-A-

abyakatapanha: those questions which are not related to any practical or beneficial purpose, and were thus not answered by the Buddha.

anatta: not self. See also Three Characteristics.

anicca, aniccam: impermanent, impermanence. See also Three Characteristics.

-B-

bhikkhu: a Buddhist monk, ordained in accordance with, and living under, the Vinaya, the code of monks' discipline.

bijaniyama: the natural law of cause and effect pertaining to heredity, or biological laws; one of five niyama, or natural laws, specified in the commentaries.

-C-

cariyadhamma: ethical truth.

cittaniyama: the natural law of cause and effect pertaining to the workings of the mind, psychic laws; one of five niyama, or natural laws, specified in the commentaries.

-D-

Dependent Origination, Law of (Paticcasamuppada): the law of conditioned arising, that all things exist as a stream of inter-dependent conditions; nothing exists in and of itself, but is related to and dependent on innumerable factors. For a detailed description of the principle of Dependent Origination, see 'The Law of Dependent Origination', by the author.

deva, devata: gods, heavenly beings, angels. In Buddhist cosmology, adopting the beliefs adhered to in India at the time of the Buddha, the universe consists of many different realms, including many levels of 'deva' or heavenly realms, among which beings are constantly being reborn and passing away. Devas are not essential to the Buddha's teaching and are not given special importance, as they are, like all other beings, mortal. Having passed away from their deva-existence, they can be reborn into any other realm, even a hell realm, depending on the fruits of their kamma.

Dhamma or dhamma: has a very wide range of meaning, from 'thing', that is, anything at all, to 'truth', 'reality', uprightness or correctness, and also, to teaching, specifically, the Buddha's teaching. The word is often paired with other words, as in kusaladhamma, skilful conditions; papadhamma, evil or bad conditions; gunadhamma, good qualities, virtue; namadhamma, abstractor mental qualities; Buddhadhamma, the Buddha's teaching.

dhammaniyama: the general law of cause and effect, pertaining to everything; one of five niyama, or natural laws, specified in the commentaries.

dosa: aversion, ill-will, hatred.

dukkha, dukkham: literally, 'that which is difficult to endure', or 'that which cannot endure'; generally rendered as 'suffering', 'unsatisfactoriness' 'imperfection', the word has a wide range of meanings, ranging from the actual feeling of pain and suffering, to the intrinsic imperfect nature of a 11 conditioned things. See also Three Characteristics and Four Noble Truths.

-F-

Four Noble Truths: considered to be the heart of the Buddha's teaching, the Four Noble Truths were the gist of the Buddha's first sermon, and pervade the whole of the teaching he gave in the forty five years of his teaching career. Briefly, they are the truth of suffering, or imperfection, which must be recognized; the truth of the cause of suffering, which is desire based on ignorance, which must be given up; the cessation of suffering, or Nibbana, which must be realized; and the way leading to the cessation of suffering, or the Noble Eight-fold Path, which must be developed. At first contact, this teaching may be hard to appreciate, but the Four Noble Truths contain a profundity which only becomes apparent after deep and continuous reflection.

-K-

kamma: volitional action. For a comprehensive treatment of this subject, see Good, evil and beyond ... Kamma in the Buddha's teaching by the same author.

kammaniyama: the law of cause and effect as it relates to moral behaviour, the law of kamma.

khandhas, five: the five groups of conditions which comprise all of existence, being rupa: material form; vedana: feeling; sanna: perception; sankhara mental proliferation; and vinnana: consciousness.

-L-

lobha, dosa, moha: greed, hatred and delusion, three defilements often singled out from among a countless number to refer to defilements in general.

lobha: greed, covetousness.

-M-

moha: delusion, dullness.

-N-

nana: direct knowledge, gnosis, insight.

Nibbana: enlightenment, the unconditioned.

-P-

panha: problem.

pannattidhamma: decreed truth; that is rules and conventions.

panna: wisdom; in Buddhism wisdom is used specifically to describe understanding of the way things are, which may be insight into the Four Noble Truths, into the principle of Dependent Origination, the Three Characteristics of existence, etc.

Paticcasamuppada: see Dependent Origination, Law of.

phassa: sense impingement, contact: the connection between external sense object, internal sense base, and consciousness.

purisakara: human act of will, the ability to initiate action.

-R-

raga: lust, passion, excitement, greed.

-S-

saccadhamma: ultimate truth or reality.

samadhi: lit., 'firmness of mind'; concentration, mental discipline; used generally to refer to the practice of meditation.

sati: recollection, attention, application of mind; most often rendered as 'mindfulness'.

sankhara: lit., ' that which is conditioned', or 'that which conditions', both material or physical and immaterial or mental. Sankhara has a wide range of meanings, occurring notably in the five khandhas, where it means mental proliferation, and also as one of the Three Characteristics of existence, where it means all conditioned phenomena, both physical and mental, and in the Law of Dependent Origination, where it means conditioning factor, or volitional formations, its meaning in this case being synonymous with intention.

sanna: perception, recognition, that part of the process of memory which recognizes and collects data. See also khandhas.

sila: morality, ethics, moral conduct; training rules.

-T-

Three Characteristics (tilakkhana): aniccam, impermanence; dukkham, imperfection or suffering; anatta, not-self -- the three characteristics of all conditioned phenomena. For a detailed description of the Three Characteristics, see The Three Characteristics of Existence, by the same author.

tilakkhana: see Three Characteristics.

-U-

utuniyama: the natural law of cause and effect pertaining to the physical world, or physical laws; one of five niyama, or natural laws, specified in the commentaries.

-V-

vedana: feeling, the appreciation of sense objects, as pleasant, unpleasant or indifferent. See also khandhas.

vinaya: literally, 'that which leads out of'; referring to the training rules devised to lead out of unskilful behaviour; the code of discipline.

vinnana: consciousness. See also khandhas.

-Y-

yoniso-manasikara: careful consideration; critical reflection on the true nature of things or reflecting on the nature of things in terms of their benefit or harm; in brief it could be called 'clear thinking', but the meaning is much more profound than the usual understanding of these words.