vihara

[vi-hahr-uh]

noun

1. a meeting place of Buddhist monks.

2. a Buddhist monastery.

3. Also called Brahma Vihara. (initial capital letter),  one of the four states of mind, namely love, compassion, sympathetic gladness, and equanimity, to be developed by every Buddhist.

Word History and Origins

Origin of vihara¹

First recorded in 1875–80, vihara is from the Sanskrit word vihāra

Example Sentences

Leelarathna, raised in a Muslim family in Sri Lanka’s small Malay community, had converted to Buddhism and became devout, attending weekly meditation sessions at Maithree Vihara.

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Bukhara was once home to a Buddhist community, part of that two-way traffic of monks and scholars, which would cease after the coming of Islam in the eighth and ninth centuries — its name was drawn from the Sanskrit word for monastery, vihara.

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The head priest at the London Buddhist Vihara monastery has been invited primarily to show the royal family and the British government's respect for Buddhist tradition.

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Among the oldest inscriptions discovered are those on the rock cells of the Vessagiri Vihara of Anuradhapura, cut in the old Brahma-lipi character.

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It is possible that in these ruins we may recognize the Nan Vihara of the Chinese traveller Hs�an Tsang.

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