A glossary for your exploration.

Systematic Buddhist analysis of mind, experience and teachings. Different early schools developed different collections and interpretations. Abhidharma is the Sanskrit form.

Also: Abhidharma

A collection of early Buddhist discourses, many preserved in Chinese translation, with parallels to the Pāli Nikāyas.

Also: Āgamas

A Thai title meaning teacher, often used for experienced Buddhist monastics.

The Buddha of Infinite Light, central to many Pure Land traditions. Amida is the Japanese name.

Also: Amida

Mindfulness of breathing. MN 118 describes sixteen trainings connecting awareness of breathing with the wider Buddhist path.

Not-self: experience cannot be securely identified as a permanent, independent self. Anātman is the Sanskrit form.

Also: anātman · not-self · non-self

Numerical Discourses (AN). Teachings arranged by the number of items in a set.

Also: Numerical Discourses

Impermanence: conditioned things arise and pass away. Anitya is the Sanskrit form.

Also: anitya · impermanence

In Nyingma’s nine-vehicle classification, the second of the three inner tantras, with particular emphasis on channels, winds and drops.

A person liberated from greed, hatred and delusion. Arahantship is a central ideal in early Buddhist texts and Theravāda; arhat is the Sanskrit form.

Also: arhat · arahants · arhats · arahantship

Noble or spiritually realized. The term includes realized practitioners of different Buddhist paths. In the Mahāyāna bodhisattva path, entry into the first bhūmi marks becoming an ārya bodhisattva.

Also: āryas · ārya bodhisattva

Sanskrit; Pāli: āsava. Mental taints or outflows, also translated as influxes or effluents. MN 9 names “the effluent of sensuality, the effluent of becoming, the effluent of ignorance” (Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu) and gives the Noble Eightfold Path as the way to their cessation. A fourfold classification adds wrong views; their complete ending marks arahantship.

Also: āsava · āsravas · āsavas · taints · outflows · influxes · effluents · cankers

The bodhisattva of compassion, known as Guanyin in Chinese, Kannon in Japanese, Gwaneum in Korean, Quán Âm in Vietnamese and Chenrezig in Tibetan. Names and representations vary across traditions.

Also: Avalokiteshvara · Avalokiteshwara · Avalokita · Ārya Avalokiteśvara · Guanyin · Guan Yin · Kuan Yin · Kuan-yin · Kwan Yin · Quan Yin · Guanshiyin · Guan Shi Yin · Guanzizai · Kwun Yum · Kwun Yam · Kannon · Kanzeon · Kanjizai · Kannon Bosatsu · Kanzeon Bosatsu · Kanjizai Bosatsu · Gwaneum · Gwan-eum · Gwanseeum · Kwan Um · Kwan Seum Bosal · Quán Âm · Quán Thế Âm · Quán Tự Tại · Chenrezig · Chenrezi · Janraisig · Janraiseg · Kuan Im · Guan Im · Kuan Eim · Chao Mae Kuan Im · 觀音 · 观音 · 觀世音 · 观世音 · 觀自在 · 观自在 · 観音 · 観世音 · 観自在 · 관음 · 관세음

An intermediate or transitional state. Tibetan Buddhist teachings use the term especially for the interval between death and rebirth, and also for other transitional states.

An American Theravāda monk (1946–2023) who founded Dhamma Sukha Meditation Center and taught Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation (TWIM), emphasizing loving-kindness and relaxation.

Also: Vimalaramsi

A fully ordained Buddhist monk. Bhikṣu is the Sanskrit form.

Also: bhikṣu

A fully ordained Buddhist nun. Bhikṣuṇī is the Sanskrit form.

Also: bhikṣuṇī

A drop or essence; Tibetan thigle (thig le). In subtle-body teachings, drops are associated with the channels, consciousness and bliss. Their roles differ across tantric systems.

Also: bindus · thigle · thig le · tigle · essence-drops

The intention to attain Buddhahood for the benefit of all beings. Mahāyāna teachings describe both its aspiration and its cultivation in practice.

Qualities conducive to awakening, commonly counted as 37 positions in seven overlapping sets. Recurring qualities connect the sets; the count does not describe 37 successive levels.

Also: 37 qualities of awakening · Wings to Awakening · bodhipakṣika dharma

A being pursuing awakening. In Mahāyāna, the ideal is to attain full Buddhahood for the benefit of all beings; earlier texts also use the term for the Buddha before his awakening.

Also: bodhisattvas

The bodhisattva vehicle: the path toward full Buddhahood for the benefit of beings, through wisdom, compassion and the perfections. Central to Mahāyāna accounts of the path.

Also: bodhisattva vehicle

A ‘divine dwelling’ or immeasurable attitude: loving-kindness, compassion, appreciative joy and equanimity.

Also: brahmavihāras · four immeasurables · four brahmavihāras · four faces of love

A collection of scriptures regarded as authoritative by a religious tradition. Buddhist traditions preserve different, overlapping canons.

Also: canons · canonical

The principal channel in many Tibetan subtle-body maps; Tibetan uma (dbu ma), Sanskrit avadhūtī. Its description and role depend on the tantric system.

Also: uma · avadhūtī · dbu ma

A wheel or junction of channels in tantric subtle-body maps. Tibetan Buddhist systems describe different numbers, arrangements and symbolic meanings.

Also: chakras · cakra · cakras

A meditational Buddha figure and tantric system, also called Heruka in this context. A Chakrasamvara empowerment can form part of the preparation for the Six Yogas of Naropa, according to the transmission.

Also: Cakrasaṃvara · Chakrasamvara empowerment

A Chinese Buddhist tradition emphasizing meditative realization and teacher–student transmission. Related traditions are called Seon in Korea, Thiền in Vietnam and Zen in Japan.

Desire, interest or intention. Its ethical quality depends on context; desire to cultivate the path can support liberation, so it should not automatically be equated with craving.

Examining a teaching or experience through reasoning and reflection to deepen understanding and transform the mind.

Also: che gom · analytical meditation · analytic meditation · investigative meditation · dpyad sgom

A Tibetan practice associated with Machig Labdrön that works with fear and attachment to self through wisdom and the imagined offering of one’s body.

Luminosity of mind; Tibetan ösel (’od gsal). In completion-stage explanations it can refer to the subtlest level of mind, discussed in connection with meditation, sleep and dying.

Also: ösel

In highest yoga tantra, methods working with subtler dimensions of body and mind, following the preparation of generation-stage practice. Systems and explanations vary by lineage.

Also: completion-stage · complete stage · sampannakrama · dzogrim

Generosity or giving, including material support for teachers and communities. A foundational Buddhist practice.

A Vajrayāna approach that cultivates awakened qualities through meditation on a Buddha figure, grounded in bodhicitta and understanding emptiness. Formal self-generation follows a particular empowerment and transmission.

Also: devatāyoga · deva yoga

The principle that experiences and phenomena arise in dependence on conditions. Its applications range from explaining suffering to examining how things exist.

Also: dependent origination · pratītyasamutpāda · paṭiccasamuppāda

The Path of Dhamma (Dhp). A collection of verses in the Khuddaka Nikāya.

Also: The Path of Dhamma

The Buddha’s teaching and the path of practice; in other contexts, ‘dharmas’ can mean phenomena or elements of experience. Dhamma is the Pāli form.

Also: Dhamma

The “Dharma body” or “truth body”: Buddhahood in its ultimate dimension, understood through reality, emptiness and awakened wisdom. In the three-body framework it is distinguished from the forms in which a Buddha appears to beings.

Also: Dharma body · truth body

Long Discourses (DN). A collection of longer discourses.

Also: Long Discourses

Tibetan Buddhist practices that bring recognition of dreaming and the dream state into the path. Included in many presentations of the Six Yogas.

Also: milam

Suffering, stress or unsatisfactoriness. It includes obvious pain and the instability of experiences we try to make permanently satisfying.

‘Great Perfection’: teachings and practices especially associated with Nyingma that emphasize recognizing the nature of awareness.

Attachment and aversion concerning gain and loss, praise and blame, reputation and disrepute, and pleasure and pain. Tibetan Buddhist teachings examine these as motivations that distract from Dharma practice; AN 8.6 discusses the corresponding worldly conditions.

Also: eight worldly conditions · eight worldly dharmas · eight worldly winds · lokadhamma

The “one vehicle.” In the Lotus Sūtra, the three vehicles are skilful means leading to the one Buddha vehicle. Interpretations differ among Mahāyāna traditions.

Also: one Buddha vehicle

A tantric initiation into a particular practice and lineage; Sanskrit abhiṣeka, Tibetan wang (dbang). Traditionally understood to activate the potential for realization, it involves the preparation and commitments of that transmission.

Also: empowerments · initiation · initiations · abhiṣeka · abhisheka · wang · dbang

An approach that brings Buddhist ethics and practice into social, environmental and political concerns. Thích Nhất Hạnh was an influential voice in it.

Confidence, effort, mindfulness, concentration and wisdom: five capacities supporting the path. The same qualities also appear as the five powers.

Also: pañcindriya

Five obstacles to collectedness: sensual desire, ill will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and remorse, and doubt.

Confidence, effort, mindfulness, concentration and wisdom considered as strengths. The early discourses relate these to the five faculties.

Also: pañca balāni

Concentration supported by purposeful desire, persistence, intent and inquiry, together with exertion. The canonical context includes extraordinary abilities and liberation.

Also: iddhipāda

A title used by Rebecca Bradshaw for teachings through four compassionate archetypes: Mary, Tārā, Kwan Yin and Tinker Bell. These four figures are distinct from the traditional four immeasurables.

Suffering, its origin, its cessation and the path leading to its cessation. Also called the four truths of the āryas: truths recognized by noble or spiritually realized beings.

Also: four truths of the āryas · four truths for the aryas · four truths of the noble ones

Prevent unarisen unskillful qualities, abandon those that have arisen, develop unarisen skillful qualities, and sustain those already present.

Also: sammappadhāna

The Tibetan tradition that developed from Tsongkhapa’s teachings, emphasizing monastic discipline, philosophical study and a graduated path of practice.

In highest yoga tantra, the phase that develops the path through visualization of the Buddha figure and its mandala.

Also: generation-stage · development stage · utpattikrama · kyerim

A family of Tibetan Buddhist practices connecting devotion to the teacher with meditation on awakened qualities. Forms include prayer, visualization and meditation; instructions and preparation depend on the lineage and practice cycle.

Also: guruyoga · lama naljor

Usually translated “Lesser Vehicle”: a historically disparaging Mahāyāna term, also used in Tibetan teaching frameworks for paths oriented toward liberation as an arhat. It is not a synonym for Theravāda or a neutral name for a living Buddhist community.

Also: Hiniyana

A Chinese Mahāyāna tradition based on the Flower Garland Sūtra, especially known for teachings about the interdependence and mutual inclusion of phenomena.

A term for an advanced tantric realization involving subtle wind and mind, connected with teachings on the illusion-like character of appearances. Its detailed meaning depends on the system.

Also: gyulü

Thích Nhất Hạnh’s term emphasizing that nothing exists independently: each thing depends on many other conditions.

Thus It Was Said (Iti). Short teachings in prose and verse, in the Khuddaka Nikāya.

Also: Thus It Was Said

A state of meditative absorption or deep collectedness. Buddhist traditions and modern teachers differ in how they describe its depth and its relationship to sensory experience.

Also: jhānas · dhyāna

The Japanese Pure Land tradition associated with Shinran, emphasizing entrusting to Amida Buddha’s vow.

The Japanese Pure Land school founded by Hōnen, emphasizing nembutsu: recitation of Amida Buddha’s name.

Placement or settling meditation: resting steadily with an object, understanding or cultivated state, often alternating with analytical reflection.

Also: jok gom · jog gom · placement meditation · settling meditation · stabilizing meditation · 'jog sgom

A Tibetan tradition associated with Atiśa and Dromtön, known for graduated-path teachings and mind training. Its influence extends into later Tibetan schools.

A family of Tibetan Buddhist lineages emphasizing the transmission of meditation practice. Mahāmudrā is a central teaching in many Kagyu schools.

The Wheel of Time: a Buddhist tantric system relating outer cycles, embodied experience and a path of transformation. Its subtle-body maps have distinctive arrangements of chakras and drops.

Also: Kalachakra

The Tibetan canonical collection of translated works accepted as teachings of the Buddha, including sūtras, monastic discipline and tantras.

Intentional action, understood in Buddhism to have consequences. Kamma is the Pāli form; vipāka names the ripening or result. It is not simply fate or a claim that every misfortune is deserved.

Also: kamma

A Tibetan Buddhist lineage within the Kagyu family, also called Karma Kamtsang. It traces its origins to Düsum Khyenpa (1110–1193), the first Karmapa and a student of Gampopa. Mahāmudrā and the transmission of meditation practice are central to its teachings.

Also: Karma Kamtsang

The title of the successive recognized reincarnate teachers who head the Karma Kagyu tradition. The Karmapa lineage begins with Düsum Khyenpa (1110–1193), the first Karmapa. It refers to this succession of teachers; Karma Kagyu is the wider Buddhist tradition.

Also: Karmapas · Karmapa lineage · Gyalwang Karmapa · Gyalwa Karmapa

Compassion: responsiveness to suffering and the wish for beings to be free of it.

Full of compassion: a Newar name associated with Avalokiteśvara. Local forms include Bunga Dya, also called Rato Macchendranath, and the white Seto Macchendranath of Kathmandu.

Also: Bunga Dya · Bunga Dyo · Rato Macchendranath · Seto Macchendranath · Janbahadya

‘Seeing one’s nature’: a Zen term for an initial realization, usually understood as requiring further cultivation.

An aggregate or group of experience. The five aggregates are form, feeling tone, perception, formations and consciousness.

Also: khandhas · skandha · skandhas · five aggregates

Sanskrit term for mental afflictions or defilements, including attachment, aversion and ignorance. The Pāli form is kilesa. Buddhist traditions group these states in different ways.

Also: kleśas · klesha · kleshas · kilesa · kilesas · mental afflictions · defilements

A saying, question or encounter used in some Zen traditions to investigate understanding beyond habitual conceptual answers.

Also: kōans

‘Stages of the path’: Tibetan presentations that arrange Buddhist teachings into a graduated course of study and practice.

Insight or clear seeing: discerning the nature of experience, cultivated alongside calm abiding in Tibetan Buddhist traditions.

Also: lhagtong · lhag tong · lhag thong · lhag-tong · lhag mthong · vipashyana · vipaśyanā · special insight · clear seeing

Tibetan ‘mind training’: teachings and contemplations that cultivate compassion and transform self-centered habits.

Lord of the World: a form of Avalokiteśvara prominent in Burmese Buddhist art and devotion.

A Sanskrit title used for Avalokiteśvara, often translated as Lord of the World; common in Nepalese and historical Southeast Asian Buddhist art.

Also: Lokeshvara · Lokeshwor

The ‘Middle Way’ school associated with Nāgārjuna. It examines how things lack independent, inherent existence while still functioning through causes, conditions and relationships.

‘Great Seal’: a contemplative approach, especially prominent in Kagyu, concerned with recognizing the nature of mind and experience.

A “great accomplished one”: an adept revered in tantric traditions for spiritual realization and extraordinary abilities. In Buddhist contexts, the term often refers to Indian masters remembered in accounts of the eighty-four mahāsiddhas and in Vajrayāna lineages.

Also: mahāsiddhas · great adept · great accomplished one

Great Division (Mv). Here, the Vinaya section on monastic life, ordination and the early community.

Also: Great Division

The ‘Great Vehicle’: diverse Buddhist traditions centered on the bodhisattva path toward Buddhahood for the benefit of all beings. It includes many East Asian and Tibetan traditions.

Middle-length Discourses (MN). A collection of discourses of intermediate length.

Also: Middle-length Discourses

A symbolic arrangement representing an awakened world or a system of practice, used especially in esoteric Buddhist traditions.

Also: mandalas

The bodhisattva associated with wisdom, often represented with a sword symbolizing the cutting of ignorance.

A sacred syllable or phrase recited or contemplated in practice. Its use and meaning depend on the tradition and teaching context.

Also: mantras

Goodwill or loving-kindness: wishing for the welfare and happiness of beings. Maitrī is the Sanskrit form.

Also: maitrī

A path avoiding extremes. In early teachings it avoids indulgence and self-mortification; Madhyamaka also uses it for reasoning beyond extremes of existence and nonexistence.

Appreciative joy: delight in the happiness, good qualities or good fortune of others.

A channel in the subtle-body accounts of Buddhist tantra; Tibetan tsa (rtsa). These channels are described as pathways for winds and as locations of drops.

Also: nāḍīs · tsa · rtsa

A historic Buddhist monastery and center of learning in Bihar, India. The Nālandā tradition also names a broader inheritance of Buddhist study, reasoning and contemplative practice.

A Sri Lankan deity historically connected with Avalokiteśvara. Later Sinhala traditions also identify Nātha with Maitreya; the identification depends on local and historical context.

Also: Natha Deviyo

‘New Vehicle’: the modern Buddhist movement associated with B. R. Ambedkar, emphasizing dignity, equality and liberation from caste oppression.

Recollection or recitation of Amida Buddha’s name, central to Japanese Pure Land practice.

Foundational or preliminary practices in Tibetan Buddhism, including common contemplations and lineage-specific practices such as refuge, bodhicitta, mandala offering, Vajrasattva and guru yoga.

Also: preliminary practices

Liberation: the extinguishing of greed, hatred and delusion and release from suffering. Nirvāṇa is the Sanskrit form; traditions explain its implications differently.

Also: nirvāṇa

A collection or grouping. In the Pāli canon, the Nikāyas are major collections of discourses; the term can also refer to a monastic order.

Also: Nikāyas

A sign, theme or basis, depending on context. In many absorption teachings, a mental meditation sign, often experienced as light, used in developing jhāna. Some methods do not require a visual nimitta. This later technical usage should not be assumed in every early-text occurrence.

Also: nimittas · nimita · meditation sign

The “manifestation body” or “emanation body”: a Buddha’s appearance and activity in forms accessible to beings. Mahāyāna traditions commonly understand Śākyamuni’s teaching life in this way.

Also: manifestation body · emanation body

The Buddhist path of right view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration, developed together.

Also: Eightfold Path

The oldest of the main Tibetan Buddhist traditions, drawing on the early translations of Indian teachings into Tibetan. Dzogchen is especially important within it.

A name of Avalokiteśvara meaning lotus bearer, referring to the lotus held by this bodhisattva.

A language of early Buddhist literature in which the Theravāda canon and many commentaries are preserved.

Wisdom or discernment: understanding experience in ways that help end suffering. Prajñā is the Sanskrit form.

Also: prajñā

A perfection or quality cultivated on the bodhisattva path, such as generosity, patience and wisdom. Lists vary by tradition.

Also: pāramitās · pāramī

A major Mahāyāna sūtra in the Prajñāpāramitā literature, known in Sanskrit as the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā. It teaches the bodhisattva’s cultivation of wisdom without grasping at phenomena, identities or attainments. Its dialogues explore the path to buddhahood and the practice of the perfection of wisdom.

Also: Eight Thousand Line Perfection of Wisdom Sūtra · Eight Thousand Lines · Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 Lines · Perfection of Wisdom in 8000 Lines · Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā · Aṣṭasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā · Aṣṭasāhasrikā · The Transcendent State of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines

Transference of consciousness, traditionally practiced in connection with death and the aspiration for a favorable rebirth or liberation. It occurs in the Six Yogas and other Tibetan Buddhist transmissions.

Subtle wind associated with breath and mental activity in tantric accounts. Tibetan lung (rlung). Winds are described as the support or mount of consciousness.

Also: rlung · energy-winds · energy-wind

The vehicle of independently awakened buddhas: a traditional path ideal involving awakening without a Buddha’s teaching being available in one’s final life. It does not simply mean practising without a group.

Also: pratyekabuddha vehicle

Training principles for ethical conduct. The five lay precepts address killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, false speech and intoxicants that lead to heedlessness.

Traditions oriented toward rebirth in a Buddha’s realm, especially Amitābha’s Sukhāvatī. Practices include recollection, recitation and entrusting; interpretations vary.

The title of a Tibetan incarnation lineage based at Reting Monastery. Its holders include Ngawang Chokden, retrospectively called the first, and the Fifth Reting Rinpoche, a regent and early teacher of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. The title alone does not specify which individual is meant.

Also: Radreng Rinpoche

A Tibetan honorific meaning ‘precious one,’ used for respected teachers and recognized reincarnate masters.

A major Japanese Zen tradition descended from Chinese Linji Chan, often associated with kōan training and intensive meditation.

A Japanese title meaning ‘old teacher,’ used for senior Zen teachers; standards for its use vary.

Faith, confidence or conviction. In the five faculties and powers, trust in the Buddha, teaching and path supports practice and is developed in relation to understanding.

A major Tibetan Buddhist tradition known for scholarship and the Lamdré, or ‘Path and Fruit,’ system of teaching and practice.

Meditative concentration, collectedness or unification of mind. Its meanings and methods of cultivation vary across texts and traditions.

Calming or tranquility: cultivation that steadies and settles the mind. It is often taught together with insight.

Also: shamatha

The “enjoyment body” of a Buddha: an exalted form associated with awakened qualities and teaching advanced bodhisattvas. One of the three kāyas in Mahāyāna explanations of Buddhahood.

Also: enjoyment body

The cycle of birth and death sustained by ignorance and craving, from which Buddhist practice seeks liberation.

Connected Discourses (SN). Discourses grouped by subject.

Also: Connected Discourses

The Buddhist community. It can refer specifically to ordained monastics, to awakened disciples, or more broadly to a community of practitioners.

A term with several uses, including conditioned formations and volitional activities that shape experience. Its precise meaning depends on context.

Also: saṃskāra

An ancient Indian literary language used for many Buddhist scriptures, philosophical treatises and ritual texts.

An influential early Buddhist school known for its Abhidharma analysis. Its writings and debates influenced later Buddhist philosophy.

A Sanskrit term for a treatise or instructional work. In Buddhism, an explanatory work by a teacher or scholar that interprets, organizes or reasons through the teachings. It may stand on its own or comment on a scripture. Distinct from a sūtra traditionally accepted as Buddha-word; many Indian śāstras are preserved in the Tibetan Tengyur.

Also: shastra · śāstras · shastras · treatise · treatises · tenchö · bstan bcos

Mindfulness or recollection: keeping something in mind and attending with awareness. Its Buddhist contexts include ethical discernment and the cultivation of wisdom.

Establishments of mindfulness: contemplation of body, feeling tone, mind and qualities or patterns of experience.

A Japanese Zen term for awakening or realization. Traditions differ in how they relate such experiences to continued practice.

A Burmese honorific for a respected monk or monastic teacher.

The Korean tradition related to Chinese Chan and Japanese Zen. Meditation and the relationship between awakening and ongoing cultivation are important themes.

Mindfulness, investigation, energy, joy, tranquility, collectedness and equanimity: seven qualities cultivated and balanced on the path.

A traditional invocation of Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava), asking for his presence and blessing. Preserved in Guru Chöwang’s Lama Sangdü revelation and used in devotional and guru-yoga practice.

Also: Seven Line Prayer · seven-line supplication

‘Just sitting’: a Sōtō Zen approach to wholehearted seated practice without making a particular object or attainment its central focus.

A Japanese esoteric Buddhist tradition established by Kūkai, using mantra, mandala and ritual in a path of awakening in this very body.

‘Treasury of the True Dharma Eye’: a collection of Dōgen’s writings on Buddhist practice and understanding, central to the Sōtō Zen inheritance.

Ethical conduct: cultivating actions and speech that reduce harm. Śīla is the Sanskrit form.

The six perfections of the Mahāyāna bodhisattva path: generosity, ethical conduct, patience, joyful effort, meditative concentration and wisdom, cultivated for the benefit of all beings.

Also: six perfections

An interconnected system of Tibetan Vajrayāna completion-stage practices, also called the Six Dharmas of Naropa. A common list includes inner heat, illusory body, dream yoga, clear light, bardo and transference of consciousness; other presentations group them differently.

Also: six yogas · Six Dharmas of Naropa

A set of completion-stage practices transmitted especially in Shangpa Kagyu. Related in theme to the Six Yogas of Naropa, with its own lineage and explanations.

Also: Six Dharmas of Niguma

A major Japanese Zen tradition associated with Dōgen and Keizan, especially known for seated meditation and the inseparability of practice and realization.

The hearer’s or disciple’s vehicle: a path of following a Buddha’s teaching to liberation as an arhat. It names a path ideal rather than a single historical school.

Also: shravakayana · śrāvaka vehicle

The first stage of awakening in the early Buddhist four-stage model. It involves a decisive shift in understanding and the abandoning of specified fetters. A person who has attained it is a sotāpanna, or stream-enterer.

Also: stream entry · sotāpanna

A Mahāyāna treatise on buddha-nature (tathāgatagarbha), also called the Uttaratantra or Ratnagotravibhāga. Counted in Tibetan tradition among the Five Treatises of Maitreya, it explains the nature of buddhahood, the obscurations that conceal it, and its realization through the path.

Also: Treatise on the Sublime Continuum · Uttaratantra · Uttaratantra Shastra · Uttaratantraśāstra · Ratnagotravibhāga · Mahāyānottaratantra · Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra · Gyü Lama · Gyüd Lama

In Tibetan Buddhist tantric accounts, a system of channels, winds, chakras and drops used to explain relationships between body, mind and contemplative transformation.

Also: subtle-body

Emptiness; suññatā in Pāli. Early discourses describe experience as empty of a self or what belongs to a self. Mahāyāna accounts develop this further; Madhyamaka emphasizes the absence of inherent existence. Interpretations differ across traditions.

Also: suññatā · emptiness

A Buddhist discourse or scripture, often presented as a teaching of the Buddha. Sutta is Pāli; sūtra is Sanskrit.

Also: sūtra · suttas · sūtras

Collection of Discourses (Sn / Snp). A separate work, largely in verse, in the Khuddaka Nikāya.

Also: Collection of Discourses

Craving or ‘thirst’: the grasping desire that Buddhist teachings identify as a condition for suffering.

Also: tṛṣṇā · trishna

Esoteric Buddhist scripture and practice using methods such as mantra, visualization and ritual. Within Vajrayāna it builds on Mahāyāna foundations; particular practices require empowerment and teacher guidance, even when texts are publicly available.

Also: tantric

A female figure of awakening especially prominent in Tibetan Buddhism, revered for compassion and liberating activity. Green and White Tārā have distinct practice traditions; the Twenty-One Tārās are forms associated with the twenty-one homages of a traditional praise.

Ten grounds of realization on the Mahāyāna bodhisattva path toward Buddhahood. The first begins with direct realization of emptiness; compassion, wisdom and the perfections develop throughout the grounds.

Also: ten grounds · ten bodhisattva grounds · ten bodhisattva levels · bhūmis · bhūmi

The Japanese tradition transmitted by Saichō from Chinese Tiantai, combining Lotus Sūtra teachings with a broad range of meditative and ritual practices.

The Tibetan canonical collection of translated treatises and commentaries, chiefly by Indian Buddhist scholars.

Theravāda monastic lineages emphasizing ethical discipline, simplicity and meditation, associated with teachers such as Ajahn Mun and Ajahn Chah.

Verses of the Elder Monks (Thag). Poems attributed to early Buddhist monks, in the Khuddaka Nikāya.

Also: Verses of the Elder Monks

The ‘Teaching of the Elders’: a Buddhist tradition especially prominent in Sri Lanka and mainland Southeast Asia, with the Pāli canon as its scriptural foundation.

Verses of the Elder Nuns (Thig). Poems attributed to early Buddhist nuns, in the Khuddaka Nikāya.

Also: Verses of the Elder Nuns

The Vietnamese tradition related to Chinese Chan and Japanese Zen. Its communities combine meditation with other Buddhist teachings and practices.

Three vehicles. Many Tibetan introductions mean Hīnayāna, Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna; many Mahāyāna sūtras mean the śrāvaka, pratyekabuddha and bodhisattva vehicles. These are different teaching frameworks, not a neutral division of all Buddhists into three groups.

Also: three vehicles · triyāna

A Chinese Buddhist tradition associated with Zhiyi, bringing together meditation and an interpretation of Buddhist teachings centered on the Lotus Sūtra.

‘Three baskets’: the traditional divisions of scripture into monastic discipline, discourses and systematic teachings. Tripiṭaka is the Sanskrit form.

Also: Tripiṭaka

A compassion practice of imagining receiving suffering and offering happiness and well-being, often coordinated with the breath.

Also: tong len · tong-len · giving and taking · taking and giving · sending and receiving · gtong len

The “three bodies” of Buddhahood in Mahāyāna: dharmakāya, saṃbhogakāya and nirmāṇakāya. They describe ultimate realization and ways a Buddha appears for beings; explanations vary by tradition.

Also: three kāyas · three bodies

Tibetan for channels and winds; also a name for yogic practices working with them. Their methods and preparation belong to a particular transmission.

Also: tsalung · tsa lung

A person recognized within Tibetan Buddhist traditions as the rebirth or emanation of a previous spiritual master.

Inner heat: a subtle-body practice within Tibetan Buddhist tantric systems, including the Six Yogas. It is associated with the cultivation of bliss and insight into emptiness.

Also: inner heat

Forms of Tārā’s enlightened activity associated with a praise of twenty-one homages. Atiśa, Sūryagupta and other lineages give these forms different names, colors and appearances.

Also: 21 Taras

Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation: a contemporary meditation method associated with Bhante Vimalaraṃsi. It emphasizes loving-kindness, relaxation, tranquility and insight. Its Six Rs are recognize, release, relax, re-smile, return and repeat. It is a named teaching approach within a Theravāda context.

Also: Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation

Inspired Utterances (Ud). Short narratives with inspired sayings, in the Khuddaka Nikāya.

Also: Inspired Utterances

Clinging or appropriation: holding tightly to pleasures, views, practices or ideas of self.

Equanimity: balanced, steady awareness amid changing experiences. It is compatible with care and action, rather than indifference.

The ‘Diamond Vehicle’: Buddhist traditions that use tantric methods, including mantra, visualization and ritual, within a Mahāyāna framework. Many practices require initiation and a qualified teacher.

Feeling tone: the pleasant, unpleasant or neutral quality of an experience, rather than emotion in general.

The monastic discipline: rules, procedures and accounts guiding the lives of Buddhist monks and nuns.

Insight or clear seeing; vipaśyanā in Sanskrit. Theravāda explanations often emphasize impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and not-self. Other traditions explain insight within their own accounts of reality. The term also names diverse modern meditation movements.

Also: vipaśyanā

Energy, effort or persistence: the active quality of developing and sustaining practice. Appropriate effort responds to conditions rather than simply becoming more intense.

The ‘Path of Purification’: Buddhaghosa’s fifth-century Theravāda manual, organizing practice around ethics, concentration and wisdom. It is a commentary, not an early discourse.

A “vehicle”: a path or means that carries a practitioner toward awakening. Buddhist texts use several classifications of vehicles; the intended list depends on the source.

A Buddha figure used in tantric meditation. Its form and symbolism express awakened qualities within a particular practice lineage.

Also: yidams

A major Mahāyāna philosophical tradition investigating experience, consciousness and habitual conditioning. Its teachings have been interpreted in several ways.

Wise or appropriate attention: attending in ways that help discern causes, consequences and the path out of suffering. Its meaning is developed through particular discourses.

Also: wise attention · appropriate attention

Seated meditation in Zen. Specific instructions differ across teachers and lineages.

The Japanese form of Chan Buddhism, emphasizing meditation and the expression of awakening in practice and ordinary life. Sōtō and Rinzai are two major Japanese schools.