These are mostly standard terms and definitions, but there are some (e.g. ‘consciousness’ and ‘awareness’) that I sometimes use in a particular way. I point out when I am doing so, but I hope that this glossary will clarify my usage.
Please let me know of any words or terms you think I could add to this!
If you want more general definitions, there are some good online resources, e.g. https://encyclopediaofbuddhism.org/wiki/Main_Page
Where Pali and Sanskrit alternatives are given, Pali comes first. Mostly. Some of these are provided with diacritics, others not – one day I’ll go through and give them all diacritic but most of them are familiar enough for something like correct pronunciation.
Tejananda
Last updated 14/1/23
Anattā / anātman – No-self or not-self, or insubstantiality, pointing out that there is no unchanging, independent or separate self-entity.
Anicca / anitya – Not-permanent.
Appamāda / apramāda: heedfulness, watchfulness, non-intoxication. Along with sati and sampajañña, one of the main constituents of mindfulness practice.
Avijjā / avidya – literally ‘not knowing’, or ignorance, delusion.
Awareness – The quality of nonconceptual ‘knowing’. Could also be rendered ‘awaring’. I usually use it as roughly equivalent to jnana, indicating undivided, nondeluded ‘pure’ awareness.
Bodhi – Awakening, a metaphor suggesting waking-up from the ‘sleep’ of delusion (avidyā – not knowing). Bodhi is also (arguably mis-)translated as ‘enlightenment’. The word buddha derives from the same root – one who is awake or has awoken.
Consciousness – although I sometimes use ‘consciousness’ and ‘awareness’ interchangeably, and usually mention when I’m doing so, I mostly use ‘consciousness’ in the sense of vijnana to suggest ‘divided’ knowing or awareness – i.e. the deluded situation where immediate sense experience is unconsciously usurped by mentation and a dualistic subject-object view is superimposed. See also vijñāna .
Core or central channel – The central channel of the subtle body, visualised and eventually experienced as extending from the perineum to the crown of the head, just in front of the spine but not following its contours – the core channel is sensed as straight, like a column of light. It doesn’t have any specific diameter – depending on the practice being used and other conditions, it can be regarded as thin as a straw or as broad as the whole upper body.
Dakini – Originating in Indian folklore as fearsome cannibalistic ogresses, in tantric Buddhism dakinis can be fully-awakened buddhas or bodhisattvas. The most well-known are Vajrayogini and Vajravarahi (in fact different forms of the same dakini). The tantras also state that ‘all women are the dakini’. The male equivalent is ‘daka’, an example being Heruka Cakrasamvara, Vajravarahi’s consort in highest-yoga tantra.
Dantien – three ‘energy centres’ (head, heart, hara q.v.) where chi/qi (life force energy) is stored, recognised in Chinese systems of medicine, somatic and spiritual disciplines and martial arts.
Dharmadhatu – The basic space (dhatu) of phenomena (dharmas), representing the ‘realm’ of full awakening. One definition is: “the suchness that is the union of conditioned arising and emptiness” (or saṃsāra and nirvana). The word suggests wholeness, totality.
Dhyana – see jhana
Dukkha – suffering, unsatisfactoriness. Important to distinguish ‘primary’ dukkha, which is unavoidable pain both physical and emotional, from ‘secondary’ dukkha which is the mental pain added on by the mind. The Buddha’s teaching leads directly to the cessation of the latter and indirectly to that of the former. The Sallatha Sutta outlines this, with the metaphor of the ‘two darts’ or arrows.
‘Fixed self’ – Sometimes it’s said that the Buddha taught ‘no fixed self’ rather than simply ‘no self’. See the Anatta-lakkhana Sutta; here the Buddha states “Bhikkhus, form is not self” (and the same for the other four skandhas). Clearly the anicca lakkhana (impermanence) demonstrates that there’s no ‘fixed’ anything – so this qualification ‘no fixed self’ is not problematic unless it is used to support a belief that there is a self, it’s just not a fixed one. This evades the Buddha’s teaching that there is no substantial ‘self’ entity inside, outside or as the sum of the skandhas. The self-entity or ‘me’ that people suppose themselves to be – at least until stream entry – is nothing but a mental fabrication.
Grok /ˈɡrɒk/ is a neologism coined by American writer Robert A. Heinlein for his 1961 science fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land. While the Oxford English Dictionary summarizes the meaning of grok as “to understand intuitively or by empathy, to establish rapport with” and “to empathize or communicate sympathetically (with); also, to experience enjoyment”, Heinlein’s concept is far more nuanced, with critic Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr. observing that “the book’s major theme can be seen as an extended definition of the term”. (from Wikipedia – I occasionally use this word, and it’s an interesting novel!)
Hara – from Japanese culture, hara is an ‘energy centre’ of the lower abdomen, the seat of the ‘gut’ intelligence which is one of our most direct openings to the earth’s energy and the somatic energy of the body. See also dantien.
Jhana / dhyana –Meditative levels of increasingly subtle and simple consciousness. Usually 8 but sometimes 9 are delineated. They could also be seen as ever-decreasing levels of mental fabrication, leading to the signless, directionless and emptiness liberations. As such, they are not ‘just shamatha’ (q.v.), but shamatha-vipashyana practices.
Jinas / Five Jinas / Mandala of the Five Buddhas – A mandala, originally from yoga-tantra, which ‘embodies’ the five jnanas (q.v.) as five Buddhas or Jinas (‘conquerors’) – Vairocana (Dharmadhatu-jnana), Aksobhya (Mirror-like jnana), Ratnasambhava (sameness-jnana), Amitabha (distinguishing-jnana) and Amoghasiddhi (all-accomplishing-jnana).
Jnana (Pali: nana) – Knowing, knowledge. This is non-conceptual direct ‘knowing-awareness’, or ‘pure awareness’ outside of mental or conceptual activity. Also translated as ‘wisdom’, which should be understood as non-conceptual wisdom that directly knows things as they really are. Jnana is ‘undivided knowing’, beyond any subject-object dichotomy, as distinct from vijnana (q.v.)
Jnanas / five jnanas – These are the ‘undivided knowings’ of the Dharmadhatu together with four of its ‘facets’ or qualities – mirror-like, sameness, distinguishing and all-accomplishing.
Jñeya / jñeyāvarana – Usually translated as ‘cognitive’ or ‘intellectual’ obstructions to insight and awakening, such as belief in the ultimate reality of time and space, things, consciousness and perception. Q.v. kleśa
Kaya – body. See also Trikaya
Kleśa Affliction or afflictive emotion. The three primary kleśas are ignorance (avidya), craving and aversion. There is also a common list of five, the three just listed plus jealousy and pride. Sometimes fear or paranoia is included as one of these. In any case, there are innumerable kleśas, and colloquially we often refer to them as ‘negative emotions’. Q.v. jñeya.
Kleśāvaraṇa – the ‘veil’ of afflictive obstructions to insight and awakening. See “Veils”.
Lakkhana / lakshana – mark or characteristic. The three laksanas are impermanence (anicca), unsatisfactoriness (dukkha) and not-self or insubstantiality (anatta). They are pointers to how we fabricate a ‘reality’ that simply isn’t available – where there is stability (permanence), ‘substance’ in the sense of a really-existing separate ‘me’ and ‘things’ that can be possessed (or rejected) and satisfactoriness, in the sense of there being a possibility of getting to a place where everything is just as we would like it to be, which again is not available in our actual reality. These views are the source of ‘secondary dukkha’.
Mandala – A circular arrangement with a centre and a periphery. The centre represents the basic principle and the periphery represents factors which support or come into relationship with that principle. So, in Tibetan mandala paintings (or 3D models) the centre figure represents bodhi and the peripheral ones represent aspects of bodhi.
Mind – Usually, when I say ‘mind’ or ‘the mind’, I’m referring to mental activities or functions – thinking, imagining, visualising, etc. In Buddhist discourse generally ‘mind’ can refer to mental activities, but also to ‘the nature of mind’(see entry below). These are distinguished by different terms sometimes, but not others. Sometimes I refer to the mind/nature of mind distinction using those particular terms. Other times, I use ‘mind’ as shorthand for ‘mental activities’ or mental objects, and ‘awareness’ or ‘undivided awareness’ for “that which knows”.
Nature of Mind – In Dzogchen and Mahamudra the distinction is made between ‘mind’ (sems / citta) and ‘nature of mind’ (sems-nyid / cittata) or ‘mind itself’. Mind is simply all kinds of mental activity from the grossest to the most subtle, while nature of mind is broadly equivalent to the awakened state (bodhi), pure presence or intrinsic awareness.
Niśprapañca – Simplicity, or non-prapañca, with prapañca (q.v.) including both ‘obscurations’, kleśa and jneya. It is the utmost simplicity. As such, it is a synonym for the awakened state.
Obscurations – see “veils”
Prajñā – The usual translation is ‘wisdom’, but given that the root jñā means ‘to know’ and pra is an ‘emphatic prefix’, the sense of the word is more like ‘really knowing’ or ‘genuine knowing’, i.e. the direct knowing through non-conceptual insight of how things really are (which would include knowing that ‘they’ are not really things)!
Prajñāpāramitā – ‘the Perfection of Wisdom’ (or ‘genuine knowing’). This is the sixth of the ‘perfections’ (paramita) outlined in Mahayana sutras. It is also the name of a Mahayana female Buddha, who embodies Prajnaparamita in human form.
Prapañca – Mental proliferation ‘fuelled’ by avidyā (q.v.). This proliferation can be an expression of either or both of the two Veils (q.v.).
Presence – Used to distinguish ‘being present to’ (similar to ‘being aware /mindful of’ or ‘bringing attention to’) and being present in, or ‘presence of awareness in’. Mindfulness of something is usually within the perspective of subject-object, “I am being mindful of that”, whereas ‘presence in’ suggests an undivided awareness.
I tend to use the term in two ways, ‘basic presence’ is a rough equivalent of access (upacara samadhi), where the hindrances are in abeyance and we are ‘basically present’ in experience. But just ‘presence’ or maybe ‘full presence’ suggests undivided awareness, in which there are no mental projections of ‘subject’ and ‘objects’.
Rigpa – Tibetan for ‘vidya’, knowing/knowledge – the opposite of ‘avidya’, ignorance, not knowing (q.v.). In the context of Dzogchen and Mahamudra it means pure, undivided or primordial awareness and is equivalent to jnana as nonconceptual wisdom-knowing. Either could well be rendered as Buddha mind, or awakened mind.
Samsara – the ‘round’ of rebirth, or the circularity of the deluded mind as depicted in the twelve ‘cyclical’ nidanas of conditioned arising.
Sampajanna – ‘clear comprehension’, often spoken of in terms of ‘clear comprehension of purpose’. Frequently combined with sati, giving a fuller sense of the remit of mindfulness.
Sati (skt. smriti) – Recollection, mindfulness.
Satipatthana – the ‘establishments of mindfulness or foundations of mindfulness. Namely, body (kaya), feeling (vedana), mental and emotional states (citta) and ‘ultimates’ (dhamma).
Skandhas – The five ‘skandhas of grasping’ are form (rupa), feeling (vedanā), recognition (samjñā), formations (samskāra) and consciousness (vijñāna). They represent ways in which we arbitrarily grasp onto a ‘self’ and thereby give rise to dukkha. Realising insight into the emptiness of the skandhas is tantamount to the cessation of dukkha.
Samadhi – A meditative state of spacious absorption or integration (often translated as ‘concentration’ which gives a misleading impression)
Samata jñāna – the undivided knowing of sameness. The jñāna of Ratnasambhava. In the context of Simply Being, sameness is understood as the equally empty nature of all possible phenomena. It is also niśprapañca (q.v.).
Samskara (Pali sankhara) – ‘Formation’, i.e. a mental formation such as an emotion. Emotions are ‘formed’ by a coming together of mental activity and body sensations. Samskaras are also spoken of as mental habits which, under the operation of avidya (q.v.), are repetitive or addictive and painful (dukkha).
Sadhana – Literally ‘practice’, the term is used in Triratna for practices involving the visualisation of an awakened being and reciting the associated mantra. In Triratna these are only given to Order members, at the time of their private ordination. Occasionally the ‘sadhana’ given at this time is a practice other than visualisation and mantra recitation.
Shamatha (Pali: samatha) ‘Calm’ or ‘tranquillity’ meditation. Also referred to in Triratna as ‘Integration’, the first aspect of our system of practice. Shamatha includes the cultivation of the various dhyanas. (q.v.)
Simplicity – see niśprapañca . It is the complete simplicity of the natural state. I tend to equate this with the samata-jñāna.
Somatic / Soma – Pertaining to the living, ‘energetic’, experiential qualities of the body.
Sunyata (Pali: suññatā)– emptiness, voidness. Emptiness is not a thing or state, but a way of realising that mentally-imputed delusions, e.g. the belief that the five skandhas are a substantial ‘self’, or that the phenomena we experience have some kind of true existence (svabhava), are not real. Emptiness methods remove the delusions and reveal ‘what really is’.
Tantra – Tantra literally means ‘thread’ as in a ‘thread of discourse’ and is the generic term for the canonical literature of the Vajrayana, the third main phase of development of canonical teachings within Indian Buddhism. Tantras outline the practice of ‘deity yoga’, often that of a wrathful or semi-wrathful figure such as Vajrayogini or Cakrasamvara. (‘Deity’ translates ‘devata’ and is the term used in tantras for the fully-awakened being at the heart of the tantric sadhana.)
Trikaya – In the Mahayana, the trikaya is the union of the three ‘bodies’ of the Buddha. These are dharmakaya, the unmanifest, unformed essence body, sambhogakaya the body of bliss or enjoyment and the nirmanakaya, the body of emanation or transformation. I sometimes give an ‘approximate relative take’ on this: the ‘apparent’ body of ordinary sensations, the ‘energy’ body of subtle tingling / energetic sensations and the ‘space’ or perceptive space of the body – the quite ordinary sense of space or dimension in which these sensations are appearing.
Unconditioned / unfabricated – Equivalent to nibbana / nirvana. The Buddha states in the Nibbana Sutta (Udana 8.3) “There is, monks, an unborn — unbecome — unmade — unfabricated (or unconditioned) (ajātaṃ abhūtaṃ akataṃ asaṅkhataṃ) If there were not that unborn — unbecome — unmade — unfabricated, there would not be the case that escape from the born — become — made — fabricated would be discerned” (trans. Thanissaro Bhikkhu).
Vajrayana – The final stage of development of Buddhism in India. Tantric Buddhism.
Veils or obscurations -These are kleśa-āvaraṇa and jñeya-āvaraṇa They ‘veil’ or ‘obscure’ us from our true, unbounded, awake nature. Q.v. respective headings above for more about each of them.
Vidya – The word vidyā is derived from the Sanskrit root vid, which means “to know, to perceive, to see, to understand”. Vidyā is ‘knowing’ in the sense of knowing directly, outside of thought, the actual nature of ‘this’. The negative of the term, avidyā, is delusion or ignorance, the most fundamental kleśa, so vidyā could also be regarded as the state of non-delusion or awakening. See also ‘rigpa’.
Vijñāna – q.v. ‘jñāna’. Consciousness which is ‘infected’ by an imputation of separate subject and object, deluded consciousness. Could also be referred to as ‘impure awareness’ for the same reason.
Vipaśyanā (Pali: vipassanā)– insight or clear seeing. Meditation practices which explore Dharma principles reflectively or in direct experience in order to see and penetrate the Dharma truths which they embody or point to. Also the actual ‘arising’ of insight, direct seeing-knowing of the actual nature of things, or an aspect of the actual nature of things.
Yogacara – a Mahayana school ‘way of meditation’ also known as Cittamatra ‘mind-only’. A fundamental teaching is that phenomena are inseparable from consciousness. Another major teaching concerns the eight vijnanas (forms taken by dualistic / deluded consciousness) and how they are transformed into the five jnanas (q.v.) Useful summary by Sangharakshita of some of the main teachings here.
