¶ Doctrinal Vocabulary: The Buddhist Universe
As explained in Chapter 10, the Buddhist universe consists of cyclic existence and nirvana. The reference to these terms is both psychological as well as to people and places. This may be seen, for instance, in the use of the term འཇིག་རྟེན་(world): སྣོད་ཀྱི་འཇིག་རྟེན་ (where སྣོད་ means receptacle or vessel) is the physical universe, whereas བཅུད་ཀྱི་འཇིག་རྟེན་ (where བཅུད་ means sap or essence) is the world of sentient beings.
སྣོད་ཀྱི་འཇིག་རྟེན་ does NOT mean environment or biosphere because those terms would include animals and for Buddhists, animals are sentient beings and included in བཅུད་ཀྱི་འཇིག་རྟེན་. Animate world and inanimate world might be appropriate matches for བཅུད་ཀྱི་འཇིག་རྟེན་ and སྣོད་ཀྱི་འཇིག་རྟེན་.
Note that འཇིག་རྟེན་ is constructed from two words without lexical particles. འཇིག་ means disintegrate and རྟེན་ means support or basis. A world is, then, a disintegrating support.
Tibetan words are often combinations of other words like this. In the case of འཇིག་རྟེན་, translating the component words literally gives an interesting sense of what the word might mean, but often a very literal translation would be misleading. When translating a document or breaking a sentence up into words, one has to be careful not to break words like this down into the component words, which can be very confusing.
འཇིག་རྟེན་ world (note that this is made up of two syllables that are words in their own right)
འཇིག་ disintegrate
རྟེན་ basis, support
སྣོད་ vessel, receptacle
སྣོད་ཀྱི་འཇིག་རྟེན་ physical world, inanimate world
བཅུད་ sap, essence
བཅུད་ཀྱི་འཇིག་རྟེན་ animate world
Note the different types of noun phrases we’ve seen:
- possessive noun-noun: སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཐུགས་
- adjective-noun: དམ་པའི་ཆོས་
- appositive noun-noun: སྣོད་ཀྱི་འཇིག་རྟེན་
སྣོད་ཀྱི་འཇིག་རྟེན་ is an appositive noun phrase. It does not mean receptacle’s world. Nor does it mean receptacle world. Instead it means a world which is a receptacle or world, that is to say, receptacle.
Tibetan often adds redundant nouns or adjectives to emphasize the meaning of terms. In the examples below, ཕྱི་ (outside, external) has been added to སྣོད་ཀྱི་འཇིག་རྟེན་ and ནང་ (inside, internal) has been added to བཅུད་ཀྱི་འཇིག་རྟེན་.
ཕྱི་སྣོད་ཀྱི་འཇིག་རྟེན་ external world
ནང་བཅུད་ཀྱི་འཇིག་རྟེན་ inner world
The physical world, as ordinary people experience it, is part of cyclic existence, since this is where sentient beings are reborn by the power of actions motivated by afflictions. A pure land (དག་ཞིང་), on the other hand, is created by a Buddha and is not part of cyclic existence. Rebirth in a pure land is through a Buddha's power, not by way of desire, hatred, or ignorance.
Concerning pure lands, see Rhie and Thurman, Wisdom and Compassion, pp. 311-313, 361ff.
People who are not in cyclic existence are either Buddhas (སངས་རྒྱས་) or Arhats/Foe Destroyers (དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ་). However, remember that even Buddhas and Arhats are people, ཁང་ཟག་.
Recall that in Buddhism, even animals and gods are “people” – that is, they are persons, ཁང་ཟག་. Thus the term person and people, while they do refer to human beings, do not refer exclusively to human beings.
People who are in cyclic existence are called ordinary beings, or སོ་སོའི་སྐྱེ་བོ་, until they have seen selflessness in direct meditative vision, afterwhich they are called འཕགས་པ་ (ārya), literally superiors or superior [beings]. Buddhas (སངས་རྒྱས་) and arhats (དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ་) are also འཕགས་པ་ and not སོ་སོའི་སྐྱེ་བོ་.
Concerning persons and their types, see Daniel Perdue, Debate in Tibetan Buddhism, pp. 363-365.
དག་ཞིང་ pure land [pure-field]
སངས་རྒྱས་ Buddha
དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ་ Arhat, Foe Destroyer [one who has destroyed the enemy]
སོ་སོའི་སྐྱེ་བོ་ ordinary person
འཕགས་པ་ ārya, superior
བྱང་ཆུབ་ enlightenment, bodhi
འཕགས་པ་ are people that have seen selflessness in a direct meditative vision. སངས་རྒྱས་ and དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ་ are also འཕགས་པ་. འཕགས་པའི་སློབ་པ་ are āryas that are still training (སློབ་པ་).
Remember that Tibetans really like to abbreviate terms, such as:
འཁོར་བ་དང་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ་ → འཁོར་འདས་ (cyclic existence and nirvana)
སོ་སོའི་སྐྱེ་བོ → སོ་སྐྱེ་ (ordinary being)
མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ་ → མྱང་འདས་ (nirvana)
འཕགས་པའི་སློབ་པ་ are འཕགས་པ་ who are still training (སློབ་པ་), that is, not yet Buddhas.
In the Tibetan tradition, nirvana is spoken of mostly in contrast to cyclic existence since it is essentially the cessation of cyclic existence for an individual. This goal is often spoken of as liberation. There are many ways to express this in Tibetan (see the entry in Christian Steinert's dictionary). གྲོལ་བ་ and ཐར་པ་ (mokṣa) are two words for liberation. The Tibetan Mahayana tradition does not, however, consider liberation to be the true goal of the Buddhist path. Instead, the goal is enlightenment (བྱང་ཆུབ་).
The distinction between liberation and enlightenment has complex cultural, doctrinal, and historical subtleties, however, in brief, Mahayanists consider enlightenment to be the result of the path of the Bodhisattva, where a person that seeks enlightenment for the sake of all living beings and vows to remain working for the benefit of all living beings as long as a single one remains trapped in samsara, as opposed to the path of individual liberation, where a person seeks their own individual freedom from samsara. It would be easy to gloss this distinction and say that Mahayanists are more compassionate then Hearer's (people following the individual liberation vehicle). This, however, would be nonsense. Love and compassion are integral parts of the Hearer's tradition and there's no guarantee that, just because someone professes to follow a Mahayana tradition, that they will be filled with great compassion.
The Sanskrit verb budh means understand, know, notice, think, wake up, and regain consciousness. The words buddha and bodhi are both derived from it and are thus closely related in meaning. Buddha means something understood, someone awake, and, by extension, a wise person. Bodhi means understanding, judgment, return to consciousness, etc… However, when these words were translated into Tibetan, budh was translated by cognitive terms such as རྟོགས་ (understand). Bodhi became བྱང་ཆུབ་, and Buddha became སངས་རྒྱས་
བྱང་ཆུབ་ refers to purification (བྱང་བ་) of all obstructions or afflictions; and the realization or internalization (ཁོང་དུ་ཆུབ་པ་) of all virtues.
སངས་རྒྱས་ – The first syllable, sangs, means dispel, in the sense of waking up (dispelling sleep), of purifying, and of dispelling darkness and obstructions. The second syllable, rgyas, most basically means extended, and suggests that a Buddha’s mind has opened up (like a flower opening) in the sense of being omniscient and compassionate.
Both བྱང་ཆུབ་ and སངས་རྒྱས་ are (generally) used in specific ways, the former referring to enlightenment in general and the latter to a type of enlightenment person.
¶ སྒྲ་བཤད་ or etymology
One of the rhetorical tools in Buddhist literature is the སྒྲ་བཤད་ or etymology. Tibetan etymologies are not historical etymologies but semantic etymologies. That is, they do not explain the cultural history of a word. Instead, they attempt to capture the essential meaning of a word without requiring the strict, technical correctness that often make Tibetan definitions hard to understand. Tibetan definitions must cover all of the edge cases that get raised in the debate courtyard, so they often read a bit like the fine print at the bottom of a medicine bottle and require several years of debating to internalize. An etymology is a way of expressing the intended meaning relatively completely without going through the acrobatics necessary to capture all of the various exceptions.
An etymology, or སྒྲ་བཤད་, of བྱང་ཆུབ་ (enlightenment) could be the purification (བྱང་བ་) of all obstructions, such as the three poisons, and the realization (ཁོང་དུ་ཆུབ་པ་) of all virtues.
A སྒྲ་བཤད་ of སངས་རྒྱས་ might be someone who has woken up from the sleep of ignorance or someone who has dispelled the darkness of cognitive and afflictive obstructions.
¶ Buddhas
The following is a list of some Buddhas important to all orders of Tibetan Buddhism.
སངས་རྒྱས་ཤཱཀྱ་ཐུབ་པ་ Buddha Shakyamuni, Śākyamuni
སྒྲོལ་མ་ Tara, Tārā
རྡོ་རྗེ་འཆང་ Vajradhara, Vajradhāra
རྡོ་རྗེ་སེམས་དཔའ་ Vajrasattva
ཀུན་ཏུ་བཟང་པོ་ Samantabharda
¶ Vocabulary (pp. 211)
¶ Nouns
སྐྱོན་ fault
མཁས་པ་ skill, scholar
སྒྲ་བཤད་ etymology [explanation of word]
བཅུད་ essence
འཆད་པ་པོ་ explainer
འཇིག་རྟེན་ world
སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ emptiness
དེ་ཁོ་ན་ཉིད་ suchness
དེ་ཉེད་ thatness, reality
བདག་ཉིད་ nature
སྣོད་ vessel, receptacle
འཕགས་པ་ superior, ārya
བདེ་བ་ bliss
དབུ་མ་པ་ Mādhyamika
བྱང་ཆུཔ་ enlightenment
ཚེ་དཔག་མེད་ Amitāyus
ཤེས་པ་པོ་ knower
སོ་སོའི་སྐྱེ་པོ་ ordinary person
གསེར་ gold
¶ Verb
མཁས་ be skilled [in] II
རྒྱས་ extend, develop III
འཆད་ explain, present, to be explained V
བཤད་ past and future of འཆད་
སངས་ be dispelled, be purified, to wake up, to recover III
¶ Adjectives
ཁོ་ན་ only, merely
སྟོང་པ་ empty
ནང་ internal
ཕྱི་ external
ཙམ་ only, merely, just