- Buddhist Dictionary
- Manual of Buddhist Terms
and Doctrines
by NYANATILOKA MAHATHERA
-L-
lahutá: 'lightness', or 'agility',
may be of 3 kinds: of corporeality (rúpassa lahutá; s. khandha, I ), of
mental factors (káya-lahutá), and of consciousness (citta-lahutá). Cf.
Tab. II.
lakkhana: 'characteristics'. For
the 3 ch. of existence, s. ti-lakkhana.
law: dhamma (q.v.).
learning, wisdom based on: s. paññá.
liberality: dána (q.v.), cága
(q.v.).
liberation: s. vimokkha.
life-infatuation: s. mada.
light, perception of: s. áloka-saññá.
light-kasina: s. kasina.
lightness (of corporeality, mental
factors and consciousness): lahutá (q.v.).
loathsomeness (of the body): s.
asubha, sivathiká, káyagatásati.
lobha: 'greed', is one of the 3
unwholesome roots (múla, q.v.) and a synonym of rága (q.v.) and tanhá
(q.v.).
lobha-carita: 'greedy-natured', s. carita.
lofty consciousness: s. sobhana.
lohita-kasina: 'red-kasina', s.
kasina.
loka: 'world', denotes the 3
spheres of existence comprising the whole universe, i.e. (1) the sensuous world (káma-loka),
or the world of the 5 senses; (2) the fine-material world (rúpa-loka), corresponding
to the 4 fine-material absorptions (s. jhána 1-4); (3) the immaterial world (arúpa-loka),
corresponding to the 4 immaterial absorptions (s. jhána, 5-8).
The sensuous world comprises the hells (niraya),
the animal kingdom (tiracchána-yoni), the ghost-realm (peta-loka), the
demon world (asura-nikáya), the human world (manussa-loka) and the 6 lower
celestial worlds (s. deva I). In the fine-material world (s. deva II) still
exist the faculties of seeing and hearing, which, together with the other sense faculties,
are temporarily suspended in the 4 absorptions. In the immaterial world (s. deva
III) there is no corporeality whatsoever, only the four mental groups (s. khandha)
exist there.
Though the term loka is not applied
in the Suttas to those 3 worlds, but only the term bhava, 'existence' (e.g. M. 43),
there is no doubt that the teaching about the 3 worlds belongs to the earliest, i.e.
sutta-period, of the Buddhist scriptures, as many relevant passages show.
loka-dhamma: 'worldly conditions'.
"Eight things are called worldly conditions, since they arise in connection with
worldly life, namely: gain and loss, honour and dishonour, happiness and misery, praise
and blame" (Vis.M. XXII). Cf. also A. VIII, 5.
lokiya: 'mundane', are all those
states of consciousness and mental factors - arising in the worldling, as well as in the
Noble One - which are not associated with the supermundane (lokuttara; s. the
foll.) paths and fruitions of sotápatti, etc. See ariyapuggala, A.
lokuttara: 'supermundane', is a
term for the 4 paths and 4 fruitions of sotápatti, etc. (s. ariya-puggala),
with Nibbána as ninth. Hence one speaks of '9 supermundane things' (nava-lokuttara-dhamma).
Cf. prec.
loving-kindness: mettá; s. brahmavihára.
lower fetters, the 5: s. samyojana.
lower worlds, the 4: apáya
(q.v.).
low speech: tiracchána-kathá
(q.v.).
lust: s. rága.