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 Please see our Content Disclaimer regarding English terms in LYWA publications that may be outdated and should be considered in context.
Within the lower tantras, the practice that involves conceptuality (“sign”), before the realization of emptiness, comparable to the generation stage in Highest Yoga Tantra.
Within the lower tantras, when the practice is imbued with a realization of emptiness and hence beyond conceptuality (“sign”), comparable to the completion stage in Highest Yoga Tantra.
The Yogic Middle Way Autonomy school, a division of the Svatantrika (Autonomy school) of Buddhist philosophy. The proponent asserts a presentation of conventionalities through mostly conforming with the Cittamatra (Mind Only school). Examples of Yogic Middle Way Autonomists are Shantarakshita, Haribhadra, and Kamalashila. See also Sautrantika-Svatantrika-Madhyamika and the four Buddhist philosophical schools.
Often used as a synonym for the Cittamatra school, it can also refer to a subdivision of the Svatantrika Madhyamaka school. Its followers assert a coarse selflessness of phenomena that is the same as the Cittamatrins' subtle selflessness of phenomena—the lack of difference in entity between subject and object.
A highly realized meditator.
A measure of distance used in ancient India, said to be somewhere between six and fifteen km (four to nine miles).
Literally, "mother"; a female consort of a male tantric deity (the "father"; Tib: yab), as in Yum Dorje Nyemma Karmo, the consort of Heruka Vajrasattva.
The female consort of the male tantric deity Heruka Vajrasattva.
