Abhayagiri
A major ancient monastic complex in Anurādhapura.Sri Lanka.also known as Uttaravihāra. Founded by King Vaṭṭagāmaṇi Abhaya in the 1st century bce it consisted of a monastery (vihāra) and a stūpa.but ...
Abhidharma
(Skt.; Pāli, Abhidhamma). Term meaning ‘higher doctrine’ and denoting the scholastic analysis of religious teachings. The earliest Abhidharma material was composed over several centuries beginning ...
abhiṣeka
(Skt.; Tib., dbang-bskur). Literally ‘sprinkling’, this is an initiatory ritual of consecration in tantric Buddhism based on the classical Indian ceremony of coronation which involved lustration. ...
ācārya
(Skt.). A teacher or religious preceptor. In later Buddhism the term comes to be associated particularly with teachers of tantra. See also ajahn.
ādi Buddha
(Skt.). The primordial Buddha.a term only found in late Mahāyāna and Tibetan traditions of tantric Buddhism.possibly not attested in Indian Buddhism but generated through hyper-Sanskritization (see ...
Aditi and the Adityas
In Indian Vedic mythology, Aditi is “infinity,” the source of all forms of consciousness, even of the divine characteristics of the gods themselves. Aditi is also unity, whereas her sister ...
Āgama
(Skt.). One of the four sections of the Sanskrit Buddhist canon that coincide with those of the Pāli Canon. Thus the Sanskrit Dīrgha Āgama corresponds to the Pāli Dīgha Nikāya; the Madhyama Āgama to ...
āgantuka-kleśa
(Skt.). Adventitious vices or negative emotions, a concept associated with the notion of the embryonic Buddha (tathāgata-garbha) in Mahāyāna Buddhism. According to the tathāgata-garbha teachings, the ...
ahimsa
In the Hindu, Buddhist, and Jainist tradition, respect for all living things and avoidance of violence towards others. The word comes from Sanskrit, from a ‘non-, without’ + hiṃsā ‘violence’.
ahosi-kamma
(Pāli).In Theravāda Buddhism.name given to karma (Pāli, kamma) that is past, expired, or spent and will bear no further phala or fruit.
akṣara
(Skt.). A syllable, letter, or phoneme, especially of Sanskrit. In tantric Buddhism these syllables often constitute a hidden code with mystical significance known only to initiates.
akuśu-kū
(Jap, wrong understanding of emptiness). In zen Buddhism.a mistaken notion of emptiness (śūnyatā) which regards it as nothingness. Correctly understood, however, śūnyatā is not the the mere negation ...
Amida
The Japanese pronunciation of the name of the Buddha Amitābha or Amitāyus. This Buddha serves as the primary object of devotion and agent of salvation for the various schools of Pure Land Buddhism in ...
Amidism
An English term sometimes used to refer to Japanese Pure Land Buddhism as a whole, as opposed to individual schools such as the Jōdo Shū, the Jōdo Shinshū, and the Jishū. See also ching-t'u tsung.
Amis du bouddhisme
A society for the promotion of Buddhism founded in Paris in 1929 by the American Buddhist Constant Lounsbery.
Amoghavajra
(705–74).A native of south India.Amoghavajra is considered the sixth patriarch of esoteric Buddhism in China. He was also a prolific translator. He became a Buddhist novice at the age of 13, arrived ...
Anagarika Dharmapala
(1864–1933).Also known as Venerable Devamitta Dharmapāla. Born in 1864 as David Hevāvitārana, he was the founder of ‘Protestant Buddhism’. Born into a Buddhist family, he was educated at Christian ...
anattavada
The Buddhist doctrine that there is no soul. The Buddha taught that nothing is permanent or unchangeable, and (as Hume later insisted) when we look inside ourselves we find only fleeting mental ...
Anawrahtā
Also spelt Anorahta, being a Burmese variant of the Pāli form Aniruddha (or Anuruddha). Name of the king of Burma who reigned 1040–77 and who played an important role in the promotion of Buddhism and ...
Ancestor cults
In many cosmogonies of Asia, as in similar myths in other parts of the world, the creation of the world is followed by the creation of beings who become the ...
