Animals
Realm
Mount Sumeru
This
realm is visible to humans and it is where spirits of humans are reborn if they
have killed animals or have committed a lot of other evil acts. Animals do not
have the freedom that humans would experience due to being a subject constantly
hunted by humans, farmed and used in farming, also as beasts for entertainment.
Amitabha
Buddha
Buddha
of the Western Pure Land
Ananda
Buddha’s
attendant. As one of the ten great disciples of Buddha, he was foremost in
hearing Buddha’s teachings.
Aniruddha
One
of the Buddha’s ten great disciples who was foremost in divine sight.
Asura
Realm
A
spirit state of Demi-Gods but not the happy state experienced by the gods in
the heavens above the state. The Demi-Gods are consumed with jealousy, because
unlike humans, they can clearly see the superior situation of the gods in the
heavens above them. They constantly compete and struggle with the gods due to
their dissatisfaction with their desires from the others.
Bodhicttta
The
wish to attain enlightenment in order to free all other sentient beings from
the sufferings of existence and lead them to the unsurpassable bliss of
omniscience.
Bodhisattva
One
who has generated the aspiration to attain Enlightenment for the benefit of all
sentient beings.
Caste
The
Indian caste system organises society into a hierarchy of hereditary groups
called castes, based on their religious concept of innate spiritual purity. The
four major castes consist of : (1) Brahmins, the religious priests; (2) Kshatriyas,
the warriors, (3)Vaishyas, the merchants and (4) Shudras, comprising the lowest
class of labourers, artisans and servants who do not work that is ritually
unclean.
Dana (Generosity)
Used
to describe the gifts of food and other requisities given to the monastic
community.
Dhamma (or Dharma)
The
Buddhist teachings
Emptiness
The
absence of inherent existence in all phenomena, which was explained by the
Buddha.
Fourfold
community of disciples
Monk,
nuns, male and female lay followers
Heaven
In
Buddhism, there are 37 different levels of heaven where beings experience peace
and long lasting happiness without suffering in the heavenly environment.
Hell
Realm
This
realm is not visible to humans. It is a place here beings born there experience
a constant state of searing pain and the various types of hell realms reads
like a variety of horrific, torture chambers. Those with a great deal of
negative Kamma can remain in such places for eons of times.
Hinayana
Buddhism
(Small vehicle) and Mahayana Buddhism (Great Vehicle)
“Hinayana”
refers to Buddhist practices which are centred on self-liberation, or are which
not based upon the true experience of emptiness, in contrast to “Mahayana”, in
which emphasis is placed on the Bodhisattva ideal of seeking perfect
Enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings.
Human
Life Realm
In
Buddhism, we can reborn into human life over and over, either wealthy or poor,
beautiful or not so, and very state between and both as it is served up to us.
Anything can happen, as is found in human life and society all around us as we
are familiar with in the day to day human world in is myriad of possibilities.
What we get is a result of our Kamma of what we have dragged with is from
previous existences and how it manifests in our temporary present lives.
Hungry
Ghost Realm
This
spiritual realm of those who committed excessive amounts of evil deeds and who
are obsessed with finding food and drink which they cannot experience and thus
remain unsatisfied and tortured by the experience. They exhaust themselves in
the constant fruitless searching.
Kamma (or Karma)
Intentional
actions.
Karmic
From
the word “kamma” which means intentional actions.
Kashyapa
Matanga and Dharmaratna
The
Indian Buddhist monks who introduced Buddhism to China Loyang , China
Kōan
A
story, dialogue, question or statement, which is used in Ch’an practice to
provoke the “great doubt” and test a pupil’s progress.
Mahayana
Buddhism
Buddhism
spread from India Sri Lanka Myanmar Thailand Cambodia Laos
Master
Taixu (1889-1947)
A Buddhist
modernist, activist and thinker who advocated the reform and renewal of Chinese
Buddhism.
Maudgalyayana
One
of the Buddha’s ten great disciples who was foremost in supernatural powers.
Medicine
Buddha
Buddha
of the Eastern Pure Land.
Moksadeva
A
name given to Venerable Xuanzang (602 AD – 664 AD) when he was in India
The
mountain that stands at the centre of the world, according to ancient Indian
cosmology.
Nirvana
Perfect
peace of the state of the mind that is free from craving, anger and delusion.
The state of total liberation from all physical ad mental conditions is called.
“Nirvan without remainder” or “Final Nirvana”. This is contrast to “Nirvana
with remainder”, in which the body still exists.
Renunciation
Renunciation
means knowing the nature of Samsara is suffering and with this realization ,
one vows to be free of suffering. “If you do not cultivate a genuine sense of
disenchantment with cyclic existence – whose nature is a mine-body complex
under the sway of afflictive emotions and karma – you will have no chance to
develop a genuine attitude intent on
liberation, and there will be no way to develop great compassion for beings
wandering in cyclic existence. Therefore, it is crucial to reflect on your
situation.” This forms the basis of renunciation.
Samsaric
from
“Samsara”, meaning cyclic existence
Sangha
Community
of Buddhist monks and nuns.
Sarvastivada
An
early school of Buddhism that taught the existence of everything in the past,
present and future.
Shakyamuni
Buddha
Founder
of Buddhism. Shakyamuni Buddha is also
referred to simply as Buddha. “Buddha” means the “Awakened One” or “Fully
Enlightened One”.
Six
Perfections
(Sanskrit: paramita)
Giving,
precept-observance, patience, enthusiastic effort, meditative concentration and
wisdom
Southern
School of Chinese Ch’an Buddhism
A
school of Ch’an Buddhism during Tang Dynasty in China. This school traced its
origins to Venerable Hui Neng (638 AD - 713 AD), the Six Patriarch of Ch’an
Buddhism and taught the doctrine of “sudden enlightenment”. On the other hand,
the Northern School of Chinese Ch’an
Buddhism traced its origins to Venerable Shen Xiu and taught the
doctrine of “gradual enlightenment”.
Suttas
Discourse
spoken by the Buddha, and sometimes by his immediate disciples.
Ten
directions
North,
south, east, west, northeast, northwest, southeast, southwest, above and below.
Theravada
Buddhism
Buddhism
spread from India southwards to regions such as Sri Lanka (formerly known as
Ceylon), Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. In these southern
Buddhist countries, the prevalent form of Buddhism is Theravada Buddhism, in
which emphasis is placed on the Path to Liberation. Buddhism spread from India
northwards to regions such as China, Korea and Japan. In this northern countries,
the prevalent form of Buddhism is Mahayana Buddhism, in which emphasis is
placed on the Bodhisattva ideal of seeking perfect Enlightenment for the
benefit of all sentient beings.
Thus-Come
One
A
term that Buddha used when referring to Himself.
Tipaka
The
Three Baskets
Tipaka
Master
A
Buddhist monk who was greatly proficient in all three divisions of the Buddhist
canon, namely (Buddhist discourses), Vinaya (rules and regulations of monastic
life), and Abhidharma (philosophical and psychological interpretation of
Buddhist doctrines).
Trayastrimsa
Heaven
The
heaven of the thirty-three celestial beings. This is the second of the
desire-heavens.
Unwholesome
realms of existence
Realm
of animals, realms of hungry ghosts and realm of hell beings.
Upāsaka
A
male Buddhist lay follower
Vasubandhu
An
Indian Buddhist monk of the 4th to 5th century, who was one of the main
founders of the Indian Buddhist Yogacara school of thought.
Vipallasa
Perversion
or distortion of perception, thought and view – taking what is impermanent to
be permanent; what is suffering to be happiness; what is empty of a self to be
a self; and what is not beautiful (asubha) to be beautiful (cognitive
distortion).
World-Honoured
One
(Bhagavat)
One
of the ten epithets of Buddha.
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