Zen Wisdom 355

• MADHYAMIKA:
  A Mahayana Buddhist school, "Middle Way." Its name also describes the position taken by the school in relation to the existence or nonexistence of things.
  
• MAHAYANA:
  The "Great Vehicle" whose followers vow to attain Supreme Enlightenment for the sake of delivering all other sentient beings from suffering.
  
• MAITREYA BUDDHA:
  The next Buddha, expected to come in the future as the fifth and last of the earthly Buddhas.
  

• NIRVANA:
  Total extinction of desire and suffering, the state of liberation through Full Enlightenment.
  

• PARAMITAS:
  "Perfections" or ways for "reaching the other shore."
  
• PLATFORM SUTRA OF THE SIXTH PATRIARCH:
  A scripture attributed to the seventh-century Ch'an master, Hui-neng. Hui-neng was the sixth patriarch in the Ch'an school, and perhaps the most famous of Chinese patriarchs.
  
• PRATYEKABUDDHA:
  A self-enlightened being, one who has attained enlightenment by contemplating dependent origination.
  
• PURE LAND:
  (Sanskrit: Sukhavati) The land of Supreme Bliss, or the Western Paradise of Amitabha Buddha, it is a pure realm perfected by the power of Amitabha Buddha's vow to save living beings. Through Amitabha's grace, any person who sincerely invokes his name and expresses the wish to be born there will be reborn in the Pure Land. See "AMITABHA BUDDHA."
  

• SAKYAMUNI:
  The historical Buddha who lived in northern India during the sixth century, B.C. Son of a provincial king, he renounced the royal life, practiced austerities in the forest for six years, and finally attained Supreme Enlightenment. The rest of his life was spent wandering and teaching, thereby laying the foundations of Buddhism.
  
• SAMADHI:
  Like dhyana, samadhi also refers to states of meditative absorption, but is a broader and more generic term than dhyana. although numerous specific samadhis are mentioned in Buddhist scriptures, the term "samadhi" itself is flexible and not as specific as dhyana. In this book it also refers to the state of "one mind, " or expanded sense of self ─ a unity of mind and body, self and environment.
  
• SAMSARA:
  The relentless cycle of birth and death and suffering in which ordinary, unenlightened sentient beings are deeply entangled.
  
• SANGHA:
  The Buddhist community. See "THREE JEWELS."
  
• SANSKRIT:
  The classic Indian literary language in which the major mahayana Buddhist scriptures are written.
  
• SHIH-FU:
  (Chinese "teacher-father") A term of respect used by a disciple when referring to or addressing his master.
  
• SKANDHAS, THE FIVE
  The five categories, or "heaps, " of existence ─ form, sensation, perception, volition, and consciousness.
  
• SUTRAS:
  Generally, scriptures. Specifically, the recorded teachings of the Buddha. The distinctive mark of a Buddhist sutra is the opening line, "Thus have I heard." This indicates that what follows are the direct teachings of Buddha, as remembered and recorded by his disciples.
  

• THREE JEWELS:
  Collective term referring to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. Buddha refers to the historical founder of Buddhism, Sakyamuni. Dharma is the truth realized by the Buddha, transmitted in the scriptures, and through a lineage of enlightened masters. Sangha is the Buddhist community, originally Sakyamuni Buddha's immediate disciples. In a limited sense it consists of Buddhist monks, nuns, and disciples; in a broader sense it includes all persons connected through belief in and practice of Buddhism. "Taking refuge" in the Three Jewels confirms one as a Buddhist practitioner. Faith in the Three Jewels is the recognition that Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha are all contained within all sentient beings.
  
• T'IEN-TAI:
  (Japanese: Tendai) A Buddhist school which bases its teachings on the Lotus Sutra. Its doctrine stresses the notions of totality and mutual interpenetration. It maintains the identity of the absolute and the world of phenomena, thus emptiness, phenomenality, and the middle are identical and are aspects of a single existence.
  
• TRIPITIKA:
  "Three baskets." The canon of Buddhist scriptures consisting of three parts.
  

• VEXATIONS:
  (Sanskrit: klesa) attitudes, views, emotional states, or conditions, arising from attachments, that cause suffering or disharmony. More specifically, mental or physical states that hinder spiritual development and realization of enlightenment. As such, vexations include pleasant as well as unpleasant states.
  

• YOGACARA:
  A school of Mahayana Buddhism that concentrates on the doctrine of "nothing but conception."
  

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