Aro Dictionary

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terms and definitions taken from http://arobuddhism.org/dictionary

Terms

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abhisheka: The Sanskrit term for empowerment.
Anuyoga: The second of the inner Tantras. It is concerned primarily with transformation through instantaneous self-arising and through the manipulation of the subtle body.
Aro Lingma: The female Lama who discovered the Aro gTér (térma) and founded the Aro lineage. She was a pure-vision Tértön.
Atiyoga: Synonymous with Dzogchen. This term is used when classifying yanas in terms of the nine-yana Nyingma system. In that system, this is regarded as the third of the inner Tantras. Dzogchen is the term used within the Dzogchen's own three-yana categorisation
bardo: Literally, 'in-between state'. Most often used to refer to the state between death and rebirth. However, every moment of experience is between what has gone before and what will come next. Such in-between moments are classified in various ways according to the nature of one's awareness of them.
base: In terms of a yana, its starting point: the condition you must be in to begin following its path. If you are not at this point of a yana, you can practice a ngöndro to take you there.
bodhicitta: The Sanskrit term for chang chub sem
chang chub sem: Active compassion. Also enlightened mind, or primordial awareness.
chö: 'as it is'. The word is used in many ways. It means, among other things: Buddhism, phenomenon and truth.
chöd: A system of meditation practices that transform or self-liberate the energies of fear and loss.
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche: (1939-1987) was the Lama most responsible for bringing Vajrayana Buddhism to the West. He had an unparalleled ability to communicate the most profound Tibetan Buddhist teachings in terms understandable to English speakers without compromising their meaning. His books are classics and many appear in the Aro recommended reading list.
crazy wisdom: The unpredictable and sometimes incomprehensible or shocking enlightened activity of certain realised masters. Some Lamas manifest this as a way of shaking people out of dualistic complacency.
daka: The Sanskrit term for pawo
dakini: The Sanskrit term for khandro
damtsig: The 'sacred vows' of Vajrayana. Outwardly, they consist of maintaining harmonious relationship with the vajra master and one's Sangha; and, inwardly, not straying from the continuity of the practice.
deity yoga: Another term for yidam practice.
Dharma: The Sanskrit term for chö
drüpthab: 'Method of accomplishment'. Commonly used to refer to a Tantric liturgy that is chanted. More accurately, can refer to any Vajrayana method.
duality: can refer to any of several confused attempts to polarise reality. In general Buddhism, it refers most often to the opposition of self and other. In Dzogchen, it refers particularly to the attempt to separate form and emptiness; or more subtly to separate duality and non-duality.
Dzogchen: The Buddhist yana, or 'vehicle', based on the approach of self-liberation. Self-liberation occurs when we allow phenomena to be as they are. 'Phenomena' here includes both external objects and mental ones, such as perceptions and emotions.
Dzogchen gar-dang: The Tibetan term for yogic song.
elements: earth, water, fire, air and space - can be understood on many levels. For beginning Aro students, the relevant understanding is the transformation of the five elemental neuroses (territoriality, aggression, neediness, anxiety, and depression) into the five elemental wisdoms (generosity, clarity, compassionate appreciation, accomplishment, and unboundedness)
empowerment: A structured occasion on which a Lama gives transmission of Vajrayana practice. It may be described as a 'ceremony' or 'ritual' - but those terms suggest rote performance. To be effective, it must be ecstatically involving. 'Symbolic enactment of transmission' is a more accurate definition.
emptiness: The tendency of things to lack characteristics or distinct existence. Insubstantiality, transience, indistinctness, discontinuity, and undefinedness. From the Dzogchen perspective, it is always only relative, due to the non-duality of form and emptiness. Perceived directly in the practice of shi-nè.
form: The tendency of things to manifest characteristics and distinct existence. The tendency to appear solid, permanent, separate, continuous, and defined. This tendency is always only relative, due to the non-duality of form and emptiness.
four naljors: The meditation practices that constitute the ngöndro (preliminary practices) of Dzogchen sem-dé. They are: shi-nè, lhatong, nyi'mèd, and lhundrüp.
Gésar of Ling: The legendary and supernatural enlightened warrior-king of early Tibet. He symbolises victory over aggression. He is a preëminent example of a pawo.
Guru Rinpoche: The Tibetan term for Padmasambhava.
guru yoga: The Sanskrit term for Lama'i naljor.
Hinayana: The yana, or Buddhist approach, that emphasises one's own enlightenment. From the Dzogchen perspective, it is part of Sutrayana
inner Tantra: Tantrayana is divided into three outer and three inner Tantras. The outer Tantras regard enlightenment as external to oneself; the inner Tantras work with one's own beginninglessly enlightened nature. Aro teaches the inner Tantras exclusively. The inner Tantras are Mahayoga, Anuyoga, and Atiyoga (also known as Dzogchen)
Jomo Menmo: (1248-1283) An enlightened wandering yogini who displayed crazy wisdom and was therefore demonised by the ecclesiastical establishment of the time. Nevertheless she was a profound teacher to many and remains an inspiration for modern practitioners. She is regarded as one of the foremothers of the Aro lineage.
khandro: Literally, in Tibetan, 'sky-goer'; or in a more poetic translation 'sky dancer'. A female Vajrayana practitioner who manifests outer wisdom display and who possesses inner method nature. Refers also to supernatural or semi-divine female beings.
khandropa: Literally, in Tibetan, 'sky-goer'; or in a more poetic translation 'sky dancer'. A male Vajrayana practitioner who manifests outer wisdom display and who possesses inner method nature
Lama'i naljor: A practice in which the meditator's mind is unified with that of an enlightened being.
lhatong: Literally means 'superior vision' in Tibetan. It refers to the experience of form as emergent from emptiness, or to meditation methods that aim to find that experience
lineage: A stream of enlightened activity passed from one Lama to the next in an unbroken chain
long-dé: The second of the three series of Dzogchen. The Series of the Great Expanse or Series of Space. It is primarily concerned with the experience of the subtle body.
Machig Labdrön: (1055-1152) The enlightened female Lama who established chöd as a central Tibetan Buddhist practice. She is venerated as one of the foremost foremothers of the Aro lineage. Her Lama'i Naljor is the most frequently practiced in Aro.
mahasiddha: A Tantrika whose enlightenment manifests as extraordinary powers (siddhis).
Mahayana: The Buddhist approach, or yana, that emphasises selfless action on behalf of others. Synonymous with 'Bodhisatvayana'.
Mahayoga: The first of the three inner Tantras. It is concerned primarily with inner and outer transformation through ritual performance.
men-ngag-dé: The third series of Dzogchen. It is the Series of Implicit Instruction. The teachings are 'self-secret' because if you have the necessary meditational experience they make perfect sense - but otherwise are completely incomprehensible.
Naljorma: A female Tantric practitioner. Particularly, an ordained Tantrika who concentrates on physical and energetic practices from Anuyoga and long-dé.
Naljorpa: A male Tantric practitioner. Particularly, an ordained Tantrika concentrating on physical and energetic practices from Anuyoga and long-dé.
Naropa: Indian mahasiddha who was a key figure in the early history of the Sarma lineages.
Ngakma: A female Tantric practitioner. Particularly, an ordained Tantrika concentrating on mantra and practices from Mahayoga.
Ngakpa: A male Tantric practitioner. Particularly, an ordained Tantrika concentrating on mantra and practices from Mahayoga.
Ngala: A Lama who is a Ngakpa or Ngakma; a non-monastic, Tantric Lama. Used as a title.
ngöndro: A set of 'preliminary practices' that bring you to the base (starting point) of a yana. Within Aro, the most common one is the four naljors, a series of meditation practices.
non-duality: The indivisibility of reality. Its unwillingness to conform to the rigid categories we attempt to apply to it. In general Buddhism this usually refers to the non-separateness of self and other.
nyam: Experience. In the Buddhist context, usually refers to any unusual experience that occurs during meditation.
Nyida Mélong: The Aro teachings on vajra romance: love as an advanced Buddhist practice. These teachings are a térma of Aro Lingma, the founder of the Aro lineage.
Nyingma: The 'old' tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Aro is a Nyingma lineage. The tradition was founded by Padmasambhava and Yeshé Tsogyel in the Eighth Century. It is based on the 'old translations' of Indian Tantras and on térma.
ordination: The formal recognition by a religious authority that an individual has made a permanent commitment of unbounded service to the religion and the religious community
Padmasambhava: The Second Buddha, who—with his consort Yeshé Tsogyel—established Vajrayana Buddhism in Tibet in the Eighth Century
pamo: 'Heroine'. A female Vajrayana practitioner who manifests courage and outer method display and possesses inner wisdom nature. May also refer to supernatural or semi-divine female Buddhist beings - analogous in some ways to the valkyries of Norse legend.
path: The methods used in a yana to take you from the base to the result.
pawo: 'Hero'. A male Vajrayana practitioner who manifests courage and outward method display and possesses inner wisdom nature. May also refer to supernatural or semi-divine beings such as Gésar of Ling.
practice: In Buddhism means a method or activity.
refuge: To affirm your commitment to Buddhism. The ceremony is a formal acknowledgment of this commitment. This means that you have recognised the fundamental principles of Buddhism as an accurate reflection of reality and that you intend to live according to them.
renunciation: The path of Sutrayana. We avoid situations that give rise to negative emotions, in order to stop the emotions themselves
result: (of a yana) is the condition you enter into after fully accomplishing its path.
rigpa: In Dzogchen, direct perception of non-duality.
root vows: The primary vows (damtsig) of Tantric ordination.
sadhana: The Sanskrit term for drüpthab.
samaya: The Sanskrit term for damtsig.
samsara: The unsatisfying way of experiencing the world as deficient and wrong. The result of dualised view. Literally, 'cyclic existence'.
Sangha: A community of Buddhist practitioners. Sometimes refers specifically to the community of ordained practitioners.
Sarma: The 'new schools' of Tibetan Buddhism: Kagyüd, Sakya, and Gélug. These schools are based on new translations of the Indian Tantras made in the Eleventh Century.
self-arising: The practice of visualising oneself as a yidam.
self-liberation: Self-liberation is the path of Dzogchen. Phenomena are self-liberated when we instantaneously recognise their non-dual nature, and allow them to be as they are.
sem-dé: The first of the three series of Dzogchen. It is the 'Series of the nature of Mind'. It contains a ngöndro, the four naljors, that makes it possible to approach Dzogchen sem-dé on its own terms, rather than via Tantra.
series: Dzogchen is divided into three 'series' (or 'categories' - Tibetan dé): sem-dé, long-dé, and men-ngag-dé. These three contain progressively less conceptual content. There is much to say about sem-dé, less about long-dé, and virtually nothing about men-ngag-dé.
shamatha: The Sanskrit term for shi-nè.
shi-nè: Literally means 'peaceful abiding' in Tibetan. It refers to the direct perception of emptiness without conceptual interpretation. It also refers to several meditation methods that aim to find this experience by stilling the mind.
sKu-mNyé: A system of physical exercises that give rise to extraordinary sensations in the subtle body. Through experiencing these sensations, it is possible to find the presence of non-dual awareness in the dimension of tactility.
subtle body: The energetic body. It is described in terms of 'channels' (or 'spatial nerves'); 'winds' (or 'energies'); and 'points' (or 'elemental essences').
Sutra: Used in two ways. A sutra is a Buddhist sacred text, generally expressing teachings from Sutrayana. 'Sutra' is also used as a shortened form of Sutrayana.
Sutrayana: The Buddhist yana whose path is renunciation. The base is suspicion of samsara, and the result is direct perception of emptiness.
Tantra: Used in two ways. 'Tantra' is a short form of 'Tantrayana', the Buddhist yana concerned with transformation. A 'tantra' is also a sacred text typically expressing teachings from Tantrayana.
Tantrayana: The Buddhist yana whose path is the transformation of neurotically confused emotions into their enlightened equivalents.
Tantrika: One who practices Tantra. Particularly, one who holds the fourteen root vows.
térma: Spiritual treasures that were hidden by a Buddha such as Padmasambhava or Yeshé Tsogyel and subsequently revealed by a Tértön.
Tértön: One who discovers térma or concealed spiritual treasures.
thangka: A Tibetan religious icon in the form of a scroll that is hung on the wall but can be rolled up when not in use.
transformation: The path of Tantrayana is the transformation of the neurotic or confused forms of the elemental emotions into their enlightened equivalents.
transmission: This occurs when a student recognises the enlightened nature of a Lama. Through this inspirational experience it becomes possible to recognise one's own enlightened nature.
trèk-chöd: The Dzogchen meditation method of finding the presence of awareness (rigpa) in the dimension of whatever arises.
Vajrayana: The Buddhist yana (approach) based on the experience of the non-duality of form and emptiness. It consists of Dzogchen together with Tantrayana.
vehicle: The literal translation of yana. An approach within Buddhism, comprising a coherent system of theory and practice that takes you from a base via a path to a result.
vipashyana: The Sanskrit term for lhatong.
vipassana: The Pali term for lhatong. Pali is a language related to Sanskrit in which many sutras were written.
wang: The Tibetan term for empowerment.
yana: An approach within Buddhism. A coherent system of theory and practice that carries one from a base via a path to a particular result. Literally means 'vehicle', and it is sometimes translated that way.
Yeshé Tsogyel: The female Buddha who - with her consort Padmasambhava - established Tantric Buddhism in Tibet.
yidam: An 'awareness-being'. A visionary form expressing enlightenment.
yidam practice: A meditation in which a yidam is visualised.
yogi: The Sanskrit term for Naljorpa.
yogic song: A method in which the non-conceptual sensory experience of the voice provides the possibility of finding the presence of awareness (rigpa) in the dimension of sound and bodily sensation.
yogini: The Sanskrit term for Naljorma.

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Deck Info

Number of cards 101