Glossary of Unique
Translation
Terms ?
Thurman-Robert-a-F-Tr-Tsong-Khapa-Losang-Drakpa-Brilliant-Illumination-of-the-Lamp-of-the-Five-Stages
This is one of the most important and elaborate of the Unexcelled Yoga Tantras, with a number of distinctive features.
It is one of the favorites of the Dalai Lamas, and the Namgyal Monastery of the Potala Palace in Lhasa (presently at the Thekchen Choling in Dharamsala) is the monastery most renowned for its expertise in the arts associated with this Tantra.
Its vision of buddhahood and the buddhaverse is of its being an evolutionary time machine, an omnipresent force of wisdom and compassion in close contact with planetary beings throughout all the intricacies of their history.
It is a unique vision of time as universal compassion, offering beings a theater in which to evolve toward freedom, rather than seeing time mainly as a destroyer and bringer of death by impermanence.
lama. This means guru or spirituaJ teacher in Tibetan, and represents a highly honored pro- fession, since the lama is the indispensable doorway to the practice and performance of Tantra. I sometimes use the Tibetan word, and translate it as "mentor" when it seems best to translate it.
Ialani. The left channel of the subtle yogic neural system, white in color, running next to the central channel, called Tqa in Hindu Tantra. See "avadhDti. "
? Glossary of Unique Translation Terms ? 653
liberative art (upaya). See "art. "
life (samsilra - 'khor ba). This translation seems natural, instead of either the awkward "transmigration" or the vague "the round," because it conveys well the sense of the transformations of living things; it also connotes to all modem readers the whole span and scope of the world of living things. "Life" can translate three other Tibetan words: tshe, which means "lifespan" or "life-time"; skye ba, which literally means "birth"; and
srog, which means "vitality" or "vital principle. "
luminance (atoka - snang ba). The most surface state of the subtle mind, it is that which corresponds to the desire-oriented instinctual natures, and has the experiential sign of moonlit autumn sky during the death dissolutions and birth arisals. The other two states of the subtle mind, the sun-lit radiance, and the dark-lit imminence, are also sometimes called "luminances," and sometimes "luminance wisdoms. " Its synonyms are said to be "wisdom," "the relative," "mind," "anger," "the void side reality" (these in common with Sntra teachings), and "OM," "luminance," "void," "mind," amd "dispassion. "
magic body (mayadeha, mayakaya - sgyu Ius). A subtle body attained through the bless- ing of the mentor at the self-consecration stage of the perfection stage, and created, according to Tsong Khapa, "in order to bring to fruition one's former vows, to abandon the nihilistic tendency gotten from the teaching of the god Maheshvara (Shiva), to accomplish beings' aims until the end of the eon, and to abandon the cessation truth accepted as enlightenment by the disciples" (Tib. 78a). This subtle body seems to be a kind of death-birth-between embodiment, resembling a conscious dream embodiment, and holds (is made of) the extremely subtle mind of great bliss clear light. It is needed to compress eons of altruistic bodhisattva lifetimes into the single life of the perfection stage adept, in order to realize the matter body of a buddha that manifests the merit and compassion side of the truth body of a buddha.
mandala (maf)t/ala - dkyil 'khor). There are many types of mandala, which means "realm that protects the essence," the essence of life in the Buddha's view being the universal bliss energy of the clear light of void reality. There are habitat and inhabitant mandalas, which are, respectively. the environment of palace and gardens and death grounds around and firewalls surrounding, and the divine beings within the habitat. Then within that on a more subtle level, there are ( 1 ) the spirit of enlightenment mandala, within which one receives the secret empowerment of red and white spirits of enlightenment from the mentor father-mother; (2) the dharma-source or vagina mandala within which one receives the wisdom intuition empowerment with the consort; and (3) the word mandala, wherein one receives the great fourth empowerment, the word empowerment.
mantra (mantra - sngags). Literally meaning "saving (-tar or -tra) the mind (manas)," a mantra is a creative sound considered expressive of the deepest essence of things and understandings, so that its repetition can evoke in a formulaic or even magical way a state of enlightenment or positive energy. Some mantras resemble sentences, and express some wish, vision or affirmation, and others are just a single syllable or two, containing the germ of a deity, realm, or state of concentration.
materialism (vastugraha, bhavagraha - dngos por 'dzin pa). This is the grasping at things that conceives of material objects as possessing intrinsically real substantiality.
6? ? Glos. tary of Uniqu? Translation T? rm. v n1attc-r Ir? 1). S? "ag? regate. "
matter body (of a buddha) (rft'aktlya ? - IP'R? '? ,\? ku). The altruistic aspect of enlightenment, developed from the individual's l'nntinua nf body and speech, subdivided into the beatitic and emanation bodies. It has usually been called "form body," by confusing the two meanings of ritJa : "fonn" as specifically visible object, and "matter" as sub- stantial entity. whether visible or not.
mental quiescence, or serenity (samathtl). "Mental quiescence" is a general tenn for all types of mind-practice. meditation, contemplation, concentration, etc. , that cultivate one-pointedness of mind and lead to a state of peacefulness and freedom from concern with any sort of object. It is paired with "transcendent insight," which combines the analytic faculty with this one-pointedness to reach high realizations such as selfless- ness (see "transcendent insight").
mentor (guru - bla ma). The guru figure returns to esoteric Buddhism in the context of initiation, and for the depth psychological purpose of guiding the advanced spiritual adventurer who seeks reality and the attainment of buddhahood by diving into the unconscious realm of instincts and lucidly experiencing and mastering the processes of life and death. Though the Sanskrit word means "heavy" and so connotes the weight of the patriarchal authority figure, the Tibetan word fits with the "unexcelled" idea of Unexcelled Yoga (see entry) and so connotes a relationship beyond that of father or mother, rather the all embracing immanence of the buddha presence which is actually indivisible from even the ignorant being, and thus infuses the disciple with the buddha- presence, rather than holding it above as something far away and unattainable. Cer- tainly, the Tantric initiation doesn't "take" unless the recipient visualizes the mentor as indivisible from Vajradhara Buddha himself (or herself as with Vajrayogini). But the
point then of the initiation is to ritually and contemplatively open the door in the recipient's imagination for his or her own identity with the Vajradhara Buddha. Thus the lama mentor serves more as an exemplar of person-buddha communion in order for the disciple practitioner to find that same communion with him or herself. The relation- ship is abused when the reception of initiation becomes a justification for worship of the lama, as if the lama was more one with the buddha than the disciple; such an initia- tion only makes a disciple feel less empowered and more dependent on the lama, rather
than empowered to discover the buddha reality of him or herself.
mind isolation (cittaviveka - sems dben). The third of the five perfection stages, consisting of mind objective, self-consecration, and magic body attainments. Mind herein is iso- lated from coarse and ordinary reality in the buddha and divine reality of enlightenment.
mirror-like wisdom. One of the five wisdoms, the transformation of the matter aggregate, the transmutation of delusion, associated with the buddha Vairochana, the Tran- scendent Buddha-clan, the color white, and the awareness of that even relative things reflect ultimate reality, as in a perfect mirror.
Mother Tantra (matatantra - ma rgyud). This is a class of Unexcelled Yoga Tantras, all of which (in Tsong Khapa's interpretation) are nondual in terms of magic body and clear light, where the emphasis is on the deepening of immersion in the clear light transpar- ence and intensification of the four joys both before and after the creation of the magic body at the stage of mind isolation through the mind objective and the self-consecration,
Glossary of Unique Translation Terms ? 655 by the grace of the mentor. deepening it even more during the fourth stage clear
enlightenment practice. See "Father Tantra. "
nirvana (nirvapa - mya ngan las 'das pa). The opposite of samsara, the blowing away of suffering, the peace that surpasseth all understanding. the supreme good, the actual reality of the universe. In the dualistic Buddhism of the Individual Vehicle, it is repre- sented as a place apart from the world of samsara, an otherworldly elsewhere where the liberated saint could go to freedom, though Buddha was careful not to present it as a state of annihilation. Its highest fonn was called "nirvana without reminder. " In the nondualist Universal Vehicle teaching. nirvana and samsara were taught to be ulti- mately the same. though relatively still opposite, and the highest nirvana was called "unlocated," rather than "remainderless. " Thus, this very world, if understood by an enlightened mind, was revealed to actually be nirvana, a place of abundant happiness, bliss. freedom. love, and compassion. The task then for the bodhisattva is to destroy the ignorance that prevents us from knowing that bliss, and then share the discovered bliss with beings still caught in suffering by ignorance.
nonapprehension (anupalambha - dmigs med). This refers to the mental openness cultivated by the bodhisattva who has reached a certain awareness of the nature of reality, in that he or she does not seek to apprehend any object or grasp any substance in anything; rather, he or she removes any static pretension of the mind to have grasped at any truth, conviction, or view.
nonduality (advayatvll). This is synonymous with reality, voidness, etc. But it must be remembered that nonduality does not necessarily mean unity, that unity is only one of the pair unity-duality; hence nonduality implies nonunity as well.
ordinariness (prakrta - tha mal pa). A Tantric concept, where the world as perceived by the unenlightened is considered ordinary, because of being maintained by delusion and filled with suffering. The real world, revealed through wisdom and perceived through enlightened senses, is considered "extraordinary" (tha mal pa ma yin pa), a purified, enlightened, mandalic, buddhaversal realm of happiness and abundance. "Ordinary" is frequently used with "pride" (prakrtahamlara) "perception," "conception," "body," and other terms. The Tantric yogi/ni seeks to replace these with "deity-pride. " "pure perception and conception," and so forth.
outsider (*bahyapuru$a - phyi rol pa). This means a person who has not entered within the refuge of the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, as opposed to an "insider" who has. It is often translated as "non-Buddhist" or some times as "heterodox," equated with the somewhat more derogatory tfrthika (mu stegs pa - "fundamentalist"). There is no standard Sanskrit or Tibetan term to translate the English "non-Buddhist," or even "Buddhist" for that matter, at least until modern time.
patron deity (adhidaivatll - lhag pa 'i lha). A practitioner's specially important buddha- deity form.
perfection stage. This is the second stage of the Unexcelled Yoga Tantras, which follows on the successful completion of the creation stage (see above). After the yogi/ni has developed the ability to totally transform his or her perception and conception, so that s/he stably perceives the environment as the pure mandala, her or his body as a deity body, his or her speech as mantra, and her or his mind as buddha-wisdom, all three
656 ? Glossary of Unique Translation Terms
isolated from ordinariness, imperfection, and impurity, s/he is ready and secure enough to enter the practice of the rehearsal of death, the between, and the rebirth processes with a view to accelerating the evolutionary accumulation of the stores of merit and wisdom to gain buddhahood within a single lifetime or at maximum a few lifetimes. These processes are usually numbered five, including the stages of: ( 1 ) body isolation, (2) speech isolation, (3) mind isolation/self-consecration/magic body, (4) clear light/
enlightenment, and (5) communion.
performance, practice (sadhanli - sgrub thabs). This word is usually translated as "practice," which leads to locutions like "practicing the practice. " Wayman tried "evocation" occasionally. In contemporary practitioner circles the Sanskrit sadhana is used as an English word. I have discovered that "performance" works quite well in some cases, in that these contemplative sequences used in the Unexcelled Yoga Tantras and other categories of Tantra involve memorization, practice, ritual forms of gesture, speech, and visualization, and thus very much tum into contemplative performances,
either by a solitary individual or a group.
reincarnation, rebirth (punarjati, punarbhava). It is well to make a distinction between "rebirth" and "reincarnation. " "Rebirth" is the normal process following the death of a normal living being. "Reincarnation" is the conscious and voluntary descent into a physical body of a bodhisattva or buddha who, because of his or her transcendence of the bonds of action and addictions, is not compelled but incarnates in order to develop and liberate other living beings.
private, or personal, instruction (upadesa - man ngag). This is an instruction that connects to the exoteric and esoteric texts and transmits the technique and art of the tradition to the person seeking to understand the texts and put them into practice. Tsong Khapa is very clear that these instructions are not ever in contradiction to the treasured teachings in the texts, simply that they are needed to fully implement them, to bring them out from their hiding places in the indirect, intentional and cryptic encodings in the texts.
They also are required to fully realize the practices; so the serious practitioners requires both the mastery of the textual traditions and the personal instructions of a qualified and exemplary teacher.
psychonaut. A "voyager into the soul," an apt term for the Buddhist adept, who voluntarily abandons the pseudo-security of this planet of delusion, with its solid ground of ordi- nary, individuated suffering, to launch herself through the death-dissolutions into the subtle between states to deepen her wisdom by exploring the unconscious and to expand her compassionate heroism by serving universes of beings on the subtle level, and then to return to be reborn in her old ordinary embodiment of the adept to assist her contem- poraries.
rasana. The right channel in the subtle yogic neural system, red in color, called pi{lgala in the Hindu yogic systems.
radiance (t2bha? ? a, t2lokt2bht2sa - mched pa, snang ba mchedpa). The middle, sun-lit state of the subtle mind, the radiance-luminance-wisdom, corresponding to the anger-related instinctual natures, between the states of luminance and imminence. Some of its synonyms are "art," "imagined," "mentality," "lust," "sight side reality" (these in common with Sntra usage), and "AJ:I," "luminance-radiance," "extreme void," "mental function," and "passion. "
? Glossary of Unique Translation Terms ? 657
Ratnasambhava. One of the five archetypal transcendent buddhas, Lord of the jewel buddha-clan. associated with the southern direction and the buddhaverse Ratnavyoha. He represents the equalizing wisdom. the transformation of the aggregate of sensations, the transmutation of the poison of pride or avarice. and the color yellow. His buddha consort is MamakT.
reality (dharmata. satya, even dharma - chos nyid, bden pa, chos). An important word in Buddhism since enlightenment purports to be ! he perfect knowledge and awareness of the actual condition of things, and the possibility of liberation from suffering is based on the truth of that condition and the untruth of the ordinary condition of suffering.
relativity (pratrtyasamutpada). This Skt. term is usually translated as "dependent origi- nation," which serves in certain contexts. However, in the Madhyamika context, which is an important context in this text, pratTtya. mmutpada describes ultimate reality. It is equated to shanyata, voidness, the nature of birthlessness; thus "origination" is somewhat out of place, since ultimately no thing originates. "Relativity," which T. Stcherbatski used perhaps over-zealously by extension for "voidness" itself, seems ideal to convey the sense that nothing exists independent of relation with something else; therefore there is no absolute, permanent, independent self-substantial thing-only things that exist con- ventionally, dependent on their verbal and intellectual designations.
samadhi (samadhi - ting nge 'dzin). An important Sanskrit word for meditational practice and meditational achievement. Usually defined as "one-pointedness of mind," it can also refer to creative mind states after enlightenment, mental concentrations which produce special light rays, liberating environments for disciples and so forth. It has now entered the English dictionary so there is no need for a diacritic mark.
samsara (sari'ISI'lra - 'khor ba). This is existence controlled by ignorance, desire, and hatred, which is always suffering for beings caught in it. It is by now an English word. and so can be written without diacritical marks. It is sometimes translated as cyclic existence, life cycle, or simply life. See "life. "
Sarhgha. The third of the Three Jewels, being the fourfold community of those who live in refuge in the Dharma and the Buddha Jewels. Its inclusion is extended in Universal Vehicle and Tantric literatures to include noble, angelic, and divine beings.
savior (nt'Jtha - mgon po). This is usually translated "protector," but so is Dharmapala (chos bsrungs, chos skyongs), name for mundane guardians of the tradition. Natha as in Natha Nagarjuna, Maitreyanatha, refers to an angelic or divine, messianic buddha- being who nurtures and guards the evolutionary essence, the spiritual soul, and so saves you from lifetimes of suffering in samsaric hells and wasted migratory lives.
self (t'Jtmll - bdag). It is crucial to understand what is meant by "self," before one is able to realize the all-important "selflessness. " Before we can discover an absence, we have to know what we are looking for, what we have been assuming to be present. In all Buddhist teachings, there is a self of persons (subjectivities) and a self of things (objectivities), both presumed habitually by living beings and hence informative of their perceptions. Were these "selves" to exist as they appear because of our presump-
tion, they should exist as substantial, self-subsistent entities within things, or as the intrinsic realities of things, or as the intrinsic identities of things, all permanent, unrelated and nonrelative, etc. The nondiscovery of such "selves" within changing,
658 ? GlossaryofUniqueTranslationTerms
relative. interdependent persons and things is the realization of ultimate reality, or
selflessness.
selflessness (anatmata, or nairatmya). This describes actual reality, as finally there is no enduring person himself or herself or thing-in-itself, since persons and things exist only in the relative. conventional, or superficial sense, and not in any ultimate or absolute sense. To understand Buddhist teaching correctly, we must be clear about the two senses (conventional/ultimate, or relative/absolute), since mistaking denial of ultimate self as denial of conventional self leads to nihilism, and mistaking affirmation of conventional self as affirmation of ultimate self leads to absolutism. Nihilism and abso- lutism effectively prevent us from realizing our enlightenment, hence are very much to be avoided.
signlessness (animitta). In ultimate reality, there is no sign, as a sign signals or signifies something to someone and hence is inextricably involved with the relative world. We are so conditioned by signs that they seem to speak to us as if they had a voice of their own. The letter "A" seems to pronounce itself to us as we see it, and the stop-sign fairly shouts at us. However, the configuration of two slanted lines with a crossbar has in itself nothing whatsoever to do with the phenomenon made with the mouth and throat in the open position. when expulsion of breath makes the vocal cords resonate "ah. " By extending such analysis to all signs, we may get an inkling of what is meant by "signlessness," which is essentially equivalent to voidness, and to wishlessness.
soul (atisiildmacitta, bindu, gotra, sam tina, jrva - shin tu phra mo 'i sems, gnyugs sems, thig /e, rigs, rgyun, srog). That which is the deepest personal essence of a living being, the super-subtle continuum which journeys from life to life and takes rebirth, and which becomes enlightened finally. The Buddha's famous teaching of selflessness has often been translated in the past as "soul-lessness," and was used to confirm the Western sense that Buddhism is nihilistic and atheistic. The Buddha rejected any absolute,
unchanging, fixed, intrinsically substantial, intrinsically identifiable soul, just as he rejected the same kind of intrinsically real self or ego, and the same kind of intrinsi- cally real rock, or tree, or entity, of any kind. But relative, changing, relational, living, conventional entities that can usefully be termed ego, self, or soul are never prohibited in Buddhist psychology.
soul-ejection (*c:yuta - 'pho ba). This is a special yogic method of, anticipating the moment of a normal death, consciously ejecting the indestructible drop soul-continuum from out of the heart center of a particular coarse embodiment up though the central channel and out the crown of the head into a buddha-realm. An adept is supposedly able to mentally line up with the soul-continuum of another person in the midst of their dying process or even soon after they have departed the physical body and boost them into ejecting from their between state body into a buddha-realm.
speech isolation (vilgviveka - ngag dben). This is the second of the five perfection stages, wherein the main practice is the vajra recitation, which mainly consists of uniting inbreath, held-breath, and outbreath with the OM A/:1 HOM- body, speech, and mind of all buddhas-mantras, and maintaining that awareness mindfully all day for six months of meditation until the coarse wind-energies dissolve into the central channel and the four voids and four joys are experienced on the way to first immersion into the metaphoric clear light transparence.
Glossary of Unique Translation Terms ? 659
spiritual gene (gotra - rigs). Sanskrit gotra (in esoteric context sometimes brja, or hindu) means the seed of one's propensities, structures. affinities, and fortune developed from the evolutionary action of previous lives. It is a gene that carries the codes of the mind and attitudes of a being. just as the genes of father and mother structure that being's body. It encodes within the extremely subtle life-continuum ofan individual the instinc- tual residue of his or her past lives' evolutionary experiences and actions, which is carried as a subtle "drop" into the next life. If the individual is mammalian, it interacts with the physical genes from father and mother to determine the character of the being in that life. The Buddhist vision of conception is rather beautiful, a moment where the father's white drop meets the mother's red drop, and the individual's blue drop enters within their union.
spiritual teacher (kal,vc7{1 amitra - dge ba 'i bshes gnyen). The model of teacher in Univer- sal Vehicle tradition is that of a virtuous friend who inspires to virtue, consciously avoiding the authoritarian guru archetype prevalent in Indian culture. See "mentor. "
subtle body or mind (soksma-sarrra or -citta). The subtle body is constituted by channels, wind-energies, and neural drops (nc7t/ivc7yubindu), a kind of neural energy and substance net that resides within the coarse body of flesh and blood and bone and the five sense organs. The coarse mind of fivefold sense-consciousnesses dissolves here into the subtle mind that manifests in this neural network body and consists of the eighty sub- conscious instinctual natures (prakrti), distributed into three intuition zones, called luminance, radiance, and imminence (experienced as white, red, and blue-black empty spaces): these only appear when the instincts have been calmed by concentration on voidness and the injection of their mounts the neural wind-energies into the central channel. One of the symbolic meanings of the three faces. black. red, and white, of the Esoteric Community Buddha form Ak? hobhyavajra may be the three layers of the subtle mind, as well as perhaps the three associated central channels. See "channel," "drops," "wind-energy. "
Sotra (sorra - mdo ). This is used in Tibetan as opposite of Tantra, alone or in combination with "Vehicle," referring to the exoteric as opposed to esoteric teachings. See "discourse. "
Tantra (tantra - rgyud). The late master Tantric abbot, Tara Tulku, in verbal communica- tion defined Tantra as follows: "after wisdom has destroyed the ignorance-driven world of samsaric suffering, Tantra continues as the art of re-creating the world of the buddhas' compassion out of wisdom itself. " There are Root Tantras, Explanatory Tantras, Further Tantras, Action, Performance, Yoga, Unexcelled Yoga Tantras. Father Tantras, Mother Tantras, Mahiiyoga, Anuyoga, and Atiyoga Tantras. There are also Medical Tantras, and other traditions wherein a "Tantra" is a codified technology of an art or science. See "continuum. "
time (kala - dus) divisions. A "session" (thun) is three Western hours: a "transit" ( 'pho ba) is 90 minutes: an "hour" (chu tshod) is 45 minutes; and a "period" (dbyu gu) is 22. 5 minutes. Internal time of a day (2 1 ,600 breaths) is divided into 8 sessions of 2700 breaths (connected with 8 petals of heart wheel), 1 6 half-sessions of 1 350 breaths (con- nected with 16 petals of throat wheel), 32 quarter-sessions of 675 breaths (connected with 32 petals of brain wheel). and 64 eighth-sessions 337. 5 breaths (connected with 64 petals of navel wheel). (See above p. 248)
660 ? Glossary of Unique Translation Terms
tolerance (patience) (ksllnti - bzod pa). This is itemized under the "six transcendences" (see Numerical Categories Glossary). Here we are concerned with the "intuitive tolerance of the birthlessness (or incomprehensibility) of all things" (anutpattika- dharmakStlnti or anupalabdhidharmaksllnti). To translate ksllnti as "knowledge" or "conviction" defeats entirely the Sanskrit usage and its intended sense. In the face of birthlessness or incomprehensibility (i. e. , the ultimate reality), ordinary knowledge and
especially convictions are utterly lost. This is because the mind sees through the objectifiability of anything and has nothing to grasp, and its process of coming to terms may be described only as a conscious cancellation through absolute negations of any false sense of certainty about anything. Through this tolerance, the mind reaches a stage where it can bear its lack of bearings and can endure this kind of extreme open- ness. this lack of any conviction, etc. There are three degrees of this tolerance: verbal (gho$iinuga), conformative (anulomikf), and complete.
trance (samlipatti - mnyam gzhag). "Trance" has been translated as "meditation," "con- templation," "attainment," etc. , and any of these words might serve. It would be good to establish a main English word for each of the important Sanskrit words samtlpatti, dhyana, samadhi, bhavana, etc. , so as to preserve a consistency with the original. Here are used for these terms. respectively, "trance," "contemplation," "concentration" and "meditation," "realization" or "cultivation," using "meditation" also for general use with any of the terms when they are used not in a specific sense but to indicate mind- practice in general. See "four trances" in the Numerical Categories Glossary.
transcendence (paramittl). This has been widely translated as "perfection" following E. Conze's pioneering work with the Sotras of transcendent wisdom, which is there- fore fine, even standard. I prefer "transcendence," as it conveys the ambiguity in the Sanskrit and Tibetan terms of a "going beyond," for those languages have other terms for complete or perfect. Thus "transcendent wisdom" is a degree of wisdom that goes beyond wisdom. as well as being a wisdom that goes beyond all ignorance. A transcen-
dent generosity goes beyond generosity, as it bears a selfless awareness that doesn't perceive any giver, recipient or act of giving, and just naturally, effortlessly happens.
transcendent insight (vipasyana - /hag mthong). This is paired with "mental quiescence. " In general "meditation" is too often understood as only the types of practices catego- rized as "quietistic"-which eschew objects, learning, analysis, discrimination. etc. . and lead only to the attainment of temporary peace and one-pointedness. However, in order to reach any high realization, such as personal selflessness, phenomenal selfless- ness, or voidness, "transcendent insight," with its analytical penetration to the nature of ultimate reality, is indispensable. The analysis is called "transcendent" because it does not accept anything it sees as it appears. Instead, through analytic examination, it penetrates to its deeper reality, going ever deeper in infinite penetration until tolerance is reached. All apparently self-sufficient objects are seen through and their truth-status is rejected-first conceptually and finally perceptually, at buddhahood. Thus "medita- tion," to be efficacious, must include both mental quiescence (. famatha) and transcen- dent insight (vipa. fyanll) in integrated combination.
truth (satya, dharma - bden pa, chos). For the most part a synonym of reality, though sometimes a statement that corresponds or indicates that reality. See "reality. "
Glossary of Unique Translation Terms ? 66 1 truth body (dharmaklyl a). See "three bodies of the Buddha (trikllya)" in the Numerical
Categories Glossary.
truth-habit (satyagraha - bden 'dzin). This refers to a type of objective self-habit, a sub- liminal form of misknowledge which reifies in things an unrealistic intrinsic reality that is not possibly there.
ultimate (paramllrtha - don dam). "Ultimate" is preferable to the usual "absolute" be- cause it carries fewer connotations than "absolute"-which, however, when understood logically. is also correct. It is contrasted with "superficial" (samvrtti) or "relative" (vyavahara) to give the two types, or "levels," of truth. It is synonymous with ultimate reality, the uncompounded. voidness, reality, limit of reality, absolute, nirvana, ultimate liberation, infinity, permanence, eternity, independence, etc. It also has the soteriologi- cal sense of "sacred" as opposed to "profane" as is conveyed by its literal rendering "supreme" (parama) "object" (artha).
Unexcelled Yoga Tantra (anuttarayogatantra - bla med rna/ 'byor rgyud). This is the highest category of Tantric teachings, according to the new translation schools (Kadam- Geluk, Sakya, and Kagyu orders), perhaps corresponding to the Maha-. Anu-. and Ali- yoga Tantras of the old translation school (Nyingma order). The word anuttara is often translated "highest," and they are placed highest in a hierarchy of efficacy. However there are Sanskrit words for "highest," notably parama. or uttama, and so I prefer "unexcelled," to convey the sense that these teachings cannot be surpassed, and all other teachings end up in them. Rather than being above the other teachings, they are at their heart or core, and so reaching full realization of whatever teaching the Buddha gives brings you to the place of the unexcelled.
Universal Vehicle (mahayana - theg chen). The messianic form of Buddhism. that emphasizes the teaching of love and compassion, the inevitable implication of selfless wisdom, providing a social teaching and a vehicle to carry all beings to enlightenment, built upon the foundation of the Individual or Monastic Vehicle that is designed to carry beings one by one.
vagina (bhaga - bha ga, pad ma). The sexual organ of a female practitioner or consort, standing also for voidness, the ultimate nature of reality. Thus, in Unexcelled Yoga Tantras the Buddha Vajrdhara is said to be dwelling in the "vaginas of the vajra women," i. e. in the ultimate reality of voidness experienced as a sensitive membrane that contains great bliss.
Vairochana. One of the five archetypal transcendent buddhas, Lord of the Transcendent Buddha-clan, associated with the eastern direction. He represents the mirror-like wisdom, the transmutation of the poison of delusion, the color white, and the aggregate of matter. His buddha consort is Lochana:.
vajra (vajra - rdo rje) (see also "adamantine, diamond"). This term is translated in Tibetan with the word for ''diamond" (lit. "supreme stone"), which word and object holds a simile for the unbreakability of the intuitive knowledge of the ultimate reality of all things, the infinite energy of the clear light of the void, the ground and substance of all things, known and manifested by all buddhas. The Sanskrit word had the Vedic mean- ing of "thunderbolt" and was the invincible weapon of lndra, king of the Vedic gods. transformed into a magical scepter, symbolizing for Tantric Buddhists the invincible
662 ? Glossary of Unique Translation Terms
power of universal compassion. Along with linga. it refers to the phallus, paired with
bhaga and padma for the vagina.
Vajradhara. The Tantric buddha par excellence, manifesting as a dark blue royally attired handsome male, a metamorphosis of Shllkyamuni and other humanoid buddhas in the context of teaching Tantric revelations.
Vajrasattva. The same buddha (as Vajradhara), here presented as a "diamond hero," an exemplary practitioner of the Tantra.
Vajrapal)i. The same buddha (as Vajradhara/sattva), here as a fierce black ogre-like bodhi- sattva who asks the Vajradhara Buddha manifestation the tough Tantric questions, receives the teachings, and remembers and preserves the Tantric Sutras.
vehicle (yana - theg pa). A conveyance that carries you from one place to another. There are Transcendence, Sutra, Mantra, Tantra, Vajra, and Orgasmic (Sahaja) Vehicles, and also Individual, Universal, Disciple, Hermit Buddha, and Buddha Vehicles.
voidness (siinyata - stong pa nyid). I prefer to translate this term as "voidness" because this English word is more rarely used than "emptiness" and does not refer to any sort of ultimate nothingness. as a thing-in-itself, or even as the thing-in-itself to end all things-in-themselves. It is a pure negation of the ultimate existence of anything or, in Buddhist terminology, the "voidness with respect to subjective and objective selves," or "with respect to intrinsic identity," or "with respect to intrinsic nature," or "with respect to essential substance," or "with respect to self-existence established by intrinsic identity," or "with respect to ultimate truth-status," etc. Thus voidness is a concept descriptive of the ultimate reality through its pure negation of whatever may be supposed to be ultimately real, including itself. It is an absence, hence not existent in itself. It is synonymous therefore with "infinity," "absolute," etc. , themselves all
negative terms, i. e. , formed etymologically from a positive concept by adding a negative prefix (in + finite = not finite; ab + solute = not compounded, etc. ). But, since our verbally conditioned mental functions are habituated to the connection of word and thing, we tend to hypostatize a "void," analogous to "outer space," a "vacuum," etc. , which we either shrink from as a nihilistic nothingness or become attached to as a liberative nothingness; this great mistake can be cured only by realizing the meaning of the "voidness of voidness," which brings us to the tolerance of inconceivability (see
"tolerance").
wind-energy (vayu - rlung). This term-sometimes "neural energy"-is used for the element "wind" (defined simply as "motility" or "movement" [cala - gyo ba]), and more importantly for the subtle inner winds that contribute the activity to the subtle body, moving the "drops" around the "channels. " Their supremely subtle form consti- tutes the extremely subtle body of the indestructible drop that is the mount of the clear light enlightened awareness of the subtlest soul. There are five main energies and five branch energies. The five main energies are the life or vitalizing, evacuating, ascend- ing. metabolic, and pervading energies, each associated with a particular channel- wheel, with a particular archetype buddha, a particular wisdom, and so forth. The branch energies are associated with the buddha consorts and the five elements and so forth. These wind-energies are also extremely important in Buddhist medicine, under- lying the technology of acupuncture and the understanding of most mental as well as many physical disorders.
Glossary of Unique Translation Terms ? 663
wisdom (prajiitl, jifllna - shes rab, ye shes). This word can be used for transcendent wisdom or for gnostic intuition. There is the wisdom of selflessness, the wisdom that realizes voidness, the five wisdoms, and so forth. This word also can be a name for the buddha conson, as in the "wisdom intuition initiation" (prajnll-jnllna-abhi$ekha).
wishlessness (apra(lihill'l - smon pa med pa). Third of the three doors of liberation. Objectively, it is equivalent to voidness: subjectively, it is the outcome of the noble gnosis of voidness as the realization of the ultimate lack of anything to wish for, whether voidness itself. or even buddhahood.
yoga (yoga - rna/ 'byor). From the verbal root yuj- "to yoke," yoga means uniting or connecting, the Tibetan translating "connecting with the essence," the "essence" (rna/) here being the bliss-void-indivisible, the ultimate or actual reality nondually united with the relative reality of life, the unlocated nirvana non-separate from samsara, the diamond clear light transparence of the void actual reality as the infinite energy of love and compassion tapped by the wisdom of selflessness, etc. There is a set of "six yogas" employed in performance of the creation stage: yoga, continuing yoga (anuyoga), great (mahll-) yoga, exteme yoga, mandala triumph yoga and evolutionary (karma) triumph yoga. The currently famous Hatha Yoga, though traditionally connected with the Saritkhya philosophy, rather seems to have arisen from Buddhist and Hindu Tantra, as the ha and the tha seem to refer to the right and left channels of the Tantric yogic subtle nervous system, and the Hatha Yoga focus on the body as a vehicle of enlightened experience seems contradictory to the Sarilkhya dualism and its effort to escape the body and the differentiated world into nirvikalpasamadhi, rather stemming from a Vedantic or Madhyamic nondual vision of life.
yogi or yogi/ni (yogi - rna/ 'byor pa). I use this gender-combined word throughout since in Sanskrit and therefore tacitly in Tibetan the masculine case in all words refers to both genders, as "man" in English is supposed to do when referring to "mankind" as "humankind. " Other English words tend to assume only the masculine unless modified in this way, just as his does not include the feminine referent, so all bodhisattvas are represented as male etc. , unless we write "his or her" etc. I go to this length especially in this Tantric context, in which there has been a lot of ink spilled to make it out as a male chauvinist preserve, while the tradition itself is distinguished by its special emphasis on honoring women in theory and practice (even though most of the historical authors have been men).
yogini (yogin/ - rnal 'byor ma). This word is used in certain contexts where a female yogini or deity is involved or Mother Tantra is intended.
BIBLIO GRA PHIES
Modern Sources
Abe, Ryuichi. The Weaving ofMantra: Kakai and the Construction ofEsoteric Buddhist Discourse. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.
Aris, Michael. Hidden Treasures, Secret Lives: A Study of Pemalingpa (1450-1521) and the Sixth Dalai Lama (1683-1 706). London and New York: Kegan Paul Interna- tional, 1989.
Bagchi, S. , ed. Guhyasamlija Tantra or Tathtigataguhyaka. Darbhanga: Mithila Institute, 1965.
--. , ed. Mahtiytina-satrtilanktira ofAsanga. Darbhanga: Mithilal Institute, 1970. Bentor, Yael. Consecration of Images and Stapas in Indo-Tibetan Tantric Buddhism.
Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1996.
Bhattacharyya, Benoytosh. An Introduction to Buddhist Esoterism. London: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 1 932; Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1 989.
--. Two Vajraylina Works. Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1929.
Bhattacharyya, Benoytosh, ed. Guhyasamlija Tantra or Tathtigataguhyaka. Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1 93 1 .
--, ed. SlldhanamiJlll, 2 vols. Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1925; reprint, 1968. Chakravarti, Chintaharan, ed.
lama. This means guru or spirituaJ teacher in Tibetan, and represents a highly honored pro- fession, since the lama is the indispensable doorway to the practice and performance of Tantra. I sometimes use the Tibetan word, and translate it as "mentor" when it seems best to translate it.
Ialani. The left channel of the subtle yogic neural system, white in color, running next to the central channel, called Tqa in Hindu Tantra. See "avadhDti. "
? Glossary of Unique Translation Terms ? 653
liberative art (upaya). See "art. "
life (samsilra - 'khor ba). This translation seems natural, instead of either the awkward "transmigration" or the vague "the round," because it conveys well the sense of the transformations of living things; it also connotes to all modem readers the whole span and scope of the world of living things. "Life" can translate three other Tibetan words: tshe, which means "lifespan" or "life-time"; skye ba, which literally means "birth"; and
srog, which means "vitality" or "vital principle. "
luminance (atoka - snang ba). The most surface state of the subtle mind, it is that which corresponds to the desire-oriented instinctual natures, and has the experiential sign of moonlit autumn sky during the death dissolutions and birth arisals. The other two states of the subtle mind, the sun-lit radiance, and the dark-lit imminence, are also sometimes called "luminances," and sometimes "luminance wisdoms. " Its synonyms are said to be "wisdom," "the relative," "mind," "anger," "the void side reality" (these in common with Sntra teachings), and "OM," "luminance," "void," "mind," amd "dispassion. "
magic body (mayadeha, mayakaya - sgyu Ius). A subtle body attained through the bless- ing of the mentor at the self-consecration stage of the perfection stage, and created, according to Tsong Khapa, "in order to bring to fruition one's former vows, to abandon the nihilistic tendency gotten from the teaching of the god Maheshvara (Shiva), to accomplish beings' aims until the end of the eon, and to abandon the cessation truth accepted as enlightenment by the disciples" (Tib. 78a). This subtle body seems to be a kind of death-birth-between embodiment, resembling a conscious dream embodiment, and holds (is made of) the extremely subtle mind of great bliss clear light. It is needed to compress eons of altruistic bodhisattva lifetimes into the single life of the perfection stage adept, in order to realize the matter body of a buddha that manifests the merit and compassion side of the truth body of a buddha.
mandala (maf)t/ala - dkyil 'khor). There are many types of mandala, which means "realm that protects the essence," the essence of life in the Buddha's view being the universal bliss energy of the clear light of void reality. There are habitat and inhabitant mandalas, which are, respectively. the environment of palace and gardens and death grounds around and firewalls surrounding, and the divine beings within the habitat. Then within that on a more subtle level, there are ( 1 ) the spirit of enlightenment mandala, within which one receives the secret empowerment of red and white spirits of enlightenment from the mentor father-mother; (2) the dharma-source or vagina mandala within which one receives the wisdom intuition empowerment with the consort; and (3) the word mandala, wherein one receives the great fourth empowerment, the word empowerment.
mantra (mantra - sngags). Literally meaning "saving (-tar or -tra) the mind (manas)," a mantra is a creative sound considered expressive of the deepest essence of things and understandings, so that its repetition can evoke in a formulaic or even magical way a state of enlightenment or positive energy. Some mantras resemble sentences, and express some wish, vision or affirmation, and others are just a single syllable or two, containing the germ of a deity, realm, or state of concentration.
materialism (vastugraha, bhavagraha - dngos por 'dzin pa). This is the grasping at things that conceives of material objects as possessing intrinsically real substantiality.
6? ? Glos. tary of Uniqu? Translation T? rm. v n1attc-r Ir? 1). S? "ag? regate. "
matter body (of a buddha) (rft'aktlya ? - IP'R? '? ,\? ku). The altruistic aspect of enlightenment, developed from the individual's l'nntinua nf body and speech, subdivided into the beatitic and emanation bodies. It has usually been called "form body," by confusing the two meanings of ritJa : "fonn" as specifically visible object, and "matter" as sub- stantial entity. whether visible or not.
mental quiescence, or serenity (samathtl). "Mental quiescence" is a general tenn for all types of mind-practice. meditation, contemplation, concentration, etc. , that cultivate one-pointedness of mind and lead to a state of peacefulness and freedom from concern with any sort of object. It is paired with "transcendent insight," which combines the analytic faculty with this one-pointedness to reach high realizations such as selfless- ness (see "transcendent insight").
mentor (guru - bla ma). The guru figure returns to esoteric Buddhism in the context of initiation, and for the depth psychological purpose of guiding the advanced spiritual adventurer who seeks reality and the attainment of buddhahood by diving into the unconscious realm of instincts and lucidly experiencing and mastering the processes of life and death. Though the Sanskrit word means "heavy" and so connotes the weight of the patriarchal authority figure, the Tibetan word fits with the "unexcelled" idea of Unexcelled Yoga (see entry) and so connotes a relationship beyond that of father or mother, rather the all embracing immanence of the buddha presence which is actually indivisible from even the ignorant being, and thus infuses the disciple with the buddha- presence, rather than holding it above as something far away and unattainable. Cer- tainly, the Tantric initiation doesn't "take" unless the recipient visualizes the mentor as indivisible from Vajradhara Buddha himself (or herself as with Vajrayogini). But the
point then of the initiation is to ritually and contemplatively open the door in the recipient's imagination for his or her own identity with the Vajradhara Buddha. Thus the lama mentor serves more as an exemplar of person-buddha communion in order for the disciple practitioner to find that same communion with him or herself. The relation- ship is abused when the reception of initiation becomes a justification for worship of the lama, as if the lama was more one with the buddha than the disciple; such an initia- tion only makes a disciple feel less empowered and more dependent on the lama, rather
than empowered to discover the buddha reality of him or herself.
mind isolation (cittaviveka - sems dben). The third of the five perfection stages, consisting of mind objective, self-consecration, and magic body attainments. Mind herein is iso- lated from coarse and ordinary reality in the buddha and divine reality of enlightenment.
mirror-like wisdom. One of the five wisdoms, the transformation of the matter aggregate, the transmutation of delusion, associated with the buddha Vairochana, the Tran- scendent Buddha-clan, the color white, and the awareness of that even relative things reflect ultimate reality, as in a perfect mirror.
Mother Tantra (matatantra - ma rgyud). This is a class of Unexcelled Yoga Tantras, all of which (in Tsong Khapa's interpretation) are nondual in terms of magic body and clear light, where the emphasis is on the deepening of immersion in the clear light transpar- ence and intensification of the four joys both before and after the creation of the magic body at the stage of mind isolation through the mind objective and the self-consecration,
Glossary of Unique Translation Terms ? 655 by the grace of the mentor. deepening it even more during the fourth stage clear
enlightenment practice. See "Father Tantra. "
nirvana (nirvapa - mya ngan las 'das pa). The opposite of samsara, the blowing away of suffering, the peace that surpasseth all understanding. the supreme good, the actual reality of the universe. In the dualistic Buddhism of the Individual Vehicle, it is repre- sented as a place apart from the world of samsara, an otherworldly elsewhere where the liberated saint could go to freedom, though Buddha was careful not to present it as a state of annihilation. Its highest fonn was called "nirvana without reminder. " In the nondualist Universal Vehicle teaching. nirvana and samsara were taught to be ulti- mately the same. though relatively still opposite, and the highest nirvana was called "unlocated," rather than "remainderless. " Thus, this very world, if understood by an enlightened mind, was revealed to actually be nirvana, a place of abundant happiness, bliss. freedom. love, and compassion. The task then for the bodhisattva is to destroy the ignorance that prevents us from knowing that bliss, and then share the discovered bliss with beings still caught in suffering by ignorance.
nonapprehension (anupalambha - dmigs med). This refers to the mental openness cultivated by the bodhisattva who has reached a certain awareness of the nature of reality, in that he or she does not seek to apprehend any object or grasp any substance in anything; rather, he or she removes any static pretension of the mind to have grasped at any truth, conviction, or view.
nonduality (advayatvll). This is synonymous with reality, voidness, etc. But it must be remembered that nonduality does not necessarily mean unity, that unity is only one of the pair unity-duality; hence nonduality implies nonunity as well.
ordinariness (prakrta - tha mal pa). A Tantric concept, where the world as perceived by the unenlightened is considered ordinary, because of being maintained by delusion and filled with suffering. The real world, revealed through wisdom and perceived through enlightened senses, is considered "extraordinary" (tha mal pa ma yin pa), a purified, enlightened, mandalic, buddhaversal realm of happiness and abundance. "Ordinary" is frequently used with "pride" (prakrtahamlara) "perception," "conception," "body," and other terms. The Tantric yogi/ni seeks to replace these with "deity-pride. " "pure perception and conception," and so forth.
outsider (*bahyapuru$a - phyi rol pa). This means a person who has not entered within the refuge of the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, as opposed to an "insider" who has. It is often translated as "non-Buddhist" or some times as "heterodox," equated with the somewhat more derogatory tfrthika (mu stegs pa - "fundamentalist"). There is no standard Sanskrit or Tibetan term to translate the English "non-Buddhist," or even "Buddhist" for that matter, at least until modern time.
patron deity (adhidaivatll - lhag pa 'i lha). A practitioner's specially important buddha- deity form.
perfection stage. This is the second stage of the Unexcelled Yoga Tantras, which follows on the successful completion of the creation stage (see above). After the yogi/ni has developed the ability to totally transform his or her perception and conception, so that s/he stably perceives the environment as the pure mandala, her or his body as a deity body, his or her speech as mantra, and her or his mind as buddha-wisdom, all three
656 ? Glossary of Unique Translation Terms
isolated from ordinariness, imperfection, and impurity, s/he is ready and secure enough to enter the practice of the rehearsal of death, the between, and the rebirth processes with a view to accelerating the evolutionary accumulation of the stores of merit and wisdom to gain buddhahood within a single lifetime or at maximum a few lifetimes. These processes are usually numbered five, including the stages of: ( 1 ) body isolation, (2) speech isolation, (3) mind isolation/self-consecration/magic body, (4) clear light/
enlightenment, and (5) communion.
performance, practice (sadhanli - sgrub thabs). This word is usually translated as "practice," which leads to locutions like "practicing the practice. " Wayman tried "evocation" occasionally. In contemporary practitioner circles the Sanskrit sadhana is used as an English word. I have discovered that "performance" works quite well in some cases, in that these contemplative sequences used in the Unexcelled Yoga Tantras and other categories of Tantra involve memorization, practice, ritual forms of gesture, speech, and visualization, and thus very much tum into contemplative performances,
either by a solitary individual or a group.
reincarnation, rebirth (punarjati, punarbhava). It is well to make a distinction between "rebirth" and "reincarnation. " "Rebirth" is the normal process following the death of a normal living being. "Reincarnation" is the conscious and voluntary descent into a physical body of a bodhisattva or buddha who, because of his or her transcendence of the bonds of action and addictions, is not compelled but incarnates in order to develop and liberate other living beings.
private, or personal, instruction (upadesa - man ngag). This is an instruction that connects to the exoteric and esoteric texts and transmits the technique and art of the tradition to the person seeking to understand the texts and put them into practice. Tsong Khapa is very clear that these instructions are not ever in contradiction to the treasured teachings in the texts, simply that they are needed to fully implement them, to bring them out from their hiding places in the indirect, intentional and cryptic encodings in the texts.
They also are required to fully realize the practices; so the serious practitioners requires both the mastery of the textual traditions and the personal instructions of a qualified and exemplary teacher.
psychonaut. A "voyager into the soul," an apt term for the Buddhist adept, who voluntarily abandons the pseudo-security of this planet of delusion, with its solid ground of ordi- nary, individuated suffering, to launch herself through the death-dissolutions into the subtle between states to deepen her wisdom by exploring the unconscious and to expand her compassionate heroism by serving universes of beings on the subtle level, and then to return to be reborn in her old ordinary embodiment of the adept to assist her contem- poraries.
rasana. The right channel in the subtle yogic neural system, red in color, called pi{lgala in the Hindu yogic systems.
radiance (t2bha? ? a, t2lokt2bht2sa - mched pa, snang ba mchedpa). The middle, sun-lit state of the subtle mind, the radiance-luminance-wisdom, corresponding to the anger-related instinctual natures, between the states of luminance and imminence. Some of its synonyms are "art," "imagined," "mentality," "lust," "sight side reality" (these in common with Sntra usage), and "AJ:I," "luminance-radiance," "extreme void," "mental function," and "passion. "
? Glossary of Unique Translation Terms ? 657
Ratnasambhava. One of the five archetypal transcendent buddhas, Lord of the jewel buddha-clan. associated with the southern direction and the buddhaverse Ratnavyoha. He represents the equalizing wisdom. the transformation of the aggregate of sensations, the transmutation of the poison of pride or avarice. and the color yellow. His buddha consort is MamakT.
reality (dharmata. satya, even dharma - chos nyid, bden pa, chos). An important word in Buddhism since enlightenment purports to be ! he perfect knowledge and awareness of the actual condition of things, and the possibility of liberation from suffering is based on the truth of that condition and the untruth of the ordinary condition of suffering.
relativity (pratrtyasamutpada). This Skt. term is usually translated as "dependent origi- nation," which serves in certain contexts. However, in the Madhyamika context, which is an important context in this text, pratTtya. mmutpada describes ultimate reality. It is equated to shanyata, voidness, the nature of birthlessness; thus "origination" is somewhat out of place, since ultimately no thing originates. "Relativity," which T. Stcherbatski used perhaps over-zealously by extension for "voidness" itself, seems ideal to convey the sense that nothing exists independent of relation with something else; therefore there is no absolute, permanent, independent self-substantial thing-only things that exist con- ventionally, dependent on their verbal and intellectual designations.
samadhi (samadhi - ting nge 'dzin). An important Sanskrit word for meditational practice and meditational achievement. Usually defined as "one-pointedness of mind," it can also refer to creative mind states after enlightenment, mental concentrations which produce special light rays, liberating environments for disciples and so forth. It has now entered the English dictionary so there is no need for a diacritic mark.
samsara (sari'ISI'lra - 'khor ba). This is existence controlled by ignorance, desire, and hatred, which is always suffering for beings caught in it. It is by now an English word. and so can be written without diacritical marks. It is sometimes translated as cyclic existence, life cycle, or simply life. See "life. "
Sarhgha. The third of the Three Jewels, being the fourfold community of those who live in refuge in the Dharma and the Buddha Jewels. Its inclusion is extended in Universal Vehicle and Tantric literatures to include noble, angelic, and divine beings.
savior (nt'Jtha - mgon po). This is usually translated "protector," but so is Dharmapala (chos bsrungs, chos skyongs), name for mundane guardians of the tradition. Natha as in Natha Nagarjuna, Maitreyanatha, refers to an angelic or divine, messianic buddha- being who nurtures and guards the evolutionary essence, the spiritual soul, and so saves you from lifetimes of suffering in samsaric hells and wasted migratory lives.
self (t'Jtmll - bdag). It is crucial to understand what is meant by "self," before one is able to realize the all-important "selflessness. " Before we can discover an absence, we have to know what we are looking for, what we have been assuming to be present. In all Buddhist teachings, there is a self of persons (subjectivities) and a self of things (objectivities), both presumed habitually by living beings and hence informative of their perceptions. Were these "selves" to exist as they appear because of our presump-
tion, they should exist as substantial, self-subsistent entities within things, or as the intrinsic realities of things, or as the intrinsic identities of things, all permanent, unrelated and nonrelative, etc. The nondiscovery of such "selves" within changing,
658 ? GlossaryofUniqueTranslationTerms
relative. interdependent persons and things is the realization of ultimate reality, or
selflessness.
selflessness (anatmata, or nairatmya). This describes actual reality, as finally there is no enduring person himself or herself or thing-in-itself, since persons and things exist only in the relative. conventional, or superficial sense, and not in any ultimate or absolute sense. To understand Buddhist teaching correctly, we must be clear about the two senses (conventional/ultimate, or relative/absolute), since mistaking denial of ultimate self as denial of conventional self leads to nihilism, and mistaking affirmation of conventional self as affirmation of ultimate self leads to absolutism. Nihilism and abso- lutism effectively prevent us from realizing our enlightenment, hence are very much to be avoided.
signlessness (animitta). In ultimate reality, there is no sign, as a sign signals or signifies something to someone and hence is inextricably involved with the relative world. We are so conditioned by signs that they seem to speak to us as if they had a voice of their own. The letter "A" seems to pronounce itself to us as we see it, and the stop-sign fairly shouts at us. However, the configuration of two slanted lines with a crossbar has in itself nothing whatsoever to do with the phenomenon made with the mouth and throat in the open position. when expulsion of breath makes the vocal cords resonate "ah. " By extending such analysis to all signs, we may get an inkling of what is meant by "signlessness," which is essentially equivalent to voidness, and to wishlessness.
soul (atisiildmacitta, bindu, gotra, sam tina, jrva - shin tu phra mo 'i sems, gnyugs sems, thig /e, rigs, rgyun, srog). That which is the deepest personal essence of a living being, the super-subtle continuum which journeys from life to life and takes rebirth, and which becomes enlightened finally. The Buddha's famous teaching of selflessness has often been translated in the past as "soul-lessness," and was used to confirm the Western sense that Buddhism is nihilistic and atheistic. The Buddha rejected any absolute,
unchanging, fixed, intrinsically substantial, intrinsically identifiable soul, just as he rejected the same kind of intrinsically real self or ego, and the same kind of intrinsi- cally real rock, or tree, or entity, of any kind. But relative, changing, relational, living, conventional entities that can usefully be termed ego, self, or soul are never prohibited in Buddhist psychology.
soul-ejection (*c:yuta - 'pho ba). This is a special yogic method of, anticipating the moment of a normal death, consciously ejecting the indestructible drop soul-continuum from out of the heart center of a particular coarse embodiment up though the central channel and out the crown of the head into a buddha-realm. An adept is supposedly able to mentally line up with the soul-continuum of another person in the midst of their dying process or even soon after they have departed the physical body and boost them into ejecting from their between state body into a buddha-realm.
speech isolation (vilgviveka - ngag dben). This is the second of the five perfection stages, wherein the main practice is the vajra recitation, which mainly consists of uniting inbreath, held-breath, and outbreath with the OM A/:1 HOM- body, speech, and mind of all buddhas-mantras, and maintaining that awareness mindfully all day for six months of meditation until the coarse wind-energies dissolve into the central channel and the four voids and four joys are experienced on the way to first immersion into the metaphoric clear light transparence.
Glossary of Unique Translation Terms ? 659
spiritual gene (gotra - rigs). Sanskrit gotra (in esoteric context sometimes brja, or hindu) means the seed of one's propensities, structures. affinities, and fortune developed from the evolutionary action of previous lives. It is a gene that carries the codes of the mind and attitudes of a being. just as the genes of father and mother structure that being's body. It encodes within the extremely subtle life-continuum ofan individual the instinc- tual residue of his or her past lives' evolutionary experiences and actions, which is carried as a subtle "drop" into the next life. If the individual is mammalian, it interacts with the physical genes from father and mother to determine the character of the being in that life. The Buddhist vision of conception is rather beautiful, a moment where the father's white drop meets the mother's red drop, and the individual's blue drop enters within their union.
spiritual teacher (kal,vc7{1 amitra - dge ba 'i bshes gnyen). The model of teacher in Univer- sal Vehicle tradition is that of a virtuous friend who inspires to virtue, consciously avoiding the authoritarian guru archetype prevalent in Indian culture. See "mentor. "
subtle body or mind (soksma-sarrra or -citta). The subtle body is constituted by channels, wind-energies, and neural drops (nc7t/ivc7yubindu), a kind of neural energy and substance net that resides within the coarse body of flesh and blood and bone and the five sense organs. The coarse mind of fivefold sense-consciousnesses dissolves here into the subtle mind that manifests in this neural network body and consists of the eighty sub- conscious instinctual natures (prakrti), distributed into three intuition zones, called luminance, radiance, and imminence (experienced as white, red, and blue-black empty spaces): these only appear when the instincts have been calmed by concentration on voidness and the injection of their mounts the neural wind-energies into the central channel. One of the symbolic meanings of the three faces. black. red, and white, of the Esoteric Community Buddha form Ak? hobhyavajra may be the three layers of the subtle mind, as well as perhaps the three associated central channels. See "channel," "drops," "wind-energy. "
Sotra (sorra - mdo ). This is used in Tibetan as opposite of Tantra, alone or in combination with "Vehicle," referring to the exoteric as opposed to esoteric teachings. See "discourse. "
Tantra (tantra - rgyud). The late master Tantric abbot, Tara Tulku, in verbal communica- tion defined Tantra as follows: "after wisdom has destroyed the ignorance-driven world of samsaric suffering, Tantra continues as the art of re-creating the world of the buddhas' compassion out of wisdom itself. " There are Root Tantras, Explanatory Tantras, Further Tantras, Action, Performance, Yoga, Unexcelled Yoga Tantras. Father Tantras, Mother Tantras, Mahiiyoga, Anuyoga, and Atiyoga Tantras. There are also Medical Tantras, and other traditions wherein a "Tantra" is a codified technology of an art or science. See "continuum. "
time (kala - dus) divisions. A "session" (thun) is three Western hours: a "transit" ( 'pho ba) is 90 minutes: an "hour" (chu tshod) is 45 minutes; and a "period" (dbyu gu) is 22. 5 minutes. Internal time of a day (2 1 ,600 breaths) is divided into 8 sessions of 2700 breaths (connected with 8 petals of heart wheel), 1 6 half-sessions of 1 350 breaths (con- nected with 16 petals of throat wheel), 32 quarter-sessions of 675 breaths (connected with 32 petals of brain wheel). and 64 eighth-sessions 337. 5 breaths (connected with 64 petals of navel wheel). (See above p. 248)
660 ? Glossary of Unique Translation Terms
tolerance (patience) (ksllnti - bzod pa). This is itemized under the "six transcendences" (see Numerical Categories Glossary). Here we are concerned with the "intuitive tolerance of the birthlessness (or incomprehensibility) of all things" (anutpattika- dharmakStlnti or anupalabdhidharmaksllnti). To translate ksllnti as "knowledge" or "conviction" defeats entirely the Sanskrit usage and its intended sense. In the face of birthlessness or incomprehensibility (i. e. , the ultimate reality), ordinary knowledge and
especially convictions are utterly lost. This is because the mind sees through the objectifiability of anything and has nothing to grasp, and its process of coming to terms may be described only as a conscious cancellation through absolute negations of any false sense of certainty about anything. Through this tolerance, the mind reaches a stage where it can bear its lack of bearings and can endure this kind of extreme open- ness. this lack of any conviction, etc. There are three degrees of this tolerance: verbal (gho$iinuga), conformative (anulomikf), and complete.
trance (samlipatti - mnyam gzhag). "Trance" has been translated as "meditation," "con- templation," "attainment," etc. , and any of these words might serve. It would be good to establish a main English word for each of the important Sanskrit words samtlpatti, dhyana, samadhi, bhavana, etc. , so as to preserve a consistency with the original. Here are used for these terms. respectively, "trance," "contemplation," "concentration" and "meditation," "realization" or "cultivation," using "meditation" also for general use with any of the terms when they are used not in a specific sense but to indicate mind- practice in general. See "four trances" in the Numerical Categories Glossary.
transcendence (paramittl). This has been widely translated as "perfection" following E. Conze's pioneering work with the Sotras of transcendent wisdom, which is there- fore fine, even standard. I prefer "transcendence," as it conveys the ambiguity in the Sanskrit and Tibetan terms of a "going beyond," for those languages have other terms for complete or perfect. Thus "transcendent wisdom" is a degree of wisdom that goes beyond wisdom. as well as being a wisdom that goes beyond all ignorance. A transcen-
dent generosity goes beyond generosity, as it bears a selfless awareness that doesn't perceive any giver, recipient or act of giving, and just naturally, effortlessly happens.
transcendent insight (vipasyana - /hag mthong). This is paired with "mental quiescence. " In general "meditation" is too often understood as only the types of practices catego- rized as "quietistic"-which eschew objects, learning, analysis, discrimination. etc. . and lead only to the attainment of temporary peace and one-pointedness. However, in order to reach any high realization, such as personal selflessness, phenomenal selfless- ness, or voidness, "transcendent insight," with its analytical penetration to the nature of ultimate reality, is indispensable. The analysis is called "transcendent" because it does not accept anything it sees as it appears. Instead, through analytic examination, it penetrates to its deeper reality, going ever deeper in infinite penetration until tolerance is reached. All apparently self-sufficient objects are seen through and their truth-status is rejected-first conceptually and finally perceptually, at buddhahood. Thus "medita- tion," to be efficacious, must include both mental quiescence (. famatha) and transcen- dent insight (vipa. fyanll) in integrated combination.
truth (satya, dharma - bden pa, chos). For the most part a synonym of reality, though sometimes a statement that corresponds or indicates that reality. See "reality. "
Glossary of Unique Translation Terms ? 66 1 truth body (dharmaklyl a). See "three bodies of the Buddha (trikllya)" in the Numerical
Categories Glossary.
truth-habit (satyagraha - bden 'dzin). This refers to a type of objective self-habit, a sub- liminal form of misknowledge which reifies in things an unrealistic intrinsic reality that is not possibly there.
ultimate (paramllrtha - don dam). "Ultimate" is preferable to the usual "absolute" be- cause it carries fewer connotations than "absolute"-which, however, when understood logically. is also correct. It is contrasted with "superficial" (samvrtti) or "relative" (vyavahara) to give the two types, or "levels," of truth. It is synonymous with ultimate reality, the uncompounded. voidness, reality, limit of reality, absolute, nirvana, ultimate liberation, infinity, permanence, eternity, independence, etc. It also has the soteriologi- cal sense of "sacred" as opposed to "profane" as is conveyed by its literal rendering "supreme" (parama) "object" (artha).
Unexcelled Yoga Tantra (anuttarayogatantra - bla med rna/ 'byor rgyud). This is the highest category of Tantric teachings, according to the new translation schools (Kadam- Geluk, Sakya, and Kagyu orders), perhaps corresponding to the Maha-. Anu-. and Ali- yoga Tantras of the old translation school (Nyingma order). The word anuttara is often translated "highest," and they are placed highest in a hierarchy of efficacy. However there are Sanskrit words for "highest," notably parama. or uttama, and so I prefer "unexcelled," to convey the sense that these teachings cannot be surpassed, and all other teachings end up in them. Rather than being above the other teachings, they are at their heart or core, and so reaching full realization of whatever teaching the Buddha gives brings you to the place of the unexcelled.
Universal Vehicle (mahayana - theg chen). The messianic form of Buddhism. that emphasizes the teaching of love and compassion, the inevitable implication of selfless wisdom, providing a social teaching and a vehicle to carry all beings to enlightenment, built upon the foundation of the Individual or Monastic Vehicle that is designed to carry beings one by one.
vagina (bhaga - bha ga, pad ma). The sexual organ of a female practitioner or consort, standing also for voidness, the ultimate nature of reality. Thus, in Unexcelled Yoga Tantras the Buddha Vajrdhara is said to be dwelling in the "vaginas of the vajra women," i. e. in the ultimate reality of voidness experienced as a sensitive membrane that contains great bliss.
Vairochana. One of the five archetypal transcendent buddhas, Lord of the Transcendent Buddha-clan, associated with the eastern direction. He represents the mirror-like wisdom, the transmutation of the poison of delusion, the color white, and the aggregate of matter. His buddha consort is Lochana:.
vajra (vajra - rdo rje) (see also "adamantine, diamond"). This term is translated in Tibetan with the word for ''diamond" (lit. "supreme stone"), which word and object holds a simile for the unbreakability of the intuitive knowledge of the ultimate reality of all things, the infinite energy of the clear light of the void, the ground and substance of all things, known and manifested by all buddhas. The Sanskrit word had the Vedic mean- ing of "thunderbolt" and was the invincible weapon of lndra, king of the Vedic gods. transformed into a magical scepter, symbolizing for Tantric Buddhists the invincible
662 ? Glossary of Unique Translation Terms
power of universal compassion. Along with linga. it refers to the phallus, paired with
bhaga and padma for the vagina.
Vajradhara. The Tantric buddha par excellence, manifesting as a dark blue royally attired handsome male, a metamorphosis of Shllkyamuni and other humanoid buddhas in the context of teaching Tantric revelations.
Vajrasattva. The same buddha (as Vajradhara), here presented as a "diamond hero," an exemplary practitioner of the Tantra.
Vajrapal)i. The same buddha (as Vajradhara/sattva), here as a fierce black ogre-like bodhi- sattva who asks the Vajradhara Buddha manifestation the tough Tantric questions, receives the teachings, and remembers and preserves the Tantric Sutras.
vehicle (yana - theg pa). A conveyance that carries you from one place to another. There are Transcendence, Sutra, Mantra, Tantra, Vajra, and Orgasmic (Sahaja) Vehicles, and also Individual, Universal, Disciple, Hermit Buddha, and Buddha Vehicles.
voidness (siinyata - stong pa nyid). I prefer to translate this term as "voidness" because this English word is more rarely used than "emptiness" and does not refer to any sort of ultimate nothingness. as a thing-in-itself, or even as the thing-in-itself to end all things-in-themselves. It is a pure negation of the ultimate existence of anything or, in Buddhist terminology, the "voidness with respect to subjective and objective selves," or "with respect to intrinsic identity," or "with respect to intrinsic nature," or "with respect to essential substance," or "with respect to self-existence established by intrinsic identity," or "with respect to ultimate truth-status," etc. Thus voidness is a concept descriptive of the ultimate reality through its pure negation of whatever may be supposed to be ultimately real, including itself. It is an absence, hence not existent in itself. It is synonymous therefore with "infinity," "absolute," etc. , themselves all
negative terms, i. e. , formed etymologically from a positive concept by adding a negative prefix (in + finite = not finite; ab + solute = not compounded, etc. ). But, since our verbally conditioned mental functions are habituated to the connection of word and thing, we tend to hypostatize a "void," analogous to "outer space," a "vacuum," etc. , which we either shrink from as a nihilistic nothingness or become attached to as a liberative nothingness; this great mistake can be cured only by realizing the meaning of the "voidness of voidness," which brings us to the tolerance of inconceivability (see
"tolerance").
wind-energy (vayu - rlung). This term-sometimes "neural energy"-is used for the element "wind" (defined simply as "motility" or "movement" [cala - gyo ba]), and more importantly for the subtle inner winds that contribute the activity to the subtle body, moving the "drops" around the "channels. " Their supremely subtle form consti- tutes the extremely subtle body of the indestructible drop that is the mount of the clear light enlightened awareness of the subtlest soul. There are five main energies and five branch energies. The five main energies are the life or vitalizing, evacuating, ascend- ing. metabolic, and pervading energies, each associated with a particular channel- wheel, with a particular archetype buddha, a particular wisdom, and so forth. The branch energies are associated with the buddha consorts and the five elements and so forth. These wind-energies are also extremely important in Buddhist medicine, under- lying the technology of acupuncture and the understanding of most mental as well as many physical disorders.
Glossary of Unique Translation Terms ? 663
wisdom (prajiitl, jifllna - shes rab, ye shes). This word can be used for transcendent wisdom or for gnostic intuition. There is the wisdom of selflessness, the wisdom that realizes voidness, the five wisdoms, and so forth. This word also can be a name for the buddha conson, as in the "wisdom intuition initiation" (prajnll-jnllna-abhi$ekha).
wishlessness (apra(lihill'l - smon pa med pa). Third of the three doors of liberation. Objectively, it is equivalent to voidness: subjectively, it is the outcome of the noble gnosis of voidness as the realization of the ultimate lack of anything to wish for, whether voidness itself. or even buddhahood.
yoga (yoga - rna/ 'byor). From the verbal root yuj- "to yoke," yoga means uniting or connecting, the Tibetan translating "connecting with the essence," the "essence" (rna/) here being the bliss-void-indivisible, the ultimate or actual reality nondually united with the relative reality of life, the unlocated nirvana non-separate from samsara, the diamond clear light transparence of the void actual reality as the infinite energy of love and compassion tapped by the wisdom of selflessness, etc. There is a set of "six yogas" employed in performance of the creation stage: yoga, continuing yoga (anuyoga), great (mahll-) yoga, exteme yoga, mandala triumph yoga and evolutionary (karma) triumph yoga. The currently famous Hatha Yoga, though traditionally connected with the Saritkhya philosophy, rather seems to have arisen from Buddhist and Hindu Tantra, as the ha and the tha seem to refer to the right and left channels of the Tantric yogic subtle nervous system, and the Hatha Yoga focus on the body as a vehicle of enlightened experience seems contradictory to the Sarilkhya dualism and its effort to escape the body and the differentiated world into nirvikalpasamadhi, rather stemming from a Vedantic or Madhyamic nondual vision of life.
yogi or yogi/ni (yogi - rna/ 'byor pa). I use this gender-combined word throughout since in Sanskrit and therefore tacitly in Tibetan the masculine case in all words refers to both genders, as "man" in English is supposed to do when referring to "mankind" as "humankind. " Other English words tend to assume only the masculine unless modified in this way, just as his does not include the feminine referent, so all bodhisattvas are represented as male etc. , unless we write "his or her" etc. I go to this length especially in this Tantric context, in which there has been a lot of ink spilled to make it out as a male chauvinist preserve, while the tradition itself is distinguished by its special emphasis on honoring women in theory and practice (even though most of the historical authors have been men).
yogini (yogin/ - rnal 'byor ma). This word is used in certain contexts where a female yogini or deity is involved or Mother Tantra is intended.
BIBLIO GRA PHIES
Modern Sources
Abe, Ryuichi. The Weaving ofMantra: Kakai and the Construction ofEsoteric Buddhist Discourse. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.
Aris, Michael. Hidden Treasures, Secret Lives: A Study of Pemalingpa (1450-1521) and the Sixth Dalai Lama (1683-1 706). London and New York: Kegan Paul Interna- tional, 1989.
Bagchi, S. , ed. Guhyasamlija Tantra or Tathtigataguhyaka. Darbhanga: Mithila Institute, 1965.
--. , ed. Mahtiytina-satrtilanktira ofAsanga. Darbhanga: Mithilal Institute, 1970. Bentor, Yael. Consecration of Images and Stapas in Indo-Tibetan Tantric Buddhism.
Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1996.
Bhattacharyya, Benoytosh. An Introduction to Buddhist Esoterism. London: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 1 932; Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1 989.
--. Two Vajraylina Works. Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1929.
Bhattacharyya, Benoytosh, ed. Guhyasamlija Tantra or Tathtigataguhyaka. Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1 93 1 .
--, ed. SlldhanamiJlll, 2 vols. Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1925; reprint, 1968. Chakravarti, Chintaharan, ed.
