Glossary

ĀLAYA

The core meaning of ālaya is the place where something settles or takes root, as in the Himālaya—the abode of hima (snow). In the context of the Buddha’s statement: “But this generation enjoys, attaches to and rejoices in ālaya (ālaya-rāma, ālaya-rata, ālaya-sammudita),” what are they really attaching to? What takes root? I understand that it is the delusion of a self, a permanent essence, which takes root. Hence, I have chosen to render this phrase as “But this generation is attached to the idea of a self, delights in what results from a self, and rejoices in their sense of self.”

ATTĀ

The main qualities of the term attā are that it is eternal and that it is the indestructible core of a being. Hence, I chose the rendering “permanent essence”.

HAT’ŪPANISA

Hata means “killed” or “destroyed”. Upanisā refers to the “cause”. Together, they mean that the “cause for the arising of the next in the chain has been destroyed.” In these conditional sequences given in the Aṅguttara extracts, it is referring to idappaccayatā, the process of causality—the part that says “When this (A) is not, then that (B) is not.” In Western logic, this describes what is called a “necessary cause”. “A” is a necessary cause for “B” to occur. So, with the absence of “A,” the cause for the arising of “B” has been destroyed. For this reason, I described these links with the rendering “necessary cause”.

JĀTI

Buddhists accept the truth of rebirth. This is not our first birth. So, I have rendered jāti as “rebirth”.

JHĀNA

There is no adequate word in English to capture the meaning of jhāna. This is because there are few people who experience the real states of jhāna enough to understand it. Moreover, the word is becoming so well-known in Buddhist circles that there seems to be no point in rendering it.

KĀMA-TANHĀ and VIVICC’EVA-KĀMEHI

It seems that when the term kāma is used in the plural case, it refers to the world of the five senses (kāma-loka). It is misleading, as I understand it, to confuse this term with kāma-sukha, meaning five-sense pleasure. Therefore, I have rendered the two terms above as: “wanting related to the five senses” and “totally free from the five senses”.

KHANDHA

“Aggregates” might be an accurate term, but the five khandhas are not any old aggregates. They represent what ordinary folk take to be who they are. This is why I chose the rendering “components of existence”.

NIBBIDĀ

Some are surprised to read such a negative rendering of “revulsion” for nibbidā. However, AN 9.15, “The Boil,” compares the human body to a boil that is many years old with foul, disgusting ooze coming from each of nine orifices! It would be expected to regard this “boil” with nibbidā.

The common rendering for nibbidā, “disenchantment”, does not fit. Would you be merely “disenchanted” with an inflammation dripping foul-smelling pus, or feel revulsion? When you see things as they really are (yathā-bhūta-dassanā), it is as if you suddenly wake up to the fact that you are in a very unpleasant prison. You experience negativity to your situation, not mere disenchantment. You feel “revulsion”.

PARIMUKKHAṀ

An adverb usually translated as having established mindfulness “in front of you.” However, this begs the question: Where is the correct location of “you”? Moreover, it misses the point that parimukkham means “putting in front” in the sense of giving something priority. Thus, I have rendered this term as “give priority” (to establishing mindfulness).

SABBA-KĀYA-PATISAṀVEDĪ

As the third instruction in the first tetrad of ānāpānassati, this is sometimes translated as “being mindful of the whole body” (meaning the physical body). Not only is this unnatural—as if one has to overwhelm the awareness of the breath with every other bodily sensation—but it is misleading. As the mindfulness becomes more refined, it is able to observe the whole in-breath from beginning to end without missing anything, and so with the out-breath as well as the pause between the in-to-out-breath, and the out-to-in-breath. One watches the complete sequence of sensations that make up the whole breath cycle. The term kāya sometimes means a physical body, but also means a collection of things. In this case, it means the collection of kāya-saṅkhāra that constitute the breath.

SABBA-SAṄKHĀRA-SAMATHA

The rendering “the end of all formations” fails to resonate. Moreover, the important term samatha refers to settling, calming or stilling. Also, saṅkhāra is more meaningfully rendered as “will”. Thus I chose the more powerful and accurate rendering “the stilling of all will”. Now, a generation that is attached to a self will find the idea of the stilling of all will hard to understand!

SAMĀDHI

The well-worn translation “concentration” does not match the experience of samādhi in Buddhist meditation. Moreover, the word “concentration” implies coercion. It is something one does. It is worth noting that Siddhattha Gotama had his first experience of sammā samādhi as a young seven-year-old boy while idling under the shade of a tree. Young children are not adept at concentration! “Stillness”, on the other hand, arises from letting go, a non-doing.

SAMBODHI

The usual translation is “enlightenment”. However, since sambodhi is not a theoretical knowledge, nor secular, but more of an experiential illumination that goes beyond cerebral theories, I have chosen the rendering “awakening”.

SAṄKAPPA

The usage of saṅkappa in other places may mean forward-planning. However, its definition in the context of the noble eightfold path clearly points to where the plans were coming from—in other words, the “motivation”. In the Vinaya, as well as in modern legal systems, a distinction is made between motive (where the act was coming from) and the intention (where the act was going to, the goal). The definition of sammā saṅkappa clearly relates to the motive—coming from renunciation (letting go), kindness and gentleness.

This makes the noble eightfold path more meaningful. Right view is the cause for the motivations of letting go, kindness and gentleness. From such pure motivations, the actions of body and speech begin to fit with right speech, action and livelihood.

SAṂSĀRA

This term is well enough known by those who would read a book such as this, that I leave it untranslated.

TAṄHĀ

The common translation of “craving” seems to limit the scope of taṅhā to the more intense forms of wanting. Indeed, the Oxford English Dictionary definition of craving is “a powerful desire for something.” I understand that even weak forms of wanting may also lead to rebirth, as in the Simile of the Quail (MN 66), so I have chosen the more inclusive rendering “wanting”.

VĀYĀMA

Sammā vāyāma is defined by its results: defiled states such as the five hindrances go and stay away, and pure states arise and remain. When this is compared to the factors in the gradual training, which is a parallel description of the noble eightfold path, sammā vāyāma can only correspond with “sense restraint”, indriya saṁvara. Moreover, by rendering vāyāma as restraint of the five hindrances, I have highlighted the transition from sammā vāyāma to sammā sati, where each of the four satipaṭṭhāna are to be practised “having first restrained the five hindrances.” For these reasons, I have chosen to translate vāyāma as “restraint”.

VEDANĀ

I resisted the usual translation of vedanā as “feeling” because the word is restricted in common usage to emotional sensitivity and tactile impressions. One does not “feel” a sight! Indeed, when I examine its usage in the context of the khandhas, the common term “experience” appears the best rendering. There are three types of vedanā, just as there are three types of experience: pleasant, unpleasant and neutral.

VINEY YA LOKE ABHIJJHĀ DOMANASSAṀ

This prerequisite for the practice of any of the four focuses of mindfulness is usually translated as: “Having abandoned covetousness and grief for the world.” In fact, in the suttas, loke abhijjhā is a common synonym for kāmacchanda, being the first of the five hindrances. The term domanassa occurs once in the suttas (AN 3.33) as a synonym for the second of the five hindrances, aversion (vyāpāda). Moreover, the commentaries to both the Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sutta (DN 22) and the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta (MN 10) confirm that loke abhijjhā domanassa means “the five hindrances”.

VIÑÑĀNA

To translate viññāna as “consciousness” misses the important point that there are six different types of consciousnesses. Consequently, rendering viññāna as “consciousnesses” is true to its defined usage in the context of the khandhas and also draws out the essential point of Dhamma that there is nothing continuous throughout the process of six different consciousnesses arising and passing away. It is like a row of six different types of beads with no string passing through each bead.

VIRĀGA

Sometimes translated as “dispassion”, but my preferred rendering of this term is “fading away”, which draws attention to the five components of existence in the process of disappearing—because of no more fuel (upādāna)—on the unstoppable way to complete cessation.

VITAKKA-VICĀRA

In some contexts, vitakka-vicāra is best rendered as “thinking and pondering”. However, in the context of the first jhāna, thinking is way too coarse to describe the single-summit (ekaggatā) experience of inner silence. In the refined inner tranquillity of the first jhāna, vitakka-vicāra describes the sub-verbal residual movements of a stilled mind that would previously have generated a thought. Now, in the first jhāna, it can be compared to a “wobble” in the stillness. This is why I have chosen the rendering “movement of the mind onto the object (of pīti-sukha) and holding on to it.”