བྱ་བྱེད་ཡུལ་
Transliteration: bya byed yul
<phrase> "Action, agent, object". In grammar, a key phrase in the subject of transitive verb theory. A verbal action that takes place in a transitive setting has three, principal components: 1) བྱ་བ་ action; 2) བྱེད་པ་པོ་ agent, and བྱ་བའི་ཡུལ་ object.
Tibetan transitive verb theory is almost exactly the same as English transitive verb theory; this is one case where the terminology of Englis…
ལྷོ་བྲག་ཆོས་འབྱུང་མཁས་པའི་དགའ་སྟོན་
Transliteration: lho brag chos 'byung mkhas pa'i dga' ston
<noun> The name of a particularly large Tibetan history text, having 791 folios, on the rise and spread of the Buddhist teaching. It was written by དཔའ་བོ་གཙུག་ལག་ཕྲེང་བ་ Pawo tsuglag treng q.v.
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…
དཔལ་འབྱོར་
Transliteration: dpal 'byor
<noun> "Riches". The meaning is དཔལ་དུ་འབྱོར་བ་ and this is often glossed as ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པའི་འབྱོར་བ་ i.e., everything that is excellent, good. This includes things of material value but not only that; it means everything that is good, valuable, of merit, etc. E.g., [CTNJ] ལོངས་སྤྱོད་ཆོས་སྲིད་ཕྱྭ་གཡང་གི་དཔལ་འབྱོར་ནམ་མཁའི་མཛོད་ལ་མངའ་བརྙེས་པར་འགྱུར་རོ། "One gains mastery over the riches spac…
ངོ་བོ་སྟོང་པ་
Transliteration: ngo bo stong pa
"Empty essence". 1) In Buddhism in general, the core feature of every phenomenon is that it is empty. This phrase is used to indicate that the very essence of any phenomenon is empty. 2) Specifically, in the Great Completion system and also sometimes in the Mahāmudrā system, a phrase used to indicate the empty aspect of the སེམས་ཀྱི་ངོ་བོ་ essence of mind. The non-empty aspect is the རང་བཞིན་གསལ་…
སྒྱུ་ལུས་བདུན་
Transliteration: sgyu lus bdun
<phrase> "The seven (levels of development of the) illusory body". They are: 1) དཔེའི་སྒྱུ་མ་ "simile illusory"; 2) སྣང་བ་སྒྱུ་མ་ "appearance illusory"; 3) རྨི་ལམ་སྒྱུ་མ་ "dream illusory"; 4) བར་དོ་སྒྱུ་མ་ "intermediate state illusory"; 5) འོད་གསལ་སྒྱུ་མ་ "luminosity illusory"; 6) སྤྲུལ་པ་སྒྱུ་མ་ "emanation illusory"; 7) ཡེ་ཤེས་སྒྱུ་མ་ "wisdom illusory".
བདེ་འགྲོ་
Transliteration: bde 'gro
<noun> "Happy migrations". Translation of the Sanskrit "sugati". There are six classes of migrators in cyclic existence. Three of them have very difficult states of birth and three have relatively easy states of birth. The three bad destinies or migrations are ངན་འགྲོ་གསུམ་ "three bad migrations" and the three easy ones are བདེ་འགྲོ་གསུམ་ "three happy migrations" q.v.
Note that the term བདེ་…
སྐྱེས་བུ་ཆུང་བའི་ལམ་
Transliteration: skyes bu chung ba'i lam
"The path of the lesser person" or "the path of the person of inferior scope". This indicates the path followed by the lesser of the སྐྱེས་བུ་གསུམ་ three beings q.v. It is the path of concerning oneself with enduring that one stays out of the three lower realms and obtains a birth in the higher realms. It is the path of སྐྱེས་བུ་ཆུང་བ་ an inferior person because the person is only concerned for t…
ནམ་འཆི་ཆ་མེད་
Transliteration: nam 'chi cha med
<phrase> A stock phrase in Buddhist texts that means "the time of death is not fixed" and which is usually translated as "the time of death is uncertain" and in some contexts as "the uncertainty of the time of death". E.g., [PKN] སྐད་ཅིག་མ་རེ་རེའི་འགྱུར་བས་འཆི་བ་ལ་ཇེ་ཉེ། ནམ་འཆི་ཆ་མེད་དེ། "each passing moment brings you closer to death; there is no certainty of the time of death".
ལུང་གི་རྗེས་འབྲང་
Transliteration: lung gi rjes 'brang
<phrase> "Followers of Scripture" meaning a Buddhist group whose tenets are asserted exactly in accordance with terms as they are laid out in the Buddha's sutras. There are two types of Followers of Scripture: 1) a sub-group of the གྲུབ་མཐའ་སྨྲ་བ་ Advocates of Tenets and 2) a sub-group of the སེམས་ཙམ་པ་ Mind-only system.
ཡོངས་སུ་འཛིན་པ་
Transliteration: yongs su 'dzin pa
I. <verb> see v.i. འཛིན་པ་ for tense forms. 1) "To take into one's care", "to receive into one's care", "to take on" in the sense of completely accepting someone in order to care for and assist them. 2) It has a secondary meaning of "to be owned"; see ཡོངས་སུ་གཟུང་བ་ q.v. And this also leads to the meaning "to be in the grip of".
II. <gerundial>phrase> cognate to the verb. The true …
ཕོ་མཚན་
Transliteration: pho mtshan
<phrase> Lit. "the sign of a male". Translation of the Sanskrit "pulinga". Opp. of མོ་མཚན་. 1) i) The male genitals in general. ii) The male sexual organ, the "penis" in particular, which is the mark of the male. 2) In grammar, the "sign of the male". The name given to those ཚིག་ཕྲད་ phrase connectors which, when added to a grammatical name or name equivalent, turn it into the male gender. …
འབིགས་པ་
Transliteration: 'bigs pa
I. <verb> v.t. ཕུག་པ་/ འབིགས་པ་/ དབུག་པ་/ ཕུག་/. Meaning "to bore into something and create a hole or cavity in it". Hence "to bore" a hole, "to pierce" e.g., using an awl to bore a hole by piercing the wood or other substance, and also "to punch" a hole out of wood, stone, etc., e.g., གཟོང་གིས་ཤིང་ལ་བུ་ག་འབིགས་པ་ "to punch a hole in wood with a punch"; see also གཟོང་ "punch". It can also b…
སྐར་རྩིས་
Transliteration: skar rtsis
<noun> "Astrology". In the Buddhist tradition deriving from ancient India, astrology was the fifth of the རིག་གནས་ཆུང་བ་ལྔ་ five minor areas of knowledge. Astrology in that tradition is the art of རྩིས་པ་ making calculations based on the གཟའ་ planets, སྐར་ stars, and their དུས་ཚིགས་ conjunctions in time. The astrology system usually followed in Tibet was the one from India based in the Kāla…
ཚུར་རྒོལ་
Transliteration: tshur rgol
<noun> The opp. is ཕར་རྒོལ་, the attack one makes against the other side. 1) "Incoming attack", "dispute / attack carried out against one's own side" or "opposition directed towards one's own side", "attack on oneself". Meaning the རྒོལ་བ་ attack or dispute made from the opponent's side and directed towards one's own side. E.g., in war it would be an attack coming in from the enemy; in a la…
འཆར་གཞི་
Transliteration: 'char gzhi
<noun> Abbrev. of འཆར་བའི་གཞི་.
I. "Plan". 1) "Plan", meaning the plan one has made in regard to something one will do. E.g., གུང་གསེང་འཆར་གཞི་ "plans for the holidays". 2) A "plan" that has been designed for accomplishing something, such as an "agenda" for a meeting or a "curriculum" for learning.
II. "Basis of shining forth". This is the general term for anything which is the basis for some…
ཡིག་འབྲུ་
Transliteration: yig 'bru
<noun> 1) "Component letter(s)". In Tibetan grammar this term is used to indicate the individual letters making up a word. E.g., in བསྒོམ་ there are five component letters (བ་, ས་, ག་, ོ, and མ་). This term does NOT refer to the syllables of a word but to every letter in a word, pronounced or not. 2) "Seed syllable". In many visualization practices of meditation, a single letter is visualiz…
རྣམ་རིག་
Transliteration: rnam rig
<noun> Translation of the Sanskrit "vijñāpti". 1) In the Mind Only system, this term is used to describe the consciousness in general of the five sense consciousness. It means the consciousness of the five senses in that such consciousness "རིག་པ་ knows the རྣམ་པ་ superficies" that present themselves to the sense doors of the five consciousnesses. E.g., [DCW] རྣམ་རིག་དང་། སྣང་བའི་རྣམ་པ་གང་བ…
སུམ་རྟགས་
Transliteration: sum rtags
<phrase> "Thirty and Signs". The common abbrev. of titles of the two texts, ལུང་དུ་སྟོན་པ་རྩ་བ་སུམ་ཅུ་པ་ "Grammar, The Root in Thirty Verses" and ལུང་དུ་སྟོན་པ་རྟགས་ཀྱི་འཇུག་པ་ "Grammar, the Application of Gender Signs" q.v. These two are often put together like this in one phrase because they are the only extant treatises of the original eight treatises that defined Tibetan grammar. By say…
