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Vimānavatthu
The ''Vimānavatthu'' (Vimāna-; abbreviated as "Vv") is a Theravada Buddhist scripture, the sixth book of the '' Khuddaka Nikaya'' in the Pali Canon. Its name in Pali means "Stories of the Vimana," usually translated as 'heavenly abodes' or 'divine mansions'. The Vimanavatthu is an anthology of 83 short stories written in verse, divided into seven chapters or ''vagga''. Each story describes the life and deeds of a character who has attained residence in a heavenly mansion, the "Vimana", due to their meritorious deeds. Overview Each of the stories in the Vimanavatthu follows the same pattern, using the frame of the Buddha's disciple Mahamoggallana asking a deva the reason for their current residence in a divine abode. The deva then relates the good deeds in their previous birth that lead to their rebirth in the divine realm. The text is generally regarded by scholars as a relatively late addition to the Pali Canon, possibly one of the last texts added to the Khuddaka Nikaya ...
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Jataka
The ''Jātaka'' (Sanskrit for "Birth-Related" or "Birth Stories") are a voluminous body of literature native to the Indian subcontinent which mainly concern the previous births of Gautama Buddha in both human and animal form. Jataka stories were depicted on the railings and Toran_(art), torans of the stupas. According to Peter Skilling, this genre is "one of the oldest classes of Buddhist literature."Skilling, Peter (2010). ''Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of South-East Asia,'' pp. 161–162. Some of these texts are also considered great works of literature in their own right.Shaw, Sarah (2006). ''The Jatakas: Birth Stories of Bodhisatta'', p. xxii. Penguin UK. The various Indian Buddhist schools had different collections of jātakas. The largest known collection is the ''Jātaka (Pali Canon), Jātakatthavaṇṇanā'' of the Theravada school, as a textual division of the Pāli Canon, included in the ''Khuddaka Nikaya'' of the ''Sutta Pitaka''. In these stories, the future B ...
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Petavatthu
__NOTOC__ The ''Petavatthu'' () is a Theravada Buddhist scripture, included in the Minor Collection (''Khuddaka Nikaya'') of the Pali Canon's Sutta Pitaka. It ostensibly reports stories about and conversations among the Buddha and his disciples, and it dates to about 300BC at the earliest.. It is composed of 51 verse narratives describing specifically how the effects of bad acts can lead to rebirth into the unhappy world of petas (ghosts) in the doctrine of kamma. More importantly, it details how meritorious actions by the living can benefit such suffering beings. The scripture also includes the story of Mahā Moggallāna helping Sāriputta's mother from her previous life in the hungry ghost realm, his discussions with hungry ghosts, and his understanding of the realm. Before being born as a ghost, Sāriputta's mother was born in the hell realm. It also includes a story of how making offerings to the monks as a form of merit-making to increase the chance of a hungry gho ...
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Mahamoggallana
Maudgalyāyana (), also known as Mahāmaudgalyāyana or by his birth name Kolita, was one of the Buddha's closest disciples. Described as a contemporary of disciples such as Subhuti, Śāriputra ('), and Mahākāśyapa (), he is considered the second of the Buddha's two foremost male disciples, together with Śāriputra. Traditional accounts relate that Maudgalyāyana and Śāriputra become spiritual wanderers in their youth. After having searched for spiritual truth for a while, they come into contact with the Buddhist teaching through verses that have become widely known in the Buddhist world. Eventually they meet the Buddha himself and ordain as monks under him. Maudgalyāyana attains enlightenment shortly after that. Maudgalyayana and Śāriputra have a deep spiritual friendship. They are depicted in Buddhist art as the two disciples that accompany the Buddha, and they have complementing roles as teachers. As a teacher, Maudgalyayana is known for his psychic powers, and ...
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Theravada
''Theravāda'' (; 'School of the Elders'; ) is Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school's adherents, termed ''Theravādins'' (anglicized from Pali ''theravādī''), have preserved their version of the Buddha's teaching or ''Dharma (Buddhism), Dhamma'' in the Pāli Canon for over two millennia. The Pāli Canon is the most complete Buddhist canon surviving in a Indo-Aryan languages, classical Indian language, Pāli, which serves as the school's sacred language and ''lingua franca''.Crosby, Kate (2013), ''Theravada Buddhism: Continuity, Diversity, and Identity'', p. 2. In contrast to Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna, Theravāda tends to be conservative in matters of doctrine (''pariyatti'') and monastic discipline (''vinaya''). One element of this Religious conservatism, conservatism is the fact that Theravāda rejects the authenticity of the Mahayana sutras (which appeared onwards). Consequently, Theravāda generally does not recognize the existence of many Buddhas and bodhisattva ...
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Nibbāna
Nirvana, in the Indian religions (Jainism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism), is the concept of an individual's passions being extinguished as the ultimate state of salvation, release, or liberation from suffering ('' duḥkha'') and from the cycle of birth and rebirth (''saṃsāra''). In Indian religions, nirvana is synonymous with ''moksha'' and ''mukti''. All Indian religions assert it to be a state of perfect quietude, freedom, and highest happiness; liberation from attachment and worldly suffering; and the ending of ''samsara'', the cycle of existence.Gavin Flood, ''Nirvana''. In: John Bowker (ed.), '' Oxford Dictionary of World Religions'' However, non-Buddhist and Buddhist traditions describe these terms for liberation differently. In Hindu philosophy, it is the union of or the realization of the identity of Atman with Brahman, depending on the Hindu tradition. In Jainism, nirvana is also the soteriological goal, representing the release of a soul from karmic bondage ...
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Karma
Karma (, from , ; ) is an ancient Indian concept that refers to an action, work, or deed, and its effect or consequences. In Indian religions, the term more specifically refers to a principle of cause and effect, often descriptively called the principle of karma, wherein individuals' intent and actions (cause) influence their future (effect): Good intent and good deeds contribute to good karma and happier Reincarnation, rebirths, while bad intent and bad deeds contribute to bad karma and worse rebirths. In some scriptures, however, there is no link between rebirth and karma. In Hinduism, karma is traditionally classified into four types: Sanchita karma (accumulated karma from past actions across lifetimes), Prārabdha karma (a portion of Sanchita karma that is currently bearing fruit and determines the circumstances of the present life), Āgāmi karma (future karma generated by present actions), and Kriyamāṇa karma (immediate karma created by current actions, which may y ...
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Āgama (Buddhism)
In Buddhism, an ''āgama'' (आगम Sanskrit and Pāli, Tibetan: ལུང་ ( Wylie: lung) for "sacred work"Monier-Williams (1899), p. 129, see "Āgama," retrieved 12 Dec 2008 from "U. Cologne" at http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/MWScan/MWScanpdf/mw0129-Akhara.pdf. or "scripture"Rhys Davids & Stede (1921-25), p. 95, entry for "Āgama," retrieved 12 Dec 2008 from "U. Chicago" at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.0:1:2582.pali.) is a collection of early Buddhist texts. The five ''āgama'' together comprise the '' Suttapiṭaka'' of the early Buddhist schools, which had different recensions of each āgama. In the Pali Canon of the Theravada, the term ''nikāya'' is used. The word ''āgama'' does not occur in this collection. Meaning In Buddhism, the term ''āgama'' is used to refer to a collection of discourses (Sanskrit: '' sūtra''; Pali: ''sutta'') of the early Buddhist schools, which were preserved primarily in Chinese translation, ...
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Sarvastivada
The ''Sarvāstivāda'' (; ;) was one of the early Buddhist schools established around the reign of Ashoka (third century BCE).Westerhoff, The Golden Age of Indian Buddhist Philosophy in the First Millennium CE, 2018, p. 60. It was particularly known as an Abhidharma tradition, with a unique set of seven canonical Abhidharma texts.Westerhoff, 2018, p. 61. The Sarvāstivādins were one of the most influential Buddhist monastic groups, flourishing throughout North India, especially Kashmir and Central Asia, until the 7th century CE. The orthodox Kashmiri branch of the school composed the large and encyclopedic '' Abhidharma Mahāvibhāṣa Śāstra'' around the time of the reign of Kanishka (c. 127–150 CE). Because of this, orthodox Sarvāstivādins who upheld the doctrines in the ''Mahāvibhāṣa'' were called '' Vaibhāṣikas.'' There have been debates about the exact chronological emergence of Sarvastivadins from Sthavira nikāya. According to the Theravādin '' Dī ...
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Arya Metre
''Āryā metre'' is a metre used in Sanskrit, Prakrit and Marathi verses. A verse in metre is in four metrical lines called ''pāda''s. Unlike the majority of metres employed in classical Sanskrit, the metre is based on the number of s ( morae) per . A short syllable counts for one , and a long syllable (that is, one containing a long vowel, or a short vowel followed by two consonants) counts for two s. It is believed that metre was taken from the gāthā metre of Prakrit. metre is common in Jain Prakrit texts and hence considered as favourite metre of early authors of Jainism. The earlier form of the metre is called old , which occurs in a some very early Prakrit and Pāli texts. Āryā The basic verse has 12, 18, 12 and 15 s in the first, second, third, and fourth ''pāda''s respectively. An example is the following from Kālidāsa's play '' Abhijñānaśākuntalam'' (c. 400 CE): : : : : : : : – u u , – – , u u – : u – u , – – , u – u , – – , ...
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Buddhist
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or 5th century Before the Common Era, BCE. It is the Major religious groups, world's fourth-largest religion, with about 500 million followers, known as Buddhists, who comprise four percent of the global population. It arose in the eastern Gangetic plain as a movement in the 5th century BCE, and gradually spread throughout much of Asia. Buddhism has subsequently played a major role in Asian culture and spirituality, eventually spreading to Western world, the West in the 20th century. According to tradition, the Buddha instructed his followers in a path of bhavana, development which leads to Enlightenment in Buddhism, awakening and moksha, full liberation from ''Duḥkha, dukkha'' (). He regarded this path as a Middle Way between extremes su ...
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Deva (Buddhism)
A Deva (Sanskrit and Pali: देव; Mongolian: тэнгэр, tenger) in Buddhism is a type of celestial being or god who shares the god-like characteristics of being more powerful, longer-lived, and, in general, much happier than humans, although the same level of veneration is not paid to them as to Buddhas. Other words used in Buddhist texts to refer to similar supernatural beings are devatā ("deities") and devaputta ("son of god"). While the former is a synonym for deva ("celestials"), the latter refers specifically to one of these beings who is young and has newly arisen in its heavenly world. In East Asian Buddhism, the word ''deva'' is translated as 天 (literally "heaven") or 天人 (literally "heavenly person") (see the Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese versions of this article for more). The feminine equivalent of ''deva'', ''devi'', is sometimes translated as 天女 (literally "heavenly female"), in names such as 吉祥天女 or 辯才天女, altho ...
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