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.
རང་བཞིན། | Glossary of Terms
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རང་བཞིན།
- rang bzhin
- svabhāva
- prakṛti
- jātika
- Term
- nature
- རང་བཞིན།
- rang bzhin
- prakṛti
- nature
- རང་བཞིན།
- rang bzhin
- —
- nature
- རང་བཞིན།
- rang bzhin
- prakṛti
- svabhāva
- basic nature
- རང་བཞིན།
- rang bzhin
- prakṛti
See “intrinsic nature.”
- basic nature
- རང་བཞིན།
- rang bzhin
- svabhāva
See “intrinsic nature.”
- intrinsic nature
- རང་བཞིན།
- rang bzhin
- svabhāva
The inherent nature of a phenomenon; in the present text, this is possibly a reference to the buddha-nature, or tathāgatagarbha.
- intrinsic nature
- རང་བཞིན།
- rang bzhin
- svabhāva
The inherent nature of a phenomenon; in the present text, this is possibly a reference to the buddha-nature, tathāgatagarbha.
- prakṛti
- རང་བཞིན།
- rang bzhin
- prakṛti
“According to Sāṁkhya, the prime substance, from which the material universe evolves, as opposed to puruṣa, pure consciousness.” (Reat, 39 n5).
- prakṛti
- རང་བཞིན།
- rang bzhin
- prakṛti
A fundamental ontological principle of the non-Buddhist Sāṅkhya tradition. Prakṛti is the undifferentiated potentiality that contains all possible transformations of thought and matter. It can either persist in an unmanifest or manifest state, manifesting only when it comes into contact with the second fundamental Sāṅkya principle, puruṣa, a basic mode of timeless awareness. When these two come into contact, the internal complexities of cognition and perception and the external complexities of the material world progressively unfold, thereby creating the known universe.
- basic character
- རང་བཞིན།
- rang bzhin
- jātika
- disposition
- རང་བཞིན།
- rang bzhin
- prakṛti
- fundamental
- རང་བཞིན།
- rang bzhin
- prakṛti
- identity
- རང་བཞིན།
- rang bzhin
- svabhāva
Svabhāva is usually rendered as “self-nature,” sometimes as “own-being,” both of which have a certain literal validity. However, neither artificial term has any evocative power for the reader who has no familiarity with the original, and a term must be found that the reader can immediately relate to his own world to fulfill the function the original word had in its world. In our world of identities (national, racial, religious, personal, sexual, etc.), “identity” is a part of our makeup; thus, when we are taught the ultimate absence of identity of all persons and things, it is easy to “identify” what is supposedly absent and hence to try to understand what that entails.
- inherent existence
- རང་བཞིན།
- rang bzhin
- svabhāva
This term denotes the ontological status of phenomena, according to which they are attributed with existence in their own right, inherently, in and of themselves, objectively, and independent of any other phenomena such as our conception and labelling. The absence of such an ontological reality is defined as the true nature of reality, emptiness.
- own nature
- རང་བཞིན།
- rang bzhin
- svabhāva