སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་ཀྱི་མདོ་རྒྱུད་ཉི་ཤུ་རྩ་གཅིག་
Transliteration: spyan ras gzigs kyi mdo rgyud nyi shu rtsa gcig
<phrase> "The twenty-one sutra tantras of Avalokiteśhvara". The tantras of སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་དབང་ཕྱུག་ Avalokiteśhvara consist of twenty-two main, individual texts, most of which are called sutras in this lower tantra system. At the command of Songtsen Gampo, the set was gathered by Thumi Sambhota when he went to India to study languages. Thumi brought them back to Tibet as commanded and, as so…
རྣལ་འབྱོར་
Transliteration: rnal 'byor
I. <noun> "Yoga". Translation of the Sanskrit "yoga". The original Sanskrit lit. means "to join together" but has several usages. This Tibetan term translates one of several usages of the Sanskrit term "yoga". The Tibetans translated the specific meaning of a spiritual practice done to re-unite the mind with reality. The Tibetan is actually རྣལ་མ་ལ་འབྱོར་བ་ "to join (again with) what is rea…
དམུ་རྒོད་
Transliteration: dmu rgod
<noun><adj> 1) A general term for beings who have not been educated and trained to a better style of behaviour and hence who are a tough and coarse in their behaviour. The term is used for a variety of degrees of uncivilized / untamed people, from someone who is a bit hard to work with and bring along all the way through someone who is completely savage because of their lack of traini…
སྒྲ་འོད་ཟེར་གསུམ་
Transliteration: sgra 'od zer gsum
<phrase> "The three—sounds, lights, and rays". Used to describe 1) the appearances that arise in the dharmatā bardo after death, and 2) the appearances of ཐོད་རྒལ་ Direct Crossing in which these same appearances are seen and brought into one's realization. E.g., [TYL] ཁྱོད་གདོས་བཅས་ཤ་ཁྲག་གི་ལུས་དང་བྲལ་བས་ཆོས་ཉིད་བར་དོའི་སྒྲ་དང་འོད་དང་། །ཟེར་གྱིས་སྐྲག་པའི་དོན་མེད་དོ། "You have separated from…
ཐེག་པ་དམན་པ་
Transliteration: theg pa dman pa
<noun> "The Lesser Vehicle". Translation of the Sanskrit "Hīnayāna". This is the lesser of all the vehicles to enlightenment taught by the Buddha. It contains two (lower and higher respectively) sub-divisions: 1) ཉན་ཐོས་ཀྱི་ཐེག་པ་ "the Śhrāvaka vehicle"; and 2) རང་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཐེག་པ་ "the Pratyekabuddha vehicle". It is considered the lesser of the vehicles because it taught to suit those wh…
སྦྱིན་པ་
Transliteration: sbyin pa
I. <verb> v.t. བྱིན་པ་/ སྦྱིན་པ་/ སྦྱིན་པ་/ སྦྱིན་/. 1) The Sanskrit verb is "dā". The general meaning is "to give something" with the particular sense of "donating". E.g., [TC] མི་གཞན་ཞིག་གིས་རང་ལ་བདེ་སྐྱིད་ཀྱི་འཚོ་བ་སྦྱིན་མི་ཡོང་། "another person cannot donate the sustenance of happiness to us"; བུ་མོ་མནའ་མར་བྱིན། "the girl was given as a common wife for the family"; རྒྱུ་དངོས་སྦྱིན་པ། "t…
སྐུ་ལྔ་
Transliteration: sku lnga
<enum> "The five kāyas" i.e., the five bodies of a buddha. See སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་སྐུ་ buddha bodies for a general discussion. There are several formulations of five buddha bodies in sutra Mahāyāna and in tantra, as well.
I. Meaning the five different types of kāya that are generally known and mentioned. In this case, it is not an assignment of the kāyas but a roundup of the names of the kāyas in …
འགྲན་པ་
Transliteration: 'gran pa
I. <verb> v.t. འགྲན་པ་/ འགྲན་པ་/ འགྲན་པ་/ འགྲན་/. 1) To pit things against each other in a match to see which is best. The verbs "to match" and "to rival" and "to test against" are usually the closest fit, though "to vie with", "to compete with", "to contend with", "to challenge" are suitable at times. Note that most of these English verbs have both transitive and intransitive usages; it is…
TIBETAN TRANSLITERATION SYSTEM
Different methods for representing Tibetan letters using the English alphabet have been employed since the early 1800’s. In the 1940’s Turrell Wylie published an academic paper with a system for transliterating Tibetan into English. His system has been widely adopted and is called “Wylie” transliteration. Unfortunately, other schemes have been invented and persist, so there is no one sta…
ཉག་ཅིག་
Transliteration: nyag cig
I. <adj> General meaning. 1) "Single", "sole", "unique". This term has the general sense of "just one and not anything else" but also has the specific connotation of "being all-encompassing". Thus it has the sense of "one single, all-inclusive" whatever it might be. E.g., རྒྱུ་མཚན་ཉག་གཅིག་ "one, sole, all-encompassing reason". "Unique" would be correct only in some contexts (e.g., see below…
མི་རྟོག་པའི་ཧད་པོ་
Transliteration: mi rtog pa'i had po
<phrase> "No-thought blankness"; a possible state in meditation which is regarded as a mistake. The state seems good because there is no movement of thought but has the fault that the གསལ་ཆ་ illumination factor is missing. See also ཧད་པོ་. Gampopa said of this, as quoted by Padma Karpo in [DDT]: རྟོག་པ་མི་འགྱུ་ཞིང་གསལ་ཆ་མེད་པའི་ཧད་དེ་བ་ལ་མི་རྟོག་ཧད་པོ་ལུང་མ་བསྟན་ཞེས་གསུངས། "The experience o…
དགོངས་པ་ངེས་པར་འགྲེལ་པའི་མདོ་
Transliteration: dgongs pa nges par 'grel pa'i mdo
<noun> "Unravelling of the Thought Sūtra". Translation of the Sanskrit "saṃdhinirmocana sūtra". Full name in Sanskrit "ārya saṃdhinirmocana nāma mahāyānasūtra" and in Tibetan འཕགས་པ་དགོངས་པ་ངེས་པར་འགྲེལ་པའི་མདོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ་. A Great Vehicle sutra of the third turning, classed as one of the four sutras of the Mind Only school and a definitive meaning sutra. It is usually clas…
གྲངས་གནས་དྲུག་ཅུ་
Transliteration: grangs gnas drug cu
"The sixty numeric places". (For "numeric places" see གྲངས་གནས་). Ancient India had numbering systems that started with one and initially incremented through the powers of ten (1, 10, 100, 1000, 10,000, etc.). Each of the numbers in these systems had a name. The names of the lower numbers were constant through the systems however, the names tended to differ when the higher numbers were reached. A…
