Bodhi

Bodhi is awakening in Buddhism: liberation from ignorance through insight into reality, ending the conditions that sustain suffering and rebirth.

Four Noble Truths: The Buddha’s framework describing suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the path to its cessation. Bodhi is insight into the truths that diagnose suffering and show its cessation.
Arhat: A person who has attained liberation from the cycle of rebirth in early Buddhist traditions. The arhat exemplifies liberation through the realization of awakening.
Gautama Buddha: The spiritual teacher regarded as the founder of Buddhism, who lived in ancient India. Buddhist tradition presents his awakening as the decisive model of bodhi.
Śrāvakayāna: A Mahayana term for the path of disciples seeking liberation as arhats through hearing and practicing a Buddha’s teaching. Mahayana texts contrast this path’s aim with the bodhisattva’s pursuit of buddhahood.
Ignorance (Buddhism): In Buddhist thought, ignorance is misapprehension of reality that sustains craving and suffering. Bodhi reverses the ignorance identified as a root of continued suffering.
Buddhahood: The complete awakening and perfected capacities attributed to a Buddha. Buddhahood is the fullest form of awakening in Buddhist accounts.
Bodh Gaya: A town in Bihar, India, identified as the site of Gautama Buddha’s awakening. Bodh Gaya locates the traditional event that gives bodhi its foundational narrative.
Pratyekabuddha: A Buddhist figure who awakens independently in an age without a Buddha but does not teach a path to others. This form of awakening differs from a Buddha’s role as a teacher and founder of a path.
Dependent origination: The Buddhist account of how phenomena arise through conditions rather than independently. Awakening entails seeing conditioned existence without mistaking it for an independent self.
Bodhisattva: A being who seeks buddhahood and, in Mahayana traditions, works for the liberation of all beings. The bodhisattva path frames awakening as inseparable from compassionate activity.

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