The traditions this site draws from — Advaita Vedānta and Nyingma Dzogchen — developed their vocabularies in Sanskrit and Tibetan respectively. The English translations are often approximate, and sometimes the original word carries a precision the translation loses. These brief entries are not academic definitions. They are working descriptions of how the terms appear in practice.
Advaita
Sanskrit. “Not two.” The name of the philosophical tradition founded on the recognition that the individual self and ultimate reality (Brahman) are not separate. The recognition is not believed; it is investigated directly.
Adhyāropa-apavāda
Sanskrit. The teaching method attributed to Śaṅkara: deliberate superimposition followed by its removal. A framework is erected to point at the truth, and then the framework itself is dissolved. Like using a ladder and then setting it down.
Aparokṣānubhūti
Sanskrit. “Direct experience” or “immediate recognition.” The title of a short text by Śaṅkara that forms the spine of Nothing in the Way. Aparokṣa means “not mediated.” Anubhūti means experience. Together they name a knowing that doesn’t pass through scripture, inference, or another person’s testimony.
Ātma-vicāra
Sanskrit. Self-inquiry. The central practice of Advaita Vedānta, particularly as taught by Ramana Maharshi: turning attention back toward the sense of “I” and investigating its source. The question is not answered conceptually. It is held until the questioner and the question dissolve into the same awareness.
Brahman
Sanskrit. In Advaita Vedānta, the one non-dual reality underlying all appearance. Not a deity in the devotional sense. In Śaṅkara’s non-dual reading, Brahman is pure awareness — without form, without limit, without a second. The tradition also describes Brahman as sat-cit-ānanda: being, consciousness, and bliss — not three qualities but one undivided reality.
Dzogchen
Tibetan. “Great perfection” or “great completeness.” The innermost teaching of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. The name does not describe a state to achieve; it describes what is already the case. The practice is recognition, not attainment.
Luminous and empty
The two qualities of the nature of mind as described in Dzogchen. Luminous (Tibetan: ösal) refers to the aware, knowing quality of mind — not blank but brilliantly present. Empty (Tibetan: tongpa nyi) refers to its lack of inherent, fixed substance. Together they point to awareness that is clear and ungraspable at once.
Mahāvākya
Sanskrit. “Great sayings.” The four central sentences of the Upaniṣads that encapsulate Advaita recognition, such as Tat tvam asi (“That thou art”) and Aham Brahmāsmi (“I am Brahman”). Not statements to believe, but pointers to be verified through inquiry.
Mithyā
Sanskrit. The status Advaita Vedānta assigns to the apparent world: not simply unreal, but not ultimately real either. Like a dream that has full reality while you’re in it. The world of experience is mithyā — dependent, not independent; real at the empirical level, not at the absolute.
Nididhyāsana
Sanskrit. Deep contemplation. The third stage of Vedāntic practice, following śravaṇa (hearing the teaching) and manana (reflecting on it until doubts dissolve). Where understanding becomes lived recognition. The three together form the classical path of Vedāntic study.
Nyingma
Tibetan. “Ancient ones.” The oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, tracing its origins to Padmasambhava’s introduction of Buddhism to Tibet in the 8th century. Dzogchen belongs primarily to this lineage.
Rigpa
Tibetan. The nature of mind in its natural, unobscured state. Not a special experience or altered state, but awareness as it actually is when not mistaken for its contents. The pointing-out instruction (rigpa’i ngo sprod) introduces the student to this directly — not through explanation but through recognition.
Rolpa
Tibetan. Display or expression. In Dzogchen, appearances — thoughts, emotions, perceptions — are not obstacles to the natural state. They are its rolpa: the self-expression of awareness, not separate from it.
Sahaja sthiti
Sanskrit. The natural state. Not a meditative achievement but what remains when the habit of looking elsewhere relaxes. Sahaja means “born together” — inherent, always already here.
Sāma-Dāna-Bheda-Daṇḍa
Sanskrit. A framework from ancient Indian statecraft, attributed to Chanakya and found in the Arthaśāstra and the Mahābhārata. The four approaches available when navigating complex human situations: sāma (conciliation, gentleness), dāna (generosity, giving), bheda (discernment, knowing when to distinguish), and daṇḍa (firmness, holding a boundary). Not strategies for manipulation, but a vocabulary for honest, grounded engagement with whatever life presents — without losing your center.
Trekchö
Tibetan. “Cutting through.” The foundational practice of Dzogchen, following the pointing-out instruction: resting in the natural state without fabrication, without following the past, without anticipating the future, without altering the present moment.
Vātsalya
Sanskrit. Parental love; the particular quality of love a parent holds for a child — unconditional, tender, asking nothing in return. In theistic Vedānta and the bhakti traditions, vātsalya also names the love God holds for souls: the same quality, infinitely extended.
Vedānta
Sanskrit. “The end of the Vedas” — both in the sense of the final texts (the Upaniṣads) and the ultimate teaching. The philosophical tradition that draws on these texts to investigate the nature of reality. Advaita is the non-dual branch of Vedānta.
Vicāra
Sanskrit. Inquiry. In Vedānta, the practice of investigating experience directly: what is real? what changes? what persists? Not philosophical speculation but sustained attention turned toward its own source.
Viveka
Sanskrit. Discrimination. The capacity to distinguish between what is permanent and what is temporary, between the real and the appearance of the real. In Advaita Vedānta, viveka is the first and most essential qualification for the seeker.