མཚམས་མེད་པ་ལྔ་
Transliteration: mtshams med pa lnga
<phrase> "The five immediates". Translation of the Sanskrit [NDS] "pañca anantarghāṇi". The Buddha stated that there were five actions that produced a karmic force so great that the accumulator of the karma would, upon dying, be born in hell without the intermediary states of the བར་དོ་ bardo, etcetera.
[DGT] [NDS] give the five actions in their noun forms as: 1) ཕ་བསད་ "patricide / the kill…
ཡུལ་དྲུག་
Transliteration: yul drug
<phrase> "The six objects" meaning the six objects known by the six senses. The six senses are: 1) མིག་ "eye"; 2) རྣ་བ་ "ear"; 3) སྣ་ "nose"; 4) ལྕེ་ "tongue"; 5) ལུས་ "body"; and 6) ཡིད་ "mind" senses. Their six objects are [NDS]: 1) གཟུགས་ "visible forms"; 2) སྒྲ་ "sounds"; 3) དྲི་ "smells"; 4) རོ་ "tastes"; 5) རེག་བྱ་ "touches"; and 6) ཆོས་ "dharmas". These are freq. abbrev. in Tibetan a…
འཆུམ་པ་
Transliteration: 'chum pa
<verb> v.i. འཆུམས་པ་/ འཆུམ་པ་/ འཆུམ་པ་//. 1) Similar to ཆགས་པ་. Strong wanting because of attachment hence "to long for". E.g., [TC] ཨ་རག་ལ་འཆུམ་པ། "to long for a drink of liquor"; འཚོ་བ་སྐྱིད་པོར་འཆུམས་པ། "to long for good living conditions"; ལྟོ་གོས་གཏམ་གསུམ་ཁོ་ནར་འཆུམ་པ། "longing only for food, clothes, and social chit chat". 2) "To shrink" with the sense of "to wither". E.g., [TC] མེ་ཏོ…
རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྤྱོད་པའི་དབུ་མ་
Transliteration: rnal 'byor spyod pa'i dbu ma
<noun> "Yogacāra Madhyamaka". Translation of the Sanskrit "yogacāra madhyamaka". The name of one of the three main དབུ་མ་ Madhyamaka schools. It is regarded as a sub-division of the དབུ་མ་རང་རྒྱུད་པ་ Svatāntrika Madhyamaka school so is also called Yogacara-Svatāntrika Madhyamaka. The school was founded by ཞི་བ་འཚོ་ Śhāntarakṣhita. As a Madhyamaka school it asserts a view in which there are …
སྐྱེ་མཆེད་
Transliteration: skye mched
<noun> "Āyatana". Translation of the Sanskrit "āyatana". The āyatanas are defined as the means by which རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པ་ consciousness of ཡུལ་ an object སྐྱེ་བ་ arises in and / or མཆེད་པ་ ignites and blazes in a sentient being. The āyatanas were said by the Buddha to be like the doors or causes to the production of the six sense consciousness. There are སྐྱེ་མཆེད་བཅུ་གཉིས་ twelve āyatanas: the…
སྟོད་ལས་
Transliteration: stod las
<phrase> "Higher activity" compared with སྨད་ལས་ the lower activities q.v. The feast liturgies of major yidams of the old and new translation systems have two main parts: the activity of the first or earlier section and the activity of the second or later section. The earlier section contains all of the practices done in relationship to higher or more enlightened beings and the later sectio…
ཆང་གྲལ་
Transliteration: chang gral
<noun> Any gathering where people have come together to be convivial. Here, ཆང་ does not mean "ale" but means "humans". The term ཆང་གྲལ་ is similar to ཆང་ཁྱུ་ q.v. It refers to a group of humans, who have come together to talk, pass the time, enjoy themselves in whatever way. Note that the term does not specify a place; it could be anywhere. Thus, although one dictionary says "tavern" this …
སྙོག་པ་
Transliteration: snyog pa
I. <verb> v.t. བསྙོགས་པ་/ སྙོག་པ་/ བསྙོག་པ་/ སྙོགས་/. "To stir up" in the pejorative sense of rousing stuff / sediment / muck up into the clear portion of something. E.g., [TC] ཁྲོན་པའི་ཆུ་མ་སྙོག "don't stir up the well-water!"; ཁོང་ཁྲོ་བསླངས་ནས་སེམས་བསྙོགས་པ་ "when anger arises, mind becomes stirred up".
II. <verb> v.t. altern. བསྙགས་པ་/ སྙོག་པ་/ བསྙག་པ་/ སྙོགས་/. "To chase up / follo…
མཐོང་ཆུང་
Transliteration: mthong chung
<phrase> "Low regard" Opp. of མཐོང་ཆེན་ q.v. Used for things, situations, and people. Meaning to be held in little regard. It can range all the way from a general lack of regard all the way down to contempt. E.g., Wangdrag Rinpoche writes about the current situation in Tibet: སྤྱིར་རྒྱ་ནག་དང་བོད་ནང་དུ། བུ་མེད་རྣམས་ལ་མཐོང་ཆུང་བྱེད་པ་དང་། རང་ཉིད་ཀྱང་བྱ་བ་གང་ལ་ཡང་སྤ་ཞོམ་ནས་གནས་ཡོད་ལ། "In China…
སྤྱི་དོན་
Transliteration: spyi don
<noun> Lit. "general meaning". 1) The main subject headings of a text. 2) A class of written materials that contains the general meaning of some subject. Here general meaning does not mean that the meaning shown is rough but that the meaning shown is the overall meaning. For example, there is a class of commentary called སྤྱི་དོན་. This class of text shows the overall meaning of the text be…
ནམ་མཁའ་དང་མཉམ་པ་
Transliteration: nam mkha' dang mnyam pa
<phrase> "Extensive as space". A metaphor, usually an adjectival phrase, lit. meaning "equivalent to space" or "equal to space" and freq. abbrev. to མཁའ་མཉམ་པ་ in verse.
The precise meaning is that something is co-extensive with space, hence the translation "extensive as space". For example, from a རྫོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ Great Completion liturgy in the Chogling Tersar, མཁའ་མཉམ་འགྲོ་བ་མ་ལུས་པ༔ "ever…
སྐྱེན་པ་
Transliteration: skyen pa
<adj> 1) "Quick", "swift" etc., same meaning as མྱུར་བ་ and མགྱོགས་པོ་. E.g., [TC] དར་སྐྱེན་པ་ "flourished very rapidly"; ནུབ་སྐྱེན་པ་ "waned quickly". 2) "Easily" or "easy to" e.g., [TC] ཁོང་ཁྲོ་ལངས་སྐྱེན་པ། "got angry easily". 3) Skilful at something and hence easily able to do it.
With all of these meanings combined, it can have the sense of "speeding up" a process. E.g., [GSB] འོན་ཀྱང་དྲ…
བསྐལ་པ་བཟང་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་མདོ་
Transliteration: bskal pa bzang po zhes bya ba'i mdo
<noun> "The Sūtra called "The Good Kalpa"". The name of a sūtra spoken by the Buddha which gives details of the cosmology of this world's period, and especially gives details of the one thousand and two buddhas who will descend during this period, which the Buddha called བསྐལ་པ་བཟང་པོ་ "the Good Kalpa". These buddhas are usually referred to as བསྐལ་པ་བཟང་པོའི་སངས་རྒྱས་སྟོང་ the thousand bud…
རྣམ་པར་སྨིན་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན་བརྒྱད་
Transliteration: rnam par smin pa'i yon tan brgyad
<enum> "The eight qualities of full ripening / maturation". [DGT] [JKE] give as: 1) ཚེ་རིང་བ་ "long life"; 2) ཁ་དོག་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པ་ "perfect colouration"; 3) རིགས་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པ་ "perfect lineage"; 4) དབང་ཕྱུག་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པ་ "perfect gods"; 5) ཚིག་བཙན་པ་ "authoritative words"; 6) དབང་ཆེ་བར་གྲགས་པ་ "famed for great power"; 7) སྐྱེས་པ་ཡིན་པ་ "born as a being" 8) སྟོབས་དང་ལྡན་པ་ "having power…
རྡོ་རྗེའི་ཆོས་བདུན་
Transliteration: rdo rje'i chos bdun
<phrase> "The seven features or attributes of "vajra"". The ancient Indian tradition enumerates seven specific features of the vajra weapon owned by Indra. These are the qualities of "vajra". They are: 1) མི་ཆོད་པ་ "un-cuttable"; 2) མི་ཤིགས་པ་ "indestructible"; 3) བདེན་པ་ "true"; 4) སྲ་བ་ "solid"; 5) བརྟན་པ་ "stable"; 6) ཕར་ཐམས་ཅད་དུ་ཐོགས་པ་མེད་པ་ "not unobstructed by anything it goes towar…
སྤུ་ཟིང་ཞེས་བྱེད་པ་
Transliteration: spu zing zhes byed pa
<phrase> "What will make your hairs stand on end". E.g., the Buddha in the Sutra of the Holy Victory Banner said: དགེ་སློང་དག །ཁྱོད་དགོན་པ་དང་། དུར་ཁྲོད་དང་། འབྲོག་སྟོང་པ་ལ་སོགས་པ་ན་འདུག་ཀྱང་རུང་། གསུམ་ལ་སྐྱབས་སུ་སོང་ཞིག་དང་། འཇིགས་པ་དང་། སྡུག་བསྔལ་བ་དང་། སྤུ་ཟིང་ཞེས་བྱེད་པ་དེ་དག་མེད་པར་འགྱུར་རོ། "Monks, whether you stay in a monastery, charnel ground, or wilderness, one who has gone for re…
མ་བཅོས་པ་
Transliteration: ma bcos pa
I. <verb> the negative of the past of འཆོས་པ་ q.v.
II. <phrase> and <adj>phrase> "Unaltered", "unmodified". Used in reference to something which is itself because of not having been altered from its original form by some means. The term when used often has the further meaning of "not faked", "not artificially produced", thus "uncontrived" and "unfabricated" can also be correct…
གཟི་བརྗིད་
Transliteration: gzi brjid
<noun> This term is difficult to translate directly into English. It gives the sense of something that has a lot of brilliance to it. It is often used in relation to people and indicates a person who is full of light for whatever reason. This is clearly seen by the use in Tibetan of the word "light" in conjunction with this term e.g., གཟི་བརྗིད་འོད་ is a common phrase which indicates that t…
ཐུགས་རྗེ་
Transliteration: thugs rje
<noun> 1) [Hon] of སྙིང་རྗེ་ "compassion". 2) In the compound ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ་ "thank you". E.g., སེམས་ཀྱི་གཏིང་ནས་ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ་ཞུ་བ། "to thank from the depths of the heart". 3) "Compassionate activity". A རྫོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ Great Completion term. In Great Completion this term has a special meaning. It is the innate, dynamic quality of the essence of mind which appears to sentient beings as activit…
རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པ་དྲུག་
Transliteration: rnam par shes pa drug
<phrase> "The six consciousnesses" meaning the six types of རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པ་ consciousness that arise in conjunction with the six kinds of objects and the six sensory-powers. They are the consciousnesses corresponding to the: 1) མིག་ eye; 2) རྣ་བ་ ear; 3) སྣ་ nose; 4) ལྕེ་ tongue; 5) ལུས་ body; and 6) ཡིད་ mind senses. Thus they are [KPC]: 1) མིག་གི་རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པ་ "eye consciousness"; 2) རྣ་བའི…
