Buddhist Psychology Glossary
Instructor's addition: This glossary was created as a supplemental course resource and was not part of Dr. C. George Boeree's original text.
Basic Concepts
- Buddha
- A title meaning "the awakened one." Siddhartha Gautama received this title after attaining enlightenment and understanding the nature of suffering and the path toward freedom from unnecessary suffering.
- Dharma
- The teachings or way taught by the Buddha. In this context, the Dharma includes teachings about suffering, attachment, ethical conduct, awareness, and the path toward enlightenment.
- Sangha
- The Buddhist community. Traditionally, the term referred especially to the community of monks and nuns, although it may also be used more broadly for the community of Buddhist practitioners.
- Middle Way
- The Buddha's rejection of both excessive self-indulgence and extreme self-denial. His own experience led him to seek a path between the life of luxury and severe asceticism.
- Enlightenment
- An awakening to the nature of reality and the causes of suffering, accompanied by freedom from the ignorance and attachment that produce unnecessary suffering.
The Four Noble Truths
- Four Noble Truths
- The central Buddhist teaching that suffering is part of life, suffering is increased by attachment and craving, unnecessary suffering can be diminished or extinguished, and there is a path for doing so.
- Duhkha
- Usually translated as suffering, but also translated as stress, anguish, dissatisfaction, or imperfection. It refers to the unsatisfactory quality of life that results partly from trying to make changing and imperfect things permanent and completely satisfying.
- Anitya (Impermanence)
- The principle that all things change. People, relationships, experiences, possessions, and life itself are impermanent. Failure to accept change contributes to suffering.
- Anatman (No-Self)
- The Buddhist teaching that there is no permanent, unchanging self or eternal essence underlying the person. What we call the self is an ongoing and changing collection of processes and experiences.
- Trishna (Craving or Attachment)
- The desire to cling to experiences, people, possessions, or conditions and make them permanent. Buddhism identifies this clinging as an important source of unnecessary suffering.
- Avidya (Ignorance)
- A failure to perceive reality clearly, particularly the impermanent and changing nature of experience. It includes mistaking our interpretations of reality for reality itself.
- Nirvana
- Freedom from the craving, hatred, and ignorance that create unnecessary suffering. Boeree notes that one useful way of understanding nirvana is simply as freedom.
The Eightfold Path
- Eightfold Path
- The Buddhist path for reducing suffering through the development of wisdom, ethical behavior, and mental discipline.
- Right View
- Understanding the Four Noble Truths and recognizing the impermanent, imperfect, and changing nature of experience.
- Right Aspiration
- Developing the sincere intention to reduce attachment, hatred, and ignorance and to move toward greater wisdom and compassion.
- Right Speech
- Communicating truthfully and avoiding speech intended to deceive, gossip, or unnecessarily harm other people.
- Right Action
- Behaving ethically and avoiding actions that cause unnecessary harm to oneself or others.
- Right Livelihood
- Earning a living in an honest way that avoids unnecessary harm to other people and living things.
- Right Effort
- Developing constructive mental habits while learning to recognize and release harmful thoughts and impulses without becoming attached to them.
- Right Mindfulness
- Developing clear awareness of thoughts, feelings, sensations, and experiences without automatically judging, clinging to, or avoiding them.
- Right Concentration
- Developing focused attention through meditation in order to quiet the mind and support greater awareness and understanding.
Psychological Concepts
- Mindfulness
- Purposeful awareness of present experience without attachment or automatic judgment. Thoughts and feelings can be observed as events rather than immediately accepted, rejected, or acted upon.
- Attachment
- Clinging to people, experiences, beliefs, possessions, or even identities as though they could remain permanent. Attachment can increase suffering when reality inevitably changes.
- Karma
- The principle that actions have consequences. Boeree emphasizes a psychological interpretation in which constructive and destructive actions affect the person who performs them as well as the people around them.
- Compassion
- Concern for the suffering of others together with the desire to reduce that suffering. Compassion is an important quality cultivated in Buddhist practice.
- Equanimity
- A balanced and steady state of mind that allows a person to experience changing circumstances without being overwhelmed by either attachment or avoidance.
- Sunyata (Emptiness)
- The idea that things do not possess completely separate, permanent, independent essences. They exist through changing conditions and relationships with other things.