Glossary

Ajaan (Thai): Mentor; teacher. Pāli form: Ācariya.

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.

Bodhisatta: “A being (striving) for awakening;” the term used to describe the Buddha before he actually became Buddha, from his first aspiration to Buddhahood until the time of his full awakening. The Sanskrit form, bodhisattva, refers to anyone who has taken a vow to become a Buddha in a future lifetime.

Brahmā: An inhabitant of the heavenly realms of form or formlessness. The highest level of deva.

Brahmavihāra: Sublime attitude of unlimited goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, or equanimity.

Deva: Literally, “shining one.” An inhabitant of the terrestrial or heavenly realms higher than the human.

Dhamma: (1) Event; action; (2) a phenomenon in and of itself; (3) mental quality; (4) doctrine, teaching; (5) nibbāna (although there are passages describing nibbāna as the abandoning of all dhammas). Sanskrit form: Dharma.

Gandhabba: Celestial musician, the lowest level of the celestial devas, often portrayed as tricksters who are obsessed with music and sex.

Jhāna: Mental absorption. A state of strong concentration focused on a single sensation or mental notion. This term is derived from the verb jhāyati, which means to burn with a steady, still flame.

Kamma: Intentional act. Sanskrit form: Kamma.

Khandha: Aggregate; physical and mental phenomena as they are directly experienced; the raw material for a sense of self: rūpa—physical form; vedanā—feelings of pleasure, pain, or neither pleasure nor pain; saññā—perception, mental label; saṅkhāra—fabrication, thought construct; and viññāṇa—sensory consciousness, the act of taking note of sense data and ideas as they occur. Sanskrit form: Skandha.

Kilesa: Mental defilement. The three major ones are passion, aversion, and delusion.

Mahāyāna: The Great Vehicle. The name of a group of later schools of Buddhism which taught that all beings should aspire to become Buddhas.

Majjhima Nikāya: One of the five major collections of suttas in the Pāli Canon, containing suttas of middle (majjhima) length.

Mettā: Goodwill; benevolence. One of the four brahmavihāras.

Nibbāna: 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. Sanskrit form: Nirvāṇa.

Pāli: The name of the earliest extant collection of the Buddha’s teachings and, by extension, of the language in which it was recorded.

Samatha: Tranquility.

Saṁsāra: Transmigration; the process of creating and wandering through repeated states of becoming, with their attendant death and rebirth.

Saṁvega: A sense of dismay or terror over the meaninglessness and futility of life as it is ordinarily lived, combined with a strong sense of urgency in looking for a way out.

Saṁyutta Nikāya: One of the five major collections of suttas in the Pāli Canon, containing suttas organized by a topic or other theme by which they are connected (saṁyutta).

Saṅgha: 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.

Saṅkhāra: Fabrication; thought construct. Sometimes this term is used to indicate anything constructed or influenced by the mind. Listed as the fourth of the five aggregates, it is also involved in the production of all five.

Sutta: Discourse.

Theravāda: The Teachings of the Elders. The branch of Buddhism that bases its teachings on the Pāli Canon, the earliest extant record of the Buddha’s teachings.

Vinaya: The monastic discipline.

Vipassanā: Clear-seeing insight.