tala (tāla) tree The palmyra tree or fan palm.
tamala (tamāla) A kind of fragrant tree that produces the Indian bay leaf.
tathagata (tathāgata) See thus come one.
ten directions Eight points of the compass, plus up and down.
ten epithets Ten honorable titles for a buddha: (1) thus come one; (2) worthy of offerings; (3) of right and universal knowledge; (4) perfect clarity and conduct; (5) well gone; (6) understanding the world; (7) unexcelled worthy; (8) trainer of people; (9) teacher of heavenly and human beings; (10) buddha, world-honored One.
ten evil acts Killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, flattery or random and irresponsible speech, defaming others, duplicity, greed, anger, and foolishness or the holding of mistaken views.
ten good precepts Prohibitions against the ten evils of (1) killing, (2) stealing, (3) sexual misconduct, (4) lying, (5) flattery or indiscriminate and irresponsible speech, (6) defamation, (7) duplicity, (8) greed, (9) anger, and (10) foolishness or the holding of mistaken views.
ten powers The powers of a buddha, namely, the power of knowing what is true and what is not; power of knowing the karmic causality at work in the lives of all beings past, present, and future; power of knowing all stages of concentration, emancipation, and meditation; power of knowing the state of life of all people; power of judging all people’s understanding; power of discerning the superiority or inferiority of all people’s capacity; power of knowing the effects of all people’s actions; power of remembering past lifetimes; power of knowing when each person will be born and die and in what realm that person will be reborn; power of eradicating all illusions.
ten stages of security The ten stages from the eleventh through the twentieth of the fifty-two stages of bodhisattva practice. They are (1) arousing the aspiration for buddhahood, (2) contemplating the nature of emptiness, (3) performing all possible good deeds, (4) clearly understanding that, because all phenomena are interdependent, they never exist by themselves with any permanent and unchanging substance of their own, (5) applying all good deeds as a means to develop one’s perception of emptiness, (6) perfecting the wisdom to perceive the nature of emptiness, (7) never retrogressing from realizing the truth of emptiness, (8) never harboring false views or losing the aspiration for enlightenment, (9) understanding the Buddha’s teachings to the point where one is assured of attaining buddhahood in the future, and (10) gaining the wisdom to perceive that, because all things are without substance, nothing actually is born or dies.
ten worlds The ten realms of existence in which all beings exist. In ascending order they are the realms of (1) hell, (2) hungry spirits, (3) animals, (4) asuras, (5) human beings, (6) heavenly beings, (7) voice-hearers, (8) pratyekabuddhas or cause-awakened ones, (9) bodhisattvas, and (10) buddhas.
thirty-two features Remarkable physical characteristics possessed by great beings such as buddhas and wheel-turning kings. They are flat soles; markings of the wheel of the Law on the soles; long slender fingers; broad flat heels; webbed feet and hands; extremely flexible limbs; protuberant insteps; slender legs like those of a deer; hands that extend past the knees even when standing; concealed genitals; body height equal to arm span; body hair that turns upward; one hair growing from each pore; golden skin; light radiating from the body; thin pliant skin; well-developed muscles in hands, feet, shoulder, nape of neck; well-developed muscles below armpits; dignified torso like that of a lion; large straight body; substantial shoulders; forty teeth; even teeth; four white fangs; full cheeks like those of a lion; unexcelled sense of taste; long broad tongue; voice that can reach to the Brahma heaven; eyes the color of blue lotus blossoms; long eyelashes like those of a cow; protuberant knot of flesh like a topknot on crown of head; tuft of white hair between the eyebrows curling to the right.
three evil paths See evil paths of existence.
three existences The past, present, and future, or the entire span of time.
threefold world The world of desire, the world of form, and the world of formlessness. The realms inhabited by unenlightened beings who transmigrate within the six paths. Beings in the world of desire are ruled by various desires. Those in the world of form have material form but no desires. Those in the world of formlessness are free from both desires and form.
Three Great Secret Laws Nichiren revealed the Law of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, manifestation of the buddha nature in his life and the universe, and in the hope of enabling all people to manifest their own buddha natures, embodied the Law in the form of a mandala as the object of devotion. He also established the method of practice to manifest one’s buddha nature, or attain buddhahood: one enshrines the mandala in the sanctuary, or place of worship, and chants the invocation of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Nichiren called the object of devotion, the sanctuary, and the invocation the Three Great Secret Laws.
three insights The ability that buddhas and arhats are said to possess to know the past, to foresee the future, and to eradicate illusions.
three poisons The fundamental evils inherent in life that give rise to human suffering, namely, greed, anger, and foolishness.
three refuges To take refuge in the three treasures of the Buddha, the Law, and the Order, i.e., to believe in and give allegiance to the three treasures. The formula “I take refuge in the Buddha, I take refuge in the Law, I take refuge in the Order” was recited as a profession of faith by monks and laypersons from very early times. See also three treasures.
three storehouses Another name for the Tripitaka, the three-part collection of the Buddhist scriptures. It is made up of the sutras, which contain the teachings of the Buddha; the vinayas, which deal with the rules of monastic discipline; and the abhidharmas, the treatises or commentaries on Buddhist doctrine.
three sufferings Three types of suffering, namely, suffering that results from undesirable causes or conditions; suffering that results from the loss of something desirable; and suffering that results from the impermanence of phenomena.
three treasures The three things that all Buddhists are enjoined to serve and revere, namely, the Buddha, the Law (the Dharma), and the Order (the Samgha).
three types of bodies Three kinds of body that a buddha possesses: (1) the Dharma body, which indicates the fundamental truth or Law to which a buddha is enlightened; (2) the reward body, which indicates the buddha’s wisdom; and (3) the manifested body, or the merciful actions of a buddha to save people and the physical form that he assumes for that purpose.
three types of tranquillity A buddha’s tranquillity, or freedom from joy or disappointment, in preaching to three types of people: those who listen attentively, those who listen reluctantly or are unwilling to listen, and those who are a mixture of these two types.
three vehicles The teachings for the voice-hearers, the pratyekabuddhas or cause-awakened ones, and the bodhisattvas.
thus come one (Skt tathāgata, Ch rulai, J nyorai) One of the ten epithets for a buddha.
Tushita (Tuṣita) heaven Heaven of Satisfaction, the fourth of the six heavens in the world of desire. It is said that bodhisattvas are reborn there just before their last rebirth in the saha world when they will attain buddhahood. The future buddha Maitreya is said to be at present dwelling in the Tushita heaven.
twelve divisions of the sutras Another name for the sutras or scriptures of Buddhism as a whole. The scriptures are classified into twelve categories on the basis of their content and style of exposition. See also nine devices.
twelve-linked chain of causation Also called the doctrine of dependent origination, an important part of the teaching of early Buddhism. It illustrates step by step the causal relationship between ignorance and suffering. It is described in chapter seven of the Lotus Sutra.
twenty-five realms of existence Subdivisions of the threefold world in which living beings repeat the cycle of birth and death. See also threefold world.