The most basic format for speaking of paths to enlightenment is that of the three trainings: ethics, concentration, and wisdom. However, since the discussion begun in the previous chapter is not on paths but on their results, here only the terminology describing the ways of practicing these paths will be examined, since the way in which the paths are practiced determines the type of enlightenment to be attained. The three trainings are discussed in Wilson Chapter 15.
According to Tibetan and Indian Mahāyāna Buddhists, there are two main ways of practicing Buddhism (the paths or vehicles).
ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ is a NOUN-ADJECTIVE phrase. ཐེག་པ་ means vehicle or yana, in Sanskrit. ཆེན་པོ་ means great. Those who practice it are called བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་ or bodhisattvas. ཐེག་པ་དམན་པ་ is another NOUN-ADJECTIVE phrase. དམན་པ་ means lower or inferior.
The Hearer's Vehicle is traditionally also known as Hīnayāna, or the lower vehicle, but these terms are disfavored because they devalue the Hearer's Vehicle and imply a superiority to the Mahāyāna. Even from the perspective of the Great Vehicle, the practices of the Hearer's Vehicle are the foundation of the bodhisattva path. The Mahāyāna can also be referred to as Bodhisattvayana, since this avoids the implicit comparison to Hīnayāna. HHDL Tenzen Gyatso the 14th Dalai Lama has also suggested using the Pāli tradition and the Sanskrit tradition to avoid the whole issue.
རང་རྒྱེལ་ and ཉན་ཐོས་ are solitary conquerors and hearers, respectively. Normally a conqueror, རྒྱལ་བ་, is a Buddha. However, in this case the Tibetan actually translates the buddha or a pratyekabuddha as conqueror. However, despite the name, རང་རྒྱལ་ (pratyekabuddha) are not buddhas. In Tibetan Mahāyāna, a Buddha must complete the Great Vehicle (or the Vajrayana, but that's another topic).
རང་རྒྱེལ་ and ཉན་ཐོས་ refer to both the path and the goal. བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་ refers to a practitioner of the Great Vehicle, ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་, whose goal is སངས་རྒྱས་, the state of awakening, and also the name for a being that has awakened.
ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ [vehicle-great] Mahāyāna
བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་ bodhisattva
སངས་རྒྱས་ buddha
རྒྱལ་བ་ conqueror (buddha)
ཐེག་པ་དམན་པ་ [vehicle-lower/inferior] Hīnayāna
ཉན་ཐོས་ Śrāvaka, hearer
རང་རྒྱལ་ pratyekabuddha, solitary realizer [self-conqueror]
རང་སངས་རྒྱས་ synonym for རང་རྒྱལ་
དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ་ arhat, Foe Destroyer, Worthy One [foe-destroyer]
དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ་ literally means “foe destroyer.” དགྲ་ is foe or enemy. བཅོམ་ is a verb that means destroy or overcome. This the translation for the Sanskrit term arhat. It is also sometimes translated as Worth One. The enemies that an arhat has destroyed are not other sentient beings but his own afflictive emotions. An Arhat or a དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ་ is a person that has vanquished his obscuring emotions (kleśa, ཉོན་མོངས་པ་). This is the highest level attained by Śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas (according to the adherents of the Great Vehicle).
The Sanskrit word sattva translates as སེམས་ཅན་ (sentient being). When sattva appears in bodhisattva, it combines with དཔའ་བོ་ (hero) to become སེམས་དཔའ་. Thus བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་ is a mind-hero [for the sake of] enlightenment, or hero aspiring to enlightenment.
Another way of talking about cyclic existence and nirvana is to talk about the embodiment. Sentient beings in cyclic existence take rebirth contingently, under the power of ignorance. Arhats have left existence, but do not take embodiment. Buddhas embody themselves voluntarily, both physically and mentally, in the three bodies (སྐུ་གསུམ་) of buddhas.
སྐུ་གསུམ་ three bodies [of a Buddha]
ཆོས་སྐུ་, ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྐུ་
dharmakāya, truth body – a buddha’s mind and its emptiness of inherent existence
ལོངས་སྐུ་, ལོངས་སྤྱོད་ཛོགས་པའི་སྐུ་
saṃbhogakāya, complete enjoyment body – it creates a pure land (དག་ཞིང་) outside of cyclic existence and appears to meditators in visions.
སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་, སྤྲུལ་པའི་སྐུ་
nirmāṇakāya, emanation bodies – seen by ordinary people in cyclic existence
སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་ tulku
འཇམ་དཔལ་ Mañjuśrī, Manjushri
འཇམ་པའི་དབྱངས་ Mañjughoṣa, Manjugosha, "Jampalyang" (another name for Manjushri)
སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་ Avalokiteśvara, Avalokiteshvara, "Chenrezig"
ཕྱག་ན་རྡོ་རྗེ་ Vajrapāṇi, Vajrapani
རིགས་ family, lineage, type
འཁོར་ retinue
མགོན་པོ་ protector
རིགས་གསུམ་མགོན་པོ་ protectors of the three lineages, Manjushri, Avalokiteshvara, and Vajrapani
མཁྱེན་བརྩེ་ནུས་པ་ wisdom, compassion, and energy of the buddhas
- མཁྱེན་པ་ wisdom
- བརྩེ་བ་ compassion
- ནུས་པ་ ability, power, energy
འཇམ་དཔལ་ and འཇམ་པའི་དབྱངས་ are both names for Manjushri, the embodiment of the wisdom and knowledge of all the Buddhas. Sometimes the two names are combined into འཇམ་དཔལ་དབྱངས་.
Along with Manjushri, who symbolizes wisdom, Avalokiteshvara symbolizes compassion, and Vajrapani, energy. These three are also known as the རིགས་གསུམ་མགོན་པོ་, the protectors of the three lineages. These three also appear in the retinues (འཁོར) of other Buddhas.
ཡི་དམ་ yidam
བདག་བསྐྱེད་ self-generation
The following table lists the names of the principal yidams (ཡི་དམ་). A yidam is a meditational deity used in tantric practices that act as templates for self-generation (བདག་བསྐྱེད་) as a Buddha.
གསང་བ་འདུས་པ་ Guhyasamaja, Guhyasamāja
འཁོར་ལོ་སྡོམ་པ་ Chakrasamvara, Cakrasaṃvara, also known as:
- བདེ་མཆོག་ supreme bliss
- ཧེ་རུ་ཀ་ Heruka
རྡོ་རྗེ་འཇིགས་བྱེད་ Vajrabhairava, also known as:
- གཤིན་རྗེ་གཤེད་ Yamāntaka, slayer of the lord of the dead
ཀྱཻ་རྡོ་རྗེ་ Hevajra, also known as:
- དགྱེས་པ་རྡོ་རྗེ་ happy vajra
རྡོ་རྗེ་རྣལ་འབྱོར་མ་ Vajrayogini, Vajrayoginī
རྡོ་རྗེ་ཕག་མོ་ Vajravarahi, Vajravarāhi
དུས་འཁོར་ Kalachakra, Kālachakra
རྟ་མགྲིན་ Hayagriva, Hayagrīva
རྡོ་རྗེ་ཕུར་པ་ Vajrakila, Vajrakīla
འཁོར་ལོ་སྡོམ་པ་ is also known as བདེ་མཆོག་ (supreme bilss) and ཧེ་རུ་ཀ་ (Heruka).
རྡོ་རྗེ་འཇིགས་བྱེད་ is also known as གཤིན་རྗེ་གཤེད་ Yamāntaka.
ཀྱཻ་རྡོ་རྗེ་ is also known as དགྱེས་པ་རྡོ་རྗེ་ or happy vajra.
བདེ་བ་ bliss
མཆོག་ supreme
གཤིན་པོ་ those who have passed, the dead
གཤིན་རྗེ་ Yama, lord of the dead
གཤིད་མ་ slayer
དགྱེས་པ་ pleased, happy
ཀུན་ནས་ཉོན་མོངས་པ་ thoroughly afflictive
མཁྱེནཔ་ knowledge, wisdom
དགོས་ཆེད་ purposive-beneficial [case]
དགོས་པ་ purpose
མགོན་པོ་ protector
ངེས་པ་ certainty, definiteness, ascertainment
ངེས་པར་འབྱུང་བ་ renunciation, definite conviction to leave samsara
ངེས་པར་ཤེས་པ་ ascertainment, certain knowledge
མངོན་པར་རྟོགས་པ་ realization
མངོན་པར་ཤེས་པ་ clairvoyance, paranormal knowledge
བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་ Transcendent Victor, Bhagavan
ཆོས་སྐུ་ truth body
རྗེས་སུ་དཔག་པ་ inference
ཉེ་བར་ལེན་པ་ appropriation, appropriated
ཉན་ཐོས་ hearer [śrāvaka]
ཐེག་པ་ vehicle [yāna]
ཐེག་པ་དམན་པ་ modest vehicle [hīnayāna]
ནུས་པ་ ability, power, energy
རྣམ་པ་ aspect, type
རྣམ་པར་གྲོལ་བ་ liberation
རྣམ་པར་རྟོག་པ་ conceptuality, thought
རྣམ་པར་དབྱེ་བ་ distinction, declension [case]
རྣམ་པར་བཞག་པ་ presentation
རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པ་ consciousness
སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་ emanation body
སྤྲུལ་པ་ emanation
ཕྱོགས་ direction, side, position (in debate)
བྱད་པ་པོ་ agent [do-er]
འབྱུང་ཁུངས་ origin, source
འབྲེལ་བ་ connection, relation
མིང་ name
མིང་ཙམ་ nominative [case]
བརྩེ་བ་ compassion
ཡོངས་སུ་གྲུབ་པ་ thoroughly established
ཡོངས་སུ་དག་པ་ thoroughly pure
རབ་ཏུ་བྱུང་བ་ going forth [becoming a monk]
རང་རྒྱལ་ solitary conqueror
རིགས་ family, lineage, type
ལས་སུ་བྱ་བ་ object, objective [case]
ལོངས་སྐུ་ complete enjoyment body
ལོངས་སྤྱོད་རྫོགས་པའི་སྐུ་ complete enjoyment body
སོ་སོར་ཐར་པ་ individual emancipation, prātimokṣa
བྱང་ north, also verb to purify
ཤར་ east, also verb to appear
ལྷོ་ south
ནུབ་ west
བཅོམ་ vanquished, defeated V
གནས་ stay, remain II
ལགས་ is I
བདག་ I, me; self
བདག་ཅག་ we, us
ང་མཚར་ amazing
ཀུན་ནས་ཉོན་མོངས་པ་ thoroughly afflicted
ངེས་པ་ definite, certain
སྡུག་པ་ pleasant, attractive
རྣམ་པར་གྲོལ་བ་ liberated
མི་སྡུག་པ་ unpleasant, ugly
དམན་པ་ lesser, inferior, low
སོ་སོ་ individual
ལ་སོགས་པ་ … and so on, such as …