གཏམ་ཚོགས་
Transliteration: gtam tshogs
<noun> "Collected Stories". 1) General name given to a group of texts which, in the fashion of the First Turning of the Wheel of Dharma, provide advice about turning away from cyclic existence. 2) In particular, the name given to the texts written by ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་ Nāgārjuna which address the issues of the First Turning of the wheel of Dharma. They are called "stories" because it is regarded th…
སྤྲོས་པ་
Transliteration: spros pa
I. <verb> Past of v.t. སྤྲོ་བ་ q.v.
II. <noun> 1) "Elaboration". Translation of the Sanskrit "prapañca". This is a key term in Buddhist philosophy and practice. It has a strong pejorative sense because it refers to the elaboration of concepts which is a hallmark of conceptual mind and the opp. of mind apprehending reality. When mind is not engaged in dualistic process, there is no elab…
གོང་མའི་ཆ་མཐུན་ལྔ་
Transliteration: gong ma'i cha mthun lnga
<phrase> "The five consistent with the upper part". Meaning the ཀུན་ཏུ་སྦྱོར་བ་ལྔ་ five enmeshments which are consistent with ཁམས་གོང་མ་ the upper realms i.e., གཟུགས་ཁམས་ form and གཟུགས་མེད་ཀྱི་ཁམས་ formless realms. See also ཐ་མའི་ཆ་མཐུན་ལྔ་ "the five consistent with the bottom part". [DGT] gives as: 1) གཟུགས་ཀྱི་འདོད་ཆགས་ "desire for the form realm"; གཟུགས་མེད་ཀྱི་འདོད་ཆགས་ "desire for the…
ཤིགས་སེ་ཤིག་
Transliteration: shigs se shig
<phrase> [Exp] A phrase that gives a particular, repetitive and rhythmic sense of the basic word ཤིག་ as in ཤིག་གེ་བ་ the style of back and forth, here and there movements. E.g., the back and forth, up and down movements of dancers and their costumes. Note that it has a loose, free sense to it, as in "the regular, up and down, swaying movements of the dance". It also conveys a sense of jagg…
རྡོ་རྗེ་གཟེགས་མ་
Transliteration: rdo rje gzegs ma
<noun> "The Vajra Slivers". The name of a particular type of reasoning used in the དབུ་མ་ཐལ་འགྱུར་བ་ Madhyamaka Prasaṅgika system to discover emptiness by establishing the absence of a self-entity. One of the གཏན་ཚིགས་ཆེན་པོ་བཞི་ "Four Great Reasonings" and གཏན་ཚིགས་ཆེན་པོ་ལྔ་ "Five Great Reasonings".
The translation of གཟེགས་མ་ as slivers (rather than particles as some have translated) is c…
གཉིས་ལྡན་གྱི་དུས་
Transliteration: gnyis ldan gyi dus
<noun> 1) "Two-fold era". Translation of the Sanskrit "dvāparayugam". The name of the third of གནས་བསྐལ་གྱི་དུས་བཞི་ the four ages that occur for humans during the existence of a human world. The name means that the age is reduced in quality and has only two of four possible good attributes to it compared to the first age which has all four complete. Humans of this time are only able to mai…
ཁྲེལ་མེད་པ་
Transliteration: khrel med pa
<noun> "Lack of propriety". Translation of the Sanskrit [NDS] "anapatrapā". One of the ཉེ་བའི་ཉོན་མོངས་པ་ཉི་ཤུ་ twenty subsidiary afflictions. This means to have a mind which is the opp. of ཁྲེལ་ཡོད་པ་ sense of blame; see also ཁྲེལ་བ་. With it, thinking only of oneself and having no concern about what others will say, one becomes unconcerned about engaging in degrading actions and remains w…
ཆི་ལི་ལི་
Transliteration: chi li li
[Onomat] 1) Used to give the sense of abundance of something swirling and whirling down, like heavy rain or snow. E.g., [TC] ཆར་པ་ཆི་ལི་ལིར་འབབ་པ། "rains came down in sheets"; E.g., མཚོན་ཆ་བུ་ཡུག་ཆི་ལི་ལི༔ "a storm of weapons whirling down". 2) Used to give the sense of abundance of something swirling and whirling up off something. E.g., [TC] gives as "a description of flowers giving off their fr…
ཡར་གྱི་ཟང་ཐལ་
Transliteration: yar gyi zang thal
<phrase> Lit. "the upper, direct passage". It is used in teachings that indicate direct passage to the upper place (spiritually speaking) of ཆོས་སྐུ་ the dharmakāya. E.g., from a terma on the Bardo: གཞིའི་འོད་གསལ་ངོ་འཕྲོད་དེ་བར་དོ་མེད་པར་ཡར་གྱི་ཟང་ཐལ་ལ་ཆོས་སྐུ་སྐྱེ་བ་མེད་པ་ཐོབ་བོ༔ "having met the ground luminosity, without (going on to) the bardo one goes via the direct upper passage to the…
གང་ཟག་
Transliteration: gang zag
<noun> "Person". Translation of the Sanskrit "pudgala". 1) In Buddhism, the generic term for any being who is not a buddha. It does not only mean human but applies to all beings. In Tibetan Buddhist literature, the etymology is explained thus: the mind-stream of beings is such that it གང་བ་ fills with qualities and / or faults and having done so eventually these ཟག་པ་ drop out i.e., come to…
གསུང་རབ་ཀྱི་ཡན་ལག་དགུ་
Transliteration: gsung rab kyi yan lag dgu
<phrase> "The nine branches of the excellent discourses". Abbrev. of གསུང་རབ་ཀྱི་ཡན་ལག་དགུ་ q.v. Translation of the Sanskrit [NDS] "navāṅgapravacana". The Buddha's excellent speech as recorded in the sūtras is usually divided into གསུང་རབ་ཀྱི་ཡན་ལག་བཅུ་གཉིས་ "the twelve branches of the excellent discourses". However, these are sometimes grouped into nine. [DGT] says that the four parts: 1) …
ཁ་བསྐངས་
Transliteration: kha bskangs
<noun> The noun form of ཁ་སྐོང་བ་ q.v. Note that it is often seen mistakenly as ཁ་སྐོང་ and also ཁ་བསྐང་.
The "addition" or "supplement" made to anything in order to make up for some shortage or deficit in the thing. 1) This can refer to physical things, e.g., in Tibetan books "supplements" were not uncommon. They would be added to the end of the text to make up for something that was left o…
ཆེ་ལོང་
Transliteration: che long
<adj> "Roughly", "broadly", "mprecisely". This term is used in relation to things heard or known to indicate an imprecise or coarse or no more than broad understanding or expression of the matter. E.g., [TC] གོ་བ་ཆེ་ལོང་ཙམ་ལས་ལེན་མི་ཐུབ་པ། "Could not grasp it except for a very rough or (imprecise) understanding of it", གསུང་རྩོམ་ནང་ནས་ཆེ་ལོང་ཙམ་བསྡུས་པ། "It was included only very roughly wi…
མཐའ་འཁོབ་ཏུ་སྐྱེས་པ་
Transliteration: mtha' 'khob tu skyes pa
I. <verb> v.t. past of མཐའ་འཁོབ་ཏུ་སྐྱེ་བ་ q.v.
II. <phrase> 1) Translation of the Sanskrit [NDS] "pratyantajanapadopapattiḥ". One of the མི་ཁོམ་པའི་གནས་བརྒྱད་ eight unfree states. Beings born in a མཐའ་འཁོབ་ "border land" are by definition born in an uncivilized place. To start with they are subject to negative behaviour patterns and on top of that, the Buddha's teaching does exist the…
