Chinese terms

dào道

• Dao (Daoism). The Way: in Daoism, the nameless source and pattern of all things.

dé德

• De (Daoism). Virtue or power: the efficacy of one who embodies the Dao.

foxing佛性

• Buddha-nature (Zen). The teaching that all beings have the potential, or the nature, of a buddha.

gong’an公案

• Kōan (Zen). A paradoxical case or saying from the Chan and Zen masters, used as the focus of meditation to break through ordinary thinking.

jianxing見性

• Kenshō (Zen). In Zen, “seeing one’s nature”: an awakening to one’s buddha-nature.

kong空

• Emptiness (śūnyatā) (Zen). In Mahāyāna Buddhism, the absence of intrinsic existence in all things.

lǐ理

• Li (principle) (Neo-Confucianism). In Neo-Confucianism, the principle or pattern that makes each thing what it is.

liángzhī良知

• Liangzhi (Neo-Confucianism). Innate knowing of the good, which Wang Yangming made the heart of his teaching.

neidan內丹

• Neidan (Quanzhen Daoism). Daoist inner alchemy: the refinement of the body’s essence, energy and spirit to return to the Dao.

rén仁

• Ren (Confucianism). Humaneness: the Confucian virtue of being fully human toward others.

sandi三諦

• Threefold truth (Tiantai). Zhiyi’s teaching that every phenomenon is at once empty, provisionally real and the middle: three aspects of one reality.

shishi wuai事事無礙

• Interpenetration (Huayan). The Huayan teaching that every phenomenon contains and is contained by every other, as in Indra’s net.

wu悟

• Enlightenment (Zen). Awakening; in Buddhism, the end of ignorance and suffering.

wú wéi無為

• Wu wei (Daoism). Non-forcing action: acting in accord with the Dao, without striving.

xīn心

• Xin (Confucianism). The heart-mind: in Chinese thought, the seat of both feeling and understanding.

zìrán自然

• Ziran (Daoism). Naturalness or spontaneity: being “so of itself”.

The whole glossary