Glossary of Pali Terms (T-Z)

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Tanha - Desire, craving, thirst, blind want: tanha is always ignorant and should not be confused with "wise want" (samma-sankappa, right aspiration). The Buddha distinguished three kinds of desire: sensual desire; desire for being (having, becoming); and desire for not being (not having). Conditioned by foolish vedana, tanha in turn leads to upadana. Tilakkhana - Three characteristics, three marks of existence: inherent features of all conditioned things, namely, the facts of impermanence (anicca), unsatisfactoriness (dukkha), and non-self (anatta). Upadana - Attachment, clinging, grasping: to hold onto something foolishly, to regard things as "I" and "mine", to take things personally. Not the things attached to, but the lustful satisfaction (chanda-raga) regarding them. The Buddha distinguished four kinds of upadana: attachment to sensuality, to views, to precepts and practices, and to words concerning self. Vedana - Feeling: the mental reaction to or coloring of sense experience (phassa). Feeling comes in three forms: pleasant or agreeable (suka vedana), unpleasant or painful (dukkha vedana), and indeterminate, neither-unpleasant-nor-pleasant (adukkhamasukhavedana). Vedena is a mental factor and should not be confused with physical sensations. This primitive activity of mind is not emotion, which is far more complex and involves thought, or the more complicated aspects of "feeling", as this word is understood in English. Vijja - Right knowledge, insight, wisdom: to know things as they really are, that is , to know them as impermanent, unsatisfactory , and not-self. Vijja uproots, destroys, and replaces avijja. Viññana - Consciousness: knowing sense objects through the six sense doors (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, mind). The most basic mental activity required for participation in the sensual world (lika), without it there is no experience. Vipassana - Insight, seeing clearly: to see directly into the true nature of things, ie. Impermanence (anicca), unsatisfactoriness (dukkha) and non-self (anatta), also Dependent Origination (paticca-samuppada). Vipassana means mental development practiced for the sake of insight. In such cases, the theory and technique of particular practices must not be confused with actual experience of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and non-self.

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