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samãdhi: Meditative calm and concentration. Samãdhi is experienced by practicing various meditation techniques that are designed to calm the mind”s emotional turbulence and mental distraction by fixing it firmly on a single object of attention and mindfully holding it there until the mind becomes fully absorbed in that single preoccupation to the exclusion of everything else, and thus wholly integrated within a simple, unified state of awareness. By concentrating one”s attention on just one object, distracting thoughts and currents of the mind that would normally flow out into the sensory environment are gradually gathered into one inner point of focus, one still, calm, concentrated state called samãdhi. This does not mean that the mind is striving to concentrate on one point (an outward focus), but rather that by assiduously following the method with mindful attention, the mind naturally, on its own accord, converges into a unified state of awareness. The resulting experience is a feeling of pure and harmonious being that is so wondrous as to be indescribable. Upon withdrawing from samãdhi, this calm, concentrated mental focus then serves as a basis for successfully pursuing investigative techniques to develop wisdom and gain insight into the true nature of all phenomena.
samsãra: The round of rebirth without beginning, in which all living beings revolve. Samsãra is the name given to the continuous process of being born, getting sick, growing old, and dying—an uninterrupted succession of births, deaths, and rebirths. It encompasses the entire universe of sentient existence, from the grossest beings to the most refined, from the highest realms of the Immaterial World to the lowest realms of hell. All existence within this cycle is subject to change, inherently unstable, and burdened with pain and suffering, with each state of existence being determined by a being”s intentional actions of body, speech, and mind (kamma). The attainment of Nibbãna marks the complete transcendence of the world of samsãra.
Sangha: The community of the Buddha”s disciples. On the conventional level, this means the Buddhist monastic order. On the ideal level, it refers to those of the Buddha”s followers, whether lay or ordained, who have attained at least the first of the four Transcendent Paths culminating in Arahantship.
sankhãra: As a general term, sankhãra refers to all forces that form or condition things in the phenomenal world of mind and matter, and to those formed or conditioned phenomena that result. As the fourth component of personality (sankhãra khandha) it refers to thought and imagination; that is, the thoughts that constantly form in the mind and conceptualize about one”s personal perceptions. Sankhãra creates these ideas and then hands them on to saññã, which interprets and elaborates on them, making assumptions about their significance
saññã: Memory; recognition of physical and mental phenomena as they arise. As the third component of personality, saññã khandha is associated with the function of memory; for instance, recognition, association, and interpretation. Saññã both recognizes the known and gives meaning and significance to all of one”s personal perceptions. Through recollection of past experience, the function of memory gives things specific meanings and then falls for its own interpretation of them, causing one to become either sad or glad about what one perceives.
sãsana: The teaching of the Buddha and, by extension, the Buddhist religion in general. The Buddhist spiritual path is inevitably a m…
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