Glossary of Buddhist Terms

anicca Impermanence. See three marks, below.

anatta Literally, “no self” or “no soul.” See three marks, below.

bodhisattva Literally, “awakening being”; a person who works to achieve liberation with and for all living beings. The highest goal of Mahayana Buddhism is to be a bodhisattva.

bodhisattva path In Mahayana Buddhism, the practice of devoting oneself to the awakening of all beings. The path extends over lifetimes; indeed, since living beings are innumerable, this selfless path is endless.

Buddha Literally, “awakened one,” an awakened being; the first of the three jewels of Buddhism; one who reveals the teachings of Buddhism to the world. According to Buddhism, Gautama Siddhartha (a.k.a. Shakyamuni Buddha) was the Buddha for our historical era, but there are many others for other times and places.

Buddhadharma The teaching of the Buddha (see dharma).

Buddha nature / Buddha mind The inherent potential in all beings to become or act as Buddhas. A core teaching of Mahayana Buddhism holds that we are all potentially Buddhas already, because we have this mind. Thus, awakening is not an achievement but a liberation of our own true nature.

compassion Sympathy and love for all beings; one of the two principal Buddhist virtues (the other is wisdom). Compassion is said to give rise to the wish to free all beings from dukkha. This, in turn, motivates us to become bodhisattvas, or at least to act toward others with kindness and understanding.

dharma or dhamma Sanskrit and Pali words meaning several things. In Buddhist contexts they usually mean the truth, the word of the Buddha, the Buddha’s teachings. Dharma is the second of the three jewels of Buddhism.

dukkha Literally, “dissatisfaction” or “dis-ease”; the existential suffering caused by desires and attachments. We all have dukkha as long as we cling to our selves. See three marks, below.

eightfold noble path The basic Buddhist way of living. An expansion of the “middle path.” This way of living is divided into eight factors organized into three groups. Right speech, right action, and right livelihood form the ethical part of practice. Right effort, right mindfulness, and right meditation are the second group, concerned with training the mind. Right view and right intention form the wisdom aspect of understanding. When we fully embody all the path factors, we are Buddhas.

four noble truths The Buddha’s first teachings after his awakening: (1) we all have suffering and dissatisfaction; (2) this suffering and dissatisfaction is caused by ignorance, desire, and attachment; (3) this suffering and dissatisfaction can end; (4) suffering and dissatisfaction are ended through following the eightfold path.

haiku A Japanese poetic form strongly associated with Zen Buddhism. Haiku in Japanese are composed of three lines of five, seven, and five syllables. In English the syllable count may vary.

karma The effects of our acting with our body, speech, and mind. These actions and their effects serve as the cause for future events, even rebirths. Skillful actions cause positive results. Karma is often used in the popular sense as “What goes around comes around” or “As you sow, so shall you reap.”

lama An incarnation of a Vajrayana spiritual teacher or guru; the highest is the Dalai Lama. Other forms of Buddhism do not have lamas, but Vajrayana holds that highly advanced teachers may choose their rebirths and that their followers may identify those reborn teachers at a very young age and train them.

Mahayana Literally, “greater vehicle”; the form of Buddhism predominant in East Asia. Mahayana emphasizes the bodhisattva path.

metta Loving-kindness, the feeling we naturally radiate when we break through the delusion of our separate selves. Buddhists work to cultivate this feeling for all beings.

middle path / middle way Synonyms for “Buddhism.” The Buddha taught the middle path between self-indulgence and self-denial in his very first sermon.

nirvana Liberation from samsara (rebirth in the universe). Usually defined as freedom from the illusions of the self that cause dukkha.

paticca-samuppada Dependent co-arising, the condition of everything coming into being due to other factors and other things. Since everything is like this, we are all interconnected in profound ways. The Vietnamese teacher Thich Nhat Hanh translates this word as “interbeing.” For him, we all inter-are.

Pure Land The Buddha land of Amida Buddha, in which enlightenment is easy to experience; tens of millions of Mahayana Buddhists pray to be reborn there, many believing that the Pure Land is within ourselves and our rebirth there can take place now.

right livelihood One of the eight factors of the eightfold noble path; work that does little or no harm to all living things. We also might define it as what we all need to strive to make our own jobs become.

roshi Literally, “old man”; the title for senior Japanese Zen teachers.

samsara This universe of repeated existence; the world where we must continuously be reborn, die, be reborn, die …

sangha Literally, “group.” Generally, the Buddhist community, our spiritual friends. Sometimes sangha is used to mean monastics only, sometimes to mean all followers on the path. Sangha is the third of the three jewels of Buddhism.

Shakyamuni Buddha Literally, “The Sage of the Shakyas”; Gautama Siddhartha of the Shakya clan, the historical Buddha.

shunya Literally, “hollow” or “open.” See shunyata.

shunyata Openness (often badly translated as “emptiness”); the belief that all things are empty of inherent existence—that they do not exist except in an endless web of relations. A Mahayana development of the core Buddhist teachings of impermanence and lack of self.

sutra or sutta Sanksrit and Pali words, respectively, meaning a teaching of the Buddha. Traditionally, these sutras are considered the actual words of the Buddha. Collections of these sutras, with the monastic rules and the early commentaries, form the canons, the sacred scriptures of the various forms of Buddhism.

tao (pronounced “dow”) Literally, “the way”; a central concept of East Asian religion, including Buddhism. Taoists are those practicing Taoism, the religion flowing from the power, balance, and ease of following the natural way of things. Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism formed the “three traditions,” the religious complex of traditional Chinese culture.

Theravada Literally, “the way of the elders”; the form of Buddhism predominant in South and Southeast Asia. Theravada focuses on the community of monastics striving for awakening.

three jewels The Buddha, the dharma, and the sangha: traditionally, what a person needs to rely on, or take refuge in, to reach awakening.

three marks The three basic qualities of life: dukkha, anicca, anatta (suffering, impermanence, no-self). The first is the result of not understanding the second. The third is a special case of the second that is exceptionally hard for us to accept. Buddhist wisdom sees into the heart of all three.

three poisons Greed, hatred, and delusion, the roots of our human troubles. Through practice we try to negate these, eventually transforming them into their opposites: generosity, loving-kindness, and wisdom.

upaya Usually translated as “skillful means”; it can be any kind of speech or action that leads toward awakening, but usually refers to actions done for another person, especially when those actions might otherwise seem unrelated to Buddhism or even misleading.

wisdom An understanding of things that goes beyond intellectual knowing; one of the two principal Buddhist virtues (the other is compassion). Wisdom comes from seeing the world and ourselves as we really are (and aren’t), and gives us freedom from egocentric suffering.

Zen Buddhism Literally, “meditation Buddhism”; the East Asian Buddhist tradition emphasizing the struggle to realize one’s original nature. In English, we usually say “Zen,” the Japanese name, but the tradition is called Chan in China, Son in Korea, and Tien in Vietnam.