Brahmacariya, Brahma-cariya, Brahmacariyā: 7 definitions
Introduction:
Brahmacariya means something in Buddhism, Pali, Hinduism, Sanskrit. 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 Brahmachariya.
In Buddhism
Theravada (major branch of Buddhism)
'pure (chaste) or holy life', is a term for the life of the monk.
Also a lay-devotee who observes the 8 moral precepts (sikkhāpada), takes as the third precept the vow of chastity, i.e. full abstention from sexual relations.
The highest aim and purpose of b. is, according to M. 29, the 'unshakable deliverance of mind' (akuppā ceto-vimutti).
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).
Languages of India and abroad
Pali-English dictionary
brahmacariyā : (f.) religious life; complete chastity.
Brahmacariya, (nt.) (brahma+cariya) a term (not in the strictly Buddhist sense) for observance of vows of holiness, particularly of chastity: good & moral living (brahmaṃ cariyaṃ brahmāṇaṃ vā cariyaṃ=brahmacariyaṃ KhA 151); esp. in Buddh. sense the moral life, holy life, religious life, as way to end suffering, Vin. I, 12, 19, renouncing the world, study of the Dhamma D. I, 84, 155; II, 106; III, 122 sq. , 211; M. I, 77, 147, 193, 205, 426, 463, 492, 514; II, 38; III, 36, 116; S. I, 38, 43, 87, 105, 154, 209; II, 24, 29, 120, 219, 278, 284 (°pariyosāna); III, 83, 189; IV, 51, 104, 110, 126, 136 sq. , 163, 253, V, 7 sq. , 15 sq. , 26 sq. , 54 sq. , 233, 262, 272, 352; A. I, 50, 168, 225; II, 26, 44, 185; III, 250, 346; IV, 311; V, 18, 71, 136; Sn. 267, 274 (vas-uttama), 566, 655, 1128; Th. 1, 1027, 1079; It. 28, 48, 78, 111; Dh. 155, 156, 312; J. III, 396; IV, 52; Pv. II, 913; DhA. IV, 42 (vasuttamaṃ); VbhA. 504.—brahmacariyaṃ vussati to live the religious life A. I, 115 (cp. °ṃ vusitaṃ in formula under Arahant II. A); °assa kevalin wholly given up to a good life A. I, 162; °ṃ santānetuṃ to continue the good life A. III, 90; DhA. I, 119; komāra° the religious training of a well-bred youth A. III, 224; Sn. 289.—abrahmacariya unchastity, an immoral life, sinful living M. I, 514; D. I, 4; Sn. 396; KhA 26.
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Brahmacariya refers to: see separate article.
Note: brahmacariya is a Pali compound consisting of the words brahma and cariya.
brahmacariya (ဗြဟ္မစရိယ) [(na) (န)]—
[brahma+cariya]
[ဗြဟ္မ+စရိယ]
[Pali to Burmese]
brahmacariya—
(Burmese text): (၁) မြတ်-တိုးပွါး-ဖြူစင်-သန်ရှင်း-သော အကျင့်၊ မြတ်ကုန်သော သူတို့၏အကျင့်၊ မြတ်သောသူတို့ကျင့်အပ်သော အကျင့်၊ မြတ်သော နိဗ္ဗာန် အလို့ငှါ ကျင့်အပ်သော အကျင့်။ (၂) ဗြဟ္မာမင်းတို့၏အကျင့်။ (၃) မြတ်သော အကျင့်ကို ကျင့်သုံးခြင်း။ (က) ဒါန။ (ခ) သေယျာဝစ္စ။ (ဂ) ငါးပါးသီလ။ (ဃ) အပ္ပမညာ ၄-ပါး။ (င) မေထုန်မှ ရှောင်ကြဉ်မှု။ (စ) မိမိမယားဖြင့် ရောင့်ရဲတင်းတိမ်မှု၊ (ဆ) ဝီရိယ။ (ဇ) အဋ္ဌင်္ဂဥပုသ်။ (ဈ) အရိယာမဂ်။ (ည) သာသနာ။ (ဋ) ဓမ္မဒေသနာ။ (ဋ္ဌ) အဇ္ဈာသယ။ (ဍ) သမဏဓမ္မ=ရဟန်းတရား။ (ဎ) အာဘိသမာစာရိကသီလ။ (ဏ) လိင်္ဂဗြဟ္မစရိယများကို အရာအားလျော်စွာ ကောက်ယူရသည်။
(Auto-Translation): (1) The virtues of the noble, the conduct of those who are excellent, the virtues practiced by the noble ones, and the excellent conduct practiced in accordance with Nibbana. (2) The conduct of the Brahma kings. (3) Practicing the noble virtues. (a) Generosity. (b) Ethical conduct (Sila). (c) The Five Precepts. (d) The Four Absorptions (jhanas). (e) The avoidance of what is unwholesome. (f) Abstaining from misconduct regarding one's spouse. (g) Effort (Viriya). (h) The Eightfold Path. (i) Right view. (j) Dhamma teaching. (k) The Noble Truths. (l) The teachings of ascetics, or monks. (m) The Ubhayapadani of aesthetic virtues should be properly included.
Brahmacariya (in Pali) can be associated with the following Chinese terms:
1) 梵行 [fàn xíng]: “pure practices”.
Note: brahmacariya can be alternatively written as: brahma-cariya.
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
Brahmacariya (ब्रह्मचरिय).—(= Pali id., Sanskrit °carya), chastity: Mahāvastu i.202.5 (verse, but °carya is metrical(ly) equally good and occurs in same verse ii.6.2).
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.
See also (Relevant definitions)
Partial matches (+0): Cariya, Brahma.
Starts with (+14): Brahmacariya pariyosana, Brahmacariya Sutta, Brahmacariyacarana, Brahmacariyacaranapadesa, Brahmacariyacetana, Brahmacariyacinnakulaputta, Brahmacariyadhikara, Brahmacariyadukkha, Brahmacariyaggahana, Brahmacariyaka, Brahmacariyakatha, Brahmacariyamaggahetu, Brahmacariyamahanta, Brahmacariyamahatta, Brahmacariyamanda, Brahmacariyantaraya, Brahmacariyantarayakara, Brahmacariyantarayekadesa, Brahmacariyanubhava, Brahmacariyanucinna.
Full-text (+75): Komarabrahmacariya, Brahmacariyantaraya, Brahmacariyavasa, Brahmacariyanuggaha, Jivitabrahmacariya, Brahmacariyacarana, Brahmacariyaggahana, Brahmacariyakatha, Brahmacariyavinasa, Brahmacariyanubhava, Brahmacariyacetana, Brahmacariyapancama, Pabbajjabrahmacariya, Brahmacariyesana, Brahmacariyanucinna, Brahmacariyasaruppa, Brahmacariyadhikara, Brahmacariyamanda, Brahmacariyapariyaya, Virulhabrahmacariya.
Relevant text
Search found 30 books and stories containing Brahmacariya, Brahma-cariya, Brahmacariyā; (plurals include: Brahmacariyas, cariyas, Brahmacariyās). You can also click to the full overview containing English textual excerpts. Below are direct links for the most relevant articles:
Buddhist Monastic Discipline (by Jotiya Dhirasekera)
Chapter III - The Early Buddhist Ideal of the Monk
Chapter II - Brahmacarya (the quest for emancipation and immortality)
Dhammapada (Illustrated) (by Ven. Weagoda Sarada Maha Thero)
Verse 311-313 - The Story of the Obstinate Monk < [Chapter 22 - Niraya Vagga (Hell)]
Verse 155-156 - The Story of Mahādhana the Treasurer’s Son < [Chapter 11 - Jarā Vagga (Old Age)]
Verse 142 - The Story of Santati the Minister < [Chapter 10 - Daṇḍa Vagga (Punishment)]
Buddhist Education in Thailand (critical study) (by Smitthai Aphiwatamonkul)
5. The Monastic Theme of Education < [Chapter 1 - Introduction]
Mahavastu (great story) (by J. J. Jones)
Chapter XXII - The temptation by Māra < [Volume II]
A Survey of Paramattha Dhammas (by Sujin Boriharnwanaket)
Chapter 2 - The Buddha < [Part 1 - General Introduction]
Maha Buddhavamsa—The Great Chronicle of Buddhas (by Ven. Mingun Sayadaw)
Brahmacariya-Pañcama Sīla < [Chapter 6 - On Pāramitā]
Brief Story of The Householder Ugga < [Chapter 6 - On Pāramitā]
Part 5 - Māra’s Threat to Rāhula < [Chapter 32b - The Buddha’s Fourteenth Vassa at Savatthi]