LibGuides: Religion: Buddhism: People, Places, & Ideas

Religious People

Arhat
From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
In Buddhism, one who has gained insight into the true nature of existence, has achieved nirvana, and will not be reborn.
Asoka (BCE 272 - 232): Topic Page
Indian emperor of the Maurya dynasty; grandson of Chandragupta. One of the greatest rulers of ancient India, he brought nearly all India, together with Baluchistan and Afghanistan, under one sway for the first time in history.
Bodhisattva
From The Columbia Encyclopedia
in early Buddhism the term used to refer to the Buddha before he attained supreme enlightenment; more generally, any being destined for enlightenment or intent on enlightenment.
Buddha: Topic Page
Religion and philosophy founded in India c.525 B.C. by Siddhartha Gautama, called the Buddha. There are over 300 million Buddhists worldwide.
Dalai Lama: Topic Page
Dalai Lama is the title given to the one who enjoys the highest spiritual rank in Lamaism, a Tibetan form of Buddhism introduced into Tibet in the seventh century A.D.
Milarepa (1040 - 1123)
From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Saint and poet of Tibetan Buddhism. He was the second patriarch of the Kargyupa sect, the first being Milarepa's guru Marpa (1012–97), who studied under Naropa, the Bengali master of Tantra, at Nalanda.
Sangha: Topic Page
In Buddhism, the monastic orders, one of the Three Treasures, or Three Refuges, of Buddhism (the other two are Buddha and the teaching, or dharma).
Tenzin Gyatso (1935 - )
Feom Encyclopedia of American Religious History
Tenzin Gyatso was born into a peasant family in Taktser, Amdo province, and was designated the 14th incarnation of the Dalai Lama by the monks of Lhasa in 1937.

Sects & Divisions

Lamaism (Topic Page)
Buddhism of Tibet, Mongolia, and parts of Nepal and northern India; a form of Mahāyāna Buddhism.
Madhyamika
From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Philosophical school of Mahayana Buddhism, based on the teaching of "emptiness" (see sunyata) and named for its adherence to the "middle path" between the views of existence or eternalism and nonexistence or nihilism.
Mahāyāna
From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
One of the two major forms of Buddhism, found in China, Korea, Japan, and Tibet.
Nichiren Buddhism
From The Macmillan Encyclopedia
A popular Japanese Buddhist school named after its founder, a 13th-century monk and prophet.
Pure Land Buddhism: Topic Page
Or Amidism, devotional sect of Mahayana Buddhism in China and Japan, centering on worship of the Buddha Amitabha.
Shingon Buddhism
From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Japanese school of esoteric Buddhism, one of the main Buddhist traditions of Japan. It emphasizes the gradual path to enlightenment through meditation and reflection.
Tendai Buddhism
From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Japanese form of the Chinese T'ien T'ai school of Buddhism, introduced to Japan by Japanese monk Saichō (767-822), posthumously known as Dengyō Daishi, in 805. Tendai teaches of the Buddha nature within everyone which can be individually realized through ethical behaviour and discipline.
Theravada
From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
One of the two major forms of Buddhism, common in Southeast Asia (Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, and Myanmar).
Tibetan Buddhism: Topic Page
Form of Buddhism prevailing in the Tibet region of China, Bhutan, the state of Sikkim in India, Mongolia, and parts of Siberia and SW China.
Yogacara
From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Philosophical school of Mahayana Buddhism, also known as the Vijnanavada or Consciousness School.
Zen Buddhism: Topic Page
Buddhist sect of China and Japan. The name of the sect (Chin. Ch'an, Jap. Zen) derives from the Sanskrit dhyana [meditation].

Sacred Literature

Abhidharma
From The Columbia Encyclopedia
schools of Buddhist philosophy. Early Buddhism analyzed experience into 5 skandhas or aggregates, and alternatively into 18 dhatus or elements.
Sutra
From Encyclopedia of World Religions: Encyclopedia of Buddhism
a single verse or aphorism of Hindu or Buddhist teaching, or a collection of them. Written to be memorized, they provide a means of encoding and transmitting laws and rules of grammar, ritual, poetic meter, and philosophical disputation.
Sutra-pitaka
From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Second part of the Tripitaka (three baskets), a collections of Buddhist scriptures in the Pali tradition. The Sūtra-pitaka consists primarily of discourses by the Buddha, often in response to questions from specific individuals.
Tripitaka
From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
The canonical texts of Theravāda Buddhism, divided into three parts: the Vinaya-pitaka, containing the rules governing the monastic community.
Vinyasa-pitaka
From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encycloepdia
Buddhist scripture; the first and oldest part of the Tripitaka, the canon of the Buddha's teachings. The Vinaya-pitaka covers the rules that should govern monks and nuns in the running of monasteries.

Significant Places

India: Topic Page
Country in southern Asia, bounded to the north by China, Nepal, and Bhutan; east by Myanmar and Bangladesh; northwest by Pakistan and Afghanistan; and southeast, south, and southwest by the Indian Ocean.
Stupa: Topic Page
Buddhist monument in tumulus, or mound, form, often containing relics. The words tope and dagoba are synonymous, though the latter properly refers only to a Sinhalese Buddhist stupa.
Tibet: Topic Page
Tibetan Bodyul, Mandarin Xizang, autonomous region (1994 est. pop. 2,300,000), c.471,700 sq mi (1,221,700 sq km), SW China.

Practices & Beliefs

Anatta
From The Dictionary of World Philosophy
Pali term meaning the same as anātman (from the Sanskrit an, i.e. “not”, and ātman, i.e. “soul”). In Buddhism, it is sometimes combined with the term vāda (theory), to produce anattā-vāda, the theory of no-soul or non-I or of anātman, attributed to the Buddha (sixth century BCE).
Buddhist ethics: Topic Page
Questions of right and wrong considered according to Buddhism. Buddhist beliefs are governed by the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, and the Five Moral Precepts.
Dharma
From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
In Buddhism, teaching and scriptures of the Buddha, whose words and principles lead to enlightenment.
Dukkha
From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Buddhist concept of the suffering that arises from a person's clinging desire (Pali tanha, Sanskrit samudaya or trishna) to that which is inevitably impermanent, changing, and perishable.
The Eight-Fold Path
From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
In Buddhism, the way to end attachment to desire (nirodha) can be found in the fourth of the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism: the path to the cessation of suffering. This is achieved by following the Eightfold Path.
The Four Noble Truths
From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
The Buddha was born a prince, Siddartha Gautama. He lived in luxury and was very wealthy. During his search for enlightenment, he was unable to find answers to the meaning of life when he lived a life of luxury as a prince. Neither could he find answers when he lived the life of extreme self-discipline as an ascetic (a wandering holy man) and starved himself.
Kasone
From Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations of the World Dictionary
The most important of the 12 Burmese festivals of the months, Kasone Full Moon Day—sometimes known as Buddha Day—celebrates the birth and the enlightenment of the Buddha at the foot of the banyan tree.
Mandala
From The Columbia Encyclopedia
A concentric diagram having spiritual and ritual significance in Hindu and Buddhist Tantrism. The mandala may have derived from the circular stupa and the ritual of walking around the stupa in a circle.
Meditation: Topic Page
Act of spiritual contemplation, practised by members of many religions or as a secular exercise.
Nirvana
From The Columbia Encyclopedia
In Buddhism, Jainism, and Hinduism, a state of supreme liberation and bliss, contrasted to samsara or bondage in the repeating cycle of death and rebirth.
Poson
From Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations of the World Dictionary
This festival, also called Dhamma Vijaya and Full Moon Day, celebrates the bringing of Buddhism to Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon). It is second in importance only to Vesak.
Reincarnation: Topic Page
Belief that after death the human soul or the spirit of a plant or animal may live again.
Sunyata
From The Columbia Encyclopedia
One of the main tenets of Mahayana Buddhism, first presented by the Perfection of Wisdom (Prajna-paramita) scriptures (1st cent. B.C. on) and later systematized by the Madhyamika school. Early Buddhist schools of Abhidharma, or scholastic metaphysics, analyzed reality into ultimate entities, or dharmas, arising and ceasing in irreducible moments in time.
Tantra: Topic Page
In both Hinduism and Buddhism, esoteric tradition of ritual and yoga known for elaborate use of mantra, or symbolic speech, and mandala, or symbolic diagrams.
Vesak
From Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations of the World Dictionary
This is the holiest of Buddhist holy days, celebrating the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and death, or attaining of Nirvana. While these anniversaries are observed in all Buddhist countries, they are not always celebrated on the same day.