བླ་ན་མེད་པའི་མཆོད་པ་རྣམ་པ་བདུན་
Transliteration: bla na med pa'i mchod pa rnam pa bdun
<phrase> "The seven aspect unsurpassable offering". This is the name of a type of liturgy with seven aspects to it which is regarded in the Mahāyāna as a perfectly complete session of worship. These days, in the Tibetan tradition, it is usually called the ཡན་ལག་བདུན་ "Seven limbs" q.v.
Acc. to Nāgārjuna [NDS] the seven aspects are as follows (note that his formulation differs from the accept…
མཚན་པ་
Transliteration: mtshan pa
<verb> v.t. མཚན་པ་/ མཚན་པ་/ མཚན་པ་/ མཚོན་/. Meaning "to place something on something else to give a sign to it", hence "to mark" or "to decorate" it, e.g., to mark with an emblem. E.g., [TC] རི་བོང་གཟུགས་ཀྱིས་མཚན་པའི་ཟླ་བའི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར། "the disk of the moon which is marked by the form of a rabbit" (Tibetans see the shape of a rabbit in the moon, not a man).
This is often used in liturgies fo…
འབྱོར་པ་བཅུ་
Transliteration: 'byor pa bcu
<enum> "The ten connections"; ten, specific items that can be obtained with a human life that make it more than just a human existence but make it a human existence that is suitable for practising the Buddhist teaching.
The phrase is often translated as the "ten endowments" but that is a mistaken translation in the sense that no-one has "endowed" the person with the ten. Rather, because of p…
ཆོས་བདུན་ལྡན་གྱི་མི་
Transliteration: chos bdun ldan gyi mi
<enum> "A human with the seven dharmas". [JKE] gives as a person: 1) བརྫུས་ཏེ་སྐྱེ་བ་ "of miraculous birth"; 2) ཚེ་ལོ་དཔག་མེད་ཐུབ་པ་ "able to have an unfathomable lifespan"; 3) དབང་པོ་ཀུན་ཚང་བ་ "all faculties perfect"; 4) རང་ལུས་འོད་ཀྱིས་ཁྱབ་པ་ "body pervaded by light"; 5) མཚན་བཟང་རྗེས་མཐུན་གྱིས་བརྒྱན་པ་ "adorned in a way that accords with the excellent marks"; 6) ཟས་རགས་པ་ལ་མ་བརྟེན་པར་དགའ་…
འཁྱེར་བ་
Transliteration: 'khyer ba
<verb> v.t. ཁྱེར་བ་/ འཁྱེར་/ འཁྱེར་/ ཁྱེར་/. The basic meaning is "to carry". 1) Used only for inanimate things with two similar meanings. i) "To carry" in the sense of someone carrying something along with them. E.g., ལག་པ་ལ་ཁྱེར་སོང་། "carried it in his hand". E.g., [TC] འཁྱེར་རྒྱུ་གྲིབ་ནག་དང་། གཞག་རྒྱུ་རྐང་རྗེས། "the shadow you carry with you and the footprints you plant". In Tibetan, th…
ཆོ་འཕྲུལ་རྣམ་པ་གསུམ་
Transliteration: cho 'phrul rnam pa gsum
<noun> "Three types of miraculous feats (of a buddha)". Translation of the Sanskrit "trividhaṃ prātiharyam". These are a buddha's ability to perform miraculous feats at the level of body, speech, and mind respectively and are also known as སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཆོ་འཕྲུལ་གསུམ་ "the three miraculous feats of a buddha". Acc. [NDS] they are: 1) རྫུ་འཕྲུལ་གྱི་ཆོ་འཕྲུལ་ "miraculous feats of miracles"; 2) …
འཆར་བ་
Transliteration: 'char ba
<verb> v.i. ཤར་བ་/ འཆར་བ་/ འཆར་བ་//. This verb has two connotations each of which is important to its meaning. It means first "to come up / arise / emerge" and secondly to be "visible / apparent / known". It is used for a variety of circumstances e.g., like the sun coming up in the morning and appearing, and like any occurrence of mind coming up and being apparent in mind. It has the exact …
སྲིད་པའི་རྩེ་མོ་
Transliteration: srid pa'i rtse mo
<phrase> "Peak of existence", "pinnacle of existence", "summit of existence". The peak of སྲིད་པ་ the possibilities of འཁོར་བ་ cyclic existence is the highest type of existence than can occur within cyclic existence. It is the level of འདུ་ཤེས་མེད་མིན་གྱི་སྐྱེ་མཆེད་ the fourth of the four levels of absorbtion of the formless realm.
E.g., [DDT] སློབ་དཔོན་དཔའ་བོས། ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་བསྟན་ལ་མི་ཕྱོགས་པའི།…
བྱིས་པ་ལྟར་འཇུག་པའི་དབང་བདུན་
Transliteration: byis pa ltar 'jug pa'i dbang bdun
<enum> "The seven empowerments for entering as a child".
The empowerment of the དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ་ Kālachakra tantra has two main sets of empowerments within it. The first is this set of empowerments which are given to disciples who are newly entering the practice. Having these empowerments allows them to practice sufficiently to be able to receive the second set of empowerments called the མཆོ…
ཕྱོགས་པ་
Transliteration: phyogs pa
I. <verb> v.i. ཕྱོགས་པ་/ ཕྱོགས་པ་/ ཕྱོགས་པ་//. 1) "To face" a certain direction hence also "to turn" (to a direction). E.g., [TC] ཤར་ངོས་སུ་ཕྱོགས་པ། "facing the south"; གཡས་མདའ་དང་། གཡོན་གཞུ་ལ་མི་ཕྱོགས་པ། "the arrow in the right (hand) and the bow in the left not on (lined up facing the) target"; རང་ཡུལ་རྒྱབ་ཀྱིས་ཕྱོགས་པ། "with his back to his own land". 2) "To go in / take a certain direct…
སྙོན་པ་
Transliteration: snyon pa
<verb> v.t. བསྙོན་པ་/ སྙོན་པ་/ བསྙོན་པ་/ སྙོན་/. Meaning, "because of feeling superior about knowing a subject, to insist that something related to that is not so when it is so"; "to disavow dishonestly". There is not a word in English which has the full set of connotations required for this verb and since the connotations are very important in this case, a phrase or group of words will hav…
བརླག་པ་
Transliteration: brlag pa
I. <verb> v.i. བརླགས་པ་/ བརླག་པ་/ བརླག་པ་//. Intransitive form of རློག་པ་ q.v. 1) "To lose" in the sense of gone astray. E.g., [TC] ར་ལུག་བརླགས་རྗེས་ལྷས་རར་ཉམས་གསོ་བྱེད། "after the goats and sheep are lost, it is up to the gods to put them back in the fold". E.g., ངའི་དེབ་བརླག་པ་ཡིན། "I have lost my book". 2) "To lose" as the opp. of ཐོབ་པ་ "to win". E.g., ཁོ་བརླགས་སོང་། "he lost (the game,…
གཟིགས་པ་
Transliteration: gzigs pa
<verb> v.t. གཟིགས་པ་/ གཟིགས་པ་/ གཟིགས་པ་/ གཟིགས་/. 1) [Hon] for both མཐོང་བ་ and ལྟ་བ་ q.v. It means "to see" or "to look" but is used in a variety of ways, many of which reflect the [Hon] hence "to watch over", "to gaze", "to witness", "to behold", "to look on", and in some cases "to care for". One usage translates the Sanskrit sense of "looking at and watching over an entire situation", e…
གསུང་དབྱངས་ཡན་ལག་དྲུག་ཅུ་
Transliteration: gsung dbyangs yan lag drug cu
<phrase> "The sixty branches of intonation of (Buddha) speech". When the qualities of a buddha are enumerated, the speech aspect is referred to as having sixty aspects of intonation. These sixty aspects are derived from རྩ་བ་དྲུག་ six root qualities that have ཡན་ལག་བཅུ་ ten branches each. The six root qualities are: 1) ཚངས་པ་ལྟ་བུ་ like Brahma; 2) སིལ་སྙན་ལྟ་བུ་ like (small, sweet-sounding)…
སྔོན་འཇུག་ལྔ་
Transliteration: sngon 'jug lnga
<noun> "The five prefixes". Grammar term. Tibetan words are constructed of letters, which are of two types: vowels and consonants. Tibetan words by definition have consonant letters in one of three places: a main position called the མིང་གཞི་ name-base; a prefix position to that name-base; and a རྗེས་འཇུག་ suffix position to the name-base. Of the thirty consonants all can be used in the name…
