There Is No Suffering 123

Glossary

• Abhidharma: Literally, the’ special teaching,’ the abhidharma is the earliest compilation of Buddhist philosophy and psychology. It constitutes the philosophyical basis of the Hinayana and Mahayana, and its primary use is in the study of the teaching. The abhidharma is the third part of the tripitaka.
• Agamas: Literally the ‘source of the teaching.’ the collections of writings of the Sanskrit canon. The contents of the agamas encompass the basic teachings of the Hinayana.
• Avalokitesvara: The great bodhisattva of unconditional compassion.
• Bodhisattva: Literally’ awakened being,’ a practitioner of the Mahayana tradition who has vowed to postpone the attainment of nirvana for the sake of helping sentient beings.
• Bhumi: Literally ground,’ ‘ land,’ or’ stage.’ There are ten bhumis that bodhisattvas must pass through in order to attain complete enlightenment, or buddhahood.
• Buddhadharma: The truths, laws, or teachings of Buddhism: See Dharma.
• Chan: (Wade-Giles: Ch’ an; Japanese: Zen). The practice of meditative absorption, transliterated from the Sanskrit ‘dhyana.’ Over centuries of gradual adaptation in China, the doctrines and practices of Indian Buddhism evolved into the Chan tradition. By the time of the Tang dynasty (618-907). Chan was a separate school claiming to be ‘outside the scriptures.’ During the Song dynasty (960-1279) Chan transmitted to Japan, where it is called Zen. Chan emphasizes the direct experience of prajna, or insight into the nature of reality as empty—devoid of self-nature. In the Mahayana tradition, Chan emphasizes meditation while embracing bodhisattva conduct as the ideal of Buddhist practice. Experientially, Chan (sometimes rendered as chan (lower case) to distinguish from the ‘school’ ) is the realization of wisdom, where one leaves discrimination behind and experiences the ineffable true emptiness of everything (emptiness as form, form as emptiness).
• Consciousness-Only school: See Yogachara.
• Dharma/dharma: Upper case “Dharma” (also Buddhadharma) refers to the Buddhist ‘law,’ or teaching, lower case ‘dharma’ refers to any physical or mental phenomenon:
• Dhyana: State of deep meditative absorption, serving to help one relinquish attachment and leave behind afflictions. The different levels of dhyana serve as preparatory experiences for enlightenment: See Chan.
• Early Buddhist Traditions: The early schools of Buddhism in India between 100 to 500 years after the Buddha’ s nirvana, having in common their doctrinal basis in the agamas and the abhidharma literatures.
• Eighteen realms: The realms of consciousness, consisting of the six sense organs (eyes, ear, nose, tongue, body, and discriminating mind), plus the six sense objects (shape and color; sound; smells; tastes; form; thoughts, feelings, and symbols), plus the six sense consciousnesses (seeing, hearing, smelling; tasting, feeling, thinking).
• Five Methods of Stilling the Mind: (Chin: wu tingxin). The five methods designed to purify the mind of emotional turbulence and foster meditative calm (Sanskrit: samatha), eventually leading to the experience of samadhi, or meditative concentration. Different Buddhist texts sometimes give different versions of the five methods for stilling the mind. In the abhidharma, two techniques most frequently mentioned are mindful recollection of the breath, and meditation on impurity or decay. To these, meditation on the four boundless mentalities, meditation on causes and condition, and the contemplation of dharma categories are usually added, bringing the number of methods to five. Many Buddhist sources, especially those of the Mahayana, describe a variation of the five methods, giving special importance to mindful recollection of the Buddha as a method for purifying the mind and developing samadhi. Thus, it is not unusual to find versions of the five methods that replace the contemplation of dharma categories with buddha-mindfulness.
• Klesa: Literally’ trouble,’ ‘affliction,’ or ‘passion.’ It refers to anything that clouds the mind and is the basis for all afflictions, unwholesome thoughts, speech, and actions, and hence, sentient beings’ suffering in samsara.
• Mahaprajnaparamita Sutra: The Great Sutra of Perfect Wisdom, comprising forty or so sutras of the Mahayana having as a unifying theme the realization of prajna, or wisdom.
• Nidana: Literally, ‘link,’ one of the twelve that constitute the twelve links of conditioned arising, a paradigm of samsara, the cycle of birth and death.
• Paramitas: Generally translated as’ perfections,’ the six paramitas are the virtues cultivated and exercised by bodhisattvas: generosity, discipline, patience, effort, meditation, and wisdom (prajna).
• Platform Sutra: The writings containing the biography and discourses of Huineng, the sixth patriarch of Chan. It is the only Mahayana sutra attributed to someone other than Shakyamuni Buddha.
• Samsara: the beginningless and continuing cycle of birth and death caused by afflictions, attachment, ignorance, and karma. It is also the world of suffering, in which ordinary sentient beings are inexorably entangled: See Nidana, Nirvana.
• Sangha: In a narrow sense, the sangha is the community of Buddhist monks and nuns; in a broad sense, the sangha is the Buddhist community as a whole, including laypersons.
• Shakyamuni Buddha: Literally ‘sage of the Shaky clan,’ Shakyamuni was the historical Buddha, who lived in northern India during the sixth century BCE. A son of a provincial king, he renounced royal life, practiced austerities in the forest for six years, and finally attained enlightenment. The rest of his life was spent traveling and teaching, thereby laying the foundation of Buddhism. He entered nirvana in his eighth decade, and attained unexcelled complete enlightenment (anuttara-samyak-sambodhi).
• Sariputra: One of Shakyamuni Buddha’ s closest and foremost disciples. Renowned for his wisdom, Sariputra is the person to whom the Buddha directs his discourse in the Heart Sutra.
• Sixth patriarch Huineng: (638-713) The sixth patriarch of Chan Buddhism in China. He is attributed with giving Chan its distinctive flavor, thus he is sometimes regarded as the father of the tradition. The Platform Sutra is attributed to Huineng.
• Three Refuges: Taking the three refuges signifies as commitment to the path of Buddhism by taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. Taken in a special ceremony with a preceptor, the refuge taker will recite words such as the following. "I take refuge in the enlightenment of the Buddha, wishing that all sentient beings will awaken to the great path, and make the supreme resolution. I take refuge in the Dharma, wishing that all sentient beings will penetrate the sutras, their wisdom as deep as the ocean. I take refuge in the Sangha, wishing that all sentient beings will be brought together in great harmony, without any obstructions at all."
• Tathagatha: Literally, ‘thus-come, thus-gone,’ one of the ten epithets of the Buddha.
• Tripitaka: Collectively, the three collections, or canons, of early Buddhist teaching (also known as the Pali Canon). The three canons are: the sutra-pitaka, the collections of the Buddha’s teachings; the sastra-pitaka, the collections of treatises and discourses ( including the abhidharma) by the Buddha’ s disciples and bodhisattvas; and the vinaya-pitaka, the collections of rules and regulations set by the Buddha for the communal life of monks, nuns, novices, and laity.
• Vipassana: A form of meditative practice to gain insight into the three distinguishing marks (seals) of all dharmas (phenomena); i.e. impermanence, suffering, and no-self (emptiness).
• Yogacara (Consciousness-Only school): an important school of Mahayana thought that emphasizes that all experience is’ mind only,’ i.e. a creation of the mind. Outside of the knowing process, objects have no reality, and thus the universe is purely mind.