Glossary

Anusaya: Latent tendency -- sensual passion, irritation, views, doubt, pride, passion for states of becoming, and unawareness .

Apaya: State of deprivation; the four lowest levels of existence -- rebirth in hell, as a hungry shade, as an angry demon, or as a common animal.

Arahant: A person whose heart is freed from mental effluents (see asava) and is thus not destined for further rebirth .

Arupa jhana: Meditative absorption in a non physical object .

Asava: Mental effluent -- sensuality, states of becoming, and unawareness.

Avijja: Unawareness, ignorance, counterfeit knowledge.

Dhamma: Event; phenomenon; the way things are in and of themselves; their inherent qualities; the basic principles underlying their behavior. Also, principles of behavior that human beings ought to follow so as to fit in with the right natural order of things; qualities of mind they should develop so as to realize the inherent quality of the mind in and of itself. By extension, Dhamma is used also to refer to any doctrine that teaches such things.

Dhatu: Element; property; potential. The four physical properties are those of earth (solidity), water (liquidity), fire (heat), and wind (energy or motion).

Khandha: Component parts of sensory perception: rupa (physical phenomena); vedana (feelings of pleasure, pain, or indifference); Sanna (concepts, labels, allusions); sankhara (mental fashionings, formations, processes); and vinnana (cognizance, consciousness).

Lokadhamma: Ways of the world -- fortune, loss, praise, blame, status, disgrace, pleasure, and pain.

Nibbana: Liberation; the unbinding of the mind from passion, aversion, and delusion, and thus from the round of death and rebirth.

Nivarana: Hindrances to concentration -- sensual desire, ill will, torpor & lethargy, restlessness & anxiety, and uncertainty.

Ogha: Flood; factors that sweep the mind along the round of death and rebirth -- sensuality, states of becoming, and unawareness.

Patibhaga: The manipulation of visions that appear in meditation.

Rupa jhana: Meditative absorption in a physical object or sensation.

Satipatthana: Frame of reference; foundation of mindfulness -- body, feelings, mind, and mental qualities.

Uggaha nimitta: An image appearing spontaneously during meditation.

Upakkilesa: Mental corruption or defilement -- passion, aversion, and delusion in their various forms.