Founder of the Kagyü tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. He was a renowned tantric master and translator, a disciple of Naropa and the guru of Milarepa.

One of the two principal disciples of the Buddha, with Shariputra. Maudgalyayana was considered the disciple most accomplished in miraculous powers developed through meditation.

The area of Dharamsala where His Holiness the Dalai Lama and many of the Tibetan refugees live.

The direct realization of emptiness that is conjoined with the pure illusory body in the completion stage of Highest Yoga Tantra to become the union of no more learning, the direct precursor to enlightenment. See also clear light, example clear light and union of clear light and illusory body.

Familiarization of the mind with a virtuous object. There are two types, fixed (Tib: jog gom) also called stabilizing or placement meditation, and analytic or insight meditation (Tib: che gom). See also single-pointed concentration.

A state of single-pointed concentration achieved within a formal meditation session, usually in the context of calm abiding and special insight, which is lost outside the meditation session.

Literally arising from the mind, a mental factor is a cognition that apprehends an attribute of its object and accompanies any principal consciousness that is concordant with it. There are traditionally fifty-one mental factors divided into six groups: five omnipresent factors, five object-determining factors, eleven virtuous factors, six root delusions, twenty secondary delusions and four changeable factors.

The subtlest meaning of dependent arising; every phenomenon exists relatively, or conventionally, as a mere label, merely imputed by the mind.

Positive imprints left on the mind by virtuous, or Dharma, actions. The principal cause of happiness. The merit of virtue, when coupled with the merit of wisdom, eventually results in rupakaya. See also the two accumulations.

Or field of accumulation. The visualized or actual holy beings in relation to whom one accumulates merit by going for refuge, making offerings and so forth, and to whom one prays or makes requests for special purposes.

Also called the merit of fortune or the collection of wisdom, which develops the wisdom side of the path by meditation on emptiness. See also the two accumulations.

Also called the collection of merit, which develops the method side of the path by practicing generosity and so forth. See also the two accumulations.