Curated playlist
Twelve nidānas
- Avidyā (Buddhism)In Buddhism, avidyā is pictured as a figure wearing a blindfold. It is a deep misperception, not missing facts.
- 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.
- JarāmaraṇaThe Buddha compared old age and death to mountains closing in from every side.
- SparśaSparśa is the Buddhist word for the instant a sense organ, its object and awareness meet.
- SaṅkhāraThe Buddha's reported last words hinge on saṅkhāra, a Pali word no English term translates cleanly.
- 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.
- TaṇhāTaṇhā, the Pali word for craving, shares a root with the English word thirst.
- UpādānaThe Buddhist word upādāna means both clinging and fuel. Its literal meaning ties a grasping mind to a burning fire.