སྙོན་པ་
Transliteration: snyon pa
<verb> v.t. བསྙོན་པ་/ སྙོན་པ་/ བསྙོན་པ་/ སྙོན་/. Meaning, "because of feeling superior about knowing a subject, to insist that something related to that is not so when it is so"; "to disavow dishonestly". There is not a word in English which has the full set of connotations required for this verb and since the connotations are very important in this case, a phrase or group of words will hav…
རྗེ་འབངས་ཉི་ཤུ་ལྔ་
Transliteration: rje 'bangs nyi shu lnga
<phrase> Abbrev. of རྗེ་དང་འབངས་རྣམས་ཉི་ཤུ་རྩ་ལྔ་ "the twenty five, lord and subjects". This refers to the main students of Padmasambhava. It does so by picking out twenty-five of them who had attained one attainment or another. "The lord" refers to the king, Trisong Deutsen. "Subjects" refers to the other twenty-four disciples who gained attainment, all of whom were subjects of the king. A…
བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་ས་ཐོབ་པ་རྣམས་
Transliteration: byang chub sems dpa' sa thob pa rnams
<phrase> "The bodhisatvas who have gained the levels". E.g., བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་ས་ཐོབ་པ་རྣམས་ནི་སྨོན་ལམ་དང་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་ལ་དབང་འབྱོར་པའི་སྟོབས་ཀྱིས་བསམ་བཞིན་དུ་འགྲོ་དོན་གྱི་ཆེད་དུ་སྤྲུལ་པ་མ་ངེས་པ་སྣ་ཚོགས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་བར་སྐྱེ་བ་ལེན་པའང་ཡོད།
ཆུ་བཞི་སྒང་དྲུག་
Transliteration: chu bzhi sgang drug
<phrase> "The four rivers and the six highland ridges". The four main rivers flowing between the six highland ridges separating them in the region of Kham. See སྒང་དྲུག་ "six highland ridges" for more. The four rivers are: 1) འབྲི་ཆུ་ "the Drichu"; 2) རྨ་ཆུ་ "the Machu"; 3) རྒྱལ་མོ་རྔུལ་ཆུ་ "the Gyalmo Ngulchu"; and 4) ཟླ་ཆུ་ "Dachu". The six highlands are: 1) ཟླ་མོ་སྒང་ "Damo Gang"; 2) ཚ་བ…
སྣོད་ཀྱི་སྐྱོན་གསུམ་
Transliteration: snod kyi skyon gsum
<phrase> "The three faults of the vessel". A standard analogy used for teaching how dharma should not be listened to; the three faults of a vessel correspond to three faults of a listener: 1) རྣ་བ་མི་གཏོད་ཁ་སྦུབ་ལྟ་བུའི་སྐྱོན། "the fault of not paying attention, like (a vessel) being upturned; 2) ཡིད་ལ་མི་འཛིན་ཞབས་རྡོལ་ལྟ་བུའི་སྐྱོན། "the fault of not retaining (what has been heard), like (…
དྲི་མ་མེད་པའི་ས་
Transliteration: dri ma med pa'i sa
<noun> "Stainless level". Translation of the Sanskrit [NDS] "vimala bhūmi". The name of the second of the བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་ས་བཅུ་ ten bodhisatva bhūmis. This bhūmi is so-called because the bodhisatva on it is freed from both stains of ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་འཆལ་བ་ corrupted discipline and ཐེག་དམན་ཡིད་ལ་བྱེད་པ་ mental orientations of the Lesser Vehicle. It is one of མ་དག་ས་བདུན་ "the seven impure bhūmis…
དོན་སྙིང་ལྔ་
Transliteration: don snying lnga
<noun> "The five vital organs / five viscera". These are the five internal organs which, in the Tibetan tradition are regarded as the supports for the དྭངས་ pure essences of the body and the five activators of the five sense objects གཟུགས་ visual forms and so forth. They are: 1) སྙིང་ "heart"; 2) གློ་བ་ "lungs"; མཆིན་པ་ "liver"; མཆེར་པ་ "spleen"; and མཁལ་མ་ "kidneys". They correspond to 1) …
ཚུར་སྡུད་པ་
Transliteration: tshur sdud pa
<verb> see v.t. སྡུད་པ་ for tense forms. "To condense down", "to reduce down to". E.g., བཟང་པོ་སྤྱོད་པའི་སྨོན་ལམ་ཡོངས་རྫོགས་ཀྱི་དོན་ཚུར་བསྡུ་ན་ཚིགས་བཞི་འདིའི་ནང་དུ་འདུ་ཞེས་དབུ་མ་འཇུག་པའི་འགྲེལ་བ་ལས་གསུངས། "A commentary to Entering the Middle Way says that if the whole meaning of the Excellent Conduct Prayer is condensed, it will be contained in these four lines.
མཁའ་ཁྱབ་
Transliteration: mkha' khyab
<noun><adj>"Pervading space" or "covering space", a metaphor for extensiveness. E.g., the term མཁའ་ཁྱབ་སེམས་ཅན་ "sentient beings pervading space" is very common in classical Buddhist texts.
The term has been variously translated as "filling space", "permeating space", "all-pervasive", "extending like the sky", "pervading the sky", "vast, and extensive". However several of these are una…
དབུ་མ་ལ་འཇུག་པ་
Transliteration: dbu ma la 'jug pa
<noun> "Entering the Middle Way". Translation of the Sanskrit "madhyamakāvatāra". The name of a text on the དབུ་མ་ Middle Way by the great Indian master, ཟླ་བ་གྲགས་པ་ Chandrakīrti. The text presents the Middle Way as a whole in a series of ten chapters, one for each of the ten bhūmis and the corresponding pāramitā practices of a bodhisatva. The sixth chapter on prajñā is the most extensive …
སྲོག་གཅོད་པ་
Transliteration: srog gcod pa
I. <verb> v.t. see གཅོད་པ་ for tense forms. Lit. "to end a life". Hence "to kill", "to take life". Note that སྲོག་ life here is defined as the life of a སེམས་ཅན་ sentient being. Acc. to Buddhism, only sentient beings have a life; plants, etc., do not. Hence "to kill" here means specifically to end the life of a being who has a mind.
II. <gerundial>phrase> and <phrase> per the …
གསལ་སྣང་
Transliteration: gsal snang
<phrase> 1) To appear clearly, to come into full appearance. In Buddhist texts this is often used like this ཆོས་དེ་དག་མེད་བཞིན་དུ་གསལ་སྣང་བ་ "while those dharmas are non-existent they are clearly appearing". In some texts on ཁྲེགས་ཆོད་ Thorough Cut of Great Completion, in the phrase the མེད་གསལ་སྣང་, the གསལ་ sometimes refers to luminosity rather than meaning simply "clear" e.g., མེད་གསལ་སྣ…
སྐུ་གཉེར་
Transliteration: sku gnyer
<noun> "Shrine keeper". The name for someone who has the responsibility for taking care of a Buddhist shrine. The term, which literally means "keeper of the statues", reflects the fact that most Tibetan temples featured སྐུ་འདྲ་ statues as representations of enlightenment. The term is usually used to indicate the person in a monastery who has the official position of taking care of all of t…
ཆུ་སྐྱོར་
Transliteration: chu skyor
<noun> 1) "Coping" on the roof of a house which acts as a run-off for water. The roof of a Tibetan house was usually a flat roof used as a place where humans could go and was not synonymous with coping. Rooves that followed the Chinese style of gabling with an slight arch to the roof had the ཆུ་སྐྱོར་ coping additionally named ཉ་རྒྱབ་ "fish back" q.v. because the downward bend across the ma…
ལམ་སང་
Transliteration: lam sang
<adv> "Immediate", "instant", "straight away"; in the sense of right now, straight away, not later or with anything else done first. E.g., from a terma on the Bardo: དེ་ནས་རླུང་ལོག་སྟེ་རྩ་གཡས་གཡོན་དུ་བྲོས་པས་བར་དོའི་སྣང་བ་ལམ་གྱིས་འཆར་བས༔
"then the winds reverse; (previously) they escaped into the right and left channels with the concomitant immediate appearances of the bardo". E.g., in coll.…
སྦྱོར་ལམ་དྲོད་ཕྱིར་མི་ལྡོག་བའི་རྟགས་བཅུ་གཅིག་
Transliteration: sbyor lam drod phyir mi ldog ba'i rtags bcu gcig
<enum> "The eleven signs of (attaining the position of) non-reversal from the path connection's (level of) warmth". [JKE] gives as: 1) གཞན་དོན་དུ་གཟུགས་སོགས་ལ་བདེན་ཞེན་ལྡོག་པ་ ""; 3) སྐྱབས་གསུམ་ལ་ཐེ་ཚོམ་ཟད་པ་ ""; 3) མི་ཁོམ་པ་བརྒྱད་ཟད་པ་ ""; 4) རང་གཞག་གཉིས་ཀ་དགེ་བའི་ཆོས་ལ་སྦྱོར་བ་ ""; 5) བདག་གཞན་བརྗེ་བའི་བསམ་པས་སྦྱིན་པ་ ""; 6) ཟབ་མོའི་དོན་ལ་སོམ་ཉི་མི་བྱེད་པ་ ""; 7) སྒོ་གསུམ་གྱི་སྤྱོད་པ་བྱམས་…
