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Reference: Postulate Mechanics

The following definitions are an effort to understand the fundamentals of Buddhism using the approach of Subject Clearing (SC).

To find a word simply use search (CTRL-F). For original definitions in this subject please consult What the Buddha Taught, or other texts available on Buddhism. If you feel that some basic term should be included here, then please let me know.

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BUDDHISM
Almost all religions are built on faith—rather ‘blind’ faith it would seem. But in Buddhism emphasis is laid on ‘seeing’, knowing, understanding, and not on faith, or belief. Buddha puts emphasis on self-reliance but he warns against complete dependence on a particular system including Buddhism. Violence in any form, under any pretext whatsoever, is absolutely against the teaching of the Buddha.

THERAVADA
Theravada, which means “the way of the elders,” is one of the two main schools of Buddhism. Its adherents consider Theravada to be the most authoritative branch because they believe their teachings come directly from the historical Buddha.

MAHAYANA
Mahayana, which means “great vehicle,” is one of the two major traditions of Buddhism, now practiced in a variety of forms especially in China, Tibet, Japan, and Korea. The tradition emerged around the 1st century AD and is typically concerned with altruistically oriented spiritual practice as embodied in the ideal of the bodhisattva.

VAJRAYANA
Vajrayana Buddhism, also known as Tantric Buddhism or Esoteric Buddhism, is a branch of Buddhism that emphasizes accelerated paths to enlightenment through esoteric practices and rituals. It’s often considered a more advanced and transformative path within the broader Mahayana tradition. It incorporates tantric techniques and rituals, such as mantras (sacred sounds), mudras (hand gestures), mandalas (spiritual diagrams), and deity visualization, to transform ordinary experiences into paths toward enlightenment.

HINAYANA
Hinayana, which means “lesser vehicle,” is a pejorative name given by the followers of Mahayana Buddhism to the more conservative schools of early Buddhism. 

THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS
All the Four Noble Truths are found within ourselves. This also means that there is no external power that produces the arising and the cessation of aberration (dukkha). The Four Noble Truths are as follows:

1. Aberration (Dukkha)
2. The arising or origin of aberration (Samudaya)
3. The cessation of aberration (Nirodha)
4. The way leading to the cessation of aberration (Magga)

THE FIRST NOBLE TRUTH (Dukkha)
The First Noble Truth is aberration (dukkha), the nature of life, its suffering, its sorrows and joys, its imperfection and unsatisfactoriness, its impermanence and insubstantiality. With regard to this, our function is to understand the five aggregates as a fact, clearly and completely (parinneyya). These five aggregates are:

1. Aggregate of Matter (Rupakkhandha)
2. Aggregate of Sensations (Vedanakkhandha)
3. Aggregate of Perceptions (Sannakkhandha).
4. Aggregate of Mental Formations (Samkharakkhandha)
5. Aggregate of Consciousness (Vinnanakkhandha)

AGGREGATE OF MATTER
In this term ‘Aggregate of Matter’ are included the traditional Four Great Elements (cattari mahabhutani), namely, solidity, fluidity, heat and motion. It also includes sense-organs of six kinds, i.e., the faculties of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind, and their corresponding objects in the external world, i.e., visible form, sound, odor, taste, tangible things and mind-objects (dharmayatana) of thoughts, ideas or conceptions. ; and one mental sense-organ, i.e., the faculty mind, and its corresponding  Thus, the material form or body-mind system, and all physical and mental phenomena, both internal and external, is included in the Aggregate of Matter. 

AGGREGATE OF SENSATIONS
In this group are included all our sensation, pleasant or unpleasant or neutral, experienced through the contact of physical and mental organs with the external world. They are of six kinds: the sensations experienced through the contact of the eye with visible forms, ear with sounds, nose with odour, tongue with taste, body with tangible objects, and mind (which is the sixth faculty in Buddhist Philosophy) with mind-objects or thoughts or ideas. All our physical and mental sensations are included in this group.

AGGREGATE OF PERCEPTIONS
Like sensations, perceptions also are of six kinds, in relation to six internal faculties and the corresponding six external objects. Like sensations, they are produced through the contact of our six faculties with the external world. It is the perception that recognize objects whether physical or mental. NOTE: This recognition comes from sensations acquiring meaning through postulates and previous experience to turn into perceptions.

AGGREGATE OF MENTAL FORMATIONS
In this group are included all volitional activities both good and bad. What is generally known as karma (or kamma) comes under this group. Volition is ‘mental construction, mental activity. Its function is to direct the mind in the sphere of good, bad or neutral activities.’ Just like sensations and perceptions, volition is of six kinds, connected with the six internal faculties and the corresponding six objects (both physical and mental) in the external world. Sensations and perceptions are not volitional actions. They do not produce karmic effects. It is the only volitional actions- such as attention, will, determination, confidence, concentration, wisdom, energy, desire, repugnance or hate, ignorance, conceit, idea of self, etc.—that can produce karmic effects. There are 52 such mental activities which constitute the Aggregate of Mental Formation.

AGGREGATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Consciousness is a reaction or response which has one of the six faculties (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind) as its basis, and one of the six corresponding external phenomena (visible form, sound, odour, taste, tangible things and mind-objects, i.e., an idea or thought) as its object. For instance, visual consciousness has the eye as its basis and a visible form as its object. Mental consciousness has the mind as its basis and a mental object, i.e., an idea or thought as its object. So consciousness is connected with other faculties. Thus, like sensation, perception and volition, consciousness also is of six kinds, in relation to six internal faculties and corresponding six external objects.

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THE SECOND NOBLE TRUTH (Tanha)
The Second Noble Truth is the Origin of Dukkha, which is desire, ‘thirst’, accompanied by all other passions, defilements and impurities (tanha). This craving fuels aberration and prevents liberation from the cycle of samsara. Buddhism identifies three main types of craving: 

1. Craving for sensual pleasure: Desire for enjoyable sensations and experiences. 
2. Craving for existence: The desire to be, to continue, to exist, often linked to a sense of self. 
3. Craving for non-existence: The desire to be free from suffering, to cease to be, or to escape pain. 

A mere understanding of this fact is not sufficient. Here our function is to discard it, to eliminate, to destroy and eradicate it (pahatabba). 

SAMSARA
Samsara refers to the beginningless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, characterized by suffering and unsatisfactoriness. It’s a continuous process of transmigration, driven by karma (actions and their consequences) and ignorance. Samsara is not just a concept of repeated lives, but also a description of the repetitive patterns of our daily experiences, where we often find ourselves stuck in negative cycles of emotion and behavior. Traditional Buddhist cosmology depicts Samsara as a wheel with six psychological states of being: hell, fixations, animals, humans, jealous gods, and heavenly beings. 

SELF
Tanha has at its centre the false idea of self arising out of ignorance. A self is nothing but a combination of physical and mental forces or energies. All economic, political and social problems are rooted in this selfish ‘thirst’. It is the will, or volition of self. NOTE: The beingness has a sense of its coordination from a single control point. This single control point comes from oneness of postulates. It represents the sense of self. It is represented by “I” (being). Problem arises when this oneness of postulates is disturbed resulting in a desire (tanha) that is irrational.

KARMA
Karma is the principle of cause and effect, where intentional actions, thoughts, and words create corresponding consequences. It’s not a system of rewards and punishments, but rather a natural law like gravity, where positive actions lead to positive outcomes, and negative actions lead to negative outcomes. Karma means only ‘volitional action’, not all action. karma never means its effect; its effect is known as the ‘fruit’ or the ‘result’ of karma. The essential effect of karma is its continuation. An Arahant, though he acts, does not accumulate karma, because he is free from the inflexibility of self. Ultimately, Buddhist practice aims to break free from the cycle of karma and rebirth.

VOLITION
Volition is part of the mental formation called self. Therefore, it is same as karma. When self is rigidly directing the actions, the effects of a volitional action will continue to manifest themselves.

REBIRTH
Rebirth is the continuation of mental formation from a form in this moment to another form in the next moment. The so-called being is a mental formation. When the form of physical body is no longer functioning, the being takes on another form. A man who dies here and reborn elsewhere is neither the same person, nor another. It is the continuity of the same series. The last thought-moment of this life conditions the first thought-moment in the so-called next life.

ILLUSION
Illusion continues as long as things are not seen as they are. This continuation of illusion is the continuation of aberration (tanha, ‘thirst’ or mental formation).

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THE THIRD NOBLE TRUTH
The Third Noble Truth is the cessation of aberration, Nirvana, the Absolute Truth, the Ultimate Reality. Here our function is to realize it (sacchikatabba). 

NIRVANA
Nirvana is the ‘extinction of Thirst’. It is the ‘cessation of becoming’. Nirvana is no annihilation of self, because there is no self to annihilate. If at all, it is the annihilation of the illusion, of the false idea of self. Nirvana can be attained in this life. A person who has attained Nirvana knows that any sensation he experiences is impermanent, that it does not bind him. He knows that all those sensations will be pacified with the dissolution of the body, just as the flame of a lamp goes out when oil and wick give out. Buddha says: ‘O bhikkhus, I say that the destruction of defilement and impurities is (meant) for a person who knows and who sees, and not for a person who does not know and does not see.’ To see things as they are without illusion or ignorance is the extinction of craving ‘thirst’ and the cessation of aberration, which is Nirvana. There is nothing more after Nirvana. This is the Ultimate.

ABSOLUTE TRUTH
The Absolute Truth is that there is nothing absolute in the world, that everything is relative, conditioned and impermanent, and that there is no unchanging, everlasting, absolute substance like Self, Soul, or Ātman within or without. There is no unmoving mover behind the movement. It is only movement. In other words there is no thinker behind the thought. If you remove the thought, there is no thinker to be found. 

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THE FOURTH NOBLE TRUTH
The Fourth Noble Truth is the Path leading to the realization of Nirvana. A mere knowledge of the Path, however complete, will not do. In this case, our function is to follow it and keep to it (bhavetabba).

THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH

1. Right Understanding (Samma ditthi),
2. Right Thought (Samma sankappa),
3. Right Speech (Samma vaca),
4. Right Action (Samma kammanta),
5. Right Livelihood (Samma ajiva),
6. Right Effort (Samma vayama),
7. Right Mindfulness (Samma sati),
8. Right Concentration (Samma samadhi). 

These eight factors are to be developed more or less simultaneously, as far as possible according to the capacity of each individual. They are all linked together and each helps the cultivation of the others. It is a way of life to be followed, practiced and developed by each individual. It is self-discipline in body, word and mind, self-development and self-purification. It has nothing to do with belief, prayer, worship or ceremony. In that sense, it has nothing which may popularly be called ‘religious’. It is a Path leading to the realization of Ultimate Reality, to complete freedom, happiness and peace through moral, spiritual and intellectual perfection.

THE THREE DISCIPLINES
For a man to be perfect there are two qualities that he should develop equally: compassion (karuna) on one side, and wisdom (panna) on the other. Here compassion represents love, charity, kindness, tolerance and such noble qualities on the emotional side, or qualities of the heart, while wisdom would stand for the intellectual side or the qualities of the mind. For this a man must develop the following three disciplines.

(a) Ethical Conduct (Silo)
(b) Mental Discipline (Samadhi)
(c) Wisdom (Panna)

ETHICAL CONDUCT
In Ethical Conduct (Sila), based on love and compassion, are included three factors of the Noble Eightfold Path: namely, Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood. It should be realized that the Buddhist ethical and moral conduct aims at promoting a happy and harmonious life both for the individual and for society. This moral conduct is considered as the indispensable foundation for all higher spiritual attainments. No spiritual development is possible without this moral basis.

RIGHT SPEECH
Right speech means abstention (1) from telling lies, (2) from backbiting and slander and talk that may bring about hatred, enmity, disunity and disharmony among individuals or groups of people, (3) from harsh, rude, impolite, malicious and abusive language, and (4) from idle, useless and foolish babble and gossip. When one abstains from these forms of wrong and harmful speech one naturally has to speak the truth, has to use words that are friendly and benevolent, pleasant and gentle, meaningful and useful. One should not speak carelessly: speech should be at the right time and place. If one cannot say something useful, one should keep ‘noble silence’.

RIGHT ACTION
Right Action aims at promoting moral, honorable and peaceful conduct. It admonishes us that we should abstain from destroying life, from stealing, from dishonest dealings, from illegitimate sexual intercourse, and that we should also help others to lead a peaceful and honorable life in the right way.

RIGHT LIVELIHOOD
Right Livelihood means that one should abstain from making one’s living through a profession that brings harm to others, such as trading in arms and lethal weapons, intoxicating drinks, poisons, killing animals, cheating, etc., and should live by a profession which is honorable, blameless and innocent of harm to others. One can clearly see here that Buddhism is strongly opposed to any kind of war, when it lays down that trade in arms and lethal weapons is an evil and unjust means of livelihood. However, Buddhism is not against having a strong defense.

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MENTAL DISCIPLINE
Mental Discipline includes three other factors of the Eightfold Path: namely, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness (or Attentiveness) and Right Concentration. Thus the mind is trained and disciplined and developed.

RIGHT EFFORT
Right Effort is the energetic will (1) to prevent evil and unwholesome states of mind from arising, and (2) to get rid of such evil and unwholesome states that have already arisen within a man, and also (3) to produce, to cause to arise, good and wholesome states of mind not yet arisen, and (4) to develop and bring to perfection the good and wholesome states of mind already present in man.

RIGHT MINDFULNESS
Right Mindfulness(or Attentiveness) is to be diligently aware, mindful and attentive with regard to (1) the activities of the body (kaya), (2) sensations or feelings (vedana), (3) the activities of the mind (citta) and (4) ideas, thoughts, conception and things (dhamma). The practice of concentration on breathing (anapanasati) is one of the well-known exercise, connected with the body, for mental development. There are several other ways of developing attentiveness in relation to the body—as modes of meditation. With regard to sensations and feelings, one should be clearly aware of all forms of feelings and sensations, pleasant, unpleasant and neutral, of how they appear and disappear within oneself. Concerning the activities of mind, one should be aware whether one’s mind is lustful or not, given to hatred or not, deluded or not, distracted or concentrated, etc. In this way one should be aware of all movements of mind, how they arise and disappear. As regards ideas, thoughts, conceptions and things, one should know their nature, how they appear and disappear, how they are developed, how they are suppressed, and destroyed, and so on.

RIGHT CONCENTRATION
Right Concentration leads to the four stages of Dhyana, generally called trance or meditative contemplation. In the first stage of Dhyana, passionate desires and certain unwholesome thoughts like sensuous lust, ill-will, languor, worry, restlessness, and skeptical doubt are discarded, and feeling of joy and happiness are maintained, along with certain mental activities. In the second stage, all intellectual activities are suppressed, tranquility and ‘one-pointedness’ of mind developed, and the feelings of joy and happiness are still retained. In the third stage, the feeling of joy, which is an active sensation, also disappears, while the disposition of happiness still remains in addition to mindful equanimity. In the fourth stage of Dhyana, all sensations, even of happiness and unhappiness, of joy and sorrow, disappear, only pure equanimity and awareness remaining.

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WISDOM
The remaining two factors, namely Right Thought and Right Understanding go to constitute Wisdom.

RIGHT THOUGHT
Right Thought denotes the thoughts of selfless renunciation or detachment, thoughts of love and thoughts of non-violence, which are extended to all beings. It is very interesting and important to note here that thoughts of selfless detachment, love and non-violence are grouped on the side of wisdom. This clearly shows that true wisdom is endowed with these noble qualities, and that all thoughts of selfish desire, ill-will, hatred and violence are the result of a lack of wisdom—in all spheres of life whether individual, social, or political.

RIGHT UNDERSTANDING
Right Understanding is the understanding of things as they are, and it is the Four Noble Truths that explain things as they really are. Right Understanding therefore is ultimately reduced to the understanding of the Four Noble Truths. This understanding is the highest wisdom which sees the Ultimate Reality. According to Buddhism there are two sorts of understanding: What we generally call understanding is knowledge, an accumulated memory, an intellectual grasping of a subject according to certain given data. This is called ‘knowing accordingly’ (anubodha). It is not very deep. Real deep understanding is called ‘penetration’ (pativedha), seeing a thing in its true nature, without name and label. This penetration is possible only when the mind is free from all impurities and is fully developed through meditation.

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ARAHANT
A Fully-Enlightened One. An Arahant is a person who has liberated himself from all defilements and impurities such as desire, hatred, ill-will, ignorance, pride, conceit, etc. He has attained the fourth or the highest and ultimate stage in the realization of Nirvana, and is full of wisdom, compassion and such pure and noble qualities. 

NIRVANAHOOD
He who has realized the Truth, Nirvana, is the happiest being in the world. He is free from all ‘complexes’ and obsessions, the worries and troubles that torment others. His mental health is perfect. He does not repent the past, nor does he brood over the future. He lives fully in the present. Therefore he appreciates and enjoys things in the purest sense without self-projections. He is joyful, exultant, enjoying the pure life, his faculties pleased, free from anxiety, serene and peaceful. As he is free from selfish desire, hatred, ignorance, conceit, pride, and all such ‘defilements’, he is pure and gentle, full of universal love, compassion, kindness, sympathy, understanding and tolerance. His service to others is of the purest, for he has no thought of self. He gains nothing, accumulates nothing, not even anything spiritual, because he is free from the illusion of Self, and the ‘thirst’ for becoming.

BUDDHIST CEREMONIES
In Buddhist countries there are simple and beautiful customs and ceremonies on religious occasions. They have little to do with the real Path. But they have their value in satisfying certain religious emotions and the needs of those who are less advanced, and helping them gradually along the Path.

BUDDHIST MEDITATION
Buddhist meditation, ‘Vipassana’, does not mean escape from the daily activities of life; assuming a particular posture, like a statue in some cave or cell in a monastery, in some remote place cut off from society; and musing on, or being absorbed in, some kind of mystic or mysterious thought or trance. Vipassana aims at cleansing the mind of impurities and disturbances, such as lustful desires, hatred, ill-will, etc., and cultivating such qualities as awareness, the analytical faculty, confidence, etc., leading finally to the attainment of highest wisdom which sees the nature of things as they are. It is an analytical method based on mindfulness, awareness, vigilance, and observation.

Vipassana deals with four main areas: (1) the body, (2) feelings and sensations, (3) the mind, and (4) various moral and intellectual subjects. One of the most well-known, popular and practical examples of ‘meditation’ connected with the body is called ‘The Mindfulness or Awareness of in-and-out breathing’. It is for this ‘meditation’ only that a particular and definite posture is prescribed in the text. For other forms of ‘meditation’ you may sit, stand, walk, or lie down, as you like.

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