The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa Collected Works: Volume Two (102 page)

kalyanamitra
(Skt.): “Spiritual friend.” It is said that in the hinayana one views one’s teacher as an elder, in the mahayana as a spiritual friend, and in the vajrayana as a vajra master.

karma
(Skt.): “Action.” The entrapment of karma refers to the fact that our actions, since they are based on ego-clinging, entrap us in a never-ending chain of cause and effect from which it is more and more difficult to escape.

karuna
(Skt.). “Compassion.” A key principle of mahayana Buddhism, describing the motivation and action of a bodhisattva, i.e., the practice of the paramitas. Compassion is said to arise from experiencing the suffering of sentient beings, including ourselves.

kaya
(Skt.): Literally, “body.” In the context of the Kadam slogans, the four kayas relate to four aspects of perception. Dharmakaya is the sense of openness, nirmanakaya is clarity; sambhogakaya is the link or relationship between those two; and svabhavikakaya is the total experience.
See also
nirmanakaya, sambhogakaya, dharmakaya,
and
svabhavikakaya.

kleshas
(Skt.): “Poisonous emotions” or “defilements.” The three main poisonous emotions are passion (or desire, attachment), aggression (or anger), and ignorance (or delusion, aversion). The five poisons are these three plus pride and jealousy.

koan
(Jap.): In Zen Buddhism, a phrase from a sutra, a teaching on Zen realization, or an episode from the life of an ancient master that is given to students to ponder in their meditation and ultimately to “answer” during a student-teacher interview. A koan is not a riddle, in that there is no prescribed right answer. Rather, the student finds the answer, beyond logic, in the nonconceptual space of meditation practice.

lojong
(Tib.): “Mind training.” Specifically, the practice of cultivating bodhichitta outlined by the Kadam slogans.

lord of speech
: One of the three lords of materialism (lord of body, lord of speech, lord of mind), or ways in which we consume our physical, psychological, and spiritual experiences for the further bloating of ego’s realm.

mahakala
(Skt.): A wrathful dharmapala, or dharma protector. Iconographically, mahakalas are depicted as dark and wrathful deities.

mahamudra
(Skt.): “Great symbol or seal.” The central meditative transmission of the Kagyü lineage. The inherent clarity and wakefulness of mind, which is both vivid and empty.

mahayana
(Skt.): “Great vehicle.” The second of the three yanas of Tibetan Buddhism, the mahayana is also called the “open path” or the “path of the bodhisattva.” Going beyond the somewhat nihilistic emptiness of the hinayana schools and the preoccupation with individual liberation, the great vehicle presents vision based on shunyata (emptiness), compassion, and the acknowledgment of universal buddha nature. The mahayana path begins when one discovers bodhichitta in oneself and vows to develop it in order to benefit others. The path proceeds by cultivating absolute and relative bodhichitta. The result is full awakening. The ideal figure of the mahayana is the bodhisattva who is fully awake and who works for the benefit of all beings.

maitri
(Skt.): “Loving-kindness,” “friendliness.” In connection with compassion, or karuna, maitri refers to the process of making friends with oneself as the starting point for developing compassion for others.

maitri bhavana
(Skt.): The practice of maitri, or loving-kindness. Tonglen practice is also referred to as maitri practice, or maitri bhavana. This term also applies to a monthly practice for the sick conducted at Shambhala centers.

Maitri Space Awareness
: A practice developed in the early 1970s by Chögyam Trungpa, which incorporates postures, often done in specially constructed rooms, that accentuate different psychological approaches to perceiving and interacting with the world. Maitri Space Awareness uses the five buddha families, fundamental styles of relating to space, that in vajrayana Buddhism describe both the five wisdoms as well as the energy of confused emotions. Initially, based on discussions with Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, Chöyam Trungpa developed this approach to working with people with severe psychological problems. The postures were intended to be practiced in a therapeutic community designed for the treatment of mental illness. Maitri Space Awareness is now mainly used in workshops and in the contemplative psychology program at the Naropa University, as a means for anyone to explore different qualities, or styles, of fundamental confusion and sanity.

Manjushri
: The bodhisattva of knowledge and learning. Usually depicted with a book and the sword of prajna.

mara
(Skt.): Difficulties or temptations encountered by practitioners of meditation. When capitalized,
Mara
refers to the tempter who appeared in the form of seductive maidens and frightening warriors just prior to the enlightenment of the Buddha.

Marpa
(1012–1097
CE
): The third of the great Kagyü lineage holders and chief disciple of Naropa. Known as Marpa the Translator, Marpa was the first Tibetan in this lineage and introduced many important teachings from India into Tibet.

Milarepa
(1040–1123
CE
): The most famous of all Tibetan poets and quintessential wandering yogins, Milarepa, or the “cotton-clad Mila,” was Marpa’s chief student and the fourth major lineage holder of the Kagyü tradition.

nidana
(Skt.): One of the twelve “links” that form the chain of conditioned arising: (1) ignorance, (2) formations or impulses, (3) consciousness, (4) name and form, (5) the six realms of the senses, (6) contact, (7) sensation, (8) craving, (9) clinging, (10) becoming, (11) birth, and (12) old age and death.

nirmanakaya
(Skt.): “Emanation body,” “form-body,” or “body of manifestation.” Communication of awakened mind through form—specifically, through embodiment as a human being.
See also
kaya.

nyingje
(Tib.; Skt.
karuna
): “Compassion,” literally, “noble heart.”

Nyingma
(Tib.): One of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

pak-yang
(Tib.): Carefree, relaxed mind. Positive naiveté. Trust in basic goodness.

paramita
(Skt.): “Transcendent,” “perfection,” or “gone to the other shore.” The essential activities or practices of a bodhisattva, or enlightened being. The six paramitas are generosity, discipline, patience, exertion, meditation, and knowledge or discriminating awareness (prajna). The paramitas are called “transcendent actions” because they carry us across the river of confused existence. They are nondual, not based on ego-clinging.

prajna
(Skt.): “Transcendent knowledge” or “perfect knowledge,” the sixth paramita is called transcendental because it sees through the veils of dualistic confusion. Prajna is like the eyes, and the other five paramitas are like the limbs of bodhisattva activity. Prajna can also mean wisdom, understanding, or discrimination. At its most developed level, it means seeing things from a nondualistic point of view.

prajnaparamita
(Skt.): The paramita, or mahayana practice, of prajna, discriminating awareness. When capitalized,
Prajnaparamita
refers to a series of about forty mahayana sutras, gathered together under this name because they all deal with the realization of prajna.
See also
paramita
and
prajna.

pranidhana
(Skt.): “Aspiration” or “vision.”

Rudra
(Skt.): In the Hindu tradition, Rudra was an aspect of the deity Shiva. In the Buddhist vajrayana, he is the personification of the destructive principle of ultimate ego. Tradition tells us that he was a tantric disciple who perverted the teachings and eventually killed his guru. Rudrahood is the complete opposite of buddhahood.

sadhana
(Skt.): A ritual text, as well as the accompanying practice. Ranging from very simple to more elaborate versions, sadhanas engage the mind through meditation, the body through gestures (mudras), and the speech through mantra recitation.

samadhi
(Skt.): “Meditation” or “concentration.” A state of total meditation in which the mind rests without wavering and the content of the meditation and the meditator’s mind become one.

samaya
(Skt.): “Sacred word” or “vow.” The vajrayana principle of commitment, whereby the student is bound completely to the discipline and to the teacher and to his or her own sanity.

sambhogakaya
(Skt.): “Body of enjoyment” or energy. The environment of compassion and communication linking the dharmakaya and the nirmanakaya.
See also
kaya.

sampannakrama
(Skt.): One of the two stages of vajrayana sadhana practice. Having dissolved the visualization (utpattikrama), one rests effortlessly in sampannakrama, or the completion stage of formless meditation.

samsara
(Skt.): The vicious cycle of confused existence; the world of struggle and suffering that is based on ego-clinging, conflicting emotions, and habitual patterns. Its root cause is ignorance of our true nature, which is openness beyond the duality of self and other.

samskara
(Skt.): Generally translated as “formation” or sometimes, by Chögyam Trungpa, as “concept.” Samskara is the fourth skandha and the second nidana.
See also
skandha
and
nidana.

samyaksambuddha
(Skt.): Superlative for the Buddha.

sangha
(Skt.): The third of the three objects of refuge (buddha, dharma, sangha). In a narrow sense sangha refers to Buddhist monks and nuns; in the mahayana sense, sangha refers to the entire body of practitioners, both lay and monastic.

satipatthana
(Skt.): “Setting-up of mindfulness” the practice of recollection.

self-liberate
:
Self-liberated
means freed by itself, on the spot. In the slogan “Self-liberate even the antidote,” the sense is that emptiness is free from solidification.

shamatha
(Skt.): Mindfulness practice. A basic meditation practice common to most schools of Buddhism, the aim of which is to tame the mind.

shamatha-vipashyana
(Skt.): the combination of mindfulness and awareness practice, in which a sense of precision is combined with a more panoramic awareness. Considered to be a more advanced practice than either shamatha or vipashyana alone.

Shambhala
(Skt.): “The Shambhala teachings are founded on the premise that there is basic human wisdom that can help to solve the world’s problems. This wisdom does not belong to any one culture or religion, nor does it come only from the West or the East. Rather it is a tradition of human warriorship that has existed in many cultures throughout history.”—Chögyam Trungpa.

Shantideva
(c. 685–763
CE
): Author of the
Bodhicharyavatara
(
Entering the Path of Enlightenment
), a key text that describes the mahayana path of developing the six paramitas.

shravakayana
(Skt.): “Way of the hearers.” The focus of the shravakayana is on individual salvation through listening to the teachings and gaining insight into the four noble truths and the unreality of phenomena. The shravakayana can be equated with the hinayana.

shunyata
(Skt.): “Emptiness.” A completely open and unbounded clarity of mind characterized by groundlessness and freedom from all conceptual frameworks. It could be called “openness” since “emptiness” can convey the mistaken notion of a state of voidness or blankness. In fact, shunyata is inseparable from compassion and all other awakened qualities.

skandha
(Skt.): Group, aggregate, or heap. The five skandhas are the five aggregates or psychophysical factors that make up what we generally understand as personality or ego.

sugatagarbha
(Skt.): Indestructible basic wakefulness, buddha nature. Similar to tathagatagarbha; however sugatagarbha emphasizes the blissful aspect and the path aspect of buddha nature, while tathagatagarbha emphasizes the wisdom or “isness” aspect.
See also
tathagatagarbha.

Suvarnadvipa
(sage of Suvarnadvipa): Atisha’s teacher Dharmakirti lived on the island of Sumatra, in Sanskrit named Suvarnadvipa or the “golden island.” Hence he was called the sage of Suvarnadvipa. In Tibetan, Dharmakirti was referred to as Serlingpa, “the man from Ser ling” (Tib., “golden land”).

svabhavikakaya
(Skt.): “Body of self-nature.” Total panoramic experience, the totality of the kayas.
See also
kaya.

tantra
(Skt.): “Continuity.” A synonym for
vajrayana
, the third of the three main yanas of Tibetan Buddhism. Tantra means continuity and refers both to the root texts of the vajrayana and to the systems of meditation they describe.

Taranatha
: A noted Tibetan historian-scholar (16th-17th century) who wrote a history of Buddhism in India.

tathagata
(Skt.): Literally “thus gone,” an epithet for a fully realized buddha.

tathagatagarbha
(Skt.): Buddha nature. The enlightened basic nature of all beings.
Tathagata
means “thus come” or “thus gone” and is an epithet for the Buddha; and
garbha
means “womb,” or “essence.”

tendrel
(Tib.; Skt.
pratitya-samutpada
, conditioned arising): The coming together of factors to form a situation. The Tibetan word
tendrel
has an additional connotation of auspiciousness. From the view of sacred outlook, coincidence gives rise to fitting, proper situations.

tonglen
(Tib.): The practice of sending and taking, which is designed to reverse ego-clinging and cultivate bodhichitta.