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…
ཁམས་སྤྲུལ་
Transliteration: khams sprul
<name> "Khamtrul". Usually referring to a line of incarnations that arose in Eastern Tibet who were the principal gurus of the Eastern Tibetan Drukpa Kagyu lineage. The Khamtrul Rinpoches made their seat at a place called Tashi Jong. The monastic seat was called Khampagar. These Khamtrul's were also called མདོ་ཁམས་པ་ e.g., the third incarnation named ཀུན་དགའ་བསྟན་འཛིན་ Kunga Tenzin would al…
དང་པོའི་མགོན་པོ་
Transliteration: dang po'i mgon po
<phrase> "Origin's guardian" or "guardian of the origin". This is seen in texts of the Vajra Vehicle only where it is used in a similar way to the tathāgatagarbha of the sūtra vehicle. It is similar to དང་པོའི་སངས་རྒྱས་ "original buddha".
Both terms are used to point to the enlightenment present at the origin of the mind and which is available at any given moment for a practitioner of the Va…
བཀའ་ལུང་
Transliteration: bka' lung
<noun> 1) Meaning སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་བཀའ་སྟེ་ལུང་བསྟན་ "the Buddha's word, the authoritative spiritual statement(s)". This has the sense of the spiritual statements of the Buddha which, because they are completely authoritative, are "commands" to be followed. Because of this, [NTC] has translated the term "command prophesy" but this contains the mistake of assuming that ལུང་བསྟན་ always means "pr…
ཀུན་ཏུ་བཟང་པོ་
Transliteration: kun tu bzang po
<noun> Translation of the Sanskrit [NDS] "samantabhadra". 1) Samantabhadra is commonly used as a person's name in Sanskrit. The term literally means good throughout, and comes to mean "totally good", "nothing but good". It is often translated as "all-good". 2) "Samantabhadra". The name of the primordial principle of buddhahood according to the སྔ་འགྱུར་ early translation system. In the གསར་…
ས་བདུན་པའི་ཡོངས་སྦྱོང་ཉི་ཤུ་
Transliteration: sa bdun pa'i yongs sbyong nyi shu
<enum> [JKE] gives as: 1) བདག་ཏུ་འཛིན་པ་ ""; 2) སེམས་ཅན་དུ་འཛིན་པ་ ""; 3) སྲོག་ཏུ་འཛིན་པ་ ""; 4) གང་ཟག་ཏུ་འཛིན་པ་ ""; 5) ཆད་པའི་མཐར་འཛིན་པ་ ""; 6) རྟག་པའི་མཐར་འཛིན་པ་ ""; 7) མཚན་མར་འཛིན་པ་ ""; 8) རྒྱུར་འཛིན་པ་ ""; 9) ཕུང་པོར་འཛིན་པ་ ""; 10) ཁམས་སུ་འཛིན་པ་ ""; 11) སྐྱེ་མཆེད་དུ་འཛིན་པ་ ""; 12) ཁམས་གསུམ་པོ་ལ་གནས་བྱར་འཛིན་པ་ ""; 13) དེ་དག་དོར་བྱར་འཛིན་པ་ ""; 14) སེམས་ཀུན་ཏུ་ཞུམ་པ་ ""; 15) སངས་ར…
མཚོན་པ་
Transliteration: mtshon pa
I. <verb> v.t. མཚོན་པ་/ མཚོན་པ་/ མཚོན་པ་/ མཚོན་/. It has a basic meaning of showing something clearly so that it is understood or known. It is used in a variety of ways and there are several words and phrases in English that need to be used to express them. "To demonstrate", "to illustrate", "to show", "to represent", "to indicate". E.g., [TC] མཚོན་བྱེད་དཔེ། "the book that illustrates the m…
བདག་ཕྱོགས་འགའ་ཞིག་ཞུ་
Transliteration: bdag phyogs 'ga' zhig zhu
<phrase> "I will petition (you) about some matters (which are of concern to me, so as to get your advice). Standard phrase in [hon] language seen in both government and religious works. In Buddhism, it is follows a polite request for the opportunity to ask for an authoritative statement from a higher person, such as the Buddha.
Note that it is not བདག་གི་ཕྱོགས་ but བདག་ནི་ཕྱོགས་འགའ་ཞིག་ wher…
དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་
Transliteration: de bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po
<phrase> "The tathagata essence". Translation of the Sanskrit "tathāgatagarbha". This is one of several terms for the སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་རང་བཞིན་ "buddha nature"
The term is used in ཐེག་ཆེན་ Mahāyāna literature to indicate the seed for enlightenment which all sentient beings possess and which gives them the potential to become buddhas. The term has the same meaning as བདེ་བར་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ "su…
ས་དང་པོའི་ཡོངས་སྦྱོང་བཅུ་
Transliteration: sa dang po'i yongs sbyong bcu
<enum> [JKE] gives as: 1) བྱ་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་གཡོ་སྒྱུ་མེད་པའི་བསམ་པ་ ""; 2) རང་གཞན་གྱི་དོན་ལ་ཕན་པ་ཐེག་ཆེན་ཉིད་འཛིན་པ་ ""; 3) སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་སེམས་མཉམ་པ་ཉིད་ ""; 4) སེར་སྣ་མེད་པས་བདོག་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་གཏོང་བ་ ""; 5) བཤེས་གཉེན་དམ་པ་རྟག་ཏུ་བསྟེན་པར་བྱེད་པ་ ""; 6) ཐེག་པ་གསུམ་གྱི་ཆོས་མ་ལུས་པའི་དམིགས་པ་འཚོལ་བ་ ""; 7) དུས་རྟག་ཏུ་ངེས་པར་འབྱུང་བའི་སེམས་ཉིད་དང་ལྡན་པ་དུ་རྟག་ཏུ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་སྐུ་མཐོང་བར་འདོད་ཅིང་དེ…
ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན་པ་
Transliteration: thams cad mkhyen pa
<phrase> "All knowing" also translated as "omniscient". Translation of the Sanskrit "sarvajñā".
I. Primarily, one of many སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་མཚན་ epithets of the buddha. A buddha has the particular feature of knowing everything. This knowing of everything all at once is not through dualistic རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པ་ consciousness but through ཡེ་ཤེས་ non-dual wisdom. This all-knowing quality is classified in …
ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྐུ་
Transliteration: chos kyi sku
<noun> "Dharma body" or "body of the dharma". Translation of the Sanskrit "dharmakāya". The mind aspect of a buddha. Kāya means aspect or body; dharma in this case means "reality" or "truth".
I. The dharmakāya not only sees reality as it is without a moment of any deludedness or covering whatsoever but sees/knows all things in their entirety. These two qualities of the dharmakāya, these two …
ཆེན་པོ་བདུན་
Transliteration: chen po bdun
<enum> "The seven greats". The མདོ་སྡེ་རྒྱན་ Sūtrālaṃkara explains that the ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ "Great Vehicle" when precisely defined has seven "great" things to it. The text says:
དམིགས་པ་ཆེ་བ་ཉིད་དང་ནི། །དེ་བཞིན་སྒྲུབ་པ་གཉིས་དག་དང་། །ཡེ་ཤེས་བརྩོན་འགྲུས་རྩོམ་པ་དང་། །ཐབས་ལ་མཁས་པར་གྱུར་པ་དང་། །ཡང་དག་སྒྲུབ་པ་ཆེན་པོ་དང་། །སངས་རྒྱས་ཕྲིན་ལས་ཆེན་པོ་སྟེ། །ཆེན་པོ་འདི་དང་ལྡན་པའི་ཕྱིར། །ཐེག་ཆེན་ཞེས་ནི་ངེས་…
བླ་ན་མེད་པའི་མཆོད་པ་
Transliteration: bla na med pa'i mchod pa
<phrase> "Unsurpassable offering". 1) Specifically, the བླ་ན་མེད་པའི་མཆོད་པ་རྣམ་པ་བདུན་ seven aspect unsurpassable offering q.v. 2) In general, one of two types of offering, the other being བླ་ན་ཡོད་པའི་མཆོད་པ་ q.v. It is explained by Ontrul Tenpa'i Wangchug as follows:
སངས་རྒྱས་དང་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་དང་། སྨོན་ལམ་དང་ཐུགས་བསྐྱེད་ལས་སྤྲུལ་པའི་མཆོད་པ་སྲིད་པའི་ཁྱོན་འདི་ན་དཔེ་ད…
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) …
དགེ་འདུན་ཉི་ཤུ་
Transliteration: dge 'dun nyi shu
<phrase> "The twenty (kinds of) saṅgha". This is a classification of the practitioners of the śhrāvaka Buddhist community who are not full śhrāvaka arhats but who have attained the མཐོང་ལམ་ path of seeing through practice and so are to be taken as members of the third jewel of refuge, the དགེ་འདུན་དཀོན་མཆོག་ saṅgha jewel.
The twenty are: 1-5) རྒྱུན་ཞུགས་ལྔ་ "the five types of stream-enterer"…
ཇི་ལྟ་བ་བཞིན་དུ་
Transliteration: ji lta ba bzhin du
<phrase> "Exactly as is". Here ཇི་ལྟ་བ་ means "as something is" and བཞིན་དུ་ means "just like that" so altogether the phrase means "(whatever is being referred to...) just the way it really is" and this is usually rendered in English with "exactly that..." or "precisely that..." or "according to how it is", etc. E.g., from [ZGT] །དགོངས་པ་འགྲེལ་ཚུལ་གྱི་གོ་རིམ་འདི་ཇི་ལྟ་བ་བཞིན་དུ། རྗེ་བཙུན་ཆེ…
གདན་འདྲེན་པ་
Transliteration: gdan 'dren pa
I. <verb> v.t. see འདྲེན་པ་ for tense forms. The term is highly [Hon]. 1) "To invite (to one's own place)" e.g., to invite a guest to come to a celebration at one's house. 2) Note these special usages. i) When speaking of sacred material things, the term is used in the general sense of "bringing" or "taking with back to one's own place". 2) In the case of གཏེར་མ་ dharma treasures that have …
བདག་ཉིད་ཆེན་པོ་
Transliteration: bdag nyid chen po
<phrase> Translation of the Sanskrit "mahātmā" with the general meaning either of "a great being, lit. great soul" or of "a greater self".
1) "Great being / soul". E.g., as in Mahātmā Gandhi. i) A Indian title of address used for buddhas in general, "the buddha, the great soul". One of many སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་མཚན་ epithets of the buddha. ii) An Indian title of address used mainly for great spiritu…
བསྙེན་པར་རྫོགས་པའི་སྐབས་ཀྱི་མངོན་དུ་གྱུར་པ་བཅུ་
Transliteration: bsnyen par rdzogs pa'i skabs kyi mngon du gyur pa bcu
<phrase> "The ten presences at the time of approaching completion (full ordination)". There are ten things that must be present for the full ordination of a Buddhist monk to be carried out. These ten only apply to an ordination being carried out in the Central Land, i.e., India or another place where the Vinaya tradition has been fully established.
[DGT] gives as: 1) སྟོན་པ་མངོན་དུ་གྱུར་པ་ "…
