Definition of Nirvana - Part 4

The next section, which the earlier genitive binds towards the left, is so sor.

so sor is another good expression good to learn, as you could see it a lot. It means individual, or separate. The base is actually so so, the r letter is again the sub-ordination particle, which in turns binds the right side next with the earlier left side.

As you could see, the grammar sometimes means that you have blocks connected, and bigger blocked connected, and it's good to keep this in mind when translating. However! This is just part of a bigger word, so we should not translate this yet, as the rest of the words hang together to form a bigger construct that we will look at next.

Definition of Nirvana - Part 2

The next construct is ma lus par, the word here is ma lus pa, with the r is a particle.

ma lus pa is a very common construct, so it's good to memorize and learn it now, you will see it a lot. It means with no exception. The ma negation particle gives a clue about this. lus pa means something is left.

The r is a particle binding from right to left, it's a subordination particle, defines a hierarchy of meaning. So here the construct so far, the mental afflictions that obscure, with no exception (i.e. all of them) is established with something that we will look at next.

Four Immeasurables, Compassion Part 3

This is the end of the second immeasurable verse.

bral ba means to be rid of, separated from, or free from. Notice the r at the end, it's a particle, general subjucation particle. It makes a relationship between the bral ba and the verbs or parts to the right.

We lookd at gyur cig before; it's indeed a very common expression, especially in aspiration prayers, may it be so.

byang lho

To continue with our directions, byang is north, and lho is south.

To give an example of telegram-style Tibetan, let's say a text that tells that various colors of light arrive from certain directions, it would look something like:

lho ser, in south yellow.

byang ljang, in north green.

shar dkar, in east white.

nub dmar, in west red.

Note that in many texts the expression are ten directions, this means that there are the four cardinal directions, the other four intermediate (ordinal) directions, north-east and so on. And in addition, there's above and below. So that should cover the space.

shar nub

To continue with directions, we have shar, east, and nub, west.

Example of shar: nyi shar, sunrise, nyi is short for nyi ma, sun, and the sun rises in the east.

Examples of nub: nyi nub, you could figure out what that means...

nub kyi gling gsum, west of three islands.

kun

Let's look at everywhere and nowhere. A common word to indicate everywhere is kun, as in kun skyes, grows everywhere. Other examples are kun na, everywhere, note the particle na that means when. kun shar, shines everywhere, is another example.

It's a little bit harder to find a common word for nowhere. Here's an example, gnas pa ma min, literally translated abides-not, or does not abide anywhere.

gnas pa is a good word to memorize, it's to abide, stay, dwell, or something is located in a specific place. The shorter form is gnas, place, location, site. And mi gnas, is non-abiding, a common term when dealing with emptiness teachings and commentaries.

nang dang phyi

Another set of location word are nang, inside, and phyi, outside.

To look at phyi, there are examples such as phyi rol, outside, phyi nas, from the outside, and so on.

Examples of nang are: nang nas, from the inside, nang du, within, and so on.

There's even a staccato-form of Tibetan, phyi nang, outer and inner, in Tibetan you don't need to write down each word, such as the missing and in this case.

steng dang 'og

Let's continue with words related to placement. Here's a common combination. steng means above, 'og below. dang is the binding word, let's say and in this case.

You could see combinations such as steng la, from above, or 'og la, from below.

Notice how the last word does not have a stroke in this mini sentence as the ga letter is considered already having a stroke in it.

SHES GSUNGS PA LTAR RO

Let's take a statement that you see a lot at the end of a quotation, such as a comment taken from another teachers' commentary, and so on.

shes gsungs pa means so it was taught. shes is from shes pa, knowledge, and shes is a verb, to know, to come to an understanding. gsungs pa is spoken of, communicated, gsungs is the verb to say, speak.

ltar ro is then often added to the end, ltar is the actual word, ro is to indicate a proper sentence ending. ltar means like that, according to -- it 's a good small word to learn, as it shows up in all kinds of variations.

So going back to the earlier Nagarjuna verses -- it would not be uncommon if in another commentary these verses would end with shes gsung pa ltar ro.

GANG LA

The Nagarjuna verse starts with gang la. Usually gang la means whatever, whoever. In this context we will actually use the term for whom. gang means whatever, whoever, and the la is the famous pointer particle that will bind a structure to the right soon to the whoever we have so far.

If you don't know the Tibetan alphabet, this is a simple construct to dissect and write down, over and over again to learn the letters ga, nga and la.

GNYIS LA

Ok, last part of the second commentary sentence. It ends with gnyis la.

gnyis is number two, or second, or the two, or duality, or anything related to two parts.

las is the particle indicating direction, from, so it's something related to 'from the two'.

Next we will finally go through the second sentence.

'CHAD PA'I LUGS

Ok, let's finish the second commentary sentence! Next is 'chad pa'i lugs.

'chad pa means explanation, teaching, interpretation.

lugs means method, system, tradition.

Notice the 'i between, that's the genitive particle, it binds these two words together. As mentioned before, you need to think backwards, look at the second word, and bind it to the first one via the particle. So it becomes system of explanation, or method of teaching.

Now, I would recommend to use the THDL translation tool to do lookups and see all kinds of variations related to these words. You could do this with any of your favourite Tibetan translations, type in the Wylie into the translation field, and compare the results with the final translation -- and this way you get the feeling how the sentences have been translated.

DUS GSUM

Sorry I've been busy with work, so I have not had time to do all the postings, switched jobs. Anyway, as for time, that's dus, and there's an expression dus gsum, the three times. It means the past, current time and the future.

Buddhas are beyond those restrictions, they operate outside the forced perceptions of past, current, and future time. So worrying about time and what is happening is grasping to something that can't be found, something like a fixed time.

As an experiment, chop a moment of time into a beginning part and end part, and chop the beginning part into its own beginning and end, and so on and so on. Ultimately, using logic, you can't find a fixed, discrete time unit. So the notion of a flowing time is another projection or grasping to something fixed that has no self-existence.

Anyway, hopefully that helped me solve my dilemma of not having time to do postings! If nothing else, we continue with this in the next lifetime (which is also a projection forced on grasping to self-existent things).

THAMS CAD LA

Next in the commentary is thams cad la, we have talked thams cad before, it's a very common construct, means all, in Sanskrit sarva. It points to the left, so we are talking about all lhag ma, or all the remainders.

la is the dative-locative particle, we talked about this earlier. Let's use for or to as a quick way to resolve this pointer, and it points from a verb later in the sentence to the left. So the verb is next.

PHYIN

Next in the commentary sentence is phyin, this means later, afterwards, hereafter. As the earlier sentence was about the perfection of giving and so on, phyin indicates that we are indeed talking about the other perfections after the perfection of wisdom.

phyin pa also means to arrive, proceed, go through and so on. It should look familiar after the discussion we had about pha rol to phyin pa, reaching the other shore, paramita, transcendent perfection.

SOGS PAR

Next in the sentence is sogs par, this is actually sogs pa, a very common word. Note that this comes after sbyin, giving. sogs pa means and so on, or the rest. This is a very common expression, in order to minimize the wood carving required, the expressions are condensed, to the form that if someone knows what giving is, especially perfection of giving, then sogs pa means the rest, or the other five perfections of the six perfections.

Note the ending r in sogs par, this is a particule in disguise. If you have a consonant after pa or ma, such as pas, or mar, it's most likely a particle. Some particles take this form if the previous syllable ends with a vowel. In this case the r is the general subordination particle - a very esoteric or flexible one! It binds something to the right into the left side, especially a hierarchy of meaning, a goal that is established, or just plain our subordination. So we need to look at the next word next to put together this mini-phrase.

BSHAD PA'I ZHI GNAS

So far we have figured out that the eight chapter has something interested related to the definition of the earlier branches. And it is bshad pa'i zhi gnas.

bshad pa means explanation or teaching, here teaching is more appropriate. Note that there's a genitive particle at the end of bshad pa, or bshad pa'i, so the right side is tied to the left, it's a teaching of zhi gnas.

So what's zhi gnas? This is a very important meditation term, calm abiding, or Shamatha in Sanskrit. This is where the meditator could single-pointedly focus on an object for hours without any disturbances.

zhi actually means peace, and gnas means to stay or abide, so this is like 'staying in peace.'

So far we have learned from the commentary that all the earlier branches could refer to the eight chapter in Bodhisattva Way of Life that deals with the meditation, single-pointed concentration.

But there's more in the commentary!

BRGYAD PA NAS

OK, let's take an easy part now, the next word in the sentence is nas, or le'u bryad pa nas. nas means from. So this means from the eight chapter.

Note that there are two particles indicating from, nas and las. The difference is that nas is very specific, it is from the eight chapter, las is more indirect, kun las - from all directions.

Note also the generic particle rule that is shown over and over again, the particle points backwards, the words that will come next will point backwards via nas to the eight chapter.

LE'U BRGYAD PA

Next in the first sentence of the commentary is le'u bryad pa. We looked at le'u before, this is chapter. The word le'u is also interesting, as it's one of the few words where you have two vowels. Unlike Sanskrit, Tibetan has very short vowels, seldom long ones, or two vowels next to each other. The words are very short, one, two or three syllables, and seldom four syllables or more. In addition Tibetans speak very fast, so it's indeed a challenge to learn spoken Tibetan.

brgyad is eight, with the pa at the end after brgyad it becomes something like 'the eight'. So the commentary is talking about the eight chapter, the one before this ninth (wisdom) chapter (le'u dgu pa). So let's look next at what the eight chapter - le'u brgyad pa -- is about when the sentence in the commentary continues.

But so far we have decoded that the branches might have something to do with the eight chapter...

CES PA

Ok, we will now start with the commentary text. This will take a while as the sentences are longer, and there are direct and indirect references we need to address.

The first part should be familiar from the root text: yan lag 'di dag, these branches.

Next is ces pa; there are many ways how to translate this common expression, so it is said, so it says, like that. In this case ces pa is pointing at the branches, how this expressed, or explained. So we are dealing with what yan lag 'di dag really means.

ces actually means thus, so, it's a ways to end an explanation, like an end quotation mark. There are no quotation marks in Tibetan, so specific keywords are used to indicate where a quote starts, and where it ends.