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…
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…
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…
ནང་གི་རིག་པ་
Transliteration: nang gi rig pa
<noun> "The science of inner (development)". Translation of the Sanskrit "adhyatmavidyā". The རིག་གནས་ཆེ་བ་ལྔ་ five major areas of knowledge q.v. are divided into outer and inner areas of knowledge. Four of the five are outer and one is inner. The inner area of knowledge is the subject of the branches of personal development through spiritual paths of meditation, etc. This is regarded as th…
བགྲོད་པ་
Transliteration: bgrod pa
I. <verb> v.i. བགྲོད་པ་/ བགྲོད་པ་/ བགྲོད་པ་/ བགྲོད་/. Note that [TC] lists an imperative in the table of verbs in its appendix but does not list one in the main part of the dictionary. The imp. form listed in the appendix is included here. The term is similar in meaning to འགྲོ་བ་ but has the specific sense of transiting or traversing from one place to another. E.g., this verb is used to de…
མོས་པས་སྤྱོད་པའི་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་བཞི་
Transliteration: mos pas spyod pa'i sems bskyed bzhi
<phrase> "Four arousals of mind of intentional conduct". The four types of arousal of the bodhicitta that correspond to མོས་པས་སྤྱོད་པའི་ས་བཞི་ "the four levels of intentional conduct" q.v. They are: 1) ས་ལྟ་བུའི་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་ "arousal of the mind which is like earth"; 2) གསེར་ལྟ་བུའི་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་"arousal of the mind which is like gold"; 3) ཟླ་བ་ལྟ་བུའི་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་ "arousal of the mind whic…
བུ་ག་སྒོ་དགུ་
Transliteration: bu ga sgo dgu
<noun> "The nine orifices (or apertures)" of the human body. They are: 1) 2) མིག་གཉིས་ "the two eyes"; 3) 4) རྣ་བ་གཉིས་ "the two ears"; 5) 6) སྣ་བུག་གཉིས་ "the two nostrils"; 7) ཁ་ "the mouth"; 8) བཤང་ལམ་ "the anus"; 9) གཅི་ལམ་ "the point of excretion of urine".
རླབས་པོ་
Transliteration: rlabs po
<noun> Lit. "wave" but meaning "energy" or "force" (just as modern physics talks of energy being carried in a wave (e.g., x-rays have high energy)). In conjunction with other words, this functions as an adjective to indicate intensity of the noun or phrase being modified including the idea of effectiveness. Freq. seen as རླབས་པོ་ཆེ་ which is a further intensification of the meaning: "great …
རྫོགས་ཆེན་སྟོན་པ་བཅུ་གཉིས་
Transliteration: rdzogs chen ston pa bcu gnyis
<enum> "The twelve founders (founding teachers) of རྫོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ Great Completion". In this period of our world there have been four buddhas who were perfect guides, the fourth being Śhākyamuni. However, the teachings of Great Completion have a different set of founding teachers. There have been twelve of them. Their names are: 1) སྟོན་པ་ཁྱེའུ་སྣང་བ་དམ་པ་; 2) སྟོན་པ་ཁྱེའུ་འོད་མི་འཁྲུགས་པ་…
བྱམས་པ་
Transliteration: byams pa
I. <verb> v.i. བྱམས་པ་/ བྱམས་པ་/ བྱམས་པ་//. 1) "To be kind and loving towards another". Note that this is not equivalent to བརྩེ་བ་ which is the verb for the plain sense "to love". This has the connotation of being loving and kindly, i.e., very gentle and kind as well as loving. The distinction is important; when Tibetans use བྱམས་པ་ they definitely use it in the sense indicated and do not …
རྣམ་པར་སྣང་མཛད་ཀྱི་ཆོས་བདུན་
Transliteration: rnam par snang mdzad kyi chos bdun
<phrase> Lit. "The Seven Dharmas of Vairochana" where dharmas means features or particular characteristics. These are seven principal features of the posture of Vairochana's form which are to be emulated during meditation. They are laid out in the The རྣམ་སྣང་མངོན་བྱང་ Vairochana Sambodhi tantra.
Tibetan Buddhist texts on meditation often speak of the ལུས་གནད་ "points of the body" and this i…
ཡིད་ལ་བྱེད་པ་
Transliteration: yid la byed pa
<noun> Translation of the Sanskrit "manasikāra". 1) According to the Abhidharma, this is a སེམས་བྱུང་ mental event which is one of the ཀུན་ཏུ་འགྲོ་བ་ལྔ་ omnipresent mental events. This mental event functions to direct the mind towards an object. As such it has been called "attention" and several other terms however, there is no specific word in English for it. 2) It is also used apart from …
ནམ་མཁའི་མདུད་
Transliteration: nam mkha'i mdud
<phrase> "Sky-knot". An example used to illustrate the style of liberation called ཡེ་གྲོལ་ "primordial liberation", which is one of the གྲོལ་བ་བཞི་ four liberations in རྫོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ Great Completion. Unlike snakes, etcetera, which are the examples used with the other three liberations and which have knots that undo in one way or another, the sky was never knotted to begin with. This is th…
སྐྱིད་པོ་
Transliteration: skyid po
I. <noun> "Happiness" of a person in general. The term does not have the special connotations of "glad" or "joyful" but simply means the general state of happiness of body and mind. E.g., in Tibetan, if asked in general how you are, you usually reply སྐྱིད་པོ་འདུག། "I'm well" (fine in body and mind).
II. <adj> "Happy" or "nice"; used in reference to anything that has no hardship attach…
ཁ་ཕྱིར་ལྡོག་པ་
Transliteration: kha phyir ldog pa
I. <verb> v.t. see ལྡོག་པ་ for tense forms. 1) To turn about from facing outwards and instead, to face inwards. In Buddhist philosophy, to reverse the process of an outward-directed consciousness so that mind is looking at itself in an inward-directed process. See also ཁ་ཕྱིར་ལྟ་བ་. 2) Finding of faults in others or putting others down, belittling others.
II. <phrase> per the verb.
