རྩེག་པ་
Transliteration: rtseg pa
I. <verb> v.t. བརྩེགས་པ་/ རྩེག་པ་/ བརྩེག་པ་/ རྩེགས་/. 1) "To stack", "to pile" on / up. Meaning "to lay one thing on or over another with the result that one is now stacked on the other". This can have the specific meaning of one thing being placed on top of another in a vertical line, as is seen for example in the line of gurus in a refuge tree or of money being piled up, or it can have th…
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…
མངོན་བྱང་ལྔ་བསྐྱེད་
Transliteration: mngon byang lnga bskyed
<phrase> "The Five Manifest Enlightenments' Generation". In Buddhist secret mantra, the fourth of four ways of generating the visualization of a deity in the development stage of anuttarayogatantra. The second way of generation is ཆོ་ག་གསུམ་བསྐྱེད་ and the third way རྡོ་རྗེ་བཞི་བསྐྱེད་ q.v.
In this case, the total visualization of the deity is created in five, specific steps. There is a diff…
རྣམ་པར་དག་པ་
Transliteration: rnam par dag pa
I. <verb> v.i. see དག་པ་ for tense forms. "To be completely pure".
II. <gerundial>phrase> "The complete purification of". The true noun form is written རྣམ་དག་ "complete purity" though see below for notes on the complete purity of a buddha.
III. <adj><noun> "Completely pure / purified" and "complete purity". Often abbrev. to རྣམ་དག་. 1) That which has been completely puri…
སྒྱུར་བ་
Transliteration: sgyur ba
<verb> v.t. བསྒྱུར་བ་/ སྒྱུར་བ་/ བསྒྱུར་བ་/ སྒྱུར་/. Intransitive form is འགྱུར་བ་ q.v. The basic meaning is "to cause something to change from one to another". It is widely used in Tibetan where other verbs might be used in English e.g., ཁ་ལོ་སྒྱུར་བ་ "to steer (lit. to turn the vehicle)". 1) "To change" something from one state to another. Hence also "to transform", "to turn into". It is …
རྣམ་དབྱེ་བརྒྱད་
Transliteration: rnam dbye brgyad
<phrase> "The eight cases". Grammar term. There are eight རྣམ་དབྱེ་ cases in Tibetan grammar q.v.
The definitions of the eight cases of Tibetan grammar are essentially the same as the eight cases of Sanskrit grammar. Tibetan experts who know both languages well state that it is quite possible that Thumi Saṃbhoṭa established the Tibetan cases on the basis of Sanskrit grammar. The eight cases …
རྣམ་པར་དཔྱད་པ་
Transliteration: rnam par dpyad pa
I. <verb> Past of རྣམ་པར་དཔྱོད་པ་ q.v.
II. <noun> form of རྣམ་པར་དཔྱོད་པ་. "Attribute analysis". The true noun form is written རྣམ་དཔྱོད་. It is defined as "analysis in which something has been analysed to determine what it is by examining the རྣམ་པ་ surface attributes of the thing using བློ་ rational mind to do the analysis.
Whether as a verb or noun, this term has the specific sense t…
རུང་བ་མ་ཡིན་པའི་གཞི་བཅུ་
Transliteration: rung ba ma yin pa'i gzhi bcu
<phrase> "The ten grounds that were not acceptable". The second council at Vaiśhālī (see བཀའ་བསྡུ་རིམ་པ་གསུམ་ the three councils) was called in order to investigate certain behaviours that were being adopted by some monks but which people of the time felt were not acceptable. The council considered the various items and decided that the following were not acceptable in a monk's behaviour i.…
འཐེན་པ་
Transliteration: 'then pa
<verb> v.t. འཐེན་པ་/ འཐེན་པ་/ འཐེན་པ་/ འཐེན་/. 1) "To pull", "to draw" which also includes the idea of "to pull out / open" and "to pull", "to draw", "to lead along". E.g., in the case of a door སྒོ་འཐེན་པ་ "(pull) the door shut / closed / open / to, etc". E.g., [TC] བཙན་དབང་གིས་འཐེན་འགྲོ་བ། "dragged along by force"; སྒོ་མར་འཐེན་ཙམ་གྱིས་ཨང་། "open the door just a little!"; གཡུལ་ས་ནས་ཕྱིར་འཐ…
ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་
Transliteration: klu sgrub
<noun> "Nāgārjuna". A great master of the Buddhist tradition regarded as one of the འཛམ་གླིང་མཛེས་པའི་རྒྱན་དྲུག་ "Six Ornaments Beautifying Jambuling". He was born of a Brahmin family in the region called Vedarva in South India approximately 400 years after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa. He studied all of the sūtras and tantras from an early age, becoming very expert in them. He took ordination …
འཕུལ་བ་
Transliteration: 'phul ba
I. <verb> v.t. འཕུལ་བ་/ འཕུལ་བ་/ འཕུལ་བ་/ འཕུལ་/. Meaning "to push into something and so cause it to move". 1) There are several English terms that cover the range of connotations: "to nudge", "to shove", "to jostle", "to bump (and jar)", "to shove into". E.g., [TC] དཔུང་པས་འཕུལ་བ། "pushed / shoved with his shoulder(s)"; མི་ངན་འཕུལ་བ། "shoved away / pushed off the bad man". 2) The term also…
ཡོངས་སུ་གྲུབ་པའི་མཚན་ཉིད་
Transliteration: yongs su grub pa'i mtshan nyid
<phrase> "The characteristic of thorough establishment" or "the thoroughly established characteristic". Translation of the Sanskrit "pariniṣhpannalakṣhaṇa" and usually abbrev. as ཡོངས་གྲུབ་མཚན་ཉིད་. The name of the third of the མཚན་ཉིད་གསུམ་ three characters in the སེམས་ཙམ་ Mind only / Yogacara system presentation of reality. The name means "that which has the characteristic of being establ…
ལྔ་བརྒྱ་ཕྲག་བཅུ་
Transliteration: lnga brgya phrag bcu
<phrase> "Ten five hundreds". This refers to ten periods of five hundred years in sequence making a total of five thousand years. The period starts from the time of the Buddha and goes on for five thousand years after that. The total period is the time that the Buddha's teaching will survive. The Buddha made a prediction about how the dharma would be practised in each of the five hundred ye…
མ་རིག་པ་
Transliteration: ma rig pa
<noun> "Ignorance". Translation of the Sanskrit [NDS] "avidyā". As one of the three poisons, one of the six root afflictions, one of the twelve links, and one of the ཆུ་བོ་བཞི་ four currents, etcetera, this is one of the most important terms in Buddhism.
In all meditational and philosophical systems of Buddhism, ignorance is considered as the root cause of འཁོར་བ་ cyclic existence which is b…
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…
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་…
སྟོང་པ་
Transliteration: stong pa
I. <verb> v.i. སྟོངས་པ་/ སྟོང་པ་/ སྟོང་པ་//. 1) "To be empty of". It is used in a wide range of contexts. It is wherever the English "to be empty" would be used and in other contexts where terms such as "to be devoid of", "to be vacant", "to be deserted", "to be emptied of" would also be used. E.g., ལ་འགོ་ཤིང་གིས་སྟོང་པ། "the top of the pass was bare / devoid of trees"; ལུང་པ་ཆུས་སྟོང་པ། "t…
ཉེ་བར་ལེན་པ་
Transliteration: nye bar len pa
I. <verb> v.t. see ལེན་པ་ for tense forms. "To appropriate", "to take hold of", "to seize upon" and see the definition below. It is also used in the sense of "pull out and list separately" when a group of things has one or two items specially drawn out for attention.
II. <gerundial>phrase> "Appropriation". The gerundial form is most freq. used in Buddhist texts, because it refers to…
