Appendix C · Glossary of Names and Terms
In the main text, a Pāli or Sanskrit term is mostly glossed in one plain phrase at its first appearance, and after that the book simply goes on using the plain word, without parading those letters with their little dots and bars (diacritics). The full romanizations, with the Pāli (P) and Sanskrit (Skt) forms laid side by side, are gathered here.
The reader who wants to know how a term is written in the original, and what it first meant, can consult this table. The reader who would rather not bother can skip it without losing anything of the book—which is exactly why it sits at the back.
("P" marks Pāli; "Skt" marks Sanskrit; where the two traditions write the same word differently, both forms are given.)
I. Three Backbone Words
| Term in this book | Romanization | One plain sentence |
|---|
| The precept | sīla (P) / śīla (Skt) | A character and an ability grown into the body—the natural lean toward good and the natural parting from wrong. The true protagonist of this book. |
| The Vinaya | vinaya (P/Skt) | The living casebook the Saṅgha grew, person by person and case by case—its sense is taming, and guiding. |
| The Pāṭimokkha | pāṭimokkha (P) / prātimokṣa (Skt) | The precept code recited fortnightly; rendered "individual liberation"—liberation rule by rule. The "your great teacher" after the Buddha's passing. |
II. Words from the Pāli Roots
| Term in this book | Romanization | One plain sentence |
|---|
| Non-regret | avippaṭisāra (P) | No remorse stirring in the heart—the first fruit that comes of itself from keeping the precept; the second link in the Heyi-jing's chain. |
| Tranquility | passaddhi (P) | The settling and loosening-through of body and mind—the link on the chain between rapture and happiness. |
| Mental one-pointedness | cittekaggatā (P) | The mind abiding on a single object—the very substance of concentration; when the precept is pure, it comes of itself. |
| The recollection of one's own ethical conduct | sīlānussati (P) | One of the six recollections—inviting the precepts you have kept back into the mind. |
| Experiential confidence | aveccappasāda (P) | A confidence gone all the way through, that cannot be broken—one share each toward the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha; accomplishment in the noble ethical conduct stands fourth beside them. |
| Stream-enterer | sotāpanna (P) | The noble one of the first fruit, who has stepped into the stream—from there, no turning back. |
| Sense-restraint | indriya-saṃvara (P) | The pair of hands standing guard at the six sense-doors—eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind. |
| The uposatha (the eight-precept uposatha) | uposatha (P) / poṣadha (Skt) | The fast day—the day the Saṅgha recites the precepts each fortnight; the day a householder borrows a day and a night to learn leaving home once. |
| Ascetic practices | dhutaṅga (P) | The intensive practices that shake off clinging—rag-robes, the constant alms-round, sitting under trees; fewness of wishes and contentment lived out to the very end. |
III. Words of the Vinaya
| Term in this book | Romanization | One plain sentence |
|---|
| Pārājika ("defeat") | pārājika (P/Skt) | The gravest class of offense in the Vinaya—like a man beheaded, one cannot live again in the Saṅgha's number. The class under which the first precept was laid down. |
| Skandhaka | khandhaka (P) / skandhaka (Skt) | The chapters of the Vinaya sorted by matter—ordination, the uposatha, schism: each has a skandhaka of its own. |
| Council | saṅgīti (P/Skt) | The great assembly after the Buddha's passing at which the Saṅgha chanted the Dharma and the Vinaya together and fixed their text—the Council of Five Hundred, the Council of Seven Hundred. |
| Regional adaptation | deśa-vinaya (Skt) | The living allowance the Buddha left with His own mouth: the precepts may be loosened or tightened by region and soil—not a dead list fixed letter for letter across the four seas. |
IV. Words of the Mahāyāna Precept
| Term in this book | Romanization | One plain sentence |
|---|
| The three clusters of pure precepts | saṃvara-śīla / kuśaladharma-saṃgrāhaka-śīla / sattvārtha-kriyā-śīla (Skt) | The precept's three great clusters: the restraint cluster (stopping wrong), the accumulation-of-virtue cluster (cultivating good), the sattva-welfare cluster (working for beings)—the answer to Upāli's new question. |
| Śīla-pāramitā | śīla-pāramitā (Skt) | Precept-keeping carried all the way to a perfection—the precept that, joined with prajñā, has crossed the river. |
| Pāramitā | pāramī (P) / pāramitā (Skt) | "Reaching the other shore"—making of one good practice a ferry that can carry people across. |
| Nature-offense / nature-precept | prakṛti-sāvadya (Skt, nature-offense) | Wrong that lies in the very nature of the deed, not waiting on the Buddha's legislation—killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, false speech; its counterpart is the protective-precepts. (Translator's note: the source papers render the same Chinese term 性戒 variously as "nature-precepts," "nature-precept," and "natural precept"; all three name this one term.) |
| The ten wholesome courses of action | dasa kusala-kammapathā (P) / daśa kuśalāḥ karmapathāḥ (Skt) | Ten wholesome courses of karma—parting from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, divisive speech, harsh speech, false speech, idle speech, craving, ill will, and wrong view; the Huayan takes them as the precept-substance of the Stainless Ground. |
V. Words of the Precept-Substance and the Mind
| Term in this book | Romanization | One plain sentence |
|---|
| Volition | cetanā (P/Skt) | That one pulse of intent in the mind—the Buddha said, "volition is karma"; the root of the precept lies here. |
| Non-informative (form) | avijñapti(-rūpa) (Skt) | The unseen something that stays on in body and mind after reception—what the three answers on the precept-substance were arguing over. |
| Restraint | saṃvara (P/Skt) | The protection one has taken on—a single wholesome volition congealed into a boundary with binding force. |
| Seed | bīja (Skt) | The wholesome seed perfumed into the depths of consciousness at the moment of reception—where Daoxuan's Perfect-Teaching judgment of the precept-substance comes to rest. |
| Perfuming | vāsanā (Skt) | As fragrance steeps into a robe—the habit-energy and force that conduct leaves behind in consciousness. |
| The store-consciousness | ālaya-vijñāna (Skt) | The eighth consciousness, the storehouse at the deepest floor of the mind—the place where that precept-seed lives. |
| Manas | manas (Skt) | The seventh consciousness—the shadow that grips "I" day and night, turning every wholesome state into tainted good. |
| The transformation of the basis | āśraya-parāvṛtti (Skt) | The thorough turning-over of what one stands on—the seed's destination: the defiled basis turned into the pure. |
VI. Words of Prajñā and the Complete Precept
| Term in this book | Romanization | One plain sentence |
|---|
| Sign-less | animitta (Skt) | Grasping no mark, abiding in no mark—the sign-less precept: the emptier all the way through, the stricter the keeping. |
| Samādhi | samādhi (P/Skt) | Concentration—the right reception of a mind abiding at one point; in the Śūraṅgama it means the great Śūraṅgama samādhi. |
| The three trainings free of outflows | tisraḥ śikṣāḥ (Skt; the threefold training) | The precept, concentration, wisdom—gathering in the mind is the precept; from the precept concentration is born; from concentration wisdom is unveiled. "Free of outflows": a vessel that does not leak. |
| Perfect penetration | —(a Chinese coinage) | Complete and unobstructed realization—the real, verified by entering through one gate; twenty-five gateways, in truth without superior or inferior. |
| The Stainless Ground | vimalā bhūmi (Skt) | The second of the ten grounds—the ground of the precept, named for parting from the stain of broken precepts. |
VII. Words of Diagnosis and Daily Use
| Term in this book | Romanization | One plain sentence |
|---|
| Clinging to rule-and-vow | sīlabbata-parāmāsa (P) / śīlavrata-parāmarśa (Skt) | Grasping the form of the rules themselves as purity—one of the three fetters, cut off at stream-entry; the old name for the illness of "keeping the form, dropping the heart." |
| False speech | musāvāda (P) / mṛṣāvāda (Skt) | Speech sent out with the intent to deceive—its weight rides on that one thought of deception, not on the surface true-or-false of the words. |
| True speech | sacca-vācā (P) / satya-vāc (Skt) | The positive pole opposite false speech—a mind that does not deceive, issuing in words; where the parting from false speech is complete stands the Tathāgata's true speech. |
VIII. Names of Persons
Disciples
| Term in this book | Romanization | One plain sentence |
|---|
| Ānanda | Ānanda | Foremost in learning, the Buddha's attendant—the asker of the book's opening question, "What is the meaning of keeping the precepts?" |
| Upāli | Upāli | Foremost in upholding the Vinaya, "the discipline of the assembly"—gripping the body, then the mind: the perfect-penetration man of the precept gate; also the one whose question to the Buddha drew out the three clusters. |
| Mahākāśyapa | Mahākassapa (P) / Mahākāśyapa (Skt) | Foremost in ascetic practice—convener of the Council of Five Hundred; he opened the gateway of perfect penetration through contraction. |
| Ucchuṣma | Ucchuṣma | The "fire-head"—who turned a mind of heavy lust into the fire of wisdom; he opened the gateway of perfect penetration through transmutation. |
| Sudinna | Sudinna | The bhikkhu of Vesālī—on whose account the first precept was laid down. |
| Mahānāma and Saḷha | Mahānāma / Saḷha | The two Śākyans of Kapilavatthu who disputed whether the things are three or four. |
| Aññā-Koṇḍañña | Aññā-Koṇḍañña (P) | The first person the Buddha delivered, at the first turning of the Dharma-wheel. |
| Subhadda | Subhadda (P) / Subhadra (Skt) | The last person the Buddha delivered, in His final teaching. |
| Mātaṅgī | Mātaṅgī | The occasion of the Śūraṅgama assembly—the one who ensnared Ānanda with an illusory spell. |
Buddhas and Bodhisattvas
| Term in this book | Romanization | One plain sentence |
|---|
| Śākyamuni Buddha, the root teacher | Śākyamuni | Our root teacher—"muni": the sage of silence. |
| Bhaiṣajyaguru (the Medicine Buddha) | Bhaiṣajyaguru | The Buddha of the eastern world of Lapis-Lazuli Radiance—His twelve great vows guard the conditions for the one who keeps precepts. |
| Vimalakīrti | Vimalakīrti | The great householder of Vaiśālī—speaker of "Remove it directly, do not perturb their minds." |
| Mañjuśrī | Mañjuśrī | The bodhisattva of great wisdom—the one who asked, at the Lotus assembly, how the sūtra is to be preached in an evil age. |
| Samantabhadra | Samantabhadra | The bodhisattva of great practice—"the offering of practicing as taught": keeping the precept is itself a share of the dharma-offering. |
| Maitreya | Maitreya | The bodhisattva who will descend in the age to come—the speaker from whom the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra comes. |
Patriarchs and Treatise Masters
| Term in this book | Dynasty / lineage | One plain sentence |
|---|
| Nāgārjuna | c. 2nd–3rd century | Author of the Dazhidu lun and the Daśabhūmika-vibhāṣā—the one who set up the guardrail of "transgression unobtainable." |
| Vasubandhu | c. 4th–5th century | Author of the Abhidharmakośa, the Daśabhūmika-sūtra-śāstra, and the Triṃśikā—speaker of the simile of refining gold with alum. |
| Asaṅga | c. 4th–5th century | Author of the Mahāyānasaṃgraha; Vasubandhu's elder brother. |
| Daoxuan | Tang (596–667); founding patriarch of the Nanshan Vinaya school | The Xingshichao, the Precept-Commentary, the Karman-Commentary—judge of "receiving and following must sustain each other" and of the Perfect-Teaching seed as the precept-substance. |
| Zhiyi (Master Zhizhe) | Sui (538–597); patriarch of the Tiantai school | The Fahua wenju and the Pusa jie yishu—judge of "the precept gate as an aid to contemplation" and of "not seeing keeping or breaking is called the precept." |
| Yuanzhao | Song (1048–1116); restorer of the Nanshan line | The Zichiji, the Xingzongji, the Jiyuanji—the one who transmitted Daoxuan's three great commentaries. |
| Zixuan (Changshui) | Song (965–1038) | The Shoulengyan yishu zhujing—annotator of "the samādhi-precept as the usher" and of "curing the mind point by point." |
| Zhenjian (Jiaoguang) | Ming | The Lengyan jing zhengmai shu—annotator of "the earlier do not include the later; the later must include the earlier." |
| Taehyŏn | Silla (8th century) | The Benyuan yaoshi jing guji—the commentator who sorted Bhaiṣajyaguru's twelve vows into six paired gates. |
| Lingyao | early Qing; Tiantai | The Yaoshi jing zhijie—annotator of the "two great conditions" and of the two depths of the vows. |
| Chengguan (Qingliang) | Tang (738–839); fourth patriarch of Huayan | The Huayan jing shu and the Yanyi chao—annotator of "the marks of pure brahma-conduct." |
| Sengzhao | Later Qin (384–414) | The Zhu Weimojie jing—one of the four sages of Kumārajīva's gate. |
| Huineng (the Sixth Patriarch) | Tang (638–713); sixth patriarch of Chan | Conferred the sign-less precept at Dafan Temple—"the mind-ground without wrong is the self-nature precept." |
The table ends here. The occasional term that appears in the main text but not in this table is glossed where it occurs; you can read this book without remembering a single one of these romanized letters, and lose nothing at all.