དཔལ་བཟང་པོ་
Transliteration: dpal bzang po
<noun> Translation of the Sanskrit "śhrī bhadra". 1) "Good Glory", the name of one of the འཕགས་པའི་གནས་བརྟན་བཅུ་དྲུག་ Sixteen Ārya Sthaviras q.v. His abode was the island of Yamuṇa. 2) "Good Glory", the name of a disciple of Nāropa and friend of Marpa who is recorded in Marpa's biography. 3) "Good Glory", a general name that is derived from the Indian way of naming and appended by Tibetans …
བཀའ་བབས་བཞི་
Transliteration: bka' babs bzhi
<enum> "The four lines of transmitted precepts". A number of "four lines of transmitted precepts" are referred to in Tibetan literature.
1) Referring to the early sources in India of tantric teachings that later came into Tibet.
i) In the Kagyu lineage, it refers to the four lines of transmission of tantric precepts that came to Tilopa through the human gurus Nāgārjuna, Kriṣhṇapada, Lavapa, a…
ཨ་ཏི་ཤ་
Transliteration: aa ti sha
<noun> "Atīśha". Translit. of the Sanskrit "atīśha". 1) Translated into Tibetan with ཕུལ་དུ་བྱུང་བ་ q.v. 2) [982-1054] Atīśha is the name of a great Indian Buddhist master who was born of the king of Sahor. By the end of the 10th century A.D., Buddhism in Tibet had been almost destroyed by the Tibetan King Langdarma. Therefore, in order to re-establish Buddhism in Tibet, the King of Ngari K…
སློབ་དཔོན་
Transliteration: slob dpon
<noun> "Master". Translation of the Sanskrit "āchārya" (see ཨཱ་ཙཱརྻ་). Someone who, being well-studied and hence well-versed in their field, teaches and cares for students. It can be a general appellation to such a person or can indicate that the person has obtained a degree at an institution. There are as many āchāryas as there are fields of study, craft , etc. that can be mastered. Anyone…
རྩིས་ཟིན་པ་
Transliteration: rtsis zin pa
I. <verb> v.i. see ཟིན་པ་ for tense forms. "To take something and make it count, to make it significant in one's life". E.g., when speaking of specific spiritual practices, it means not only to take them up but to make them count, to keep them in mind as important. E.g., བྱང་སེམས་རྩིས་ཟིན་དགོས་རེད། "it is necessary to take up bodhicitta".
This term can be quite hard to capture in English. It…
ནམ་མཁའ་སུམ་ཕྲུགས་
Transliteration: nam mkha' sum phrugs
<noun> "Three-fold Space". The name of a practice belonging to the མན་ངག་གི་སྡེ་ Upadeśha section of the རྫོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ Great Completion tantras. The three types of space involved in the practice are: 1) ཕྱི་རོལ་དཔེའི་ནམ་མཁའ་དག་པ་ "Outer, pure, simile space" (meaning the outer simile of space, a pure sky); 2) ནང་གི་ཆོས་ཉིད་དོན་གྱི་ནམ་མཁའ་ "inner, dharmatā, real space"; and 3) གསང་བ་འོད་གསལ…
བརྟུལ་ཞུགས་ཀྱི་ཡོ་བྱད་བཅུ་གཉིས་
Transliteration: brtul zhugs kyi yo byad bcu gnyis
<enum> [JKE] gives as: 1) རྡོར་དྲིལ་གཉིས་ "vajra and bell"; 2) ཅང་ཏེའུ "chang te'u"; 3) ཐོད་པ "skull-cup"; 4) ཁ་ཌ་ཁ "khatvanga"; 5) རུས་རྒྱན "bone ornaments"; 6) རིན་ཆེན་བརྒྱད "the eight jewelled items"; 7) གཙུག་ཏོར་སྲོག་གཞུ "the life-hat of the topknot"; 8) དགང་བླུགས "shruva and patri"; 9) བུམ་པ "vase"; 10) ཕྲེང་བ "mala"; 11) སྟག་པགས་ཤམ་ཐབས "tiger skin skirt"; 12) སྟོད་གཡོགས་སྨད་གཡོགས་ "up…
གསུང་རབ་ཀྱི་ཡན་ལག་བཅུ་གཉིས་
Transliteration: gsung rab kyi yan lag bcu gnyis
<phrase> "The twelve branches of the Excellent Speech".
I. The teachings of the Buddha were gathered together by his early disciples and placed into སྡེ་སྣོད་གསུམ་ three baskets and twelve branches. The twelve branches are [DGT]: 1) མདོའི་སྡེ་ "the sūtra section", see below for explanation; 2) དབྱངས་སུ་བསྙད་པའི་སྡེ་ or དབྱངས་ཀྱིས་བསྙད་པའི་སྡེ་ "the section related melodically", i.e., hymns a…
རྗེ་བཙུན་
Transliteration: rje btsun
<noun> "Jetsun". A term for which there is no real equivalent in English. Although some say that this is a purely Tibetan word, it is not true; it is used to translate a Sanskrit term.
The Tibetan Buddhist tradition glosses the term as meaning རྗེ་བཙུན་པ་ i.e., a རྗེ་ lord / leader amongst those who are བཙུན་པ་ persons of great integrity.
The term བཙུན་པ་ is used in religious literature in va…
ཚངས་པའི་གནས་བཞི་
Transliteration: tshangs pa'i gnas bzhi
<noun> "The four abodes of Brahma" or "the four Brahmavihāras". Translation of the Sanskrit [NDS] "catvāro brahmavihārāḥ". The name for a practice taught in the ཐེག་པ་དམན་པ་ Lesser Vehicle. The same practice but with a different perspective is taught in the ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ Great Vehicle where it is called ཚད་མེད་བཞི་ "the four immeasurables".
The four in order [NDS] are: 1) བྱམས་པ་ "loving kin…
ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན་པ་
Transliteration: thams cad mkhyen pa
<phrase> "All knowing" also translated as "omniscient". Translation of the Sanskrit "sarvajñā".
I. Primarily, one of many སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་མཚན་ epithets of the buddha. A buddha has the particular feature of knowing everything. This knowing of everything all at once is not through dualistic རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པ་ consciousness but through ཡེ་ཤེས་ non-dual wisdom. This all-knowing quality is classified in …
ལྷ་ཚེ་རིང་པོ་
Transliteration: lha tshe ring po
<noun> "Long-lived (or long-life) gods" a general name for birth as a god in the form or formless realms. Birth as a long-lived god is regarded as one of the མི་ཁོམ་པ་བརྒྱད་ eight unfree states because the level of enjoyment there is so high that the mind is not able to understand the fact of unsatisfactoriness and hence cannot take the dharma under consideration. In this case, long-lived g…
སི་ཏུའི་འགྲེལ་ཆེན་
Transliteration: si tu'i 'grel chen
<noun> "Situ's Great Commentary". The most common way of referring to the great commentary on grammar composed by བསྟན་པའི་ཉིན་བྱེད་ Tenpa'i Nyinje the eighth Situ Rinpoche which is called in full ཡུལ་གངས་ཅན་པའི་བརྡ་ཡང་དག་པར་སྦྱོར་བའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཀྱི་བྱེ་བྲག་སུམ་ཅུ་པ་དང་རྟགས་ཀྱི་འཇུག་པའི་གཞུང་གི་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པ་མཁས་པའི་མགུལ་རྒྱན་མུ་ཏིག་ཕྲེང་མཛེས་ཤེས་བྱ་བ་ "A Thorough Explanation of the Particula…
དཀར་ཆག་འཕང་ཐང་མ་
Transliteration: dkar chag 'phang thang ma
<noun> "The Phangthang Catalogue". The Tibetan King ཁྲི་ལྡེ་སྲོང་བཙན་ Tride Srongtsen q.v. ordered a cataloguing of the texts contained in the translations of and commentaries to the Buddha word that had been put together by his father, ཁྲི་སྲོང་ལྡེ་བཙན་ Trisong Deutsen q.v. Several great translators of the time, including སྐ་བ་དཔལ་བརྩེགས་ Kawa Paltseg and Namkha'i Nyingpo went to and staye…
ཚད་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་སྡེ་བདུན་
Transliteration: tshad ma'i bstan bcos sde bdun
<enum> "The Seven Treatises (Shaśhtras) on Valid Cognition". A set of seven treatises on pramāṇa by Dharmakīrti ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་ which amplified the writings and upheld the tradition of ཕྱོགས་གླང་ Dignāga. [DGT] gives the following: "The seven treatises consist of: 1) a full commentary on the subject ཚད་མ་རྣམ་འགྲེལ་ Pramāṇavartika; 2) a medium length work on the subject ཚད་མ་རྣམ་པར་ངེས་པ་ Pr…
ཕྱོགས་སྐྱོང་བཅུ་
Transliteration: phyogs skyong bcu
<phrase> "The Ten Guardians of the Directions"; the guardians of the ten directions, i.e., the four cardinal and four intermediate directions plus up above (the zenith) and down below (the nadir). They are also called འཇིག་རྟེན་སྐྱོང་བ་བཅུ་ "The Ten Guardians of the World" q.v. They are: 1) དབང་པོ་ "Indra" (which is ལྷ་དབང་བརྒྱ་བྱིན་ Devendra Kauśhika") in the East; 2) གཤིན་རྗེ་ "Yamarāja" …
