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A In Buddhism
Letter A in Siddham script The phoneme A (अ) is an important symbol and seed mantra in Mahayana Buddhism as well as in Vajrayana Buddhism.Robert E. Buswell and Donald S. Lopez (2014). ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', pp. 1, 24. Published by Princeton University Press In Mahayana A is the first vowel of the Sanskrit alphabet. Mahayana Buddhism invested the phoneme with mystical significance, associated with the doctrine of emptiness. In Sanskrit, when a is used as a prefix, it negates the meaning of a word. Thus, for example, ''svabhāva'', “with essence,” can be changed to ''asvabhāva'', “without essence.” The letter also came to signify the Mahayana teaching of Prajñāpāramitā (the Perfection of Wisdom). One of the Prajñāpāramitā sutras is the short ''The Perfection of Wisdom Mother in One Syllable'' (''ekākṣarīmātāprajñāpāramitā''). The sutra opens and closes like a regular Prajñāpār ...
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SIDDHAM LETTER A
Siddham may refer to: *Siddhaṃ script, an alphabet and numeral script that originated and was used in India; now used in East Asia only *Siddham (Unicode block) Siddham is a Unicode block containing characters for the historical, Brahmi-derived Siddham script Siddham may refer to: *Siddhaṃ script (also '), also known in its later evolved form as Siddhamātṛkā, is a medieval Brahmic abugida, ... * ''Siddham'' (film), a 2009 Telugu action film {{disambiguation ...
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A-un
''Om'' (or ''Aum'') (; sa, ॐ, ओम्, Ōṃ, translit-std=IAST) is a sacred sound, syllable, mantra, or an invocation in Hinduism. ''Om'' is the prime symbol of Hinduism.Krishna Sivaraman (2008), ''Hindu Spirituality Vedas Through Vedanta'', Motilal Banarsidass, , page 433 It is variously said to be the essence of the supreme Absolute, consciousness,James Lochtefeld (2002), "Om", ''The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism'', Vol. 2: N-Z, Rosen Publishing. , page 482Om
. ''Merriam-Webster'' (2013), Pronounced: \ˈōm\
'' Ātman,'' '','' or the cosmic world.David Leeming (2005), '' ...
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Ground (Dzogchen)
In Dzogchen, the ground or base () is the primordial state. It is an essential component of the Dzogchen tradition for both the Bon tradition and the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. Knowledge of this ''ground'' is called ''rigpa''. Explication A key concept in Dzogchen is the 'basis', 'ground' or 'primordial state' (Tibetan: གཞི་ ''gzhi''), also called the general ground (སྤྱི་གཞི་ ''spyi gzhi'') or the original ground (གདོད་མའི་གཞི་ ''gdod ma'i gzhi''). The basis is the original state "before realization produced buddhas and nonrealization produced sentient beings". It is atemporal and unchanging and yet it is "noetically potent", giving rise to mind (སེམས་ ''sems,''), consciousness (ཤེས་པ་ ''shes pa''), delusion (མ་རིག་པ་ ''marigpa'') and knowledge (རིག་པ་་''rigpa''). Furthermore, Hatchell notes that the Dzogchen tradition portrays ultimate reality as something which is " ...
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Nyingma
Nyingma (literally 'old school') is the oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. It is also often referred to as ''Ngangyur'' (, ), "order of the ancient translations". The Nyingma school is founded on the first lineages and translations of Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit into Tibetan in the eighth century, during the reign of King Trisong Detsen (r. 710–755). Nyingma traditional histories consider their teachings to trace back to the first Buddha Samantabhadra (Güntu Sangpo) and Indian mahasiddhas such as Garab Dorjé, Śrī Siṃha and Jñānasūtra. Traditional sources trace the origin of the Nyingma order in Tibet to figures associated with the initial introduction of Buddhism in the 8th century, such as Padmasambhava, Yeshe Tsogyal, Vimalamitra, Vairotsana, Buddhaguhya and Śāntarakṣita, Shantaraksita. The Nyingma tradition is also seen having been founded at Samye, Samyé, the first monastery in Tibet. Nyingma teachings are also known for having be ...
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Dzogchen
Dzogchen (, "Great Perfection" or "Great Completion"), also known as ''atiyoga'' ( utmost yoga), is a tradition of teachings in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism and Yungdrung Bon aimed at discovering and continuing in the ultimate ground of existence. The primordial ground (''gzhi'', "basis") is said to have the qualities of purity (i.e. emptiness), spontaneity (''lhun grub'', associated with luminous clarity) and compassion (''thugs rje''). The goal of Dzogchen is knowledge of this basis, this knowledge is called ''rigpa'' (Skt. ''vidyā''). There are numerous spiritual practices taught in the various Dzogchen systems for awakening rigpa. History Dzogchen developed in the Tibetan Empire period and the Era of Fragmentation (9th-11th centuries) and continues to be practiced today both in Tibet and around the world. It is a central teaching of the Yundrung Bon tradition as well as in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. In these traditions, Dzogchen is the highest and most defin ...
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Kūkai
Kūkai (; 27 July 774 – 22 April 835Kūkai was born in 774, the 5th year of the Hōki era; his exact date of birth was designated as the fifteenth day of the sixth month of the Japanese lunar calendar, some 400 years later, by the Shingon sect (Hakeda, 1972 p. 14). Accordingly, Kūkai's birthday is commemorated on June 15 in modern times. This lunar date converts to 27 July 774 in the Julian calendar, and, being an anniversary date, is not affected by the switch to the Gregorian calendar in 1582. Similarly, the recorded date of death is the second year of the Jōwa era, on the 21st day of the third lunar month (Hakeda, 1972 p. 59), i.e. 22 April 835.), born Saeki no Mao (佐伯 眞魚), posthumously called , was a Japanese Buddhist monk, calligrapher, and poet who founded the esoteric Shingon school of Buddhism. He travelled to China, where he studied Tangmi (Chinese Vajrayana Buddhism) under the monk Huiguo. Upon returning to Japan, he founded Shingon—the Japanese branch of ...
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Buddha-nature
Buddha-nature refers to several related Mahayana Buddhist terms, including '' tathata'' ("suchness") but most notably ''tathāgatagarbha'' and ''buddhadhātu''. ''Tathāgatagarbha'' means "the womb" or "embryo" (''garbha'') of the "thus-gone" (''tathāgata''), or "containing a ''tathāgata''", while ''buddhadhātu'' literally means "Buddha-realm" or "Buddha-substrate". Buddha-nature has a wide range of (sometimes conflicting) meanings in Indian and later East Asian and Tibetan Buddhist literature. Broadly speaking, the terms refer to the potential for all sentient beings to be a Buddha, since the luminous mind, "the natural and true state of the mind," the pure (''visuddhi'') mind undefiled by kleshas, is inherently present in every sentient being. It will shine forth when it is cleansed of the defilements, c.q. when the nature of mind is recognised for what it is. The ''Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra'' (written 2nd century CE), which was very influential in the Ch ...
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Siddhaṃ Script
(also '), also known in its later evolved form as Siddhamātṛkā, is a medieval Brahmic abugida, derived from the Gupta script and ancestral to the Nāgarī, Assamese, Bengali, Tirhuta, Odia and Nepalese scripts. The word means "accomplished" or "perfected" in Sanskrit. The script received its name from the practice of writing ', or ' (may there be perfection), at the head of documents. Other names for the script include ''bonji'' ( ja, 梵字) lit. "Brahma's characters" and "Sanskrit script" and lit. "Siddhaṃ script". History The script evolved from the Gupta Brahmi script in the late 6th century CE. Many Buddhist texts taken to China along the Silk Road were written using a version of the script. This continued to evolve, and minor variations are seen across time, and in different regions. Importantly it was used for transmitting the Buddhist tantra texts. At the time it was considered important to preserve the pronunciation of mantras, and Chinese wa ...
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Dharmakāya
The ''dharmakāya'' ( sa, धर्म काय, "truth body" or "reality body", zh, t=法身, p=fǎshēn, ) is one of the three bodies (''trikāya'') of a buddha in Mahāyāna Buddhism. The ''dharmakāya'' constitutes the unmanifested, "inconceivable" (''acintya'') aspect of a buddha out of which buddhas arise and to which they return after their dissolution. Buddhas are manifestations of the ''dharmakāya'' called the ''nirmāṇakāya'', "transformation body". The Dhammakāya tradition of Thailand and the ''Tathāgatagarbha sūtras'' of the ancient Indian tradition view the ''dharmakāya'' as the '' ātman'' (true self) of the Buddha present within all beings. Origins and development Pali Canon In the Pāli Canon, Gautama Buddha tells Vasettha that the Tathāgata (the Buddha) is ''dhammakaya'', the "truth-body" or the "embodiment of truth", as well as ''dharmabhuta'', "truth-become", that is, "one who has become truth." During the Buddha's life great veneration was ...
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Vairocana
Vairocana (also Mahāvairocana, sa, वैरोचन) is a cosmic buddha from Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. Vairocana is often interpreted, in texts like the ''Avatamsaka Sutra'', as the dharmakāya of the historical Gautama Buddha. In East Asian Buddhism (Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese Buddhism), Vairocana is also seen as the embodiment of the Buddhist concept of śūnyatā. In the conception of the 5 Jinas of Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism, Vairocana is at the centre and is considered a Primordial Buddha. Vairocana is not to be confused with Vairocana Mahabali, son of Virochana. Literary and historical development Vairocana Buddha is first introduced in the ''Brahmajala Sutra'': Vairocana is also mentioned in the ''Avatamsaka Sutra''; however, the doctrine of Vairocana is based largely on the teachings of the ''Mahavairocana Tantra'' (also known as the ) and to a lesser degree the ''Vajrasekhara Sutra'' (also known as the Tantra). In the ''Avatamsaka Sutr ...
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Shingon Buddhism
Shingon monks at Mount Koya is one of the major schools of Buddhism in Japan and one of the few surviving Vajrayana lineages in East Asia, originally spread from India to China through traveling monks such as Vajrabodhi and Amoghavajra. Known in Chinese as the Tangmi (; the Esoteric School in Tang Dynasty of China), these esoteric teachings would later flourish in Japan under the auspices of a Buddhist monk named Kūkai (), who traveled to Tang China to acquire and request transmission of the esoteric teachings. For that reason, it is often called Japanese Esoteric Buddhism, or Orthodox Esoteric Buddhism. The word ''shingon'' is the Japanese reading of the Chinese word ('), which is the translation of the Sanskrit word ("mantra"). History Shingon Buddhist doctrine and teachings arose during the Heian period (794-1185) after a Buddhist monk named Kūkai traveled to China in 804 to study Esoteric Buddhist practices in the city of Xi'an (), then called Chang-an, at ...
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