རོ་སྙོམས་སྐོར་དྲུག་
Transliteration: ro snyoms skor drug
<enum> "The six cycles of equalization of taste". (See also རོ་སྙོམས་). The name given to a practice of the ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་ Mahāmudrā tradition which is found only in the འབྲུག་པ་བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་ Drukpa Kagyu lineage. The practice derives from Tillipa, Nāropa, and Tiphupa who gave it to Rechungpa. Rechungpa took it back from India to Nepal and buried it as treasure according to Tiphupa's instruc…
མྱོང་ཚིག་
Transliteration: myong tshig
<noun> "Experiential word", "experiential term", "words of experience". There is a special class of words in the Tibetan language which are used to convey the sense of an experience rather than a description of the experience. They include onomatopœtic terms but are not limited to them (hence it is incorrect to translate this as onomatopœtic terms, etc.).
In Buddhist literature, these words …
བཀའ་བསྡུ་རིམ་པ་གསུམ་
Transliteration: bka' bsdu rim pa gsum
<noun> "The three (successive) councils". Following the parinirvāṇa of the Buddha, there were three great assemblies of the saṅgha called to deal with major issues that had arisen. 1) The first was convened in Rājagṛha in the year following the Buddha's final nirvāṇa. In the presence of the gathering of 500 arhats, ཀུན་དགའ་བོ་ Ananda for the མདོ་སྡེ་ Sūtras, the close retinue for the འདུལ་བ…
ལྟུང་བའི་སྒོ་བཞི་
Transliteration: ltung ba'i sgo bzhi
<enum> "The four doorways to downfall" meaning the four conditions by which vows can be broken and downfalls can occur. The buddha taught these in the sutras and advised his followers who kept any level of vow to be careful of them in relation to their vows. [JKE] gives as: 1) མ་རིག་པ་ "ignorance"; 2) བག་མེད་པ་ "carelessness"; 3) མ་གུས་པ་ "lack of respect (for the vows)"; 4) ཉོན་མོངས་མང་བ་ …
མཚམས་གཅོད་པ་
Transliteration: mtshams gcod pa
I. <verb> v.t. see གཅོད་པ་ for tense forms. 1) Generally, "to set a boundary", "to establish a boundary", "to set a border", "to establish a border". E.g., ས་མཚམས་གཅོད་པ་ "to establish a border" between countries or locations. 2) Used in secret mantra practices of a yidam to mean "establishing the boundary" which is establishing the boundary of the deity's maṇḍala. 3) Used in general Buddhi…
གཟེངས་པ་
Transliteration: gzengs pa
I. <verb> v.t. གཟེངས་པ་/ གཟེངས་པ་/ གཟེངས་པ་/ གཟེངས་/. Acc. [LGK] this term was revised during the སྐད་གསར་བཅད་ language revisions and meant, when written in new signs, རྐྱོང་བ་ with meaning as follows. It means "to hold something up" in the sense of raising aloft and stretching upwards. E.g., [TC] སྦྲུལ་མགོ་གྱེན་དུ་གཟེངས་པ། "holding the snake up by the head"; རལ་གྲི་གནམ་དུ་གཟེངས་པ། "raised …
མི་ཟད་པ་
Transliteration: mi zad pa
I. <verb> negative of ཟད་པ་ q.v.
II. <adj> "Inexhaustible". 1) Acc. [LGK] this term was the revision of བླ་སྐྱལ་བ་ q.v. that was established during the སྐད་གསར་བཅད་ language revisions. 2) Meaning not "never finishing" time-wise but "never coming to an end because of depletion".
III. <noun> "That which is inexhaustible". 1) [Mngon] an epithet of the 20th year in a རབ་བྱུང་ 60 year …
རྟོག་གེ་སྡེ་ལྔ་
Transliteration: rtog ge sde lnga
<phrase> "The five schools of sophists". The name for five systems of religious thought present in India at the time of the Buddha. See under རྟོག་གེ་བ་ལྔ་ "five sophists" for explanation. The five schools are listed under ཕྱི་རོལ་པའི་རྟག་པར་སྨྲ་བའི་རྟོག་གེ་སྡེ་ལྔ་ "the five schools of sophists advocating views of permanence".
There is a second explanation of five classes of sophists in whic…
འཁྱམ་པ་
Transliteration: 'khyam pa
<verb> v.i. འཁྱམས་པ་/ འཁྱམ་པ་/ འཁྱམ་པ་/ འཁྱོམས་/. Meaning "to travel about here and there" without a special purpose. Hence "to wander", "to roam", "to travel / wander about" without purpose, and in some cases "to stroll about". The term is also used for travels where the purpose is not business but just sight-seeing and one is going from place to place. E.g., [TC] མུན་ནག་གི་ནང་དུ་འཁྱམ་དུས་…
ཀརྨ་པ་
Transliteration: karma pa
<noun> "Karmapa". The name given to the hierarchs of the Karma Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism. They are usually referred to as རྒྱལ་བ་ཀརྨ་པ་ "The Conqueror Karmapa" in recognition of their realization. The name is derived from the complete epithet ཀརྨ་ཕྲིན་ལས་པ་ "The One of Enlightened Activity". The first Karmapa was one of the heart disciples of སྒམ་པོ་པ་ Gampopa; his name was དུས་གསུམ་…
ཁས་ལེན་པ་
Transliteration: khas len pa
I. <verb> v.t. see ལེན་པ་ for tense forms.
1) "To assert", "to state one's position", "to verbally declare / state / make / a certain position". Even though this has been translated as "to promise", in Tibetan, it really has the sense that one verbally asserts a certain thing, declares something. For example, in comparison, the term དམ་བཅའ་བ་ has the sense that one actually commits to someth…
སེམས་ཅན་གྱི་ཁམས་
Transliteration: sems can gyi khams
<phrase> 1) Although this could mean "realm of sentient beings", 2) in classical works such as the Buddhist sutras, it usually means "the dhatu(s) of sentient being(s)". Every single sentient being has its own makeup or dhatu, so this phrase ends up means "sentient beings" (note the plural) every one of them included, in all of their variety. E.g., from the Gaṇḍavyūha Sutra ཤིན་ཏུ་ཡངས་པའི་ས…
རྙེད་པ་
Transliteration: rnyed pa
I. <verb> v.i. རྙེད་པ་/ རྙེད་པ་/ རྙེད་པ་//. Meaning "to obtain something previously not had". Hence "to find", "to discover", "to get", "to acquire", "to gain". In the context of the Buddhist path, the particular meaning "to discover" is often much closer than "to find" e.g., "having searched the mind for its source of arising, none was discovered". E.g., [TC] རྙེད་དཀའ་བ། "difficult to obta…
བསྟན་འགྱུར་
Transliteration: bstan 'gyur
<noun> "Translated Treatises". When the texts of Buddhism were translated into Tibetan, they were translated into two main collections: the བཀའ་འགྱུར་ "The Translated Buddha-word" and this one. The term བསྟན་འགྱུར་ is an abbrev. of བསྟན་བཅོས་ཀྱི་སྒྲ་འགྱུར་བ་ meaning "The Translated Śhāstras" where the śhāstras are treatises that either directly explain the words of the buddha or explain rel…
དིལ་མགོ་མཁྱེན་བརྩེ་
Transliteration: dil mgo mkhyen brtse
<noun> "Dilgo Khyentse". [1910-1991] A very great Tibetan guru of the Nyingmapa tradition who was a subsequent incarnation of འཇམ་དབྱངས་མཁྱེན་བརྩེའི་དབང་པོ་ Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo. His monastery was ཞེ་ཆེན་ Zhechen. He also called himself རབ་གསལ་ཟླ་བ་ Rabsel Dawa. His treasure revealer's name was པདྨ་གར་དབང་འོད་གསལ་མདོ་སྔགས་གླིང་པ་ Padma Garwang Osel Dongag Lingpa.
བསྟན་བཅོས་ཀྱི་ཆོས་བཞི་
Transliteration: bstan bcos kyi chos bzhi
<phrase> "The four dharmas (aspects) of a treatise". According to Indian tradition, a properly written བསྟན་བཅོས་ treatise has four aspects present. They are: 1) བརྗོད་བྱ་, that which is to be expressed, i.e., the specific meaning to be transmitted by the རྗོད་བྱེད་ written expressions in the treatise; 2) དགོས་པ་ the need, i.e., what purpose is being addressed by the expressions of the trea…
མ་བུ་འཕྲད་པ་
Transliteration: ma bu 'phrad pa
I. <verb> v.i. see འཕྲད་པ་ for tense forms. For "mother and son" to meet.
II. <gerundial>phrase> "Meeting of mother and son". 1) In general meaning the re-union of a mother an son. 2) In the higher tantras specifically meaning the point where the mother and son luminosities merge. Note that, although this phrase has been translated this way so commonly that it is now accepted, the a…
དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ་
Transliteration: dus kyi 'khor lo
<noun> "Wheel of Time". Translation of the Sanskrit "kālachakra". The full name དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ་ in Tibetan is freq. abbrev. to དུས་འཁོར་ q.v. for more entries.
Kālachakra is a system of tantra that was taught by the Buddha to the King of Shambhala. See under དུས་འཁོར་རྩ་བའི་རྒྱུད་ for a brief history.
The གསར་འགྱུར་ new translation tantras categorize the tantras and yidam practices associate…
