Buddhist Psychology and Meditation Practice Flashcards

This flashcard set covers vocabulary from Buddhist psychology, meditation practices like dream yoga and shamatha, and modern clinical applications such as MBCT and research on human flourishing (sukha).

Lucid Dreaming

The psychological phenomenon of realizing you are dreaming while still within the dream state, often used for psychological exploration or recreation.

Dream Yoga

An advanced Tibetan Buddhist practice that uses the lucid dream state for spiritual liberation and to recognize the illusory nature of all reality.

Reality Testing

A technique to learn lucid dreaming that involves routinely asking "Am I dreaming?" during the day.

Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams (MILD)

A technique where one sets an intention before sleep to remember they are dreaming.

Shamatha

A foundational mental factor known as concentration or calm abiding, which is the ability of the mind to rest steadily on a single object without distraction.

Vipashyana

A Buddhist practice corresponding to "insight."

Maya

The concept of "illusory form" or treating waking life and the ego as a temporary, dream-like illusion.

Abhidharma

The ancient Buddhist psychological framework that maps the components of conscious experience, dividing it into primary consciousness and mental factors.

Mental Factors (cetasikas)

Components of consciousness in the Abhidharma that apprehend the quality of an object and determine the mind's reaction, coloring experience as wholesome, unwholesome, or neutral.

Moha

The mental factor of Delusion or Ignorance, representing a fundamental misunderstanding of reality (failing to see impermanence and no-self).

Dana

Generosity; the unattached giving of material goods, time, protection, or spiritual teachings, and the first paramita of the Bodhisattva path.

Anatman

The Buddhist principle of "no-self," which asserts there is no permanent, independent ego or self.

Objective Social Class

A person's measurable socioeconomic status, such as their income, wealth, and educational attainment.

Subjective Social Class

Where an individual perceives they rank compared to others in society.

Counterfactual Thinking

The cognitive ability to imagine alternative realities or "what if" scenarios.

Simulation Processes

The cognitive ability to place oneself in another's situation and mentally simulate their experience.

Karuna

Compassion; the genuine wish for all sentient beings to be free from duhkha (suffering) and its causes.

Prajna

Wisdom; the direct realization of the true nature of reality, specifically impermanence (anitya) and emptiness/no-self (shunyata).

Anitya

Impermanence; the understanding that all phenomena are in constant flux.

Shunyata

The Buddhist concept of emptiness or no-self.

Sukha

Genuine well-being or human flourishing; a deep, enduring state arising from a healthy mind that remains undisturbed by external circumstances.

Hedonic Treadmill

The human tendency to rapidly return to a stable baseline of happiness despite major positive or negative external events.

MBCT

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy; an $8$-week group intervention designed to prevent relapse in patients with Major Depressive Disorder.

Decentering

A mindfulness skill involving observing thoughts objectively as passing mental events rather than fusion with those thoughts as absolute facts.

Gamma Synchrony

High-amplitude brain waves associated with deep focus and integration, detected at unprecedented levels in expert meditators.

Shraddha

Faith or confidence in the spiritual path, which can be supported by empirical scientific validation.

Engaged Buddhism

A movement that applies Buddhist insights and meditation to resolve social, political, environmental, and economic suffering.

Pratityasamutpada

Dependent Origination; the understanding that all phenomena arise together and are interconnected.

Interbeing

The principle of interdependence, recognizing that souls are intrinsically connected and that treating others with violence is destructive to all.

Ahimsa

The principle of non-violence.

Smriti

Mindfulness; the practice of maintaining non-judgmental, present-moment awareness of thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations.

Metta/Maitri

Loving-Kindness; the active cultivation of an unconditional wish for oneself and others to be happy and safe.

Compassion Fatigue

Emotional burnout and apathy resulting from continuous exposure to others' suffering, often distinguished in Buddhism from true compassion as "empathic distress."

Upeksha

Equanimity; the practice of caring deeply while accepting that one cannot control the karma of others or eliminate all suffering.

Tonglen

A practice of "taking and sending" involving visualizing taking in others' suffering on the in-breath and sending out relief and peace on the out-breath.

Placement Meditation

A technique described by Mathieu Ricard where the stabilized mind is rested simply in a non-conceptual feeling of unconditional love and compassion.