Buddhist Vocabulary

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Buddhist Vocabulary: Merit

Merit refers to the accumulation of beneficial karma or virtue through actions, thoughts, and intentions. It is considered to be a force that leads to favorable outcomes both in this life and in future lives.

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Buddhist Vocabulary: Lojong

While most of Buddha’s teachings could be described as method to train the mind, lojong is in a specific category of methods to train the mind or reorient ourselves to respond to ourselves, others, and the circum-stances of our lives from the perspective of altruism. These methods highlight the practices of equalizing self and other and ex-changing self and other

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Buddhist Vocabulary: Vajrayana

Vajrayana is the diamond path that lifts the veils that keep us from recognizing our indestructible, ever-present buddha nature, innate goodness, our inherent potential for enlightenment.

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Buddhist Vocabulary: Lineage

Lineage: An unbroken stream of spiritual masters through which the sacred teachings of the dharma flow, allow our present-day teachings to be traced back to their original source.

Tibetan: བརྒྱུད་པ
Phonetics: gyüpa
Wylie*: brgyud pa
Sanskrit: parampara

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Buddhist Vocabulary: Sangha

Sangha literally means that which is struck together well. In common usage, it generally refers to a community. It has been adopted by multiple religions.

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Buddhist Vocabulary: Empowerment

In an empowerment, the vajra master transmits the realization of a particular practice to the initiate. This is not a bestowing of something to the initiate that they do not have. An empowerment activates a quality that is dormant. The vajra master’s transmission wakes up an innate quality to which the initiate does not have access because the quality is obscured by habitual patterns.

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