ཞེ་སྡང་
Transliteration: zhe sdang
<noun> "Aggression". Translation of the Sanskrit "dveṣha". The Sanskrit has the full sense of the English word "aggression", of having a mind that is averse to a situation and hence is engaged in pushing it off. (Note that this is not the corrupt modern-day American usage in which aggression has become synonymous with "drive"). It is one of the དུག་གསུམ་ three poisons, the most basic afflic…
རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྤྱོད་པའི་དབུ་མ་རང་རྒྱུད་
Transliteration: rnal 'byor spyod pa'i dbu ma rang rgyud
<noun> "Yogacāra Svātantrika Madhyamaka". Translation of the Sanskrit "yogacāra svātantrika madhyamaka". One of the two main sub-schools of the དབུ་མ་རང་རྒྱུད་ Svatāntrika Madhyamaka school which in turn is one of the two main schools of དབུ་མ་ madhyamaka philosophy. This school was initiated by ཞི་བ་འཚོ་ Śhāntarakṣhita and his disciple Kamalaśhīla. They synthesized the understanding of the…
གྲོད་ཁོག་
Transliteration: grod khog
<noun> Altern. for གྲོད་པ་ q.v. meaning the "whole abdomen", "the belly". 1) Used to mean "the belly" as a whole and seen from the outside e.g., གྲོད་ཁོག་ཆེ་བ། "a large bellied person". 2) Used to mean the belly as a whole and taken from the inside. E.g., in the common phrase གྲོད་ཁོག་ལྟོགས་པ། lit. "belly / stomach is empty" but actually meaning "I am hungry", "I've got an empty stomach". N…
ཡེ་ཤེས་སྙིང་པོ་
Transliteration: ye shes snying po
<noun> 1)"Jñānagarbha". The name of the guru of སློབ་དཔོན་ཞི་བ་འཚོ་ Āchārya Śhāntarakṣhita q.v. Jñanagarbha is regarded one of རང་རྒྱུད་ཤར་གསུམ་གྱི་སློབ་དཔོན་གསུམ་ the principal figures involved in putting forth the Madhyamaka svātantrika view. He was one of Marpa Lotsawa's teachers and was the ordination Upadhyaya for Āchārya Śhāntarakṣhita. 2) "Yeshe Nyingpo" The name of ཞྭ་དམར་པ་ Zhamarp…
འཕེན་པ་
Transliteration: 'phen pa
I. <verb> v.t. འཕངས་པ་/ འཕེན་པ་/ འཕང་བ་/ འཕོངས་/. This has the basic meaning "to propel something" off in a certain direction. 1) There are several English words that suit the literal meaning: "to propel", "to hurl", "to cast", "to fling", and "to throw". E.g., [TC] མདའ་འཕེན་པ། "fired / sent / released the arrow"; རྡོ་འཕེན་པ། "hurled / cast / flung / propelled a stone"; བཏང་བའི་མི་རེད། འཕངས…
མཁྲང་འགྱུར་
Transliteration: mkhrang 'gyur
<noun> "Solidifying". Translation of the Sanskrit "ghana". The name given to the mass which is the embryo in a human womb during the fourth week after conception. This is the fourth of མངལ་གྱི་གནས་སྐབས་ལྔ་ five stages of growth in the womb. The mass has been jelly-like in the three previous stages. It is now hardening and becoming defined.
Note that the correct translation is "solidifying" n…
གཞུང་པོ་ཏི་ལྔ་
Transliteration: gzhung po ti lnga
<noun> "The five textual groups". When the Gelugpa tradition established its curriculum for the sūtra studies of a དགེ་བཤེས་ geshe, it set out five main areas of Buddhist knowledge that had to be studied. 1) ཚད་མ་ Valid Cognition; 2) དབུ་མ་ Madhyamaka; 3) ཕར་ཕྱིན་ Prajñāpāramitā; 4) མངོན་པ་མཛོད་ Abhidharma via the Abhidharmakoṣha; and 5) འདུལ་བ་ Vinaya.
འཐིབ་པ་
Transliteration: 'thib pa
I. <verb> Altern. way of writing the pres. and fut. of འཐིབས་པ་ q.v.
II. <noun> "Dullness". A specific term used in discussions of meditation, especially of ཞི་གནས་ shamatha meditation. Generally, shamatha meditation has two main opponents, རྒོད་པ་ agitation and བྱིང་བ་ sinking. Sometimes, འཐིབ་པ་ dullness is included with sinking. Whereas sinking refers to the process of the brightnes…
ཕྱི་ནང་གཞན་གསུམ་
Transliteration: phyi nang gzhan gsum
<phrase> "The three—outer, inner, and other". Most Buddhist philosophical systems use the formulation ཕྱི་ནང་གསང་བ་ "outer, inner, and secret" to categorize increasingly subtle levels of the system. However, in the དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ་ Kālachakra system q.v., a system of ཕྱི་ནང་གཞན་ "outer, inner, and other" is used instead.
Note that this is not "outer, inner, and alternative" as some have call…
ཕྱར་ཀ་
Transliteration: phyar ka
<noun> Talk that speaks badly about and finds fault with another person; the kind of talk that is fault-finding negativity. It includes a very wide range of bad talk. The talk can be true or untrue, can be to the person's face or behind their back, can be designed deliberately to ruin the other person as with slander and so on, or can be just general sniping about another's faults. It inclu…
དལ་འབྱོར་གྱི་མི་ལུས་
Transliteration: dal 'byor gyi mi lus
<noun> "Human body with freedom and connection". Meaning a human body that has the དལ་བ་བརྒྱད་ eight freedoms and འབྱོར་པ་བཅུ་ ten connections. Such a body with that kind of situation is needed in order to travel the dharma path. A human form without those is human but does not have everything needed to travel the dharma path. This kind of human body is also referred to in Buddhist lit. as …
སྔོ་སྨན་
Transliteration: sngo sman
<noun> "Annual green (medicinal) herb(s)". The སྨན་ materia medica of Tibetan medicine are divided into eight categories q.v. for listing. This is the category of herbs that wither in the winter but turn green and grow again in the spring. When these are plucked, the plant is divided into four sections which are taken separately: རྩ་བ་ roots, ལོ་མ་ leaves, མེ་ཏོག་ flowers, and འབྲས་བུ་ seed…
འཇིག་རྟེན་བདུན་
Transliteration: 'jig rten bdun
<phrase> "The seven worlds".
I. The usual meaning is, as given in [DGT]: འགྲོ་བ་རིགས་དྲུག་ the six classes of migrators and བར་སྲིད་ཀྱི་འཇིག་རྟེན་ the world of bardo existence.
II. A less common meaning is ངན་འགྲོ་གསུམ་ the three bad migrations, འདོད་པའི་ལྷ་མི་ the gods and men of the desire realm, and གོང་མའི་ལྷ་གཉིས་ the two types of gods (form and formless realms). In other words, the five…
བརྒྱུད་པ་
Transliteration: brgyud pa
I. <verb> v.t. བརྒྱུད་པ་/ བརྒྱུད་པ་/ བརྒྱུད་པ་//. The exact meaning is "to send on in link from one to another in an unbroken chain". This has been translated with a variety of verbs indicating connection but these are often mistaken because of losing the specific connotation in this verb of "one to one process of connection between source and target". There are many other verbs in Tibetan …
རྣམ་པར་རིག་བྱེད་མ་ཡིན་པའི་གཟུགས་ལྔ་
Transliteration: rnam par rig byed ma yin pa'i gzugs lnga
<enum> "The five (types of) imperceptible forms" meaning the five types of རྣམ་པར་རིག་བྱེད་མ་ཡིན་པའི་གཟུགས་ visual forms that do not make themselves known to the eye. Acc. [JKE] they are: 1) འདུས་པ་ལས་གྱུར་པ་ ""; 2) མངོན་པར་སྐབས་ཡོད་པ་ ""; 3) ཡང་དག་པར་བླངས་པ་ལས་གྱུར་པ་ ""; 4) ཀུན་བཏགས་པ་ ""; 5) དབང་འབྱོར་བ་ "".
གཅེར་བུ་པ་
Transliteration: gcer bu pa
<noun> "Nirgrantha". Translation of the Sanskrit "nirgrantha" meaning "naked one". A follower of Nirgrantha philosophical / religious system, also known as the རྒྱལ་བ་པ་ "Jain". They were called the "naked ones" because they went around either completely naked or covered only with ash. See གཅེར་བུ་པ་གཉེན་གྱི་བུ་. The Jains are classified in texts on Buddhist philosophy as one of ཕྱི་རོལ་པའི…
དབྱངས་ཅན་གྲུབ་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེ་
Transliteration: dbyangs can grub pa'i rdo rje
<noun> "Yangchen Druppa'i Dorje". [1809-1884]. He was from the district "ngulchu" and hence was commonly known as དངུལ་ཆུ་དབྱངས་ཅན་གྲུབ་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེ་ "Yangchen Druppa'i Dorje from Ngulchu". He was a direct disciple of his uncle དངུལ་ཆུ་ཐོགས་མེད་ "Ngulchu Thogmey" who was one of the most revered Gelugpa lamas in Central Tibet of his time. Ngulchu Thogmey was famous for his learning and medita…
གནད་བཞི་
Transliteration: gnad bzhi
<phrase> "The Four Key Points" meaning the four essential points to be covered when giving a teaching: 1) ཕྱི་བཤད་པའི་ཁོག་ཆེ་བ་ the outer explanation of the teaching as a whole; 2) ནང་ལག་ལེན་གྱི་གཞུང་ཚུགས་པ་ the inner explanation of how the teaching should be practically understood; 3) གསང་བའི་དོན་ཐོག་ཏུ་ཕེབ་པ་ the secret explanation that gets directly at the meaning; 4) དེ་ཁོ་ན་ཉིད་ཀྱི་འགག…
