This glossary contains an alphabetical list of Buddhist terms that you may find on this website. Many of the terms now include phoneticized Sanskrit (Skt) as well as two forms of Tibetan—the phonetic version (Tib), which is a guide to pronunciation, and transliteration using the Wylie method (Wyl). Search for the term you want by entering it in the search box or browse through the listing by clicking on the letters below. Please see our Content Disclaimer regarding English terms in LYWA publications that may be outdated and should be considered in context.
A famous seventh-century Indian lay practitioner who challenged Chandrakirti to a debate that lasted many years. His writings include Twenty Verses on the Bodhisattva Vows (Skt: Bodhisattvasamvaravimshakah; Tib: jam chug sem pä dom pa nyi shu pa) and Letter to a Disciple (Skt: Shisyalekha; Tib: lob ma la tring pä tring yik).
The sixth century CE Indian Buddhist philosopher who wrote commentaries on Nagarjuna's philosophy. His best-known work is A Guide to the Middle Way (Skt: Madhyamakavatara; Tib: u ma la jug pa).
Beer made from fermented grain, often barley.
One of the six groups of mental factors, these are factors that can be virtuous, nonvirtuous or neutral depending on one's motivation and the specific situation. There are four: sleep, contrition, investigation and analysis.
A constituent of the vajra body through which energy winds and drops flow. The central, right, and left are the major channels; there are 72,000 subtle channels in all. See also five chakras and central channel.
The second of four classes of tantra, also called Performance Tantra because it emphasizes rituals and recitation.
The Kadampa geshe who was inspired by Geshe Langri Tangpa's Eight Verses of Thought Transformation and later composed the famous thought transformation text Seven-Point Mind Training.
A disciple of Khedrub-je, one of Lama Tsongkhapa's heart disciples.
Kadampa master and one of Dromtönpa's three main disciples, the other two being Geshe Potowa and Phuchungwa Shönu Gyaltsen (1031–1106).
A tantric practice aimed at destroying self-grasping, where the practitioner visualizes dissecting and distributing the parts of the ordinary body to spirits and other beings as a feast offering.
An ascetic, learned Gelugpa lama who meditated in a small room in Lhasa for nineteen years after the Chinese occupation; a guru of Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
