Practice · BookRecollectionAppendix C

Appendix C · Glossary of Names and Terms

In the main text, every term is glossed in plain words at its first appearance, and the Pāli and Sanskrit romanizations — those letters with their little dots and bars (diacritics) — are carried there in full as well; this appendix gathers them all in one place, so that a reader who wants to double-check a romanization or a quick definition has somewhere to turn.

This appendix is for the reader who wants to look something up again. Each entry gives: English term — Chinese term — romanization (P/Skt) — one plain sentence. "P" marks Pāli (mostly used in the contexts of the early Āgamas); "Skt" marks Sanskrit (mostly used in Mahāyāna contexts); some terms are given in both.

  • Recollection — 隨念 — anussati (P) / anusmṛti (Skt) — Holding the Buddha's qualities in mind, recalling them again and again without forgetting. The protagonist of this book; with "mindfulness" it forms two different tracks.
  • Buddha-recollection (niànfó) — 念佛／佛隨念 — buddhānussati (P) / buddhānusmṛti (Skt) — Recollection directed to the Buddha. What this book tracks from beginning to end is the growing-up of this one word niàn.
  • Mindfulness — 正念 — sati (P) / smṛti (Skt) — Awareness of body and mind in the present moment. Same root as recollection, different use.
  • The nine epithets — 九德號 — itipi so (P, the opening words of the formula) — The Buddha's nine names of quality, the nine doors of buddha-recollection (see "The Nine Epithets in Detail" below).
  • The six recollections — 六隨念 — cha anussati (P) — Recollection of the Buddha, the Dharma, the Saṅgha, virtue, generosity, and the deities: six objects, one engine.
  • One-Practice Samādhi — 一行三昧 — ekavyūha-samādhi (Skt) — The samādhi of binding the mind to one Buddha and exclusively calling the name, recollection continuing thought after thought; Chan and Pure Land both flow from this one source.
  • Pratyutpanna-samādhi — 般舟三昧 — pratyutpanna-samādhi (Skt; in full, "the samādhi in which the Buddhas of the present all stand before one") — Seeing, within concentration, the present Buddhas of the ten directions standing before one's eyes.
  • Niàndào, "recollecting the Way" — 念道 — (an early Chinese translation term) — In the earliest Chinese translations (the Sūtra in Forty-Two Sections), before "niànfó" had yet become a word, the term that carried the same function.

II. Concentration States and Samādhi

  • Samādhi — 三昧 — samādhi (Skt/P) — The state in which the mind is focused on a single object, settled and unmoving.
  • Jhāna — 禪那 — jhāna (P) / dhyāna (Skt) — Deep concentration; the Chinese character chán (禪) itself comes from this word.
  • Access concentration — 近行定 — upacāra-samādhi (P) — Concentration that approaches absorption, standing at the "doorway" of full attainment.
  • Absorption — 安止定 — appanā-samādhi (P) — Concentration fully settled, having entered through the "door."

III. Buddhas, Lands, and Vows

  • Amitābha / Amitāyus — 阿彌陀佛 — Amitābha (Skt, Infinite Light) / Amitāyus (Infinite Life) — The Buddha who presides over the Land of Bliss.
  • Akṣobhya — 阿閦佛 — Akṣobhya (Skt, the Immovable) — The Buddha who presides over the world of Wondrous Joy (Abhirati); the early buddha-field line that stands alongside Amitābha's.
  • Vairocana — 毘盧遮那 — Vairocana (Skt, all-pervading illumination) — The original master of the Flower Ornament; the dharma-body Buddha.
  • Dharmākara (Bodhisattva) — 法藏（菩薩） — Dharmākara (Skt) — Amitābha's name in His causal stage, the one who made the forty-eight vows.
  • Buddha-field / buddha-land — 佛國／佛剎 — buddha-kṣetra (Skt) — The land a Buddha accomplishes and in which He teaches.
  • Pure Land — 淨土 — (the Chinese rendering of the pure aspect of buddha-kṣetra) — A purified buddha-land.
  • The Land of Bliss — 極樂 — Sukhāvatī (Skt, ease and bliss) — The name of Amitābha's buddha-land.
  • Original vow — 本願 — pūrva-praṇidhāna (Skt) — The fundamental vow a Buddha makes in the causal stage: to accomplish a buddha-land and deliver sentient beings.
  • Dharma-realm — 法界 — dharmadhātu (Skt) — The totality of all dharmas; the layer-upon-layer, inexhaustible whole toward which Flower Ornament buddha-recollection opens.

IV. Mind, Consciousness, and the Underlying Ground

  • Tathāgatagarbha — 如來藏 — tathāgatagarbha (Skt) — The pure buddha-nature inherently present in the minds of beings, covered over by afflictions.
  • The ālaya / the storehouse consciousness — 阿賴耶識／藏識 — ālaya-vijñāna (Skt) — The deepest "storehouse" consciousness, holding the seeds of all karmic habit; one body with the tathāgatagarbha, under a different name.
  • Manas — 末那（識） — manas (Skt) — The seventh consciousness; the function that never for a moment stops grasping the storehouse consciousness as "I."
  • The transmutation of the base — 轉依 — āśraya-parāvṛtti (Skt) — Turning the root on which everything depends (the storehouse consciousness) over from defiled to pure. The Sūtra of the Secret Adornment reads buddha-recollection as the mechanism of this turning (the transmutation of the ālaya, ālaya-parāvṛtti).
  • Dharma-body / reward-body / manifestation-body — 法身／報身／化身 — dharma-kāya / saṃbhoga-kāya / nirmāṇa-kāya (Skt) — The Buddha's three bodies: the ever-abiding essence, the adorned body accomplished in fulfillment of vows, and the transformation body manifested in response to beings.

V. Practices, Conditions, and Fruits

  • The awakening-mind — 菩提心 — bodhicitta (Skt) — The mind that seeks awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings.
  • Causal condition — 因緣 — hetu-pratyaya (Skt) — The direct cause that itself gives rise to the fruit.
  • Dominant condition — 增上緣 — adhipati-pratyaya (Skt) — The supporting condition that helps from the side and carries things through. The power of the Buddha's original vow is, for buddha-recollection, the dominant condition ("other-power"), not the causal condition.
  • Dedication — 迴向 — pariṇāmana (Skt) — Turning the whole direction of one's cultivated merit, inclining it toward all sentient beings and the buddha-way.
  • Rejoicing — 隨喜 — anumodanā (P/Skt) — Joy arising along with another's good, and thereby a share in its merit.
  • Confession (repentance) — 懺悔（懺摩） — kṣamā (Skt) — The character chàn is from chànmó, the Chinese transliteration of kṣamā: acknowledging past wrongs and vowing not to commit them again.
  • Karmic obstructions — 業障 — karmāvaraṇa (Skt) — Obstacles formed by past evil deeds, blocking and veiling one's practice.
  • Acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas — 無生法忍 — anutpattika-dharma-kṣānti (Skt) — Abiding in the profound wisdom that "dharmas do not arise"; a high-stage attainment of the Mahāyāna.
  • The rightly settled — 正定聚／正性決定 — sammatta-niyāma (P) — The stage of settled non-regression, certain to reach nirvāṇa; established by the eleventh vow in Part Four.
  • Ordinary person — 凡夫 — pṛthagjana (Skt) — The common, not-yet-liberated person; the one whom the Pure Land line takes as the very subject of its deliverance.
  • Namo — 南無 — namo / namaḥ (Skt, "taking refuge with one's life," "homage") — The "Namo" of "Namo Amitābha Buddha": casting one's whole body and mind forward, in refuge and in homage.

VI. The Nine Epithets in Detail

The Buddha's nine qualities (the nine clauses of itipi so) are explained in detail in chapter two of Part One; here their Pāli originals are set out for reference:

  • Worthy One — 應供 — arahaṃ (P) — Has cut off all afflictions and is worthy of every offering.
  • Rightly and Fully Enlightened — 正遍知（正等覺） — sammāsambuddho (P) — Awakened to all dharmas completely, without remainder.
  • Perfect in Knowledge and Conduct — 明行足 — vijjācaraṇasampanno (P) — Wisdom (knowledge) and virtue (conduct) both complete.
  • Well-Gone — 善逝 — sugato (P) — Has gone skillfully to nirvāṇa, never to turn back.
  • Knower of the World — 世間解 — lokavidū (P) — Knows the truth of the world through and through.
  • Unsurpassed Tamer of Persons — 無上士調御丈夫 — anuttaro purisadammasārathi (P) — The unsurpassed one, able to tame every being who can be guided.
  • Teacher of Gods and Humans — 天人師 — satthā devamanussānaṃ (P) — The teacher of gods and of human beings.
  • Buddha — 佛 — buddho (P) — The Awakened One.
  • Blessed One — 世尊 — bhagavā (P) — Complete in merit and in wisdom, honored by all the world.

(The Chinese tradition's list of the "Ten Names" of the Tathāgata splits the sixth clause above, "Unsurpassed Tamer of Persons," into two, and places "Tathāgata" at the head — making the count ten; the names and their meanings are the same as these nine.)

VII. Figures in the Sūtras

  • Sudhana (a youth) — 善財（童子） — Sudhana (Skt) — The seeker in the Flower Ornament's "Entry into the Dharma-Realm" chapter who journeyed south on fifty-three visits to good friends and arrived at last at Samantabhadra.
  • Samantabhadra (Bodhisattva) — 普賢（菩薩） — Samantabhadra (Skt) — The great bodhisattva who presides over "practice"; the initiator of the ten great vow-kings.
  • Mañjuśrī (Bodhisattva) — 文殊（師利菩薩） — Mañjuśrī (Skt) — The great bodhisattva who presides over "wisdom"; the speaker of the One-Practice Samādhi.
  • Avalokiteśvara (Bodhisattva) — 觀世音（菩薩） — Avalokiteśvara (Skt) — In the Lotus's Universal Gate Chapter, the one who hears the sounds of suffering and rescues, manifesting through the universal gate.
  • Bhadrapāla (Bodhisattva) — 颰陀和（菩薩） — Bhadrapāla (Skt) — In the Pratyutpanna-Samādhi Sūtra, the five-precept lay bodhisattva who, at the great assembly in Rājagṛha, asked the method of seeing the Buddha.
  • Mahāsthāmaprāpta (Bodhisattva) — 大勢至（菩薩） — Mahāsthāmaprāpta (Skt) — In the Śūraṅgama's chapter on the perfect penetration of buddha-recollection, the one who practices by "gathering in the six sense-roots, with pure recollection uninterrupted"; Amitābha's attendant on the right.
  • Maitreya (Bodhisattva) — 彌勒（菩薩） — Maitreya (Skt) — The future Buddha, who will descend and take birth in the age to come.
  • Queen Vaidehī — 韋提希（夫人） — Vaidehī (Skt) — In the Sūtra on the Contemplation of Amitāyus, the queen who, from prison, asked the Buddha to teach the sixteen contemplations.
  • Ajātaśatru (Prince/King) — 阿闍世（王） — Ajātaśatru (Skt) — In the prologue to the Sūtra on the Contemplation of Amitāyus, the prince of Rājagṛha who imprisoned his father and would have killed his mother.
  • Ruciraketu (Bodhisattva) — 信相（菩薩） — Ruciraketu (Skt) — In the Confession Chapter of the Golden Light Sūtra, the bodhisattva who dreamed of a golden drum and, seeing the Buddhas of the ten directions within its light, brought out the verses of confession.
  • Mahānāma — 摩訶男 — Mahānāma (P) — In the early Āgamas, the lay disciple whose question to the Buddha — how to settle the heart in daily life — drew out the six recollections.
  • Ānanda — 阿難 — Ānanda (Skt/P) — The Buddha's attendant; the party concerned in the Cāpāla Shrine episode of "not requesting the Buddha to abide in the world."
  • Tanluan — 曇鸞 — (Pure Land patriarch of the Northern Wei, 476–542) — Having gone seeking long life and obtained ten scrolls of immortality-scriptures, he met Bodhiruci at Luoyang, received the Contemplation Sūtra, burned the immortality-scriptures, and turned to the Pure Land; he set up the distinction of self-power and other-power.
  • Bodhiruci — 菩提留支 — Bodhiruci (Skt) — The Northern Wei tripiṭaka-translator who, with a single spit and a single Contemplation Sūtra, turned Tanluan to the Pure Land.

Note: romanization follows standard scholarly usage. Where a term exists in both Pāli and Sanskrit and the book's context spans both the early and the Mahāyāna layers, the two are given side by side; a term belonging to one line only is given in one language. The diacritics (ā, ṃ, ñ, ṛ, ṭ) belong to the full transcription; the English text carries them throughout, and the full forms are gathered here in one place for checking.