འཇམ་དཔལ་
Transliteration: 'jam dpal
<noun> "Mañjuśhrī". Translation of the Sanskrit "Mañjuśhrī". The name of one of the ཉེ་བའི་སྲས་བརྒྱད་ eight mahābodhisatvas who were the closest disciples of the Buddha. The name is explained in Tibetan texts as འཇམ་ soft/gentle + དཔལ་ glory. Mañjuśhrī is regarded as the epitome of intelligence. Mañjuśhrī was a tenth bhūmi bodhisatva who was prophesied as the second next buddha after Śhākya…
མི་རིགས་བཞི་
Transliteration: mi rigs bzhi
<phrase> "The four castes of men". This refers to the རིགས་བཞི་ four castes of men as found in Hindu society of ancient India. [DGT] gives as: 1) རྒྱལ་རིགས་ "royal caste"; 2) རྗེ་རིགས་ "lordly caste"; 3) བྲམ་ཟེའི་རིགས་ "Brahmin caste"; 4) གདོལ་པའི་རིགས་ "menial caste". However, the last one he gives is actually a lesser sub-division of the real fourth caste which is the དམངས་རིགས་ "commoner…
ཟླ་བ་གྲགས་པ་
Transliteration: zla ba grags pa
<noun> "Chandrakīrti". The name of a famous Indian master born in the south of Indian in the early 7th century A.D. He took Buddhist ordination and became a Preceptor at ནཱ་ལནྡཱ་ Nālandā. He upheld ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་ Nāgārjuna's lineage and wrote many texts on the Madhyamaka Prasaṅgika in support of that lineage e.g, the ཚིག་གསལ་ Clear Words, དབུ་མ་ལ་འཇུག་པ་ Entering the Middle Way, and others.
རིན་ཆེན་འབྱུང་གནས་
Transliteration: rin chen 'byung gnas
<noun> Translation of the Sanskrit [NDS] "ratnasaṃbhavaḥ". 1) [Mngon] "Jewel-source". A metaphoric name for any large body of water, such as an ocean. So-called because large bodies of water are the homes of ཀླུ་ nāgas who are attached to and hoard jewels. 2) "Ratnasaṃbhava" meaning "Source of Preciousness". The name of the Conqueror at the head of the ratna family; one of the རྒྱལ་བ་རིགས་ལ…
གཏམ་ཚོགས་
Transliteration: gtam tshogs
<noun> "Collected Stories". 1) General name given to a group of texts which, in the fashion of the First Turning of the Wheel of Dharma, provide advice about turning away from cyclic existence. 2) In particular, the name given to the texts written by ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་ Nāgārjuna which address the issues of the First Turning of the wheel of Dharma. They are called "stories" because it is regarded th…
རིན་ཆེན་ཕྲེང་བ་
Transliteration: rin chen phreng ba
<noun> "Precious Garland (of advice written to a king)". Translation of the Sanskrit "ratnāvalī". The name of a text by ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་ Nāgārjuna. The text was written as a letter of advice to a King of the time who was a friend of Nāgārjuna's. The text is sometimes included as one of the རིགས་པའི་ཚོགས་དྲུག་ q.v. However, some scholars do not consider it a collection of reasonings about emptines…
རྟེན་འབྲེལ་སྙིང་པོ་
Transliteration: rten 'brel snying po
<noun> "The Quintessence of Dependent Relationship". 1) In the Buddha's time, one of the Buddha's monks met Śhāripūtra who was not yet one of the Buddha's disciples on the road. Śhāripūtra enquired of the monk what was the teaching of the Buddha, in essence? In reply the monk gave a one-sentence answered that summed up the entire teaching of the Buddha as being dependent-related arising. Th…
སྤྲུལ་པའི་སྡེ་བརྒྱད་
Transliteration: sprul pa'i sde brgyad
<phrase> "The manifestation eight classes". A sub-classification of སྡེ་བརྒྱད་ the eight classes of gods and harmful beings made in the རྙིང་མ་ Nyingma system only. They are eight groups of beings named after their leaders: 1) དཔུང་གཡས་དགྲ་ལྷར་སྤྲུལ་པ་; 2) དཔུང་གཡོན་མ་མོར་སྤྲུལ་པ་; 3) མཆུ་སོ་བདུད་དུ་སྤྲུལ་པ་; 4) མགོ་བོ་སྲིན་པོར་སྤྲུལ་པ་; 5) མཇུག་མ་དམུ་རུ་སྤྲུལ་པ་; 6) ལག་གཡས་གཤིན་རྗེར་སྤྲུལ་…
མདོ་ཀུན་ལས་བཏུས་པ་
Transliteration: mdo kun las btus pa
<noun> "Compendium of Sūtras". Translation of the Sanskrit "sūtrasammucaya". The name of a text whose colophon indicates that it is written by ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་ Nāgārjuna though learned Tibetans often ascribe it to ཞི་བ་ལྷ་ Śhāntideva. The text is a compendium of advice drawn from the sūtras regarding the conduct of བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་ bodhisatvas. Translated by the Indian Preceptors ཛི་ན་མི་ཏྲ་ Jin…
འཛམ་གླིང་མཛེས་པའི་རྒྱན་དྲུག་
Transliteration: 'dzam gling mdzes pa'i rgyan drug
<phrase> "Six Ornaments Who Beautified Jambudvīpa". These are six particularly great masters of the Buddhist tradition taken from among all of the masters who appeared while Buddhism flourished in India. The six are: 1) ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་ Nāgārjuna; 2) འཕགས་པ་ལྷ་ his disciple Āryadeva; 3) ཐོགས་མེད་ Asaṅga; 4) དབྱིག་གཉེན་ his brother Vasubandhu; 5) ཕྱོགས་གླང་ Dignāga; and 6) ཆོས་གྲགས་ his disciple D…
སྣང་སྲིད་ཀྱི་སྡེ་བརྒྱད་
Transliteration: snang srid kyi sde brgyad
Abbrev. of སྣང་སྲིད་ཀྱི་སྡེ་བརྒྱད་ q.v.<phrase> "The apparent manifestation eight classes". A sub-classification of སྡེ་བརྒྱད་ the eight classes of gods and harmful beings made in the རྙིང་མ་ Nyingma system only. They are eight groups of beings (sometimes given by the group leader's name): 1) ས་བདག་ཧལ་ཁྱི་ནག་པོ་; 2) ཀླུ་བདུད་གདོལ་བ་ནག་པོ་; 3) ས་ཡི་ལྷ་མོ་བརྟན་མ་; 4) ཕྱོགས་སྐྱོང་རྒྱལ་ཆེན་སྡེ་…
ནང་གི་སྡེ་བརྒྱད་
Transliteration: nang gi sde brgyad
<phrase> "The eight inner classes". A sub-classification of སྡེ་བརྒྱད་ the eight classes, made in the རྙིང་མ་ Nyingma system only, of gods and harmful beings. They are eight groups of beings led by: 1) ཡབ་གཅིག་བདུད་རྗེ་ནག་པོ་; 2) བཙན་རྒྱལ་ཡམ་ཤུད་དམར་པོ་; 3) ཡུལ་ལྷ་ཕྱྭ་སངས་ཀླུ་སྲས་; 4) སྲོག་བདག་རྒྱལ་པོ་སྙིང་འབྱིན་; 5) ཆོས་སྐྱོང་གནོད་སྦྱིན་དམར་པོ་; 6) ལྷ་མོ་འཇིགས་པའི་གློག་འབྱིན་; 7) དགེ་བསྙེན…
གསང་བའི་སྡེ་བརྒྱད་
Transliteration: gsang ba'i sde brgyad
<phrase> "The secret eight classes". A sub-classification of སྡེ་བརྒྱད་ the eight classes of gods and harmful beings made in the རྙིང་མ་ Nyingma system only. They are eight groups of beings led by: 1) བདུད་པོ་ཁ་ཐུན་རཀྵ་; 2) གཤིན་རྗེ་གཤེད་པོ་དམར་ནག་; 3) ཀླུ་བདུད་ནཱ་ག་རཱ་ཛ་; 4) གནོད་སྦྱིན་བཤན་པ་གྲི་ཐོགས་; 5) མ་མོ་སྲིད་པ་ཁྲོམ་འདེབས་; 6) བཙན་པོ་ཡམ་ཤུད་སྲོད་ལེན་; 7) བདུད་པོ་རེ་ཏེ་འགོ་ཡག་; 8) སྲོ…
གྲུབ་པའི་སློབ་དཔོན་ཆེན་པོ་བརྒྱད་
Transliteration: grub pa'i slob dpon chen po brgyad
<phrase> "The eight great accomplished masters". Also known as རིག་འཛིན་ཆེན་པོ་བརྒྱད་ "the eight great vidyādharas" q.v. Eight masters of accomplishment of the Indian tantric tradition who were the source of the secret mantra teachings received by Padmasaṃbhava and which were passed on into Tibet as the སྒྲུབ་པ་བཀའ་བརྒྱད་ the eight logos of accomplishment. They are: 1) སློབ་དཔོན་བི་མ་ལ་མིཏྲ…
རིགས་ལྡན་
Transliteration: rigs ldan
<phrase> Lit. "having family". Translation of the Sanskrit "kulika" meaning someone who is part of a higher family / higher caste. 1) Freq. used in classical Buddhist literature as a way of addressing the listener where it means "(O) You of Noble Family". 2) A name for the later kings of Shambhala: ཤམ་བྷ་ལའི་རིགས་ལྡན་རྒྱལ་པོ་རྣམས་ "the rigden kings of Shambhala" or Kulika Kings of Shambhala…
སློབ་དཔོན་དཔའ་བོ་
Transliteration: slob dpon dpa' bo
<noun> "Āchārya Vira". Also known as སློབ་དཔོན་རྟ་དབྱངས་ q.v. Name of a famous non-Buddhist yogin in India in Nāgārjuna's time and mentioned in Tārānatha's "Rise of Buddhism in India". He almost defeated the monks at Nālandā in debate so they sent a message to Nāgārjuna requesting help. Nāgārjuna sent his disciple Āryadeva to debate with the Indian heretic. The heretic was defeated but refu…
འཕགས་པ་ལྷ་
Transliteration: 'phags pa lha
<noun> "Āryadeva". The name of the principal disciple of Nāgārjuna (see also ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་ཀྱི་ཐུགས་སྲས་བདུན་ "The seven heart-sons of Nāgārjuna"). He was a great master of Buddhism in his time in India and is regarded as one of the འཛམ་གླིང་མཛེས་པའི་རྒྱན་དྲུག་ "Six Ornaments Beautifying Jambuling".
He had the fourth type of birth, རྫུས་ཏེ་སྐྱེས་པ་, a miraculous birth, which was from a lotus in …
ས་དགུ་པའི་ཡོངས་སྦྱོང་བཅུ་གཉིས་
Transliteration: sa dgu pa'i yongs sbyong bcu gnyis
<enum> [JKE] gives as: 1) སྨོན་ལ་མཐའ་ཡས་པ་འགྲུབ་པ་ ""; 2) ལྷ་དང་ཀླུ་ལ་སོགས་པའི་འགྲོ་བ་སོ་སོའི་སྐད་ཇི་ལྟ་བ་བཞིན་དུ་ཤེས་པ་ ""; 3) ཆོས་སྟོན་པ་ལ་སྤོབས་པ་ཆུ་བོའི་རྒྱུན་ལྟར་མི་ཟད་པར་འཇུག་པ་ ""; 4) མངལ་དུ་འཇུག་པ་སྟོན་པའི་ཚེ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་བསྔགས་པའི་ཡུམ་གྱི་ལྷུམས་སུ་འཇུག་པ་ ""; 5) རིགས་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པ་ ""; 6) རུས་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པ་ ""; 7) འཁོར་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པ་ ""; 8) སྐྱེ་བ་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པ་ ""; 9) ངེས་པར་འབྱ…
སྡེ་བརྒྱད་
Transliteration: sde brgyad
<phrase> "The eight classes".
I. In general, meaning "eight classes of" where the category is mentioned beforehand.
II. Specifically, eight classes of non-human beings who can affect humans and other sentient beings. There are a number of classifications of the eight classes but all of them are summaries of the different types of non-human beings who can or do cause various types of harm to h…
ལེགས་ལྡན་འབྱེད་
Transliteration: legs ldan 'byed
<noun> Translation of the Sanskrit "bhavaviveka". The name of a principal disciple of Nāgārjuna (see also ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་ཀྱི་ཐུགས་སྲས་བདུན་ "The seven heart-sons of Nāgārjuna"). He was a great master of Buddhism in India. He disagreed strongly with way that སངས་རྒྱས་བསྐྱངས་ Buddhapalita presented the Madhyamaka system of Nāgārjuna and wrote a text refuting that presentation called ཤེས་རབ་སྒྲོན་མ…
སྒྲོལ་མ་
Transliteration: sgrol ma
<noun> 1) "Tārā". Translation of the Sanskrit "tāra". The name of a deity. Precisely stated, her name means "she who liberates or frees from" and thus her name is often translated as "Saviouress". Her name is derived from her particular quality that arose due to aspirations made in an earlier life in front of the Buddha of that time, that she would manifest in the future as a principle that…
བརྟན་མ་བཅུ་གཉིས་
Transliteration: brtan ma bcu gnyis
<enum> "The twelve Tenmas". See བརྟན་མ་ Tenma. The twelve are [DGT] as follows: four which are བདུད་མོ་ female māras: 1) རྡོ་རྗེ་ཀུན་གྲགས་མ་ "Dorje Kundrakma"; 2) རྡོ་རྗེ་གཡའ་མ་སྐྱོང་ "Dorje Ya ma Chong"; 3) རྡོ་རྗེ་ཀུན་བཟང་ "Dorje Kunzang"; 4) རྡོ་རྗེ་བགེགས་ཀྱི་གཙོ་ "Dorje Geg kyi Tso"; and the four which are female yakṣhini: 5) རྡོ་རྗེ་སྤྱན་གཅིག་མ་ "Dorje Chan Chigma"; 6) ཁ་རག་ཁྱུང་བཙུན་ར…
