Manasikara, Manasikāra, Mana-kara: 15 definitions

Introduction
In Buddhism
Languages
1. Pali
2. Sanskrit
3. Prakrit
See also

Introduction:

Manasikara means something in Buddhism, Pali, Hinduism, Sanskrit, Jainism, Prakrit. 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.

In Buddhism

Theravada (major branch of Buddhism)

Source: Dhamma Dana: Pali English Glossary

N Fact to examine an object by means of the mind, in a penetrative manner. Appropriate consideration (of a situation), enabling the developement of healthy actions (kusalass).

Source: Journey to Nibbana: Patthana Dhama

One of the Sabbacittasadharana cetasikas. Manasikara is attention. It makes citta and other co arising cetasikas to attend at the object concerned. It acts like a steerer and it directs citta and other cetasikas to the right object. Manasikara always arises with each arising citta.

Source: Dhamma Study: Cetasikas

attention;

Manasikara is One of the Seven Universals.

Source: Pali Kanon: Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines

s. manasikāra.

-- or --

'attention', 'mental advertence', 'reflection'.

1. As a psychological term, attention belongs to the formation-group (sankhāra-kkhandha; s. Tab. II) and is one of the 7 mental factors (cetasika) that are inseparably associated with all states of consciousness (s. cetanā). In M. 9, it is given as one of the factors representative of mind (nāma) It is the mind's first 'confrontation with an object' and 'binds the associated mental factors to the object.' It is, therefore, the prominent factor in two specific classes of consciousness: i.e. 'advertence (āvajjana, q.v.) at the five sense-doors' (Tab. I, 70) and at the mind-door (Tab. I, 71). These two states of consciousness, breaking through the subconscious life-continuum (bhavanga), form the first stage in the perceptual process (citta-vīthi; s. viññāna-kicca). See Vis.M. XIV, 152.

2. In a more general sense, the term appears frequently in the Suttas as yoniso-manasikāra, 'wise (or reasoned, methodical) attention' or 'wise reflection'. It is said, in M. 2, to counteract the cankers (āsava, q.v.); it is a condition for the arising of right view (s. M. 43), of Stream-entry (s. sotāpattiyanga), and of the factors of enlightenment (s. S. XLVI, 2.49,51). - 'Unwise attention' (ayoniso-manasikāra) leads to the arising of the cankers (s. M. 2) and of the five hindrances (s. S. XLVI, 2.51).

context information

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)

Source: Wisdom Library: Maha Prajnaparamita Sastra

Manasikāra (मनसिकार) refers to “thinking”, according to Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra (chapter 19).—Accordingly, “Furthermore, when generosity is practiced, the mind realizes a type of eight-fold noble Path (āṣṭāṅgikamārga): i) by believing in the fruit of generosity (dānaphala), right view (saṃyagdṛṣṭi) is obtained; ii) because the thinking (manasikāra) inherent in this right view is not disturbed, right concept (samyaksaṃkalpa) is obtained; iii) because physical activities are purified (kāyacaryā), right action is obtained (samyakkarmmanta); v) because reward (vipāka) is not sought after, right livelihood (samyagājīva) is obtained; [...]”.

Source: academia.edu: A Study and Translation of the Gaganagañjaparipṛcchā

Manasikāra (मनसिकार) refers to “mental efforts”, according to the Gaganagañjaparipṛcchā: the eighth chapter of the Mahāsaṃnipāta (a collection of Mahāyāna Buddhist Sūtras).—Accordingly, “When this had been said, the Lord said to the Bodhisattva, the great being Gaganagañja: ‘[...] Just as the sky opens up a possibility for all living beings, in the same way, [the Bodhisattva] gives a gift to nourish all living beings. Just as the sky is without a concept of ‘mine’, in the same way, [the Bodhisattva] gives a gift free from all [selfish] mental efforts (sarva-manasikāra-vigata) toward all living beings. [...]’”.

context information

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.

General definition (in Buddhism)

Source: WikiPedia: Buddhism

Manasikāra (Pāli), derived from manasi (locative of mana thus, loosely, "in mind" or "in thought") and karoti ("to make" or "to bring into") and has been translated as "attention" or "pondering" or "fixed thought".

Languages of India and abroad

Pali-English dictionary

Source: BuddhaSasana: Concise Pali-English Dictionary

manasikāra : (m.) ideation; consideration.

Source: Sutta: Pali Word Grammar from Pali Myanmar Dictionary

manasikāra (မနသိကာရ) [(pu) (ပု)]—
[mana+kāra．karaṇaṃ kāro,manasamiṃ kāro manasikāro．vibhāvinī．1va6．manasikāroti cetta aluttasamāso pubbenivāsotiādīsu viya．maṇimañjū,1．319．rū,nhā．199．rū,ṭī．151．nirutti,nhā．44．]
[မန+ကာရ။ ကရဏံ ကာရော၊ မနသမိံ ကာရော မနသိကာရော။ ဝိဘာဝိနီ။ ၁ဝ၆။ မနသိကာရောတိ စေတ္တ အလုတ္တသမာသော ပုဗ္ဗေနိဝါသောတိအာဒီသု ဝိယ။ မဏိမဉ္ဇူ၊ ၁။၃၁၉။ ရူ၊နှာ။၁၉၉။ ရူ၊ဋီ။၁၅၁။ နိရုတ္တိ၊နှာ။၄၄။]

context information

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

Source: Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries: Edgerton Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Dictionary

Manasikāra (मनसिकार).—m. (= Pali id.; to prec.; also manasī-, manas-kāra, qq.v.), fixing in mind, mental concentration, (especially intense) attention, thought, notice; especially with yoniśaḥ or ayoniśaḥ, qq.v. for examples; nāpi nirgamana-°ram utpādayanti Saddharmapuṇḍarīka 72.15, nor do they put their minds on going out (lit. produce putting of the mind on…); na duḥkha- manasikāra saṃjñām utpādayanti Saddharmapuṇḍarīka 78.5; asmṛtya-°kāra- tāyai Lalitavistara 34.15, to the keeping in mind of what is not memorable; dharma-°kāreṇa Lalitavistara 179.8; tathāgatagaurava- manasi° Lalitavistara 370.1; manasikārāmanasikāratvāt Lalitavistara 422.13, because it cannot be reflected upon by mental reflection; uddeśa-yoga-°kārān (°kāra-viśeṣān) (ud)gṛhya Divyāvadāna 18.12, 17; tato 'sya bhagavatā °kāro dattaḥ Avadāna-śataka i.284.12, then the Lord gave him (the power of) mental concentration, and similarly 348.1; ii.68.10 (not any ‘task’ as Speyer renders; Feer also wrongly); nānya-°kāraḥ Rāṣṭrapālaparipṛcchā 56.17, [bahuvrīhi], having no other thought in mind; evaṃrūpaiḥ saṃjñā-°kāraiḥ Daśabhūmikasūtra 56.27; other, miscellaneous cases, Saddharmapuṇḍarīka 103.11; Mahāvastu ii.278.7; Mahāvyutpatti 1926; Lalitavistara 180.21; Divyāvadāna 180.21; 236.20; 240.1; 407.3; Suvarṇabhāsottamasūtra 7.3; Gaṇḍavyūha 177.3; 241.24.

--- OR ---

Manasīkāra (मनसीकार).—(to prec.) = manasi°: Kāśyapa Parivarta 71.8 (prose), see s.v. yoniśaḥ.

Source: Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries: Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary

Manasikāra (मनसिकार):—[=manasi-kāra] [from manasi > man] m. taking to heart, [Lalita-vistara]

[Sanskrit to German]

Manasikara in German

context information

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.

Prakrit-English dictionary

Source: DDSA: Paia-sadda-mahannavo; a comprehensive Prakrit Hindi dictionary

Maṇasīkara (मणसीकर) in the Prakrit language is related to the Sanskrit word: Manasikṛ.

context information

Prakrit is an ancient language closely associated with both Pali and Sanskrit. Jain literature is often composed in this language or sub-dialects, such as the Agamas and their commentaries which are written in Ardhamagadhi and Maharashtri Prakrit. The earliest extant texts can be dated to as early as the 4th century BCE although core portions might be older.

Relevant text

Search found 34 books and stories containing Manasikara, Mana-kara, Mana-kāra, Manasi-kara, Manasi-kāra, Manasikāra, Manasīkāra, Maṇasīkara; (plurals include: Manasikaras, karas, kāras, Manasikāras, Manasīkāras, Maṇasīkaras). You can also click to the full overview containing English textual excerpts. Below are direct links for the most relevant articles:

Chapter 21 - Amanasikaradhara < [Sanskrit texts of the Advayavajra-samgraha]

Chapter 6 - Caturmudra < [Sanskrit texts of the Advayavajra-samgraha]

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Chapter 7 - Vitality And Attention < [Part I - The Universals]

Chapter 9 - Determination And Energy < [Part II - The Particulars (pakinnaka)]

Chapter 12 - Zeal < [Part II - The Particulars (pakinnaka)]

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Factor 7 - Manasikara (attention) < [Chapter 4 - Cetasikas Associated With Both Good And Bad Cittas (mind)]

Author’s Preface

Chapter 4 - Cetasikas Associated With Both Good And Bad Cittas (mind)

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