སྐྱབས་སུ་འགྲོ་བ་
Transliteration: skyabs su 'gro ba
I. <verb> v.i. see འགྲོ་བ་ for tense forms. The direct Tibetan translation of the Sanskrit "śharaṇaṃ gacchāmi" which means "to go for refuge". It is often translated "to take refuge" but "to go for refuge" meaning "to seek refuge" is an exact translation of the original Sanskrit that makes sense. E.g., སངས་རྒྱས་ལ་སྐྱབས་སུ་འགྲོ་བ་ "to go for refuge in the Buddha". [Hon] form is སྐྱབས་སུ་མཆི་…
འབུང་བ་
Transliteration: 'bung ba
<verb> v.t. འབུངས་པ་/ འབུང་བ་/ འབུང་བ་/ འབུངས་/. To apply oneself to some task, making effort at it and concentrating on it, e.g., "to do something in earnest". E.g., [MDR] བདག་གིས་སངས་རྒྱས་བསྒྲུབ་པ་ལ་འབུང་དགོས། "I must approach the accomplishment of buddhahood in earnest". [TC] ཚན་རིག་ཞིབ་འཇུག་ལ་གཡོ་ཟོལ་མེད་པར་འབུང་བ། "to apply scientific analysis in earnest and without deceit [Communist]".
མི་བསྐྱོད་པ་
Transliteration: mi bskyod pa
<noun> "Akṣhobhya". Translation of the Sanskrit [MWS] "akṣhobhyaḥ" but note that it has become common to write it (mistakenly) in Western books as "akṣhobhya". 1) Meaning "unshakeable", "immovable". 2) The name of the Conqueror at the head of the vajra family; one of the རྒྱལ་བ་རིགས་ལྔ་ "five conquerors" or དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་རིགས་ལྔ་ "five tathāgata families" or སངས་རྒྱས་ལྔ་ "five buddhas q.v.
རྣམ་པར་འདྲེན་པ་
Transliteration: rnam par 'dren pa
I. <verb> v.t. see འདྲེན་པ་ for tenses. The verb corresponds to the noun meanings, q.v.
II. <gerundial>phrase> "Universal guide". The true noun form is written རྣམ་འདྲེན་. Translation of the Sanskrit [MVT] "Vinayaka". 1) In general, a title given to someone who governs all others, taking charge of them and leading them along. 2) [Mngon] In particular, one of many སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་མཚན་ e…
དབང་དུ་བྱས་པ་
Transliteration: dbang du byas pa
<phrase> This phrase is used in connection with something preceding it to indicate that that item is the governing factor in some activity or discussion. Thus "in terms of" or "from the point of view of" or "from the standpoint of". E.g., དང་པོར་དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་གི་རྗེས་སུ་དྲན་པ་དེ་སངས་རྒྱས་དབང་དུ་བྱས་ནས་བྱས་པའོ། "The recollection of the Three Jewels (that has been under discussion) was first…
ཚོགས་ཀྱི་མཆོག་
Transliteration: tshogs kyi mchog
<phrase> "Supreme assembly". Translation of the Sanskrit [MVP] "gaṇānāmagraṃ". In Mahāyāna literature, "supreme assembly" refers to the Mahāyāna saṅgha who are regarded as superior to the Hīnayāna saṅgha. E.g., in the first line of the well-known prayer for taking refuge and arousing bodhicitta: སངས་རྒྱས་ཆོས་དང་ཚོགས་ཀྱི་མཆོག་རྣམས་ལ། "the Buddha, Dharma, and Supreme Assembly". E.g., [MVP] ཚོ…
ཀུན་ཏུ་འོད་ཀྱི་ས་
Transliteration: kun tu 'od kyi sa
<noun> Translation of the Sanskrit "samantaprabha bhūmi". "The bhūmi of Total Light". When the levels of a buddha are enumerated in the ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ Great Vehicle, they are given as either one or three. 1) When there is one, this is the name of it; it corresponds to the eleventh of ཐེག་ཆེན་གྱི་ས་བཅུ་གཅིག་ the eleven bhūmis of the Great Vehicle. 2) When there are three, they are called སངས་…
དོན་ཡོད་གྲུབ་པ་
Transliteration: don yod grub pa
<noun> "Amoghasiddhi". Translation of the Sanskrit [NDS] "amoghasiddhiḥ". The name of the Conqueror at the head of the karma family who appears in the རྒྱལ་བ་རིགས་ལྔ་ "five conqueror families", དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་རིགས་ལྔ་ "five tathāgata families" and སངས་རྒྱས་ལྔ་ "five buddhas q.v.
The name is usually translated as "All-accomplishing" but this is a mistake. The Tibetan is usually abbrev. to དོ…
གསོ་བའི་སྤྱོད་ཡུལ་འགྱུར་པ་
Transliteration: gso ba'i spyod yul 'gyur pa
<verb> v.i. see འགྱུར་བ་ for tense forms. "To come under someone's care" in the sense of coming under a doctor or healer's care. E.g., [BCA] སངས་རྒྱས་གྲངས་མེད་འདས་གྱུར་ཀྱང་། །བདག་ནི་རང་གི་ཉེས་པས་དེའི། །གསོ་བའི་སྤྱོད་ཡུལ་མ་གྱུར་ཏོ། "Countless buddhas have passed but I because of my badness did not come under their care".
ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་ཀྱི་སྐུ་
Transliteration: ngo bo nyid kyi sku
<phrase> "The essential kāya" i.e., "the essential body of a buddha". Translation of the Sanskrit "svabhavikakāya". The term means "the kaya which is the essence itself / the very essence". The svabhavikakāya is one of two aspects of the ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྐུ་ dharmakāya q.v. It refers to the most fundamental aspect, which in Buddhism is always the emptiness of something. It is the emptiness part of …
བྱིན་གྱིས་བརླབས་པའི་བཀའ་
Transliteration: byin gyis brlabs pa'i bka'
<phrase> "Command which is his blessing", one of སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་བཀའ་རྣམ་པ་གསུམ་ "the three types of command / word of the Buddha" q.v. This refers to speech that occurred due to the Buddha's blessings. E.g., in the prajñāpāramitā sūtras, it says "... at that time the Bhagavat entered the samādhi called profound illumination. Then through the power of the Buddha, Venerable Śhāripūtra said to N…
ཡོན་ཏན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་
Transliteration: yon tan rgya mtsho
<noun> "Ocean of Good Qualities". Translation of the Sanskrit [MVP] "guṇasāgara". 1) One of many སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་མཚན་ epithets of the buddha. 2) [1589-1616] The name of the fourth ཏཱ་ལའི་བླ་མ་ Dalai Lama. 3) One of several names of the first འཇམ་མགོན་ཀོང་སྤྲུལ་ Jamgon Kongtrul who was also called Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye and Jamgon Kongtrul Yontan Gyatso.
འཇིག་རྟེན་མཁྱེན་པ་
Transliteration: 'jig rten mkhyen pa
<noun> "Knower of the World". Translation of the Sanskrit "lokavid". One of many སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་མཚན་ epithets of the Buddha. Here "world" means the sentient beings within all worlds. The epithet means that a buddha has perfect knowledge of how to benefit all these sentient beings. He knows the right teaching for the right person at the right time and place. With his great compassion and knowl…
དཀོན་མཆོག་དྲུག་
Transliteration: dkon mchog drug
<phrase> "The Six Jewels". A formulation of the place of refuge according to the Nyingma secret mantra system. In it, the three roots of secret mantra are conjoined with the three general places of refuge of the outer, sūtra tradition. They are: 1) བླ་མ་ "guru"; 2) ཡི་དམ་ "iṣhṭadevatā"; 3) མཁའ་འགྲོ་ "ḍākiṇī"; 4) སངས་རྒྱས་ "buddha"; 5) ཆོས་ "dharma"; 6) དགེ་འདུན་ "saṅgha".
མངའ་བདག་
Transliteration: mnga' bdag
<noun> Translation of the Sanskrit [MVP] "prabhu" meaning the one who has the ruling power, who is master of, who has power and charge over any given situation. 1) One of many སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་མཚན་ epithets of the buddha. 2) Used in general to mean the master of some situation, the one who has the power over it and rules over it. The term was used for various local lords, landowners who had ser…
རྣམ་གཟིགས་
Transliteration: rnam gzigs
<noun> form of རྣམ་པར་གཟིགས་པ་ q.v. "He who has insight" or "He who has full sight of the situation". Translation of the Sanskrit [NDS] "vipashyī". 1) The name of the first of the སངས་རྒྱས་རབས་བདུན་ seven successive buddhas. 2) Used in Tibetan as an epithet of very advanced beings. E.g., the common title given to the ཞྭ་དམར་པ་ Zhamarpas, the regents during many generations of the ཀརྨ་པ་ Kar…
ལོངས་སྤྱོད་རྫོགས་པའི་སྐུ་
Transliteration: longs spyod rdzogs pa'i sku
<noun> "Complete enjoyment body". Translation of the Sanskrit "saṃbhogakāya". One aspect of two aspects of the གཟུགས་ཀྱི་སྐུ་ "form body" of a buddha. This aspect corresponds to the speech level of a buddha. Kāya means aspect or body; saṃbhoga in this case means perfect enjoyment because of primordial contact with total richness and all its satisfactions. [HNL] calls it "the body of perfect…
བཀའ་དང་པོ་
Transliteration: bka' dang po
<phrase> 1) In general, "the first teachings / precepts" transmitted by any religious teacher. The initial presentation of the doctrine of a religious system by someone who is the founding teacher of what becomes a whole system of religion. 2) Specifically, "the initial Buddha-word". Abbrev. of སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་བཀའ་ཆོས་འཁོར་ལོ་རྣམ་པ་གསུམ་གྱི་དང་པོ་ meaning "the first of the three turnings of th…
ཉན་ཐོས་ས་བརྒྱད་
Transliteration: nyan thos sa brgyad
<enum> "The eight levels of the śhrāvakas". Just as there are ten bodhisatva levels so there are eight śhrāvakas and pratyeka levels. ཡུམ་བར་མ་ལས། རིགས་ཀྱི་ས་དང་། བརྒྱད་པའི་ས་དང་། མཐོང་བའི་ས་དང་། བསྲབས་པའི་ས་དང་། འདོད་ཆགས་དང་བྲལ་བའི་ས་དང་། བྱས་པ་རྟོགས་པའི་ས་དང་། ཉན་ཐོས་ཀྱི་ས་དང་། རང་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ས། "The Middle Length Mother says: "The level of the family; the level of eight; the level of se…
སྦྱིན་སོགས་
Transliteration: sbyin sogs
<phrase> "Generosity and so forth / so on / the rest", a common phrase in Mahāyāna literature meaning "generosity and the rest of the ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་དྲུག་ six pāramitās q.v. E.g., in a very well known prayer of the Tibetan tradition. བདག་གི་སྦྱིན་སོགས་བགྱིས་པའི་བསོད་ནམས་ཀྱིས། །འགྲོ་ལ་ཕན་ཕྱིར་སངས་རྒྱས་སྒྲུབ་པར་ཤོག། "through my merits of practising generosity and so on, may I accomplish budd…
གཟུགས་ཀྱི་སྐུ་
Transliteration: gzugs kyi sku
<noun> "Form kāya" i.e., the form body of a Buddha. Translation of the Sanskrit "rūpakāya"; meaning the སྐུ་ aspects of a buddha manifested in གཟུགས་ form. The term can be singular meaning all of the different types of manifestations in form or can be plural when referring to the two sub-divisions of the form bodies. The manifestation of a buddha's mind, the ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྐུ་ "reality body" into…
སོ་སོར་རྟོག་པའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་
Transliteration: so sor rtog pa'i ye shes
<noun> "Individually discriminating wisdom". Translation of the Sanskrit [NDS] "pratyavekṣhaṇajñāna". One of ཡེ་ཤེས་ལྔ་ the five wisdoms and one of སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཡེ་ཤེས་བཞི་ the four wisdoms of a buddha q.v. This wisdom is connected with the padma family of the five tathāgatas. The meaning of the name is often misunderstood. It is the particular aspect of wisdom which takes something and dis…
ཐེག་པ་གསུམ་
Transliteration: theg pa gsum
<phrase> "The three yānas" or "the three vehicles". Translation of the Sanskrit [NDS] "trīṇi yāna".
[DGT] [NDS] [KPC] give as: 1) ཉན་ཐོས་ཀྱི་ཐེག་པ་ "Hearer's vehicle"; 2) རང་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཐེག་པ་ "Self-made buddha vehicle"; and 3) ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ "Great vehicle". However, these are the three vehicles when given in respect to the sūtra division of the great vehicle. When taken from the perspectiv…
