Comprehensive Guide to Buddhist Cosmology, Mandalas, and Vajrayana Practice

Mandala

A diagram representing the Buddhist cosmos, often centered around Mount Meru and used for visualization, meditation, and ritual.

Mount Meru

The sacred central mountain in Buddhist cosmology, often understood as the cosmic location of the Buddha in mandalas.

Jambudipa

The island-continent where humans live in Buddhist cosmology; basically the human world.

Vajrayana

A form of Mahayana Buddhism that uses ritual, visualization, mandalas, mantras, and secret teachings to reach enlightenment.

Diamond Vehicle

The literal meaning of Vajrayana; symbolizes cutting or piercing through suffering and ignorance.

Tantra

Secret or esoteric ritual teachings that emphises non-duality and requires special instruction from a teacher or guru.

Guru

A spiritual teacher who explains the secret meanings, symbols, and rituals in Vajrayana practice.

Collapsing Space

The process where the distance between the earthly world and the Buddha's cosmic world disappears through visualization.

Buddha-Field

A sacred realm associated with a specific Buddha, such as Amitabha's Pure Land.

Multiplicity of Buddhas

The Mahayana idea that there are many Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and sacred beings across the cosmos.

Vajra

A ritual object symbolizing a thunderbolt or diamond; represents spiritual power and the ability to cut through ignorance.

Sand Mandala

A temporary mandala made from colored sand that is destroyed after completion to teach impermanence.

Thangka

A Tibetan Buddhist painting that often shows Buddhas, bodhisattvas, mandalas, or sacred figures.

Mahayana

A major branch of Buddhism that emphasizes compassion and the liberation of all beings and is a concept of boddhisatva ideal.

Theravada

An earlier form of Buddhism that focuses more on individual liberation and becoming an arhat.

Bodhisattva

A being who seeks enlightenment for the sake of all beings and delays final nirvana to help others.

Bodhisattva Ideal

The Mahayana model of the ideal Buddhist person, focused on compassion and helping all beings reach enlightenment.

Maitreya

The future Buddha who will appear later and teach the Dharma.

Amitabha

Messureless light.

land of bliss

A blissful realm without suffering where enlightenment is easier to achieve.

Dharmakara

The bodhisattva who made vows and later became Amitabha Buddha.

Lotus Sutra

An important Mahayana text that teaches the Buddha's presence continues through his teachings and sacred text.

Dharma Blossom

A metaphor connected to the Lotus Sutra, showing the Dharma spreading and growing like a flower.

Jeweled Stupa

A sacred structure in the Lotus Sutra that contains the Buddha Prabhutaratna.

Prabhutaratna

The Buddha who appears inside the jeweled stupa and confirms the truth of the Lotus Sutra.

Shakyamuni

The historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama who appears inside the jewled stupa second.

Apparition

A vision or appearance of a Buddha or sacred figure.

Sunyata

Emptiness; the idea that things do not have fixed, independent, permanent essence.

Svabhava

Own-being or inherent nature; Mahayana Buddhism argues that things lack this.

Zen Buddhism

A form of Mahayana Buddhism focused on meditation, direct experience, and awareness of the present moment.

Zazen

Seated meditation in Zen Buddhism.

Satori

Sudden awakening or sudden insight (englightenment) in Zen Buddhism.

Arhat

An enlightened person in early Buddhism or Theravada who has escaped suffering and samsara.

Cosmos

The ordered universe represented in mandalas.

Sacred Geography

The spiritual mapping of the universe, especially through places like Mount Meru.

Cosmogram

An image or diagram of the cosmos, like a mandala.

Central Buddha

The Buddha placed at the center of the mandala, representing the sacred center of the cosmos.

Himalayan Buddhism

Buddhist traditions from the Himalayan region, often associated with mandalas, Vajrayana, and Tibetan Buddhism.

Tibetan Buddhism

A form of Vajrayana Buddhism that often uses mandalas, mantras, thangkas, and guru instruction.

Mantra

A sacred phrase or sound repeated in meditation or ritual.

Liturgy

A structured ritual practice; used in class as a comparison for understanding Vajrayana ritual.

Meditation Cave

An early setting where practitioners used mandalas to visualize the Buddha and sacred space.

Alchi

A site in Ladakh with early mandalas painted in caves or temples.

Earthly Realm

The ordinary human world where the practitioner begins.

Cosmic Realm

The sacred world of the Buddha, represented in the mandala.

Cosmic Palace

The sacred palace structure in a mandala where the central Buddha resides.

Re-centering the Cosmos

The process of making the mandala's cosmic center relate to the practitioner's own location.

Becoming the Buddha

The Vajrayana goal of identifying with the Buddha through visualization and meditation.

Impermanent Mandala

A mandala made to be temporary, especially a sand mandala.

Healing Mandala

A mandala, such as one for the Medicine Buddha, used for healing the community or environment.

Buddha's Presence through Word and Body

The idea from the Lotus Sutra that the Buddha continues through teachings, texts, and sacred forms, not just his physical body.

Merit-making

Performing actions (good karma) which will result in good outcomes/results (e.g., showing kindness to someone, learning the Buddha's teachings).

Prahidhana

The prediction of future buddha's.

The First Sermon Delivered by the Buddha

Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta.

Dhayana

Deep meditation.

Sound of Bell

The voice of the buddha to calm ourselves.

Nagarjuna

The Buddhist middle way monk and philosopher who established the Madhyamika school of philosophy.

Hakusa

White sand that symbolizes the flow of existence.

Sugata

Someone who has gone the right way on the path to enlightenment and reached awakening.

Dana

Generosity or giving.

4 Changes of Mahayana Buddhism

Multiplicity of Buddhas, multiplicity of Bodhisattvas, expansion of the cosmos, and future-oriented salvation.