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
aging and death
Wylie: rga shi
Tibetan: རྒ་ཤི།
Sanskrit: jarāmaraṇa
The twelfth link of dependent arising.
g.2
bhagavān
Wylie: bcom ldan ’das
Tibetan: བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས།
Sanskrit: bhagavān
In Buddhist literature, this is an epithet applied to buddhas, most often to Śākyamuni. The Sanskrit term generally means “possessing fortune,” but in specifically Buddhist contexts it implies that a buddha is in possession of six auspicious qualities (bhaga) associated with complete awakening. The Tibetan term—where bcom is said to refer to “subduing” the four māras, ldan to “possessing” the great qualities of buddhahood, and ’das to “going beyond” saṃsāra and nirvāṇa—possibly reflects the commentarial tradition where the Sanskrit bhagavat is interpreted, in addition, as “one who destroys the four māras.” This is achieved either by reading bhagavat as bhagnavat (“one who broke”), or by tracing the word bhaga to the root √bhañj (“to break”).
g.3
birth
Wylie: skye ba
Tibetan: སྐྱེ་བ།
Sanskrit: jāti
The eleventh link of dependent arising.
g.4
consciousness
Wylie: rnam par shes pa
Tibetan: རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པ།
Sanskrit: vijñāna
The third link of dependent arising. The fifth of the five aggregates.
g.5
contact
Wylie: reg pa
Tibetan: རེག་པ།
Sanskrit: sparśa
The sixth link of dependent arising.
g.6
craving
Wylie: sred pa
Tibetan: སྲེད་པ།
Sanskrit: tṛṣṇā
The eighth link of dependent arising.
g.7
dependent arising
Wylie: rten cing ’brel par ’byung ba
Tibetan: རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་པར་འབྱུང་བ།
Sanskrit: pratītyasamutpāda
Arising based on the law of causality: whatever has arisen does not have an independent existence.
g.8
desire realm
Wylie: ’dod pa’i khams
Tibetan: འདོད་པའི་ཁམས།
Sanskrit: kamadhātu
One of the three realms of saṃsāra, characterized by a prevalence of desire.
g.9
existence
Wylie: srid pa
Tibetan: སྲིད་པ།
Sanskrit: bhava
The tenth link of dependent arising.
g.10
feeling
Wylie: tshor ba
Tibetan: ཚོར་བ།
Sanskrit: vedanā
The seventh link of dependent arising. The second of the five aggregates.
g.11
form
Wylie: gzugs
Tibetan: གཟུགས།
Sanskrit: rūpa
The first of the five aggregates.
g.12
form realm
Wylie: gzugs kyi khams
Tibetan: གཟུགས་ཀྱི་ཁམས།
Sanskrit: rūpadhātu
One of the three realms of saṃsāra, characterized by coarse materiality similar to the desire realm.
g.13
formations
Wylie: ’du byed
Tibetan: འདུ་བྱེད།
Sanskrit: saṃskāra
The second link of dependent arising. The fourth of the five aggregates.
g.14
formless realm
Wylie: gzugs med pa’i khams
Tibetan: གཟུགས་མེད་པའི་ཁམས།
Sanskrit: ārūpyadhātu
One of the three realms of saṃsāra, characterized by having only a subtle mental form.
g.15
grasping
Wylie: len pa
Tibetan: ལེན་པ།
Sanskrit: upādāna
The ninth link of dependent arising.
g.16
great element
Wylie: ’byung ba chen po
Tibetan: འབྱུང་བ་ཆེན་པོ།
Sanskrit: mahābhūta
The four great or gross elements are earth, water, fire, and air.
g.17
ignorance
Wylie: ma rig pa
Tibetan: མ་རིག་པ།
Sanskrit: avidyā
The first link of dependent arising.
g.18
Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park
Wylie: rgyal bu rgyal byed kyi tshal mgon med zas sbyin gyi kun dga’ ra ba
Tibetan: རྒྱལ་བུ་རྒྱལ་བྱེད་ཀྱི་ཚལ་མགོན་མེད་ཟས་སྦྱིན་གྱི་ཀུན་དགའ་ར་བ།
Sanskrit: jetavanam anāthapiṇḍadasyārāmaḥ AO
One of the first Buddhist monasteries, located in a park outside Śrāvastī, the capital of the ancient kingdom of Kośala in northern India. This park was originally owned by Prince Jeta, hence the name Jetavana, meaning Jeta’s grove. The wealthy merchant Anāthapiṇḍada, wishing to offer it to the Buddha, sought to buy it from him, but the prince, not wishing to sell, said he would only do so if Anāthapiṇḍada covered the entire property with gold coins. Anāthapiṇḍada agreed, and managed to cover all of the park except the entrance, hence the name Anāthapiṇḍadasyārāmaḥ, meaning Anāthapiṇḍada’s park. The place is usually referred to in the sūtras as “Jetavana, Anāthapiṇḍada’s park,” and according to the Saṃghabhedavastu the Buddha used Prince Jeta’s name in first place because that was Prince Jeta’s own unspoken wish while Anāthapiṇḍada was offering the park. Inspired by the occasion and the Buddha’s use of his name, Prince Jeta then offered the rest of the property and had an entrance gate built. The Buddha specifically instructed those who recite the sūtras to use Prince Jeta’s name in first place to commemorate the mutual effort of both benefactors. Anāthapiṇḍada built residences for the monks, to house them during the monsoon season, thus creating the first Buddhist monastery. It was one of the Buddha’s main residences, where he spent around nineteen rainy season retreats, and it was therefore the setting for many of the Buddha’s discourses and events. According to the travel accounts of Chinese monks, it was still in use as a Buddhist monastery in the early fifth century ᴄᴇ, but by the sixth century it had been reduced to ruins.
g.19
name-and-form
Wylie: ming dang gzugs
Tibetan: མིང་དང་གཟུགས།
Sanskrit: nāmarūpa
The fourth link of dependent arising.
g.20
perception
Wylie: ’du shes
Tibetan: འདུ་ཤེས།
Sanskrit: saṃjñā
The third of the five aggregates.
g.21
sense source
Wylie: skye mched
Tibetan: སྐྱེ་མཆེད།
Sanskrit: āyatana
See “six sense sources.”
g.22
six sense sources
Wylie: skye mched drug
Tibetan: སྐྱེ་མཆེད་དྲུག
Sanskrit: ṣaḍāyatana
The fifth link of dependent arising.
g.23
Śrāvastī
Wylie: mnyan yod
Tibetan: མཉན་ཡོད།
Sanskrit: śrāvastī
Capital city of the Kośala state, ruled by one of the Buddha’s royal patrons, King Prasenajit. One of the six largest cities in India during the time of the Buddha.