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

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

vihara

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

I sprang up: a tremendous roar deafened me, filling the vihara, wakening the slumbering echoes, and resounding, like the softened rumbling of thunder, over all the borders of the precipice.

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

On fast-days the door of that vihara is opened, and the forms of ceremonial reverence are observed according to the rules.

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

A noted vihara in the suburbs of Sravasti, erected in a park which Anatha-pindika bought of prince Jeta, the son of Prasenajit.

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

A path, or rather a ledge cut along the perpendicular face of a rocky mass 200 feet high, led from the chief temple to our vihara.

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

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