རྔོག་བློ་ལྡན་ཤེས་རབ་
Transliteration: rngog blo ldan shes rab
<noun> "Ngog Lodan Sherab". [1059-1109] The name of a translator. Also known as རྔོག་ལོ་ཙྪ་བ་ "Ngog the translator" and ལོ་ཆེན་རྔོག་ "The great translator Ngog". Ngog is regarded as one of the principal translators of the new spread of dharma in Tibetan following the suppressions by King Langdarma. He is usually mentioned second to Rinchen Zangpo who was regarded as the greatest. Ngog went …
འཁོར་རྣམ་པ་བཞི་
Transliteration: 'khor rnam pa bzhi
<phrase> I. "The four retinues". These are the four retinues who were part of the Buddha's saṇgha. [DGT] gives as: 1) དགེ་སློང་ "monks"; 2) དགེ་སློང་མ་ "nuns"; 3) དགེ་བསྙེན་ "laymen"; 4) དགེ་བསྙེན་མ་ "laywomen". Another way to say it is that the people surrounding the Buddha were: 1) to 2) ཁྱིམ་པ་ཕོ་མོ་གཉིས་ "male and female householders" and 3) to 4) རབ་ཏུ་བྱུང་བ་ཕོ་མོ་གཉིས་ "male and fema…
གཞི་བཅུ་བདུན་
Transliteration: gzhi bcu bdun
<phrase> "The seventeen fundaments". The འདུལ་བ་ Vinaya has seventeen fundaments in it. These are the bases by which one takes and keeps and ordination. They are divided into three sections: 1) taking ordination itself; 2) nine bases of keeping the ordination that has been obtained in terms of not having infractions; and 3) seven bases of repairing infractions that have occurred. [MVP] give…
དུས་འཁོར་ལས་བཤད་པའི་ཁོར་ཡུག་གི་གླིང་དྲུག་
Transliteration: dus 'khor las bshad pa'i khor yug gi gling drug
<phrase> "The six encircling continents as explained in Kālachakra". These are the seven continents encircling Mt. Meru in the structure of a world system as described by the Buddha in the Kālachakra tantra. [DGT] gives as: 1) ཟླ་བ་ "Moon"; 2) འོད་དཀར་ "White Light"; 3) རབ་མཆོག་ཀུ་ཤ་ "Most excellent Kusha"; 4) མིའམ་ཅི་ "Kinnara"; 5) ཁྲུང་ཁྲུང་ "Crane"; 6) དྲག་པོའི་གླིང་ "Forceful Continent"…
རྒོད་ཀྱི་ལྡེམ་འཕྲུ་ཅན་
Transliteration: rgod kyi ldem 'phru can
<phrase> "Vulture Plumed".
I. Meaning a hat, helmet, etc., having a plume of vulture feathers that has inserted into the top as a crowning ornament.
II. "Gokyi Demtru Chan" or "the man having a plume of vulture of feathers". [1337-1408] The name of a major གཏེར་སྟོན་ treasure revealer of the Nyingma system. Also known as རིག་འཛིན་རྒོད་ཀྱི་ལྡེམ་འཕྲུ་ཅན་ Vidyadhara Gokyi Demtru Chan and most co…
བཀྲ་ཤིས་རྫས་བརྒྱད་
Transliteration: bkra shis rdzas brgyad
<enum> "The eight auspicious substances". There were eight articles specifically blessed by Buddha which have been regarded as sacred since then in the Buddhist tradition. [DGT] gives: 1) མེ་ལོང་ mirror; 2) གི་ཝང་ Bezoar (elephant bile medicine); 3) ཞོ་ curds; 4) རྩྭ་དཱུར་བ་ Durva grass; 5) ཤིང་ཏོག་བིལྦ་ Wood-apple fruit; 6) དུང་དཀར་གཡས་འཁྱིལ་ right-coiling conch shell; 7) ལི་ཁྲི་ vermilion…
སྙོམ་པ་
Transliteration: snyom pa
I. <verb> v.t. བསྙམས་པ་/ སྙོམ་པ་/ བསྙམ་པ་/ སྙོམས་/. 1) "To equalize two or more things" or "to make the component parts of something even". Hence, "to equalize", "to even up / out". This includes the connotation "to equilibrate" i.e., "to bring to equilibrium". E.g., [TC] རིང་ཐུང་བསྙམས་པ། "to even out the lengths"; མང་ཉུང་བསྙམས་པ། "to even up the amounts"; སྒང་གཤོང་བསྙམ་པ། "to even out the …
གཞན་གྱི་དབང་གི་མཚན་ཉིད་
Transliteration: gzhan gyi dbang gi mtshan nyid
<noun> One of the མཚན་ཉིད་གསུམ་ "the three characteristics" q.v. The name means "that which has the characteristic of being under the control of other". It is often translated as "other-powered nature" though that is not really accurate.
[SKD] defines it with this statement: གཞན་དབང་ནི་གཟུང་འཛིན་གྱི་དངོས་པོར་སྣང་བའི་རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པ་ཙམ་སྟེ། མ་རིག་པའི་བག་ཆགས་ཀྱི་གཞན་དབང་དུ་གྱུར་པའི་སྣང་བ་ཡིན་པའི་…
འཐིབས་པ་
Transliteration: 'thibs pa
I. <verb> v.i. འཐིབས་པ་/ འཐིབས་པ་/ འཐིབས་པ་//. Transitive form is གཏིབ་པ་ q.v. Meaning, for a situation to become filled or enveloped with something and hence to become unclear / dark / dim. This is used externally with things such as the land being darkened by gathering clouds or nightfall coming on in which case it means "to become gloomy / overcast / dark / obscured". E.g., གནམ་འཐིབས་པ། …
སྡིག་པ་དང་སྒྲིབ་པ་
Transliteration: sdig pa dang sgrib pa
<phrase> "Degradations and obscurations". For sentient beings in འཁོར་བ་ cyclic existence to go to awakening on via the Buddhist path, various obscuring factors have to be cleansed from the mind-stream. These obscuring factors overall are contained in the two categories of སྡིག་པ་ degradations and སྒྲིབ་པ་ obscurations.
"Degradations" are the མི་དགེ་བའི་ལས་ཀྱི་ས་བོན་ negative karmic seeds th…
ཟངས་མདོག་དཔལ་རི་
Transliteration: zangs mdog dpal ri
<noun> "Copper-coloured Glorious Mountain". The name of the mountain which Padmasaṃbhava said he was going to and would be dwelling on when he left Tibet. Various places and monasteries have been named after it. As such, it is taken as the name of his pure land and is often referred to as in ཟངས་མདོག་དཔལ་རིའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་ "Copper-coloured Glorious Mountain Pure Land".
Note that, although the nam…
ཁྱིམ་བདག་དྲག་ཤུལ་ཅན་གྱིས་ཞུས་པའི་མདོ་
Transliteration: khyim bdag drag shul can gyis zhus pa'i mdo
"The Sūtra Petitioned by the Householder Uncouth". A sūtra from the Mahāyāna sūtra section. Full name in Tibetan, འཕགས་པ་ཁྱིམ་བདག་དྲག་ཤུལ་ཅན་གྱིས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ་. In Sanskrit "ārya-gṛhapati-ugraparipṛcchā-nāma-Mahāyāna-sūtra". Translated into the Tibetan by སུ་རེནྡྲ་བོདྷི་ Surendrabodhi and ཞང་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་ Zhang Yeshe De. This sūtra is from the Third Turning of the wheel of Dhar…
སྐྱེས་བུ་མཆོག་
Transliteration: skyes bu mchog
<phrase> Translation of the Sanskrit [MVP] "puruṣha puṅgava" meaning སྐྱེས་བུ་མཆོག་ཏུ་གྱུར་པ་ "the most excellent person / supreme person". Used as an epithet for excellent beings, e.g., the buddha. Commonly abbrev. as སྐྱེས་མཆོག་. 1) An epithet of the buddhas in general. E.g., in [KBC] a quote from the Samādhi rājasūtra: བྱེ་བ་ཁྲག་ཁྲིག་གཏམ་པའི་ཞིང་དག་ན། །མཆོད་པ་རྣམ་མང་དཔག་མེད་ཅི་ཡོད་པ། །སྐ…
ཐུགས་སྲས་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་རྣམས་
Transliteration: thugs sras byang chub sems dpa' rnams
<phrase> "The mind sons, the bodhisatvas". A buddha has a retinue of body sons, speech sons, and mind sons, meaning the sons of a buddha in relation to his body, speech, and mind. For example, Buddha Śhākyamuni has his bodily son Rāhula, his speech sons the śhrāvakas and pratyekas, and his mind sons the bodhisatvas. Thus "mind sons" here specifically refers to the བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་ bodhisat…
དངངས་པ་
Transliteration: dngangs pa
<verb> v.i. དངངས་པ་/ དངངས་པ་/ དངངས་པ་//. 1) "To be unable to breathe all of a sudden". E.g., [TC] ཆུར་ཐིམ་ནས་དབུགས་དངངས་སོང་། "he went under the water and was unable to breathe". 2) For the breath "to catch" all of a sudden as in "he caught his breath because of fright, fear, or something unexpected happening". Hence "to panic", "to catch the breath". Note that this has mistakenly been give…
ཕྱིར་འོང་ཞུགས་པ་
Transliteration: phyir 'ong zhugs pa
<noun> "(One who has) entered on (once) return". The third of ཞུགས་གནས་བརྒྱད་ the eight entrance/abidings. This is the term for a practitioner of the Lesser Vehicle who ལན་ཅིག་ཕྱིར་འོང་གི་འབྲས་བུ་ལ་ཞུགས་པ་ has entered onto the level of (but has not attained) the fruition of returning once. This has been translated as "a candidate for the fruit of once-return". A once-returner is a person wh…
ཕྱལ་པ་
Transliteration: phyal pa
<noun> 1) The abbrev. name of the second of the four Mahā Ati special samayas; see རྫོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་དམ་ཚིག་ Great Completion samayas for more. [SKD] defines it as སེམས་འཛིན་གྱི་འཇུར་བུས་མ་བཅིངས་པའི་རིག་པ་རྟེན་མེད་ཕྱལ་པར་བསྐྱངས་པས་སྣང་བཏགས་ཆོས་ཉིད་དུ་གྲོལ། "(On the basis of the essence, alpha-purity:) liberation into the dharmatā with appearances attached through protecting the openness of b…
ཆོས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ་
Transliteration: chos kyi 'khor lo
I. <noun> "Dharma wheel", "wheel of Dharma", "wheel of the Doctrine". Translation of the Sanskrit "dharmachakra". 1) The name given to a main presentation of dharma by the Buddha. These presentations were not everyday events. They were events of cosmic proportions. Their importance is embodied in the Indian terminology ཆོས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ་བསྐོར་བ་ "turning the wheel of Dharma" which indicates a…
