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 Please see our Content Disclaimer regarding English terms in LYWA publications that may be outdated and should be considered in context.
Born in Lhokha, South Tibet, the son of the first Serkong Dorje Chang and an incarnation of Darma Dodé. After studying at Ganden Monastery, he became a lharampa geshe, and was one of seven tsenshaps or "master debate partners" to His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. See also Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche 2.
Born in Spiti Valley, India, and recognized as the incarnation of Tsenshap Serkong Rinpoche by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Rinpoche commenced his studies at Ganden Jangtse Monastery in South India at the age of six and continued his education at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in Dharamsala, where he attained the status of Master of Madhyamika Buddhist Philosophy. Rinpoche is now based in Dharamsala and teaches Buddhist philosophy in India and abroad.
Literally, gathering—a gathering of offering substances and a gathering of disciples to make the offering.
Founder of the Gelug tradition of Tibetan Buddhism and revitalizer of many sutra and tantra lineages and the monastic tradition in Tibet.
A region in Nepal, where Geshe Lama Konchog (and his reincarnation) was born.
A state of meditation in which a great spiritual master with deep insight into emptiness remains absorbed in clear light after their death. The meditative absorption may last for days, weeks or months. Read more about tukdam here.
A reincarnated lama; one who through the mind of bodhicitta can choose where to be reborn in order to best serve all sentient beings. The title given to such a lama in most Tibetan traditions. (In the Gelug tradition the term used is Rinpoche.)
See inner fire.
The Joyous Land. There are two Tushita realms. One is the pure land of the thousand buddhas of this eon, where the future buddha, Maitreya, and Lama Tsongkhapa reside. The other is the abode of one of the six divisions of desire realm gods (Tib: död lha rig drug; Wyl: 'dod lha rigs drug). See also the six abodes of the desire realm gods.
The twelve deeds that Guru Shakyamuni Buddha and all buddhas perform. They are : descending from Tushita Heaven, entering his mother's womb, birth, studying arts and handicrafts, enjoying life in the palace, renunciation, undertaking ascetic practices, going to Bodhgaya, defeating the negative forces (Mara), attaining enlightenment, turning the wheel of Dharma, entering parinirvana.
Also called the twelve dependent-related limbs or branches; the twelve steps in the evolution of cyclic existence: 1) ignorance; 2) karmic formation; 3) consciousness; 4) name and form; 5) sensory fields; 6) contact; 7) feelings; 8) craving; 9) grasping; 10) becoming (existence); 11) birth; 12) and aging and death. This is Shakyamuni Buddha’s explanation of how delusion and karma bind sentient beings to samsara, causing them to be reborn into suffering again and again; depicted pictorially in the Wheel of Life.
The various visions that a person sees at the time of death, due to the winds (subtle energies) absorbing into the central channel. They are: the four elements, the five aggregates, the six sense sources, the five external sense objects and the five base-time transcendental wisdoms.
Sacred sites in India and Nepal associated especially with Chakrasamvara; also Hindu holy sites.
Also called the two collections or two types of merit, they are: the merit of virtue, which develops the method side of the path by practicing generosity and so forth, and the merit of (transcendental) wisdom, which develops the wisdom side of the path by meditation on emptiness and so forth. See also merit.
They are: conventional bodhicitta, wishing to attain enlightenment in order to free all sentient beings from suffering, and ultimate bodhicitta, the realization of emptiness within a bodhisattva's mental continuum. See also bodhicitta.
The truth body or dharmakaya, the result of the wisdom side of the practice and the form body or rupakaya, the result of the method side of the practice.
Eternalism, seeing things as having an intrinsic reality, and nihilism, seeing things as having no reality at all.
The classification of a buddha's body into two: dharmakaya (truth body) and rupakaya (form body). See also three kayas and four kayas.
Deluded mental states that block the attainment of liberation and enlightenment. They are: the grosser kind, called disturbing-thought obscurations or obscurations to liberation, and the subtle obscurations, the imprints left when those are purified, called obscurations to knowledge or obscurations to enlightenment.
Two great Indian scholars, Gunaprabha and Shakyaprabha, who were learned in the Vinaya (ethical discipline). See also the Six Ornaments.
The two ways of relating to phenomena, as conventional or all-obscuring truth, the truth to a worldly mind, and ultimate truth, the truth to a mind engaged in ultimate analysis.
The nondual transcendental realization of emptiness within a bodhisattva’s mental continuum. See also conventional bodhicitta.
Or absolute truth; one of the two truths, the other being conventional truth. It is the understanding of the ultimate nature of reality, that things are empty of true existence.
The chant master in a Tibetan monastery.
The final stage of completion stage of Highest Yoga Tantra, where the practitioner is able to unite the clear light mind called the meaning clear light (which is a direct realization of emptiness) with the pure illusory body, the experience of the winds entering the indestructible drop at the central channel.
A male lay follower of Buddhism.
A female lay follower of Buddhism.
The three higher realms in samsara of human, asura and sura.
The crown protrusion of a buddha. Not to be confused with the place known in Tibetan as Orgyen (Wyl: o rgyan).
The Great Exposition school, one of the two main Hinayana (Lesser Vehicle) philosophical schools. The Great Exposition school asserts truly established external objects but does not assert self-knowers. See also the four Buddhist philosophical schools.