Pali Glossary
Twenty Pali terms a lay practitioner actually meets
A small working vocabulary beats a big mystical one. Twenty terms, each tied to the discourse where it does its job, with the references left visible so you can check.
Pali is not a credential and not a mystery: it is the language the early discourses were preserved in, and a lay reader needs only a small vocabulary to move through them with understanding. The twenty terms below are the ones this notebook uses and a practitioner actually meets, whether reading a sutta, sitting an anapanasati course or listening to a teacher in a temple hall. Each is given with its literal sense and its working sense, and the discourses do the defining better than any glossary can, which is why references stay attached.
Words for the sitting
| Term | Literal sense | How the suttas use it |
|---|---|---|
| sati | memory, keeping in mind | the keeping power of practice; defined by its work in the satipatthana formula (MN 10, SN 47.2) |
| sampajanna | clear comprehension, knowing what one is doing | sati’s partner in the formula; acting while knowing the act |
| appamada | non negligence, diligence | the path’s habit; the last reported advice of the Buddha (DN 16) |
| anapanasati | mindfulness of breathing in and out | the sixteen steps instruction (MN 118) |
| satipatthana | the establishing, or grounds, of mindfulness | the four territories of body, feeling, mind, dhammas (MN 10, DN 22) |
| vedana | feeling, the felt tone of experience | pleasant, painful or neutral; the second foundation |
| nivarana | covering, hindrance | the five clouds: sense desire, ill will, sloth, restlessness, doubt (AN 5.51) |
| bhavana | bringing into being, cultivation | the word behind "meditation"; development, not trance |
| yoniso manasikara | attention through the source, wise attention | what feeds skillful states and starves hindrances (SN 46.51) |
| piti | rapture, uplift of energy | the fifth step of the breath tetrad on feelings (MN 118) |
| sukha | happiness, ease | the pleasant stability that follows settled attention |
| passaddhi | serenity, calming | the enlightenment factor that quiets body and mind |
| metta | loving kindness, good will | the assigned counter to ill will (SN 46.55) |
| upekkha | equanimity, seeing evenly | the fourth boundless abiding and the last awakening factor |
| sila | conduct, virtue | the platform of the gradual training (MN 107) |
| dana | giving, generosity | the lay economy of temples and the first limb of merit |
| panna | discernment, wisdom | what the foundations fulfill, along with clear vision (MN 118) |
| anicca | not lasting, impermanence | what the fourth breath tetrad contemplates |
| dukkha | hard to endure, unsatisfactoriness | the first truth of SN 56.11, wider than "suffering" |
| kamma | action, doing | the ownership recollection of AN 5.57; actions and their results |
Three words in the table deserve a caution. Dukkha is routinely flattened into "suffering", which makes the first truth sound like pessimism; its literal sense of hard to endure, of a wheel’s axle fitted badly, carries the ordinary frictions of life as well as its griefs, and SN 56.11 uses it that way. Bhavana is flattened into "meditation", which then gets re flattened into a mood; the word means cultivation, the gardener’s verb, and it explains why practice guides speak of feeding and starving states. And sati is flattened into "awareness of everything", a drift examined in the close reading of sati, sampajanna and appamada.
Why the literal senses matter
The literal layer is not decoration: it is how translation disputes get settled and how a teacher’s metaphor gets decoded. Yoniso manasikara literally walks attention back to the source of what arises, which is why the canon treats it as the food of skillful states; a reader who knows this hears the retreat instruction "go to the root" as method, not scenery. Appamada is a negation of negligence rather than a demand for intensity, which changes its feel entirely, and the discourses use it as tenderness toward practice rather than gritted teeth. The literal senses keep the working senses honest, the way a plumb line keeps a wall.
A checklist for learning the words
Five words a month, met in context
- Pick five terms from the table, and find each in its referenced discourse rather than in a list.
- Write your own one line definition in the Dhamma notebook after the reading; the table’s line is a loan until then.
- Say the word aloud once before sitting; vocabulary is meant to be used, not admired.
- When two translations of a passage disagree, check the term against its literal sense before picking a side.
- At month’s end, test honestly: can each word be defined without the table, and used in a sentence about your own sitting.
Common mistakes
The first mistake is word worship: treating Pali terms as charged syllables more sacred than their English glosses, when the canon itself teaches in ordinary language to ordinary people. The second is the reverse, assuming any English rendering is as precise as the original and then debating mood where the text is specific. The third is commentarial drift, presenting a later meditation manual’s definitions as the words of the suttas; both literatures have value, and this notebook keeps the seam visible by attaching references. The fourth is diacritic despair, letting marks like the long a of anapanasati intimidate a reader who can already pronounce most of the alphabet; say anapasati to a teacher and you will be understood perfectly well. The fifth is vocabulary collection, learning fifty terms and reading no suttas, which is grammar worship with the text left on the shelf.
If you take one thing from the glossary
Take the first five words of the table, sati, sampajanna, appamada, anapanasati, satipatthana, and let a month of reading put flesh on them. They are not random: the first three are habits of mind, the fourth is its best known exercise, and the fifth is the map it all hangs on. Decide tonight which discourse carries the first word, MN 10 or SN 47.2, and read it this week. A vocabulary met in the discourses grows roots; one memorized from lists grows none, and this notebook was written so that the roots come first.