Abhidhamma: (1) In the discourses of the Pali Canon, this term simply means
"higher Dhamma," and a systematic attempt to define the Buddha's teachings
and understand their interrelationships. (2) A later collection of analytical
treatises based on lists of categories drawn from the teachings in the discourses,
added to the Canon several centuries after the Buddha's life.
Arahant: A "worthy one" or "pure one;" a person whose mind
is free of defilement and thus is not destined for further rebirth. A title
for the Buddha and the highest level of his noble disciples.
Asava: Effluent; fermentation. Four qualities -- sensuality, views, becoming,
and ignorance -- that "flow out" of the mind and create the flood
of the round of death and rebirth.
Bodhisatta: "A being (striving) for Awakening;" the term used to describe
the Buddha before he actually become Buddha, from his first aspiration to Buddhahood
until the time of his full Awakening. Sanskrit form: Bodhisattva.
Deva: Literally, "shining one." An inhabitant of the heavenly realms.
Dhamma: (1) Event; a phenomenon in and of itself; (2) mental quality; (3) doctrine,
teaching; (4) nibbana. Sanskrit form: Dharma.
Hinayana: "Inferior Vehicle," a pejorative term -- coined by a group
who called themselves followers of the Mahayana, the "Great Vehicle"
-- to denote the path of practice of those who adhered only to the earliest
discourses as the word of the Buddha. Hinayanists refused to recognize the later
discourses, composed by the Mahayanists, that claimed to contain teachings that
the Buddha felt were too deep for his first generation of disciples, and which
he thus secretly entrusted to underground serpents. The Theravada school of
today is a descendent of the Hinayana.
Idappaccayata: This/that conditionality. This name for the causal principle
the Buddha discovered on the night of his Awakening emphasizes the point that,
for the purposes of ending suffering and stress, the processes of causality
can be understood entirely in terms of forces and conditions that are experienced
in the realm of direct experience, with no need to refer to forces operating
outside of that realm.
Jhana: Mental absorption. A state of strong concentration focused on a single
sensation or mental notion.
Kamma: Intentional act. Sanskrit form: karma.
Mandala: Microcosmic diagram, used as a power circle and object of contemplation
in the rituals of Tantric Buddhism.
Mara: The personification of evil and temptation.
Nibbana: Literally, the "unbinding" of the mind from passion, aversion,
and delusion, and from the entire round of death and rebirth. As this term also
denotes the extinguishing of a fire, it carries connotations of stilling, cooling,
and peace. "Total nibbana" in some contexts denotes the experience
of Awakening; in others, the final passing away of an arahant. Sanskrit form:
nirvana.
Pali: The canon of texts preserved by the Theravada school and, by extension,
the language in which those texts are composed.
Patimokkha: Basic code of monastic discipline, composed of 227 rules for monks
and 310 for nuns.
Samana: Contemplative. Literally, a person who abandons the conventional obligations
of social life in order to find a way of life more "in tune" (sama)
with the ways of nature.
Samsara: Transmigration; the round of death and rebirth.
Sangha: On the conventional (sammati) level, this term denotes the communities
of Buddhist monks and nuns; on the ideal (ariya) level, it denotes those followers
of the Buddha, lay or ordained, who have attained at least stream-entry.
Stupa: Originally, a tumulus or burial mound enshrining relics of a holy person
-- such as the Buddha -- or objects associated with his life. Over the centuries
this has developed into the tall, spired monuments familiar in temples in Thailand,
Sri Lanka, and Burma; and into the pagodas of China, Korea, and Japan.
Tadi: "Such," an adjective to describe one who has attained the goal.
It indicates that the person's state is indefinable but not subject to change
or influences of any sort.
Tathagata: Literally, "one who has become authentic (tatha-agata),"
an epithet used in ancient India for a person who has attained the highest religious
goal. In Buddhism, it usually denotes the Buddha, although occasionally it also
denotes any of his arahant disciples.
Theravada: The "Teachings of the Elders" -- the only one of the early
schools of Buddhism to have survived into the present; currently the dominant
form of Buddhism in Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Burma.
Vinaya: The monastic discipline, whose rules and traditions comprise six volumes
in printed text.
English-Pali
Although I have tried to be as consistent as possible in rendering Pali terms
into English, there are a few cases where a single English term will not do
justice to all the meanings of a Pali term. Although the rule of one English
equivalent per one Pali word makes for consistency, any truly bilingual person
will know that such a rule can create ludicrous distortions of meaning in translation.
Thus, while I have not consciously used one English term to translate two different
Pali terms, there are cases where I have found it necessary to render a single
Pali term with two or more English terms, depending on context. Citta in some
cases is rendered as mind, in others as intent. Similarly, loka is rendered
either as cosmos or world, manas as intellect or heart, ayatana as medium or
sphere, upadana as clinging or sustenance, and dhamma as phenomenon, quality,
or principle.
Also, with some of the Pali terms that play a central role in explaining the
teaching, I have chosen equivalents that do not follow general usage. In the
following list I have indicated these equivalents with asterisks; explanations
for these choices are provided at the end of the list.
acquisition -- upadhi
aggregate -- khandha
alertness -- sampajañña
appropriate attention -- yoniso manasikara
Awakening -- bodhi
awareness -- cetas
becoming -- bhava
clear knowing -- vijja
clinging -- upadana
compounded -- sankhata
concern -- ottappa
conscience -- hiri
contemplative -- samana
conviction -- saddha
cosmos -- loka
craving -- tanha
dependent co-arising -- paticca samuppada
desire -- chanda
dimension -- ayatana
directed thought -- vitakka
discern -- pajanati
discernment -- pañña
discrimination -- vimamsa
disenchantment -- nibbida
dispassion -- viraga
effluent -- asava
emptiness -- suññata
evaluation -- vicara
fabricated -- sankhata
fabrication -- sankhara
fetter -- sanyojana
frame of reference* -- satipatthana
gnosis -- añña
good will -- metta
heart -- manas
inconstant* -- anicca
insight -- vipassana
intellect -- manas
intent -- citta
intention -- cetana
letting go -- vossagga
medium -- ayatana
mind -- citta
non-fashioning -- atammayata
not-self -- anatta
origination -- samudaya
perception -- sañña
persistence -- viriya
pertinent -- opanayika
phenomenon -- dhamma
prerequisite -- upanisa
property -- dhatu
quality -- dhamma
release -- vimutti
relinquishment -- patinissagga
requisite condition -- paccaya
resolve -- sankappa
self-awakening -- sambodhi
sensuality -- kama
skillful -- kusala
stream-entry -- sotipatti
stress* -- dukkha
Such -- tadi
sustenance -- upadana
theme -- nimitta
this/that conditionality -- idappaccayata
tranquillity -- samatha
transcendent -- lokuttara
transmigration -- samsara
Unbinding* -- nibbana
Unfabricated -- asankhata
world -- loka
Fabrication: Sankhara literally means "putting together," and carries
connotations of jerry-rigged artificiality. It is applied to physical and to
mental processes, as well as to the products of those processes. Various English
words have been suggested as renderings for sankhara -- such as "formation,"
"determination," "force," and "constructive activity"
-- but "fabrication," in both of its senses, as the process of fabrication
and the fabricated things that result, seems the best equivalent for capturing
the connotations as well as the denotations of the term.
Frame of reference: The literal rendering of satipatthana is "foundation
of mindfulness" or "application of mindfulness," both of which
require a great deal of explanation to make them intelligible in English. However,
the actual function of satipatthana in practice is precisely that of the English
idiom, frame of reference. Although adopting this rendering requires some inconsistency
in translating sati -- using "reference" here, and "mindfulness"
otherwise -- this seems a small price to pay for instant intelligibility in
an otherwise obscure term.
Inconstant: The usual rendering for anicca is "impermanent." However,
the antonym of the term, nicca, carries connotations of constancy and dependability;
and as anicca is used to emphasize the point that conditioned phenomena cannot
be depended on to provide true happiness, this seems a useful rendering for
conveying this point.
Stress: The Pali term dukkha, which is traditionally translated in the commentaries
as, "that which is hard to bear," is notorious for having no truly
adequate equivalent in English, but stress -- in its basic sense as a strain
on body or mind -- seems as close as English can get. In the Canon, dukkha applies
both to physical and to mental phenomena, ranging from the intense stress of
acute anguish or pain to the innate burdensomeness of even the most subtle mental
or physical fabrications.
Unbinding: Because nibbana is used to denote not only the Buddhist goal, but
also the extinguishing of a fire, it is usually rendered as "extinguishing"
or, even worse, "extinction." However, a study of ancient Indian views
of the workings of fire (see The Mind Like Fire Unbound) will reveal that people
of the Buddha's time felt that a fire, in going out, did not go out of existence
but was simply freed from its agitation and attachment to its fuel. Thus, when
applied to the Buddhist goal, the primary connotation of nibbana is one of release
and liberation. According to the commentaries, the literal meaning of the word
nibbana is "unbinding," and as this is a rare case where the literal
and contextual meanings of a term coincide, this seems to be the ideal English
equivalent.