Glossary¶

The recurring vocabulary of these translations, in plain English.

Every term here is governed: the project fixes one English rendering for each Pali term and uses it consistently, so that a word carrying technical weight does not quietly change meaning between texts. The explanations below are written for readers. The editorial reasoning behind each choice lives in the repository.

Each sutta also has a visible words-used panel. Some browsers show the same definitions on marked terms, but the panel works without hovering.

A¶

against the stream: Resisting the current of sensual indulgence and harmful action, even when changing direction is difficult.
ageing and dying (jarāmaraṇa): Growing old and dying, treated in these texts as one linked process and as the end point of the dependent-arising sequence.
arahant (arahant): Someone who has completed the path and has nothing further to do. Left untranslated; "saint" and "perfected one" both mislead.
arrow (salla): A recurring image with more than one meaning. In MN 63 it is a poisoned arrow: refusing treatment until you know every background fact about the wound. It warns against blocking practice with questions no one can answer. In SN 36.6 the image is different. An ordinary person's pain is one arrow, and the extra suffering they add on top is a second arrow they could avoid.
aversion (dosa): One of the three "roots" behind unwholesome action, alongside greed and delusion -- the pushback against what's unwanted or unpleasant.
awakening (bodhi): Coming fully awake to how things are. Sometimes translated "enlightenment," a word this project avoids as needlessly mystical.
awakening factor (bojjhaṅga): One of seven qualities developed and kept in balance on the way to waking up.

B¶

becoming (bhava): This project's rendering of "bhava" -- the settling of experience into a way of being that feels like somebody being something. Often translated "existence."
bhante (bhante): A respectful way of addressing a senior monastic, roughly "venerable sir." Left untranslated because English has no natural equivalent.
bhikkhu (bhikkhu): A Buddhist monk -- someone who has left household life to practise full time. Left untranslated because "monk" carries centuries of unrelated European associations.
bhikkhus: Buddhist monks -- those who have left household life to practise full time. The Buddha's usual way of addressing the assembly, roughly "friends" in force.
birth (jāti): This project's rendering of "jāti": birth, coming into being. In the dependent-arising sequence, ageing and dying depend on it. In MN 141 the word appears once in its everyday sense instead, in a simile about a mother.
Blessed One: One of the Buddha's traditional titles, used respectfully in place of his name in these texts.
body (kāya): The physical body, as distinct from speech and the mental side of experience.
born of seclusion (vivekaja): Coming from having stepped away from busyness and distraction, rather than from anything acquired.
brahmin (brāhmaṇa): Originally a member of ancient India's hereditary priestly class. These texts sometimes reuse the title for an ideal practitioner who has completed the path. Context shows whether caste or conduct is the point.
burden: The five clung-to heaps pictured as a load: experience taken personally. Ignorant wanting picks it up; someone who has laid down the burden no longer takes it up.

C¶

calming (upasama): A settling and quieting of the mind on the way toward full release.
cessation: The ending of dissatisfaction and its causes: what practice is finally for. Elsewhere on this site the same idea appears as "quenching". Both render the same Pali word, "nirodha", in different sentences.
clarity (amoha): This project's rendering of "amoha," literally "non-delusion" -- seeing without the confusion and distortion that drive harmful action.
clear knowing (sampajañña): Knowing plainly what you are doing while you are doing it.
clearly knowing (sampajāno): Acting while plainly aware of what you are doing.
clung-to heaps: The five categories experience gets sorted into and then grasped as "me" or "mine" -- body, feeling, recognition, mental activity, and awareness. Not clinging to the categories themselves, but to the sense of ownership placed on top of them.
complete quenching: The complete going out of greed, aversion, and delusion. In AN 3.69 and SN 1.1 it describes something a person reaches while alive, not death.
conditionality (idappaccayatā): This project's rendering of "idappaccayatā" -- the bare principle that when this is present, that follows. Dependent arising is this principle applied to how dissatisfaction comes about.
conditioned (saṅkhata): This project's rendering of "saṅkhata" -- anything that came about because other things did, and that stops when they stop. Nearly everything is.
conduct (sīla): This project's rendering of "sīla", often translated "morality" or "virtue". It means how a person actually behaves. The rest of the practice grows from it; it is not a set of rules to obey.
conscience (hiri): This project's rendering of "hiri" -- the inward ethical sense that recoils from an action because it would violate one's integrity. It does not mean guilt or toxic shame.
consolation (assāsa): A practical reassurance that holds up however a disputed question turns out, such as what happens after death. It does not settle the question.
contact (phassa): This project's rendering of "phassa" -- the meeting of a sense, its object, and the knowing of it. A technical link in the dependent-arising sequence, not physical touch specifically.
crossed over (tiṇṇa): Having completed the crossing rather than merely moving toward the other side. This preserves the river image used for completion of the path.

D¶

deathless (amata): A name for nibbāna: what does not die, because it was never born.
defilements: Broadly, qualities that cloud the mind and support harmful patterns. More specific terms on this site name particular ways such qualities obstruct, persist, bind, or flow out.
deity: A divine being in the ancient Indian cosmology. In SN 1.1 the deity is a nighttime visitor who asks the Buddha a question, not a creator god.
delusion (moha): One of the three "roots" behind unwholesome action, alongside greed and aversion -- the confusion that keeps you from seeing what's actually happening.
dependent arising (paṭiccasamuppāda): The teaching that experience -- and the dissatisfaction in it -- comes from conditions rather than from any fixed self or essence. Each link depends on the one before it, which is why removing a condition stops what follows.
dependently arisen: Having come about because something else was in place. Said of the individual items in the sequence, as distinct from the pattern they follow.
Dhamma (dhamma): The Buddha's teaching taken as a whole -- both what he taught and the way things actually are, which the teaching describes.
dhamma (dhamma): Depending on the sentence, either the Buddha's teaching or simply a thing, quality, or state of affairs. These texts use one word for both, and each passage makes clear which it means.
discernment of qualities (dhammavicaya): This project's rendering of "dhammavicaya" -- sorting out what is actually going on in experience, and which qualities help and which do not. One of the seven awakening factors.
discernment-of-qualities: This project's rendering of "dhammavicaya" -- sorting out what is actually going on in experience, and which qualities help and which do not. One of the seven awakening factors.
disenchantment (nibbidā): A cooling of fascination with ordinary experience -- not depression, but the natural next step once you see clearly how things actually work.
dissatisfaction (dukkha): This translation's rendering of "dukkha," the Buddhist term for the unsatisfying, unstable quality of ordinary experience. Often translated "suffering," but that can sound more dramatic than the everyday sense of things not quite being right.
doubt (vicikicchā): Uncertainty and indecision, especially about the practice and the teaching. As one of the five hindrances, it keeps the mind wavering instead of committing.
dynamic balance (upekkhā): This project's rendering of "upekkhā" (often translated "equanimity") -- a steadiness that stays engaged rather than checking out, distinct from indifference.

E¶

emptiness (suññatā): This project's rendering of "suññatā". In MN 122 it is a way of dwelling, entered by not attending to any signs.
escape (nissaraṇa): This project's rendering of "nissaraṇa". It is the real way out of whatever the text is discussing, unlike the false escapes an untrained mind reaches for. In SN 36.6 the escape is from being stuck in a feeling; in Ud 8.3 it is from everything born, made, and conditioned.

F¶

faculties: The capacities used in practice, especially confidence, energy, remembering, unification of mind, and discernment. You can train them and bring them into balance.
fading (virāga): The fading away of attraction and investment in experience, as passion cools.
far shore: The safe side of the river image: the completion reached after crossing beyond the forces that keep a person bound.
felt experience (vedanā): This project's rendering of "vedanā", often translated "feeling". It is the immediate pleasant, painful, or mixed tone of an experience, before any story we build on top of it.
fewness of wishes (appicchatā): This project's rendering of "appicchatā" -- wanting little for oneself.
final nibbāna (parinibbāna): The final-completion use of nibbāna language. It is not a synonym for death, annihilation, or heaven.
five hindrances (pañca-nīvaraṇā): The five things that reliably hinder the mind and pull it off task: sensual desire, ill will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and worry, and doubt.
five lower fetters: Five patterns said to bind a person to ordinary sensual existence: self-view, doubt, grasping at rules and observances, sensual passion, and aversion.
five strengths (panca-bala): This project's rendering of "pañca balāni" -- confidence, energy, remembering, unification, and discernment. The same five qualities as the five faculties, named as strengths.
flood (ogha): A force that overwhelms a person and carries them along unless they cross it. SN 1.1 leaves the image open; it does not define it as one specific mental state.
form (rūpa): This project's rendering of "rūpa" -- the physical, material aspect of experience, one of the five heaps.
friendliness (mettā): This project's rendering of "mettā" (often translated "loving-kindness") -- an intentionally cultivated goodwill extended outward, including to people you don't know.

G¶

gladness (muditā): This project's rendering of "muditā", often translated "sympathetic joy". It means being truly glad at someone else's good fortune. You cultivate it as a practice; you do not assume it comes naturally.
going forth (pabbajjā): Leaving household life to live as a monastic.
gratification: This project's rendering of "assāda": the real satisfaction something offers, which is why people hold on to it. The texts pair it with that thing's danger and the escape from it, so you see all three together.
greed (lobha): One of the three "roots" behind unwholesome action, alongside aversion and delusion -- the acquisitive pull toward what looks satisfying.

H¶

heaps: This project's rendering of "khandhā" (usually translated "aggregates") -- the five piles experience gets sorted into: form, felt experience, recognition, putting-together activities, and knowing.
heart (citta): This project's rendering of "citta": the feeling side of mind. It takes on moods, wants, leans, and reacts. Practice can gladden, steady, train, and release it. Some call it the "heart-mind" or "feeling mind". Here "heart" does not mean only emotion, or the physical organ.
heedful: Living with heedfulness: awake to what you are doing and keeping up the effort.
heedfulness (appamāda): This project's rendering of "appamāda" -- staying awake to what you are doing, keeping up the effort, and coming back when attention slips. Often translated "diligence" or "vigilance."
heedlessness (pamāda): The opposite of heedfulness: drifting, letting things slide, not noticing what the mind is doing.
higher knowing (abhiññā): Direct, personally realized understanding -- knowing something for yourself rather than taking it on faith. In some texts it also names the extraordinary knowings that arise from deep concentration.

I¶

ignorance (avijjā): This project's rendering of "avijjā" -- not general stupidity, but specifically not seeing how dissatisfaction works and how it ends. The first link in the dependent-arising sequence.
ignorant wanting (taṇhā): Wanting something you can't have right now. This project's rendering of "taṇhā", often translated "craving". We call it ignorant because it comes from not seeing clearly; ordinary, sensible wanting is something else.
ill will (byāpāda): Hostility toward others or situations: pushing things away and wishing them harm. As one of the five hindrances, it pulls the mind off track.

K¶

kamma: Intentional action, and the way it shapes what follows. Better known by its Sanskrit form "karma," and narrower than the popular sense -- it is about intention, not cosmic bookkeeping.
kindness towards others (karuṇā): This project's rendering of "karuṇā", often translated "compassion". It is an active wish for others to be free of suffering. You cultivate it on purpose, not only when the feeling comes by itself.
knowing (viññāṇa): This project's rendering of "viññāṇa" (often translated "consciousness") -- bare awareness of an object through one of the senses or the mind.
knowing and seeing (ñāṇadassana): Knowing something and seeing it for yourself. Kept as two words because these texts treat them as two related things rather than one.

M¶

mental theme (jhāna): This project's rendering of "jhāna" -- a single theme the mind rests on and holds steadily. Described in a sequence of four, each calmer than the last. Most translations leave the word in Pāli.
mixed feeling (adukkhamasukhavedanā): A felt experience that is neither clearly pleasant nor clearly unpleasant. Rendered "mixed" rather than "neutral" to keep it an active third register rather than a flat absence of feeling.
moral caution (ottappa): This project's rendering of "ottappa" -- alertness to the harm and consequences of an unwholesome action. It is the outward-looking partner of conscience, not ordinary fear.

N¶

name-and-form (nāmarūpa): The mental and physical sides of experience taken together: roughly, whatever you can name plus whatever has shape. One link in the dependent-arising sequence.
nibbāna (nibbāna): The end of greed, hatred, and confusion -- the traditional goal of Buddhist practice. Left untranslated because no single English word covers it; "quenching" is the closest one-word gloss.
noble disciple (ariyasāvaka): Someone who has had the breakthrough into the path and so is no longer merely an ordinary person. It does not mean noble by birth, and does not require being a monastic.
noble eightfold path (ariya-atthangika-magga): The eight-part practice these texts teach: right view, right attitude, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right remembering, and right unification of mind.
noble truth (ariyasacca): One of four core observations this teaching rests on. It is true not because you must take it on faith, but because you can check it against direct experience.
non-aversion (adosa): The absence of hostility and of the reflex to push away what you do not want. One of the three roots of wholesome action.
non-entanglement (asaṃsagga): This project's rendering of "asaṁsagga" -- not getting mixed up with people and their affairs.
non-greed (alobha): The absence of the grasping pull that wants to acquire, possess, or consume. One of the three roots of wholesome action.
not-self (anattā): This project's rendering of "anattā". It does not claim that you don't exist. It says that, when you actually look, nothing in experience holds up as a fixed self you could own.
nāgas: Great creatures of Indian story. The Pāli word covers both huge serpents and elephants. The texts often do not say which they mean, so this translation keeps the word rather than picking an animal.

O¶

observance day (uposatha): This project's rendering of "uposatha": the days of the lunar month when lay followers keep extra precepts for a night and a day. On these days monastics recite their code.
One Fine Night (bhaddekaratta): The title's image for a whole day and night lived well. You do not relish past or future versions of yourself, you do not turn present experience into a self, and you do the work now.
oneness: This project's rendering of "ekatta" in MN 121: the single recognition the mind rests on at each step, once it has set the coarser ones aside.
ordinary person (puthujjana): This project's rendering of "puthujjana" -- someone who has not yet had the breakthrough into the path. It is the standard term for the untrained starting point, not an insult.
outflow (āsava): This project's rendering of "āsava" -- a deep-running habit that keeps seeping out and driving behaviour. Often translated "taint" or "defilement."
outflows: This project's rendering of "āsavā" -- deep-running habits that keep seeping out and driving behaviour, classically sensuality, becoming, and ignorance. Often translated "taints" or "defilements."

P¶

path of practice (paṭipadā): A way of practising -- something done here and now, again and again, not a journey to somewhere else.
put together: In "all that has been put together", this project's rendering of "saṅkhārā" on its result side: anything assembled from conditions, as opposed to the activity of assembling.
putting things together (saṅkhārā): This project's rendering of "saṅkhāra": the ongoing activity of assembling experience, and also what that activity assembles. Context shows which of the two the text means. Other translations often say "formations" or "fabrications", which this project avoids as needlessly opaque.
putting-together activities: This project's rendering of "saṅkhārā" (often translated "mental formations") -- the mind's constructing and assembling activity, one of the five heaps.

Q¶

quenching (nirodha): An extinguishing image for dissatisfaction and its causes going out. Different Pali words use this image on different pages, so the exact scope comes from the sentence.

R¶

recluses: This project's rendering of "samaṇa": people who left ordinary working life to practise full time. They belonged to any of the traditions of the period, not only this one.
recognition (saññā): This project's rendering of "saññā" (often translated "perception") -- the mind's act of identifying and labeling what it encounters.
recollection of death (maraṇassati): This project's rendering of "maraṇassati" -- keeping in mind that death can come at any time, so as not to put off the work of practice.
refuge (saraṇa): Where someone turns for safety and direction. Going for refuge to the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Saṅgha is how a person shows they take this path seriously. It is not a conversion ritual.
regularity of the pattern: That the same conditions reliably lead to the same results. Paired with the phrase above; the two say one thing from two sides.
rejoicing (pīti): This project's rendering of "pīti" (often translated "rapture") -- the bright, uplifted gladness that shows up when practice is going well.
relaxation (passaddhi): This project's rendering of "passaddhi" -- the settling of body and mind that follows gladness and leads into unification of mind.
release of mind (cetovimutti): Release described from the mind or heart side of experience, often paired with release through discernment.
release through discernment (paññāvimutti): Release described from the clear-understanding side, paired with release of mind rather than reduced to intellectual knowledge.
relinquishment (vossagga): This project's rendering of "vossagga" -- letting go, in the sense of releasing a hold rather than pushing something away.
remembering (sati): This project's rendering of "sati". It means actively keeping what matters in mind and coming back to it when you lose it. It is not bare attention to whatever happens to be present.
resistance (paṭigha): A reflexive pushing-away from what's unwanted, arising automatically in response to unpleasant feeling.
restlessness and worry (uddhacca-kukkucca): When agitation and nagging worry or regret pull you off track. One of the five hindrances.
right action (sammā-kammanta): Acting without harming -- a factor of the eightfold path.
right attitude (sammāsaṅkappa): This project's rendering of the path factor usually translated "right intention" -- the underlying motivation a person brings to their actions.
right discernment: Seeing accurately how something actually came about, rather than holding a correct opinion about it.
right effort (sammā-vāyāma): Effort that is well aimed: heading off what is unhelpful and building up what helps -- a factor of the eightfold path.
right livelihood (sammā-ājīva): Making a living in a way that does not depend on harming or deceiving anyone -- a factor of the eightfold path.
right remembering (sammā-sati): This project's rendering of the path factor usually translated "right mindfulness" -- keeping what actually matters in view, moment to moment, rather than losing track of it.
right speech (sammā-vācā): Speech that is truthful, kind, timely, and worth saying -- a factor of the eightfold path.
right unification of mind (sammā-samādhi): The path factor in which the mind gathers together and becomes unified, supported and directed by the rest of the noble path. The thinking mind and the heart work as one whole; nobody forces them into a trance.
right view (sammā-diṭṭhi): Seeing how experience and practice actually work -- the first factor of the eightfold path. "Right" here means well-aimed and accurate, not morally righteous.

S¶

Saṅgha (saṅgha): The community of the Buddha's disciples. In traditional recollection formulas, as in AN 11.12, it means especially those who have entered and realized the path, not everyone who calls themselves Buddhist.
seclusion (patisallana): This project's rendering of "viveka" -- being apart from the usual pull of the senses and from unwholesome states. Physical solitude is one form of it, not the whole of it.
security from the yoke (yogakkhema): A name for nibbāna: safety from the yokes of sensuality, becoming, views, and ignorance that bind a person to further becoming.
sensual desire (kāmacchanda): When wanting something pleasant pulls you off track. One of the five hindrances.
sensual pleasures: Enjoyable sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches, when you chase and consume them as sources of satisfaction.
singleness of mind (cetaso-ekodibhava): The mind become single and undivided as thinking and pondering settle in the second mental theme. Kept distinct from unification of mind (samādhi).
six fields of experience (saḷāyatana): The six channels through which you experience anything at all: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, and thinking. Other translations often say "sense bases".
sloth and torpor (thīna-middha): When sluggishness, heaviness, and sinking energy pull you off track. One of the five hindrances.
soul (jīva): This translation's rendering of "jīva" -- the felt sense of an inner self or life-essence. Whether it exists, and whether it's the same as the body, is one of the questions MN 63 leaves undeclared.
sphere of boundless knowing (viññāṇañcāyatana): A deep meditative state in which awareness rests on knowing itself without limit.
sphere of boundless space (ākāsānañcāyatana): A deep meditative state in which awareness rests on space without limit.
sphere of nothingness (ākiñcaññāyatana): A deep meditative state in which awareness rests on there being nothing at all to take up.
spiritual life (brahmacariya): The Buddhist path of practice as a whole -- not just a set of beliefs, but a whole way of living.
spontaneously reborn (opapātika): Reborn fully formed rather than through a womb, egg, or moisture. AN 4.5 uses this traditional cosmological description for a non-returner.
stability of the pattern (dhammatthiti): That the way conditions give rise to results holds steady. It names a reliable regularity, not a permanent thing standing behind events.
stands firm: AN 4.5's river image for a non-returner: someone no longer being swept back into ordinary sensual existence, though the crossing is not yet complete.
stream of benefit: This project's rendering of "puññābhisanda" -- benefit flowing in, the way water flows into a low place. "Benefit" is the house rendering of "puñña", more often translated "merit".
streams of benefit: This project's rendering of "puññābhisanda" -- benefit flowing in, the way water flows into a low place. "Benefit" is the house rendering of "puñña", more often translated "merit".
suchness (tathatā): This project's rendering of "tathatā": things are just as they are, and not otherwise. The word stops anyone turning the pattern into a hidden essence.

T¶

taking personally (upādāna): This project's rendering of "upādāna" -- treating some piece of experience as "me" or "mine" and holding on to it. Usually translated "clinging" or "attachment."
Tathāgata (tathāgata): A title for the Buddha, traditionally left untranslated. It means roughly "the one who has arrived at things as they truly are."
the imperturbable: This project's rendering of "āneñja" -- a state of mind that does not waver. MN 122 names it as something a bhikkhu attends to, without saying which attainment it means.
thinking mind (mano): This project's rendering of "mano": the part of mind that thinks and registers ideas. These texts count it as a sixth sense, alongside the eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body.
This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self (netaṁ mama, nesohamasmi, na me so attā): A three-part formula these texts use to work through attachment to any piece of experience. It means: not owned by me, not identical with me, and not a fixed self underlying me.
those with discernment (viññū): People whose judgment is sound enough to trust as a check on your own -- not an appeal to authority, but a practical reference point.
trainee (sekha): Someone who has entered the noble path and is still completing the training; not a beginner.

U¶

unconditioned (asaṅkhata): This project's rendering of "asaṅkhata" -- what did not come about that way. The word says only what it is not; the texts deliberately do not describe it further.
undeclared (avyākata): A question the Buddha deliberately left unanswered -- not because he didn't know, but because answering it wouldn't help anyone actually practice.
underlying tendency (anusaya): A reactive pattern that isn't necessarily active right now but is ready to reassert itself given the right conditions -- lying underneath rather than gone.
unification: Short for unification of mind (samādhi) inside a longer phrase, such as "born of unification" or "the faculty of unification."
unification of mind (samādhi): This project's rendering of "samādhi" -- the thinking mind and heart gathered together into one organized, workable whole instead of pulling against each other. It does not mean narrowing attention onto one point. Usually translated "concentration," which this project avoids because it suggests forcing and strain.
unwholesome (akusala): This project's rendering of "akusala". Roughly: mentally and ethically harmful. It is blameworthy, leads to harm, and people with good judgment criticize it.

W¶

wearing away (khaya): The gradual using-up of something until it runs out completely. The texts use it especially for what has to run out before release.
wholesome (kusala): This project's rendering of "kusala". Roughly: mentally and ethically healthy. It is blameless, leads to well-being, and people with good judgment praise it.
with the stream: Following the easy current of sensual indulgence and harmful action. In AN 4.5 this is a warning, not praise for being flexible.
world (loka): A word whose scope shifts with the teaching. It can mean the lived world we build through the senses and the mind, or the wider physical cosmos. The surrounding passage shows which sense it has.
world's end: In AN 4.5, the end of the experienced world as a field of bondage -- not a geographic edge of the earth.
world's entanglement: The sticky web of wanting and taking things personally that keeps a person caught in the experienced world.
wrong view (micchā-diṭṭhi): Seeing things in a way that misses how they actually work; the opposite of right view.

Terms deliberately left in Pali¶

A few words are kept in Pali because every English option narrows them misleadingly. Where that is the case, the surrounding text is written so the sense is still followable.

bhikkhu, dhamma, nibbāna, and Tathāgata are the main ones.