Key Concepts and Beliefs in Buddhism

Buddhism

A religion founded around 2500 years ago by Siddhartha Gautama.

Buddha

A title given to someone who has achieved enlightenment; usually used to refer to Siddhartha Gautama.

The four sights

Old age, illness, death and a holy man; these four sights led the Buddha to leave his life of luxury in the palace.

Jataka

The Jataka tales are popular stories about the lives of Buddha.

Ascetic

Living a simple and strict lifestyle with few pleasures or possessions; someone who follows ascetic practices.

Meditation

A practice of calming and focusing the mind, and reflecting deeply on specific teachings to penetrate their true meaning.

Enlightenment

The gaining of true knowledge about God, self or the nature of reality, usually through meditation and self-discipline; in Buddhist, Hindu and Sikh traditions, gaining freedom from the cycle of rebirth.

Mara

A demon that represents spiritual obstacles, especially temptation.

The three watches of the night

The three realisations that the Buddha made in order to achieve enlightenment.

The five ascetics

The Buddha's first five students; five monks who followed ascetic practices.

Dhamma (Dharma)

The Buddha's teachings.

Pali

The language of the earliest Buddhist scriptures.

Sanskrit

The language used in later Indian Buddhist texts.

Dependent arising

The idea that all things arise in dependence upon conditions.

The Tibetan Wheel of Life

An image that symbolises samsara, often found in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and temples.

Nidanas

12 factors that illustrate the process of birth, death and rebirth.

Samsara

The repeating cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth.

Kamma (Karma)

A person's actions; the idea that skilful actions result in happiness and unskilful ones in suffering.

Nibbana (Nirvana)

A state of complete enlightenment, happiness and peace.

Anicca

Impermanence; the idea that everything changes.

Anatta

The idea that people do not have a permanent, fixed self or soul.

The five Aggregates

The five aspects that make up a person.

The Four Noble Truths

The four truths that the Buddha taught about suffering.

Dukkha

The first noble truth: there is suffering.

Samudaya

The second noble truth: there are causes of suffering.

Nirodha

The third noble truth: suffering can be stopped.

Magga

The fourth noble truth: the way to stop suffering; the Eightfold path.

Theravada Buddhism

'The school of elders'; an ancient Buddhist tradition found in southern Asia.

Mahayana Buddhism

An umbrella term to describe some later Buddhist traditions, including Pure Land Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism and Zen Buddhism.

Tanha

Craving (desiring or wanting something).

The three poisons

Greed, hatred and ignorance; the main causes of suffering.

The Eightfold Path

Eight aspects that Buddhists practise and live by in order to achieve enlightenment.

The threefold way

The Eightfold Path grouped into the three sections of ethics, meditation and wisdom.

Ethics (sila)

A section of the threefold way that emphasises the importance of skilful action as the basis for spiritual progress.

Meditation (Samadhi)

A section of the threefold way that emphasises the role of meditation in the process of spiritual development.

Wisdom (panna)

A section of the threefold way that deals with Buddhist approaches to understanding the nature of reality.

Sunyata

Emptiness; the concept that nothing has a separate independent 'self' or 'soul'.

Buddha-nature

The idea that everyone has the essence of Buddha inside them.

Buddhahood

When someone achieves enlightenment and becomes a Buddha.

Arhat

For Theravada Buddhists, someone who has become enlightened.

Bodhisattva

For Mahayana Buddhists, someone who has become enlightened but chooses to remain in the cycle of samsara to help others achieve enlightenment as well.

Pure Land Buddhism

A Mahayana form of Buddhism based on belief in Amitabha Buddha.

Amitabha Buddha

The Buddha worshipped by Pure Land Buddhists.

Sukhavati

The paradise where Amitabha Buddha lives and, where Pure Land Buddhists aim to be reborn.