Choosing the Right Word
Döné Sangwa “Basic Goodness and Künsang “All good”
Basic goodness is fundamental to the Shambhala tradition. It was a primary focus of the Vidyadhara Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s teaching toward the end of his life and has been key to Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche’s teaching since. The Tibetan for basic goodness, döné sangwa, appears in the Vidyadhara’s Shambhala terma. As far as the Translation Committee [more...]
Shir Sheng
Arising as Ground In September 2010, we worked with Lama Tenzin, a senior chöpön of Namkha Drimed Rinpoche, who is well-versed in Gesar practice and lore. During one of our meetings, Lama Tenzin, after consulting with Namkha Drimed Rinpoche, explained the phrase nang si shir sheng (“the phenomenal world arising as the ground”), a profound [more...]
Much Ado About Namdak
In 2009, we presented a conversation that we had with Changling Rinpoche on the Tibetan term “nang-si” (the phenomenal world). This year in 2010, we offer another excerpt from the same discussion on the first stanza of “The Melody That Accomplishes Deathlessness.” Although there is no debate about how to translate “namdak” (Tib. rnam dag)—it [more...]
Nang Si
A Phenomenal Conversation (with Changling Rinpoche) Photo by Indranila Nowakowski In last year’s newsletter, we offered a discussion we had with Changling Rinpoche that focused on the Tibetan terms “rangshin” and “tröpa.” One year later, here is our discussion with Rinpoche concerning the term “nang-si”(Tib. snang srid), which we usually translate as “phenomenal world.” Rinpoche [more...]
Right or Rang?
In the history of the translation of Tibetan into English, translators have spent much time puzzling over how to translate the term rang (the vowel sound is pronounced the same as in the seed syllable AH). No sooner has one translation been settled upon than another context presents itself where the same translation choice seems [more...]
Glimpses of Alaya
The character and style of translation meetings with the Vidyadhara were often fairly straightforward and businesslike. There was a job at hand, translating a dharma text, usually from Tibetan into English. So we all followed our teacher’s lead and generally stayed on task, unless of course he leaned out into the wind a bit, which [more...]
Lobur
Adventitious, Incidental, Accidental, Temporary, Sudden, Fleeting One of the central tenets of the Kagyü and Nyingma lineages is that everyone has Buddha’s wisdom as the basis of their being. This wisdom mind goes by many names. Buddha nature, bodhichitta, self-awareness, sugatagarbha, mahamudra, and rikpa are but some of the words used to indicate this enlightened [more...]
Tsal
Expressive Power / Manifestation / Display Previously, we discussed the meaning of rikpa (Tib. rig pa), or “awareness,” which is a key term used in the teachings of dzokchen. Tsal (Tib. rtsal), another key term in both the mahamudra and dzokchen traditions, refers to the potential of this awareness to manifest, as well as the [more...]
Rikpa
Rikpa is a key term within Buddhism and in particular within the tradition of the “great perfection” (Tib. dzokchen, San. ati or maha-sandhi). As with any important word, it can have a variety of meanings and nuances depending on the context. The Tibetan rikpa translates the Sanskrit vidya, which comes from a verbal root meaning [more...]
Dependent Arising / Tendrel
The Tibetan word tendrel (rten ‘brel) is an abbreviation of the term ten-ching drelwar jungwa (rten cing ‘brel bar ‘byung ba). It is a translation of the Sanskrit term pratitya-samutpada, which has been variously translated as “dependent arising, dependent co-origination, interdependence, relativity, auspicious coincidence,” and so on. Pratitya-samutpada is the technical name for the Buddha’s [more...]
Mahamudra
The Tibetan word for mahamudra is chag gya chenpo (chak chen for short). In Sanskrit, maha means “large” or “great.” It corresponds exactly to the meaning of the Tibetan word chenpo. Mudra, or chag gya, has many meanings. It can refer to the hand gestures used in vajrayana ritual practices; to the symbolic ornaments worn [more...]
Prejudice and Equanimity
The four limitless ones culminate in a supplication for equanimity: “May they [all sentient beings] dwell in the great equanimity free from passion, aggression, and prejudice.” Here, equanimity is being defined as freedom from passion, aggression, and prejudice. Freedom from prejudice—in other words, impartiality or an unbiased attitude toward all beings—is the key. The Tibetan [more...]
Luminosity /Ösel
An interesting and sometimes perplexing word worth shedding some light on involves the very notion of “light.” The term ösel (Tib.’od gsal) literally means “clear [sel] light [ö],” and there are many who translate it this way. “Clarity” is another popular rendering. The Vidyadhara, however, preferred “luminosity,” which points not so much to the light [more...]
Ziji
Ziji appears in the language of both Buddhism and Shambhala. The Vidyadhara commented that both zi and ji have a sense of light and brilliance to them, glossing zi as “shine” or “glitter,” and ji as “splendor.” He added that ji also carries a sense of “monolithic.” In keeping with that, when translating buddhadharma we [more...]
Complexity and Simplicity
Our chosen translation, “simplicity,” for trötral in Tibetan or nishprapancha in Sanskrit, is often rendered by other translators as “freedom from complexities” or “freedom from elaborations” and makes an interesting journey through the three yanas of Buddhist thought. Prapancha (tröpa in Tibetan) comes from the Sanskrit root pach, which means “to spread out” or “proliferate.” [more...]
Grasping and Fixation
We generally translate zungwa and dzinpa as “grasping and fixation” (“fixation” referring to zungwa and “grasping” referring to dzinpa). Nevertheless, they are code words for “subject” and “object,” or the “perceiver” and “perceived” aspects of our experience (that is, in reverse order—zung refers to the object, and dzin to the subject). With that in mind, [more...]
Trangdön and Ngedön
The Translation Committee learned early on that translating Tibetan could force one to explore new frontiers of the mind, effecting permanent alterations. In fact the Vidyadhara told an aspiring student that what was needed to learn Tibetan was “a new mind.” Translating single terms or phrases can present challenges, since these terms are likely to [more...]
Lha or Is It La?
Some confusion exists between two Tibetan words, sometimes used interchangeably: lha and la. The first, lha, is the Tibetan word used to translate the Sanskrit deva, meaning “deity,” “god,” or “divine.” This is also the term used in the Shambhalian sense of natural hierarchy: lha, nyen, and lu. (If we were to be more daring [more...]