RECTIFICATION OF NAMES

An Annotated Cross-Referenced Glossary for the Zen Student

If names aren't rectified, speech doesn't follow from reality. If speech doesn't follow from reality, endeavors never come to fruition. If endeavors never come to fruition, then Ritual and music cannot flourish. If Ritual and music cannot flourish, punishments don't fir the crime. If punishments don't fit the crime, people can't put their hands and feet anywhere without fear of loosing them.

Naming enable the noble-minded to speak, and speech enables the noble-minded to act. Therefore, the noble-minded are anything but careless in speech.

--Confucius*

The Rectification of Names clarifies the antecedents of the names and presents them as they truly are. These antecedents have their own character, and should not be confused with other entities. I think of Wallace Stevens' sarcastic poem, "Oak Leaves are Hands." Of course, while everything has its own identity, everything is a part of everything else.

*David Hinton, trans., The Analects: Confucius (Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint, 1998). p. 140.

This is beyond the Confucian realm, and is a Buddhist expression that leads to a realization of the fundamental lack of anything exclusive. Everything is unique, and is at the same time vacant of anything special. "Form is emptiness; emptiness is form"‹as the Heart Sutra declares. Thus it is vitally important to avoid ambiguity. This care leads, as Confucius says, or at least implies, to noble action that is in keeping with the noble nature of the universe.

Here are terms used in Western Zen centers and their texts, with my comments. I have not included those which are commonly and correctly used. For Chinese names and terms, I use the Pinyin system of ethnography, which is now almost universal in academia. I have omitted most of the vast number of terms in the Buddhist lexicon.

Ancestral Teachers

The term "Patriarchs" implies that they were all men, but there were women among them. Use Ancestral Teachers or Ancestors.

Anuttara-Samyak-Sambodhi

(Sanskrit) Full Enlightenment from which there is only willful turning back, and which can open the way to unimagined Dharma gardens.

Arhat

(Sanskrit), Arahant (Pali), Archetype of a fully Enlightened person in the Classical Buddhist tradition. Lohan (Chinese), Rakan (Japanese), Mythological attendants of Shakyamuni in the Mahayana Realizing this relieves all suffering and is Anuttara-Samyak-Sambodhi itself.

Bodhi

(Sanscrit) Enlightenment. The state of profound Realization.

Bodhichitta

(Sanskrit), Bodaishin (Japanese). The thought of Enlightenment, and the imperative to make it one's own.

Bodhidharma

(Sanskrit) fl. 520 CE.A semi-legendary South Indian Buddhist Master who brought the teaching of Dhyāna and Prajñā to China and is venerated as the first Ancestor in the Zen Buddhist lineage, He personifies Enlightenment and rigor in Zen teaching, and is claimed as a founding figure in martial arts traditions. In popular folklore he is an indomitable hero.

Bodhisattva

(Sanskrit). Bosa(tsu), Bodaisata (Japanese). One on the path to enlightenment; one who is enlightened; one who enlightens others; a figure in the Buddhist pantheon. The name is sometimes translated to reflect just one or two of these three attributes, thus obscuring the full meaning. It is best to leave the term un-translated. It is a term of endearment used about noble-minded people.

Bodhisattva Vows

Great Vows for All. Shujō muhen seigan do./ Bnnō mujin seigan dan,/ Homon muryō seigan gaku,/ Butsudō mujō seigan jō (Japanese); "Beings are numberless; I vow to enable them;/ Distractions rise incessantly; I vow to cut them off;/ Dharma Gates are countless; I vow to wake to them;/ The Buddha Way is lofty; I vow to make it mine." These vows were originally formulated by Zhiyi, founder of the Tiantai tradition in the Sixth Century. They form the closing verse of all Zen ceremonies, and are recited in other Mahayana traditions.

Bodhi Tree

Ficus religiosa. The tree beneath which the Historical Buddha found his great Enlightenment. See Dōjō.

Buddha

(Sanskrit). Butsu. Bu, Hotoke (Japanese). Enlightened One. Shakyamuni, the Historical Buddha (463?-383? B.C.E.); the founder of Buddhism. He is a central figure in the Buddhist pantheon and personifies the fully Enlightened person; the nature of each being and the nature of the universe itself. The Japanese translation, Hotoke, is sometimes used as an honorific for a corpse.

Buddha Dao or Buddha Way

The teaching of the Historical Buddha and his successors; the Dharma; Buddhism; the Eightfold Path; the Way that is apparent in how things function, including the universe itself.

Buddha Nature

The Essential Nature of the individual and of all things.

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