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| Explanations of some Buddhist terms. | |
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| Term | Definition | |
| Calm abiding | (skt.: shamatha; tib.: shi ne) Also translated as mental quietness. It is a stilled and peaceful state of mind, without any obstacles to concentration and it is settled single pointedly on an object for as long as we wish. In addition, it has a further mental factor accompanying it: a sense of physical and mental fitness (tib.: shin jang; pliability, flexibility), which is both exhilarating and blissful, but in a nondisturbing way. As a side product, shamatha brings extrasensory awareness, such as the ability to see and hear things at a great distance and to be aware of others thoughts. In Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment (Lam Dron), the late tenth-century Indian master Atisha emphasizes the importance of gaining these abilities to be better able to help others. | |
| Clear light | (tib.: รถ-sel, skt.: prabhasvara) Clear light is the most subtle nature of mind, free of all obscurations. It continues with no beginning and no end, even during death and even into Buddhahood. It is described as equal to Buddha Nature. Haribhadra explains: The nature, or essence, of mind, being unoriginated, is clear light; for the darkness of all conceptions of being is destroyed. | |
| Cold hells | (tib.: drang nyel wa) In these hells there are snow covered mountains, no light from the sun, moon and fires. It is so dark you can not even see the movements of your arms. The ground is field of ice; blizzard rages and cold wind blows. There is nothing to keep you warm, no fire, no sun, no clothes. Also many flies with poisonoous beaks gather around the hell beings bodies and attack them.There are eight types of these hells: 1. Hell of Blisters: you develop blisters on the body. 2. Hell of Burst Blisters: here blisters burst, dripping blodd and lymph. 3. Brrr Hell: you can not move and all you can ever say is Brrr. 4. Here you can not even say Brrr but only a faint sound Hue comes from the back of your throat. 5. Here you can not even make the sound Hue. 6. Here it is even colder and your body is stiff as a corpse, turns blue in color and cracks like a blue lotus. 7. Here it is even colder and your body cracks like a red lotus. 8. Here your flesh developes a hundred or a thousand times more lotus like cracks. Jataka tales mentions causes for being reborn in these hells: Holders of nihilistic views Will, in all their future lives, Dwell in these places Of darkness and cold winds. They will contract diseases That rot their very bones; What good then lies In my dabbling in such views? | |
| Compassion | (skt.: karuna; tib.: nying je) Je Tsongkhapa described compassion in his Lam Rim Chen Mo as: compassion is the wish to remove suffering. | |
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