Glossary
Types of attestation for names and terms of the corresponding source language
This term is attested in a manuscript used as a source for this translation.
This term is attested in other manuscripts with a parallel or similar context.
This term is attested in dictionaries matching Tibetan to the corresponding language.
The attestation of this name is approximate. It is based on other names where the relationship between the Tibetan and source language is attested in dictionaries or other manuscripts.
This term is a reconstruction based on the Tibetan phonetic rendering of the term.
This term is a reconstruction based on the semantics of the Tibetan translation.
This term has been supplied from an unspecified source, which most often is a widely trusted dictionary.
g.1
dhāraṇī
Wylie: gzungs
Tibetan: གཟུངས།
Sanskrit: dhāraṇī AD
The term dhāraṇī has the sense of something that “holds” or “retains,” and so it can refer to the special capacity of practitioners to memorize and recall detailed teachings. It can also refer to a verbal expression of the teachings—an incantation, spell, or mnemonic formula—that distills and “holds” essential points of the Dharma and is used by practitioners to attain mundane and supramundane goals. The same term is also used to denote texts that contain such formulas.
g.2
essence-mantra
Wylie: snying po
Tibetan: སྙིང་པོ།
Sanskrit: hṛdaya AD
A short mantra.
g.3
malevolent female spirit
Wylie: phra men ma
Tibetan: ཕྲ་མེན་མ།
Sanskrit: ḍākinī AD
The term phra men ma (also spelled phra man ma in some texts) is one of the two translations of the word ḍākinī found in canonical works. In this case—as in many of the cases where phra men ma rather than the other Tibetan translation of ḍākinī, mkha’ ’gro ma is employed—it refers to a class of malevolent female spirits. The higher tantras of the Nyingma tradition feature phra men (ma) as a class of protective deities on the periphery of the maṇḍala of wrathful deities in the Shitro (zhi khro) maṇḍala of peaceful and wrathful deities. They have female bodies, animal heads, and often appear as a set of eight.
g.4
samaya
Wylie: dam tshig
Tibetan: དམ་ཚིག
Sanskrit: samaya AD
Literally, in Sanskrit, “coming together.” Samaya refers to precepts given by the teacher, the corresponding commitment by the pupil, and the bond that results, which can also be the bond between the practitioner and the deity or a spirit. It can also mean a special juncture or circumstance, or an ordinary time or season.
g.5
Three Jewels
Wylie: dkon mchog gsum
Tibetan: དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ།
Sanskrit: triratna AD
The Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha—the three objects of Buddhist refuge. In the Tibetan rendering, “the three rare and supreme ones.”