Words, plainly

The words you’ll hear, in plain English

Thirty terms with the Chinese characters and pinyin beside the old Sanskrit — so you can finally place the words you grew up around. A companion to the BaZi glossary.

Word	中文 · pinyin	Old word	What it means here
Buddha	佛 · fó	Skt. buddha	The one who woke up. A description, not a name — and there can be more than one.
Dharma	法 · fǎ	Skt. dharma	The teaching; also the way things actually are.
Sangha	僧 · sēng	Skt. saṅgha	The community of practitioners — originally monks and nuns, now anyone walking together.
Three Jewels	三寶 · sānbǎo	Skt. triratna	Buddha, Dharma, Sangha — what a Buddhist “takes refuge” in. One incense stick each.
Taking refuge	皈依 · guīyī	Skt. śaraṇa	Formally turning toward the Three Jewels — the closest thing to “becoming a Buddhist.”
Bodhisattva	菩薩 · púsà	Skt. bodhisattva	Someone who could leave suffering behind but stays to help. Guan Yin is the most loved.
Amitabha	阿彌陀佛 · Āmítuófó	Skt. Amitābha	Buddha of boundless light; the center of Pure Land practice and the name your mother says.
Namo	南無 · námó	Skt. namaḥ	I bow to; I turn toward; I entrust myself. The first word of the chant.
Nianfo	念佛 · niànfó		Keeping the Buddha in mind — repeating his name as practice.
Pure Land	淨土 · jìngtǔ	Skt. Sukhāvatī	The place of ease Amitābha made; the most common Chinese Buddhist tradition.
Guan Yin	觀音 · Guānyīn	Skt. Avalokiteśvara	Compassion given a face; “the one who hears the cries of the world.”
Compassion	慈悲 · cíbēi	Skt. karuṇā	Feeling with someone’s pain and wanting to ease it. 慈 is kindness, 悲 is compassion.
Suffering / the ache	苦 · kǔ	Pali dukkha	The wobble in the wheel — from obvious pain to the low hum of “not quite right.”
Craving	渴愛 · kě’ài	Pali taṇhā	Thirst; the grasping that makes the ache worse.
Impermanence	無常 · wúcháng	Pali anicca	Everything changes. Said with a sigh at funerals; true of good things and bad.
Non-self	無我 · wúwǒ	Pali anattā	The self is a river, not a rock.
Emptiness	空 · kōng	Skt. śūnyatā	Nothing exists on its own — everything depends on everything else. It does not mean nothing matters.
Karma	業 · yè	Skt. karma	Action, especially the intention behind it. What you do shapes who you become.
Cause and fruit	因果 · yīnguǒ		Actions have results, the way seeds have fruit. Your family’s word for karma.
Merit	功德 · gōngdé	Skt. puṇya	The good that grows from good action. Best when not counted.
Dedication of merit	迴向 · huíxiàng	Skt. pariṇāmanā	Turning the good of a practice toward someone else — often the dead.
Rebirth	輪迴 · lúnhuí	Skt. saṃsāra	The turning wheel of birth and death. A flame lighting another candle, not a soul moving house.
Nirvana	涅槃 · nièpán	Skt. nirvāṇa	The fire going out — the ache ending, not the person.
Mindfulness	念 · niàn	Pali sati	Noticing what’s happening while it happens; remembering to come back.
Chan / Zen	禪 · chán	Skt. dhyāna	Sitting meditation; the same character in Chinese and Japanese.
Sutra	經 · jīng	Skt. sūtra	A text recording the Buddha’s teaching. The Heart Sutra (心經) is the one your family chants.
Mantra	咒 · zhòu	Skt. mantra	A phrase repeated as practice — a name, a sound, a line.
Precepts	戒 · jiè	Skt. śīla	Guidelines for not harming — the five for lay people are the ordinary decency your grandmother meant by 做好人.
Mala	念珠 · niànzhū	Skt. mālā	The string of 108 beads, for counting recitations by feel.
Temple	寺 · sì		A Buddhist temple. 廟 miào is usually a folk or ancestral one; many buildings are both.

Buddhism by the numbers

The lists everyone counts on their fingers

Buddhism loves a numbered list. Here are the ones you’ll actually meet.

Three

Jewels · 三寶

Buddha, Dharma, Sangha — what you turn toward.

Three

Marks · 三法印

Everything changes · nothing fully satisfies · no fixed self.

Three

Poisons · 三毒

Greed, hatred, confusion — the three roots of the ache.

Four

Noble Truths · 四聖諦

The ache · its cause · its easing · the path.

Four

Immeasurables · 四無量心

Kindness, compassion, joy in others’ joy, steadiness.

Five

Precepts · 五戒

Don’t kill, steal, misuse sex, lie, or cloud the mind.

Six

Perfections · 六度

Giving, ethics, patience, effort, meditation, wisdom — the bodhisattva’s practice.

Eight

fold Path · 八正道

Eight areas of ordinary life to nudge toward wisdom.

108

Beads · 念珠

One bead per recitation; the number of ways the mind gets tangled, the old texts say.

Missing a word?

Tell me the one you grew up hearing and never had explained. It’ll go on this page.