Buddhist Scriptures

by Donald Lopez

  Mahākāśyapa (Sanskrit; Pali: Mahākassapa): one of the disciples of the Buddha, Mahākāśyapa is said to have called the saṅgha together after the Buddha’s death in order to compile his teachings. He is said to remain in samādhi inside a mountain, awaiting the coming of Maitreya.

  mahāsattva: see bodhisattva.

  Mahāyāna (Sanskrit): literally, ‘great vehicle’, a term used by proponents of sūtras that began to appear some four centuries after the death of the Buddha and which were regarded by them as the word of the Buddha. The term has come to mean by extension those forms of Buddhism (today located for the most part in Tibet, China, Korea and Japan) that base their practice on these sūtras.

  Maitreya (Sanskrit; Pali: Metteyya): literally, ‘Kindness’, the next buddha to appear in the world after Śākyamuni. Maitreya is currently a bodhisattva residing in a heaven, awaiting the appropriate time to appear.

  maṇḍala (Sanskrit): literally, ‘circle’, in tantric Buddhism a representation (in both two- and three-dimensional forms) of the palace of a buddha. Such representations are particularly important in initiation rites, in which the initiate is said to ‘enter the maṇḍala’.

  Mañjuśrī (Sanskrit): literally, ‘Gentle Glory’, the bodhisattva of wisdom, often depicted holding aloft a sword, with which he cuts through the webs of ignorance.

  mantra (Sanskrit): a verbal formula of one or more Sanskrit syllables, the repetition of which bestows certain powers. The recitation of mantra is a central element of tantric practice.

  Māra (Sanskrit): often called ‘the Buddhist devil’, the god of death and desire and chief divine antagonist of the Buddha and his followers. Māra sought to obstruct the Buddha throughout his life, most famously unleashing his armies against him on the night of the Buddha’s enlightenment.

  Meru (Sanskrit): in Buddhist cosmology, the mountain in the centre of the universe. Gods inhabit its surface and summit.

  method (Sanskrit: upāya): (1) the expedient means by which the Buddha leads beings to enlightenment by teaching them what is not ultimately true until they are prepared for the definitive teaching; (2) practices (such as giving, ethics and patience) whereby the bodhisattva accumulates the requisite store of merit required to achieve buddhahood.

  mudrā (Sanskrit): generally translated as ‘symbol’ or ‘gesture’, any of the many hand gestures of the Buddha, such as ‘turning the wheel of the dharma’ or ‘touching the earth’. In tantric Buddhism, mudrā are an important part of ritual practice, where they are regarded as physical embodiments of enlightenment.

  Nāgārjuna (Sanskrit): Indian monk of the second century, regarded as the chief proponent of the doctrine of emptiness and as the founder of the Madhyamaka school. In traditional biographies, he is credited with retrieving the perfection of wisdom sūtras from the ocean realm of the serpent king.

  nembutsu (Japanese): literally, ‘buddha recitation’, the practice of reciting the phrase, ‘Homage to Amitābha Buddha’. A general Mahāyāna practice in China (and possibly in India), it became the central practice of the Pure Land (Shinshū) schools of Japan.

  nirmāṇakāya (Sanskrit): literally, ‘emanation body’, the third of the three bodies of the Buddha. It is this body that appears in the realm of humans and teaches the dharma. According to this Mahāyāna view, the Buddha who appeared on earth was the magical display of a buddha enlightened long before.

  nirvāṇa (Sanskrit; Pali: nibbāna): literally ‘blowing out’, the cessation of suffering and hence the goal of Buddhist practice. The nature of nirvāṇa is widely interpreted in Buddhist literature, with distinctions being made between the vision of nirvāṇa that destroys the seeds of future rebirth and the final nirvāṇa entered upon death. Mahāyāna texts also distinguished between the nirvāṇa of an arhat and the enlightenment of a buddha. The term parinirvāṇa (Pali: parinibbāna), often translated as ‘final nirvāṇa’ or ‘complete nirvāṇa’, is sometimes used to describe the passage into nirvāṇa at death.

  parinirvāṇa: see nirvāṇa.

  perfection of wisdom: see prajñāpāramitā.

  prajñāpāramitā (Sanskrit): literally ‘perfection of wisdom’, the understanding of reality required to achieve buddhahood, according to many Mahāyāna sūtras. The term also describes a genre of Mahāyāna sūtras devoted to the exposition of emptiness and the bodhisattva path.

  pratyekabuddha (Sanskrit; Pali: paccekabuddha): literally, ‘individually enlightened one’, a disciple of the Buddha devoted to solitary practice who achieves the state of an arhat without relying on the teachings of a buddha in his last lifetime. According to Mahāyāna exegetes the path of the pratyekabuddha, together with the path of the śrāvaka, constitute the Hīnayāna.

  pure land: also referred to as a buddha-field, the domain that a buddha creates as an ideal setting for the practice of the dharma. Functioning in the Mahāyāna as a form of paradise, rebirth in a pure land, especially the pure land of Amitābha, was the focus of various practices, especially in East Asia.

  Śākyamuni (Sanskrit): literally, ‘Sage of the Śākya Clan’, an epithet of the historical Buddha.

  samādhi (Sanskrit): a state of deep concentration developed through meditation practice. One of the three trainings (along with ethics and wisdom), samādhi, especially a specific level known as serenity (śamatha), is regarded as a prerequisite for liberating wisdom.

  śamatha: see samādhi.

  saṃbhogakāya (Sanskrit): literally, ‘enjoyment body’, one of the three bodies of the Buddha. The saṃbhogakāya appears to bodhisattvas in pure lands.

  samsāra (Sanskrit): literally, ‘wandering’, the beginningless cycle of birth, death and rebirth, composed of the realms of gods, demigods, humans, animals, ghosts and hell beings. The ultimate goal of Buddhism is liberation from saṃsāra.

  saṅgha (Sanskrit): literally, ‘community’, a term most commonly used to refer to the order of Buddhist monks and nuns, it can be used more generally for any community of Buddhists, including fully ordained monks, fully ordained nuns, male novices, female novices, laymen and laywomen.

  śāstra (Sanskrit): generally translated as ‘treatise’, one of the major genres, together with sūtras, of Indian Buddhist literature, consisting of commentaries and independent works on a variety of topics. Unlike sūtras, which are traditionally attributed to the Buddha or his inspiration, śāstras are attributed to specific figures in Indian Buddhism.

  siddhi (Sanskrit): literally, ‘achievement’, a siddhi is a power gained through yogic practice. The term is especially important in Buddhist tantra, where there are two types of siddhis: (1) the mundane or worldly, such as the power to fly, walk through walls and transmute base metals into gold, and (2) the supramundane or transcendent siddhi of buddhahood. One who possesses siddhi is called a siddha, hence the mahāsiddhas or great adepts of Indian tantric literature.

  six perfections (Sanskrit: pāramitā): the deeds performed by a bodhisattva on the path to buddhahood: giving, ethics, patience, effort, concentration and wisdom.

  skandhas (Sanskrit): literally ‘aggregates’, one of the terms used to describe the physical and mental constituents of the person, among which there is no self. The five constituents are form, feeling, discrimination, conditioning factors and consciousness.

  śrāvaka (Sanskrit): literally, ‘listener’, a general term for a disciple of the Buddha, interpreted in the Mahāyāna to designate those who follow the path in order to become an arhat. According to Mahāyāna exegetes the path of the śrāvaka, together with the path of the pratyekabuddha, constitute the Hīnayāna.

  stūpa (Sanskrit): a reliquary containing the remains or possessions of the Buddha or a Buddhist saint. Initially taking the form of a hemisphere in India, stūpas developed into a variety of architectural forms across Asia, including the pagoda in East Asia. Stūpas have served as important places of pilgrimage throughout the history of Buddhism.

  sugata (Sanskrit): an epithet of a buddha, meaning literally ‘well gone�
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  Sukhāvatī (Sanskrit): literally, ‘the Land of Bliss’, the pure land presided over by the buddha Amitābha. It is also known as the western paradise.

  śūnyatā (Sanskrit): literally, ‘emptiness’, the absence of substantial nature or intrinsic existence in any phenomenon in the universe. In the Madhyamaka philosophy of Nāgārjuna, emptiness is the final nature of reality and the understanding of emptiness is essential for the achievement of enlightenment.

  sūtra (Sanskrit; Pali: sutta): literally, ‘aphorism’, a discourse traditionally regarded as having been spoken by the Buddha or spoken with his sanction.

  tantra (Sanskrit): literally, ‘continuum’, tantra in its most general sense means a manual or handbook. In Buddhism it refers to a text that contains esoteric teachings, often ascribed to the Buddha. These texts provide techniques for gaining siddhis, both mundane and supramundane.

  tathāgata (Sanskrit): literally, ‘one who has thus come’ or ‘one who has thus gone’; an epithet of a buddha.

  tathāgatagarbha (Sanskrit): literally, ‘embryo’ or ‘essence’ ‘of the tathāgata’, it is the buddha-nature that, according to some schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism, exists in all sentient beings.

  Theravāda (Pali): literally, ‘School of the Elders’, a branch of the Indian Sthāviravāda school that was established in Sri Lanka in the third century BCE. In the eleventh century CE the Theravāda became the dominant form of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. As the last remaining school of the many Indian non-Mahāyāna schools, ‘Theravāda’ is often mistakenly regarded as a synonym of ‘Hīnayāna’.

  three jewels (Sanskrit: triratna; Pali: tiratna): the Buddha, the dharma and the saṅgha. A Buddhist is a person who regards the three jewels as a source of refuge and protection from the sufferings of saṃsāra.

  three vehicles (Sanskrit: triyāna): in the Mahāyāna sūtras, the term refers to the vehicles of the śrāvaka, pratyekabuddha and bodhisattva. In tantric literature, the term refers to the Hīnayāna, the Mahāyāna and the Vajrayāna.

  tripiṭaka (Sanskrit; Pali: tipiṭaka): literally, ‘three baskets’, one of the traditional schemes for organizing Buddhist discourses into three: sūtra, vinaya and abhidharma.

  triratna: see three jewels.

  upāsaka (Sanskrit): often translated as ‘lay disciple’, a male follower (a female follower is an upāsakī) of the Buddha who has taken refuge in the three jewels and keeps the lay precepts.

  upāya: see method.

  vajra (Sanskrit): often translated as ‘thunderbolt’ or ‘diamond’, a kind of magical weapon, sometimes described as a thunderbolt or discus, made of hard and unbreakable stone, like a diamond. In tantric Buddhism it is represented as a spoked sceptre, and is used in rituals, where it is said to represent method (upāya) or the immutable union of method and wisdom.

  Vajrayāna (Sanskrit): usually translated as ‘Diamond Vehicle’ or ‘Thunderbolt Vehicle’, a term used to designate esoteric or tantric Buddhism, traditionally regarded as a form of the Mahāyāna capable of leading to buddhahood more quickly than the conventional bodhisattva path.

  vinaya (Sanskrit): literally, ‘taming’, the code of monastic conduct.

  vipaśyanā (Sanskrit; Pali: vipassana): literally, ‘insight’, a form of analytical meditation (as opposed to more single-pointed forms such as śamatha) the goal of which is insight into the nature of reality.

  Yogācāra (Sanskrit): literally, ‘practitioners of yoga’, a philosophical school originating in India and associated with the fourth-century monk Asaṅga. Among its many tenets, it is best-known for the doctrine of ‘mind-only’, which describes the world as a projection of consciousness.

  Zen: see Chan.