Avacara, Avacāra: 16 definitions
Introduction:
Avacara means something in Buddhism, Pali, Hinduism, Sanskrit, Hindi. If you want to know the exact meaning, history, etymology or English translation of this term then check out the descriptions on this page. Add your comment or reference to a book if you want to contribute to this summary article.
Alternative spellings of this word include Avachara.
In Buddhism
Theravada (major branch of Buddhism)
Avacara means arising frequently (or- frequently arising).
'sphere', realm. The 3 spheres of existence are:
- the sensuous sphere (kāmāvacara),
- the fine-material sphere (rūpāvacara),
- the immaterial sphere (arūpāvacara).
"Which things are of the sensuous sphere (kāmāvacara)?
-
Whatever things exist within the interval bounded beneath by the Avīci-hell and above by the Paranimmitavasavatti-heaven (s. deva), having therein their sphere, and being therein included, to wit: the groups of existence, the elements, bases (s. khandha, dhātu, āyatana), corporeality, feeling, perception, mental formations and consciousness, all these things are of the sensuous sphere. -
But which things are of the fine material sphere (rūpāvacara)?
-
Whatever things exist within the interval bounded beneath by the Brahma-world and above by the Akanittha-world (s. deva), having therein their sphere, and being therein included ... and also consciousness and mental factors in one who has entered the (fine-material) absorptions, or who has been reborn in that sphere, or who already during his life-time is living in happiness (of the absorptions), all these things are of the fine-material sphere. -
Which things are of the immaterial sphere (arūpāvacara)?
-
Consciousness and mental factors arising within the interval bounded beneath by the beings reborn in the sphere of unbounded space and above by the beings reborn in the sphere of neither-perception-nor-non-perception (s. jhāna 5-8), and consciousness and mental factors in one who has entered the (immaterial absorptions), or who has been reborn in that sphere, or who already during his lifetime is living in happiness (of the immaterial absorptions), all these things are of the immaterial sphere."
(Cf. Dhs. 1280, 1282, 1284; Vibh. XVIII). (App.).
(Spheres) (of existence): avacara. - The 4 immaterial spheres (āyatana): s. jhāna (5-8).
Theravāda is a major branch of Buddhism having the the Pali canon (tipitaka) as their canonical literature, which includes the vinaya-pitaka (monastic rules), the sutta-pitaka (Buddhist sermons) and the abhidhamma-pitaka (philosophy and psychology).
Mahayana (major branch of Buddhism)
Avacara (अवचर) refers to the “realms”, according to the 2nd century Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra chapter 7.—Accordingly: “[Question]:—What is it that is called ‘all aspects’ (sarvākāra) and what is it that is called ‘all dharmas’ (sarvadharma)? [Answer]:—[...] Furthermore, there are groups of four dharmas: past, future, present and neither past nor future nor present dharmas; dharmas belonging to the desire realm (kāmadhātu-avacara), to the form realm (rūpadhātu-avacara), to the formless realm (ārūpyadhātu-avacara), belonging to no realm (an-avacara); dharmas resulting from a good cause, a bad cause, an indeterminate cause, a cause neither good nor bad nor indeterminate; dharmas that are object condition, that are not object condition, that are both object condition and not object condition, that are both neither object condition and not object condition. These groups of four dharmas include all dharmas.”.
Mahayana (महायान, mahāyāna) is a major branch of Buddhism focusing on the path of a Bodhisattva (spiritual aspirants/ enlightened beings). Extant literature is vast and primarely composed in the Sanskrit language. There are many sūtras of which some of the earliest are the various Prajñāpāramitā sūtras.
Languages of India and abroad
Pali-English dictionary
avacara : (adj.) moving in; frequenting.
Avacara, (-°) (n. -adj.) (ava + car, also BSk. avacara in same sense, e.g. antaḥpurâvacarā the inmates of the harem Jtm 210) (a) (adj.) living in or with, moving in D. I, 206 (santika° one who stays near, a companion); fig. dealing or familiar with, at home in A. II, 189 (atakka°); IV, 314 (parisā°); J. I, 60 (tāḷa° one conversant with music, a musician, see tāḷa1); II, 95 (saṅgāma°); Miln. 44 (id. and yoga°).—(b) (n.) sphere (of moving or activity), realm, plane (of temporal existence); only as t. t in kāmâvacara rupâvacara arūpâvacara or the 3 realms of sense-desires, form and non-form: kāma° D. I, 34 (°deva); Dhs. 431 (as adj.); rūpa° Pug. 37; arūpa° Pug. 38; Ps. I, 83, 84, 101; Dhs. A 387; PvA. 138, 163; to be omitted in Dhs. 1268, 1278. (Page 81)
1) avacara (အဝစရ) [(ti) (တိ)]—
[ava+cara+ṇa]
[အဝ+စရ+ဏ]
2) avacāra (အဝစာရ) [(pu) (ပု)]—
[ava+cara+ṇa]
[အဝ+စရ+ဏ]
[Pali to Burmese]
1) avacara—
(Burmese text): (၁) သက်ဝင်၍ ဖြစ်လှည့်လည်-ကျက်စား-သွားလာ-တတ်သော။ (၂) အောက်အဖို့၌ ဖြစ်သော။ (၃) (ဉာဏ်ဖြင့်)-သက်ဝင်-ကျက်စား-အပ်သော၊ (ဉာဏ်၏) ကျက်စားရာဖြစ်သော။ (၃) အတက္ကာဝစရ-ကြည့်။
(Auto-Translation): (1) Living and capable of moving around - eating - coming and going. (2) Existing in the lower part. (3) (With intellect) living - eating - related to, pertaining to intelligence. (4) Visual perception of reality.
2) avacāra—
(Burmese text): လှည့်လည်-သွားလာ-ကျက်စား-ခြင်း။ ဒဏ္ဍာဝစရ-ကြည့်။
(Auto-Translation): Traveling around - Going around - Enjoying - Observing closely.
Pali is the language of the Tipiṭaka, which is the sacred canon of Theravāda Buddhism and contains much of the Buddha’s speech. Closeley related to Sanskrit, both languages are used interchangeably between religions.
Sanskrit dictionary
Avacara (अवचर).—(= paricārakaḥ) A groom; तुरगावचरं स बोधयित्वा (turagāvacaraṃ sa bodhayitvā) Bu. Ch.5.68.
Derivable forms: avacaraḥ (अवचरः).
--- OR ---
Avacāra (अवचार).—a. Going or moving down in or upon.
-raḥ A place of descent, road; field of action.
Avacara (अवचर).—(-avacara) (= Pali id.; orig. noun, compare Senart Mahāvastu i.397, but only used at end of [bahuvrīhi] cpds., having…as scope; f. °rī; called ‘ts.’ by Critical Pali Dictionary, but clearly a Buddhist word, as stated in [Boehtlingk] s.v.; found virtually only in Buddhist works and Lexx. in Sanskrit; otherwise occurs once in Rājat. (?), and, to be sure, yajñāvacará in MS., see [Boehtlingk] s.v.; despite these rare Sanskrit occurrences belongs fundamentally to Pali and [Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit], where it is very common); scope, sphere, range of activity or existence: antarīkṣāv° who live in the atmo- sphere Saddharmapuṇḍarīka 288.10 (devatāḥ); Mahāvastu i.33.5 (śuddhāvāsakāyika deva); dakṣiṇāvacara, vāmāv°, having the right (left; viz. part of the womb) as his abiding-place Lalitavistara 55.5, 6; buddha- śāsanāv° Śikṣāsamuccaya 214.10 within the scope of the Buddha's commands (wrongly Bendall); saṃsārāvacarīṃ…sam- yagdṛṣṭim Śikṣāsamuccaya 316.16, true views regarding the saṃsāra; saṃskṛtāv° Gaṇḍavyūha 496.6, things in the realm of the conditioned; traidhātukāv° Bodhisattvabhūmi 246.25, belonging to the sphere of the trai°; caturbhir mārāv° Daśabhūmikasūtra 54.17, with Rahder, citing a Japanese source, things belonging to the four Māra-domains, i.e. the domains of the four Māra, q.v.; atarkāv° Mahāvastu iii.314.2, not within the scope of reasoning (of dharma; so Pali atakkāv°, of dhamma); akṣudrāv° Mahāvastu ii.9.1 (of the Bodhisattva's mother); ii.1.7 (of the family where the [Page071-a+ 71] Bodhisattva is born); antaḥpurāv° Jātakamālā 185.24, whose business was the harem: turagāv° Buddhac. v. 68, groom; especially in kāmāv°, rūpāv°, arūpāv° (or ārūpyāv°), of classes of gods, see under these entries. See also tāḍāvacara.
Avacara (अवचर):—[=ava-cara] [from ava-car] m. the dominion or sphere or department of (in [compound] See kāmāvacara, dhyānāv, etc.), [Buddhist literature] (cf. tālāvacara and yajñāvacara.)
Avacara (अवचर):—(von car mit ava) adj. auf Etwas wandernd, sich auf oder in Etwas bewegend, am Ende eines comp.: dakṣināva, vāmāva, kāmāva, rūpāva, dhyānāva, atarkāva [BURN. Lot. de Lassen’s Anthologie b. l. 353.]
--- OR ---
Avacara (अवचर):—und avacaraṇa vgl. tālāvacara, caraṇa .
Avacara (अवचर):—m. Tummelplatz , Gebiet (buddh.).
Avacāra (in Sanskrit) can be associated with the following Chinese terms:
1) 界 [jiè]: “realm”.
Sanskrit, also spelled संस्कृतम् (saṃskṛtam), is an ancient language of India commonly seen as the grandmother of the Indo-European language family (even English!). Closely allied with Prakrit and Pali, Sanskrit is more exhaustive in both grammar and terms and has the most extensive collection of literature in the world, greatly surpassing its sister-languages Greek and Latin.
Hindi dictionary
Avacāra (अवचार):—(nm) misconduct.
...
Kannada-English dictionary
Avacaṟa (ಅವಚಱ):—[noun] = ಅವಚಱು [avacaru]2
Kannada is a Dravidian language (as opposed to the Indo-European language family) mainly spoken in the southwestern region of India.
See also (Relevant definitions)
Partial matches: Ava, Cara, Na.
Starts with: Avacaraccampa, Avacaragisu, Avacaraja, Avacaraka, Avacarakkutukkai, Avacaram, Avacarana, Avacaranappadesa, Avacaranta, Avacarantika, Avacarappatal, Avacarasadda, Avacarati, Avacarattukkuppo, Avacaravarttanai.
Full-text (+61): Rupavacara, Kamavacara, Talavacara, Anvavacara, Avacarana, Arupavacara, Avacaraka, Avacarati, Takkavacara, Aparisavacara, Avacareti, Avacaritabba, Pannavacara, Ruparupavacarakamma, Kusalamulapubbayogavacara, Adandavacara, Parisavacara, Sangamavacara, Avacarasadda, Icchavacara.
Relevant text
Search found 8 books and stories containing Avacara, Avacāra, Ava-cara, Avacaṟa, Ava-cara-na, Ava-cara-ṇa, Ava-cara-na, Ava-cara-ṇa; (plurals include: Avacaras, Avacāras, caras, Avacaṟas, nas, ṇas). You can also click to the full overview containing English textual excerpts. Below are direct links for the most relevant articles:
Dictionaries of Indian languages (Kosha)
Page 41 < [Tamil-English-Bengali (1 volume)]
Page 36 < [Tamil-English-Malayalam (1 volume)]
Page 356 < [Hindi-English-Nepali (1 volume)]
Dhammasangani (by C.A.F. Rhys Davids)
Part VI - On The Inquiry Into Rupam (form) < [Introductory Essay]
Chapter XIV - The Supplementary Set Of Pairs < [Part I]
A Manual of Abhidhamma (by Nārada Thera)
The Four Classes Of Consciousness < [Chapter I - Different Types of Consciousness]
Cosmogony in Indian Philosophy (study) (by Rashmi Rekha Goswami)
Part 13 - Cosmogony in Bauddha philosophy < [Chapter 6 - Cosmogony in Nāstika schools of Indian philosophy]
A Survey of Paramattha Dhammas (by Sujin Boriharnwanaket)
Chapter 17 - Cittas Of The Sense-sphere < [Part 2 - Citta]
Ahara as depicted in the Pancanikaya (by Le Chanh)
4.3.1. Description of Kabalinkara Ahara < [Chapter 4 - Concept of Ahara in Buddhism]