The words of many traditions, in one place
This desk draws on many traditions at once: the Shaiva traditions of Kashmir, Advaita Vedanta, Buddhism in its Pali, Tibetan, and Zen forms, Daoism and the Shaolin arts, Sufism, Judaism, Christianity, Stoicism, and modern psychology. Each has its own vocabulary. This page gathers the terms you will meet, says briefly what each means and where it comes from, and points to where it appears on the desk.
The definitions are deliberately short. Each tradition would say more, and say it in its own way.
Sanskrit advaita, “not two,” and vedanta, “the end of the Vedas.” A school of Indian philosophy, given its classic form by the philosopher Shankara, which teaches that the true Self and the Absolute, Brahman, are one. Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj are modern teachers associated with it. On the desk: Who Am I?; The Two Truths.
Sanskrit, “non-harming.” The first of the yogic restraints, and a central principle of Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain ethics. On the desk: The Clean Conscience.
Sanskrit, “command wheel.” In yogic tradition, the energy center between the eyebrows, often called the third eye. On the desk: Deep Attention; several lookings.
The act of putting right, as far as you can, a harm you have caused. The phrase “making amends” is central to twelve-step programs, in their eighth and ninth steps. On the desk: The Clean Conscience; Forgiveness.
Sanskrit, “non-grasping.” One of the yogic restraints: taking no more than you need. On the desk: The Clean Conscience; Right Livelihood.
A desk term for sensing another person’s inner state, the tension beneath their words or the fear behind their anger, and checking it gently rather than assuming. On the desk: The Practice of Relationship.
Chinese, “eight pieces of brocade.” A set of eight qigong movements at least eight hundred years old. On the desk: Moving Stillness.
Arabic, “abiding.” In Sufism, the state that follows fana: having passed away in God, the mystic returns to the world, living on in God. On the desk: The State of Coherence.
Sanskrit, “the song of the Lord.” A dialogue between the prince Arjuna and Krishna, set within the epic Mahabharata, and one of the most influential texts of Indian spirituality. It teaches action without attachment to its fruits. On the desk: The Sovereign Act; Service; Right Livelihood.
In the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, Bhairava is Shiva in his awe-inspiring form, standing for the Absolute, and Bhairavi is the Goddess, his power, who asks the questions the text answers. On the desk: the older lines of the lookings; Sources.
A Tibetan religious tradition that traces its lineage to the time before Buddhism reached Tibet, and one of the traditions that teach the Nine Breaths. On the desk: Practices; The Vertical Anchor.
Sanskrit. In the Upanishads and Vedanta, the Absolute: the one reality underlying everything. On the desk: the verse page; The Two Truths.
Pali and Sanskrit, “divine abodes.” The four boundless qualities of the heart: loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. On the desk: The Open Heart.
The Chinese school of meditation Buddhism from which Japanese Zen grew, long practiced at the Shaolin Temple. On the desk: Moving Stillness.
Tibetan, “cutting.” A practice developed by the Tibetan teacher Machig Labdrön, in which the practitioner offers their own body, in visualization, to every demon and hungry spirit, so cutting through attachment to the self. Tsultrim Allione adapted it as Feeding Your Demons. On the desk: The Shadow Archive.
Pali and Sanskrit, “mind.” Often translated “heart-mind,” because the early Buddhist texts draw no firm line between thinking and feeling. On the desk: The Heart-Mind.
A Quaker practice, described by the writer Parker Palmer, in which a small group helps someone with a hard decision only by asking honest, open questions. On the desk: Spiritual Friends.
In physics, the quality of waves that move in step, as in a laser. On the desk, the alignment of body, heart, mind, and awareness, and the name of the fourth writing. On the desk: The State of Coherence.
The desk’s core sitting practice: ten minutes a day in the Waking Hour, twenty in Deeper Seeing, growing toward forty-five in Coherence. On the desk: The Daily Sit, and throughout.
A phrase from the sixteenth-century Spanish mystic John of the Cross, for a purification in which ordinary consolations fall away. Some Buddhist teachers use it for the difficult stages that can follow early breakthroughs in insight practice. On the desk: Maps of the Path; When Practice Is Hard.
Sanskrit, “seeing.” Being in the presence of a holy person, image, or place, and receiving something from it. On the desk: The State of Coherence.
Sanskrit, “holding.” In Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, concentration: the binding of the mind to one place. In the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, each of its 112 methods of attention. On the desk: Deep Attention; every looking.
Sanskrit. A word with many meanings: law, duty, truth, and one’s own true calling. In Buddhism, the Buddha’s teaching. On the desk: Right Livelihood.
A Tibetan practice of becoming aware within dreams, and ultimately of recognizing the awareness present in waking, dreaming, and deep sleep. On the desk: The Dream and the Dreamer.
Tibetan, “great perfection.” Teachings, in the Nyingma and Bön traditions, on recognizing and resting in the nature of mind. On the desk: The Wedge of Awareness; The State of Coherence.
On this desk, the habit of taking yourself to be a small, separate self that must be defended. It is not meant in the technical sense of psychoanalysis. On the desk: throughout.
See Upekkha.
A brief nightly review of the day, taught by Ignatius of Loyola and practiced by the Jesuits. On the desk: The Nightly Review.
A desk term for the recognition that your inner state shapes the world you meet, and that minds are not as separate as they seem. On the desk: The Expanded Field.
Seven qualities that mark a ripening mind in early Buddhism: mindfulness, investigation, energy, joy, tranquility, concentration, and equanimity. On the desk: The Factors of Awakening.
Arabic, “passing away.” In Sufism, the passing away of the self in God. On the desk: The State of Coherence.
The five obstacles every meditator meets: craving, ill will, dullness, restlessness and worry, and doubt. On the desk: The Five Hindrances; When Practice Is Hard.
The psychologist John Gottman’s name for four patterns that predicted divorce in his research: criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling. On the desk: The Practice of Relationship.
Sanskrit, “swan.” The mantra the breath is said to recite by itself: sa as it goes out, ha as it comes in. On the desk: looking 0.
Sanskrit hatha, “force.” The physical discipline of yoga: postures, breath, and bodily seals. On the desk: The Return to the Body.
Sanskrit. The repetition of a mantra or sacred name. On the desk: The Wedge of Awareness.
Pali, “good friend.” A spiritual friend, a companion on the path, and in the old texts sometimes a teacher. On the desk: Spiritual Friends.
Sanskrit. The path of action offered without attachment to its results, taught in the Bhagavad Gita. On the desk: Service.
Pali and Sanskrit. Compassion: the wish that beings be free of suffering. On the desk: Compassion.
The nondual traditions of Shiva that flourished in Kashmir from roughly the ninth to the twelfth century, and which treasured and commented on the earlier Vijnana Bhairava Tantra. On the desk: Sources.
Sanskrit. In tantra and yoga, the power said to lie coiled at the base of the spine and to rise through the central channel. On the desk: Maps of the Path; The Return to the Body; lookings 6 and 44.
A four-minute desk practice for coming back to the body: weight, palms, the room, water. On the desk: Practices, and throughout.
The free communal kitchen kept at every Sikh gurdwara, where anyone may sit and eat. On the desk: Service.
Tibetan, “mind training.” Short teachings associated with the Indian teacher Atisha for turning every circumstance into practice. Tonglen comes from this tradition. On the desk: Radical Equanimity; Compassion.
A desk term for each plain-English instruction based on one of the methods of the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra. On the desk: the verse page; The Order of Looking.
A dream in which you know that you are dreaming. On the desk: The Dream and the Dreamer.
The ancient Egyptian idea of order, truth, justice, and balance, which had to be upheld every day against chaos. On the desk: The Sovereign Act; Who Am I?
Sanskrit, “great seal.” Tibetan Buddhist teachings, especially in the Kagyu schools, on the nature of mind. On the desk: The State of Coherence.
A sound, word, or phrase repeated in meditation. On the desk: The Wedge of Awareness.
Sanskrit. The power of appearance by which the one reality seems to be a world of separate, solid things; often translated “illusion.” On the desk: the verse page; When Practice Is Hard.
Pali. Loving-kindness: the wish that beings be safe, well, and at ease. On the desk: Loving-Kindness.
Pali and Sanskrit. Sympathetic joy: gladness at another’s happiness. On the desk: Joy in Others’ Joy.
A traditional teaching that each heart quality has an obvious opposite, its far enemy, and a convincing counterfeit, its near enemy. On the desk: The Open Heart.
Chinese, “inner alchemy.” Daoist practices for cultivating and refining the body’s vital energies. On the desk: The State of Coherence.
Sanskrit, “not this, not this.” An ancient method of inquiry from the Upanishads: setting aside everything you are not. On the desk: looking 71; the verse page.
Sanskrit, “blowing out,” as of a flame. In Buddhism, the end of suffering. On the desk: Intention; the tenth chapter of the verses.
Sanskrit. The five yogic observances: cleanliness, contentment, discipline, study of oneself, and surrender to something larger than oneself. On the desk: The Clean Conscience.
Giving each passing experience a quiet one-word label, such as “planning” or “remembering,” a method popularized by the Burmese teacher Mahasi Sayadaw. On the desk: The Wedge of Awareness; The Daily Sit.
Marshall Rosenberg’s method for speaking in conflict: observation, feeling, need, request. On the desk: The Practice of Relationship.
A desk term for the close rendering of a verse that sits beneath each looking and each Yoga Vasishta verse. On the desk: the verse page; Sources.
A series of ten Zen pictures and poems, from twelfth-century China, that tell the path of awakening as a search for a lost ox, ending with a return to the marketplace. On the desk: Maps of the Path; The Marketplace.
The language of the early Buddhist texts preserved by the Theravada tradition. On the desk: throughout.
In Tibetan Buddhism, the moment in which a teacher directly introduces a student to the nature of their own mind. On the desk: The Wedge of Awareness; The State of Coherence.
Sanskrit, “breath,” “life-force.” The vital energy that moves with the breath. On the desk: the lookings; The Return to the Body.
Chinese, roughly “the cultivation of breath and vital energy.” Slow, coordinated movement, breath, and attention. On the desk: Moving Stillness.
Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture: a four-step way of meeting difficult states, developed by Michele McDonald and widely taught by Tara Brach. On the desk: The Five Hindrances.
Two parts of the Buddha’s eightfold path: speaking truthfully and helpfully, and earning a living without causing harm. On the desk: The Weight of Words; Right Livelihood.
The Jewish day of rest, which the rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel called “a palace in time.” On the desk: The Rhythm of a Practicing Life.
Sanskrit. Complete absorption, the last of the eight limbs of Patanjali’s yoga. On the desk: The State of Coherence; the verse page.
Sanskrit, “wandering.” The cycle of birth, death, and suffering; in the Yoga Vasishta, the world as it is experienced through ignorance. On the desk: the verse page.
Pali and Sanskrit. A community of practitioners. On the desk: Spiritual Friends.
Sanskrit. A resolve or intention, set at the start of practice. On the desk: Intention.
With a capital S, in Advaita and the Yoga Vasishta: pure awareness, your true nature, one with Brahman. It is distinct from the small, defended self of the ego. On the desk: Who Am I?; the verse page.
Sanskrit and Punjabi. Selfless service, central to Sikh practice. On the desk: Service.
The psychologist Carl Jung’s term for the parts of ourselves we refuse to see. On the desk: The Shadow Archive.
A desk term for the basement of the psyche, where the raw, untamed instincts we have pushed out of sight are stored. On the desk: The Shadow Archive.
The Buddhist temple in Henan, China, famous for Chan meditation and the martial arts. The master Shi Heng Yi leads Shaolin Temple Europe in Germany. On the desk: Moving Stillness; The Five Hindrances.
Tibetan. Usually translated “attachment”; rendered by Pema Chödrön, following Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, as “the hook”: the charge that pulls you toward a familiar escape. On the desk: The Crucible; When Practice Is Hard.
In Kashmir Shaivism, the Absolute as pure awareness. Bhairava is one of his names. On the desk: the older lines of the lookings.
Sanskrit, “accomplishments.” Extraordinary powers said to arise with deep practice, which the Yoga Sutras call obstacles to the deepest meditation. On the desk: The Trap of the Void.
Turkish and Persian, from the Arabic suhba, “companionship.” In Sufism, spiritual companionship with a teacher. On the desk: The State of Coherence.
Chinese. The quality of relaxed alertness sought in qigong and the martial arts. On the desk: Moving Stillness.
A desk term for action done with full care and then released: you do the work as well as you can, and give the outcome away. On the desk: The Sovereign Act.
The use of spiritual ideas to avoid emotional and psychological work. The psychologist John Welwood coined the phrase in 1984. On the desk: The Trap of the Void; The Two Truths.
A crisis in which a spiritual opening becomes overwhelming. The term was introduced by Stanislav and Christina Grof. On the desk: The State of Coherence; When Practice Is Hard.
The mystical tradition within Islam. On the desk: The State of Coherence.
Sanskrit, literally “loom” or “warp.” A class of texts and practices; on this desk, a manual of methods. On the desk: Sources.
Hebrew, “return.” Repentance: recognizing a wrong, regretting it, confessing it, putting it right, and resolving not to repeat it. On the desk: The Clean Conscience.
Pali, “the teaching of the elders.” The oldest surviving school of Buddhism, found today mainly in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. On the desk: The Wedge of Awareness; Maps of the Path.
See Ajna chakra.
Tibetan, “sending and taking.” A compassion practice in which you breathe in suffering and breathe out relief. On the desk: Compassion.
Tibetan, “cutting through.” The central practice of Dzogchen: resting in the recognition of the mind’s nature, in which thoughts release themselves. On the desk: The Wedge of Awareness.
The conventional truth of everyday persons and things, and the ultimate truth that nothing exists separately and independently. The teaching is most associated with the philosopher Nagarjuna. On the desk: The Two Truths.
Pali. Equanimity: an evenness of mind and heart that leans toward neither craving nor aversion. On the desk: The Sovereign Act; The Even Heart.
Sanskrit. Latent impressions: the tendencies left in the mind by past experience. On the desk: the verse page, especially chapter 5.
The Kashmiri text of 112 methods of attention on which the lookings are based. On the desk: Sources; every looking.
Pali, “insight” or “clear seeing.” Meditation aimed at seeing experience as it is: impermanent, unsatisfying when grasped, and not a fixed self. On the desk: The Wedge of Awareness.
A desk term for the deliberate pause driven between an impulse and your response to it. On the desk: The Wedge of Awareness, and throughout.
Chinese, “non-action.” In Daoism, action that flows without strain or forcing. On the desk: The Sovereign Act.
Sanskrit. The five yogic restraints: non-harming, truthfulness, not stealing, sexual restraint, and non-grasping. On the desk: The Clean Conscience.
The classic text of yoga attributed to Patanjali, dated by scholars to somewhere between the second century BCE and the fifth century CE. On the desk: Deep Attention; The Trap of the Void.
Sanskrit, “the essence of the Yoga Vasishta.” A short digest, in ten chapters, of the vast philosophical poem known as the Yoga Vasishta. The desk’s verses come from it. On the desk: Sources; the verse page.
The Japanese form of Chan Buddhism. On the desk: The Return to the Body; The Two Truths; The Marketplace.
Chinese, “standing like a post,” often translated “standing like a tree.” A qigong practice of standing still in a rounded posture. On the desk: Moving Stillness.