Glossary of Buddhism

Some Buddhist terms and concepts lack direct translations into English that cover the breadth of the original term. Below are given a number of important Buddhist terms, short definitions, and the languages in which they appear. In this list, an attempt has been made to organize terms by their original form and give translations and synonyms in other languages along with the definition.

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Buddhism
Glossary Index Outline
History Timeline The Buddha Pre-sectarian Buddhism Councils Silk Road transmission of Buddhism Decline in the Indian subcontinent Later Buddhists Buddhist modernism
Dharma Concepts Four Noble Truths Noble Eightfold Path Dharma wheel Five Aggregates Impermanence Suffering Not-self Dependent Origination Middle Way Emptiness Morality Karma Rebirth Saṃsāra Cosmology
Buddhist texts Buddhavacana Early Texts Tripiṭaka Mahayana Sutras Pāli Canon Sanskrit literature Tibetan canon Chinese canon Post-canon
Practices Three Jewels Buddhist Paths to liberation Five precepts Perfections Meditation Philosophical reasoning Devotional practices Merit making Recollections Mindfulness Wisdom Sublime abidings Aids to Enlightenment Monasticism Lay life Buddhist chant Pilgrimage Vegetarianism
Nirvāṇa Awakening Four Stages Arhat Pratyekabuddha Bodhisattva Buddha
Traditions Theravāda Pāli Mahāyāna Hinayana Chinese Vajrayāna Tibetan Navayana Newar
Buddhism by country Bhutan Brazil Cambodia China India Indonesia Japan Korea Laos Malaysia Mongolia Myanmar Russia Singapore US Sri Lanka Taiwan Thailand Tibet Vietnam
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Languages and traditions dealt with here:

• English (Eng.)
• Pāli: Theravada Buddhism
• Sanskrit (or Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit): primarily Mahayana Buddhism
• Bengali (Bgd): Buddhism in Bangladesh
• Burmese (Bur): Buddhism in Myanmar
• Karen (Kar): Theravada Buddhism
• Khmer: Buddhism in Cambodia
• Mon (Mon): Theravada Buddhism
• Mongolian (Mn): Buddhism in Mongolia
• Shan (Shan): Theravada Buddhism
• Tibetan (Tib): Tibetan Buddhism
• Dzongkha ༼རྫོང་ཁ༽ (Dzo): Buddhism in Bhutan
• Thai: Buddhism in Thailand
• Lao: Buddhism in Laos
• CJKV languages
  • Chinese (Cn): Chinese Buddhism
  • Japanese (Jp): Buddhism in Japan
  • Korean (Ko): Korean Buddhism
  • Taiwanese Hokkien (Tw): Buddhism in Taiwan
  • Vietnamese (Vi): Buddhism in Vietnam (Mahayana and Theravada)
• Javanese (Jv): Buddhism in Indonesia