Buddhism Glossary Terms

Shambhala Training

Shambhala Training is a three-step mediation program, founded in 1977 by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche as a means to reach an audience beyond the Buddhist community. While teachers are all advanced practitioners of Vajrayana Buddhist meditation, for the first...

Shambhala Vajradhatu International

Formed in 1973 by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Shambhala Vajradhatu is a worldwide organization with its headquarters in Halifax, Nova Scotia, two other main centers in Boulder, Colorado and Marburg, Germany, and more than 100 meditation centers around the...

Shasta Abbey

Shasta Abbey, headquartered on Mt. Shasta in northern California, follows the Soto Zen tradition of Japan, although it is not formally affiliated with any Japanese organization. The 16-acre property includes 17 buildings, America’s first Buddhist cemetery...

shikantaza

Shikantaza is a form of meditation known in English as “just sitting” is especially associated with Japanese Soto Zen. In this practice, one strives to erase the rigid categories associated with language so that the mind’s natural ability to illumine...

Shinran Shonin

Shinran Shonin (1173-1262) began the devotional Jodo Shinshu or “True Pure Land” movement of Buddhism. Considering the lay/monk distinction invalid, Shinran married and had several children, thereby initiating the practice of married Jodo Shinshu clergy...

sitting meditation

Sitting is a general term used to refer to the most common meditation practice in the Buddhist tradition: establishing a sitting posture, often in a cross-legged lotus or half-lotus position, with spine erect, and bringing the body to stillness. Sitting...

Sixth Patriarch Hui Neng

Chan (Zen) histories relate that a controversy arose in the 7th century over whether the sixth Chan patriarch was Shenxiu, who regarded enlightenment as gradually occurring by stages, or Huineng (638-713), who asserted that one attained complete...

Soen-roshi, Nakagawa

Nakagawa Soen (1907-1984) was a Rinzai Zen teacher who, although he rarely came to the United States himself, was responsible for sending a number of important Zen teachers to America, including Eido Tai Shimano and Hakuun Yasutani. Those who journeyed to...

Soka Gakkai International

Soka Gakkai was founded in Japan in 1930 by an educator named Tsunesaburo Makiguchi. Soon after its founding, it became associated with Nichiren Shoshu, a sect of Nichiren Buddhism. In the early 1990s, all formal ties between Soka Gakkai International and...

Sokatsu Shaku

Sokatsu Shaku was largely responsible for popularizing Ryomokyokai, the lay-Zen organization first formed by his master, Kosen, at the end of the 19th century. In 1906 Sokatsu led a group of six disciples, including Sokai-an Sasaki, to California, where...

Soto Zen

The Caodong school of Chan Buddhism was founded in China the 9th century. Dogen introduced Soto (the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese graphs for Caodong) to Japan in the 13th century, where it quickly developed into one of the preeminent schools. In...

Stuart-roshi, Maurine

Maurine Stuart-roshi (1922-1990) received Dharma transmission from her teacher, Nakagawa Soen-roshi, and became the resident teacher at the Cambridge Buddhist Association in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

stupa

A stupa is a dome-shaped structure that serves as a reliquary and memorial to the Buddha and other Buddhist worthies. Originally these structures were hemispherical mounds of stone or brick, surrounded by a low fence. In East Asia, the superstructure...

Sukhavati

(also: Amitahba Buddha Paradise Kingdom; Western Paradise Sukhavati) Sukhavati, the Western Pure Land presided over by Amitabha Buddha, is the main focus of devotion in the Pure Land school of Chinese Buddhism, and the Pure Land (Shinshu) and True Pure...

sutra

A sutra is a text containing religious teachings. In the Buddhist tradition, sutras constitute one of the three canonical categories of teachings: vinaya (code of discipline), abhidharma (metaphysics), and sutra (discourses). This last category covers...

Suzuki, Daisetz Teitaro

D.T. Suzuki (1870-1966) first introduced Zen Buddhism to the general American public. Although he was never ordained as a full monk, for several years as a young man he lived in one of Japan’s main Rinzai temples, where he mastered koan study. After...

Suzuki-roshi, Shunryu

Shunryu Suzuki (d. 1971) arrived in America in 1959 to serve as the priest of the Soto Zen Mission in San Francisco. Unlike his predecessors at the Mission, Suzuki not only served the Japanese congregation, but also devoted himself to teaching the...

Tantra

Tantra is a term used in both Hindu and Buddhist traditions to refer to esoteric systems of knowledge and practice which emphasize the paradoxical non-duality of all things, often symbolized by the union of male and female elements. In the Buddhist...

tea ceremony

Chado, meaning “the way of tea,” refers to the tea ceremony, a ritualized method of preparing and drinking tea so that the act assumes profound aesthetic and spiritual import. Although the practice originated in China, it attained its most refined form in...

thangka

A thangka is a Tibetan scroll painting depicting images of Buddhas, bodhisattvas, or other divine beings, sometimes within the sacred circle of a mandala. Usually framed by colorful silk brocades, this visual icon will be hung on temple or monastery walls...

Theosophical Society

The Theosophical Society was founded in 1875 by Colonel Henry Steel Olcott and Helena Petrovna Blavatsky “to study ancient and modern religions, philosophies and sciences, and to investigate the unexplained laws of Nature and the psychical powers latent...

Theravada Buddhism

Theravada, literally “The Way of the Elders,” was one of the eighteen earliest sub-schools of Buddhism. Today, the term designates the various traditions of Buddhism most prominent in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. Although these traditions differ in...

Theravada Forest Tradition

In Theravada Buddhism there are two types of dwelling places for monks: village dwelling and forest dwelling. The Theravada tradition of forest dwelling monk. is preserved in Burma and Thailand where forest monks have today become the teachers of serious...

Thoreau, Henry David

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was one of the first American intellectuals to take an interest in Buddhism and is said to have translated part of the Lotus Sutra from French.

Three Treasures

(also: three treasures; three gems) The Three Treasures are the central symbols of the Buddhist tradition in which one “takes refuge” in becoming a Buddhist: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. Buddha refers to Siddhartha Gautama and other enlightened...

Tiantai School

(also: T'ien-t'ai; Tendai) Tiantai Buddhism was founded in China in the 6th century. The teachings of this Mahayana school are distinguished by: reverence for the Lotus Sutra; an emphasis on the underlying unity of all Buddhist practice and doctrine...

Tiep Hien Order

The Tiep Hien Order was founded by Thich Nhat Hanh and others in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. This Order represents the 42nd generation of the Linji (Rinzai) school of Zen. As a form of “engaged Buddhism,” it emphasizes the application of Buddhist...

Tripitaka

Tripitaka literally means “three baskets” and refers to the three main canonical divisions of the Buddha’s teachings. vinaya (code of discipline), sutra (discourses), and abhidharma (metaphysics).

tulku

Tulku is the Tibetan term for nirmanakaya, the “Transformation Body of the Buddhas,” manifestations of which appear in whatever form necessary to aid others. In Vajrayana Buddhism, the term is reserved for those lamas (enlightened teachers) who have...

Ullambana

The annual honoring of ancestors is celebrated by the various Buddhist ethnic communities at different times of the year, and is known by different names including Ullambana, Yu-lan-p’en, Obon, Vu-lan, the Obon Festival, Vietnamese Mothers’ Day and...