"Buddhism A to Z" (dictionary)

Prof. Ronald B. Epstein (Buddhist Text Translation Society's Buddhism A to Z)
(pfpjvalley)

Prof. Ron Epstein's collection of definitions of Mahayana Buddhist terms, released in book form by B.T.T.S., are now also available free online. Send corrections, including broken links, and suggestions for improvements to Prof. Epstein.*

While many words may sound familiar, having begun the adoption process into English, they are often the subject of some misunderstanding or Judeo-Christian assumptions.

• BUDDHISM A-Z (online.sfsu.edu)
  

Dharma, Sangha, Arhat, karma, Bodhisattva... are all technical Buddhist terms. While they may seem vaguely familiar to Western readers, what do they really mean in Buddhism?

What are the Four Noble Truths, the Five Aggregates (Skandhas), the Six Perfections (Paramitas), and the Eight Winds? Buddhism A-Z has the answers. This volume contains full definitions of hundreds of terms, names, lists, and concepts most frequently met with in the post-Pali Canon sutras, which Mahayana says represents the original to-be-inferred teachings (as best explained by Alan Watts in How to Understand Buddhism).

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

*EDITOR'S NOTE: I have made the following unfinished work available despite some misgivings. I have done so for two main reasons. (1) I think that much of the material may be of value, particularly to students and to others who are not familiar with basic [Mahayana] Buddhist teachings, and (2) it has been many years since I have had time to work on this project, so perhaps by making it known, others can consider helping to bring it to completion....

Sanskrit diacritical marks are still missing, as are many of the Chinese characters. For the characters that are present, a Chinese Internet viewer program is needed. (Otherwise the characters appear as unintelligible symbols.) - Ron Epstein

A Publication of the Buddhist Text Translation Society
© Copyright 1986, revised 1992, by Ron Epstein and the Buddhist Text Translation Society
Compiler and Editor: Ron Epstein

Reviewed by: Dharma Master Heng Shun et. al.
Proofreading by: Lin Chia-hui, Rita Lu, et. al.

A NEWLY REVISED PRINT EDITION IS NOW AVAILABLE:
Ronald B. Epstein, compiler. Buddhist Text Translation Society's Buddhism A to Z.
Burlingame, CA: Buddhist Text Translation Society, 2003.

Bhikkhu Bodhi: Master Jen Chun passes

Bhikkhu Bodhi (BAUS, New York, Bodhi Monastery, New Jersey

Taiwanese Mahayana Master Ven. Jen Chun, founder of Bodhi Monastery, and his American Theravada scholar-monk student Bhikkhu Bodhi (Brelief)

Ven. Jen Chun ("Shifu"), the founder and guiding teacher of BODHI MONASTERY, New Jersey, has passed away in Taiwan. Many have seen Shifu sitting in on the Sutra Study Class or at Saturday program lectures translated into English. His smiling face and jovial manner always provided a feeling of welcome to everyone who came to the monastery.

Shifu was born in Jiangsu Province in China in 1919 and entered monastic life as a novice at the age of seven. In 1949 he moved to Hong Kong, where he became a student of Ven. Yinshun (1906-2005), the foremost Chinese scholar-monk of modern times. He later moved to Taiwan with Master Yinshun and taught at Fuyan Buddhist Academy. He then moved to the U.S. in 1973.

• Bhikkhu Bodhi TV (Saturday lectures)

Shifu had been for long the most senior Chinese monk in the greater New York area. Moreover, internationally, he was one of the most respected monks among the Buddhist populations of Taiwan, China, and Southeast Asia. He was deeply learned in many Buddhist traditions as well as in classical Chinese literature. His learning showed in his splendid Dharma talks and in his Dharma poems that served as the basis for his talks. He was also a vigorous cultivator who spent many hours each day in sitting and walking meditation.

I myself am deeply grateful to Master Jen Chun for inviting me to come to Bodhi Monastery shortly after I returned to the U.S. in 2002. Ever since I met him he has been an inspiring and caring "good knowing adviser" (shan zhi shi).

Let us all spend a few minutes over the next few days dedicating merits to him and wishing him a pleasant passage to his next existence, where he can continue to pursue the path of Dharma.

The Two Buddhist Schools on Rules

Processon of monastics representing all traditions, Vesak 2009, Orange County (WQ)

There are two distinct Buddhist traditions, the older more "orthodox" Theravada and the newer, more "reformed" Mahayana. (Other traditions, like Zen and Vajrayana, are actually forms of Mahayana Buddhism). People rarely make the distinction because the separation is not absolute. Most of what is known about Buddhism is less to do with the historical Buddha and more to do with the Mahayana school and its teachings.

• The Bhikkhus' Rules: A Guide for Laypeople (Bhikkhu Ariyesako)
• Questions about meeting a Buddhist monk (Dhammasukha.org)

Buddhist monastics, known as the Sangha, are governed by 227 to 253 rules depending on the school or tradition for males (bhikkhus). There are between 290 and 354 rules, depending on the school or tradition, for females (bhikkhunis). These rules, contained in the Vinaya, are divided into several groups, each entailing a penalty for their breech, depending on its seriousness.

Four rules for males and the first eight for females, known as parajika or "rules of defeat," mean immediate expulsion from the Sangha. The four applying to both sexes are:

1. sexual intercourse
2. killing a human being
3. stealing to the extent that it entails a gaol sentence
4. claiming miraculous or supernormal powers

Nuns have additional rules related to various physical contacts with males with one relating to concealing from the Sangha the defeat of another. Before his passing, the Buddha instructed that permission was granted for the abandonment or adjustment of minor rules should prevailing conditions demand such a change. These rules apply to all Sangha members irrespective of their Buddhist tradition. The interpretation of the rules, however, differs between the Mahayana and Theravada traditions.

The Theravadins, especially those from Thailand, claim to observe these rules to the letter of the law. But in many cases the following is more in theory than in actual practice. The Mahayanists interpret the rule not to take food at an inappropriate time as not meaning fasting from noon to sunrise, like the Buddha specifies in the Vinaya, but to refrain from eating between mealtimes. The rule of fasting (from solids) from noon one day to sunrise the next might be inappropriate, from a health angle, for monastics living in cold climates such as China, Korea, and Japan.

When one examines why this rule was instituted initially, it is possible to reach the conclusion that it is currently redundant. It was the practice in the Buddha's time for mendicant ascetics to go to a village with bowls to collect alms. To avoid disturbing the villagers unnecessarily, the Buddha ordained that monastics only visit once a day, in the early morning. This would allow the villagers to be free to conduct their day to day affairs without being disturbed by ascetics requiring food. Today, however, people bring food to temples, monasteries, and nunneries or prepare it on the premises. So at least part of the original reason for the restriction may no longer apply. In any case, that is how the Mahayanists have chosen to alter the rule.

In Theravadin countries, the monastics still go on early morning alms rounds. This is, of course, more a matter of maintaining tradition than out of necessity. (It humbles and disciplines a person to recollect that s/he is dependent on the support of others -- and it is just this sort of asceticism that reform movement reject).

There is also a rule prohibiting the handling of "gold and silver," in other words, money. Mahayanists consider this rule a handicap, if it were it to be strictly observed in today's world. So they interpret it as avoiding the accumulation of riches, which leads to greed.

Theravadins split hairs on this rule in that, although most will not touch coins or cash, some might carry credit cards or check books, which they recognize as money. This skirts the letter of the rule but no way skirts the clear spirit of the rule. It is a wrongdoing to be confessed by conscientious ascetics. There is an alternative in place as laid down by the Buddha, and neither school need violate this precept: It is permissible to have money set aside for an individual monastic or collectively for those living together through a steward.

The steward is a responsible layperson (or a ten-precept observer) who handles money and requisites donated. Permissible items and needs, having been donated and deposited with a steward in a monk or nun's name, are then able to be utilized without violating the rule against handling money. More>>

Zen Comics

The Myth of "Hinayana"

By Kåre A. Lie (excerpt edited by WQ)

In the centuries surrounding the birth of Christ, there was a radical development going on in Buddhism. A new school was born, and its adherents called it Mahayana (the "Great Vehicle"). How this school differs from earlier schools may be found in any history of Buddhism. Here we will concentrate on one of the results of this schism: the term Hinayana (the "Inferior Vehicle").

Adherents of the older schools criticized the Mahayanists, particularly for creating new "sutras" [discourses], counterfeiting the word of the historical Buddha. Mahayanists, on the other hand, reacted to this critique by accusing their opponents of not understanding the teaching of the Buddha at all and for being narrow minded egoists.

The debate became heated, and accusations flew from both sides. Then one brilliant person on the Mahayana side of the debate created the pairing Mahayana/Hinayana. And it stuck. They called their opponents Hinayanists. The word worked excellently as an insult – with a simplicity parallelling "Mahayana" that any fool could grasp.

Hinayana (or more correctly hiinayaana) is a highly derogatory term. It does not simply mean "lesser" or "inferior" vehicle as one often sees stated. Whereas the second element – that is, the yaana – means vehicle, hiina very seldom has the simple meaning of "lesser" or "small."

.

Shakyamuni teaching his dimunitive first disciples:

Hinayana is the "basic level" of Buddhism according

to some Vajrayana teaching (e.g., Kagyu Samye Ling)

If that had been the case, the Pali (and Sanskrit) texts would have used it in other connections as the opposite of maha – big. But they do not. The opposite of maha is cula [pronounced, choola], the normal word for "small."

The term Hinayana is an echo of a debate long dead, or rather a debate wherein one party is dead and the other is shouting to the winds.

Who were the opponents who were labeled "Hinayana"? Was it the Theravadans? Probably not. At the birth of Mahayana, Theravada [the "Teaching of the Elders," those "elders" being the immediate disciples of the historical Buddha] had largely emigrated to Sri Lanka, and could therefore hardly be counted among the dominating schools on the Indian mainland – which is where the Mahayana/Hinayana debate took place.

Theravadans are only sporadically mentioned in Mahayana works. Karmasiddhiprakarana Vasubandhu respectfully calls them "the honorable Tamraparniyas." (Tamraparni was a name for Sri Lanka). He does not call them "Hinayanists."

The most influential of the schools at that time was the Sarvastivada. So it is most probable that they were the main targets of this epithet – but they were hardly the only target for Hinayana-invectives.

.

The Sarvastivada School, and the other early Buddhist sects that developed in India at that time, are long dead -- with the exception of the Theravada. But the debate and the arguments found their way into the Mahayana discourses. For instance, it is glaringly apparent in the anti-Hinayana propaganda of the Lotus Sutra – and echoes of it are found throughout the teachings of Mahayana and Vajrayana.

[NOTE: Vajrayana (the "Lightning Vehicle"] is a Mahayana-school dominant in Tibet, which regards itself as a further refinement of Mahayana teachings and thus superior to "ordinary" Mahayana].

Today confusion remains, because Mahayanists and Vajrayanists use the pejorative term "Hinayana" in three different ways:

1. In a historical sense, pre-Mahayanist schools are called Hinayana.
2. Modern Theravada is frequently confused with the old Hinayana.
3. It is used as an internal part of the Mahayana and Vajrayana teachings.

Let us have a closer look on these three usages.... Read full article

• Also available in Norwegian Portuguese Russian Spanish Swedish Italian
• More Dharma the Cat cartoons