Common Buddhist Sanskrit Words in Siddhaṃ

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Art and text
© 2007-8 Jayarava
except where noted

On this page are some common and/or important Buddhist terms which may not commonly occur in mantras. They are in the siddhaṃ script.

Words

• abhaya

• adhiṣṭhāna

• ahiṃsa

• bodhi

• buddha

• citta

• dharma

• karma

• maitri

• mantra

• nirvaṇa

• prajñā

• pratītyasamutpāda

• samādhi

• sangha

• Sanskrit

• smṛti

• sūtra

• vajra

The Perfectly Enlightened One’s mantras

Are made up of syllables, names, or clauses;

Like the statements made by Indra

They are meaningful and effective

- Kukai Shōji jissō gi

The Lankavatara Sūtra says that meaning can be conveyed by words (Section LXV), but meaning is “that which leads to nirvaṇa, which is free of speech discrimination". It tells us that words depend on the act of speaking (Section XXXĪI), and that they are important for the aspects of speech - in this case name (nāma), sentence (pada) and syllable (vyañjana) – to be clear.