Land of Beautiful Vision

Glossary

Glossary Note: All non-English terms listed here are Sanskrit, unless otherwise specified. When listing both Pāli and Sanskrit terms, the Pāli term comes first. Abhidhamma (Pāli): the third section of the Tipiṭaka, a philosophical treatise on states of mind. Akṣobhya: one of the five dhyāni buddhas. Akshobhya (Warren Atkins, ordained April 1969): established the first FWBO group to meet in New Zealand; no longer active in the Western Buddhist Order. Amitābha: a bodhisattva associated with the color red; also a dhyāni buddha. Amoghasiddhi: a bodhisattva and dhyāni buddha. Anagarika: lit. ‘‘homeless one’’; one who follows a celibate lifestyle devoted to the practice of the Dharma (in FWBO usage ‘‘Anagarika’’ is a title substituted for Dharmachari/ni when an Order member takes the additional vows). The Sanskrit forms are anagārika (masculine) and anagārikā (feminine). ānāpāna sati (Pāli): mindfulness of breathing (meditation practice). Aniketa (formerly Barbara Gill, 1927–2002): Order member and Anagarika. Ordained 1979; took Anagarika ceremony in 1987. Aotearoa (Māori): Land of the Long White Cloud (New Zealand). Attwood, Michael (b. 1966, ordained in 2005 as Jayarava): a mitra during the late 1990s. Avalokiteśvara: the bodhisattva of compassion. Bhante (Pāli): FWBO members use this to refer to Sangharakshita, meaning ‘‘teacher.’’ bhūta: variously translated as ghost, goblin, or ‘‘element’’ in the sense of the ‘‘five elements.’’ bodhi: enlightenment, used in reference to the ‘‘awakened’’ state this entails. Bodhicaryāvatāra: a Mahāyāna text describing the bodhisattva ideal, attributed to Śāntideva. bodhisattva: a buddha who has vowed to be reborn many times to help all beings attain enlightenment; sometimes, an emanation or deity manifesting a perfected archetypal quality, such as wisdom or compassion. buddha: (i) the Buddha is the title given to the man who attained enlightenment and then taught other people to do so, and it is often translated as ‘‘awakened one.’’ The Buddha is the first of the three jewels (see also dharma and sangha); (ii) a buddha is an awakened or enlightened being; (iii) see dhyāni buddha/jina. Buddhadasa (b. 1943, ordained 1972): a senior Order member who was based at Sudarshanaloka for some years. Not to be confused with the Thai monk of the same name. 178 • Glossary Buddhism: a broad term referring to the religion characterized by ‘‘devotion to ‘the Buddha’’’ (Harvey 1990, 1), practice of the Dharma, and participation in sangha. Buddhist: in the FWBO definition, anyone who goes for refuge to the three jewels. Dalit: term used for the ex-untouchables of India. dāna: generosity; donation (see also koha) Denis: FWBO member from Wellington; involved with Sudarshanaloka until his death in 1995. Dhardo Rimpoche (1917–1990): Tibetan lama of the Gelugpa lineage who lived in Kalimpong after China’s invasion of Tibet. Dhardo was born in 1917, and after a monastic and tantric education in Tibet became abbot of a Tibetan monastery at Bodhgaya in India. He moved in 1954 to Kalimpong, near the India-Tibet border, where he founded a school for Tibetan refugee children, which he named the IndoTibetan Buddhist Cultural Institute (ITBCI). In the 1950s he imparted teachings to Sangharakshita, and several of Sangharakshita’s disciples met Dhardo. Portions of Dhardo’s cremation ashes have been interred in several FWBO stūpas, and the FWBO maintains contact with the ITBCI, assisting with financial support. Dharma: the teachings of the Buddha that help one to reach enlightenment; also the ultimate truth, as conveyed in the teachings of the Buddha. The second of the three jewels (see also Buddha and sangha). Dharma Gaia Centre for Mindful Living: a Buddhist center on the Coromandel Peninsula, associated with the Tiep Hien/Order of Interbeing established in 1964 by Vietnamese Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh. Dharmachari, Dharmacharini: the FWBO translates this word as ‘‘dharma-farer’’ and uses the word to refer to Order members. The masculine form is a gloss of the Sanskrit word dharmacārin; the feminine form with diacritics is dharmacāriṇī. dhyāni buddhas: the five wisdom or meditation buddhas of Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna cosmology that FWBO members drew upon for the stūpa project. Also known as jinas. enlightenment (cf. buddha; bodhi; nirvāṇa): the ultimate in spiritual awakening, resulting in the complete cessation of all suffering through spiritual realizations. Sangharakshita (1990, 209) describes it as a state of pure, clear, even radiant awareness, transcending subject/object duality. He adds that it entails ‘‘[a]wareness of...