Glossary

Buddha [Tib. Sangye, Lit. The awakened one or The enlightened one]
The name denotes a state of mind. "Sang" means "completely purified" of all obscurations. "Gye" means "completely unfoldment" of all qualities and wisdom .
The Buddha of our time is the historical Buddha Shakyamuni. He is the fourth of the 1000 Buddhas of our eon.

Buddhism
The teachings of the historical Buddha, Siddharta Gautama, are the basis of what is called 'Buddhism'. Buddhism can be subdivided into The Way of the Older Ones (Theravada), Great Way (Mahayana) and Diamond Way (Vajrayana).

Diamond Way [Tib. Dorje Thegpa, Skt. Vajrayana]
Methods basing on the motivation and philosophy of the Great Way (Mahayana). However these methods have an independent view, conduct and meditation practice. The Diamond Way can only be practised with the willingness to see all phenomena on a pure level.
Today Diamond Way is identical with the practice-orientated schools of Tibetan Buddhism and the Mantra- or Tantra-Vehicle. The most important distinction to the Great way are the powerful methods of identification with enlightenment.

Disturbing Emotions
Also called "suffering causing mental states". These are mainly ignorance, attachment, aversion, pride, envy and jealousy. Together with negative actions they constitute the cause for all suffering in the cycle of existence.

Guru Yoga
Meditation on the Buddha in the form of one's teacher. The most direct way to receive his blessing of body, speech and mind is to identify oneself with his enlightened state. This does not mean becoming a carbon copy but resting in the same fearless space.

Kagyu Lineage
The yogic transmission lineage of the four great schools in Tibetan Buddhism. This lineage is very practice-orientated and is denoted as the "school of oral transmission". The Kagyu-School came to Tibet around the year 1050 by " Marpa the translator". Marpas disciple Milarepa passed these teachings to Gampopa. Their power is derived from the close bond between teacher and student.
Gampopas four main disciples founded four major and eight minor schools. Today the four great schools are joined into the Karma Kagyu Lineage whose head is the Karmapa . From the eight minor schools the Drugpa and Drikung Kagyu have a lot of follower in Bhutan and Ladakh.

Karmapa [Lit. Activity Man]
First consciously reborn Lama of Tibet and the spiritual head of the Kagyu Lineage. The Karmapas embody the activity of all Buddhas and were prophesied by Buddha Shakyamuni and by Guru Rinpoche. Before his death most Karmapas leave a letter containing the exact conditions of their next rebirth. Karmapa is now in his 17th incarnation.

Lama Ole Nydahl
He is one of the very few Westerners fully qualified as lama (meditation teacher) in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. On their honeymoon in Tibet in 1969 he and his wife Hannah became students of the 16th Karmapa Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, one of the greatest yogis of the last century, who asked them to bring Buddhism to the West.
Lama Ole travels around the world twice a year to give lectures and courses on Buddhism and meditation. He is author of several books about Buddhism which have been translated into numerous languages.

Meditation [Tib.: Gom]
The word 'meditation' is used to denote the practice itself, but it is actually only the third step of a Buddhist's practice. The first step is to receive teachings, the second is the effort to understand them and the final step is meditation: turning the conceptual understanding of teachings into one's own experience.

Preliminary Practices [Tib. Chag Chen Ngondro]
A set of four repetitive but intensely rewarding practices which create masses of good imprints in one's subconscious. These work deeply in our minds, give increasing joy, and remove the causes of future suffering. The Ngondro is the basis for recognizing mind both through its nature as energy and as awareness.

Pure View
Fundamental view in Diamond Way. With this view one exercises oneself to see the world with the view of a Buddha.

Tibetan Buddhism
One of the three main traditions of Buddhism beside Theravada and Zen. It was founded around the year 750 from the Indian master Guru Rinpoche. Until today it contains the only complete transmission of Buddhas teachings with focus on Diamond Way.