Glossary for Buddhist Sutras Project

In "The Eightfold Awakening"

     Asavas - (see if you can figure out definition for this given its context)

     Skandhas - (see if you can figure out in context what this means)

     Dharmakaya  - Dharmakaya is to be surrounded by, enclosed within Nirvana, the realization of ultimate reality. 

     Bodhisattva - (look this term up)

In "Emptiness" (Lalitavistara Sutra XIII, 175 - 177)

     Sunyata - The Void, nothingness, emptiness, also ultimate reality

In "The World As Illusion" (Rajaparikatha-ratnamala 101 - 115)

In "Nirvana" (Lankavatara Sutra XIII)

     Alayavijnana - means ones complete potential for consciousness or awareness of being (and non-being)

     Atman - (look this term up or see if you can figure out what it means in a Buddhist context; it may not be the same as the Hindu context.)

     Tathata - the real essence or ultimate nature of something

     Samadhis - supreme self-control; the highest state of yoga; meditation which leads to religious ecstasy

     Prajnaparamita - "paramita" - virtue; "prajna" - wisdom; in this context it means the value, goodness and rightness (virtue) or being wise.

     Paranirvana - the highest state of Nirvana, one which has no residual effects (no body, no Bodhisattva, no remainder of existence)

     Nirvana - (write out your definition here )

     Rupa - the body  ("Arupa" - bodiless)

     Samsara - the condition of birth and death; illusion; the stage of "becoming" as opposed to the Nirvana stage of "being"

In "Looking Without Words" (Lankavatara Sutra XLII)

     Tathagata - having the nature of a Buddha; a person who has followed in the steps of their predecessors towards enlightenment

     Mahasattva - any great or courageous being

     Arhat - an emancipated being; one who has achieved Nirvana

     Samadhis - supreme self-control; the highest state of yoga; meditation which leads to religious ecstasy