ཀུག་ see ཀྱུ་.
ཀུན་གྱིས་ཁྲེལ་བའི་རྒྱུ་, 32. Not so much ‘a matter of shame to all’ (= all the people who look at or into
the matter, the beholders, the general public, or even humanity in general), but rather
‘a matter of all (of them) being ashamed,’ i.e. the people doing the shameful acts, the people concerned, engaged in this conduct, not the public
in general.
ཀུན་སློང་, 29. Here thought, conception, wish (cf. D. opwelling). (Desg. ‘all-enveloping,’ i.e. ‘natural corruption or sin,’ p. 8b, but ཀུན་སློང་ = ཉོན་མོང་གི་སློང་, ‘excitement of passion’ on p. 1044a). See also S. Ch. D., p. 29b, समुत्पाद, but Schroeter, p. 2b, ‘approbation, assent, the consenting to any proposition.’
ཀོ་ཀོ་ see གླུད་.
[17]
ཀྱང་, 30. Here equal to ཡིན་ན་ཡང་, ‘yet, however, nevertheless.’
ཀྱུ་, 20. Not as a separate word in J., who gives ཀུག་ and ཀྱོ་བ་, the latter after Schmidt. This is the word occurring in the compound ཞབས་ཀྱུ་ the Tibetan u-vowel, the ‘foot-hook’ (not merely honorific of ཀྱུ་ as Hannah seems to suggest in his Grammar of the Tibetan Language, p. 4), which J.
has under ཞབས་, on p. 472a, together with a queried meaning ‘spur’ (of the foot: ‘ein Sporn’), taken from Csoma. This latter meaning is unknown to my informants. Bell gives:
hook ཀུག་; fishhook ཉ་ཀུག་, but iron hook ལྕགས་ཀྱུ་. Henderson gives both ཁུག་ and ཀྱུ་ for hook, and also ལྕགས་ཀྱུ་ alone for iron hook. My informants deny the correctness of ཁུག་. Desg. knows ཀུག་ (པ་) only as a verb, not as a subst.; he mentions ཀྱུ་ as a separate word, subst. hook, and does not mention ཀྱོ་བ་. The various articles in the three Dicts. sub ཁུག་ are interesting but the meaning hook is not given in any of them. S. Ch. D. translates
ཀྱོ་བ་ with ‘अङ्कुश, a pointed iron hook, a large pin to pierce with,’ whilst Macdonell in his Sk. dict.
translates the Sk. word as ‘hook, goad, stimulus, remedy.’ (See below s.v. འདྲེན་པ་.) J. under ཀུག་ gives also ལྕགས་ཀུག་, an iron hook, and ཉ་ཀུག་, a fishing hook, but my informants say that the colloquial for fish hook is rather ཉ་འཛིན་ཡའི་ (or པའི་) ལྕགས་ཀྱུ་ or simply ཉ་འཛིན་ (pr. nyendzin), just as a meat hook (to hang up meat on) is ཤ་འཛིན་ (pr. shendzin). The ཡ་ in [18]the above represents the pronunciation of the more illiterate people.
One of my informants is, however, of opinion that ལྕགས་ཀྱུ་ does not mean an iron hook at all, but hook in general even though it might be made of silver, copper,
gold, etc. He compares it with the word wall, ལྕགས་རི་, which is not necessarily made of iron, and though of stone or earth is still called ‘iron-mountain.’ Women’s
ornaments such as earrings, chains, or necklaces (སྐེ་འཕྲེང་, pr. kenthang, not in the Dicts. or Bell. As a colloquial word the dengbu might perhaps
be left out in writing) may have golden or silver hooks, གསེར་གྱི་ལྕགས་ཀྱུ་ or དངུལ་གྱི་ལྕགས་ཀྱུ་. Example: སྐྱེ་དམན་འདི་ལ་སྐྱེ་འཕྲེང་ཡག་པོ་ཅིག་འདུག། དེ་ལ་གསེར་དང་དངུལ་གྱི་ལྕགས་ཀྱུ་བཞི་འདུག་, this woman has a very fine necklace which has four golden and silver hooks (or clasps).
Schroeter’s dict., p. 361b, already gives ལྕགས་ཀྱུ་ as hook only. The expression ལྕགས་ནག་ in the sense of mineral, given by Desg., 307a, would make us think that ལྕགས་ཀྱུ་ might perhaps mean metal hook, but see below. S. Ch. D. adds to the confusion. Under
ལྕགས་ཀྱུ་ he gives: (1) iron pin to guide and punish elephants; fish-hook; (2) name of a plant.
(His next entry seems improbable, elephant driving and elephant driver for one and
the same word). But under ཀྱུ་ he defines ལྕགས་ཀྱུ་ as ‘iron hook, an angle, a fishing-hook.’ J. has ལྕགས་ཀྱུ་ under ལྕགས་ and gives ‘an iron hook, esp. fishing-hook, angle; often fig.’ and in his illustration
he translates ཆོས་ཀྱི་ལྕགས་ཀྱུ་ simply as ‘hook of grace.’ [19]He marks the word as belonging to the book language. It is curious to note that Schlagintweit
in his Rgyal-rabs (title, or introductory verse) translates the word ལྕགས་ཀྱུ་ with ‘eisernen Hacken’ (p. 25), whilst Schiefner renders the same word correctly on the next page by ‘Hacken’
alone. But in his new translation of the Rgyal-rabs, H. A. Francke (J.P.A.S.B., Vol.
VI, n. 8, p. 397) writes again ‘Iron Hook.’
There is still another compound with ཀྱུ་, namely མཐེབ་ཀྱུ་, the name for a component part of the elaborate torma cake structure. It indicates
a small piece of dough in the form of the top of the thumb. From all these examples
it might be hazarded that the element ཀྱུ་ means primarily ‘curve, curved’ or ‘curvature,’ and has no substantial meaning like
‘hook’ or the like. My teachers, however, think that ཀྱུ་ by itself is a substantive ‘hook.’ So it is not clear whether J. is right as against
the other Dicts. in not entering the word separately. The above discussion is in any
case better entered under the word ཀྱུ་, whether this is really an independent word or not. The fact that S. Ch. D. gives
a Sk. equivalent for ཀྱུ་ alone, pleads for its separate existence.
My teachers opine that ཀྱུ་ as a separate word may occur alone, but their nearest approach to framing a sentence
illustrating such a use was one in which they spoke of a wooden hook (made by a jungleman
to fish or hunt with) as ཤིང་གི་ལྕགས་ཀྱུ་ or more briefly ཤིང་ཀྱུ་. So the example was not decisive.
Additional Note—Cf. the example in Csoma’s Grammar, p 109: གསེར་གྱི་ལྕགས་སྒྲོག་, golden fetters or chains, lit.: golden iron ropes. See also Ramsay, ‘Western Tibet’, p. 62:
‘To hook—ngiákuk táng ches, properly applicable only to a fish caught with a hook, but also
used generally’, and:
‘Hook—ngiákuk (fish hook), kuk kuk (a hook of any kind).…’
[20]
Query: Is the use of ལྕགས་ merely conventional in several words, as in ལྕགས་ཁྲ་, cage (Bell, Walsh ‘Tromowa Dialect’), ལྕགས་ཟམ་ (iron) bridge, etc.? And is the use of ལྕགས་ perhaps analogous to that of honorific prefixes? Cf. the Dutch guilder (gulden) which is made of silver, though its name is derived from ‘gold.’
ཀྱོ་བ་ see ཀྱུ་.
དཀའ་བ་, 7. Difficult, but here rather with some of the meaning of the English ‘hard’ (hard
lines?), the French ‘dur’, perhaps L. ‘arduus.’ The meaning is somewhat that the invocation should not be undertaken lightly (God’s
name should not be spoken ‘in vain’). Conceptions like: grave, serious, weighty, not
lighthearted, or commonplace, or flippant, suggest themselves here. It is ‘a serious
matter’ to invoke these teachers.
བཀའ་དྲིན་སེམས་པ་, 42. To think with kindness of or towards, or about (ལ་).
སྐལ་ལྡན་, 11. We have taken this word in the general sense given by J. ‘the pious,’ though
it may equally well be rendered by ‘the fortunate ones,’ i.e. those who were fortunate
enough to hear Tsoṅ kʽa pa’s preaching or that of his two pupils. One of my informants
suggests, however, that སྐལ་ལྡན་ should here be taken more literally as ‘sharers’, ‘share-havers’ in Tsoṅ kʽa pa’s
message and consequently should here be understood as his ‘followers.’
སྐུ་གླུད་ see གླུད་.
སྐེ་འཕྲེང་ see ཀྱུ་.
སྐྱབས་རེ་ས་, 19. May either be taken as two separate words ‘protection and hope’ or as a compound
‘hope for protection,’ ‘protection-hope.’ More accurately ‘the spot (place = persons
in this case) in whom I place my hope for protection, to whom I resort or go, in whom
I trust, for protection.’ (cf. D. heul, toeverlaat).
[21]
སྐྱིད་གླུ་ see མགུར་མ་.
སྐྱེ་སྒོ་ see སྒོ་.
སྐྱེ་བ་, 4. This is an illustration of the meaning of སྐྱེ་བ་ under J.’s 4th sub-heading, 1st division. དད་པ་སྐྱེས་ ‘faith has been born,’ but here rather ‘becomes active,’ ‘sprouts,’ ‘waxes strong,’
or ‘grows, flames up, intensifies, awakens, arises, stirs.’ The idea is not, as in
a case of Christian conversion, of a state of previously non-existent faith, suddenly
arising, but of an existing faith becoming strongly energised, leaping up (‘an outburst
of faith’). The colloquial དད་པ་སྐྱེས་ can be suitably translated by ‘to inspire faith to.’ For instance བླ་མ་འདི་ལ་དད་པ་སྐྱེས་ཀྱི་ (མི་) འདུག་, that lama inspires me with (no) faith. A free translation of དད་པ་སྐྱེ་བ་ is consequently ‘to have faith in,’ but in our passage the additional meaning of
‘renewed’ is implied. Therefore we may also render ‘they call up my faith’ or ‘renewed
faith comes up in me.’ See the use of this expression in the Tibetan Primer III, p.
7, 1. 8. དེ་ནས་ཁོ་ (read ཁོས་) རྒྱལ་པོ་དེ་ཤིན་ཏུ་བཟང་པོར་ཤེས་ཏེ་དད་པ་སྐྱེས་ཏེ་ཕྱག་གྲངས་མེད་འཚལ་ནས་རྒྱལ་པོས་གནང་བ་དེ་རྣམས་བདག་ག་ལ་ཞུ ། Then he, recognising that the king was very good, and having gained faith in him,
and having prostrated himself numberless times, (asked) how can I request (i.e. take,
accept) such (gifts) given by the king.
སྐྱེད་སྒོ་ see སྒོ་.
སྐྱེད་པ་, 50. To generate, the generation, production. སེམས་བསྐྱེད་པ་ ‘that which has been produced in the soul,’ ‘the (completed) productions of the soul’;
with དང་ = with; ‘with thoughts of, assuming, observing an attitude of, with a mental attitude
of or disposition to.’ འགྲོ་བ་རྣམས་བྱམས་སྙིང་རྗེས་དྲངས་[22]པའི་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་ (དང་) is one elaborate substantive, a ‘the-beings-with-kindness-having-drawn-soul-disposition.’
སྐྱོ་བ་, 28. Here not in J.’s sense ‘to be weary,’ but as Desg. and S. Ch. D. have it ‘sadness,
grief, sorrow,’ or adj. ‘sad’, etc. In seeing a half-naked beggar, it may be said:
མི་འདི་སྐྱོ་བ་ལ་ཁོ་ལ་དུག་ལོག་ཡང་མི་འདུག་. Here the word is adjective: ‘that unhappy (unfortunate, wretched, miserable) man
has not even a coat.’ [དུག་ལོག་ (Bell) = J. དུག་པོ་ = གོས་ལག་ = ཆུ་པ་ = Desg. ཆོ་པ་, coat, garment, dress; not alone ‘man’s coat,’ as J. has it, but for both sexes—J.
s.v. ཆུ་པ་. ཆུ་པ་ and ཆོ་པ་ both missing in S. Ch. D. གོས་ལག་ is pronounced both golak and gölak. Walsh, Vocabulary Tromowa Dialect, s.v. coat
‘go’ and ‘golag.’ My teachers do not know a word དུག་པོ་ for coat in Tibetan. Desg. has a དུགས་པོ་, overcoat. S. Ch. D. དུག་པ༌ or དུག་པོ་ ‘old coat or garment patched up and mended.’]
ག་གདན་ see གདན་.
ཁ་རྩོད་ see གཤགས་འགྱེད་པ་.
ཁ་གཤགས་འགྱེད་པ་ see གཤགས་འགྱེད་པ་.
ཁུག་ see ཀྱུ་.
ཁོ་བོའི་རྗེས་མཇུག་གྲོགས་པོ་རྣམས་, 45. My followers and friends (cf. citizens and compatriots), i.e. followers who are also my friends; the same people
under two qualifications, not two different groups of people, the friends and the followers. See རྗེས་མཇུག་པ་.
ཁོ་མི་གླུད་ཡིན་ see གླུད་.
[23]
ཁྱེད་ 18, ཁྱོད་ 12, 23. The difference in form is not accidental. མགོན་ཁྱོད་ is a stereotyped ལབ་ལུགས་, manner of speech, expression. ཡབ་སྲས་ཁྱེད༌, l. 18, is a normal honorific form. The form ཁྱོད་ was described to me as one of intimacy, of utter confidence, as distinct from familiarity
and lack of respect. This seems an almost exact parallel to the use of (thou), tu,
du in (English), French and German in addressing parents, God, and relations. The
following example was given, a quotation from the བླ་མ་མཆོད་པའི་ཆོ་ག་, a little ritual gelukpa book, leaf 12a: ཁྱོད་ནི་བླ་མ་ཁྱོད་ནི་ཡི་དམ་ཁྱོད་ནི་མཁའ་འགྲོ་ཆོས་སྐྱོང་སྟེ ། ‘As thou art our lama, our yi-dam, our ḍākinī, our dharmapāla …’ (prayer addressed
to Tsoṅ kʽa pa). Likewise, in the little prayerbook རྗེ་བཙུན་སྒྲོལ་མའི་གདུང་འབོད་ (to Tārā) we find a few cases of ཁྱོད་ (e.g. p. 5b) amidst many cases of ཁྱེད་. In the term ཡབ་སྲས་ཁྱེད་ the hon. form of the first two syllables of course determines the hon. form of the
last. The ‘intimate’ form ཁྱོད་ was further described as ‘the language of religious transport, ardour, fervour,’ དད་པའི་ཡུས་.
ཁྲེལ་གད་ (རྒྱབ་པ་) see ཁྲེལ་བ་.
ཁྲེལ་དགོད་ see ཁྲེལ་བ་.
ཁྲེལ་བ་, 32. According to the Dicts. ‘to be ashamed.’ Desg. and S. Ch. D. do not support
J.’s meaning ‘piety’ and his third meaning ‘disgust, aversion.’ My oral information
rejects these second and third meanings, yet see below. ཀུན་གྱིས་ཁྲེལ་བའི་རྒྱུ་, freely translated ‘is a matter of (cause for) shame to all,’ literally ‘a-by-all-shame-feeling-cause,’
i.e. all should feel ashamed. The shame, it should be understood, must be felt, not
by all who behold the bad behaviour, but by all who [24]are guilty of it. The exact meaning of the root ཁྲེལ་ from which the verb is derived is not yet satisfactorily dealt with in the Dicts.
which are supplementary as well as contradictory in their data. The compounds exhibit
a great variety of shades of meaning. That of ཁྲེལ་མེད་, for instance, may perhaps cover so wide a range as ‘shameless, impudent, self-willed,
stubborn, stiff-necked, arrogant, insolent, ungrateful, loveless, heartless, harsh,
cruel, wanton, ruchlos, frech.’ Some of the compounds and applications clearly indicate that ཁྲེལ་ must also mean ‘sexual modesty, chastity,’ others that it must mean ‘bashfulness,
shyness, timidity’ (in this sense ཁྲེལ་མེད་ ‘brazen, forward, unabashed, saucy, bold, audacious’). ཁྲེལ་ seems to come very near to the D. ‘schroom’ which is more ‘diffidence’ than ‘scruple,’ but ཁྲེལ་མེད་ may in some cases mean ‘unscrupulous’ or ‘without a conscience.’ In this sense it
comes near to ‘impious.’ The German subst. ‘Scheu’ may be also compared. It is also averred that in certain combinations a positive
statement with ཁྲེལ་མེད་ is practically identical with the English exclamation: how dare you! how can you!
A compound, difficult to define exactly, is ཁྲེལ་གཞུང་མེད་ in which གཞུང་ has the meaning, not given in the Dicts. of straight, straightforward, honest, true,
dependable, the French ‘droit’ (cf. rectitude). The whole expression may mean ‘abandoned,’ or simply ཁྲེལ་མེད་. Example ཁྲེལ་གཞུང་མེད་པའི་མི་དེ་ཡི་ཚེ་དེ་དོན་མེད་རེད་, ‘the lives of these abandoned (shameless, etc.) men are useless.’ An old sweetheart
who has cast off her lover may be called ཁྲེལ་གཞུང་མེད་ ‘the brazen, perfidious girl.’ Desg. gives གཞུང་ in this sense as equal to བཟང་, ‘good, just, generous.’ This may be Schmidt’s གཞུངས་པ་ ‘sincere, orderly.’ In the sentence ཕ་མ་ལ་སྐུ་དྲིན་འདི་འདྲ་ལོག་[25]པ་དེ་ཁྲེལ་མེད་ཀྱི་སེམས་རེད་, ‘to render your parents kindness in this way shows a lack of gratitude,’ my teachers
explain the word as ‘ungrateful, loveless, harsh.’
As far as the further meanings of ཁྲེལ་, as given in J. (see above), are concerned, Pʽun Tsʽogs maintains that ཁྲེལ་སེམས་ཅན་ = ཆོས་སེམས་ཅན་, ‘pious,’ but Karma denies it, and the former also states that ཁྲེལ་ཡོད་པ་ = ཞེན་པ་ལོག་པ་, which latter expression Desg. and S. Ch. D. know as ‘to be disgusted with.’ But
J. and the others render the former expression with ཁྲེལ་, as ‘chaste’ or ‘modest,’ or as ‘to be chaste,’ etc. Both of my teachers are at one
about the expression ཞེ་ཁྲེལ་བ་ ‘to be weary, tired, sick of.’ Examples: ལྟོ་ཆས་འདི་ལ་ཞེ་ཁྲེལ་སོང་, I am tired of this food. (ལྟོ་ཆས་, pr. tobché, see Henderson’s Manual, Voc., p. 48, s.v. food; there written ལྟོབ་ཆས་.) མི་འདི་ལ་ཞེ་ཁྲེལ་སོང་, ‘I have got tired of this man.’ The sentence ཆོས་ཐོས་པས་རྒྱུད་གྲོལ་ནས ། ཁྲེལ་ཡོད་ངོ་ཚ་ཤེས་ was explained to me as: Having understood the doctrine, and having been delivered
(saved), I am now weary of the world, have renounced the world, know the world for
vanity, have turned away from it. For J.’s ཁྲེལ་གད་, ‘scornful laughter’, the synonym ཁྲེལ་དགོད་ was given to me, as well as the explanation ‘a laugh to make the other feel ashamed,’
‘to make another feel small.’ We may therefore think of ironic, sarcastic, malicious
laughter, or of derision and Schadenfreude. ཁྲེལ་གད་རྒྱབ་པ་, to laugh at another, at the expense of another, in order to make him ridiculous.
This word ཁྲེལ་ furnishes a very striking test of the present state of Tibetan lexicography, the
word གདན་ will furnish another.
[26]
For words like these a comprehensive collection of authentic illustrations is imperative
before finer shades and the exact range of meanings can be fixed. ངོ་ཚ་, commonly translated as ‘shame,’ a synonym for ཁྲེལ་, is a similarly uncertain word. Compare the translations in J. and S. Ch. D. of this
same sentence: ཁྲེལ་བ་དང་ངོ་ཚ་བ་མེད་, J.: ‘he has no shame nor dread’; S. Ch. D.: ‘he has no shame or modesty.’
ཁྲེལ་མེད་ see ཁྲེལ་བ་.
ཁྲེལ་གཞུང་མེད་ see ཁྲེལ་བ་.
ཁྲེལ་ཡོད་པ་ see ཁྲེལ་བ་.
ཁྲེལ་སེམས་ཅན་ see ཁྲེལ་བ་.
ཁྲོད་ see གངས་རིའི་ཁྲོད་འདི་ན་ and འབྲོག་.
མཁྱེན་པ་ see མཁྱེན་བརྩེ་.
མཁྱེན་བརྩེ་, 55. J.’s queried མཁྱེན་བརྩེ་, quoted from Gyal-rabs: ‘prob.: omniscient-merciful,’ cannot with any certainty be
decided from this passage.
Desg. has མཁྱེན་བརྩེ༌ = ཐུགས་རྗེ་ = ‘knowledge of the heart, i.e. pity, mercy.’
S. Ch. D. ‘omniscient mercy.’
According to my teachers these are two different words here, knowledge and mercy;
not a compound. མཁྱེན་པ་ is here hon. form of ཤེས་པ་ to know. But a subst. མཁྱེན་ is not recorded in the Dicts. Desg. has a མཁྱེན་པ་ = ཤེས་པ་ = རིག་པ་ ‘science, knowledge,’ and S. Ch. D. also gives མཁྱེན་པ་ as ‘knowledge.’ In compounds མཁྱེན་ has usually the verbal value of ‘knowing.’ The entries s.v. མཁྱེན་ in the Dicts. need careful comparison and deserve close study.
[27]
མཁྱེན་པ་ is often used in an emphatic sense, to know all, to know through and through, to
know with supernatural knowledge (as, for instance, to know what happens from a distance),
cf. the English adj. ‘knowing.’
The shades of meaning: wise, learned, intelligent, sensible, careful, cautious, clever,
need further analysis.
འཁྲུག་པ་, 35. The value of this word is clear from the Dicts., but there is a difficulty in
choosing suitable English words to fit each case in rendering. Such words as the following
may be found useful under various circumstances: to be disturbed, upset, disordered
(cf. disordered brain), unbalanced, deranged, convulsed, in turmoil, tumultuous (a soul
in tumult), in revolt, turbulent, wild, seething, in uproar, in the throes of (passion,
etc.).
And even so none of the above expressions furnishes an easy, idiomatic and close rendering
for རྒྱུད་ཁོང་ནས་འཁྲུགས་པའི་མི་, the man whose very character is an utter chaos.
འཁུར་བ་, 21. Ordinarily to carry, but here to carry back, i.e. to repay, render, return.
Example: ཕ་མའི་དྲིན་འཁུར་དགོས་, You must render your parents their kindness. The verb འཇལ་བ་, primarily ‘to weigh’, is equally so used; see J. s.v. 4. For the above example the
word ལན་ would ordinarily be inserted, ཕ་མའི་དྲིན་ལན་འཁུར་དགོས་, but this would lessen the force of the illustration for our purpose as ལན་ means here ‘return,’ and དྲིན་ལན༌, ‘a kindness in return.’ The above sentence can be expressed in three ways: ཕ་མའི་དྲིན་ (with or without ལན་), འཁུར་ (or འཇལ་, or ལོག་), དགོས་.
གངས་རི་མ་, title. Mother Snow Mountain. The affixes to རི་ are according to J. བོ་ and ག་; Desg. adds ངོ་; S. Ch. [28]D. only བོ་; Bell and Henderson no affix. Of these བོ་ gives a definite sense of greatness to the mountain. (See S. Ch. D., Grammar, Introduction,
p. 18). Here the particle མ་ is not an inherent part of the substantive, but is added to give a feminine sense
to the word, which here means something like ‘Mother Mountain,’ the big mountain being
as it were the mother of all smaller hills and heights around it. My informants were
definitely of opinion that, here, ‘Mother Mountain’ and not ‘Lady Mountain’ was meant.
So we should not understand the expression as ‘Her Majesty or Ladyship the Snow Mountain.’
The meaning though grammatically important remains better neglected in the translation.
གངས་རིའི་ཁྲོད་འདི་ན་, 25. In this snow-mountain-mass, i.e. monastery. རི་ཁྲོད་ as monastery in J. s.v. རི་ but not s.v. ཁྲོད་. Bell has རི་ཁྲོད་ as ‘cell (of hermit).’
Here the expression seems rather to indicate Gendundub’s own monastery (be it Daipung,
Tashilhunpo or Namgyalchöde) than Galdan, spoken of in the second verse. See Schulemann,
Gesch. der Dalailamas, pp. 92 fll. See འབྲོག་ and ཤར་.
གོ་ལག་ see སྐྱོ་བ་.
གོལ་ས་, 33. J. འགོལ་ས་, error, mistake. In Desg. འགོལ་ས་ or འགོལ་བའི་གནས་, solitary spot (s.v. འགོལ་) and ལམ་གོལ་ (s.v. གོལ་), ‘has lost his way’; and also འགོལ་སར་གནས་སུ་ to put apart; འགོལ་ལམ་, a separate road, a side road (route détournée). According to Desg. only the past form of འགོལ་བ་, i.e. གོལ་བ་, means to have erred, gone astray, both physically and morally. S. Ch. D. copies
J., but adds to J.’s འགོལ་ས་, the place where two roads separate: ‘so as to create doubt in the mind regarding
the right path.’ Schroeter (p. 451a) has two entries འགོལ་བ་, ‘remote,’ and འགོལ་བའི་གནས་, ‘a closet.’ J. has the latter expression as ‘a hermitage,’ [29]and Desg., as above, ‘solitary spot.’ In our passage ལམ་གོལ་ས་ does not mean ‘the mistake as to the road,’ or Anglice ‘the error of his ways.’
In our passage ལམ་གོལ་ has to be taken together in the sense of ལོག་ལམ་ = ལམ་ལོག་ = ལམ་ངན་, the wrong road (in a religious sense, in contrast to the ལམ་མཐོན་པོ་ of l. 31). ལམ་གོལ་ས་ is here to be understood as a ‘wrong-road-place,’ as the spot or place (ས་ = ས་ཆ་) which is, or proves to be, the wrong road, i.e. the place where one realizes that the road
on which one is, is the wrong road, or, perhaps better, that the road is a wrong road
(= place) to be in, a wrong-road-spot, indeed.
The meanings, recorded in the Dicts. for compounds with or without initial འ་ of འགོལ་བ་, seem logical, as one who has separated himself from the road, is astray, is mistaken, is (in moral or intellectual matters) in the wrong, in error.
Note this example of the use of the verb: ལན་རིག་པ་བསྒྲིམས་ནས་རྒྱབ་མ་གཏོགས་འགོལ་ཡོང་ངོ་, answer very carefully otherwise you will make a mistake.
[རིག་པ་བསྒྲིམས་ནས་, ‘having twisted, squeezed, screwed up your brains??’ = adv., carefully, attentively.]
གོས་ལག་ see སྐྱོ་བ་.
གླུ་ see མགུར་མ་.
གླུད་, 40. Ransom. Is here rather གླུད་ཚབ་, well defined by S. Ch. D., s.v. The meaning of གླུད་ཚབ་ is probably ‘the ransom (which is thrown to the evil spirit) as a substitute for,
representative of (the person on whose behalf the offering is made),’ J.’s མི་གླུད་ ‘a man’s image which in his stead is cast [30]away in the གཏོར་མ༌,’ a ransom in effigy. There are, however, uses of གླུད་ in which the primary sense is perhaps rather ‘effigy’ than ‘ransom.’ In a ritual
describing the construction of the torma cake it is said that the སྐུ་གླུད་ (together with many other moulds) must be imprinted on the dough or paste. Here the
word seems to mean no more than ‘a mould constituting an effigy of the body.’ Though
all the torma-cake material is thrown away after it has served its purpose, these
imprinted effigies do not seem to serve specially as ransoms like the གླུད་ཚབ་ and མི་གླུད་ quoted above.
As to J.’s queried ཁོ་མི་གླུད་ཡིན་ (and the slightly different མི་ཁོ་གླུད་ཡིན་), this is explained as follows. The first phrase means: he is a lü in human form
(a man-lü, cf. werwolf; D. een lü in menschenvorm, menschelijke gedaante). མི་ཁོ་ means ‘that man, there (with a pointing out by word or finger).’ For instance: that
man John, that king ཀོ་ཀོ་. ‘That man’ alone would be མི་དེ་. But the second phrase would mean: ‘that man so-and-so is a very devil.’ J.’s rendering
of the first phrase as ‘he is a curse, an anathema, one deserving to be cursed’ seems
too strong. Rather ‘an unmitigated nuisance,’ for, though harsh, it may be said by
a mother of her own child when it is naughty and unruly. The sense seems to be ‘devil’
(as may also be applied to children or wicked grown-ups in English ‘they are true
devils,’ D. ‘een paar baarlijke duivels’) and seems to be a case of meaning-shifting from result to cause (pale death!),
the lü being the ransom thrown to the evil spirit, Anglice devil. The association
does not seem to be that of worthlessness, hatefulness, something good for nothing,
only fit to be thrown away like a lü.
As to the above King Koko, this is a facetious name applied (something like thingumbob)
to such Tibetans as ape Chinese manners in dress and in other ways. ཀོ་ཀོ་ is said to be a Chinese word for Tib. ཨ་ཇོ་ or ཇོ་ཇོ་, elder brother. A Tibetan, strutting about in Darjeeling with Chinese cap and [31]coat may hear the sarcasm addressed to him: ཀོ་ཀོ་ལགས་ག་པ་ཕེབས་ཀྱི་ཡིན་ནམ་ ‘Well Mr. Chinaman (or John Ch., Uncle Ch.) where are you going to?’ (‘Mossioo’ of the mid-Victorian Punch and music hall ditties).
གླུད་ཚབ་ see གླུད་.
དགའ་ལྡན་ see དགེ་ལྡན་.
དགེ་ལྡན་, 6. Clearly printed in both copies, not དགའ་ལྡན་. This name, ‘the virtuous,’ seems to refer to the Gelukpa sect, though the monastery
which is here meant is usually called དགའ་ལྡན་. The relation between the two terms is not quite clear. Grünwedel, in his ‘Mythologie des Buddhismus,’ etc., p. 72, speaks of ‘das Kloster dGa-ldan oder dGe-ldan.’ Günther Schulemann in ‘Die Geschichte der Dalailamas,’ p. 65, speaks of the ‘Schule, die zuerst dGa-ldan-pa, dann aber dGe-ldan-pa oder dGe-lugs-pa, ‘die Tugendsekte’,
genannt wurde.’ Modern Tibetans seem to know only the name དགའ་ལྡན་ for the famous monastery.
དགྲ་ཉོན་མོངས་, 37. This is an apposition. The enemies, the sins; the enemies who are the sins; ‘these enemies of sins’ as in ‘these rascals of boys.’ See ཉོན་མོངས་.
མགུར་མ་, title. Its hon. form is གསུང་མགུར་. As a single word the affix མ་ is required, which may disappear in compounds. Bell gives as meaning of མགུར་མ་ ‘religious song,’ Henderson ‘hymn.’
As J. points out, the profane song is གླུ་ and the religious song མགུར་མ་. A synonym for གླུ་ is གཞེས་ (not in the three Dicts. but in Bell and Henderson s.v. song).
S. Ch. D.’s གླུ་གཞེས་ ‘sportive song’ is not supported by the data in J. or Desg., nor by my informants.
They take the [32]second part of this compound as a misprint for གཞེས་ and hold that གླུ་གཞེས་ is a double-form with the meaning of either of its parts: song. The word མགུར་མ་ has one honorific form, གསུང་མགུར་. The words གླུ་ and གཞེས་ have each various hon. forms: གསུང་གཞེས (recorded in Bell) and གསུང་གླུ་. Desg. has a གསུང་མགུར་, pleasant song, but my oral information does not support this special meaning.
Note the difference between J. སྐྱིད་གླུ་ (s.v. སྐྱིད་), ‘song of joy,’ and Desg. id. s.v. གླུ་ ‘chant érotique.’
In Redslob’s translation of the Psalms into classical Tibetan, the word གསུང་མགུར་ is used for psalm.
The following table may be useful.
Ordinary
|
མགུར་མ་
|
= hon.
|
|
གསུང་མགུར་ |
Ordinary,,
|
གླུ་
|
= hon.,,
|
|
མགུལ་གླུ་ |
བཞེས་ (sic.) གླུ་ (??) |
གསུང་གླུ་ |
Ordinary,,
|
གཞེས་
|
= hon.,,
|
|
གསུང་གཞེས་ |
མགུལ་གཞེས་ (rare) ?? |
འགོལ་བ་ see གོལ་ས་.
འགོལ་ས་ see གོལ་ས་.
འགྱེ་བ་ and འགྱེད་པ་, 38. Attention must be drawn to the fact that Desg. identifies འགྱེད་པ་ with འགྱེ་བ་ as against J.’s distinction between the two forms as neutral and active. Also that
Desg.’s explanation of གཡུལ་འགྱེད་ etc., as ‘to put (the [33]enemy) to flight in battle,’ seems more probable than J.’s ‘to fight a battle,’ etc.
The explanation of འགྱེད་པ་, by འཕམ་ in the note on གཤགས་འགྱེད་པ་, q.v., seems to support this supposition. S. Ch. D. gives as a meaning of འགྱེད་པ་ ‘to institute, set going’ and translates accordingly འཐབ་མོ་འགྱེད་པ་ as ‘to start a combat,’ as against J. ‘to combat’ alone. Also གཡུལ་འགྱེད་པ་པོ་ ‘one who gives battle.’ Desg. s.v. གཡུལ་ (p. 923): གཡུལ་འཐབ་ or གཡུལ་འགྱེད་ ‘to fight in battle, to combat.’ Cf. also J. s.v. གཡུལ་. S. Ch. D. copies J. as against Desg. གཡུལ་འགྱེད་པ་, ‘to fight a battle.’ These words འགྱེ་བ་ and འགྱེད་པ་, again, need further investigation supported by quotations (as well as the word གཡུལ་ with which they are used).
རྒ་བ་, 33. To be old, the state of being old, old age. Example སྐེ་རྒ་ན་འཆིའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་ཡོད་, ‘the being born, growing old, being ill, dying are sorrows,’ or ‘birth, old age,
illness and death are sorrowful.’ Cf. the treatment of the first four words in J. རྒས་པའི་, with following verb, to be translated as ‘of old age,’ literally: of (belonging
to, attendant on) having become old; for instance, the joys, sorrows, etc., of the
state of having become old (of old age) = རྒས་པའི་སྐྱིད་པོ་ (or སྡུག་པོ་). This is not the subst. རྒས་ or རྒས་པོ་ of Desg. J. treats རྒ་བ་ as a verb with རྒས་ as a past tense, taking རྒད་པ་ and རྒན་པ་ as adjectives from which the usual substantives in པོ་, མོ་, etc., are made. Desg. gives the four forms རྒ་, རྒད་, རྒན་ and རྒས་ [34]as substantives and has no verb ‘to be old.’ J.’s analysis seems the more accurate
one. J.’s རྒས་ཀ་ ‘old age’ is absent in Desg., whilst this latter has a རྒས་ without affix as ‘old man,’ ‘old age.’ This word S. Ch. D. has as = རྒ་བ་ ‘old, ripe’; whilst he adds རྒས་པ་ = རྒད་པོ་ ‘aged, old; exhausted, infirm; an old man.’ This group needs proper quotations for
final settlement.
My oral information on some of these points is as follows: The use of རྒས་ alone, as ‘old, ripe’ is denied. རྒས་པ་ does not mean རྒད་པོ་ ‘old,’ because རྒས་པ་ requires a ལོ་ ‘grown old in years’ in that sense. As an independent adjective, however, it means
‘worn out, exhausted, thin, lean, aged, grown older,’ and is in that case an equivalent
for རྒད་པོ་. Troubles make a man རྒས་པ་ ‘age him’; make him as if old. Age makes a man རྒད་པོ་, old, i.e. really old. For the use of རྒས་ཀ་ the following two illustrations were given: རྒས་ཀའི་དུས་ལ་ལས་འདི་འདྲ་མ་བྱེད་ ‘don’t do such work (or things: or don’t behave in that manner) in your old age;’ རྒས་ཀ་ཤི་བའི་དུས་ལ་བསམ་བློ་ངན་པ་མ་ཐོང་, ‘don’t think bad (evil) thoughts in your old age when (whilst) death is drawing
near.’
རྒད་, རྒན་, རྒས་ see རྒ་བ་.
རྒྱ་ (or རྒྱལ་) སྒོ་ see སྒོ་.
རྒྱན་མཁན་པོ་ see རྒྱན་པ་.
རྒྱན་ཆ་ see རྒྱན་པ་.
རྒྱན་རྣམས་ see རྒྱན་པ་.
[35]
རྒྱན་པ་ and བརྒྱན་པ་, 54. The treatment of these words in the Dicts. seems unsatisfactory. None of the
Dicts. give a passive verb རྒྱན་པ་ or བརྒྱན་པ་ ‘being adorned, being decked out, embellished,’ etc. J. has only རྒྱན་ as a subst. ‘ornament, decoration,’ and a verb བརྒྱན་པ་ ‘to adorn, decorate, provide with.’ According to this his own example ཉ་མགོ་ས་ཡིས་བརྒྱན་པ་ should not mean, as he says, ‘the letter nya (ཉ་) being provided with an S above it’ (= སྙ་), but rather something like ‘to adorn the letter nya with a sa as a topletter.’
Desg. knows a verb རྒྱན་པ་ or རྒྱན་རྒྱབ་ (or བྱེད་ or བཀོད་) with the meaning of ‘to adorn,’ with a past tense བརྒྱན་, ‘ornavi, ornatus, orné,’ whatever that means. He and J. quote also a རྒྱན་གྱིས་བརྒྱན་པ་ ‘adorned,’ in which the རྒྱན་ has clearly a substantival value, like in རྒྱན་མེད་པ་, ‘without adornment, unadorned.’
S.v. བརྒྱན་ Desg. says: ‘praet. verbi རྒྱན་པར་, ornatus, et v. act. ornare, orné, orner,’ and he adds བརྒྱན་པ་ or ཆ་ ‘ornament.’ Bell has རྒྱན་ཆ་ for ornament. But J. knows no བརྒྱན་པ་ or ཆ་ as substantives and refers expressly to the unprefixed རྒྱན་ for the substantives. He further equates རྒྱན་ཆ་ and རྒྱན་རྣམས་ ‘ornaments’ (plural). Under འདོགས་པ་, ‘to put on,’ we find further རྒྱན་འདོགས་པ་, to put on gay clothes, finery (s.v. རྒྱན་, the same expression is translated as ‘to adorn one’s self,’) and རྒྱན་བཟང་པོ་བཏགས་པ་, ‘beautifully attired’ (Mil.). If these translations are idiomatically true we should
expect [36](བ) རྐྱན་ to have a wider sense than the English ornament, rather anything beautiful or fine,
whether ornaments (in the sense of trinkets) or not. The word adornment would fit
better. (Cf. D. tooi, G. Schmuck.)
Desg. gives no example of རྒྱན་པ་ with a clearly active value of the verb ‘to ornament,’ but both in J. and Desg. such
examples are given under བརྒྱན་པ་. Desg. gives as synonyms ལེགས་བྱེད་ and མཛེས་བྱེད་ and it is a question whether in these expressions བྱེད་ can have the neuter sense of ‘to act as’ = ‘to be’ (like in རྒྱལ་པོ་བྱེད་པ་). S. Ch. D. (who has several misprints in his syns. for རྒྱན་) quotes s.v. འགོད་པ་ (292b) a བརྒྱན་དགོད་པ་, ‘to arrange ornaments (tastefully); to decorate, adorn, to construct or adjust grammatical
forms, sentences, (Zam.).’ This latter use of བརྒྱན་ is evidently the clue to the expression, quoted elsewhere by Desg. and S. Ch. D.:
རྒྱན་མཁན་པོ་, अलंकारपण्डित, one versed in rhetoric, a clever orator. The equation རྒྱན་པ་ = བཞག་པ་ (in the modern language, v. Bell, to put, place), given by S. Ch. D. is denied by
both my teachers, though confirmed by Desg.; they know of no Tibetan word of this
spelling and sound with the meaning bejewelled, adorned, decorated, as is the correct
translation of the Sk. equivalent cited, मण्डित. Yet may རྒྱན་ (པ་) perhaps mean ‘an ornamented object’, hence ‘die, dice’; hence again Desg. ‘objets mêlés pour tirer les sorts’, and lastly ‘stake’ (in gambling) and ‘lot’? This first meaning is not in the Dicts.
but would settle the question discussed a few lines lower down, and explain those
combinations with རྒྱན་ which refer to gambling and divination. In connection with the immediately following
articles in S. Ch. D., རྒྱན་བཞག་མཁན༌, ‘one who joins in a wager, gambler’ [one who puts up his jewels, ornaments for [37]a stake?], and རྒྱན་དོར་བ་ or བཞག་པ་, ‘a dice-rogue, a gamester, one who throws dice,’ etc., it should be ascertained
whether there is a Tibetan word with རྒྱན་ which means die, dice, or whether the combinations refer to the staking of ornaments
and jewels in gambling.
S.v. བརྒྱན་པ་ S. Ch. D. gives no news, treating this word, however, as a verb, and referring to
རྒྱན་ for the subst.
As a result of this little investigation we come to the conclusion that it is legitimate
to inquire whether there is not a Tibetan verb རྒྱན་པ་ (more likely than བརྒྱན་པ་) with the passive or neuter sense of ‘being decked out, being ornamented or adorned,
showing gaily.’ What would render such a word exactly in English is difficult to see,
unless we coin a verb ‘to splendiferate,’ but D. pronken (pronken in vollen luister) comes near to it. Other related words would be: to blaze forth, to shine out, to
cut a dash, or else to swagger, to swank, to preen, to strut, or again to be graced
with or by, to show forth, etc., but especially ‘to display’ in the technical zoological
sense.
An instructive illustration in this matter is furnished by the following two sentences,
both with the same meaning: ཐང་ཀ་རི་མོས་བརྒྱན་འདུག་, or ཐང་ཀ་འདི་ལ་རི་མོས་བརྒྱན་འདུག་, of which the best idiomatic translation is: O, what a fine picture!; how fine is
the painting (drawing) of (in) (this) picture!
But the psychological translation is in the first case: ‘This picture is by-lines-(fine)-displaying’, and in the second case: ‘To this picture there is a by-the-lines-(drawings)-ornamentation
(or display).’
རྒྱལ་སྒོ་ see སྒོ་.
རྒྱལ་བ་, 6. According to J., III, also ‘superior, excellent, eminent.’ རྣམ་པར་རྒྱལ་བ་, ‘most excellent, illustrious.’ This may be the meaning here. Whether there is a
connection between the word as used here and the རྒྱལ་བ་ title of the Dalai Lamas may be left undecided.
[38]
རྒྱུད་, 30. Here character, heart, disposition, etc. It is curious that this meaning, given
by J. and Desg., is absent in S. Ch. D.
སྒོ་, 39, 40. Door. Though the average Tibetan house (if it be not a mere hut) has two
doors, a front door and a back door, they are not on a principle located in the eastern
and western sides of the house. For the text the words east and west have no special
significance; they are simply used དཔེ་འདྲ་པོ་, by way of speech, as an example, illustration or comparison.
The front (main, public) door is called གཞུང་སྒོ་ or རྒྱ་ (or རྒྱལ་) སྒོ་. The first word is interpreted as the ‘main,’ ‘public,’ or ‘middle’ door; the second
as the ‘wide’ or ‘royal’ door. The back door is called ལྟག་སྒོ་ (in J. s.v. ལྟག་པ་), which is explained as ‘the door for horses and cattle.’ The སྐྱེད་སྒོ་ quoted by J., p. 29b, is unknown to my informants. They only know a སྐྱེ་སྒོ་, ‘the door leading to birth, or re-birth.’
སྒོ་གསུམ་ see གསུང་.
སྒྲིམ་པ་ see གོལ་ས་.
བརྒྱན་པ་ see རྒྱན་པ་.
ངེས་པར་ (དུ་) see ཅིས་ཀྱང་ and ངེས་སོ་.
ངེས་སོ་, 16. With terminative: ‘there is certainty for’ = ‘it is certain’ = ‘I am sure of’,
‘I know for certain that’, ‘it is surely, truly so.’ A has ངས་ for ངེས་ in B.
Here, however, ངེས་སོ་ = ངེས་པར་ = ངེས་པར་དུ་ = ངོ་ཐོག་ = ངོན་ནས་ = ‘indeed, truly, really, forsooth.’ Compare also ཅིས་ཀྱང་.
[39]
ངོ་ཆོད་ see ཅིས་ཀྱང་.
ངོ་རྟོག་ see ཅིས་ཀྱང་.
ངོ་ཐོག་ see ཅིས་ཀྱང་ and ངེས་སོ་.
ངོ་མ་ see ཅིས་ཀྱང་.
ངོ་མོ་ see ཅིས་ཀྱང་.
ངོ་ཚ་ see ཁྲེལ་བ་.
དངོས་ནས་ see ཅིས་ཀྱང་.
མངོན་པར་རྟོགས་པ་ see སྤྲོས་བྲལ་.
ཅི་མྱུར་ see མྱུར་.
ཅིས་ཀྱང་, 48. (Also ཅིས་ནས་ཀྱང་). Here rather with the meaning ‘without fail, for sure, indeed, surely’ in addition
to J.’s ‘anyhow, by all means.’ It is said to be synonymous with ངེས་པར་དུ་ and colloquial ངོ་ཐོག་, as, for instance, in: ངོ་ཐོག་ཕེབ་རོགས་གནང་, ‘I ask (you) to come without fail, indeed, surely, for sure, so that I may count
on it.’ Also རྟེན་ལྡན་. Cf. Desg. in addition to J.—J. (p. 129b) has the spelling ངོ་རྟོག་. Bell s.v. ‘certainly’ ངོ་ཐོག་ (syn. རྟེན་ལྡན་); s.v. ‘indeed’ (syn. རྟེན་རྟེན་); s.v. ‘surely’ ངེས་པར་; s.v. ‘actual’ ངོ་ཐོག་; s.v. ‘real’ ངོ་ཐོག་ (syn. དངོས་ནས་); s.v. ‘really’ ངེས་པར་. Desg. ངོ་ཐོག་ཡིན་ ‘natural, not manufactured,’ but ངོ་ཐོག་ (next article) ‘certitude’ = ངོ་མ་, ངོ་མོ་ or ངོ་ཆོད་. S. Ch. D. ངོ་ཐོག་ ‘true, genuine, really.’ རྟེན་ལྡན་ and རྟེན་རྟེན་ are not in the Dicts. ངོ་མོ་ and ངོ་ཆོད་ are not endorsed by my authorities. See also ངེས་སོ་.
[40]
ཅེས་པ་, colophon. According to J. = ཅེས་སྨྲས་པ་, ‘that which has been spoken,’ i.e. ‘speech, word,’ etc. Corresponds very closely
to D. ‘het gesprokene, het gezegde’ or L. ‘dictum.’ Here, however, the meaning may be extended to ‘piece of writing’ (D. ‘het geschrevene,’ L. ‘scriptum’) or perhaps even more generally ‘the above, the foregoing.’
The other use of the expression, as an abbreviation for ཅེས་བྱ་བ་, ‘the so-called,’ is here, of course, not applicable.
གཅིག་པུ་ (or པོ་) see དྭངས་མར་.
ལྕགས་ཀྱུ་ see ཀྱུ་.
ལྕགས་ནག་ see ཀྱུ་.
ལྕགས་རི་ see ཀྱུ་.
ཆགས་སྡང་, 22. In J. ‘love and hatred,’ but here better ‘attraction (for the pleasant) and
repulsion (for the unpleasant),’ in other words: ‘non-attachment (to weal and woe),
indifference (to the ups and downs of life),’ or again ‘bondage’ (to emotions, impressions,
etc.). S. Ch. D. has ‘passion for, passionate attachment.’ It is the German ‘Lust und Unlust.’
ཆུ་གཏེར་ see གཏེར་.
ཆུ་པ་ see སྐྱོ་བ་.
ཆོ་པ་ see སྐྱོ་བ་.
ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས་ see སྤྲོས་བྲལ་.
ཆོས་ཚུལ་བཞིན་, 34. To be construed: ཆོས་ + ཚུལ་བཞིན་ (པ་ or དུ་), and not as ཆོས་ཚུལ་ + བཞིན་, etc.
ཆོས་མཛད་ (མཁན་), 43. Here most likely in the stricter sense those who have devoted, given, themselves
(entirely) to the religious life, i.e. those who have entered the order, the དགེ་སློང་ or even གྲྭ་པ་, learners, pupils, lay-brothers. Cf. however, [41]J. s.v. ཆོས་བྱེད་པ་, p. 163a, and Desg. who has a subst. ཆོས་མཛད་, ‘lamaist dignity, rank,’ p. 333b.
ཆོས་ཟབ་, 10. Stands here for ཟབ་པའི་ཆོས་, or ཆོས་ཟབ་མོ་, ‘the deep, profound, doctrine, teaching, religion.’ Perhaps an allusion to the ཟབ་ལམ་, the ‘profound doctrine of Buddhism as explained in the Tantras’ (S. Ch. D. s.v.
ཟབ་ལམ་). J. renders it ‘a term of Buddhist mysticism, doctrine of witchcraft,’ whilst Desg. translates
the term as ‘doctrina magica.’ ཆོས་ཟབ་ instead of ཟབ་ཆོས་ perhaps for metrical reasons; in ordinary speech the inversion seems not usual. See
also ཟབ་པ་.
ཆོས་སེམས་ཅན་ see ཁྲེལ་བ་.
མཆོད་གདན་ see གདན་.
འཆང་བ་, 46. ‘To hold, to keep, to stick to, adhere to.’ མ་འཆང་བར་ ‘not keeping (it) so, not preserving, maintaining (it) in that (the same) state,
not letting (it) continue in the same way, not keeping up the state of, not persisting
in (the same way)’ etc.
Freely translated by its reverse: rectifying, redressing, correcting, changing (one’s
attitude, condition, action, etc., previously referred to).
འཆད་ཉན་པ་ see བཤད་ཉན་.
མཇུག་ see རྗེས་མཇུག་པ་.
འཇུག་ see རྗེས་མཇུག་པ་.
རྗེས་མཇུག་པ་, 45. Not in the Dicts., lit. ‘after-track,’ is here, ‘followers, pupils, disciples,
adherents.’ Though འཇུག་ is sometimes used for མཇུག་, see J. 177a, last line, the word [42]རྗེས་འཇུག་, ‘affix, final consonant,’ a grammatical term, is of course different, as well as
J.’s adj. ‘following, coming after.’
The word has also the meaning ‘orphan’ (those left behind). See also under ཁོ་བོའི་, etc.
བརྗོད་པ་ see མཚན་བརྗོད་པ་.
ཉ་ཀུག་ see ཀྱུ་.
ཉོན་མོངས་, 37. Here ‘sin’ or ‘vice’ are to be understood as either the three sins, or vices, or failings, or defects, or frailties, ཉོན་མོངས་གསུམ, ‘lust, anger and stupidity’ (in the conventional rendering), འདོད་ཆགས་, ཞེ་སྡང་, གཏི་མུག་, or the five sins, ཉོན་མོངས་ལྔ་, namely the three mentioned above with the addition of ང་རྒྱལ་ ‘pride’ and ཕྲག་དོག་ ‘envy’ as fourth and fifth.
See also དགྲ་ཉོན་མོངས་.
མཉེན་ see བཤེས་གཉེན་.
སྙིང་པོ་ see བྱང་ཆུབ་སྙིང་པོ་.
སྙིང་རུས་བྱེད་པ་ see བརྩོན་པར་བགྱིད་པ་.
སྙོམས་ལས་འཛིན་པ་, 13. Equals སྙོམས་ལས་བྱེད་ (or དྲན་) པ་ = ‘to be ease-loving, indolent, lazy.’
གཏིང་ནས་, 28. ‘From the bottom’ (sc. of the heart), hence expressions like སྐྱོ་བ་གཏིང་ནས་སྐྱེས་ may be simply translated ‘a deep pity (or sadness) arises, I become very sad, I am
very sorry.’ See also སྐྱོ་བ་.
གཏེར་, 55. Here perhaps better ‘treasure heap’ than mere ‘treasure,’ or perhaps even ‘treasury.’
S. Ch. D. gives as [43]meanings: ‘treasure’ and ‘store-place,’ in this deviating from J. and Desg. S. Ch.
D.’s example ཆུ་གཏེར་, ‘the repository of water, the ocean’, seems to prove his additional explanation.
རྟག་དཔྱད་ see རྟོག་དཔྱོད་.
རྟེན་རྟེན་ see ཅིས་ཀྱང་.
རྟེན་ལྡན་ see ཅིས་ཀྱང་.
རྟེན་པ་, 49. (Pf. and ft. བརྟེན་). Has here simply the primary meaning ‘to adhere to,’ more colloquially, ‘to stick
to,’ or ‘to keep to, hold fast to, to heed, to observe.’ May, however, here be also
taken as Desg.’s ‘to believe in, to trust’ (in the sense of ‘to rely on’) according
to his example ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་གསུང་ལ་རྟེན་པས་, ‘I believe, trust (in) your words’ (p. 420a), or otherwise: to put reliance on (what another says, states, preaches, teaches).
རྟོག་པ་, 32. (Pf. བརྟགས་). May almost be translated here as ‘to contemplate, to consider’ (‘if one comes to
think about it’ or ‘if one looks into that matter’), but not merely as ‘to behold,
to see.’
རྟོག་དཔྱོད་, 47. Evidently the same as J.’s. བརྟགས་དཔྱོད་ ‘examination, trial’ (214b). J. has a verb བརྟག་དཔྱོད་ (or རྟོག་གཞིག་) གཏོང་བ་, occurring in the Padma tʽaṅ yig and in Milaraspa, with the meaning ‘to examine,
search into, see whether or whether not.’ J. has also the forms རྟོག་དཔྱོད་ and བརྟག་དཔྱད་, both subst. ‘examination,’ s.v. དཔྱོད་པ་, ‘to examine,’ p. 329a.
Desg. gives རྟོག་དཔྱད་ as syn. with རྟོག་པ་, ‘to consider, test, judge’; བརྟགས་དཔྱོད་, ‘examination, judgment.’
[44]
S. Ch. D. རྟོག་དཔྱོད་ (= བསམ་མནོ་, or མནོ་བསམ་) ‘consideration, examination, trial,’ and (558a) བརྟག་དཔྱད་ (= ཞིབ་དཔྱད་), ‘examination, careful weighing of all the details of a case, deliberation.’ S.
Ch. D. seems to treat རྟོག་དཔྱོད་ and བརྟག་དཔྱད་ as two quite different words. S.v. དཔྱོད་པ་ he has further རྟོག་དཔྱོད་པ་, ‘to examine anything,’ and བརྟག་དཔྱད་, ‘investigation, inquiry.’
རྟོགས་པ་ see སྤྲོས་བྲལ་.
ལྟ་བ་ 51. This word seems here to mean ‘vision, illumination, (direct mystical) contemplation,
the seeing face to face.’ In our passage it is the direct vision (the ‘vision direct’),
proper to, inherent in, characteristic of, belonging to, the knowledge pertaining
to the actionless (or undifferentiated) state, the ‘passive-state-knowledge-vision.’
See also སྤྲོས་བྲལ་.
ལྟག་སྒོ་ see སྒོ་.
ལྟོ་ཆས་ see ཁྲེལ་བ་.
ལྟོ་གདན་ see གདན་.
ལྟོབ་ཆས་ see ཁྲེལ་བ་.
སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ see སྤྲོས་བྲལ་.
བརྟག་དཔྱད་ see རྟོག་དཔྱོད་.
བརྟག་དཔྱོད་གཏོང་བ་ see རྟོག་དཔྱོད་.
བརྟགས་དཔྱོད་ see རྟོག་དཔྱོད་.
བསྟན་པ་ (གཉིས་) see ལམ་རིམ་.
བསྟན་པ་འཛིན་པ་, 23. ‘To follow, to keep to the teaching; to be or remain true, faithful to the teaching,
to hold fast to it, to stick to it.’ See also རྟེན་པ་.
[45]
ཐབས་ see འདུལ་ཐབས་.
ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན་པ་ཆེན་པོ་དགེ་འདུན་གྲུབ་དཔལ་བཟང་པོ་, lit. ‘Great-all-knowing-clergy-perfection-good-glory,’ corresponds to a Sk. Mahā-sarva-jña-saṁgha-siddhi-shrī-bhadra.
See for literature about him: Schulemann, Geschichte der Dalailamas, pp. 91–92, note 11, and S. Ch. D.: The Hierarchy of the Dalai Lamas, J.A.S.B., Vol.
LXXIII, Pt. I, extra No., p. 81.
ཐུགས་ནི་ཟབ་ཡངས་མཁྱེན་བརྩེའི་གཏེར་, 55. This is here, in my opinion, not a sort of Hottentottenpotentatentantenattentater-like
formation. I take the ཟབ་ཡངས་ to refer to the ཐུགས་, a profound and wide mind, whilst the མཁྱེན་བརྩེ་ only refers to the གཏེར་, the treasury of omniscient mercy. It is not likely that the qualities of width and
depth form part of an enumeration of which the remaining items are love and knowledge
or even (as a compound) omniscient-mercy. See the various component words in this
glossary.
ཐུགས་རྗེ་ see མཁྱེན་བརྩེ་.
ཐུགས་གཟུ་བོ་ see བློ་གཟུ་བོ་.
མཐེབ་ཀྱུ་ see ཀྱུ་.
མཐོན་པོ་ see ལམ་མཐོན་པོ་.
འཐབ་མོ་འགྱེད་པ་ see འགྱེ་བ་.
དག་སྣང་, 43. J.’s entry under this entry is as follows: “དག་ (པའི༌) སྣང་ (བ་) Schr. ‘good opinion’ (?), prob.: a pure, sound view or knowledge Glr.; in Mil. it has a similar meaning.” He adds an oral sentence: “*dhag-náṅ jón-wa* C. to lead
a holy life.” (sic. jón = jóṅ?) Schroeter has (135b): “དག་སྣང་, a good opinion, a good conception of any thing, a conceit, a thought.” [Based on
an Italian ‘concetto’?] He has two further entries ‘དག་པའི་སྣང་བ་, to form a good [46]opinion of any individual,’ and ‘དག་སྣང་སྤྱོང་ (read: སྦྱོང་) བ་, to form a good opinion, or to conceive well of any one.’
In our passage we are inclined to take སྣང་ as སྣང་བ་, as ‘view, thought, idea, conception,’ etc., and སྦྱོང་བ་ = ‘to exercise, practise, perform’, or even ‘to entertain, cherish (thoughts).’ དག་ we take as དག་པ་, ‘pure’—the connection with thought not the opposite of false, erroneous, but of
bad, cruel, unkind. So here the expression seems to mean ‘to think with goodwill,
with kindness (of others),’ not the colloquial ‘to have a good opinion of, to think well of.’ To think ‘good’
is here the opposite of to think ‘evil,’ but the idiomatic value of the expression
‘to think well of’ (as the opposite of ‘to think poorly of’) would make the latter
rendering misleading. The real value, then, of the expression as used in this passage,
seems to be: ‘to think good, kind thoughts of,’ i.e. purely, or saintly in the sense
of kindly, lovingly, benevolently, in a friendly manner, with sympathy, but not, as
J. seems to suggest, intellectually correct. We may expand the rendering into ‘with
a holy mind, with thoughts of saintliness, thinking saintly thoughts.’ Compare J.’s
colloquial phrase quoted above. So, as to the interpretation of the line in which
the compound occurs, we take it that it means to enjoin, in contrast with the previous
line in which it is said that beings in general must be thought of with kindness,
that religious people (instead of the mere laymen) must be thought of in a still better,
higher manner, namely with holiness and saintliness.
One of my informants was first inclined to take དག་སྣང་སྦྱོང་བ་ as ‘to teach, to preach the true knowledge.’ Though he later on sided with the explanation
adopted above, the opinion should be recorded, but it should be added that a second
informant rejected this view of the first one.
Attention should be drawn to the meaning of སྣང་དག་, ‘the soul’ (with spellings སྣང་ and ནང་; དག་, རྟགས་, བརྟག་, སྟག་, s. J.). Also the curious expression ‘to be indifferent’ སྣང་དག་མ་བཏང་བ་, S. Ch. D.; and སྣང་དག་མི་བྱེད་པ་, Bell. These expressions not in Desg.
[47]
དག་སྣང་སྦྱོང་བ་ see དག་སྣང་.
དང་པོ་ see དཔེ་.
དྭངས་མར་, 27. Adverb: ‘purely, first class, first rate.’ Not in J. but in Desg., yet here
in a slightly different application. About S. Ch. D.’s ‘gravy’ and ‘relish’ see below.
དྭངས་མ་ with the genitive seems to mean ‘acme’, ‘essence’, the typical embodiment of something,
like in expressions as ‘a first class liar, a thief pure and simple, the very devil,
satan himself, nothing short of an angel, a saint in propria persona.’ དགྲ་བོའི་དྭངས་མ་, ‘the very enemy.’ In the colloquial དྭངས་མ་, ཡང་རྩེ་ and ཨང་གི་དང་པོ་ may have the same meaning. The latter is something like pidgin-English ‘number one’
or the kitchen Malay equivalent ‘nommer satu.’ Other equations are གཅིག་པོ་ (or པུ་), also རང་, the Anglo-Indian ‘pukka.’
The word དྭངས་ may mean soup or gravy in the following case, when there is question of singling
out the liquid portion from a mixture of broth and liquid. The primary meaning seems
in that case rather to be liquid as contrasted to solid. ང་ལ་དྭངས་བླུགས་རོགས་གནང་ = give me (only) the liquid (not the solid stuff), pour out to me (only) the liquid.
But this དྭངས་ has no final མ་. A common word for soup which is not in the Dicts. is ‘rü thang’, probably རུས་ཐང་, or ཐང་ alone. This latter word is in J. with the meaning of ‘potion’, a medical term, and
in S. Ch. D. as ‘potion, plain decoction, or mixture to be drunk after a medicinal
pill has been taken.’ The word རུས་ཐང་ means originally bone-soup, but has acquired also the more general meaning ‘soup.’
ཐང་ can be applied to meat-soup, ཤ་ཁུ་, but ཤ་ཐང་ cannot be used. It might be that ཐང་ and དྭངས་ are really the same word.
[48]
དད་པ་སྐྱེས་ see སྐྱེ་བ་.
དམ་པོ་, 30. Might here, in connection with ambition, be translated as ‘fierce,’ an extension
of its primary meaning ‘strong.’
དུག་པོ་ see སྐྱོ་བ་.
དུག་ལོག་ see སྐྱོ་བ་.
དུགས་པོ་ see སྐྱོ་བ་.
དུས་ནམ་ཡང་, 24. For ever, always.
དུས་མྱུར་བ་ see མྱུར་.
དོན་ཆུང་ཆུང་ see དོན་རེ་ཆུང་.
དོན་རེ་ཆུང་, 40. ‘Exceedingly stupid, meaningless, useless, silly, senseless.’ The particle རེ་ has an emphatic value, but it is difficult to define its precise scope in English.
Oral information is vague on the subject, and seems to point towards a possibility
that the རེ་ is a syllable of exclamation or turns the expression, of which it forms part, into
an exclamation. དོན་རེ་ཆུང་. ‘Oh, how silly!’ An equivalent is དོན་ཆུང་ཆུང་ཡིན་ = དོན་མེད་. དོན་ཆུང་ alone is not used, and དོན་ཆུང་ཆུང་ demands a final རེད་ or ཡིན་.
S. Ch. D. (502a) translates ཁྱོད་བོད་རྣམས་སྙིང་རེ་རྗེ་ as: ‘I pity you, ye Tibetans’; perhaps better ‘What a pity, O ye Tibetans.’ Compare
the list of words with wedged-in རེ་ in J. s.v. རེ་ p. 533b.
དྲིན་ཆེ་བ་, 16. Also དྲིན་ཆེན་, adjective ‘kind.’ According to S. Ch. D. also ‘very kind, great boon, and the great
or greatest benefactor.’ S. Ch. D.’s wording is unsatisfactorily indefinite and his
examples, taken from J., fit the text badly. [49]J. does not define the combination དྲིན་ཆེ་བ་ though he has an example བཀའ་དྲིན་ཆེ་བ་ with the meaning ‘greatest benefit.’ Two colloquial examples are: དྲིན་ཆེ་བའི་ཡབ་ཡུམ་གཉིས་, ‘the two (very) kind parents,’ and མི་འདི་དྲིན་ཆེན་ཡིན་, that man is (very) kind.
In form དྲིན་ཆེ་བ་ is a comparative, ‘kinder.’ ཆེན་པོ་ is one of those adjectives which have a comparative and superlative of their own
as:
|
Great.
|
Many.
|
Good.
|
Small.
|
Bad. |
positive
|
ཆེན་པོ་
|
མང་པོ་
|
ཡག་པོ་
|
ཆུང་ཆུང་
|
སྡུག་པོ་ |
comparative
|
ཆེ་བ་
|
མང་བ་ (or ང་)
|
ཡག་ག་
|
ཆུང་ང་
|
སྡུག་ག་ |
superlative
|
ཆེ་ཤོས་
|
མང་ཤོས་
|
ཡག་ཤོས་
|
ཆུང་ཤོས་
|
སྡུག་ཤོས་ |
In practice, however, as shown by the above examples, the form is used for an ordinary
quality in the positive degree though implying an amount of abundance or fullness
of the quality referred to. Bell (p. 33) and Hannah (p. 129) have described these
degrees of comparison. Short and partial notes in S. Ch. D.’s grammar (p. 31) and
Henderson (p. 23). See J. Dict. s.v. ཤོས་, p. 564. དྲིན་ཆེ, J. 262b (as equal to དྲིན་ཅན་) is not acknowledged by my informants.
དྲིན་ཆེ་ is objected to by my teachers because they say it never occurs alone but requires
a final བ་, except in the superlative form དྲིན་ཆེ་ཤོས་ which, of course, is another thing. See, however, S. Ch. D. བཀའ་དྲིན་ཆེ་, p. 654, J. p. 13. As to the ཆེན་ or ཆེན་པོ་ in many Tibetan adjectives, this is better regarded as an enclitic particle, exactly
corresponding to the English termination -ful. As little as the English -ful really
[50]means ‘full’, does the Tibetan ཆེན་ (པོ་) as a termination of adjectives really mean ‘great.’
Bell has དྲིན་ཆེན་པོ་ for ‘kind.’
The word དྲིན་ལན་ and its uses merit a separate inquiry. In this place we shall limit ourselves to
stating that the entry gratitude (S. Ch. D., Ramsay, Schroeter) seems incorrect. The
confusion has most likely come about because a དྲིན་ལན་ is an answer to kindness (return gift, etc.) and so betokens gratitude.
དྲིན་ཆེན་ (པོ་) see དྲིན་ཆེ་བ་.
དྲིན་ཇི་བཞིན་, 21. Ellipse for: according to (or, in the measure of) whatever kindness (you have
shown to me).
དྲིན་ལན་ see དྲིན་ཆེ་བ་.
དྲུང་འཁོར་ see བརྩེ་.
གདན་ see བྱང་ཆུབ་སྙིང་པོ་.
གདུག་པ་, 35. The three Dicts. are not at one as to the exact shades of meaning of གདུག་པ་.
J. has, subst.: ‘anything hurtful, or any injury, mischief, harm, done.’
Desg., subst.: ‘dommage, perte, mal.’
S. Ch. D. no substantive.
J., adj. (= གདུག་པ་ཅན༌), ‘noxious, mischievous, dangerous.’ Desg., adj. only གདུག་པ་ཅན་, not གདུག་པ་ alone: nuisible (noxious), and a གདུག་ = གདོག་, deteriorated.
S. Ch. D., adj.: གདུག་པོ་, vicious, mischievous, deleterious, poisonous.
In J. and S. Ch. D. further applied meanings as: wild, hideous (screams); ferocity (in beasts), deleterious
(smell), fierce (woman).
[51]
In our passage the expression གདུག་སེམས་ཅན་ may be rendered by malign, wicked, evil, evil-minded, spiteful, with sufficient correctness.
གདུག་པ་ཅན་ see གདུག་པ་.
གདུག་པོ་ see གདུག་པ་.
གདུག་སེམས་ཅན་ see གདུག་པ་.
གདུང་བ་ see གདུང་དབྱངས་.
གདུང་དབྱངས་, Colophon. J. renders this word as ‘a song expressive of longing or of grief, an
elegy (Mil.)’; but this definition is not quite typical of our present poem. S. Ch.
D. has ‘a song of longing grief.’ J.’s example མོས་གུས་གདུང་བ་དཔག་མེད་སྐྱེ་, where གདུང་བ་ means (spiritual) love, seems to point out to a meaning more apposite here. So we
would prefer a translation: paean, hymn of praise (D. lofzang), or psalm instead of elegy. Other words to be considered: song of thanksgiving,
memorial song, lament, plaintive song (jammerklacht?), memorial verses, an in memoriam, a memorial, etc. See also དབྱངས་.
The dge rgan, however, explains the word indeed in J.’s manner, but states that the
longing and grief are not the worldly sentiments but religious ones. The longing and
grief are concerned with the sorrows of the world and a yearning after spiritual realities,
but not with the memory of the three teachers mentioned in the poem. If this is true,
the above hypothesis is likely to be a wrong one and in my translation of the colophon
the words there used should in that case rather run ‘as a song of yearning for the
higher life’ (cf. the G. ‘Weltschmerz’).
གདོག་ see གདུག་པ་.
འདུལ་ཐབས་, 37. Steps, measures, to subdue or tame, etc. འདུལ་ཐབས་བྱེད་པ་, to take such measures.
[52]
འདོགས་པ་ see རྒྱན་པ་.
འདྲེན་པ, 20. (Fut. དྲང་). If the ལྕགས་ཀྱུ་ (see ཀྱུ་) is here to be thought of as a goad (like the one of the mahout) then the verb should
be understood as sub J. 2, ‘to conduct, lead, guide’ (by prodding). My teachers take
it as ‘to draw,’ or ‘pull.’ Pictorial representations might decide the point. My teachers
think rather of a rod with a hook at the end, like the episcopal staff, and not of
angling with a fishhook or prodding with a goad.
སྡུག་ཡུས་, 33. Or simply ཡུས་, here: ‘the loss of temper, wrath, angry explosion or outburst.’ This sense is not
given in the Dicts., though J.’s 4, ‘ardour, fervour, transport’ comes near it. སྡུག་ཡུས་ is the same as ཡུས་, but for the fact that the former word shows the cause, an outburst on account of
trouble, vexation, worry, pain, sorrow. (སྡུག་) ཡུས་བཤད་ (སྟོན་ or བྱེད་) པ་ = to show (or to lose) one’s temper, to flare up, to burst out, to break loose, to
explode in anger, wrath. ཕ་མ་ལ་སྡུག་ཡུས་མ་བཤད་, ‘don’t show temper to your parents.’ དཔོན་ལ་ཡུས་མ་བཤད་, ‘don’t lose your temper before (or with) the master.’ དེ་རིང་ཁོས་ང་ལ་ཡུས་མང་པོ་བསྟན་སོང་, ‘to-day he has entirely lost his temper before (or to) me.’ It is synonymous, in
this sense, with the word འུ་ཐུག་ which is also dealt with inadequately in the Dicts. q.v. མི་སུ་ལ་ཡང་འུ་ཐུག་མ་སྟོན་, ‘don’t lose your temper to anyone, to whomsoever.’ ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་འུ་ཐུག་བཤད་དགོས་པའི་དོན་མེད་, ‘there is no reason (no need, or it is senseless) to lose your temper.’ (Cf. D. uitvallen, uitvaren, uitvoeteren, opstuiven, uitbarsten.)
གནམ་ལ་སྙེག་འདྲ་བ་, 2. Either ‘as if rising towards the [53]sky,’ in which case འདྲ་བ་ refers to all the previous words, or: as if rising whilst in the sky, in which case the འདྲ་བ་ would only refer to སྙེག་པ་.
གནས་པ་ see བློ་གཟུ་བོ་.
མནོ་བསམ་ see རྟོག་དཔྱོད་.
རྣལ་འབྱོར་སོགས་, 9. I have not received an explanation of the ‘etc.’ (སོགས་) in this place and I ignore what kind of category is alluded to here. It seems not
probable that the ’18 classes of science’ can be meant, which, in the Mahāvyutpatti
(Ed. M.A.S.B.), form group XXIV, p. 20. Group L, (p. 59), furnishes more likely material,
but Yoga is missing in it.
སྣང་དག་ see དག་སྣང་.
དཔལ་ལྡན་, 56. ‘Glorious, noble,’ also ‘having abundance.’ Twice mentioned in J.’s article
but not translated, perhaps because the meaning is so evident. Curious that neither
Desg. nor J. specially cite this compound to which S. Ch. D. gives 7 lines, besides
mentioning several combinations.
དཔལ་བླ་མེད་, 52. Is this one word?
དཔལ་འབར་བ་, 53. ‘Glory- or splendour-burning,’ i.e. ‘to blaze with glory,’ or, more tamely,
‘to be famous, renowned, celebrated’; the latter quoted by J. from Cs. s.v. འབར་བ་ (It may also be taken as glory-spreading, i.e. getting more famous). Desg. quotes
a geographical name དཔལ་འབར་, Chinese Pienpa. The expression is not in Desg. or S. Ch. D., and in J. only as taken
from Cs., so that the latter’s explanation needs verification. The literal translation
‘to blaze with glory’ fits here better.
Colloquially འབར་བ་ is ‘to thrive, to prosper, to do well.’ འབར་འདུག་, ‘he is doing well, is well-to-do, thriving.’ འབར་[54]སོང་, he has become rich, has made a success of his life, has come out top dog, has made
good, has become wealthy, opulent, is safe, got his ship home, has ‘got there,’ made
his pile, is now a man of position. (Fr. est arrivé. D. is binnen, heeft zijn schaapjes op het drooge.)
དཔེ་, 53. Here དཔེ་ = དཔེ་བྱད་ or དཔེ་བྱད་བཟང་པོ་, technically ‘the eighty symmetrical parts, proportions, or points of beauty’ (Cs., Mahāvyutpatti); or beauties, lesser signs (de Harlez); proportions (Schiefner).
See the references under མཚན་ and མཚན་དཔེ་. J. (s.v. དཔེ༌, p. 327b) gives the full expression ‘the eighty physical perfections of Buddha,’ དཔེ་བྱད་བཟང་པོ་བརྒྱད་ཅུ་, and དཔེ་བྱད་ alone ‘proportion, symmetry, beauty.’ J. has the entry དཔེ་ ‘symmetry, harmony, beauty (in certain phrases)’ but S. Ch. D. omits this. Our passage
is an example of this use, but the syllable དཔེ་ is really an abbreviation here and not a full and independent word. Desg. seems to
be mistaken in saying: དཔེ་བྱེད་ (sic, misprint for བྱད་) or མཚན་དཔེ་, ‘proportion, symmetry, the 80 marvels of the body of the Buddha.’ So དཔེ་བྱད་ཅན་ means indeed ‘symmetrical, showing 80 marvels,’ but these meanings would not be applicable
to མཚན་དཔེ་ཅན་ which could only mean ‘showing the 32 signs and 80 beauties.’
For the rest Desg.’s 2nd article s.v. དཔེ་ adds to J.’s data, and his དཔེ་སྲོལ་ and དཔེ་ཚུལ་ ‘custom, rule, example’ are new. In Desg. ‘custom, rule’ tally with S. Ch. D. ‘way
of doing, method’ which J. has as ‘pattern, model,’ but which he translates more freely
in his examples. J. s.v. བྱད་ ‘proportion, symmetry, beauty,’ quotes a དཔེ་བྱད་ from the Dzl. in the same [55]sense. According to this དཔེ་ would be equal to བྱད་ which seems improbable and is denied by my informants. An example of the use of དཔེ་ཚུལ་ is the following: དེ་རིང་སང་གི་དགོན་པའི་ལོ་གསར་གྱི་འཆམ་དེ་དང་པོའི་དཔེ་ཚུལ་རེད་, the new year’s dance of now-a-days in the monastery is in imitation of the old way,
is after the ancient pattern, the old manner, follows the old example. དཔེ་ཚུལ་ is here not exactly ལུགས་སྲོལ་ ‘custom’ but rather: ‘(with) the (ancient) method (as) an example.’
Note the use of དང་པོའི་ in the above example as ‘old, ancient.’
དཔེ་འདྲ་པོ་ see སྒོ་.
དཔེ་བྱད་ see དཔེ་.
དཔེ་བྱེད་ (= བྱད་) see དཔེ་.
དཔེ་ཚུལ་ see དཔེ་.
དཔེ་སྲོལ་ see དཔེ་.
སྤྲི་ན་དཀར་པོ་, 2, 5. The white cloud is a figure often occurring in Tibetan poetry. If used as
an emblem of holiness or spiritual loftiness in connection with eminent persons, this
expression may perhaps contain a stereotyped allusion to the name of the tenth and
supreme bhūmi or stage of the Bodhisattva, the dharma-megha, ‘cloud of virtue,’ ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྤྲིན་. See Mahāvyutpatti, ed. A.S.B., p. 11. Here evidently not J.’s (336a) ‘emblem of transitoriness,’ though the point might be argued on the basis of the
final remark s.v. གདུང་བྱངས་, see above.
སྤྲོས་བྲལ་, 51. This word corresponds according to S. Ch. D. to a Sk. nishprapañca (or apañca, aprapañca) which in Macdonell’s Sk. Dict. is rendered by ‘unevolved, exempt from [56]multiformity.’ We may, therefore, think of expressions like ‘the undifferentiated,
homogeneous, absolute.’ The word dhātu being the Sk. equivalent for Tib. དབྱིངས་ the whole expression དབྱིངས་སྤྲོས་བྲལ་ must correspond to a Sk. aprapañca dhātu. The same Sk. Dict. translates the word dhātu as ‘layer, component part, element.’
In Tibetan དབྱིངས་ means, according to J.: (1) ‘the heavens’; (2) ‘height’; (3) ‘extent, region, space,
in metaphysics an undefined idea.’ According to the etymology སྤྲོས་བྲལ་ should mean ‘passive, actionless, quietistic, inert,’ but according to the etymology
of its Sk. prototype rather ‘undifferentiated, monadic.’ One of my informants compares
it with ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱངས་, dharma dhātu, and སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་, shunyatā, the void, the absolute. In this connection one should compare J.’s statements
(215a) that in modern (Tibetan) Buddhism the term མངོན་པར་རྟོགས་པ་ (अभिसमय), ‘clear understanding or perception’ means the same as སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་, and further (259b) that དོན་དམ་, originally परमार्थ, has, in later times, also become equivalent to སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་. It seems that the old metaphysicians reached regions and distinctions where their
followers could no longer join them, and hence the process became ‘omne ignotum pro སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་.’ For practical purposes the rendering ‘absolute,’ or ‘motionless’ might be used
for སྤྲོས་བྲལ་, whilst the word དབྱིངས་ might be rendered by ‘principle, state, region.’ If occurring in a specimen of the
more technically and theoretically philosophical literature of Northern Buddhism,
a more precise rendering and more careful definition might be required. Taking the
following རྟོགས་པ་ as ‘knowledge, perception, cognition,’ then the whole expression becomes in English
‘the knowledge of the motionless state (or [57]region, or principle)’ or—more pedantic but perhaps truer—‘the knowledge of (that
is: pertaining to, inherent in) the monadic state.’ Other equivalents: ‘a state of
stillness, the still state’ and, mystically, ‘the wisdom of the silence.’
One of my informants, the dge rgan, knows of a colloquial use of སྤྲོས་བྲལ་ = རེ་བ་མེད་ = ‘hopeless,’ but my second authority ignores this use. The following two examples
were given: འདི་ཤེས་པ་སྤྲོས་བྲལ་རེད་, ‘it is labour lost (hopeless) to [try and] know this.’ You cannot hope to know this.
(N.B.—Note the elliptic construction ‘hopeless to know’ for ‘to try to know, to study and
so come to know.’) ཡི་གེ་ཡག་པོ་ཀློག་ཤེས་ཀྱི་མི་འདུག་སུམ་རྟགས་ཤེས་པ་སྤྲོས་བྲལ་རེད་, ‘As he does not even know how to read well (or properly), it is hopeless (lost labour),
for him to (or: how can he?) study grammar’ (Not: how can he pretend to know grammar?).
N.B.—The Tibetan does not ‘read’ but ‘reads books’; he does not ‘write’ but ‘writes letters,’
he does not ‘go’ but ‘goes to the shop.’ In short, he is a very objective being.
ཕ་, 8. ‘Father.’ It is not clear why in the same line the same person is referred to
by the ordinary ཕ་ and then by the honorific ཡབ་, unless ཡབ་སྲས་ is a standard expression which cannot be changed whilst the first ཕ་ is used for the sake of variety in expression.
The same double use of the honorific and ordinary terms for father occurs in Laufer’s
‘Ein Sühngedicht der Bonpo’, line 41.
ཕྱོགས་, 5. In expressions like ལྡིང་བའི་ཤར་ཕྱོགས་ན་ the བའི་ is explained as equivalent to སའི་, ‘of the place where.’ So the phrase མི་དེ་འགྲོ་བའི་ཕྱོགས་འདི་ལ་ should be understood as ‘towards where the man has gone, to the place where the man
has gone,’ འགྲོ་སའི་ཕྱོགས་འདི་ལ་.
[58]
ཕྱོགས་པ་, 14. Here verb, infinitive, connected with Gendundub in instrumental (agentive) or
genitival relation: to turn, move towards, to tend to.
ཕྱོགས་སུ་ལྷུང་བ་, 46. Lit. ‘to fall aside,’ but here, as applied to the mind (ཡིད་), simply to be deflected, to go astray, to fall, sin (mentally), to deviate from
the right path (religion, the right), to lapse (from virtue), etc.
འཕུང་བར་འདོད་པ་, 29. ‘To wish the ruin, the undoing, destruction of, to be bent on the perdition of, to wish evil to’ = མེད་པར་འདོད་པ་.
བྱང་ཆུབ་སྙིང་པོ་, 17. The bodhimaṇḍa, according to the Dicts. historically and geographically Gaya,
where the Buddha attained nirvāṇa. Here, however, it means rather the state implied
by the locality, ‘illumination, the essence of purification, final sainthood’ literally
‘the quintessence of bodhi.’ In Christian language Golgotha (or the Cross) is similarly
used in a metaphorical sense. In living Tibetan བྱང་ཆུབ་ (bodhi) is not understood as ‘wisdom’ but as ‘saintliness, purity.’ There is, it
seems, a confusion in the group of Tibetan [and Chinese!] renderings of bodhimaṇḍa
(bodhi-essence) and bodhi-maṇḍala (bodhi-round), and their synonyms, a confusion which
may already have its origin in India itself. The treatment of these words in the Dicts.
is not satisfactory. J. and S. Ch. D. give s.v. བྱང་ཆུབ་སྙིང་པོ་ this word as synonymous with རྡོ་རྗེ་གདན་, Vajrāsana, but under སྙིང་པོ་ S. Ch. D. has the entry: ‘བྱང་ཆུབ་སྙིང་པོ་, the spirit of the Bodhisattva, i.e. Buddhahood.’ This is the sense meant in our
passage, though it may be doubted whether བྱང་ཆུབ་ really stands here for བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་ as S. Ch. D. interprets it instead of only for bodhi. The Mahāvyutpatti (A.S.B.,
p. 44) has Bodhimaṇḍa = བྱང་ཆུབ་སྙིང་པོ་, and Cs. translates, ‘the essence of sanctity [59]or holiness (name of the holy place at Gaya).’ I yet believe that here a confusion
of maṇḍa and maṇḍala must be thought of. J. has, s.v. སྙིང་པོ་ (p. 198b) ‘snyiṅ-po-byaṅ c̀ʽúb- (or byaṅ-c̀ʽub-snyiṅ-po)-la mc̀ʽís-pa, to become Buddha Thgy.’ Rockhill, Life of the Buddha, p. 35, mentions the form byang-tchub-kyi-snying-po
as the equivalent for bodhimaṇḍa, and though Foucaux in the alphabetical index to
his translation of the Lalita Vistāra gives only the form without ཀྱི་, yet in his text, in the places I verified (p. 239, five times), there is the ཀྱི་ as with Rockhill.
In mentioning the word རྡོ་རྗེ་གདན་ a special reference must be made to the element གདན་, commonly translated as bolster, cushion, seat, rug, etc. J. is very detailed about
it. He has: ‘a bolster, or seat composed of several quilts or cushions, put one upon
the other (five for common people, nine for people of quality).’ Desg. simply ‘stuffed
cushion.’ S. Ch. D. more general ‘a low seat, a divan, cushion, a bolster.’ As to
J.’s definition my authorities declare that this may be so perhaps ‘on the Ladakh
side,’ but is certainly not so in Tibet and in the Darjeeling district. They do not
know about the details of five and nine cushions. They take the meaning far wider
than bolster or cushion. They say that anything used to support anything or to seat
anybody may be called གདན་, it may be a sheet of cloth, a carpet, a blanket, a cushion, a bolster, a seat in
general, anything used for lying or sitting down on. The word has a meaning exactly
opposite to the English ‘cover’ and can consequently be used in as many varied senses
as the latter. Etymologically—if the root of གདན་, as seems probable, means ‘to support’—the word would mean something like ‘bearer,’
‘basis,’ ‘bed,’ ‘floor,’ ‘upholder.’ We might think of ‘underwear,’ though in English that particular word is used with quite another association of
ideas. In typography there is a word ‘underlay’ which corresponds exactly to the meaning
of གདན་. The word ‘bedplate’, used in engineering, comes also near to it. It will be easily
seen how an applied meaning as ‘cushion, bolster,’ if given as the general sense of
the word, would in many cases be totally inadequate. The line of associations to which
‘cushion’ belongs, and the line of associations to which ‘seat, support, underlay’
belong, intersect at only one [60]point and for the rest have nothing in common. A table-cloth may be called གདན་ because the food rests on it (ལྟོ་གདན་ is used in this sense; lit. something like ‘food-sheet, that on which the food rests’).
In a ritual it is prescribed that the གདན་ for the offerings should be a spotless piece of white cotton or other cloth, called
མཆོད་གདན་, ‘offering sheet,’ ‘that on which the offerings rest.’ Bell has ས་གདན་ for ‘carpet’; small cushion, placed on chair ཁ་གདན་; large cushion on ground འབོལ་གདན་. This is a most interesting example illustrating the fact that it is strictly necessary
first to find out the root-idea of a Tibetan word before translating it by words representing
the incidental applications of that root-idea. Whoever has handled Chinese dictionaries
knows how specially necessary this is in studying Indo-Chinese languages. The Sanskrit
equivalent, āsana, is derived from the root ās, to sit or lie, but the Tib. root seems
different.
Further notes on གདན་. Cf. J. མ་གདན་ (pr. magdàn), ground, basis, foundation, p. 409a. Bell, apron པང་གདན་. Cs., Grammar, p. 170, l. 10, translates གདན་ as couch (stuffed seat). Lewin, Manual, p. 123, first word last line: ‘mat, seat’,
in the same sentence taken over from Cs.’s Grammar. Two synonyms for J.’s མ་གདན་, quoted above, are རྨང་གདན་ and གཞི་གདན་. Bell also has ‘mat.’
བྱམས་སྙིང་རྗེ་, 50. Seems simply an amplified form for ‘love.’ Difficult to be translated exactly,
Sk. maitrīkaruṇā, may be treated as a compound, loving-kindness, love and kindness,
or pity. On the question of karuṇā, especially, the learned have descanted profusely.
བླ་ (ན་) མེད་ (པ་), 52. Sk. अनुत्तर, unsurpassed, unexcelled, unrivalled, supreme, incomparable, most high, highest.
Not specially entered in J. but illustrated by an example s.v. བླ་. [61]Altogether absent in Desg. S. Ch. D. བླ་མེད་རྣམས་ལ་, ‘to those who are supreme, or to the followers of the Anuttara school.’ A curious
entry! See S. Ch. D. also s.v. བླ་ན་.
བླ་མ་, 3. Here perhaps better ‘teacher’ than ‘priest’ or ‘superior.’ The word may be here
equally well taken in the singular as in the plural, but the latter is perhaps more
likely.
བླ་མེད་, see བླ་ན་མེད་པ་.
བློ་གཟུ་བོ་, 47. ‘Straight, upright, righteous mind.’ J.’s entry is a little vague. I think he
takes ཐུགས་ in his example ཐུགས་གཟུ་བོ་ as an indication that གཟུ་བོ་ is also a honorific form. That, however, is not the case. Compare also the quotation
from Cs. in S. Ch. D., གཟུ་བོར་གནས་པ་ ‘to be impartial and straightforward, to be on the side of honesty.’ I don’t find
this example in Schmidt. Desg. ‘straight, upright, (élevé,) just, honest.’ According to the above the word is an adj. and the translation of the passage becomes ‘whether you persevere in a straight (righteous)
mind.’ The verb གནས་པ་ has then to be taken as ‘to hold, adhere to, persevere in (an opinion, etc.).’ If however, we should find that གཟུ་བོ་ can also be sbst. ‘righteousness,’ ‘straightness,’ (not in any Dict.), then གནས་པ་ would have the other meaning of ‘to dwell, reside’ and the phrase would have to be
rendered ‘whether the mind (continues to) dwell(s) in righteousness.’ S. Ch. D. renders
ཐུགས་གཟུ་བོ་ as ‘honest mind,’ but the sense honest versus dishonest seems not quite applicable
in our passage. J. is vague here. My informants gave the above definition ‘straight, upright’ as their
own but felt afterwards vague about this example which, though they had framed it,
they could not vouch for: མི་དེ་གཟུ་བོར་གནས་མི་གནས་ལྟོས་ཤིག་, ‘see whether the man keeps straight or not.’ The framer honestly confessed that
whilst we were discussing the word he had been influenced by S. Ch. D.’s Dict. in coining the sentence; a [62]confession so instructive for idiom-verifiers that I think it worth while to record
it here.
Finally, Desg. supports S. Ch.’s second meaning ‘witness’ for གཟུ་བོ་. He, however, does not give S. Ch.’s form གཟུ་དཔང་. The ordinary word for witness is, of course, དཔང་ (པོ་). It is characteristic of S. Ch. D. that he copies J.’s extract from Sch. under གཟུ་དཔང་ ‘witness, mediator,’ but then immediately adds his own individual interpretation
which not only is likely to be correct, but which also nullifies and contradicts the
previous entry which he copied immediately above. He himself says, ‘an honest and
truthful witness.’ It often occurs that S. Ch. D. brings modifications, extensions
and even corrections to J.’s statements, but at the same time he copies J. far too
slavishly and so contradicts himself in the pages of his own dictionary. Whether meanings
like ‘reliable, straightforward, correct, proper,’ etc., have to be attached to གཟུ་བོ་ is as yet uncertain.
བློ་བཟང་གྲགས་པ་, 8. In Sk. Sumatikīrti. According to the Sk. dictionaries the primary sense of ‘sumati’
is ‘benevolence.’ In present-day Tibetan བློ་བཟང་ is rather ‘good-natured, kindhearted,’ as against དྲིན་ཆེན་པོ་ ‘benevolent.’ So the Tibetan name has to be rendered as Good-nature-fame, or Famous
good-nature, the personal name of Tsoṅ kʽa pa.
དབང་དུ་ (མ་) སོང་བ་, 22. (Not) fallen under the power (of).…
དབྱངས་, 54 and colophon. This word seems here hardly to mean ‘song, singing tune,’ but rather
‘melody, melodiousness, sweetness,’ etc. This tallies to a certain extent with Csoma’s
translation of the title of list LXI (p. 86) of the Mahāvyutpatti, ‘Names of the 60
sorts (or divisions) of melody or melodious voices (or vocal sound).’ I take it that
this list refers to what is mentioned here in our text. How these 60 branches of melody
are exactly to be understood I have not been able to ascertain. The opinions of Pʽun
Tsʽogs on the point are as follows. The Buddha’s voice had such a [63]variety of (magic?) qualities, sixty in number, that they made him understood by all
beings, whatever their own languages. The Buddha was in this way simultaneously understood
by men, devas, nāgas, etc. In proffering this explanation Pʽun Tsʽogs takes ཡན་ལག་ to mean rather ‘kind’ than ‘branch.’ As an alternative he suggests that དབྱངས་ is an adjective synonymous with རིང་བུ༌, ‘high’ (as applied to voice or rather tone) [or perhaps long, lengthened?] and that
then དབྱངས་ཡན་ལག་ would mean a ‘variety’ of tones or modulations. I myself am inclined to think that
if the Mahāvyutpatti list is not referred to, we have here to do with some scholastic
scheme of rhetorics, though if so understood the exact value of དབྱངས་ is not clear and certainly not sufficiently defined in the Dicts.
(Cf. S. Ch. D. s.v. ཟབ་ (p. 1092a), ཟབ་དབྱངས་ = मन्द्र, मन्द्रक, ‘a deep voice, a musical tone.’ See also གདུང་དབྱངས་.)
དབྱིངས་ see སྤྲོས་བྲལ་.
དབྱིངས་སྤྲོས་བྲལ་ see སྤྲོས་བྲལ་.
འབར་བ་ see དཔལ་འབར་བ་.
འབོལ་གདན་ see བྱང་ཆུབ་སྙིང་པོ་.
འབྲོག་, 6. Here ‘solitude, wilderness’ and so = རི་ཁྲོད་ = དགོན་པ་, ‘monastery.’ Not associated with any of the meanings connected with ‘pasturing.’
Cf. S. Ch. D. འབྲོག་དགོན་ s.v. འབྲོག་.
The famous Galdan monastery was erected on a site called འབྲོག་པོའི་རི་. See S. Ch. D., The Monasteries of Tibet, J.A.S.B., Vol. I, N.S. (1905), p. 108.
མི་ཁོ་ see གླུད་.
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མི་ཁོ་གླུད་ཡིན་ see གླུད་.
མི་གླུད་ see གླུད་.
མིག་བཟང་མ་ see ཡངས་.
མིག་ཡངས་ see ཡངས་.
མེད་པར་འདོད་པ་ see འཕུང་བར་འདོད་པ་.
མྱུར་, 52. J. མྱུར་བ་ adj., and མྱུར་དུ་ adv., ‘quick(ly), swift(ly).’ In Mil. adj. མྱུར་པོ་. Desg. མྱུར་ and མྱུར་བ་ (ཉིད་), subst. ‘promptness,’ and མྱུར་པོ་ ‘swift.’ As adv. མྱུར་བར་, or དུ་, or གྱིས་. S. Ch. D. མྱུར་བ་, verb, ‘to hurry by, to pass on swiftly,’ (example དུས་མྱུར་བ་, ‘time quickly runs away.’ [= tempus fugit]), and adv. quickly. Further adv. མྱུར་དུ་. Some interesting compounds in S. Ch. D.: མྱུར་མ་ ‘a dancing woman,’ etc. Note the expression ཅི་མྱུར་ ‘as speedily as possible,’ J.
According to my informants S. Ch. D.’s example དུས་མྱུར་བ་ is not good Tibetan. It should either be དུས་མྱུར་པོ་ (or བ་) ཡིན་, lit. ‘time is quick,’ or with another meaning also ‘the time is near’ (i.e. at hand,
coming quickly), or again དུས་མྱུར་པོ་དེ་, ‘the quick time.’ Time quickly runs away, they say, should be expressed thus: དུས་མྱུར་བར་འགྲོ་གི་འདུག་.
Cf. also J., Desg.: སྨྱུར་བ་.
མྱུར་མ་ see མྱུར་.
ཙམ་གྱི་, 38. Here: ‘after only, as a result of only, in consequence [65]of only, mere, simple.’ But ཙམ་ has also the meanings: as soon as, simply on (hearing), on the slightest (reproach,
etc.) with a more prominent stress on the time element, instantaneousness.
རྩེ་དྲུང་ see བརྩེ་.
རྩེ་པོ་ཏ་ལ་ see བརྩེ་.
རྩེ་ཞྭ་ see བརྩེ་.
རྩོད་པ་རྒྱབ་པ་ see གཤགས་འགྱེད་པ་.
བརྩེ་, 55. བརྩེ་ = བརྩེ་བ་, vb. ‘to love’ sbst. ‘love, kindness, affection,’ etc. Desg. has also a བརྩེ་, ‘acidity,’ which is also known to my informants. His བརྩེ་དྲང་ ‘bodyguard of the Dalai Lama’ is held, by one of my informants, to be a mistake for
རྩེ་དྲུང་ (pronounce tsī-dung), the monk-employees of the Tibetan government (and in a narrower
sense: the clerical staff, the clerks and secretaries amongst them) as contrasted
with the lay-employees of noble birth (not officials in general as with S. Ch. D.
656a, but only those belonging to the nobility) who are called དྲུང་འཁོར་. The word རྩེ་ in the compound is said to be derived from the designation of the Potala palace where
many of the government offices are located, and which is called རྩེ་པོ་ཏ་ལ་, the Potala peak, but most commonly, by the people, briefly རྩེ་, the peak. This explanation of tsī-dung as a general class of lama government-employees
is wider than that given in Waddell’s table in his ‘Lhasa and its Mysteries,’ p. 165. See also རྩེ་དྲུང་, ‘chief clerk or secretary’ in S. Ch. D. s.v. རྩེ་ཞྭ་ (1013b), the latter being the special name of the former’s hat.
བརྩེ་དྲང་ see བརྩེ་.
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བརྩོན་པར་བགྱིད་པ་, 24. Equals བརྩོན་པར་བྱེད་པ་ (or གྱུར་བ་) ‘to apply oneself, exert oneself, put one’s best energy into something’ = སྙིང་རུས་བྱེད་པ་, ‘to be zealous, diligent.’ Also བརྩོན་འགྲུས་སྐྱེད་པ་ (བྱེད་པ་, རྩོམ་པ་).
ཚུལ་, 28. Here ‘conduct, behaviour’ pure and simple, without allusion to the ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་, ‘religious law, discipline, monastic rules.’
ཚུལ་བཞིན་ see ཆོས་ཚུལ་བཞིན་.
མཚན་, 53. Here technically the (thirty-two) characteristic signs or marks of a ‘Great
Man,’ the mahāpurusha. Mahāvyutpatti (Ed. A. S. B.), LXIII, p. 92. De Harlez, ‘Vocabulaire Bouddhique Sanscrit-Chinois,’ no. 3. Schiefner, ‘Triglotte,’ no. 3. See de la Vallée Poussin, ‘Bouddhisme,’ pp. 241 et seq.
The transition of meaning of the word མཚན་ in modern Tibetan in such expressions as མཚན་ལྡན་བླ་མ་, ‘a holy lama,’ or མཚན་ལྡན་མ་, ‘a woman of good appearance and virtues’ (S. Ch. D.) should not be overlooked in
the interpretation of our passage for its psychological value. See also དཔེ་.
མཚན་ལྡན་ see མཚན་.
མཚན་དཔེ་, 53. This is a compound substantive of an elliptic nature, and means: ‘the [well
known 32 primary] characteristics [and the 80] beauties [of Buddhas]’ = མཚན་དང་དཔེ་བྱད་ (བཟང་པོ་). See also མཚན་ and དཔེ་.
མཚན་འཛིན་, 30. མཚན་ is here hon. of མིང་ ‘name,’ and the compound, literally ‘name grasping,’ means ‘ambition, thirst for
fame, glory,’ etc. (D. eerzucht, roemzucht), perhaps even ‘vainglory, pride, conceit, egotism,’ i.e. the hugging of one’s own
name and fame.
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མཚན་བརྗོད་པ་, 7. To invoke by name, to address a prayer to by name. Applied to both spiritual
and human beings. རྒྱལ་པོའི་མཚན་བརྗོད་པ་, ‘to address the king, speak to the king, direct, appeal to the king,’ but always
by calling him by his name. ‘O king help me’ is not a proper example of མཚན་བརྗོད་པ་, but ‘O, thou, King George, help me!’ would be one. To spiritual beings their names
may be expressed in a paraphrase, metaphor or symbol, but they must be expressed in
some way. The prayers to superhuman beings may be twofold, either an address containing
requests, etc., or a mere litany of names without any further subject matter attached
to them. The one is a recitation of names, the other a direct address by name; the
one a litany proper, the other an invocation or prayer.
འཚོལ་བ་, 19. The form མི་འཚོལ་བས་ was paraphrased to me as འཚོལ་གི་མིན་ = འཚོལ་མི་ཡོང་ = simple future, ‘not going to seek’ (D. niet zullende zoeken).
ཞིབ་དཔྱད་ see རྟོག་དཔྱོད་.
ཞེ་ཁྲེལ་བ་ see ཁྲེལ་བ་.
ཞེན་པ་ལོག་པ་ see ཁྲེལ་བ་.
གཞན་བསྟན་ (པ་) འཛིན་པ་ see རང་བསྟན་ (པ་) འཛིན་པ་.
གཞུང་ see ཁྲེལ་བ་.
གཞུང་སྒོ་ see སྒོ་.
གཞུངས་པ་ see ཁྲེལ་བ་.
གཞེས་ see མགུར་མ་.
བཞག་པ་ see རྒྱན་པ་.
ཟབ་, 10, 55. ཟབ་ = ཟབ་པ་. J. vb., adj., subst. and adv. ‘to be deep, deep, deeply, depth’; adj. ཟབ་པོ་ and མོ་. Desg. [68]ཟབ་པོ་ and མོ་ adj. only. S. Ch. D. ཟབ་པ་ vb. ‘to make deep, to deepen,’ also adj. and sbst.; further in པོ་ and མོ་ only adj. Note the additional meaning ‘dense’ (also ཟབས་ ‘thickness’) in S. Ch. D., not in the two others. My teachers deny that ཟབ་པ་ can be a verb ‘to deepen,’ or ‘to make deep.’ ཟབ་ must also be understood as ‘profound’ (wisdom, teaching, etc.). See ཆོས་ཟབ་, also དབྱངས་, also ཐུགས་ནི་, etc.
ཟབ་ཡངས་ see ཐུགས་ནི་, etc.
གཟུ་བོ་ see བློ་གཟུ་བོ་.
གཟུ་དཔང་ see བློ་གཟུ་བོ་.
གཟུ་བོར་གནས་པ་ see བློ་གཟུ་བོ་.
འུ་ཐུག་ see སྡུག་ཡུས་.
ཡང་རྩེ་ see དྭངས་མར་.
ཡངས་, 55. = ཡངས་པ་ or པོ་, ‘wide, large.’ Desg. also ‘ample, abundant.’ S. Ch. D. only ཡངས་པ་. Note J. ‘*mig-yaṅ*’, C., W. liberal, generous, bounteous,’ but Desg. མིག་ཡངས་པ་ ‘wide-eyes: envious, covetous, greedy.’ In S. Ch. D. ཡངས་པའི་མིག་ = विशालाक्षी, ‘large-eyes, a handsome woman, name of a Goddess.’ Cf. also in the same dict. མིག་བཟང་མ་, ‘beautiful-eyes, a very handsome woman, a nymph’s name.’ As to J.’s mig-yaṅ, one
of my teachers holds with him as against Desg., the other does not know the expression.
ཡངས་པའི་མིག་ see ཡངས་.
ཡན་ལག་ see དབྱངས་.
ཡབ་སྲས་ (གསུམ༌), 8, 15, 16, 18. ‘Father (and) sons,’ or, as Csoma already has it in his Grammar,
p. 28, ‘teacher and [69]pupils.’ With the addition གསུམ་ ‘three,’ and also as here without this addition, a very well known appellation of
Tsoṅ kʽa pa and his two pupils (his spiritual sons). It is likely that to the Tibetan
mind the expression means something like ‘spiritual family (of three),’ namely of
one father and two sons. See introductory remarks. Free renderings like ‘spiritual
trio’ or ‘teacher triad’ and the like are apt enough for practical purposes. Cf. an expression like the following: ཁྱོད་ཕ་བུ་གཉིས་ག་ནས་ཡིན་, ‘where have you two, father and son, come from?’ (But the sentence has also the
second meaning ‘where do you live? where is your home?’).
In the light of the above, has the note on p. 98 of the J.A.S.B., Vol. II, N.S., no.
4, 1906, in Satis Chandra Vidyābhūṣana’s article on ‘the Gyantse rock inscription’
to be rectified? My informants do not think that the expression is used among the
Sakyapas in the sense given in that note.
ཡིན་ན་ཡང་ see ཀྱང་.
ཡུས་ see སྡུག་ཡུས་.
གཡུལ་ see འགྱེ་བ་.
གཡུལ་འགྱེད་ see འགྱེ་བ་.
རང་ see དྭངས་མར་.
རང་བསྟན་ (པ་) འཛིན་པ་, 26. This expression must here not be understood as ‘to follow one’s own teaching.’
རང་བསྟན་ is here not one compound word. The meaning is: they who themselves follow the teaching,
as against the གཞན་བསྟན་པ་འཛིན་པ་, the others who (also) follow the teaching. See གཞན་བསྟན་ (པ་) འཛིན་པ་, 27.
རི་ཁྲོད་ see འབྲོག་ and གངས་རིའི་ཁྲོད་འདི་ན་.
རི་འབྲོག་ see འབྲོག་ and གངས་རིའི་ཁྲོད་འདི་ན་.
རིག་པ་ see མཁྱེན་བརྩེ་.
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རིག་པ་བསྒྲིམས་ནས་ see གོལ་ས་.
རིང་བུ་ see དབྱངས་.
རུས་ཐང་ see དྭངས་མར་.
རེ་ see དོན་རེ་ཆུང་.
རེ་བ་མེད་ see སྤྲོས་བྲལ་.
ལན་འཕམ་པ་ see གཤགས་འགྱེད་པ་.
ལམ་གོལ་ see གོལ་ས་.
ལམ་གོལ་ས་ see གོལ་ས་.
ལམ་མཐོན་པོ་, 31. ‘The high, elevated road,’ has a religious connotation, the proper road that
leads to heaven after death, the ‘narrow’ road of Christianity. See below.
ལམ་དྲང་པོ་, 48. The straight road (metaphorically), the road of righteousness, of straightness
of mind. Cf. S. Ch. D. s.v. དྲང་ལམ་, p. 649a. The meaning of this expression and that of ལམ་མཐོན་པོ་, in line 31 (see above), are quite different. The other is the highroad (towards
heaven), the road of a high standard of moral conduct.
ལམ་རིམ་, 9. ‘Steps on the path,’ ‘degrees of advance,’ ‘steps towards perfection,’ is the
short title of many mystical writings and especially of one by Tsoṅ kʽa pa, to which
the words may allude here without specially designating it. In this place the meaning
does not seem to be a specific work but merely ‘(religious) instructions, teaching
in general.’ The ལམ་རིམ་པ་གཉིས་ are here, according to my oral information, to be taken as the two halves or divisions
of the Kandjur which is commonly divided into མདོ་ and སྔགས་, sūtra and tantra (or mantra, or dhāraṇī). In this division the རྒྱུད་ or tantra section is called སྔགས་, whilst all the rest, properly subdivided [71]in six divisions, is taken together as མདོ་, of which the real མདོ་སྡེ་ or sūtra-division (the 5th in sequence in the Kandjur) is only one. Concerning Tsoṅ
kʽa pa’s study of the ‘Sūtras and Tantras’ see S. Ch. D., ‘Contributions, etc. on
Tibet,’ VI, in J.A.S.B., 1882, Vol. LI, Part I, no. 1, p. 53. J., s.v. བསྟན་པ་, quotes a བསྟན་པ་གཉིས་: ‘with Urgyan Padma, etc., the same as mdoi and sṅags kyi lam, v. mdo extr.’ This
is seemingly the same as our expression.
ལུས་ཅན་, 42. J. has = སེམས་ཅན་, ‘beings, creatures,’ but may not the idea rather be all embodied creatures; with the etymological sense still potent in connection with the Buddhist
reincarnation theory? S. Ch. D. gives a ལུས་ཅན་གནས་ = གྲོང་ཁྱེར་ = ‘town, city,’ which seems rather to point to the meaning ‘man’ for ལུས་ཅན་. My informants don’t feel quite certain whether to include the five other classes
of beings (including animals) amongst the ལུས་ཅན་, but are somewhat inclined to interpret the word as མི་, ‘man,’ in general.
ཤ་འཛིན་ see ཀྱུ་.
ཤར་གངས་རི་མ་, title, 1. The author writes his poem in a place to the west of a snow-capped mountain,
to the east of which the Galdan monastery is situated. See notes on འབྲོག་, དགེ་ལྡན་ and གངས་རིའི་ཁྲོད་འདི་ན་. Which mountain or mountain chain is meant must be left undecided, even if granting
that modern cartography could show it if identified. Local tradition, however, would
most likely be able to point out a particular mountain.
ཤེས་པ་ see མཁྱེན་བརྩེ་.
ཤོས་ see རིན་ཆེ་བ་.
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གཤགས་ see གཤགས་འགྱེད་པ་.
གཤགས་འགྱེད་པ་, 38. This expression cannot yet be explained with certainty. It may be taken here
to mean, literally, ‘to send out (distribute, give, put forward) justice, right,’
but the exact idiomatic value of the phrase remains to be determined. It is not in
the Dicts., and unknown to my informants. We may take the possible values of the expression
as three, viz.: 1. གཤགས་འགྱེད་པ་ = རྩོད་པ་རྒྱབ་པ་ = གཤགས་རྒྱབ་པ་ = ‘to dispute, argue, contend with words.’ This seems the same expression as S. Ch.
D.’s ཁ་གཤགས་འགྱེད་པ་ ‘to hold controversy,’ p. 1248. (Perhaps also ‘to challenge, to be challenged to
dispute.’) 2. = ལན་འཕམ་པ་ ‘to be defeated in argument, in dispute, to be silenced in dispute.’
3. = ‘To make observations to, to remonstrate with, to use plain speech to, to speak
straight to, to rebuke, to reproach, to tell one the truth.’ (Cf. the entry in J.’s *kʽa kye-c̀e* to abuse, to menace’ (p. 97b.)) This seems the sense required here and would be a logical development of the primary
meaning of the expression: ‘to spread out the justice (right) of the case before someone,’
i.e. ‘to submit the truth about it.’
S. Ch. D. has s.v. ཁ་གཤགས་ = ཁ་རྩོད་ ‘using rough language, controversy, discussion, dispute.’ The other Dicts. lack this
word.
The above is the result of an exhaustive discussion of the expression with my teachers.
Lexicographically (with a view to the entry quoted from S. Ch. D.) the first explanation
seems the best, but with reference to the context, the last one deserves preference,
and this is the one chosen for the rendering.
It should be noted that in modern Tibetan there seems to be taking place a shifting
of the meaning of གཤགས་. Instead of as ‘right, justice’ it seems to be understood by some modern Tibetans
as ‘the arguing about right or justice’ as in a court of law, and hence simply as
‘dispute, argument, pleading.’ Example: ‘This is not the place to argue your rights,’ ཁྱོད་གཤགས་རྒྱབ་སའི་ (or པའི་) ས་ཆ་འདི་རུ་མ་རེད་, lit. ‘to hit out [73](རྒྱབ་) for the right,’ the verb meaning ‘to do (རྒྱབ་ for verba loquendi) arguing (གཤགས་).’
བཤད་ཉན་, 38. Literally ‘speak-listen,’ has two meanings. The first, quoted in J. from Schmidt
in the form of འཆད་ཉན་པ་ (s.v. འཆད་པ་ pf. and fut. བཤད་), is endorsed by my informants, ‘to listen to an explanation (also, to a sermon,
discourse, etc.)’. The second is, ‘to answer upon hearing,’ i.e. ‘to answer (in invective, hotly, in remonstrance or dispute) upon hearing (reproaches
or unpleasant words).’ If a mother chides her son for some fault, he may, instead
of taking the rebuke in humility, try to argue or to be impudent in return. The mother
then may say: ང་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་ཨ་མ་ལ་བཤད་ཉན་མ་བྱེད་འདི་ལས་ངའི་གཏམ་ཉོན་, ‘Don’t argue, dispute, bandy words with (don’t be impudent to, “no words with me!”)
your mother, but (འདི་ལས་, ‘rather, on the contrary, instead of this’) listen to me.’ The expression may be
rendered as ‘to flare up in answer (to a reproach), to retort angrily (after admonition),
to snap, yap back.’
བཤེས་གཉེན་, 41. ‘Friend’ and, as J. has it, abbr. for དགེ་བའི་བཤེས་གཉེན་ = कल्याणमित्र = virtue-friend.
Here interpreted by my informants as ‘true, genuine priests or monks, monks who come
up to the mark, worthy of the name,’ but not technically as ‘spiritual adviser’ as
J. has it. Desg. s.v. བཤེས་, quotes only a form with མཉེན་ and gives it the meaning ‘doctor, a lamaistic title.’ Under གཉེན་, however, he has བཤེས་གཉེན་, ‘ad scientiam adjuvans, monastic dignity, teacher.’ S. Ch. D. adds ‘pious or holy friend, spiritual friend
or adviser.’ Compare also J. for the semi-homonym དགེ་བསྙེན་.
ས་ see ཕྱོགས་.
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སེམས་པ་ see བསམས་ཤིང་ and བཀའ་དྲིན་སེམས་པ་.
སེམས་བསྐྱེད་པ་ see སྐྱེད་པ་.
གསུང་, 54. Here ‘speech’ in general, not ‘a speech,’ a slight extension of J.’s meanings, unless his use of the definite article
in ‘the speech’ is a lapsus. The dicts. differ slightly and need co-ordination in details.
About the meaning there can be no doubt as the word is here used in the series (hon.)
སྐུ་, གསུང་, ཐུགས་, for ordinary ལུས་, ངག་, ཡིད་, body, speech and mind, the so-called ‘three doors,’ སྒོ་གསུམ་.
གསུང་མགུར་ see མགུར་མ་.
གསུང་བ་, 10. Here is the sense of ‘to preach, to explain, to give an exposition of, to expatiate
on, to exhibit, to lecture on.’
བསམ་མནོ་ see རྟོག་དཔྱོད་.
བསམ་མི་ཁྱབ་, 12. Inconceivable, unthinkable, unimaginable, not to be grasped by or in thought,
beyond comprehension, realisation.
བསམས་ཤིང་བསམས་ཤིང་, 4. The repetition of the verb softens the meaning into ‘quietly thinking’ or from
སེམས་པ་ ‘to think,’ into ‘to muse, to ponder’, etc.
ཨང་གི་དང་པོ་ see དྭངས་མར་.
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