84000 Glossary of Terms

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.

གཉེན་གནས། | Glossary of Terms

  • གཉེན་གནས།

  • བསྙེན་གནས།
  • gnyen gnas
  • bsnyen gnas
  • upavāsa
  • Term
Publications: 5

As expressed in the Sanskrit and translated literally into Tibetan, the term means “to dwell near.” The term comes from the older Vedic traditions in which during full moon and new moon sacrifices, householders would practice abstinence in various forms such as fasting and refraining from sexual activity. These holy days were called upavasatha days because it was said that the gods who were the recipients of these sacrifices would “dwell” (√vas) “near” (upa) the practitioners of these sacrifices. While sacrificial practices were discarded by Buddhists, the framework of practicing fortnightly abstinence evolved into the poṣadha observance, a term etymologically related to the term upavasatha.

  • abstinence
  • བསྙེན་གནས།
  • bsnyen gnas
  • upavāsa
Definition in this text:

As expressed in the Sanskrit and translated literally into Tibetan, the term means “to dwell near.” The term comes from the older Vedic traditions in which during full moon and new moon sacrifices, householders would practice abstinence in various forms such as fasting and refraining from sexual activity. These holy days were called upavasatha days because it was said that the gods that were the recipients of these sacrifices would “dwell” (√vas) “near” (upa) the practitioners of these sacrifices. While sacrificial practices were discarded by Buddhists, the framework of practicing fortnightly abstinence evolved into the poṣadha observance, and in fact the term poṣadha is etymologically related to the term upavasatha. See Dutt (1962), p. 73.

  • abstinence
  • གཉེན་གནས།
  • gnyen gnas
  • upavāsa
  • abstinence
  • གཉེན་གནས།
  • gnyen gnas
  • upavāsa
  • abstinence
  • གཉེན་གནས།
  • gnyen gnas
  • upavāsa
  • abstinence
  • གཉེན་གནས།
  • gnyen gnas
  • upavāsa