Knowra Enlightenment in Buddhism Enlightenment in Buddhism Enlightenment is awakening from ignorance through direct realization of reality, ending the causes of suffering and freeing a being from the cycle of rebirth.
Four Noble Truths : The Buddhist teaching that suffering exists, has causes, can cease, and has a path leading to its cessation. They frame awakening as understanding suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the way to cessation.
Vipassana : A form of Buddhist insight meditation that develops clear observation of experience and its changing nature. Insight practice can cultivate direct seeing of impermanence, suffering, and not-self.
Arhat : A person who has attained liberation from the cycle of rebirth in early Buddhist and Theravada traditions. The arhat ideal emphasizes personal liberation, unlike the bodhisattva's commitment to universal awakening.
Gautama Buddha : The teacher whose awakening and teachings became the foundation of Buddhism. His awakening underlies the tradition's central accounts of liberation and its path.
Noble Eightfold Path : The Buddhist training in right view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration. It gives the practical training through which ignorance and suffering are brought to an end.
Samatha : Buddhist meditation that develops calm and mental unification through sustained attention. Concentration steadies the mind for insight, though calm alone is not awakening.
Bodhisattva : A being who seeks complete awakening for the benefit of all beings, especially in Mahayana Buddhism. The bodhisattva ideal frames awakening through compassion and the liberation of all beings.
Bodhi tree : The sacred fig tree associated with Gautama Buddha's awakening at Bodh Gaya. The tree marks the setting of the canonical narrative of the Buddha's awakening.
Anatta : The Buddhist doctrine that no permanent, independent self can be found in the components of experience. Realizing not-self undermines the self-clinging that sustains ignorance and suffering.
Prajna : Wisdom in Buddhism, especially insight into reality that dispels ignorance. Wisdom names the liberating understanding that transforms practice into awakening.
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