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  Glossary Buddha The founder of Buddhism, Siddhartha Gautama, after his enlightenment. It is a title which means the enlightened or awakened one. CE Common Era. chant Repeating religious phrases or quotations from sacred texts. conscience An inner sense (or 'voice') which communicates what is right or wrong in one's behaviour. Dhammapada The most famous of the Buddhist scriptures in the West, with 423 verses in the Pali canon. dharma This word has various meanings which have to be understood from the context in which it is used. It can mean religious duty. In Buddhism it is most widely used to mean the Buddha’s teaching. It can also mean ‘the truth’. enlightenment The realisation of the truth about life. In Buddhism it releases a person from the cycle of rebirth. founder The person who is regarded as founding or starting a religion, eg Jesus was the founder of Christianity; the Buddha was the founder of Buddhism. Jakata Tales (Jakata stories) A large collection of writings...

 Sutta Pitaka Vinaya Pitaka Abhidhammapitaka Sutta Pitaka It contains over 10 thousand suttas or sutras related to Buddha and his close companions. This also deals  with the first Buddhist council which was held shortly after Buddha’s death , dated by the majority of recent scholars around  400 BC, under the patronage of king Ajatasatru with the monk Mahakasyapa presiding, at Rajgir. Its sections are: Digha Nikaya:  Comprises the “long” discourses in 34 long sutras. Majjhima Nikaya:  Comprises the “middle-length” discourses in 152 sutras. Samyutta Nikaya : Comprises the “connected” discourses in over 2800 sutras. Anguttara Nikaya : Comprises the “numerical” discourses in over 9600sutras. Khuddaka Nikaya : Comprises the “minor collection” It has 15-17 booklets. (Thai 15. Sinhali 17 & Burmese 18 booklets). Vinaya Pitaka The subject matter of  Vinay Pitaka  is the monastic rules for monks and nuns. It can also be called as Book of Discipline. Suttavib...

  Specifically, all Buddhists live by five moral precepts, which prohibit: Killing living things Taking what is not given Sexual misconduct Lying Using drugs or alcohol

  Four Noble Truths The Four Noble Truths, which Buddha taught, are: The truth of suffering (dukkha) The truth of the cause of suffering (samudaya) The truth of the end of suffering (nirhodha) The truth of the path that frees us from suffering (magga) Collectively, these principles explain why humans hurt and how to overcome suffering.

  Eightfold Path The Buddha taught his followers that the end of suffering, as described in the fourth Noble Truths, could be achieved by following an Eightfold Path.  In no particular order, the Eightfold Path of Buddhism teaches the following ideals for ethical conduct, mental disciple, and achieving wisdom: Right understanding (Samma ditthi) Right thought (Samma sankappa) Right speech (Samma vaca) Right action (Samma kammanta) Right livelihood (Samma ajiva) Right effort (Samma vayama) Right mindfulness (Samma sati) Right concentration (Samma samadhi)

  Karma A fundamental aspect of Buddhism is the teaching that you are responsible for your own life and your future circumstances (as well as your future lives)—whether you experience happiness, misery, etc.—and that your actions and behavior can bring good or bad karma. If you are kind to others, the belief is that they will be kind in return, but more importantly, that means you will experience good karma in your present and next life. On the other hand, if you are not nice to others, you will get your just deserts in some form in the near or distant future as well as in the next life through bad karma. The point is to be careful about how you interact with others: everything you do decides what you have to contend with in transmigration. The word  karma  is from Sanskrit, where, fittingly, it refers to one's work as well as one's fate; it begins appearing in English writing in the early 1800s. Hippie generations adopted the philosophi...

  Nirvana English readers of religious philosophy were first enlightened on the Buddhist concept of  nirvana  in the early 19th century. The word is a borrowing from Sanskrit that means "the act of extinguishing" and, in Buddhism, it refers to a state in which desire and one's conscious attachment to things in secular life (or, in particular, the negative emotions these desires/attachments bring about) are extinguished through disciplined meditation. Once these things are vanquished, peace, tranquility, and enlightenment are said to be fully experienced; ignorance dissolves and the truth becomes fully known. In nirvana, a person also not only enters a transcendent state of freedom of all negativity but breaks free of the religion's beliefs in the continuous cycle of birth, death, and rebirth and the effects of karma—the force created by one's actions that is to determine what that person's next life will be like. A person who has gained ...