Glossary

Many Buddhist terms and concepts are directly translated from Sanskrit and Chinese in our publications. We hope this comprehensive glossary will help readers understand their meanings and implied concepts within the Buddhist context. 

A majority of the terms listed here have been published in The Great Perfection of Wisdom Treatise, where we provide Chinese with Pinyin, as well as Sanskrit, for as many terms as possible.

Corrections & Updates:

March 2023

Updates:

Elder Sudatta. Chinese: 長者須達多 zhangzhe xudaduo. Also known as Anāthapiṇḍaka. He was a wealthy lay elder, who was declared “chief among laymen in giving” by the Buddha. His most famous offering is the Jeta Grove Monastery in Śrāvastī.

      • Anāthapiṇḍada

four conditions. Chinese: 四緣si yuan.
Causal conditions (Skt. hetupratyaya), comparable uninterrupted conditions (Skt. samanantarapratyaya), object conditions (Skt. ālambana), and advancing conditions (Skt. adhipatipratyaya).

      • Skt. ālambanapratyaya

King Yama. Chinese: 閻羅王 yanluo wang. Yama is the lord of death. Birth, old age, sickness, and punishment are his messengers sent to remind people to act virtuously and avoid misdeeds. 

      • Also known as King of Hell or King of the Dead. He is said to preside over the hell realm. 

Sarvāstivāda. Chinese: 說一切有 shuoyiqieyou dao. In Sanskrit, “Teaching that All Exists”; an important non-Mahāyāna school of Indian Buddhism named for its theory that all conditioned aggregates continue to exist throughout the three time periods of past, present, and future.

      • Chinese: 說一切有

Added:

epithets of the Buddha. Chinese: 佛陀稱號 fotuo chenghao.
See ten epithets of the Buddha.

Removed:

King of Hell. Chinese: 閻羅王.
Also called King Yama or King of the Dead. He is said to supervise the hell realm