ཀུན་བརྟགས་པའི་མ་རིག་པ་
Transliteration: kun brtags pa'i ma rig pa
<noun> "Totally conceptualizing ignorance". Usual abbrev. of ཀུན་ཏུ་བརྟགས་པའི་མ་རིག་པ་. All schools of Buddhist philosophy describe the root cause of cyclic existence as མ་རིག་པ་ "ignorance that does not see reality". When this is examined more closely, some schools, such as some sūtra schools and the ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་ Mahāmudrā system, further describe that as being two-fold: ལྷན་ཅིག་སྐྱེས་པ…
ཐེག་པ་དགུ་
Transliteration: theg pa dgu
<phrase> "The Nine Yānas", "The Nine Vehicles". The dharma system of the སྔ་དར་ first spread of Buddhism into Tibet, called རྙིང་མ་པ་ Nyingmapa, describes the whole Buddhist teaching as being made up of ཐེག་པ་དགུ་ nine vehicles. The nine vehicles of this system are: 1) ཉན་ཐོས་ཀྱི་ཐེག་པ་ [Skt. śhrāvakayāna] the hearer's vehicle; 2) རང་རྒྱལ་གྱི་ཐེག་པ་ [Skt. pratyekabuddhayāna] "the individual…
གཟུགས་ཁམས་ཀྱི་གནས་རིགས་བཅུ་བདུན་
Transliteration: gzugs khams kyi gnas rigs bcu bdun
<phrase> "The seventeen types of abodes of the form realm". The གཟུགས་ཁམས་ "Form Realm" consists of གཟུགས་ཁམས་ཀྱི་གནས་རིས་བཞི་ four major levels of abode of the form realm gods. These four major levels contain a total of seventeen different abodes (for an altern. listing of sixteen abodes of the form realm see གཟུགས་ཁམས་བཅུ་དྲུག་ "the sixteen form realms"). The four major strata with their …
ལྷུན་གྲུབ་
Transliteration: lhun grub
<noun> Tibetan translation of the Sanskrit "anubhoga". Verb form is ལྷུན་གྱིས་གྲུབ་པ་ q.v.
i) "Spontaneous existence" in general, referring to anything that གྲུབ་པ་ comes about of itself, which needs no outside cause or condition for its coming into existence.
2) "Spontaneous existence" is used heavily in the higher tantras, in both Mahāmudrā and རྫོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ Great Completion, to indicate …
ཀླུའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་
Transliteration: klu'i rgyal po
"Nāga King(s)". Translation of the Sanskrit "nāgarājā". Freq. abbrev. to ཀླུ་རྒྱལ་ and synonymous with ཀླུ་ཆེན་. There are eight Nāga Kings / Great Nāgas—see ཀླུའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཆེན་པོ་བརྒྱད་. The Buddhist sūtras mention a variety of nāga rulers, greater and lesser. The [MVP] gives a list of seventy-one of them, as follows:
1. Saṅkhapālo nāgarājāཀླུའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་དུང་སྐྱོང་the conch-shell keeper, a nāgarājā…
ཐོགས་པ་
Transliteration: thogs pa
I. <verb> v.t. ཐོགས་པ་/ ཐོགས་པ་/ ཐོགས་པ་/ ཐོགས་/. "To take hold of and carry / use / wield / brandish / support". Note that the verb is similar to སྣོམ་པ་ which can be used as its [Hon]. E.g., མཚོན་ཆ་མཐོན་པོར་ཐོགས་པ། "the weapons were held / carried aloft"; ལག་ཏུ་མཚོན་ཆ་ཐོགས་ནས་འཐབ་འཛིང་གི་གྲ་སྒྲིག་བྱེད་པ། "having taken the weapon in hand, he prepared to do battle".
II. <verb> v.i. ཐོག…
ཡིད་ལ་བྱེད་པ་
Transliteration: yid la byed pa
<noun> Translation of the Sanskrit "manasikāra". 1) According to the Abhidharma, this is a སེམས་བྱུང་ mental event which is one of the ཀུན་ཏུ་འགྲོ་བ་ལྔ་ omnipresent mental events. This mental event functions to direct the mind towards an object. As such it has been called "attention" and several other terms however, there is no specific word in English for it. 2) It is also used apart from …
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…
དྲང་སྲོང་ལྷུང་པ་
Transliteration: drang srong lhung pa
<noun> "Ṛiṣhis Dropping". The name in English of "Ṛiṣhipartana", one of the 36 sacred places of Buddhists in ancient India, which is a spot near the Deer Park in modern Sarnath, near Benares, where Buddha first preached the dharma. Jamgon Kongtrul in his ཤེས་བྱ་མཛོད་ Treasury of Knowledge mentions that the Buddha first turned the wheel of dharma in the area of Vārāṇasi, at Ṛishipartana, in …
ཁྱབ་འཇུག་གི་འཇུག་པ་བཅུ་
Transliteration: khyab 'jug gi 'jug pa bcu
"The ten incarnations of Viṣhṇu". [DGT] gives as: 1) ཉ་ "fish"; 2) རུས་སྦལ་ "tortoise"; 3) ཕག་རྒོད་ "wild pig"; 4) མིའི་སེང་གེ་ "lion of a man"; 5) ར་མ་ལྷ་ "the god Rama"; 6) མིའུ་ཐུང་ "a dwarf"; 7) ནག་པོ་ "the god Krishna"; 8) ཀཱི་རྟེ་ཙི་ "the saint Parku"; 9) ཤཱཀྱ་ཐུབ་པ་ "Buddha Śhākyamuni"; 10) རིགས་ལྡན་ "Kulika". [DGT] provides the following commentary:
དེ་ལ་འཇུག་པ་དང་པོ་ནི། སྔོན་རིག་བྱེད་བཞི་…
འཇིག་ཚོགས་ལ་ལྟ་བ་
Transliteration: 'jig tshogs la lta ba
<noun> "(Wrong) view of the perishing collection". Translation of the Sanskrit [NDS] "satkāyadrṣhṭiḥ". One of the ལྟ་བ་ལྔ་ five wrong views described by the Buddha. This is a view in which the five aggregates which are perishing from moment to moment, and which are a collection of many things put together are taken as my and mine. It is also one of the ཀུན་ཏུ་སྦྱོར་བ་གསུམ་ three enmeshments…
ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་
Transliteration: ting nge 'dzin
<noun> "Concentration". Translation of the Sanskrit "samādhi". One of a group of three, important terms in Buddhist meditation. The other two are སྙོམས་འཇུག་ "samāpatti" and མཉམ་བཞག་ "samāhita" q.v. The terms are not interchangeable, each having its own, specific meaning.
Samādhi is used as a general, non-technical term indicating concentration of the mind onto some subject. It is also speci…
ཤེས་རབ་
Transliteration: shes rab
<noun> "prajñā". Translation of the Sanskrit "prajñā". Defined as pra "a better or the best kind of" jñā "knowing or mind". This refers to the intelligent portion of a person's mind. It is like intelligence but is used slightly differently because intelligence is the general faculty of being able to understand using the intellect and can range from very dull to very acute whereas "prajñā" m…
