Curated playlist
Sanskrit words and phrases
- Avidyā (Buddhism)In Buddhism, avidyā is pictured as a figure wearing a blindfold. It is a deep misperception, not missing facts.
- Arya (Buddhism)In Buddhism, arya names people who have seen reality clearly, not people of high birth.
- DuḥkhaThe Sanskrit word dukkha may have first described a badly fitted cart wheel.
- ApatrapyaApatrapya is the Buddhist idea of avoiding wrong because good people are watching.
- Jāti (Buddhism)In Buddhism, the word jāti means birth, but it can also mean a thought appearing.
- SkandhaBuddhism built a distinctive doctrine on skandha, an ordinary Sanskrit word for a multitude.
- VedanāThe Buddhist idea of vedanā is not what English speakers mean by feeling.
- VinayaBuddhist monastic rules began with no rules at all. They grew case by case, each prompted by an incident.
- AhimsaAfter the Kalinga War, Emperor Ashoka turned ahimsa, nonviolence, into state policy.
- DānaIn ancient India, a smile could count as charity. The Tirukkural lists a beaming smile and kind words as giving.
- JarāmaraṇaThe Buddha compared old age and death to mountains closing in from every side.
- VihāraVihāra is the Sanskrit and Pāli word for a dwelling, and most often it names a Buddhist monastery. The Indian state of Bihar takes its own name from this word, because Buddhist monasteries once stood there in such numbers. A term for a…
- SatyaIndia's national emblem carries the motto "Satyameva Jayate," meaning truth alone triumphs.
- MaitreyaMaitreya is a Buddha who has not yet arrived, and tradition says he will come in 5,670,000,000 years.
- Prajñā (Buddhism)Buddhaghosa used a child, a villager and a money-changer to explain deep understanding.
- SparśaSparśa is the Buddhist word for the instant a sense organ, its object and awareness meet.
- DharmaTranslating the Rigveda, Karl Friedrich Geldner needed 20 English words for dharma.
- VijñānaSariputta compared consciousness and the mind-body complex to two sheaves of reeds leaning together.
- BhavaBhava is a Sanskrit word for both cosmic existence and a person's habitual feelings.
- Om mani padme humOm mani padme hum has never had one agreed meaning. Scholars have debated its central words for over a millennium.
- UpādānaThe Buddhist word upādāna means both clinging and fuel. Its literal meaning ties a grasping mind to a burning fire.