The Blazing Lights of the Sun and Moon – Sanskirt/English -Tibetan Word List

Sanskirt/English -Tibetan
Word List

For the meanings of these words, search for the Tibetan terms in The Commentary on Mipham’s Sherab Raltri – The Blazing Lights of the Sun and Moon

abhi.sheka:  dbang
abhidharma:  mngon chos
absolute truth
absolute:  don dam
accept and reject:  blang ‘dor
act and effort:  bya rtsol
action:  spyod
adding and taking away:  ‘du bral
affirmation and negation:  dgag sgrub
affirmation:  sgrub
negation: dgag
Akanishta: ‘og min
alaya:  kun gzhi
alayavijnana:  kun gzhi rnam par shes pa
all at once:  cig char
all-pervading, all-encompassing: phyam gdal
all-sufficient:  gcig chod
alpha-pure:  ka dag
amrita:  bdud rtsi
analysis:  dpyod pa
antidotes:  gnyen po
anu:  a nu
appearance:  snang ba
artificial:  bcos
Aryan riches, 7,:  ‘phags pa nor bdun
as it is:  rang babs, rang sar, rang  mal
asura: lha min
ati:  a ti:  rdzogs pa  chen po
authentic:  yang dag
Avalokiteshvara: spyan ras gzigs
Avici Hell:  mnyal ba mnar med pa
awakened:  sangs
awareness:  shes pa
ayatanas, 12: skye mched bcu gnyis
bardo:  bar do
bhagava[-t][-an]:  bcom ldan ‘das
Bhrama: tshangs pa: Hindu creator god
bhramin bram ze
bhuta:  byung po
bhuumi:  sa
bias:  ris
bindu:  thig le
bodhicitta:  byang chub sems
bodhisattva vehicle/yana
bodhisattva:  byang chub sems dpa’
buddha activity: phrin las
buddha qualities:  yon tan
Buddha qualities: sangs rgyas kyi yon tan
buddhadharmakaya: sangs rgyas chos kyi sku: = dharmakaya.
buddha[hood]:  sangs rgyas

reasoning: rigs pa: see text
cause and condition:  rgyu rkyen
ceaseless:  ma ‘gags, ‘gag med.
certain:  nges
characteristics:  mtshan
charya yana: see theg pa dgu
co-emergent:  lhan cig skyes pa
coarse:  rags
collection of oral instructions:  man  ngag sde
compassion:  thugs rje
complexity:  spros pa
concept:  rtog pa
conceptions:  dmigs pa
confusion:  ‘khrul pa
Conquerer: rgyal ba.
consciousness 5/6: rnam shes lnga/drug
consider:  ltos
contrived:  bcos
conventional: tha snyad
coronation vase:  spyi blugs
created:  bcos
crystal:  shel [gong] cutting through:  khregs gcod
dakini:  mkha’ ‘gro
dedicating the merit: bsod nams bsngo
defilements:  dri ma
deity:  lha
detail:  rim pa
developing [stage]:  bskyed [rim] dharmakaya:  chos sku
dharmata:  chos nyid
dharma[s]:  chos
Dharmdhatu:  chos dbyings
dharmin:  chos can
dhatu:  dbyings, khams
dhatus, 18: khams bco brgyad
dhyana[s, 4]: bsam gtan bzhi
difference of different manifestations of a single essence: ngo bo gcig la ldog pa tha dad
difference that refutes one: gcig pa bkag pa tha dad
direct liberation:  cer grol
discontinuity:  rgyun chad
discriminating awareness wisdom:  so so rtags pa’i ye shes
discriminating awareness:  so so rang rig; so sor rtag pa
discursive thought:  rnam rtog
display:  bstan, bkod
disturbed:  rnyog
doer of all:  kun byed
don:  gdon
drowsiness and discursiveness [wildness]:  bying rgod
ego:  bdag
eight consciousnesses: tshogs brgyad
eight examples of illusion:  sgyu ma  dpe brgyad
eight extremes:  mtha’ brgyad
eight kinds of suffering: sdug bsngal brgyad
eight ordinary siddhis: dngos grub thun mong brgyad
eighteen dhatus:  khams bco brgyad
element:  khams, rigs
eliminate or establish:  dgag sgrub
eliminate: log
emanation:  sprul pa
embodiment:  ‘du ba
empowerment:  lung, dbang
emptiness with all the supreme aspects:  rnam mchog kun ldan stong nyid
emptiness: stong nyid
empty:  stong pa
enlightenment:  byang chub
ennailment:  gzer [bu] environment and inhabitants:  snod bcud, rten dang brten pa
equality:  mnyam nyid
equanimity:  mnyam nyid
essence:  ngo bo [snying po] establish: sgrub
eternal:  ye
eternalism:  rtag [lta] etherial:  sang seng
even:  phyal ba
examination:  brtags pa
examine:  brtags pa
examin[e][ation]:  dpyod pa
exhaustion:  zad pa, rdzogs pa
exist:  yod pa
experience:  rang snang
experiences:  nyams
extremes:  [mu] mtha’
fabrication:  bcos
false conception:  kun btags
family:  rigs
father tantra:  pha rgyud
fine and coarse:  rags phra
five aspects of sadhana:  cho ga rnam  pa lnga
five buddha activities:  phrin las lnga
five buddhas:  bcom ldan ‘das lnga:
five certainties:  nges pa lnga
five colors:  kha dog lnga
five desirables: a’dod pa lnga
five elements:  ‘byung ba lnga
five enlightenments [manifestations of…]:  byang chub lnga
five eyes:  spyan lnga
five families:  rigs lnga
five kayas:  sku lnga
five paths:  lam lnga
five perfections:  phun sum tshogs pa lnga
five qualities:  yon tan lnga
five root kleshas/ poisons:  rtsa ba’i nyon mongs lnga
five skandhas:  phung po lnga
five wisdoms:  ye shes lnga
Five buddha families: see five buddhas, five families.
fixation and grasping:  gzung ‘dzin
fixation, fixated object:  gzung ba.
fixator, fixating subject: ‘dzin
fixed:  nges
flickering [emanation etc]:  ‘gyu ba
four extremes:  mtha’ bzhi
four fearlessnesses: see text
four individual true apprehensions: meanings, words dharmas, powers.
four kayas: sku bzhi
four kinds of birth:  skye ba bzhi
four legs of miracle:  cho ‘phrul rkang pa bzhi
four manners of birth:  skye tshul bzhi
four maras:  bdud bzhi
four mudras:  phyag rgya bzhi
four noble truths:  ‘phags pa bden bzhi
four purities: see ch. 6
four reliances: see text
four seals:  phyag rgya bzhi
four, the, propitiation and so on: bsnyen sgrub bzhi.
four times:  dus bzhi
four ultimate realizations:  rtogs pa bzhi
Four elements: khams/ ‘byung ba bzhi
Four immesurables: tshad med bzhi
freedom:  grol ba
freedoms and favors, 18: dal ‘byor bcu brgyad: Ch. 1.
fresh and relaxed:  lhang nge lhan ne
from all eternity:  ye
fruition:  ‘bras bu
fundamental luminosity = gting gsal
fundamental state:  gzhi gnas [not = shamatha] gandavyuuha:  stugs po bkod pa
Gandha :Gandha: goddess of perfume.
gandharva: dri za
garbha:  snying po
garuda:  khyung
gather:  ‘du ba.
gelong:  dge slong
genuine:  yang dag
exaggeration:  sgro ‘dogs
good and evil:  bzang ngan
gotra:  rigs
grasper & grasped:  gzung ‘dzin
grasper/grasping [subject]:  ‘dzin pa
great full ocean:  gang chen mtsho
great perfection:  rdzogs pa chen po
ground:  gzhi
groundless:  gzhi med
guard samaya:  dam tshig srung ba
Guru Rinpoche: Second Buddha of Uddiyana = Padmasambhava
guru:  bla ma
heart-[essence]:  snying po
higher perceptions:  mngon shes
higher realms:  mtho ris
highest yoga:  shin tu rnal ‘byor
hinayana:  theg dman
hungry ghosts:  yi dwags
ignorance:  ma rig pa
Immense ocean:  gang chen tsho:   AKA rnam snang
incidental:  glo bur
included:  ‘du ba, ‘dril ba, ‘ub chub
individual insight:  so so rang rig
individuating characteristics:  rang mtshan
Indra: brgya byin
insight:  rig pa
instantly:  skad gcig par, cig car
intellect:  yid [special cases] intellect-consciousness:  yid kyi rnam  shes
intention:  dgongs pa
interdependent arising:  rten ‘brel ‘byung ba
intrinsic-:  rang-, rang bzhin gyis-
Ishvara: “the Lord,”a Hindu creator god.
jets¸n:  rje btsun
jewel: in context of three jewels dkon mchog
jnana:  ye shes
jnanasattva:  ye shes sems dpa’
kagy¸: bka’ brgyud
kalpa:  bskal pa
kama: desire
karma:  las
kaya:  sku
khen[po]: Buddhist scholar
kinnara: mi’am ci
klesha:  nyon mongs
knowledge:  shes pa
kriya:  kri ya,  bya rgyud
liberation:  grol ba
limit:  rgya chad
limitless as the sky:  mkha’ mnyam
loka:  sems can rigs drug
lokayata:  rgyang phan
Longchenpa:  klong chen [rab ‘byams]  pa
LongdÈ:  klong sde
Lord of death: shin rje
lord:  mgon pa, bdag po, mnga dbang,  rje
lower realms:  ngan ‘gro
luminosity:  [‘od] gsal
luminous appearances of what does not  exist:  med pa gsal snang.
luminous:  [‘od] gsal
madhamaka: dbu ma
madhyamaka
madhyamaka:  dbu ma
magic wand:  sgrib shing
mahamudra:  phyag rgya chen po
mahasandhi:  rdzogs pa chen po
mahasattva:  sems dpa’ chen po
mahasukha:  bde ba chen
mahasukhakaya:  bde ba chen po’i sku
mahatma: bdag pa chen po
mahayana:  theg chen
Maheshvara: dbang po chen po
maintain:  skyong
Maitreya: byams pa
major and minor marks:  mtshan dpe
Major and minor marks of a buddha: mtshan dang dpe byad
mandala:  dkyil ‘khor
manifest:  mngon gsum
Manjushri: a’jam dpal
mantra:  sngags
mantrayana: sngags kyi theg pa
Manjushri
mara:  bdud
marks:  mtshan
measure:  tshad
meditation:  bsgom pa, mnyam bshag,  bsam gtan
memory:  dran pa
prasangika: thal a’gyur: see text
mental contents:  sems las ‘byung ba
middle:  bar
mind:  sems, yid
Mind:  [itself][-nature of] sems nyid
mind-only:  sems tsam
mindfulness dran pa
Mipham:  mi pham
miracle:  cho ‘phrul
Mount Meru:  ri rgyal rab
mudra:  phyag rgya
Muni:  thub pa
nada: na da
nadi:  rtsa
nadis, three: rtsa gsum
naga:  klu
natural state:  gnas lugs, rnal ma
natural:  rang byung, rang bzhin gyis  etc.
nature:  rang bzhin, gzhis
negation:  dgag
neither established nor cleared away:   sgrub bsal med
net:  rgya, dra ba
neutral: lung ma bstan
nihilism:  chad [lta] nine yanas:  theg pa dgu
nirmanakaya:  sprul sku
Nirvana:  mya ngan las ‘das pa, zhi
noble ones: ‘phags pa
non-dual:  gnyis med
non-men:  mi ma yin
non-obstruction:  ‘gags med:  zang  ka
non-thought:  mi rtog pa
not adding and subtracting (taking  away):  ‘du bral med
Nyingma:  rnying ma
Kagyu: bka’a brgyud
Gelugpa: dge lugs pa
nyingthig:  snying thig
object, kaya: yul sku: the object of enlightened perception is the kayas, having the essence emptiness and the nature of luminosity.
object:  yul
obscuration:  sgrib
offering substance:  rdzas
omniscience:  kun mkhyen, thams cad  mkhyen pa[‘i ye shes] one taste:  ro gcig
one’s own insight:  rang gi rig pa
one’s own seat:  rang mal
opposite:  ltos
oral instructions:  man ngag:
ornament:  rgyan
overturned:  ru log
pandit: scholar
paramita:  pha rol tu phyin pa
paratantra: gzhan dbang
parikalpita: kun btags
parinishpanna: yongs grub
partiality:  phyogs
particularizing characteristics:  rang  mtshan
pass the pass:  la bzla ba
path of splendor of vivid rainbow  colors:  khra lam lam
path:  lam
perceiver, wisdom: yul can ye shes
perception:  dmigs pa
perfect:  rdzogs
perfecting stage:  rdzogs rim
perfect[ing] yoga:  yongs su rnal ‘byor
pervasion, backward pervasion.
phenomena:  rnam pa
phenomenal world:  snang srid
pith:  gnad
play:  rol
post-meditation:  rjes thob
power:  rtsal
powers [of mind]:  dbang po
prajna:  shes rab
prajnaparamita:  shes rab pha rol tu  phyin pa
pramana: tshad ma
prana:  rlung
prasangika:  thal ‘gyur pa
pratyekabuddha:  rang rgyal
preta: yi dwags
primordial purity of wakefulness: ye  sangs
primordial space:  gdod ma’i dbyings
primordial:  gdod nas, thog nas, ye
projection:  [rang] snang, kun btags,  rang gzugs
provisional meaning: drang don
puja:  mchod pa, cho ga
pure appearance:  dag snang
pure bhuumis:  dag pa sa
purified:  dag, sangs, sbyangs
qualities:  mtshan, mtshon
rakshasas: srin po
real:  don du, dgnos
realization:  rtogs pa,  dgongs pa
recognize:  ngos bzung
reference point:  gtad [so] relative truth: kun rdzob bden pa
relative:  kun rdzob
renunciation and realization:  spangs rtogs.
resolve:  gtan la ‘bebs pa
rich display:  ‘byor ba’i bkod
rigdzin: (enlightened)awareness holder
royal treasures, 7: rin chen sna bdun
rupakaya:  gzugs sku
pure appearance: dag snang
sadhana:  sgrub thabs, cho ga
Sage: thub pa, the Buddha
Saha: This world called the realm of endurance.
Sakyong:  sa skyong:  earth preotecting (king)
samadhi:  ting nge ‘dzin,
Samantabhadra :  kun tu bzang po  [mo] samapatti:  snyoms ‘jug
samaya:  dam tshig
samayasattva:  dam tshig sems dpa’
sambhogakaya:  longs [spyod rdzogs  pa’i] sku
sampannakrama:  rdzogs rim
Samsara:  ‘khor ba:  srid pa
Sangha: dge ‘dun
Saraha:  Sa ra ha
Sarasvati:  consort of Shiva
sattva: sems dp’a
sautrantika school: mdo sde pa
sautrantika: mdo sde pa
sealing:  rgyas thebs:  phyag rgya
Second Buddha of Uddiyana: Padmasambhava = Guru Rinpoche
Self existing equanimity: lhun [grub]  mnyam [pa nyid] self-existing:  lhun grub, rang gnas
self-insight:  rang rig
self-liberation:  rang grol
self-luminosity:  rang gsal:
self-nature:  rang ngo
self-subsiding:  rang yal
SemdÈ:  sems sde
separation of clearing away:  dbye bsal
seven fold service: prostration, offering, confession, rejoicing, requesting to teach, asking the teacher to remain, dedicating the merit.
seventeen tantras:  man ngag sde rgyud  bcu bdun.
Shakyamuni:  sha kya’i thub pa
Shamatha:  gzhi gnas
Shastra:  bstan bcos
shentong:  gzhan stong
Shiva: drag po, dbang po
shloka:  sho lo ka
shravaka:  nyan thos
shunyata:  stong nyid
siddhi:  dgnos grub
sign:  rtags:  tshad
simple:  spros bral
simplicity:  spros bral
single dot:  nyag gcig
six ayatanas: ske mched drug
six higher perceptions: see mngon shes
six lokas: rigs drug
six perfections/ paramitas: pha rol tu phyin pa drug
six realms of beings: rigs drug1
six senses:  tshogs drug, dbang drug
skandhas:  phung po
sky:  nam mkha’
solid:  dgnos
space of the dhatu:  dbyings
space:  dbyings, go, [nam] mkha’, bar  snang
Space: [Spaciousness] klong
spheres of activity:  spyod yul
spheres of apprehension:  spyod yul
spontaneous:  lhun grub
stage:  rim pa
sthavira: = elders. The original hinayana Buddhist monastic style Sugata
straying:  gol [sa] Subhuti:  rab ‘byor
subject:  yul can
substance: rdzas
subtle: phra ba
subtlest:  shin tu phra ba
suchness:  [de][ji] bzhin nyid
sugata:  bde gshegs pa
sugatagarbha:  bde [bar] gshegs [pa’i]  snying po
suitable establishing, and nature
support and supported:  rten dang  brten pa
Surya: the Hindu sun god.
sutra: A discourse of the Buddha in the mahayana
sutra:  mdo
svatantrika:  rang rgyud
svatantrika: rang rgyud:  see text
taking and leaving:  btang bshag
taming:  ‘dul ba
tantra: A discourse of the Buddha in the vajrayana
tantra:  rgyud
Tara:  taa ra, sgrol ma
tathagata:  de bzhin shegs pa
ten bhuumis:  sa bcu
ten dharmic activities:  chos spyod bcu
ten directions:  phyogs bcu
the 5 pranas: rlung lnga
the dhatu: khams: = dharmadhatu
the four abhishekas/ empowerments: dbang bzhi
the four reasonings: those of dependence, productive action, three jewels
the Nature:  ngo bo
thing:  dgnos po
things as they are:  gnas lugs [tshul] three gates:  sgo gsum
three jewels:  dkon mchog gsum
three kinds of suffering: sdug bsngal gsum
three mandalas: dkyil ‘khor gsum
three modes: presence of the reason in the subject, forward three natures
three natures: rang bzhin gsum
three poisons/kleshas:  dug gsum
three pramanas:  scripture, perception, and inference
three purities:  dag pa gsum
three samadhis:  ting nge ‘dzin gsum
three times:  dus gsum
three worlds [realms]:  srid gsum, khams gsum
Three levels: sa gsum
tirthika: mu stegs: Hindu, extremist.
tonglen:  gtong len
training on the bhuumis:  sa sbyang
transmission:  ngo sprod
transparent:  zang thal
trikaya: sku gsum
true meaning:  nges don
tummo: gtum mo
turning the wheel of dharma:  chos kyi  ‘khor lo ‘khor.
twelve ayatanas:  skye mched bcu gnyis
twelve divisions of the Buddha’s sutra teachings: bstan pa’i dbye ba bcu gnyis
twelve links of interdependent origination: see ch. 8 rten a’brel
two acumulations: tshogs gnyis: accumulation of merit and wisdom.
two benefits: don gnyis
two bodhicittas: byang chub sems gnyi
two cessations: ‘gogs pa gnyis
two kayas: sku gnyis: dharmakaya and rupakaya, chos sku and gzugs sku.
two obscurations: kleshas and knowables.
twofold purity:  dag pa gnyis
ultimate point: ‘gag bsdam
unborn:  skye ba med
uncompounded:  ‘du ma byas
universal:  [rab] ‘byams
unmixed:  ma ‘dres
unobstructed:  ‘gag med, thogs med,  zang ka
upa/ charya:  u pa, spyod rgyud
upaya:  thabs
upayayoga:  = upa
utpattikrama:  bskyed rim
vaibhashika: bye brag pa
vajra holder:  rdo rje ‘dzin pa
vajra master:  rdo rje slob dpon
vajra:  rdo rje
Vajradhara:  rdo rje chang
vajradhatu:  rdo rje dbyings
vajrakaya:  rdo rje sku
Vajrapani: lag na rdo rje
Vajrasattva:  rdo rje sems dpa’
vajrayana: rdo rje theg pa
vasana:  bag chags
vase of coronation:  spyi blugs
vast:  yangs
vessel and essence:  snod bcud
Victorious One: rgyal ba
vidya mantra:  rigs snang
vidyadhara: knowledge holder
vidyadhara: rig ‘dzin
vinaya: ‘dul ba
vipashyana:  lhag mthong
virtues:  yon tan
Vishnu: khyab ‘jug
vision:  dgongs pa
visualize:  bskyed
vividness:  sal le ba
wisdom of equality:  mnyam nyid ye shes
wisdom of extent: ji snyed pa’i ye shes
wisdom of nature: ji lta ba’i ye shes
wisdom:  ye shes
wish-fulfilling gem:  yid bzhin nor bu
without support:  rten med
without transition and change:  pho  ‘gyur med.
two truths: bden gnyis
yana:  theg pa
yanas of cause and characteristics: rgyu mtshan theg pa
ye: primordial There is no creation or creator in Buddhism.  The nature is beginningless and eternal, much as God is described.
yidam:  yi dam
yoga tantra:  yo ga:  rnal ‘byor [rgyud] yogachara:  sems tsam, rnal ‘byor spyod

Tibetan Glossary for “Blazing Light of The Sun and Moon”

Tibetan Glossary
BLAZING LIGHT OF THE SUN AND MOON

‘bras bu: Effect, result, fruition (the kayas and wisdoms etc.) -lam du byed pa: Making the fruition one’s path. -theg: The last three of the nine yanas in which the fruition itself becomes the working basis. Vs. rgyu mtshan theg pa in which the result is produced causally by purification, practice, etc.
‘bud: See bud.
‘byed pa med pa: Without distinction, of dualistic conceptions etc. -thugs rje, impartial, distinctionless compassion. It is there for all beings equally, regardless of their state of virtue, understanding etc, as rain falls on the just and unjust alike.
‘byor ba’i bkod: Rich display.
‘byung ba lnga: sa, chu, rlung, me, nam mkha’; earth, water, air, fire, and space. In their coarse form as substantial existents, they are obstacles to enlightenment. In their subtle form, they are phenomenal principles that respond to the will of the yogin. Thus they are known as the consorts of the five bhagavans. In their subtlest form, they are not different from insight-bodhicitta itself.
‘dre ba: mix. Eg. things are seen clearly without being mixed up in ji snyed ye shes, qv.
‘du ba: 1 Gather, assemble, accumulate, collect, join, meet. (active sense). 2 Be united or included (of changeless entities). 3 To embody (of deities etc).
‘du bral med: Without gathering or separation, without adding or taking away.
‘du byed: the fourth skandha, formations, habitual tendencies, karmic formations.
‘du ma byas: Uncompounded, unconditioned. Not produced by combining dharmas through cause and effect.
‘du shes: Perception, [conception] discernment, ideation, inclination, the third skandha.
‘dul ba: the teachings of monastic discipline, such as the 250 rules for monks and 350 for nuns. One of the 3 pitakas or baskets of the teachings, sde gsum. Vinaya, [monastic] discipline, conversion, cultivation, taming. ‘dul byed, is the tamer or teacher and ‘dul bya, the tamed or disciple.
‘dus pa: See ‘du ba.
‘dzin: See gzung ‘dzin.
‘gag med: 1 Unobstructed, unlimited by or free from…, able to manifest. 2 Unceasing.
‘gag: 1 Pith, crucial or principle point. Cf. gnad. 2 To cease.
‘gogs pa gnyis of discriminating awareness 1 without complexity resting in natureless meaning in which defilements are like the sky.
‘gro ba: 1 Sentient being = sems can. 2 Animal. 3 To go.
‘gro ba’i lam: Path of one’s travels, path of beings.
‘gyu ba: movement, moving thoughts, discursive [vibration], thinking. Has the connotation of unsteady flickering like lightning, tongues of flame, or reflections on water. All distracting mental activities including perceptions, feelings, and the undercurrent of subconscious gossip are included. ‘phro: Flickering emanations of the moving, more or less equal to, rnam rtog, discursive thoughts; erratic, mental activity.
‘jam dpal: Manjushri bodhisattva of knowledge.
‘jog pa: 1 Put, place. 2 Leave, abandon. 3 Postulate, assert. 4 Classify, pigeonhole. 5 Rest the mind in meditation.
‘khor ba: Sa.msara; confused, cyclic, transmigratory existence; to whirl or spin; rotate.
‘khrul pa: Confusion, deception, mistake, frenzy, madness, bewilderment.
‘od gsal: Luminosity, luminous clarity. The glory of the vision of the pure bhuumis from the eighth upward, in which the two obscurations are removed. non-objectivized manifestation within the great emptiness. Its full blown form is the buddhas’ vision of things as they are, corresponding to ji snyed ye shes or kun mkhyen ye shes. All schools of the mahayana accept its existence. Therefore, it is a mistake to understand emptiness in a way that excludes such vision.
‘od: Light, radiance.
‘og min: Akanishtha, = gandavyuha, the highest realm, pure land, or buddha field, that of the vision of enlightenment. It is on the level of sambhogakaya, and said to be inhabited by mahasattvas, (who alone can apprehend it.) It was at first the name for the highest of the realms of the gods.
‘phags pa bden bzhi: Four noble truths. 1 All is suffering, sdug bsngal. 2 The origin, kun ‘byung, of suffering, ego grasping etc. 3 ‘gag pa, Cessation of suffering. 4 The path, lam, leading to the end of suffering.
‘phags pa nor bdun, faith discipline, generosity, learning, decency, modesty, prajna.
‘phags pa: Arya: Changeless, without transition or change. Cf. pho ba, the yoga of transference of consciousness.
a nu: Anu yoga, the eighth yana. See theg pa dgu.
a ti: Ati yoga, the great perfection, the ninth yana. See theg pa dgu.
a’dod pa lnga: desirable qualities of the 5 senses.
a’jigs chen bzhi: old age, illness, death, deterioration.
a’khor lo bsgyur ba’i rgyal po. Universal monarch, especially Dharma kings.
bag chags: vasanas Habitual tendency or pattern, karmic propensity or seed. In yogacara philosophy karma is stored as bag chags, in kun gzhi, alaya, a formless and neutral basic consciousness. These mature into such manifestations as being born in a physical body, having particular mental propensities or character, seeing the world in terms of sa.msaric confusion, experiencing the karmic result of previous good and evil deeds, etc.
bar do: Intermediate state in cyclical existence, especially those experienced between death and rebirth, according to texts like the bar do thos grol, the Tibetan Book of the Dead. These are the ‘chi ka’i bardo, the bardo of the moment of death, where the radiance of dharmata is experienced; the chos nyid bar do, bardo of dharmata, where visions of peaceful and wrathful wisdom-deities etc. are experienced; and the srid pa bar do, the bardo of becoming or rebirth.
bar snang: Space. (The literal words could mean appearance in the middle but seldom do.)
bar: The middle, middle way between opposites, eg. inner mind and external appearance. It may become an object of fixation, and it is said that the wise do not dwell in the middle either.
bcom ldan ‘das lnga: the five bhagavans, peaceful deities or sambhogakaya buddhas, Ak.shobhya, Ratnasambhava, Amitabha, Amoghasiddhi, Vairochana. They are said to appear in the visions of the chos nyid bardo, and also figure in many tantric visualization practices. They represent the enlightened forms of the five skandhas, form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness and five kleshas anger, pride, desire, jealousy, and ignoring. They manifest as the five wisdoms, mirror-like, equality, discriminating, all-accomplishing, and dharmadhatu wisdoms. Locana, Mamaki, Pandaravasini, Tara, and Akashadhatvishvari are their consorts, representing the pure form of water, earth, fire, air, and space.
bcom ldan ‘das: bhagava[n][t], blessed one, the Buddha.
bcos ma (n) pa (v): Fabricated, artificial, created, cranked up, created purposely, fake, unnatural, pretended.
bdag pa chen po: great being
bdag: Self, ego, atman (false and delusive) master, sovereign. -nyid = bdag or sometimes = essence, ngo bo or similar words. – pa chen po : great being, mahatma, universal mind of enlightenment or buddhahood, as symbolized by Samantabhadra etc. By becoming enlightened one attains this. There is no conflict with emptiness. This self is empty in essence like any other.
bde ba chen [po’i sku]: Mahasukha[kaya], the body of great bliss, referring to the intrinsic and inseparable bliss of enlightenment, bde ba, which is closer to well-being and equanimity than physical pleasure.
bde bar gshegs pa: Sugata, epithet of buddha, the blissfully gone one, due to experience of mahasukha.
bde gshegs snying po: Sugatagarbha, sugata essence, buddha nature, the ultimate, changeless reality from which temporary phenomena arise and to which they return. v. Uttaratantra etc. Because of its existence as our real nature we are of the “enlightened family” and can attain enlightenment. Sometimes sugatagarrbha refers to that potential or Buddha nature.
bden gnyis: the relative and absolute, kun rdzob and don dam: The two truths are usually said to be emptiness and appearance, in the third turning they are also presented as appearances being or not being like things as they are.
bdud rtsi: amrita. The intoxicating nectar of the gods, which conveys long life, bliss, and spiritual accomplishment. The literal words mean “devil juice.”
bkod pa, (n or v): Arrange[ment], display, order, setup, array.
bdud: Mara, demonic or obstructing forces, either personified or seen as psychological or karmic propensities. Mara is the king of such demons or forces, as the Devil is in the west. There are many divisions (see text), especially the four maras: The klesha and skandha maras (personifications of those); mrityu mara, personifying death, rigidity, darkness, depression and such life-destroying forces; and the deva putra (son of deity) mara concerned with the seductions of pleasure, power, and various ego-building experiences.
bla ma: guru. Teacher who embodies, displays, and transmits the sacred reality of enlightenment, also teaching the path by which it may be obtained and so forth. In tantric teachings like ati it is generally held that even though enlightenment is our true nature, it would be extremely difficult to realize this without the guru. Therefore great respect is in order for those rare persons who can properly perform this function. At the same time one must transcend devotional conceptions about the guru as separate to attain realization. Over-conceptualized devotion can actually be a hinderance.
blang ‘dor: Accepting and rejecting, receiving and abandoning, taking and discarding.
blo: (Conceptual) mind, intellect, cognition, awareness, plan; -zangs, good intelligence -‘das, beyond conceptual or sa.msaric mind, beyond thought or intellect.
bram ze: brahman, hindu priestly caste.
brgya byin: king of the 33 gods in Hinduism
brtag pa: Vitarka. Investigate, inquire, examine; -s: Pf. of rtog: Think conceptualize. Applied and focused thought approaching and determining the nature of its object. Cf. dpyod pa.
brtags pa gnyis pa: Condensed text from the cycle of the Hevajra Tantra.
bsam gtan bzhi: the dhyana “trances” have five factors concets, analysis/scruitiny, joy, well-being and equanimity [rtog pa, dpyod pa, dga’a ba, bde ba, btang snyoms). Accounts vary. In each successive dhyana one drops out until the 4th has equanimity alone. These states also correspond to heaven realms where the gods have correspondiong realizations. See Ch. 4.
bsam gtan: Dhyana, state of meditation. In particular, the nine dhyanas, four with form and five formless concentrations. See snyom ‘jug.
bsgom pa: Meditate, action of meditation. See text for divisions. V. shamatha, vipashyana.
bshugs: Xbskal pa: In Hindu-Buddhist cosmology a great kalpa consists of 4 to 80 (depending on the source) small kalpas of about eight million years. During this period the world evolves, develops, deteriorates and finally is completely destroyed in fire. It is said we live in a sub-period called the good kalpa because many buddhas appear in it.
bskyang: p. of skyong: Protect, guard, maintain, preserve, care for, nurture, govern, enjoy. Dharma protector deities are chos skyong.
bskyed rim: Developing stage. One performs various liturgies involving visualization of deities, making praises and offerings to them, reciting their essence mantras, and so forth. The deities are more aspects of enlightened mind than disembodied, personal entities external to and more powerful than oneself. But they are sometimes experienced as personlike beings. Eventually one hopes to see the phenomenal world as embodying various aspects of the pure environment and inhabitants of the mandalas of deities.
bskyed: Generate, cultivate, create, produce, visualize, develop.
bsod nams bsngo: all good deeds including practice accumulate merit or good karma. When ego thinks it owns good karma it is easily defiled, so it is best to give or deicate it to beings and the path.
bstan pa’i dbye ba bcu gnyis: General/sutras, verse summaries, prophecies, verse teachings, exhortations, biographical tales, narratives of former examples, conditional eclarations, extensive teachings, narrativges of former births, resolutions, narratives of miracles.
btang bshag med: Without taking or leaving: Intransitive or participle of ‘bud, revealed, occurred. It just happens. bud pa, dispense with. ‘bud, transitive: strip, lay bare, reveal, set free, expel, slander, blow (conch, on fire etc.), endeavor.
bya ba grub pa’i ye shes: All-accomplishing wisdom, the karma family wisdom. The speed, struggle, and poverty mentality of jealousy is transmuted by realization that real achievement is effortless and self-existing. As with Vajrakilaya (indestructible dagger) practice, the power of realization cuts through the confusion of obstacles.
bya rgyud: Kriya tantra. See theg pa dgu.
byams pa: the next buddha, Maitreya, now residing in the Tushita Heaven.
byang chub lnga: The five manifestations of enlightenment are 1 Sitting on a sun and moon seat. 2 One’s body completely manifests the body of the deity. 3 One’s speech manifests the seed syllables. 4 Mind manifests the attributes of the deity’s scepter, eg. Vajrayogini’s trident and skull cup. 5 Jnanasattvas descend.
byang chub sems dpa’: Bodhisattva. One who has reached at least the path of seeing of the five paths, but not yet attained complete buddhahood. With the buddhas they are called noble ones or aryas, ‘phags pa. There are usually said to be ten levels or bhuumis of the bodhisattva path, on each of which a certain perfection or paramita is emphasized, though up to fifteen are sometimes mentioned. -theg pa: The bodhisattvayana practices the paramitas in the context of the understanding, and later the vision, of emptiness. see theg pa dgu.
byang chub sems gnyis: aspiring and entering smon ‘jug.
byang chub sems: Bodhicitta, enlightened mind. In the mahayana there are the bodhicitta of aspiring to enlightenment, and that of actually entering into it. There are relative bodhicitta, concerned with compassion and the details of practicing the paramitas etc. and absolute bodhicitta, the ultimate nature of things. Bodhicitta is presented in ati as the absolute mind of enlightenment. It is more or less equivalent to rig pa, insight, and sugatagarbha, when they are used to refer to the fruition.
byang chub: Bodhi, enlightenment. byang: purified of obscurations and chub = perfected in enlightenment.
bye brag pa: Either the vaishe.shikas among the six hindu schools, or the vaibha.shikas among the shravaka schools. The eighteen schools more or less followed these tenets. Stcherbatsky’s The Central Conception of Buddhism is one of many sources. They define the relative as the composite, and hold that the absolute is physical atoms and the momentary dharmas of mind. They also hold that these absolutes are linked by various truly existing causes and conditions. They hold that the three times, space, etc. are established as substances. They hold that partless atoms aggregate into gross objects, and that partless moments of consciousness directly perceive their objects. They hold that effects in some sense pre-exist in their causes
bying rgod: Drowsiness and wildness, sinking into dullness and the arising of uncontrollable discursiveness, as obstacles experienced in meditation. They are said to be defenses of ego against fundamental space in which it does not exist.
byis pa: 1 Immature persons, children. 2 Disparaging: childish fools.
byung po: Ghost, generic name for ‘dre, gdon (dàns) and bgegs (geks) etc. Demon, evil spirit, esp. of the preta realm of the six lokas.
cha med: Nothing whatsoever, partless, without aspects.
cha phra: Infinitesimal, subtle [parts].
chad lta: Nihilistic view. Those who hold that nothing truly exists or who are skeptics holding that we cannot know what exists are nihilists. But this fault is most often ascribed to those who hold that there is no moral order of karmic cause and effect, so that the various good and bad events in the world arise only by chance. Thus many scientists would be nihilists from the buddhist viewpoint.
cho ‘phrul: Magical display, apparition, illusion, trick, creation, power, miracle, magical attack.
cho ga rnam pa lnga: The five aspects of sadhana: Visualization, recitation, offering, praise, and blessing.
chos can: That which possesses the various qualities of individual dharmas as opposed to the single nature of dharmas, emptiness, dharmata. The subject of a logical reasoning. Sometimes the phenomenal in general.
chos dbyings: Dharmadhatu. Space, source, or realm of phenomena. Absolute reality, the Dharma = enlightened mind, bodhicitta etc.. In the eighteen dhatus of hinayana, as presented by the Abhidharmakosha, dharmadhatu is the object, vi.shaya, yul, of the mental sense. In this sense there are as many dharmadhatus as there are sentient beings.
chos kyi ‘khor lo ‘khor: The three turnings of the wheel of Dharma. The first was at the deer park in Varanasi with hinayana teachings of truly existing dharmas, the four noble truths, and eightfold path; the second at the vulture peak taught emptiness of true existence; the third in the indefinite realms taught the changeless, eternal, ultimate nature, absolute bodhicitta or sugatagarbha.
chos nyid: Used in the Abhidharmakosha etc to mean absolute reality or realities, the real nature of something. It is sometimes used in this text in such a sense. The Tibetan schools all accept emptiness as the absolute reality, so the terms are more or less synonymous. In ati this is the great emptiness beyond emptiness and non-emptiness, things as they are beyond concept, their ultimate being or nature.
chos sku: Dharmakaya. See sku gsum.
chos skyongs: Dharma protector, dharmapalas, various generally wrathful deities, who protect the teachings, attack those who pervert them for reasons of ego etc. In general when basic sanity begins to slip, the phenomenal world gives gentle messages, like you can’t find your car keys. If that fails, you might drive your car into a tree. That is called a manifestation of the protectors. Mahakala, Vaitali, Ekajati etc, are examples.
chos: 1 dharma, phenomenon, thing, existent, ultimate constituent of existence, that which is suitable to be known by the mind, mental object. 2 Dharma (capitalized): The Buddhadharma, the teachings of buddhism. 3 Religion in general. 4 quality, property. 5 Right, duty, moral law. 6 Scripture or doctrine. 7 Truth, order, law. 8 Principle, topic. 9 Meaning, value. 10 In ati the vision of realization is the end of the buddhadharma, and this is called “the Dharma.” If the guru transmits this vision to someone, it is called “giving the Dharma.”
dag pa gnyis: rang bzhin dag, glo bur dag. Purity of nature and purity of pure experience from the incidental. The two purities result from removing the veils of conflicting emotions, the kleshas, and of primitive beliefs about reality that obscure omniscient wisdom.
dag pa gsum: There are various lists of three purities. In the bodhisattva path there is threefold purity (=emptiness) of actor, action, and object. In mahayoga there are purity of the outer world, inner contents, and the continuity of the mind stream snod, bcud, rgyud. The list referred to in the text, during a discussion of kriya is probably this: 1 lha dag dkyil ‘khor, the mandala of the pure deity 2 rdzas dang longs spyod dag, pure substance = longs spyod, enjoyment or abundance 3 sangs rgyas don dag ting nge ‘dzin the samadhi of the pure meaning of buddhahood. [ES lists sngags dang ting nge ‘dzin, purity of mantra and samadhi for 3] It is worth noting that ES’s source specifically refers to kriya and ours is more a mahayoga feast commentary.
dag pa’i sa: The three pure bodhisattva bhuumis, the eighth, ninth, and tenth. They are so called because only on these levels do luminosity, pure appearance, wisdom, the ornament, gandavyuuha, Akani.shtha, etc. manifest. Bodhisattvas of these levels are to some extent like the buddhas in seeing things as they are. Those on a lower level have direct cognition of emptiness in meditation. But they have not yet removed the obscurations of primitive beliefs about reality that veil pure appearance.
dag snang: Pure appearance, sacred outlook (VCTR, who wanted to that here everything appears has a sense of overwhelming sacred value). Enlightened vision of the relative = luminosity possessing the two purities etc. Ultimately = the kayas and wisdoms.
dam bca’: Thesis, promise, oath, claim, idea. “Dam” here = firm, stable.
dam tshig srung ba: To keep, guard, or maintain samaya. It is sometimes said that this is almost impossible for someone who is not enlightened. For buddhas it is self-existing and effortless.
dbang bzhi vase (5 buddha families, water, crown, vajra, bell, and name), secret (inner feelings and phenomena are the mandala), prajnajnana (bliss of union), suchness (the nature).
dbang drug: The six indriyas, or sense organs, the six senses, the five usual senses plus the mental sense; ES: six tantric empowerments of yoga, but he does not list them.
dbang lgna: 1 The five senses. 2 The five powers: faith, perserverence, mindfulness, samadhi, and prajna.
dbang po chen po”the great Lord,”a Hindu creator god.
dbang po: Hindu god, of the three Bhrama, Vishnu, and Shiva he is associated with destruction and ascetic yoga, and with the dance of existence. He is also much associated with Hindu tantra.
dbang: 1 Empowerment (= dbang bskur, abhi.sheka) Typically a ceremony introducing students the ritual and mandala of a particular deity. One can also be empowered as a teacher or with a certain state of being. 2 Power. 3 Senses or their faculties (= dbang po, usually as conditioned experiences to be transcended. 4 Mental acuity or capacity. 5 Ruler.
dbu ma: 1 The middle way. 2 The central channel visualized in tantric yoga. 3 The madhyamaka philosophy of emptiness established by Nagarjuna. Nagarjuna claimed to establish logically the teachings of the prajnaparamita suutras that absolute reality is empty of true existence of what conventional concepts impute to it, of any real nature and so forth. Interdependent arising of all conventional things is one way of establishing this. The prasangika school dbu ma thal ‘gyur, emphasizes that reality transcends concepts, even that of emptiness. Therefore, insofar as possible, it makes no attempt to establish doctrines of its own, but limits itself to showing the inadequacies in the doctrines of others. Ati is highly influenced by the prasangika viewpoint, which it presupposes. Reasoned arguments do not appear in this text, because they have been resolved previously. Therefore, one who wishes to study ati should first have personally resolved the meaning of emptiness as presented by madhyamaka. Then it is possible to go on to realize how emptiness manifests in experience as non-dual emptiness/luminosity. Ati to some degree also accepts the notion of svatantrika madhyamaka: without distinction, division, classification, or exclusion.
dbyings kyi snying po: Garbha of space = sugatagarbha. Sometimes = dharmadhatu, sometimes the seed, potentiality, or “genes” of dharmadhatu, which makes it possible for sentient beings to attain it, as in the Uttaratantra.
dbyings las mi g.yo: Not departing from space, going beyond it in the sense of becoming something with a truly existent different nature, not of one taste with it, non-empty, something dual in relation to insight.
dbyings: Field, dhatu, realms, [basic] space, expanse, totality continuum, source. dbyings su, can mean spontaneously. dbyings su dag, can mean spontaneous or fundamental purity. Basic nature, eg. wetness can be called the dbyings of water.
de bzhin gshegs pa[‘i snying po]: Tathagata [garbha] [womb of the] thus-gone. tathagata = buddha qua one who courses in suchness = emptiness = things as they are. Tathagatagarbha: the buddha nature or essence. It is like sugatagarbha except the emphasis is on the emptiness rather than the bliss aspect. Sometimes it refers to the buddha nature as potential for enlightenment in all beings, as opposed to full blown enlightenment. Sometimes it means realization of absolute truth = absolute bodhicitta etc.
de bzhin nyid: Suchness, emptiness, things as they are = chos nyid.
ded dpon: Guide. Literally it means a ship captain, as a metaphor of one who can guide people safely on a long journey.
dgag sgrub: Assert or deny; prove or refute in the verbal sphere; hinder or establish in the experiential sphere.
dge a’dun: followers of the Buddha’s teachings.
dgnos grub: The relative thun mong or kun rdzob, siddhis are accomplishments such as the six higher perceptions, mgnon shes. Absolute siddhi, thun mong ma yin or don dam) = enlightenment.
dgnos po: Thing, conceptualized as something solid and real with a fixed, independent essence. That which has the power to produce an effect, don byed nus pa, is a thing. What does not, like space, is a non-thing. cf. dgnos su, in reality.
dgnos [por] ‘dzin: To recognize, either things as they are or in terms of some conceptual reference point falsely fixated as invariant and objective; to grasp as solid or as things having fixated characteristics of essence and effect-producing power. The experiential quality of the world so grasped.
dgongs pa: Literally intended meaning, and thence by extension vision or realization. KPSR.
dkon mchog bzhi: Buddha Dharma, Sangha, and guru.
dkyil ‘khor gsum: body, speech, and mind.
dkyil ‘khor: Mandala. Literally, center and border. The mandala of a deity has that deity with customary accoutrements at the center. Around the central deity are the retinue and attendants of the four families other than that of the deity. Around that are the palace, vajra fence, charnel grounds, and other environmental symbols. Altogether they symbolize in detail the particular modes of being, action, and awareness symbolized by the particular deity. Mandala is also used to mean the experience of body, speech, and mind of primordial buddhahood. Such a mandala is not an artificial creation, but a self-existing display for whoever reaches this level. This display of the mandala of the king of dharmata is not chaotic, but is experientially as organized as the experience of a real king’s court. By extension almost any perspective or arrangement can be called a mandala.
dmigs pa: Conception, image, object-focus, perceived object, visualization. -med: without any of the above, inconceivable, inexperiencable, unimaginable. -rkyen object condition of perception. -med pa’i snying rje: objectless (impartial, egoless) compassion.
dngos grub thun mong brgyad: magic pills, eye medicine, sword, going in space, invisibility, deathlessness, conquersing sickness.
don byed nus pa: Ability to perform a function or produce a result. The defining characteristic of things.
don dam: True, real, absolute, ultimate. rnam grangs- the conceptually describable absolute vs. rnam grangs min pa’i -, which cannot be described but only experienced.
don gnyis: rang don and gzhan don, benefit for self and other.
don grub: Attainment, accomplishment, success. = Siddhartha. KSTR.
don: 1 Meaning, sense, significance. 2 Object, thing. 3 Fact. 4 True, real, ultimate. 5 Topic, subject. 6 Purpose, benefit. 7 Result. 8 Nature. 9 Message.
dpyod pa: Vichara. Sustained analytical thought on objects determined by vitarka, usually with the intent of resolving them in terms of practical judgement. Subconscious gossip on sense impressions, an ongoing indistinct murmur of conceptuality (manojalpa) underlying our experience. Vitarka searches to match sense experiences to conceptual reference points. Vicara attempts to fix them there definitively. Thus, one might use them to decide respectively that sa.msaric objects are impermanent and empty, and should not be relied on by one who hopes for liberation. In hinayana brtags pa and dpyod pa, are considered desirable in building concentration that leads one to a more direct cognition of reality in dhyana, meditation. But they drop out in the second dhyana leading to clear lucidity (samprasada.) PPA, appropriate sanskrit index headings. In the Tibetan schools also examination and analysis are considered as preludes to the clarity of direct comprehension. In CYD and LT analysis is almost invariably madhyamaka analysis for the absolute: Memory and understanding, wakefulness.
drag po, Hindu god, of the three Bhrama, Vishnu, and Shiva he is associated with destruction and ascetic yoga, and with the dance of existence. He is also much associated with Hindu tantra.
dran pa: Memory, mindfulness, a term for conditioned sa.msaric consciousness altogether, as used eg. by Saraha.
dri ma gnyis: The two obscurations of kleshas and knowables. KSTR.
dri med: Stainless, spotless, immaculate, undefiled.
dri za: celestial musician spirits said to susbust on smells.
dril ba: Include, essentialize, wrap up, sum up.
dug gsum: The three poisons; chags pa, zhe sdang, gti mug; passion, aggression, and ignorance.
dug lnga: The five poisons = the five kleshas, anger, pride lust, jealousy, and ignoring.
dus med: Timeless, constant.
dus bzhi: The four times: Past, present, future, and the all-inclusive fourth.
dus gsum: The three times, past present and future.
dus: age krita, treta, dvepara and kali are four ages of the universe after which the world is destroyed. The first is like a golden age dominated by bhramins (priests). The following ages deteriorate, and are controlled by kshatriyas (rulers/warirs) vaishyas (merchants) and shudras (servants/ laborers
gdod ma’i dbyings: gdod= Primordial. dbyings= chos kyi dbyings= Space of dharmadhatu, [= The dhatu], as sphere, source, and element of all there is.
gdod nas: Primordially. Sim. thog nas, ye nas.
gdon: Malevolent or demonic spirit, especially of the preta realm, said to bring about disease and accidents for those who lack mindfulness.
glo bur: Temporary, incidental, transient, adventitious, not innate or intrinsic, sudden, abrupt.
glod: Relax, rest, be natural, free, loose, release, let go, set free.
gnad: Main, essential, vital or key point; pith, essence, secret. -kyis: due to. -‘gag, put into a single point. lus kyi gnad: teachings of physical practice, hatha yoga etc.
gnas lugs [tshul]: Natural: Antidote, remedy. Eg., the contemplation of disgusting aspects of the body is a hinayana antidote for carnal lust. The path as a whole is the antidote for sa.msara. Emptiness is the antidote for belief in self-nature. Tibetans often think of the bodhisattvayana as the one that principally employs antidotes. Whereas the first two yanas are said to find nothing good in negative thoughts and emotions and to recommend suppressing them, the bodhisattvayana compares them to an unpleasant tasting medicine. They may be useful in building resolve for enlightenment, non-attachment, compassion, and other wholesome attitudes. From the viewpoint of ati, since buddhahood is self-existing, there is no need for antidotes.
gnas: Place, basis, ground = gzhi, abide, exist, to live, lifetime, remain, endure, be stable, establish oneself, domain, realm. -skabs: Occasion. -‘gyur: Transformation. -cha: Stability, section of a text, point, topic. -snang: The way things appear and the way things are.
gnyis med: Non-duality, non-existence of either or both. Eg. gzung ‘dzin gnyis med, may mean that grasping subject and grasped object are non-dual, not separate states, co-emergent, in union etc; or it may mean that neither of them exists. The former approach is characteristic of the mind-only school, where enlightenment is defined as realization of ultimate mind as one without subject/object duality. The latter is characteristic of madhyamaka, which says that neither mind nor its objects truly exist as independent entities with a nature of their own and so forth. But the same arguments that refute them also refute any truly existing ground such as dharmadhatu that would be beyond mind. So they cannot be said to exist non-dually as that or anything else.
Ati ultimately accepts the madhyamaka viewpoint: Straying, deviation, misunderstanding; place where these can occur -gsum: clinging to bliss, clarity, and non-thought. -bzhi: Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche in LM: Misunderstanding the great primordial emptiness, one labels mind with conceptual negation. This is known as straying into the realm of conceptual shuunyata (emptiness). Not having faith in the ground and fruition of ordinary mind within oneself, one hopes for a new acquisition of the fruition of dharmakaya elsewhere. This is known as straying in regard to the path. Misunderstanding the way of self-liberation, one seeks antidotes elsewhere than in the kleshas themselves. This is known as straying in regard to the antidote. Thinking that all dharmas of apparent existence, sa.msara and nirvana, are merely shuunyata, one is stuck in a fixation of nihilism. This is known as straying into labeling.”
goms: 1 Proficient, habituated, trained, skillful, adept, having mastered, accustomed, developed. 2 Paces, footsteps.
grol ba: Liberation, freedom, to liberate oneself or another, untying, releasing escaping from, recovering from illness, to end [a meeting]. to become non-existent [of things] = cease. -bzhi, the four kinds of liberation: shar grol, liberation on arising; gcer [cer] grol direct liberation; rang grol, self-liberation, and ye grol eternal liberation.
grub thob: Siddhi, accomplishment; siddha, the one who has such accomplishment. Absolute siddhi is enlightenment. The relative siddhis involve miraculous displays of power over phenomena, the higher perceptions, mngon shes qv., and the like.
gsal ba: Clear, clearly appearing, clearly explained, luminous. See ‘od gsal.
gtad med: Not solid, shifty, offering no fixed or steady reference point. KPSR. VCTR.
gtan la ‘bebs pa: Establish, resolve with certainty, determine, settle, clarify, put in order, usually of doctrines.
gzhan stong: Empty of other. In shentong philosophy it is said: Foundation, ground, basis, object [-ive support] basic nature, = buddha nature (sugatagarbha, the Space of insight) , source, subject. – gzhi: the thing which is . (eg. stong gzhi, the thing which is empty.) -grub, established foundation. -rten ground and support, foundation = gzhi. -lam ‘bras: ground, path, and fruition: Eg. the ground, one’s nature, sugatagarbha, emptiness possessing all the supreme characteristics, is the nature as cause and ground. Therefore, one can practice the path of the buddhadharma in the ways described in this text, and attain the fruition, enlightenment, the manifestation of the kayas and wisdoms and so forth. This text is presented in that order.
gzhi gnas: 1 Intrinsically present, abiding in the ground, gzhi gnas ye shes gsum qv. 2 Shamatha meditation: One-pointed meditation on an object, most often the breath. It is a means of cutting through conceptualizations and attachments so that one can experience the basic self-existing nature.
gzhi med: Groundless. Things are mere appearance of what does not exist. Cf. med pa gsal snang, stong gzugs, rten med. KPSR.
gzugs brnyan: Reflection. Ordinarily we think of reflections as reflections of something that is not itself a reflection, such as the moon in water, or “reflected” in visual experience. But here all phenomena are “reflections” in that they arise interdependently. The external moon is a considered to be a projected, false conception, with even less reality than the experienced one, and so forth. Whatever arises is experienced as empty, in something like the way we experience the moon in water now, or like the way we experience a dream, when we know we are dreaming.
gzugs sku: Ruupakaya. The two form kayas sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya, constituting the benefit for others. See trikaya.
gzung ‘dzin: Usu. Abbr. gzung ba’i yul dang ‘dzin pa’i sems: Fixated or grasped object , gzung ba and fixating or grasping mind, ‘dzin pa; illusory, sa.msaric fixations of independent, truly existing subjects and objects. VCTR translated this “grasping and fixation,” rather than the more common “subject and object.” One reason is that enlightenment in ati is not envisioned, as sometimes in hinayana, as nihilistic cessation of experience of subject and object; nor, as in mind-only, as their becoming one thing. The enlightened object is the kayas, emptiness possessing all the supreme aspects. Theenlightened subject is insight-wisdom. They can be said to be inseparable and non-dual, so that this perception is self-insight of itself. But for ati this state is also the great emptiness beyond existence and non-existence, beyond mind and no-mind etc. Ati accepts the madhyamaka claim that no predicates can adequately describe absolute reality. So it is beyond the absolute mind of mind-only. Thus, VCTR used “grasping and fixation” to indicate that enlightenment transcended confused conceptualizations of the perceiver and the perceived. Those who translate gzung ‘dzin gnyis med, as [with neither][without the duality of] subject and object are in general aware of these considerations, so that in the end there need be no fundamental disagreement. VCTR sometimes used these terms so that they seemed to refer to a simultaneous co-dependence of subject and object, and sometimes spoke of a successive occurrence of the subject-object split, gzung ba, followed by mental grasping, ‘dzin pa. Obviously one should not mix the two usages.
It is traditionally said that the shravakas realize the non-existence of gzung ‘dzin, of the individual ego, and that pratyekabuddhas also realize half-egolessness of dharmas by realizing the non-existence of gzung but not of ‘dzin. KPSR explains that this means that there is no individual ego (‘dzin) and therefore no objects (gzung) that have a substantial, causal, or any other kind of dependence to it. Pratyekabuddhas are said to realize interdependent arising, according to the twelve links of interdependent arising and so forth. Therefore, they realize that dharmas of the external world do not exist with an independent nature of their own. They view them as aspects of the experience of a perceiver. However such a perceiver is not an individual ego. Such a view is very like mind-only, or perhaps some versions of Sautrantika Abhidharma that anticipate mind-only. cf. BPTP. Bodhisattvas have full realization of emptiness, and therefore do not accept the grasper of dharmas as truly existing any more than those dharmas themselves.
gzung: V. gzung ‘dzin.
ji lta ba’i ye shes: Wisdom of the absolute nature of everything as it is, ie. as the great emptiness.
ji snyed pa’i ye shes: Wisdom of extent; ji snyed = as much as there is, whatever kinds, as suitable; omniscient qualitative wisdom of all phenomena as they are, discriminating all details without confusion.
ka dag: Primordial purity, purity from the start.
kha ldog lnga: Blue, white, yellow, red, and green, the colors of the five families and elements.
khams/ ‘byung ba bzhi: these are the 5 minus space.
khams bco brgyad: The eighteen khams, dhatus, (classes of dharmas) are the six sense powers, dbang po, indriyas, including the mano-dhatu or, yid kyi dbang po, the faculty of intellect; the six sense-objects, yul, vishaya, including the dharmadhatu, here in its original sense = the realm of non-sensuous, intellectual objects; and the six consciousnesses including the manovijnana or intellectual sense. The consciousness of touch is called the kaya consciousness, meaning here “of solid bodies.” the six senses, their six objects, and the six consciousnesses of those objects. Here “dharma,” in a special sense, means intellectual object, and dharmadhatu is the realm of such objects, analogous to the realm of colors, sounds, etc.
khams gsum: Three worlds. 1 The desire realm, the realm of material form. 2 Pure non-material form, the realm of the impure visions of dreams, and those of the god realms; and the pure ones of meditation, such as visions of the sambhogakaya deities. 3 The formless realm [objectless space, time, consciousness, neither perception nor non-perception.] khams: 1 Element, dhatu, realm. 2 Disposition of individual personality; the nature of something, sim. rang bzhin; the elements. Eg. the khams of fire is heat. Such natures are partial vs. 3 the basic nature = rigs (gotra) = sugatagarbha, buddha nature. potential or seed; semen.
khong yangs pa: [Innerly] vast or wide open, open minded, to perceive or understand.
khra lam: Vivid, clear, bright, splendid.
khrol khrol: Bright, sparkling (cf. khrol po) (loud or rumbling of musical instruments); insubstantial, unobstructed (cf. khral khrol); LUS: Continuously liberated (cf. bkrol ba).
khyab ‘jug: Hindu god. Of the threw Bhrama, Vishnu and Shiva, responsible for maintaining the universe. He has a number of incaranations such as Krishna, and according to the Hindus, the Buddha.
klong: Space (capitalized in text) expanse, sphere, realm of…, mass, immensity vastness, scope or boundaries. -gyur: attaining perfection or mastery. -chen, immense space or knowledge = dharmadhatu -chen rab ‘byams: realization of vast universal Space or knowledge = Longchenpa. -zer, : nail of space. See gzer.
Longchenpa says in LT that klong can be differentiated from dbyings as the space of ultimate mind vs. that of the universal ground. VCTR differentiated them by comparing dbyings to the vastness of contemplating the horizon from the seashore. Klong is more like skydiving in the middle of the night. He was referring in particular to the black klong experience of the forty-nine day bardo retreat in darkness. Here Space is beyond reference points of vastness and constraint.
klu: Naga, water spirit, serpent [deity]. Living in low watery places and caverns, they are often associated with the lower aspects of the human situation, either those which are necessary, but not exalted, or those which are dark, evil and poisonous. Thus they are associated with skin diseases such as leprosy. In this aspect, they are the enemy of garuda. However, they are said to have great wealth, and to have received the wisdom of the prajnaparamita from the Buddha, guarding it until Nagarjuna, klu grub, could receive them. Also the nagas protected Buddha from attacks of the maras on the night before his enlightenment.
kri ya [rgyud]: Kriya tantra, = bya rgyud, the fourth yana. see theg pa dgu.
kun btags: False conception, parikalpita, the merely imputed or illlusory nature of external reality projected onto mind-only, which has no true existence at all, like space.
kun byed rgyal po: The all-creating (doing, accomplishing) King, title of the main scripture of the SemdÈ. The King = bodhicitta, personified as Samantabhadra qv. His attributes are explained at length in the text. The King also is one’s true enlightened nature.
kun gzhi rnam gsum: the neutral alaya, alaya of various habitaul patterns, alaya of reality.
kun gzhi rnam par shes pa: Alayavijnana: Universal ground- consciousness. See rnam shes brgyad.
kun gzhi: Alaya: Universal ground. See rnam shes brgyad.
kun mkhyen ye shes: The omniscient wisdom of enlightenment, which sees all phenomena without mixing them up. cf. ji snyed ye shes.
kun rdzob: Relative, conventional, obscured (in the sense of disguised or costumed) truth, as opposed to don dam, absolute truth. Various systems have different views of what constitutes the relative. See bden gnyis. -gnyis, the two aspects of the relative are, [yang] dag pa’i kun rdzob and log pa’i kun rdzob. Sometimes these refer to ordinary right and wrong judgements within the everyday sphere. In this text they differentiate the confused perception of sa.msara and the perception of enlightenment which sees things as they are. yang dag is sometimes called absolute truth, but the sense is different from, though not in conflict with the absolute truth of emptiness, which it presupposes.
kun tu bzang po [mo]: Samantabhadra [-i] literally means total or universal goodness. In mahayana Samantabhadra is one of the eight main bodhisattvas, an emanation of Vajrasattva. In sadhanas the environment is purified as pure appearance by the Samantabhadra offerings, in which offerings of desirable things of the five sense objects are visualized like clouds filling the whole of space. In ati Samantabhadra is the first, primordial buddha, who spontaneously achieved understanding of his own nature as universal enlightenment. His consort is Samantabhadri. Usually he is blue, she is white, and they are naked. The text presents this in detail. When Samantabhadra is united with his consort Samantabhadri, she symbolizes the primordial space of the empty essence, dharmadhatu and prajnaparamita. He symbolizes pure arising in that space of entities that do not go beyond its nature. Samantabhadra does not exist as an ego or individual being, but = buddhahood, one’s own true nature. Therefore, all who are enlightened are said to be equal to him. The “I” of the K¸njÈ, who is the all-creating King, is Samantabhadra. He may be considered the essence of all that is sacred. Ati might say that this is the real concern of all religions and their deities. Some have wondered whether Samantabhadra as lha and bdag chen, big mind, the great self, was not like God in the western sense. I think this is true in a sense. Bdag pa chen po is the great mind beyond ego and non-ego, or self and other, and even God and atheism. In theory the via negativa of Dionysius and “God is not a what” of Aquinas are compatible with this. If there are theists who have no problem with God being emptiness and not something removed by a gap from what we really are, so be it.
lag na rdo rje: bodhiattva who is the lord of secret vajra teachings.
lam bgrod: Treading, traversing the path.
lam lnga: Thedvcion, tshogs lam: One accumulates merit and wisdom and avoids confusion and evil deeds so that one will escape the lower realms and enlightenment will eventually manifest. The four foundations of mindfulness are practiced and developed in shamatha. This leads to the clear seeing of vipashyana. 2) Preparation (unification), sbyor lam, Developing vipashyana, one develops a deep understanding of the four noble truths, cutting the root of the desire realm. 3) Seeing, mthong.lam: The practitioner comes to understand the unsatisfactoriness of all the realms of form, including the god realm. Direct vision of emptiness is seen. This conveys the essence of liberation, and one enters the first bhuumi, supremely joyful. 4) Meditation, sgom lam: Practicing meditation and relating to the phenomenal world through the paramitas, pha rol tu phyin pa, one attains the second through tenth bhuumis. This culminates in the vision of luminosity and wisdom. 5) Fulfillment or no more learning, mthar phyin or mi slob, Attaining the vajra-like samadhi the practitioner enters the eleventh bhuumi, prabhasvara, kun tu ‘od, the complete luminosity of buddhahood. See JOL.
lam: The practitioner’s way to enlightenment as taught by the Buddha, the method of practice, “the path” = the buddhadharma altogether. -khyer, make something into the path, practice, bring something to the path. eg. one can use kleshas as a means of practice in various ways.
las rlung: Karmic energy, karma prana, as opposed to ye shes rlung, the energy of wisdom.
las: 1 From, as, which is, instead of, rather than. 2) Karma.
lha min: jealous gods who are enemies of the gods, one of the six realms of existence, rigs drug
lha: Deities, the divine, the level of things that are exalted. Sometimes buddhist scriptures accept the existence of the entire hindu pantheon on deities as the highest sort of temporarily existing beings. The deities of sadhana, yidams, protectors, buddhas and bodhisattvas (such as Samantabhadra in this text) sometimes seem to be approached as beings having a personal existence, and sometimes as principles of the energies of one’s mind and the phenomena of the world. In any case they are ultimately empty of essence. Buddhahood is eternal, but a certain being Samantabhadra was first to realize it. Doing so, he ceased to be merely personal. We too can become what he became. It is not the existence and nonexistence of deities that differentiates Buddhism from “theistic” religions. It is that the whole issue shifts elusively, leaving one nothing to rely on, so that one is just left hanging. The “theism” that Buddhism eschews has less to do with accepting and worshipping deities than trying to fix the reference points of one’s universe through conceptual idolatry. This the great theistic religions also decry. Fixating emptiness and nihilism about any divine nature in any sense is part of that “theism.”
It has sometimes been noted that Buddhism sometimes makes statements, eg. about Chakrasa.mvara or Samantabhadra, that are indistinguishable from those theistic dogmatists make. But since these perspectives are not fixated, but seen in the context of the great emptiness, they become a commentary on the phenomenological possibilities of religion. Such openness is the very reverse of cultish dogmatism (or should be). Here one can compare what Longchenpa says about the difference between the use of sems tsam terminology to establish metaphysical and spiritual dogmas and the use in ati to go beyond them.
lhag mthong: Vipashyana, clear seeing. Having calmed the mind through shamatha, and in that stillness gained some sense of the self-existing basic nature, the meditator continues with mindfulness on the breath etc., but lets the boundary dissolve into all-inclusive, panoramic awareness in which all phenomena, not just those of mind, are included without accepting and rejecting. This occurs by seeing there is no real step between the two. The sense of boundary is an illusory fabrication that requires maintenance. As one explores the phenomenal world in this way, the connections of interdependence that lead to sa.msara and nirvana become self-evident. This deepens into direct experience of emptiness as one enters the bodhisattva bhuumis.
lhan [cig] skyes pa’i [ye shes]: Sa.msara and nirvana arise in one’s situation simultaneously. Therefore, the solidity of each is annihilated, and the wisdom beyond both spontaneously appears. Very intense suffering naturally tends to self-liberate into co-emergence, and the attempt to stabilize a nirvana free of sa.msara tends naturally to evoke co-emergent, conceptualization, fixation, ignorance and so forth. -kun btags, co-emergent false conceptions, ; -ma rig pa, co-emergent ignorance.
lhun grub: Self-existing, of the changeless essence. In particular, the self-existing, spontaneously present nature of dharmadhatu, which, from the path viewpoint, arises effortlessly when pure perception is achieved. One of four states of meditation in SemdÈ according to NN.
lhun: 1 = lhun grub. 2 Monolithic, massive. 3 Dignity.
like thunder you can hear but not see: having no real identity, cf. nges med, ngos ‘dzin med. It is like a cloud of no fixed shape or a mutter in stadium that seems to be saying something, but it isn’t quite clear what. Really it is not anything in particular. The situation is like a dream where one feels that something crucial is happening, and yet nothing really justifies such a feeling.
log: Eliminate, wrong, perverted: lta log, wrong view.
longs spyod rdzogs pa’i sku: sambhogakaya. KPSR presents longs spyod literally being activity = bya ba, which includes in particular the realization of extent ji snyed. longs spyod also means enjoyment and in fact, since nothing needs to be accomplished the realization of sambhogakaya is appreciation, and the activity celebration. It is often so glossed. see sku gsum.
lung bstan: Give instruction, teach, prophesy.
lung ma bstan: 1) It is not taught. (occurs frequently in the K¸njÈ. 2) it comes to nothing. It is also used this way in the “Song of Lodrà Thaye” in The Rain of Wisdom. 3) Neutral, neither wholesome nor harmful, bad or good. Eg. kun gzhi lung ma bstan, the neutral alaya.
lung: 1 Scripture. 2 Passage or quotation from scripture (as in lung gi gter mdzod, The Scriptural Treasury, the name of Longchenpa’s commentary on The Precious Treasury of Dharmadhatu. 3 Reading transmission of a text or practice. 4 Precept. 5 Teaching.
lus ngag sems: Body, speech, and mind (non-honorific), vs. sku gsung thugs. These sets of terms can be used to differentiate the body, speech, and mind of the enlightened and unenlightened states.
ma ‘dres: Unmixed, unconfused. Eg. in ji snyed ye shes all the different, individual things are clear and distinct. They do not get mixed up with each other or confused. Unadulterated: Wisdom is not mixed = adulterated with sa.msaric fixation and grasping.
ma ‘gags: See ‘gag med.
ma bskyed: Not purposely produced, developed, or cranked up. Hence, self-existing, natural. Cf. ma bcos.
ma btsal: Literally, “not sought.” But things could be unsought for reasons of ignorance. Also, they are often missed just because they are sought too greedily. So the sense is more like not needing to be sought, because they are self-existing.
ma rig pa: Ignorance, as opposed to rig pa, understanding, insight. ma rig pa occurs when rig pa is covered over by incidental defilements.
mchod rten: stupa. Originally a memorial structure containing relics of the Buddha. Later other holy objects and texts were also put in.
mdo sde pa: Sautrantikas, an abhidharma school of the hinayana. The Abhidharmakosha of Vasubandhu, dbyig gnyen, propounds this viewpoint. The logicians, such as Dignaga and Dharmakirti, hold that what has the power to produce an effect, is absolute truth, and that what does not is relative. They deny the, bye brag pa, vaibha.shika, assertions that space and cessation substantially exist, and that there are simultaneous cause and effect. They hold that consciousnesses do not nakedly see their objects but are themselves generated in the image [rang rig]. They deny the self of persons, but accept that there are other truly existing entities. Thus they accept the self of dharmas.
mdo: Confluence, juncture, main point, suutra (a discourse of the Buddha) mdor na: In summary.
med pa gsal snang: This could mean that the appearances themselves do not exist at all, which is the case from the madhyamaka viewpoint. But all informants concur that the idea is that they are there but are empty of any truly existing object of which they are appearances. They do not exist with a nature of their own.
mgnon chos: Abhidharma, schools of philosophy such as the hinayana, bye brag pas and mdo sde pas and the mahayana sems tsam pas who believe in various truly existing dharmas (as madhyamaka and ati do not). These dharmas are grouped into classifications such as the 5 skandhas, 18 dhatus, and 12 ayatanas. They are held to arise interdependently through various causes and conditions. To accept such doctrines is to deny the doctrine of emptiness, a key feature of madhyamaka and tantric systems such as ati.
VCTR said that abhidharma still has a place in tantric systems like ati in charting the geography and evolution of sa.msara and enlightenment. When a kind of free floating panic causes the freezing of basic space and we divide it to try and check what went wrong, the seemingly solid, dualistic phenomena of abhidharma appear and proliferate. In enlightenment the same phenomena become manifestations of the five wisdoms and so forth. In ati dharmas are not thought of as truly existing as in hinayana. They are not even truly existing dharmas of mind as in mind-only. For example, this account is given of the evolution of the illusory experience of the five skandhas. The dualistic split and solidification manifest as form gzugs. Levels of basic accepting and rejecting, feeling , tshor ba, and instinctual patterns of meaning/response = perception ‘du shes) appear. A whole repertory of conditioned attitudes and responses builds up to define the emotional and motivational fabric of the world = samskaras, formations, ‘du byed). The discursive thoughts and intellectualizations of consciousness, rnam shes) fill in every gap to create a seemingly solid situation of full blown egohood in an external world of fixed entities. Meditation reverses this evolution, returning phenomena to the state of basic space of dharmadhatu, as described at length in the present text.
mi ma yin: Literally non-men; pretas, such as graveyard ghosts, often malevolent.
mi pham Rinpoche: Mipham, a nineteenth century Nyingma master and member of the nonsectarian ris med, rimÍ, school. He formulated Nyingma doctrines in such a way that it became possible to consider them in a detailed way in relation to the views of other schools.. Eg. SSN argues that there is no ultimate incompatibility between Nyingma and shentong doctrines and those of the Gelug school, or between the intentions of Nagarjuna explaining the scriptures of the second turning and those of Asaga in explaining the scriptures of the third turning. Cf. chos kyi ‘khor lo ‘khor.
mi rtog pa: Non-thought, non-conceptuality, non-discursiveness. Longchenpa distinguishes the following: 1 The artificial non-thought of one-pointed meditation which does not go beyond sa.msara. 2 The nyams, nyam, of mi rtog which is a sign of some accomplishment, but is not ultimate realization and is a possible object of attachment and straying. 3 Non-thought = self-existing samadhi or wisdom which is an aspect of realization. The essence of the latter is absence of grasping and fixation rather than a mind clear of phenomena. Thus it is possible for a teacher who has stabilized the mind of non-thought to give teachings etc. nondual mind, sugatagarbha, dharmata. It is beyond all complexities and opposites.
mi’am ci class of spirits included with the deva realm. Some are oddly shaped with a horse’s head etc.
mkha’ ‘gro: One who goes in the sky. Usually = dakini. In one instance in this text = bird. Sometimes general for gods or those who have attained godlike powers. Usually female tantric deities of the five families who guard, serve, present, and embody the tantric teachings, and are the consorts of the Herukas, the male tantric deities. They seem to have evolved from a mischievous and sometimes malevolent class of forest spirits. On the whole they are wrathful or semi-wrathful, symbolizing compassion, emptiness, prajna, the basic fertile space from which everything arises, the unity of desire and space, and the tricky and playful aspect of phenomena. The higher ones give basic inspiration to seek enlightenment or cut through perversions of the teachings. Some of the lower ones are said to be on the level of local deities or spirits, ghosts, and demons.
mkha’ mnyam: The equality of space, as limitless as space.
mnga’ bdag: Master, sovereign, lord.
mngon par dga’ ba: Abhirati, the eastern buddha field of Ak.shobhya.
mngon shes: abhijna. Relative siddhis. The five -, : 1 seeing at a distance. 2 Hearing at a distance. 3 Reading others’ minds. 4 Remembering past lives. 5 Manifesting miracles. the six-, : Includes the ability to destroy defilements. This last is said to occur on attaining the state of an arhat.
mnyam bzhag: Meditation. (vs. rjes thob, post-meditation) In particular it often refers to the direct intuition of emptiness in the formless meditation of the noble ones, vs. their illusion-like apprehension of appearances in post-meditation.
mnyam nyid: 1 Equality, (especially in terms of the essence, emptiness). 2 Equanimity, as the state of mind of someone realizing 1
mnyam pa chen po: The great equality.
mtha’ brgyad: The Muulamadhyamakakarika says:
That which arises interdependently
Is without cessation and has no birth.
It is neither eternal or nothingness.
It is without any coming and any going.
It is not different, nor is it a unity.
Pacifying complexity, it is taught as peace.
To the perfected buddhas who have said this,
To those holy ones I make prostration.
mtha’ bzhi med: Without the four extremes. A predicate does not apply, not apply, both, or neither. Eg. to say that for all dharmas true existence is empty is to say that in absolute truth all dharmas do not truly exist, not truly exist, both, or neither. According to madhyamaka, if any of these assertions is maintained, a contradictory consequence can be derived.
mtha’ la = mtha gcig tu: Completely, without qualification [by its opposite].
mtha’: Extreme. A one-sided, rigidly conceptualized viewpoint that confuses features of concepts with those of reality. Concepts are useful in various kinds of practical situations, but to think they have an absolute validity independent of the situations in which they are used, invariably leads to mistakes, according to madhyamaka. The four and eight extremes are kinds of extremes that should be avoided. Thus, if one understands the conventions and limits of words, one can use them to talk about the world and the teachings without falling into extremes. Mipham says SSN. “Not every assertion of existence asserts the extreme of existence. Not every assertion of non-existence asserts the extreme of non-existence.. etc.”
mtshan dang dpe [byad]: The thirty-two major and 80 minor marks of a buddha. They are (sometimes fantastical) physical characteristics, wheels on the hands and feet, arms descending to the knees etc.
mtshan ma’i yul (chos): Objects having fixated characteristics (dharmas).
mtshan/mtshon med: Things like dharmadhatu without fixed characteristics. Such things can be talked about of course, but elude being successfully pigeonholed or exhaustively described by any particular description.
mu stegs: Non-buddhists, tirthikas, especially hindus, the variety most typically encountered within buddhist tradition. The term has a sense of infidel or heretic.
mya ngan las ‘das pa: Nirvana, enlightenment. It is said enlightenment in ati is beyond sa.msara and nirvana to differentiate it from partial notions of the lower yanas which, from the viewpoint of ati, are not free from conceptualization and attachment. Such notions would be cessation, emptiness, knowledge, power, bliss, purity, morality, compassion, and social improvement, or their negations. Superficial imitation of the good qualities of former enlightened ones by turning them into preconceived programs is good at the beginning of the path. But in the end it is only creating more samsaric obscuration of the naked, boundless relation with our situation that Longchenpa presents as true enlightenment.
na da: iconographically the tip of the bindu, the first and last existence before nothingness. cosmic sound.
ngag ‘khyal: Discipline of functional talking, restraining frivolous and unnecessary speech.
ngang du [las]: Within that [state], as that [state] 1 Uncertain. 2 Not ascertained as anything in particular. 3 Unfixed, unfixated, unpredictable. 4 Untrue, unreal.
ngo bo: as opposed to manifestation and variety, emptiness possessing all the supreme aspects, nothing whatever but everything arises from it, Essence. Being, principle, substance, identity. In general like rang bzhin, but when they are distinguished, of sugatagarbha, etc. ngo bo refers to the essence, emptiness, and rang bzhin to the nature, the spontaneous presence of luminosity. (The terminology of the kun byed reverses these two.) ngo bo rang bzhin thugs rje: see sku gsum. Cf. snying po, bdag nyid. me long gi : Surface of a mirror. It can be said the essence of water is cohesion, the nature wetness, and the function cleansing or thirst- quenching. ngo bo should be distinguished from ngo = Face, viewpoint, side.
ngo sprod: Transmission, pointing out [instruction], showing, introduction, bring face to face with something.
ngos bzung: Recognizable or identifiable, fixated in terms of reference points.
nyams: Temporary experiences of meditation, which, however, are signs of a certain development in practice. (vs. sgyu ma, nying ‘khrul, illusory and hallucinatory experiences.) The three usually mentioned are bliss, luminosity, and non-thought.
nyan thos: shravakas, the hearers or disciples of the hinayana, the first of the nine yanas. See theg pa dgu.
nye bar [nyer] len gyi phung po lnga: ES: Perpetuating, substantializing, bringing about, grasping, solidifying the skandhas; nye bar len lnga = phung po lnga.
nyon mongs gsum: = The three poisons, passion, aggression, and ignorance, chags, zhe sdang, gti mug.
nyon mongs lgna; rtsa ba’i-: The five root kleshas are hatred, envy, desire, jealousy, and ignorance.
pha rgyud: Father tantras of the anuttara tantras, emphasize form, upaya, and working with aggression, vs. mother tantras emphasizing space, prajna, illusion, desire, and compassion. Maha is considered father tantra and anu mother tantra.
pha rol tu phyin pa drug: generosity, discipline, patience, exertion, meditation, prajna/knowledge.
pha rol tu phyin pa: Paramitas or perfection practices of the bodhisattva path. All are practiced on every bhuumi, but on each of the ten bhuumis one is emphasized. 1 rab tu dga’ ba, supreme joy: Generosity, sbyin pa. 2 dri ma med pa, stainless: Discipline, tshul khrims. 3 ‘od byed pa, illuminator: Patience, bzod pa. 4 ‘od phro ba, blazing light: Diligence, brtson ‘grus. 5 shin tu sbyang dka’, difficult to conquer: Meditation, bsam gtam. 6 mngon tu ‘gyur ba, presence: Knowledge, prajna. 7 ring du song ba, far going: Skillful means, upaya. 8 mi g.yo ba, motionless: Aspiration, smon lam. 9 legs pa’i blo gros, good intellect: Power, stobs. 10 chos kyi sprin, clouds of dharma: Wisdom, ye shes. They are perfect or transcendent in being practiced from the perspective of emptiness. For example, generosity is perfect when there is no thought of giver, gift, and receiver, any action of giving. Then the action is pure and spontaneous. See JOL
phra: Subtle. Probably similar to description of Kagy¸ divisions in SKK 3,323: When the eighty kinds of innate thoughts of coarse mind, possessing the three appearances [of body, grasping subject, and grasped object are eliminated and cease, and everything abides merely in emptiness, that is subtle mind. Free from grasping the characteristic of the experience of emptiness, luminosity, absolute bodhicitta, which is called the manifestation of enlightenment, is the subtlest mind. Thus mind that is said to have defiled continuity is called subtle, and undefiled continuity is the subtlest. Similarly as for body, …all the skandhas, dhatus, and ayatanas, having the nature of the environment and its inhabitants, are resolved as the coarse circle of the deities. Nadi, prana, and pure bodhicitta are resolved as the subtle essence. The well established singularity of support and supported is taught as the very subtle, co-emergence. Thus in meditating in the developing stage, first all the skandhas, dhatus, and ayatanas of the impure body which are to be purified as emptiness are the coarse body. Prana, nadi, and bindu, which are to be established as the body, speech, and mind mandalas of the deities are the subtle. At the time of fruition, the co-emergent three vajras, trikaya, the inseparable body of the realities of the natural state, are the subtlest…Thus, the coarse is the designated ground of purification, the subtle the object of purification in process, and the subtlest the ultimate state of the object of purification.
phrin las: Enlightened activity, buddha activity, which is egoless, beyond conception, spontaneously arising, and spontaneously perfect and appropriate. In particular, the buddha activities of the five families, pacifying (suffering etc), enriching (accumulations of good qualities), magnetizing (students), destroying (whatever needs to be destroyed or those who cling to that), and self-existing, effortless accomplishment
phrin las: the spontaneous activity of enlightened beings. For ecample, without thionking about it buddhas emmanate limitless emanations in limitless times and places to tame liitless sentient beings. However the ordinary teaching activities etc. of an enlightened person are also called buddha activity.
phun sum tshogs pa lnga: The five perfections, most often attributes of sambhogakaya, but in this text applied to the three kayas: excellent teacher, teaching, retinue, place, and time.
phung po: Expanse [eg. of wisdom] phung po lnga: the five skandhas or “heaps,” one of the systems of categories under which the dharmas are organized in the abhidharma: 1 Form, gzugs, including physical objects. 2 Feelings, tshor ba, positive, negative, or neutral. 3 Perception, ‘du shes. 4 Formations, ‘du byed. 5 Consciousness, rnam shes. In ati consciousness is understood in terms of the eight consciousnesses of yogacara. In hinayana abhidharma, eg. Abhidharmakosha, the skandhas are classes of truly existing dharmas. In ati they can also be thought of as an evolving series of non-existent confusions. Cf. mngon chos. In enlightenment these vanish and the skandhas manifest as the five wisdoms. Cf. mngon chos.
phyag rgya bzhi [of mahayoga]: In particular: 1 thugs dam tshig gi phyag rgya (mind as samayamudra). 2 gsung chos kyi phyag rgya (speech is dharmamudra). 3 sku phyag rgya chen po (body is mahamudra). 4 phrin las las kyi phyag rgya (Buddha activity is karmamudra).
phyag rgya chen po: Mahamudra, great seal. 1 Consort of empty form. 2 One of the four mudras of mahayoga. 3 Fruition teachings associated especially with the kagy¸ lineage as Dzogchen is primarily associated with the nyingma lineage.
phyag rgya: Mudra, symbolic [hand gesture], seal, symbolic encounter, consort.
phyi nang gsang: Outer concerns the external world, inner the body, secret the inner life of feelings etc.
phyi rgyud: The outer tantras which understand luminosity/emptiness beyond conception, but still believe that the fruition is established through stages and effort.
phyogs bcu: The ten directions, the four cardinal directions, four intermediate, up and down.
phyogs med: Impartial, without conceptual partialities. When one is impartial =without accepting or rejecting, one is not attached to partialities of concept. Thus, the impartiality = non-bias, inseparability, of the two truths is transparently seen.
phyogs: Direction, part, aspect, bias, partiality, side.
rab ‘byams: Infinite, vast, encompassing, universal, immense, boundless, the whole of…, widely and deeply learned.
rab ‘byor: Subhuti, a prominent and analytically inclined disciple of the Buddha.
rags: 1 Coarse. 2 Dependent.
rang bshag: Let be as it is, rest as it is = cog gshag; self-absorbed, self-rested, self-established, established as merely one’s own experience.
rang byung: Natural; naturally occurring or arising; self-arising, spontaneous. Eg. hunger is rang byung when one does not eat. A shape like a face found on a rock is a rang byung sculpture. Impromptu verse is rang byung.
rang bzhin gsum: kun btags, gzhan dbang, yong grub; parikalpita, paratantra, parinishpanna; false conceptions, other-caused relativity, the completely perfect. See Ch 3.
rang bzhin: Nature, actuality, natural expression, natural, intrinsic, inherent. In relation to sugatagarbha etc it means the luminous manifestation, vs. the ngo bo emptiness. ngo bo/ rang bzhin/ thugs rje. See sku gsum
rang dbang: Freedom, independence, mastery vs. gzhan dbang, arising interdependently from others. The second of the three natures of mind-only.
rang ga [ma]: Spontaneous, ordinary.
rang gsal: Natural, clearly as it is; intrinsic clarity, radiance, brilliance, luminosity; naturally awake; self-cognizing. [esp in mind-only] See rang rig rang gsal.
rang mtshan: Own-, specific, or individuating characteristics that things would have if they were independent, individual entities existing in their own right. Ati accepts Madhyamaka claims to establish the impossibility of rang mtshan. The real thing, intrinsically identifiable, independently existing.
rang ngo: [One’s] own nature, original face, true nature, self-nature.
rang rgyal: Pratyekabuddha, the second of the nine yanas. See theg pa dgu.
rang rgyud: 1 One’s own being or stream of consciousness. 2 Svatantrika school of madhyamaka. 3 Independent vs. gzhan rgyud.
rang rig: 1 Intrinsic insight or awareness, = rang byung rig pa. 2 one’s own insight or awareness, = rang gi rig pa. 3 self-cognizance, self-insight, self-knowledge, rang gis rang rig. KPSR seems to favor 2), as 1) seems prima facie to involve claims of a fixed nature or entity that would conflict with madhyamaka, and 3 is specifically rejected in madhyamaka critiques of mind only. 1) Self-arising = natural = intrinsic insight is favored by TT and LUS; rang gyis rang rig self-insight in the sense of non-duality, and non-other of insight and its objects. [KSTR, KTHR]. They all agree that all these interpretations are relevant if understood in the right way. They also agree that any acceptable interpretation must be distinguished from the rang rig rang gsal of the mind only school, conceived to be a truly-existing, self-intuiting substance. Ati accepts the madhyamaka refutation of such a substance. Part of the apparent disagreement is because Tibetan does not require choosing among these various uses of rang. The demand to do so is somewhat artificial. Cf. rang shar. See the passage in the text where Longchenpa specifically addresses the difference between mind-only and ati use of mind-only terminology. The main point is that ati does not accept these terms as describing dharmas that truly or absolutely exist, and so does not fixate these conceptions.
rang rig was introduced by the sautrantikas: The two terms are pretty well equivalent here. rang gsal in mind-only means more or less self-apprehended, ie. self-illuminating or clarifying, appearing clearly to itself. In mind-only, sa.msara has perception of duality of subject and object, and enlightenment involves seeing that in reality there are no external objects distinct from mind, but only various states of mind, which alone truly exists. All experience has to be the mind’s experience of itself, because there is nothing else to be experienced. When one understands that this mind is changeless, eternal, and naturally blissful, letting go of attachments to the incidental waves on the great ocean of mind, one loses hope and fear about sa.msara and becomes enlightened. In ati too, insight is rang rig rang gsal, self-apprehending insight, and the luminous manifestations of the nature are actually of the essence of insight and do not go beyond it. But where sems tsam presents this as absolute truth, ati presents it as having only provisional, conventional validity. It is more valid than ordinary perception for the same kinds of reason that, in the venerable example, seeing the rope is more valid than seeing the snake. From the absolute viewpoint, insight has no more true existence than external objects. If it did, it would be contradictory in madhyamaka terms to say that insight, which does not appear with distinct qualities etc., is the same thing as appearances that have these qualities etc. Mind-only, in claiming absolute validity for its formulations, falls into such faults as this. Ati tries to avoid them by claiming that the true state of affairs transcends conceptualization.
rang sar: Naturally, spontaneously, its own condition, in itself, as it is.
rang shar: 1) = rang ‘byung: Self-arising, naturally occurring. Mere spontaneous arising is not peculiar to enlightenment, since the kleshas and obscurations are also notorious for arising by themselves in the superficial sense that they are not willed or produced by a specific effort. 2) Longchenpa glosses at least one occurrence as = rang snang shar. In that passage rang shar is taken to entail rdzogs, exhausted of defilements and therefore perfected. Thus, by appearing as mere experience, an aspect of insight, and thus appearing as they really are, they are perfected/exhausted.
rang snang: Personal experience. One’s own experience. When delusive, it has a sense of snang = false appearance, one’s own projection. When good, it can mean natural or self-appearance of things as they are, in particular of objects appearing merely as one’s own experience, and not as solid external entities. Self appearing, [of sambhogakaya deities etc]. Intrinsically appearing [as the rays of the sun]. Of the same nature with oneself.
rang stong: Emptiness of its own nature or of itself. The typical sort of madhyamaka system, vs. gzhan stong which claims the absolute nature exists, but is empty of any truly existing other. See SSN. for Mipam’s view on this distinction.
rang: Self, prefixing compounds: self-, one’s own, spontaneously, intrinsically, natural, [only] as it is, merely within one’s own experience (and hence unreal), acting on itself. This multiplicity cam make rang- compounds very difficult to evaluate. Often more than one sense is relevant. In such cases LUS was inclined to think that all the different aspects were part of the meaning.
rbad chod la chod: rbad = entirely. chod, cf. chig chod = sufficient.
rdo rje ‘dzin: Level of a vajra holder, sometimes the thirteenth bhuumi.
rdo rje chang: Vajradhara personifies the state of primordial buddhahood. His function in the kagy¸ teachings is rather like that of Samantabhadra in nyingma.
rdo rje dbyings: Vajradhatu, indestructible space, the vajra-like aspect of ultimate space.
rdo rje sems dpa’: Vajrasattva, a buddha of the vajra family, white and associated with purity.
rdo rje theg pa: the tantra or mantra path, one of the three vehicles, theg pa gsum. It is characterized by features like visualization practice, yoga, and strong samaya vows to the teacher and lineage.
rdo rje: 1 Prince of stones, diamond. 2 Indestructible, adamantine. 3 The weapon of indra, the thunderbolt.
rdol thabs su smra: One just puts forward one’s own ideas without due attention to traditional knowledge in a situation where it is not appropriate, as eg. in arguing points of law or scientific theory.
rdzogs pa: Perfection, exhaustion, completion, fulfillment. Sa.msaric, impure aspects are exhausted, revealing things as the eternal perfection of the kayas and wisdoms. VCTR once suggested using perfection for this, but changing one’s understanding of what perfection is-neither an eternalistic fixation on an impossible standard, or a nihilistic rejection of everything there is in its name. In this tradition emptiness/luminosity IS perfection.
rdzogs rim: Tantric stage of completion or perfection, sampannakrama, as opposed to visualization practice of sadhana. Both formless meditation and yogic practices such as the six yogas of Naropa are included.
rdzogs [pa] chen [po]: Ati, great perfection, mahasandhi, the ninth yana.
rgyal ba: capitalized the Buddha, otherwise buddhas.
rgyu mtshan theg pa: Vehicles of cause and characteristics. In particular the first three yanas which present enlightenment as a causal process. Sometimes = hinayana, since it does not postulate emptiness. However all vehicles but ati have certain characteristics that are to be abandoned and attained by causal means.
rgyud: Continuity, tantra. In the latter case the continuity is that of the basic nature, sugatagarbha etc. See rang rgyud.
ri rgyal rab: Mount Meru, which in Indian cosmology is at the center of the world surrounded by four continents. Of these we inhabit the southern continent, Jambudvipa (Jambuling).
rig ‘dzin: awareness holder
rig pa: 1 Insight, [intrinsic] awareness of the absolute, pretty much equivalent to wisdom. [KSTR] 2) Mind, knowledge, intelligence, understanding in the ordinary sense. -lnga: philosophy, reasoning, grammar, medicine, mechanical arts and crafts. However 1 is also the essence of 2, and in realization 2 does not go beyond 1 It was to bring out this dual aspect that VCTR preferred the translation “insight.” cf. rang rig.
rigs drug: gods, asuras, humans, animals, pretas, hell beings.
rigs drug: gods, asuras, humans, animals, pretas, hell beings.
rigs drug: The six realms or lokas of sa.msara in which beings take rebirth. They are those of gods, asuras (demigod enemies of the gods), humans, animals, hungry ghosts (pretas), and hell beings.
rigs lnga: The five divisions of the families of the mandala: Vajra, rdo rje; ratna, rin chen, jewel padma; lotus; karma; and sangs rgyas, buddha. They are associated respectively with sa.msaric and enlightened forms of intellect and aggression; feeling, richness and territoriality; passion; artistic sense, discrimination; energy of activity and accomplishment; and spaciousness, the overall viewpoint, or neurotically just ignoring things. There are extensive descriptions in VCTR’s Cutting through Spiritual Materialism and The Myth of Freedom. The five families are associated with the five colors, kleshas, skandhas, elements, bhagavans and their consorts, and wisdoms, qv. They are also associated with the seasons, time of day etc.
rigs sngags: Vidya mantra. rigs = esoteric knowledge. Knowledge of magic and magical formulas. By means of these the magician is said to create illusions, destroy enemies, change the weather, and demonstrate power over phenomena in other ways.
rigs: 1 Kinds, varieties, aspects 2 Family, lineage 3 Caste 4 Nature = snying po 5 Buddha nature 6 Realm = khams 7 Reasoning, logic, philosophy, ….rigs: It is logical, certain that ….
rigs: being of the family of beings who can attain enlightenment. The eternal gotra is dharmadhatu. The incidental gotra is our intrinsic potential of achieving this combined with the process of the path of purification.
rim pa: Stage, detail, aspect.
rin chen sna bdun: wheel, jewel, queen, minister, elephant, horse, general. Or ruby, sapphire, lapis, gold, silver, spug mu tig dmar po ???, emerald
ris med: Without limits, borders, bias, partiality, as between phenomena and dharmata, sa.msara and nirvana etc. Non-sectarian school founded in the nineteenth century by Khyentse the great, Jamgàn Kongtrul the great, and others.
rje btsun: jets¸n, [exalted] lord.
rjes thob: Post-meditation as opposed to the meditative state, mnyam bshag. In particular the noble ones who have not attained the pure bhuumis are said to cognize emptiness directly in meditation. In post-meditation false appearance still appears to them, but they know it to be empty, so it has the aspect of a dream or illusion. In general, all Tibetan schools agree that buddhas have transcended this distinction. They know the appearances of all sentient beings, but directly perceive their emptiness at the same time. Controversial points are just how accurate the perception of the bodhisattvas of the pure bhuumis is, and the extent to which lesser beings are capable of flashes of pure perception that can be used on the path. Ati tradition holds that sa.msara is self-liberating and enlightenment self-existing and self-actualizing. The guru points out that the nature of enlightenment is already within us, and that even ordinary persons can have brief flashes of experience of this. From that perspective, the path consists of acknowledging this and learning to let it be as it is.
rlung lnga: life, equalizing, upward moving downward moving, fire. See ch 9.
rlung: Prana. Part of the trio of prana, nadi, and bindu, rtsa, lung, thig le. rtsa: Nadi, root, vein, artery, psychic channel as visualized in yoga (such as gtum mo, tummo, (heat yoga)), any tubular organ. They are said in tibetan medicine to occur throughout the body, and to cluster together like wheels, chakras, in various energy centers of the body, such as the heart, brain etc. rlung: Wind (vayu), breathing, vital energy. In tibetan medicine the various vital energies move along the nadis. las – Karma prana, karmic energy. thig le: Bindu, 1 Dot, circle, ring, in particular colored dot on the forehead between the eyes, dot on letter or mantric syllable representing the anusvara, eg. “M” in HAM. It is typically presented as a small flame. 2 The red and white thig les, the male and female vital essences as represented and embodied in semen and menstrual blood. When acted on by the pranas, these are refined, melting into a more subtle form that produces bliss etc. 3 = thig le nyag gcig: The single universal essence, the sole seed = byang chub sems, chos dbyings, ngo bo stong pa, etc.
rnal ‘byor bzhi: In this text this refers usually to the four yogas of mahayoga as presented eg. in the K¸njÈ: 1 sems dpa’: The yoga of the two sattvas, samayasattva and jnanasattva, as practiced in the three lower tantras. 2 ma ha: Mahayoga, which works especially with the developing stage. 3 yongs su: Perfecting yoga, anu, which works especially with the perfecting stage. 4 shin tu: supreme yoga or ati.
rnal ‘byor rgyud: Yoga tantra, the sixth yana. See theg pa dgu.
rnal ‘byor [pa]: Yoga, yogin, literally meaning inseparable union with the absolute.
rnal a’byor spyod: yogachara philosophy. See sems tsam
rnal ma: The fundamental state before the various projections of subject and object occur. Cf. gnas lugs [tshul] rnam kun mchog ldan stong nyid: Emptiness possessing all the supreme aspects, as described in the Uttaratantra. Emptiness as realized by the buddhas is not nihilistic nothingness. It is the great emptiness, the union of appearance and emptiness, possessing the kayas, wisdoms, buddha qualities and activities, etc. The details are an important part of resolving the view of emptiness.
rnam pa: Aspect, phenomena, always.
rnam rtog: Discursive thought, conceptualization, the conceptualized phenomena of sa.msara.
rnam shes lnga/drug eye, ear, nose, tongue/ taste, body
rten ‘brel: 1 Interdependent arising, eg. as a rainbow appears from interconnection of sunlight, rain, air, the eyes, and mind, as reflections appear in a mirror, or as appearances appear in the mind. The rainbow is not the appearance of any of these, or all of these, Yet it is not the appearance of something completely independent of the above either. In madhyamaka rten ‘brel is equated to emptiness. 2 Auspicious coincidence.
rten dang brten pa: Environment and inhabitants. OR support and supported. For example it will be said in general that the physical environment is he support and mind the supported, cf. snod bcud. In particular, the environment of the mandala, the palace and surrounding features, and the deities inhabiting it are called rten dang brten pa.
rtog pa: Concept, or perceiving things in terms of concepts.
rtogs su ma chod: Not cut off by concepts.
rtsa gsum: the 3 main channels of prana, wind or vital energy in the body. These are the central channel, and the right and left channels ro ma and rkyang ma. They are visualized in breath control yoga.
rtsa rlung thig le: Nadi, prana, and bindu. These are aspects of hatha yoga practices such as gtum mo that lead to awareness of insight. See for example Chang and others. See rlung. The direct insight of tregchà is not directly concerned with these practices.
sa bcu: The ten bhuumis or levels of the bodhisattva path, entered on attaining the path of seeing from the five paths, lam lnga, and perfected on the path of meditation. See pha rol tu phyin pa.
sa bon: 1 = bag chags. The seeds of good and bad karma. From the path viewpoint, transmission and practice are like planting and cultivating seeds that will ripen as the fruition. 2) But from the absolute viewpoint this is only uncovering the ultimate sugatagarbha that was there all along. So relative reality is itself a seed of buddhahood in that sense.
sa gsum: above the earth (god realms) on the earth (human realm etc. and below the earth (nagas and hells)
sa sbyang: Training on the bhuumis. See JOL.
Sa ra ha: Saraha, a mahasiddha, grub thob chen po, who worked as an arrow-maker and had a consort of the same trade. He composed many songs or dohas describing the enlightened state.
sal le ba: Vividness. Ego fixation draws on the energy of the natural state to produce blockage and obscuration. So, by comparison, experience of things as they are is one of vivid splendor and immensity.
sang nge [ba]: Pristine etherial; the spacious clarity and primordial purity of emptiness, like fresh mountain air.
sangs rgyas kyi yon tan the pure qualities of enlightened perception of things as they are.
sangs rgyas: Buddha[hood], enlightenment.
sangs: Purified, awakened.
sangs rgyas: buddha, enlightened
sbubs: 1) Covering, cocoon, shell, confinement, hollow, narrow space, sheath. 2) TT essence (cf. bcud), nature. 3) Field of….
sdug bsngal brgyad: birth old age, sickness, death, meeting enemies, separation frm intimates, not getting what we want, sufferings of the skandhas.
sdug bsngal gsum: the sufferings of suffering, the composite, and change.
sems can: Sentient being = ‘gro ba, unenlightened inhabitant of the six lokas having dualism of body and mind, vessel and essence, snod bcud, etc.
sems dang yid dang chos: TT sems = Basic mind of duality, alayavijnana and klesha consciousness. yid = Intellectual consciousness, yid kyis rnam shes. chos = Perceptions of the sense consciousnesses.
sems dp’a: = bodhisattva, byang chub sems dp’a
sems dpa’ chen po: mahasattva, a bodhisattva of the pure bhuumis from the eighth upward, who experiences the pure vision of luminosity.
sems dpa’i rnal ‘byor: Sattva yoga: See rnal ‘byor bzhi.
sems las ‘byung ba: Mental contents, inner feelings and so forth, not counting external perceptions of the five senses.
sems tsam: With madhyamaka one of the two great philosophical systems of the mahayana. It is associated with Asaga and his brother Vasubandhu. It is also propounded in such sutras of the third turning (chos kyi ‘khor lo ‘khor) such as the Lakavatara and Sandhinirmocana. It is said to record the realization experience of those who emphasized yoga more than the logical dialectics of madhyamaka, and hence is also known as rnal ‘byor spyod. It holds that luminous mind is the absolute reality, yongs grub, parinispanna. Experiences of mind, like waves in water, are relative, dependently arising reality, gzhan dbang, paratantra. Our beliefs concerning a world of external objects that are other than mind are confused, merely imputed, and false, kun btags, parikalpita. Therefore, the duality of perceiver and object is a feature of sa.msaric confusion, and does not occur for enlightened mind. As there is nothing other than enlightened mind for it to perceive, it can be said to be intrinsically self-perceiving, rang rig rang gsal. Ati too accepts non-duality, the absolute nature of mind itself, rang rig rang gsal etc. But as Longchenpa notes in the text it sees this in the light of madhyamaka emptiness. Therefore it is not accepted that any of this terminology describes anything that is truly existing or non-empty of the level of the absolute. The use is for practical benefit in the relative sphere, in the same way exponents of madhyamaka speak practically of chairs and tables in everyday life, without believing that they have absolute existence. This kind of use all schools of madhyamaka sanction.
sems: 1 Dualistic mind. 2 = sems nyid or byang chub sems: The nature of mind, mind itself, bodhicitta (occurs in the titles of tantras 3) = SemdÈ in compounds like sems smad: The lesser texts of the SemdÈ.
sgo gsum: The three gates, body, speech, and mind. grol ba’i sgo gsum: The three gates of liberation: the signless, markless, and wishless.
sgrib ma gnyis: nyon mongs and shes bya: Kleshas, knowables or primitive beliefs about reality. They are the obstacles to omniscience, and the pure vision of luminosity.
sgrol ma: one of the five consorts of the five lords of the sambhogakaya buddha families, of the karma, buddha activity family, symbolizing compassionate activity for beings.
sgrub: Affirm, establish
sgyu ma dpe brgyad: The eight examples of illusion: 1 Dream. 2 Echo. 3 City of the gandharvas (celestial musicians etc. who live on smells). 4 mig thor: A growth on the eyes, cataracts? 5 Mirage. 6 Illusion. 7 Reflection. 8 A magically emanated city. Sometimes the moon in water, lightning, a rainbow, and a bubble are added, making twelve].
shang shang: half human mythical bird, something like a garuda.
shes pa: Awareness, knowledge.
shes rab: Literally, supreme knowledge, prajna. Intelligence, discriminating knowledge in general, and in particular knowledge of emptiness as presented in the prajnaparamita scriptures, the reasoning of madhyamaka etc. shes rab pha rol tu phyin pa: Perfection of prajna, the sixth of the ten paramitas. Emptiness is directly realized in a way transcending concepts. In a strict sense this refers to realization in formless meditation. Shes rab and ye shes can be loosely used so that they are equivalent, referring to the transcendent knowledge of realization. ye shes involves the further realization of luminosity, pure appearance, omniscience, and the various other aspects of wisdom. It is the final paramita, the culmination of their development. Prajna clearly sees the essence of things, but does not yet see things as they are as the buddhas do.
shin rje: He and his retinue preside over Hell.
shin tu rnal ‘byor: Supreme yoga = ati. See rnal ‘byor bzhi.
shugs ‘byung: Spontaneous, self-arising, suddenly-arising.
skra shad: Seeing hairs or spots in the eyes, due to solidification and opacity of the vitreous humor.
sku bzhi: the three kayas + svabhavikakaya, de kho na nyid kyi sku.
sku gdung: The bodily remains of a teacher after death or the reliquary in which they are placed -‘bar ba: A text, The Blazing Relics of the Buddha Body.
sku gsum: Dharmakaya, chos sku; sambhogakaya, longs spyod rdzogs pa’i sku; and nirmanakaya, sprul sku. the first is the essence of buddhahood, the benefit for oneself, unborn primordial insight, awareness devoid of content, like space. It is called [buddha]dharmakaya, because it embodies the essence and fruition of the teachings. Dharmakaya is sometimes used in the sense of non-dual dharmakaya. In that case it includes all the phenomena of trikaya, in the aspect of inclusion within dharmakaya and not going beyond its essence. In this sense it is similar to dharmadhatu. Among the three kayas dharmakaya is associated particularly with the essence, emptiness. Sambhogakaya, and nirmanakaya are the two ruupakayas or form bodies, which are the benefit for others.
Sambhogakaya is the realm of enjoyment/realization of pure form, contemplated aside from existence as external objects. This includes visions of the pure lands and teachers (eg. of Samantabhadra, akani.shtha etc.) and form altogether as seen from that perspective. It is associated with the vision of luminosity, the nature.
Nirmanakaya is associated with the play of appearance of this dualistic, material world and so forth, which arise from the power of compassion to ripen beings for enlightenment. Longchenpa makes the remark that, strictly speaking,the two ruupakayas should be regarded as the ground of arising of their respective form phenomena rather than as those phenomena themselves. Otherwise contradictions may arise from regarding dharmakaya, which is essentially non-apparent and various apparent phenomena as having the same essence. This seems a little odd after all he has said about everything being included in the essence of insight-bodhicitta. But it does explain why he frequently uses formulas like thugs rje’i ‘char gzhi, the ground of arising of compassion.
sku gsung thugs: Body, speech, and mind (honorific). When juxtaposed with lus ngag sems (non-honorific) it can mean enlightened vs. unenlightened body, speech, and mind.
sku lnga: There are various lists of the five kayas. The most common is trikaya (sku gsum) plus the mahasukhakaya, bde ba chen po’i sku, the body of great bliss, representing the inseparable bliss aspect, and the svabhavikakaya, ngo bo nyid kyi sku, which represents the unity of the kayas. Another list that is cited in the text is the changeless vajrakaya, mi ‘gyur rdo rje sku; the kaya of full manifestation of enlightenment, mngon par byang chub pa’i sku; Peaceful dharmakaya; sambhogakaya; and the variously manifested nirmanakaya cir yang sprul pa’i sku. Cf. TT88. See appendix 2.
sku: sometimes = The kaya of emptiness, dharmakaya.
skye ba bzhi: The four modes of birth: womb, egg, heat and moisture, and spontaneous. See ch. 9.
skye ba med: From the absolute viewpoint, unborn, non-arising, non-truly-existent, because things and arising are empty. Relatively enlightened reality is unborn because it is eternally self-existing, and never arises as a limited thing. Nevertheless, from unborn dharmakaya, which is born as nothing at all, the pure appearance of ruupakaya rises. Though born in that sense, it too is unborn in the sense of becoming truly existing things other than dharmakaya.
skye mched bcu gnyis: The twelve ayatanas. The six senses and their objects. Cf. khams bcu brgyad
skyong: Guard, protect or maintain is the basic meaning. In ati the sense is remembering that we are always resting in the essence. In a negative sense, it means trying to maintain something self-existing that has no need of that and in fact will even be obscured by the attempt.
snang ba: 1) Appearance 2) False appearance of truly existent other etc, eg. perceptions of rocks and trees. 3) The objects of 2, the apparent rocks and trees themselves. Eg. med pa gsal snang means that the objects, not the appearances do not exist.
sngags kyi theg pa: the tantric or vajrayana teachings.
sngags: Mantra, praise.
snod bcud: the vessel is the environment, the world, and the essence the inhabitants, sentient beings. The vessel and essence. (as metaphor). snod = The container as the external world. bcud = The experience of beings within it, here compared to the liquid in a bottle, the essential part of the situation. Sometimes rendered “the environment and inhabitants (of the phenomenal world).
snying po: 1 Heart. 2 Heart-essence or essence. 3 Garbha, = sugatagarbha, bde bshegs snying po.
snyom ‘jug: Meditative absorption, samapatti. One might use it to obtain bsam gtan, dhyana. Samadhi originally in the abhidharma is an omnipresent faculty of concentration on whatever objects are present. It came to mean absorption in various objects, and thus ting nge ‘dzin tends to be differentiated by its objects. Longchenpa too differentiates purposefully attained bsam gtan from naturally existing ting nge ‘dzin qua awareness of the absolute.
so so rang rig [ye shes]: Since it discriminates mind and wisdom, it can be called discriminating-awareness wisdom. since wisdom is also self-awareness in the sense of being insight of otherlessness, it can be called discriminating self-awareness wisdom. Since it is a non-conceptual personal encounter with wisdom, it can be called individual and personal wisdom. So so can be interpreted to mean either the individual entities that are known or the individual knower. rang rig has the various interpretations of that term qv. In any case it should not be confused with the padma family wisdom so sor rtags pa’i ye shes, discriminating wisdom [of individual things].
spangs rtogs: Simultaneous renunciation/ realization. This is an aspect of enlightenment, not experienced by ordinary beings. Because of realization, confused perceptions and desires naturally do not arise for them. Everything is enlightenment for them. This is very different from nges ‘byung, which is a distaste for and rejection [zhen log] of sa.msara in ordinary beings like ourselves who aspire to whatever we think we understand as enlightenment. [KTHR.] spros bral: Simplicity; unconditioned; free from conceptualization, complexity, elaboration, constructions. One of the four yogas of mahamudra. spros bral often refers to direct vs. conceptual realization of emptiness by wisdom.
sprul sku gsum: bzo ba’i sprul sku, skye b’i sprul sku, mchog gi sprul sku. OR skye ba’i sprul sku, mchog gi sprul sku OR sna tshogs sprul sku; ‘gro ‘dul sprul sku and rang bzhin sprul sku: The working or various t¸lkus are gifted individuals, artists, craftsmen, scientists etc who so benefit beings. The born or taming t¸lkus are the rinpoches usually called t¸lkus, who have taken human birth in order to tame beings by the dharma. The supreme t¸lku is the Buddha.
sprul sku: Nirmanakaya. See sku gsum.
spyan lnga: The five eyes. 1 The eye of flesh. 2 The divine eye (of relative siddhi). 3 The eye of prajna (emptiness). 4 The dharma eye of pure vision. 5 The buddha eye of omniscience.
spyan ras gzigs: bodhisattva of compassion.
spyi blugs: Literally head-vase, a coronation vase, especially golden, used in crowning kings. Later similar vases were used in empowerments. To say wisdom is the coronation vase means that it confers empowerment as King of dharmata.
spyod rgyud: Upa yoga, the fifth yana. See theg pa dgu.
spyod yul: Sphere of behavior, realization, instantiation. -med: It does not exist. skal med spyod yul ma yin: Not realized by those without good fortune.
spyod: 1 Behavior. 2 Apprehension. 3 Action in the trio view, practice, and action
srid gsum: The three realms: The desire realm and its inhabitants, the realm of pure form (visions, the deities of pure form etc), and the formless realm (inhabited by formless deities).
srid pa: The phenomenal world, sa.msara.
srin po: demonic vampire-like beings. Among other things they can kill with their touch.
Stages can vary for different sadhanas. Examples might be these: 1 Visualizing the deity and palace: shastra, a treatise or discourse on any topic. A discourse delivered by the Buddha is a suutra.
stobs kyi rigs pa: The power of direct experience of reality, the ultimate source of all reasoning.
stong pa [nyid]: Emptiness. It is established conceptually by showing that a concept cannot be instantiated, eg. round square. It is directly intuited in the formless meditation of the aryas. At the time of fruition it is realized as a direct vision of naturelessness as the nature of the absolute, “nothing whatever and so it arises as all there is.”
stong pa’i rang gzugs: rang gzugs, self-form, is like rang snang, self-appearance qua one’s own appearance. Forms appear to one, but they are empty of any truly existing nature of their own. They are kun btags, dualistic, false conceptions in the sense of yogacara and natureless in the sense of Nagarjuna.
stugs po bkod pa: Gandavyuuha, the densely ornamented or densely structured realm, as described in the sutra of the same name. This is the form of the vision of the sambhogakaya realm that realizes/enjoys the pure perceptions and energies of omniscient wisdom. This is also aesthetic perception of form etc. as the ornament. The array is dense not only because it is elaborate, but because of its multifarious connections of rten ‘brel etc, which are such that everything is said to be contained within everything else. In this closed, endless web of pure vision, everything contains everything else and presupposes everything else, so ultimates of time, space, and meaning are nowhere to be found. Thus, according to the Avata.msaka Suutra, within every atom of the universe the whole universe is contained, and within every instant all of eternity is contained. This interpenetration is not discussed in this text, as it is more an aspect of the vision of mahayoga. (eg. the gsang snying). This aspect never seems to have the emphasis in Tibet it does in certain Hwa Yen and Zen teachings. But it is there, and it is correct to think of ati notions of the form aspect of enlightenment in this way. [KPSR VCTR] thabs: Upaya, skillful means, method, expediency. In the mahayana, the paramitas are called the path of means that ripens, and prajna is called the path that frees. In the tantra a similar distinction is often made between the practices having form as upaya and the formless ones beyond distinction like mahamudra or ati as the path that frees.
thag gcod: Settle, resolve, decide, have “got it.”
thams cad mkhyen pa[‘i ye shes]: Omniscient [wisdom] which knows all phenomena without mixing, as the buddhas do. It is associated with the wisdom of extent, pure perception, and the vision of gandavyuuha.
theg chen: Mahayana, the bodhisattvayana.
theg dman: Hinayana, including the shravaka yana and pratyekabuddha yana.
theg pa dgu: the nine vehicles
I. Hinayana:
1 shravaka yana nyan thos, the hearers or disciples. This is the monastic buddhism taught by the nirmanakaya. It emphasizes the four noble truths: Life is full of suffering, this arises from the causal setup of dharmas, skandhas etc, which are transient without any enduring self. But given this situation, suffering too depends on a transient setup and cessation is possible. This is achieved by means of the eightfold path, right view, speech, thought, action, livelihood, exertion, mindfulness and samadhi. By learning to be there, doing everything properly and mindfully, one cuts off the suffering arising from the speed, clinging, and desire for self-aggrandizement of ego, and attains enlightenment. One relearns like a baby to sit, eat, and walk like a buddha. Practicing shamatha and vipashyana, zhi gnas and lhag mthong, one learns to have the buddha mind. And yet it is said, the fathers dwell in complete humility.
2 Pratyekabuddha yana, rang rgyal: The basic physical setup has already been determined. Here solitary yogins traditionally unlock the development of mind in sa.msara and nirvana, seeing how the skandhas, phung po, develop. Contemplating a corpse, one reasons backward through birth and craving etc to ignorance, the ultimate cause of life’s sufferings. Cutting craving and attachment to externals, the yogin realizes the self sufficiency of one’s ultimate nature. Letting this be as buddhahood is maitri, the ultimate kindness to oneself. In ati tradition the account given sounds very like the view of mind-only. It is said that the yogin realizes the emptiness of individual ego and of objects other than mind, but not of mind itself. Pratyekabuddha solitariness betrays a subtle remainder of belief in the independence and separability of self and other, which is basic to ego.
I. Mahayana, theg pa chen po:
3 Bodhisattvayana, byang chub sems dpa’i theg pa: Here madhyamaka emptiness is realized. In ati tradition the emphasis is not nihilistic. Rather the nature of enlightened mind glimpsed in mind-only is seen to have always been universal and unobstructed. The skandhas and so forth which cause suffering are seen to be like mere temporary clouds on the face of the basic nature, sugatagarbha. Therefore, with great joy one enters the path of the bhuumis that goes beyond sa.msara. As self and other do not exist, there is no boundary between maitri and compassion for all sentient beings. Yet this path is not trod by turning away from the phenomenal world, but rather relating to all situations fully as expressions of the ultimate nature. This is like the mindfulness of the eightfold path, but now it is unleashed in emptiness. It manifests as the practice of the ten paramitas, by which finally the proper manifestation of the body, speech, and mind, buddhahood, trikaya, is attained. However there can be a problem here. For example, the elder Vimalakirti was totally devoted to virtue and saving others. He goes among sewer-like dens of thieves and whores and was not corrupted. But the whole human world still looked like a sewer inhabited by perverts and criminals. One may see the absolute and the natural world as pure, and still have no pure vision of the relative altogether and of human society. So even with the vision of sugatagarbha and the paramitas, relative existence is something of a crude joke, a pot of night-soil. Hence the need for vajrayana.
II. Vajrayana, rdo rje theg pa:
A. the outer tantras, phyi rgyud:
4 kriya yoga, kri ya, bya rgyud, the tantra of action): Here we find that within us there is also the sacredness of the vajra world, the sambhogakaya world of pure perception inhabited by deities, who are like kings and queens with their palaces and retinues. Because they have become totally egoless, everything they do is pure, sacred, and immensely powerful. In fact we encounter this world by relating to the guru’s world, which invokes this pure aspect of ourselves. At first we may feel rather like stupid, filthy monkeys in relation to this world. We cannot participate as equals, but only as spectators. However, if we surrender ourselves to this as devoted servants, there is a possibility of becoming part of the vajra world. That is the logic of kriya. Meanwhile one can purify oneself and one’s basic energies in hopes of becoming a decent vajra-citizen. In kriya this is very literal, with many baths and changes of clothes, white food, etc.
5 Upa, The most basic difference as we progress to upa through the outer tantras is that one begins the relate to the deity as a friend. Oneself is samayasattva, the deity is jnanasattva, the real thing, who is sending his wisdom down on us, and the pretence of being of that nature seems less and less preposterous.
6 yoga: Finally we truly realize that the deity, who represents the nature of the guru’s vajra world, also is our own true nature as well. So we can actually become mahasukha princes and princesses of the five families. That is the fruition of the yoga yana. The five skandhas etc. have been transmuted into the perfection of the five wisdoms.
B. The inner tantras:
But even here there is a subtle reference point of perfection, wisdom-message, divinity and so forth, vs. something imperfect, unwise and so forth that is co-emergently ignored. Hence the further journey of the inner tantras that transcend reference point altogether.
7 Maha: Here there is much more confidence in situations as embodying the continuity of the self-existing fruition mandala. For example, in the eight heruka mandala, bka’.brgyad, the herukas are less embodiments of ideas, than means of cutting through such conceptualizations. Yangdag yang dag, the vajra heruka punctures concepts with a scepter like a pin, revealing naked space The ratna heruka is the King of Death , shi rje, with an owl. Hayagriva and Vajrakilaya, rta mgrin/ rdo rje phur ba, the padma and karma herukas, reveal naked passion and aggression. etc. This yana emphasizes the visualizations of the developing stage, bsked rim.
8 In comparison to this complex network of divine forces:, a sort of tibetan cabala, anu, is relatively simplified, in essence one sees everything as the union of primordial space and wisdom, eg. the bliss of union of Samantabhadra and Samantabhadri in their cosmic dance. The complexities of the lower yanas are largely removed. The means for doing this is the practice of the fulfillment stage, and in particular, the yoga of nadi, prana and bindu.
9 Ati is like the punch line, and doesn’t make proper sense without the other yanas. All remaining conceptualizations are stripped away so that the fruition becomes completely naked and self existing. As the text says, this is how it is for one who has done all the work. One can say to a superbly trained musician etc,”Just let go and do it,” and hope to hear beautiful music. If one gives the same advice to a person without musical training, this result is unlikely. Thus ati traditionally functions as the framework and culmination of the nine yana training, as a means for removing nirvanic neurosis and so on. It is not generally meant as a complete program in its own right. Most distortions of ati come from ignoring this.
thig le: Bindu. See rlung.
thog babs chen po: The great suddenness. Sudden realization.
three kinds of enlightenment: byang chub rnam gsum: of buddhas and bodhisattvas, pratyekabuddhas, and shravakas.
thub pa: 1 Capable or mighty one: Reach, arrive, encounter.
thugs rje: In ati is sometimes equivalent to the power of manifestation [rtsal] and like the latter = manifestation in general = ruupakaya which produces benefit for others, bringing them to dharmakaya, the benefit for oneself. But here there is the idea that all manifestations are either offerings for the enjoyment of enlightened beings, or presentations of the teachings to those who are not enlightened. In this case these sense of rtsal as skillful performance, articulation, etc is relevant. The individual receives teachings exactly suited to his needs and understanding, a personalized mandala as it were. So below compassion is the power and ground of arising. Or, opposed to power, one can say that compassion is the manifested power of the ground. In the context of essence, nature, and compassion, ngo bo rang bzhin thugs rje it refers to the nirmanakaya level of dualistic manifestation in particular.
ting ‘dzin gsum: The three samadhis: 1) de bzhin nyid, suchness. 2 kun tu snang ba, the nature appearing as everything. 3 rgyu: The single cause.
ting nge ‘dzin: Samadhi. See snyom ‘jug.
tsa nda li: Chandali. gtum mo. Heat yoga practice involving prana, nadi, and bindu, rlung rtsa and thig le.
tshad ma: valid cognition
tshad med bzhi: kindness, compassion, joy, equanimity, brtse ba, snying rje, dga’a ba, btang snyoms.
tshad: Measure, scope, criteria.
tshangs pa’i gnas bzhi: Lesser versions of the four immeasurables, tshad med gsum.
tshogs brgyad. The 5 sense consciousnesses plus mind consciousness yid (memory and conception) plus klesha mind consciousness nyon yid, plus alaya or all-ground consciousness, kun gzhi rnam shes. The eight consciousnesses.
tshogs drug: The six senses (including the mental sense).
tshogs gnyis: bsod nams dang ye shes. Merit and wisdom, the first having a focus or conceptual object, and the second not.
tshogs gnyis: The two accumulations, merit and wisdom.
u pa: Upa yoga, upayayoga, the fifth yana. See theg pa dgu.
yang dag: Real, true, actual, genuine, authentic, proper, perfect, very, completely. -kun rdzob, vs. log pa’i kun rdzob: True and false relative, in the conventional sense. dag vs. ma dag pa’i kun rdzob: The impure vision of ordinary beings vs. the pure vision of the noble ones, ‘phags pa. Embodied as yang dag, the vajra heruka of the bka’ brgyad, the mandala of eight heruka-principle of mahayoga.
ye nas: Like gdod nas, back-looking eternity, primordial, from the beginning; hence translated “from all eternity.” But it also keeps going limitlessly and hence is eternal.
ye shes lgna: The mirror like wisdom, wisdom of equality, wisdom of individual discrimination, all-accomplishing wisdom, and dharmadhatu wisdom. They are discussed in the text.
ye shes: wisdom, literally primordial awareness or knowledge. Pristine cognition, direct intuition of absolute reality beyond conception. Sometimes the kayas and wisdoms: kun mkhyen-, snang ba’i, lhan cig-, so rang rig-.
ye shes sems dpa’: One visualizes that jnanasattva, of similar appearance to one’s visualization of the deity of sadhana, samayasattva, embodying spontaneously existing wisdom, descends and transmutes one’s visualization. Ideally an experience of this actually occurs. Usually the visualization has the same outer form as that of samayasattva.
yi dam: Short for yid kyi dam tshig, samaya of mind. Deity of tantric practice that one is performing, eg. Chakrasa.mvara, Vajrayogini, especially the deity of one’s main practice.
yi dwags: hungry ghost, one of the 6 realms of beings. Preta. Some have huge bellies and minute throats and suffer great torments of hunger and thirst. Some are rather like our conceptions of ghosts or malignant spirits
yid bzhin nor bu: Wish-fulfilling gem, a mythical gem that makes things “as one desires,” rather like Aladdin’s lamp.
yid dpyod: Intellectualization, conclusion reached merely conceptually. ES.
yid kyi rnam shes: Intellectual consciousness. See tshogs brgyad.
yid: Mind, intellect in general; = Yid kyi rnam shes.
yo ga: Yoga, the sixth yana, see theg pa dgu.
yod pa: Existence. In conventional truth it is said that there can be no existence without non-existence. They are complimentary. In madhyamaka it is argued that if anything has the characteristic of existence it ought to be intrinsically existent and hence eternal. So existence is equated with eternalism, and nonexistence with nihilism. What exists should be changeless and incapable of interaction with anything else. Relying on this logic, the texts will sometimes draw conclusions about existence that seem less than
obvious in ordinary english. Readers will have to resolve questions of the ultimate validity of these statements for themselves by studying the appropriate texts.
yon tan bcu: Various lists will sometimes be so called. 1) The ten paramitas. 2) The stobs yon tan bcu, the ten powers of a buddha. 3) The ten abstentions from unwholesome karmic paths: 1 Not destroying life. 2 Not taking what is not given. 3 Refraining from improper sexual activities [together these are the three good actions of body.] 4 Not speaking falsely. 5 Not using abusive language. 6 Not slandering. 7 Not speaking frivolously or irrelevantly [together these are the four good actions of speech.] 8 Not being covetous. 9 Not being malicious. 10 Not having wrong view [these together are the three good actions of mind.] see CH 4
yon tan: 1 good quality, virtue, excellence 2 object, property 3 skill, learning, knowledge. 4 Buddha qualities, enlightened qualities, the qualities of the pure perception of enlightenment. They are said to be eternally existing but to manifest when one attains enlightenment, as does wisdom etc. Sometimes these are differentiated from qualities of enlightenment that can be said to be produced. In particular the ten powers, four fearlessnesses, eighteen distinct doctrines of the buddhas, and thirty-two major marks are called the sixty-four qualities of a buddha. They are described eg, in the Uttaratantra.
yongs su rnal ‘byor: Perfect[ing] yoga = anuyoga. See theg pa dgu.
yul can ye shes: the samsaric perceiver is the grasper, a’dzin pa, but the elnightened perceiver is nondual wisdom.
yul dag: 1 Pure of [sa.msaric, dualistic] objects. 2 Objects of pure appearance, free of objects of the preceding kind. 3 The pure sphere.
zab: Profound refers to the emptiness of dharmakaya, =ji lta, Vast, rgyas) often refers to ruupakaya = ji snyed qv.
zhi gnas: Calm abiding, tranquility, serenity, quiescence [neither = nirvana of the karma of pacifying] A basic meditation practice found in most schools of buddhism. The mind is tamed and sharpened by being brought back again and again to the meditative object. In practice the breath is the most used object. Originally in hinayana shamatha was practiced in order to attain the dhyana states, bsam gtan) yogic trance states in which bliss, equanimity, and various higher perceptions were claimed to be experienced. However even hinayana claims that such states do not constitute enlightenment and can easily lead to various spiritual attachments.
In ati:, shamatha is practiced not to attain one-pointed trance-concentration on an object, but to cut off attachment to thoughts and perceptions, which then are left as they are. By doing this one can directly experience one’s self-existing,true nature, one and all sufficient, and rest in that. With repeated practice this resting becomes spontaneous, and one realizes the basic nature as unchangeable and self-existing, like a mountain. This is the same buddha nature that is realized as bodhicitta and so forth in ati. However, here it is realizes only as one’s own true nature. Many subtle conceptualizations must be eliminated before it becomes known as the universal nature.
In the SemdÈ shamatha is described as part of a fourfold process of realization, zhi gnas, lhag mthong, gnyis med, lhun grub. NN
-steng po: inert shamatha. -ltengs po, the pool of shamatha = -steng po
zhi: 1 Peace. 2 Pacifying (one of the phrin las lnga). 3 Nirvana
zhing or sangs rgyas zhing: Realms of particular buddhas where sentient beings attain enlightenment. Eg. this is jambudvipa which is the buddha field of the buddha Shakyamuni. The infinity of buddha fields is a major theme in such tathagatagarbha suutras as the Gandavyuuha and Avata.msaka. Pure land or realm. Each of the five bhagavans is associated with one. Akani.shtha and gandavyuuha are called buddha fields. Twenty-five [sometimes twenty-one] such fields are said to be on the hands of Vairochana, Yid bzhin mdzod 28ff. [v. ES] corresponding to the permutations of body, speech, mind, quality and action, as body of body, speech of body, etc.