Property:Glossary-DefinitionPDB
From Buddha-Nature
This is a property of type Text.
t
In Sanskrit, lit., “thatness”; a term with two important denotations. First, it can mean “ultimate reality,” a synonym of paramärtha, the reality, free from all conceptual elaboration, that must be understood in order to be liberated from rebirth as well as the inexpressible reality that is the object of the Buddha’s omniscient consciousness. Second, more prosaically, the term may be translated as “principle” and refer to the central doctrine of a particular philosophical school, as in the title of the works Tattvasamgraha or Tattvasiddhi. When contrasted with tathatä , tattva is the essential identity of a particular dharma, while tathatä is the common essential reality in which all dharmas partake. +
See page 926: In Sanskrit, “three poisons”; the three primary afflictions (mūlakleśa) of sensuality, desire, or greed (rāga or lobha), hatred or aversion (dveṣa), and delusion or ignorance (moha), regarded as poisons because of the harm they cause to those who ingest them or the way they poison the mind. This same list of three is also known as the three “unwholesome faculties” (akuśalamūla), which will fructify as unhappiness in the future and provide the foundation for unfavorable rebirths
(apāya). +
See page 926: In Sanskrit, “three vehicles,” three different means taught in Buddhist soteriological literature of conveying sentient beings to liberation. +
v
In Sanskrit, lit. “inversion,” but referring to “perverted,” “corrupted,” or “inverted” views (the Chinese translation diandao literally means “upside down”) or simply “error.” There is a Standard list of four “inverted views” that cause sentient beings to remain subject to the cycle of rebirth (samsära). The four are (1) to view as pleasurable what is in fact painful or suffering (d u h k h a ), (2) to see as permanent what is in fact impermanent (anitya), (3) to see as pure what is in fact impure (aśubha), and (4) to see as having seif what is in fact devoid of seif (anätman). These four inversions are corrected through insight into the true nature of reality, which prompts the realization that the aggregates (skandha) are in fact suffering, impermanent, impure, and devoid of seif. In the tathägatagarbha literature, these four putatively correct views are in turn said also to be inversions from the standpoint of the tathägatagarbha, which is said to possess four perfect qualities (gunapäramitä): bliss, permanence, purity, and selfhood. +
y
See pp. 1033–34. In Sanskrit, “Practice of Yoga” ; one of the two major Mahāyāna philosophical schools (along with Madhyamaka) in India, known especially for its doctrines of “mind-only” (cittamātra) or “representation-only” (vijñaptimātratā), the trisvabhāva, and the ālayavijñāna. In addition, much of the exposition of the structure of the Mahāyāna path (mārga) and of the Mahāyāna ABHIDHARMA derives from this school. The texts of the school were widely influential in Tibet and East Asia. +
ā
See page 19 (entry for āgantukakleśa): In Sanskrit, “adventitious afflictions” or “adventitious defilements”; indicating that the kleśa are accidental and extrinsic qualities of the mind, rather than natural and intrinsic. This notion builds on an ancient Strand in Buddhist thought, such as in the oft-quoted passage in the Pāli Aṅguttaranikāya: “The mind, O monks, is luminous but defiled by adventitious defilements.” Since defilements are introduced into the thought processes from without, the intrinsic purity of the mind (citta) can be restored through counteracting the influence of the kleśa and overcoming the inveterate tendency toward attachment and its concomitant craving (lobha) and ill will (dveṣa), which empower them.This concept of āgantukakleśa is critical to the Mahāyāna doctrine of tathāgatagarbha (embryo of buddhahood), where the mind is presumed to be innately enlightened, but that enlightenment is temporarily obscured or
concealed by defilements (kleśa) that are extrinsic to it. +
In Sanskrit, “storehouse consciousness” or “foundational consciousness”; the eighth of the eight types of consciousness (vijñāna) posited in the Yogācāra school. All forms of Buddhist thought must be able to uphold (1) the principle of the cause and effect of actions (karman), the structure of saṃsāra, and the process of liberation (vimokṣa) from it, while also upholding (2) the fundamental doctrines of impermanence (anitya) and the lack of a perduring self (anātman). The most famous and comprehensive solution to the range of problems created by these apparently contradictory elements is the ālayavijñāna, often translated as the “storehouse consciousness.” This doctrinal concept derives in India from the Yogācāra school, especially from Asaṅga and Vasubandhu and their commentators... (p. 31) +
See page 78: In Sanskrit, “self’ or “I,” with a similar range of meanings as the terms possess in English, but used especially to refer to a perduring substratum of being that is the agent of actions, the possessor of mind and body (nāmarūpa), and that passes from lifetime to lifetime. +
See page 83: In Sanskrit and Pāli, “obstruction,” “obstacle,” or “hindrance.” In Mahāyāna literature, two types of āvaraṇa are commonly described: “obstructions that are the afflictions,” or “afflictive obstructions” (kleśāvaraṇa), and cognitive or noetic obstructions, viz., “obstructions to omniscience” (jñeyāvaraṇa). Śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas can be freed from the afflictive obstructions, but only bodhisattvas are able to free themselves from the cognitive obstructions. In the Yogācāra system, the cognitive obstructions result from fundamental misapprehensions about the nature of reality. +
ś
See page 871: In Sanskrit, “emptiness”; the term has a number of denotations, but is most commonly associated with the perfection of wisdom (prajñāpāramitā) sūtras and the Madhyamaka school of Mahāyāna philosophy. +
