Buddhism

Bodh Gaya

Site in India where Buddha attained enlightenment beneath a sacred Bodhi Tree.

Gods

Spirits that accept offerings from anyone, perform services for anyone in ancient Chinese religion. Like other spirits, gods need to be fed and the more you feed a god, the bigger they get.

Orthopraxy

"Correct" ritual behavior. Whereas orthodoxy (for example in the Abrahamic traditions) focuses on correct belief, with documents and doctrines orthopraxy focuses on performing the right practice.

Demons

Spirits that are angry for any reason - ancestors who weren't fed, hungry spirits. To soothe a demon, you need to feed it.

Canon

Ancient collection of Buddhist sacred scriptures.. Ananda retold Buddha's sermons and other monks also verified them. From Ananda, Buddhist believe they have the words and teachings of the Buddha, and are able to create a Cannon. Cannon became emphasized as the authority, not the local figures in Buddhist communities. Provided identity for the religion, separated those who are Buddhist and who are not, and is used when citing confirmation or proving something wrong

Ghosts

Any spirits you don't have a connection with. Can be someone else's ancestor

Five phases

As Yin and Yang adjust to another in a dance of harmonization, they do so in a predictable pattern. Five phases explains how Qi transforms / titrates. Philosophy that dominated the Han dynasty. Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth. Each element is created from another and can be destroyed by another

Relics

At his death, Buddha instructs monks to spread his relics around India in Stupas so lay people can come and make offerings. Laypeople can give at these places in order to karmically connect with the Buddha. Way to spread teachings of Buddhism.

Sambhogakāya ('Bliss Body')

Body of bliss, enjoyment, rewards. Buddha experiences boundless joy and body of bliss is the result of his practice. When we feel happy,the body of bliss is available to us

Theravada Buddhism

Branch of Buddhism practiced in Thailand, Cambodia where the ideal practitioner i.e. the arhat aims for personal awakening rather than awakening of all beings, which leads to the emphasis of monastic life. Awakening is mostly open to the sangha / monastic class. Relatively negative view of samsara, and there is greater emphasis on nirvana.

Ānanda

Buddha's cousin who heard all of his sermons and had perfect memory. Retold Buddha's sermons and other monks also verified them. From Ananda, Buddhist believe they have the words and teachings of the Buddha, and are able to create a Cannon

Skandhas ('Aggregates')

Buddhist belief that human being is made of 5 aggregates (form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations and consciousness). 5 Aggregates are interconnected. Parinirvana leads to a dissolution of aggregates.

Middle Way

Buddhist idea of avoiding extremes, more precisely between indulgence / material bliss and austerity. Buddha teaches true non-attachment, by renouncing both renouncement and pleasurable desires.

Qi

Building blocks of the universe. Exist in a continuum of yin and yang and titrates into 5 phases. Conserved, unstable → world is constantly in flux, self-resonant (qi in one place affects others)

Ghost Festival

Celebrated traditions around the world, special ceremonies to avoid the wrath of ghosts. Based on the story of the Mulian whereby Buddha instructs Mulian to offer food and gifts to Sangha in order to rescue his mother. Assured that Buddhism did not undermine Confucian values of filial piety and helped make Buddhism into a Chinese religion by interposing Sangha into lineage.

Four Noble Truths

Central teaching Buddha shares after he achieves awakening. 1) All is suffering 2) Understand the origin of suffering 3) Means of ending suffering 4) The Noble Eightfold Path to transcend our suffering.

Karmic stream

Chain of cause and effect / detachments and delusions that we are a product of. One life isn't enough for karmic effects to be experienced so past lives affect us. Goal: dry out the karmic stream. In Mahayana Buddhism, interdependence means that we have shared karmic streams which means any Karmic act has infinite ramifications that affects everyone someway or another → gives a sense of responsibility.

Ling

Concept of sacred / holy in Chinese religion. Used to explain the supernatural power attributed to territorial gods

Heaven (Tian)

Considered to be yang (immaterial) counterpart to the Earth (yin). It has likes and dislikes and it communicates with humans and particularly rulers. With the Zhou dynasty, a moral spin is given to Heaven in whichConfucius argues humans can act with moral virtue and Heaven will respond well (moral resonance of qi).

Samsāra

Cycle of birth, death and rebirth → In early Indian religion represented the various rebirths and suffering in the material realm. In Buddhism, one escapes from / gains freedom from samsara by reaching Nirvana.

Bodhisattva

Deity figures characterized by great compassion, and taking of vows. Lay people can become bodhisattvas through taking of vows. In contrast to arhat, the goal is to help others achieve awakening. They remain in samsara until everyone else has achieved awakening.

Oracle bones

Demonstrates importance of writing in ritual. Tradition in Shang Dynasty where people would use turtle shells and pyramancy to ask a question, then carving question and answer to make a database.

Dharma (Pali

Dhamma): teachings of the Buddha which in early tradition, the sangha class looked to understand and gain wisdom from. One of three Jewels. During Mahayana Buddhism, Dharma is expanded to include new scriptures and ideas including emptiness, anatman and interdependence.

Pali

Early Buddhist canon in Theravada school.

Arhat Buddhism

First school of Buddhism. The arhat, considered the ideal type of Buddhist practioniter, aims for personal awakening rather than the awakening of all beings.

Sujata

Girl who realizes the Buddha's in a lot of physical trouble, so gives the Buddha some water which replenishes and helps him achieve the Middle Way.. Demonstrates the role of the lay person and virtue of compassion.

Skillful means/expedient devices (upāya)

Guidance along Buddhist path happens in stages. The Buddha preached to the ascetics but then they did not understand. Reach people where they are. When you speak to someone, you have to take into account their knowledge and experiences. Wisdom is the means to end suffering, not the ends.

Nirvana

Highest spiritual state in Buddhism whereby we are free from our karmic chain of our past lives. The goal is to dry out the karmic stream.

Cakravartin

Ideal ruler in the early religions of India. Buddha has 32 marks of cakravartin which is interpreted by divination specialists.

Arhat

Ideal type of Buddhist practitioner in the elder tradition. The arhat aims to achieve personal awakening through wisdom, not awakening of others. Prompts monastic tradition.

Transmigration/reincarnation/rebirth

In Indian religion, it's believed that we have an eternal soul (atman) which is binded to the world due to karma but a temporary body. We are reborn in a new body when we die, a cycle of death and reincarnation. Unlike Indian religion, Buddhists don't believe there's an eternal soul, just a cycle of being reborn due to mental cause and effect which produce delusions and attachments.

Religious specialists/professionals

In Indian religion, ritual labor is strongly divided between religion professionals and lay people who support them. In Buddhism, this implies that Sangha class who from the story of Sujata are fundamentally dependent on the lay people. Professionals are seen to be at a different "stage", therefore their responsibility to acquire and spread wisdom.

Bodhisattva vows

In Mahayana Buddhism, anyone can become Bodhisattva by taking 3 vows: 1) Save all sentient beings 2) Extinguish all suffering 3) Extinguish all delusions. Vowing to not enter nirvana until everyone else is in. In contrast to how the Arhat goal is to get out of the world (reach nirvana) and now the goal is to stay in

Sramana

In early Indian religion, groups of people took existing rituals from the cities to go into the forests. They focus on practicing an ascetic lifestyle and believe that the material world is a hindrance which inhibits one from seeing the truth.

No-Self (Anatman)

Insight that says nothing has a separate self / essence and that everything has to inter-be and depend on everything else. Everyone and everything belongs to the same stream of life. Buddhists believe that once we see we are not separate from others and that we're all of the same reality, our suffering will be stopped. No man is an island.

Impermanence (Anitya)

Insight that states everything changes because causes and conditions change. Things, mental or material, do not last.

Mantra

Karmically powerful syllables written in Sanskrit to invoke spells and secret names. Work to affect changes through karma

Interdependence ('Co-Dependent Origination')

Key teaching in Mahayana Buddhism. Everything is a result of multiple causes and conditions. The egg is in the chicken, and the chicken is in the egg. Chicken and egg arise in mutual dependence. Humans are not independent of others, so to be happy and know ourselves, we have to make others happy and understand our interdependence.

Karma

Law that runs the cosmos, by which even the devas are bound. Karma is often tied to the concept of natural punishment and the principle of cause and effect. Karma is related to the three laws of logic: 1. Cause is always greater than effect 2. The effect is always related to the cause 3. Prior to its manifestation, the effect is always latent in the cause

Lineage

Lineages are considered "yang" / male. Marrying the eldest son is considered important as the woman becomes the mother of the future head of lineage .Women can have two lineages, men can only have one. Lineage is differently from family, needed to feed ancestors

Universal/Local

Locative traditions have to do with location. Chinese spirits for instance, are associated with a particular place or geology -which means that they are NOT universal.With locative traditions, location holds a lot of meaning. Buddhism on the other hand, is a universal tradition, the idea being that there is no need for location as karma works everywhere. Presented issues of transmission for Buddhism which were resolved with the alignment of local gods with Buddhist monks/ temples and Buddha's relics.

Doctrine of Two Truths

Mahayana Buddhism doctrine which explains reality as to be understood in the absolute (ultimate) or relative (worldly/ pragmatic). Bring people along in stages. One enters the door of practice through the relative truth. For instance: The Four Noble Truths were presented by the Buddha as relative truth to help you enter the door of practice, but they are not his deepest teaching (room for new scriptures).

Non-Duality

Mahayana concept that two things we understand as separate from one another are in fact not separate at all but dependent. Mahayana Buddhists observe the nonduality of nirvana and samsara. Before: We want to escape samsara by achieving nirvana. No: nirvana and samsara aren't necessarily separate places.

32 Marks

Marks on the Shakyamuni Buddha at birth including webbed feet which demonstrate his greatness. Mahayana, understood to be part of the Buddha's bliss body. Divination specialists surmise from these marks that he is destined to be a greater ruler in the physical or spiritual world.

Dharmakāya ('Dharma body')

Metaphorical body of wisdom and Buddha's teachings. Anything that can help us wake up is part of the Dharmakaya — trees, grass, birds, human beings, and so on. The True Buddha / the ground of enlightenment.

Oral transmission

Method of transmission important in Indic religion. Vedas were passed on through word of mouth. In Chinese religion, oral ritual is considered for the lower class, done through guest-host relationship with shaman.

Commodification of karma

Movement by laypeople based on the idea you can "make" karma and that it works in terms of more or less. They believed they were generating karma for themselves by giving to the sanghas and the stupas (does not line up with the professional belief in karma as cause and effect)

Doctrine of Emptiness (Śūnyatā)

Notion that we are empty of self-essence and therefore we are interconnected with everything else in the cosmos. A cup is empty of water. We are empty of a separate, independent self. Flower is made of non-flower elements (light, space, clouds) but empty of a separate self. The Middle Way between existent and nonexistent (the flower does not exist, but it doesn't not exist)

Lay people

Originally practice of the Dharma was exclusive domain of monks and nuns, and laypeople were limited to supporting the ordained Sangha with food, clothing etc.

Vinaya

Part of the Buddhist canon containing rules that govern the monastic / professional community Significantly the sangha's practice involves the use of vows which carry karmic power. In Mahayana tradition, Sangha class still goes off the Vinaya, but slowly diverges from it and becomes more flexible.

Aryans

People of pre-Buddhist India (ca. 3000 BCE) who wrote the Vedic scriptures in Sanskrit and relied on professional and ritual labor. Some of them moved to Europe.

Asceticism/renunciation

People who completely renounce the world, in the Buddha's story presented as the opposite of the spectrum to those living in the balance / in abundance. Buddha realizes that asceticism makes you attached to the idea of being unattached and torturing the body violates the dignity of being human.

Omens

Perceived as unusual things that are out of place which happen in order to maintain normalcy. Rooted in the belief of the 5 phases / elements which always balance each other out. Chinese believe that one phase / element out of place will cause another to shift therefore, omens are a signal.

Confucianism

Philosophy of Confucius which arises in Zhou dynasty. Emphasis is placed on hierarchy / filial piety, benevolence, sincerity, ritual. Becomes a program about how to be human. Confucius argues that humans can act with virtue and moral resonance in mind. Due to warring states, Confucius wanted to stop the killing.

Nirmānakāya (associated with Siddhartha Gautama)

Physical embodiment of the Shakayamuni Buddha. Sent by the Dharmakaya to relieve the suffering of beings and the physical embodiment of the dharmakaya. Shakyamuni is considered of many transformation bodies. We can be in touch with the transformation body through him or others.

Dependent Origination (Sanskrit

Pratītyasamutpāda): Basis for rejection of a divine creator. Everything owes its existence to other things, and is a result of multiple causes and conditions.

Brahmin

Priestly class in Hindu society / religious teachers. Highest ritual status among social classes. Buddha criticized practices of the Brahmin class like animal sacrifice and the caste system.

Vedas

Sacred body of religious texts from ancient India. Ancient Indian religion believed that part of sustaining the cosmos is speaking the Vedas into existence. The tradition of passing the Vedas through word of mouth emphasizes the importance of oral tradition.

Mahāyāna Buddhism

School of Buddhism after Theravada which focused on emptiness, interconnectedness, interdependence. B/c the Buddha organized for new extensions to be released 400 years later when followers are ready. By reciting the new scripture, one could generate more karmic merit than an arhat monk. Allowed anyone to become a boddhistava by agreeing to the 3 boddhistatva vows which closed the gap between lay people and the sangha class. Practiced in China and Japan.

Transfer of merit

Scriptures considered filled with merit and vehicles of generating merit then giving it away. Bodhisattvas accumulate karmic merit and give it away.

Divination

Seeking future knowledge by supernatural means. In Shang dynasty for example, practice through Oracle Bones and pyromancy in which crack in bones are interpreted by shamans. Omens are also considered important divinations.

Siddhartha Gautama (Siddhattha Gotama)/ Shakyamuni Buddha

The final reincarnation of the Buddha. A prince who renounced the luxuries of royal life to seek spiritual enlightenment, after which he practiced the "middle way" of detachment.

Death ritual

The rites that make ancestors. A lot of favoritism in the structure of rites. Chief mourner is male because they have yang, other steps involve feeding and communicating with the dead. Tomb is yin, the tablet with the name is yang which stays in the house.

Death of the Buddha (Parinirvana)

When the Buddha died and broke free from karmic rebirth. He died a painful death, by eating rancid meat. Before the historical Buddha died, he gave final injunctions.

Pilgrimage

a long journey to a sacred place as an act of devotion. The Buddha identified 4 sites worthy of pilgrimage including, his birth place, Bodh Gaya where he attained enlightenment, Sarnath where he taught abt the Middle Way, the 4 noble truths and the noble eightfold path and Kusinagara where he attained Parinirvana.

Three Bodies of the Buddha (Trikāya)

a way of explaining why Buddha didn't stick around as a Bodhisattva and fade out the Buddha in their teachings.. Three bodies — a Dharma body, an enjoyment body, and a physical body - are also considered available to laypeople through practice.

Sangha

class of monastic / religious professionals. One of the three treasures. The goal of the sangha in early Buddhist tradition is to work off karma by gaining wisdom from dharmas and teaching to lay people. There's a reevaluation of lay/sangha segregation in Mahayana movement due to the origination of Bodhisattvas vows and more resources made available to lay people. In Chinese translation of Buddhism, the Sangha begin to interpose themselves into lineages such that filial piety required one to treat Sangha well.

Moksa

concept of enlightenment / liberation in Hinduism

Stūpa

dome-shaped structure containing relics erected as a Buddhist shrine. Symbol of the Buddha's presence. Lay people can come and karmically connect with Buddha.

Suffering (Sanskrit

duhkha, Pali: dukkha): Mental phenomenon. All is suffering because we are in a world where we are attached to delusions. Biggest attachment is towards a delusion that you have a self.

Three treasures/three jewels (Triratna)

essences of Buddhist tradition, considered coequal. 1) Buddha - Jakatas of compassion leading to final life, eliminating Karmic chain and attaining Nirvana. 2) Dharma - teaching of the Buddha; professionals look to the teachings to attain our own awakening. 3) Sangha - community of professionals who are devoted to achieve this for themselves, as well as preaching to lay believers around the world. Triratna are constant throughout all Buddhist movements, but are different in interpretation.

Buddha

founder of Buddhism, revered as an enlightened being who was born into an aristocratic family but renounced lay life. There are said to be many reincarnations of the Buddha told through Jataka tales.

Upanisads

group of Indian text considered to be the last part of the Veda / created after the Vedas. Contains important notions like karma. The textual basis for the sramana movement, because the sramanas internalized fire sacrifices from this group of texts.

Ancestors

spirits of family that came before you; shape your cultural and social identity; a superhuman spirit that takes offerings only from members of its lineage, performs services and help only for members of its lineage. Ancestors who you don't give offerings to can turn into Demon spirits. Need to be fed.

Jataka

stories adapted from Hindu religious texts that claim to be about the Buddha in his past lives. Stories which demonstrate his wisdom and compassion. The Buddha originated as a lay person, so one's actions as a lay person today do matter

Sūtra (Pali

sūtta): Sermons of the Buddha which are part of the canonical literature. In Mahayana Buddhism, many important Sutras are attributed to later authors.

Eightfold Path

taught in first dharma talk. Practices to end suffering and achieve enlightenment. Right thought, right speech, right action, demonstrates that Buddhist teaching is not philosophy, its therapy.

Atman

the self / self-existent essence of individuals in Hinduism. Pure consciousness independent of the mind, ego and body. To achieve moksha, a human being must require self-knowledge. In contrast to Anatta, Anatman in buddhism which holds that there is no essence or Self in living beings.

Yin and yang

used to describe opposite manifestations of Qi energy and how the Chinese broke down the universe into pairs of opposite forces that are in harmony. All things are understood in relation of other things. Yin (material): female, moon, dark, inert, cold Yang (immaterial): male, sun, light, aggressive, hot.