Terms

Punya/punna: generally taken to mean virtue or holiness; the outcome of doing prescribed works; primary attribute sought out by Buddhists to build up better karma

Samsara: the endless cycle of birth and suffering and death and rebirth; reincarnation

Sangha: Buddhist community of believers; can be the Buddhist monastic order (monks and/or nuns); can also be the monastic order and the laity; charged with teaching the dharma, living the precepts (10 for monks and 5 for laity), and being a model of sila (moral conduct); one of the 3 refuges along with the Buddha & the dharma

Shakyamuni: means "sage of the Shakya clan"; widely used in China and Japan; term is sometimes used with the term Buddha, expressed as the Shakyamuni buddha

Sila: means "ethical or moral conduct"; includes right speech, action & livelihood in the eightfold path; one of the 3 trainings along with prajna & samadhi

Skandhas: "bundles"; the five shifting components of human nature: physical form, sensations, cognitions, character dispositions, and consciousness; "the five factors of human nature are suffering", providing no basis for stability

Tanha/trishna: "desire", "thirst", "craving"; the second of the Four Noble Truths, selfish desire, which causes dukkha

Tathagata: means "the one who has thus gone"; Siddhartha uses this term to refer to himself after he reaches nirvana; others use the term primarily in scripture after his death

Theravada Buddhism: "the way of the elders"; prevalent form of Buddhism in Cambodia, Myanmar (formerly Burma), Sri Lanka, and Thailand; focuses on the earliest texts and emphasizes monastic lifestyle

Three Jewels/Gems/Refuges: Buddha (awakeness), the Dharma (doctrine), and the Sangha (community); the Buddha as the ideal teacher, the Dharma as his teaching or "gospel", and the Sangha, or older or monks, as the ideal community; three ideals that a person affirms on formally becoming a Buddhist or a Buddhist monk or nun

Tibetan Buddhism: Vajrajana, or "the vehicle of the diamond"; named for the vajra, the Buddha's diamond scepter; emphasizes the harnessing of sensual energies to attain nirvana.

Trikaya: Mahayana doctrine of Buddha's three bodies and on nature; Dharmakaya (truth body) which embodies enlightenment, Sambhogakaya (body of mutual enjoyment) which is bliss; and Nirmanakaya (created body) which is the physical body that is manifested in time and space

Tripitaka: "3 baskets"; Pali Canon, the earliest collection of scriptures; Vinaya Pitaka (monastic rules), Sutta Pitaka (discourses), Abhidhamma Pitaka (supplements to the doctrines); considered sacred texts to all Buddhist branches; considered "closed" to Theravada and "open" to Mahayana

Upaya: useful or skillful means; an aspect of guidance along the Buddhist paths to nirvana that states that Buddhists may use their own specific methods to gain enlightenment

An image depicting the three "poisons" of samsara: desire, represented by the cockerel; hatred or jealousy, represented by the snake; and ignorance, represented by the pig.

The Nihonji Temple in Japan, with a depiction of Tathagata.

Two monks outside the Sakya Monastery, the seat of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism, on the road to Tingri in Tibet.