Glossary Approaching the Buddhist Path Flashcards
concepts, terms, skt, tib glosses (144 cards)
1
Q
What are abstract composites?
A
Impermanent phenomena that are neither forms nor consciousnesses.
2
Q
What is actual clear light (of the fourth stage)?
A
A stage on the completion stage of highest yoga tantra in which all winds have been dissolved in the indestructible drop at the heart and the fundamental, innate clear light mind directly perceives emptiness.
3
Q
What are afflictions?
A
Mental factors that disturb the tranquility of the mind, including disturbing emotions and wrong views.
4
Q
What are afflictive obscurations?
A
Obscurations that mainly prevent liberation; afflictions and their seeds.
5
Q
What are aggregates?
A
The four or five components that make up a living being: form, feelings, discriminations, miscellaneous factors, and consciousnesses.
6
Q
What is analytical meditation?
A
Meditation done to understand an object.
7
Q
What is an appearing object?
A
The object that actually appears to a consciousness; the appearing object of a conceptual consciousness is a conceptual appearance of something.
8
Q
What is an apprehended object?
A
The main object with which the mind is concerned; synonymous with engaged object.
9
Q
What is an arhat?
A
Someone who has eliminated all afflictive obscurations and attained liberation.
10
Q
What is an ārya?
A
Someone who has directly and nonconceptually realized the emptiness of inherent existence.
11
Q
What is bardo?
A
The intermediate state between one life and the next.
12
Q
What is the basis of designation?
A
The collection of parts or factors in dependence on which an object is designated.
13
Q
What is bodhicitta?
A
A main mental consciousness induced by an aspiration to bring about the welfare of others and accompanied by an aspiration to attain full awakening oneself.
14
Q
What is a bodhisattva?
A
Someone who has spontaneous bodhicitta.
15
Q
What is a causally concordant behavioral result?
A
Karmic result in which our action is similar to an action we did in a previous life.
16
Q
What is a causally concordant experiential result?
A
Karmic result in which we experience circumstances similar to what we caused others to experience.
17
Q
What is a causally concordant result?
A
The karmic result that corresponds to its cause; it is of two types: the result similar to the cause in terms of our experience and the result similar to the cause in terms of our habitual behavior.
18
Q
What is a cognitive faculty?
A
The subtle material in the gross sense organ that enables perception of sense objects.
19
Q
What are cognitive obscurations?
A
Obscurations that mainly prevent full awakening; the latencies of ignorance and the subtle dualistic view that they give rise to.
20
Q
What is a collection of merit?
A
A bodhisattva’s practice of the method aspect of the path that accumulates merit.
21
Q
What is a comprehended object?
A
That which is the object known or cognized by a reliable cognizer.
22
Q
What is a conceived object?
A
The object conceived by a conceptual consciousness; synonymous with the apprehended or engaged object of a conceptual consciousness.
23
Q
What is conceptual appearance?
A
A mental image of an object that appears to a conceptual consciousness.
24
Q
What is conceptual consciousness?
A
A consciousness knowing its object by means of a conceptual appearance.
25
What are conceptual fabrications?
False modes of existence and false ideas imputed by the mind.
26
What is consciousness?
That which is clear and cognizant.
27
What is a consequence?
A statement used in debate to show the other person the contradiction present in his or her belief.
28
What is conventional existence?
Existence.
29
What are conventional truths?
That which is true from the perspective of grasping true existence.
30
What is cyclic existence?
The cycle of rebirth that occurs under the control of afflictions and karma.
31
What is death?
The last moment of a lifetime when the subtlest clear light mind manifests.
32
What is definite karma?
Actions that are consciously done and accumulated, whose results are definite to be experienced.
33
What is a definitive sūtra?
Sūtras that mainly and explicitly teach ultimate truths.
34
What is dependent arising?
This is of three types: (1) causal dependence, (2) mutual dependence, and (3) dependent designation.
35
What is the desire realm?
One of the three realms of cyclic existence; the realm where sentient beings are overwhelmed by attraction to and desire for sense objects.
36
What is a deva?
A being born as a heavenly being in the desire realm or in one of the meditative absorptions of the form or formless realms.
37
What is dhyāna?
A meditative stabilization in the form realm.
38
What is a direct reliable cognizer?
A nondeceptive awareness that knows its object directly, without depending on a reason.
39
What is duhkha?
Unsatisfactory experiences of cyclic existence.
40
What is Dzogchen?
A tantric practice emphasizing meditation on the nature of mind, practiced primarily in the Nyingma tradition.
41
What are the eight worldly concerns?
Material gain and loss, disrepute and fame, blame and praise, pleasure and pain.
42
What is an emanation body?
The buddha body that appears as an ordinary sentient being to benefit others.
43
What is emptiness?
The lack of inherent existence and true existence.
44
What is an enjoyment body?
The buddha body that appears in the pure lands to teach ārya bodhisattvas.
45
What is an environmental result?
The result of karma that influences what environment we live in.
46
What are evident phenomena?
Phenomena that ordinary beings can perceive with their five senses.
47
What is existent?
That which is perceivable by mind.
48
What is the extreme of absolutism?
The extreme of eternalism; believing that phenomena inherently exist.
49
What is the extreme of nihilism?
The extreme of nonexistence; believing that our actions have no ethical dimension.
50
What are the five actions of immediate retribution?
Killing one's mother, father, or an arhat, wounding a buddha, and causing a schism in the sangha.
51
What is a form body?
The buddha body in which a buddha appears to sentient beings; it includes the emanation and enjoyment bodies.
52
What is the form realm?
The samsāric realm in which beings have bodies made of subtle material.
53
What is the formless realm?
The samsāric realm in which sentient beings do not have a material body.
54
What are the four seals?
Four views that make a philosophy Buddhist: all conditioned phenomena are transient, all polluted phenomena are duḥkha, all phenomena are empty and selfless, nirvāņa alone is true peace.
55
What are the four truths of the aryas?
The truth of duhkha, its origin, its cessation, and the path to that cessation.
56
What is full awakening?
Buddhahood; the state in which all obscurations have been abandoned and all good qualities developed limitlessly.
57
What is the Fundamental Vehicle?
The path leading to the liberation of hearers and solitary realizers.
58
What is grasping inherent existence?
Grasping persons and phenomena to exist truly or inherently; synonymous with grasping true existence.
59
What is grasping true existence?
Grasping persons and phenomena to exist truly or inherently.
60
What is a hell being?
A being born in one of the unfortunate classes of beings who suffer intense physical pain as a result of their strong destructive karma.
61
What is highest yoga tantra?
The most advanced of the four classes of tantra.
62
What is a hungry ghost?
A being born in one of the unfortunate classes of beings, who suffers from intense hunger and thirst.
63
What is ignorance?
A mental factor that is obscured and grasps the opposite of what exists.
64
What is impermanence?
The transient quality of all compositional phenomena and functioning things.
65
What is inattentive awareness?
A consciousness that doesn't ascertain its object, even though that object is appearing to it.
66
What is an inferential reliable cognizer?
An awareness that knows its object nondeceptively, purely in dependence on a reason.
67
What is inherent existence?
Existence without depending on any other factors; independent existence.
68
What is an interpretable sūtra?
A sūtra that speaks about the variety of phenomena and/or cannot be taken literally.
69
What is karma?
Intentional action; it includes intention karma and intended karma.
70
What are karmic seeds?
The potency from previously created actions that will bring their results.
71
What are latencies?
Predispositions, imprints, or tendencies.
72
What is liberation?
The state of freedom from cyclic existence.
73
What is Mahāmudrā?
A type of meditation that focuses on the conventional and ultimate natures of the mind.
74
What is meditative equipoise on emptiness?
An ārya's mind focused single-pointedly on the emptiness of inherent existence.
75
What are mental direct reliable cognizers?
Nondeceptive mental awarenesses that know their objects by depending on another consciousness that induces them.
76
What is a mental factor?
An aspect of mind that accompanies a primary consciousness and fills out the cognition.
77
What is mind?
The part of living beings that cognizes, experiences, thinks, feels, and so on.
78
What is mindstream?
The continuity of mind.
79
What is mistaken awareness?
An awareness that is mistaken in terms of its appearing object.
80
What is a monastic?
Someone who has received monastic ordination; a monk or nun.
81
What is Mount Meru?
A huge mountain at the center of our world system, according to ancient Indian cosmology.
82
What is nirvāņa?
The state of liberation of an arhat; the emptiness of a mind that has been totally cleansed of afflictive obscurations.
83
What is nonabiding nirvāņa?
A buddha's nirvāņa that does not abide in either cyclic existence or personal liberation.
84
What is nonconceptual consciousness?
A consciousness that knows its object directly, not by means of a conceptual appearance.
85
What is nonduality?
The nonappearance of subject and object, inherent existence, conventional truths, and conceptual appearances in an ārya's meditative equipoise on emptiness.
86
What is nonexistent?
That which is not perceivable by mind.
87
What is an observed object?
The basic object that the mind refers to or focuses on while apprehending certain aspects of that object.
88
What is permanent?
Unchanging, static. It does not mean eternal.
89
What is a permanent, unitary, independent self?
A soul or self asserted by non-Buddhists.
90
What is a person?
A living being designated in dependence on the four or five aggregates.
91
What is polluted?
Under the influence of ignorance and its latencies.
92
What is powa?
A practice for transferring the consciousness at the time of death so that it will take a precious human life or be reborn in a pure land.
93
What is Prāsangika Madhyamaka?
The Buddhist philosophical tenet system whose views are most accurate.
94
What is prātimokșa?
The different sets of ethical precepts for monastics and lay followers that assist in attaining liberation.
95
What is primary consciousness?
A consciousness that apprehends the presence or basic entity of an object.
96
What is a pure land?
Places created by the unshakable resolve and merit of buddhas where all external conditions are conducive for Dharma practice.
97
What is a reliable cognizer?
A nondeceptive awareness that is incontrovertible with respect to its apprehended object.
98
What is a reliable cognizer based on an example?
Inferential cognizers that realize their object by understanding that it is similar to something else.
99
What is a reliable cognizer based on authoritative testimony?
An inferential cognizer knowing very obscure phenomena that cannot be established through direct perceivers.
100
What is a ripening result?
The karmic result that is a rebirth; the five aggregates a being takes.
101
What is Sautrāntika?
A Buddhist tenet school that espouses Fundamental Vehicle tenets.
102
What is scriptural authority?
Relying on a scripture that has met three criteria that deem it reliable.
103
What is self?
Refers to (1) a person, or (2) inherent existence.
104
What is self-grasping?
Grasping inherent existence.
105
What is a self-sufficient substantially existent person?
A self that is the controller of the body and mind; such a self does not exist.
106
What are sense direct reliable cognizers?
Incontrovertible awarenesses that know their objects directly by depending on a physical cognitive faculty.
107
What is a sentient being?
Any being with a mind, except for a buddha.
108
What are the six perfections?
The practices of generosity, ethical conduct, fortitude, joyous effort, meditative stability, and wisdom that are motivated by bodhicitta.
109
What is a solitary realizer?
A person following the Fundamental Vehicle who seeks liberation.
110
What is a śrāvaka (hearer)?
Someone practicing the Fundamental Vehicle path leading to arhatship.
111
What is stabilizing meditation?
Meditation to focus and concentrate the mind on an object.
112
What is superknowledge?
Special powers gained through having deep states of concentration.
113
What is Svātantrika Madhyamaka?
A philosophical tenet system that is not as accurate as the other branch of Madhyamaka.
114
What is syllogism?
A statement consisting of a subject, predicate, and reason.
115
What is taking and giving?
A meditation practice for cultivating love and compassion that involves visualizing taking on the suffering of others.
116
What is tathāgata?
A buddha.
117
What is a thesis?
What is to be proven in a syllogism.
118
What is āsangika?
A term related to a specific Buddhist philosophical viewpoint.
119
What is a syllogism (prayoga)?
A statement consisting of a subject, predicate, and reason, and in many cases, an example.
120
What is taking and giving (T. tong len)?
A meditation practice for cultivating love and compassion that involves visualizing taking on the suffering of others, using it to destroy our self-centered attitude, and giving our body, possessions, and merit to others.
121
What does tathāgata mean?
A buddha.
122
What is a thesis (pratijñā)?
What is to be proven; the combination of the subject and the predicate in a syllogism.
123
What is a thing (bhāva)?
Something that performs a function.
124
What are the three criteria for existent phenomena?
It is known to a conventional consciousness; its existence is not invalidated by another conventional reliable cognizer; it is not invalidated by a mind analyzing emptiness.
125
What are the three criteria of a correct inference or syllogism?
Presence of the reason in the subject, pervasion or entailment, and counterpervasion.
126
What is true cessation (nirodhasatya)?
The cessation of a portion of afflictions or a portion of cognitive obscurations.
127
What does true existence (satyasat) refer to?
Existence having its own mode of being; existence having its own reality.
128
What is true grasping?
See 'grasping true existence.'
129
What is the truth body (dharmakāya)?
The buddha body that includes the nature truth body and the wisdom truth body.
130
What are the twelve links of dependent arising?
A system of twelve factors that explains how we take rebirth in samsāra and how we can be liberated from it.
131
What are the two truths (satyadvaya)?
Ultimate truths and veil (conventional) truths.
132
What is ultimate bodhicitta (paramārthabodhicitta)?
Direct nonconceptual realization of emptiness in the continuum of an ārya bodhisattva.
133
What is ultimate truth (paramārthasatya)?
The ultimate mode of existence of all persons and phenomena; emptiness; objects that are true and appear true to their main cognizer.
134
What are unfortunate states (apāya)?
Unfortunate states of rebirth as a hell being, hungry ghost, or animal.
135
What does unpolluted (anāsrava) mean?
Not under the influence of ignorance.
136
What is unreliable awareness?
An awareness that does not correctly apprehend its object and cannot help us accomplish our purpose. These include correct assumers, inattentive perceivers, doubt, and wrong awarenesses.
137
What is Vaibhāşika?
A Buddhist tenet school that espouses Fundamental Vehicle tenets. It is considered the lowest tenet school.
138
What are veiled truths (samvrtisatya)?
Objects that appear true to ignorance; objects that appear to exist inherently to their main cognizer, although they do not; synonymous with conventional truths.
139
What are very obscure phenomena (atyantaparoksa)?
Phenomena that can be known only by relying on the testimony of a reliable person or a valid scripture.
140
What is the view of a personal identity (view of the transitory collection, satkāyadrşți)?
Grasping an inherently existent I or mine (according to the Prasangika system).
141
What is Vinaya?
Monastic discipline.
142
What are white appearance, red increase, and black near attainment?
Three subtle minds that manifest after coarser minds have been absorbed and before the subtlest clear light mind arises.
143
What is wrong or erroneous awareness (viparyaya jñāna)?
A mind that is erroneous with respect to its apprehended object, and in the case of conceptual cognizers with respect to its conceived object.
144
What are yogic direct reliable cognizers?
Nondeceptive mental consciousnesses that know their objects by depending on a union of serenity and insight.
