ཁམས་དྲུག་
Transliteration: khams drug
<phrase> "The six constituents". Translation of the Sanskrit [NDS] "ṣhaḍ dhātanam".
I. These refer to the six psycho-physical constituents of a human living in the འདོད་ཁམས་ desire realm. The term is used heavily in secret mantra e.g., [ZGT] ཁམས་དྲུག་ལྡན་རྡོ་རྗེའི་ལུས་ "the vajra body having the six constituents". These are the འབྱུང་བ་དྲུག་ six major elements but taken as the constituents o…
རྣམ་དབྱེ་གཉིས་པ་
Transliteration: rnam dbye gnyis pa
<noun> "The second case" of Tibetan grammar. The name of the case is ལས་སུ་བྱ་བ་ "objective". The main case is defined the same as the accusative case of English but only partially like the objective case of English.
The second case has a sub-case defined for it. It is called དེ་ཉིད་ "identity".
It and the seventh case are the only cases that have a sub-case defined. Both sub-cases are defini…
གསལ་བྱེད་སོ་བཞི་
Transliteration: gsal byed so bzhi
<phrase> "The thirty-four consonants". The thirty-four consonants of the Sanskrit alphabet. They are represented with the following Tibetan and English letters:
ཀ ka ཁ kha ག gha གྷ gha ང་ nga
ཙ ca ཚ cch ཛ ja ཛྷ jha ཉ nya
ཊ ṭa ཋ ṭha ཌ ḍa ཌྷ ḍa ཎ ṇa
ཏ ta ཐ tha ད da དྷ dha ན na
པ pa ཕ pha བ ba བྷ bha མ ma
ཡ ya ར ra ལ la ཝ va
ཤ śha ཥ ṣha ས sa ཧ ha ཀྵ kṣha
བདེ་གསལ་མི་རྟོག་པའི་ཉམས་གསུམ་
Transliteration: bde gsal mi rtog pa'i nyams gsum
<phrase> "The temporary experiences of bliss, illumination, and no-thought". A meditator on any level of Buddhist meditation from śhamatha on up will have experiences that are signs of having done the practice. These are called ཉམས་ or "experience". In Tibetan, it is understood that the word "experience" refers to something temporary and the term is used in contrast to རྟོགས་པ་ realization,…
ཀུན་ནས་དཀྲིས་པ་བརྒྱད་
Transliteration: kun nas dkris pa brgyad
<phrase> "The eight snares". These are eight particular ཉོན་མོངས་ afflictions that are picked out in relation to the practices of ཞི་གནས་ śhamatha and the བཏང་སྙོམས་ equanimity of various kinds of concentrated states. They keep the mind that is trying to remain pacified and even snared in affliction and prevent the practice from being fulfilled. They are: 1) རྨུགས་པ་ dullness; 2) གཉིད་ slee…
འཁོར་ལོས་སྒྱུར་བའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་བཞི་
Transliteration: 'khor los sgyur ba'i rgyal po bzhi
"The four chakravartin kings". There are four, successively more powerful འཁོར་ལོས་སྒྱུར་བའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་ "chakravartin kings". [DGT] and [SKD] gives them as: 1) གསེར་གྱི་འཁོར་ལོས་བསྒྱུར་བའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་ "the chakravartin of golden wheel" 2) དངུལ་གྱི་འཁོར་ལོས་བསྒྱུར་བའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་ "the chakravartin of silver wheel"; 3) ཟངས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོས་བསྒྱུར་བའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་ "the chakravartin of copper wheel"; 4) ལྕགས་ཀྱི་འཁོ…
སེམས་ཅན་གྱི་དོན་བྱ་ཚུལ་བཅུ་གཅིག་
Transliteration: sems can gyi don bya tshul bcu gcig
<enum> "The eleven ways (for bodhisatvas) to be meaningful for sentient beings". [DGT] gives as: 1) བྱེ་བ་བྱེད་པ་དང་སྡུག་བསྔལ་གྱི་གྲོགས་ཀྱི་དོན་བྱེད་པ་; 2) ཐབས་ལ་རྨོངས་པའི་དོན་བྱེད་པ་; 3) ཕན་འདོགས་པའི་དོན་བྱེད་པ་; 4) འཇིགས་པས་ཉེན་པའི་དོན་བྱེད་པ་; 5) མྱ་ངན་གྱིས་གཟིར་བའི་དོན་བྱེད་པ་; 6) ཡོ་བྱད་ཀྱིས་འཕོངས་པའི་དོན་བྱེད་པ་; 7) གནས་འཆར་བར་བྱེད་པའི་དོན་བྱེད་པ་; 8) བློ་མཐུན་པར་འདོད་པའི་དོན་བྱེད་པ་;…
བྱ་བའི་ཡུལ་
Transliteration: bya ba'i yul
<phrase> 1) In Tibetan grammar this term has two meanings. 1) As described in the སུམ་ཅུ་པ་ Thirty Verses, it is the object of an action. The object of some action is pointed out by the use of the རྣམ་དབྱེ་གཉིས་པ་ second case. The construction of the second case involves the placement of one of the ལ་དོན་ la-equivalent connectors immediately following the object which is having something do…
འཆགས་པ་
Transliteration: 'chags pa
<verb> v.t. བཤགས་པ་/ འཆགས་པ་/ བཤག་པ་/ བཤོགས་/. 1) [TC] gives as meaning "to declare or to express one's faults for the purpose of not keeping them secret." E.g., [TC] རང་སྐྱོན་འཆགས་པ། "to admit one's faults".
In the Buddhist sense, it specifically means "to declare or express one's faults and in so doing to lay them down so that they cease to be part of one's conduct." This additional meanin…
རྣམ་དབྱེའི་ཕྲད་
Transliteration: rnam dbye'i phrad
<noun> "Case connector". Grammar term. The general name for all ཚིག་ཕྲད་ phrase connectors that function specifically as case-signs. The name is given to differentiate them from all other connectors, that ones that do not function as case signs. These other connectors are accordingly called རྣམ་དབྱེ་མ་ཡིན་པའི་ཕྲད་ "non-case connectors".
The case connectors are comprised of four groups of mar…
གཉོག་པ་
Transliteration: gnyog pa
<verb> v.t. གཉགས་པ་/ གཉོག་པ་/ གཉག་པ་/ གཉོགས་/. 1) "To chew food well" i.e., to chew food very thoroughly so that it is well reduced. E.g., [TC] བཟའ་བཅའ་གཉགས་ནས་མིད། "chew your food well then swallow it!" 2) Meaning "to hit up and down on something" e.g., as in "to beat" a horse or a carpet, etc. or in making any other up and down beating motion. E.g., [TC] ལྕག་གིས་རྟ་ལ་གཉོག "beating the hor…
དྲིན་ཅན་ལོ་པཎ་གསུམ་
Transliteration: drin can lo paN gsum
<phrase> "The Three kind Lotsāwas and Paṇḍits". A name for three individuals who were especially effective in the work of translation of Buddhist texts at the time of the great translation works done under ཁྲི་སྲོང་ལྡེའུ་བཙན་ King Trisong Deutsen. They are: 1) ཛི་ན་མི་ཏྲ་ the Indian paṇḍit Jinamitra; 2) དཱ་ན་ཤཱི་ལ་ the Indian paṇḍit Dānaśhīla; and 3) ཞང་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་ the Tibetan translator Zh…
ཚོགས་ལམ་ལྔ་
Transliteration: tshogs lam lnga
<phrase> "The five paths of accumulation". Acc. [KPC] the path of accumulations of both Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna can be divided into five sub-levels: 1) སོ་སོ་སྐྱེ་བོའི་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་ "discipline of individualized beings"; 2) དབང་པོའི་སྒོ་བསྡམས་པ་ "restrained sense doors"; 3) ཟས་ཀྱི་ཚོད་ཤེས་པ་ "knowing the measure of food"; 4) ནམ་གྱི་ཆ་སྟོད་ཆ་སྨད་ལ་མི་ཉལ་བར་རྣལ་འབྱོར་ལ་བརྩོན་པ་ "not sleeping in th…
དུས་ཚིགས་ལྔ་
Transliteration: dus tshigs lnga
<phrase> "The five seasonal periods". [DGT] gives and explains them as follows: 1) དགུན་གྱི་དུས་ "winter period"; 2) དཔྱིད་ཀྱི་དུས་ "spring period"; 3) དབྱར་གྱི་དུས་ "summer period"; 4) དབྱར་ཐུང་ངུའི་དུས་ "short summer period"; 5) དབྱར་རིང་པོའི་དུས་ "long summer period". དང་པོ་ནི། ཧོར་ཟླ་བཅུ་པའི་བཅུ་དྲུག་ནས་གཉིས་པའི་བཅོ་ལྔའི་བར་རོ། གཉིས་པ་ནི། ཧོར་ཟླ་གཉིས་པའི་བཅུ་དྲུག་ནས་དྲུག་པའི་བཅོ་ལྔའི་བར…
ཡེ་ཤེས་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྐུ་
Transliteration: ye shes chos kyi sku
<phrase> "The wisdom dharmakāya" i.e., "the wisdom reality body of a buddha". Translation of the Sanskrit "jñānadharmakāya". The term means "the kaya which is the wisdom aspect of ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྐུ་ the reality body" q.v.
The innermost core of a buddha's mind is its emptiness. That is called the ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་ཀྱི་སྐུ་ "essential body" of a buddha. A buddha's mind is not merely empty though, it has a k…
བྱེ་བྲག་
Transliteration: bye brag
I. <adj> 1) "Particular" or "specific", the opp. of སྤྱི་ "general" or "non-specific". Used in the adv. form བྱེ་བྲག་ཏུ་, it means "doing it according to the specifics or particulars rather than in general" or can also be "in detail" as opposed to "in general / in overview". Hence also "detail" as opposed to "overall". See also སྤྱི་དང་བྱེ་བྲག་ q.v. 2) In a "detailed" way, a way which is no…
སྙིང་རྗེ་
Transliteration: snying rje
<noun> "Compassion". Translation of the Sanskrit "karuṇā". 1) In general meaning compassion. Earlier translations of "pity" and "mercy" are incorrect. The discussion of compassion is an involved subject, since there are many levels of compassion. Generally speaking though, compassion is defined as the mind which wishes that other beings could have their unsatisfactory situation, whatever it…
