Buddhism

Buddhism

A religious and philosophical tradition that originated in Brahmanic India and challenges the belief in an eternal soul.

Anatman/Anatta

The Buddhist concept that the human personality is without a soul or unchanging essence.

Samsara

The cycle of birth, death, and rebirth in Hindu and Buddhist belief systems.

Karma

The belief that intentional actions lead to consequences and determine one's future experiences in the cycle of samsara.

Historical Buddha

The founder of Buddhism, whose exact birth and death dates are uncertain.

Nirvana

The state of liberation from the cycle of birth and death, sought by Buddhists.

Bodhisattva

A being who is on the path to becoming a Buddha, dedicated to helping others achieve enlightenment.

Eightfold Path

The path to insight and liberation in Buddhism, consisting of right view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration.

Four Noble Truths

The foundational teachings of Buddhism, which address the nature of suffering and the path to its cessation.

Dukkha

The concept of suffering or dissatisfaction, which encompasses physical and mental pain, loss, and the impermanence of all conditioned phenomena.

Impermanence

The reality that all objects, including mental and physical aspects of a person, are continually undergoing change.

Essencelessness or No-soul (Anatta)

The concept that there is no unchanging core or permanent essence in a person, and the feeling of an unchanging "me" is simply a feeling that arises dependent on various mental and physical factors.

Suffering (Dukkha)

The characteristic that follows from the impermanent and essenceless nature of existing things, both physically and emotionally, as all things are subject to destruction and attachment to impermanent things leads to suffering.

The Four Noble Truths

The first noble truth expresses that suffering is present in all human existence, the second noble truth proposes that the primary cause of suffering is craving and attachment, the third noble truth states that the cessation of suffering can be achieved by removing self-oriented craving, and the fourth noble truth offers a path to train the mind and gain insight to liberate oneself from suffering and death.

Karma

The force of intentional actions that shape the present and future experiences of a person, driving the cycle of birth and death, and creating future conditions based on past actions.

Five Aggregates

The five collections or aggregates that make up a person according to Buddhism - matter or form, sensations or feelings, perceptions or cognition, karmic formations or mental habit patterns, and consciousness. These aggregates function together and give rise to the feeling of an individual self, but there is no ultimately separate self.

Rebirth

The belief in the continuation of the person after death, where the gross material and mental aspects are destroyed, but the stream of consciousness propelled by past karmic habit patterns is carried into a new birth. The person who is reborn is not the same as the person who died, but not different either.

Anatta

The understanding that there is no permanent, unchanging self or soul, and the idea of a separate individual self is a conventional designation arising from the functioning of the five aggregates.

Five aggregates

The five components of an individual's existence - form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness.

Dependent origination

The principle that states that all phenomena arise and cease due to interdependent causes and conditions.

Wheel of birth and death

A circular chain of dependencies with 12 links that describes the process of samsara and the suffering associated with it.

Ignorance

The first link in the chain of dependent origination, representing the lack of understanding of the process of birth and death.

Death

The last link in the chain of dependent origination, representing the end of one life and the beginning of another.

Six sense faculties

The faculties of sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and mental perception.

Clinging

Attachment to desirable things and states, which arises dependent on feelings/sensations.

Craving

The desire for the fulfillment of self-oriented desires, which arises dependent on clinging.

Feelings/Sensations

Pleasurable or painful feelings that inspire the desire for more or the desire to escape them, arising dependent on contact between sense faculties and their objects.

"Becoming"

The orientation towards future goals, continuation, and existence, which arises dependent on craving.

Birth

The coming into being of a new life, dependent on "becoming".

Death

The end of one life and the beginning of another, dependent on birth and all suffering arises from it.

Samsara

The cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, characterized by suffering.

Nirvana

The ultimate spiritual goal in Buddhism, described as the cessation of rebirth, extinction of thirst, absence of desire, and the highest happiness.

Parinirvana

The complete cessation of rebirth and the end of suffering upon death for an enlightened being.

Merit

Good karma that determines one's next birth and is accumulated through virtuous actions.

Three lower worlds

The realms of animals, hungry ghosts, and hell beings, regarded as places of suffering in Buddhism.

Three upper worlds

The realms of gods, titans, and humans, where liberation from samsara is possible.

No-self

The understanding that all phenomena are impermanent and devoid of a permanent, independent self or soul.

Rituals of Departure

Social rituals associated with death that are followed by lay people, while Buddhist monks provide blessings and religious instruction.

Flexibility

The ability to adapt and develop rituals to serve the needs of the lay population.

Mizuko Kuyo

A Japanese ceremony for aborted, miscarried, or still-born children that eases the distress of parents and brings the child into the Buddhist and social framework.

Mindfulness of death

A meditation practice in Buddhism that emphasizes the inevitability of death and the uncertainty of the time of death.

Merit

Positive actions that create good karma and can be dedicated to the benefit of oneself and others, including the sick, dying, and dead.

Powa

A ritual in Tibetan Buddhism performed after death to transfer the person's consciousness directly to Amitabha's Pure Land.

Bardo

The intermediate state between death and rebirth, which includes the dying process, the state of "Reality-as-it-is," and the rebirth process.

Clear Light of Death

The subtlest level of consciousness that manifests at the moment of death, representing the absolute true nature of mind.

Tukdam

The meditation on the subtlest level of mind that arises at death, practiced by high lamas and accomplished spiritual practitioners.

Chonyid Bardo

The intermediate state after death where the deceased regains self-awareness in the form of a thought-body and experiences hallucinations.

Sipai Bardo

The intermediate state after the chonyid bardo, where the deceased experiences the desire to rest from the hallucinations and have a material body.

Sky Burial

A Tibetan funeral practice where the body is offered to vultures, also known as jator.

Merit-making

Prayers, rituals, and acts of merit performed throughout the 49 days after death to benefit the deceased and purify their negative karma.

Name-card

An effigy or picture of the deceased used in funeral rituals to help the consciousness of the deceased stay focused and pay attention to the rituals being conducted for their benefit.

Pure Land

The state of enlightenment or the next birth that the consciousness of the deceased is released to after death, symbolized by the burning of the name-card.

Rituals of Protection

Rituals performed to comfort the confused soul of the deceased and persuade it to depart from the living, based on pre-Buddhist Tibetan folk beliefs regarding the soul.

Zen Buddhism

A form of Buddhism that emphasizes meditation and the realization of emptiness and interconnectedness as a means to resolve inner debates and understand the true nature of self.