Curated category
Twelve nidānas
- Avidyā (Buddhism)The Sanskrit word avidyā appears in the Rigveda, a collection of ancient hymns dating back to the second millennium BCE.
- Jāti (Buddhism)The Sanskrit word jāti and the Pali term jāti both mean birth within Buddhist doctrine. These words describe physical birth, rebirth as a new living entity…
- SkandhaThe Sanskrit word skandha means heaps, aggregates, collections, groupings, or clusters. This term appears in ancient Vedic literature before Buddhism adopted…
- VedanāThe Pali word vedanā translates simply as feeling or sensation. It refers to the pleasant, unpleasant and neutral sensations that occur when internal sense…
- JarāmaraṇaThe Sanskrit word jarā means to become brittle or decay. Ancient Vedic texts used the root jarati to describe consumption and crumbling.
- SparśaSanskrit texts from the early centuries of the Common Era describe sparśa as a precise coming together of three distinct factors.
- SaṅkhāraThe word sañkhāra appears in the Pali Canon and Sanskrit texts as a term meaning 'formations' or 'that which has been put together'.
- VijñānaThe Sanskrit word vijñāna appears in many early Upanishads, where translators have rendered it as understanding, knowledge, and intelligence.
- BhavaBhava is a Sanskrit word that carries more weight than almost any single term in the religious traditions of South Asia.
- TaṇhāThe word tañhā appears in the Samhita layer of the Rigveda, dated to the 2nd millennium BCE. It surfaces in hymns such as 1.7.11 and 3.9.3 with meanings like…
- UpādānaThe Sanskrit word upādāna translates to fuel, material cause, or substrate that keeps an active process energized. Ancient Pali texts define it as the source…