..续本文上一页 mind from greed, anger, and delusion, from physical sensations and mental acts. As the term is used to refer also to the extinguishing of a fire, it carries connotations of stilling, cooling, and peace. (According to the physics taught at the time of the Buddha, the property of fire exists in a latent state to a greater or lesser degree in all objects. When activated, it seizes and sticks to its fuel. As long as it remains latent or is extinguished, it is "unbound.")

　　nimitta: Mental sign or image. Uggaha nimitta refers to any image which arises in the course of meditation. Paribhaga nimitta refers to the mental manipulation of the image.

　　nirodha: Disbanding; cessation; dispersal; stopping (of stress and its causes).

　　pañña: Discernment; insight; wisdom; common sense; ingenuity.

　　rupa: The basic meaning of this word is "appearance" or "form." It is used, however, in a number of different contexts, taking on different shades of meaning in each. In lists of the objects of the senses, it is given as the object of the sense of sight. As one of the khandha, it refers to physical phenomena or sensations (visible appearance or form being the defining characteristics of what is physical). This is also the meaning it carries when opposed to nama, or mental phenomena. The act of focusing on the level of physical and mental phenomena (literally, form and name) means focusing on the primary sensation of such phenomena in and of themselves, before the mind elaborates on them further. In the list, "kama, rupa, arupa" — the types of object which the mind can take as its preoccupation and the states of being which result — kama refers to images derived from the external senses, rupa refers to the internal sense of the form of the body, and arupa to strictly mental phenomena. This last sense of rupa is also what is meant in the term "rupa jhana."

　　samadhi: Concentration; the act of centering the mind on a single object.

　　sammati: In Thai, the primary meaning of this word is "supposing," which is how it is translated here, but it also conveys the meaning of convention (i.e., usages which are commonly designated or agreed upon), make-believe and conjuring into being with the mind.

　　sankhara: Fashioning — the forces and factors which fashion things, the process of fashioning, and the fashioned things which result; all things conditioned, compounded or concocted by nature, whether on the physical or the mental level. In some contexts this word is used as a blanket term for all five khandha. As the fourth khandha, it refers specifically to the fashioning or forming of urges, thoughts, etc., within the mind.

　　sanyojana: Fetters which bind the mind to the cycle of rebirth — self-identification views, uncertainty, grasping at precepts and practices; sensual passion, irritability; passion for form, passion for formless phenomena, conceit, restlessness and unawareness.

　　sati: Powers of reference and retention; mindfulness; composure. In Thai, this word can also mean "restraint."

　　satipatthana: Frame of reference; foundation of mindfulness — body, feelings, mind, and mental qualities.

　　upadana: Clinging; attachment; sustenance for becoming and birth — attachment to sensuality, to views, to precepts & practices, and to theories of the self.

　　uposatha: Observance day, corresponding to the phases of the moon, on which Buddhist laypeople gather to listen to the Dhamma and observe the eight precepts.

　　vicara: Evaluation; investigation. A factor of rupa jhana.

　　vimutti: Release; freedom from the suppositions and fabrications of the mind.

　　vipassana: Liberating insight; clear intuitive understanding of how physical and mental phenomena are caused and experienced, seeing them as they are, in and of themselves, arising and passing away, in terms of the four Noble Truths and the characteristics of inconstancy, stress, and lack of self.

　　vitakka: Thinking about an object; keeping an object in mind. A factor of rupa jhana.

　　yoni: Mode of generation. In the Pali Canon, four modes of generation are listed: birth from a womb, birth from an egg, birth from moisture, and spontaneous appearance (this last refers to the birth of heavenly beings).

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　　If anything in this translation is inaccurate or misleading, I ask forgiveness of the author and reader for having unwittingly stood in their way. As for whatever may be accurate, I hope the reader will make the best use of it, translating it a few steps further, into the heart, so as to attain the truth at which it points.

　　The translator

　　Sabbe satta sada hontu

　　avera sukha-jivino

　　katam puñña-phalam mayham

　　sabbe bhagi bhavantu te

　　May all beings always live happily,

　　free from enmity.

　　May all share in the blessings

　　springing from the good I have done.

《The Craft of the Heart - Glossary》全文阅读结束。