Transliteration: dge ba
This one term was used by Tibetan translators to translate several terms of Sanskrit.I. <noun> "Virtue". 1) Translation of the Sanskrit "kuśhala". The opposite of མི་དགེ་བ་ non-virtue. Virtue is defined in Buddhism as an action of body, speech, or mind that plants a karmic seed, a karmic seed that will result in a pleasant experience in the future. Similar to but not the same as བསོད་ནམས་ merit; the translation "merit / meritorious" is probably better reserved for use with བསོད་ནམས་ q.v. 2) Translation of the Sanskrit "kalyāṇa" meaning anything that is felicitous, auspicious, good, propitious; e.g., དགེ་བའི་བཤེས་གཉེན་, translating the Sanskrit "kalyāṇamitra" literally meaning "virtuous friend" and referring to a good, helpful teacher on the spiritual path. 3) "Goodness". Translation of the Sanskrit "sukha" meaning that which is good in itself, a happy situation. 4) i) One of the སྦྱོར་བ་ཉེར་བདུན་ twenty-seven co-incidences in Tibetan astrology. ii) One of བྱེད་པ་བཅུ་གཅིག་ eleven calculators of astrology.
II. <adj> related to the noun. 1) "Virtuous". E.g., དགེ་བའི་ལས་ "virtuous karma", དགེ་བའི་ཆོས་ "virtuous dharma(s). Also translated as "wholesome" and "positive". 2) "Auspicious", "happy", "propitious", "good". 3) "Good".