apostasy

The renunciation of religious or political beliefs or allegeance.

arahant

Buddhism

one who has achieved enlightenment

areligious

(English)

arhat

Buddhism

"`Noble one'.  In Buddhist tradition, especially Theravadin, the Arhat has completed the course of Buddhist practice, and has attained full liberation, or Nirvana.  As such the Arhat is no longer subject to rebirth or death.  The arhat has accomplished his goal of eliminating vexation.  The Mahayana traition regards the Arhat as a less than perfect ideal, in comparison to that of the Bodhisattva who vowes to postpone his own.  The Hinayaa "arhat", once attaining liberation, retires from the world; the corresponding term in Mayahana Buddhism, "bodhisattva", doesn't have the goal of eliminating vexation; rather, has the goal of cultivaging virtue and merit for the sake of helping other people attain enlightenment, and stays in the world until(?). liberation until all sentient beings are delivered."  (from Sheng1-yan2)

ashram

Hindu

Spiritual retreat site where people share spiritual insights, usually led by a guru.

Atman

Hindu

The God within.  [Chopra:]  The part of the soul which does not accompany us on any journey; pure spirit, made of the same essence as God; Atman cannot change in any way; it never reaches God because it never left in the first place; no matter how good or bad your life, your Atman remains constant; (no apparoximation to this word in the West)  "The essential and eternal core of the human person, which made him or her unique."  - Karen Armstrong

avatar

Avici karma

Buddhism

"Retribution for any of the five unpardonable sins by rebirth in the Avicihell, one of the eight hot hells, in which suffering continues without termination."

avidya

Hindu

Material knowledge (knowledge about things), which appears like real knowledge but which leaves the person ignorant.  "In everyday usage avidya is sometimes called both sin and ignorance, but these pejorative terms hide the essence of the truth, which is that all such obstacles exist in consciuosness and can be cleared away." - Deepak Chopra, How to Know God, p. 198.

bardo

Tibetan Buddhism

The period between one life and the next reincarnated life.

bhakti

Hindu

(dictionary definition is inadaquate)

bhumi

Buddhism

"The bhumis (earth, region, plane or level) are the stages of the Bodhisattva's career on his way to enlightenment.  The tenth, or highest, bhumi is called `Cloud of Dharma', where the Bodhisattva enters the stage of abhiseka (initiation) and experiences many great samadhis, and many other accomplishments."

bliss

Vedic.  Hindu?

Joy derived not from the senses.

bodhi

Buddhism

"Enlightenment; function of wisdom."

bodhisattva

Buddhism

a being whose essence is wisdom (bodhi) but who has renounced their personal liberation and Nirvana in order to help save all other sentient beings (def. per Mark Caltonhill).  "One being destined to enlightenment.;" (per editors of Jataka Tales)  "The role model of the Mahayana tradition.  The Bodhisattva is a being who vows to remain in the world life after life,   postponing his own full liberation until all other living beings are delivered."  (per Sheng-yan)    See "arhat" for comparison.

Brahman

Hindu

God

Buddha

Buddhism

"The Supremely Enlightened One."  (per Sheng-yan)

Buddha Dharma

Buddhism

"The truths and teaching of Buddhism; the Dharma astaught by the Buddha.

Buddhahood

Buddhism

Complete enlightenment  "Buddhahood is attaining the ultimate, whereas enlightenment is seeing Buddha nature without encompassing it fully.  You know the taste of the ocean but you have not yet become the ocean.".   (per Sheng-yen, in his The Sword of Wisdom)

Buddha-nature

Buddhism

"A term to describe the underlying nature which pervades everything sentient and non-sentient.  Actually, it is inexplicable, as it transcends all description anddualities."

canon

a collection of writings constituting sacred texts of the faith

Chan

Buddhism (Zen)

church

Christianity

Christian building of worship.

dao

Daoism

English "tao", "Taoism".  (Impossible to translate, but close to "the way".)

darshan

Hindu?

The force field of a saint or guru.

dharma

Buddhism

"`dharma' has two basic meanings.  With a capital `D", `Dharma' means the Buddhist `Law' or `Teaching'.  With a lower case `d', `dharma' simply refers to a thing or object, a physical or mental phenomenon."  (per Sheng-yen)

Dharma Body

Buddhism

"`Dharmakaya'.  One of the three bodies of the Buddha:  the body of ultimate truth."  (per Sheng-yen)

Dharma1

Buddhism

"Dharma is the truth realized by the Buddha, transmitted in the scriptures, and through a lineage of enlightened masters."  (per Sheng-yen)

dhyana

Buddhism

"A term designating certain states of meditative absorption cultivated by buddhist practitioners as a technique for attaining enlightenment."  (per Sheng-yen)

dogma

Inflexible group beliefs.

ecumenical

Relating to, involving, or promoting the unity of different Christian churches and groups.

ego

??

epiphany

Manifestation of a divine being.

fana

Sufi

The egoless state of becoming one with "ruh", the universal spirit.  Ecstatic self-annihilation.  Annihilation of ego.

God

godhood

Gotama Siddhartha

the name of the man who is regarded as the Buddha

guru

Vedic.  Hindu

henotheism

Worship of one God, while acknowleging the existence of other gods.

Hijrah

Koran?

the journey of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina to escape persecution; 622 CE, regarded as the beginning of the Muslim era (and Islam's calendar).

Hinayana

Buddhism

"The `lesser vehicle' of the sravakas (hearers of Buddha's teaching) and Arhats who strive mainly for their own personal liberation.  In contract, Mahayana, or the `great vehicle', is the broarder teaching of the Bodhisattva who, out of compassion, put his own salvation last and uses all available means to save sentient beings.  (Hinayana is sometimes used to refer to Theravada, the form of Buddhism practiced in Southeast Asian countries."  (per Sheng-yen)

Hindu

"3. a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into reality or the essential meaning of something, often initiated by some simple, commonplace occurrence."  (Websters)

hua-t'ou

Buddhism (Zen)

"(Japanese `wato'.)  Literally, the source of words (before they are uttered), a method used on the Ch'an school to arouse the doubt sentation.  The practitioner meditates on such baffling questions as:  `What is Wu?', `Where am I?', or `Who is reciting the Buddha's name?'  He does not rely on experience, logic, or reasoning.  Often, these phrases are taken from kung-ans, at other times, they are spontanesously generated by the practitioner. The term `hua-t'ou' is often used interchangably with `kung-an'.  (per Sheng-yen)

Islam

Jesus

jiva

Indian.  Hindu?

The individual soul making its long journey thru many lifetimes until it reaches full realization.  Jiva is involved in action, affected by our good and bad acts, rules our conscience, contains all seeds of karma.

kalpas

Buddhism

"Symbolically, it represents an unimaginably long period of time."  (per Sheng-yen)

karma

(Unlike sin, karma grips us even in the case of accidents and inadvertant mistakes - regardless of circumstances, an action is an action and has consequences.  - Deepak Chopra, How to Know God)  "Basically, the law of cause and effect to which all sentient beings, indeed, all things, are subject.  Also, the cumulative casual situation affecting one's destiny as a result of past acts, thoughts, emotions."  (per Sheng-yen)

khalwat

Malay

"close proximity"; the sin of unmarried couples smooching.

Koran

Islam holy book

mantra

Hindu?

Mayahana

Buddhism

"The `Great Vehicle' whose followers vow to atain Supreme Enlightenment for the sake of delivering all other sentient behings from suffering."  (per Sheng-yen)

meditate

mindful

Buddhism

Watching your own thinking.

monk

monolatry

Worship of one god among many

monotheism

worship of one god

moral

mosque

Islam

Muslem building of worship.

naturism

"Worship of nature in general, or of objects in nature such as trees and mountsins." - from MS Word 2007 dictionary

nibbana

Buddhist

"nirvana" in Sanskrit.  "God-realization."  "Release from karmic influences, the end of the dance of opposites."  [per Deepak Chopra]  "Total extinction of desire and suffering, the state of liberation through enlightenment."  (per Sheng-yen)      In Pali language, "extinction", "blowing out", the extinction of the self, which brings enlightenment and liberation from pain and suffering.  In Sanskrit, this becomes "nirvana".  - Karen Armstrong

nirmanakaya

Buddhism

[see `Transformation Body']

noumena

Zen Buddhism

principles

nun

paramitas

Buddhism

"`Perfections' or ways for `reaching the other shore'."  (per Sheng-yen)

polytheism

worship of many gods

prakriti

Vedic.  Hindu

"The outward manifestation of existence is called prakriti - the material nature of the universe - visible to the eyes, touchable with the hands, knowable through the sense organs; all that with which our organgs become conversant.  It can be said that the visible God is prakriti; but this is the expeience of those who know God.  They can affirm that prakriti is the body of God. But we know only the body, we do not know that is is the body of God.  Prakriti is the form of that hidden, invisible consciousness, it is the visible form of that. This fact is known only to those who know the invisible also.  Otherwise we know only this much - that the visible is all there is."  - Osho, Heartbeat of the Absolute:  Commentaries on the Ishavasya Upanishad, chapter 13

pratyekabuddha

Buddhism

"A self-enlightened being, one who has attained enlightenment by contemplating dependent origination."  (per Sheng-yen)

priest

prophet

"The words comes from the Greek "prophetes", one who speaks on behalf of the deity."  "A prophet is not a person who foretells the future."  - Karen Armstrong

rebirth

redemption

religion

Retribution Body

Buddhism

"(Sambhogakaya'.)  One of the three bodies of the Buddha:  reward or enjoyment body."  (per Sheng-yen)

sacred

saint

samadhi

Buddhism

"Like dhyana, samadhi also refers to states of meditative absorption, but is a broader and more generic term than dhyana.  Although numerous specific samadhis arementioned in Buddhist scriptures, the term `samadhi' itself is flexible and not as specific as dhyana."  (per Sheng-yen)  "If the mind stops temporarily, that is samadhi.  Samadhi, however, is not the "no mind" state of Zen.  When a person genuinely attains the no mind state, his or her mind stops moving without the possibility of new movement." (Sheng-yen)

samatha

Buddhism

calming the mind

sambhogakaya

Buddhism

[see `Retribution Body']

samsara

Buddhism

"The relentless cycle of birth and death and suffering in which ordinary, unenlightened sentient beings are deeply entangled."  (per Sheng-yen)

sangha

Buddhism

"Buddhist community."  (per Sheng-yen)

satsang

Hindu?

Gathering of guru and devotees.

satyagraha

Non-violent civil disobedience.

scientism

The belief that science alone can explain all phenomenons.

Sharia

strict Islamic law

Sheete

 Islam (Arabic)

One of Islam's two major denominations.  English "Shi'ite".

Siddhatta Gotama

the Buddha

sin

Knowingly committing evil. The deliberate choice of evil.

soul

The spiritual part/ of a person which survives bodily death.

Sunni

One of Islam's two major denominations.

sura

A chapter in the Koran.

sutra

Hindu, Buddhist

"A collection of Hindu aphorisms relating to some aspect of the conduct of life."  (Webster's)  Buddhism:  "Generally, scriptures.  Specifically, the recorded teachings of the Buddha.  The distrinctive mark of a Buddhist sutra is the opening line, `Thus have I heard.'  This indicates that what follows are the direct teachings of Buddha, as remembered andrecorded by his disciples."  (per Sheng-yen)

synagogue

Hebrew

Judaism building of worship.

syncretism

The combination of different systems of philosophical or religious belief or practice.

tat

Vedic?

All that is.

Tathagata

Buddhism

"Literally, `Thus-Come One', a title of the Buddha.

Tathagatagarbha

Buddhism

"Womb, or store of the Tathagata - the potentiality of buddhahood in each sentient being."  (per Sheng-yen)

temple

Three Jewels

Buddhism

"Collective term referring to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.  Buddha refers to the historical founder of Buddhism, Sakamuni.  Dharma is the truth realized by the Buddha, transmitted in the scriptures, and through a lineage of enlightened masters.  Sangha is the Buddhist community, orginally Skyamuni Buddha's immediate diciples; in a broader sense it includes all persons connected through believe in and practice of Buddhism.  `Taking refuge' in the Three jewels confirms one as a Buddhist practitioner. Faith in the Three jewels is the recogniition that Buddha, Dharma,and Sangha are all contained within all sentient beings."  (per Sheng-yen)

Transformation Body

Buddhism

"(`Nirmanakaya'.)  One of the three bodies of the Buddha:  the form that a Buddhamanifests tofacilitate the deliverance of sentient beings."  (per Sheng-yen)

ubuntu

vajra

Buddhism

"Diamond; indesctructable."  (per Sheng-yen)

vinaya

Buddhism

"The collection of prohibitions and ethical prescriptions, along with their explanations, that define the code of discipline for Buddhist monks and nuns."  (per Sheng-yen)

vipassana

Zen Buddhism

insight

yog

"The state of perfection called Self Realization, established in which one sees the evenness of his own tru nature manifest eveywhere, so that al contact and attachment with the sense of duality is finished." - Swami Shyam, in translation of Bhagavad Gita

yogi

People who has attained the state of Self-realization, God-realization, Samadhi.

Zen

Buddhism (Zen)

"The Japanese  transliteration of `Ch'an', which is the Sanskrit word `dhyana'.  Generally, the term refers to the cultivation or experience of meditative states as means for attaining enlightenment.  Specifically, the term refers to the school of chinese Buddhism known as Ch'an.  In this context Ch'an also refers to the direct experience of `projna', or insight.  Being within the Mahayana tradition, the Ch'an school, while emphasizing meditation, took the Bodhisattvaideal as the realization of Buddhist practice.  In Japan, the practice and school became known as Zen." (per Sheng-yan)