The four types of attainments often described in tantric initiations. They are: pacification (of delusions), increase (of realizations), control (of whatever needs controlling) and subduing (of negative forces).

See proofs of reincarnation.

Also called the four complete purities. In tantra, the practice of transcending ordinary appearance and seeing place, body, enjoyments and action as pure. The place or environment is seen as the deity's mandala, the ordinary body is seen as the deity's, the sense enjoyments are offered to the deity and all actions are regarded as the actions of the deity.

Pu Tuo Shan, Wu Tai Shan, Emei Shan, Jiu Hua Shan.

The four basic tenets that define Buddhism. They are: all compositional phenomena are impermanent, all contaminated phenomena are by nature suffering, all phenomena are empty of self-existence and nirvana is true peace.

The four contemplations are: 1) the difficulties of finding a precious human rebirth; 2) the impermanence of life; 3) the sufferings of samsara; and 4) karma (cause and effect).

The four major lineages of Tibetan Buddhism: Nyingma, Kagyü, Sakya and Gelug.

They are: grasping at sense pleasures, grasping at the wrong view of denying what exists, grasping at the wrong view of holding our own beliefs as superior and grasping at the wrong view of the sense of a self-existent I.

Taught by the Buddha shortly before showing the aspect of passing away, they are: 1) relying on the message and not the personality of the teacher; 2) relying on the meaning of the message and not just the words; 3) relying on definitive meaning and not the provisional; and 4) relying on wisdom and insight, and not the ordinary, judgmental mind.

The four types of very subtle ignorance that arhats and higher bodhisattvas still have that a buddha does not, due to the subtle imprints of delusions not yet fully eliminated. They are: the inability to see the secret actions of a buddha, the inability to see the subtle karma of sentient beings, the inability to see things that happened a very long time ago and the inability to see very long distances.

Four attainments of the union of clear light and illusory body, they are: the posture of the drop, retaining the drops while in union without emission; the posture of the wind, using the wind to block the channel by use of a syllable; the posture of the channel, the meeting of channels of the father and mother; and the posture of the body, the syllables that adorn the secret places at the time of unification.

One of the main techniques for meditating on emptiness. They are: 1) determining the object to be negated; 2) determining that a truly existent self must either be identical with the aggregates or separate from them; 3) determining that a truly existent self cannot be identical with the aggregates; and 4) determining that a truly existent self cannot be separate from the aggregates.