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Glossary

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 Please see our Content Disclaimer regarding English terms in LYWA publications that may be outdated and should be considered in context.

Chandragomin

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).

changeable mental factors

anyathabhava-chaitta (Skt); zhen gyur sem jung (Tib); gzhan ’gyur sems byung (Wyl)

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.

channel

nadi (Skt); tsa (Tib); rtsa (Wyl)

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.

Chekawa Yeshe Dorje, Geshe (1101–75)

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.