Buddha: The awakened; forever enlightened. Buddha Gautama did not claim to be the first Buddha nor the last. He frequently mentioned previous Buddha's. These have never been proven to historically exist, and were probably made up by Gautama just to make his point. Gautama did not wish to be worshipped.

 (See also: Buddha, Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Mindfulness of the Buddha

Synonymous with Buddha Recitation. See "Buddha Recitation."

 (See also: Mindfulness of the Buddha, Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Three Vehicles

The yanas of Sravakas, Pratyekabuddhas and Bodhisattvas.

 (See also: Three Vehicles, Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Consciousness: In Buddhism there are eight classes of consciousness. The first five are the senses (sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing), the sixth is thought, the seventh is manas, and the eighth is alaya-vinana.

 (See also: Consciousness, Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Anasrava (sanskrit) Opposite of asrava.

 (See also: Anasrava, Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

bhikkhuni (bhikkhunii): A Buddhist nun; a man (woman) who has given up the householder's life to live a life of heightened virtue (see sila) in accordance with the Vinaya in general, and the Patimokkha rules in particular.

See sangha, parisa, upasampada.

 (See also: Bhikkhuni, Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Virtue

See "Merit and Virtue."

 (See also: Virtue, Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Marks

Characteristics, forms, physiognomy.

Marks are contrasted with essence, in the same way that phenomena are contrasted with noumenon. True Mark stands for True Form, True Nature, Buddha Nature, always unchanging.

The True Mark of all phenomena is like space: always existing but really empty; although empty, really existing.

The True Mark of the Triple World is

• No-Birth/No-Death,
• not existent/not non-existent,
• not like this/not like that.

True Mark is also called "Self-Nature," "Dharma Body," the "Unconditioned," "True Thusness," "Nirvana," "Dharma Realm.11

See also "Noumenon/Phenomena."

 (See also: Marks, Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Ego: The individual or self; in Buddhism the ego is an illusion, which helps to perpetuate all illusion.

 (See also: Ego, Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Dhamma-vinaya (dhamma-vinaya): "doctrine (dhamma) and discipline (vinaya)." The Buddha's own name for the religion he founded.

 (See also: Dhamma-vinaya, Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Bodhi

Sanskrit for Enlightenment. Also Perfect knowledge or wisdom by which a person becomes a Buddha.

 (See also: Bodhi, Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Asura

Titanic demons, enemies of the gods, with whom-especially Indra-they wage war.

 (See also: Asura, Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Zen.

A major school of Mahayana Buddhism, with several branches.

One of its most popular techniques is meditation on koans, which leads to the generation of the Great Doubt. According to this method: The master gives the student a koan to think about, resolve, and then report back on to the master. Concentration intensifies as the student first tries to solve the koan intellectually. This initial effort proves impossible, however, for a koan cannot be solved rationally. Indeed, it is a kind of spoof on the human intellect.

Concentration and irrationality -- these two elements constitute the characteristic psychic situation that engulfs the student wrestling with a koan. As this persistent effort to concentrate intellectually becomes unbearable, anxiety sets in. The entirety of one's consciousness and psychic life is now filled with one thought. The exertion of the search is like wrestling with a deadly enemy or trying to make one's way through a ring of flames. Such assaults on the fortress of human reason inevitably give rise to a distrust of all rational perception.

This gnawing doubt (Great Doubt), combined with a futile search for a way out, creates a state of extreme and intense yearning for deliverance. The state may persist for days, weeks or even years; eventually the tension has to break. (Dumoulin, Zen Buddhism, Vol. I, p.253.)

An interesting koan is the koan of Buddha Recitation. Unlike other koans, it works in two ways. First of all, if a cultivator succeeds in his meditation through this koan, he can achieve awakening as with other koans. However, if he does not succeed, and experience shows that many cultivators do not, then the meditation on the Buddha's narne helps him to achieve rebirth in the Pure Land.

This is so provided he believes (as most practitioners in Asia do) in Amitabha and the expedient Pure Land. Thus, the Buddha Recitation koan provides a safety net, and demonstrates the underlying unity of Zen and Pure Land.

 (See also: Zen, Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Maya: Name attributed to Gautama Siddharta's mother. More importantly, maya is translated as illusion, and is used to describe reality.

 (See also: Maya, Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Four Reliance (to learning Buddhist Dharma)

The four standards of Right Dharma which buddhist should rely on or abide by:

(1)  to abide by the Dharma, not the person;

(2)  to abide by the sutras of ultimate truth, not the sutras of incomplete truth;

(3)  to abide by the meaning, not the word;

(4)  to abide by the wisdom, not the consciousness.

 (See also: Four Reliance, Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Arya

Any individual ennobled by his/her own continuing effort on the path to enlightenment.

 (See also: Arya, Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Dharmakaya

See "Three bodies of the Buddha."

 (See also: Dharmakaya, Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Four Ways (of learning Buddhist Dharma)

(1)  Belief/faith;

(2)  Interpretation/discernment;

(3)  Practice/performance;

(4)  Verification/assurance.

These are the cyclic process in learning a truth.

 (See also: Four Ways, Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

metta (mettaa): Loving-kindness; goodwill. One of the ten perfections (paramis) and one of the four "sublime abodes" (brahma-vihara).

 (See also: Metta, Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Nirvana Sutra

The last of the sutras in the Mahayana canon. It emphasizes the importance of Buddhanature, which is the same as Self-Nature.

 (See also: Nirvana Sutra, Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Lotus Sect

A Buddhist sect founded by the great Master Hui Yuan about 390 A.D. at his monastery on Mount Lu in Kiangsi Province in China.

The Lotus Sect believes in and honors Amitabha Buddha and declares that, through the chanting of his name and by purifying and finally ridding oneself of desire, one can be reborn in the Pure Land. There one is born of a lotus, and, depending on one's degree of purification and practice, one is born into one of the nine grades of the lotus: upper superior, middle superior, lower superior, etc.

 (See also: Lotus Sect, Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Seven aids to enlightenment

(Jpn.: shichi-kakushi or shichi-bodaibun)

Seven practices conducive to enlightenment. They are memory, discrimination, exertion, joy, lightness and ease, meditation, and impartiality (also referred to as indifference).

Memory here means to recollect one's own past deeds and states, and keep them in mind. Discrimination means to discern the true from the false. Exertion means to be ever diligent in the practice of true teachings, and joy to delight in the practice of true teachings.

Lightness and ease means that one's body and mind are at peace and free from burden. Meditation means to keep the mind concentrated and unperturbed, and impartiality to abandon feelings of attachment and keep the mind detached and calm.

The "seven aids to enlightenment" constitutes the sixth of the seven categories within the thirty-seven aids to the way, or the thirty-seven practices leading to enlightenment. The Sanskrit for "aid to enlightenment" is bodhyanga.

(See also: Seven aids to enlightenment, Enlightenment, Buddhism Enlightenment, Buddhism Enlightenment Dictionary)