Bhūta
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bhūta (T. 'byung po; C. zhen/gui 眞/鬼). Has two distinct meanings in Buddhist texts.[1]
1. in compound words, it means “element,” “true,” or “real” (e.g. mahābhūta, "great elements")[1]
2. the word alone also means a class spirits (i.e., “elemental spirits”).[1] Bhūta can refer to specific class of nonhuman supernatural beings, or a term for spirits in general. They can be malevolent or benevolent.[2]
Bhūta is also name of a certain brahmin who lived in Rājagṛha.[2] It is also the name of a certain householder’s dog and the name given to the lost infant it carried home to its owner one night, which would one day be reunited with his birth mother.[2]
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Robert E. Buswell Jr., Donald S. Lopez Jr., The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism (Princeton: 2014), s.v. bhūta
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2
'byung po , Christian-Steinert Dictionary