Nirvana (Buddhism)Nirvana (Sanskrit: निर्वाण, ; Pali: ) is "blowing out" or "quenching" of the activity of the grasping mind and its related unease. Nirvana is the goal of many Buddhist paths, and marks the soteriological release from worldly suffering and rebirths in saṃsāra. Nirvana is part of the Third Truth on "cessation of dukkha" in the Four Noble Truths, and the "summum bonum of Buddhism and goal of the Eightfold Path.
Dhammakaya traditionThe Dhammakaya Tradition or Dhammakaya Movement, sometimes spelled as Thammakaai movement, is a Thai Buddhist Tradition founded by Luang Pu Sodh Candasaro in the early 20th century. It is associated with several temples descended from Wat Paknam Bhasicharoen in Bangkok. The Tradition is distinguished from other Thai Buddhist traditions by its teachings on the Buddhist concept of Dhammakaya and the practice of Dhammakaya Meditation (Vijja Dhammakaya), a method which scholars have connected to the Yogavacara Tradition, which predates the 19th-century reform of Thai Buddhism.
AnattāIn Buddhism, the term anattā (Pali: अनत्ता) or anātman (Sanskrit: अनात्मन्) refers to the doctrine of "non-self" – that no unchanging, permanent self or essence can be found in any phenomenon. While often interpreted as a doctrine denying the existence of a self, anatman is more accurately described as a strategy to attain non-attachment by recognizing everything as impermanent, while staying silent on the ultimate existence of an unchanging essence.
Four Noble TruthsIn Buddhism, the Four Noble Truths (चतुरार्यसत्यानि; caturāriyasaccāni; "The Four Arya Satya") are "the truths of the Noble Ones", the truths or realities for the "spiritually worthy ones". The truths are: dukkha ('not being at ease', "suffering," from dush-stha, "standing unstable,") is an innate characteristic of the perpetual cycle (samsara, wandering) of grasping at things, ideas and habits; samudaya (origin, arising, combination; "cause"): dukkha (unease) arises simultaneously with taṇhā ("craving, desire or attachment, thirst).
SamadhiSamādhi (Pali and समाधि), in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and yogic schools, is a state of meditative consciousness. In Buddhism, it is the last of the eight elements of the Noble Eightfold Path. In the Ashtanga Yoga tradition, it is the eighth and final limb identified in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. In the oldest Buddhist sutras, on which several contemporary western Theravada teachers rely, it refers to the development of an investigative and luminous mind which is equanimous and mindful.
Theravāda AbhidhammaThe Theravāda Abhidhamma is a scholastic systematization of the Theravāda school's understanding of the highest Buddhist teachings (Abhidhamma). These teachings are traditionally believed to have been taught by the Buddha, though modern scholars date the texts of the Abhidhamma Piṭaka to the 3rd century BCE. Theravāda traditionally sees itself as the vibhajjavāda ("the teaching of analysis"), which reflects the analytical (vibhajjati) method used by the Buddha and early Buddhists to investigate the nature of the person and other phenomena.
TathātāTathātā (ˌtætəˈtɑː; Sanskrit: तथाता; Pali: tathatā) is a Buddhist term variously translated as "thusness" or "suchness," referring to the nature of reality free from conceptual elaborations and the subject–object distinction. Although it is a significant concept in Mahayana Buddhism, it is also used in the Theravada tradition. The Buddha referred to himself as the Tathāgata, which can mean either "One who has thus come" or "One who has thus gone", and can also be interpreted as "One who has arrived at suchness".
SparśaSparśa (Sanskrit; Pali: phassa) is a Sanskrit/Indian term that is translated as "contact", "touching", "sensation", "sense impression", etc. It is defined as the coming together of three factors: the sense organ, the sense object, and sense consciousness (vijnana). For example, contact (sparsha) is said to occur at the coming together of the eye organ, a visual object, and the visual sense consciousness. Sparśa is identified within the Buddhist teachings as: One of the seven universal mental factors in the Theravada Abhidharma.
BhavaThe Sanskrit word bhava (भव) means being, worldly existence, becoming, birth, be, production, origin, but also habitual or emotional tendencies. In Buddhism, bhava is the tenth of the twelve links of Pratītyasamutpāda. It is the link between the defilements, and repeated birth, that is, reincarnation. In Thai Buddhism, bhava is also interpreted as habitual or emotional tendencies which leads to the arising of the sense of self, as a mental phenomenon.
