མཐོང་སྤང་ལྡོག་པ་གཟུང་རྟོག་དགུ་
Transliteration: mthong spang ldog pa gzung rtog dgu
<enum> [JKE] gives as: 1) ཉན་རང་གི་ལམ་འབྲས་རྟོགས་པ་དམན་པ་ལ་དམིགས་པ་ ""; 2) བདག་རྐྱེན་ཡོངས་འཛིན་དམན་པ་ལ་དམིགས་པ་ ""; 3) གཞན་དོན་སྒྲུབ་པའི་ཐབས་དམན་པ་ལ་དམིགས་པ་ ""; 4) རང་དོན་སྒྲུབ་པའི་ཐབས་དམན་པ་ལ་དམིགས་པ་ ""; 5) གཉིས་ཀའི་དོན་སྒྲུབ་པའི་ཐབས་དམན་པ་ལ་དམིགས་པ་ ""; 6) སྤང་བྱ་དམན་པ་ལ་དམིགས་པ་ ""; 7) རྟོགས་པ་དམན་པ་ལ་དམིགས་པ་ ""; 8) ལམ་ཁྱད་པར་ཅན་མ་ཐོབ་པས་ཉམས་པ་ལ་དམིགས་པ་ ""; 9) འབྲས་བུ་ཁྱད་པར་ཅན་མ་ཐོབ…
ཤན་འབྱེད་པ་
Transliteration: shan 'byed pa
I. <verb> v.t. see འབྱེད་པ་ for tense forms. "To differentiate" between two or more things. The verb specifically means to take each item in a group of two or more and separate it out so that it is distinct from the others and known for what it is.
Notes: The verb "to distinguish" is close but does not quite match the meaning, however the phrase "to separately distinguish" "or distinguish be…
ཕྱོགས་བཅུ་
Transliteration: phyogs bcu
<phrase> "The ten directions". The term derives from ancient India where it was used to mean "every direction that you could go in" and as such as the exact equivalent of the English phrase "(all) for directions".
[DGT] gives as: ཕྱོགས་བཞི་མཚམས་བཞི་སྟེང་འོག་གཉིས་ "the four cardinal directions, the four intermediate directions, and above and below (zenith and nāḍīr)". The ten directions are t…
ཀློ་ཁ་ཁྲ་
Transliteration: klo kha khra
<noun> General name in earlier times for the areas to the south of Tibet, such as Mon, that were seen as the lands of the ཀླ་ཀློ་ barbarians. E.g., [KZZ] ཀླ་ཀློ་ཞེས་པ་ནི་ཀློ་ཁ་ཁྲ་ཞེས་པ་ལ་སོགས་མཐའ་འཁོབ་སུམ་ཅུ་རྩ་གཉིས་ཡོད་པར་བཤད་པ་རྣམས། Patrul Rinpoche says that 32 such lands were known in his time. This included the areas around what are now northern Burma and far Eastern India, where cannib…
ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་མདོ་སྡེའི་རྒྱན་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཚིག་ལེའུར་བྱས་པ་
Transliteration: theg pa chen po mdo sde'i rgyan zhes bya ba'i tshig le'ur byas pa
<noun> "The Stanzas Called "The Ornament of the Mahāyāna Sūtra Section"". The full name of a text by Asaṅga. Translation of the Sanskrit "Mahāyānasutrālaṅkāra nāma kārikā". It is one of the བྱམས་ཆོས་སྡེ་ལྔ་ "Five Dharmas of Maitreya" and of those is one of the རྒྱན་གཉིས་ two ornaments written by Asaṅga q.v.
འགྱེས་པ་
Transliteration: 'gyes pa
<verb> v.i. གྱེས་པ་/ འགྱེས་པ་/ འགྱེས་པ་//. Meaning "to separate into pieces / parts". This is used for physical items in the sense of "to split up", "to break up", "to part ways". E.g., ཤིང་པ་སྟ་རེ་ཡིས་ཤིང་བཅད་ནས་གྱེས་པ། "the woodsman cut the tree into pieces with his axe". E.g., [TC] བཟའ་ཚང་ཐ་དད་དུ་གྱེས་པ། "the married couple separated / parted ways / broke up / split up"; རྣམ་པ་གཉིས་སུ་འག…
ཉོན་མོངས་པའི་སྒྲིབ་པ་
Transliteration: nyon mongs pa'i sgrib pa
<noun> "Afflictional obscuration", "obscuration of the afflictions". Translation of the Sanskrit [NDS] "kleśhāvaraṇaṃ". One of the སྒྲིབ་པ་གཉིས་ "two obscurations" and སྒྲིབ་པ་བཞི་ four obscurations. The Buddha summed up all of the factors that obscure the mind from seeing reality completely (i.e., which prevented it from the full awakening of buddhahood) into two groups: 1) "the affliction…
གསུང་རབ་
Transliteration: gsung rab
<noun> Lit. "excellent speech" meaning a collection of discourses given by an eminent spiritual person which have been written down for posterity. For example, the discourses of the Buddha as preserved in writing, such as in the བཀའ་འགྱུར་ Tibetan Buddhist Canon are called the གསུང་རབ་ "Excellent Speech". When the Buddha's general discourses were written down by the great arhats, they were …
དགོངས་འགྲེལ་
Transliteration: dgongs 'grel
<noun> "Commentary on the intent". A commentary written to elucidate the intent of a teaching given by some earlier person, e.g., the Buddha. E.g., ལྷའི་བུས་ཞུས་པའི་མདོ་ལས། ཆོས་རྣམས་ཐམས་ཅད་བཀའ་དང་བསྟན་བཅོས་གཉིས་སུ་འདུས། །ལེགས་པར་གསུངས་དང་དེ་ཡི་དགོངས་འགྲེལ་པ། །དེ་ཡི་དབང་གིས་ཤཱཀྱའི་བསྟན་པ་འདི། "From the Sutra Petitioned by Devaputra: "All dharmas are contained within the Buddha Word and the T…
འོད་སྲུང་ཆེན་པོ་
Transliteration: 'od srung chen po
<noun> "Great Kāśhyapa". Translation of the Sanskrit "mahākāśhyapa". 1) One of the principal arhat-monks in the Buddha's inner retinue of ten disciples. He was known as the one who was supreme in learning. He was the principal one involved when the piṭaka of Abhidharma as spoken by the Buddha was first written down at the first Great Council. He was the first of the "excellent seven" to who…
ཚངས་པའི་དབྱངས་
Transliteration: tshangs pa'i dbyangs
<noun> "A Brahma-like melodious voice". 1) Translation of the Sanskrit [NDS] "brahmaghoṣha". The name of one of the སྐྱེས་བུ་ཆེན་པོའི་མཚན་བཟང་པོ་སུམ་ཅུ་སོ་གཉིས་ thirty-two marks of a great being q.v. Indian literature describes the great god Brahma as having the most beautiful of voices, with sixty sets of དབྱངས་ overtones to it. These same qualities were ascribed to the Buddha's voice. 2) …
རྣམ་དབྱེ་བཞི་པ་
Transliteration: rnam dbye bzhi pa
<noun> "The fourth case" of Tibetan grammar. The name of the case is དགོས་ཆེད་ "purposive". This case is the exact equivalent of the case of the same name in Sanskrit. It is actually a sub-set of the རྣམ་དབྱེ་གཉིས་པ་ second case but is not defined that way. The second case shows the object of a transitive or intransitive verbal action. This case shows the object of a transitive action where…
རང་གི་དོན་
Transliteration: rang gi don
<phrase> 1) "Private concern" or private matter as opposed to a སྤྱི་ཡི་དོན་ public concern or general concern. 2) "One's own aims". One of the དོན་གཉིས་ two aims or objectives. This term is used in reference to activity done to aid one's own purposes or aims as opposed to གཞན་གྱི་དོན་ the purposes or aims of others. This pair of terms is used heavily in the ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ Great Vehicle wher…
ཚེ་སྐབས་
Transliteration: tshe skabs
I. <phrase> Meaning "at that particular time", "at that confluence of time and events" see སྐབས་.
II. <noun> "Time-circumstance". Grammar term. The term is glossed in all grammar texts as meaning ཚེ་དང་སྐབས་གཉིས་པོ། i.e., the two separate, though related, things of "time and circumstance both". This makes for an unpleasant-sounding translation but it is the meaning intended in Tibetan …
མདོ་སྡེ་ལུང་སྡེ་བཞི་
Transliteration: mdo sde lung sde bzhi
<phrase> The "four sections of the agamas of Sūtra". The Agama section is one of གསུང་རབ་ཀྱི་ཡན་ལག་བཅུ་གཉིས་ "the twelve branches of the excellent speech" that comprise the written teachings of the Buddha. It has four, main sections: 1) ལུང་གཅིག་ལས་འཕྲོས་པ་ "the ones that come from one agama"; 2) ལུང་བར་མ་ "middle length agamas"; 3) ལུང་རིང་པོ་ "long agamas"; and 4) ལུང་དག་ལྡན་ "having mult…
གཟུགས་ཁམས་ཀྱི་གནས་བཞི་
Transliteration: gzugs khams kyi gnas bzhi
<phrase> "The four abodes (of the gods) of the form realm". These are the four main levels of the གཟུགས་ཁམས་ form realm. Each level is a dwelling place of the gods of the form realm that is made of subtle form produced by the deep absorbtion of the gods living there. The levels correspond to the བསམ་གཏན་ four dhyāna and hence are called: 1) བསམ་གཏན་དང་པོའི་གནས་ "abode of the first dhyāna"; …
སུམ་ཅུ་སོ་གསུམ་
Transliteration: sum cu so gsum
<noun> 1) The number "thirty-three".
2) "The Thirty-three". Translation of the Sanskrit [NDS] "trāyastriṃśhāḥ". The general name for the second (from the lowest) of the འདོད་ལྷ་རིགས་དྲུག་ six classes of gods in the འདོད་ཁམས་ desire realm. It is named after the fact that thirty-three different types of gods live there. Also, this was the abode of the Ārya Sthavira ལམ་ཆེན་བསྟན་ Mahāpanthaka q.…
མིང་དང་གཟུགས་
Transliteration: ming dang gzugs
<phrase> "Name and form". Translation of the Sanskrit "nāmarūpa". Name and form are a crucial part of the process that drives the cycling through births in deluded existence, being the fourth of the རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་བའི་ཚུལ་བཅུ་གཉིས་ twelve processes of dependent-related arising q.v. "Name and form" refers to an entire being by referring to the mental aspects that a sentient being ha…
གཙུག་ཏོར་
Transliteration: gtsug tor
<noun> "Crown probuterance". Translation of the Sanskrit "uṣhṇīṣha". 1) The name of the fleshy protuberance that appears on the crown of the head of a buddha. It is one of the སྐྱེས་བུ་ཆེན་པོའི་མཚན་བཟང་པོ་སུམ་ཅུ་སོ་གཉིས་ thirty-two major marks of a buddha. 2) The name given to long hair which is bound up above the head to look like the crown protuberance of a buddha. The deities of unsurpas…
ཆེན་པོ་བདུན་
Transliteration: chen po bdun
<enum> "The seven greats". The མདོ་སྡེ་རྒྱན་ Sūtrālaṃkara explains that the ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ "Great Vehicle" when precisely defined has seven "great" things to it. The text says:
དམིགས་པ་ཆེ་བ་ཉིད་དང་ནི། །དེ་བཞིན་སྒྲུབ་པ་གཉིས་དག་དང་། །ཡེ་ཤེས་བརྩོན་འགྲུས་རྩོམ་པ་དང་། །ཐབས་ལ་མཁས་པར་གྱུར་པ་དང་། །ཡང་དག་སྒྲུབ་པ་ཆེན་པོ་དང་། །སངས་རྒྱས་ཕྲིན་ལས་ཆེན་པོ་སྟེ། །ཆེན་པོ་འདི་དང་ལྡན་པའི་ཕྱིར། །ཐེག་ཆེན་ཞེས་ནི་ངེས་…
ཤེད་མཚུངས་པ་
Transliteration: shed mtshungs pa
<adj> "Same force", "equal force". Grammar term. When one term carries the same weight of meaning as another term, it is a term of the same or equal or equivalent force. E.g., according to Tibetan verb theory of transitive verbs, the terms སྒྲུབ་པར་བྱེད་ and སྒྲུབ་པ་པོ་ are two different terms that convey the same meaning, therefore they are of equal force. They both convey the meaning "the…
ས་སྲོས་པ་
Transliteration: sa sros pa
<phrase> 1) "Dark", "dusk", "evening". 2) The period of time after the sunset. 3) "Dark", "dusk", "evening" the name of the two hour period following the sunset on given as one of the དུས་ཚོད་བཅུ་གཉིས་ twelve watches of a day in the Vinaya. If sunrise is at 6 a.m. then it is the period from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The ancient Indians divided a day into twelve parts. This is the two hour or so perio…
