THE ILLUMINATOR

Tibetan-English
Encyclopaedic Dictionary

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གཏོར་བ་དང་བླུགས་པ་
Transliteration: gtor ba dang blugs pa
<noun>"Scattering and pouring". One of the key aspects of entrance in to the secret mantra in Tibetan Buddhism is empowerment. The term empowerment refers to the Tibetan term དབང་བསྐུར་བ་ q.v. This term in the general Tibetan tradition of secret mantra is regarded as a translation of the two Sanskrit terms ཨ་བྷི་ཥིཉྩ་ and ཨ་བྷི་ཥེ་ཀ་ abhiṣhiñca and abhiśheka. The meaning of both of these Sa…
མུན་པ་
Transliteration: mun pa
<noun> "Obscurity", "darkness", "gloom". 1) "Darkness". Translation of the Sanskrit "āndhkāra". The opp. of སྣང་བ་ a state of visibility, illumination i.e., a state of darkness, obscurity, non-illumination. One of the ཁ་དོག་གི་ཡན་ལག་བརྒྱད་ eight components of colour and one of the ཡུལ་གཟུགས་ཀྱི་རང་བཞིན་ "components of visual form". 2) i) Used to describe the outer world e.g., when there is …
ཟླུམ་པོ་
Transliteration: zlum po
I. <adj> "Spherical" meaning circular in three dimensions. This can refer to "spherical shape in general". It can also refer to a particular shape which is hemispherical. The shape is drawn as a bounding straight line across the bottom of the shape and a hemisphere across the top of the bounding line at bottom. This shape is sometimes referred to in tantric texts.
II. <adj> "Round", "r…
ཉི་མ་
Transliteration: nyi ma
I. <noun> "Sun". Translation of the Sanskrit "surya", "āditya". Meaning the star for our earth called the sun. 1) "Sun" as a planet. Translation of the Sanskrit "āditya"; the sun as of the གཟའ་བརྒྱད་ eight planets and one of the གཟའ་བཅུ་ ten planets. 2) "The sun" is one of འོད་གསལ་རྟགས་བཅུ་ "the ten signs of luminosity".
II. <noun> "Sunday", Abbrev. of གཟའ་ཉི་མ་ the day of the week "Su…
གནས་ཀྱི་བླ་མའི་མཚན་ཉིད་བཅུ་
Transliteration: gnas kyi bla ma'i mtshan nyid bcu
<enum> "The ten characteristics of a guru who may be relied on". [DGT] [JKE] give ten that are explained in the Vinaya: 1) བརྟན་པ་ "reliable / steady"; 2) མཁས་པ་ "learned"; 3) ལུས་ཐ་མལ་དུ་གནས་པ་ "rests his body in ordinary places"; 4) ས་རང་བཞིན་དུ་གནས་པ་ "naturally dwelling on the grounds"; 5) སྙིང་རྗེ་དང་ལྡན་པ་ "has compassion"; 6) བཟོད་པ་དང་ལྡན་པ་ "has patience"; 7) ནང་གི་འཁོར་དག་པ་ "has …
གཞན་སྟོང་
Transliteration: gzhan stong
<noun> "Zhantong", "Other-empty" or "Empty of Other". An abbrev. of གཞན་གྱིས་སྟོང་པ་ meaning "empty of other". Originally coined by ཡུ་མོ་མི་བསྐྱོད་རྡོ་རྗེ་ Yumowa Mikyo Dorje q.v., this term is a term peculiar to Tibet; it is not a translation of a term existing in the Buddhist terminology of the Indian traditions. The name was originally coined to describe the mode in which things exist b…
སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ཉི་ཤུ་
Transliteration: stong pa nyid nyi shu
<phrase> "Twenty emptinesses". Translation of the Sanskrit [NDS] "viṃśhati śhūnyatā". Acc. [NDS] they are:
1) ནང་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ "emptiness of the inner" [Skt. adhyātmaśhūnyatā]
2) ཕྱི་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ "emptiness of the outer" [Skt. vahirdhyāśhūnyatā]
3) ཕྱི་ནང་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ "emptiness of inner and outer" [Skt. adhyātmavahirdhyāśhūnyatā]
4) སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ "emptiness of emptiness" [Skt. śhūnyatāśhū…
འགྲུབ་པ་
Transliteration: 'grub pa
<verb> v.i. གྲུབ་པ་/ འགྲུབ་པ་/ འགྲུབ་པ་//. Transitive form is སྒྲུབ་པ་ q.v. 1) For something "to have happened or come about" because something has been done, accomplished, produced. Hence also, "to be accomplished", "to be done", "to be produced". (Note that the idea of "complete" is represented by the verb རྫོགས་པ་). E.g., [TC] ཡུན་རིང་བར་དུ་དཀའ་ལས་ཆེན་པོ་བྱས་ཏེ་གཞི་ནས་རེ་འདོད་ལྟར་འགྲུབ་ཐ…
རྡུལ་
Transliteration: rdul
I. A basic intertsheg of the language with the general sense of a very small particle. It has exactly the same sense as the English "atom" and is used for that meaning in Buddhist cosmology. It also has the same sense as the English "particle" and is used in a wide variety of ways with that meaning.
II. <noun> 1) A very small visible form; several English words fit on context. E.g., a "parti…
སྡིག་སྒྲིབ་ཉེས་ལྟུང་
Transliteration: sdig sgrib nyes ltung
<noun> "Degradations, obscurations, faults, and downfalls". There are a number of explanations of this compact term, each resulting in a different understanding of how to parse the Tibetan and hence how to translate the English. Many Tibetan lamas that I have met maintain that this is a fourfold grouping and many equally maintain that it is a three fold grouping.
The fourfold grouping is exp…
བཞིན་
Transliteration: bzhin
I. <noun> "Face", "visage", "countenance", "appearance", "likeness" and in some cases, "image". Meaning the surface or face that something presents to the world.
II. <ཚིག་གྲོགས་ phrase assistive> Added after a main verb to show the present, continuous tense (called the progressive tense in some American grammar books). E.g., འགྲོ་བཞིན་འགྲོ་བཞིན་ "(the actual process of) walking"; གསུང་…
མདོར་བསྟན་
Transliteration: mdor bstan
<phrase> "Synopsis" or "Brief presentation". One of a range of terms used to indicate a certain level or type of presentation of a topic; see also རྒྱས་པར་བཤད་པ་ "synopsis" and དོན་བསྡུ་བ་ "summary". The མདོར་བསྟན་ is the synopsis given at the beginning of the presentation of a subject; it shows the very essence of the material to be presented. The term is often used as a heading and in tha…
གཤིབ་པ་
Transliteration: gshib pa
<verb> v.t. གཤིབས་པ་/ གཤིབ་པ་/ གཤིབ་པ་/ གཤིབས་/. This has the basic meaning of being in a tight relationship. 1) "To become close with" someone else in the sense of "spending time with someone and getting to know a person well". It has the sense that one does not just know of a person because of merely meeting them once or twice but that one spends time together with them so that one knows …
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…
རེ་བཞིན་
Transliteration: re bzhin
<adj> "Each" or "every" in the sense of ongoing activity. E.g. ལོ་རེ་བཞིན་ "every year they would do..." This also could be translated with has the sense of "continually" (which is different from continuously).
བཞིན་རས་
Transliteration: bzhin ras
<noun> "Face" or "countenance" but meaning the appearance of someone's face as seen by others. It does not always need to be translated. E.g., it has the same sense as "him" in the sentence "no-one could stop looking at him" (meaning they couldn't help but look at his face).
རྫོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་
Transliteration: rdzogs pa chen po
<noun> "Great Completion". (Transliteration in English: "Dzogpa chenpo"). The name of the highest set of tantric teachings that were introduced into Tibet primarily by Padmasaṃbhava and Vimalamitra in the རྙིང་མ་ q.v. earlier spread of teachings in Tibet. The teachings are kept within the རྙིང་མ་པ་ Nyingmapa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, although these days the བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་ Kagyu tradition …
གཟུགས་
Transliteration: gzugs
"Form".
I. Translation of the Sanskrit [NDS] "rūpam".
A. "Form" is defined in the Abhidharma as that which is the མིག་གི་ཡུལ་ object of the eye. In other words, it specifically means the "visible form" which is what is known by the eye. The Abhidharma states that there are two aspects to visible form: དབྱིབས་ཀྱི་གཟུགས་ "shapes of visible form" and ཁ་དོག་གི་གཟུགས་ "colours (of visible form)". In the…
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 …
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 …
རང་བཞག་
Transliteration: rang bzhag
<phrase> "Self-resting", "self-rested". An important term in ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་ Mahāmudrā and རྫོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ Great Completion which refers to the basic style of meditation in these systems. To self-rest means that the resting is not made up, forced or produced but allowed to happen of itself. Something which is allowed to "self-rest" is allow to be itself and settle into its own position.
དཀར་པོ་
Transliteration: dkar po
I. The colour "white".
A. In general. 1) This can either mean the colour white itself or can refer to tints of other colours. (Tints of colours are colours which are lightened by the addition of white compared with shades which are darkened by the addition of black see ནག་པོ་). E.g., ལྗང་གུ་ is the colour green and ལྗང་དཀར་ is the "pale green" or "light green" tint or colour produced by mixing whi…
རིམ་པ་བཞིན་
Transliteration: rim pa bzhin
1) "Progressive", "successive", "sequential", "gradual", "by turns", "by degrees". 2) A variety of things one after another (even though they might not be sequential) hence "successive". 3) "In like order", "in similar order", and also "in a similar way". 4) <adv> རིམ་པ་བཞིན་དུ་ "progressively", "successively", etc. (as per the first three definitions).