All Rivers Glossary of Terms

Absolutism (eternalism, permanence) The belief that phenomena inherently exist and have an essence that goes from one moment to the next.
Acquired Afflictions - Afflictions acquired in this life through learning and adopting flawed reasoning of mistaken philosophies and ideologies.
Afflictions – Mental factors that disturb the tranquility of mind. These include disturbing emotions and attitudes and wrong views.
Aggregates – The four or five components that make up a living being: form, feelings, discriminations, miscellaneous factors and consciousness (See the Five Skandhas)
Analysis - A mental factor that examines an object in detail.
Analytical Meditation – Meditation done to understand an object
Appearing Object – The object that actually appears to a consciousness.
Apprehend – The consciousness engages the object. It may apprehend the object correctly or incorrectly.
Arising/Production – The coming into being of something that wasn’t there before
Arya – Someone who has directly and non-conceptually realized the emptiness of inherent existence.
Ascertain – In general, an ascertaining consciousness is a conceptual consciousness that correctly knows it’s object. It is able to induce a recollection of the object appearing to it.
Base of Emptiness – The object whose mode of existence is being analyzed
Base and the Based – One thing (the base) supports another (the based) which depends on it.
Basis of designation – The collection of parts or factors, in dependence on which an object is designated or imputed.
Bodhicitta – A main mental consciousness induced by an aspiration to bring about the welfare of others and accompanied by an aspiration to attain full awakening oneself.
Bodhisattva – One who has spontaneous Bodhicitta and is training to become a Buddha.
Characteristics – Attributes of an object. Things have characteristics but do not exist by their own characteristics.
Coarse Afflictions – Afflictions stemming from grasping a self-sufficient substantially existent person, as contrasted with subtle afflictions
Concentration – A mental factor that dwells single-pointedly for a sustained period of time on one object; a state of deep meditative absorption; single-pointed concentration that is free from discursive thought.
Conceptual Appearance – A mental image of an object that appears to a conceptual consciousness.
Conceptual Consciousness – A consciousness that knows its object by means of a conceptual appearance.
Conceptual Fabrications – False modes of existence and false ideas imputed by a conceptual consciousness.
Conditionality – Depending on causes and conditions.
Confusion – Ignorance.
Conventional Existence – Existence.
Cyclic Existence – The cycle of rebirth that occurs under control of afflictions and karma.
Death – The last moment of life when the subtlest clear light mind manifests.
Defilement – Either an afflictive obscuration or a cognitive obscuration.
Dependent Arising – This is of three types.
1. Causal Dependence – Things arising due to causes and conditions.
2. Mutual Dependence – Phenomena existing in relation to other phenomena such as their parts.
3. Dependent Designation – phenomena existing by being merely designated by terms and concepts.
Dependent Existence – The third level of Dependent Arising. All phenomena exist as mere imputations designated by conceptuality in dependence on their basis of designation.
Designated Object – The object designated by term and concept in dependence on its basis of designation.
Direct Perceiver – An awareness that is free form conceptuality.
Distorted Conception – Distorted thoughts that project exaggerations and erroneous qualities on objects, leading to the arising of afflictions.
Dualistic Appearance – The appearance of subject and object as separate or the appearance of inherent existence.
Dukkha – The unsatisfactory experiences of cyclic existence.
Eight Worldly Concerns – Attachment and aversion regarding material gain and loss, disrepute and fame, blame and praise, pleasure and pain.
Eighteen Constituents – These are the six objects, the six sense faculties, and six consciousnesses.
Emptiness – The lack of inherent existence and true existence.
Engaged Object – The main object with which the mind is concerned.
Existence by its own characteristics – Existence from its own side.
Existent – That which is perceivable by mind.
Four Distorted Conceptions – Seeing what is impermanent as permanent, what is unsatisfactory as pleasant, what is foul as attractive, what is not a self as self.
Grasping Inherent Existence – Grasping persons and phenomena to exist truly or inherently with an intrinsic essence.
Ignorance – A mental factor that is obscured and grasps the opposite of what exists. There are two types: ignorance regarding ultimate truth and ignorance regarding karma and its effects.
Illusion-like Emptiness – In times subsequent to meditative equipoise on emptiness, things once again appear truly existent even though one knows they aren’t.
Impermanence – Momentariness; not remaining in the next moment. Coarse impermanence is the ending of a continuum; subtle impermanence is something not remaining the same in the very next moment.
Imputedly Existent – Something that exists by being merely designated by term and concept.
Indirect Cause – A cause that does not immediately precede its result. Grandparents are the indirect cause of a child.
Inference – (1) A cognizer that knows its subject though reasoning. (2) a conclusion reached through a syllogism on the basis of evidence and reasoning
Inherent Existence – Existence without depending on any other factors; independent existence. It’s negated both conventionally and ultimately,
Innate – Existing with the mind from beginningless time; something not acquired anew in this life.
Insight – A wisdom of thorough discrimination of phenomena conjoined with special pliancy induced by the power of analysis.
Insight Knowledge – Mundane knowledge of the three characteristics gained through insight. It leads to supramundane path knowledge that realizes the four truths and nirvana.
Insight Wisdom – A mundane wisdom that sees the three characteristics of impermanence, dukkha and selflessness. It is gained through insight and leads to stream entry.
Karma – Intentional actions of body, speech, or mind.
Karmic Seeds – The potencies from previously created actions that will bring their results.
Knowable Object – That which is suitable to serve as an object of awareness, an existent.
Latencies – Predispositions, imprints, or tendencies.
Liberation – A true cessation that is the abandonment of afflictive obscurations, nirvana, the state of freedom from cyclic existence. Complete freedom from Samsara.
Mahamudra – A type of meditation that focuses on the conventional and ultimate nature of mind.
Manifest Afflictions – Afflictions active in the mind at the present moment.
Meditative Equipoise on Emptiness – An aryas mind focused single pointedly on the emptiness of inherent existence.
Mental Consciousness – A primary consciousness that knows mental phenomena in contradistinction to sense primary consciousnesses that know physical objects.
Mere Conditionality – Arising by causes and conditions, mutual dependence, and dependent designation. Things exist though mere conditionality without ultimate analysis or investigation.
Mind – The part of living beings that cognizes, experiences, thinks, feels and so on.
Mindfullness – A mental factor that brings to mind a phenomena of previous acquaintance without forgetting it and prevents distraction to other objects.
Mindstream – The continuity of mind.
Momentary – Not existing in the next moment without changing.
Nature Truth Body / Buddha Nature – The buddha body that is either the emptiness of a buddha’s mind or the true cessations in that buddha’s continuum.
Nihilism – The belief that our actions have no ethical dimension; the belief that nothing exists.
Nirvana – The emptiness of a mind that has been totally cleansed of afflictive obscurations.
Nominalities – Things that exists by being merely designated on a basis of designation.
Nonconceptual Consciousness - A consciousness that knows its object directly, not by means of a conceptual appearance.
Non-Duality – The nonappearance of subject and object, of inherent existence, of veiled truths, and/or of conceptual appearance in an arya’s meditative equipoise on emptiness.
Object – that which is known by an awareness.
Object of Negation – What is negated or refuted.
Objective Existence – Existence unrelated to other factors. (Inherent existence).
Observed Object – The basic object that the mind refers to or focuses on while apprehending certain aspects of that object.
One Nature – Two phenomena are one nature when they arise, abide, and cease simultaneously and do not appear separate to direct perception.
Ordinary Being – Someone who is not an arya.
Path Knowledge – A supramundane path that knows the four truths and nirvana.
Path of Meditation – The fourth of the five paths. This begins when a meditator begins to eradicate innate afflictions from the root.
Path of Preparation – The second of the five paths. It begins when a meditator attains the union of serenity and insight on emptiness.
Path of Seeing – Third of the five paths. It begins when a meditator first has a direct, nonconceptual realization of the emptiness of inherent existence.
Path Wisdom – Supramundane wisdom that is strong enough to pierce through the obscurations of the fetters.
Permanent – Unchanging, static. It does not mean eternal.
Permanent, unitary, independent self – A soul or self (atman) asserted by non-Buddhists.
Person – A Living being designated in dependence on the four or five aggregates.
Pollutant – A set of three or four deeply rooted defilements: sensual desire, existence (craving to exist in a samsaric form), and ignorance. Some lists add view.
Polluted – Under the influence of ignorance or its latencies.
Posit – To establish, determine, or postulate an object.; to designate and object through its appearing to a consciousness.
Prasangika Madhamaka – A Mahayana tenet system that asserts that all phenomena lack inherent existence both conventionally and ultimately.
Primal Substance – A truly existent substance out of which everything is created, as asserted by non-Buddhist schools.
Primary Consciousness – A consciousness that apprehends the presence or basic entity of an object. They are of six types: visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, and mental.
Pristine Wisdom – A realization in the continuum of someone who has entered a path.
Probing Awareness – A consciousness using or having used reasoning to analyze the ultimate or conventional nature of an object. It can be either conceptual or nonconceptual.
Pure Ground Bodhisattvas – Bodhisattvas of the eighth, ninth, and tenth grounds who have eliminated afflictive obscurations. When they eradicate cognitive obscurations, they will become Buddhas.
Realization – An awareness that eliminates superimpositions on an object and can induce ascertainment of a phenomenon. It may be inferential or direct.
Realize – To cognize an object correctly such that the mind is able to induce a correct ascertainment of the object and eliminate misconceptions about it.
Reliable Cognizer – A nondeceptive awareness that is incontrovertible with respect to its apprehended object and enable us to accomplish our purpose.
Reviewing Knowledge – In stream-enterers, once-returners, and nonreturners it is a knowledge in post-meditation time that reviews the path, its fruition, the defilements abandoned, the defilements that remain, and nirvana. Arhats have no reviewing knowledge of defilements remaining,
Samsara – The cycle of rebirth that occurs under the control of afflictions and Karma.
Self – 1. A person. 2. Inherent existence. 3. A permanent, unitary, independent soul or self.
Self-Empty – An object’s being empty of its own inherent nature.
Self-Grasping – Grasping inherent existence.
Selflessness of Persons – The nonexistence of a self-sufficient substantially existent person or an inherently existent person.
Selflessness of Phenomena – The emptiness of all phenomena other than persons.
Self-sufficient Substantially Existent Person – A person that can be identified without identifying it’s aggregates.; a self that is the controller of the body and the mind. Such a self does not exist.
Sense Direct Reliable Cognizers – Incontrovertible awarenesses that know their objects – sights, sounds smells tastes and tangible objects – directly by depending on a physical cognitive faculty.
Sentient Being – Any being with a mind except for a Buddha
Serenity – one-pointedness of mind, which is accompanied by the bliss of mental and physical pliancy. Where the mind abides effortlessly without fluctuation for as long as we wish.
Sign – A mental image that arises in stabilizing meditation and is used to attain single-pointed concentration.
Signlessness – The emptiness that is the absence of inherent existence of the cause of any phenomena
Substantially Existent – Inherently existent
Suchness – Emptiness, the ultimate mode of existence
Superimposition – A quality or mode of existence that does not exist and is imputed or projected onto an object or person; for example, a self of persons.
Tathagata – A buddha
Tenet – A philosophical assertion or belief.
Tenet System – A set of philosophical assertions.
Thesis – That which is yet to be proven
Thing – Something that can perform a function, inherent existence.
Thought – Conceptual consciousness
The Three Characteristics – Three qualities of conditioned phenomena; impermanence, duhkha, selflessness.
Two Truths – Ultimate truth and veiled (conventional) truth.
Ultimate Analysis – Analysis that examines what an object really is and its deeper mode of existence.
Ultimate Truth – The ultimate mode of existence of all persons and phenomena; emptiness; a wisdom nonconceptually and directly realizing emptiness.
Underlying Tendencies – Latent dispositions on the mind that enable manifest afflictions to arise when the appropriate causes and conditions are present. These are attachment to sensuality, anger, views deluded doubt, arrogance, inherent existence and ignorance.
Union of Serenity and Thought – A path that consists of both serenity and insight and in which the bliss of mental and physical pliancy has been induced by analysis.
Veiled Truth – That which is true only from the perspective of ignorance.
View of Personal Identity – An afflictive view grasping the I or mine as inherently existing.
Worldy Convention – The common perspective and norms through which people can communicate and work together. It is the standpoint from which veiled truths are known, in contrast to the perspective of aryas, which knows ultimate truth.

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All Rivers Glossary of Terms

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Absolutism (eternalism, permanence) The belief that phenomena inherently exist and have an essence that goes from one moment to the next.

Acquired Afflictions - Afflictions acquired in this life through learning and adopting flawed reasoning of mistaken philosophies and ideologies.

Afflictions – Mental factors that disturb the tranquility of mind. These include disturbing emotions and attitudes and wrong views.

Aggregates – The four or five components that make up a living being: form, feelings, discriminations, miscellaneous factors and consciousness (See the Five Skandhas)

Analysis - A mental factor that examines an object in detail.

Analytical Meditation – Meditation done to understand an object

Appearing Object – The object that actually appears to a consciousness.

Apprehend – The consciousness engages the object. It may apprehend the object correctly or incorrectly.

Arising/Production – The coming into being of something that wasn’t there before

Arya – Someone who has directly and non-conceptually realized the emptiness of inherent existence.

Ascertain – In general, an ascertaining consciousness is a conceptual consciousness that correctly knows it’s object. It is able to induce a recollection of the object appearing to it.

Base of Emptiness – The object whose mode of existence is being analyzed

Base and the Based – One thing (the base) supports another (the based) which depends on it.

Basis of designation – The collection of parts or factors, in dependence on which an object is designated or imputed.

Bodhicitta – A main mental consciousness induced by an aspiration to bring about the welfare of others and accompanied by an aspiration to attain full awakening oneself.

Bodhisattva – One who has spontaneous Bodhicitta and is training to become a Buddha.

Characteristics – Attributes of an object. Things have characteristics but do not exist by their own characteristics.

Coarse Afflictions – Afflictions stemming from grasping a self-sufficient substantially existent person, as contrasted with subtle afflictions

Concentration – A mental factor that dwells single-pointedly for a sustained period of time on one object; a state of deep meditative absorption; single-pointed concentration that is free from discursive thought.

Conceptual Appearance – A mental image of an object that appears to a conceptual consciousness.

Conceptual Consciousness – A consciousness that knows its object by means of a conceptual appearance.

Conceptual Fabrications – False modes of existence and false ideas imputed by a conceptual consciousness.

Conditionality – Depending on causes and conditions.

Confusion – Ignorance.

Conventional Existence – Existence.

Cyclic Existence – The cycle of rebirth that occurs under control of afflictions and karma.

Death – The last moment of life when the subtlest clear light mind manifests.

Defilement – Either an afflictive obscuration or a cognitive obscuration.

Dependent Arising – This is of three types.

1. Causal Dependence – Things arising due to causes and conditions.

2. Mutual Dependence – Phenomena existing in relation to other phenomena such as their parts.

3. Dependent Designation – phenomena existing by being merely designated by terms and concepts.

Dependent Existence – The third level of Dependent Arising. All phenomena exist as mere imputations designated by conceptuality in dependence on their basis of designation.

Designated Object – The object designated by term and concept in dependence on its basis of designation.

Direct Perceiver – An awareness that is free form conceptuality.

Distorted Conception – Distorted thoughts that project exaggerations and erroneous qualities on objects, leading to the arising of afflictions.

Dualistic Appearance – The appearance of subject and object as separate or the appearance of inherent existence.

Dukkha – The unsatisfactory experiences of cyclic existence.

Eight Worldly Concerns – Attachment and aversion regarding material gain and loss, disrepute and fame, blame and praise, pleasure and pain.

Eighteen Constituents – These are the six objects, the six sense faculties, and six consciousnesses.

Emptiness – The lack of inherent existence and true existence.

Engaged Object – The main object with which the mind is concerned.

Existence by its own characteristics – Existence from its own side.

Existent – That which is perceivable by mind.

Four Distorted Conceptions – Seeing what is impermanent as permanent, what is unsatisfactory as pleasant, what is foul as attractive, what is not a self as self.

Grasping Inherent Existence – Grasping persons and phenomena to exist truly or inherently with an intrinsic essence.

Ignorance – A mental factor that is obscured and grasps the opposite of what exists. There are two types: ignorance regarding ultimate truth and ignorance regarding karma and its effects.

Illusion-like Emptiness – In times subsequent to meditative equipoise on emptiness, things once again appear truly existent even though one knows they aren’t.

Impermanence – Momentariness; not remaining in the next moment. Coarse impermanence is the ending of a continuum; subtle impermanence is something not remaining the same in the very next moment.

Imputedly Existent – Something that exists by being merely designated by term and concept.

Indirect Cause – A cause that does not immediately precede its result. Grandparents are the indirect cause of a child.

Inference – (1) A cognizer that knows its subject though reasoning. (2) a conclusion reached through a syllogism on the basis of evidence and reasoning

Inherent Existence – Existence without depending on any other factors; independent existence. It’s negated both conventionally and ultimately,

Innate – Existing with the mind from beginningless time; something not acquired anew in this life.

Insight – A wisdom of thorough discrimination of phenomena conjoined with special pliancy induced by the power of analysis.

Insight Knowledge – Mundane knowledge of the three characteristics gained through insight. It leads to supramundane path knowledge that realizes the four truths and nirvana.

Insight Wisdom – A mundane wisdom that sees the three characteristics of impermanence, dukkha and selflessness. It is gained through insight and leads to stream entry.

Karma – Intentional actions of body, speech, or mind.

Karmic Seeds – The potencies from previously created actions that will bring their results.

Knowable Object – That which is suitable to serve as an object of awareness, an existent.

Latencies – Predispositions, imprints, or tendencies.

Liberation – A true cessation that is the abandonment of afflictive obscurations, nirvana, the state of freedom from cyclic existence. Complete freedom from Samsara.

Mahamudra – A type of meditation that focuses on the conventional and ultimate nature of mind.

Manifest Afflictions – Afflictions active in the mind at the present moment.

Meditative Equipoise on Emptiness – An aryas mind focused single pointedly on the emptiness of inherent existence.

Mental Consciousness – A primary consciousness that knows mental phenomena in contradistinction to sense primary consciousnesses that know physical objects.

Mere Conditionality – Arising by causes and conditions, mutual dependence, and dependent designation. Things exist though mere conditionality without ultimate analysis or investigation.

Mind – The part of living beings that cognizes, experiences, thinks, feels and so on.

Mindfullness – A mental factor that brings to mind a phenomena of previous acquaintance without forgetting it and prevents distraction to other objects.

Mindstream – The continuity of mind.

Momentary – Not existing in the next moment without changing.

Nature Truth Body / Buddha Nature – The buddha body that is either the emptiness of a buddha’s mind or the true cessations in that buddha’s continuum.

Nihilism – The belief that our actions have no ethical dimension; the belief that nothing exists.

Nirvana – The emptiness of a mind that has been totally cleansed of afflictive obscurations.

Nominalities – Things that exists by being merely designated on a basis of designation.

Nonconceptual Consciousness - A consciousness that knows its object directly, not by means of a conceptual appearance.

Non-Duality – The nonappearance of subject and object, of inherent existence, of veiled truths, and/or of conceptual appearance in an arya’s meditative equipoise on emptiness.