Buddhism · Glossary

Glossary of Buddhism's history

The ideas, texts, schools, places, figures and pieces of evidence that recur across the series, each defined in a few sentences. The definitions summarise what the chapters argue; the dates and the evidence behind them are cited in the chapter each entry links to. Pali and Sanskrit terms are spelled with diacritics, with common plain spellings alongside.

A

Abhidharma also Abhidhamma, dharmas Text: The 'higher teaching', the third basket of the canon, which analyses the discourses into lists of momentary elements (dharmas). Each school's Abhidharma is its own, which is why it is dated after the schools divided: the Theravāda has seven books in Pali, the Sarvāstivāda its great commentary compiled in Kashmir. More in Writing It Down →
Āgamas also Agama, Chinese Āgamas, Dīrgha Āgama, Madhyama Āgama Text: Chinese translations of other early schools' discourse collections, made between 384 and 443 CE from Indian originals now lost. The four Āgamas correspond to the four main Pali Nikāyas and come mostly from the Dharmaguptakas and Sarvāstivādins, so comparing them with the Pali shows what the schools held in common. More in How We Know →
Amitābha also Amida, Amituofo, Amitāyus Figure: The Buddha of Sukhāvatī, the western Pure Land, who as the monk Dharmākara vowed that anyone who calls on him in faith will be reborn there. His earliest Indian inscription is the Govindnagar pedestal of about 153 CE. In Japan he is Amida. More in The Mahāyāna Turn →
Anagārika Dharmapāla also Dharmapala, Maha Bodhi Society Person: Sri Lankan Buddhist reformer (1864–1933) who founded the Maha Bodhi Society in 1891 to recover Bodh Gaya for Buddhists. He took novice ordination in 1931 and full ordination in 1933, months before his death at Sarnath. More in Colonial Encounter and Buddhist Modernism →
Anattā also not-self, anātman, anatman, five aggregates Idea: Anattā, 'not-self', is the teaching that none of the five aggregates that make up a person (form, feeling, perception, formations and consciousness) is a permanent self. It belongs to the doctrinal core shared by all the early schools and was a direct challenge to the Upaniṣadic ātman. More in The Buddha →
Aniconism also aniconic, aniconic period Idea: For two centuries or more, the earliest Buddhist reliefs show the Buddha's life without showing him: a tree, an empty seat, footprints, a wheel or a stupa stands in his place. Susan Huntington argued that many such scenes show later worship at holy sites rather than an absent Buddha; whether there was a rule is debated. More in Ashoka and the Making of a Pan-Indian Religion → When was the Buddha first shown in art?
Arhat also arahant, arhant, Mahādeva Idea: One who has reached nibbāna and will not be reborn: the goal of the early path. Northern sources trace the first schism to Mahādeva's five theses on how perfect an arhat is. Mahāyāna sūtras set full Buddhahood above arhatship. More in The Early Saṅgha, the Councils and the First Split →
Ashoka also Aśoka, Asoka, Devānaṃpiya Piyadasi, Aśokāvadāna Person: The Mauryan emperor (r. c. 268–232 BCE) whose inscriptions are the first dated evidence for Buddhism. By his own statement he became a Buddhist lay follower soon after the Kalinga war. The stories of his cruelty, his conversion and his 84,000 stupas come from texts written four to eight centuries later. More in Ashoka and the Making of a Pan-Indian Religion →
Ashoka's dhamma also dhamma, Ashokan edicts Idea: The moral programme of Ashoka's edicts: restraint, generosity, care for parents and servants, and respect for all sects. It never mentions nirvana or the four noble truths. Whether it was Buddhist teaching for the public or a deliberately non-sectarian civic ethic is debated. More in Ashoka and the Making of a Pan-Indian Religion →
Atiśa also Atisha, Lamp for the Path, lam rim Person: Atiśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna (982–1054), a senior monk of Vikramaśīla, born in Bengal, who arrived in western Tibet in 1042. His Lamp for the Path joined the monastic rules, the Mahāyāna path and the tantras in one ordered scheme, the model for the later 'stages of the path' literature. More in Tibet: The Second Home →
Avalokiteśvara also Guanyin, Kannon, Chenrezig, Padmapāṇi, Lokeśvara Figure: The bodhisattva of compassion, who in the Lotus Sūtra hears the cries of beings and saves those who call his name. That chapter circulated separately and became the basis of the cult of Guanyin in China. More in The Mahāyāna Turn →

B

Bharhut also Bhārhut Place: A stupa in central India whose railing, now mostly in the Indian Museum, Kolkata, carries labelled reliefs of about 125–75 BCE. Its labels name scenes in which the Buddha is present but not shown, central evidence in the debate over aniconism. More in Ashoka and the Making of a Pan-Indian Religion →
Bhikkhunī also bhikṣuṇī, nuns' order, women's ordination Idea: A fully ordained Buddhist nun. The order never died out in China, Taiwan, Korea and Vietnam. In the Theravāda world it disappeared from Sri Lanka in the eleventh century and from Burma by the thirteenth, and was restarted from 1996 with help from East Asian nuns, a revival that remains contested. More in Global and Contemporary Buddhism →
Bodh Gaya also Uruvelā, Mahabodhi Temple, Sambodhi Place: The place of the Buddha's awakening, which Ashoka calls Sambodhi. From the late sixteenth century the temple was held by a Śaiva monastery; Dharmapāla's campaign from 1891 led eventually to the Bodh Gaya Temple Act of 1949, which put it under a joint committee of Hindus and Buddhists. More in Colonial Encounter and Buddhist Modernism →
Bodhidharma also Damo, Daruma Person: The monk later honoured as the first patriarch of Chan. The earliest mention, in a guidebook to Luoyang's monasteries of 547, calls him a man of Persia aged 150; his biography and teachings grew in later Chan sources. How much is history is contested. More in Into China → Where did Zen Buddhism come from?
Bodhisattva also bodhisatta, bodhisattva path Idea: A being on the way to full Buddhahood. In the early texts the word names the Buddha before his awakening. In the Mahāyāna it becomes a path for others too, followed for the sake of all beings, and celestial bodhisattvas such as Avalokiteśvara and Mañjuśrī are powerful enough to answer prayers. More in The Mahāyāna Turn →
Bon also Bön, Bonpo School: A Tibetan religion that presents itself as older than Buddhism. Per Kværne argues that organised Bon took shape in the tenth and eleventh centuries alongside Buddhism; Samten Karmay takes its own origin narratives more seriously. Whether it preserves Tibet's pre-Buddhist religion is contested. More in Tibet: The Second Home →
Borobudur 0 Place: A Mahāyāna monument in Central Java, built around 780–830. Its galleries carry the Lalitavistara life of the Buddha, Jātaka tales and the pilgrim Sudhana's search from the Gaṇḍavyūha, rising to rows of Buddhas in latticed stupas. More in Theravāda and Southeast Asia →
Budai also Laughing Buddha, Hotei, Qici Figure: Budai, 'Cloth Bag', the fat, laughing figure with a sack often sold as 'the Buddha'. He was a Chinese monk named Qici from Zhejiang who died in the early tenth century (the sources give 901–904 or 916) and was afterwards identified with Maitreya. He is not Śākyamuni. More in Into China → Who is the 'Laughing Buddha'?
Buddha-nature also tathāgatagarbha, foxing Idea: The teaching of the Tathāgatagarbha texts that every being contains the 'embryo' of a Buddha, obscured by defilements. Indian critics found it uncomfortably close to the ātman the Buddha had denied. In China it became an assumption, the starting point of Tiantai, Huayan and Chan. More in Into China →
Buddhist councils also First Council, Second Council, Third Council, saṅgīti Idea: Tradition remembers three early councils: at Rājagaha after the Buddha's death, where the texts were recited; at Vesālī about a century later, in a dispute over monks handling money; and at Pāṭaliputra under Ashoka. Most historians treat the first as a founding story, the second as more plausible, and the third as one school's account, found only in Theravāda sources. More in The Early Saṅgha, the Councils and the First Split →

C

Chan and Zen also Chan, Zen, Seon, Rinzai, Sōtō, Shenhui School: The meditation school of China (Chan), Korea (Seon) and Japan (Zen). Its lineage of patriarchs back through Bodhidharma to the Buddha was built after the fact; the Dunhuang manuscripts show the eighth-century campaign of Shenhui for a 'sudden' southern school. Eisai and Dōgen brought the Rinzai and Sōtō lines to Japan. More in Into China → Where did Zen Buddhism come from?

D

Dalai Lama also Dalai Lamas, Gaden Phodrang Idea: A Mongolian title, 'ocean', given in 1578 by Altan Khan to Sonam Gyatso, abbot of the Geluk monastery of Drepung, who was counted as the Third; the title was given retroactively to his two predecessors. The Fifth Dalai Lama became ruler of Tibet in 1642. Who will recognise the successor of the Fourteenth is disputed between his own trust and the Chinese state. More in Tibet: The Second Home →
Dependent origination also paṭicca-samuppāda, pratītyasamutpāda, twelve links Idea: Paṭicca-samuppāda explains suffering by causes: it arises from craving through a chain of conditions and ends when the conditions end. It is part of the core shared by all the early schools. Nāgārjuna later identified it with emptiness. More in The Buddha →
Dīpavaṃsa and Mahāvaṃsa also Mahāvaṃsa, Dīpavaṃsa, Sri Lankan chronicles, Mahavamsa Text: The Pali chronicles of Sri Lanka's Mahāvihāra monastery: the Dīpavaṃsa (4th century) and Mahāvaṃsa (5th–6th century). They tell of the Third Council, Mahinda's mission and the writing down of the canon. Modern scholars read them as partisan history, written long before the Mahāvihāra became the island's only fraternity in 1165. More in Theravāda and Southeast Asia →
Dōgen also Sōtō, shikantaza, Shōbōgenzō Person: Dōgen (1200–1253) brought the Caodong (Sōtō) line from China in 1227. He taught that sitting meditation, shikantaza or 'just sitting', is itself the expression of awakening, not a means to it. His writings were little read for centuries. More in Japan and the Kamakura Reformations →
Dunhuang also Library Cave, Mogao Place: An oasis on the Silk Road in northwest China, under Tibetan rule c. 786–848. Its Library Cave, sealed around 1000, preserved early Chan texts, the Dunhuang Platform Sūtra, the Diamond Sūtra of 868 and Tibetan records of the imperial period. More in Into China →

E

Eight heavy rules also garudhamma, heavy rules, Mahāpajāpatī Idea: The eight garudhamma that, according to the Vinaya, the Buddha required Mahāpajāpatī to accept when he agreed to ordain women; they subordinate nuns to monks. Comparing the schools' versions, Bhikkhu Anālayo argues that much of the founding story, including the Buddha's reluctance, took shape over time. The rules are central to modern arguments over nuns' ordination. More in The Early Saṅgha, the Councils and the First Split →

F

Four noble truths also dukkha, eightfold path, first sermon, Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, middle way Idea: The formula of the first sermon: suffering (dukkha), its origin in craving, its ending, and the eightfold path that leads to its ending. All the early schools remember it as the content of the first teaching, after the middle way. K. R. Norman argued from its grammar that the formula in the first sermon is a later insertion, so its exact wording is contested. More in The Buddha →
Four sights also Vipassī, great departure Idea: The old man, sick man, corpse and renunciant that the young prince sees in the legend before he leaves home. In the Pali canon the story is told at length about Vipassī, a Buddha of the distant past; biographies of the early centuries CE transfer it to Gotama. More in The Buddha →

G

Gandhāra also Gandhara, Gandhāran art Place: The region around Peshawar in today's northwest Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. Under the Kushans it produced Buddha images in a Hellenistic style, and its birch-bark scrolls are the oldest Buddhist manuscripts. More in Writing It Down →
Gāndhārī scrolls also Gandhāran scrolls, Kharoṣṭhī manuscripts, British Library fragments, Bajaur collection, Split collection Evidence: Birch-bark scrolls in the Gāndhārī language and Kharoṣṭhī script from Gandhāra, dated from about the first century BCE to the third century CE: the oldest Buddhist manuscripts anywhere. Known since 1994, they show early texts circulating in more than one language and include the oldest Mahāyāna manuscript. More in How We Know →
Geluk also Gelug, Gelugpa, Tsongkhapa School: The school that grew from Tsongkhapa's foundation of Ganden monastery in 1409. An abbot of its monastery of Drepung received the title Dalai Lama in 1578, and from 1642 it was the school of the Tibetan state. More in Tibet: The Second Home →
Golden Urn also Golden Urn lottery, 29-article ordinance Evidence: A lottery for choosing reincarnations that the Qianlong emperor introduced in 1792 and wrote into the 29-article ordinance of 1793. Beijing treats its use and central approval as required; the Tibetan side replies that it was used inconsistently and bypassed for several Dalai Lamas, including the Fourteenth. More in Global and Contemporary Buddhism →
Govindnagar pedestal also Govindnagar inscription, Amitābha pedestal Evidence: A sculpture pedestal from Mathurā dated year 26 of Huviṣka, about 153 CE on the era beginning 127 CE, naming the Buddha Amitābha. It is the earliest Indian inscription to name Amitābha, whose name does not appear again in Indian inscriptions for centuries. More in The Mahāyāna Turn → Where did Mahāyāna Buddhism come from?

H

Heart Sūtra also Prajñāpāramitā Hṛdaya, Xin jing Text: A short Perfection of Wisdom text, the most recited Buddhist scripture in East Asia. Jan Nattier argued in 1992 that its core passage was taken from Kumārajīva's Chinese translation of the Large Perfection of Wisdom and that the Sanskrit is a back-translation; the thesis is contested. More in Into China →
Hīnayāna also Hinayana, lesser vehicle Idea: 'Lesser vehicle', a polemical name that Mahāyāna texts gave to paths aimed at arhatship. No school ever called itself Hīnayāna. The name 'Theravāda' came into general use in its place after the World Fellowship of Buddhists met in Ceylon in 1950. More in Theravāda and Southeast Asia → What is the difference between Theravāda and Mahāyāna?
Honji suijaku also shinbutsu shūgō, kami and buddhas Idea: 'Original ground and manifest trace': the theory that a buddha is the original ground and a kami is the trace it leaves in Japan to reach its people. It underlay a thousand years of combined worship until the Meiji government ordered the separation of kami and buddhas in 1868. More in Japan and the Kamakura Reformations →

I

Insight meditation also vipassanā, Ledi Sayadaw, Mahasi Sayadaw Idea: Vipassanā, insight meditation, was a specialist pursuit of some monks until the late nineteenth century. In colonial Burma Ledi Sayadaw (1846–1923) argued that lay people could and should practise it; Mahasi Sayadaw and U Ba Khin made it a mass movement whose students carried it abroad. More in Colonial Encounter and Buddhist Modernism →

J

Jhāna also dhyāna, meditative absorption Idea: The jhānas are four states of meditative absorption described across the early schools. In MN 36 the Buddha's turning point is his memory of entering the first jhāna as a boy under a rose-apple tree. Tilmann Vetter and Johannes Bronkhorst argued that absorption, not 'liberating insight', was the earliest path; the question is contested. More in The Buddha →
Jōdo Shinshū also Shin Buddhism, Shinran, Hōnen School: The 'True Pure Land' school of Shinran (1173–1263), a disciple of Hōnen who married and called himself neither monk nor layman. Birth in the Pure Land depends on Amida's vow, received in faith, not on one's own practice. It is today the largest of Japan's traditional Buddhist schools. More in Japan and the Kamakura Reformations →

K

Kālacakra Tantra also Kalachakra, Wheel of Time Text: The 'Wheel of Time' tantra, composed in India around 1025–1040, after Turkic Muslim armies had raided the northwest. Its first chapter lists the prophets of the 'barbarian' religion, an account of Islam that John Newman calls fairly comprehensive and quite accurate for a Sanskrit text. More in Tantra and the Last Age of Indian Buddhism →
Kangyur and Tengyur also Kangyur, Tengyur, Butön, Tibetan canon Text: The Tibetan canon: the Kangyur, 'translated words' of the Buddha, about a hundred volumes, and the Tengyur, 'translated treatises' by Indian masters, over two hundred. They were gathered in the early fourteenth century; Butön Rinchen Drub (1290–1364) edited and catalogued the Tengyur. More in Tibet: The Second Home →
Kaniṣka's Buddha coins also ΒΟΔΔΟ, Boddo coin, Kushan coins, Kaniṣka, Kanishka Evidence: Gold coins of the Kushan king Kaniṣka showing a standing, haloed Buddha labelled ΒΟΔΔΟ in Greek letters; copper coins name Śākyamuni and Maitreya. They are the earliest images that name the Buddha in writing, datable within a quarter-century of 127 CE. More in Writing It Down → When was the Buddha first shown in art?
Kapilavastu also Kapilavatthu, Tilaurakot, Piprahwa Place: The home town of the Śākyas. India identifies it with Piprahwa–Ganwaria in Uttar Pradesh, where sealings of the early centuries CE name the monastic community of Kapilavastu; Nepal identifies it with Tilaurakot near Lumbini. More in The Buddha →
Karma as intention also karma, kamma, cetanā Idea: The Buddha accepted the karma and rebirth of his world but redefined karma as intention: 'It is intention, monks, that I call deeds' (AN 6.63). Action now meant a moral choice open to anyone, not the correct performance of a ritual. Richard Gombrich calls this ethicisation 'a turning point in the history of civilisation'. More in The World the Buddha Entered →

L

Lotus Sūtra also Saddharmapuṇḍarīka, Lotus of the True Dharma Text: The Saddharmapuṇḍarīka, translated into Chinese by Dharmarakṣa in 286 and, in the version that became standard, by Kumārajīva in 406. It teaches skilful means and the one vehicle, reveals the Buddha's lifespan as immeasurable, and contains the chapter on Avalokiteśvara. Tiantai and Nichiren made it the summit of the teaching. More in The Mahāyāna Turn →
Lumbini also Lumbinī, Rummindei, Maya Devi temple Place: The Buddha's birthplace, in southern Nepal, fixed by Ashoka's pillar inscription of c. 249 BCE. Excavation under the Maya Devi temple in 2011–13 found a timber structure dated to the sixth century BCE; whether it was Buddhist or marks an older sacred site is debated. More in The Buddha → When did the Buddha live?

M

Madhyamaka also Nāgārjuna, Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, Madhyamika School: The 'middle way' school founded by Nāgārjuna (c. 150–250 CE), whose Root Verses on the Middle Way argue that nothing has independent self-existence. Its central verse (24.18) identifies dependent origination with emptiness. More in The Mahāyāna Turn →
Mahāsāṃghika also Mahasanghika, Sthavira, first schism, great community School: 'The great community', one of the two bodies into which the saṅgha divided in the century after the Second Council; the other was the Sthaviras, 'elders'. Every later school descends from one or the other. The Mahāsāṃghika account says the split came when an elder added rules to the Vinaya and the majority refused them; the cause is contested. More in The Early Saṅgha, the Councils and the First Split →
Mahāvihāra also Mahavihara, Abhayagiri, Parākramabāhu I, Anurādhapura School: The 'great monastery' of Anurādhapura, from which all of today's Theravāda descends. It rejected the Mahāyāna and tantric texts accepted by its rival, the Abhayagiri, and became the island's only fraternity when Parākramabāhu I unified the orders around 1165. More in Theravāda and Southeast Asia →
Mahāyāna also Mahayana, great vehicle School: The 'great vehicle': sūtras composed from about the first century BCE that set the goal as full Buddhahood for the sake of all beings, the bodhisattva path, rather than release as an arhat. It was a vocation within the existing monasteries, not a separate order; Mahāyāna monks were ordained in mainstream lineages. More in The Mahāyāna Turn → Where did Mahāyāna Buddhism come from?
Maitreya also Metteyya, Mile, future Buddha Figure: The future Buddha, shared by the early schools and the Mahāyāna. Kaniṣka's copper coins label a figure 'Maitreya Buddha', and in China the monk Budai was identified with him after his death. More in Writing It Down →
Mappō also final age of the dharma, mofa Idea: The 'final age of the dharma', widely reckoned in Japan to have begun in 1052, when the teaching survives but no one can realise it through traditional practice. Each Kamakura founder offered a different answer: rely on Amida's power, on the Lotus Sūtra, or deny that the age prevents awakening. More in Japan and the Kamakura Reformations →
Mathurā also Mathura, Kaṭrā stele Place: A city on the Yamunā and the other great early centre of Buddha images, working in the Indian tradition of yakṣa figures. The Kaṭrā stele (late first or early second century CE) and the Bala bodhisattva, carved here and set up at Sarnath in Kaniṣka's third year, come from its workshops. More in Writing It Down →
Milindapañha also Questions of Milinda, Menander, Nāgasena Text: 'Milinda's Questions', a dialogue in which the Indo-Greek king Menander I, who ruled in the mid-second century BCE, debates with the monk Nāgasena and becomes a follower. Its core probably dates from around the turn of the era. It includes the chariot simile for not-self. More in Writing It Down →

N

Nālandā also Nalanda, Nālandā Mahāvihāra Place: The great monastery near Rājgir in Bihar, founded in the fifth century CE under the Guptas, not in the Buddha's time. It was an extraordinary institution for some seven centuries, and the Tibetan monk Dharmasvāmin found it still partly functioning in 1234–36. More in Tantra and the Last Age of Indian Buddhism → Was Nālandā destroyed by Bakhtiyar Khilji?
Navayāna also Ambedkar, Ambedkarite Buddhism, Neo-Buddhism, 22 vows School: The 'new vehicle', B. R. Ambedkar's reinterpretation of Buddhism as a social programme. Ambedkar and hundreds of thousands of followers converted at Nagpur on 14 October 1956, taking twenty-two vows that included rejecting the Hindu gods. Most of India's Buddhists today belong to this movement, chiefly in Maharashtra. More in Colonial Encounter and Buddhist Modernism →
Nibbāna also nirvana, nirvāṇa Idea: Nibbāna (Sanskrit nirvāṇa), 'blowing out', is the ending of craving and of rebirth that the early texts set as the goal. Ashoka's inscriptions, addressed mostly to lay people, never mention it and speak instead of reaching heaven: from the start, Buddhism for householders was largely about merit and a good rebirth. More in How We Know →
Nichiren also Nichiren Buddhism, daimoku, Sōka Gakkai Person: Nichiren (1222–1282) taught that chanting the title of the Lotus Sūtra was enough and that the land would know peace only if it embraced the Lotus; his treatise Risshō ankoku ron (1260) was presented to the former regent Hōjō Tokiyori. Sōka Gakkai began in 1930 as a lay society within one of his lineages. More in Japan and the Kamakura Reformations →
Nikāyas also Nikaya, Dīgha Nikāya, Majjhima Nikāya, suttas Text: The Pali collections of discourses: the Dīgha (long), Majjhima (middle-length), Saṃyutta (connected) and Aṅguttara (numerical) Nikāyas, with the miscellaneous Khuddaka Nikāya. What they share with the Chinese Āgamas is the main evidence for what was taught before the schools divided. More in How We Know →

P

Padmasambhava also Guru Rinpoche Person: 'The Lotus-born', Guru Rinpoche, whom later biographies make the tantric master who subdued Tibet's gods so that Samye could be built. The most influential biography was revealed as a treasure text in the fourteenth century; the earliest evidence, in tenth-century Dunhuang manuscripts, is much more modest. More in Tibet: The Second Home →
Pagan also Bagan, Anawrahta, Thaton Place: The Burmese capital where King Anawrahta (r. 1044–77) made Pali Buddhism the royal religion; thousands of temples survive on its plain. The chronicles' story that he took it from the Mon kingdom of Thaton first appears centuries later, and Michael Aung-Thwin treats it as legend. More in Theravāda and Southeast Asia →
Pali Canon also Tipiṭaka, Tripiṭaka, three baskets Text: The Theravāda canon in Pali, in three baskets: discourses, monastic rules and Abhidhamma. It is one school's canon, not the original Buddhist scripture. Sri Lanka's chronicles say it was written down in the first century BCE; the oldest surviving Pali manuscript is from the eighth or ninth century. More in How We Know → When was the Pali Canon written down?
Piprahwa vase also Piprahwa relics, Piprahwa gems Evidence: A soapstone relic vase excavated in 1898 at Piprahwa near the Nepal border, inscribed in Brāhmī as a deposit of relics of the Buddha, of the Śākyas. The script is Ashokan or later, and the grammar can be read several ways. The share of its jewels kept by the excavator's family was offered at Sotheby's in 2025 and returned to India that July. More in The Buddha →
Platform Sūtra also Huineng, sixth patriarch Text: The sermon attributed to Huineng, presented as the sixth patriarch of Chan. Dunhuang copies of about 830–860 preserve an earlier version than the standard editions; the famous line 'originally there is not a single thing' appears only in the later texts. More in Into China → Where did Zen Buddhism come from?
Prajñāpāramitā also Perfection of Wisdom, Aṣṭasāhasrikā, Diamond Sūtra Text: The Perfection of Wisdom sūtras, the scriptural source of the teaching of emptiness. The Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 Lines is widely regarded as one of the oldest Mahāyāna sūtras: a Gāndhārī copy is radiocarbon dated to about 47–147 CE, and Lokakṣema translated it into Chinese in 179. More in The Mahāyāna Turn →
Protestant Buddhism also Buddhist revival, Ceylon revival Idea: Gananath Obeyesekere's name, given its classic statement with Richard Gombrich in 1988, for the urban, English-educated, lay revival of nineteenth-century Ceylon. It protested against Protestant missions and was Protestant in form, with lay associations, Sunday schools, a catechism and a flag. How Protestant it really was is debated. More in Colonial Encounter and Buddhist Modernism →
Pure Land also Sukhāvatī, Jōdo, Jingtu Idea: A world presided over by a Buddha where awakening is easy, not a heaven in the ordinary sense. In the Larger Sukhāvatīvyūha the monk Dharmākara vows that anyone who calls on him in faith will be reborn in his land, and becomes the Buddha Amitābha. Pure Land devotion became a mass movement in China and Japan. More in The Mahāyāna Turn →

R

Relics of the Buddha also śarīra, dhātu, eight shares Idea: The Mahāparinibbāna Sutta ends with a dispute over the Buddha's remains: seven claimants send envoys, the brahmin Doṇa averts a war by dividing the relics into eight shares, and ten stupas are built. Relic worship is as old as the canon's account of the death, and relics were political objects from the start. More in Ashoka and the Making of a Pan-Indian Religion →
Rummindei pillar also Lumbini pillar, Ashoka's pillar at Lumbini Evidence: Ashoka's pillar at Lumbini, rediscovered in 1896. Its inscription records that in his twentieth regnal year (c. 249 BCE) he came and worshipped 'because here the Buddha was born, the Sakyamuni', freed the village of the bali tax and made it liable to only an eighth share. More in The Buddha → Did the Buddha really exist?

S

Samye also bSam yas, Trisong Detsen, Samye debate, Kamalaśīla, Moheyan Place: Tibet's first monastery, consecrated about 779 under the emperor Trisong Detsen, where the first Tibetan monks were ordained under Śāntarakṣita. Tibetan histories place there the debate of c. 792–794 between the Indian Kamalaśīla and the Chinese Chan monk Moheyan over gradual and sudden awakening, which both sides later claimed to have won. More in Tibet: The Second Home →
Sanchi also Sāñcī, Great Stupa Place: A hill near Vidiśā in central India whose Great Stupa began as a Mauryan brick mound and was enlarged and cased in stone in the second century BCE. Relic caskets from its Stupa 2 name missionaries also known from the Sri Lankan chronicles. More in Ashoka and the Making of a Pan-Indian Religion →
Saṅgha also sangha, bhikkhu, order of monks and nuns, bhāṇaka, uposatha, rains retreat, vassa Idea: The saṅgha is the order of monks (bhikkhu) and nuns (bhikkhunī). After the Buddha's death it had no leader and no book: it held together through a set of shared rules, recited aloud every fortnight, and teachings kept in memory by groups of specialist reciters. More in The Early Saṅgha, the Councils and the First Split →
Sarnath also Isipatana, Deer Park Place: The Deer Park at Isipatana near Varanasi, where tradition places the Buddha's first teaching. Ashoka set up a pillar there carrying his edict against schism. More in The Buddha →
Sarvāstivāda also Sarvastivada, Mahāvibhāṣā, Vaibhāṣika School: 'The school that says everything exists': it held that dharmas exist in past, present and future, and that only their activity is momentary. Strong in Kashmir and Gandhāra, it produced the great commentary, the Mahāvibhāṣā. The Kaniṣka casket names Sarvāstivādin teachers as recipients of a royal gift. More in Writing It Down →
Secular mindfulness also mindfulness, sati, MBSR, Kabat-Zinn Idea: Mindfulness practice taught without Buddhist framing for medicine and everyday life, beginning with Jon Kabat-Zinn's clinic in Massachusetts in 1979. It draws largely on the lay meditation movements of colonial Burma, as well as on Zen and yoga. The Pali word sati first meant remembering, bearing in mind. More in Global and Contemporary Buddhism → Is mindfulness Buddhist?
Skilful means also upāya, one vehicle, ekayāna, burning house Idea: The Lotus Sūtra's claim that the Buddha taught different paths to different people as skilful means (upāya), but that in truth there is only one vehicle, the path to Buddhahood. Its parable of the burning house replaces three carts with one great carriage. More in The Mahāyāna Turn →
Śramaṇa also shramana, samaṇa, renunciant, Ājīvikas Idea: The śramaṇas, 'strivers', were the renunciant movements of the eastern Ganga plain: Jains, Ājīvikas, materialists and the Buddha's followers. They accepted karma and rebirth but rejected the Veda, sacrifice and brahmin authority. The Buddha was a śramaṇa, and both his followers and the brahmins understood him that way. More in The World the Buddha Entered → Was the Buddha a Hindu?
Stupa also stūpa, thūpa, relic mound, caitya Idea: A solid mound over relics, round in plan, which worshippers walk around clockwise. From Ashoka's time onward the stupa, not the monastery or the text, was the centre of Buddhist practice for most lay people. Stupas were rebuilt and enlarged over generations by many donors. More in Ashoka and the Making of a Pan-Indian Religion →
Śūnyatā also emptiness, shunyata, svabhāva Idea: Emptiness: nothing has svabhāva, independent self-existence, because everything exists only in dependence on causes, parts and the concepts used to pick it out. The Perfection of Wisdom sūtras teach it; Nāgārjuna argued it chapter by chapter and identified it with dependent origination. More in The Mahāyāna Turn →

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Tantra also Vajrayāna, esoteric Buddhism, tantric Buddhism, Mantrayāna Idea: Esoteric Buddhism, later called Vajrayāna, which took shape inside the great Indian monasteries between about 600 and 1050 CE and promised Buddhahood in this life through initiation, mantra, ritual and yoga. Its later scriptures used deliberately shocking imagery of sex, death and impurity, and some reuse Śaiva texts. More in Tantra and the Last Age of Indian Buddhism →
Theravāda also Theravada, teaching of the elders School: The 'teaching of the elders', the Buddhism of Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, descended from the Mahāvihāra monastery of Anurādhapura. The tradition is old, but 'Theravāda' as the name of one of three branches of Buddhism is a modern usage; earlier sources speak of a lineage. More in Theravāda and Southeast Asia → What is the difference between Theravāda and Mahāyāna?
Therīgāthā also Therigatha, verses of the nuns Text: 'Verses of the Senior Nuns', a collection of about 520 verses attributed to early Buddhist nuns and preserved in the Pali canon. The poems speak of release from marriage as well as from rebirth. The life stories attached to the named nuns come from a commentary compiled centuries later. More in The Early Saṅgha, the Councils and the First Split →
Tiantai also Tendai, Zhiyi, Saichō School: The school founded by Zhiyi (538–597) on Mount Tiantai, which organised the whole canon as stages of the Buddha's teaching culminating in the Lotus Sūtra. Saichō brought it to Japan as Tendai. More in Into China →
Tulku also sprul sku, reincarnate lama, Karmapa Idea: A reincarnate lama. The Kagyu lama Karma Pakshi (1204–1283), recognised as the rebirth of Düsum Khyenpa, began the first such line, the Karmapas. It let celibate orders pass on authority and property without heirs, and hundreds of lines followed. More in Tibet: The Second Home →

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Vikramaśīla also Vikramashila Place: A royal Pāla monastery on the Ganges in Bhagalpur district, founded about 800 and a centre of tantric study. It sent Atiśa to Tibet, and Dharmasvāmin reports it razed by the time of his visit in the 1230s. More in Tantra and the Last Age of Indian Buddhism →
Vinaya also pātimokkha, prātimokṣa, monastic rules Text: The Vinaya is the monastic code: the list of rules (pātimokkha) and the stories of how each rule came to be made. Every early school had its own. They agree on the serious offences and differ mainly in minor rules of etiquette, which is why schools could split over discipline without splitting over doctrine. More in How We Know →
Visuddhimagga also Path of Purification, Buddhaghosa Text: The 'Path of Purification', Buddhaghosa's fifth-century summary of the whole Theravāda path as ethics, concentration and wisdom. With his commentaries it became the lens through which Theravāda read its canon. More in Theravāda and Southeast Asia →

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Xuanzang also Hsuan-tsang, Record of the Western Regions Person: The Chinese pilgrim who travelled to India and back in 629–645, studied at Nālandā and wrote the Record of the Western Regions (646), a main source for Indian Buddhism and for sites such as Lumbini. On his return he translated 75 works in 1,335 fascicles. More in Into China →

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Yogācāra also mind-only, Vijñānavāda, Cittamātra, Asaṅga, Vasubandhu School: The school of Asaṅga and his brother Vasubandhu, which taught that what we experience is 'representation only' (vijñaptimātra): the world appears through consciousness. With Madhyamaka it is one of the two great Mahāyāna philosophies. More in The Mahāyāna Turn →