Glossary

'jog sgom

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स्थाप्यभावना

འཇོག་སྒོམ་

Basic Meaning:

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

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Tibetan Noun

AA

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Basic Meaning:

Abhisamayālaṃkāra

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Abbreviation

AAvivṛti

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Basic Meaning:

Abhisamayālaṃkāravivṛti

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Abbreviation

AAvṛtti

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Basic Meaning:

Abhisamayālaṃkāravṛtti

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Abbreviation

AAĀ

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Basic Meaning:

Abhisamayālaṃkārālokā

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Abbreviation

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.

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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

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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.

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Sanskrit Adjective

AK

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Basic Meaning:

Abhidharmakośakārikā

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Abbreviation

AKBh

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Basic Meaning:

Abhidharmakośabhāṣya

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Abbreviation

AKVy

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Basic Meaning:

Abhidharmakośavyākhyā

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Abbreviation

AkṣN

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Basic Meaning:

Akṣayamatinirdeśasūtra

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Abbreviation

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.

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Sanskrit Noun

AMS

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Basic Meaning:

Aṅgulimālīyasūtra

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Abbreviation

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.

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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.

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Sanskrit Noun

AOH

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Basic Meaning:

Acta Orientalia (Budapest)

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Abbreviation

AP

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Basic Meaning:

Asian Philosophy

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Abbreviation

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.

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Sanskrit Noun

ARIRIAB

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Basic Meaning:

Annual Report of The International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology at Soka University

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Abbreviation

AS

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Basic Meaning:

Asiatische Studien

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Abbreviation

Atiyoga

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अतियोग

ཨ་ཏི་ཡོ་ག, ཤིན་ཏུ་རྣལ་འབྱོར།

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.

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Sanskrit School

AU

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Basic Meaning:

Amṛtakaṇikodyotanibandha

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Abbreviation

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.

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Sanskrit Noun

Aṣṭa

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Basic Meaning:

Aṣṭasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā

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Abbreviation

BA

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Basic Meaning:

The Blue Annals

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Abbreviation

BA (Tib)

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Basic Meaning:

Deb ther sngon po

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Abbreviation

BCA

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Basic Meaning:

Bodhicaryāvatāra

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Abbreviation

BCAP

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Basic Meaning:

Bodhicaryāvatārapañjikā

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Abbreviation

BCRD

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Basic Meaning:

The Buddhist Canons Research Database a project of the American Institute of Buddhist Studies (AIBS) and the Columbia University Center for Buddhist Studies (CCBS) http://databases.aibs.columbia.edu/

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Abbreviation

BDRC

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Basic Meaning:

Buddhist Digital Resource Center https://www.tbrc.org/

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Abbreviation

BEFEO

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Basic Meaning:

Bulletin d'École Française d'Extrême-Orient

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Abbreviation

BhK I

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Basic Meaning:

Bhāvanākrama I

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Abbreviation

BHSD

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Basic Meaning:

Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Grammar and Dictionary, Vol. 2

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Abbreviation

BHSG

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Basic Meaning:

Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Grammar and Dictionary, Vol. 1

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Abbreviation

bhūmi

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भूमि

ས་

Basic Meaning:

A plateau of spiritual development.

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Sanskrit Noun

Bobh

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Basic Meaning:

Bodhisattvabhūmi

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Abbreviation

bodhi

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बोधि

བྱང་ཆུབ་

菩提, 悟, 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)

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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

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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."

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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.

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Sanskrit Noun

BPPB

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Basic Meaning:

Bibliotheca Philologica et Philosophica Buddhica

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Abbreviation

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.

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Sanskrit Noun

BSOAS

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Basic Meaning:

Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies

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Abbreviation

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.

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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.

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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.

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Sanskrit Noun

CAJ

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Basic Meaning:

Central Asiatic Journal

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Abbreviation

Caturmudrā

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Basic Meaning:

Caturmudrāviniścaya

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Abbreviation

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.

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Sanskrit Noun

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