ཡན་ལག

When learning Tibetan it is good to learn various patterns of word expressions. If you recognize many patterns it becomes more and more easy to read a text the first time. When you collect enough of such parts you could quickly understand a large part of a section of a text without using a dictionary. You could then also isolate sections of a sentence to see how things work together. Here we will look at ཡན་ལག as one such pattern.

ཡན་ལག yan lag is a very interesting word which is used in combination with other constructs. ཡན་ means more than (one of many meanings) and ལག་ means hand. Combined ཡན་ལག could be translated as branch, element, link, division and much more. ཡན་ལག is often combined with number to indicate a specific set of elements, four limbs, sixty melodious qualities and so forth. In many cases it's implied that the reader knows what this term means.

A common word is ཡན་ལག་བདུན་ - Seven branches. This is the seven part practice of prostrating to the Three Jewels, confessing negative actions, making offering, rejoicing in the virtue of others, requesting to turn the wheel of Dharma, beseeching to not pass into nirvana, and dedicating the merit to the enlightenment of all sentient beings. It's a very common section in many སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་ practice texts, especially in the beginning part.

Another example is  རྟེན་འབྲེལ་ཡན་ལག་བཅུ་གཉིས་, 12 links of dependent origination. Here ཡན་ལག is translated as link.

Below are other examples of ཡན་ལག with various translations.

Examples:

ཡན་ལག་བདུན་པ་ནི།

Then recite the seven branches (it's common with practice texts to shorten the instructions such as leaving out the verb).

།ཡན་ལག་བརྒྱད་པོ་འདི་དག་དང་ལྡན་ན། 

And takes on these eight branches 

དེ་ནས་ཕྱི་ནང་གསང་གསུམ་དེ་ཁོ་ན་ཉིད་ཀྱི་མཆོད་པ་ལ་སོགས་པ་ཡན་ལག་བདུན་པ་ཚར་གཅིག་དབུལ། 

Then, offer once the seven limbs such as the outer, inner, secret, and true reality offerings.

ཡན་ལག་བཞི་པོ་བརྐྱང་བསྐུམས་བྱེད་པ་ཡིས། །

May extending and contracting my four limbs,

ཡན་ལག་དམ་ཚིག་ཉམས་པ་རྣམས༔

All these impairments of the branch samayas,

།ཡན་ལག་བྱེ་བྲག་བཅུ་གཉིས་གང། 

These different links, twelve in number,

ཡན་ལག་ཉིང་ལག་བཏང་པ་ཡིས། །

And giving arms and legs and every part of my body,

དབྱངས་ཀྱི་ཡན་ལག་རྒྱ་མཚོའི་སྒྲ་ཀུན་གྱིས། །

With the sounds of an ocean of different melodies

འགྲོ་ཚོགས་ཀུན་ལ་བུ་གཅིག་ལྟར་བརྩེ་ཡན་ལག་དྲུག་བཅུའི་དབྱངས་ལྡན་གསུང༌། །

With the love of a mother for her only child. Your enlightened speech, endowed with sixty melodious tones,

།བྱང་ཆུབ་ཡན་ལག་བདུན་དང་འཕགས་ལམ་བརྒྱད།

The seven bodhi-branches and eightfold noble path

རྡོ་རྗེའི་རྣལ་འབྱོར་ཡན་ལག་དྲུག་པ་ཡི། །

In which myriad rivers of the six classes of tantra merge,

ཡན་ལག་བདུན་པས་མཆོད་པར་བྱ། །

Make offerings with the seven branches.

གཏིང་ཟབ་ཡན་ལག་བརྒྱད་ལྡན་ཆུས་གང་བའི། །

Deep and full of water with eight kinds of purity

ཡན་ལག་བཅུ་གཉིས་གསུང་རབ་ཆོས་འཁོར་བསྐོར། །

With the twelve branches of the teachings of Buddha, they turn the Wheel of Dharma