Digital Dictionary of Buddhism

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法

Pronunciations

Basic Meaning: dharma

Senses:

  • Rendered into English variously according to the context as: truth, reality; thing, phenomenon, element, constituent, (mental) factor; quality (Tib. chos; Pāli dhamma). The word dharma is originally derived from the Indic root dhṛ, with the meaning of 'that which preserves or maintains,' especially that which preserves or maintains human activity. The term has a wide range of meanings in Buddhism, but the foremost meaning is that of the teaching delivered by the Buddha, which is fully accordant with reality. Thus, truth, reality, true principle, law (Skt. satya; Tib. chos). It connotes Buddhism as the perfect religion. The Dharma is also the second component among the Three Treasures (triratna) 佛法僧, and in the sense of dharmakāya 法身 it approaches the Western idea of 'spiritual.' [Charles Muller; source(s): Ui, Soothill, Hirakawa, YBh-Ind, M-W, JEBD, Yokoi, Iwanami]
  • It is used in the sense of 一切 all things, or anything small or great, visible or invisible, real or unreal, affairs, truth, principle, method, concrete things, abstract ideas, etc. Dharma is described as that which has entity and bears its own attributes. It is in the sense of attribute, quality, characteristic quality, factor, etc. that this term is commonly used in Indian scholastic works to fully detail the gamut of possible cognitive experiences. Abhidharma schools such as Sarvâstivāda enumerated seventy-five dharmas 七十五法, while the Yogâcāra school categorized the events of the experiential world into one hundred types of phenomena 百法. Yogâcāras argued that the lack of inherent identity in these dharmas is not duly recognized by the practitioners of the two vehicles 二乘, and that this level of awareness is a distinctive characteristic of the contemplations of the bodhisattvas 菩薩. The lack of perception of the emptiness of dharmas 法無我 is the key to the formation of the cognitive hindrances 所知障. [Charles Muller; source(s): Nakamura, Soothill, JEBD]
  • Among the six cognitive objects 六塵, dharmas are equivalent to 'concepts,' being the objects of the manovijñāna 意識. [Charles Muller; source(s): Nakamura, Soothill, JEBD]
  • In Buddhist logic 因明, the dharmin is the property that one is trying to prove concerning the thesis 宗 (pakṣa)—usually found in the phrase as a predicate or verb object (後陳, 後說, etc.). For a detailed discussion of the system of logic that includes this term, see 能立. [Charles Muller; source(s): Nakamura, Soothill, JEBD]
  • Other meanings include: [Charles Muller; source(s): Nakamura, Soothill, JEBD]
  • Dharma is transliterated as 達磨, 曇無, 曇摩, 達摩, and 達謨 (Skt. śāsana; vidhi; bhāva; *aṅga, artha, ākāra, āgama, ālambana, kāraṇa, krama, guṇa, dravya, dharama, dharma-jñāna, dharmatā, dharmatva, dharma-deśanā, dharman, dharma-naya, dharma-paryāya, dharma-prakṛti, dharmamaya, dharma-śabda, dharma-śāsana, dharma-saṃjñaka, dharma-stha, dharma-svabhāva, dharmâkhya dharmaiśvarya, dharmôpavicāra, dharmya, dhārma, dhārmika, dhārmya, naya, naya-dharma, pakṣa, pariṣkāra, prakāra, prakṛti, pratipad, pratisaṃyukta, prāyoga, pravacana, prasaṅgatva, buddha-dharma, bhava, bhāvin, yukti, vastu, vidhāna, śabda, śikṣā, saṃgati, sat, sad-dharma, sthâna). [Charles Muller; source(s): Nakamura, Soothill, JEBD]
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    [Dictionary References]

    Bukkyō jiten (Ui) 950

    Bulgyo sajeon 267a

    Zengaku daijiten (Komazawa U.) 1117c

    Iwanami bukkyō jiten 718

    Japanese-English Buddhist Dictionary (Daitō shuppansha) 107a/118

    Japanese-English Zen Buddhist Dictionary (Yokoi) 230, 573

    Bukkyōgo daijiten (Nakamura) 1089b, 1227b

    Fo Guang Dictionary 3336

    Ding Fubao

    Buddhist Chinese-Sanskrit Dictionary (Hirakawa) 0713

    Bukkyō daijiten (Mochizuki) (v.1-6)4540b, (v.1-6)4540b,1249b,4116c, (v.9-10)914b,988a,993b

    Bukkyō daijiten (Oda) 1590-1

    Sanskrit-Tibetan Index for the Yogâcārabhūmi-śāstra (Yokoyama and Hirosawa)

    Copyright provisions

    The rights to textual segments (nodes) of the DDB are owned by the author indicated in the brackets next to each segment. For rights regarding the compilation as a whole, please contact Charles Muller. Please do not reproduce without permission. And please do not copy into Wikipedia without proper citation!

    Entry created: 1993-09-01

    Updated: 2020-01-19