Jigtenmig - Classical Tibetan Language Blog

VoodooPad 4.0

2008-11-18T15:10:00.000-08:00

VoodooPad 4. 0 was announced today. I've been working with the developer, mostly to influence him to get the Unicode linking working. And it's now included! It means you could select one or more Unicode words, make a link, do a translation for the link. In other words, you could slowly build up your own dictionary of phrases and words, place names and so forth, making the translations very consistent.

Even better, if you have a MobileMe (Apple) account, you could now in 4.0 synchronize documents between multiple computers so you could have the same document or documents across your laptop, desktop and other systems.

This makes VoodooPad a very powerful translation tool.

Jamyang Khyentse on Sickness

2008-11-07T10:38:00.000-08:00

Lotsawahouse posted today an excellent translation on Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö's text called The Universal Medicine for Healing All Ills.

The web site also has a link to the Tibetan text. It's a short and nice text to go through inside out with the English translation.

There's also a deep meaning behind it, especially for me that have had sudden manifestations of illness for a while now.

Tibetan Flashcards

2008-10-15T12:47:00.001-07:00

Ryan McCormack sent me an email with a link to a project where he has built Tibetan flashcards. Check this out in case you want to use such a good tool for learning.

I've been using post-it notes everywhere, or small cards with Tibetan, sprinkled here and there. I used to have a small notepad with Tibetan, too. The computerized systems such as Ryan's, are very good as they are handy to have around and computers are good at repeating tasks.

Tibetan Unicode Information on dharmadictionary

2008-10-03T15:27:00.000-07:00

Chris Fynn updated a page and more with really good information about Tibetan Unicode worth checking out. There's another page also on this page referring to information how to install Tibetan Unicode support on various computer platforms.

As mentioned before, this blog is using Tibetan Unicode since a couple of months' back. There are many reasons, one is that it was time Tibetan was equal to English and other Western languages on Internet.

Sorry, been a while

2008-10-03T15:26:00.000-07:00

I got behind it all, had an accident when I biked home from work, collided with a car, ended up in hospital, stayed home for a while healing broken clavicle and ribs, but I'm fine now. Expect more postings as we speak.

Heart Sutra - 8

2008-07-26T17:28:00.000-07:00

To continue who is gathering at the Vulture's Peak: བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་་་་་

བྱང་ཆུབ། (byang chub) is one of the first words anyone studying Tibetan Buddhist texts should learn, it means enlightenment. Here is is really part of the bigger word བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམ་དཔའ། (byang chub sems dpa'), bodhisattva.

To understand this word better, སེམས། (sems) means mind. དཔའ། (dpa') means to be brave, heroic, fearless.

Thus, the Tibetan translation of bodhisattva, bodhi warrior, is someone who is brave and heroic in trying to get one's mind enlightened.

There's an འི་་་ genitive particle after this so it means that this construct it not yet complete...

Heart Sutra - 7

2008-07-24T17:46:00.001-07:00

Next the Heart Sutra describes who else is there.

་་་དགེ་སློང་གི་དགེ་འདུན་ཆེན་པོ་དང་་་་་་

དགེ་སློང། (dge slong) is monk, bhikshu in Sanskrit. དགེ་འདུན། (dge 'dun) is sangha in general, the group of ordained monks and nuns.

There's also the qualifier ཆནེན་པོ། (chen po), great. Finally there's the binding particle དང། dang which indicates there are others there, too.

Now, how to translate this part? One approach is to state that there was a great gatherings of monks and nuns, or a great gathering of sangha. Another one is great gathering of the sangha of monks. The issue, for me, is why there was a specific qualifier for monks and the sangha?I'm not 100% sure but I would be surprised if there was no nuns present, too, at this event. For me, stating that there was a great gathering of monks and the sangha might be somewhat confusing.

So in my case would translate this as a great gathering of monks and nuns, as using the word sangha might be confusing for anyone who does not now the Sanskrit term. Also, sangha includes all ordained persons, monks and nuns. Anyway, that would be my justification.

Anyway, if someone else has opinions, please share.

Heart Sutra - 6

2008-07-22T21:38:00.000-07:00

To continue, next is ་་་བྱ་རྒོད་ཕུང་པོའི་རི་་་་ Again we need to look at bigger structures.

བྱ་རྒོད། (bya rgod) means vulture. ཕུང་པོ། (phung po) usually means heap, but here it is actually hill, especially as the genitive particle འི binds it with རི། (ri), mountain.

All together, བྱ་རྒོད་ཕུང་པོའི་རི། is Vulture's Peak, a famous mountain area near Rajagriha. You could visit that place still today.

So far,བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་རྒྱལ་པོའི་ཁབ་ན་བྱ་རྒོད་ཕུང་པོའི་རི་་་ also has a particle ལ། that could be translated at, so we have a better translation part now available, could even be a single sentence:

The Blessed One was staying at Vulture's Peak in Rajagriha.

Now, some translators like to even translate the place names to English. I'm kind of old school, for example it would sound strange for someone to translate the Finnish capital of Helsinki to English. So I did a compromise here, one part English, the other the original name, as Vulture's Peak is very much the known name in contemporary English texts about Buddhism.

Heart Sutra - 5

2008-07-21T23:31:00.000-07:00

Next is རྒྱལ་པོའི་ཁབ་ན་་་་ This is where one has to be careful with translations. རྒྱལ་པོ། (rgyal po) usually means great, royal, king. ཁབ། (khab) means court, house, residence. But here it is really part a place name,་རྒྱལ་པོའི་ཁབ། (rgyal po'i khab) which is Rajagriha, or present day Rajgir in India.

The astute reader might now notice that the Sanskrit raja is རྒྱལ་པོ།, so then you know that the word maharaja is the great king (maha - great.)

The particle ན། (na) is a locative particle, so later we will see how it binds the next word structure from right to left with this specific location.

So far we have translated that the Blessed One is at Rajagriha.

Heart Sutra - 4

2008-07-16T16:04:00.001-07:00

The actual body of the sutra starts such: བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་་་་་་

བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས། (bcom ldan 'das) is Bhavagan, a title given to Buddha, the Victorious One, the Blessed One, The Conqueror, the Victorious Conqueror and so on. There are many translation of this Sanskrit title. This title is common in Sutras and other texts, so it's good to remember.

You could see all the possible translations in the provided link to the dharmadictionary entry. But it's good to know that the root is really bhavagan.

PS: If you want to hear the Heart Sutra in Tibetan, here's an excellent link.

Tibetan Unicode Text at THDL

2008-07-15T13:03:00.000-07:00

I saw that the THDL site now also has Tibetan texts available in Unicode Tibetan. For example Longchenpa's Dispelling All Darkness Throughout the Ten Directions. (phyogs bcu mun sel)

This is good news, five years from now we will have a big collection of original Tibetan texts available in Unicode Tibetan. Even better, the search engines will index the texts so we could do very complex searches and find relevant documentation.

Heart Sutra - 3

2008-07-15T11:33:00.001-07:00

The opening lines in sutras have the same format, this is true with the Heart Sutra, too. I've already covered this in in Sutra Opening Lines Part 1 and Sutra Opening Lines Part 2 so it's worth checking these pages out.

We will start with the actual body of the Heart Sutra next.

PS: Here's a link to 42 different English Translations of the Heart Sutra.

Heart Sutra - 2

2008-07-10T23:35:00.001-07:00

The short name for Heart Sutra in Tibetan is ཤེས་རབ་སྙིང་པོ། shes rab snying po, or prajnaparamita hridaya in Sanskrit.

ཤེས་རབ། is wisdom, prajna. སྙིང་པོ། is essence, quintessence. Now, as part of translating the title it has become heart in English, even if the Essence of Wisdom Sutra would work fine, too.

The reason for this name is that this sutra has the essence of Buddhist wisdom teachings. If you know this short sutra inside out, you got the essence.

Heart Sutra - 1

2008-07-09T21:09:00.000-07:00

Ok, this is the next topic. We will slowly go through the translation of the whole Heart Sutra. Let's see how long that takes, but it's a noble goal. If you know how the Heart Sutra is translated and you could read it in Tibetan, you will get a huge vocabulary of words and expressions so that reading anything else will be easy. In addition, you create a lot of merit by just reading single words here and there.

I've posted some entries over time concerning sutra material, so here's a listing of postings good to check out:

Perfection of Wisdom Translated to Tibetan
The Tibetan word for Sutra
Sutra Opening lines, Part 1 and Part 2
Sutra Homage Section
The Word Essence
How 'In Sanskrit' is translated
Homage section translated

I'm about to fix those pages so they use Unicode Tibetan. As part of this project I will not dwell so much into something that these parts already cover. However, this will be very suitable for beginners as well, as we will not cover huge amounts of words and sentences, they each will be a nice piece meal.

Feel free to comment below for more suggestions as we will progress along this path.

Nice Online Wylie to Unicode Tibetan Converter

2008-06-18T17:40:00.000-07:00

This link has a nice Wylie to Unicode converter; you type in Wylie into a form and the output is Unicode that you could then copy to other locations.

This could be handy for those cases where you don't know how to do a quick conversion -- for example me and in case I ever need to do this on a Windows system (XP, Vista.)

Tibetan Nagarjuna Quotes from Lotsawa School

2008-05-16T15:05:00.001-07:00

See this link with interesting short Tibetan and English verses concerning quotes from Nagarjuna concerning emptiness and other topics. It's an easy and interesting way to see how short form verses are translated -- especially with very condensed meaning such as emptiness statements from Nagarjuna.

New Cyrus Stearns Translations Online

2008-05-14T13:52:00.000-07:00

See the Jonang Foundation web site for more info.

Three of the other translations, done by Michael R. Sheehy, have both Tibetan and English so you could do comparisons of how an excellent Tibetan translator is translating texts.

Learning Letters - PA

2008-04-01T17:02:00.001-07:00

Another letter that has a high frequency is the letter པ PA. The reason is that this letter is used to build new words from other verbs and nouns. This means that there's a good chance you see the end of the word if you encounter པ.

Here's an example, based on earlier letters we have gone through. སེམས། sems means mind. Note that in the modern Tibetan dialect the last letter in such combinations is not pronounced, so it sounds like SEM. However, if you listen to the Ladakh dialect, or some of the Mongolian dialects, you could still hear the ending SA pronounced so the word sounds like SEMS, as in ancient Tibetan.

If there's a word you see a lot in Tibetan Buddhist scriptures, it is སེམས།

If you add པ to the end of སེམས། we will get སེམས་པ། This means 'movement of the mind', the way the mind operates, from movement to movement, arising, sustaining and then giving rise to the next moment of mind.

Check out the Tibetan below to see more uses of the letter པ, especially with vowels such as པེ, པི, པོ and པུ.

གཞིས་བཟང་པོ་ལྟ་བུ་ནི་ཚུལོ་བཞིན་སེམས་པ་དང་ལྡན་པའོ།

།དིག་པ་ལྟ་བུ་ནི་ག༷ཧན་གྱི་ཉེས་པ་དང་འཁྲུལ་པ་མི་བརྗོད་པ་དང་།

རང་གི་ཡོན་ཏན་མི་བརྗོད་པ་དང།

གཞན་ལ་མི་སྨོད་པའོ།

Learning Letters - SA

2008-03-31T16:38:00.000-07:00

The next letter good to learn is ས, SA. This is also the word for ground or earth. Knowing how to put together vowels we have སེ། (one of the six early tribes of Tibet), སི། (whistle or death), སོ། (tooth) and སུ། (who).

Another example is སོ་སོ།, an expression that means individual, distinct. So we got a lot of mileage just by learning another letter and how to build vowels.

Try to find the letter ས in the text below.

།བླ་མ་དེས།དི་ལྟར་བརྗོད་དེ།

ཀྱོད་ཀྱིས་བྱངཆུབ་ཏོ་སྨོན་ལམ་བྲབ་བས།

བདག་ལས་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་ཚུལ་ཁྲིནམས་ཀྱི་བསླབ་པ་འཛིན་པར་འདོད་དམ་ཞེས་པ་ཡང་གསུམ་མོ།

Learning Letters - Vowels

2008-03-29T22:38:00.001-07:00

With Tibetan letters, the vowels are marked with a sign above or below the root letter. To take the མ MA letter, if you add a line above, མེ, it becomes ME (fire). If you add this sign above, མི, it becomes MI (human, or a negation particle). If you have this, མོ, it is MO (divination system). Finally, with this sign, མུ , you have MU (border.)

Note that the same system is true for all other letters, examples: ལོ། LO (age), ནི། NI (as for), and so on. The signs above or below turns the default vowel, A-based, into a specific vowel. So if you learn these additional four vowels, you know all the five Tibetan vowels.

See if you recognize the various vowels in the Tibetan text below:

།བླ་མ་དེས།དི་ལྟར་བརྗོད་དེ།

ཀྱོད་ཀྱིས་བྱངཆུབ་ཏོ་སྨོན་ལམ་བྲབ་བས།

Learning Letters - MA

2008-03-28T13:26:00.000-07:00

There are many ways to learn the Tibetan letters. One basic system is based on how they are pronounced.

My take is to learn based on the frequency of letters, as well as starting with very simple letters and word combinations. I will try to test this out in the blog -- sorry for you you know the Tibetan lettering system inside out, but this is good for anyone totally new to Tibetan letters and are just starting to read Tibetan. I will classify the postings as Introduction entries.

If you look at Tibetan text, there's lots of overhanging dots and weird letters between. But at some point you start to see some of the letters showing up a lot. མ MA is one of the first ones you start recognizing.

You could see patterns like ་་་་་་བླ་མ་་་་་་ (lama), ་་་་་ཉི་མ་་་་་( nyima, sun), or སེམས། (sem, mind.) As you could see, it's really part of another word, as Tibetan makes words from small syllables, don't expect words much longer than two, three or four syllables, sometimes even one syllable.

You could actually find the word མ། ma, it means mother, or it's a negation in front of other constructs.

Anyway, by learning མ we will shortly see how various vowels are formed. Anyway, in some cases, མ is part of the word and is pronounced ma, or sometimes it's a lonely m.

Below is Tibetan text, try to recognize the letter མ and how it shows up in various configurations.

།བླ་མ་དེས། དི་ལྟར་བཇོརྡ་དེ། ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཏོ་སྨོན་ལམ་བྲབ་བམ།

བདག་ལས་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་ཀྱི་བསླབ་པ་འཛིན་པར་འདོད་དམ་ཞེས་པ་ཡང་གསུམ་མོ།

Issues with ACIP to Unicode Conversion and MacOSX

2008-03-28T11:16:00.000-07:00

I'm really having fun with Unicode and Tibetan. But part of this is to take a lot of ACIP encoding material that I have as well as available from AsianClassics.org and similar places.

I saw that JSkad had a conversion from ACIP to Unicode (text file). So I tried this, but the output didn't look like Unicode at all. I was using Notepad and Pages (latest), but both didn't show Tibetan Unicode fonts from the output, rather Roman letters with strange numbers.

Now, it could be an operator error, so I need to do something with the text file before using it, or something else. In case someone has ideas what is happening and how to fix this, please post a comment. Also, if you have other tools or ideas how to convert ACIP encoding to Unicode on the Macintosh platform. If I get this working, a lot of really cool Tibetan material will be posted on dharmadictionary and similar places for public access.

Shad or no Shad

2008-03-26T15:57:00.000-07:00

This issue came up recently on the dharmadictionary mailing lists as part of us starting to look into using Tibetan Unicode at the web site.

The issue is that should entries have an ending shad, as in རྩེ། or just be left without, as in རྩེ ?

རྩེ། by the way, means point, peak, top, summit.

Now, there are some dictionaries, such as the Chandra Das one, where the shad is not included.

However, for most Tibetans not including the shad would look strange. Thus, as we really honor the culture and legacy of Tibetan writing, we decided to use shad at the end. It's a nice way to break the word or construct, as well, indicating where it ends. Naturally, this blog will also use this notation.

Tibetan Unicode Fonts and this Blog

2008-03-26T14:00:00.000-07:00

I will start using Tibetan Unicode fonts in this blog from this time forward.

Here's an example: ཆོས།

Why? Of many reasons:

It is much better to see the actual Tibetan words and letters instead of Wylie. The more you see them, the better.
It is really time for all of us to start using Tibetan on the computers now that it's feasible for anyone who really wants to do this.
I could easier do full conversions of Tibetan texts and use copy/paste of text material instead of using images.
Copy/paste will make it possible to copy parts to your documents, as well.
Finally when Google catches up you could do searches using Tibetan fonts, wow.

If you use Vista or Leopard (MacOSX 10.5) things should be fine. If you use Windows XP or Tiger (10.4), the stack alignment might look funny. Depending on the Windows installation it might either look fine or odd. Older systems and Linux systems, you need to figure out how to install a default Unicode Tibetan font and also configure various parts.

Anyway, Dharmadictionary is also switching over, slowly, to using Tibetan Fonts, see here for an example.

Anyway, feel free to put comments below in case you have issues or points about this switch. Depending on my schedule I might fix older entries, but there are over four hundred postings so I suspect it won't really happen all across all the postings, at least in the short term.

Why are there twelve spheres - 3

2008-03-25T23:31:00.000-07:00

To continue with the twelve spheres:

མ་འོངས་པ། ma 'ongs pa is future, the འི 'i at the end is a genitive particle that binds from right to left.

ཉེ་བར་སྤྱོད་པ། nye bar spyod pa is enjoyment,་རྣམ་པ། rnam pa is class or division.

དྲུག drug is number six. སྐྱེ་བ། skye ba is to arise, and again the 'i is a genitive particle binding from right to left.

སྒོ། sgo is a useful word, meaning door in the figurative sense, like a sense door. And you should know the 'i by now.

ཕྱིར། phyir is because. As this ends the whole sentence, we have the last letter doubling by the རོ ro construct.

All together, there's an entrance to the future sixfold experiences or enjoyments. Earlier we saw there were two parts, body (or really deha, the six objects, eye, ear, tongue, body and mental organ) and the objectification. Two times six means twelve.

Why are there twelve spheres - 2

2008-03-25T00:22:00.000-07:00

To continue the explanation why exactly twelve spheres:

ལུས། lus here means body. དང། dang is a binding particle. We talked about ཡོངས་སུ་གཟུང་པ། yongs su gzung ba earlier; ཡོངས་སུ། yongs su is an expression, completely.གཟུང་བ། gzung ba is objectification, to grasp to objects. And this expression really has to do with sense objects and their objectification.

གཉིས། gnyis is two, or both, and་ཉིད། nyid means exactly, itself.

So we are again dealing with the body and the objectification via senses.

Why are there twelve spheres - 1

2008-03-11T23:39:00.002-07:00

Next in Abhidharma-Samuccaya is the issue why there is exactly twelve spheres.

ཅིའི་ཕྱིར། ci'i phyir is why.སྐྱེ་མཆེད། skye mched is sphere; with the plural particle རྣམས། rnams this becomes spheres.

བཅུ་གཉིས། bcu gnyis is twelve.

ཁོ་ན། kho na is only, ཞེ་ན། zhe na is what does it mean. Note that this the same pattern as with the earlier questions listed in this text.

Why are there eighteen elements - Part 3

2008-02-26T22:12:00.001-08:00

This is the second part for why there are eighteen elements.

འདས་པ། 'das pa here means past. དང་ dang is a conjunctive particle, translate it as 'and.'

ལྟར། ltar means likewise. གྱི་ gyi is a genitive particle.

ཉེ་བ། nye ba means close, to approach. The ར r is a general sub-ordination particle.

སྤོད་པ། spyod pa is a word used in many contexts, here it's engagement, to enact. Anyway, we need to read these two words together, as ཉེ་བར་སྤྱོད་པ། nye bar spyod pa means to use, to enjoy.

རྣམ་པ། rnam pa here is division or class. དྲུག drug is number six. འཛིན་པ། 'dzin pa means grasp, to hold on. It has a genitive particle at the end, འི 'i. ཕྱིར། phyir means because, and this is a proper sentence ending so it ends with རོ ro.

Anyway, I must confess that just looking at the Tibetan so far would be a very mysterious thing, unless one found out for example from a Sanskrit-Tibetan-Sanskrit dictionary that this all is really a translation for the following Sanskrit term: atitavartamanasadakaropabhogadharanata
. What that word means is: the six consciousnesses, visual auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile and mental.

Or, to puzzle this together, this is the parts of past and current experiences via the six consciousnesses. As this adds together with the first twelve we mentioned earlier, we have eighteen elements.

Next, about the twelve sense spheres.

Why are there eighteen elements - Part 2

2008-02-21T21:14:00.001-08:00

This section will have three parts, in the second part here we will go through two thirds of the answer.

ལུས། lus means body. However, here it is actually the Tibetan word used for the Sanskrit term deha which is the six objects: eye, ear, tongue, body and mental organ.

དང་། dang is a particle, a conjunctive particle. As the name implies, there's a conjunction between the words to the right and what's on the left. So a translator should always use something that binds together. Using the word and is a good choice, using commas is less binding so I think that should not be used.

ཡོཨུངས་སུ། yongs su is an expression: completely.གཟུང་བ། gzung ba is objectification -- to apprehend an object, or to grasp to objects. However here it actually is referring to sense objects and their appropriation. The reason is that this whole part is a translation of the Sanskrit term parigraha which is the six objects: visible form, sound, odor, taste, tangibility and mental objects.

གཉིས། gnyis means two, ཀྱིས། kyis is an instrumental particle, translate here as by.

If you have kept count, we have the two, and each had six parts, so we are up to twelve, we need six more. That's in the next section, as well as it will have one of the longest Sanskrit terms I've personally ever encountered.

Why are there eighteen elements?

2008-02-20T00:26:00.001-08:00

Next Abhidharma-Samuccaya addresses why there are exactly eighteen elements.

ཅིའི་ཕྱིར། ci'i phyir is why. ཁམས། khams is element, རྣམས། rnams is plural ending, so we are dealing with elements.

བཅོ་བརྒྱད། bco brgyad is eighteen. ཁོ་ན། kho na is only, ཞེ་ན། zhe na is what does it mean.

Puzzling all this together and refining: Why are there only eighteen elements?

Next, this why is answered.

Self as basis for all

2008-02-18T21:30:00.000-08:00

We are at the fifth and the last skandha, and why it exists.

བག་གི་གཞི། bdag gi gzhi is the basis of self.

དེ་དག de dag is all that.

གནས། gnas is a good word to memorize, here it means basis.

བརྗོད་པ། brjod pa is expression. It actually has a genitive particle at the end -- 'i -- and this ties to ཕྱིར། phyir, hence. It all also ends with the proper sentence ending vowel doubling, ro.

To translate this: self which is the basis of all that. To really understand this, Abhidharma-Samuccaya has a somewhat bias for the Mind Only world view representation. In this world view, there are seeds in the mind that ripens, stored in the storage house consciousness, and these ripening seeds trigger everything that is mentally experienced. Hence this last description for a skandha that should not be hard to figure out.

Next, we will find out the reason behind the amount of elements.

Self-Base as agent of intention

2008-02-17T23:46:00.001-08:00

This is the fourth skandha emerging as a self-base, bdag gi zhi.

ཆོས། chos here is phenomena (dharma.) The next is an interesting twist, you need to be careful when translating. དང་། dang is a connection particle, ཆོས་མ་ཡིན་པ། chos ma yin pa is actually two parts, ཆོས། chos again, phenomena, and མ་ཡིན་པ། ma yin pa means does not exist. So this section is phenomena that exists or not. Or all that exists or does not exist.

མངོན་པ། mngon pa is here to appear, the r at the end is a sub-ordination particle, binding right to left.

འདུ་བྱེད་པ། 'du byed pa is in Sanskrit samskara, conditioning factors, intention, deciding on all what is good and what is bad. So here we are talking about an agent that decides what is good or not good for all phenomena. and བརྗོད་པ། brjod pa is expression.

So here the skandha is: an expression of an agent that decides what is good or bad resulting in a self-base. This is one way to translate it. But you could actually put together all kinds of personal translations based on the data provided. Sometimes you get deeper insights by playing around with the translation options.

Self-Base as Expression

2008-02-15T00:52:00.000-08:00

To continue how the self appearance manifests via skandhas.

བདག་གི་ཞི། bdag gi zhi is the self-base, the foundation of self that will emerge.

ཐ་སྙད། tha snyad here is expression.

བརྗོད་པ། brjod pa is also expression. One has to be careful here, translating an expression of expressions sounds like a big mouthful.

So the easiest is to follow along with the simplified translation model and state: self as expression.

As for what skandha this reflects, one way is to think of something that is an expression that someone experiences around oneself...

Self-base as Experience

2008-02-12T22:26:00.000-08:00

To continue with བདག་གི་གཞི། bdag gi gzhi, the five aspects. Now, sometimes it is interesting to improvise concerning translations. The earlier given translation, self-base, is one way to state it, or then base of self. But if we look at the word གཞི། gzhi, you could see that it has other variations, foundation, residence, basic nature. So you could create new translations, like a jazz player with chords, and see what resonates with you, as long as the usage of the word makes sense. Sometimes such personal translations are very powerful, for oneself, or maybe for others, too.

ལོངས་སྤྱོད། longs spyod is a word you could also see quite often, here it means actually experience, not enjoyment. And བརྗོད་པ། brjod pa is to be expressed.

So, one longer translation is the self-base expressed as experience. But you could actually make this just shorter and translate it as self as experience -- this assumes that the reader already was informed about the nature of self.

Again, using meditation you might get a connection between this self-base and the specific skandha.

Self as an Expression of Form

2008-02-07T23:26:00.000-08:00

This is a somewhat longer sentence, but let's go through it. Look through the earlier postings to get more clues about the words used, as they are repeated in this listing of the five skandhas and the self appearance.

bdag gi gzhi is the self-base.

lus is body. yongs su is another good expression to learn: completely. Here I think these two reflects all physical objects, as lus could also be used for physical entities.

gzung ba here is perception (of objects), or the thing apprehended.

dang bcas pa is another good expression you will see a lot: together with, or accompanied by.

brjod pa is to express. dang is a particle that will bind this sentence with the other four parts that will come next.

If we put together all these separately translated parts, we could get something like: self as an expression of physical objects that are perceived.

Now, which skandha is this self-expression reflecting? There's a classical teaching trick where the someone is given enough clues, and with reflection and meditation it will become clear, as well as internalized.

Happy lo gsar

2008-02-06T12:39:00.003-08:00

This is new year's eve in the Tibetan calendar, so happy ལོ་གསར། lo gsar (lo sar).
ལོ། lo means year, and གསར། gsar means new, so now some of you know three new words! This is a nice, simple word for anyone learning the Tibetan alphabet, too. The Tibetan calendar is based on the moon (lunar calendar), so hence the place of new year is based on the lunar state. Another important times are full moon, no moon, and the state transitions from waxing to waning. As the new moon starts tomorrow, the calendar month/year, starts, too. By the way, if you use Google calendar you could add a lunar calendar that shows the lunar states. Believe it or not, full moon is an interesting day/night.

Another online calendar good to consult is the FPMT dharma dates web site. This lists all the important dharma dates related to the Tibetan calender and the lunar positions. As you could see there, a lot of activities happen during full moon.

Anyway, harmonious wishes for the next year and in the future to everyone reading this blog. And to copy from the ལོ་གསར། message from Lama Zopa Rinpoche just sent out:

"The most happy thing in my life, the most fulfilling thing is to work for and to benefit sentient beings. Even just the mere thought to cause happiness to sentient beings, to benefit them, to free them from suffering - this is the BEST offering to all the buddhas and bodhisattvas, this is the best offering, the best puja, this is what pleases their holy minds the most."
–Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Five Expressions of the Appearance of Self

2008-02-05T21:37:00.000-08:00

OK, we will now go through how Abhidharma-Samuccaya describes why there are exactly five skandhas. There are five parts to it!

bdag gi gzhi is the self-base. This word will be used in all five parts. bdag is self, gi is a genitive particle binding right to left, and gzhi is base.

rnam pa is class, type, division. lnga is five, so this has to do with the five divisions of the self-base.

brjod pa is expression in this context. The 'i at the end is again a genitive particle that binds right to left. The right side is phyir, in order to, because. So this is: because of the expression, or due to expressing....

The last word, te, is a particle that shows that there's more to come, in other words, the reason why there are five expression of a self-base will be presented next.

Anyway, the self-base word is somewhat artificial in my taste, so I use the term appearance of self instead. So one way to translate this is, using the backwards reading technique good to use from time to time: Because of the five expressions (or methods) that self makes itself to appear.

That's what we will go through next, and it's not tough to already figure out that there's one expression of self that appears for each of the five skandhas. Anyway, the word appear here is important as it will not define that there's any self-existence -- self just appears, it does not exist from its own side.

bdag and bdag med, self and no-self

2008-02-04T23:27:00.000-08:00

I think it's time to switch to lower gears now and then so anyone really new with Tibetan has a chance of a slower pace, so expect from time to time simpler postings just dealing with a keyword or key construct. As we will dwell more in self in the next postings of Abhidharma-Samuccaya, it's good to go through this word that you will encounter hundreds of times in most Tibetan Buddhist texts.

Self is bdag in Tibetan, atman in Sanskrit. Sometimes this is translated as ego, which sounds for me a little bit more like a western psychology term. It's also sometimes translated as soul, which for me is not really a good translation, but it's something that Westerners dealing with Western philosophies and religions might have a connection to.

A somewhat more clear position is to think of this as a self-existent identity, something that exists from its own side, and it is me.

The big debate in ancient India was between those who supported the idea of atman, self, and the Buddhists who subscribed to anatman, no-self, or bdag med in Tibetan. med is a negation, so adding it to bdag makes it the opposite of bdag. Actually, another Sanskrit term for this is nairātmya, and that should sound familiar for anyone studying the Hevajra tantra.

All Buddhist traditions subscribe to this term of anatman. Depending on the school, other Buddhist systems go further and even subscribe to the idea that there's nothing that is self-existent, no self-existent phenomena, no self-existent mind stream, nothing self-existent such as time, space, and so on.

As Abhidharma-Samuccaya is a Mahayana text, it both supports the notion of no self as well as no dependency to self-existent outer things. However, it has an emphasis on the Mind Only view where everything can be connected back to the observer, the mind, and how that triggers various experiences. More about that then much later in the text. Anyway, just by describing various mental processes as parts that interact with each other, and the superficial result appearing as something self-existent such as self, is one of the main purposes of this text.

The astute reader would notice that there's no long stroke (shah) in the first word. The reason is that Tibetans consider the long stroke in the letter ga to work as a stroke. It's a thing good to know as you could find sentence separators this way.

Next, we will indeed connect the notion of bdag (as well as bdag med) with the concept of the five skandhas.

Why are there exactly five skandhas?

2008-02-03T18:30:00.000-08:00

We come now to really interesting definitions stated in Abhidharma-Samuaccya. This initial question is why are there exactly five skandhas, and the follow-up postings will then go through the answer to this question.

ci'i phyr is the word why. phung po is -- as discussed earlier -- heap (skandha). rnams is the plural ending so we are dealing with skandhas.

lnga is number five. kho na is just or exactly. zhe na is another good expression to learn, it means 'if someone asks why', or 'if one says so.' If you listen to a commentary you might also hear this expression when the Tibetan teacher is teaching.

So next we will unravel this mystery.

Third set of sense basis

2008-01-31T20:54:00.000-08:00

This is the third set of the twelve sense bases.

lus is body so this is the body sense basis (kaya-ayatana.)

reg bya is touch so this is the touch sense basis (sprastavya-ayatana.)

yid is here mental organ so this is the mind sense basis (mana-ayatana.)

chos is here mental object so this is the mental object basis (dharma-ayatana.)

Some might wonder why it is so important to find and label various parts of the mental experience? It is really how a systems analyst works, in politics, software, organizations and so on. By finding out each logical part and how it all works together, the big picture emerges. In this case the answers are to be found later, and Abhidharma-Samuccaya will point out time after time: there's really nothing self-existent in the mental world. It is rather parts who work together, and each part is dependent on another part or parts.

We will see this next as Abhidharma-Samuccaya explains why there are exactly five skandhas, no more and no less.

Second Set of Sense Bases

2008-01-30T00:56:00.003-08:00

As mentioned before, the words should be familiar, and if not, then just look through the recent blog entries where they are mentioned.

སྣ། sna is nose so this is the nose sense basis (ghrana-ayatana.)

དྲི། dri is odor so this is the odor sense basis (gandha-ayatana.)

ལྕེ། lce is tongue so this is the tongue sense basis (jihva-ayatana.)

རོ། ro is taste so this is the taste sense basis (rasa-ayatana.)

Now, Abhidharma-Samuccaya later describes what a sense basis really is. But it's good to know it already, instead of waiting for the hundredth or so blog posting before we reach that section.

The meaning of a sense basis (ayatana) is that it signifies a door in which the consciousness appears. If you look at the two pairs above, the nose sense basis and he odor sense basis are doors by which the the olfactory consciousness operates. Similarly, the tongue and taste sense bases operate as doors for the taste consciousness to operate.

First Four Sense Bases

2008-01-28T22:47:00.000-08:00

As a lot of words we have gone through before, we will take four sense spheres at a time. If unsure, just go back in time in this blog and you will find the words described. Or those who have already read the earlier postings, this is a good time to see if you could recognize the words used in a somewhat different context!

mig is eye so the first is the eye sense base (caksur-ayatana.)

gzugs is form so the second is the form sense base (rupa-ayatana.)

rna ba is is ear so the third is the ear sense base (srotr-ayatana.)

sgra is sound so the fourth is the sound sense base (shabd-ayatana.)

I think you are already seeing a pattern, eye and form, ear and sound. Abhidharma-Samuccaya has more about this all then later.

The Twelve Sense Bases

2008-01-27T18:48:00.000-08:00

Next, Abhidharma-Samuccaya lists how many sense bases (or spheres as this is sometimes translated) there are, as well as each one.

skye mched is sense basis, sphere, ayatana in Sanskrit. We will get a better understanding of this after we have listed each one.

rnams is a plural ending, so this means that we are dealing with multiple spheres.

ni is an emphasis particle, it means that the right side will emphasize the left, i.e. how many are there.

bcu is ten. gnyis is two. bcu gnyis is twelve. If you now know bcu as ten, and the first nine numbers, you should now be able to count from one to nineteen.

te is the semi-final particle, it indicates that we will indeed list the twelve spheres or sense bases now. We will do three at a time, or so, as they will sound familiar.

Mental Elements

2008-01-24T21:37:00.001-08:00

Ok, we are down to the last three elements, and as mentioned before, the elements and various interactions will be explained later in Abhidharma-Samuccaya.

yid is mind (Sanskrit manas), or also you could say the mental organ or mental faculty, so yid kyi khams is the mind element or the mental organ element (mano-dhatu.) I think here the mental organ translation is better, as it reflects one of the six sense systems, where actually the mental organ is one of those.

chos, Sanskrit dharma, has many meanings, here it is related to mental objects, so chos kyi khams is mental object element (dharma-dhatu.)

yid kyi rnam par shes pa'i khams is then the mental consciousness element (mano-vijnana-dhatu.) As this is the ending of the long listing of the eighteen elements, the last word ends with an 'so construct.

The interesting observations here is that the mental senses are grouped into a triad of elements, where each one is needed for mental parts to be formed.

Next, we will start looking at spheres!

Body Elements

2008-01-21T22:12:00.000-08:00

Ok, six more elements to go! lus is body (Sanskrit kaya), kyi is the genitive particle that binds right to left and khams is element. So this is the body element (kaya-dhatu.)

reg bya is touch or tangibility, the 'i is again the genitive particle, binding this to khams, so this is the tangibility element (sprastavya-dhatu).

lus is (as earlier) body, rnam par shes pa is consciousness, so this all is the body consciousness element (kaya-vijnana-dhatu.)

Later Abhidharma-Samuccaya will have a definition what touch really is, so that will be interesting.

I think you have grasped the Sanskrit also by now, so now you could show your talent and know what for example kaya-vijnana-dhatu really is, based on knowing each of these three separate words!

Next, a somewhat surprising set of elements.

How to Purify Elements - Offer Flowers

2008-01-14T19:51:00.000-08:00

In case someone wonders how to get elements purified, here's one approach. Lotsawa House just announced a great translation of Teachings on the Offering of Flowers by Jikme Tenpe Nyima.

me tog is flower. rnams is the plural ending, so this is flowers.

Taste Elements

2008-01-13T23:43:00.000-08:00

Next are the three elements associated with the taste sensation. lce is tongue, so lce'i khams is the tongue element (jihvad-dhatu.)

ro is taste, so ro'i khams is the taste element (rasa-dhatu.)

As we know that lce is tongue, then lce'i rnam par shes pa'i khams is the tongue consciousness element (jihva-vijnana-dhatu.)

This leads to an interesting observation. One of the main topics in this Abhidharma-Samuccaya is to show that there are really no self-existent things, such as a a self-existent taste universal. There are three factors involving, of which the tongue consciousness element is as important. It really means that there's nothing self-existent about what taste bad and what taste good. In real life this is easy to show, just check out how one dish is considered icky for someone, but a great delicacy for someone else.

It also means that there's really no limit to what someone could do concerning getting to a state where everything taste as bliss.

Collected Works of Third Karmapa available

2008-01-10T10:48:00.000-08:00

Due to the kindness of Tsadra foundation, the collected works of the third Karmapa are available. See rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/3rd_Karmapa . This is the whole collection in PDF format. Most likely you need to install the Nitartha Sambhota font to read it.

Anyway, we are entering the golden age of material available on Internet, even whole collections of important teachers. We just need more translations now.

Nose Odor Olfactory Consciousness

2008-01-09T00:14:00.000-08:00

Next is a triad related to smelling. sna is nose, the 'i is a genitive particle that binds khams, element to the nose, so we have the nose element (in Sanskrit ghrana-dhatu.)

dri is smell, or odor, so this is the odor element (gandha-dhatu.)

sna'i rnam par shes pa is the olfactory consciousness, so with khams this is the olfactory consciousness element (ghrana-vijnana-dhatu.)

Isn't this an interesting way to learn Tibetan words about various body parts and senses?

Ear Audio Auditory Consciousness

2008-01-07T23:57:00.000-08:00

And now to my favorite triad of elements. rna ba is ear, the 'i is the genitive particle that binds khams, element, to rna ba. So this is the ear element (srotra-dhatu.)

sgra is sound, and you should recognize the genitive particle now, as a well as khams, so this is the sound element (shabda-dhatu.)

rna ba'i rnam par shes pa is auditory consciousness so this is the auditory consciousness element (srotra-vijnana-dhatu).

Does the pattern start to look familiar? We will go through the five + one more sense when dealing with the eighteen elements.

Form and Visual Consciousness Elements

2008-01-06T19:38:00.001-08:00

Actually the elements have groupings of three parts, as we will notice next. gzhugs here is form, so gzhugs gi khams is form element, rupadhatu. This is in the context of visual form and not 'matter.' dang then binds to the next listing.

mig is eye or visual and rnam par shes pa is consciousness (Sanskrit vijnana.) Remember this word as it will show up multiple times when listing the elements. Thus, mig gi rnam par shes pa is visual consciousness (caksurvijnanadhatu.)

The 'i is a genitive particle binding khams, element to the left side, so this is the visual consciousness element.

We had before mig gi khams, eye element. Thus you could see that these elements have a grouping of a physical entity (eye) that is registering something (form) and is using a consciousness (visual consciousness), all together. In other words, all three have to work together for a form to be realized as visually seen.

We will go through the next elements in combinations of three.

mig gi khams - Eye Element

2008-01-03T23:27:00.001-08:00

Let's start slowly and just take one or more elements in the beginning, and then later go through more elements.

མིག mig means eye (caksur.) གི gi is a genitive particle which binds the right to the left.་ཁམས། khams is element (dhatu.) So this is the eye element, caksurdhatu in Sanskrit.

Theདང། dang here is again a conjuctive particle; as we will list 18 elements, this particle is used in the listing.

khams bco brgyad - Eighteen Elements

2008-01-02T23:41:00.000-08:00

The next lists how many elements are there, and after this all the elements are listed.

khams is element, rnams is the plural ending, so khams rnams is elements.

ni is an emphatic particle, so it's emphasizing the right side with the left.

bco brgyad is eighteen. de is another particle, the semi-final particle, this will tie together this statement with the listing of the eighteen elements.

So that's what we will do next, as the individual elements will introduce a lot of practical nouns that is good to learn in Tibetan!

The Five Aggregates Listed

2008-01-01T18:21:00.001-08:00

We will take a longer section of Abhidharma-Samuccaya, but it's very easy to follow along, and we have gone through the five skandhas before. Also, the text later will describe all kinds of interesting things about the skandas so we will not miss anything by just listing them here just now, as in the text. So:

gzugs kyi phung po is the form aggregate or form skandha. The dang at the end is a particle, a conjunctive particle. It is for example used after each entry in a list, as in this case. You could translate this with and, or use a comma, or anything similar indicating a listing (even an bullet point if that makes sense.)

tshor ba'i phung po is skandha of feelings, or skandha of sensations. Again the dang is used for the listing purposes, or something will follow.

'du shes kyi phung po is aggregate/skandha of perceptions.

'du byed kyi phung po is aggregate of formations, or sometimes also translated as the aggregate of conditioning factors. Don't worry, later in Abhidharma-Samuccaya these skandhas and their interactions will be precisely defined.

Finally we have rnam par shes pa'i phung po, skandha of consciousness. Note the ending of this part, po'o. This is a proper sentence ending, the last vowel is doubled.

Next we will go through the elements!

phung po lnga - The Five Aggregates

2007-12-28T12:29:00.000-08:00

Next is the number of aggregates or skandhas, as well as a listing of each one of them.

phung po is skandha, aggregate, or heap, rnams is a plural marker so this is about skandhas or aggregates.

ni is again the emphatic particle that isolates the words from an expression or some other part. Here it isolates it from lnga, which is number five. You will encounter this particle quite a lot in texts such as this one that has definitions and listings.

ste is another important particle -- Stephen Hodge calls this the semi-final particle which is a very intriguing name for it. It is used to tie together smaller sentences, to introduce something as part of an earlier sentence (like here), or to coordinate together multiple smaller sentences. In this latter case you could just translate this particle with 'and' or 'and then.' Actually here I would use : as the next part will list the five skandhas.

This particle takes the form ste here as the last word's last letter was a vowel. You will also see it in forms of te and de. Expect to see those a lot!

Next, we we have talked about the five skandhas before, we will go through the text entry that lists all five. Yes, it's a big chunk of text, but should not be hard to translate.

How many?

2007-12-27T22:33:00.000-08:00

One of the special qualities of Abhidharma-Samuccaya is that it is constructed around a question and answer system. Each part in the compendium starts with a question or some questions and then they are answered. This is a very effective way to list data as the question itself frames the context of the answer.

This is the beginning of the section explaining shandhas, elements and spheres. We know from before that skandha is phung po, element is khams and sphere is skye mched.

The rnams means plural, thus phung po rnams is skandhas, khams rnams is elements and skye mched rnams is spheres.

ni is an emphasis particle, translate is here quickly as 'as for.' This emphasis particle is to isolate a word or a sentence. du is here 'how many.' Thus this is a question.

So, we have: how many skandhas are there, how many elements are there and how many spheres are there? Note the last sentence with she na, this is usually translated as 'if asked', 'if you ask', or something similar. Anyway, you could always leave this out and just translate this as: How many skandhas, elements and spheres are there?

So that's what we will do next, go through all the skandhas, elements and spheres!

phung po khams skye mched

2007-12-27T00:36:00.000-08:00

I was thinking about going through the Tibetan translation of Abhidharma-Samuccaya line by line, but immediately in the beginning of the first chapter there's a summary of what this section will explain. So I think it will be better to skip certain parts. Also there's a long listing of various parts soon after. I was thinking about condensing all this, but then again it's good to see the sentences repeating, as seeing the patterns over and over will help anyone recognize similar patterns. Also, those listings have a lot of key words good to know.

Anyway, the beginning of the first chapter has to do with phung po (skandha, heaps), khams, dhatu, elements) and skye mched (ayatana, spheres). There will be a listing of all these parts, definitions, characteristics, as well as other interesting information related to these parts. Then these will be combined with other parts to see more connections and interesting relationships.

We will talk more about these then later, but just seeing the listing of what they consist of will give enough insight into these three important collections.

By the way, I have a revised ACIP edition of the Tibetan translation of Abhidharma-Samuccaya, but I don't want to publish it openly. However, if someone wants this text from me, send me email and I could provide it.

Homage - Part 2

2007-12-24T00:21:00.000-08:00

The beginning of the homage, in this Tibetan translation, and what the text pays homage to, is 'jam dpal gzhon nur gyur pa, Manjushri-kumara-bhuta. One English translation of this of many names of Manjushri is The Youthful Gentle Splendor.

'jam dpal is Manjushri, or Gentle Splendor. gzhon nur gyur pa is to become a youth, guyr pa is to become, gzhon nu is youthful, and the r in gzhon nur is a general subordination particle that organizes the right with the left. If there's something to be learned here is to always watch out for possible particles at the end of words, otherwise you will spend time trying to find words in a dictionary that are not present.

One way to interpret this homage is that Abhidharma is hard to understand, so paying homage to Manjushri is a way to pay homage to the highest wisdom ((see Jewel Ornament of Liberation Introduction.)

Another interesting interpretation is that when the texts where collected after the pari-nirvana of Buddha, Manjushri the bodhisattva recited the Abhidharma texts.

Also, in the classification system introduced by the Tibetan king Ralphachen, all Abhidharma texts should have this homage to classify them into the basket of Abhidharma.

Next, we will continue in the text, no worries, Abhidharma is not hard, it's actually fun!

Homage - Part 1

2007-12-19T00:28:00.001-08:00

Next in the prologue is the homage section. We will break this to a couple of postings. We will also read this part backwards.

The ending is phyag 'tshal lo. The lo part indicates a proper sentence ending by adding this lo part to the end of the actual verb. phyag is to prostrate, or pay homage. phyag 'tshal is homage or salutation.

The la before this is a particle, oblique particle, or me as a programmer think of this particle as a pointer particle. It binds the right side with a construct to the left related to 'for what', or 'considering what.' Anyway, use the simple word 'to' just now.

So we are paying homage to something, and that's next.

bang po dang po - First Section

2007-12-18T01:01:00.000-08:00

Yes, in the prologue and sections of the Abhidharma-Samuccaya we will go through somewhat mundane parts, but it's good to learn those. If you see these patterns and learn them, then when you look at other Tibetan texts it will look familiar. And based on such pattern recognition you could suddenly very fluently read parts of translations.

bam po means section, a collection grouped together. dang po means first. So this is of course the first section. Just as a fun exercise, do a net search on "bam po dang po" . By the way, I found an old article I wrote for a now not so active Tibetan translator wiki system. I also found out if you do a net search, at least on Google, with "bam po" and Chandra Das you get a hit directly into the Chandra Das Tibetan Dictionary, PDF version, with the section hi-lighted, so that's very neat.

As I've mentioned before, most Buddhist texts are very much organized outlines with information. You need to just keep track of the sections along the way when you translate or read texts -- there's seldom any context of a table of contents, unless some other scholar has produced a specific commentary with such information.

Next, the homage section in the prologue.

chos mngon pa kun las btus pa - Tibetan Title

2007-12-17T01:17:00.000-08:00

After the Sanskrit title, as this is a Tengyur text, is the Tibetan title for the text. We have already gone through the title, so it's more to learn the patterns in the prologues of Tibetan texts, where the titles are listed.

Here is the somewhat familiar phrase, pod skad du. skad du was as earlier in the language. bod is Tibet. So this phrase is: In Tibetan.

Next, we will continue in the text.

chos mngon pa kun las btus pa - Sanskrit Title 2

2007-12-14T00:19:00.000-08:00

To continue with the Sanskrit title, the Tibetan translations use -- of course -- Tibetan letters to spell out the Sanskrit name itself. The actual Tibetan letters even were imported from India.

The second part spells out a bhi dha rma sa mu tsacha ya. Notice the way how some letters are stacked on top of each other. All together this is Abhidharmasamuccaya, Abhidharmasamuchaya, and variations on how it this is transliterated to English.

Sometimes you just need to see the patterns. Notice the dha rma section, the first D could as well be nga, but ngdha rma does not make sense.

Next, the Tibetan title in the prologue.

chos mngon pa kun las btus pa - Sanskrit Title 1

2007-12-12T22:38:00.000-08:00

The text then continues with this standard set of parts. If you learn these, you should be able to translate and understand most if not all of the Kangyur and Tengyur texts translated to tibetan.
The first part is rgya gar skad du. rgya gar is India but note later that there will be a twist to this! skad is voice or language. du is a general sub-ordination particle that will classify what is to the right with what is on the left. Use the word in here.

So the first pass on translating this is In the language of India. However, as the Mahayana Buddhist texts were written in Sanskrit, you might as well translate this as: In Sanskrit.

Next, how to learn how the Tibetans transcribed Sanskrit words using Tibetan letters.

chos mngon pa kun las btus pa - Title

2007-12-12T00:08:00.000-08:00

This is the title that you would see if you would start on the first (pecha) page in this text. We have gone through the title before, so the only new part is the bzhugs so part. This is good to learn, as you will encounter the same pattern on most Tibetan texts, on the first page.

bzhugs usually means stay, remind, reside, contain, but here it's ended with the proper sentence ending -so, as in bzhugs so. The typical way to translate this something like 'herein is' , or 'this contains.' You could actually be very flexible, as long as it means something like this is the text xzy, or this contains ... and so on.

By the way, this text has been translated from hybrid Sanskrit/Tibetan to French by Walpola Rahula. The original Sanskrit version had sections missing. Then this French translation was translated to English by Sara Boin-Webb, ISBN: 0-89581-941-4, and you could order the book from Amazon and similar places. Unfortunately it seems like this book is very expensive...

Next, we continue in the Tibetan version of this text.

chos mngon pa kun las btus pa - Abhidharma-Samuccaya 2

2007-12-10T23:57:00.000-08:00

The second part of the name of this text is kun las btus pa - Samuccaya.

kun las means from all, or all that. btus pa is collected, gathered, extracted.

In other words, this combination means compilation from all sources, or a compendium, in this particular case a compilation of Abhidharma material. You could see this Sanskrit and Tibetan term from time to time in various compilation texts, such as Dignaga's Pramana-Samuccaya, or Shantideva's Siksa-Samuccaya.

As for the word Abhidharma, chos mngon pa, there are all kinds of attempts to translate this to English: higher knowledge, metaphysics, and so on. I tend to be somewhat conservative and use the Sanskrit term; it's nice, and it forces someone to learn the meaning behind the word, and also avoids any misunderstandings -- for example meta-physics and the connection to new age material.

Next, the full title of the text as seen in the actual Tibetan text.

chos mngon pa kun las btus pa - Abhidharma-Samuccaya 1

2007-12-09T23:23:00.000-08:00

OK! We will start going through selected parts of Abhidharma-Samuccaya, or chos mngon pa kun las btus pa as it is known in Tibetan. Why? Because we are still on the third noble truth, learning more how suffering could be eliminated.

What is this text? It is a very important text in Tengyur written by Asanga. It is covering the Mahayana Abhidharma. Don't worry, things will be clear in the next postings. Why is this text so important? Because it has a very powerful question and answer format that describes a lot of terms, mind, skandhas (there was a request going more into those), elements, senses, and much, much more. For example, commentaries based on mind and mental functions sometimes use this root text for definitions.

Anyway, what is Abhidharma, or chos mngon pa? chos here means phenomena, dharma, all that exists, inner, outer and so on. mngon pa means to arise, to be visible, higher; in this case Tibetans translated abhi from Sanskrit as mngon pa. So it's meta-physics, or how things really work, or how they exist.

Note that there's also a lower abhidharma, how the non-Mahayana schools describe as things work. This higher abhidharma builds upon that. Usually monks and nuns first study Vasubandhu's Abhidharma-Kosha that covers the basics -- but we will jump into the highest level and learn along the way.

Next, the second part of this title.

gzugs - form

2007-12-06T23:03:00.001-08:00

The skandha associated with chos kyi dbyings kyi ye shes is gzugs, form, rupa in Sanskrit.

More associations with this wisdom. Concerning the five elements it is space, with the five senses it is sight.

Next, we will continue on the third noble truth with a new theme!

rnam par snang mdzad - Vairochana

2007-12-05T23:29:00.000-08:00

The dhyani Buddha associated with chos kyi dbyings kyi ye shes is rnam par snang mdzad - Vairochana.

rnam par is one of those expressions that are good to memorize, it shows up in texts here and there and it means completely, fully. The Sanskrit vi prefix is translated as rnam par in Tibetan texts.

snang is appearance, phenomena, it's an abbreviation of snang ba. mdzad is to perform, to make. However, this is a combinational world, snang mdzad, making things to appear, or illuminating.

There's something beautiful that Vairochana is the complete illuminator, dispelling any ignorance.

Vairochana is white in color, the element associated with Vairochana is earth. The mandala entrance, depending on the tradition, is usually in the center. The symbol of Vairochana is the dharma wheel (chos 'khor.)

Next, the skandha associated with Vairochana.

gti mug - Ignorance

2007-12-03T00:27:00.001-08:00

The poison that is actually chos kyi dbyings kyi ye shes in an impure form, is gti mug, ignorance! I would have not myself thought that the wisdom of the sphere of reality is in an impure form just plain ignorance. But it all fits together.

In Sanskrit, gti mug is moha.

Next, the dhyani Buddha associated with this wisdsom.

chos kyi dbyings kyi ye shes - Dharmadhatu wisdom

2007-11-29T23:23:00.000-08:00

The fifth of the five wisdoms, ye shes lnga, is chos kyi dbyings kyi ye shes, dharmadhatu wisdom.

chos has so many interpretations and meanings, but here it's really part of a term, chos kyi dbyings. Anyway, for the time being think of this with the Sanskrit term, dharma, phenomena.

kyi is a genitive particle and binds the word to the right with the one to the left. dbyings also has many meanings: nature, realm, space, dhatu in Sanskrit... Anyway, here chos kyi dbyings is dharmadhatu. kyi is again a genitive particle, and ye shes is wisdom.

This is also sometimes written in short form: chos dbyings ye shes.

As for the term dharmadhatu, that would take a while, and I'm actually very tempted to look into more dharmadhatu terms after this section with the five wisdoms, as it's a very, very intriguing section, and I like to look at this myself from time to time, as it's mind expanding.

Anyway, let's think of dharmadhatu here as the realm, or sphere of phenomena, and is indirectly pointing at the potential of emptiness where anything is possible due to interdependence. So the wisdom has to do with this expansive realm, as it covers all phenomena. Different traditions have somewhat different interpretations about this wisdom. Anyway, one way to look at this is to think of the wisdom of the true nature of reality, and by leaving it by that I avoid getting stuck in all the different interpretations what it means -- from a valid lineage they are always true, just different interpretations.

Next, the somewhat astounding poison that is turned into this wisdom.

tshor ba - Feeling

2007-11-27T23:27:00.001-08:00

The skandha associated with mnyam pa nyid kyi ye shes is tshor ba, feeling. In this case, feeling means feeling levels of happiness and unhappiness.

More associations with this wisdom. Concerning the five elements it is earth, with the five senses it is smell.

Next, the fifth and final transcendental awareness.

rin chen 'byung gnas - Ratnasambhava

2007-11-26T23:39:00.001-08:00

The dhyani buddha associated with mnyam pa nyid kyi ye shes is rin chen 'byung gnas, Ratnasambhava.

rin chen is jewel, ratna in Sanskrit. 'byung gnas is source, place of origin, sambhava in Sanskrit. Thus, padmasambhava might now make sense - Origin of Lotus, or Born from Lotus as this title of the second Buddha of Tibet is sometimes translated in English.

Ratnasambhava is yellow in color. The element associated with Ratnasambhava is earth.

The mandala entrance, or direction, is south. The symbol is of course a ratna, or jewel.

Next, the skandha associated with mnyam pa nyid kyi ye shes.

nga rgyal - Pride

2007-11-25T20:13:00.000-08:00

The mental poison which is really mnyam pa nyid kyi ye shes in an impure form is nga rgyal. This term is actually easy to learn, as you will see.

nga is me. rgyal means king. Thus, nga rgyal is 'me king', or the word for pride. It's easy to see the connection between the single words and the actual term.

So, if someone is very self-centric, the wisdom of equanimity is impure, if one is no longer self-centric, the wisdom of equanimity is shining.

Next, the dhyani Buddha associated with this wisdom.

Custom Dictionaries in Leopard (MacOSX 10.5)

2007-11-23T10:01:00.000-08:00

MacOSX has had built-in dictionaries for selected languages since the early days, but no official way to build alternate dictionaries and install them.

I had a discussion with a college from the same team where I work and he told me that with Leopard (10.5) he could now create custom Japanese dictionaries and install them. The XCode 3.0 development tool has a template example how to create such dictionaries.

This means that anyone interested could create Tibetan dictionaries and install them on their Mac. The benefits is that you could do spell checking (provided the dictionary is big enough to catch most common words and phrases), as well as doing direct lookup of words similar to using a thesaurus.

Note that the Tibetan words and terms need to be in Unicode, so anyone who has a set of Wylie based dictionary material needs to first convert the Tibetan to Unicode, and then create the needed data files for such dictionaries. Otherwise, it should be easy to build these.

I've done some more testing with Unicode and Tibetan on my MacBookPro running Leopard, and it's so much fun to finally have everything in one single, uniformed, document, using Unicode.

mnyam pa nyid kyi ye shes - Wisdom of Equanimity

2007-11-20T10:45:00.000-08:00

The fourth of the five wisdoms, ye shes lnga, is mnyam pa nyid kyi ye shes, wisdom of equanimity.

mnyam pa is equal, to be alike. nyid is a very useful word to memorize, it is used in combination with other terms and words, and means just, the very same, exactly like that (and nothing else!). Thus, mnyam pa nyid means equality, the fundamental likeness, or sameness and nothing else.

kyi is a genitive particle, it takes this form as the last letter on the left is a da, and binds the words or expressions on the right to the left. ye shes is wisdom (or I like to think of it as transcendental awareness myself, nowadays, sounds more wide and expansive than just wisdom.)

As you could see, by just doing a simple translation of this wisdom term, you could get a deeper glimpse into the meaning itself compared with the English translation used. This means that this wisdom expresses that everything, all beings, are equal, have the same needs and the same future. It is said that the dharma is raining down on everyone equally. In other words, such a wisdom there are no distinctions, rather impartiality, as it really is; no distinction between important and not important, self and others. An enlightened being could still discriminate between all these states (remember the so sor rtog pa'i ye shes.)

Next about the poison that is this wisdom in an impure form. Our family is traveling in Southern California this week, so depending on the Wi-Fi connections the entries might show up now and then.

'du byed - Mental Formation

2007-11-18T23:31:00.000-08:00

The skandha associated with bya ba grub pa'i ye shes is 'du byed - mental formations. Another translation for this part of a being is impulses, or habitual tendencies -- samskara in Sanskrit.

More associations with this wisdom: concerning the five elements is is wind, concerning the five senses it is associated with tongue consciousness.

Next, the fourth wisdom of the ye shes lnga.

don yod grub pa - Amoghasiddhi

2007-11-15T23:55:00.000-08:00

The dhyani Buddha associated with bya ba grub pa'i ye she (all-accomplishing action wisdom) is don yod grub pa, Amoghasiddhi.

don is benefit, purpose, yod to exist, but don yod means meaningful, useful, purposeful. grub pa is accomplishment or accomplished, siddhi in Sanskrit.

Amoghasiddhi is green in color. The element associated with Amoghasiddhi is the wind.

The direction, or mandala entrance, is north. The symbol is a double-vajra, a very common symbol you could find in various places in Tibetan centers. This symbol is also used at the base of a statue to seal the prayers inside.

Next, the skandha associated with the all-accomplishing action wisdom.

phrag dog - Jealousy

2007-11-14T22:36:00.000-08:00

The dug lnga (one of the five poisons) that is actually bya ba grub pa'i ye she in an impure form is phrag dog, jealousy.

I don't personally know the full story behind the background of this Tibetan word for jealousy, but looking at each part gives one interesting scenario of why this word combination was selected; note this is just my own speculation. phrag means intermediate space, and dog means narrow, tight. So it's like the mind becoming very narrow, instead of being spacious.

Alex Berzin has more interesting information about this Tibetan word.

Why no ending sha (long line) here? Well, this word ends with the letter ga, and that long part is already considered to be useable as a separator marker in Tibetan.

Next, the dhyani Buddha associated with this wisdom of all-accomplishing action wisdom.

bya ba grub pa'i ye shes - all-accomplishing action wisdom

2007-11-12T20:49:00.000-08:00

The next of the ye shes lnga (five wisdoms) we will go through is bya ba grub pa'i ye shes. This word actually has two separate words good to learn, as you will see those here and there in Tibetan Buddhist texts.

bya ba is action, from the verb bya, to do.

grub pa is accomplishment, from the verb grub, accomplish. And the 'i is the genitive particle that binds this from the right to the left, where to the right we have the word ye shes, wisdom.

This wisdom is usually translated as all-accomplishing wisdom, but I think a more clear term is all-accomplishing action wisdom, or wisdom accomplishing actions. It means that with this wisdom, all wishes are naturally and effortlessly accomplished. This means that the ultimate wish sentient beings have, be free from suffering, reach liberation and ultimately full enlightenment could effortlessly be provided by those who have this wisdom in their mind stream. Just need to get the other end to listen and be attentive, and it usually takes all kinds of skillful teaching tricks.

Next, the mental poison that is this wisdom in an impure form.

'du shes - Perception

2007-11-11T21:42:00.000-08:00

The skandha associated with so sor rtog pa'i ye shes, discriminating wisdom, is 'du shes - perception, or distinguishing (recognizing objects). On the bigger level, Amitabha represents speech.

More associations with this wisdom: within the five elements it is fire, concerning the five types of consciousnesses it is associated with the nose consciousness.

Next, the third wisdom of ye shes lnga.

Tibetan Input in Leopard - MacOSX 10.5

2007-11-11T11:50:00.001-08:00

Ok, here's more info, if you go into the preferences in Leopard (MaxOSX 10.5), and select the International/Input part, and scroll down, you will notice that there are three new input methods, Tibetan - Otani, Tibetan - QWERTY and Tibetan - Wylie.

If you enable those, you will get new input methods. Those could be enabled/disabled at the small icon next to the volume icon in the top-right corner.

What this all means that it's now very, very easy to type Unicode Tibetan on a Mac system! I have not tried out the Sanskrit level stacking which is usually tricky, as Wylie does not really cover it all, but general Tibetan works just fine, and the new built-in font also looks very nice. The default size is usually small, so you need to adjust this if you type documents and entries with Tibetan fonts.

'od dpag med - Amitabha

2007-11-09T23:47:00.000-08:00

The dhyani buddha associated with discriminating wisdom, so sor rtog pa'i ye shes, is 'od dpag med, Amitabha.

'od is light. dpag is to to measure, med negotiates this, so dpag med is limitless or boundless. In other words, one straight translation how Tibetans translated Amitabha is Boundless Light.

Amitabha is red in color, as red is considered the color of love, compassion, and desire. Think of red sports cars! The element associated with Amitabha is fire, which makes sense, symbolically.

The direction, or mandala location, is west. The symbol is a lotus, padma, this is also usually the word Tibetans used in their translations.

Some more notes: as many of you know, Amitabha is maybe the most known dhyani buddha, the Pure Land tradition is focused on this Buddha practice. The pure land of Amitabha is called Sukhavati in Sanskrit, or bde ba can (Dewachen) in Tibetan. It's one of the easiest pure lands to achieve, but even that takes single-pointed determination. Je Tsongkhapa wrote a very famous prayer for being reborn into Sukhavati. The Panchen Lamas are considered emanations of Amitabha.

Next, the skandha associated with discriminating wisdom.

'dod chags - desire based on attachment

2007-11-07T21:07:00.000-08:00

The poison of the so called dug lnga that is transmuted into so sor rtag pa'i ye shes is 'dod chags, desire (based on attachment).

The reason I like to remind that it's desire based on attachment is that there's desire, and desire. Desire to become enlightened is not polluted, desire to own a better car than the neighbor is polluted.

It kind of makes sense that discriminating wisdom, when impure, is desire. I think these kinds of combinations are best explored with private contemplation; let's say having a nice cup of coffee, sitting in the sofa back home and thinking about the connection between knowing the uniqueness and sameness of all things, versus having an impure passionate view on objects. You might get a very strong insight, and that could then be strengthened with meditation on this object.

Next, the dhyani buddha associated with this wisdom, maybe the best known dhyani buddha out there.

so sor rtog pa'i ye shes - Discriminating Wisdom

2007-11-06T18:45:00.001-08:00

The second wisdom we will now look at it so sor rtog pa'i ye shes - discriminating wisdom.

so sor is a very good expression or word to learn, it bubbles up here and there in the texts. It means separately, individually, for each part. rtog pa is in Sanskrit vitarka, it means thought, concept, mental projects in general.

so sor rtog pa is actually a term, individual analysis, discrimination.

The 'i at the end is a genitive particle -- you should now recognize those in your sleep! This binds the word to the right with the left. ye shes is wisdom.

So if we look at the Tibetan words, and the typical translation, discriminating wisdom, is that there's individual analysis of things, and the wisdom, or really transcendental awareness, is to notice each one individually, or discriminate with such things, or working with the wisdom of individuality.

More clearly, an enlightened being could see the uniqueness of every thing, as well as the sameness, at the same time. This also has an interesting side issue, when someone becomes enlightened, does this being become like all the other enlightened beings, like this cloud of enlightenment? Well, there's both the uniqueness and sameness!

Anyway, this has nothing to do with realizing a self-existent nature, rather the interesting world of emptiness with manifestations, forms, and still lack of self-existence. You could read more about various terms related to this wisdom here in the dharmadictionary.net article.

Sometimes this term is also translated as 'timeless awareness', you will see later how it's related to this wisdom. By the way, this term is sometimes shortened to sor rtog.

Next, what poison is manifesting this wisdom in an impure form.

rnam shes - Consciousness

2007-11-05T21:38:00.000-08:00

The aggregate, or heap, associated with me long lta bu'i ye shes is rnam shes - consciousness, vijnana in Sanskrit. This is according to the Guhyasamaja system. On the broadest level Akshobhya represents mind.

Furthermore, more associations with this wisdom is: concerning the five senses it is associated with sound, with the five elements it is associated with space, and with the five types of consciousnesses it associated with the body consciousness. As you see the number five plays an intriguing role when drawing connections between various parts.

Next, the following wisdom.

mi bskyod pa - Akshobhya

2007-11-04T10:34:00.001-08:00

The specific dhyani Buddha that represents me long lta bu'i ye shes is mi bskyod pa, Akshobhya. This name itself has symbolism that presents the mirror-like wisdom itself.

bskyod is to move, agitate. In Tibetan you use pa to make words from verbs, so bskyod pa is movement. mi is a negation particle, so mi bskyod pa is immovable. This name is also sometimes shortened to mi bskyod.

Akshobhya is blue in color (sngo); blue is like water, and water is immovable, and vast, and acts like a mirror, as things really are. Water is also the element associated with Akshobhya.

Usually in a mandala Akshobhya is placed in the east, the entrance port. The family symbol for Akshobhya is a vajra (rdo rje).

There are many good images of Akshobhya on the net, so do a net search in case you want to see an image.

Next, the skandha associated with me long lta bu'i ye shes. Yes, there's even a connection between the five skandhas and the five wisdoms. Five is an important number in Buddhism.

Jamnyang Khyentse Wangpo Mini-Site

2007-11-03T11:31:00.000-07:00

I just saw that the excellent LotsawaHouse web site created a special Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo mini-site. It has all kinds of translations, and also one short Tibetan text, byang chub lam bzang. This has also been translated in the translations section.

I won't give any clues, but you should be easily able to find it by opening up both the Tibetan text and the translation in separate windows, and learn by investigating how this two-page text was translated. A nice Sunday morning hobby!

zhe sdang - Anger

2007-11-01T22:34:00.000-07:00

From now I will use the Tibetan terms used earlier in order to get you to remember them, if you don't remember them, or are new, just find the terms used earlier in this blog.

The one of the dug lnga that will be transformed to me long lta bu'i ye shes is zhe sdang - anger.

Anger is really a delusion, and by transforming it, it will become mirror-like wisdom. It is really fascinating to realize that when we notice anger, we are actually perceiving mirror-like wisdom, but in an impure form! Anger is a very destructive force, but by purifying this it becomes the wisdom of knowing everything as it really is.

Next about the so called Dhyani Buddha that represents mirror-like wisdom.

me long lta bu'i ye shes - Mirror-like Wisdom

2007-10-31T22:22:00.000-07:00

The first of the ye shes lnga (five wisdoms) we will go through is me long lta bu'i ye shes.

me long is a mirror. lta bu is like that, similar -- this is a very common term, good to learn inside out. The ending 'i is a genitive particle that binds the right to the left. ye shes is wisdom.

So the most common translation for this wisdom is mirror-like wisdom. This is the deep, deep wisdom of the whole sphere reality. It is called mirror-like as phenomena appear to the mind in the same way as in a clean mirror - totally accurate with no distortions. Pleasant objects do not stick to the mirror, and unpleasant objects are not repulsive in the mirror. Mirrors reflect things as they are, whether it is a smoking machine gun or a beautiful rose. This includes no separation of self and other phenomena, everything is experienced in full harmony, as it is.

Next what needs to be transmuted in order to get to this wisdom state.

phung po lnga - Five Aggregates

2007-10-29T22:36:00.000-07:00

ye shes lnga, the five wisdoms, are also associated with phung po lnga, the five aggregates.

phung is actually heap, skandha in Sanskrit. phung po is usually here in west translated as aggregate. It's somewhat odd term, as the heap or collection concept is easier to understand, it's really about taking a bunch of what a person consist of, and placing them in five distinctive collections, or five heaps; lnga is five.

There's plenty of good material out there on the web concerning the five aggregates, here's a good one by Alex Berzin. As we will see, it's interesting to notice the connection between the collections and the wisdoms -- again the raw material is there, it's a matter of purifying it.

There are even more things associated with the five wisdoms, and we will pick them up along the way, but these four sections times five is twenty postings, so that should be a mouthful during the next month or so. But the end result is that you would easily recognize how each important part plays together, in dependent origination, so that will be fun.

dug lnga - Five Poisons

2007-10-28T19:58:00.001-07:00

The raw material for ye shes lnga, the five wisdoms, is actually dug lnga, the five poisons.

dug is poison. These are like mental poisons, bothering the mind.

lnga is number five.

Sometimes this expression is also dug lnga 'khrugs pa, where 'khrugs pa means distraction, disturbance.

So the really cool idea is to take the poisons, and turn them into the pure form, which is wisdom. The five poisons are: desire, anger, delusion, pride and envy. For most sentient beings, those are present every day, so there's plenty of raw material to work with.

MacOSX 10.5 Leopard and Tibetan Fonts

2007-10-26T22:59:00.000-07:00

Ok, Leopard is out so we could finally talk about the new features and fixes in this MacOSX release. See this image, it's from the Wikipedia Skandha page. Yes, finally decent default Tibetan Unicode fonts in MacOSX, and they properly stack, too.

I have not tested out all the possible variations yet, but finally MacOSX has good Tibetan font rendering support. That and with Microsoft Vista, we are finally, finally at a point where web sites could include real Tibetan Unicode strings.

I will still use the image approach in this blog, as it will take a while before everyone has the latest versions of the platform OS systems. But from the point of getting decent Tibetan font support, this is the time to upgrade.

... I still remember ten years back in time when it was just a matter of a few years before the platforms would have Tibetan Unicode support...

rgyal ba rigs lnga - Five Buddha Families

2007-10-25T23:42:00.000-07:00

Something that will play an important role in going through the ye shes lnga -- five wisdoms - is rgyal ba rigs lnga, the five Buddha families.

rgyal is king or royal, rgyal ba is the translation for Sanskrit jina, victorious one, or a Buddha. The victory refers to conquering the four maras.

rigs is an interesting word, means lineage, family or clan, especially concerning a spiritual lineage or spiritual family. lnga is number five.

These five Buddha families in the highest yoga practices correspond to the five Wisdoms. You could encounter these Buddha aspects in many places, such as in paintings, images of enlightened beings, practice texts, and so on. The highest yoga deities have all five incorporated, sometimes very obviously as five parts in the head ornament, sometimes in a more subtle way. And when you do do various practices, one of the Buddha families play an important role in the practice, and there's always a reason why.

Ultimately, they are inborn factors present in every sentient beings' mental continuum that makes it possible to become enlightened, the only difference being that in an enlightened mind, they are pure, and not mixed with ignorance as in the ordinary mind stream of a normal being.

ye shes lnga - Five Wisdoms

2007-10-24T23:08:00.001-07:00

The enlightened mind operates with five wisdoms - ye shes lnga. These are five aspects of pristine awareness. As mentioned earlier, ye shes, wisdom, is transcendental wisdom, the awareness of an enlightened being. lnga is number five.

Well, to get there, certain ordinary parts and consciousnesses have to be purified. When that's done, they actually operate with transcendental wisdom, that's all. That's why again the Sakya presentation of Samsara and Nirvana being of the same taste is interesting, as it points out that all the material is available, it's just a matter of transforming it.

We will go through the ye shes lnga, one at a time, and for each also show the connection to various other parts, such as mental poisons, aggregates, Buddha families, symbolism, and so on. So this will take a while, but as part of that you will learn a lot of Tibetan Buddhist terminology, as well as see the deep interdependent connections all kinds of parts you didn't even expect. And next time you look at a Buddhist picture, you would know what various parts represent, it's all encoded in there, and you learn to decipher it!

Anyway, I hope by taking the ye shes lnga as the anchor point this will be a somewhat different kind of presentation.

mngon par byang chub pa'i sku - abhisambodhikaya

2007-10-24T00:05:00.000-07:00

The last of the sku lnga parts of a Buddha is mngon par byang chub pa'i sku - abhisambodhikaya.

mgon pa is manifest, the r is a sub-ordination particle, it classifies the right side to the left. Tibetans translated the Sanskrit term abhi, towards, higher, supreme, as mngon par, so you should see this here and there in the texts.

byang chub is enlightenment, the 'i is a genitive particle that binds right to left. sku is body.

One way to translate this is the body of manifest enlightenment.

The short form of this is mngon byang gi sku.

One way to describe this is that the four other kayas spontaneously complete within the awareness wisdom, so this is the body of true perfected purity. It is the embodiment of buddha's enlightened qualities.

It is said that to describe the qualities of an enlightened being is like a bird taking off over an ocean, and turning back after flying one day. To make it more modern, we could fill every web page available on Internet with descriptions, and never finish the job. Anyway, it's auspicious to talk about it, so next there will be a short series of how ordinary parts of a sentient beings will turn into enlightened parts, which ones, and what is the end result.

mi 'gyur rdo rje'i sku - changeless vajrakaya

2007-10-22T22:28:00.001-07:00

Well, in some presentations there are actually five parts to buddhahood, sku lnga. In this case there's dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, nirmanakaya, and two new parts.

The first is mi 'gyur rdo rje'i sku - changeless vajrakaya.

Let's go through this term backwards. sku is body, the 'i is a genitive that binds right to what's follows to the left. rdo rje is vajra.

'gyur is to become, and the mi in front negates this, so it does not become, or changeless.

The short form of this is rdo rje'i sku.

For example, vajrakaya is the body in which Jetsun Milarepa arose from his funeral pyre to give one final teaching to his disciples. It is basically the immutable or unchanging nature of the four other Buddha parts.

This is also sometimes translated as diamond body, as vajra is translated as diamond when using this expression, and rdo rje is king of stones, an indestructible stone. Another translation I've seen is body of indestructible reality.

I think to get more in-depth teachings on this topic, it's best to consult with your teachers, especially the Nyingma tradition would have beautiful explanations about this term.

Next, the last part in the sku lnga presentation.

ngo bo nyid kyi sku - svabhavikakaya

2007-10-21T20:27:00.000-07:00

The parts of a Buddha are also divided into four parts, sku bzhi. In this case the two form parts are the same, but the non-form parts are two. We went through ye shes chos sku before. The second part is ngo bo nyid kyi sku - svabhavikakaya.

ngo bo is essence, svabhava in Sanskrit; one of those words good to recognize, as you could see it used in various other terms in the scriptures.

nyid means itself, the very one, exactly.

The term ngo bo nyid is the very essence, the essential nature of something.

kyi is a genitive particle, binding the right side to the left, sku is body. Thus the rough translation the body of essence, or the Essence Body as this has usually been translated in English.

So what is this essence body? Depending on the tradition you get different answers. One is that this is the emptiness of the three other bodies. Thus, the three bodies are united in the form of them lacking self-existence, and appearing due to dependent origination. Sometimes this is described as the essential nature of being itself, something that is totally pure in nature. It is the ultimate buddha part, the wisdom aspect is dharmakaya, and the form is rupakaya, where pure beings perceive sambhogakaya, and impure beings perceive nirmanakaya.

But wait, there's also a fifth part, that's next!

longs spyod rdzogs pa'i sku - sambhogakaya

2007-10-19T00:15:00.000-07:00

The second form part in the system of three parts of a Buddha is longs spyod rdzogs pa'i sku, sambhogakaya in Sanskrit, and usually translated with the intriguing title enjoyment body.

longs spyod is enjoyment, rzdogs pa is perfect. The 'i is a genitive particle, binding the right side to the left. sku is body.

This term is also sometimes shortened to be longs sku.

So what is this form? It is the form an enlightened being takes for ten level bodhisattvas, as a representation as a teacher. This has five perfected parts: perfect teacher, perfect retinue, place, teaching, and time that is only perceptible to bodhisattvas on the tenth (last) ground.

If you attend a teaching, and you sit close to a teacher, it is an approximation of what will happen later along the path, when you are a tenth level bodhisattva. You might maybe even have this teacher in the enlightened, sambhogakaya form. Or maybe that is already the case, and we don't yet perceive it??

And why is this an enjoyment body? The buddha is in a constant state of bliss, hence the name.

Now, a case that might map to this is the story how Asanga was taken to the realm of Maitreya and receive the five texts. Now, according to the Tantric system Maitreya is already enlightened, but in the scope of this story, the Sutra tradition, Maitreya is not yet enlightened, and is on the tenth stage Bodhisattva level, just about to become enlightened. Anyway, there are many other examples of practitioners reaching up to this level and receiving teachings directly from a sambhogakaya form, and these are also described for various enlightened beings in the scriptures. This includes the so called 32 minor and 80 minor marks of an enlightened being.

As a final note, these three parts are also associated with a Buddha's body, speech, and mind, nirmanakaya is the body aspect, sambhogakaya is the speech aspect, and dharmakaya is the mind aspect.

Next, there's actually another, four-part description of an enlightened being.

sprul pa'i sku - nirmanakaya

2007-10-18T00:54:00.000-07:00

Next, in scriptures sometimes the parts of a buddha are defined having three parts, or sku gsum as the term is called. In this case chos sku is still counted as the mental and ultimate part, but the form part has two sections.

Here is the first, sprul pa'i sku, nirmanakaya in Sanskrit, or Emanation body.

sprul is to emanate, manifest. sprul pa is emanation. Note again how the pa construct is to build words from verbs.

The 'i is a genitive particle, binding from right to left. And sku is again body.

This term could also be shortened to sprul sku. The pronunciation is trulku, so that should sound familiar, as it is a honorific title sometimes given to various teachers, hinting at the possibilities.

Now, I usually think of this term in plural, emanation bodies, rather than emanation body. A Buddha is capable of emanating countless forms, not just one at a time. It is said that a Buddha spontaneously emanates any form suitable for particular sentient beings at particular times. It could be a person, an animal, but also forms such as wind, bridges, clouds, sounds from the sky. If we want to be more contemporary, it could be TV series, web sites, MP3 music, chat sessions, podcasts, blogs and so on. There's no limit concerning the ways emanation forms could manifest.

Depending on the student, the emanation forms could take more obvious forms such as a special teacher and so forth. Anyway, worth thinking about this capability and what the possibilities are.

Next, the other form part.

ye shes kyi tshogs - Collection of Wisdom

2007-10-17T00:21:00.001-07:00

The cause of the second part of a Buddha, chos sku, is ye shes kyi tshogs - collection of wisdom, jnanasambhara in Sanskrit.

ye shes, jnana in Sanskrit, is a really cool word. It is unfortunately sometimes translated the same way as shes rab, wisdom. But there are all kinds of levels of wisdom, especially in languages such as Sanskrit or Tibetan. I wish we had more words for wisdom in our western culture.

Anyway, shes rab, prajna, is wisdom that a bodhisattva accumulates while on the path, ye shes is primordial wisdom, the wisdom that a Buddha ultimately is capable of. In both cases we are dealing with wisdom realizing reality as it is, lack of self-existence of self and phenomena, however everything works just fine with dependent-origination.

kyi is again the genitive particle -- remember to bind from right to left, and tshogs is collection.

This is the collected effort of studying and meditating on the correct view, emptiness, first intellectually and by proxy, then directly experiencing it, and then perfecting it up to the level of buddhahood. This collection then creates the mental and ultimate aspects of a Buddha.

Next, now we will divide a Buddha into three parts!