ལྷུན་གྲུབ་ཀྱི་སྒོ་བརྒྱད་
Transliteration: lhun grub kyi sgo brgyad
<phrase> "The eight doors of spontaneous existence". A key term of innermost Great Completion teaching. The eight are: 1) ཐུགས་རྗེ་ the gate of manifesting as compassionate activity; 2) འོད་ the gate of manifesting as light; 3) སྐུ་ the gate of manifesting as kayas; 4) ཡེ་ཤེས་ the gate of manifesting as wisdom; 5) གཉིས་མེད་ the gate of manifesting as non-duality; 6) མཐའ་གྲོལ་ the gate of ma…
སེམས་བསྐྱེད་བཞི་
Transliteration: sems bskyed bzhi
<enum> "The four arousals of (bodhi) mind". The སེམས་བསྐྱེད་ཉེར་གཉིས་ twenty-two arousals of bodhi mind q.v. are put into four main categories. These correspond to four styles of arousing bodhicitta in relation to increasing levels of attainment on the Mahāyāna path. [DGT] [JKE] give as: 1) མོས་པས་སྤྱོད་པའི་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་ "the arousal of mind of intentional conduct"; 2) ལྷག་བསམ་དག་པའི་སེམས་བས…
ཀ་དག་གི་སྤྱི་གཞི་
Transliteration: ka dag gi spyi gzhi
<phrase> "Alpha purity's general ground". A རྫོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ Great Completion term. In Great Completion texts that explain the nature of the ground, such as [TSD], it is stated that the ground itself can be the ཀ་དག་གི་འཁྲུལ་གཞི་ ground of confusion and also the ཀ་དག་གི་གྲོལ་གཞི་ ground of liberation from that confusion. [TSD] says, གཞི་སྣང་དུ་ཤར་དུས་གྲོལ་འཁྲུལ་གཉིས་ཀའི་གཞི་བྱེད་པའི་ཆ་ནས་སྤྱ…
འོད་ཆུང་
Transliteration: 'od chung
<noun> "Lesser Light". Translation of the Sanskrit "parīttābhāḥ". The name of the lowest of the three levels of abodes in the བསམ་གཏན་གཉིས་པ་ second dhyāna of the གཟུགས་ཁམས་ form realm. The named is derived from the fact that the འོད་ radiance and brilliance of the gods born in this abode is ཆུང་བ་ lesser than those born in the two levels above them. Note that ཆུང་བ་ here does not mean "lim…
སྐྱེས་རབས་
Transliteration: skyes rabs
<noun> 1) "Succession of lives / lifetimes", meaning a "succession of births" at any time past, present, or future. (The past form སྐྱེས་ is an abbrev. of སྐྱེས་པ་ meaning simply "birth". Hence the term does not only mean births that have already happened but any series of births of the past or future, including the present. 2) Hence also, "narratives of former births / lives" i.e., the lif…
ཁོངས་སུ་སྡུད་པ་
Transliteration: khongs su sdud pa
<verb> v.t. see སྡུད་པ་ for tense forms. The exact intransitive form is ཁོངས་སུ་འདུ་བ་ though ཁོངས་སུ་གཏོགས་པ་ is used for the intransitive more often q.v. "To include within a category or grouping" or " to incorporate within a category or grouping" or "to be categorized as". E.g., [KSM] སྒྲུབ་པར་བྱེད། ཅེས་པའི་ཚིག་འདི་སྒྲུབ་པ་པོ་ཞེས་པ་དང་ཤེད་མཚུངས་ཡིན་པས་བདག་གཞན་གཉིས་ཀྱི་ནང་ནས་བདག་གི་ཁོངས་ས…
མཐའ་བཞི་
Transliteration: mtha' bzhi
<phrase> 1) All the border regions of a place, the four border regions. Like saying in English "all four walls of a house" or "on every border of the country". 2) "The four extremes" are the four basic ways that reality could be described by a rational mind. A more elaborate version of them is contained in the མཐའ་བརྒྱད་ eight extremes of which they are the first two pairs q.v. Because they…
གླེང་བ་
Transliteration: gleng ba
I. <verb> v.t. གླེངས་པ་/ གླེང་བ་/ གླེང་བ་/ གླེངས་/. The term means to talk to others so that they have a situation explained or are told about something. It is used in the senses of "to narrate a story to others", "to tell about something", and "to provide talk that explains something to others". Although the term can be translated with "told, narrated, explained" because the term always ha…
ཟུང་འཇུག་ཉེར་གསུམ་
Transliteration: zung 'jug nyer gsum
<enum> "The twenty-three unities". [JKE] gives as: 1) འཁོར་འདས་དབྱེར་མེད་ཀྱི་ཟུང་འཇུག་ "the unity of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa"; 2) ཀུན་བྱང་གི་ཟུང་འཇུག་ "the unity of total (affliction) and (complete) purity"; 3) རྣམ་བཅས་རྣམ་མེད་ཀྱི་ཟུང་འཇུག་ ""; 4) གཟུང་འཛིན་གྱི་ཟུང་འཇུག་ "the unity of grasping and grasper"; 5) རྟག་ཆད་བྲལ་བའི་ཟུང་འཇུག་ ""; 6) སྟོང་ཉིད་སྙིང་རྗེའི་ཟུང་འཇུག་ "the unity of emptiness…
བཞེངས་བཞིན་དུ་མ་བཏུད་པར་ཕྱག་པུས་མོར་སླེབས་པ་
Transliteration: bzhengs bzhin du ma btud par phyag pus mor slebs pa
<phrase> "Standing without bending, his hands reach to the knees". The portion ཕྱག་པུས་མོར་སླེབས་པ་ is a translation of the Sanskrit [NDS] "pralambabāhu". One of the སྐྱེས་བུ་ཆེན་པོའི་མཚན་བཟང་པོ་སུམ་ཅུ་སོ་གཉིས་ thirty-two marks of a great being. Because of the merit of generosity that a buddha has accumulated, his arms are particularly long; his hands reach to his knees even when he is stan…
སྤྱིར་བསྟན་
Transliteration: spyir bstan
<noun> form of སྤྱིར་བསྟན་པ་ q.v. "General presentation" or "overview". One of a range of terms used to indicate a certain level or type of presentation of a topic; see also མདོར་བསྟན་པ་ "synopsis" and རྒྱས་པར་བཤད་པ་ "extensive explanation".
This term can either mean the general presentation that forms the body of a main presentation or it can mean the general presentation that forms an over…
དབྱེ་བསྲི་མེད་པ་
Transliteration: dbye bsri med pa
<phrase> An uncommon phrase, usually seen in the <adv> form དབྱེ་བསྲི་མེད་པར་. E.g., in a quote from terma, དབྱེ་བསྲི་མེད་པའི་ཀློང་དུ་བཤགས་པར་བགྱི༔ "Laying aside is done in the expanse absent of all reservations". The term refers to holding back some kind of judgement or distinction when none is needed at all. In the case just quoted, it refers to space of realization in which no dist…
སྟོང་ཆེན་པོའི་འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་ཁམས་
Transliteration: stong chen po'i 'jig rten gyi khams
<phrase> "A great chiliocosm world system" or "highest order thousand-fold world system". The same as སྟོང་གསུམ་པ་ "third order chiliocosm" q.v.
In order to explain cosmology, the buddha first explained the layout of an individual world system. This is defined as single system with Mt. Meru in the centre and the four continents, and so forth surrounding it. It includes the local physical wor…
འོད་གསལ་
Transliteration: 'od gsal
<noun> 1) "Illuminating". Translation of the Sanskrit "prabhāsvara". The name of the third (and highest) of the three levels of abodes in the བསམ་གཏན་གཉིས་པ་ second dhyāna of the གཟུགས་ཁམས་ form realm. The radiance and brilliance of the gods illuminates the other levels of the gods as well as their own level, hence the name. The name does not mean "clear light"; that is a common misundersta…
གཙང་རིས་ལྷ་གནས་
Transliteration: gtsang ris lha gnas
<phrase> "Pure level heaven(s)". The གཟུགས་ཁམས་ form realm consists of གཟུགས་ཁམས་ཀྱི་གནས་རིགས་བཅུ་བདུན་ seventeen types of abodes of gods, the lower twelve of which are part of cyclic existence and the upper five of which are not but which are figuratively placed above the lower twelve. The lower twelve levels are populated by སོ་སོའི་སྐྱེ་བོ་ individualized sentient beings dwelling in the …
དོན་ཚན་
Transliteration: don tshan
<noun> "A section of meaning" in the sense of "a section containing one topic". Grammar term. It indicates the end of a major section of meaning in writing. A section of meaning is usually less than a complete chapter but is usually the equivalent of at least several paragraphs in an English book; it would be equivalent to the one or more paragraphs contained under a sub-heading in a chapte…
ལམ་བདེན་གྱི་རྣམ་པ་བདུན་
Transliteration: lam bden gyi rnam pa bdun
<enum> "The seven superficies of the truth of the path". [JKE] gives as: 1) ཚད་མེད་པའི་རྣམ་པ་ "the superfice of no measure"; 2) མཐའ་གཉིས་དང་མ་འདྲེས་པའི་རྣམ་པ་ "... no mixture with the two extremes"; 3) ཐ་མི་དད་པའི་རྣམ་པ་ "... no non-separation"; 4) མཆོག་ཏུ་འཛིན་པ་མེད་པའི་རྣམ་པ་ "... no non-grasping at supremacy"; 5) རྣམ་པར་མི་རྟོག་པའི་རྣམ་པ་ "... no complete no-thought"; 6) གཞལ་དུ་མིད་པའི་ར…
ཤིང་ཉྱགྲོདྷ་ལྟར་ཆུ་ཞེང་གབ་པ་
Transliteration: shing ny+yagrodha ltar chu zheng gab pa
<phrase> "(Body) well-proportioned like the Nyagrodha tree". Translation of the Sanskrit [NDS] "nyagrodhaparimaṇḍala". One of the སྐྱེས་བུ་ཆེན་པོའི་མཚན་བཟང་པོ་སུམ་ཅུ་སོ་གཉིས་ thirty-two marks of a great being. Note that this does not mean that his body is merely "proportioned like a Nyagrodha tree" as one translator has given but that his body is "finely proportioned and hence has an excell…
མིང་དོན་
Transliteration: ming don
I. <phrase> "Name and meaning". This is a grammatical term which is an abbrev. of མིང་གི་ཐ་སྙད་དང་མིང་གི་དོན་. The མིང་ "name" is the specific ཐ་སྙད་ convention used to name something and the དོན་ meaning is the particular thing known by the mind (a "fact" for the mind) that it refers to. More precisely, the name is གདགས་གཞི་གང་ལ་འདོགས་བྱེད་ཀྱི་མིང་ the name that is applied to some basis of…
གནས་ཚུལ་
Transliteration: gnas tshul
<noun> "Situation / circumstance(s)". 1) In general, meaning what is in a certain place and how things are happening there. The term is similar to but not the same as གནས་ལུགས་. This term is mostly used to refer to the situation as it is in any given moment where the other is used to mean the actuality, the inner reality of any situation. E.g., this term would be used in a newspaper to mean…
