Glossary

The process of dying is following the process of disintegration of the five elements and the 72000 energy channels (tsa) that sustain a human body. It is basically a reverse process of the time since conception till the full establishment of the body.

(skt.: arya ashtangika marga; tib.: phag lam yen lag gye) The fourth of the Four noble truths.

(skt.: abhisheka; tib.: wang) Wang, usually translated as empowerment, is a complex tantric ritual based on a mandala of a deity which confers the power and ability to engage in certain meditative practices for achieving enlightenment, and thus becoming a Buddha, in order to benefit others as fully as possible. An empowerment also plants new seeds, or potentials.

(skt.: shunyata; tib.: tong pa nyi) Emptiness (sometimes also translated as voidness) is a Buddhist idea which states that all phenomena are empty of any kind of self existence or inherent existence. Emptiness is the reality of the existence of ourselves and all the phenomena around us.

(skt.: upeksha; tib.: tang nyom) Attitude without the usual discrimination of sentient beings into friend, enemy and stranger, deriving from the realization that all sentient beings are equal in wanting happiness and not wanting suffering and that since beginningless time all beings have equally been ones mother in some previous life. An impartial mind that serves as the basis for the development of great love, great compassion and bodhicitta. This type of mind is characterized as an even-tempered attitude toward everyone, it manifests as a quieting of attachment and ill-will toward others. It fails when it manifests as indifference.