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Dictionary of Key Spiritual Terms


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Buddhism

  1. ཆོས།

    [lit. religion]

    1) Buddhism in general; believed to have begun in the 6th centuryBC. By 100 AD it separated into the so-called Hinayana (ཐེག་​དམན།) and Mahayana (ཐེག་​ཆེན།) schools, the latter marked by belief in Buddhist saints called boddhisattvas (བྱང་​ཆུབ་​སེམས་​དཔའ།), a dual standard of truth (བདེན་​པ་​གཉིས།), and multiple Buddhas. The seventh century saw developments in tantra (རྒྱུད།), yoga (རྣལ་​འབྱོར།), as well as interaction with the native Tibetan religion (བོན།), produce a uniquely Tibetan Buddhism (བོད་​བརྒྱུད་​སངས་​རྒྱས་​ཆོས་​ལུགས། (MHP 7). ནང་​པའི་​ཆོས། [lit. inside + person + religion] or ནང་​པའི་​ཆོས་​ལུགས། Buddhism (DLP 19), ནང་​པའི་​ཆོས་​ལུགས་​སུ་​འཇིག་​རྟེན་​བཀོད་​པ་​པོ་​མེད་​པ། in Buddhism there is no Creator (DLP 20); 2) used in a more general sense to mean religion: ཡེ་​ཤུའི་​ཆོས། or ཡེ་​ཤུའི་​ཆོས་​ལུགས། Christianity, ཡ་​ཧུ་​ད་​པའི་​ཆོས། Judaism.

  2. ནང་​བསྟན།

    Buddhism ནང་​བསྟན་​མཐུན་​ཚོགས། Tibetan Buddhist Association (SLR 16).