Key Buddhist Terms

Mental factors such as desire, anger, and ignorance that disturb the mind and cause suffering.

The affliction of hostility toward beings or situations, identified as the most destructive of all mental poisons.

The wish to attain buddhahood for the benefit of all beings - like wanting to go somewhere.

The mental affliction of clinging to pleasant objects, experiences, or states - one of the three root poisons.

The mocking nickname given to Shantideva at Nalanda, a contraction of the words for 'eat, sleep, defecate.'

The awakening mind - the altruistic aspiration to attain complete buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings.

A being who has generated bodhicitta and dedicates their practice to attaining buddhahood for the sake of all beings.

The formal commitment to attain buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings and to practice the six perfections.

The Way of the Bodhisattva - Shantideva's masterwork on the bodhisattva path, composed in the 8th century at Nalanda.

Complete awakening - the state of having fully purified all obscurations and perfected all qualities for the benefit of beings.

The 7th-century Indian master whose Prasangika-Madhyamaka interpretation of Nagarjuna became the dominant view in Tibetan Buddhism.

The Mind-Only school of Buddhist philosophy, which holds that all phenomena are manifestations of mind rather than external realities.

The wish that all beings be free from suffering and its causes - one of the two wings of the bodhisattva path alongside wisdom.

The practice of acknowledging and purifying negative actions through the four powers.

The careful, vigilant attitude that protects the mind from afflictions and guards bodhicitta.

The practice of offering all merit and positive energy for the awakening of all sentient beings.

The principle that all phenomena arise in dependence on causes and conditions, never independently or from a single cause.

The Buddhist teaching - the truth of how things are and the path of practice that leads to liberation.

The ultimate nature of all phenomena - the absence of inherent, independent existence.

Actually entering the path of the six perfections - like setting out on the journey.

The contemplation that recognizes all beings as equal in their wish for happiness and freedom from suffering.

The perfection of moral conduct - refraining from harm, gathering virtue, and working for the welfare of beings.

The radical practice of reversing the habitual prioritization of self over others.

The four forces used in purification: regret, reliance, antidote, and resolve not to repeat.

The perfection of giving - material goods, protection from fear, and the Dharma itself.

The fundamental misperception of reality - grasping at a truly existing self where none exists.

The truth that all conditioned phenomena are transient and subject to change, decay, and dissolution.

The falsely imputed quality of existing independently, from one's own side, without depending on causes, conditions, or mental designation.

Enthusiastic, delighted engagement with the work of awakening - energy that finds joy in virtue.

The principle of cause and effect applied to actions - that intentional actions produce corresponding results.

The Middle Way philosophical school that establishes the emptiness of all phenomena while avoiding the extremes of eternalism and nihilism.

The Great Vehicle - the Buddhist path that emphasizes attaining full buddhahood for the benefit of all beings through the practice of the six perfections.

The bodhisattva of wisdom, invoked by Shantideva in the dedication chapter as a model of penetrating insight.

The perfection of mental stability that enables the mind to rest one-pointedly on its object.

Positive energy or virtue accumulated through beneficial actions of body, speech, and mind.

The mental factor that holds the Dharma in mind, preventing forgetfulness and enabling sustained attention to virtue.

The 2nd-century Indian master who founded the Madhyamaka school and established the philosophical framework that Shantideva follows.

The great Buddhist monastic university in ancient India where Shantideva lived and composed the Bodhisattvacharyavatara.

The practice of presenting gifts - both actual and imagined - to the buddhas and bodhisattvas as a means of accumulating merit.

The perfection of forbearance - the capacity to remain undisturbed by harm, hardship, and profound truths.

The great 19th-century Nyingma master (1808-1887) who taught the Bodhisattvacharyavatara more than a hundred times throughout his life.

An alchemical metaphor for bodhicitta - the legendary substance that transforms base metal into gold, as bodhicitta transforms the ordinary mind.

A human life endowed with the freedoms and advantages necessary for practicing the Dharma, considered extraordinarily rare.

The process of cleansing negative karma and obscurations through practices such as confession, prostration, and mantra recitation.

The practice of delighting in others' virtue and good fortune - a powerful method for accumulating merit without effort.

The determination to be free from samsara, arising from clear seeing of its unsatisfactory nature.

The bodhisattva of infinite aspirations and activity, invoked by Shantideva as a model of boundless compassionate action.

The cycle of existence driven by ignorance and karma, characterized by suffering and repeated birth and death.

The habitual prioritization of one's own happiness and well-being over that of others, identified as the root of all suffering.

The innate tendency to perceive a solid, independent, inherently existing self where none actually exists.

The sevenfold practice of prostration, offering, confession, rejoicing, requesting teachings, asking teachers to remain, and dedication.

Calm abiding meditation - the practice of stabilizing the mind on a single object to develop deep concentration.

The 8th-century Indian Buddhist master who composed the Bodhisattvacharyavatara at Nalanda University.

The six transcendent practices of generosity, ethical discipline, patience, joyous effort, concentration, and wisdom.

Physical and mental withdrawal from worldly distractions, considered essential preparation for meditative concentration.

The Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha - the three objects of refuge for Buddhist practitioners.

Desire, hatred, and ignorance - the three root afflictions that drive cyclic existence.

Comfort-seeking, busyness with trivialities, and self-deprecating discouragement - the three obstacles to joyous effort.

The meditation of giving and taking - breathing in others' suffering and breathing out one's own happiness.

The conventional truth of how things appear and the ultimate truth of how things actually exist (empty of inherent existence).

The faculty of awareness that monitors the mind's activity, detecting afflictions as they arise.

Insight meditation - the analytical investigation that realizes the empty nature of phenomena.

The perfection of insight that directly realizes the empty nature of all phenomena, cutting the root of samsara.