A/N: All definitions are in my own words more or less. This is to expediate your understanding, I encourage further research however and PMs if anyone wants to learn more about the Dharma or discuss religion in general.
1.9
2004 Brockton Bay
Taylor was flipping through dusty old tomes at the used bookstore by Lord's Street Market. She saw something stacked beneath a plethora of dust clothed law books.
What's this?
She pulled out the paperbound book and looked at the Buddha statue gracing it's cover.
Curious, she began to read...
Old Buddhist Dictionary (1986 edition)
This edition of the Buddhist dictionary is the definitive edition for the practical and contemporary usage of theological terms, models and history. It approaches things from a solely Buddhist point of view and seeks to provide a classic understanding of Buddhist terminology that often becomes conflated with newer (New Dharma) understandings. Both Pali and Sanskrit terms are used.
May all of us find Enlightenment
Dr. Gloria Xu, director of the Buddhist Preservation Society ("Old Dharma Association")
May 7th, 1986
Abhijna:"Direct Knowing", refers to the six types of knowledge, such as: Physical Powers (iddhi-vidhā), Clairaudience (dibba-sota), Telepathy (ceto-pariya-ñāṇa), past life recollection, (pubbe-nivāsanussati), Clairvoyance/Precognition (dibba-cakkhu), and Extinction of mental intoxicants (āsavakkhaya).
Some of these knowledges extend into even larger categories of powers.
Bardo:Intermediate-state between lives. Not a real rebirth nor a real sentient being- it is a temporary shell created by the Alaya Consciousness between lives.
Bodhisattvas:Any being who has a bodhicitta (the mind of Bodhisattva) and has sworn the Bodhisattva vow (whichever that was in the time period they existed in). They seek to gain enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings and are reborn specifically per their vows. They have karma, but try to not generate any new ones. Some will deliberately accrue some karma in order to remain within the universe in order to continue to aid them.
Brahmin:Spiritual cultivators that are allowed to marry and have families. They are active in society and work and live like others. Denotes a class of Priests. Also the highest Caste in Indian society. In Buddhism, the broad definition of a Brahmin could be "a deeply religious and well cultivated family oriented person" regardless of it's original ethnic meaning. Not to be confused with a Lay Followers.
Buddhas:Enlightened completely. All Bodhisattvas eventually become Buddhas, if they weren't one already.
Buddha Nature:The inherent intrinsic Buddha that all sentient beings are, although they do not realize it.
Dharma:Reality as it is. Denotes phenomenons of reality, free from subjective or relative interpretation. For example, there are no good or bad karma, there is just karma as a phenomenon of cause and effect. It is the bias of sentient beings that divides karma into good or bad. A teenage girl who made a mistake may become pregnant and perceive her condition as "bad", but a grown woman who tried very hard to have children and finally succeeds in becoming pregnant will see it as "good", but in reality, what happened was that a female became pregnant for X reasons. Those reasons are important of course, but it's essential that they are acknowledge for what it is.
Science is also the study of Dharma, but they limit the scope of their understanding to the material form of things- and often only those things that they are aware of.
[True] Dharma:The True Dharma denotes the Ultimate Truth, from whence all other Dharmas are interpretations or derived from.
Dharmapala:Wrathful form of Bodhisattvas that use non-peaceful means motivated by compassion for the benefit of sentient beings. Also refers to any Devas (mortal gods) that protects Buddhism, the term is used in Taoism and Shintoism as well to refer to the gods of those religion that also doubles as protectors of Buddhism.
Emanation:A copy of something. Buddhas and Bodhisattvas can divide themselves into copies that can then incarnate and establish their own destinies. A Buddha often emanates themselves as a new mindstream to go over the entire journey again for us to emulate. Many Bodhisattvas are in fact emanations of Ancient Buddhas.
Five Aggregates:Skandha. The elements that compose a sentient being. A human being is composed of Form (rupa), sensations (vedana), perceptions (samjna), formations (sankhara), and consciousness (vijnana).
Grand Solution:The solution to universal entropy. The Bodhisattva Supreme has introduced this non-orthordox belief to Buddhism. We of the Old Dharma doubt it's veracity and suspect the Bodhisattva Supreme of being King Mara himself.
Guru:Teacher of any denomination, sect or belief.
Heaven: Psychological state of rapture. One of innumerable worlds that are relatively more peaceful. Abode of devas. Despite the name, Heaven is a not spiritual designation, but a world with its own government and individuals, culture and environments.
Hell:Psychological state of claustrophobic hatred. One of innumerable worlds that are relatively more painful. Abode of Narakas (Narakis). Despite the name, Hell is a not spiritual designation, but a world with its own government and individuals, culture and environments.
Horizontal Cosmology:Understanding the world as a series of parallel worlds existing in the same plane or dimension. The material universe as understood by scientists is generally part of this cosmological view, although science also acknowledge subatomic and higher spatial concepts. Also see; Vertical Cosmology, Temporal Cosmology.
Hungry Ghost:Preta. A broad category of beings that share the characteristic of being hungry, taking the form of bloated, thin necked ghouls. Also without a homeworld, existing in interstitial space. Sometimes translated as goblins.
Iddhi:Literally "Power". Specifically refers to the big flashy obvious kind, such as levitation, teleportation, telekinesis, transformation, multilocation, bilocation, projections, etc.
Kalachakra:The Wheel of Time.
Kalapa: Smallest unit of matter. Tens of thousands of times smaller than a particle of dust, coming into existence and disappearing in as little as a billionth of a second or a trillionth of the blink of an eye. (ie, Subatomic particles of some sort?)
Kalpa:An aeon. Indefinite, variable time unit. Can be taken to mean, "a very very long time". While things are often calculated in kalpas, the actual duration of time is difficult to measure due to it's relative quality and the actions (karma) that make up time.
Karma:Meaning "action"of any kind, whether physical, physiological or psychological. Cause and Effect. Easily misunderstood to be some form of cosmic retribution. This is far from the truth. It is merely another name for causality.
Ksana: Very small unit of time. Traditionally described as approximately one seventy-fifth of a second. There are said to be 900 arisings and ceasings (of the mind) within each ksana.
Lay Followers:Normal people who believe and try to live up to some of the teachings. Traditionally required to take the basic precepts. In Mahayana Buddhism, lay followers are no less capable of obtaining sudden Enlightenment than monks and indeed, lay followers may even have superior understanding of the Dharma than monks. It's just a different way to practice.
Mara
Spiritual death. Psychological demons. The Buddhist Devil and Demiurge figure.
(See: posts/7653345/)
Mindstreams
The stream of qualities and elements that creates the illusion of a continuous entity or mind. In Buddhist thought, the self does not exist independently of its aggregates.
Nirvana:State of no cause and no effect. One who has attained Nirvana has self terminated and will never come into existence again. However, all things exist within the True Dharma even if does not appear so to our expectations and understanding.
Precepts:Training rules, voluntarily taken, they come in 5 or 10 (for lay followers), or even 227 (monks) or 311 (nuns) depending on the person. Generally for serious cultivators, breaking the precepts requires atonement and even re-swearing the oaths and vows of the path. At certain levels of cultivation, the precepts are no longer voluntarily, but considered to be oaths that are spiritually binding. Some breaking of the precepts may result in the inability to obtain enlightenment in this life.
Rebirth:The natural consequences of action. All karma is a form of rebirth, and rebirth is a form of karma. Generally, what transmigrates between lives is the Alaya Consciousness (8th storage consciousness) which generates for itself the body and mind necessary for its new form. Term is very specific to Buddhism.
Reincarnation:Sometimes used interchangeably with Rebirth. Carries the connotation of metempsychosis, that is to say, the Soul moves from one body to another. Is a widespread concept in many religions around the world including Hinduism and Greek Religion.
Samsara:The totality of karmic existence. Wheel of birth and death. The universe.
Sentient Being: Any being born of the four births (womb, egg, moisture and transformation) and the six paths (deva, asura, manusya, preta, naraka).
Six Paths:Broad classification of the six major taxonomy of sentient beings. Deva (gods), Asuras (jealous gods), Manusya (humans), preta (hungry ghosts) and naraka (hell-beings).
The Bardo (intermediate-state) is considered beyonds the boundaries of the six and is traditionally considered as a "ghost", but is not a real rebirth like the others. There are further types of abnormal or mutant rebirths due to unique karmic conditions.
All of these beings are subject to birth and death and karmic existence.
Sramana:Spiritual cultivators or seekers who traditionally "wander". They are ascetics or holy men. Usually celibate, but there are many different schools of thoughts and there is a broad range of traditions that fall under this category including Buddhist Monasticism and Jainism.
Tulku: "Living Buddha", although that's only an epithet. Refers to those Buddhist Monks that are inheritors of specific lineages of enlightened beings that are reborn from lifetime to lifetime.
World: Loka. A series of planes and territories that constitutes Four Continents (terrestrial worlds), Six Heavens and Eighteen Hells plus any additional overarching or intersected vertical realities. One thousand of such worlds constitute a 'thousandfold world system' (Skt. sāhasracūḍikalokadhātu). A thousand of these makes up a 'second-order thousandfold world system' (Skt. dvitīyamadhyama sāhasralokadhātu). Then, when multiplied a thousand times further, this makes a 'third-order world system' or 'trichiliocosm', a universe of a billion worlds (Skt. trisāhasra mahāssāhasralokadhātu; Wyl. stong gsum gyi 'jig rten khams). Each Trichiliocosm is ruled over by a Supremely Enlightened Buddha.
Yidam: Meditational Deity. The self imagined Bodhisattva of one's enlightened potential.
Yuga:The Cycle of Time. Traditionally (Hinduism) broken down into four quarters of time, although back to back, it forms a larger cycle: "Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga, Kali Yuga, Kali Yuga, Dvapara Yuga, Treta Yuga, Satya Yuga".
Temporal Cosmology:Understanding the world as a series of cycles and time units. All things go through birth, growth, harvest and rest or creation, expansion, decline and entropy. Traditional Buddhist views acknowledge an oscillating Universe Theory, however the Bodhisattva Supreme has suggested that without intervention by sentient beings, a reversal of entropy is impossible. Also see; Horizontal Cosmology, Vertical Cosmology.
Triple Realms:The world of karmic existence are divided into the Formless Realm (four heavens), Form Realm (17-18 heavens) and Desire Realm (6 heavens, 4 continents and 18 hells). See, Vertical Cosmology.
Vertical Cosmology:Understanding the world as a series of planes of existences from top to bottom, whether literal or practical (ie, humans and animals live in the same world, but are differed by psychology and by habitats). Also see; Horizontal Cosmology, Temporal Cosmology.