These are very brief definitions that generally are used without definition in the various discussions. Wikipedia, Google, or other searches on the web will yield vastly more information. As the erstwhile reader can readily use these tools, I’ve not included links, though I have included links to relevant material in this blog. These are mostly my abbreviated definitions, though I occasionally use Google’s “AI overview” (with attribution) when I figure I can’t do any better.
This is a very abbreviated list: by contrast the glossary in Jack Maguire’s Essential Buddhism has about 150 entries, and Culadasa/John Yates’s The Mind Illuminated meditation guide has about 100. Though Bhikkhu Bodhi’s short glossary in In the Buddha’s Words pretty much overlaps with this on the Pali words.
| Pali Terms | |
| Pali | Language of the Pali Canon, the work of the Theravadan school compiled in Sri Lanka around 30 BCE. Pali is simply a language of record, not “the language spoken by the Buddha”, though probably closely related to what he spoke, and also fairly close to Sanskrit |
| sangha | The community of followers of Buddhism. It originally applied to the monastics, later expanded to both monastic and lay followers, and now frequently refers to a group one regularly practices with |
| damma (Pali)/ darma (Sanskrit) | Literally “truth”: the teachings of the Buddhist traditions |
| brahmaviharas | Literally “divine abodes”, four positive mental states associated with systematic practice: compassion (karuna), “loving-kindness” (metta), empathetic joy (mudita), and equanimity (upekkha) |
| metta | Variously translated as loving-kindness, benevolence, good will, and agape. See this for a discussion |
| bodhisattva | An individual, generally immaterial, who instead of seeking individual release from samsara is devoted to the liberation of all sentient beings. Major focus in Mahayana practice |
| samsara | The cycle of continual rebirth with the dissatisfactions of life |
| kamma (Pali)/ karma (Sanskrit) | The positive and negative results of actions of body, speech, and mind that transcend rebirth |
| nibba (Pali)/nirvana (Sanskrit) | A state that transcends rebirth; typically the primary objective in advanced Theravadan practice |
| sutta (Pali)/sutra(Sanskrit) | A self-contained text, for which there are hundreds in the Pali Canon and in later Mahayana writings, varying widely in length |
| dukha | reactivity, though often translated as “suffering”: its inevitability is the first of the Four Noble Truths |
| bhikkhu | A Buddhist monastic: “bhikkhuni” is the form specific of women monastics (a.k.a “nuns” in English); “bhikkhu” may refer to men only or all monastics depending on context/ interpretation of the text |
| Groups within Buddhist practice | |
| Theravadan | “Way of the elders”, the surviving approach of the earliest established schools of Buddhism in India, subsequently spreading to Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, e.g modern Burma/Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and parts of Vietnam |
| Mahayana | “The great vihicle”: A form of Buddhism established in China around 500 to 800 years after the time of the Buddha, subsequently established in Korea, Japan, and parts of Vietnam. See here. |
| Vajrayana | Buddhism established in Tibet from India around 1000 CD with strong Hindu influences. See here |
| Chan | The Chinese precursor to Zen emphasizing meditation and direct experience |
| Zen | The Japanese adaptation of Chan which gained adherents (and numerous odd cultural references) in the USA in the mid 20th century. See here |
| Pure Land | A Mahayana variant emphasizing devotion to the bodisattva Amitaba: this was common in the coastal Chinese communities that provides immigrants to the western USA starting in the 1850s and quite common among the US descendants of those communities |
| Won | A Mahayana practice originating in Korea |
| Nichiren | A Mahayana practice originated by the eponymous Japanese monk (1222-1282 CE) now associated with Soka Gaikkai International, with numerous sanghas in the USA |
| Jodo Shinsu | Japanese variant of Pure Land founded by the monk Shinran Shōnin (1173–1262), common in USA ethnic Japanese-American sanghas |
| Insight | A Western convert practice based in Theravadan approaches in Burma and Thailand, started in the 1970s |
| Plum Village | The practice of exiled Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh and the Order of Interbeing monastic order. See here. |
| Elements of practice [see note 1] | |
| Four noble truths | Four core principles of sentient existence [nominally] as revealed to the Buddha in his first sermon following his enlightenment. Arguably better translated as “Four truths acknowledged by wise people” See here. |
| Eight Fold Path | The last of the four noble truths: specific actions for leading a proper life. See here. |
| Five precepts | Admonitions against taking of life, stealing, gossip, sexual misconduct, and ingestion of substances that impair judgment. In the Plum Village tradition these are called “mindfulness trainings.” |
| Three Jewels | Buddha, dharma, sangha. In some traditions, committing to these is vaguely similar to a confession of faith |
| Five recollections | Acknowledgment of the inevitability of old age, sickness, death, change, and karma |
| Three poisons | Anger, greed, and delusion. Also the business model of social media |
| The five hinderances (to practice) | sensual desire (retreat romance fantasies, though senses generally, such as hunger), ill-will (retreat revenge fantasies), restlessness/agitation, sloth/topor, and doubt |
| The five aggregates/khandas | Stages of conscious awareness: something making an impression on the sense, evaluating it as positive/negative/neutral, figuring out what it is, linking it to memory, and fully conscious engagement with it, a.k.a. going down a cognitive rabbit hole |
| Immaterial beings [see note 2] | |
| Brahma | One of the three primary Hindu deities, along with Shiva and Vishnu, with whom the Buddha occasionally chats with in the suttas |
| Avalokiteshvara | “Avalokiteshvara is the Bodhisattva of Infinite Compassion in Mahayana Buddhism, revered for postponing his own enlightenment to alleviate the suffering of all sentient beings. Known as Guanyin in China (same being but very often shown in female form), Kannon in Japan, and Chenrezig in Tibet.” (AI overview). “Om mani padme hum” is their mantra. |
| Tara | Any of a number of color-coded female bodhisattvas in the Tibetan tradition |
| Mara | Vaguely similar to the Judeo-Christian Satan, the entity who tries all sorts of strategies to prevent the Buddha (and those following his example) from becoming enlightened, and more generally can cause trouble. |
| devas | minor, and generally helpful, immaterial beings, quite comparable to Christian angels |
| nagas | water serpents/dragons, often protecting things |
| Meditative practice | |
| mindfulness/vipassana | Methods, typically focusing on the breath generally based on SE Asian Theravadan methods adapted to a general lay audience and leading to insight (part of the Eightfold Path). See here. |
| samatha | Theravadan approach focusing on deep concentration (samadhi) or “calm abiding”—lucid, stable, and empty—also part of the Eightfold Path. See here. |
| dzogchen | “Great Perfection,” is the highest, most direct, and non-dualistic meditation tradition within Tibetan Buddhism’s Nyingma school and the Bon religion. (GAIO) |
| Jhana (Pali)/ dhyana (Sanskrit) | a series of eight progressive, deep states of meditative absorption (PAS: that is, altered states of consciousness) and concentration in Buddhism, designed to cultivate a calm, unified, and undistracted mind. These states move through refined joy, bliss, and equanimity, ultimately leading to profound stillness. (GAIO). Distinct from “jnana”, which is Sanskrit for “knowledge” |
| MBSR | “Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction”: A secular, therapeutic mindfulness meditation method developed in the 1980s by Jon Kabat-Zinn based on Korean Zen practice |
| shikantaza (Zen) | Practice of “just sitting”, as distinct from the paradox-based koan practice often associated with Zen, and very similar to Insight mindfulness practice |
| Transcendental Meditation | A mantra-based technique—silent repetition of a short syllable—initially popularized in the US in the 1960s by the Hindu teacher Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Not Buddhist but derives from similar long traditions of meditative practice from South Asia. |
| Blog specific acronyms | |
| I2BUS | “Introduction to Buddhism in the United States”, the lecture series that predated many of the essays. See this |
| GAIO | “Google AI overview”, which is used sparingly and always with attribution to generate some texts |
Notes
- Originally Theravadan Buddhism was conveyed through memory—and more generally arose in a culture where the Brahman religious elite valued memorization far more than writing (as did, contemporaneously, Socrates)—so numerical lists were a useful way to avoid missing things. That original oral tradition also accounts for the excructiatingly high level of repetition in many of the Pali suttas. Mahayana develops in the highly literate elite culture of China, and shortly thereafter the mass production of paper, and has fewer relics of the oral past; Vajrayana is a millennium later and texts, some 84,000 of them, predominate.
- A.k.a. “supernatural”, but I use the distinction “material/immaterial” following the observation of some Protestant theologian that these are “supernatural” only to those who doubt their existence: they are in fact perfectly natural. Or as another teacher put it “the devas are real: you don’t have to believe in them, they’re just real”