Sanskrit Noun
Pratyekabuddha
solitary realizer
प्रत्येकबुद्ध
རང་སངས་རྒྱས།, རང་རྒྱལ།
緣覺
Basic Meaning
Pratyekabuddhas are saints who, in their last birth in the cycle of existence, are said to become enlightened through solitary practice on the nature of dependent ordination. These saints are said to appear when there is no buddha around and work either alone or in small groups.
| Term Variations | |
|---|---|
| Key Term | Pratyekabuddha |
| Topic Variation | Pratyekabuddha |
| Tibetan | རང་སངས་རྒྱས།, རང་རྒྱལ། ( rang sangye, rangyal) |
| Wylie Tibetan Transliteration | rang sangs rgyas, rang rgyal ( rang sangye, rangyal) |
| Devanagari Sanskrit | प्रत्येकबुद्ध ( pratyekabuddha) |
| Romanized Sanskrit | pratyekabuddha ( pratyekabuddha) |
| Chinese | 緣覺 |
| Chinese Pinyin | yuán jué |
| Buddha-nature Site Standard English | solitary realizer |
| Richard Barron's English Term | solitary buddha |
| Jeffrey Hopkin's English Term | Solitary Realizer |
| Ives Waldo's English Term | self-centred buddhas, solitary realizer |
| Term Information | |
| Source Language | Sanskrit |
| Basic Meaning | Pratyekabuddhas are saints who, in their last birth in the cycle of existence, are said to become enlightened through solitary practice on the nature of dependent ordination. These saints are said to appear when there is no buddha around and work either alone or in small groups. |
| Term Type | Noun |
| Definitions | |
| Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism | In Sanskrit, “individually enlightened one” or “solitary buddha”; an arhat who becomes enlightened through his own efforts without receiving instruction from a buddha in his final lifetime. Unlike the “perfectly enlightened buddhas” (samyaksambuddha), the pratyekabuddha refrains from teaching others about his experience because he has neglected to develop the same degree of great compassion (mahäkarunä) that moti- vates the samyaksambuddhas. Even though he does not teach others, he may still guide by example, or through the use of gestures. Pratyekabuddhas are also distinguished from those who achieve the goal of arhat via the Śrãvaka (“disciple”) path, because śrāvakas are unable to achieve enlightenment on their own and must be instructed in the principles of Buddhism in order to succeed in their practice. A pratyekabuddha is also distinguished from the śrāvaka by the duration o f his path: the pratyekabuddha path is longer because he must accumulate the necessary amount of merit (puņya) to allow him to achieve liberation without relying on a teacher in his final lifetime. A pratyekabuddha is said to achieve liberation through contemplation of the principle of dependent origination (pratItyasamutpäda), which accounts for the Chinese translation of yuanjue (“awakening via conditional- ity”). Two types of pratyekabuddhas are commonly enumerated in the literature: those who wander alone “like a rhinoceros” (khadgavisänakalpa) and the “congregators” (vargacärin). According to the M ahäyäna, the path of the pratyekabuddha, together with the path of the śrāvaka, constitutes the hInayäna, or “lesser vehicle”; these two categories are also often referred to as the “two vehicles” (C. ER sheng) and their followers as “two- vehicle adherents.” These lesser “two vehicles” contrast with the third and highest vehicle, the bodhisattvayäna. |
| Tshig mdzod Chen mo | སྲིད་པ་ཐ་མའི་ཚེ་སློབ་དཔོན་ལ་མ་ལྟོས་པར་རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་བའི་ཆོས་ཉིད་བརྟགས་ནས་གང་ཟག་བདག་མེད་དང་ཆོས་ཀྱི་བདག་མེད་ཕྱེད་ཙམ་རྟོགས་ཏེ་རང་བྱང་ཆུང་མངོན་དུ་བརྙེས་པའི་དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ། མིང་གི་རྣམ་གྲངས་ལ་རྐྱེན་གཅིག་རྟོགས་དང་། ཉི་ཚེའི་སངས་རྒྱས། རྟེན་འབྲེལ་སྒོམ། རང་རྒྱལ་སངས་རྒྱས། རང་བྱང་ཆུབ། རང་ཞི་དོན་གཉེར། སངས་རྒྱས་འབྲིང་པོ། བསེ་རུའི་རྒྱལ་བ་བཅས་སོ། |
| RigpaWiki | rigpa:Pratyekabuddha |
