Our trilingual glossary combining entries from all of our publications into one useful resource, giving translations and definitions of thousands of terms, people, places, and texts from the Buddhist canon.
འབྱུང་པོ། | Glossary of Terms
འབྱུང་པོ།
’byung po
bhūta
- Term
This term in its broadest sense can refer to any being, whether human, animal, or nonhuman. However, it is often used to refer to a specific class of nonhuman beings, especially when bhūtas are mentioned alongside rākṣasas, piśācas, or pretas. In common with these other kinds of nonhumans, bhūtas are usually depicted with unattractive and misshapen bodies. Like several other classes of nonhuman beings, bhūtas take spontaneous birth. As their leader is traditionally regarded to be Rudra-Śiva (also known by the name Bhūta), with whom they haunt dangerous and wild places, bhūtas are especially prominent in Śaivism, where large sections of certain tantras concentrate on them.
- Bhūta
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- ’byung po
- bhūta
A kind of spirit.
- Bhūta
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- ’byung po
- bhūta
A specific class of nonhuman supernatural beings, or a term for spirits in general.
- Bhūta
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- ’byung po
- bhūta
- Bhūta
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- ’byung po
- bhūta
A generic term for “spirit” or “ghost.” They can be malevolent or benevolent.
- Bhūta
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- ’byung po
- bhūta
A general term for spirit, ghost, or demon (either positive or negative).
- Bhūta
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- ’byung po
- bhūta
A ghost in the Indian tradition, sometimes haunting houses where they were killed. They can appear in human or animal form. They cast no shadow and their feet are always backward. In Hindi they are called bhoot.
- Bhūta
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- ’byung po
- bhūta
A generic term for “spirit” or “ghost.” They can be malevolent or benevolent.
- Bhūta
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- ’byung po
- bhūta
This can be a general name for spirits or demons, but is also used specifically for ghosts.
- Bhūta
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- ’byung po
- bhūta
A general term for spirit, ghost, or demon (either positive or negative).
- Bhūta
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- ’byung po
- bhūta
A general term for spirit, ghost, or demon.
- Bhūta
- བྱུང་པོ།
- byung po
- bhūta
A class of beings who are connected with the elements (water, fire, air, earth), like the river spirits, tree spirits, and so on.
- Bhūta
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- ’byung po
- bhūta
A general term for ghosts or spirits.
- Bhūta
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- ’byung po
- bhūta
A generic term for spirits or ghosts.
- Bhūta
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- ’byung po
- bhūta
A generic term for “spirit” or “ghost.” They can be malevolent or benevolent.
Warning: Readers are reminded that according to Vajrayāna Buddhist tradition there are restrictions and commitments concerning tantra. Practitioners who are not sure if they should read this translation are advised to consult the authorities of their lineage. The responsibility for reading this text or sharing it with others who may or may not fulfill the requirements lies in the hands of readers.
- Bhūta
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- ’byung po
- bhūta
A class of spirits.
- Bhūta
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- ’byung po
- bhūta
A general term for spirit, ghost, or demon (either positive or negative).
Warning: Readers are reminded that according to Vajrayāna Buddhist tradition there are restrictions and commitments concerning tantra. Practitioners who are not sure if they should read this translation are advised to consult the authorities of their lineage. The responsibility for reading this text or sharing it with others who may or may not fulfill the requirements lies in the hands of readers.
- Bhūta
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- ’byung po
- bhūta
A generic term for spirits or ghosts.
- Bhūta
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- ’byung po
- bhūta
A class of demonic sprit being.
- Bhūta
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- ’byung po
- bhūta
A class of demonic sprit beings.
- Bhūta
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- ’byung po
- bhūta
A specific class of nonhuman supernatural beings, or a term for spirits in general. They can be malevolent or benevolent.
- Bhūta
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- ’byung po
- bhūta
A class of spirits, usually of the lower order.
- Bhūta
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- ’byung po
- bhūta
A general term for spirit, ghost, or demon (either positive or negative).
- Bhūta
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- ’byung po
- bhūta
- Bhūta
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- ’byung po
- bhūta
- Bhūta
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- ’byung po
- bhūta
A generic term for a spirit or ghost. They can be malevolent or benevolent.
Warning: Readers are reminded that according to Vajrayāna Buddhist tradition there are restrictions and commitments concerning tantra. Practitioners who are not sure if they should read this translation are advised to consult the authorities of their lineage. The responsibility for reading this text or sharing it with others who may or may not fulfill the requirements lies in the hands of readers.
- Bhūta
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- བྷུ་ཏ།
- ’byung po
- b+hu ta
- bhūta
A specific class of nonhuman supernatural beings, or a term for spirits in general.
- Bhūta
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- ’byung po
- bhūta
A specific class of nonhuman supernatural beings, or a term for spirits in general.
- Bhūta
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- ’byung po
- bhūta
A class of spirits; in the Bhūtaḍāmara Tantra this term can refer to all nonhuman beings, including gods.
- Bhūta
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- ’byung po
- bhūta
A general term for spirit, ghost, or demon (either positive or negative).
Warning: Readers are reminded that according to Vajrayāna Buddhist tradition there are restrictions and commitments concerning tantra. Practitioners who are not sure if they should read this translation are advised to consult the authorities of their lineage. The responsibility for reading this text or sharing it with others who may or may not fulfill the requirements lies in the hands of readers.
- Bhūta
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- ’byung po
- bhūta
A specific class of nonhuman beings, or a term for spirits in general.
- Bhūta
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- ’byung po
- bhūta
A general term for spirit, ghost, or demon (either positive or negative).
- Spirit
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- ’byung po
- bhūta
A class of spirits; any nonhuman being.
- Spirit
- བྱུང་པོ།
- byung po
- bhūta
A broad class of demonic, possessing beings of which there are numerous subdivisions outlined in Āyurvedic literature and Śaiva tantras, such as the Netratantra and Kriyākallotara, that preserve material from the now-lost genre of bhūtatantra that discusses the symptomology, pathology, and treatment of demonic possession.
- Spirit
- བྱུང་པོ།
- byung po
- bhūta
A class of demonic beings.
- Living being
- འབྱུང་པོ།
- ’byung po
- sattva