image (during concentration): s. nimitta, sama^dhi, kasina.
upa^saka (q.v.)
Akushala == 恶业
Sanskrit word. It means bad Karma.
Amitabha == 阿弥陀佛
Sanskrit word, literally means boundless light and boundless life. He is the Buddha in the Land of Ultimate Bliss (Pure Land), in which all beings enjoy unbounded happiness. Amitabha has forty-eight great vows to establish and adorn his Pure Land. People also recite or call upon his name by the time of dying will be born in the Land of Ultimate Bliss with the reception by Amitabha. Amitabha is one of the most popular and well-known Buddha in China.
Anagamin == 阿那含
see Four Fruition.
”recollection”, meditation, contemplation. The six recollections often described in the Suttas (e.g. A. VI, 10, 25; D. 33) are: (1) recollection of the Buddha, (2) his Doctrine, (3) his Community of noble disciples, (4) of morality, (5) liberality, (6) heavenly beings (buddha^nussati, dhamma^nussati, sangha^nussati, si^la^nussati, ca^ga^nussati, devata^nussati).
(1) "The noble disciple, Maha^na^ma, recollects thus: ”This Blessed One is holy, a fully Enlightened One, perfected in wisdom and conduct, faring happily, knower of the worlds, unsurpassed leader of men to be trained, teacher of heavenly beings and men, a Buddha, a Blessed One.”
(2) ”Well proclaimed by the Blessed One is the Doctrine (dhamma), directly visible, with immediate fruit, inviting investigation, leading on to Nibba^na, to be comprehended by the wise, each by himself.”
(3) ”Of good conduct is the Community (Sangha) of the Blessed One”s disciples, of upright conduct, living on the right path, performing their duties, to wit: the 4 pairs of men or 8 individuals (s. ariya puggala). This Community of the Blessed One”s disciples is worthy of offerings, worthy of hospitality, worthy of gifts, worthy of reverence with raised hands, the unsurpassed field for doing meritorious deeds.”
(4) "The noble disciple further recollects his own morality (si^la) which is unbroken, without any breach, undefiled, untarnished, conducive to liberation, praised by the wise, not dependent (on craving or opinions), leading to concentration.
(5) "The noble disciple further recollects his own liberality (ca^ga) thus: ”Blessed truly am I, highly blessed am I who, amongst beings defiled with the filth of stinginess, live with heart free from stinginess, liberal, open-handed, rejoicing in giving, ready to give anything asked for, glad to give and share with others.”
(6) "The noble disciple further recollects the heavenly beings (devata^): ”There are the heavenly beings of the retinue of the Four Great Kings, the heavenly beings of the World of the Thirty-Three, the Ya^madevas ... and there are heavenly beings besides (s. deva). Such faith, such morality, such knowledge, such liberality, such insight, possessed of which those heavenly beings, after vanishing from here, are reborn in those worlds, such things are also found in me.”" (A. III,70; VI,10; XI,12).
"At the time when the noble disciple recollects the Perfect One ... at such a time his mind is neither possessed of greed, nor of hate, nor of delusion. Quite upright at such a time is his mind owing to the Perfect One ... With upright mind the noble disciple attains understanding of the sense, understanding of the law, attains joy through the law. In the joyous one rapture arises. With heart enraptured, his whole being becomes stilled. Stilled within his being, he feels happiness; and the mind of the happy one becomes firm. Of this noble disciple it is said that amongst those gone astray, he walks on the right path, among those suffering he abides free from suffering. Thus having reached the stream of the law, he develops the recollection of the Enlightened One...." (A. VI, 10).
In A. I, 21 (PTS: I, xvi) and A. I, 27 (PTS: xx. 2) another 4 recollections are added: mindfulness on death (marana-sati, q.v.), on the body (ka^yagata^-.sati, q.v.), on breathing (a^na^pa^na-sati, q.v.), and the recollection of peace (upasama^nussati, q.v.).
The first six recollections are fully explained in Vis.M. VII, the latter four in Vis.M. VIII.
Attempt at a chronological fixing of terms not found, or not found in this form or meaning, in the oldest parts of the Sutta Pitaka.
”superiority-conceit”; s. ma^na.
(from existence), contemplation of: s. vipassana^ (VI . 5)
sota and bhavanga citta: The first term may tentatively be rendered as the ”undercurrent forming the condition of being, or existence”, and the second as ”subconsciousness”, though, as will be evident from the following, it differs in several respects from the usage of that term in Western psychology. Bhavanga (bhava-anga), which, in the canonical works, is mentioned twice or thrice in the Pattha^na, is explained in the Abhidhamma commentaries as the foundation or condition (ka^rana) of existence (bhava), as the sine qua non of life, having the nature of a process, lit. a flux or stream (sota). Herein, since time immemorial, all impressions and experiences are, as it were, stored up, or better said, are functioning, but concealed as such to- full consciousness, from where however they occasionally emerge as subconscious phenomena and approach the threshold of full consciousness, or crossing it become fully conscious. This so-called ”subconscious life-stream” or undercurrent of life is that by which might be explained the faculty of memory, paranormal psychic phenomena, mental and physical growth, karma and rebirth. etc. An alternative rendering is ”life-continuum”.
It should be noted that bhavanga-citta is a karma-resultant state of consciousness (vipa^ka, q.v.), and that, in birth as a human or in higher forms of existence, it is always the result of good, or wholesome karma (kusala-kamma-vipa^ka), though in varying degrees of strength (s. patisandhi, end of the article). The same holds true for rebirth consciousness (patisandhi) and death consciousness (cuti), which are only particular manifestations of subconsciousness. In Vis.M. XIV it is said:
"As soon as rebirth-consciousness (in the embryo at the time of conception) has ceased, there arises a similar subconsciousness with exactly the same object, following immediately upon rebirth-consciousness and being the result of this or that karma (volitional action done in a former birth and remembered there at the moment before death). And again a further similar state of subconsciousness arises. Now, as long as no other consciousness arises to interrupt the continuity of the life-stream, so long the life-stream, like the flow of a river, rises in the same way again and again, even during dreamless sleep and at other times. In this way one has to understand the continuous arising of those states of consciousness in the life-stream." Cf. vin~n~a^na-kicca. For more details, s. Fund. 11. (App.).
Bhiksuni == 比丘尼
A nun, see also Bhiksu.
mental: cetaso vinibandha (q.v.).
and va^ritta si^la: ”morality consisting in performance and morality consisting in avoidance,” means "the performance of those moral rules which the Blessed one has ordained to be followed, and the avoidance of those things that the Blessed One has rejected as not to be followed" (Vis.M. III). - (App.).
and va^ritta-sila: are only found in the Com., as Vis.M. 1, etc., but the teaching indicated by it is frequently mentioned in the old sutta texts as karani^ya and akarani^ya (e.g. A. II, 16).
ascetic practice of living in a c.; s. dhutanga.
This term oceurs often in the old sutta texts, but only as adj. (e.g. cetasikam sukham, etc.) or, at times, used as a sing. neut. noun (e.g. D. 1; p. 213, PTS). As a designation for mental factors, or concomitants of consciousness (citta-sampayutta^ dhamma^), it is frequently met with in Dhs. (§ 1189, 1512) as cetasika-dhamma, while in Vis.M., Abh. S., etc., cetasika is used also as a neuter noun, in the sense of mental phenomenon.
”mental things, mental factors”, are those mental concomitants which are bound up with the simultaneously arising consciousness (citta = vin~n~a^na) and conditioned by its presence . Whereas in the Suttas all phenomena of existence are summed up under the aspect of 5 groups: corporeality, feeling, perception, mental formations, consciousness (s. khandha), the Abhidhamma as a rule treats them under the more philosophical 3 aspects: consciousness, mental factors and corporeality (citta, cetasika, rúpa). Thus, of these 3 aspects, the mental factors (cetasika) comprise feeling, perception and the 50 mental formations, altogether 52 mental concomitants. Of these, 25 are lofty qualities (either karmically wholesome or neutral), 14 karmically unwholesome, while 13 are as such karmically neutral, their karmical quality depending on whether they are associated with wholesome, unwholesome or neutral consciousness. For details s. Tab. II, III. Cf. prec. (App . )
the 4 kinds of: upa^da^na (q.v.).