vihara

American  

[vi-hahr-uh] / vɪˈhɑr ə /

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.

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Etymology

Origin of vihara

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

Example Sentences

After going ten yojanas he found a vihara, named "The Wilderness,"—a place where Buddha had dwelt, and where there are monks now.

From A Record of Buddhistic kingdoms: being an account by the Chinese monk Fa-hsien of travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414) in search of the Buddhist books of discipline by Faxian, ca. 337-422

Four of five le east from the vihara there was reared a great pile of firewood, which might be more than thirty cubits square, and the same in height.

From A Record of Buddhistic kingdoms: being an account by the Chinese monk Fa-hsien of travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414) in search of the Buddhist books of discipline by Faxian, ca. 337-422

Great Heap was the name of a wicked demon, who was converted by Buddha, and men subsequently at this place reared a vihara.

From A Record of Buddhistic kingdoms: being an account by the Chinese monk Fa-hsien of travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414) in search of the Buddhist books of discipline by Faxian, ca. 337-422

I found it, very easily, in the bushes exactly under our vihara, at the foot of the rock over which the tiger had rolled, already dead.

From From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan by Blavatsky, H. P. (Helena Petrovna)

It bears an oblong terrace covered with the ruins of several buildings, especially of a vihara.

From A Record of Buddhistic kingdoms: being an account by the Chinese monk Fa-hsien of travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414) in search of the Buddhist books of discipline by Faxian, ca. 337-422