Vajra Verses - Part 1

OK, let's start going through the beginning of the Vajra verses! By the way, you will notice that these verses are not seven or nine syllable verses, rather they each have different syllable counts.

sems can is sentient beings, anyone who possesses a mind.

la is a so called oblique particle, it binds the right side with the left, indicating for what, or takes into consideration time, location and so on.
Here the easiest word to use is for.

So far we have: For sentient beings... and then the next part will explain what is special with sentient beings.

It is a tradition to memorize this introduction part (and much more) of the Vajra verses, by the way....

Uttaratantra - source of karma and afflictions 2

The last word in the first sentence, kyis, is actually a so called instrumental particle, taking this form as the last syllable before this one is a da. One way to quickly translate this particle is to use the word 'by'.

Anyway, this particle binds from the right to left. Especially this case is very good to learn and know. As it's the last word in the first sentence, it will glue together the second sentence itself with the first sentence. Note that the particles, such as his instrumental particle, do not just bind together two words, there could be whole sentences that are bound together.

So, at this point karma and mental afflictions will arise by... So we need to look at the rest of the first sentence next.

Those learning letters, the last letter in the first sentence is a sa.

las dang nyon mongs - karma and mental afflictions

There are many ways to define the sources of suffering, but one way is to state it as las dang nyon mongs, karma and mental afflictions. We have talked about las before, but let's look at nyon mongs, klesha in Sanskrit, a very interesting word.

I was going to go through it, and through a Google search found this illuminating article about translating it over at Lotsawa House, so I will let them do the nice talking. It's nice to share knowledge, anyway.

For those studying basic grammar, the binding word dang is sometimes like and, but it's more strict in the sense of binding right side with the left.

Four Noble Truths - Suffering 2

sdug bsngal, suffering, is by the way dukkha in Sanskrit. There are three basic ones, of which this one is the first one, sdug bsngal gi sdug bsngal, suffering of suffering.
This is the normal suffering, pain, headaches, stiff back, bad teeth, and so on. If someone has a samsaric body, one gets samsaric sufferings, that's for sure.

This is also a good grammar lesson, the middle particle, gi, is a genitive particle, it binds the right side element with the left one, with grammar particles, usually look from the right to the left. Here it does not really matter, but with other constructs it's good to make the right to left binding, otherwise the translation is wrong.

Also note that the grammar particle differs based on the last syllable in the first word, as it's la, the binding grammar particle takes the form of gi.

Four Noble Truths - Part 2

To continue, the beginning of this term is 'phags pa, noble one, or Arya. These are anyone who has experienced reality directly as it is, or seen emptiness. The 'i after this and before bden pa is a genitive particle, so this binds together bden pa (truth) and 'phags pa (Arya). So this becomes The Arya Truth, or The Noble Truth.

Note again that the emphasis is not on noble, rather on those who have experienced emptiness directly. After this experience one is directly experiencing the these four truths one at a time, hence the naming.

Anyway, in Western literature we are stuck with the Four Noble Truths, they are noble, but the noble part is that the Aryas experience them directly, while others need to analyze them and accept them based on logic and intelligence.

Back to Basics Part 3

Next when looking at the basic learning of Classical Tibetan is to recognize the particles that bind together constructs. The first one that is easy to learn is the genitive. Remember that particles bind from the right to the left, so you need to reverse the word order. Also, the particles take different forms based on the last syllable, so you need to learn how they look like. Going back to the genitive:

The genitive takes the form of kyi if the first word ends with da, ba or sa. Here, chos kyi stobs, the power of dharma.


The genitive takes the form of gyi after ending na, ma, ra or la. Here: gser gyi rdo rje, the golden vajra.

The genitive is a 'i after any vowel, here, bla ma'i bkha', the instructions (or words) of the lama.



This form of yi is ancient, and usually used in verses, as here: ri yi rgyal po, King of Mountains (Mount Meru).

Note that sometimes the genitive even binds together complete sentences, so you need to box the constructs in to see the left and right side.

Back to Basics Part 2

Ok, after learning the letters and how to separate words, the next step is to see the sentence patterns. Learn the basic structure of subject - object - verb. First find the subject in the beginning of the sentence, then hunt for the first verb, and then (usually) go backwards and find various attributes such as objects, and supplements to the subject and object.

Then learn what is sometimes called particles (you will notice after a while that there's no common definitions for the Tibetan grammar). With particles we mean tiny words that bind together two parts -- and most importantly it happens from right to left.

Here's an example, sangs rgyas kyis chos bstan.
The subject is sangs rgyas, Buddha.
Go after the verb, ok, bstan, taught.
Go backwards, chos, object, dharma.
Then you see the particle, kyis, Instrumental, by. Glue together the right side with the left side, dharma by Buddha.
Puzzle it all together: Dharma was taught by the Buddha.
Rewrite it so it sounds easier to read: Buddha taught the dharma.

Bonus: Think of using English words in case you are addressing an audience that don't know the Sanskrit word Dharma: Buddha taught the doctrine.

Back to Basics Part 1

Ok, in case there are those very new to Classical Tibetan, let's start with introduction information. Repetition does neither hurt. Here are some basic guidelines how to learn Classical Tibetan.

• Learn the letters. Spend time understanding them, and how they are drawn. Use a notebook, a whiteboard, or pieces of paper, and draw the letters over and over again until they are etched into your mind. There's another deeper meaning why the images of the letters are good to recognize over and over

• Learn where words start and end. Tibetan is a language where there's no notation where a word ends, so you need to see patterns, such as པ pa,པོ po, མ ma, མོ mo, བ ba, བོ bo and similar things that naturally separates words, or particles that separate parts from each other.
• Learn one at at time the most common words, subjects, verbs, adverbs and so on. Again, use your notebook, whiteboard, or something else to draw down words and see them over and over again.
  
• There's no need to directly learn how to pronounce the words, unless you want to do a parallel track to learn to translate verbal communication. If this is the case, I strongly recommend to spend time inside a Tibetan community or something similar where you hear the language each and every day. But for translating classical texts, it's Ok if you have a rough idea how to pronounce them -- remember that there are many Tibetan dialects so even if you know one, it does not mean that you understand them all.

Voluntary and non-voluntary Verbs

As mentioned earlier, there's also the notion of so called voluntary versus non-voluntary verbs. Another name for this is volitional verbs versus non-volitional verbs, or transitive and intransitive verbs. Anyway, best to figure out what it's all about!

A voluntary verb or action means that someone is doing something specific, there's a very known agent that the subject is operating with. An non-voluntary action or verb means that you can't pinpoint who it is, someone is doing this in general, with no specific agent available.

As an example:

sangs rgyas (agent) kyis chos (object) bstan (verb). Buddha taught dharma. This is a voluntary verb operating.


gang ri (subject) sngon po (complement of subject) snang (verb): Mountains appear as blue. This is an involuntary verb operating.

So what's the deal? If you know if a verb is voluntary or not, you would look for the subject and agent, or know that there's no agent. It will help when translating material. Alas, not all dictionaries indicate if a verb is voluntary or not.

You could read more about this at the THDL Tibetan Reference Grammar online web page.

Verbal Stems

Tibetan, as most languages, has different verbs based on the stems, such as present, past, future and imperative. There are no strict rules, you need to learn the verb forms for each case.


For example, the verb to do is in present byed, past byas, future bya and imperative byos.


Then again, sometimes we are lucky when learning a verb, the verb to understand is go in both present, past, future and imperative.

There are all kinds of variations, sometimes there are only two forms of stems, sometimes all four are different, only three different verbs are for the four stems, and so on.

The best is -- alas -- to learn the verbs. There's also the notion of voluntary and non-voluntary verbs that will talk about next.

DANG and Sentence Endings

We are finally at the end of the first part of the sentence in the commentary on the opening lines of chapter nine in Bodhisattva Way of Life. Commentary sentences tend to be long, and here's a surprise, it even continues, but before we go ahead, let's look at the last word here, dang.

This is a binding word, you could think of it translated as and, or a comma. It also binds together two parts, as in chu dang me, water and fire. Note that there are no commas in Tibetan, the ending shad, that long vertical stroke, it not really a dot, or a comma. It just indicates that a specific section ends. A double shad is used to indicate the end of bigger sections, such as a whole chapter.

In many case when translating to English, it's Ok to translate the section up to the dang, and continue with a new sentence with the next section. In the contemporary English culture, short sentences are preferred over very long ones.

So the dang at the end is indicating that the complete sentence is not yet there. There's more to follow. However, we have enough material to translate the first part of the commentary section. We have gone through the words, so next is a matter of rearranging and regrouping it all so it looks good in English.

LA

OK, next we have the very common la particle again. la is a so called dative-locative particle. The quick word to substitute for getting something in is to or as for. Remember the rule that particles bind something coming from the right with something on the left side. Sometimes they even bind something on the left side that is a whole sentence, so you need to be careful when translating very long sentences. In this case this first commentary sentence will shortly end with a verb and a connection word, so stay tuned.

Note that la also means mountain pass, like the infamous Thorung La pass in case you have ever done the Annapurna trek in Nepal, and got stuck on this pass where there seems to be a constant snow storm, that in combination with altitude weakness and badly peeled apples, oh well. Anyway, you could easily see from the context if la is a particle (very common) or la the mountain pass (less common).

la is also the letter. Speaking of the alphabet, sometimes you see the expression a li ka li, this is referring to the Sanskrit vowels and consonants, especially in tantric meditations.

More about Verbs and Sentence Structures

So it's very common that a noun starts and a verb ends the sentence in Tibetan, such as: bum pa yod- Pots do exist, bum pa - pot or vase. If there's an object or an adverbial, those are between the noun and the verb, as in: dmar po kha dog yin, red is a color, dmar po - red, kha dog - color.

Or, if there's a negation, this is at the end of the sentence, as in:
sangs rgyas nyon mongs med, Buddhas have no mental afflictions, sangs rgyas - Buddhas, nyon mongs - mental afflictions, med - not.

Another common variation is a sentence with an agent and a verb, where the verb is pointing to the agent via a particle, as in:
sangs rgyas kyis chos bstan, bstan -taught, chos - dharma, kyis - by, the particle, Buddhas taught dharma (or the doctrine). Note that there was no need to translate the kyis word as by.

Finally, if this is a complete sentence, the verb is ended with an ending of o based on the last letter. So if we want to be complete in the sentence above: sangs rgyas kyis chos bstan no,
Note that bstan ended with n, so the ending becomes no.

GYUR CIG

Let's look at some verbs for a while. A very common verb you find at the end of expressions is gyur, become, will happen, and so on. It's an expression of something to be happening. gyur is used a lot when translating Sanskrit texts of something becoming or happening as the original verb.

A common version of this is gyur cig, may it be, or if Captain Picard from Star Trek NG would say: "make it so." For example:

bde legs su gyur cig, may virtuous goodness become. bde legs is virtue or virtuous goodness, and su is a particle pointing the verb to the right to the contents on the left. In Sanskrit this is om swasti, you could see this at various commentaries as the ending statement, especially in the Sakya tradition. It's very auspicious to end any writing with this kind of statement. So! om swasti.

KUN NAS

In our third installment of kun --totality -- we look at another common expression, kun nas. This means from every place or direction, fully, completely, utterly, univerally. nas means from, it's a particle that defines a certain direction it comes from, unlike las that is more generic in nature.

Examples:
kun nas shes pa - all-knowing, shes pa means knowledge
kun nas bzod pa - all-forgiving, bzod pa means patience, tolerance, as in Zopa Rinpoche, so being all-patient is to be all-forgiving.
kun nas snang ba - all-illuminating, snang ba means illumination or day-light, another word you might see in Tantric practice texts.

KUN TU

To continue with our three-part series about the kun word (!), another common variation is kun tu -- it means all the time, at all times, but also all, entire, every, everyone, everywhere... Think of totality when seeing kun tu.

Examples:
kun to 'od -- light everywhere, universal illumination, 'od means light, and if you read tantric texts you will encounter 'od quite a lot in the visualization descriptions.
kun tu bzang po - Actually the Tibetan name for the Buddha or bodhisattva Samantabhadra. The reason is that in sutra texts kun tu bzang po is a bodhisattva, in the tantric texts kun tu bzang po is an already enlightened being. So what's bzang po then? It's noble, good, auspicious. bzang is auspicious, wholesome, good. Totally good to everyone everywhere! bhadra means goodness inSanskrit , and we talked about sam earlier as the Sanskrit word prefix for totality.

Anyway, you could see it used in other expressions and sentences, such as kun tu lta ba, we had lta ba before, a world view, so it's a 'total world-view', or to view something totally.

Totality - KUN

The word kun defines totality, such as all, everything, thoroughly, and so on. kun is also used to translate the similar Sanskrit prefix of sam, as in samvrita.

Examples:
kun mkhyen, omniscient, all knowing, Longchenpa is also known by this name, mkhyen means knowledge.
kun khyab, all-pervasive, khyab means here, yes, pervasive.
kun dga' (KUNGA), all joyful, dga' is joy, also the Tibetan name for Ananda, and is used in many Tibetan names.
kun gzhi -- all-ground, gzhi is ground, this is in Sanskrit alaya, an important concept in the description of mind, sometimes translated in English as the storage-house consciousness.

Possessive Particles - BCAS PA

To be complete, there's a third particle related to having or possessing something, a quality and so on, bcas pa. Examples:

'khor dang bcas pa - with retinue. 'khor is a real work-horse of a Tibetan word, it really means round, but a retinue around you is kind of round. dang bcas pa is a common expression for accompanied with, together with.

dbang bcas pa - with faculties. Let's take another Tibetan work-horse of a word, dbang, it means power, but also the sense faculty 'powers', seeing, hearing and so on... It also means empowerment! In this specific example it's related to sense faculties.

dam bcas pa - promise, dam is wow. It relates to other uses of the word dam, solid, real, reliable. So dam bcas pa is like possessing something solid. dam is then used in other words such as dam kha, seal, and dam tshig, Sanskrit samaya, the sacred pledges sealed between a vajra master and the students.

Possessive Particles - CAN

Another particle showing possession, or ownership is can. Here are some familiar examples:

sems can - sentient being, but if you dissect this expression you have sems, mind, and can, possessing, so the definition of a sentient being is someone who owns or has a mind.

skal pa can - the fortunate one, skal pa - fortune
gangs can gyi yul - Tibet, gangs - snow, yul is usually object, but here it's location, location that has snow!
byin rlabs can - blessed, holy, byin rlabs is blessing
shes rab can - learned one, the one who possesses wisdom

Expect all kinds of other ownership-related expressions with can.

Possessive Particles - LDAN

Let's look more at ldan, it's one three so called possessive particles -- they are used with nouns to form a possessor, or a possessive adjective. ldan is to the right of the noun. You could use translation terms such as "endowed with", "having", "possessing", and so on..

Examples:
bkra shis ldan - having auspiciousness, bkra shis is auspiciousness, or Tashi for you new to Tibetan.
skal ldan - the one having fortune, skal - fortune
shes ldan - having wisdom
dpal ldan - having many good qualities, glorious, as in dpal ldan bla ma, glorious guru.

A very common expression is also dang ldan pa, possessed of, imbued with, as in:
skal pa dang ldan pa - having fortune.