Glossary Terms Page 3 Flashcards
What does Stupa mean?
A small building in a monastery that sometimes contains holy relics.
What does Sukhavati mean?
The paradise where Amitabha Buddha lives, and where Pure Land Buddhists aim to be reborn.
What does Sunyata mean?
Emptiness; the concept that nothing has a separate, independent ‘self’ or ‘soul’.
What does Tanha mean?
Craving (desiring or wanting something)
What is a Temple?
A place where Buddhists come together to practise.
What is Thangka mean?
A detailed painting of a Buddha or Bodhisattva.
What is The Eightfold Path?
Eight aspects that Buddhists practise and live by in order to achieve enlightenment.
What are The Five Aggregates?
The five aspects that make up a person.
What are The Five Ascetics?
The Buddha’s first five students; five monks who followed ascetics practices.
What are The Five Moral Precepts?
Five principles that Buddhists try to follow to live ethically and morally.
What are The Four Noble Truths?
The four truths that the Buddha taught about suffering.
What are The Four Sights?
Old age, illness, death, and a holy man; these Four Sights led the Buddha to leave his life of luxury in the palace.
What are the Four Sublime States?
The four qualities of love, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity which the Buddha taught that Buddhists should develop.
What are The Six Perfections?
The six qualities or virtues that Mahayana Buddhists try to develop in order to live as Bodhisattvas.
What are The Three Poisons?
Greed, hatred and ignorance; the main causes of suffering.
What are The Three Watches Of The Night?
The three realisations that the Buddha made in order to achieve enlightenment.
What is The Threefold Way?
The Eightfold Path grouped into the three sections of ethics, meditation and wisdom.
What is The Tibetan Wheel of Life?
An image that symbolises samsara, often found in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and temples.
What is Theravada Buddhism?
‘The school of the elders’; an ancient Buddhist tradition found in Southern Asia.
What does Unskilful mean?
Bad, unethical actions or behaviour.
What is Vipassana Meditation?
‘Insight meditation’; a type of meditation that involves developing understanding of the nature of reality.
What is Visualisation?
Imagining or ‘seeing’ an object in one’s mind.
What is Wesak?
A Theravada festival that celebrates the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and passing away.
What is wisdom (panna)?
A section of the threefold way that deals with Buddhist approaches to understanding the nature of reality.
What is Zazen meditation?
A type of meditation in Zen Buddhism that requires awareness of the present moment.
