རང་བཞིན་སྐྱེ་གནས་ཀྱི་བར་དོ་
Transliteration: rang bzhin skye gnas kyi bar do
<phrase> "The nature, birthplace bardo". One of the བར་དོ་རྣམ་བཞི་ four bardos, also called just སྐྱེ་གནས་ཀྱི་བར་དོ་ "birthplace bardo" and རང་བཞིན་གྱི་བར་དོ་ "nature bardo".
Note that "nature" is not an adjective modifying birthplace but that "nature" and "birthplace" are individual names each with their own, discrete meaning. The meaning is that any birthplace in samsara has its own partic…
རང་བཞིན་ཡོངས་ཤེས་
Transliteration: rang bzhin yongs shes
<phrase> "Overall awareness of the nature". A path term from ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་ Mahāmudrā which is equivalent to the fruition term ཆོས་སྐུ་ dharmakāya. It means an awareness which takes in the གནས་ལུགས་ actuality (reality) completely and perfectly because of understanding the nature, illumination.
ངོ་བོ་རང་བཞིན་ནུས་པ་
Transliteration: ngo bo rang bzhin nus pa
<noun> "Essence, nature, and capability". In the ཁྲེགས་ཆོད་ Thorough Cut path of the Great Completion, the path (as opposed to ground or fruition) teaching says that there is mind and mind's essence and that the latter has three qualities: "essence, nature, and capability". See also ངོ་བོ་, རང་བཞིན་, and ནུས་པ་. An altern. description which is equivalent is ངོ་བོ་རང་བཞིན་ཐུགས་རྗེ་ q.v. Here…
ངོ་བོ་རང་བཞིན་ཐུགས་རྗེ་
Transliteration: ngo bo rang bzhin thugs rje
<phrase> "Essence, nature, and compassionate activity". In the ཁྲེགས་ཆོད་ Thorough Cut path of the Great Completion, the path level (as opposed to ground or fruition) says that there is mind and mind's essence and that the latter has three qualities: "essence, nature, and compassionate activity". See also ངོ་བོ་ essence, རང་བཞིན་ nature, and ཐུགས་རྗེ་ compassionate activity individually. An…
རང་བཞིན་
Transliteration: rang bzhin
<phrase> "Nature". Translation of the Sanskrit "svabhāva". Some of the implications of this term can be understood through a consideration of the formulation that is generally used to understand a given phenomenon: ངོ་བོ་, རང་བཞིན་, and བྱེད་ལས་ "entity, nature, and function". The རང་བཞིན་ nature of something is the nature of some ངོ་བོ་ particular entity, the particular qualities of the en…
འོད་གསལ་བའི་རང་བཞིན་
Transliteration: 'od gsal ba'i rang bzhin
<phrase> "Luminosity which is the nature". This is the same as the འོད་གསལ་བའི་ཆ་ "luminosity factor". The very core of something is called its ངོ་བོ་ essence; in the case of mind that is the emptiness of mind. The characteristic of an essence is called its རང་བཞིན་ nature; in the case of mind that is the luminous quality of mind, its knowing quality. This term is emphasizing the idea of lu…
རང་བཞིན་རྫོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་
Transliteration: rang bzhin rdzogs pa chen po
<phrase> "Nature Great Completion". The fullest name of the རྫོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ Great Completion system as found in Great Completion literature. "Nature" does not mean "natural" as it has often been translated; Great Completion literature clearly explains that "nature" refers to the particular approach that this system takes towards ultimate reality, which is that it emphasises the རང་བཞིན་ nat…
རང་བཞིན་གནས་པའི་རིགས་
Transliteration: rang bzhin gnas pa'i rigs
<phrase> "The family which is naturally present". One of the རིགས་རྣམ་གཉིས་ two types of family, where "family" refers to the tathāgatagarbha. This is the type which is naturally present in the mind-stream of every sentient being. The other type is རྒྱས་འགྱུར་གྱི་རིགས་ "the family which becomes developed".
Other translations include: "naturally present affinity", "intrinsic potential", "lega…
རང་བཞིན་གྱི་སྐད་
Transliteration: rang bzhin gyi skad
<phrase> "The common language", "Prakrit language". Translation of the Sanskrit "prakṛt". In this case, རང་བཞིན་ has the specific meaning of "common" in the sense of "vulgar, ordinary, not high-flown". Thus, "the common language" meaning the language commonly spoken. The higher language of Ancient India for the educated, roughly speaking, was སཾསྐྲྀཏ་ Sanskrit. Followers of the ཐེག་དམན་ Hīn…
རང་བཞིན་སྤྲུལ་པའི་སྐུ་
Transliteration: rang bzhin sprul pa'i sku
<phrase> "Nature Nirmāṇakāya". This term is synonymous with གཟུགས་བརྙན་ལོངས་སྐུ་. Note that the term does not mean "natural nirmāṇakāya" and it is a significant mistake to translate it that way. The first part of the term, རང་བཞིན་ refers to the nature which is the second quality of the སེམས་ཀྱི་ངོ་བོ་ essence of mind. The nature referred to here is the path form of the saṃbhogakāya, so in …
རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་རང་བཞིན་རྣམ་པ་བཅུ་
Transliteration: rgyud kyi rang bzhin rnam pa bcu
<phrase> "The ten types of nature of tantra". Tantra except for the very highest non-dual level uses rational mind to accomplish non-rational minded wisdom. The ten natures are ten different aspects of these rational-mind driven paths of tantra. They are: ལྟ་བ་དང་སྒོམ་པ་སྤྱོད་པ་འབྲས་བུ་ས་ལམ་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་སྐྱེད་ཐབས་བཟླས་བརྗོད་རྫོགས་རིམ་དབང་བསྐུར་དམ་ཚིག་ "view, meditation, conduct, fruition, met…
རང་བཞིན་མེད་པ་
Transliteration: rang bzhin med pa
<adj>phrase> "Lacking nature", "without nature" or "lacking self-nature", "without self-nature". Translation of the Sanskrit "nisvabhāva".
I. An important term in the prajñāpāramitā teachings of the second turning of the wheel. It refers to the fact that any ཆོས་ dharma has no nature to it, where nature means the solidified, definite entity which is viewed in phenomena by སེམས་ mind but w…
ཆོས་སྐུའི་རང་ཞལ་
Transliteration: chos sku'i rang zhal
<phrase> "The face itself of dharmakāya". Note that this term does not mean the རང་བཞིན་གྱི་ཞལ་ "natural face" of dharmakāya as [RYD] gives but means རང་གི་ཞལ་ "its own face" as in "dharmakāya's own face".
ལྷུན་གྲུབ་འོད་གསལ་
Transliteration: lhun grub 'od gsal
"Spontaneous existence luminosity". In the Great Completion teaching, ལྷུན་གྲུབ་ spontaneous existence is connected with the རང་བཞིན་ nature, and the nature is typified as འོད་གསལ་ luminosity.
སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་གསུམ་
Transliteration: stong pa nyid gsum
<enum> "Three emptinesses". They are: མེད་པའི་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད non-existence emptiness; ཡོད་པའི་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ existence emptiness; and རང་བཞིན་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ nature emptiness.
རང་བྱུང་རང་གསལ་
Transliteration: rang byung rang gsal
<adj>phrase> "Self-arising self-illuminating / luminous" or "self-arising self-illumination". A phrase used to describe the རང་བཞིན་ nature aspect of སེམས་ཉིད་ mindness.
གྱིན་འདའ་
Transliteration: gyin 'da'
<adj> This term was revised during the སྐད་གསར་བཅད་ language revisions and meant, when written in new signs, རང་བཞིན་ q.v. However, it has the same meaning as གྱི་ན་ q.v.
ཡུལ་གཟུགས་ཀྱི་རང་བཞིན་
Transliteration: yul gzugs kyi rang bzhin
<phrase> "The nature of the form object". This is a listing of what the eye can see according to Abhidharma literature. The list of twenty types of visual form is intended as a thorough breakdown of the contents of གཟུགས་ visual form as the ཡུལ་ object of མིག་གི་རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པ་ the eye consciousness. The Abhidharmakoṣha lists sixteen components of visual form, eight of colour and eight of sha…
མཚོན་དུ་མེད་པ་
Transliteration: mtshon du med pa
<phrase> "Is not demonstrable" e.g., [MMM] གཉུག་མའི་རང་བཞིན་སུས་ཀྱང་མཚོན་དུ་མེད། "The nature of the innate (mind) is not demonstrable by anyone".
སྒྲུབ་པའི་རྟེན་
Transliteration: sgrub pa'i rten
<noun> One of the ten topics of རྣམ་མཁྱེན་པ་ knowledge of everything q.v. It is also known as ཐེག་ཆེན་སྒྲུབ་པའི་རྟེན་རང་བཞིན་གནས་རིགས་.
ཤེར་ཕྱིན་བཞི་
Transliteration: sher phyin bzhi
<enum> "The four types of prajñāpāramitā". [JKE] gives as: 1) རང་བཞིན་ཤེར་ཕྱིན་ "nature prajñāpāramitā"; 2) གཞུང་ཤེར་ཕྱིན་ "textual..."; 3) ལམ་ཤེར་ཕྱིན་ "path..."; 4) འབྲས་བུ་ཤེར་ཕྱིན་ "fruition...".
