བརྩོན་འགྲུས་འབར་བ་
Transliteration: brtson 'grus 'bar ba
I. <verb> See v.i. འབར་བ་ for tense forms. "To have one's perseverance blaze", "to be in a blaze of perseverance". Note that this is the v.i. form. In ancient India this was the way of saying "having unrelenting, extreme perseverance". The usual verb form is བརྩོན་འགྲུས་འབར་བར་བྱེད་པ་" to make one's perseverance blaze" or "to bring on blazing perseverance". E.g., [MPP] ཀུན་དགའ་བོ་ང་བརྩོན་འག…
རིགས་ཁམས་
Transliteration: rigs khams
<phrase> "The lineage element". Translation of the Sanskrit gotradhātu". A common term in Buddhist literature that examines the བདེ་བར་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ sugatagarbha. The word "lineage" indicates that the sugatagarbha is the family-line of buddhahood that sentient beings possess and the word "element" indicates the fact of that family-line as an element in sentient being's mind-stream. E.g…
མངོན་པར་བསྟོད་པ་
Transliteration: mngon par bstod pa
I. <verb> v.t. see བསྟོད་པ་ for tense forms. "To openly praise" or "to openly extol". Where བསྟོད་པ་ itself means to praise, this phrase means to praise out someone or something out loud in front of others. This phrase is commonly found in Buddhist sutras when someone will openly praise a buddha or bodhisatva in front of the others who are assembled. E.g., [MPP] དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ་ཡ…
བརྟན་པ་
Transliteration: brtan pa
I. <verb> Past and fut. of རྟོན་པ་ q.v.
II. <noun> 1) Meaning སྐར་མ་བརྟན་པ་ the pole star of the northern hemisphere. 2) "The inanimate" meaning the worlds that beings live in as opposed to གཡོ་བ་ the animate beings who live in them; see བརྟན་པ་དང་གཡོ་བ་ "animate and inanimate". See also the equivalent term ཕྱི་སྣོད་ "outer container".
III. <adj> That which is "stable, steady, fir…
བསྐལ་པ་བཟང་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་མདོ་
Transliteration: bskal pa bzang po zhes bya ba'i mdo
<noun> "The Sūtra called "The Good Kalpa"". The name of a sūtra spoken by the Buddha which gives details of the cosmology of this world's period, and especially gives details of the one thousand and two buddhas who will descend during this period, which the Buddha called བསྐལ་པ་བཟང་པོ་ "the Good Kalpa". These buddhas are usually referred to as བསྐལ་པ་བཟང་པོའི་སངས་རྒྱས་སྟོང་ the thousand bud…
རྩ་རྒྱུད་སྡེ་ལྔ་
Transliteration: rtsa rgyud sde lnga
<phrase> "The five of the root tantra section (of the explanatory tantras)". The Mahāyoga tantras are divided into one root and seventeen explanatory tantras. The seventeen explanatory tantras are further divided into five root or major tantras, five tantras of sādhana, five tantras of actions, and two supplementary tantras. The five major tantras of the explanatory tantra section deal with…
མཛད་པས་བསྡུས་པ་གསུམ་
Transliteration: mdzad pas bsdus pa gsum
<phrase> "The three that sum up the deeds" meaning three items that sum up the entirety of the activities of a buddha. These three are usually given in relation to སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་མ་འདྲེས་པའི་ཆོས་བཅོ་བརྒྱད་ the eighteen qualities of a buddha that are not mixed (i.e., not partially found in the qualities of the highest bodhisatvas). They are: 1) ལུས་ཀྱི་ལས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྔོན་དུ་འགྲོ་ཞིང་ཡེ་ཤེས་…
ཀུན་འདུས་
Transliteration: kun 'dus
<adj>phrase> "Summation of", etc. The term is used to refer to one thing which or one person who is the summation of some other things or persons. E.g., སངས་རྒྱས་ཀུན་འདུས་གུ་རུ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ is often seen in Tibetan literature as a description of Padmasaṃbhava and means "The precious guru who is all of the buddhas gathered together in one place". Although "all...gathered together in one pla…
དོན་འགྱུར་
Transliteration: don 'gyur
<phrase> "Meaning translation". One of a pair of terms from the vocabulary of translation. In the Tibetan system that was worked out for translation of Buddhist texts from other languages, primarily from Sanskrit, there are two possible styles of translation: ཚིག་འགྱུར་ "literal or etymological translation" and དོན་འགྱུར་ "meaning translation". A literal translation is really an etymologica…
དྲི་མ་མེད་པ་
Transliteration: dri ma med pa
I. <adj> "Stainless". Translation of the Sanskrit [NDS] "vimala". In general, meaning that something is without དྲི་མ་ foreign matter that is sullying it. The opp. of དྲི་མ་ཡོད་པ་ meaning that something has foreign matter sullying it. Other terms which suit are: "free of stains", "unstained", "unsullied", "free of foreign matter", "spotless". The terms "pure" and "immaculate" are better use…
གསང་བ་འདུས་པ་
Transliteration: gsang ba 'dus pa
<noun> "The Embodied Secret". Translation of the Sanskrit "guhyasamaja". Meaning "the one in whom the secret (meaning of Vajrayāna) is contained". E.g., used in Buddhist tantric liturgies after inviting or invoking to indicate that all have been gathered. See also རྡོ་རྗེ་ཕྲེང་བ་ Vajramāla. 1) The name of a ཕ་རྒྱུད་ father tantra of the anuttarayogatantra level of the གསར་འགྱུར་ new transla…
རྒྱལ་བ་
Transliteration: rgyal ba
I. <verb> v.i. རྒྱལ་བ་/ རྒྱལ་བ་/ རྒྱལ་བ་//. "To obtain victory" hence "to be victorious", "to win", "to prevail" and in some contexts "to conquer". Opp. of འཕམ་པ་ "to be defeated", "to lose out" q.v. E.g., [TC] སུ་རྒྱལ་སུ་ཕམ་གྱི་འཐབ་འཛིང་། "a fight to see who will win and who will lose" i.e., "a fight to the end"; དགྲ་ལས་རྒྱལ་ཏེ་དགའ་སྟོན་བྱེད། "victorious over the enemy, they celebrated"; ར…
ཁྱུ་མཆོག་
Transliteration: khyu mchog
<noun> 1) "Best of the group", "Foremost of the pack / herd". Translation of the Sanskrit "ṛṣhabha" meaning the best of all in a group. The Sanskrit original has the sense of the foremost one of a group, like a pack / herd / group always has a lead animal or human within it. E.g., the bull of a herd, who looks after the herd and guides it on its way. 2) [Mngon] i) One of many སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་མ…
ཟབ་གསལ་
Transliteration: zab gsal
<phrase> Usually an abbrev. of ཟབ་པ་ and གསལ་བ་ "profundity and illumination" where གསལ་བ་ is further an abbrev. of འོད་གསལ་བ་ making it "profundity and luminosity". E.g., [SNT] ཆོས་དབྱིངས་དེ། །ཟབ་གསལ་གཉིས་མེད་མཐའ་བྲལ་འདུས་མ་བྱས། དེ་ལ་དང་པོའི་སངས་རྒྱས་ཞེས་བྱ་དང་།"the dharmadhatu which is profundity and illumination non-dual, free of extremes, uncompounded is called "the original buddha". An…
མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ་རྣམ་པ་གཉིས་
Transliteration: mya ngan las 'das pa rnam pa gnyis
<phrase> "The two kinds of nirvāṇa". These are the nirvāṇas of the ཐེག་པ་དམན་པ་ Lesser Vehicle and of ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ the Great Vehicle. The ཐེག་དམན་གྱི་མྱང་འདས་ nirvāṇa of the Lesser Vehicle is a lesser level of realization compared to the ཐེག་ཆེན་གྱི་མྱང་འདས་ nirvāṇa of the Great Vehicle. The nirvāṇa of the Lesser Vehicle is སོ་སོར་ཐར་པ་ individual liberation for the person who attains it. …
ཉན་ཐོས་
Transliteration: nyan thos
<noun> "Śhrāvaka", "hearer". Translation of the Sanskrit "śhrāvaka". The disciples of the Buddha who followed the teachings of the ཐེག་པ་དམན་པ་ Lesser Vehicle were of two kinds: Śhrāvakas and རང་སངས་རྒྱས་ Pratyekabuddhas. The Śhrāvakas listened to the teaching and taught it to others, the Pratyekabuddhas having heard the teaching went off and obtained their realization in solitary practice.…
རིག་པ་དང་ཞབས་སུ་ལྡན་པ་
Transliteration: rig pa dang zhabs su ldan pa
<noun> "Having knowledge and what comes below it". One of many སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་མཚན་ epithets of the buddha. There are many commentaries on the meaning of the term but they all agree on the this: the phrase means that buddha has knowledge and everything that comes because of it. Since knowledge is the point from which all other qualities start, it is considered to be the high point and all thin…
འབྲང་བ་
Transliteration: 'brang ba
<verb> v.t. འབྲངས་པ་/ འབྲང་བ་/ འབྲང་བ་/ འབྲོངས་/. Meaning "to follow along after". 1) "To follow" in the sense of སྙེག་པ་ "pursuing / chasing" after. E.g., [TC] སྔོན་སྐྱོད་པའི་རྗེས་སུ་འབྲངས་ནས་མདུན་དུ་འགྲོ་བ། "pursuing the people who had already left, he overtook them and moved ahead". 2) "To follow" in the sense of entering into or engaging in something. E.g., སངས་རྒྱས་བསྟན་པ་རྗེས་ལ་འབྲང་བ…
ཡེ་ཤེས་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྐུ་
Transliteration: ye shes chos kyi sku
<phrase> "The wisdom dharmakāya" i.e., "the wisdom reality body of a buddha". Translation of the Sanskrit "jñānadharmakāya". The term means "the kaya which is the wisdom aspect of ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྐུ་ the reality body" q.v.
The innermost core of a buddha's mind is its emptiness. That is called the ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་ཀྱི་སྐུ་ "essential body" of a buddha. A buddha's mind is not merely empty though, it has a k…
སྦྱོར་བའི་ཡོན་ཏན་བཅུ་བཞི་
Transliteration: sbyor ba'i yon tan bcu bzhi
<enum> "The fourteen qualities of connection" which are the fourteen sub-topics of སྦྱོར་བའི་ཡོན་ཏན་ the qualities of connection q.v. [JKE] gives as: 1) བདུད་ཀྱི་མཐུ་བཅོམ་པ་ "overcoming the power of the māras"; 2) སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་དགོངས་ཤིང་མཁྱེན་པ་ "knowing the intent of the buddha"; 3) སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་མངོན་སུམ་དུ་མཛད་པ་ "doing the actual deeds of a buddha"; 4) རྫོགས་བྱང་ལ་ཉེ་བར་གྱུར་བ་ "become c…
བྱང་ཆུབ་
Transliteration: byang chub
<noun> "Enlightenment". Translation of the Sanskrit "bodhḥ" or "bodhi". The Sanskrit term is derived from the root "buddh" meaning "clear understanding". The term "bodhi" means "consummate clear understanding". It was used in ancient India to refer to ultimate spiritual attainment. Someone who achieved that level was then called a "buddha", an enlightened person.
The English "enlightenment" …
ལུས་མེད་མཁའ་འགྲོ་
Transliteration: lus med mkha' 'gro
<noun> "Bodyless Ḍākiṇī". The name of a cycle of teachings on Mahāmudrā that came into the Tibetan tradition through the Kagyu lineage. The teachings are part of the རས་ཆུང་སྙན་རྒྱུད་ Rechung hearing lineage q.v.
Translators should resist the temptation to translate this as "formless ḍākiṇī". When the bodyless ḍākiṇī teachings are being discussed, the word གཟུགས་ "form" is often used in conj…
