Glossary of Pali Terms (K-O)

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Kamma - Action: actions of body, speech, and mind due to wholesome and unwholesome volitions. Good intentions and actions bring good results, bad intentions and bad actions brings bad results. Unintentional actions are not kamma. Kamma has nothing to do with fate, luck or fortune, nor does it mean the results of kamma. The Buddha taught the end of kamma. "The kamma which ends all kamma" is the noble eightfold path which ends the "doer" ('atta'). Khandha - Aggregates, heaps, groups: the five sub-systems or basic functions which constitute the human being. These groups are not entities in themselves, they are merely categories into which all aspects of our lives can be analyzed. None of them are "self," "or self," "in self", or "my self"; they have nothing to do with "selfhood" and there is no "self" apart from them. When the attach or are attached to, the five are known as the "upadana-khandha" (aggregates of attachment). The five khandha are: Rupa-khandha Form-aggregate, particularly the body, its nervous system, and sense objects (the world). Vedana-khandha Feeling-aggregate. Sañña-khandha Recognition-aggregate; the discrimination, labeling, and evaluation of sense experience. Sankhara-khandha Thought-aggregate; thought processes and emotions, including volition, desire, attachment, and "birth". Viññana-khandha Consciousness-aggregate; the bare knowing of a sense object, the most primitive function of mind through which physical sense stimulation becomes conscious (although often without awareness). Khanti - Patience, endurance, forbearance, tolerance: to accept and endure defilements (rather than repress them) regarding people, circumstances, and the difficulties of Dhamma practice until they are understood and released. The Buddha called khanti "the supreme way to burn up defilements." Kilesa - Defilements, impurities: all the things which, dull, darken, dirty, defile, and sadden the citta. The three primary categories of kilesas are lobha (greed), dosa (hatred) and moha (delusion). Lobha - Greed: the first category of defilement (kilesa), which include erotic love, lust, miserliness, and all other positive thoughts and emotions. A common synonym is raga (lust). Magga-phala - Path and fruition: there are four paths leading to "nobility", ie., the insight knowledge which cut through the fetters (samyojana), and there are four corresponding fruitions arising from those paths (magga) cutting through defilements. The four paths and fruitions are the attainment and experience, respectively, of the stages of Stream-Enterer, Once-Returner, Non-Returner, and Arahant. Each has its own level of nibbana. Maya - Illusion: not necessarily meaning something that doesn't exist at all, but something that is seen incorrectly, without insight into its true nature. For example, "self" exists as a concept, but not as a reality in itself; therefore, it is illusory, imagined, or delusive. Moha - Delusion: the third category of defilement (kilesa), which includes fear, worry, confusion, doubt, infatuation, expectation, longing after the past, and guilt. It is characterized by the mind spinning around the object. Nibbana - The Absolute, the Supreme, the Highest, the Ultimate Reality in Buddhism: the "goal" of Buddhist practice, and the highest potential of humanity. Nibbana manifests when defilements, attachment and selfishness and dukkha are extinguished. Nibbana is not a place, for nibbana is beyond existence and non-existence, not even a state of mind , for nibbana is neither mental nor physical, but a dhamma the mind can realize and experience. Nirodha - Cesssation, extinction: occurring when something is thoroughly extinguished, so that it won's arise again or become the basis for dukkha again.

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