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
ascetic discipline
Wylie: brtul zhugs
Tibetan: བརྟུལ་ཞུགས།
Sanskrit: vrata
Refers to the twelve ascetic virtues (sbyang pa’i yon tan bcu gnyis) concerning food, clothing, and residence, such as begging for alms, wearing castoff clothing, and living in seclusion.
g.2
blessed one
Wylie: bcom ldan ’das
Tibetan: བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས།
Sanskrit: bhagavat
Epithet of a buddha, who has subdued (Tib. bcom) all afflictions, possesses (Tib. ldan) all awakened qualities, and transcended (Tib. ’das) saṃsāra and passed into nirvāṇa. This is how the Skt. bhagavat is translated in Tibetan.
g.3
Blooming Lotus
Wylie: pad ma rgyas pa
Tibetan: པད་མ་རྒྱས་པ།
Name of a monastery (vihāra) in Śrāvastī.
g.4
derivation
Wylie: skad byings
Tibetan: སྐད་བྱིངས།
Sanskrit: dhātvartha, dhātu
Literally, “verbal root,” with “root” (Tib. byings) being a grammatical term for the word stem that forms the basis of a word. Here it refers to the Buddha’s derivation of the word bhikṣu from the term for “ornament.”
g.5
disciplined conduct
Wylie: tshul khrims
Tibetan: ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས།
Sanskrit: śīla
Conduct based on abandoning lack of discipline in body, speech, and mind.
g.6
five accompanying implements
Wylie: ’khor lnga
Tibetan: འཁོར་ལྔ།
These may refer to the traditional possessions of mendicants, which Prebish 2002, p. 4, lists as “begging bowl, razor, needle, girding for the robes, and water strainer” in addition to the three robes.
g.7
four root downfalls
Wylie: rtsa ba bzhi
Tibetan: རྩ་བ་བཞི།
The four root downfalls (Tib. rtsa ba’i ltung ba bzhi, here shortened to Tib. rtsa ba bzhi) are killing, taking what is not given, sexual activity, and lying about one’s spiritual attainments.
g.8
life pillar
Wylie: srog shing
Tibetan: སྲོག་ཤིང་།
Sanskrit: yaṣṭi
Central inner pillar or tree trunk that is said to give life to a stūpa or sacred statue.
g.9
mendicant
Wylie: dge slong
Tibetan: དགེ་སློང་།
Sanskrit: bhikṣu
Although the Tib. (dge slong) and Skt. (bhikṣu) terms usually refer to fully ordained monks, in the plural they may encompass nuns as well. Rendering it as “mendicant” in English remains faithful to the original meaning of bhikṣu as “one who begs for alms.”
g.10
noble one
Wylie: ’phags pa
Tibetan: འཕགས་པ།
Sanskrit: ārya
Honorific term for someone who has gained the realization of the path of seeing.
g.11
omniscient one
Wylie: thams cad mkhyen pa
Tibetan: ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན་པ།
Sanskrit: sarvajña
An epithet of the buddhas. The homage to the Omniscient One at the beginning of a Buddhist scripture usually indicates that it belongs to the Vinaya Piṭaka.
g.12
overly sour liquids
Wylie: skyur rtsi
Tibetan: སྐྱུར་རྩི།
Sanskrit: nāgaraṅga
Among other things, this term is applied to the sour fermented remainder from beer brewing, certain types of lemons, and the sour part of yogurt. Here it refers to overly sour liquids in general, such as overly fermented vinegar.
g.13
rice pudding
Wylie: ’bras chan
Tibetan: འབྲས་ཆན།
Sanskrit: odana
A dish of rice cooked in milk that the Buddha was offered to break his fast after six years of austerities.
g.14
sage
Wylie: thub pa
Tibetan: ཐུབ་པ།
Sanskrit: muni
An epithet of the Buddha Śākyamuni. The Sanskrit term connotes “silence” or “quiescence,” which is regarded as a central quality of sages. The Tibetan thub pa means “capable one.”
g.15
saṃsāra
Wylie: ’khor ba
Tibetan: འཁོར་བ།
Sanskrit: saṃsāra
“Cyclic existence,” the cycle of birth and death driven by mental afflictions and karmic actions.
g.16
Śrāvastī
Wylie: mnyan yod
Tibetan: མཉན་ཡོད།
Sanskrit: śrāvastī
Ancient capital of the kingdom of Kosala, where the Buddha gave many teachings, spent most of his summer retreats, and defeated the six heretical teachers by performing fifteen miracles. Located in present-day Uttar Pradesh in northern India.
g.17
three main robes
Wylie: gtso bo gsum
Tibetan: གཙོ་བོ་གསུམ།
The three robes (Skt. tricīvara, Tib. chos gos gsum) of the fully ordained are the lower robe (Skt. antarvāsa, Tib. mthang gos) wrapped around the waist, the outer or upper robe (Skt. uttarāsaṅga, Tib. bla gos) covering the upper body, and the ceremonial robe (Skt. saṃghāṭī, Tib. snam sbyar).
g.18
Upāli
Wylie: nye bar ’khor
Tibetan: ཉེ་བར་འཁོར།
Sanskrit: upāli
One of the ten closest disciples of the Buddha. He is known for having mastered the Buddha’s teachings on the Vinaya, the code of discipline. After the Buddha’s parinirvāṇa, Upāli was the Vinaya’s chief compiler.
g.19
Vinaya
Wylie: ’dul ba
Tibetan: འདུལ་བ།
Sanskrit: vinaya
One of the three piṭakas, or “baskets,” of the Buddhist canon. It codifies the disciplined conduct and training of monks and nuns.
g.20
well-gone one
Wylie: bde bar gshegs pa
Tibetan: བདེ་བར་གཤེགས་པ།
Sanskrit: sugata
One of the standard epithets of the buddhas. A recurrent explanation offers three different meanings for su- that are meant to show the special qualities of “accomplishment of one’s own purpose” (svārthasampad) for a complete buddha. Thus, the Sugata is “well” gone, as in the expression su-rūpa (“having a good form”); he is gone “in a way that he shall not come back,” as in the expression su-naṣṭa-jvara (“a fever that has utterly gone”); and he has gone “without any remainder” as in the expression su-pūrṇa-ghaṭa (“a pot that is completely full”). According to Buddhaghoṣa, the term means that the way the Buddha went (Skt. gata) is good (Skt. su) and where he went (Skt. gata) is good (Skt. su).
g.21
Well-Gone One’s victory banner
Wylie: bde bar gshegs pa’i rgyal mtshan
Tibetan: བདེ་བར་གཤེགས་པའི་རྒྱལ་མཚན།
Sanskrit: sugatadhvaja
This refers to the three monastic robes, which are the outer signs of being a monastic follower of the Buddha.