Appendix C · Glossary of Terms

In the body of the book, every technical term was explained in plain words at its first appearance; the Sanskrit and Pāli romanizations, with their dots and macrons, were all kept back here, so as not to disturb the text.

Each entry gives: the term — romanization (P/S) — one plain sentence. "P" marks Pāli (the idiom of the early āgama context), "S" marks Sanskrit (the idiom of the treatises); some terms carry both, and some are Chinese translators' own coinages, given without romanization.

I. The Fruits, and Approach and Fruit

• śramaṇa / renunciant — samaṇa (P) / śramaṇa (S) — one gone forth to practice; the "four fruits of the renunciant's path" are this road's attainments.
• sotāpanna / stream-enterer — sotāpanna (P) / srota-āpanna (S) — the first fruit: the first three fetters severed, entered into the stream of the eightfold path, no falling to the lower destinies, at most seven returns.
• sakadāgāmin / once-returner — sakadāgāmin (P) / sakṛdāgāmin (S) — the second fruit: three fetters severed, greed-hatred-delusion attenuated (six grades of nine), at most one more return among humans.
• anāgāmin / non-returner — anāgāmin (P/S) — the third fruit: the five lower fetters exhausted, no return to the desire realm, born in the Pure Abodes unto final nibbāna.
• arahant — arahant (P) / arhat (S) — the fourth fruit: all ten fetters severed, the taints exhausted. This book writes only to its approach.
• approach / fruit — (Chinese: 向 / 果) — the two phases of one severance: the approach is the moving phase (coming down), the fruit the still phase (down for good).
• the four pairs, eight persons — (Chinese: 四雙八輩) — four approaches and four fruits, eight kinds of noble one; the sutta's content of "the World-Honored One's community of disciples."

II. The Fetters — the Ruler's Markings

• fetter — saṃyojana (P/S) — a binding; the knot tying the mind to the round of birth and death. The fruits are measured by which are severed.
• identity-view — sakkāya-diṭṭhi (P) / satkāya-dṛṣṭi (S) — the view taking the five aggregates as "I." First of the three; blocks who walks.
• doubt — vicikicchā (P) / vicikitsā (S) — root hesitation toward the Buddha, Dharma, Saṅgha, and path. Second; blocks whether one walks.
• grasping of rites and observances — sīlabbata-parāmāsa (P) — clutching precepts and rituals irrelevant to liberation as the purifying way. Third; blocks which road.
• sensual craving — kāma-rāga (P/S) — craving for the desire realm's pleasures. Fourth of the lower five.
• ill will — paṭigha (P) / pratigha (S) — hostility toward what opposes. Fifth of the lower five.
• the five lower fetters — orambhāgiya-saṃyojana (P) — the five binding to the desire realm (the lower portion): identity-view, rite-grasping, doubt, sensual craving, ill will; their exhaustion is non-return.
• craving for form — rūpa-rāga (P) — the fine craving for the form realm's meditative bliss. First of the higher five.
• craving for the formless — arūpa-rāga (P) — the fine craving for the formless states. Second of the higher five.
• conceit — māna (P/S) — the last shadow of "I," most often the fine thought "I have attained." Third of the higher five.
• restlessness — uddhacca (P) / auddhatya (S) — the last unstilled stirring of a mind at utmost quiet. Fourth of the higher five.
• ignorance — avijjā (P) / avidyā (S) — the root of all fetters, lying under all knowing; severed last. Fifth of the higher five.
• the five higher fetters — uddhambhāgiya-saṃyojana (P) — the five binding to the upper two realms; the collected term belongs to the treatises, the content stands in the āgamas.
• the nine grades — (a treatise division) — the desire realm's greed-hatred-delusion divided from top-of-top to bottom-of-bottom; "attenuated" means six of nine permanently severed, the lower grade remaining.

III. Severance and the Fruit's Substance

• cessation through discernment — pratisaṃkhyā-nirodha (S) — by the power of discerning wisdom, a defilement made never to arise again; that very "never again." Unconditioned, hence without regress. The substance of a fruit.
• perception of impermanence — anicca-saññā (P) — the perception that all (the bliss of absorption and "I" not excepted) is impermanent; the finest wisdom, severing the higher fetters at the root.
• wisdom-liberated — paññāvimutta (P) — the arahant without deep absorption whose taints are exhausted by wisdom; the class the World-Honored One ratified in the Susīma discourse.
• both-ways liberated — ubhatobhāgavimutta (P) — the arahant liberated on both sides, joining deep attainment to the taints' exhaustion.
• taint — āsava (P) / āsrava (S) — the seeping defilements; three in all: of sensuality, of being, of ignorance.
• exhaustion of the taints — (Chinese: 漏盡) — the three taints forever ended, the ten fetters done; the subtraction's completed aspect, the instant the arahant fruit stands.

IV. Rebirth and the Realms

• the three realms — (Chinese: 欲界·色界·無色界) — desire, form, formless: the realm bound by sense pleasure, the realm of subtle form and meditative bliss, the realm of pure formless states. The lower five fetters bind to the first; the higher five to the upper two.
• at most seven returns — (Chinese: 極七返) — the stream-enterer's ceiling: at most seven births each among gods and humans (twenty-eight existences in all); "at most" means maximum, not allotment.
• one return — (Chinese: 一往來) — the once-returner's ceiling: once up among the gods, once back among humans, and there final nibbāna.
• intermediate state — antarābhava (S) — the passage-body between dying here and being born there; its existence is disputed among the schools; this book follows the Kośa's account.
• the Pure Abodes — suddhāvāsa (P) / śuddhāvāsa (S) — the uppermost five heavens of the fourth absorption: No Affliction, No Fever, Beautiful Appearance, Clear Sight, Akaniṣṭha; dwelt in by noble ones alone, the non-returner's birthplace.
• Akaniṭṭha / the Limit of Form — Akaniṭṭha (P) / Akaniṣṭha (S) — the summit of the Pure Abodes and of the form realm; the upstream attainer's end (the wisdom-inclined).
• final nibbāna — parinibbāna (P) / parinirvāṇa (S) — the final extinguishing.
• the five final nibbānas — (Chinese: 五種般涅槃) — the non-returner's five gaits to nibbāna: in the interval, upon rebirth, with exertion, without exertion, upstream. One fruit, differing journeys.
• the four unshakable confidences — (Chinese: 四不壞淨) — the stream-enterer's four marks: confidence in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha that no longer shakes, with the noble virtues fulfilled.
• the noble eightfold path — ariya aṭṭhaṅgika magga (P) — right view through right concentration; the very stream that "stream-entry" enters.

V. Other Terms

• the four truths — (Chinese: 四諦) — suffering, its arising, its cessation, the way; the seeing-as-it-is on which the knowledge of the taints' exhaustion rests.
• the three knowledges — (Chinese: 三明) — of past lives, of the divine eye, of the taints' exhaustion; the book quotes the third.
• the self-declaration — (Chinese: 自證定型句) — "Birth is exhausted; the holy life has been lived; what was to be done is done; there is no further becoming": the arahant's self-attestation at the taints' exhaustion, wholly in the language of finishing.
• the limit of suffering — (Chinese: 苦邊際) — suffering's continuity sealed at its edge; from here, no further suffering follows.