1. Dharmata means essence or intrinsic nature.
2. For those wanting to read further, a bibliography can be found at the end of this book.
3. The term karma signifies action and denotes the totality of a being’s acts past, present and future. Karma has a dominant impact in terms of cause or consequence on our cycles of being, our lives and deaths included.
4. In the course of his youth, Milarepa, one of Tibet’s most important religious leaders, caused the deaths of dozens of people. This did not prevent him from achieving enlightenment and becoming a great spiritual master.
5. A religious structure commemorating a death or the Buddha.
6. The Bodhisattvas are beings who, having themselves attained enlightenment, choose not to escape the cycle of rebirth in order to help all beings achieve enlightenment.
7. Buddhist or Hindu religious paintings or embroideries.
8. Tibet’s highest summit, the source of the Ganges, Brahmaputra, Indus and Sutlej rivers, Kailash is considered the centre of the universe not only by Buddhists but also by Hindus and Jains, who call it Mount Meru.
9. Hindu god of wisdom, intelligence and knowledge, Ganesh is portrayed with a human body and the head of an elephant.
10. Tools for applying the hot wax to the fabric.
11. Buddhist texts refer to only four continents.