ariya-sacca Noble Truth. The word "ariya" (noble) can also mean ideal or standard, and in this context means "objective" or "universal" truth. There are four: stress, the origin of stress, the disbanding of stress, and the path of practice leading to the disbanding of stress.

Commentaries of Buddhist teachings.

A Buddhist "monk" ("nun"); a man (woman) who has given up the householder's life to live a life of heightened virtue in accordance with the Vinaya in general, and the Patimokkha rules in particular.

Awake; enlightened. An epithet for the Buddha.

The name given to one who rediscovers for himself the liberating path of Dhamma, after a long period of its having been forgotten by the world. According to tradition, there is a long line of Buddhas stretching into the distant past. The most recent Buddha was born Siddhattha Gotama in India in the sixth century BCE. A well-educated and w [..]

Founded: About 525 BC, reportedly near Benares, India. Founder: Gautama Siddhartha (ca. 562-480), the Buddha, who achieved enlightenment through   intense meditation. Organization: The basic institution is the Sangha or monastic order through which the traditions are passed to each generation. Monastic life tends to be democratic and anti-aut [..]

(1) Event; a phenomenon in and of itself; (2) mental quality; (2) doctrine, teaching; (4) nibbana. Also, principles of behavior that human beings ought to follow so as to fit in with the right natural order of things; qualities of mind they should develop so as to realize the inherent quality of the mind in and of itself. By extension, & [..]

"doctrine (dhamma) and discipline (vinaya)." The Buddha's own name for the religion he founded.

suffering, oppression.

"Inferior Vehicle," originally a pejorative term -- coined by a group who called themselves followers of the Mahayana, the "Great Vehicle" -- to denote the path of practice of those who adhered only to the earliest discourses as the word of the Buddha. Hinayanists refused to recognize the later discours [..]