GLOSSARY OF BROAD SUBJECTS
BROAD SUBJECT	SUMMARY
Abhidharma	The third division of the Tipitaka or Pali Canon that provides a detailed analysis on the nature of mind and matter.
Biography/Autobiography
Bodhicitta	In Mahayana Buddhism, a Sanskrit term describing the mind aimed at awakening, with wisdom and compassion, for the benefit of all sentient beings. The defining quality of the Mahayana boddhisattva; giving rise to bodhicitta is what makes a boddhisattva a boddhisattva.
Bodhisattva	In Mahayana Buddhism, one who has generated boddhicitta in order to attain Buddhahood or enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings.  Also described as one who compassionately refrains from entering nirvana in order to benefit others.
Buddha	Siddartha Gautama, also known as Gautama Buddha and Shakyamuni, a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 5th or 6th century BCE and who founded Buddhism.
Buddhism - History
Buddhism and Science
Buddhist Philosophy	The ancient Indian philosophical system that developed within the religio-philosophical tradition of Buddhism and developed among the subsequent and various schools of Buddhism in ancient India following the paranirvana (nirvana after death) of Gautama Buddha (c. 5th century BCE).
Childrens'
Comparative Religion
Compassion
Death and Dying/Rebirth/Reincarnation
Deities	In Buddhism, a wide range of divine beings that are venerated in various ritual and popular contexts.  They may include enlightened Buddhas to regional spirit beings and devas adopted by Buddhists.
Dhammapada	A Pali term for one of the most widely  read and best known Buddhist scriptures comprising a collection of sayings of the Buddha in verse form.
Dictionary/Phrase book
Dzog-chen	Developed in the Tibetan Empire period during the 9th-11th centuries, it continues to be practiced today both in Tibet and around the world.  A central teaching of the Yundrung Bon tradition and Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism it is a very advanced system of meditation on the deepest, subtlest, foundational levels of mind.
Engaged Buddhism	Politics and activism within a Buddhist context.
Fiction
Folklore/Myth/Legend
Four Noble Truths	The foundational tenets of Buddhism and understood as being the realisation which led to the enlightenment of the Buddha.  They are: Life is suffering; The cause of suffering is craving; The end of suffering comes with an end to craving; There is a path which leads one away from  craving and suffering.
Graded Path / Lam-rim	A Tibetan Buddhist textual form for presenting the stages on the complete path to enlightenment as taught by Buddha.  There are many versions, but all versions of the lam-rim are elaborations of Atisa's step-by-step approach in his 11th century root text A Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment.
Health and Healing
International Aid
Karma	A concept of action, work or deed, and its effects or consequences.  In the Buddhist context, the totality of a person's intent, actions, and conduct during successive incarnations, regarded as causally influencing his or her destiny.
Mahamudra	A body of teachings found in the Kagyu, Sakya, and Gelug traditions of  Tibetan Buddhism which includes  methods for truly understanding the very nature of our own minds, leading us to enlightenment.  Includes an advanced and sophisticated form of meditation that focuses on the mind and its intimate relationship with the world of conventional appearances and with voidness (emptiness).
Mahayana Buddhism	The second of the two major traditions of Buddhism, first developed in ancient India.  The spiritual model of Mahayana is the boddhisattva, motivated by boddhicitta - relieving the suffering of all sentient beings.  Compassion being very important in the tradition, bodhisattvas - foregoing nirvana - choose to stay in the cycle of samsara (rebirth) out of compassion for others.  Practiced in China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Korea, Tibet, Mongolia, and Japan it includes a vast array of meditation practices.  Well-known in its Chinese and Japanese forms, for example Zen and Pure Land Buddhism.
Mahayana Texts
Mantra/Chant/Prayer/Mudra	Mantra: sacred syllables and verses.  Mudra: sacred hand gestures.
Meditation
Monastic life
Other Religion/Philosophies
Pali Texts	Texts generally comprising the Tipitaka: three collections of texts including Suttas (discourses or oral teachings attributed  to the Buddha and a few of his disciples); Vinaya (rules for the monastic order); and Abhidhamma (scholarly commentary and analysis on the nature of mind and matter).  Together they form the Pali Canon that comprise the doctrinal foundation of Theravada Buddhism. Other texts include commentaries and summaries by various scholars.
Parenting
Poetry
Psychology/Psychotherapy	Psychology: the study the workings of the mind.  Psychotherapy: the discipline of methods to help a person change behaviour, increase happiness and overcome problems.
Pure Land	A broad branch of Mahayana Buddhism - practiced today mostly in China,  Japan and Korea.
Quotations
Sadhanas	Defined as a spiritual practice or discipline that is followed  in order to achieve various spiritual or ritual objectives such as attaining detachment from worldly things.  It can also refer to a liturgical manual of instructions to carry out a certain practice.
Spirituality - General
Theravada Buddhism	The oldest existing form of Buddhism as taught by the Buddha and one of the two major traditions.  The key text is the Pali Canon.  Theravada Buddhists strive to be arhats - people who have gained true insight into the nature of reality, following the Noble Eightfold Path to enlightenment leading to nirvana and freedom from the cycle of samsara (rebirth).  Essentially a monastic tradition, Theravada is practiced mostly in Sri Lanka, parts of Southeast Asia, including Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia. It tends to be conservative in matters of doctrine and monastic discipline, and includes the monastic  'forest traditions' of Sri Lanka and Thailand.
Tibet
Tibetan Art
Tibetan Buddhism	Consists of four main schools : Nyingma (the oldest); Sakya; Kagyu (whose origins are the teachers Tilopa, Naropa, Marpa and Milarepa); and Gelug (the newest and monastic sect whose leader is the Dalai Lama).
Travel
Vajrayana Buddhism / Tantra	A branch of Mahayana Buddhism that draws upon esoteric Indian texts (tantras).  Now the predominant form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and to some extent in East Asia. The canon includes Kangyur (sutras and tantras), and Tengyur (commentaries).  It also includes deity yoga and embraces the bodhisattva ideal. Vajrayana considers itself the fastest way to enlightenment.
Vipassana	The word Vipassana means seeing things as they really are.  Often referred to as insight meditation, it is a branch of modern Burmese Theravada Buddhism that gained widespread popularity in the 20th century in traditional Theravada countries through the efforts of  Burmese teacher Mahasi Syadaw.  Westerners  learned Vipassana meditation techniques from Sayadaw, S.N. Goenka and other Burmese teachers.  According to S.N. Goenka, Vipassana techniques are essentially non-sectarian and have universal application.  He went on to inspire meditation centres worldwide that offer 10-day retreats in Vipassana practice.  The American Vipassana Movement includes contemporary Buddhist teachers such as Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein and Sharon Salzburg.
Western Buddhism	Generally, titles written for a Western audience that may or may not lean heavily on the sacred texts but communicate the concepts in a way that Westerners are more likely to understand.  They may be more secular, may be simple and uncluttered outlining basic practices that a newcomer is likely to embrace.  Many authors in this category were trained in traditional forms of Buddhism, but now teach in the West.
Wisdom	Encompasses some of the key foundational aspects of Buddhist philosophy including Emptiness, Dependant Arising, and the Middle Way.
Women
Zen Buddhism / Ch'an	Zen is the Japanese name for a school of Mahayana Buddhism and aspects of Taoism that emerged in China about 15 centuries ago.  In China it is called Ch'an Buddhism.  It emphasises vigorous self-restraint, meditation practice and the subsequent insight into the nature of mind, the nature of things and the personal expression of this insight in daily life, especially for the benefit of others. Common features include an emphasis on simplicity and the teachings of non-duality and non-conceptual understanding.  Traditional martial arts have also been part of Zen practice. Japanese Zen has gained the greatest popularity in the West.