedha

A negation that denies one thing in such a way that it clearly implies another.

མ་ཡིན་དགག་
ma yin dgag
पर्युदासप्रतिषेध
paryudāsapratiṣedha
ma yin gak

implicative negation

Noun

prabhāsvaracitta

The luminous aspect of mind that is often contrasted with its empty aspect. It is often used figuratively to reference the cognizant, or knowing, aspect of mind and sometimes more literally as the natural luminosity of mind and luminous wisdom that is experienced in meditation.

འོད་གསལ་གྱི་སེམས་
'od gsal gyi sems
प्रभास्वरचित्त

ösel gyi sem

光明心
guāng míng xīn

kōmyōshin
luminous mind

Noun

prabhāsvaratā

In a general sense, that which clears away darkness, though it often appears in Buddhist literature in reference to the mind or its nature. It is a particularly salient feature of Tantric literature, especially in regard to the advanced meditation techniques of the completion-stage yogas.

འོད་གསལ་
'od gsal
प्रभास्वर

ösel

光明
guāng míng

kōmyō
luminosity

Noun

prajñā

One of the key terms for wisdom or knowledge, most often having the sense of insight, transcendent knowledge, or perhaps gnosis. In some contexts it can also refer to cognition or intellectual understanding.

ཤེས་རབ་
shes rab
प्रज्ञा
prajñā
sherab

般若
bān ruò

wisdom

Noun

Prajñāpāramitā

A class of Mahāyāna sūtras which represents some of the earliest known literature of this genre of Buddhism. There are around forty texts associated with this category, though the most widespread is the exceedingly brief Prajñāpāramitāhṛdayasūtra, popularly known as the Heart Sūtra. This class of literature is typically associated with the second turning of the dharma wheel and especially with the teachings on emptiness (śūnyatā). As such, these texts were the primary scriptural source for the philosophy of the Madhyamaka school.

ཤེར་ཕྱིན་, ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་
sher phyin, shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa
प्रज्ञापारमिता
prajñāpāramitā

般若波羅蜜多
bōrě bōluómìduō

hannya haramitta
Perfection of Wisdom

Noun

prakṛtisthagotra

The potential for awakening that is inherently present in all beings.

རང་བཞིན་གནས་རིགས་
rang bzhin gnas rigs
प्रकृतिस्थगोत्र
prakṛtisthagotra
rangzhin nerik

本性住種性
běn xìng zhù zhǒng xìng

honshōjūshushō
naturally present potential

Noun

pramāṇa

In the Buddhist literature on pramāṇa, it refers to cognition that correctly apprehends its object without any deception or mistake. Such correct cognition include direct perception and inferential cognition.

ཚད་མ།
tshad ma
प्रमान
pramāṇa
tshema
pramana
量
liàng

correct cognition

Noun

prasajyapratiṣedha

A negation that merely denies the existence of something without implicitly suggesting an alternative.

མེད་དགག་
med dgag
प्रसज्यप्रतिषेध
prasajyapratiṣedha
me gak

nonimplicative negation

Noun

pratipakṣa

An antidote or remedy that contributes or supports the elimination or pacification of a particular ailment or affliction.

གཉེན་པོ་
gnyen po
प्रतिपक्ष

nyenpo
pratipaksha
對治
duizhi, duì zhì

taiji
antidote

Noun

Pratyekabuddha

Pratyekabuddhas are saints who, in their last birth in the cycle of existence, are said to become enlightened through solitary practice on the nature of dependent ordination. These saints are said to appear when there is no buddha around and work either alone or in small groups.

རང་རྒྱལ།, རང་སངས་རྒྱས།
rang rgyal, rang sangs rgyas
प्रत्येकबुद्ध
pratyekabuddha
rang sangye, rangyal
pratyekabuddha
緣覺
yuán jué

solitary realizer

Noun

pratītyasamutpāda

The notion that all phenomena arise in dependence on causes and conditions.

རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་བ་, རྟེན་འབྲེལ་
rten 'brel, rten cing 'brel bar 'byung ba
प्रतीत्यसमुत्पाद

ten drel, tenching drelwar jungwa

緣起
yuánqǐ

engi
dependent origination

Noun

pāramitā

The six or ten types of practices which lead an individual to Buddhahood. The practice of perfections is particularly important in Mahāyāna Buddhism in which the entire path of the Bodhisattva to reach full enlightenment is included in the six or ten perfections. The six perfections are that of giving, of discipline, patience, zeal, meditation, and wisdom. The perfection of skill-in-means, aspirations, power, and pristine wisdom are added to them to make ten perfections.

ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ།, ཕར་ཕྱིན།
pha rol tu phyin pa, phar phyin
पारमिता
pāramitā
pa rol tu phyin pa, pharchin
pāramitā
波羅蜜
Bōluómì duō

haramitsu
perfection

Adjective

rang stong

The state of being empty of self, which references the lack of inherent existence in relative phenomena.

རང་སྟོང་
rang stong

rangtong

self-emptiness

Noun

rgyu'i rgyud

The mind's natural mode that abides as suchness, which remains unchanged from the state of an ordinary being up until enlightenment.

རྒྱུའི་རྒྱུད་
rgyu'i rgyud

gyu gyu

causal continuum

School

Sakya

The Sakya tradition developed in the eleventh century in the Khön family of Tsang, which maintained an imperial-era lineage of Vajrakīla and which adopted a new teaching from India known as Lamdre.

ས་སྐྱ་
sa skya

sa kya

Sakya

Noun

samudānītagotra

A potential or disposition that is acquired, accentuated, or developed through past karmic actions.

རྒྱས་འགྱུར་གྱི་རིགས་
rgyas 'gyur gyi rigs
समुदानीतगोत्र
samudānītagotra
gye gyur kyi rik

習所成種性
xí suǒ chéng zhǒng xìng

shūshushō
acquired potential

Place

Sangpu Neutok

Sangpu Neutok is an important monastery in central Tibet, just south of Lhasa, that was founded in 1072 by Ngok Lekpai Sherab, a disciple of Atiśa, and developed by his nephew, Ngok Lotsāwa Loden Sherab. Originally a Kadam monastery with two colleges, it evolved into a monastery that includes both Sakya and Geluk traditions. At its peak in the 11th to 14th centuries, it was one of the most highly esteemed centers for monastic education and the study of Buddhist philosophy in all of the Tibetan plateau. Many influential philosophers of the time studied there.

གསང་ཕུ་ནེའུ་ཐོག་
gsang phu ne'u thog

Sangpu Neutok

School

Sarma

The new Buddhist schools which began to rise in the second millennium in Tibet after Buddhism declined in the ninth century as a result of the fall of the Yarlung dynasty. The Sarma schools were mostly based on Buddhist teachings freshly received from India and Nepal in contrast to the revival of the old teachings which already existed in Tibet.

གསར་མ།
gsar ma

sarma

New School

Noun

sarvākāravaropetāśūnyatā

As opposed to a mere voidness, this phrase refers to an emptiness that is endowed with enlightened qualities and attributes.

རྣམ་ཀུན་མཆོག་ལྡན་གྱི་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་
rnam kun mchog ldan gyi stong pa nyid

emptiness endowed with all supreme aspects

Noun

saṃbhogakāya

The physical form of a buddha which resides in a pure buddha realm, possesses the marks and tokens of an enlightened being, teaches Mahāyāna teachings to a retinue of Bodhisattvas for eternity. This embodied form of a buddha is the source from which all the forms of emanation originate.

ལོངས་སྐུ།, ལོངས་སྤྱོད་རྫོགས་སྐུ།
longs sku, longs spyod rdzogs sku
संभोगकाय
saṃbhogakāya
longchö dzoku, longku
saṃbhogakāya
報身
baoshen

höjin
enjoyment body

Noun

saṃvṛtisatya

"Relative truth" or "conventional truth"; the erroneously perceived reality common to the unenlightened.

ཀུན་རྫོབ་བདེན་པ་
kun rdzob bden pa
संवृतिसत्य
saṃvṛtisatya
kundzop denpa

世俗諦, 俗諦
shì sú dì, sú dì

sezokutai, zokutai
relative truth

Noun

sems nyid

Commonly found in Dzogchen and Mahāmudrā literature, this term denotes the true, natural state of mind as it is. Often used in these traditions as a synonym for buddha-nature.

སེམས་ཉིད་
sems nyid
चित्तत्व
cittatva
semnyi

nature of mind

Noun

sugatagarbha

Literally, the "essence" or "heart of the Bliss Gone One(s)," a synonym for tathāgatagarbha that is likewise often rendered into English by the term buddha-nature. Though it is often back translated into Sanskrit as sugatagarbha, this term is not found in Sanskrit sources.

བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་
bde gshegs snying po
सुगतगर्भ

deshek nyingpo

essence of the Bliss Gone One

Noun

svabhāva

The nature or essence of a thing, which originates only from itself and is not dependent on any external entities, causes, or conditions.

རང་བཞིན་
rang bzhin
स्वभाव
svabhāva
rangzhin

自性
zìxìng

intrinsic nature

Noun

svasaṃvedana

An important term for the Yogācāra that refers to a consciousness of consciousness itself, or how one knows that they know something. It was a hotly debated topic that was disputed by followers of the Madhyamaka. In Tibet it would later become a common Dzogchen term, though with the entirely different meaning of one's own innate awareness (rig pa), a crucial concept in the Dzogchen teachings.

རང་རིག་
rang rig
स्वसंवेदन

rangrik

自證分
zìzhèngfēn

jishō
self-awareness

Noun

sādhana

Sādhana refers to a method of practice through which one can actualise a specific spiritual result, and by extension to the texts and manuals which present such methods. A sādhana in the Vajrayāna Buddhist context generally involves the worship and visualisation of a tantric deity, chanting of mantras, and associated practices. The practice often begins with verses of taking refuge and cultivating altruistic thought, then carrying out meditation on emptiness and the mandala of deity, seven-part worship, chanting of mantras, and finally the dissolution of the deity which was visualised.

སྒྲུབ་ཐབས།
sgrub thabs
साधन
sādhana
drupthab
sādhana
修行
chengjiu, xiūxíng

jōjuhō
practice method

Noun

sūtra

Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon.

མདོ།
mdo
सूत्र
sūtra
dho

佛经
fújīng

discourse, scripture

Noun

tantra

Tantra, when juxtaposed with Sūtra, generally refers to the scriptures and texts which discuss esoteric topics. While the term is used to refer to texts on other topics, it is mostly used to refer to the genre of scriptures and texts on themes and topics associated with Vajrayāna Buddhism.

རྒྱུད།
rgyud
तन्त्र
tantra
gyu
tantra
密宗
mìzōng

continuum

Noun

tathatā

Suchness itself, absolute reality, or thusness, as in the ultimate state of being of phenomena.

དེ་བཞིན་ཉིད་
de bzhin nyid
तथता
tathatā
day zhin nyi

suchness

Noun

tathāgatagarbha

Buddha-nature, literally the "womb/essence of those who have gone (to suchness)."

དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་
de bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po
तथागतगर्भ
tathāgatagarbha

tatagatagarbha
如来藏
rúláizàng

buddha-nature

Noun

tattva

The reality or the objective state of things as they are. In the Buddhist context, it refers to the ultimate nature of things although what exactly suchness means would depend on the philosophical position of the specific schools. The Middle Way school, for instance, consider emptiness as the suchness of all things.

དེ་ཁོ་ན་ཉིད།
de kho na nyid
तत्त्व
tattva
dekhonyi
tattva

shixiang

jissö
Suchness

Noun

tha mal gyi shes pa

A Mahāmudrā term for the basic state of consciousness that has not been fabricated or altered in any way.

ཐ་མལ་གྱི་ཤེས་པ་
tha mal gyi shes pa

*prākṛtajñāna
tamal gyi shepa

ordinary mind

Noun

thugs dam

Persons who have experience in meditation on the nature of the mind or emptiness are said to be able to remain in a meditative equipoise after death. Although they have stopped breathing and are clinically dead, they are said to be able to retain their body without decay, often with lustre and flexibility. They are believed to have actualised their buddha-nature at the time of death and attained the state of enlightenment.

ཐུགས་དམ།
thugs dam

thugdam

meditation at death

Noun

tridharmacakrapravartana

Three successive stages of the Buddhist teachings. Though they are traditionally attributed to the historical Buddha, modern scholarship tends to view them as developmental stages that occurred over the course of an extended period of time, with interludes of several centuries, in which we see major doctrinal shifts often based on seemingly newly emergent scriptural sources.

ཆོས་འཁོར་རིམ་པ་གསུམ་
chos 'khor rim pa gsum
त्रिधर्मचक्रप्रवर्तन
tridharmacakrapravartana
chökhor rimpa sum

the three turnings of the wheel of dharma

Noun

trikāya

The three enlightened forms of a buddha one attains when one becomes fully enlightened. They include the truth body (dharmakāya), enjoyment body (saṃbhogakāya), and the emanation body (nirmāṇakāya). The three bodies comprise the many qualities and powers associated with buddhahood and thus are the result sought through Mahāyāna Buddhist practice.

སྐུ་གསུམ།
sku gsum
त्रिकाय
trikāya
kusum

三身
sānshēn

three bodies

Noun

trisvabhāva

According to the Yogācāra school, all phenomena can be divided into three natures or characteristics: the imaginary nature (parikalpitasvabhāva), the dependent nature (paratantrasvabhāva), and the perfect or absolute nature (pariniṣpannasvabhāva).

རང་བཞིན་གསུམ་
rang bzhin gsum
त्रिस्वभाव
trisvabhāva

three natures

Noun

triviṣa

The three poisons are a reference to the afflictive emotions of rāga (Tib. 'dod chags), dveṣa (Tib. zhe sdang), and moha (Tib. gti mug). These three detrimental states or afflictive behavioral patterns are difficult to definitively translate, and thus there are several common English variations of this group of three, such as desire, aggression, and bewilderment, or attachment, aversion, and delusion. It is useful to think of these three as a process that involves our insatiable urge to possess that which we desire and the ensuing aggravation that arises when we don't get what we want or have what we don't want forced upon us. Yet we are oblivious to the futility of these conditioned responses due to our lack of discernment, and thus we mindlessly continue to get caught up in this causal nexus.

དུག་གསུམ་
dug gsum
त्रिविष
triviṣa
duk sum

三毒
sandu

sandoku
three poisons

Noun

triyāna

Commonly seen in a Mahāyāna context, the three vehicles are the Śrāvakayāna, Pratyekabuddhayāna, and Bodhisattvayāna, which reference the three different types of Buddhist practitioners. However, these three vehicles can also reference the three types of Buddhist teachings of the Hīnayāna, Mahāyāna (or Pāramitāyāna), and the Vajrayāna.

ཐེག་པ་གསུམ་
theg pa gsum
त्रियान

三乗
sānchéng

sanjō
three vehicles

Noun

Tsen Tradition

Tsen Khawoche's "meditative tradition" of exegesis of the Uttaratantra; it is one of two major Tibetan traditions of exegesis, both stemming from students of Sajjana.

བཙན་ལུགས་
btsan lugs

tsen luk

Text

Uttaratantra

The Ultimate Continuum, or Gyü Lama, is often used as a short title in the Tibetan tradition for the key source text of buddha-nature teachings called the Ratnagotravibhāga of Maitreya/Asaṅga, also known as the Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra.

རྒྱུད་བླ་མ་
rgyud bla ma
उत्तरतन्त्र
uttaratantra

寶性論
bǎo xìng lùn

Ultimate Continuum

Noun

vajrapada

Literally, vajra-footing, or base. In the context of the Ratnagotravibhāga, this is the name given to the seven subjects that are addressed in the treatise. These seven are the buddha, dharma, saṅgha, the element (dhātu), enlightenment (bodhi), enlightened qualities (guṇa), and enlightened activities (karman).

རྡོ་རྗེའི་གནས་
rdo rje'i gnas
वज्रपद

vajra topics

Noun

Vajrayāna

The esoteric Buddhist tradition which developed as a syncretic system involving deity worship, use of mantras, physical energy, and mystical practices. It is also known as the mantra tradition and the tantric school as a result of being based on texts known as tantras.

རྡོ་རྗེ་ཐེག་པ།
rdo rje theg pa
वज्रयान
vajrayāna
dorje thekpa

金剛乘
Jin'gangsheng

Diamond Vehicle

Noun

vinaya

Vinaya refers to the corpus of Buddhist teachings on moral discipline and precepts and is one of the three canonical sets of teachings alongside Sūtra and Abhidharma. It also refers to the monastic tradition which has been passed down since the Buddha's time until our time.

འདུལ་བ།
'dul ba
विनय
vinaya
dulwa
vinaya
毘奈耶
pínàiyé

discipline

Noun

viparyāsa

The misperception or incorrect view a person has of reality, which must be overcome by having correct understanding and right view. The four well known incorrect views are seeing impermanent phenomena as permanent, dissatisfactory nature of things as blissful, impure things as pure, and illusory things as absolute and real. However, in the context of buddha-nature theory or other systems, there are also other forms of misconceptions which contradict with objective reality.

ཕྱིན་ཅི་ལོག
phyin ci log
विपर्यास
viparyāsa
chyinchilok
viparyāsa
顚倒
diandao

tendö
misperception, wrong perception

Noun

visaṃyogaphala

One of the five types of effects, or fruitions. It refers to an effect that arises from removing that which obscures or hinders it.

བྲལ་འབྲས་
bral 'bras
विसंयोगफल
visaṃyogaphala
drel drey

freed effect

School

Yogācāra

Along with Madhyamaka, it was one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu around the fourth century CE, many of its central tenets have roots in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and the so-called third turning of the dharma wheel (see tridharmacakrapravartana).

རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྤྱོད་པ་
rnal 'byor spyod pa
योगाचार
Yogācāra
naljor chöpa

瑜伽行派
Yuqiexing pai
瑜伽行
Yugagyō
Yoga-Practice school

Noun

āgantukamala

Mental stains that are not inherent to the nature of the mind but are temporarily present as the residue of past actions or habitual tendencies. It is sometimes iterated as adventitious defilements (Skt. āgantukakleśa, Tib. glo bur gyi nyon mongs), which references the fickle and temporary nature of disturbing emotions that lack an ultimately established basis for existence.

གློ་བུར་གྱི་དྲི་མ་
glo bur gyi dri ma
आगन्तुकमल
āgantukamala
lobur kyi drima

adventitious stains

Noun

ālayavijñāna

A neutral base consciousness that is posited as the storehouse for the seeds of past karmic actions in which they remain in a latent state until the circumstances arise for them to ripen as karmic consequences.

ཀུན་གཞིའི་རྣམ་ཤེས་
kun gzhi'i rnam shes
आलयविज्ञान
ālayavijñāna
kunshi namshe

藏識, 阿賴耶識
cáng shí, ā lài yé shí

arayashiki, zōshiki
ground consciousness

Noun

ātmaka

Literally, the state of possessing a self. It is usually used to denote something which is endowed with a certain innate, or natural, attribute.

བདག་ཉིད་ཅན་
bdag nyid can
आत्मक
ātmaka
dak nyi chen

embodiment

Noun

ātman

Though it can simply be used as the expression "I" or "me", in Indian thought the notion of self refers to a permanent, unchanging entity, such as that which passes from life to life in the case of people, or the innate essence (svabhāva) of phenomena.

བདག་
bdag
आत्मन्

dak

我, 灵魂
línghún, wǒ

ga
self

Noun

āvaraṇa

Literally, that which obscures or conceals. Often listed as a set of two obscurations (sgrib gnyis): the afflictive emotional obscurations (Skt. kleśāvaraṇa, Tib. nyon mongs pa'i sgrib pa) and the cognitive obscurations (Skt. jñeyāvaraṇa, Tib. shes bya'i sgrib pa). By removing the first, one becomes free of suffering, and by removing the second, one becomes omniscient.

སྒྲིབ་པ་
sgrib pa
आवरण
āvaraṇa
drip pa

obscurations

Noun

śrāvaka

The disciples of the Buddha who aspire to attain individual liberation or nirvāṇa. The final goal of the Hearers is to become an arhat, a state in which one has totally eliminated the inner problems of attachment, hatred and ignorance, the main causes for rebirth in this cycle of existence. There are four stages of a śrāvaka path including eight phases.

ཉན་ཐོས།
nyan thos
श्रावक
śrāvaka
nyentö
śrāvaka
聲聞
shēng wén
声聞
shōmon
Disciple, Hearer

Noun

śūnyatā

The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics.

སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་
stong pa nyid
शून्यता
śūnyatā
tong pa nyi
shunyata
空, 空門
kōng, kōng mén

kū, kūmon
emptiness

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