རྟོགས་seeསྤྲོས་.ལྟ་51. This word seems here to mean ‘vision, illumination, (direct mystical) contemplation, the seeing face to face.’ In our passage it is the direct vision (the ‘vision direct’), proper to, inherent in, characteristic of, belonging to, the knowledge pertaining to the actionless (or undifferentiated) state, the ‘passive-state-knowledge-vision.’ See alsoསྤྲོས་.ལྟག་seeསྒོ་.ལྟོ་seeཁྲེལ་.ལྟོ་seeགདན་.ལྟོབ་seeཁྲེལ་.སྟོང་seeསྤྲོས་.བརྟག་seeརྟོག་.བརྟག་seeརྟོག་.བརྟགས་seeརྟོག་.བསྟན་(གཉིས་) seeལམ་.བསྟན་, 23. ‘To follow, to keep to the teaching; to be or remain true, faithful to the teaching, to hold fast to it, to stick to it.’ See alsoརྟེན་.[45]ཐབས་seeའདུལ་.ཐམས་, lit. ‘Great-all-knowing-clergy-perfection-good-glory,’ corresponds to a Sk. Mahā-sarva-jña-saṁgha-siddhi-shrī-bhadra. See for literature about him: Schulemann,Geschichte der Dalailamas, pp. 91–92, note 11, and S. Ch. D.: The Hierarchy of the Dalai Lamas, J.A.S.B., Vol. LXXIII, Pt. I, extra No., p. 81.ཐུགས་, 55. This is here, in my opinion, not a sort of Hottentottenpotentatentantenattentater-like formation. I take theཟབ་to refer to theཐུགས་, a profound and wide mind, whilst theམཁྱེན་only refers to theགཏེར་, the treasury of omniscient mercy. It is not likely that the qualities of width and depth form part of an enumeration of which the remaining items are love and knowledge or even (as a compound) omniscient-mercy. See the various component words in this glossary.ཐུགས་seeམཁྱེན་.ཐུགས་seeབློ་.མཐེབ་seeཀྱུ་.མཐོན་seeལམ་.འཐབ་seeའགྱེ་.དག་, 43. J.’s entry under this entry is as follows: “དག་(པའི༌)སྣང་(བ་)Schr.‘good opinion’ (?), prob.: a pure, sound view or knowledgeGlr.; inMil.it has a similar meaning.” He adds an oral sentence: “*dhag-náṅ jón-wa* C. to lead a holy life.” (sic. jón = jóṅ?) Schroeter has (135b): “དག་, a good opinion, a good conception of any thing, a conceit, a thought.” [Based on an Italian ‘concetto’?] He has two further entries ‘དག་, to form a good[46]opinion of any individual,’ and ‘དག་(read:སྦྱོང་)བ་, to form a good opinion, or to conceive well of any one.’In our passage we are inclined to takeསྣང་asསྣང་, as ‘view, thought, idea, conception,’ etc., andསྦྱོང་= ‘to exercise, practise, perform’, or even ‘to entertain, cherish (thoughts).’དག་we take asདག་, ‘pure’—the connection with thought not the opposite of false, erroneous, but of bad, cruel, unkind. So here the expression seems to mean ‘to think with goodwill, with kindness (of others),’not the colloquial ‘to have a good opinion of, to think well of.’ To think ‘good’ is here the opposite of to think ‘evil,’ but the idiomatic value of the expression ‘to think well of’ (as the opposite of ‘to think poorly of’) would make the latter rendering misleading. The real value, then, of the expression as used in this passage, seems to be: ‘to think good, kind thoughts of,’ i.e. purely, or saintly in the sense of kindly, lovingly, benevolently, in a friendly manner, with sympathy, but not, as J. seems to suggest, intellectually correct. We may expand the rendering into ‘with a holy mind, with thoughts of saintliness, thinking saintly thoughts.’ Compare J.’s colloquial phrase quoted above. So, as to the interpretation of the line in which the compound occurs, we take it that it means to enjoin, in contrast with the previous line in which it is said that beings in general must be thought of with kindness, that religious people (instead of the mere laymen) must be thought of in a still better, higher manner, namely with holiness and saintliness.One of my informants was first inclined to takeདག་as ‘to teach, to preach the true knowledge.’ Though he later on sided with the explanation adopted above, the opinion should be recorded, but it should be added that a second informant rejected this view of the first one.Attention should be drawn to the meaning ofསྣང་, ‘the soul’ (with spellingsསྣང་andནང་;དག་,རྟགས་,བརྟག་,སྟག་, s. J.). Also the curious expression ‘to be indifferent’སྣང་, S. Ch. D.; andསྣང་, Bell. These expressions not in Desg.[47]དག་seeདག་.དང་seeདཔེ་.དྭངས་, 27. Adverb: ‘purely, first class, first rate.’ Not in J. but in Desg., yet here in a slightly different application. About S. Ch. D.’s ‘gravy’ and ‘relish’ see below.དྭངས་with the genitive seems to mean ‘acme’, ‘essence’, the typical embodiment of something, like in expressions as ‘a first class liar, a thief pure and simple, the very devil, satan himself, nothing short of an angel, a saint inpropria persona.’དགྲ་, ‘the very enemy.’ In the colloquialདྭངས་,ཡང་andཨང་may have the same meaning. The latter is something like pidgin-English ‘number one’ or the kitchen Malay equivalent ‘nommer satu.’ Other equations areགཅིག་(orཔུ་), alsoརང་, the Anglo-Indian ‘pukka.’The wordདྭངས་may mean soup or gravy in the following case, when there is question of singling out the liquid portion from a mixture of broth and liquid. The primary meaning seems in that case rather to be liquid as contrasted to solid.ང་= give me (only) the liquid (not the solid stuff), pour out to me (only) the liquid. But thisདྭངས་has no finalམ་. A common word for soup which is not in the Dicts. is ‘rü thang’, probablyརུས་, orཐང་alone. This latter word is in J. with the meaning of ‘potion’, a medical term, and in S. Ch. D. as ‘potion, plain decoction, or mixture to be drunk after a medicinal pill has been taken.’ The wordརུས་means originally bone-soup, but has acquired also the more general meaning ‘soup.’ཐང་can be applied to meat-soup,ཤ་, butཤ་cannot be used. It might be thatཐང་andདྭངས་are really the same word.[48]དད་seeསྐྱེ་.དམ་, 30. Might here, in connection with ambition, be translated as ‘fierce,’ an extension of its primary meaning ‘strong.’དུག་seeསྐྱོ་.དུག་seeསྐྱོ་.དུགས་seeསྐྱོ་.དུས་, 24. For ever, always.དུས་seeམྱུར་.དོན་seeདོན་.དོན་, 40. ‘Exceedingly stupid, meaningless, useless, silly, senseless.’ The particleརེ་has an emphatic value, but it is difficult to define its precise scope in English. Oral information is vague on the subject, and seems to point towards a possibility that theརེ་is a syllable of exclamation or turns the expression, of which it forms part, into an exclamation.དོན་. ‘Oh, how silly!’ An equivalent isདོན་=དོན་.དོན་alone is not used, andདོན་demands a finalརེད་orཡིན་.S. Ch. D. (502a) translatesཁྱོད་as: ‘I pity you, ye Tibetans’; perhaps better ‘What a pity, O ye Tibetans.’ Compare the list of words with wedged-inརེ་in J. s.v.རེ་p. 533b.དྲིན་, 16. Alsoདྲིན་, adjective ‘kind.’ According to S. Ch. D. also ‘very kind, great boon, and the great or greatest benefactor.’ S. Ch. D.’s wording is unsatisfactorily indefinite and his examples, taken from J., fit the text badly.[49]J. does not define the combinationདྲིན་though he has an exampleབཀའ་with the meaning ‘greatest benefit.’ Two colloquial examples are:དྲིན་, ‘the two (very) kind parents,’ andམི་, that man is (very) kind.In formདྲིན་is a comparative, ‘kinder.’ཆེན་is one of those adjectives which have a comparative and superlative of their own as:Great.Many.Good.Small.Bad.positiveཆེན་མང་ཡག་ཆུང་སྡུག་comparativeཆེ་མང་(orང་)ཡག་ཆུང་སྡུག་superlativeཆེ་མང་ཡག་ཆུང་སྡུག་In practice, however, as shown by the above examples, the form is used for an ordinary quality in the positive degree though implying an amount of abundance or fullness of the quality referred to. Bell (p. 33) and Hannah (p. 129) have described these degrees of comparison. Short and partial notes in S. Ch. D.’s grammar (p. 31) and Henderson (p. 23). See J. Dict. s.v.ཤོས་, p. 564.དྲིན་, J. 262b(as equal toདྲིན་) is not acknowledged by my informants.དྲིན་is objected to by my teachers because they say it never occurs alone but requires a finalབ་, except in the superlative formདྲིན་which, of course, is another thing. See, however, S. Ch. D.བཀའ་, p. 654, J. p. 13. As to theཆེན་orཆེན་in many Tibetan adjectives, this is better regarded as an enclitic particle, exactly corresponding to the English termination -ful. As little as the English -ful really[50]means ‘full’, does the Tibetanཆེན་(པོ་) as a termination of adjectives really mean ‘great.’Bell hasདྲིན་for ‘kind.’The wordདྲིན་and its uses merit a separate inquiry. In this place we shall limit ourselves to stating that the entry gratitude (S. Ch. D., Ramsay, Schroeter) seems incorrect. The confusion has most likely come about because aདྲིན་is an answer to kindness (return gift, etc.) and sobetokensgratitude.དྲིན་(པོ་) seeདྲིན་.དྲིན་, 21. Ellipse for: according to (or, in the measure of) whatever kindness (you have shown to me).དྲིན་seeདྲིན་.དྲུང་seeབརྩེ་.གདན་seeབྱང་.གདུག་, 35. The three Dicts. are not at one as to the exact shades of meaning ofགདུག་.J. has, subst.: ‘anything hurtful, or any injury, mischief, harm, done.’Desg., subst.: ‘dommage, perte, mal.’S. Ch. D. no substantive.J., adj. (=གདུག་༌), ‘noxious, mischievous, dangerous.’ Desg., adj. onlyགདུག་, notགདུག་alone: nuisible (noxious), and aགདུག་=གདོག་, deteriorated.S. Ch. D., adj.:གདུག་, vicious, mischievous, deleterious, poisonous.In J. and S. Ch. D.further applied meanings as: wild, hideous (screams); ferocity (in beasts), deleterious (smell), fierce (woman).[51]In our passage the expressionགདུག་may be rendered by malign, wicked, evil, evil-minded, spiteful, with sufficient correctness.གདུག་seeགདུག་.གདུག་seeགདུག་.གདུག་seeགདུག་.གདུང་seeགདུང་.གདུང་, Colophon. J. renders this word as ‘a song expressive of longing or of grief, an elegy (Mil.)’; but this definition is not quite typical of our present poem. S. Ch. D. has ‘a song of longing grief.’ J.’s exampleམོས་, whereགདུང་means (spiritual) love, seems to point out to a meaning more apposite here. So we would prefer a translation: paean, hymn of praise (D.lofzang), or psalm instead of elegy. Other words to be considered: song of thanksgiving, memorial song, lament, plaintive song (jammerklacht?), memorial verses, anin memoriam, a memorial, etc. See alsoདབྱངས་.The dge rgan, however, explains the word indeed in J.’s manner, but states that the longing and grief are not the worldly sentiments but religious ones. The longing and grief are concerned with the sorrows of the world and a yearning after spiritual realities, but not with the memory of the three teachers mentioned in the poem. If this is true, the above hypothesis is likely to be a wrong one and in my translation of the colophon the words there used should in that case rather run ‘as a song of yearning for the higher life’ (cf.the G. ‘Weltschmerz’).གདོག་seeགདུག་.འདུལ་, 37. Steps, measures, to subdue or tame, etc.འདུལ་, to take such measures.[52]འདོགས་seeརྒྱན་.འདྲེན་, 20. (Fut.དྲང་). If theལྕགས་(seeཀྱུ་) is here to be thought of as a goad (like the one of the mahout) then the verb should be understood as sub J. 2, ‘to conduct, lead, guide’ (by prodding). My teachers take it as ‘to draw,’ or ‘pull.’ Pictorial representations might decide the point. My teachers think rather of a rod with a hook at the end, like the episcopal staff, and not of angling with a fishhook or prodding with a goad.སྡུག་, 33. Or simplyཡུས་, here: ‘the loss of temper, wrath, angry explosion or outburst.’ This sense is not given in the Dicts., though J.’s 4, ‘ardour, fervour, transport’ comes near it.སྡུག་is the same asཡུས་, but for the fact that the former word shows the cause, an outburst on account of trouble, vexation, worry, pain, sorrow. (སྡུག་)ཡུས་(སྟོན་orབྱེད་)པ་= to show (or to lose) one’s temper, to flare up, to burst out, to break loose, to explode in anger, wrath.ཕ་, ‘don’t show temper to your parents.’དཔོན་, ‘don’t lose your temper before (or with) the master.’དེ་, ‘to-day he has entirely lost his temper before (or to) me.’ It is synonymous, in this sense, with the wordའུ་which is also dealt with inadequately in the Dicts. q.v.མི་, ‘don’t lose your temper to anyone, to whomsoever.’ཁྱོད་, ‘there is no reason (no need, or it is senseless) to lose your temper.’ (Cf.D.uitvallen, uitvaren, uitvoeteren, opstuiven, uitbarsten.)གནམ་, 2. Either ‘as if rising towards the[53]sky,’ in which caseའདྲ་refers to all the previous words, or: as if risingwhilstin the sky, in which case theའདྲ་would only refer toསྙེག་.གནས་seeབློ་.མནོ་seeརྟོག་.རྣལ་, 9. I have not received an explanation of the ‘etc.’ (སོགས་) in this place and I ignore what kind of category is alluded to here. It seems not probable that the ’18 classes of science’ can be meant, which, in the Mahāvyutpatti (Ed. M.A.S.B.), form group XXIV, p. 20. Group L, (p. 59), furnishes more likely material, but Yoga is missing in it.སྣང་seeདག་.དཔལ་, 56. ‘Glorious, noble,’ also ‘having abundance.’ Twice mentioned in J.’s article but not translated, perhaps because the meaning is so evident. Curious that neither Desg. nor J. specially cite this compound to which S. Ch. D. gives 7 lines, besides mentioning several combinations.དཔལ་, 52. Is this one word?དཔལ་, 53. ‘Glory- or splendour-burning,’ i.e. ‘to blaze with glory,’ or, more tamely, ‘to be famous, renowned, celebrated’; the latter quoted by J. from Cs. s.v.འབར་(It may also be taken as glory-spreading, i.e. getting more famous). Desg. quotes a geographical nameདཔལ་, Chinese Pienpa. The expression is not in Desg. or S. Ch. D., and in J. only as taken from Cs., so that the latter’s explanation needs verification. The literal translation ‘to blaze with glory’ fits here better.Colloquiallyའབར་is ‘to thrive, to prosper, to do well.’འབར་, ‘he is doing well, is well-to-do, thriving.’འབར་[54]སོང་, he has become rich, has made a success of his life, has come out top dog, has made good, has become wealthy, opulent, is safe, got his ship home, has ‘got there,’ made his pile, is now a man of position. (Fr.est arrivé. D.is binnen, heeft zijn schaapjes op het drooge.)དཔེ་, 53. Hereདཔེ་=དཔེ་orདཔེ་, technically ‘the eighty symmetrical parts, proportions, or points of beauty’(Cs., Mahāvyutpatti); or beauties, lesser signs (de Harlez); proportions (Schiefner). See the references underམཚན་andམཚན་. J. (s.v.དཔེ༌, p.327b) gives the full expression ‘the eighty physical perfections of Buddha,’དཔེ་, andདཔེ་alone ‘proportion, symmetry, beauty.’ J. has the entryདཔེ་‘symmetry, harmony, beauty (in certain phrases)’ but S. Ch. D. omits this. Our passage is an example of this use, but the syllableདཔེ་is really an abbreviation here and not a full and independent word. Desg. seems to be mistaken in saying:དཔེ་(sic, misprint forབྱད་) orམཚན་, ‘proportion, symmetry, the 80 marvels of the body of the Buddha.’ Soདཔེ་means indeed ‘symmetrical, showing 80 marvels,’ but these meanings would not be applicable toམཚན་which could only mean ‘showing the 32 signs and 80 beauties.’For the rest Desg.’s 2nd article s.v.དཔེ་adds to J.’s data, and hisདཔེ་andདཔེ་‘custom, rule, example’ are new. In Desg. ‘custom, rule’ tally with S. Ch. D. ‘way of doing, method’ which J. has as ‘pattern, model,’ but which he translates more freely in his examples. J. s.v.བྱད་‘proportion, symmetry, beauty,’ quotes aདཔེ་from the Dzl. in the same[55]sense. According to thisདཔེ་would be equal toབྱད་which seems improbable and is denied by my informants. An example of the use ofདཔེ་is the following:དེ་, the new year’s dance of now-a-days in the monastery is in imitation of the old way, is after the ancient pattern, the old manner, follows the old example.དཔེ་is here not exactlyལུགས་‘custom’ but rather: ‘(with) the (ancient) method (as) an example.’Note the use ofདང་in the above example as ‘old, ancient.’དཔེ་seeསྒོ་.དཔེ་seeདཔེ་.དཔེ་(=བྱད་) seeདཔེ་.དཔེ་seeདཔེ་.དཔེ་seeདཔེ་.སྤྲི་, 2, 5. The white cloud is a figure often occurring in Tibetan poetry. If used as an emblem of holiness or spiritual loftiness in connection with eminent persons, this expression may perhaps contain a stereotyped allusion to the name of the tenth and supreme bhūmi or stage of the Bodhisattva, the dharma-megha, ‘cloud of virtue,’ཆོས་. See Mahāvyutpatti, ed. A.S.B., p. 11. Here evidently not J.’s (336a) ‘emblem of transitoriness,’ though the point might be argued on the basis of the final remark s.v.གདུང་, see above.སྤྲོས་, 51. This word corresponds according to S. Ch. D. to a Sk.nishprapañca(orapañca,aprapañca) which in Macdonell’s Sk. Dict. is rendered by ‘unevolved, exempt from[56]multiformity.’ We may, therefore, think of expressions like ‘the undifferentiated, homogeneous, absolute.’ The word dhātu being the Sk. equivalent for Tib.དབྱིངས་the whole expressionདབྱིངས་must correspond to a Sk.aprapañcadhātu. The same Sk. Dict. translates the word dhātu as ‘layer, component part, element.’ In Tibetanདབྱིངས་means, according to J.: (1) ‘the heavens’; (2) ‘height’; (3) ‘extent, region, space, in metaphysics an undefined idea.’ According to the etymologyསྤྲོས་should mean ‘passive, actionless, quietistic, inert,’ but according to the etymology of its Sk. prototype rather ‘undifferentiated, monadic.’ One of my informants compares it withཆོས་, dharma dhātu, andསྟོང་, shunyatā, the void, the absolute. In this connection one should compare J.’s statements (215a) that in modern (Tibetan) Buddhism the termམངོན་(अभिसमय), ‘clear understanding or perception’ means the same asསྟོང་, and further (259b) thatདོན་, originallyपरमार्थ, has, in later times, also become equivalent toསྟོང་. It seems that the old metaphysicians reached regions and distinctions where their followers could no longer join them, and hence the process became ‘omne ignotum proསྟོང་.’ For practical purposes the rendering ‘absolute,’ or ‘motionless’ might be used forསྤྲོས་, whilst the wordདབྱིངས་might be rendered by ‘principle, state, region.’ If occurring in a specimen of the more technically and theoretically philosophical literature of Northern Buddhism, a more precise rendering and more careful definition might be required. Taking the followingརྟོགས་as ‘knowledge, perception, cognition,’ then the whole expression becomes in English ‘the knowledge of the motionless state (or[57]region, or principle)’ or—more pedantic but perhaps truer—‘the knowledge of (that is: pertaining to, inherent in) the monadic state.’ Other equivalents: ‘a state of stillness, the still state’ and, mystically, ‘the wisdom of the silence.’One of my informants, the dge rgan, knows of a colloquial use ofསྤྲོས་=རེ་= ‘hopeless,’ but my second authority ignores this use. The following two examples were given:འདི་, ‘it is labour lost (hopeless) to [try and] know this.’ You cannot hope to know this. (N.B.—Note the elliptic construction ‘hopeless to know’ for ‘to try to know, to study and so come to know.’)ཡི་, ‘As he does not even know how to read well (or properly), it is hopeless (lost labour), for him to (or: how can he?) study grammar’(Not: how can he pretend toknowgrammar?).N.B.—The Tibetan does not ‘read’ but ‘reads books’; he does not ‘write’ but ‘writes letters,’ he does not ‘go’ but ‘goes to the shop.’ In short, he is a very objective being.ཕ་,8. ‘Father.’ It is not clear why in the same line the same person is referred to by the ordinaryཕ་and then by the honorificཡབ་, unlessཡབ་is a standard expression which cannot be changed whilst the firstཕ་is used for the sake of variety in expression.The same double use of the honorific and ordinary terms for father occurs in Laufer’s ‘Ein Sühngedicht der Bonpo’, line 41.ཕྱོགས་, 5. In expressions likeལྡིང་theབའི་is explained as equivalent toསའི་, ‘of the place where.’ So the phraseམི་should be understood as ‘towards where the man has gone, to the place where the man has gone,’འགྲོ་.[58]ཕྱོགས་, 14. Here verb, infinitive, connected with Gendundub in instrumental (agentive) or genitival relation: to turn, move towards, to tend to.ཕྱོགས་, 46. Lit. ‘to fall aside,’ but here, as applied to the mind (ཡིད་), simply to be deflected, to go astray, to fall, sin (mentally), to deviate from the right path (religion, the right), to lapse (from virtue), etc.འཕུང་, 29. ‘To wish the ruin, the undoing, destructionof, to be bent on the perdition of, to wish evil to’ =མེད་.བྱང་, 17. The bodhimaṇḍa, according to the Dicts. historically and geographically Gaya, where the Buddha attained nirvāṇa. Here, however, it means rather the state implied by the locality, ‘illumination, the essence of purification, final sainthood’ literally ‘the quintessence of bodhi.’ In Christian language Golgotha (or the Cross) is similarly used in a metaphorical sense. In living Tibetanབྱང་(bodhi) is not understood as ‘wisdom’ but as ‘saintliness, purity.’ There is, it seems, a confusion in the group of Tibetan [and Chinese!] renderings of bodhimaṇḍa (bodhi-essence) and bodhi-maṇḍala (bodhi-round), and their synonyms, a confusion which may already have its origin in India itself. The treatment of these words in the Dicts. is not satisfactory. J. and S. Ch. D. give s.v.བྱང་this word as synonymous withརྡོ་, Vajrāsana, but underསྙིང་S. Ch. D. has the entry:‘བྱང་, the spirit of the Bodhisattva, i.e. Buddhahood.’ This is the sense meant in our passage, though it may be doubted whetherབྱང་really stands here forབྱང་as S. Ch. D. interprets it instead of only for bodhi. The Mahāvyutpatti (A.S.B., p. 44) has Bodhimaṇḍa =བྱང་, and Cs. translates, ‘the essence of sanctity[59]or holiness (name of the holy place at Gaya).’ I yet believe that here a confusion of maṇḍa and maṇḍala must be thought of. J. has, s.v.སྙིང་(p. 198b) ‘snyiṅ-po-byaṅ c̀ʽúb- (or byaṅ-c̀ʽub-snyiṅ-po)-la mc̀ʽís-pa, to become BuddhaThgy.’ Rockhill, Life of the Buddha, p. 35, mentions the form byang-tchub-kyi-snying-po as the equivalent for bodhimaṇḍa, and though Foucaux in the alphabetical index to his translation of the Lalita Vistāra gives only the form withoutཀྱི་, yet in his text, in the places I verified (p. 239, five times), there is theཀྱི་as with Rockhill.In mentioning the wordརྡོ་a special reference must be made to the elementགདན་, commonly translated as bolster, cushion, seat, rug, etc. J. is very detailed about it. He has: ‘a bolster, or seat composed of several quilts or cushions, put one upon the other (five for common people, nine for people of quality).’ Desg. simply ‘stuffed cushion.’ S. Ch. D. more general ‘a low seat, a divan, cushion, a bolster.’ As to J.’s definition my authorities declare that this may be so perhaps ‘on the Ladakh side,’ but is certainly not so in Tibet and in the Darjeeling district. They do not know about the details of five and nine cushions. They take the meaning far wider than bolster or cushion. They say that anything used to support anything or to seat anybody may be calledགདན་, it may be a sheet of cloth, a carpet, a blanket, a cushion, a bolster, a seat in general, anything used for lying or sitting down on. The word has a meaning exactly opposite to the English ‘cover’ and can consequently be used in as many varied senses as the latter. Etymologically—if the root ofགདན་, as seems probable, means ‘to support’—the word would mean something like ‘bearer,’ ‘basis,’ ‘bed,’ ‘floor,’ ‘upholder.’ We might think of ‘underwear,’though in English that particular word is used with quite another association of ideas. In typography there is a word ‘underlay’ which corresponds exactly to the meaning ofགདན་. The word ‘bedplate’, used in engineering, comes also near to it. It will be easily seen how an applied meaning as ‘cushion, bolster,’ if given as the general sense of the word, would in many cases be totally inadequate. The line of associations to which ‘cushion’ belongs, and the line of associations to which ‘seat, support, underlay’ belong, intersect at only one[60]point and for the rest have nothing in common. A table-cloth may be calledགདན་because the food rests on it (ལྟོ་is used in this sense; lit. something like ‘food-sheet, that on which the food rests’). In a ritual it is prescribed that theགདན་for the offerings should be a spotless piece of white cotton or other cloth, calledམཆོད་, ‘offering sheet,’ ‘that on which the offerings rest.’ Bell hasས་for ‘carpet’; small cushion, placed on chairཁ་; large cushion on groundའབོལ་. This is a most interesting example illustrating the fact that it is strictly necessary first to find out the root-idea of a Tibetan word before translating it by words representing the incidental applications of that root-idea. Whoever has handled Chinese dictionaries knows how specially necessary this is in studying Indo-Chinese languages. The Sanskrit equivalent, āsana, is derived from the root ās, to sit or lie, but the Tib. root seems different.Further notes onགདན་.Cf.J.མ་(pr. magdàn), ground, basis, foundation, p. 409a. Bell, apronཔང་.Cs., Grammar, p. 170, l. 10, translatesགདན་as couch (stuffed seat). Lewin, Manual, p. 123, first word last line: ‘mat, seat’, in the same sentence taken over from Cs.’s Grammar. Two synonyms for J.’sམ་, quoted above, areརྨང་andགཞི་. Bell also has ‘mat.’བྱམས་, 50. Seems simply an amplified form for ‘love.’ Difficult to be translated exactly, Sk. maitrīkaruṇā, may be treated as a compound, loving-kindness, love and kindness, or pity. On the question of karuṇā, especially, the learned have descanted profusely.བླ་(ན་)མེད་(པ་), 52. Sk.अनुत्तर, unsurpassed, unexcelled, unrivalled, supreme, incomparable, most high, highest. Not specially entered in J. but illustrated by an example s.v.བླ་.[61]Altogether absent in Desg. S. Ch. D.བླ་, ‘to those who are supreme, or to the followers of the Anuttara school.’ A curious entry! See S. Ch. D. also s.v.བླ་.བླ་, 3. Here perhaps better ‘teacher’ than ‘priest’ or ‘superior.’ The word may be here equally well taken in the singular as in the plural, but the latter is perhaps more likely.བླ་, seeབླ་.བློ་,47. ‘Straight, upright, righteous mind.’ J.’s entry is a little vague. I think he takesཐུགས་in his exampleཐུགས་as an indication thatགཟུ་is also a honorific form. That, however, is not the case. Compare also the quotation from Cs. in S. Ch. D.,གཟུ་‘to be impartial and straightforward, to be on the side of honesty.’ I don’t find this example in Schmidt. Desg. ‘straight, upright, (élevé,) just, honest.’ According to the above the word is an adj.and the translation of the passage becomes ‘whether you persevere in a straight (righteous) mind.’ The verbགནས་has then to be taken as ‘to hold, adhere to, persevere in (an opinion,etc.).’ If however, we should find thatགཟུ་can also be sbst. ‘righteousness,’‘straightness,’ (not in any Dict.), thenགནས་would have the other meaning of ‘to dwell, reside’ and the phrase would have to be rendered ‘whether the mind (continues to) dwell(s) in righteousness.’ S. Ch. D. rendersཐུགས་as ‘honest mind,’ but the sense honest versus dishonest seems not quite applicable in our passage. J.is vague here. My informants gave the above definition ‘straight, upright’ as their own but felt afterwards vague about this example which, though they had framed it, they could not vouch for:མི་, ‘see whether the man keeps straight or not.’ The framer honestly confessed that whilst we were discussing the word he had been influenced by S. Ch. D.’sDict. in coining the sentence; a[62]confession so instructive for idiom-verifiers that I think it worth while to record it here.Finally, Desg. supports S. Ch.’s second meaning ‘witness’ forགཟུ་.He, however, does notgiveS. Ch.’s formགཟུ་. The ordinary word for witness is, of course,དཔང་(པོ་). It is characteristic of S. Ch. D. that he copies J.’s extract from Sch. underགཟུ་‘witness, mediator,’ but then immediately adds his own individual interpretation which not only is likely to be correct, but which also nullifies and contradicts the previous entry which he copied immediately above. He himself says, ‘an honest and truthful witness.’ It often occurs that S. Ch. D. brings modifications, extensions and even corrections to J.’s statements, but at the same time he copies J. far too slavishly and so contradicts himself in the pages of his own dictionary. Whether meanings like ‘reliable, straightforward, correct, proper,’ etc., have to be attached toགཟུ་is as yet uncertain.བློ་, 8. In Sk. Sumatikīrti. According to the Sk. dictionaries the primary sense of ‘sumati’ is ‘benevolence.’ In present-day Tibetanབློ་is rather ‘good-natured, kindhearted,’ as againstདྲིན་‘benevolent.’ So the Tibetan name has to be rendered as Good-nature-fame, or Famous good-nature, the personal name of Tsoṅ kʽa pa.དབང་(མ་)སོང་, 22. (Not) fallen under the power (of).…དབྱངས་, 54 and colophon. This word seems here hardly to mean ‘song, singing tune,’ but rather ‘melody, melodiousness, sweetness,’ etc. This tallies to a certain extent with Csoma’s translation of the title of list LXI (p. 86) of the Mahāvyutpatti, ‘Names of the 60 sorts (or divisions) of melody or melodious voices (or vocal sound).’ I take it that this list refers to what is mentioned here in our text. How these 60 branches of melody are exactly to be understood I have not been able to ascertain. The opinions of Pʽun Tsʽogs on the point are as follows. The Buddha’s voice had such a[63]variety of (magic?) qualities, sixty in number, that they made him understood by all beings, whatever their own languages. The Buddha was in this way simultaneously understood by men, devas, nāgas, etc. In proffering this explanation Pʽun Tsʽogs takesཡན་to mean rather ‘kind’ than ‘branch.’ As an alternative he suggests thatདབྱངས་is an adjective synonymous withརིང་༌, ‘high’ (as applied to voice or rather tone) [or perhaps long, lengthened?] and that thenདབྱངས་would mean a ‘variety’ of tones or modulations. I myself am inclined to think that if the Mahāvyutpatti list is not referred to, we have here to do with some scholastic scheme of rhetorics, though if so understood the exact value ofདབྱངས་is not clear and certainly not sufficiently defined in the Dicts.(Cf.S. Ch. D. s.v.ཟབ་(p. 1092a),ཟབ་=मन्द्र,मन्द्रक, ‘a deep voice, a musical tone.’ See alsoགདུང་.)དབྱིངས་seeསྤྲོས་.དབྱིངས་seeསྤྲོས་.འབར་seeདཔལ་.འབོལ་seeབྱང་.འབྲོག་, 6. Here ‘solitude, wilderness’ and so =རི་=དགོན་, ‘monastery.’ Not associated with any of the meanings connected with ‘pasturing.’Cf.S. Ch. D.འབྲོག་s.v.འབྲོག་.The famous Galdan monastery was erected on a site calledའབྲོག་. See S. Ch. D., The Monasteries of Tibet,J.A.S.B., Vol. I,N.S.(1905), p. 108.མི་seeགླུད་.[64]མི་seeགླུད་.མི་seeགླུད་.མིག་seeཡངས་.མིག་seeཡངས་.མེད་seeའཕུང་.མྱུར་, 52. J.མྱུར་adj., andམྱུར་adv., ‘quick(ly), swift(ly).’ In Mil. adj.མྱུར་. Desg.མྱུར་andམྱུར་(ཉིད་), subst. ‘promptness,’ andམྱུར་‘swift.’ As adv.མྱུར་, orདུ་, orགྱིས་. S. Ch. D.མྱུར་, verb, ‘to hurry by, to pass on swiftly,’ (exampleདུས་, ‘time quickly runs away.’ [=tempus fugit]), and adv. quickly. Further adv.མྱུར་. Some interesting compounds in S. Ch. D.:མྱུར་‘a dancing woman,’ etc. Note the expressionཅི་‘as speedily as possible,’ J.According to my informants S. Ch. D.’s exampleདུས་is not good Tibetan. It should either beདུས་(orབ་)ཡིན་, lit. ‘time is quick,’ or with another meaning also ‘the time is near’ (i.e. at hand,comingquickly), or againདུས་, ‘the quick time.’ Time quickly runs away, they say, should be expressed thus:དུས་.Cf.also J., Desg.:སྨྱུར་.མྱུར་seeམྱུར་.ཙམ་, 38. Here: ‘after only, as a result of only, in consequence[65]of only, mere, simple.’ Butཙམ་has also the meanings: as soon as, simply on (hearing), on the slightest (reproach, etc.) with a more prominent stress on the time element, instantaneousness.རྩེ་seeབརྩེ་.རྩེ་seeབརྩེ་.རྩེ་seeབརྩེ་.རྩོད་seeགཤགས་.བརྩེ་, 55.བརྩེ་=བརྩེ་, vb. ‘to love’ sbst. ‘love, kindness, affection,’ etc. Desg. has also aབརྩེ་, ‘acidity,’ which is also known to my informants. Hisབརྩེ་‘bodyguard of the Dalai Lama’ is held, by one of my informants, to be a mistake forརྩེ་(pronounce tsī-dung), the monk-employees of the Tibetan government (and in a narrower sense: the clerical staff, the clerks and secretaries amongst them) as contrasted with the lay-employees of noble birth (not officials in general as with S. Ch. D. 656a, but only those belonging to the nobility) who are calledདྲུང་. The wordརྩེ་in the compound is said to be derived from the designation of the Potala palace where many of the government offices are located, and which is calledརྩེ་, the Potala peak, but most commonly, by the people, brieflyརྩེ་, the peak. This explanation of tsī-dung as a general class of lama government-employees is wider than that given in Waddell’s table in his ‘Lhasaand its Mysteries,’ p. 165. See alsoརྩེ་, ‘chief clerk or secretary’ in S. Ch. D. s.v.རྩེ་(1013b), the latter being the special name of the former’s hat.བརྩེ་seeབརྩེ་.[66]བརྩོན་, 24. Equalsབརྩོན་(orགྱུར་) ‘to apply oneself, exert oneself, put one’s best energy into something’ =སྙིང་, ‘to be zealous, diligent.’ Alsoབརྩོན་(བྱེད་,རྩོམ་).ཚུལ་, 28. Here ‘conduct, behaviour’ pure and simple, without allusion to theཚུལ་, ‘religious law, discipline, monastic rules.’ཚུལ་seeཆོས་.མཚན་, 53. Here technically the (thirty-two) characteristic signs or marks of a ‘Great Man,’ the mahāpurusha. Mahāvyutpatti (Ed. A. S. B.), LXIII, p. 92. De Harlez, ‘Vocabulaire Bouddhique Sanscrit-Chinois,’ no. 3. Schiefner, ‘Triglotte,’ no. 3. See de la Vallée Poussin, ‘Bouddhisme,’ pp. 241 et seq.The transition of meaning of the wordམཚན་in modern Tibetan in such expressions asམཚན་, ‘a holy lama,’ orམཚན་, ‘a woman of good appearance and virtues’ (S. Ch. D.) should not be overlooked in the interpretation of our passage for its psychological value. See alsoདཔེ་.མཚན་seeམཚན་.མཚན་, 53. This is a compound substantive of an elliptic nature, and means: ‘the [well known 32 primary] characteristics [and the 80] beauties [of Buddhas]’=མཚན་(བཟང་). See alsoམཚན་andདཔེ་.མཚན་, 30.མཚན་is here hon. ofམིང་‘name,’ and the compound, literally ‘name grasping,’ means ‘ambition, thirst for fame, glory,’ etc. (D.eerzucht, roemzucht), perhaps even ‘vainglory, pride, conceit, egotism,’ i.e. the hugging of one’s own name and fame.[67]མཚན་, 7. To invoke by name, to address a prayer to by name. Applied to both spiritual and human beings.རྒྱལ་, ‘to address the king, speak to the king, direct, appeal to the king,’ but always by calling him by his name. ‘O king help me’ is not a proper example ofམཚན་, but ‘O, thou, King George, help me!’ would be one. To spiritual beings their names may be expressed in a paraphrase, metaphor or symbol, but they must be expressed in some way. The prayers to superhuman beings may be twofold, either an address containing requests, etc., or a mere litany of names without any further subject matter attached to them. The one is a recitation of names, the other a direct address by name; the one a litany proper, the other an invocation or prayer.འཚོལ་, 19. The formམི་was paraphrased to me asའཚོལ་=འཚོལ་= simple future, ‘not going to seek’ (D.niet zullende zoeken).ཞིབ་seeརྟོག་.ཞེ་seeཁྲེལ་.ཞེན་seeཁྲེལ་.གཞན་(པ་)འཛིན་seeརང་(པ་)འཛིན་.གཞུང་seeཁྲེལ་.གཞུང་seeསྒོ་.གཞུངས་seeཁྲེལ་.གཞེས་seeམགུར་.བཞག་seeརྒྱན་.ཟབ་, 10, 55.ཟབ་=ཟབ་. J. vb., adj., subst. and adv. ‘to be deep, deep, deeply, depth’; adj.ཟབ་andམོ་. Desg.[68]ཟབ་andམོ་adj. only. S. Ch. D.ཟབ་vb. ‘to make deep, to deepen,’ also adj. and sbst.; further inཔོ་andམོ་only adj. Note the additional meaning ‘dense’ (alsoཟབས་‘thickness’) in S. Ch. D., not in the two others. My teachers deny thatཟབ་can be a verb ‘to deepen,’ or ‘to make deep.’ཟབ་must also be understood as ‘profound’ (wisdom, teaching, etc.). Seeཆོས་, alsoདབྱངས་, alsoཐུགས་, etc.ཟབ་seeཐུགས་, etc.གཟུ་seeབློ་.གཟུ་seeབློ་.གཟུ་seeབློ་.འུ་seeསྡུག་.ཡང་seeདྭངས་.ཡངས་, 55. =ཡངས་orཔོ་, ‘wide, large.’ Desg. also ‘ample, abundant.’ S. Ch. D. onlyཡངས་. Note J. ‘*mig-yaṅ*’, C., W. liberal, generous, bounteous,’ but Desg.མིག་‘wide-eyes: envious, covetous, greedy.’ In S. Ch. D.ཡངས་=विशालाक्षी, ‘large-eyes, a handsome woman, name of a Goddess.’Cf.also in the same dict.མིག་, ‘beautiful-eyes, a very handsome woman, a nymph’s name.’ As to J.’s mig-yaṅ, one of my teachers holds with him as against Desg., the other does not know the expression.ཡངས་seeཡངས་.ཡན་seeདབྱངས་.ཡབ་(གསུམ༌), 8, 15, 16, 18. ‘Father (and) sons,’ or, as Csoma already has it in his Grammar, p. 28, ‘teacher and[69]pupils.’ With the additionགསུམ་‘three,’ and also as here without this addition, a very well known appellation of Tsoṅ kʽa pa and his two pupils (his spiritual sons). It is likely that to the Tibetan mind the expression means something like ‘spiritual family (of three),’ namely of one father and two sons. See introductory remarks. Free renderings like ‘spiritual trio’ or ‘teacher triad’ and the like are apt enough for practical purposes.Cf.an expression like the following:ཁྱོད་, ‘where have you two, father and son, come from?’ (But the sentence has also the second meaning ‘where do you live? where is your home?’).In the light of the above, has the note on p. 98 of the J.A.S.B., Vol. II, N.S., no. 4, 1906, in Satis Chandra Vidyābhūṣana’s article on ‘the Gyantse rock inscription’ to be rectified? My informants do not think that the expression is used among the Sakyapas in the sense given in that note.ཡིན་seeཀྱང་.ཡུས་seeསྡུག་.གཡུལ་seeའགྱེ་.གཡུལ་seeའགྱེ་.རང་seeདྭངས་.རང་(པ་)འཛིན་, 26. This expression must here not be understood as ‘to follow one’s own teaching.’རང་is here not one compound word. The meaning is: they who themselves follow the teaching, as against theགཞན་, the others who (also) follow the teaching. Seeགཞན་(པ་)འཛིན་, 27.རི་seeའབྲོག་andགངས་.རི་seeའབྲོག་andགངས་.རིག་seeམཁྱེན་.[70]རིག་seeགོལ་.རིང་seeདབྱངས་.རུས་seeདྭངས་.རེ་seeདོན་.རེ་seeསྤྲོས་.ལན་seeགཤགས་.ལམ་seeགོལ་.ལམ་seeགོལ་.ལམ་, 31. ‘The high, elevated road,’ has a religious connotation, the proper road that leads to heaven after death, the ‘narrow’ road of Christianity. See below.ལམ་, 48. The straight road (metaphorically), the road of righteousness, of straightness of mind.Cf.S. Ch. D. s.v.དྲང་, p. 649a. The meaning of this expression and that ofལམ་, in line 31 (see above), are quite different. The other is the highroad (towards heaven), the road of a high standard of moral conduct.ལམ་, 9. ‘Steps on the path,’ ‘degrees of advance,’ ‘steps towards perfection,’ is the short title of many mystical writings and especially of one by Tsoṅ kʽa pa, to which the words may allude here without specially designating it. In this place the meaning does not seem to be a specific work but merely ‘(religious) instructions, teaching in general.’ Theལམ་are here, according to my oral information, to be taken as the two halves or divisions of the Kandjur which is commonly divided intoམདོ་andསྔགས་, sūtra and tantra (or mantra, or dhāraṇī). In this division theརྒྱུད་or tantra section is calledསྔགས་, whilst all the rest, properly subdivided[71]in six divisions, is taken together asམདོ་, of which the realམདོ་or sūtra-division (the 5th in sequence in the Kandjur) is only one. Concerning Tsoṅ kʽa pa’s study of the ‘Sūtras and Tantras’ see S. Ch. D., ‘Contributions, etc. on Tibet,’ VI, in J.A.S.B., 1882, Vol. LI, Part I, no. 1, p. 53. J., s.v.བསྟན་, quotes aབསྟན་: ‘with Urgyan Padma, etc., the same as mdoi and sṅags kyi lam, v. mdo extr.’ This is seemingly the same as our expression.ལུས་, 42. J. has =སེམས་, ‘beings, creatures,’ but may not the idea rather be allembodiedcreatures; with the etymological sense still potent in connection with the Buddhist reincarnation theory? S. Ch. D. gives aལུས་=གྲོང་= ‘town, city,’ which seems rather to point to the meaning ‘man’ forལུས་. My informants don’t feel quite certain whether to include the five other classes of beings (including animals) amongst theལུས་, but are somewhat inclined to interpret the word asམི་, ‘man,’ in general.ཤ་seeཀྱུ་.ཤར་, title, 1. The author writes his poem in a place to the west of a snow-capped mountain, to the east of which the Galdan monastery is situated. See notes onའབྲོག་,དགེ་andགངས་. Which mountain or mountain chain is meant must be left undecided, even if granting that modern cartography could show it if identified. Local tradition, however, would most likely be able to point out a particular mountain.ཤེས་seeམཁྱེན་.ཤོས་seeརིན་.[72]གཤགས་seeགཤགས་.གཤགས་, 38. This expression cannot yet be explained with certainty. It may be taken here to mean, literally, ‘to send out (distribute, give, put forward) justice, right,’ but the exact idiomatic value of the phrase remains to be determined. It is not in the Dicts., and unknown to my informants. We may take the possible values of the expression as three, viz.: 1.གཤགས་=རྩོད་=གཤགས་= ‘to dispute, argue, contend with words.’ This seems the same expression as S. Ch. D.’sཁ་‘to hold controversy,’ p. 1248. (Perhaps also ‘to challenge, to be challenged to dispute.’) 2. =ལན་‘to be defeated in argument, in dispute, to be silenced in dispute.’
རྟོགས་seeསྤྲོས་.ལྟ་51. This word seems here to mean ‘vision, illumination, (direct mystical) contemplation, the seeing face to face.’ In our passage it is the direct vision (the ‘vision direct’), proper to, inherent in, characteristic of, belonging to, the knowledge pertaining to the actionless (or undifferentiated) state, the ‘passive-state-knowledge-vision.’ See alsoསྤྲོས་.ལྟག་seeསྒོ་.ལྟོ་seeཁྲེལ་.ལྟོ་seeགདན་.ལྟོབ་seeཁྲེལ་.སྟོང་seeསྤྲོས་.བརྟག་seeརྟོག་.བརྟག་seeརྟོག་.བརྟགས་seeརྟོག་.བསྟན་(གཉིས་) seeལམ་.བསྟན་, 23. ‘To follow, to keep to the teaching; to be or remain true, faithful to the teaching, to hold fast to it, to stick to it.’ See alsoརྟེན་.[45]ཐབས་seeའདུལ་.ཐམས་, lit. ‘Great-all-knowing-clergy-perfection-good-glory,’ corresponds to a Sk. Mahā-sarva-jña-saṁgha-siddhi-shrī-bhadra. See for literature about him: Schulemann,Geschichte der Dalailamas, pp. 91–92, note 11, and S. Ch. D.: The Hierarchy of the Dalai Lamas, J.A.S.B., Vol. LXXIII, Pt. I, extra No., p. 81.ཐུགས་, 55. This is here, in my opinion, not a sort of Hottentottenpotentatentantenattentater-like formation. I take theཟབ་to refer to theཐུགས་, a profound and wide mind, whilst theམཁྱེན་only refers to theགཏེར་, the treasury of omniscient mercy. It is not likely that the qualities of width and depth form part of an enumeration of which the remaining items are love and knowledge or even (as a compound) omniscient-mercy. See the various component words in this glossary.ཐུགས་seeམཁྱེན་.ཐུགས་seeབློ་.མཐེབ་seeཀྱུ་.མཐོན་seeལམ་.འཐབ་seeའགྱེ་.དག་, 43. J.’s entry under this entry is as follows: “དག་(པའི༌)སྣང་(བ་)Schr.‘good opinion’ (?), prob.: a pure, sound view or knowledgeGlr.; inMil.it has a similar meaning.” He adds an oral sentence: “*dhag-náṅ jón-wa* C. to lead a holy life.” (sic. jón = jóṅ?) Schroeter has (135b): “དག་, a good opinion, a good conception of any thing, a conceit, a thought.” [Based on an Italian ‘concetto’?] He has two further entries ‘དག་, to form a good[46]opinion of any individual,’ and ‘དག་(read:སྦྱོང་)བ་, to form a good opinion, or to conceive well of any one.’In our passage we are inclined to takeསྣང་asསྣང་, as ‘view, thought, idea, conception,’ etc., andསྦྱོང་= ‘to exercise, practise, perform’, or even ‘to entertain, cherish (thoughts).’དག་we take asདག་, ‘pure’—the connection with thought not the opposite of false, erroneous, but of bad, cruel, unkind. So here the expression seems to mean ‘to think with goodwill, with kindness (of others),’not the colloquial ‘to have a good opinion of, to think well of.’ To think ‘good’ is here the opposite of to think ‘evil,’ but the idiomatic value of the expression ‘to think well of’ (as the opposite of ‘to think poorly of’) would make the latter rendering misleading. The real value, then, of the expression as used in this passage, seems to be: ‘to think good, kind thoughts of,’ i.e. purely, or saintly in the sense of kindly, lovingly, benevolently, in a friendly manner, with sympathy, but not, as J. seems to suggest, intellectually correct. We may expand the rendering into ‘with a holy mind, with thoughts of saintliness, thinking saintly thoughts.’ Compare J.’s colloquial phrase quoted above. So, as to the interpretation of the line in which the compound occurs, we take it that it means to enjoin, in contrast with the previous line in which it is said that beings in general must be thought of with kindness, that religious people (instead of the mere laymen) must be thought of in a still better, higher manner, namely with holiness and saintliness.One of my informants was first inclined to takeདག་as ‘to teach, to preach the true knowledge.’ Though he later on sided with the explanation adopted above, the opinion should be recorded, but it should be added that a second informant rejected this view of the first one.Attention should be drawn to the meaning ofསྣང་, ‘the soul’ (with spellingsསྣང་andནང་;དག་,རྟགས་,བརྟག་,སྟག་, s. J.). Also the curious expression ‘to be indifferent’སྣང་, S. Ch. D.; andསྣང་, Bell. These expressions not in Desg.[47]དག་seeདག་.དང་seeདཔེ་.དྭངས་, 27. Adverb: ‘purely, first class, first rate.’ Not in J. but in Desg., yet here in a slightly different application. About S. Ch. D.’s ‘gravy’ and ‘relish’ see below.དྭངས་with the genitive seems to mean ‘acme’, ‘essence’, the typical embodiment of something, like in expressions as ‘a first class liar, a thief pure and simple, the very devil, satan himself, nothing short of an angel, a saint inpropria persona.’དགྲ་, ‘the very enemy.’ In the colloquialདྭངས་,ཡང་andཨང་may have the same meaning. The latter is something like pidgin-English ‘number one’ or the kitchen Malay equivalent ‘nommer satu.’ Other equations areགཅིག་(orཔུ་), alsoརང་, the Anglo-Indian ‘pukka.’The wordདྭངས་may mean soup or gravy in the following case, when there is question of singling out the liquid portion from a mixture of broth and liquid. The primary meaning seems in that case rather to be liquid as contrasted to solid.ང་= give me (only) the liquid (not the solid stuff), pour out to me (only) the liquid. But thisདྭངས་has no finalམ་. A common word for soup which is not in the Dicts. is ‘rü thang’, probablyརུས་, orཐང་alone. This latter word is in J. with the meaning of ‘potion’, a medical term, and in S. Ch. D. as ‘potion, plain decoction, or mixture to be drunk after a medicinal pill has been taken.’ The wordརུས་means originally bone-soup, but has acquired also the more general meaning ‘soup.’ཐང་can be applied to meat-soup,ཤ་, butཤ་cannot be used. It might be thatཐང་andདྭངས་are really the same word.[48]དད་seeསྐྱེ་.དམ་, 30. Might here, in connection with ambition, be translated as ‘fierce,’ an extension of its primary meaning ‘strong.’དུག་seeསྐྱོ་.དུག་seeསྐྱོ་.དུགས་seeསྐྱོ་.དུས་, 24. For ever, always.དུས་seeམྱུར་.དོན་seeདོན་.དོན་, 40. ‘Exceedingly stupid, meaningless, useless, silly, senseless.’ The particleརེ་has an emphatic value, but it is difficult to define its precise scope in English. Oral information is vague on the subject, and seems to point towards a possibility that theརེ་is a syllable of exclamation or turns the expression, of which it forms part, into an exclamation.དོན་. ‘Oh, how silly!’ An equivalent isདོན་=དོན་.དོན་alone is not used, andདོན་demands a finalརེད་orཡིན་.S. Ch. D. (502a) translatesཁྱོད་as: ‘I pity you, ye Tibetans’; perhaps better ‘What a pity, O ye Tibetans.’ Compare the list of words with wedged-inརེ་in J. s.v.རེ་p. 533b.དྲིན་, 16. Alsoདྲིན་, adjective ‘kind.’ According to S. Ch. D. also ‘very kind, great boon, and the great or greatest benefactor.’ S. Ch. D.’s wording is unsatisfactorily indefinite and his examples, taken from J., fit the text badly.[49]J. does not define the combinationདྲིན་though he has an exampleབཀའ་with the meaning ‘greatest benefit.’ Two colloquial examples are:དྲིན་, ‘the two (very) kind parents,’ andམི་, that man is (very) kind.In formདྲིན་is a comparative, ‘kinder.’ཆེན་is one of those adjectives which have a comparative and superlative of their own as:Great.Many.Good.Small.Bad.positiveཆེན་མང་ཡག་ཆུང་སྡུག་comparativeཆེ་མང་(orང་)ཡག་ཆུང་སྡུག་superlativeཆེ་མང་ཡག་ཆུང་སྡུག་In practice, however, as shown by the above examples, the form is used for an ordinary quality in the positive degree though implying an amount of abundance or fullness of the quality referred to. Bell (p. 33) and Hannah (p. 129) have described these degrees of comparison. Short and partial notes in S. Ch. D.’s grammar (p. 31) and Henderson (p. 23). See J. Dict. s.v.ཤོས་, p. 564.དྲིན་, J. 262b(as equal toདྲིན་) is not acknowledged by my informants.དྲིན་is objected to by my teachers because they say it never occurs alone but requires a finalབ་, except in the superlative formདྲིན་which, of course, is another thing. See, however, S. Ch. D.བཀའ་, p. 654, J. p. 13. As to theཆེན་orཆེན་in many Tibetan adjectives, this is better regarded as an enclitic particle, exactly corresponding to the English termination -ful. As little as the English -ful really[50]means ‘full’, does the Tibetanཆེན་(པོ་) as a termination of adjectives really mean ‘great.’Bell hasདྲིན་for ‘kind.’The wordདྲིན་and its uses merit a separate inquiry. In this place we shall limit ourselves to stating that the entry gratitude (S. Ch. D., Ramsay, Schroeter) seems incorrect. The confusion has most likely come about because aདྲིན་is an answer to kindness (return gift, etc.) and sobetokensgratitude.དྲིན་(པོ་) seeདྲིན་.དྲིན་, 21. Ellipse for: according to (or, in the measure of) whatever kindness (you have shown to me).དྲིན་seeདྲིན་.དྲུང་seeབརྩེ་.གདན་seeབྱང་.གདུག་, 35. The three Dicts. are not at one as to the exact shades of meaning ofགདུག་.J. has, subst.: ‘anything hurtful, or any injury, mischief, harm, done.’Desg., subst.: ‘dommage, perte, mal.’S. Ch. D. no substantive.J., adj. (=གདུག་༌), ‘noxious, mischievous, dangerous.’ Desg., adj. onlyགདུག་, notགདུག་alone: nuisible (noxious), and aགདུག་=གདོག་, deteriorated.S. Ch. D., adj.:གདུག་, vicious, mischievous, deleterious, poisonous.In J. and S. Ch. D.further applied meanings as: wild, hideous (screams); ferocity (in beasts), deleterious (smell), fierce (woman).[51]In our passage the expressionགདུག་may be rendered by malign, wicked, evil, evil-minded, spiteful, with sufficient correctness.གདུག་seeགདུག་.གདུག་seeགདུག་.གདུག་seeགདུག་.གདུང་seeགདུང་.གདུང་, Colophon. J. renders this word as ‘a song expressive of longing or of grief, an elegy (Mil.)’; but this definition is not quite typical of our present poem. S. Ch. D. has ‘a song of longing grief.’ J.’s exampleམོས་, whereགདུང་means (spiritual) love, seems to point out to a meaning more apposite here. So we would prefer a translation: paean, hymn of praise (D.lofzang), or psalm instead of elegy. Other words to be considered: song of thanksgiving, memorial song, lament, plaintive song (jammerklacht?), memorial verses, anin memoriam, a memorial, etc. See alsoདབྱངས་.The dge rgan, however, explains the word indeed in J.’s manner, but states that the longing and grief are not the worldly sentiments but religious ones. The longing and grief are concerned with the sorrows of the world and a yearning after spiritual realities, but not with the memory of the three teachers mentioned in the poem. If this is true, the above hypothesis is likely to be a wrong one and in my translation of the colophon the words there used should in that case rather run ‘as a song of yearning for the higher life’ (cf.the G. ‘Weltschmerz’).གདོག་seeགདུག་.འདུལ་, 37. Steps, measures, to subdue or tame, etc.འདུལ་, to take such measures.[52]འདོགས་seeརྒྱན་.འདྲེན་, 20. (Fut.དྲང་). If theལྕགས་(seeཀྱུ་) is here to be thought of as a goad (like the one of the mahout) then the verb should be understood as sub J. 2, ‘to conduct, lead, guide’ (by prodding). My teachers take it as ‘to draw,’ or ‘pull.’ Pictorial representations might decide the point. My teachers think rather of a rod with a hook at the end, like the episcopal staff, and not of angling with a fishhook or prodding with a goad.སྡུག་, 33. Or simplyཡུས་, here: ‘the loss of temper, wrath, angry explosion or outburst.’ This sense is not given in the Dicts., though J.’s 4, ‘ardour, fervour, transport’ comes near it.སྡུག་is the same asཡུས་, but for the fact that the former word shows the cause, an outburst on account of trouble, vexation, worry, pain, sorrow. (སྡུག་)ཡུས་(སྟོན་orབྱེད་)པ་= to show (or to lose) one’s temper, to flare up, to burst out, to break loose, to explode in anger, wrath.ཕ་, ‘don’t show temper to your parents.’དཔོན་, ‘don’t lose your temper before (or with) the master.’དེ་, ‘to-day he has entirely lost his temper before (or to) me.’ It is synonymous, in this sense, with the wordའུ་which is also dealt with inadequately in the Dicts. q.v.མི་, ‘don’t lose your temper to anyone, to whomsoever.’ཁྱོད་, ‘there is no reason (no need, or it is senseless) to lose your temper.’ (Cf.D.uitvallen, uitvaren, uitvoeteren, opstuiven, uitbarsten.)གནམ་, 2. Either ‘as if rising towards the[53]sky,’ in which caseའདྲ་refers to all the previous words, or: as if risingwhilstin the sky, in which case theའདྲ་would only refer toསྙེག་.གནས་seeབློ་.མནོ་seeརྟོག་.རྣལ་, 9. I have not received an explanation of the ‘etc.’ (སོགས་) in this place and I ignore what kind of category is alluded to here. It seems not probable that the ’18 classes of science’ can be meant, which, in the Mahāvyutpatti (Ed. M.A.S.B.), form group XXIV, p. 20. Group L, (p. 59), furnishes more likely material, but Yoga is missing in it.སྣང་seeདག་.དཔལ་, 56. ‘Glorious, noble,’ also ‘having abundance.’ Twice mentioned in J.’s article but not translated, perhaps because the meaning is so evident. Curious that neither Desg. nor J. specially cite this compound to which S. Ch. D. gives 7 lines, besides mentioning several combinations.དཔལ་, 52. Is this one word?དཔལ་, 53. ‘Glory- or splendour-burning,’ i.e. ‘to blaze with glory,’ or, more tamely, ‘to be famous, renowned, celebrated’; the latter quoted by J. from Cs. s.v.འབར་(It may also be taken as glory-spreading, i.e. getting more famous). Desg. quotes a geographical nameདཔལ་, Chinese Pienpa. The expression is not in Desg. or S. Ch. D., and in J. only as taken from Cs., so that the latter’s explanation needs verification. The literal translation ‘to blaze with glory’ fits here better.Colloquiallyའབར་is ‘to thrive, to prosper, to do well.’འབར་, ‘he is doing well, is well-to-do, thriving.’འབར་[54]སོང་, he has become rich, has made a success of his life, has come out top dog, has made good, has become wealthy, opulent, is safe, got his ship home, has ‘got there,’ made his pile, is now a man of position. (Fr.est arrivé. D.is binnen, heeft zijn schaapjes op het drooge.)དཔེ་, 53. Hereདཔེ་=དཔེ་orདཔེ་, technically ‘the eighty symmetrical parts, proportions, or points of beauty’(Cs., Mahāvyutpatti); or beauties, lesser signs (de Harlez); proportions (Schiefner). See the references underམཚན་andམཚན་. J. (s.v.དཔེ༌, p.327b) gives the full expression ‘the eighty physical perfections of Buddha,’དཔེ་, andདཔེ་alone ‘proportion, symmetry, beauty.’ J. has the entryདཔེ་‘symmetry, harmony, beauty (in certain phrases)’ but S. Ch. D. omits this. Our passage is an example of this use, but the syllableདཔེ་is really an abbreviation here and not a full and independent word. Desg. seems to be mistaken in saying:དཔེ་(sic, misprint forབྱད་) orམཚན་, ‘proportion, symmetry, the 80 marvels of the body of the Buddha.’ Soདཔེ་means indeed ‘symmetrical, showing 80 marvels,’ but these meanings would not be applicable toམཚན་which could only mean ‘showing the 32 signs and 80 beauties.’For the rest Desg.’s 2nd article s.v.དཔེ་adds to J.’s data, and hisདཔེ་andདཔེ་‘custom, rule, example’ are new. In Desg. ‘custom, rule’ tally with S. Ch. D. ‘way of doing, method’ which J. has as ‘pattern, model,’ but which he translates more freely in his examples. J. s.v.བྱད་‘proportion, symmetry, beauty,’ quotes aདཔེ་from the Dzl. in the same[55]sense. According to thisདཔེ་would be equal toབྱད་which seems improbable and is denied by my informants. An example of the use ofདཔེ་is the following:དེ་, the new year’s dance of now-a-days in the monastery is in imitation of the old way, is after the ancient pattern, the old manner, follows the old example.དཔེ་is here not exactlyལུགས་‘custom’ but rather: ‘(with) the (ancient) method (as) an example.’Note the use ofདང་in the above example as ‘old, ancient.’དཔེ་seeསྒོ་.དཔེ་seeདཔེ་.དཔེ་(=བྱད་) seeདཔེ་.དཔེ་seeདཔེ་.དཔེ་seeདཔེ་.སྤྲི་, 2, 5. The white cloud is a figure often occurring in Tibetan poetry. If used as an emblem of holiness or spiritual loftiness in connection with eminent persons, this expression may perhaps contain a stereotyped allusion to the name of the tenth and supreme bhūmi or stage of the Bodhisattva, the dharma-megha, ‘cloud of virtue,’ཆོས་. See Mahāvyutpatti, ed. A.S.B., p. 11. Here evidently not J.’s (336a) ‘emblem of transitoriness,’ though the point might be argued on the basis of the final remark s.v.གདུང་, see above.སྤྲོས་, 51. This word corresponds according to S. Ch. D. to a Sk.nishprapañca(orapañca,aprapañca) which in Macdonell’s Sk. Dict. is rendered by ‘unevolved, exempt from[56]multiformity.’ We may, therefore, think of expressions like ‘the undifferentiated, homogeneous, absolute.’ The word dhātu being the Sk. equivalent for Tib.དབྱིངས་the whole expressionདབྱིངས་must correspond to a Sk.aprapañcadhātu. The same Sk. Dict. translates the word dhātu as ‘layer, component part, element.’ In Tibetanདབྱིངས་means, according to J.: (1) ‘the heavens’; (2) ‘height’; (3) ‘extent, region, space, in metaphysics an undefined idea.’ According to the etymologyསྤྲོས་should mean ‘passive, actionless, quietistic, inert,’ but according to the etymology of its Sk. prototype rather ‘undifferentiated, monadic.’ One of my informants compares it withཆོས་, dharma dhātu, andསྟོང་, shunyatā, the void, the absolute. In this connection one should compare J.’s statements (215a) that in modern (Tibetan) Buddhism the termམངོན་(अभिसमय), ‘clear understanding or perception’ means the same asསྟོང་, and further (259b) thatདོན་, originallyपरमार्थ, has, in later times, also become equivalent toསྟོང་. It seems that the old metaphysicians reached regions and distinctions where their followers could no longer join them, and hence the process became ‘omne ignotum proསྟོང་.’ For practical purposes the rendering ‘absolute,’ or ‘motionless’ might be used forསྤྲོས་, whilst the wordདབྱིངས་might be rendered by ‘principle, state, region.’ If occurring in a specimen of the more technically and theoretically philosophical literature of Northern Buddhism, a more precise rendering and more careful definition might be required. Taking the followingརྟོགས་as ‘knowledge, perception, cognition,’ then the whole expression becomes in English ‘the knowledge of the motionless state (or[57]region, or principle)’ or—more pedantic but perhaps truer—‘the knowledge of (that is: pertaining to, inherent in) the monadic state.’ Other equivalents: ‘a state of stillness, the still state’ and, mystically, ‘the wisdom of the silence.’One of my informants, the dge rgan, knows of a colloquial use ofསྤྲོས་=རེ་= ‘hopeless,’ but my second authority ignores this use. The following two examples were given:འདི་, ‘it is labour lost (hopeless) to [try and] know this.’ You cannot hope to know this. (N.B.—Note the elliptic construction ‘hopeless to know’ for ‘to try to know, to study and so come to know.’)ཡི་, ‘As he does not even know how to read well (or properly), it is hopeless (lost labour), for him to (or: how can he?) study grammar’(Not: how can he pretend toknowgrammar?).N.B.—The Tibetan does not ‘read’ but ‘reads books’; he does not ‘write’ but ‘writes letters,’ he does not ‘go’ but ‘goes to the shop.’ In short, he is a very objective being.ཕ་,8. ‘Father.’ It is not clear why in the same line the same person is referred to by the ordinaryཕ་and then by the honorificཡབ་, unlessཡབ་is a standard expression which cannot be changed whilst the firstཕ་is used for the sake of variety in expression.The same double use of the honorific and ordinary terms for father occurs in Laufer’s ‘Ein Sühngedicht der Bonpo’, line 41.ཕྱོགས་, 5. In expressions likeལྡིང་theབའི་is explained as equivalent toསའི་, ‘of the place where.’ So the phraseམི་should be understood as ‘towards where the man has gone, to the place where the man has gone,’འགྲོ་.[58]ཕྱོགས་, 14. Here verb, infinitive, connected with Gendundub in instrumental (agentive) or genitival relation: to turn, move towards, to tend to.ཕྱོགས་, 46. Lit. ‘to fall aside,’ but here, as applied to the mind (ཡིད་), simply to be deflected, to go astray, to fall, sin (mentally), to deviate from the right path (religion, the right), to lapse (from virtue), etc.འཕུང་, 29. ‘To wish the ruin, the undoing, destructionof, to be bent on the perdition of, to wish evil to’ =མེད་.བྱང་, 17. The bodhimaṇḍa, according to the Dicts. historically and geographically Gaya, where the Buddha attained nirvāṇa. Here, however, it means rather the state implied by the locality, ‘illumination, the essence of purification, final sainthood’ literally ‘the quintessence of bodhi.’ In Christian language Golgotha (or the Cross) is similarly used in a metaphorical sense. In living Tibetanབྱང་(bodhi) is not understood as ‘wisdom’ but as ‘saintliness, purity.’ There is, it seems, a confusion in the group of Tibetan [and Chinese!] renderings of bodhimaṇḍa (bodhi-essence) and bodhi-maṇḍala (bodhi-round), and their synonyms, a confusion which may already have its origin in India itself. The treatment of these words in the Dicts. is not satisfactory. J. and S. Ch. D. give s.v.བྱང་this word as synonymous withརྡོ་, Vajrāsana, but underསྙིང་S. Ch. D. has the entry:‘བྱང་, the spirit of the Bodhisattva, i.e. Buddhahood.’ This is the sense meant in our passage, though it may be doubted whetherབྱང་really stands here forབྱང་as S. Ch. D. interprets it instead of only for bodhi. The Mahāvyutpatti (A.S.B., p. 44) has Bodhimaṇḍa =བྱང་, and Cs. translates, ‘the essence of sanctity[59]or holiness (name of the holy place at Gaya).’ I yet believe that here a confusion of maṇḍa and maṇḍala must be thought of. J. has, s.v.སྙིང་(p. 198b) ‘snyiṅ-po-byaṅ c̀ʽúb- (or byaṅ-c̀ʽub-snyiṅ-po)-la mc̀ʽís-pa, to become BuddhaThgy.’ Rockhill, Life of the Buddha, p. 35, mentions the form byang-tchub-kyi-snying-po as the equivalent for bodhimaṇḍa, and though Foucaux in the alphabetical index to his translation of the Lalita Vistāra gives only the form withoutཀྱི་, yet in his text, in the places I verified (p. 239, five times), there is theཀྱི་as with Rockhill.In mentioning the wordརྡོ་a special reference must be made to the elementགདན་, commonly translated as bolster, cushion, seat, rug, etc. J. is very detailed about it. He has: ‘a bolster, or seat composed of several quilts or cushions, put one upon the other (five for common people, nine for people of quality).’ Desg. simply ‘stuffed cushion.’ S. Ch. D. more general ‘a low seat, a divan, cushion, a bolster.’ As to J.’s definition my authorities declare that this may be so perhaps ‘on the Ladakh side,’ but is certainly not so in Tibet and in the Darjeeling district. They do not know about the details of five and nine cushions. They take the meaning far wider than bolster or cushion. They say that anything used to support anything or to seat anybody may be calledགདན་, it may be a sheet of cloth, a carpet, a blanket, a cushion, a bolster, a seat in general, anything used for lying or sitting down on. The word has a meaning exactly opposite to the English ‘cover’ and can consequently be used in as many varied senses as the latter. Etymologically—if the root ofགདན་, as seems probable, means ‘to support’—the word would mean something like ‘bearer,’ ‘basis,’ ‘bed,’ ‘floor,’ ‘upholder.’ We might think of ‘underwear,’though in English that particular word is used with quite another association of ideas. In typography there is a word ‘underlay’ which corresponds exactly to the meaning ofགདན་. The word ‘bedplate’, used in engineering, comes also near to it. It will be easily seen how an applied meaning as ‘cushion, bolster,’ if given as the general sense of the word, would in many cases be totally inadequate. The line of associations to which ‘cushion’ belongs, and the line of associations to which ‘seat, support, underlay’ belong, intersect at only one[60]point and for the rest have nothing in common. A table-cloth may be calledགདན་because the food rests on it (ལྟོ་is used in this sense; lit. something like ‘food-sheet, that on which the food rests’). In a ritual it is prescribed that theགདན་for the offerings should be a spotless piece of white cotton or other cloth, calledམཆོད་, ‘offering sheet,’ ‘that on which the offerings rest.’ Bell hasས་for ‘carpet’; small cushion, placed on chairཁ་; large cushion on groundའབོལ་. This is a most interesting example illustrating the fact that it is strictly necessary first to find out the root-idea of a Tibetan word before translating it by words representing the incidental applications of that root-idea. Whoever has handled Chinese dictionaries knows how specially necessary this is in studying Indo-Chinese languages. The Sanskrit equivalent, āsana, is derived from the root ās, to sit or lie, but the Tib. root seems different.Further notes onགདན་.Cf.J.མ་(pr. magdàn), ground, basis, foundation, p. 409a. Bell, apronཔང་.Cs., Grammar, p. 170, l. 10, translatesགདན་as couch (stuffed seat). Lewin, Manual, p. 123, first word last line: ‘mat, seat’, in the same sentence taken over from Cs.’s Grammar. Two synonyms for J.’sམ་, quoted above, areརྨང་andགཞི་. Bell also has ‘mat.’བྱམས་, 50. Seems simply an amplified form for ‘love.’ Difficult to be translated exactly, Sk. maitrīkaruṇā, may be treated as a compound, loving-kindness, love and kindness, or pity. On the question of karuṇā, especially, the learned have descanted profusely.བླ་(ན་)མེད་(པ་), 52. Sk.अनुत्तर, unsurpassed, unexcelled, unrivalled, supreme, incomparable, most high, highest. Not specially entered in J. but illustrated by an example s.v.བླ་.[61]Altogether absent in Desg. S. Ch. D.བླ་, ‘to those who are supreme, or to the followers of the Anuttara school.’ A curious entry! See S. Ch. D. also s.v.བླ་.བླ་, 3. Here perhaps better ‘teacher’ than ‘priest’ or ‘superior.’ The word may be here equally well taken in the singular as in the plural, but the latter is perhaps more likely.བླ་, seeབླ་.བློ་,47. ‘Straight, upright, righteous mind.’ J.’s entry is a little vague. I think he takesཐུགས་in his exampleཐུགས་as an indication thatགཟུ་is also a honorific form. That, however, is not the case. Compare also the quotation from Cs. in S. Ch. D.,གཟུ་‘to be impartial and straightforward, to be on the side of honesty.’ I don’t find this example in Schmidt. Desg. ‘straight, upright, (élevé,) just, honest.’ According to the above the word is an adj.and the translation of the passage becomes ‘whether you persevere in a straight (righteous) mind.’ The verbགནས་has then to be taken as ‘to hold, adhere to, persevere in (an opinion,etc.).’ If however, we should find thatགཟུ་can also be sbst. ‘righteousness,’‘straightness,’ (not in any Dict.), thenགནས་would have the other meaning of ‘to dwell, reside’ and the phrase would have to be rendered ‘whether the mind (continues to) dwell(s) in righteousness.’ S. Ch. D. rendersཐུགས་as ‘honest mind,’ but the sense honest versus dishonest seems not quite applicable in our passage. J.is vague here. My informants gave the above definition ‘straight, upright’ as their own but felt afterwards vague about this example which, though they had framed it, they could not vouch for:མི་, ‘see whether the man keeps straight or not.’ The framer honestly confessed that whilst we were discussing the word he had been influenced by S. Ch. D.’sDict. in coining the sentence; a[62]confession so instructive for idiom-verifiers that I think it worth while to record it here.Finally, Desg. supports S. Ch.’s second meaning ‘witness’ forགཟུ་.He, however, does notgiveS. Ch.’s formགཟུ་. The ordinary word for witness is, of course,དཔང་(པོ་). It is characteristic of S. Ch. D. that he copies J.’s extract from Sch. underགཟུ་‘witness, mediator,’ but then immediately adds his own individual interpretation which not only is likely to be correct, but which also nullifies and contradicts the previous entry which he copied immediately above. He himself says, ‘an honest and truthful witness.’ It often occurs that S. Ch. D. brings modifications, extensions and even corrections to J.’s statements, but at the same time he copies J. far too slavishly and so contradicts himself in the pages of his own dictionary. Whether meanings like ‘reliable, straightforward, correct, proper,’ etc., have to be attached toགཟུ་is as yet uncertain.བློ་, 8. In Sk. Sumatikīrti. According to the Sk. dictionaries the primary sense of ‘sumati’ is ‘benevolence.’ In present-day Tibetanབློ་is rather ‘good-natured, kindhearted,’ as againstདྲིན་‘benevolent.’ So the Tibetan name has to be rendered as Good-nature-fame, or Famous good-nature, the personal name of Tsoṅ kʽa pa.དབང་(མ་)སོང་, 22. (Not) fallen under the power (of).…དབྱངས་, 54 and colophon. This word seems here hardly to mean ‘song, singing tune,’ but rather ‘melody, melodiousness, sweetness,’ etc. This tallies to a certain extent with Csoma’s translation of the title of list LXI (p. 86) of the Mahāvyutpatti, ‘Names of the 60 sorts (or divisions) of melody or melodious voices (or vocal sound).’ I take it that this list refers to what is mentioned here in our text. How these 60 branches of melody are exactly to be understood I have not been able to ascertain. The opinions of Pʽun Tsʽogs on the point are as follows. The Buddha’s voice had such a[63]variety of (magic?) qualities, sixty in number, that they made him understood by all beings, whatever their own languages. The Buddha was in this way simultaneously understood by men, devas, nāgas, etc. In proffering this explanation Pʽun Tsʽogs takesཡན་to mean rather ‘kind’ than ‘branch.’ As an alternative he suggests thatདབྱངས་is an adjective synonymous withརིང་༌, ‘high’ (as applied to voice or rather tone) [or perhaps long, lengthened?] and that thenདབྱངས་would mean a ‘variety’ of tones or modulations. I myself am inclined to think that if the Mahāvyutpatti list is not referred to, we have here to do with some scholastic scheme of rhetorics, though if so understood the exact value ofདབྱངས་is not clear and certainly not sufficiently defined in the Dicts.(Cf.S. Ch. D. s.v.ཟབ་(p. 1092a),ཟབ་=मन्द्र,मन्द्रक, ‘a deep voice, a musical tone.’ See alsoགདུང་.)དབྱིངས་seeསྤྲོས་.དབྱིངས་seeསྤྲོས་.འབར་seeདཔལ་.འབོལ་seeབྱང་.འབྲོག་, 6. Here ‘solitude, wilderness’ and so =རི་=དགོན་, ‘monastery.’ Not associated with any of the meanings connected with ‘pasturing.’Cf.S. Ch. D.འབྲོག་s.v.འབྲོག་.The famous Galdan monastery was erected on a site calledའབྲོག་. See S. Ch. D., The Monasteries of Tibet,J.A.S.B., Vol. I,N.S.(1905), p. 108.མི་seeགླུད་.[64]མི་seeགླུད་.མི་seeགླུད་.མིག་seeཡངས་.མིག་seeཡངས་.མེད་seeའཕུང་.མྱུར་, 52. J.མྱུར་adj., andམྱུར་adv., ‘quick(ly), swift(ly).’ In Mil. adj.མྱུར་. Desg.མྱུར་andམྱུར་(ཉིད་), subst. ‘promptness,’ andམྱུར་‘swift.’ As adv.མྱུར་, orདུ་, orགྱིས་. S. Ch. D.མྱུར་, verb, ‘to hurry by, to pass on swiftly,’ (exampleདུས་, ‘time quickly runs away.’ [=tempus fugit]), and adv. quickly. Further adv.མྱུར་. Some interesting compounds in S. Ch. D.:མྱུར་‘a dancing woman,’ etc. Note the expressionཅི་‘as speedily as possible,’ J.According to my informants S. Ch. D.’s exampleདུས་is not good Tibetan. It should either beདུས་(orབ་)ཡིན་, lit. ‘time is quick,’ or with another meaning also ‘the time is near’ (i.e. at hand,comingquickly), or againདུས་, ‘the quick time.’ Time quickly runs away, they say, should be expressed thus:དུས་.Cf.also J., Desg.:སྨྱུར་.མྱུར་seeམྱུར་.ཙམ་, 38. Here: ‘after only, as a result of only, in consequence[65]of only, mere, simple.’ Butཙམ་has also the meanings: as soon as, simply on (hearing), on the slightest (reproach, etc.) with a more prominent stress on the time element, instantaneousness.རྩེ་seeབརྩེ་.རྩེ་seeབརྩེ་.རྩེ་seeབརྩེ་.རྩོད་seeགཤགས་.བརྩེ་, 55.བརྩེ་=བརྩེ་, vb. ‘to love’ sbst. ‘love, kindness, affection,’ etc. Desg. has also aབརྩེ་, ‘acidity,’ which is also known to my informants. Hisབརྩེ་‘bodyguard of the Dalai Lama’ is held, by one of my informants, to be a mistake forརྩེ་(pronounce tsī-dung), the monk-employees of the Tibetan government (and in a narrower sense: the clerical staff, the clerks and secretaries amongst them) as contrasted with the lay-employees of noble birth (not officials in general as with S. Ch. D. 656a, but only those belonging to the nobility) who are calledདྲུང་. The wordརྩེ་in the compound is said to be derived from the designation of the Potala palace where many of the government offices are located, and which is calledརྩེ་, the Potala peak, but most commonly, by the people, brieflyརྩེ་, the peak. This explanation of tsī-dung as a general class of lama government-employees is wider than that given in Waddell’s table in his ‘Lhasaand its Mysteries,’ p. 165. See alsoརྩེ་, ‘chief clerk or secretary’ in S. Ch. D. s.v.རྩེ་(1013b), the latter being the special name of the former’s hat.བརྩེ་seeབརྩེ་.[66]བརྩོན་, 24. Equalsབརྩོན་(orགྱུར་) ‘to apply oneself, exert oneself, put one’s best energy into something’ =སྙིང་, ‘to be zealous, diligent.’ Alsoབརྩོན་(བྱེད་,རྩོམ་).ཚུལ་, 28. Here ‘conduct, behaviour’ pure and simple, without allusion to theཚུལ་, ‘religious law, discipline, monastic rules.’ཚུལ་seeཆོས་.མཚན་, 53. Here technically the (thirty-two) characteristic signs or marks of a ‘Great Man,’ the mahāpurusha. Mahāvyutpatti (Ed. A. S. B.), LXIII, p. 92. De Harlez, ‘Vocabulaire Bouddhique Sanscrit-Chinois,’ no. 3. Schiefner, ‘Triglotte,’ no. 3. See de la Vallée Poussin, ‘Bouddhisme,’ pp. 241 et seq.The transition of meaning of the wordམཚན་in modern Tibetan in such expressions asམཚན་, ‘a holy lama,’ orམཚན་, ‘a woman of good appearance and virtues’ (S. Ch. D.) should not be overlooked in the interpretation of our passage for its psychological value. See alsoདཔེ་.མཚན་seeམཚན་.མཚན་, 53. This is a compound substantive of an elliptic nature, and means: ‘the [well known 32 primary] characteristics [and the 80] beauties [of Buddhas]’=མཚན་(བཟང་). See alsoམཚན་andདཔེ་.མཚན་, 30.མཚན་is here hon. ofམིང་‘name,’ and the compound, literally ‘name grasping,’ means ‘ambition, thirst for fame, glory,’ etc. (D.eerzucht, roemzucht), perhaps even ‘vainglory, pride, conceit, egotism,’ i.e. the hugging of one’s own name and fame.[67]མཚན་, 7. To invoke by name, to address a prayer to by name. Applied to both spiritual and human beings.རྒྱལ་, ‘to address the king, speak to the king, direct, appeal to the king,’ but always by calling him by his name. ‘O king help me’ is not a proper example ofམཚན་, but ‘O, thou, King George, help me!’ would be one. To spiritual beings their names may be expressed in a paraphrase, metaphor or symbol, but they must be expressed in some way. The prayers to superhuman beings may be twofold, either an address containing requests, etc., or a mere litany of names without any further subject matter attached to them. The one is a recitation of names, the other a direct address by name; the one a litany proper, the other an invocation or prayer.འཚོལ་, 19. The formམི་was paraphrased to me asའཚོལ་=འཚོལ་= simple future, ‘not going to seek’ (D.niet zullende zoeken).ཞིབ་seeརྟོག་.ཞེ་seeཁྲེལ་.ཞེན་seeཁྲེལ་.གཞན་(པ་)འཛིན་seeརང་(པ་)འཛིན་.གཞུང་seeཁྲེལ་.གཞུང་seeསྒོ་.གཞུངས་seeཁྲེལ་.གཞེས་seeམགུར་.བཞག་seeརྒྱན་.ཟབ་, 10, 55.ཟབ་=ཟབ་. J. vb., adj., subst. and adv. ‘to be deep, deep, deeply, depth’; adj.ཟབ་andམོ་. Desg.[68]ཟབ་andམོ་adj. only. S. Ch. D.ཟབ་vb. ‘to make deep, to deepen,’ also adj. and sbst.; further inཔོ་andམོ་only adj. Note the additional meaning ‘dense’ (alsoཟབས་‘thickness’) in S. Ch. D., not in the two others. My teachers deny thatཟབ་can be a verb ‘to deepen,’ or ‘to make deep.’ཟབ་must also be understood as ‘profound’ (wisdom, teaching, etc.). Seeཆོས་, alsoདབྱངས་, alsoཐུགས་, etc.ཟབ་seeཐུགས་, etc.གཟུ་seeབློ་.གཟུ་seeབློ་.གཟུ་seeབློ་.འུ་seeསྡུག་.ཡང་seeདྭངས་.ཡངས་, 55. =ཡངས་orཔོ་, ‘wide, large.’ Desg. also ‘ample, abundant.’ S. Ch. D. onlyཡངས་. Note J. ‘*mig-yaṅ*’, C., W. liberal, generous, bounteous,’ but Desg.མིག་‘wide-eyes: envious, covetous, greedy.’ In S. Ch. D.ཡངས་=विशालाक्षी, ‘large-eyes, a handsome woman, name of a Goddess.’Cf.also in the same dict.མིག་, ‘beautiful-eyes, a very handsome woman, a nymph’s name.’ As to J.’s mig-yaṅ, one of my teachers holds with him as against Desg., the other does not know the expression.ཡངས་seeཡངས་.ཡན་seeདབྱངས་.ཡབ་(གསུམ༌), 8, 15, 16, 18. ‘Father (and) sons,’ or, as Csoma already has it in his Grammar, p. 28, ‘teacher and[69]pupils.’ With the additionགསུམ་‘three,’ and also as here without this addition, a very well known appellation of Tsoṅ kʽa pa and his two pupils (his spiritual sons). It is likely that to the Tibetan mind the expression means something like ‘spiritual family (of three),’ namely of one father and two sons. See introductory remarks. Free renderings like ‘spiritual trio’ or ‘teacher triad’ and the like are apt enough for practical purposes.Cf.an expression like the following:ཁྱོད་, ‘where have you two, father and son, come from?’ (But the sentence has also the second meaning ‘where do you live? where is your home?’).In the light of the above, has the note on p. 98 of the J.A.S.B., Vol. II, N.S., no. 4, 1906, in Satis Chandra Vidyābhūṣana’s article on ‘the Gyantse rock inscription’ to be rectified? My informants do not think that the expression is used among the Sakyapas in the sense given in that note.ཡིན་seeཀྱང་.ཡུས་seeསྡུག་.གཡུལ་seeའགྱེ་.གཡུལ་seeའགྱེ་.རང་seeདྭངས་.རང་(པ་)འཛིན་, 26. This expression must here not be understood as ‘to follow one’s own teaching.’རང་is here not one compound word. The meaning is: they who themselves follow the teaching, as against theགཞན་, the others who (also) follow the teaching. Seeགཞན་(པ་)འཛིན་, 27.རི་seeའབྲོག་andགངས་.རི་seeའབྲོག་andགངས་.རིག་seeམཁྱེན་.[70]རིག་seeགོལ་.རིང་seeདབྱངས་.རུས་seeདྭངས་.རེ་seeདོན་.རེ་seeསྤྲོས་.ལན་seeགཤགས་.ལམ་seeགོལ་.ལམ་seeགོལ་.ལམ་, 31. ‘The high, elevated road,’ has a religious connotation, the proper road that leads to heaven after death, the ‘narrow’ road of Christianity. See below.ལམ་, 48. The straight road (metaphorically), the road of righteousness, of straightness of mind.Cf.S. Ch. D. s.v.དྲང་, p. 649a. The meaning of this expression and that ofལམ་, in line 31 (see above), are quite different. The other is the highroad (towards heaven), the road of a high standard of moral conduct.ལམ་, 9. ‘Steps on the path,’ ‘degrees of advance,’ ‘steps towards perfection,’ is the short title of many mystical writings and especially of one by Tsoṅ kʽa pa, to which the words may allude here without specially designating it. In this place the meaning does not seem to be a specific work but merely ‘(religious) instructions, teaching in general.’ Theལམ་are here, according to my oral information, to be taken as the two halves or divisions of the Kandjur which is commonly divided intoམདོ་andསྔགས་, sūtra and tantra (or mantra, or dhāraṇī). In this division theརྒྱུད་or tantra section is calledསྔགས་, whilst all the rest, properly subdivided[71]in six divisions, is taken together asམདོ་, of which the realམདོ་or sūtra-division (the 5th in sequence in the Kandjur) is only one. Concerning Tsoṅ kʽa pa’s study of the ‘Sūtras and Tantras’ see S. Ch. D., ‘Contributions, etc. on Tibet,’ VI, in J.A.S.B., 1882, Vol. LI, Part I, no. 1, p. 53. J., s.v.བསྟན་, quotes aབསྟན་: ‘with Urgyan Padma, etc., the same as mdoi and sṅags kyi lam, v. mdo extr.’ This is seemingly the same as our expression.ལུས་, 42. J. has =སེམས་, ‘beings, creatures,’ but may not the idea rather be allembodiedcreatures; with the etymological sense still potent in connection with the Buddhist reincarnation theory? S. Ch. D. gives aལུས་=གྲོང་= ‘town, city,’ which seems rather to point to the meaning ‘man’ forལུས་. My informants don’t feel quite certain whether to include the five other classes of beings (including animals) amongst theལུས་, but are somewhat inclined to interpret the word asམི་, ‘man,’ in general.ཤ་seeཀྱུ་.ཤར་, title, 1. The author writes his poem in a place to the west of a snow-capped mountain, to the east of which the Galdan monastery is situated. See notes onའབྲོག་,དགེ་andགངས་. Which mountain or mountain chain is meant must be left undecided, even if granting that modern cartography could show it if identified. Local tradition, however, would most likely be able to point out a particular mountain.ཤེས་seeམཁྱེན་.ཤོས་seeརིན་.[72]གཤགས་seeགཤགས་.གཤགས་, 38. This expression cannot yet be explained with certainty. It may be taken here to mean, literally, ‘to send out (distribute, give, put forward) justice, right,’ but the exact idiomatic value of the phrase remains to be determined. It is not in the Dicts., and unknown to my informants. We may take the possible values of the expression as three, viz.: 1.གཤགས་=རྩོད་=གཤགས་= ‘to dispute, argue, contend with words.’ This seems the same expression as S. Ch. D.’sཁ་‘to hold controversy,’ p. 1248. (Perhaps also ‘to challenge, to be challenged to dispute.’) 2. =ལན་‘to be defeated in argument, in dispute, to be silenced in dispute.’
རྟོགས་seeསྤྲོས་.ལྟ་51. This word seems here to mean ‘vision, illumination, (direct mystical) contemplation, the seeing face to face.’ In our passage it is the direct vision (the ‘vision direct’), proper to, inherent in, characteristic of, belonging to, the knowledge pertaining to the actionless (or undifferentiated) state, the ‘passive-state-knowledge-vision.’ See alsoསྤྲོས་.ལྟག་seeསྒོ་.ལྟོ་seeཁྲེལ་.ལྟོ་seeགདན་.ལྟོབ་seeཁྲེལ་.སྟོང་seeསྤྲོས་.བརྟག་seeརྟོག་.བརྟག་seeརྟོག་.བརྟགས་seeརྟོག་.བསྟན་(གཉིས་) seeལམ་.བསྟན་, 23. ‘To follow, to keep to the teaching; to be or remain true, faithful to the teaching, to hold fast to it, to stick to it.’ See alsoརྟེན་.[45]ཐབས་seeའདུལ་.ཐམས་, lit. ‘Great-all-knowing-clergy-perfection-good-glory,’ corresponds to a Sk. Mahā-sarva-jña-saṁgha-siddhi-shrī-bhadra. See for literature about him: Schulemann,Geschichte der Dalailamas, pp. 91–92, note 11, and S. Ch. D.: The Hierarchy of the Dalai Lamas, J.A.S.B., Vol. LXXIII, Pt. I, extra No., p. 81.ཐུགས་, 55. This is here, in my opinion, not a sort of Hottentottenpotentatentantenattentater-like formation. I take theཟབ་to refer to theཐུགས་, a profound and wide mind, whilst theམཁྱེན་only refers to theགཏེར་, the treasury of omniscient mercy. It is not likely that the qualities of width and depth form part of an enumeration of which the remaining items are love and knowledge or even (as a compound) omniscient-mercy. See the various component words in this glossary.ཐུགས་seeམཁྱེན་.ཐུགས་seeབློ་.མཐེབ་seeཀྱུ་.མཐོན་seeལམ་.འཐབ་seeའགྱེ་.དག་, 43. J.’s entry under this entry is as follows: “དག་(པའི༌)སྣང་(བ་)Schr.‘good opinion’ (?), prob.: a pure, sound view or knowledgeGlr.; inMil.it has a similar meaning.” He adds an oral sentence: “*dhag-náṅ jón-wa* C. to lead a holy life.” (sic. jón = jóṅ?) Schroeter has (135b): “དག་, a good opinion, a good conception of any thing, a conceit, a thought.” [Based on an Italian ‘concetto’?] He has two further entries ‘དག་, to form a good[46]opinion of any individual,’ and ‘དག་(read:སྦྱོང་)བ་, to form a good opinion, or to conceive well of any one.’In our passage we are inclined to takeསྣང་asསྣང་, as ‘view, thought, idea, conception,’ etc., andསྦྱོང་= ‘to exercise, practise, perform’, or even ‘to entertain, cherish (thoughts).’དག་we take asདག་, ‘pure’—the connection with thought not the opposite of false, erroneous, but of bad, cruel, unkind. So here the expression seems to mean ‘to think with goodwill, with kindness (of others),’not the colloquial ‘to have a good opinion of, to think well of.’ To think ‘good’ is here the opposite of to think ‘evil,’ but the idiomatic value of the expression ‘to think well of’ (as the opposite of ‘to think poorly of’) would make the latter rendering misleading. The real value, then, of the expression as used in this passage, seems to be: ‘to think good, kind thoughts of,’ i.e. purely, or saintly in the sense of kindly, lovingly, benevolently, in a friendly manner, with sympathy, but not, as J. seems to suggest, intellectually correct. We may expand the rendering into ‘with a holy mind, with thoughts of saintliness, thinking saintly thoughts.’ Compare J.’s colloquial phrase quoted above. So, as to the interpretation of the line in which the compound occurs, we take it that it means to enjoin, in contrast with the previous line in which it is said that beings in general must be thought of with kindness, that religious people (instead of the mere laymen) must be thought of in a still better, higher manner, namely with holiness and saintliness.One of my informants was first inclined to takeདག་as ‘to teach, to preach the true knowledge.’ Though he later on sided with the explanation adopted above, the opinion should be recorded, but it should be added that a second informant rejected this view of the first one.Attention should be drawn to the meaning ofསྣང་, ‘the soul’ (with spellingsསྣང་andནང་;དག་,རྟགས་,བརྟག་,སྟག་, s. J.). Also the curious expression ‘to be indifferent’སྣང་, S. Ch. D.; andསྣང་, Bell. These expressions not in Desg.[47]དག་seeདག་.དང་seeདཔེ་.དྭངས་, 27. Adverb: ‘purely, first class, first rate.’ Not in J. but in Desg., yet here in a slightly different application. About S. Ch. D.’s ‘gravy’ and ‘relish’ see below.དྭངས་with the genitive seems to mean ‘acme’, ‘essence’, the typical embodiment of something, like in expressions as ‘a first class liar, a thief pure and simple, the very devil, satan himself, nothing short of an angel, a saint inpropria persona.’དགྲ་, ‘the very enemy.’ In the colloquialདྭངས་,ཡང་andཨང་may have the same meaning. The latter is something like pidgin-English ‘number one’ or the kitchen Malay equivalent ‘nommer satu.’ Other equations areགཅིག་(orཔུ་), alsoརང་, the Anglo-Indian ‘pukka.’The wordདྭངས་may mean soup or gravy in the following case, when there is question of singling out the liquid portion from a mixture of broth and liquid. The primary meaning seems in that case rather to be liquid as contrasted to solid.ང་= give me (only) the liquid (not the solid stuff), pour out to me (only) the liquid. But thisདྭངས་has no finalམ་. A common word for soup which is not in the Dicts. is ‘rü thang’, probablyརུས་, orཐང་alone. This latter word is in J. with the meaning of ‘potion’, a medical term, and in S. Ch. D. as ‘potion, plain decoction, or mixture to be drunk after a medicinal pill has been taken.’ The wordརུས་means originally bone-soup, but has acquired also the more general meaning ‘soup.’ཐང་can be applied to meat-soup,ཤ་, butཤ་cannot be used. It might be thatཐང་andདྭངས་are really the same word.[48]དད་seeསྐྱེ་.དམ་, 30. Might here, in connection with ambition, be translated as ‘fierce,’ an extension of its primary meaning ‘strong.’དུག་seeསྐྱོ་.དུག་seeསྐྱོ་.དུགས་seeསྐྱོ་.དུས་, 24. For ever, always.དུས་seeམྱུར་.དོན་seeདོན་.དོན་, 40. ‘Exceedingly stupid, meaningless, useless, silly, senseless.’ The particleརེ་has an emphatic value, but it is difficult to define its precise scope in English. Oral information is vague on the subject, and seems to point towards a possibility that theརེ་is a syllable of exclamation or turns the expression, of which it forms part, into an exclamation.དོན་. ‘Oh, how silly!’ An equivalent isདོན་=དོན་.དོན་alone is not used, andདོན་demands a finalརེད་orཡིན་.S. Ch. D. (502a) translatesཁྱོད་as: ‘I pity you, ye Tibetans’; perhaps better ‘What a pity, O ye Tibetans.’ Compare the list of words with wedged-inརེ་in J. s.v.རེ་p. 533b.དྲིན་, 16. Alsoདྲིན་, adjective ‘kind.’ According to S. Ch. D. also ‘very kind, great boon, and the great or greatest benefactor.’ S. Ch. D.’s wording is unsatisfactorily indefinite and his examples, taken from J., fit the text badly.[49]J. does not define the combinationདྲིན་though he has an exampleབཀའ་with the meaning ‘greatest benefit.’ Two colloquial examples are:དྲིན་, ‘the two (very) kind parents,’ andམི་, that man is (very) kind.In formདྲིན་is a comparative, ‘kinder.’ཆེན་is one of those adjectives which have a comparative and superlative of their own as:Great.Many.Good.Small.Bad.positiveཆེན་མང་ཡག་ཆུང་སྡུག་comparativeཆེ་མང་(orང་)ཡག་ཆུང་སྡུག་superlativeཆེ་མང་ཡག་ཆུང་སྡུག་In practice, however, as shown by the above examples, the form is used for an ordinary quality in the positive degree though implying an amount of abundance or fullness of the quality referred to. Bell (p. 33) and Hannah (p. 129) have described these degrees of comparison. Short and partial notes in S. Ch. D.’s grammar (p. 31) and Henderson (p. 23). See J. Dict. s.v.ཤོས་, p. 564.དྲིན་, J. 262b(as equal toདྲིན་) is not acknowledged by my informants.དྲིན་is objected to by my teachers because they say it never occurs alone but requires a finalབ་, except in the superlative formདྲིན་which, of course, is another thing. See, however, S. Ch. D.བཀའ་, p. 654, J. p. 13. As to theཆེན་orཆེན་in many Tibetan adjectives, this is better regarded as an enclitic particle, exactly corresponding to the English termination -ful. As little as the English -ful really[50]means ‘full’, does the Tibetanཆེན་(པོ་) as a termination of adjectives really mean ‘great.’Bell hasདྲིན་for ‘kind.’The wordདྲིན་and its uses merit a separate inquiry. In this place we shall limit ourselves to stating that the entry gratitude (S. Ch. D., Ramsay, Schroeter) seems incorrect. The confusion has most likely come about because aདྲིན་is an answer to kindness (return gift, etc.) and sobetokensgratitude.དྲིན་(པོ་) seeདྲིན་.དྲིན་, 21. Ellipse for: according to (or, in the measure of) whatever kindness (you have shown to me).དྲིན་seeདྲིན་.དྲུང་seeབརྩེ་.གདན་seeབྱང་.གདུག་, 35. The three Dicts. are not at one as to the exact shades of meaning ofགདུག་.J. has, subst.: ‘anything hurtful, or any injury, mischief, harm, done.’Desg., subst.: ‘dommage, perte, mal.’S. Ch. D. no substantive.J., adj. (=གདུག་༌), ‘noxious, mischievous, dangerous.’ Desg., adj. onlyགདུག་, notགདུག་alone: nuisible (noxious), and aགདུག་=གདོག་, deteriorated.S. Ch. D., adj.:གདུག་, vicious, mischievous, deleterious, poisonous.In J. and S. Ch. D.further applied meanings as: wild, hideous (screams); ferocity (in beasts), deleterious (smell), fierce (woman).[51]In our passage the expressionགདུག་may be rendered by malign, wicked, evil, evil-minded, spiteful, with sufficient correctness.གདུག་seeགདུག་.གདུག་seeགདུག་.གདུག་seeགདུག་.གདུང་seeགདུང་.གདུང་, Colophon. J. renders this word as ‘a song expressive of longing or of grief, an elegy (Mil.)’; but this definition is not quite typical of our present poem. S. Ch. D. has ‘a song of longing grief.’ J.’s exampleམོས་, whereགདུང་means (spiritual) love, seems to point out to a meaning more apposite here. So we would prefer a translation: paean, hymn of praise (D.lofzang), or psalm instead of elegy. Other words to be considered: song of thanksgiving, memorial song, lament, plaintive song (jammerklacht?), memorial verses, anin memoriam, a memorial, etc. See alsoདབྱངས་.The dge rgan, however, explains the word indeed in J.’s manner, but states that the longing and grief are not the worldly sentiments but religious ones. The longing and grief are concerned with the sorrows of the world and a yearning after spiritual realities, but not with the memory of the three teachers mentioned in the poem. If this is true, the above hypothesis is likely to be a wrong one and in my translation of the colophon the words there used should in that case rather run ‘as a song of yearning for the higher life’ (cf.the G. ‘Weltschmerz’).གདོག་seeགདུག་.འདུལ་, 37. Steps, measures, to subdue or tame, etc.འདུལ་, to take such measures.[52]འདོགས་seeརྒྱན་.འདྲེན་, 20. (Fut.དྲང་). If theལྕགས་(seeཀྱུ་) is here to be thought of as a goad (like the one of the mahout) then the verb should be understood as sub J. 2, ‘to conduct, lead, guide’ (by prodding). My teachers take it as ‘to draw,’ or ‘pull.’ Pictorial representations might decide the point. My teachers think rather of a rod with a hook at the end, like the episcopal staff, and not of angling with a fishhook or prodding with a goad.སྡུག་, 33. Or simplyཡུས་, here: ‘the loss of temper, wrath, angry explosion or outburst.’ This sense is not given in the Dicts., though J.’s 4, ‘ardour, fervour, transport’ comes near it.སྡུག་is the same asཡུས་, but for the fact that the former word shows the cause, an outburst on account of trouble, vexation, worry, pain, sorrow. (སྡུག་)ཡུས་(སྟོན་orབྱེད་)པ་= to show (or to lose) one’s temper, to flare up, to burst out, to break loose, to explode in anger, wrath.ཕ་, ‘don’t show temper to your parents.’དཔོན་, ‘don’t lose your temper before (or with) the master.’དེ་, ‘to-day he has entirely lost his temper before (or to) me.’ It is synonymous, in this sense, with the wordའུ་which is also dealt with inadequately in the Dicts. q.v.མི་, ‘don’t lose your temper to anyone, to whomsoever.’ཁྱོད་, ‘there is no reason (no need, or it is senseless) to lose your temper.’ (Cf.D.uitvallen, uitvaren, uitvoeteren, opstuiven, uitbarsten.)གནམ་, 2. Either ‘as if rising towards the[53]sky,’ in which caseའདྲ་refers to all the previous words, or: as if risingwhilstin the sky, in which case theའདྲ་would only refer toསྙེག་.གནས་seeབློ་.མནོ་seeརྟོག་.རྣལ་, 9. I have not received an explanation of the ‘etc.’ (སོགས་) in this place and I ignore what kind of category is alluded to here. It seems not probable that the ’18 classes of science’ can be meant, which, in the Mahāvyutpatti (Ed. M.A.S.B.), form group XXIV, p. 20. Group L, (p. 59), furnishes more likely material, but Yoga is missing in it.སྣང་seeདག་.དཔལ་, 56. ‘Glorious, noble,’ also ‘having abundance.’ Twice mentioned in J.’s article but not translated, perhaps because the meaning is so evident. Curious that neither Desg. nor J. specially cite this compound to which S. Ch. D. gives 7 lines, besides mentioning several combinations.དཔལ་, 52. Is this one word?དཔལ་, 53. ‘Glory- or splendour-burning,’ i.e. ‘to blaze with glory,’ or, more tamely, ‘to be famous, renowned, celebrated’; the latter quoted by J. from Cs. s.v.འབར་(It may also be taken as glory-spreading, i.e. getting more famous). Desg. quotes a geographical nameདཔལ་, Chinese Pienpa. The expression is not in Desg. or S. Ch. D., and in J. only as taken from Cs., so that the latter’s explanation needs verification. The literal translation ‘to blaze with glory’ fits here better.Colloquiallyའབར་is ‘to thrive, to prosper, to do well.’འབར་, ‘he is doing well, is well-to-do, thriving.’འབར་[54]སོང་, he has become rich, has made a success of his life, has come out top dog, has made good, has become wealthy, opulent, is safe, got his ship home, has ‘got there,’ made his pile, is now a man of position. (Fr.est arrivé. D.is binnen, heeft zijn schaapjes op het drooge.)དཔེ་, 53. Hereདཔེ་=དཔེ་orདཔེ་, technically ‘the eighty symmetrical parts, proportions, or points of beauty’(Cs., Mahāvyutpatti); or beauties, lesser signs (de Harlez); proportions (Schiefner). See the references underམཚན་andམཚན་. J. (s.v.དཔེ༌, p.327b) gives the full expression ‘the eighty physical perfections of Buddha,’དཔེ་, andདཔེ་alone ‘proportion, symmetry, beauty.’ J. has the entryདཔེ་‘symmetry, harmony, beauty (in certain phrases)’ but S. Ch. D. omits this. Our passage is an example of this use, but the syllableདཔེ་is really an abbreviation here and not a full and independent word. Desg. seems to be mistaken in saying:དཔེ་(sic, misprint forབྱད་) orམཚན་, ‘proportion, symmetry, the 80 marvels of the body of the Buddha.’ Soདཔེ་means indeed ‘symmetrical, showing 80 marvels,’ but these meanings would not be applicable toམཚན་which could only mean ‘showing the 32 signs and 80 beauties.’For the rest Desg.’s 2nd article s.v.དཔེ་adds to J.’s data, and hisདཔེ་andདཔེ་‘custom, rule, example’ are new. In Desg. ‘custom, rule’ tally with S. Ch. D. ‘way of doing, method’ which J. has as ‘pattern, model,’ but which he translates more freely in his examples. J. s.v.བྱད་‘proportion, symmetry, beauty,’ quotes aདཔེ་from the Dzl. in the same[55]sense. According to thisདཔེ་would be equal toབྱད་which seems improbable and is denied by my informants. An example of the use ofདཔེ་is the following:དེ་, the new year’s dance of now-a-days in the monastery is in imitation of the old way, is after the ancient pattern, the old manner, follows the old example.དཔེ་is here not exactlyལུགས་‘custom’ but rather: ‘(with) the (ancient) method (as) an example.’Note the use ofདང་in the above example as ‘old, ancient.’དཔེ་seeསྒོ་.དཔེ་seeདཔེ་.དཔེ་(=བྱད་) seeདཔེ་.དཔེ་seeདཔེ་.དཔེ་seeདཔེ་.སྤྲི་, 2, 5. The white cloud is a figure often occurring in Tibetan poetry. If used as an emblem of holiness or spiritual loftiness in connection with eminent persons, this expression may perhaps contain a stereotyped allusion to the name of the tenth and supreme bhūmi or stage of the Bodhisattva, the dharma-megha, ‘cloud of virtue,’ཆོས་. See Mahāvyutpatti, ed. A.S.B., p. 11. Here evidently not J.’s (336a) ‘emblem of transitoriness,’ though the point might be argued on the basis of the final remark s.v.གདུང་, see above.སྤྲོས་, 51. This word corresponds according to S. Ch. D. to a Sk.nishprapañca(orapañca,aprapañca) which in Macdonell’s Sk. Dict. is rendered by ‘unevolved, exempt from[56]multiformity.’ We may, therefore, think of expressions like ‘the undifferentiated, homogeneous, absolute.’ The word dhātu being the Sk. equivalent for Tib.དབྱིངས་the whole expressionདབྱིངས་must correspond to a Sk.aprapañcadhātu. The same Sk. Dict. translates the word dhātu as ‘layer, component part, element.’ In Tibetanདབྱིངས་means, according to J.: (1) ‘the heavens’; (2) ‘height’; (3) ‘extent, region, space, in metaphysics an undefined idea.’ According to the etymologyསྤྲོས་should mean ‘passive, actionless, quietistic, inert,’ but according to the etymology of its Sk. prototype rather ‘undifferentiated, monadic.’ One of my informants compares it withཆོས་, dharma dhātu, andསྟོང་, shunyatā, the void, the absolute. In this connection one should compare J.’s statements (215a) that in modern (Tibetan) Buddhism the termམངོན་(अभिसमय), ‘clear understanding or perception’ means the same asསྟོང་, and further (259b) thatདོན་, originallyपरमार्थ, has, in later times, also become equivalent toསྟོང་. It seems that the old metaphysicians reached regions and distinctions where their followers could no longer join them, and hence the process became ‘omne ignotum proསྟོང་.’ For practical purposes the rendering ‘absolute,’ or ‘motionless’ might be used forསྤྲོས་, whilst the wordདབྱིངས་might be rendered by ‘principle, state, region.’ If occurring in a specimen of the more technically and theoretically philosophical literature of Northern Buddhism, a more precise rendering and more careful definition might be required. Taking the followingརྟོགས་as ‘knowledge, perception, cognition,’ then the whole expression becomes in English ‘the knowledge of the motionless state (or[57]region, or principle)’ or—more pedantic but perhaps truer—‘the knowledge of (that is: pertaining to, inherent in) the monadic state.’ Other equivalents: ‘a state of stillness, the still state’ and, mystically, ‘the wisdom of the silence.’One of my informants, the dge rgan, knows of a colloquial use ofསྤྲོས་=རེ་= ‘hopeless,’ but my second authority ignores this use. The following two examples were given:འདི་, ‘it is labour lost (hopeless) to [try and] know this.’ You cannot hope to know this. (N.B.—Note the elliptic construction ‘hopeless to know’ for ‘to try to know, to study and so come to know.’)ཡི་, ‘As he does not even know how to read well (or properly), it is hopeless (lost labour), for him to (or: how can he?) study grammar’(Not: how can he pretend toknowgrammar?).N.B.—The Tibetan does not ‘read’ but ‘reads books’; he does not ‘write’ but ‘writes letters,’ he does not ‘go’ but ‘goes to the shop.’ In short, he is a very objective being.ཕ་,8. ‘Father.’ It is not clear why in the same line the same person is referred to by the ordinaryཕ་and then by the honorificཡབ་, unlessཡབ་is a standard expression which cannot be changed whilst the firstཕ་is used for the sake of variety in expression.The same double use of the honorific and ordinary terms for father occurs in Laufer’s ‘Ein Sühngedicht der Bonpo’, line 41.ཕྱོགས་, 5. In expressions likeལྡིང་theབའི་is explained as equivalent toསའི་, ‘of the place where.’ So the phraseམི་should be understood as ‘towards where the man has gone, to the place where the man has gone,’འགྲོ་.[58]ཕྱོགས་, 14. Here verb, infinitive, connected with Gendundub in instrumental (agentive) or genitival relation: to turn, move towards, to tend to.ཕྱོགས་, 46. Lit. ‘to fall aside,’ but here, as applied to the mind (ཡིད་), simply to be deflected, to go astray, to fall, sin (mentally), to deviate from the right path (religion, the right), to lapse (from virtue), etc.འཕུང་, 29. ‘To wish the ruin, the undoing, destructionof, to be bent on the perdition of, to wish evil to’ =མེད་.བྱང་, 17. The bodhimaṇḍa, according to the Dicts. historically and geographically Gaya, where the Buddha attained nirvāṇa. Here, however, it means rather the state implied by the locality, ‘illumination, the essence of purification, final sainthood’ literally ‘the quintessence of bodhi.’ In Christian language Golgotha (or the Cross) is similarly used in a metaphorical sense. In living Tibetanབྱང་(bodhi) is not understood as ‘wisdom’ but as ‘saintliness, purity.’ There is, it seems, a confusion in the group of Tibetan [and Chinese!] renderings of bodhimaṇḍa (bodhi-essence) and bodhi-maṇḍala (bodhi-round), and their synonyms, a confusion which may already have its origin in India itself. The treatment of these words in the Dicts. is not satisfactory. J. and S. Ch. D. give s.v.བྱང་this word as synonymous withརྡོ་, Vajrāsana, but underསྙིང་S. Ch. D. has the entry:‘བྱང་, the spirit of the Bodhisattva, i.e. Buddhahood.’ This is the sense meant in our passage, though it may be doubted whetherབྱང་really stands here forབྱང་as S. Ch. D. interprets it instead of only for bodhi. The Mahāvyutpatti (A.S.B., p. 44) has Bodhimaṇḍa =བྱང་, and Cs. translates, ‘the essence of sanctity[59]or holiness (name of the holy place at Gaya).’ I yet believe that here a confusion of maṇḍa and maṇḍala must be thought of. J. has, s.v.སྙིང་(p. 198b) ‘snyiṅ-po-byaṅ c̀ʽúb- (or byaṅ-c̀ʽub-snyiṅ-po)-la mc̀ʽís-pa, to become BuddhaThgy.’ Rockhill, Life of the Buddha, p. 35, mentions the form byang-tchub-kyi-snying-po as the equivalent for bodhimaṇḍa, and though Foucaux in the alphabetical index to his translation of the Lalita Vistāra gives only the form withoutཀྱི་, yet in his text, in the places I verified (p. 239, five times), there is theཀྱི་as with Rockhill.In mentioning the wordརྡོ་a special reference must be made to the elementགདན་, commonly translated as bolster, cushion, seat, rug, etc. J. is very detailed about it. He has: ‘a bolster, or seat composed of several quilts or cushions, put one upon the other (five for common people, nine for people of quality).’ Desg. simply ‘stuffed cushion.’ S. Ch. D. more general ‘a low seat, a divan, cushion, a bolster.’ As to J.’s definition my authorities declare that this may be so perhaps ‘on the Ladakh side,’ but is certainly not so in Tibet and in the Darjeeling district. They do not know about the details of five and nine cushions. They take the meaning far wider than bolster or cushion. They say that anything used to support anything or to seat anybody may be calledགདན་, it may be a sheet of cloth, a carpet, a blanket, a cushion, a bolster, a seat in general, anything used for lying or sitting down on. The word has a meaning exactly opposite to the English ‘cover’ and can consequently be used in as many varied senses as the latter. Etymologically—if the root ofགདན་, as seems probable, means ‘to support’—the word would mean something like ‘bearer,’ ‘basis,’ ‘bed,’ ‘floor,’ ‘upholder.’ We might think of ‘underwear,’though in English that particular word is used with quite another association of ideas. In typography there is a word ‘underlay’ which corresponds exactly to the meaning ofགདན་. The word ‘bedplate’, used in engineering, comes also near to it. It will be easily seen how an applied meaning as ‘cushion, bolster,’ if given as the general sense of the word, would in many cases be totally inadequate. The line of associations to which ‘cushion’ belongs, and the line of associations to which ‘seat, support, underlay’ belong, intersect at only one[60]point and for the rest have nothing in common. A table-cloth may be calledགདན་because the food rests on it (ལྟོ་is used in this sense; lit. something like ‘food-sheet, that on which the food rests’). In a ritual it is prescribed that theགདན་for the offerings should be a spotless piece of white cotton or other cloth, calledམཆོད་, ‘offering sheet,’ ‘that on which the offerings rest.’ Bell hasས་for ‘carpet’; small cushion, placed on chairཁ་; large cushion on groundའབོལ་. This is a most interesting example illustrating the fact that it is strictly necessary first to find out the root-idea of a Tibetan word before translating it by words representing the incidental applications of that root-idea. Whoever has handled Chinese dictionaries knows how specially necessary this is in studying Indo-Chinese languages. The Sanskrit equivalent, āsana, is derived from the root ās, to sit or lie, but the Tib. root seems different.Further notes onགདན་.Cf.J.མ་(pr. magdàn), ground, basis, foundation, p. 409a. Bell, apronཔང་.Cs., Grammar, p. 170, l. 10, translatesགདན་as couch (stuffed seat). Lewin, Manual, p. 123, first word last line: ‘mat, seat’, in the same sentence taken over from Cs.’s Grammar. Two synonyms for J.’sམ་, quoted above, areརྨང་andགཞི་. Bell also has ‘mat.’བྱམས་, 50. Seems simply an amplified form for ‘love.’ Difficult to be translated exactly, Sk. maitrīkaruṇā, may be treated as a compound, loving-kindness, love and kindness, or pity. On the question of karuṇā, especially, the learned have descanted profusely.བླ་(ན་)མེད་(པ་), 52. Sk.अनुत्तर, unsurpassed, unexcelled, unrivalled, supreme, incomparable, most high, highest. Not specially entered in J. but illustrated by an example s.v.བླ་.[61]Altogether absent in Desg. S. Ch. D.བླ་, ‘to those who are supreme, or to the followers of the Anuttara school.’ A curious entry! See S. Ch. D. also s.v.བླ་.བླ་, 3. Here perhaps better ‘teacher’ than ‘priest’ or ‘superior.’ The word may be here equally well taken in the singular as in the plural, but the latter is perhaps more likely.བླ་, seeབླ་.བློ་,47. ‘Straight, upright, righteous mind.’ J.’s entry is a little vague. I think he takesཐུགས་in his exampleཐུགས་as an indication thatགཟུ་is also a honorific form. That, however, is not the case. Compare also the quotation from Cs. in S. Ch. D.,གཟུ་‘to be impartial and straightforward, to be on the side of honesty.’ I don’t find this example in Schmidt. Desg. ‘straight, upright, (élevé,) just, honest.’ According to the above the word is an adj.and the translation of the passage becomes ‘whether you persevere in a straight (righteous) mind.’ The verbགནས་has then to be taken as ‘to hold, adhere to, persevere in (an opinion,etc.).’ If however, we should find thatགཟུ་can also be sbst. ‘righteousness,’‘straightness,’ (not in any Dict.), thenགནས་would have the other meaning of ‘to dwell, reside’ and the phrase would have to be rendered ‘whether the mind (continues to) dwell(s) in righteousness.’ S. Ch. D. rendersཐུགས་as ‘honest mind,’ but the sense honest versus dishonest seems not quite applicable in our passage. J.is vague here. My informants gave the above definition ‘straight, upright’ as their own but felt afterwards vague about this example which, though they had framed it, they could not vouch for:མི་, ‘see whether the man keeps straight or not.’ The framer honestly confessed that whilst we were discussing the word he had been influenced by S. Ch. D.’sDict. in coining the sentence; a[62]confession so instructive for idiom-verifiers that I think it worth while to record it here.Finally, Desg. supports S. Ch.’s second meaning ‘witness’ forགཟུ་.He, however, does notgiveS. Ch.’s formགཟུ་. The ordinary word for witness is, of course,དཔང་(པོ་). It is characteristic of S. Ch. D. that he copies J.’s extract from Sch. underགཟུ་‘witness, mediator,’ but then immediately adds his own individual interpretation which not only is likely to be correct, but which also nullifies and contradicts the previous entry which he copied immediately above. He himself says, ‘an honest and truthful witness.’ It often occurs that S. Ch. D. brings modifications, extensions and even corrections to J.’s statements, but at the same time he copies J. far too slavishly and so contradicts himself in the pages of his own dictionary. Whether meanings like ‘reliable, straightforward, correct, proper,’ etc., have to be attached toགཟུ་is as yet uncertain.བློ་, 8. In Sk. Sumatikīrti. According to the Sk. dictionaries the primary sense of ‘sumati’ is ‘benevolence.’ In present-day Tibetanབློ་is rather ‘good-natured, kindhearted,’ as againstདྲིན་‘benevolent.’ So the Tibetan name has to be rendered as Good-nature-fame, or Famous good-nature, the personal name of Tsoṅ kʽa pa.དབང་(མ་)སོང་, 22. (Not) fallen under the power (of).…དབྱངས་, 54 and colophon. This word seems here hardly to mean ‘song, singing tune,’ but rather ‘melody, melodiousness, sweetness,’ etc. This tallies to a certain extent with Csoma’s translation of the title of list LXI (p. 86) of the Mahāvyutpatti, ‘Names of the 60 sorts (or divisions) of melody or melodious voices (or vocal sound).’ I take it that this list refers to what is mentioned here in our text. How these 60 branches of melody are exactly to be understood I have not been able to ascertain. The opinions of Pʽun Tsʽogs on the point are as follows. The Buddha’s voice had such a[63]variety of (magic?) qualities, sixty in number, that they made him understood by all beings, whatever their own languages. The Buddha was in this way simultaneously understood by men, devas, nāgas, etc. In proffering this explanation Pʽun Tsʽogs takesཡན་to mean rather ‘kind’ than ‘branch.’ As an alternative he suggests thatདབྱངས་is an adjective synonymous withརིང་༌, ‘high’ (as applied to voice or rather tone) [or perhaps long, lengthened?] and that thenདབྱངས་would mean a ‘variety’ of tones or modulations. I myself am inclined to think that if the Mahāvyutpatti list is not referred to, we have here to do with some scholastic scheme of rhetorics, though if so understood the exact value ofདབྱངས་is not clear and certainly not sufficiently defined in the Dicts.(Cf.S. Ch. D. s.v.ཟབ་(p. 1092a),ཟབ་=मन्द्र,मन्द्रक, ‘a deep voice, a musical tone.’ See alsoགདུང་.)དབྱིངས་seeསྤྲོས་.དབྱིངས་seeསྤྲོས་.འབར་seeདཔལ་.འབོལ་seeབྱང་.འབྲོག་, 6. Here ‘solitude, wilderness’ and so =རི་=དགོན་, ‘monastery.’ Not associated with any of the meanings connected with ‘pasturing.’Cf.S. Ch. D.འབྲོག་s.v.འབྲོག་.The famous Galdan monastery was erected on a site calledའབྲོག་. See S. Ch. D., The Monasteries of Tibet,J.A.S.B., Vol. I,N.S.(1905), p. 108.མི་seeགླུད་.[64]མི་seeགླུད་.མི་seeགླུད་.མིག་seeཡངས་.མིག་seeཡངས་.མེད་seeའཕུང་.མྱུར་, 52. J.མྱུར་adj., andམྱུར་adv., ‘quick(ly), swift(ly).’ In Mil. adj.མྱུར་. Desg.མྱུར་andམྱུར་(ཉིད་), subst. ‘promptness,’ andམྱུར་‘swift.’ As adv.མྱུར་, orདུ་, orགྱིས་. S. Ch. D.མྱུར་, verb, ‘to hurry by, to pass on swiftly,’ (exampleདུས་, ‘time quickly runs away.’ [=tempus fugit]), and adv. quickly. Further adv.མྱུར་. Some interesting compounds in S. Ch. D.:མྱུར་‘a dancing woman,’ etc. Note the expressionཅི་‘as speedily as possible,’ J.According to my informants S. Ch. D.’s exampleདུས་is not good Tibetan. It should either beདུས་(orབ་)ཡིན་, lit. ‘time is quick,’ or with another meaning also ‘the time is near’ (i.e. at hand,comingquickly), or againདུས་, ‘the quick time.’ Time quickly runs away, they say, should be expressed thus:དུས་.Cf.also J., Desg.:སྨྱུར་.མྱུར་seeམྱུར་.ཙམ་, 38. Here: ‘after only, as a result of only, in consequence[65]of only, mere, simple.’ Butཙམ་has also the meanings: as soon as, simply on (hearing), on the slightest (reproach, etc.) with a more prominent stress on the time element, instantaneousness.རྩེ་seeབརྩེ་.རྩེ་seeབརྩེ་.རྩེ་seeབརྩེ་.རྩོད་seeགཤགས་.བརྩེ་, 55.བརྩེ་=བརྩེ་, vb. ‘to love’ sbst. ‘love, kindness, affection,’ etc. Desg. has also aབརྩེ་, ‘acidity,’ which is also known to my informants. Hisབརྩེ་‘bodyguard of the Dalai Lama’ is held, by one of my informants, to be a mistake forརྩེ་(pronounce tsī-dung), the monk-employees of the Tibetan government (and in a narrower sense: the clerical staff, the clerks and secretaries amongst them) as contrasted with the lay-employees of noble birth (not officials in general as with S. Ch. D. 656a, but only those belonging to the nobility) who are calledདྲུང་. The wordརྩེ་in the compound is said to be derived from the designation of the Potala palace where many of the government offices are located, and which is calledརྩེ་, the Potala peak, but most commonly, by the people, brieflyརྩེ་, the peak. This explanation of tsī-dung as a general class of lama government-employees is wider than that given in Waddell’s table in his ‘Lhasaand its Mysteries,’ p. 165. See alsoརྩེ་, ‘chief clerk or secretary’ in S. Ch. D. s.v.རྩེ་(1013b), the latter being the special name of the former’s hat.བརྩེ་seeབརྩེ་.[66]བརྩོན་, 24. Equalsབརྩོན་(orགྱུར་) ‘to apply oneself, exert oneself, put one’s best energy into something’ =སྙིང་, ‘to be zealous, diligent.’ Alsoབརྩོན་(བྱེད་,རྩོམ་).ཚུལ་, 28. Here ‘conduct, behaviour’ pure and simple, without allusion to theཚུལ་, ‘religious law, discipline, monastic rules.’ཚུལ་seeཆོས་.མཚན་, 53. Here technically the (thirty-two) characteristic signs or marks of a ‘Great Man,’ the mahāpurusha. Mahāvyutpatti (Ed. A. S. B.), LXIII, p. 92. De Harlez, ‘Vocabulaire Bouddhique Sanscrit-Chinois,’ no. 3. Schiefner, ‘Triglotte,’ no. 3. See de la Vallée Poussin, ‘Bouddhisme,’ pp. 241 et seq.The transition of meaning of the wordམཚན་in modern Tibetan in such expressions asམཚན་, ‘a holy lama,’ orམཚན་, ‘a woman of good appearance and virtues’ (S. Ch. D.) should not be overlooked in the interpretation of our passage for its psychological value. See alsoདཔེ་.མཚན་seeམཚན་.མཚན་, 53. This is a compound substantive of an elliptic nature, and means: ‘the [well known 32 primary] characteristics [and the 80] beauties [of Buddhas]’=མཚན་(བཟང་). See alsoམཚན་andདཔེ་.མཚན་, 30.མཚན་is here hon. ofམིང་‘name,’ and the compound, literally ‘name grasping,’ means ‘ambition, thirst for fame, glory,’ etc. (D.eerzucht, roemzucht), perhaps even ‘vainglory, pride, conceit, egotism,’ i.e. the hugging of one’s own name and fame.[67]མཚན་, 7. To invoke by name, to address a prayer to by name. Applied to both spiritual and human beings.རྒྱལ་, ‘to address the king, speak to the king, direct, appeal to the king,’ but always by calling him by his name. ‘O king help me’ is not a proper example ofམཚན་, but ‘O, thou, King George, help me!’ would be one. To spiritual beings their names may be expressed in a paraphrase, metaphor or symbol, but they must be expressed in some way. The prayers to superhuman beings may be twofold, either an address containing requests, etc., or a mere litany of names without any further subject matter attached to them. The one is a recitation of names, the other a direct address by name; the one a litany proper, the other an invocation or prayer.འཚོལ་, 19. The formམི་was paraphrased to me asའཚོལ་=འཚོལ་= simple future, ‘not going to seek’ (D.niet zullende zoeken).ཞིབ་seeརྟོག་.ཞེ་seeཁྲེལ་.ཞེན་seeཁྲེལ་.གཞན་(པ་)འཛིན་seeརང་(པ་)འཛིན་.གཞུང་seeཁྲེལ་.གཞུང་seeསྒོ་.གཞུངས་seeཁྲེལ་.གཞེས་seeམགུར་.བཞག་seeརྒྱན་.ཟབ་, 10, 55.ཟབ་=ཟབ་. J. vb., adj., subst. and adv. ‘to be deep, deep, deeply, depth’; adj.ཟབ་andམོ་. Desg.[68]ཟབ་andམོ་adj. only. S. Ch. D.ཟབ་vb. ‘to make deep, to deepen,’ also adj. and sbst.; further inཔོ་andམོ་only adj. Note the additional meaning ‘dense’ (alsoཟབས་‘thickness’) in S. Ch. D., not in the two others. My teachers deny thatཟབ་can be a verb ‘to deepen,’ or ‘to make deep.’ཟབ་must also be understood as ‘profound’ (wisdom, teaching, etc.). Seeཆོས་, alsoདབྱངས་, alsoཐུགས་, etc.ཟབ་seeཐུགས་, etc.གཟུ་seeབློ་.གཟུ་seeབློ་.གཟུ་seeབློ་.འུ་seeསྡུག་.ཡང་seeདྭངས་.ཡངས་, 55. =ཡངས་orཔོ་, ‘wide, large.’ Desg. also ‘ample, abundant.’ S. Ch. D. onlyཡངས་. Note J. ‘*mig-yaṅ*’, C., W. liberal, generous, bounteous,’ but Desg.མིག་‘wide-eyes: envious, covetous, greedy.’ In S. Ch. D.ཡངས་=विशालाक्षी, ‘large-eyes, a handsome woman, name of a Goddess.’Cf.also in the same dict.མིག་, ‘beautiful-eyes, a very handsome woman, a nymph’s name.’ As to J.’s mig-yaṅ, one of my teachers holds with him as against Desg., the other does not know the expression.ཡངས་seeཡངས་.ཡན་seeདབྱངས་.ཡབ་(གསུམ༌), 8, 15, 16, 18. ‘Father (and) sons,’ or, as Csoma already has it in his Grammar, p. 28, ‘teacher and[69]pupils.’ With the additionགསུམ་‘three,’ and also as here without this addition, a very well known appellation of Tsoṅ kʽa pa and his two pupils (his spiritual sons). It is likely that to the Tibetan mind the expression means something like ‘spiritual family (of three),’ namely of one father and two sons. See introductory remarks. Free renderings like ‘spiritual trio’ or ‘teacher triad’ and the like are apt enough for practical purposes.Cf.an expression like the following:ཁྱོད་, ‘where have you two, father and son, come from?’ (But the sentence has also the second meaning ‘where do you live? where is your home?’).In the light of the above, has the note on p. 98 of the J.A.S.B., Vol. II, N.S., no. 4, 1906, in Satis Chandra Vidyābhūṣana’s article on ‘the Gyantse rock inscription’ to be rectified? My informants do not think that the expression is used among the Sakyapas in the sense given in that note.ཡིན་seeཀྱང་.ཡུས་seeསྡུག་.གཡུལ་seeའགྱེ་.གཡུལ་seeའགྱེ་.རང་seeདྭངས་.རང་(པ་)འཛིན་, 26. This expression must here not be understood as ‘to follow one’s own teaching.’རང་is here not one compound word. The meaning is: they who themselves follow the teaching, as against theགཞན་, the others who (also) follow the teaching. Seeགཞན་(པ་)འཛིན་, 27.རི་seeའབྲོག་andགངས་.རི་seeའབྲོག་andགངས་.རིག་seeམཁྱེན་.[70]རིག་seeགོལ་.རིང་seeདབྱངས་.རུས་seeདྭངས་.རེ་seeདོན་.རེ་seeསྤྲོས་.ལན་seeགཤགས་.ལམ་seeགོལ་.ལམ་seeགོལ་.ལམ་, 31. ‘The high, elevated road,’ has a religious connotation, the proper road that leads to heaven after death, the ‘narrow’ road of Christianity. See below.ལམ་, 48. The straight road (metaphorically), the road of righteousness, of straightness of mind.Cf.S. Ch. D. s.v.དྲང་, p. 649a. The meaning of this expression and that ofལམ་, in line 31 (see above), are quite different. The other is the highroad (towards heaven), the road of a high standard of moral conduct.ལམ་, 9. ‘Steps on the path,’ ‘degrees of advance,’ ‘steps towards perfection,’ is the short title of many mystical writings and especially of one by Tsoṅ kʽa pa, to which the words may allude here without specially designating it. In this place the meaning does not seem to be a specific work but merely ‘(religious) instructions, teaching in general.’ Theལམ་are here, according to my oral information, to be taken as the two halves or divisions of the Kandjur which is commonly divided intoམདོ་andསྔགས་, sūtra and tantra (or mantra, or dhāraṇī). In this division theརྒྱུད་or tantra section is calledསྔགས་, whilst all the rest, properly subdivided[71]in six divisions, is taken together asམདོ་, of which the realམདོ་or sūtra-division (the 5th in sequence in the Kandjur) is only one. Concerning Tsoṅ kʽa pa’s study of the ‘Sūtras and Tantras’ see S. Ch. D., ‘Contributions, etc. on Tibet,’ VI, in J.A.S.B., 1882, Vol. LI, Part I, no. 1, p. 53. J., s.v.བསྟན་, quotes aབསྟན་: ‘with Urgyan Padma, etc., the same as mdoi and sṅags kyi lam, v. mdo extr.’ This is seemingly the same as our expression.ལུས་, 42. J. has =སེམས་, ‘beings, creatures,’ but may not the idea rather be allembodiedcreatures; with the etymological sense still potent in connection with the Buddhist reincarnation theory? S. Ch. D. gives aལུས་=གྲོང་= ‘town, city,’ which seems rather to point to the meaning ‘man’ forལུས་. My informants don’t feel quite certain whether to include the five other classes of beings (including animals) amongst theལུས་, but are somewhat inclined to interpret the word asམི་, ‘man,’ in general.ཤ་seeཀྱུ་.ཤར་, title, 1. The author writes his poem in a place to the west of a snow-capped mountain, to the east of which the Galdan monastery is situated. See notes onའབྲོག་,དགེ་andགངས་. Which mountain or mountain chain is meant must be left undecided, even if granting that modern cartography could show it if identified. Local tradition, however, would most likely be able to point out a particular mountain.ཤེས་seeམཁྱེན་.ཤོས་seeརིན་.[72]གཤགས་seeགཤགས་.གཤགས་, 38. This expression cannot yet be explained with certainty. It may be taken here to mean, literally, ‘to send out (distribute, give, put forward) justice, right,’ but the exact idiomatic value of the phrase remains to be determined. It is not in the Dicts., and unknown to my informants. We may take the possible values of the expression as three, viz.: 1.གཤགས་=རྩོད་=གཤགས་= ‘to dispute, argue, contend with words.’ This seems the same expression as S. Ch. D.’sཁ་‘to hold controversy,’ p. 1248. (Perhaps also ‘to challenge, to be challenged to dispute.’) 2. =ལན་‘to be defeated in argument, in dispute, to be silenced in dispute.’
རྟོགས་seeསྤྲོས་.ལྟ་51. This word seems here to mean ‘vision, illumination, (direct mystical) contemplation, the seeing face to face.’ In our passage it is the direct vision (the ‘vision direct’), proper to, inherent in, characteristic of, belonging to, the knowledge pertaining to the actionless (or undifferentiated) state, the ‘passive-state-knowledge-vision.’ See alsoསྤྲོས་.ལྟག་seeསྒོ་.ལྟོ་seeཁྲེལ་.ལྟོ་seeགདན་.ལྟོབ་seeཁྲེལ་.སྟོང་seeསྤྲོས་.བརྟག་seeརྟོག་.བརྟག་seeརྟོག་.བརྟགས་seeརྟོག་.བསྟན་(གཉིས་) seeལམ་.བསྟན་, 23. ‘To follow, to keep to the teaching; to be or remain true, faithful to the teaching, to hold fast to it, to stick to it.’ See alsoརྟེན་.[45]ཐབས་seeའདུལ་.ཐམས་, lit. ‘Great-all-knowing-clergy-perfection-good-glory,’ corresponds to a Sk. Mahā-sarva-jña-saṁgha-siddhi-shrī-bhadra. See for literature about him: Schulemann,Geschichte der Dalailamas, pp. 91–92, note 11, and S. Ch. D.: The Hierarchy of the Dalai Lamas, J.A.S.B., Vol. LXXIII, Pt. I, extra No., p. 81.ཐུགས་, 55. This is here, in my opinion, not a sort of Hottentottenpotentatentantenattentater-like formation. I take theཟབ་to refer to theཐུགས་, a profound and wide mind, whilst theམཁྱེན་only refers to theགཏེར་, the treasury of omniscient mercy. It is not likely that the qualities of width and depth form part of an enumeration of which the remaining items are love and knowledge or even (as a compound) omniscient-mercy. See the various component words in this glossary.ཐུགས་seeམཁྱེན་.ཐུགས་seeབློ་.མཐེབ་seeཀྱུ་.མཐོན་seeལམ་.འཐབ་seeའགྱེ་.དག་, 43. J.’s entry under this entry is as follows: “དག་(པའི༌)སྣང་(བ་)Schr.‘good opinion’ (?), prob.: a pure, sound view or knowledgeGlr.; inMil.it has a similar meaning.” He adds an oral sentence: “*dhag-náṅ jón-wa* C. to lead a holy life.” (sic. jón = jóṅ?) Schroeter has (135b): “དག་, a good opinion, a good conception of any thing, a conceit, a thought.” [Based on an Italian ‘concetto’?] He has two further entries ‘དག་, to form a good[46]opinion of any individual,’ and ‘དག་(read:སྦྱོང་)བ་, to form a good opinion, or to conceive well of any one.’In our passage we are inclined to takeསྣང་asསྣང་, as ‘view, thought, idea, conception,’ etc., andསྦྱོང་= ‘to exercise, practise, perform’, or even ‘to entertain, cherish (thoughts).’དག་we take asདག་, ‘pure’—the connection with thought not the opposite of false, erroneous, but of bad, cruel, unkind. So here the expression seems to mean ‘to think with goodwill, with kindness (of others),’not the colloquial ‘to have a good opinion of, to think well of.’ To think ‘good’ is here the opposite of to think ‘evil,’ but the idiomatic value of the expression ‘to think well of’ (as the opposite of ‘to think poorly of’) would make the latter rendering misleading. The real value, then, of the expression as used in this passage, seems to be: ‘to think good, kind thoughts of,’ i.e. purely, or saintly in the sense of kindly, lovingly, benevolently, in a friendly manner, with sympathy, but not, as J. seems to suggest, intellectually correct. We may expand the rendering into ‘with a holy mind, with thoughts of saintliness, thinking saintly thoughts.’ Compare J.’s colloquial phrase quoted above. So, as to the interpretation of the line in which the compound occurs, we take it that it means to enjoin, in contrast with the previous line in which it is said that beings in general must be thought of with kindness, that religious people (instead of the mere laymen) must be thought of in a still better, higher manner, namely with holiness and saintliness.One of my informants was first inclined to takeདག་as ‘to teach, to preach the true knowledge.’ Though he later on sided with the explanation adopted above, the opinion should be recorded, but it should be added that a second informant rejected this view of the first one.Attention should be drawn to the meaning ofསྣང་, ‘the soul’ (with spellingsསྣང་andནང་;དག་,རྟགས་,བརྟག་,སྟག་, s. J.). Also the curious expression ‘to be indifferent’སྣང་, S. Ch. D.; andསྣང་, Bell. These expressions not in Desg.[47]དག་seeདག་.དང་seeདཔེ་.དྭངས་, 27. Adverb: ‘purely, first class, first rate.’ Not in J. but in Desg., yet here in a slightly different application. About S. Ch. D.’s ‘gravy’ and ‘relish’ see below.དྭངས་with the genitive seems to mean ‘acme’, ‘essence’, the typical embodiment of something, like in expressions as ‘a first class liar, a thief pure and simple, the very devil, satan himself, nothing short of an angel, a saint inpropria persona.’དགྲ་, ‘the very enemy.’ In the colloquialདྭངས་,ཡང་andཨང་may have the same meaning. The latter is something like pidgin-English ‘number one’ or the kitchen Malay equivalent ‘nommer satu.’ Other equations areགཅིག་(orཔུ་), alsoརང་, the Anglo-Indian ‘pukka.’The wordདྭངས་may mean soup or gravy in the following case, when there is question of singling out the liquid portion from a mixture of broth and liquid. The primary meaning seems in that case rather to be liquid as contrasted to solid.ང་= give me (only) the liquid (not the solid stuff), pour out to me (only) the liquid. But thisདྭངས་has no finalམ་. A common word for soup which is not in the Dicts. is ‘rü thang’, probablyརུས་, orཐང་alone. This latter word is in J. with the meaning of ‘potion’, a medical term, and in S. Ch. D. as ‘potion, plain decoction, or mixture to be drunk after a medicinal pill has been taken.’ The wordརུས་means originally bone-soup, but has acquired also the more general meaning ‘soup.’ཐང་can be applied to meat-soup,ཤ་, butཤ་cannot be used. It might be thatཐང་andདྭངས་are really the same word.[48]དད་seeསྐྱེ་.དམ་, 30. Might here, in connection with ambition, be translated as ‘fierce,’ an extension of its primary meaning ‘strong.’དུག་seeསྐྱོ་.དུག་seeསྐྱོ་.དུགས་seeསྐྱོ་.དུས་, 24. For ever, always.དུས་seeམྱུར་.དོན་seeདོན་.དོན་, 40. ‘Exceedingly stupid, meaningless, useless, silly, senseless.’ The particleརེ་has an emphatic value, but it is difficult to define its precise scope in English. Oral information is vague on the subject, and seems to point towards a possibility that theརེ་is a syllable of exclamation or turns the expression, of which it forms part, into an exclamation.དོན་. ‘Oh, how silly!’ An equivalent isདོན་=དོན་.དོན་alone is not used, andདོན་demands a finalརེད་orཡིན་.S. Ch. D. (502a) translatesཁྱོད་as: ‘I pity you, ye Tibetans’; perhaps better ‘What a pity, O ye Tibetans.’ Compare the list of words with wedged-inརེ་in J. s.v.རེ་p. 533b.དྲིན་, 16. Alsoདྲིན་, adjective ‘kind.’ According to S. Ch. D. also ‘very kind, great boon, and the great or greatest benefactor.’ S. Ch. D.’s wording is unsatisfactorily indefinite and his examples, taken from J., fit the text badly.[49]J. does not define the combinationདྲིན་though he has an exampleབཀའ་with the meaning ‘greatest benefit.’ Two colloquial examples are:དྲིན་, ‘the two (very) kind parents,’ andམི་, that man is (very) kind.In formདྲིན་is a comparative, ‘kinder.’ཆེན་is one of those adjectives which have a comparative and superlative of their own as:Great.Many.Good.Small.Bad.positiveཆེན་མང་ཡག་ཆུང་སྡུག་comparativeཆེ་མང་(orང་)ཡག་ཆུང་སྡུག་superlativeཆེ་མང་ཡག་ཆུང་སྡུག་In practice, however, as shown by the above examples, the form is used for an ordinary quality in the positive degree though implying an amount of abundance or fullness of the quality referred to. Bell (p. 33) and Hannah (p. 129) have described these degrees of comparison. Short and partial notes in S. Ch. D.’s grammar (p. 31) and Henderson (p. 23). See J. Dict. s.v.ཤོས་, p. 564.དྲིན་, J. 262b(as equal toདྲིན་) is not acknowledged by my informants.དྲིན་is objected to by my teachers because they say it never occurs alone but requires a finalབ་, except in the superlative formདྲིན་which, of course, is another thing. See, however, S. Ch. D.བཀའ་, p. 654, J. p. 13. As to theཆེན་orཆེན་in many Tibetan adjectives, this is better regarded as an enclitic particle, exactly corresponding to the English termination -ful. As little as the English -ful really[50]means ‘full’, does the Tibetanཆེན་(པོ་) as a termination of adjectives really mean ‘great.’Bell hasདྲིན་for ‘kind.’The wordདྲིན་and its uses merit a separate inquiry. In this place we shall limit ourselves to stating that the entry gratitude (S. Ch. D., Ramsay, Schroeter) seems incorrect. The confusion has most likely come about because aདྲིན་is an answer to kindness (return gift, etc.) and sobetokensgratitude.དྲིན་(པོ་) seeདྲིན་.དྲིན་, 21. Ellipse for: according to (or, in the measure of) whatever kindness (you have shown to me).དྲིན་seeདྲིན་.དྲུང་seeབརྩེ་.གདན་seeབྱང་.གདུག་, 35. The three Dicts. are not at one as to the exact shades of meaning ofགདུག་.J. has, subst.: ‘anything hurtful, or any injury, mischief, harm, done.’Desg., subst.: ‘dommage, perte, mal.’S. Ch. D. no substantive.J., adj. (=གདུག་༌), ‘noxious, mischievous, dangerous.’ Desg., adj. onlyགདུག་, notགདུག་alone: nuisible (noxious), and aགདུག་=གདོག་, deteriorated.S. Ch. D., adj.:གདུག་, vicious, mischievous, deleterious, poisonous.In J. and S. Ch. D.further applied meanings as: wild, hideous (screams); ferocity (in beasts), deleterious (smell), fierce (woman).[51]In our passage the expressionགདུག་may be rendered by malign, wicked, evil, evil-minded, spiteful, with sufficient correctness.གདུག་seeགདུག་.གདུག་seeགདུག་.གདུག་seeགདུག་.གདུང་seeགདུང་.གདུང་, Colophon. J. renders this word as ‘a song expressive of longing or of grief, an elegy (Mil.)’; but this definition is not quite typical of our present poem. S. Ch. D. has ‘a song of longing grief.’ J.’s exampleམོས་, whereགདུང་means (spiritual) love, seems to point out to a meaning more apposite here. So we would prefer a translation: paean, hymn of praise (D.lofzang), or psalm instead of elegy. Other words to be considered: song of thanksgiving, memorial song, lament, plaintive song (jammerklacht?), memorial verses, anin memoriam, a memorial, etc. See alsoདབྱངས་.The dge rgan, however, explains the word indeed in J.’s manner, but states that the longing and grief are not the worldly sentiments but religious ones. The longing and grief are concerned with the sorrows of the world and a yearning after spiritual realities, but not with the memory of the three teachers mentioned in the poem. If this is true, the above hypothesis is likely to be a wrong one and in my translation of the colophon the words there used should in that case rather run ‘as a song of yearning for the higher life’ (cf.the G. ‘Weltschmerz’).གདོག་seeགདུག་.འདུལ་, 37. Steps, measures, to subdue or tame, etc.འདུལ་, to take such measures.[52]འདོགས་seeརྒྱན་.འདྲེན་, 20. (Fut.དྲང་). If theལྕགས་(seeཀྱུ་) is here to be thought of as a goad (like the one of the mahout) then the verb should be understood as sub J. 2, ‘to conduct, lead, guide’ (by prodding). My teachers take it as ‘to draw,’ or ‘pull.’ Pictorial representations might decide the point. My teachers think rather of a rod with a hook at the end, like the episcopal staff, and not of angling with a fishhook or prodding with a goad.སྡུག་, 33. Or simplyཡུས་, here: ‘the loss of temper, wrath, angry explosion or outburst.’ This sense is not given in the Dicts., though J.’s 4, ‘ardour, fervour, transport’ comes near it.སྡུག་is the same asཡུས་, but for the fact that the former word shows the cause, an outburst on account of trouble, vexation, worry, pain, sorrow. (སྡུག་)ཡུས་(སྟོན་orབྱེད་)པ་= to show (or to lose) one’s temper, to flare up, to burst out, to break loose, to explode in anger, wrath.ཕ་, ‘don’t show temper to your parents.’དཔོན་, ‘don’t lose your temper before (or with) the master.’དེ་, ‘to-day he has entirely lost his temper before (or to) me.’ It is synonymous, in this sense, with the wordའུ་which is also dealt with inadequately in the Dicts. q.v.མི་, ‘don’t lose your temper to anyone, to whomsoever.’ཁྱོད་, ‘there is no reason (no need, or it is senseless) to lose your temper.’ (Cf.D.uitvallen, uitvaren, uitvoeteren, opstuiven, uitbarsten.)གནམ་, 2. Either ‘as if rising towards the[53]sky,’ in which caseའདྲ་refers to all the previous words, or: as if risingwhilstin the sky, in which case theའདྲ་would only refer toསྙེག་.གནས་seeབློ་.མནོ་seeརྟོག་.རྣལ་, 9. I have not received an explanation of the ‘etc.’ (སོགས་) in this place and I ignore what kind of category is alluded to here. It seems not probable that the ’18 classes of science’ can be meant, which, in the Mahāvyutpatti (Ed. M.A.S.B.), form group XXIV, p. 20. Group L, (p. 59), furnishes more likely material, but Yoga is missing in it.སྣང་seeདག་.དཔལ་, 56. ‘Glorious, noble,’ also ‘having abundance.’ Twice mentioned in J.’s article but not translated, perhaps because the meaning is so evident. Curious that neither Desg. nor J. specially cite this compound to which S. Ch. D. gives 7 lines, besides mentioning several combinations.དཔལ་, 52. Is this one word?དཔལ་, 53. ‘Glory- or splendour-burning,’ i.e. ‘to blaze with glory,’ or, more tamely, ‘to be famous, renowned, celebrated’; the latter quoted by J. from Cs. s.v.འབར་(It may also be taken as glory-spreading, i.e. getting more famous). Desg. quotes a geographical nameདཔལ་, Chinese Pienpa. The expression is not in Desg. or S. Ch. D., and in J. only as taken from Cs., so that the latter’s explanation needs verification. The literal translation ‘to blaze with glory’ fits here better.Colloquiallyའབར་is ‘to thrive, to prosper, to do well.’འབར་, ‘he is doing well, is well-to-do, thriving.’འབར་[54]སོང་, he has become rich, has made a success of his life, has come out top dog, has made good, has become wealthy, opulent, is safe, got his ship home, has ‘got there,’ made his pile, is now a man of position. (Fr.est arrivé. D.is binnen, heeft zijn schaapjes op het drooge.)དཔེ་, 53. Hereདཔེ་=དཔེ་orདཔེ་, technically ‘the eighty symmetrical parts, proportions, or points of beauty’(Cs., Mahāvyutpatti); or beauties, lesser signs (de Harlez); proportions (Schiefner). See the references underམཚན་andམཚན་. J. (s.v.དཔེ༌, p.327b) gives the full expression ‘the eighty physical perfections of Buddha,’དཔེ་, andདཔེ་alone ‘proportion, symmetry, beauty.’ J. has the entryདཔེ་‘symmetry, harmony, beauty (in certain phrases)’ but S. Ch. D. omits this. Our passage is an example of this use, but the syllableདཔེ་is really an abbreviation here and not a full and independent word. Desg. seems to be mistaken in saying:དཔེ་(sic, misprint forབྱད་) orམཚན་, ‘proportion, symmetry, the 80 marvels of the body of the Buddha.’ Soདཔེ་means indeed ‘symmetrical, showing 80 marvels,’ but these meanings would not be applicable toམཚན་which could only mean ‘showing the 32 signs and 80 beauties.’For the rest Desg.’s 2nd article s.v.དཔེ་adds to J.’s data, and hisདཔེ་andདཔེ་‘custom, rule, example’ are new. In Desg. ‘custom, rule’ tally with S. Ch. D. ‘way of doing, method’ which J. has as ‘pattern, model,’ but which he translates more freely in his examples. J. s.v.བྱད་‘proportion, symmetry, beauty,’ quotes aདཔེ་from the Dzl. in the same[55]sense. According to thisདཔེ་would be equal toབྱད་which seems improbable and is denied by my informants. An example of the use ofདཔེ་is the following:དེ་, the new year’s dance of now-a-days in the monastery is in imitation of the old way, is after the ancient pattern, the old manner, follows the old example.དཔེ་is here not exactlyལུགས་‘custom’ but rather: ‘(with) the (ancient) method (as) an example.’Note the use ofདང་in the above example as ‘old, ancient.’དཔེ་seeསྒོ་.དཔེ་seeདཔེ་.དཔེ་(=བྱད་) seeདཔེ་.དཔེ་seeདཔེ་.དཔེ་seeདཔེ་.སྤྲི་, 2, 5. The white cloud is a figure often occurring in Tibetan poetry. If used as an emblem of holiness or spiritual loftiness in connection with eminent persons, this expression may perhaps contain a stereotyped allusion to the name of the tenth and supreme bhūmi or stage of the Bodhisattva, the dharma-megha, ‘cloud of virtue,’ཆོས་. See Mahāvyutpatti, ed. A.S.B., p. 11. Here evidently not J.’s (336a) ‘emblem of transitoriness,’ though the point might be argued on the basis of the final remark s.v.གདུང་, see above.སྤྲོས་, 51. This word corresponds according to S. Ch. D. to a Sk.nishprapañca(orapañca,aprapañca) which in Macdonell’s Sk. Dict. is rendered by ‘unevolved, exempt from[56]multiformity.’ We may, therefore, think of expressions like ‘the undifferentiated, homogeneous, absolute.’ The word dhātu being the Sk. equivalent for Tib.དབྱིངས་the whole expressionདབྱིངས་must correspond to a Sk.aprapañcadhātu. The same Sk. Dict. translates the word dhātu as ‘layer, component part, element.’ In Tibetanདབྱིངས་means, according to J.: (1) ‘the heavens’; (2) ‘height’; (3) ‘extent, region, space, in metaphysics an undefined idea.’ According to the etymologyསྤྲོས་should mean ‘passive, actionless, quietistic, inert,’ but according to the etymology of its Sk. prototype rather ‘undifferentiated, monadic.’ One of my informants compares it withཆོས་, dharma dhātu, andསྟོང་, shunyatā, the void, the absolute. In this connection one should compare J.’s statements (215a) that in modern (Tibetan) Buddhism the termམངོན་(अभिसमय), ‘clear understanding or perception’ means the same asསྟོང་, and further (259b) thatདོན་, originallyपरमार्थ, has, in later times, also become equivalent toསྟོང་. It seems that the old metaphysicians reached regions and distinctions where their followers could no longer join them, and hence the process became ‘omne ignotum proསྟོང་.’ For practical purposes the rendering ‘absolute,’ or ‘motionless’ might be used forསྤྲོས་, whilst the wordདབྱིངས་might be rendered by ‘principle, state, region.’ If occurring in a specimen of the more technically and theoretically philosophical literature of Northern Buddhism, a more precise rendering and more careful definition might be required. Taking the followingརྟོགས་as ‘knowledge, perception, cognition,’ then the whole expression becomes in English ‘the knowledge of the motionless state (or[57]region, or principle)’ or—more pedantic but perhaps truer—‘the knowledge of (that is: pertaining to, inherent in) the monadic state.’ Other equivalents: ‘a state of stillness, the still state’ and, mystically, ‘the wisdom of the silence.’One of my informants, the dge rgan, knows of a colloquial use ofསྤྲོས་=རེ་= ‘hopeless,’ but my second authority ignores this use. The following two examples were given:འདི་, ‘it is labour lost (hopeless) to [try and] know this.’ You cannot hope to know this. (N.B.—Note the elliptic construction ‘hopeless to know’ for ‘to try to know, to study and so come to know.’)ཡི་, ‘As he does not even know how to read well (or properly), it is hopeless (lost labour), for him to (or: how can he?) study grammar’(Not: how can he pretend toknowgrammar?).N.B.—The Tibetan does not ‘read’ but ‘reads books’; he does not ‘write’ but ‘writes letters,’ he does not ‘go’ but ‘goes to the shop.’ In short, he is a very objective being.ཕ་,8. ‘Father.’ It is not clear why in the same line the same person is referred to by the ordinaryཕ་and then by the honorificཡབ་, unlessཡབ་is a standard expression which cannot be changed whilst the firstཕ་is used for the sake of variety in expression.The same double use of the honorific and ordinary terms for father occurs in Laufer’s ‘Ein Sühngedicht der Bonpo’, line 41.ཕྱོགས་, 5. In expressions likeལྡིང་theབའི་is explained as equivalent toསའི་, ‘of the place where.’ So the phraseམི་should be understood as ‘towards where the man has gone, to the place where the man has gone,’འགྲོ་.[58]ཕྱོགས་, 14. Here verb, infinitive, connected with Gendundub in instrumental (agentive) or genitival relation: to turn, move towards, to tend to.ཕྱོགས་, 46. Lit. ‘to fall aside,’ but here, as applied to the mind (ཡིད་), simply to be deflected, to go astray, to fall, sin (mentally), to deviate from the right path (religion, the right), to lapse (from virtue), etc.འཕུང་, 29. ‘To wish the ruin, the undoing, destructionof, to be bent on the perdition of, to wish evil to’ =མེད་.བྱང་, 17. The bodhimaṇḍa, according to the Dicts. historically and geographically Gaya, where the Buddha attained nirvāṇa. Here, however, it means rather the state implied by the locality, ‘illumination, the essence of purification, final sainthood’ literally ‘the quintessence of bodhi.’ In Christian language Golgotha (or the Cross) is similarly used in a metaphorical sense. In living Tibetanབྱང་(bodhi) is not understood as ‘wisdom’ but as ‘saintliness, purity.’ There is, it seems, a confusion in the group of Tibetan [and Chinese!] renderings of bodhimaṇḍa (bodhi-essence) and bodhi-maṇḍala (bodhi-round), and their synonyms, a confusion which may already have its origin in India itself. The treatment of these words in the Dicts. is not satisfactory. J. and S. Ch. D. give s.v.བྱང་this word as synonymous withརྡོ་, Vajrāsana, but underསྙིང་S. Ch. D. has the entry:‘བྱང་, the spirit of the Bodhisattva, i.e. Buddhahood.’ This is the sense meant in our passage, though it may be doubted whetherབྱང་really stands here forབྱང་as S. Ch. D. interprets it instead of only for bodhi. The Mahāvyutpatti (A.S.B., p. 44) has Bodhimaṇḍa =བྱང་, and Cs. translates, ‘the essence of sanctity[59]or holiness (name of the holy place at Gaya).’ I yet believe that here a confusion of maṇḍa and maṇḍala must be thought of. J. has, s.v.སྙིང་(p. 198b) ‘snyiṅ-po-byaṅ c̀ʽúb- (or byaṅ-c̀ʽub-snyiṅ-po)-la mc̀ʽís-pa, to become BuddhaThgy.’ Rockhill, Life of the Buddha, p. 35, mentions the form byang-tchub-kyi-snying-po as the equivalent for bodhimaṇḍa, and though Foucaux in the alphabetical index to his translation of the Lalita Vistāra gives only the form withoutཀྱི་, yet in his text, in the places I verified (p. 239, five times), there is theཀྱི་as with Rockhill.In mentioning the wordརྡོ་a special reference must be made to the elementགདན་, commonly translated as bolster, cushion, seat, rug, etc. J. is very detailed about it. He has: ‘a bolster, or seat composed of several quilts or cushions, put one upon the other (five for common people, nine for people of quality).’ Desg. simply ‘stuffed cushion.’ S. Ch. D. more general ‘a low seat, a divan, cushion, a bolster.’ As to J.’s definition my authorities declare that this may be so perhaps ‘on the Ladakh side,’ but is certainly not so in Tibet and in the Darjeeling district. They do not know about the details of five and nine cushions. They take the meaning far wider than bolster or cushion. They say that anything used to support anything or to seat anybody may be calledགདན་, it may be a sheet of cloth, a carpet, a blanket, a cushion, a bolster, a seat in general, anything used for lying or sitting down on. The word has a meaning exactly opposite to the English ‘cover’ and can consequently be used in as many varied senses as the latter. Etymologically—if the root ofགདན་, as seems probable, means ‘to support’—the word would mean something like ‘bearer,’ ‘basis,’ ‘bed,’ ‘floor,’ ‘upholder.’ We might think of ‘underwear,’though in English that particular word is used with quite another association of ideas. In typography there is a word ‘underlay’ which corresponds exactly to the meaning ofགདན་. The word ‘bedplate’, used in engineering, comes also near to it. It will be easily seen how an applied meaning as ‘cushion, bolster,’ if given as the general sense of the word, would in many cases be totally inadequate. The line of associations to which ‘cushion’ belongs, and the line of associations to which ‘seat, support, underlay’ belong, intersect at only one[60]point and for the rest have nothing in common. A table-cloth may be calledགདན་because the food rests on it (ལྟོ་is used in this sense; lit. something like ‘food-sheet, that on which the food rests’). In a ritual it is prescribed that theགདན་for the offerings should be a spotless piece of white cotton or other cloth, calledམཆོད་, ‘offering sheet,’ ‘that on which the offerings rest.’ Bell hasས་for ‘carpet’; small cushion, placed on chairཁ་; large cushion on groundའབོལ་. This is a most interesting example illustrating the fact that it is strictly necessary first to find out the root-idea of a Tibetan word before translating it by words representing the incidental applications of that root-idea. Whoever has handled Chinese dictionaries knows how specially necessary this is in studying Indo-Chinese languages. The Sanskrit equivalent, āsana, is derived from the root ās, to sit or lie, but the Tib. root seems different.Further notes onགདན་.Cf.J.མ་(pr. magdàn), ground, basis, foundation, p. 409a. Bell, apronཔང་.Cs., Grammar, p. 170, l. 10, translatesགདན་as couch (stuffed seat). Lewin, Manual, p. 123, first word last line: ‘mat, seat’, in the same sentence taken over from Cs.’s Grammar. Two synonyms for J.’sམ་, quoted above, areརྨང་andགཞི་. Bell also has ‘mat.’བྱམས་, 50. Seems simply an amplified form for ‘love.’ Difficult to be translated exactly, Sk. maitrīkaruṇā, may be treated as a compound, loving-kindness, love and kindness, or pity. On the question of karuṇā, especially, the learned have descanted profusely.བླ་(ན་)མེད་(པ་), 52. Sk.अनुत्तर, unsurpassed, unexcelled, unrivalled, supreme, incomparable, most high, highest. Not specially entered in J. but illustrated by an example s.v.བླ་.[61]Altogether absent in Desg. S. Ch. D.བླ་, ‘to those who are supreme, or to the followers of the Anuttara school.’ A curious entry! See S. Ch. D. also s.v.བླ་.བླ་, 3. Here perhaps better ‘teacher’ than ‘priest’ or ‘superior.’ The word may be here equally well taken in the singular as in the plural, but the latter is perhaps more likely.བླ་, seeབླ་.བློ་,47. ‘Straight, upright, righteous mind.’ J.’s entry is a little vague. I think he takesཐུགས་in his exampleཐུགས་as an indication thatགཟུ་is also a honorific form. That, however, is not the case. Compare also the quotation from Cs. in S. Ch. D.,གཟུ་‘to be impartial and straightforward, to be on the side of honesty.’ I don’t find this example in Schmidt. Desg. ‘straight, upright, (élevé,) just, honest.’ According to the above the word is an adj.and the translation of the passage becomes ‘whether you persevere in a straight (righteous) mind.’ The verbགནས་has then to be taken as ‘to hold, adhere to, persevere in (an opinion,etc.).’ If however, we should find thatགཟུ་can also be sbst. ‘righteousness,’‘straightness,’ (not in any Dict.), thenགནས་would have the other meaning of ‘to dwell, reside’ and the phrase would have to be rendered ‘whether the mind (continues to) dwell(s) in righteousness.’ S. Ch. D. rendersཐུགས་as ‘honest mind,’ but the sense honest versus dishonest seems not quite applicable in our passage. J.is vague here. My informants gave the above definition ‘straight, upright’ as their own but felt afterwards vague about this example which, though they had framed it, they could not vouch for:མི་, ‘see whether the man keeps straight or not.’ The framer honestly confessed that whilst we were discussing the word he had been influenced by S. Ch. D.’sDict. in coining the sentence; a[62]confession so instructive for idiom-verifiers that I think it worth while to record it here.Finally, Desg. supports S. Ch.’s second meaning ‘witness’ forགཟུ་.He, however, does notgiveS. Ch.’s formགཟུ་. The ordinary word for witness is, of course,དཔང་(པོ་). It is characteristic of S. Ch. D. that he copies J.’s extract from Sch. underགཟུ་‘witness, mediator,’ but then immediately adds his own individual interpretation which not only is likely to be correct, but which also nullifies and contradicts the previous entry which he copied immediately above. He himself says, ‘an honest and truthful witness.’ It often occurs that S. Ch. D. brings modifications, extensions and even corrections to J.’s statements, but at the same time he copies J. far too slavishly and so contradicts himself in the pages of his own dictionary. Whether meanings like ‘reliable, straightforward, correct, proper,’ etc., have to be attached toགཟུ་is as yet uncertain.བློ་, 8. In Sk. Sumatikīrti. According to the Sk. dictionaries the primary sense of ‘sumati’ is ‘benevolence.’ In present-day Tibetanབློ་is rather ‘good-natured, kindhearted,’ as againstདྲིན་‘benevolent.’ So the Tibetan name has to be rendered as Good-nature-fame, or Famous good-nature, the personal name of Tsoṅ kʽa pa.དབང་(མ་)སོང་, 22. (Not) fallen under the power (of).…དབྱངས་, 54 and colophon. This word seems here hardly to mean ‘song, singing tune,’ but rather ‘melody, melodiousness, sweetness,’ etc. This tallies to a certain extent with Csoma’s translation of the title of list LXI (p. 86) of the Mahāvyutpatti, ‘Names of the 60 sorts (or divisions) of melody or melodious voices (or vocal sound).’ I take it that this list refers to what is mentioned here in our text. How these 60 branches of melody are exactly to be understood I have not been able to ascertain. The opinions of Pʽun Tsʽogs on the point are as follows. The Buddha’s voice had such a[63]variety of (magic?) qualities, sixty in number, that they made him understood by all beings, whatever their own languages. The Buddha was in this way simultaneously understood by men, devas, nāgas, etc. In proffering this explanation Pʽun Tsʽogs takesཡན་to mean rather ‘kind’ than ‘branch.’ As an alternative he suggests thatདབྱངས་is an adjective synonymous withརིང་༌, ‘high’ (as applied to voice or rather tone) [or perhaps long, lengthened?] and that thenདབྱངས་would mean a ‘variety’ of tones or modulations. I myself am inclined to think that if the Mahāvyutpatti list is not referred to, we have here to do with some scholastic scheme of rhetorics, though if so understood the exact value ofདབྱངས་is not clear and certainly not sufficiently defined in the Dicts.(Cf.S. Ch. D. s.v.ཟབ་(p. 1092a),ཟབ་=मन्द्र,मन्द्रक, ‘a deep voice, a musical tone.’ See alsoགདུང་.)དབྱིངས་seeསྤྲོས་.དབྱིངས་seeསྤྲོས་.འབར་seeདཔལ་.འབོལ་seeབྱང་.འབྲོག་, 6. Here ‘solitude, wilderness’ and so =རི་=དགོན་, ‘monastery.’ Not associated with any of the meanings connected with ‘pasturing.’Cf.S. Ch. D.འབྲོག་s.v.འབྲོག་.The famous Galdan monastery was erected on a site calledའབྲོག་. See S. Ch. D., The Monasteries of Tibet,J.A.S.B., Vol. I,N.S.(1905), p. 108.མི་seeགླུད་.[64]མི་seeགླུད་.མི་seeགླུད་.མིག་seeཡངས་.མིག་seeཡངས་.མེད་seeའཕུང་.མྱུར་, 52. J.མྱུར་adj., andམྱུར་adv., ‘quick(ly), swift(ly).’ In Mil. adj.མྱུར་. Desg.མྱུར་andམྱུར་(ཉིད་), subst. ‘promptness,’ andམྱུར་‘swift.’ As adv.མྱུར་, orདུ་, orགྱིས་. S. Ch. D.མྱུར་, verb, ‘to hurry by, to pass on swiftly,’ (exampleདུས་, ‘time quickly runs away.’ [=tempus fugit]), and adv. quickly. Further adv.མྱུར་. Some interesting compounds in S. Ch. D.:མྱུར་‘a dancing woman,’ etc. Note the expressionཅི་‘as speedily as possible,’ J.According to my informants S. Ch. D.’s exampleདུས་is not good Tibetan. It should either beདུས་(orབ་)ཡིན་, lit. ‘time is quick,’ or with another meaning also ‘the time is near’ (i.e. at hand,comingquickly), or againདུས་, ‘the quick time.’ Time quickly runs away, they say, should be expressed thus:དུས་.Cf.also J., Desg.:སྨྱུར་.མྱུར་seeམྱུར་.ཙམ་, 38. Here: ‘after only, as a result of only, in consequence[65]of only, mere, simple.’ Butཙམ་has also the meanings: as soon as, simply on (hearing), on the slightest (reproach, etc.) with a more prominent stress on the time element, instantaneousness.རྩེ་seeབརྩེ་.རྩེ་seeབརྩེ་.རྩེ་seeབརྩེ་.རྩོད་seeགཤགས་.བརྩེ་, 55.བརྩེ་=བརྩེ་, vb. ‘to love’ sbst. ‘love, kindness, affection,’ etc. Desg. has also aབརྩེ་, ‘acidity,’ which is also known to my informants. Hisབརྩེ་‘bodyguard of the Dalai Lama’ is held, by one of my informants, to be a mistake forརྩེ་(pronounce tsī-dung), the monk-employees of the Tibetan government (and in a narrower sense: the clerical staff, the clerks and secretaries amongst them) as contrasted with the lay-employees of noble birth (not officials in general as with S. Ch. D. 656a, but only those belonging to the nobility) who are calledདྲུང་. The wordརྩེ་in the compound is said to be derived from the designation of the Potala palace where many of the government offices are located, and which is calledརྩེ་, the Potala peak, but most commonly, by the people, brieflyརྩེ་, the peak. This explanation of tsī-dung as a general class of lama government-employees is wider than that given in Waddell’s table in his ‘Lhasaand its Mysteries,’ p. 165. See alsoརྩེ་, ‘chief clerk or secretary’ in S. Ch. D. s.v.རྩེ་(1013b), the latter being the special name of the former’s hat.བརྩེ་seeབརྩེ་.[66]བརྩོན་, 24. Equalsབརྩོན་(orགྱུར་) ‘to apply oneself, exert oneself, put one’s best energy into something’ =སྙིང་, ‘to be zealous, diligent.’ Alsoབརྩོན་(བྱེད་,རྩོམ་).ཚུལ་, 28. Here ‘conduct, behaviour’ pure and simple, without allusion to theཚུལ་, ‘religious law, discipline, monastic rules.’ཚུལ་seeཆོས་.མཚན་, 53. Here technically the (thirty-two) characteristic signs or marks of a ‘Great Man,’ the mahāpurusha. Mahāvyutpatti (Ed. A. S. B.), LXIII, p. 92. De Harlez, ‘Vocabulaire Bouddhique Sanscrit-Chinois,’ no. 3. Schiefner, ‘Triglotte,’ no. 3. See de la Vallée Poussin, ‘Bouddhisme,’ pp. 241 et seq.The transition of meaning of the wordམཚན་in modern Tibetan in such expressions asམཚན་, ‘a holy lama,’ orམཚན་, ‘a woman of good appearance and virtues’ (S. Ch. D.) should not be overlooked in the interpretation of our passage for its psychological value. See alsoདཔེ་.མཚན་seeམཚན་.མཚན་, 53. This is a compound substantive of an elliptic nature, and means: ‘the [well known 32 primary] characteristics [and the 80] beauties [of Buddhas]’=མཚན་(བཟང་). See alsoམཚན་andདཔེ་.མཚན་, 30.མཚན་is here hon. ofམིང་‘name,’ and the compound, literally ‘name grasping,’ means ‘ambition, thirst for fame, glory,’ etc. (D.eerzucht, roemzucht), perhaps even ‘vainglory, pride, conceit, egotism,’ i.e. the hugging of one’s own name and fame.[67]མཚན་, 7. To invoke by name, to address a prayer to by name. Applied to both spiritual and human beings.རྒྱལ་, ‘to address the king, speak to the king, direct, appeal to the king,’ but always by calling him by his name. ‘O king help me’ is not a proper example ofམཚན་, but ‘O, thou, King George, help me!’ would be one. To spiritual beings their names may be expressed in a paraphrase, metaphor or symbol, but they must be expressed in some way. The prayers to superhuman beings may be twofold, either an address containing requests, etc., or a mere litany of names without any further subject matter attached to them. The one is a recitation of names, the other a direct address by name; the one a litany proper, the other an invocation or prayer.འཚོལ་, 19. The formམི་was paraphrased to me asའཚོལ་=འཚོལ་= simple future, ‘not going to seek’ (D.niet zullende zoeken).ཞིབ་seeརྟོག་.ཞེ་seeཁྲེལ་.ཞེན་seeཁྲེལ་.གཞན་(པ་)འཛིན་seeརང་(པ་)འཛིན་.གཞུང་seeཁྲེལ་.གཞུང་seeསྒོ་.གཞུངས་seeཁྲེལ་.གཞེས་seeམགུར་.བཞག་seeརྒྱན་.ཟབ་, 10, 55.ཟབ་=ཟབ་. J. vb., adj., subst. and adv. ‘to be deep, deep, deeply, depth’; adj.ཟབ་andམོ་. Desg.[68]ཟབ་andམོ་adj. only. S. Ch. D.ཟབ་vb. ‘to make deep, to deepen,’ also adj. and sbst.; further inཔོ་andམོ་only adj. Note the additional meaning ‘dense’ (alsoཟབས་‘thickness’) in S. Ch. D., not in the two others. My teachers deny thatཟབ་can be a verb ‘to deepen,’ or ‘to make deep.’ཟབ་must also be understood as ‘profound’ (wisdom, teaching, etc.). Seeཆོས་, alsoདབྱངས་, alsoཐུགས་, etc.ཟབ་seeཐུགས་, etc.གཟུ་seeབློ་.གཟུ་seeབློ་.གཟུ་seeབློ་.འུ་seeསྡུག་.ཡང་seeདྭངས་.ཡངས་, 55. =ཡངས་orཔོ་, ‘wide, large.’ Desg. also ‘ample, abundant.’ S. Ch. D. onlyཡངས་. Note J. ‘*mig-yaṅ*’, C., W. liberal, generous, bounteous,’ but Desg.མིག་‘wide-eyes: envious, covetous, greedy.’ In S. Ch. D.ཡངས་=विशालाक्षी, ‘large-eyes, a handsome woman, name of a Goddess.’Cf.also in the same dict.མིག་, ‘beautiful-eyes, a very handsome woman, a nymph’s name.’ As to J.’s mig-yaṅ, one of my teachers holds with him as against Desg., the other does not know the expression.ཡངས་seeཡངས་.ཡན་seeདབྱངས་.ཡབ་(གསུམ༌), 8, 15, 16, 18. ‘Father (and) sons,’ or, as Csoma already has it in his Grammar, p. 28, ‘teacher and[69]pupils.’ With the additionགསུམ་‘three,’ and also as here without this addition, a very well known appellation of Tsoṅ kʽa pa and his two pupils (his spiritual sons). It is likely that to the Tibetan mind the expression means something like ‘spiritual family (of three),’ namely of one father and two sons. See introductory remarks. Free renderings like ‘spiritual trio’ or ‘teacher triad’ and the like are apt enough for practical purposes.Cf.an expression like the following:ཁྱོད་, ‘where have you two, father and son, come from?’ (But the sentence has also the second meaning ‘where do you live? where is your home?’).In the light of the above, has the note on p. 98 of the J.A.S.B., Vol. II, N.S., no. 4, 1906, in Satis Chandra Vidyābhūṣana’s article on ‘the Gyantse rock inscription’ to be rectified? My informants do not think that the expression is used among the Sakyapas in the sense given in that note.ཡིན་seeཀྱང་.ཡུས་seeསྡུག་.གཡུལ་seeའགྱེ་.གཡུལ་seeའགྱེ་.རང་seeདྭངས་.རང་(པ་)འཛིན་, 26. This expression must here not be understood as ‘to follow one’s own teaching.’རང་is here not one compound word. The meaning is: they who themselves follow the teaching, as against theགཞན་, the others who (also) follow the teaching. Seeགཞན་(པ་)འཛིན་, 27.རི་seeའབྲོག་andགངས་.རི་seeའབྲོག་andགངས་.རིག་seeམཁྱེན་.[70]རིག་seeགོལ་.རིང་seeདབྱངས་.རུས་seeདྭངས་.རེ་seeདོན་.རེ་seeསྤྲོས་.ལན་seeགཤགས་.ལམ་seeགོལ་.ལམ་seeགོལ་.ལམ་, 31. ‘The high, elevated road,’ has a religious connotation, the proper road that leads to heaven after death, the ‘narrow’ road of Christianity. See below.ལམ་, 48. The straight road (metaphorically), the road of righteousness, of straightness of mind.Cf.S. Ch. D. s.v.དྲང་, p. 649a. The meaning of this expression and that ofལམ་, in line 31 (see above), are quite different. The other is the highroad (towards heaven), the road of a high standard of moral conduct.ལམ་, 9. ‘Steps on the path,’ ‘degrees of advance,’ ‘steps towards perfection,’ is the short title of many mystical writings and especially of one by Tsoṅ kʽa pa, to which the words may allude here without specially designating it. In this place the meaning does not seem to be a specific work but merely ‘(religious) instructions, teaching in general.’ Theལམ་are here, according to my oral information, to be taken as the two halves or divisions of the Kandjur which is commonly divided intoམདོ་andསྔགས་, sūtra and tantra (or mantra, or dhāraṇī). In this division theརྒྱུད་or tantra section is calledསྔགས་, whilst all the rest, properly subdivided[71]in six divisions, is taken together asམདོ་, of which the realམདོ་or sūtra-division (the 5th in sequence in the Kandjur) is only one. Concerning Tsoṅ kʽa pa’s study of the ‘Sūtras and Tantras’ see S. Ch. D., ‘Contributions, etc. on Tibet,’ VI, in J.A.S.B., 1882, Vol. LI, Part I, no. 1, p. 53. J., s.v.བསྟན་, quotes aབསྟན་: ‘with Urgyan Padma, etc., the same as mdoi and sṅags kyi lam, v. mdo extr.’ This is seemingly the same as our expression.ལུས་, 42. J. has =སེམས་, ‘beings, creatures,’ but may not the idea rather be allembodiedcreatures; with the etymological sense still potent in connection with the Buddhist reincarnation theory? S. Ch. D. gives aལུས་=གྲོང་= ‘town, city,’ which seems rather to point to the meaning ‘man’ forལུས་. My informants don’t feel quite certain whether to include the five other classes of beings (including animals) amongst theལུས་, but are somewhat inclined to interpret the word asམི་, ‘man,’ in general.ཤ་seeཀྱུ་.ཤར་, title, 1. The author writes his poem in a place to the west of a snow-capped mountain, to the east of which the Galdan monastery is situated. See notes onའབྲོག་,དགེ་andགངས་. Which mountain or mountain chain is meant must be left undecided, even if granting that modern cartography could show it if identified. Local tradition, however, would most likely be able to point out a particular mountain.ཤེས་seeམཁྱེན་.ཤོས་seeརིན་.[72]གཤགས་seeགཤགས་.གཤགས་, 38. This expression cannot yet be explained with certainty. It may be taken here to mean, literally, ‘to send out (distribute, give, put forward) justice, right,’ but the exact idiomatic value of the phrase remains to be determined. It is not in the Dicts., and unknown to my informants. We may take the possible values of the expression as three, viz.: 1.གཤགས་=རྩོད་=གཤགས་= ‘to dispute, argue, contend with words.’ This seems the same expression as S. Ch. D.’sཁ་‘to hold controversy,’ p. 1248. (Perhaps also ‘to challenge, to be challenged to dispute.’) 2. =ལན་‘to be defeated in argument, in dispute, to be silenced in dispute.’
རྟོགས་seeསྤྲོས་.ལྟ་51. This word seems here to mean ‘vision, illumination, (direct mystical) contemplation, the seeing face to face.’ In our passage it is the direct vision (the ‘vision direct’), proper to, inherent in, characteristic of, belonging to, the knowledge pertaining to the actionless (or undifferentiated) state, the ‘passive-state-knowledge-vision.’ See alsoསྤྲོས་.ལྟག་seeསྒོ་.ལྟོ་seeཁྲེལ་.ལྟོ་seeགདན་.ལྟོབ་seeཁྲེལ་.སྟོང་seeསྤྲོས་.བརྟག་seeརྟོག་.བརྟག་seeརྟོག་.བརྟགས་seeརྟོག་.བསྟན་(གཉིས་) seeལམ་.བསྟན་, 23. ‘To follow, to keep to the teaching; to be or remain true, faithful to the teaching, to hold fast to it, to stick to it.’ See alsoརྟེན་.[45]ཐབས་seeའདུལ་.ཐམས་, lit. ‘Great-all-knowing-clergy-perfection-good-glory,’ corresponds to a Sk. Mahā-sarva-jña-saṁgha-siddhi-shrī-bhadra. See for literature about him: Schulemann,Geschichte der Dalailamas, pp. 91–92, note 11, and S. Ch. D.: The Hierarchy of the Dalai Lamas, J.A.S.B., Vol. LXXIII, Pt. I, extra No., p. 81.ཐུགས་, 55. This is here, in my opinion, not a sort of Hottentottenpotentatentantenattentater-like formation. I take theཟབ་to refer to theཐུགས་, a profound and wide mind, whilst theམཁྱེན་only refers to theགཏེར་, the treasury of omniscient mercy. It is not likely that the qualities of width and depth form part of an enumeration of which the remaining items are love and knowledge or even (as a compound) omniscient-mercy. See the various component words in this glossary.ཐུགས་seeམཁྱེན་.ཐུགས་seeབློ་.མཐེབ་seeཀྱུ་.མཐོན་seeལམ་.འཐབ་seeའགྱེ་.དག་, 43. J.’s entry under this entry is as follows: “དག་(པའི༌)སྣང་(བ་)Schr.‘good opinion’ (?), prob.: a pure, sound view or knowledgeGlr.; inMil.it has a similar meaning.” He adds an oral sentence: “*dhag-náṅ jón-wa* C. to lead a holy life.” (sic. jón = jóṅ?) Schroeter has (135b): “དག་, a good opinion, a good conception of any thing, a conceit, a thought.” [Based on an Italian ‘concetto’?] He has two further entries ‘དག་, to form a good[46]opinion of any individual,’ and ‘དག་(read:སྦྱོང་)བ་, to form a good opinion, or to conceive well of any one.’In our passage we are inclined to takeསྣང་asསྣང་, as ‘view, thought, idea, conception,’ etc., andསྦྱོང་= ‘to exercise, practise, perform’, or even ‘to entertain, cherish (thoughts).’དག་we take asདག་, ‘pure’—the connection with thought not the opposite of false, erroneous, but of bad, cruel, unkind. So here the expression seems to mean ‘to think with goodwill, with kindness (of others),’not the colloquial ‘to have a good opinion of, to think well of.’ To think ‘good’ is here the opposite of to think ‘evil,’ but the idiomatic value of the expression ‘to think well of’ (as the opposite of ‘to think poorly of’) would make the latter rendering misleading. The real value, then, of the expression as used in this passage, seems to be: ‘to think good, kind thoughts of,’ i.e. purely, or saintly in the sense of kindly, lovingly, benevolently, in a friendly manner, with sympathy, but not, as J. seems to suggest, intellectually correct. We may expand the rendering into ‘with a holy mind, with thoughts of saintliness, thinking saintly thoughts.’ Compare J.’s colloquial phrase quoted above. So, as to the interpretation of the line in which the compound occurs, we take it that it means to enjoin, in contrast with the previous line in which it is said that beings in general must be thought of with kindness, that religious people (instead of the mere laymen) must be thought of in a still better, higher manner, namely with holiness and saintliness.One of my informants was first inclined to takeདག་as ‘to teach, to preach the true knowledge.’ Though he later on sided with the explanation adopted above, the opinion should be recorded, but it should be added that a second informant rejected this view of the first one.Attention should be drawn to the meaning ofསྣང་, ‘the soul’ (with spellingsསྣང་andནང་;དག་,རྟགས་,བརྟག་,སྟག་, s. J.). Also the curious expression ‘to be indifferent’སྣང་, S. Ch. D.; andསྣང་, Bell. These expressions not in Desg.[47]དག་seeདག་.དང་seeདཔེ་.དྭངས་, 27. Adverb: ‘purely, first class, first rate.’ Not in J. but in Desg., yet here in a slightly different application. About S. Ch. D.’s ‘gravy’ and ‘relish’ see below.དྭངས་with the genitive seems to mean ‘acme’, ‘essence’, the typical embodiment of something, like in expressions as ‘a first class liar, a thief pure and simple, the very devil, satan himself, nothing short of an angel, a saint inpropria persona.’དགྲ་, ‘the very enemy.’ In the colloquialདྭངས་,ཡང་andཨང་may have the same meaning. The latter is something like pidgin-English ‘number one’ or the kitchen Malay equivalent ‘nommer satu.’ Other equations areགཅིག་(orཔུ་), alsoརང་, the Anglo-Indian ‘pukka.’The wordདྭངས་may mean soup or gravy in the following case, when there is question of singling out the liquid portion from a mixture of broth and liquid. The primary meaning seems in that case rather to be liquid as contrasted to solid.ང་= give me (only) the liquid (not the solid stuff), pour out to me (only) the liquid. But thisདྭངས་has no finalམ་. A common word for soup which is not in the Dicts. is ‘rü thang’, probablyརུས་, orཐང་alone. This latter word is in J. with the meaning of ‘potion’, a medical term, and in S. Ch. D. as ‘potion, plain decoction, or mixture to be drunk after a medicinal pill has been taken.’ The wordརུས་means originally bone-soup, but has acquired also the more general meaning ‘soup.’ཐང་can be applied to meat-soup,ཤ་, butཤ་cannot be used. It might be thatཐང་andདྭངས་are really the same word.[48]དད་seeསྐྱེ་.དམ་, 30. Might here, in connection with ambition, be translated as ‘fierce,’ an extension of its primary meaning ‘strong.’དུག་seeསྐྱོ་.དུག་seeསྐྱོ་.དུགས་seeསྐྱོ་.དུས་, 24. For ever, always.དུས་seeམྱུར་.དོན་seeདོན་.དོན་, 40. ‘Exceedingly stupid, meaningless, useless, silly, senseless.’ The particleརེ་has an emphatic value, but it is difficult to define its precise scope in English. Oral information is vague on the subject, and seems to point towards a possibility that theརེ་is a syllable of exclamation or turns the expression, of which it forms part, into an exclamation.དོན་. ‘Oh, how silly!’ An equivalent isདོན་=དོན་.དོན་alone is not used, andདོན་demands a finalརེད་orཡིན་.S. Ch. D. (502a) translatesཁྱོད་as: ‘I pity you, ye Tibetans’; perhaps better ‘What a pity, O ye Tibetans.’ Compare the list of words with wedged-inརེ་in J. s.v.རེ་p. 533b.དྲིན་, 16. Alsoདྲིན་, adjective ‘kind.’ According to S. Ch. D. also ‘very kind, great boon, and the great or greatest benefactor.’ S. Ch. D.’s wording is unsatisfactorily indefinite and his examples, taken from J., fit the text badly.[49]J. does not define the combinationདྲིན་though he has an exampleབཀའ་with the meaning ‘greatest benefit.’ Two colloquial examples are:དྲིན་, ‘the two (very) kind parents,’ andམི་, that man is (very) kind.In formདྲིན་is a comparative, ‘kinder.’ཆེན་is one of those adjectives which have a comparative and superlative of their own as:Great.Many.Good.Small.Bad.positiveཆེན་མང་ཡག་ཆུང་སྡུག་comparativeཆེ་མང་(orང་)ཡག་ཆུང་སྡུག་superlativeཆེ་མང་ཡག་ཆུང་སྡུག་In practice, however, as shown by the above examples, the form is used for an ordinary quality in the positive degree though implying an amount of abundance or fullness of the quality referred to. Bell (p. 33) and Hannah (p. 129) have described these degrees of comparison. Short and partial notes in S. Ch. D.’s grammar (p. 31) and Henderson (p. 23). See J. Dict. s.v.ཤོས་, p. 564.དྲིན་, J. 262b(as equal toདྲིན་) is not acknowledged by my informants.དྲིན་is objected to by my teachers because they say it never occurs alone but requires a finalབ་, except in the superlative formདྲིན་which, of course, is another thing. See, however, S. Ch. D.བཀའ་, p. 654, J. p. 13. As to theཆེན་orཆེན་in many Tibetan adjectives, this is better regarded as an enclitic particle, exactly corresponding to the English termination -ful. As little as the English -ful really[50]means ‘full’, does the Tibetanཆེན་(པོ་) as a termination of adjectives really mean ‘great.’Bell hasདྲིན་for ‘kind.’The wordདྲིན་and its uses merit a separate inquiry. In this place we shall limit ourselves to stating that the entry gratitude (S. Ch. D., Ramsay, Schroeter) seems incorrect. The confusion has most likely come about because aདྲིན་is an answer to kindness (return gift, etc.) and sobetokensgratitude.དྲིན་(པོ་) seeདྲིན་.དྲིན་, 21. Ellipse for: according to (or, in the measure of) whatever kindness (you have shown to me).དྲིན་seeདྲིན་.དྲུང་seeབརྩེ་.གདན་seeབྱང་.གདུག་, 35. The three Dicts. are not at one as to the exact shades of meaning ofགདུག་.J. has, subst.: ‘anything hurtful, or any injury, mischief, harm, done.’Desg., subst.: ‘dommage, perte, mal.’S. Ch. D. no substantive.J., adj. (=གདུག་༌), ‘noxious, mischievous, dangerous.’ Desg., adj. onlyགདུག་, notགདུག་alone: nuisible (noxious), and aགདུག་=གདོག་, deteriorated.S. Ch. D., adj.:གདུག་, vicious, mischievous, deleterious, poisonous.In J. and S. Ch. D.further applied meanings as: wild, hideous (screams); ferocity (in beasts), deleterious (smell), fierce (woman).[51]In our passage the expressionགདུག་may be rendered by malign, wicked, evil, evil-minded, spiteful, with sufficient correctness.གདུག་seeགདུག་.གདུག་seeགདུག་.གདུག་seeགདུག་.གདུང་seeགདུང་.གདུང་, Colophon. J. renders this word as ‘a song expressive of longing or of grief, an elegy (Mil.)’; but this definition is not quite typical of our present poem. S. Ch. D. has ‘a song of longing grief.’ J.’s exampleམོས་, whereགདུང་means (spiritual) love, seems to point out to a meaning more apposite here. So we would prefer a translation: paean, hymn of praise (D.lofzang), or psalm instead of elegy. Other words to be considered: song of thanksgiving, memorial song, lament, plaintive song (jammerklacht?), memorial verses, anin memoriam, a memorial, etc. See alsoདབྱངས་.The dge rgan, however, explains the word indeed in J.’s manner, but states that the longing and grief are not the worldly sentiments but religious ones. The longing and grief are concerned with the sorrows of the world and a yearning after spiritual realities, but not with the memory of the three teachers mentioned in the poem. If this is true, the above hypothesis is likely to be a wrong one and in my translation of the colophon the words there used should in that case rather run ‘as a song of yearning for the higher life’ (cf.the G. ‘Weltschmerz’).གདོག་seeགདུག་.འདུལ་, 37. Steps, measures, to subdue or tame, etc.འདུལ་, to take such measures.[52]འདོགས་seeརྒྱན་.འདྲེན་, 20. (Fut.དྲང་). If theལྕགས་(seeཀྱུ་) is here to be thought of as a goad (like the one of the mahout) then the verb should be understood as sub J. 2, ‘to conduct, lead, guide’ (by prodding). My teachers take it as ‘to draw,’ or ‘pull.’ Pictorial representations might decide the point. My teachers think rather of a rod with a hook at the end, like the episcopal staff, and not of angling with a fishhook or prodding with a goad.སྡུག་, 33. Or simplyཡུས་, here: ‘the loss of temper, wrath, angry explosion or outburst.’ This sense is not given in the Dicts., though J.’s 4, ‘ardour, fervour, transport’ comes near it.སྡུག་is the same asཡུས་, but for the fact that the former word shows the cause, an outburst on account of trouble, vexation, worry, pain, sorrow. (སྡུག་)ཡུས་(སྟོན་orབྱེད་)པ་= to show (or to lose) one’s temper, to flare up, to burst out, to break loose, to explode in anger, wrath.ཕ་, ‘don’t show temper to your parents.’དཔོན་, ‘don’t lose your temper before (or with) the master.’དེ་, ‘to-day he has entirely lost his temper before (or to) me.’ It is synonymous, in this sense, with the wordའུ་which is also dealt with inadequately in the Dicts. q.v.མི་, ‘don’t lose your temper to anyone, to whomsoever.’ཁྱོད་, ‘there is no reason (no need, or it is senseless) to lose your temper.’ (Cf.D.uitvallen, uitvaren, uitvoeteren, opstuiven, uitbarsten.)གནམ་, 2. Either ‘as if rising towards the[53]sky,’ in which caseའདྲ་refers to all the previous words, or: as if risingwhilstin the sky, in which case theའདྲ་would only refer toསྙེག་.གནས་seeབློ་.མནོ་seeརྟོག་.རྣལ་, 9. I have not received an explanation of the ‘etc.’ (སོགས་) in this place and I ignore what kind of category is alluded to here. It seems not probable that the ’18 classes of science’ can be meant, which, in the Mahāvyutpatti (Ed. M.A.S.B.), form group XXIV, p. 20. Group L, (p. 59), furnishes more likely material, but Yoga is missing in it.སྣང་seeདག་.དཔལ་, 56. ‘Glorious, noble,’ also ‘having abundance.’ Twice mentioned in J.’s article but not translated, perhaps because the meaning is so evident. Curious that neither Desg. nor J. specially cite this compound to which S. Ch. D. gives 7 lines, besides mentioning several combinations.དཔལ་, 52. Is this one word?དཔལ་, 53. ‘Glory- or splendour-burning,’ i.e. ‘to blaze with glory,’ or, more tamely, ‘to be famous, renowned, celebrated’; the latter quoted by J. from Cs. s.v.འབར་(It may also be taken as glory-spreading, i.e. getting more famous). Desg. quotes a geographical nameདཔལ་, Chinese Pienpa. The expression is not in Desg. or S. Ch. D., and in J. only as taken from Cs., so that the latter’s explanation needs verification. The literal translation ‘to blaze with glory’ fits here better.Colloquiallyའབར་is ‘to thrive, to prosper, to do well.’འབར་, ‘he is doing well, is well-to-do, thriving.’འབར་[54]སོང་, he has become rich, has made a success of his life, has come out top dog, has made good, has become wealthy, opulent, is safe, got his ship home, has ‘got there,’ made his pile, is now a man of position. (Fr.est arrivé. D.is binnen, heeft zijn schaapjes op het drooge.)དཔེ་, 53. Hereདཔེ་=དཔེ་orདཔེ་, technically ‘the eighty symmetrical parts, proportions, or points of beauty’(Cs., Mahāvyutpatti); or beauties, lesser signs (de Harlez); proportions (Schiefner). See the references underམཚན་andམཚན་. J. (s.v.དཔེ༌, p.327b) gives the full expression ‘the eighty physical perfections of Buddha,’དཔེ་, andདཔེ་alone ‘proportion, symmetry, beauty.’ J. has the entryདཔེ་‘symmetry, harmony, beauty (in certain phrases)’ but S. Ch. D. omits this. Our passage is an example of this use, but the syllableདཔེ་is really an abbreviation here and not a full and independent word. Desg. seems to be mistaken in saying:དཔེ་(sic, misprint forབྱད་) orམཚན་, ‘proportion, symmetry, the 80 marvels of the body of the Buddha.’ Soདཔེ་means indeed ‘symmetrical, showing 80 marvels,’ but these meanings would not be applicable toམཚན་which could only mean ‘showing the 32 signs and 80 beauties.’For the rest Desg.’s 2nd article s.v.དཔེ་adds to J.’s data, and hisདཔེ་andདཔེ་‘custom, rule, example’ are new. In Desg. ‘custom, rule’ tally with S. Ch. D. ‘way of doing, method’ which J. has as ‘pattern, model,’ but which he translates more freely in his examples. J. s.v.བྱད་‘proportion, symmetry, beauty,’ quotes aདཔེ་from the Dzl. in the same[55]sense. According to thisདཔེ་would be equal toབྱད་which seems improbable and is denied by my informants. An example of the use ofདཔེ་is the following:དེ་, the new year’s dance of now-a-days in the monastery is in imitation of the old way, is after the ancient pattern, the old manner, follows the old example.དཔེ་is here not exactlyལུགས་‘custom’ but rather: ‘(with) the (ancient) method (as) an example.’Note the use ofདང་in the above example as ‘old, ancient.’དཔེ་seeསྒོ་.དཔེ་seeདཔེ་.དཔེ་(=བྱད་) seeདཔེ་.དཔེ་seeདཔེ་.དཔེ་seeདཔེ་.སྤྲི་, 2, 5. The white cloud is a figure often occurring in Tibetan poetry. If used as an emblem of holiness or spiritual loftiness in connection with eminent persons, this expression may perhaps contain a stereotyped allusion to the name of the tenth and supreme bhūmi or stage of the Bodhisattva, the dharma-megha, ‘cloud of virtue,’ཆོས་. See Mahāvyutpatti, ed. A.S.B., p. 11. Here evidently not J.’s (336a) ‘emblem of transitoriness,’ though the point might be argued on the basis of the final remark s.v.གདུང་, see above.སྤྲོས་, 51. This word corresponds according to S. Ch. D. to a Sk.nishprapañca(orapañca,aprapañca) which in Macdonell’s Sk. Dict. is rendered by ‘unevolved, exempt from[56]multiformity.’ We may, therefore, think of expressions like ‘the undifferentiated, homogeneous, absolute.’ The word dhātu being the Sk. equivalent for Tib.དབྱིངས་the whole expressionདབྱིངས་must correspond to a Sk.aprapañcadhātu. The same Sk. Dict. translates the word dhātu as ‘layer, component part, element.’ In Tibetanདབྱིངས་means, according to J.: (1) ‘the heavens’; (2) ‘height’; (3) ‘extent, region, space, in metaphysics an undefined idea.’ According to the etymologyསྤྲོས་should mean ‘passive, actionless, quietistic, inert,’ but according to the etymology of its Sk. prototype rather ‘undifferentiated, monadic.’ One of my informants compares it withཆོས་, dharma dhātu, andསྟོང་, shunyatā, the void, the absolute. In this connection one should compare J.’s statements (215a) that in modern (Tibetan) Buddhism the termམངོན་(अभिसमय), ‘clear understanding or perception’ means the same asསྟོང་, and further (259b) thatདོན་, originallyपरमार्थ, has, in later times, also become equivalent toསྟོང་. It seems that the old metaphysicians reached regions and distinctions where their followers could no longer join them, and hence the process became ‘omne ignotum proསྟོང་.’ For practical purposes the rendering ‘absolute,’ or ‘motionless’ might be used forསྤྲོས་, whilst the wordདབྱིངས་might be rendered by ‘principle, state, region.’ If occurring in a specimen of the more technically and theoretically philosophical literature of Northern Buddhism, a more precise rendering and more careful definition might be required. Taking the followingརྟོགས་as ‘knowledge, perception, cognition,’ then the whole expression becomes in English ‘the knowledge of the motionless state (or[57]region, or principle)’ or—more pedantic but perhaps truer—‘the knowledge of (that is: pertaining to, inherent in) the monadic state.’ Other equivalents: ‘a state of stillness, the still state’ and, mystically, ‘the wisdom of the silence.’One of my informants, the dge rgan, knows of a colloquial use ofསྤྲོས་=རེ་= ‘hopeless,’ but my second authority ignores this use. The following two examples were given:འདི་, ‘it is labour lost (hopeless) to [try and] know this.’ You cannot hope to know this. (N.B.—Note the elliptic construction ‘hopeless to know’ for ‘to try to know, to study and so come to know.’)ཡི་, ‘As he does not even know how to read well (or properly), it is hopeless (lost labour), for him to (or: how can he?) study grammar’(Not: how can he pretend toknowgrammar?).N.B.—The Tibetan does not ‘read’ but ‘reads books’; he does not ‘write’ but ‘writes letters,’ he does not ‘go’ but ‘goes to the shop.’ In short, he is a very objective being.ཕ་,8. ‘Father.’ It is not clear why in the same line the same person is referred to by the ordinaryཕ་and then by the honorificཡབ་, unlessཡབ་is a standard expression which cannot be changed whilst the firstཕ་is used for the sake of variety in expression.The same double use of the honorific and ordinary terms for father occurs in Laufer’s ‘Ein Sühngedicht der Bonpo’, line 41.ཕྱོགས་, 5. In expressions likeལྡིང་theབའི་is explained as equivalent toསའི་, ‘of the place where.’ So the phraseམི་should be understood as ‘towards where the man has gone, to the place where the man has gone,’འགྲོ་.[58]ཕྱོགས་, 14. Here verb, infinitive, connected with Gendundub in instrumental (agentive) or genitival relation: to turn, move towards, to tend to.ཕྱོགས་, 46. Lit. ‘to fall aside,’ but here, as applied to the mind (ཡིད་), simply to be deflected, to go astray, to fall, sin (mentally), to deviate from the right path (religion, the right), to lapse (from virtue), etc.འཕུང་, 29. ‘To wish the ruin, the undoing, destructionof, to be bent on the perdition of, to wish evil to’ =མེད་.བྱང་, 17. The bodhimaṇḍa, according to the Dicts. historically and geographically Gaya, where the Buddha attained nirvāṇa. Here, however, it means rather the state implied by the locality, ‘illumination, the essence of purification, final sainthood’ literally ‘the quintessence of bodhi.’ In Christian language Golgotha (or the Cross) is similarly used in a metaphorical sense. In living Tibetanབྱང་(bodhi) is not understood as ‘wisdom’ but as ‘saintliness, purity.’ There is, it seems, a confusion in the group of Tibetan [and Chinese!] renderings of bodhimaṇḍa (bodhi-essence) and bodhi-maṇḍala (bodhi-round), and their synonyms, a confusion which may already have its origin in India itself. The treatment of these words in the Dicts. is not satisfactory. J. and S. Ch. D. give s.v.བྱང་this word as synonymous withརྡོ་, Vajrāsana, but underསྙིང་S. Ch. D. has the entry:‘བྱང་, the spirit of the Bodhisattva, i.e. Buddhahood.’ This is the sense meant in our passage, though it may be doubted whetherབྱང་really stands here forབྱང་as S. Ch. D. interprets it instead of only for bodhi. The Mahāvyutpatti (A.S.B., p. 44) has Bodhimaṇḍa =བྱང་, and Cs. translates, ‘the essence of sanctity[59]or holiness (name of the holy place at Gaya).’ I yet believe that here a confusion of maṇḍa and maṇḍala must be thought of. J. has, s.v.སྙིང་(p. 198b) ‘snyiṅ-po-byaṅ c̀ʽúb- (or byaṅ-c̀ʽub-snyiṅ-po)-la mc̀ʽís-pa, to become BuddhaThgy.’ Rockhill, Life of the Buddha, p. 35, mentions the form byang-tchub-kyi-snying-po as the equivalent for bodhimaṇḍa, and though Foucaux in the alphabetical index to his translation of the Lalita Vistāra gives only the form withoutཀྱི་, yet in his text, in the places I verified (p. 239, five times), there is theཀྱི་as with Rockhill.In mentioning the wordརྡོ་a special reference must be made to the elementགདན་, commonly translated as bolster, cushion, seat, rug, etc. J. is very detailed about it. He has: ‘a bolster, or seat composed of several quilts or cushions, put one upon the other (five for common people, nine for people of quality).’ Desg. simply ‘stuffed cushion.’ S. Ch. D. more general ‘a low seat, a divan, cushion, a bolster.’ As to J.’s definition my authorities declare that this may be so perhaps ‘on the Ladakh side,’ but is certainly not so in Tibet and in the Darjeeling district. They do not know about the details of five and nine cushions. They take the meaning far wider than bolster or cushion. They say that anything used to support anything or to seat anybody may be calledགདན་, it may be a sheet of cloth, a carpet, a blanket, a cushion, a bolster, a seat in general, anything used for lying or sitting down on. The word has a meaning exactly opposite to the English ‘cover’ and can consequently be used in as many varied senses as the latter. Etymologically—if the root ofགདན་, as seems probable, means ‘to support’—the word would mean something like ‘bearer,’ ‘basis,’ ‘bed,’ ‘floor,’ ‘upholder.’ We might think of ‘underwear,’though in English that particular word is used with quite another association of ideas. In typography there is a word ‘underlay’ which corresponds exactly to the meaning ofགདན་. The word ‘bedplate’, used in engineering, comes also near to it. It will be easily seen how an applied meaning as ‘cushion, bolster,’ if given as the general sense of the word, would in many cases be totally inadequate. The line of associations to which ‘cushion’ belongs, and the line of associations to which ‘seat, support, underlay’ belong, intersect at only one[60]point and for the rest have nothing in common. A table-cloth may be calledགདན་because the food rests on it (ལྟོ་is used in this sense; lit. something like ‘food-sheet, that on which the food rests’). In a ritual it is prescribed that theགདན་for the offerings should be a spotless piece of white cotton or other cloth, calledམཆོད་, ‘offering sheet,’ ‘that on which the offerings rest.’ Bell hasས་for ‘carpet’; small cushion, placed on chairཁ་; large cushion on groundའབོལ་. This is a most interesting example illustrating the fact that it is strictly necessary first to find out the root-idea of a Tibetan word before translating it by words representing the incidental applications of that root-idea. Whoever has handled Chinese dictionaries knows how specially necessary this is in studying Indo-Chinese languages. The Sanskrit equivalent, āsana, is derived from the root ās, to sit or lie, but the Tib. root seems different.Further notes onགདན་.Cf.J.མ་(pr. magdàn), ground, basis, foundation, p. 409a. Bell, apronཔང་.Cs., Grammar, p. 170, l. 10, translatesགདན་as couch (stuffed seat). Lewin, Manual, p. 123, first word last line: ‘mat, seat’, in the same sentence taken over from Cs.’s Grammar. Two synonyms for J.’sམ་, quoted above, areརྨང་andགཞི་. Bell also has ‘mat.’བྱམས་, 50. Seems simply an amplified form for ‘love.’ Difficult to be translated exactly, Sk. maitrīkaruṇā, may be treated as a compound, loving-kindness, love and kindness, or pity. On the question of karuṇā, especially, the learned have descanted profusely.བླ་(ན་)མེད་(པ་), 52. Sk.अनुत्तर, unsurpassed, unexcelled, unrivalled, supreme, incomparable, most high, highest. Not specially entered in J. but illustrated by an example s.v.བླ་.[61]Altogether absent in Desg. S. Ch. D.བླ་, ‘to those who are supreme, or to the followers of the Anuttara school.’ A curious entry! See S. Ch. D. also s.v.བླ་.བླ་, 3. Here perhaps better ‘teacher’ than ‘priest’ or ‘superior.’ The word may be here equally well taken in the singular as in the plural, but the latter is perhaps more likely.བླ་, seeབླ་.བློ་,47. ‘Straight, upright, righteous mind.’ J.’s entry is a little vague. I think he takesཐུགས་in his exampleཐུགས་as an indication thatགཟུ་is also a honorific form. That, however, is not the case. Compare also the quotation from Cs. in S. Ch. D.,གཟུ་‘to be impartial and straightforward, to be on the side of honesty.’ I don’t find this example in Schmidt. Desg. ‘straight, upright, (élevé,) just, honest.’ According to the above the word is an adj.and the translation of the passage becomes ‘whether you persevere in a straight (righteous) mind.’ The verbགནས་has then to be taken as ‘to hold, adhere to, persevere in (an opinion,etc.).’ If however, we should find thatགཟུ་can also be sbst. ‘righteousness,’‘straightness,’ (not in any Dict.), thenགནས་would have the other meaning of ‘to dwell, reside’ and the phrase would have to be rendered ‘whether the mind (continues to) dwell(s) in righteousness.’ S. Ch. D. rendersཐུགས་as ‘honest mind,’ but the sense honest versus dishonest seems not quite applicable in our passage. J.is vague here. My informants gave the above definition ‘straight, upright’ as their own but felt afterwards vague about this example which, though they had framed it, they could not vouch for:མི་, ‘see whether the man keeps straight or not.’ The framer honestly confessed that whilst we were discussing the word he had been influenced by S. Ch. D.’sDict. in coining the sentence; a[62]confession so instructive for idiom-verifiers that I think it worth while to record it here.Finally, Desg. supports S. Ch.’s second meaning ‘witness’ forགཟུ་.He, however, does notgiveS. Ch.’s formགཟུ་. The ordinary word for witness is, of course,དཔང་(པོ་). It is characteristic of S. Ch. D. that he copies J.’s extract from Sch. underགཟུ་‘witness, mediator,’ but then immediately adds his own individual interpretation which not only is likely to be correct, but which also nullifies and contradicts the previous entry which he copied immediately above. He himself says, ‘an honest and truthful witness.’ It often occurs that S. Ch. D. brings modifications, extensions and even corrections to J.’s statements, but at the same time he copies J. far too slavishly and so contradicts himself in the pages of his own dictionary. Whether meanings like ‘reliable, straightforward, correct, proper,’ etc., have to be attached toགཟུ་is as yet uncertain.བློ་, 8. In Sk. Sumatikīrti. According to the Sk. dictionaries the primary sense of ‘sumati’ is ‘benevolence.’ In present-day Tibetanབློ་is rather ‘good-natured, kindhearted,’ as againstདྲིན་‘benevolent.’ So the Tibetan name has to be rendered as Good-nature-fame, or Famous good-nature, the personal name of Tsoṅ kʽa pa.དབང་(མ་)སོང་, 22. (Not) fallen under the power (of).…དབྱངས་, 54 and colophon. This word seems here hardly to mean ‘song, singing tune,’ but rather ‘melody, melodiousness, sweetness,’ etc. This tallies to a certain extent with Csoma’s translation of the title of list LXI (p. 86) of the Mahāvyutpatti, ‘Names of the 60 sorts (or divisions) of melody or melodious voices (or vocal sound).’ I take it that this list refers to what is mentioned here in our text. How these 60 branches of melody are exactly to be understood I have not been able to ascertain. The opinions of Pʽun Tsʽogs on the point are as follows. The Buddha’s voice had such a[63]variety of (magic?) qualities, sixty in number, that they made him understood by all beings, whatever their own languages. The Buddha was in this way simultaneously understood by men, devas, nāgas, etc. In proffering this explanation Pʽun Tsʽogs takesཡན་to mean rather ‘kind’ than ‘branch.’ As an alternative he suggests thatདབྱངས་is an adjective synonymous withརིང་༌, ‘high’ (as applied to voice or rather tone) [or perhaps long, lengthened?] and that thenདབྱངས་would mean a ‘variety’ of tones or modulations. I myself am inclined to think that if the Mahāvyutpatti list is not referred to, we have here to do with some scholastic scheme of rhetorics, though if so understood the exact value ofདབྱངས་is not clear and certainly not sufficiently defined in the Dicts.(Cf.S. Ch. D. s.v.ཟབ་(p. 1092a),ཟབ་=मन्द्र,मन्द्रक, ‘a deep voice, a musical tone.’ See alsoགདུང་.)དབྱིངས་seeསྤྲོས་.དབྱིངས་seeསྤྲོས་.འབར་seeདཔལ་.འབོལ་seeབྱང་.འབྲོག་, 6. Here ‘solitude, wilderness’ and so =རི་=དགོན་, ‘monastery.’ Not associated with any of the meanings connected with ‘pasturing.’Cf.S. Ch. D.འབྲོག་s.v.འབྲོག་.The famous Galdan monastery was erected on a site calledའབྲོག་. See S. Ch. D., The Monasteries of Tibet,J.A.S.B., Vol. I,N.S.(1905), p. 108.མི་seeགླུད་.[64]མི་seeགླུད་.མི་seeགླུད་.མིག་seeཡངས་.མིག་seeཡངས་.མེད་seeའཕུང་.མྱུར་, 52. J.མྱུར་adj., andམྱུར་adv., ‘quick(ly), swift(ly).’ In Mil. adj.མྱུར་. Desg.མྱུར་andམྱུར་(ཉིད་), subst. ‘promptness,’ andམྱུར་‘swift.’ As adv.མྱུར་, orདུ་, orགྱིས་. S. Ch. D.མྱུར་, verb, ‘to hurry by, to pass on swiftly,’ (exampleདུས་, ‘time quickly runs away.’ [=tempus fugit]), and adv. quickly. Further adv.མྱུར་. Some interesting compounds in S. Ch. D.:མྱུར་‘a dancing woman,’ etc. Note the expressionཅི་‘as speedily as possible,’ J.According to my informants S. Ch. D.’s exampleདུས་is not good Tibetan. It should either beདུས་(orབ་)ཡིན་, lit. ‘time is quick,’ or with another meaning also ‘the time is near’ (i.e. at hand,comingquickly), or againདུས་, ‘the quick time.’ Time quickly runs away, they say, should be expressed thus:དུས་.Cf.also J., Desg.:སྨྱུར་.མྱུར་seeམྱུར་.ཙམ་, 38. Here: ‘after only, as a result of only, in consequence[65]of only, mere, simple.’ Butཙམ་has also the meanings: as soon as, simply on (hearing), on the slightest (reproach, etc.) with a more prominent stress on the time element, instantaneousness.རྩེ་seeབརྩེ་.རྩེ་seeབརྩེ་.རྩེ་seeབརྩེ་.རྩོད་seeགཤགས་.བརྩེ་, 55.བརྩེ་=བརྩེ་, vb. ‘to love’ sbst. ‘love, kindness, affection,’ etc. Desg. has also aབརྩེ་, ‘acidity,’ which is also known to my informants. Hisབརྩེ་‘bodyguard of the Dalai Lama’ is held, by one of my informants, to be a mistake forརྩེ་(pronounce tsī-dung), the monk-employees of the Tibetan government (and in a narrower sense: the clerical staff, the clerks and secretaries amongst them) as contrasted with the lay-employees of noble birth (not officials in general as with S. Ch. D. 656a, but only those belonging to the nobility) who are calledདྲུང་. The wordརྩེ་in the compound is said to be derived from the designation of the Potala palace where many of the government offices are located, and which is calledརྩེ་, the Potala peak, but most commonly, by the people, brieflyརྩེ་, the peak. This explanation of tsī-dung as a general class of lama government-employees is wider than that given in Waddell’s table in his ‘Lhasaand its Mysteries,’ p. 165. See alsoརྩེ་, ‘chief clerk or secretary’ in S. Ch. D. s.v.རྩེ་(1013b), the latter being the special name of the former’s hat.བརྩེ་seeབརྩེ་.[66]བརྩོན་, 24. Equalsབརྩོན་(orགྱུར་) ‘to apply oneself, exert oneself, put one’s best energy into something’ =སྙིང་, ‘to be zealous, diligent.’ Alsoབརྩོན་(བྱེད་,རྩོམ་).ཚུལ་, 28. Here ‘conduct, behaviour’ pure and simple, without allusion to theཚུལ་, ‘religious law, discipline, monastic rules.’ཚུལ་seeཆོས་.མཚན་, 53. Here technically the (thirty-two) characteristic signs or marks of a ‘Great Man,’ the mahāpurusha. Mahāvyutpatti (Ed. A. S. B.), LXIII, p. 92. De Harlez, ‘Vocabulaire Bouddhique Sanscrit-Chinois,’ no. 3. Schiefner, ‘Triglotte,’ no. 3. See de la Vallée Poussin, ‘Bouddhisme,’ pp. 241 et seq.The transition of meaning of the wordམཚན་in modern Tibetan in such expressions asམཚན་, ‘a holy lama,’ orམཚན་, ‘a woman of good appearance and virtues’ (S. Ch. D.) should not be overlooked in the interpretation of our passage for its psychological value. See alsoདཔེ་.མཚན་seeམཚན་.མཚན་, 53. This is a compound substantive of an elliptic nature, and means: ‘the [well known 32 primary] characteristics [and the 80] beauties [of Buddhas]’=མཚན་(བཟང་). See alsoམཚན་andདཔེ་.མཚན་, 30.མཚན་is here hon. ofམིང་‘name,’ and the compound, literally ‘name grasping,’ means ‘ambition, thirst for fame, glory,’ etc. (D.eerzucht, roemzucht), perhaps even ‘vainglory, pride, conceit, egotism,’ i.e. the hugging of one’s own name and fame.[67]མཚན་, 7. To invoke by name, to address a prayer to by name. Applied to both spiritual and human beings.རྒྱལ་, ‘to address the king, speak to the king, direct, appeal to the king,’ but always by calling him by his name. ‘O king help me’ is not a proper example ofམཚན་, but ‘O, thou, King George, help me!’ would be one. To spiritual beings their names may be expressed in a paraphrase, metaphor or symbol, but they must be expressed in some way. The prayers to superhuman beings may be twofold, either an address containing requests, etc., or a mere litany of names without any further subject matter attached to them. The one is a recitation of names, the other a direct address by name; the one a litany proper, the other an invocation or prayer.འཚོལ་, 19. The formམི་was paraphrased to me asའཚོལ་=འཚོལ་= simple future, ‘not going to seek’ (D.niet zullende zoeken).ཞིབ་seeརྟོག་.ཞེ་seeཁྲེལ་.ཞེན་seeཁྲེལ་.གཞན་(པ་)འཛིན་seeརང་(པ་)འཛིན་.གཞུང་seeཁྲེལ་.གཞུང་seeསྒོ་.གཞུངས་seeཁྲེལ་.གཞེས་seeམགུར་.བཞག་seeརྒྱན་.ཟབ་, 10, 55.ཟབ་=ཟབ་. J. vb., adj., subst. and adv. ‘to be deep, deep, deeply, depth’; adj.ཟབ་andམོ་. Desg.[68]ཟབ་andམོ་adj. only. S. Ch. D.ཟབ་vb. ‘to make deep, to deepen,’ also adj. and sbst.; further inཔོ་andམོ་only adj. Note the additional meaning ‘dense’ (alsoཟབས་‘thickness’) in S. Ch. D., not in the two others. My teachers deny thatཟབ་can be a verb ‘to deepen,’ or ‘to make deep.’ཟབ་must also be understood as ‘profound’ (wisdom, teaching, etc.). Seeཆོས་, alsoདབྱངས་, alsoཐུགས་, etc.ཟབ་seeཐུགས་, etc.གཟུ་seeབློ་.གཟུ་seeབློ་.གཟུ་seeབློ་.འུ་seeསྡུག་.ཡང་seeདྭངས་.ཡངས་, 55. =ཡངས་orཔོ་, ‘wide, large.’ Desg. also ‘ample, abundant.’ S. Ch. D. onlyཡངས་. Note J. ‘*mig-yaṅ*’, C., W. liberal, generous, bounteous,’ but Desg.མིག་‘wide-eyes: envious, covetous, greedy.’ In S. Ch. D.ཡངས་=विशालाक्षी, ‘large-eyes, a handsome woman, name of a Goddess.’Cf.also in the same dict.མིག་, ‘beautiful-eyes, a very handsome woman, a nymph’s name.’ As to J.’s mig-yaṅ, one of my teachers holds with him as against Desg., the other does not know the expression.ཡངས་seeཡངས་.ཡན་seeདབྱངས་.ཡབ་(གསུམ༌), 8, 15, 16, 18. ‘Father (and) sons,’ or, as Csoma already has it in his Grammar, p. 28, ‘teacher and[69]pupils.’ With the additionགསུམ་‘three,’ and also as here without this addition, a very well known appellation of Tsoṅ kʽa pa and his two pupils (his spiritual sons). It is likely that to the Tibetan mind the expression means something like ‘spiritual family (of three),’ namely of one father and two sons. See introductory remarks. Free renderings like ‘spiritual trio’ or ‘teacher triad’ and the like are apt enough for practical purposes.Cf.an expression like the following:ཁྱོད་, ‘where have you two, father and son, come from?’ (But the sentence has also the second meaning ‘where do you live? where is your home?’).In the light of the above, has the note on p. 98 of the J.A.S.B., Vol. II, N.S., no. 4, 1906, in Satis Chandra Vidyābhūṣana’s article on ‘the Gyantse rock inscription’ to be rectified? My informants do not think that the expression is used among the Sakyapas in the sense given in that note.ཡིན་seeཀྱང་.ཡུས་seeསྡུག་.གཡུལ་seeའགྱེ་.གཡུལ་seeའགྱེ་.རང་seeདྭངས་.རང་(པ་)འཛིན་, 26. This expression must here not be understood as ‘to follow one’s own teaching.’རང་is here not one compound word. The meaning is: they who themselves follow the teaching, as against theགཞན་, the others who (also) follow the teaching. Seeགཞན་(པ་)འཛིན་, 27.རི་seeའབྲོག་andགངས་.རི་seeའབྲོག་andགངས་.རིག་seeམཁྱེན་.[70]རིག་seeགོལ་.རིང་seeདབྱངས་.རུས་seeདྭངས་.རེ་seeདོན་.རེ་seeསྤྲོས་.ལན་seeགཤགས་.ལམ་seeགོལ་.ལམ་seeགོལ་.ལམ་, 31. ‘The high, elevated road,’ has a religious connotation, the proper road that leads to heaven after death, the ‘narrow’ road of Christianity. See below.ལམ་, 48. The straight road (metaphorically), the road of righteousness, of straightness of mind.Cf.S. Ch. D. s.v.དྲང་, p. 649a. The meaning of this expression and that ofལམ་, in line 31 (see above), are quite different. The other is the highroad (towards heaven), the road of a high standard of moral conduct.ལམ་, 9. ‘Steps on the path,’ ‘degrees of advance,’ ‘steps towards perfection,’ is the short title of many mystical writings and especially of one by Tsoṅ kʽa pa, to which the words may allude here without specially designating it. In this place the meaning does not seem to be a specific work but merely ‘(religious) instructions, teaching in general.’ Theལམ་are here, according to my oral information, to be taken as the two halves or divisions of the Kandjur which is commonly divided intoམདོ་andསྔགས་, sūtra and tantra (or mantra, or dhāraṇī). In this division theརྒྱུད་or tantra section is calledསྔགས་, whilst all the rest, properly subdivided[71]in six divisions, is taken together asམདོ་, of which the realམདོ་or sūtra-division (the 5th in sequence in the Kandjur) is only one. Concerning Tsoṅ kʽa pa’s study of the ‘Sūtras and Tantras’ see S. Ch. D., ‘Contributions, etc. on Tibet,’ VI, in J.A.S.B., 1882, Vol. LI, Part I, no. 1, p. 53. J., s.v.བསྟན་, quotes aབསྟན་: ‘with Urgyan Padma, etc., the same as mdoi and sṅags kyi lam, v. mdo extr.’ This is seemingly the same as our expression.ལུས་, 42. J. has =སེམས་, ‘beings, creatures,’ but may not the idea rather be allembodiedcreatures; with the etymological sense still potent in connection with the Buddhist reincarnation theory? S. Ch. D. gives aལུས་=གྲོང་= ‘town, city,’ which seems rather to point to the meaning ‘man’ forལུས་. My informants don’t feel quite certain whether to include the five other classes of beings (including animals) amongst theལུས་, but are somewhat inclined to interpret the word asམི་, ‘man,’ in general.ཤ་seeཀྱུ་.ཤར་, title, 1. The author writes his poem in a place to the west of a snow-capped mountain, to the east of which the Galdan monastery is situated. See notes onའབྲོག་,དགེ་andགངས་. Which mountain or mountain chain is meant must be left undecided, even if granting that modern cartography could show it if identified. Local tradition, however, would most likely be able to point out a particular mountain.ཤེས་seeམཁྱེན་.ཤོས་seeརིན་.[72]གཤགས་seeགཤགས་.གཤགས་, 38. This expression cannot yet be explained with certainty. It may be taken here to mean, literally, ‘to send out (distribute, give, put forward) justice, right,’ but the exact idiomatic value of the phrase remains to be determined. It is not in the Dicts., and unknown to my informants. We may take the possible values of the expression as three, viz.: 1.གཤགས་=རྩོད་=གཤགས་= ‘to dispute, argue, contend with words.’ This seems the same expression as S. Ch. D.’sཁ་‘to hold controversy,’ p. 1248. (Perhaps also ‘to challenge, to be challenged to dispute.’) 2. =ལན་‘to be defeated in argument, in dispute, to be silenced in dispute.’
རྟོགས་seeསྤྲོས་.ལྟ་51. This word seems here to mean ‘vision, illumination, (direct mystical) contemplation, the seeing face to face.’ In our passage it is the direct vision (the ‘vision direct’), proper to, inherent in, characteristic of, belonging to, the knowledge pertaining to the actionless (or undifferentiated) state, the ‘passive-state-knowledge-vision.’ See alsoསྤྲོས་.ལྟག་seeསྒོ་.ལྟོ་seeཁྲེལ་.ལྟོ་seeགདན་.ལྟོབ་seeཁྲེལ་.སྟོང་seeསྤྲོས་.བརྟག་seeརྟོག་.བརྟག་seeརྟོག་.བརྟགས་seeརྟོག་.བསྟན་(གཉིས་) seeལམ་.བསྟན་, 23. ‘To follow, to keep to the teaching; to be or remain true, faithful to the teaching, to hold fast to it, to stick to it.’ See alsoརྟེན་.[45]ཐབས་seeའདུལ་.ཐམས་, lit. ‘Great-all-knowing-clergy-perfection-good-glory,’ corresponds to a Sk. Mahā-sarva-jña-saṁgha-siddhi-shrī-bhadra. See for literature about him: Schulemann,Geschichte der Dalailamas, pp. 91–92, note 11, and S. Ch. D.: The Hierarchy of the Dalai Lamas, J.A.S.B., Vol. LXXIII, Pt. I, extra No., p. 81.ཐུགས་, 55. This is here, in my opinion, not a sort of Hottentottenpotentatentantenattentater-like formation. I take theཟབ་to refer to theཐུགས་, a profound and wide mind, whilst theམཁྱེན་only refers to theགཏེར་, the treasury of omniscient mercy. It is not likely that the qualities of width and depth form part of an enumeration of which the remaining items are love and knowledge or even (as a compound) omniscient-mercy. See the various component words in this glossary.ཐུགས་seeམཁྱེན་.ཐུགས་seeབློ་.མཐེབ་seeཀྱུ་.མཐོན་seeལམ་.འཐབ་seeའགྱེ་.དག་, 43. J.’s entry under this entry is as follows: “དག་(པའི༌)སྣང་(བ་)Schr.‘good opinion’ (?), prob.: a pure, sound view or knowledgeGlr.; inMil.it has a similar meaning.” He adds an oral sentence: “*dhag-náṅ jón-wa* C. to lead a holy life.” (sic. jón = jóṅ?) Schroeter has (135b): “དག་, a good opinion, a good conception of any thing, a conceit, a thought.” [Based on an Italian ‘concetto’?] He has two further entries ‘དག་, to form a good[46]opinion of any individual,’ and ‘དག་(read:སྦྱོང་)བ་, to form a good opinion, or to conceive well of any one.’In our passage we are inclined to takeསྣང་asསྣང་, as ‘view, thought, idea, conception,’ etc., andསྦྱོང་= ‘to exercise, practise, perform’, or even ‘to entertain, cherish (thoughts).’དག་we take asདག་, ‘pure’—the connection with thought not the opposite of false, erroneous, but of bad, cruel, unkind. So here the expression seems to mean ‘to think with goodwill, with kindness (of others),’not the colloquial ‘to have a good opinion of, to think well of.’ To think ‘good’ is here the opposite of to think ‘evil,’ but the idiomatic value of the expression ‘to think well of’ (as the opposite of ‘to think poorly of’) would make the latter rendering misleading. The real value, then, of the expression as used in this passage, seems to be: ‘to think good, kind thoughts of,’ i.e. purely, or saintly in the sense of kindly, lovingly, benevolently, in a friendly manner, with sympathy, but not, as J. seems to suggest, intellectually correct. We may expand the rendering into ‘with a holy mind, with thoughts of saintliness, thinking saintly thoughts.’ Compare J.’s colloquial phrase quoted above. So, as to the interpretation of the line in which the compound occurs, we take it that it means to enjoin, in contrast with the previous line in which it is said that beings in general must be thought of with kindness, that religious people (instead of the mere laymen) must be thought of in a still better, higher manner, namely with holiness and saintliness.One of my informants was first inclined to takeདག་as ‘to teach, to preach the true knowledge.’ Though he later on sided with the explanation adopted above, the opinion should be recorded, but it should be added that a second informant rejected this view of the first one.Attention should be drawn to the meaning ofསྣང་, ‘the soul’ (with spellingsསྣང་andནང་;དག་,རྟགས་,བརྟག་,སྟག་, s. J.). Also the curious expression ‘to be indifferent’སྣང་, S. Ch. D.; andསྣང་, Bell. These expressions not in Desg.[47]དག་seeདག་.དང་seeདཔེ་.དྭངས་, 27. Adverb: ‘purely, first class, first rate.’ Not in J. but in Desg., yet here in a slightly different application. About S. Ch. D.’s ‘gravy’ and ‘relish’ see below.དྭངས་with the genitive seems to mean ‘acme’, ‘essence’, the typical embodiment of something, like in expressions as ‘a first class liar, a thief pure and simple, the very devil, satan himself, nothing short of an angel, a saint inpropria persona.’དགྲ་, ‘the very enemy.’ In the colloquialདྭངས་,ཡང་andཨང་may have the same meaning. The latter is something like pidgin-English ‘number one’ or the kitchen Malay equivalent ‘nommer satu.’ Other equations areགཅིག་(orཔུ་), alsoརང་, the Anglo-Indian ‘pukka.’The wordདྭངས་may mean soup or gravy in the following case, when there is question of singling out the liquid portion from a mixture of broth and liquid. The primary meaning seems in that case rather to be liquid as contrasted to solid.ང་= give me (only) the liquid (not the solid stuff), pour out to me (only) the liquid. But thisདྭངས་has no finalམ་. A common word for soup which is not in the Dicts. is ‘rü thang’, probablyརུས་, orཐང་alone. This latter word is in J. with the meaning of ‘potion’, a medical term, and in S. Ch. D. as ‘potion, plain decoction, or mixture to be drunk after a medicinal pill has been taken.’ The wordརུས་means originally bone-soup, but has acquired also the more general meaning ‘soup.’ཐང་can be applied to meat-soup,ཤ་, butཤ་cannot be used. It might be thatཐང་andདྭངས་are really the same word.[48]དད་seeསྐྱེ་.དམ་, 30. Might here, in connection with ambition, be translated as ‘fierce,’ an extension of its primary meaning ‘strong.’དུག་seeསྐྱོ་.དུག་seeསྐྱོ་.དུགས་seeསྐྱོ་.དུས་, 24. For ever, always.དུས་seeམྱུར་.དོན་seeདོན་.དོན་, 40. ‘Exceedingly stupid, meaningless, useless, silly, senseless.’ The particleརེ་has an emphatic value, but it is difficult to define its precise scope in English. Oral information is vague on the subject, and seems to point towards a possibility that theརེ་is a syllable of exclamation or turns the expression, of which it forms part, into an exclamation.དོན་. ‘Oh, how silly!’ An equivalent isདོན་=དོན་.དོན་alone is not used, andདོན་demands a finalརེད་orཡིན་.S. Ch. D. (502a) translatesཁྱོད་as: ‘I pity you, ye Tibetans’; perhaps better ‘What a pity, O ye Tibetans.’ Compare the list of words with wedged-inརེ་in J. s.v.རེ་p. 533b.དྲིན་, 16. Alsoདྲིན་, adjective ‘kind.’ According to S. Ch. D. also ‘very kind, great boon, and the great or greatest benefactor.’ S. Ch. D.’s wording is unsatisfactorily indefinite and his examples, taken from J., fit the text badly.[49]J. does not define the combinationདྲིན་though he has an exampleབཀའ་with the meaning ‘greatest benefit.’ Two colloquial examples are:དྲིན་, ‘the two (very) kind parents,’ andམི་, that man is (very) kind.In formདྲིན་is a comparative, ‘kinder.’ཆེན་is one of those adjectives which have a comparative and superlative of their own as:Great.Many.Good.Small.Bad.positiveཆེན་མང་ཡག་ཆུང་སྡུག་comparativeཆེ་མང་(orང་)ཡག་ཆུང་སྡུག་superlativeཆེ་མང་ཡག་ཆུང་སྡུག་In practice, however, as shown by the above examples, the form is used for an ordinary quality in the positive degree though implying an amount of abundance or fullness of the quality referred to. Bell (p. 33) and Hannah (p. 129) have described these degrees of comparison. Short and partial notes in S. Ch. D.’s grammar (p. 31) and Henderson (p. 23). See J. Dict. s.v.ཤོས་, p. 564.དྲིན་, J. 262b(as equal toདྲིན་) is not acknowledged by my informants.དྲིན་is objected to by my teachers because they say it never occurs alone but requires a finalབ་, except in the superlative formདྲིན་which, of course, is another thing. See, however, S. Ch. D.བཀའ་, p. 654, J. p. 13. As to theཆེན་orཆེན་in many Tibetan adjectives, this is better regarded as an enclitic particle, exactly corresponding to the English termination -ful. As little as the English -ful really[50]means ‘full’, does the Tibetanཆེན་(པོ་) as a termination of adjectives really mean ‘great.’Bell hasདྲིན་for ‘kind.’The wordདྲིན་and its uses merit a separate inquiry. In this place we shall limit ourselves to stating that the entry gratitude (S. Ch. D., Ramsay, Schroeter) seems incorrect. The confusion has most likely come about because aདྲིན་is an answer to kindness (return gift, etc.) and sobetokensgratitude.དྲིན་(པོ་) seeདྲིན་.དྲིན་, 21. Ellipse for: according to (or, in the measure of) whatever kindness (you have shown to me).དྲིན་seeདྲིན་.དྲུང་seeབརྩེ་.གདན་seeབྱང་.གདུག་, 35. The three Dicts. are not at one as to the exact shades of meaning ofགདུག་.J. has, subst.: ‘anything hurtful, or any injury, mischief, harm, done.’Desg., subst.: ‘dommage, perte, mal.’S. Ch. D. no substantive.J., adj. (=གདུག་༌), ‘noxious, mischievous, dangerous.’ Desg., adj. onlyགདུག་, notགདུག་alone: nuisible (noxious), and aགདུག་=གདོག་, deteriorated.S. Ch. D., adj.:གདུག་, vicious, mischievous, deleterious, poisonous.In J. and S. Ch. D.further applied meanings as: wild, hideous (screams); ferocity (in beasts), deleterious (smell), fierce (woman).[51]In our passage the expressionགདུག་may be rendered by malign, wicked, evil, evil-minded, spiteful, with sufficient correctness.གདུག་seeགདུག་.གདུག་seeགདུག་.གདུག་seeགདུག་.གདུང་seeགདུང་.གདུང་, Colophon. J. renders this word as ‘a song expressive of longing or of grief, an elegy (Mil.)’; but this definition is not quite typical of our present poem. S. Ch. D. has ‘a song of longing grief.’ J.’s exampleམོས་, whereགདུང་means (spiritual) love, seems to point out to a meaning more apposite here. So we would prefer a translation: paean, hymn of praise (D.lofzang), or psalm instead of elegy. Other words to be considered: song of thanksgiving, memorial song, lament, plaintive song (jammerklacht?), memorial verses, anin memoriam, a memorial, etc. See alsoདབྱངས་.The dge rgan, however, explains the word indeed in J.’s manner, but states that the longing and grief are not the worldly sentiments but religious ones. The longing and grief are concerned with the sorrows of the world and a yearning after spiritual realities, but not with the memory of the three teachers mentioned in the poem. If this is true, the above hypothesis is likely to be a wrong one and in my translation of the colophon the words there used should in that case rather run ‘as a song of yearning for the higher life’ (cf.the G. ‘Weltschmerz’).གདོག་seeགདུག་.འདུལ་, 37. Steps, measures, to subdue or tame, etc.འདུལ་, to take such measures.[52]འདོགས་seeརྒྱན་.འདྲེན་, 20. (Fut.དྲང་). If theལྕགས་(seeཀྱུ་) is here to be thought of as a goad (like the one of the mahout) then the verb should be understood as sub J. 2, ‘to conduct, lead, guide’ (by prodding). My teachers take it as ‘to draw,’ or ‘pull.’ Pictorial representations might decide the point. My teachers think rather of a rod with a hook at the end, like the episcopal staff, and not of angling with a fishhook or prodding with a goad.སྡུག་, 33. Or simplyཡུས་, here: ‘the loss of temper, wrath, angry explosion or outburst.’ This sense is not given in the Dicts., though J.’s 4, ‘ardour, fervour, transport’ comes near it.སྡུག་is the same asཡུས་, but for the fact that the former word shows the cause, an outburst on account of trouble, vexation, worry, pain, sorrow. (སྡུག་)ཡུས་(སྟོན་orབྱེད་)པ་= to show (or to lose) one’s temper, to flare up, to burst out, to break loose, to explode in anger, wrath.ཕ་, ‘don’t show temper to your parents.’དཔོན་, ‘don’t lose your temper before (or with) the master.’དེ་, ‘to-day he has entirely lost his temper before (or to) me.’ It is synonymous, in this sense, with the wordའུ་which is also dealt with inadequately in the Dicts. q.v.མི་, ‘don’t lose your temper to anyone, to whomsoever.’ཁྱོད་, ‘there is no reason (no need, or it is senseless) to lose your temper.’ (Cf.D.uitvallen, uitvaren, uitvoeteren, opstuiven, uitbarsten.)གནམ་, 2. Either ‘as if rising towards the[53]sky,’ in which caseའདྲ་refers to all the previous words, or: as if risingwhilstin the sky, in which case theའདྲ་would only refer toསྙེག་.གནས་seeབློ་.མནོ་seeརྟོག་.རྣལ་, 9. I have not received an explanation of the ‘etc.’ (སོགས་) in this place and I ignore what kind of category is alluded to here. It seems not probable that the ’18 classes of science’ can be meant, which, in the Mahāvyutpatti (Ed. M.A.S.B.), form group XXIV, p. 20. Group L, (p. 59), furnishes more likely material, but Yoga is missing in it.སྣང་seeདག་.དཔལ་, 56. ‘Glorious, noble,’ also ‘having abundance.’ Twice mentioned in J.’s article but not translated, perhaps because the meaning is so evident. Curious that neither Desg. nor J. specially cite this compound to which S. Ch. D. gives 7 lines, besides mentioning several combinations.དཔལ་, 52. Is this one word?དཔལ་, 53. ‘Glory- or splendour-burning,’ i.e. ‘to blaze with glory,’ or, more tamely, ‘to be famous, renowned, celebrated’; the latter quoted by J. from Cs. s.v.འབར་(It may also be taken as glory-spreading, i.e. getting more famous). Desg. quotes a geographical nameདཔལ་, Chinese Pienpa. The expression is not in Desg. or S. Ch. D., and in J. only as taken from Cs., so that the latter’s explanation needs verification. The literal translation ‘to blaze with glory’ fits here better.Colloquiallyའབར་is ‘to thrive, to prosper, to do well.’འབར་, ‘he is doing well, is well-to-do, thriving.’འབར་[54]སོང་, he has become rich, has made a success of his life, has come out top dog, has made good, has become wealthy, opulent, is safe, got his ship home, has ‘got there,’ made his pile, is now a man of position. (Fr.est arrivé. D.is binnen, heeft zijn schaapjes op het drooge.)དཔེ་, 53. Hereདཔེ་=དཔེ་orདཔེ་, technically ‘the eighty symmetrical parts, proportions, or points of beauty’(Cs., Mahāvyutpatti); or beauties, lesser signs (de Harlez); proportions (Schiefner). See the references underམཚན་andམཚན་. J. (s.v.དཔེ༌, p.327b) gives the full expression ‘the eighty physical perfections of Buddha,’དཔེ་, andདཔེ་alone ‘proportion, symmetry, beauty.’ J. has the entryདཔེ་‘symmetry, harmony, beauty (in certain phrases)’ but S. Ch. D. omits this. Our passage is an example of this use, but the syllableདཔེ་is really an abbreviation here and not a full and independent word. Desg. seems to be mistaken in saying:དཔེ་(sic, misprint forབྱད་) orམཚན་, ‘proportion, symmetry, the 80 marvels of the body of the Buddha.’ Soདཔེ་means indeed ‘symmetrical, showing 80 marvels,’ but these meanings would not be applicable toམཚན་which could only mean ‘showing the 32 signs and 80 beauties.’For the rest Desg.’s 2nd article s.v.དཔེ་adds to J.’s data, and hisདཔེ་andདཔེ་‘custom, rule, example’ are new. In Desg. ‘custom, rule’ tally with S. Ch. D. ‘way of doing, method’ which J. has as ‘pattern, model,’ but which he translates more freely in his examples. J. s.v.བྱད་‘proportion, symmetry, beauty,’ quotes aདཔེ་from the Dzl. in the same[55]sense. According to thisདཔེ་would be equal toབྱད་which seems improbable and is denied by my informants. An example of the use ofདཔེ་is the following:དེ་, the new year’s dance of now-a-days in the monastery is in imitation of the old way, is after the ancient pattern, the old manner, follows the old example.དཔེ་is here not exactlyལུགས་‘custom’ but rather: ‘(with) the (ancient) method (as) an example.’Note the use ofདང་in the above example as ‘old, ancient.’དཔེ་seeསྒོ་.དཔེ་seeདཔེ་.དཔེ་(=བྱད་) seeདཔེ་.དཔེ་seeདཔེ་.དཔེ་seeདཔེ་.སྤྲི་, 2, 5. The white cloud is a figure often occurring in Tibetan poetry. If used as an emblem of holiness or spiritual loftiness in connection with eminent persons, this expression may perhaps contain a stereotyped allusion to the name of the tenth and supreme bhūmi or stage of the Bodhisattva, the dharma-megha, ‘cloud of virtue,’ཆོས་. See Mahāvyutpatti, ed. A.S.B., p. 11. Here evidently not J.’s (336a) ‘emblem of transitoriness,’ though the point might be argued on the basis of the final remark s.v.གདུང་, see above.སྤྲོས་, 51. This word corresponds according to S. Ch. D. to a Sk.nishprapañca(orapañca,aprapañca) which in Macdonell’s Sk. Dict. is rendered by ‘unevolved, exempt from[56]multiformity.’ We may, therefore, think of expressions like ‘the undifferentiated, homogeneous, absolute.’ The word dhātu being the Sk. equivalent for Tib.དབྱིངས་the whole expressionདབྱིངས་must correspond to a Sk.aprapañcadhātu. The same Sk. Dict. translates the word dhātu as ‘layer, component part, element.’ In Tibetanདབྱིངས་means, according to J.: (1) ‘the heavens’; (2) ‘height’; (3) ‘extent, region, space, in metaphysics an undefined idea.’ According to the etymologyསྤྲོས་should mean ‘passive, actionless, quietistic, inert,’ but according to the etymology of its Sk. prototype rather ‘undifferentiated, monadic.’ One of my informants compares it withཆོས་, dharma dhātu, andསྟོང་, shunyatā, the void, the absolute. In this connection one should compare J.’s statements (215a) that in modern (Tibetan) Buddhism the termམངོན་(अभिसमय), ‘clear understanding or perception’ means the same asསྟོང་, and further (259b) thatདོན་, originallyपरमार्थ, has, in later times, also become equivalent toསྟོང་. It seems that the old metaphysicians reached regions and distinctions where their followers could no longer join them, and hence the process became ‘omne ignotum proསྟོང་.’ For practical purposes the rendering ‘absolute,’ or ‘motionless’ might be used forསྤྲོས་, whilst the wordདབྱིངས་might be rendered by ‘principle, state, region.’ If occurring in a specimen of the more technically and theoretically philosophical literature of Northern Buddhism, a more precise rendering and more careful definition might be required. Taking the followingརྟོགས་as ‘knowledge, perception, cognition,’ then the whole expression becomes in English ‘the knowledge of the motionless state (or[57]region, or principle)’ or—more pedantic but perhaps truer—‘the knowledge of (that is: pertaining to, inherent in) the monadic state.’ Other equivalents: ‘a state of stillness, the still state’ and, mystically, ‘the wisdom of the silence.’One of my informants, the dge rgan, knows of a colloquial use ofསྤྲོས་=རེ་= ‘hopeless,’ but my second authority ignores this use. The following two examples were given:འདི་, ‘it is labour lost (hopeless) to [try and] know this.’ You cannot hope to know this. (N.B.—Note the elliptic construction ‘hopeless to know’ for ‘to try to know, to study and so come to know.’)ཡི་, ‘As he does not even know how to read well (or properly), it is hopeless (lost labour), for him to (or: how can he?) study grammar’(Not: how can he pretend toknowgrammar?).N.B.—The Tibetan does not ‘read’ but ‘reads books’; he does not ‘write’ but ‘writes letters,’ he does not ‘go’ but ‘goes to the shop.’ In short, he is a very objective being.ཕ་,8. ‘Father.’ It is not clear why in the same line the same person is referred to by the ordinaryཕ་and then by the honorificཡབ་, unlessཡབ་is a standard expression which cannot be changed whilst the firstཕ་is used for the sake of variety in expression.The same double use of the honorific and ordinary terms for father occurs in Laufer’s ‘Ein Sühngedicht der Bonpo’, line 41.ཕྱོགས་, 5. In expressions likeལྡིང་theབའི་is explained as equivalent toསའི་, ‘of the place where.’ So the phraseམི་should be understood as ‘towards where the man has gone, to the place where the man has gone,’འགྲོ་.[58]ཕྱོགས་, 14. Here verb, infinitive, connected with Gendundub in instrumental (agentive) or genitival relation: to turn, move towards, to tend to.ཕྱོགས་, 46. Lit. ‘to fall aside,’ but here, as applied to the mind (ཡིད་), simply to be deflected, to go astray, to fall, sin (mentally), to deviate from the right path (religion, the right), to lapse (from virtue), etc.འཕུང་, 29. ‘To wish the ruin, the undoing, destructionof, to be bent on the perdition of, to wish evil to’ =མེད་.བྱང་, 17. The bodhimaṇḍa, according to the Dicts. historically and geographically Gaya, where the Buddha attained nirvāṇa. Here, however, it means rather the state implied by the locality, ‘illumination, the essence of purification, final sainthood’ literally ‘the quintessence of bodhi.’ In Christian language Golgotha (or the Cross) is similarly used in a metaphorical sense. In living Tibetanབྱང་(bodhi) is not understood as ‘wisdom’ but as ‘saintliness, purity.’ There is, it seems, a confusion in the group of Tibetan [and Chinese!] renderings of bodhimaṇḍa (bodhi-essence) and bodhi-maṇḍala (bodhi-round), and their synonyms, a confusion which may already have its origin in India itself. The treatment of these words in the Dicts. is not satisfactory. J. and S. Ch. D. give s.v.བྱང་this word as synonymous withརྡོ་, Vajrāsana, but underསྙིང་S. Ch. D. has the entry:‘བྱང་, the spirit of the Bodhisattva, i.e. Buddhahood.’ This is the sense meant in our passage, though it may be doubted whetherབྱང་really stands here forབྱང་as S. Ch. D. interprets it instead of only for bodhi. The Mahāvyutpatti (A.S.B., p. 44) has Bodhimaṇḍa =བྱང་, and Cs. translates, ‘the essence of sanctity[59]or holiness (name of the holy place at Gaya).’ I yet believe that here a confusion of maṇḍa and maṇḍala must be thought of. J. has, s.v.སྙིང་(p. 198b) ‘snyiṅ-po-byaṅ c̀ʽúb- (or byaṅ-c̀ʽub-snyiṅ-po)-la mc̀ʽís-pa, to become BuddhaThgy.’ Rockhill, Life of the Buddha, p. 35, mentions the form byang-tchub-kyi-snying-po as the equivalent for bodhimaṇḍa, and though Foucaux in the alphabetical index to his translation of the Lalita Vistāra gives only the form withoutཀྱི་, yet in his text, in the places I verified (p. 239, five times), there is theཀྱི་as with Rockhill.In mentioning the wordརྡོ་a special reference must be made to the elementགདན་, commonly translated as bolster, cushion, seat, rug, etc. J. is very detailed about it. He has: ‘a bolster, or seat composed of several quilts or cushions, put one upon the other (five for common people, nine for people of quality).’ Desg. simply ‘stuffed cushion.’ S. Ch. D. more general ‘a low seat, a divan, cushion, a bolster.’ As to J.’s definition my authorities declare that this may be so perhaps ‘on the Ladakh side,’ but is certainly not so in Tibet and in the Darjeeling district. They do not know about the details of five and nine cushions. They take the meaning far wider than bolster or cushion. They say that anything used to support anything or to seat anybody may be calledགདན་, it may be a sheet of cloth, a carpet, a blanket, a cushion, a bolster, a seat in general, anything used for lying or sitting down on. The word has a meaning exactly opposite to the English ‘cover’ and can consequently be used in as many varied senses as the latter. Etymologically—if the root ofགདན་, as seems probable, means ‘to support’—the word would mean something like ‘bearer,’ ‘basis,’ ‘bed,’ ‘floor,’ ‘upholder.’ We might think of ‘underwear,’though in English that particular word is used with quite another association of ideas. In typography there is a word ‘underlay’ which corresponds exactly to the meaning ofགདན་. The word ‘bedplate’, used in engineering, comes also near to it. It will be easily seen how an applied meaning as ‘cushion, bolster,’ if given as the general sense of the word, would in many cases be totally inadequate. The line of associations to which ‘cushion’ belongs, and the line of associations to which ‘seat, support, underlay’ belong, intersect at only one[60]point and for the rest have nothing in common. A table-cloth may be calledགདན་because the food rests on it (ལྟོ་is used in this sense; lit. something like ‘food-sheet, that on which the food rests’). In a ritual it is prescribed that theགདན་for the offerings should be a spotless piece of white cotton or other cloth, calledམཆོད་, ‘offering sheet,’ ‘that on which the offerings rest.’ Bell hasས་for ‘carpet’; small cushion, placed on chairཁ་; large cushion on groundའབོལ་. This is a most interesting example illustrating the fact that it is strictly necessary first to find out the root-idea of a Tibetan word before translating it by words representing the incidental applications of that root-idea. Whoever has handled Chinese dictionaries knows how specially necessary this is in studying Indo-Chinese languages. The Sanskrit equivalent, āsana, is derived from the root ās, to sit or lie, but the Tib. root seems different.Further notes onགདན་.Cf.J.མ་(pr. magdàn), ground, basis, foundation, p. 409a. Bell, apronཔང་.Cs., Grammar, p. 170, l. 10, translatesགདན་as couch (stuffed seat). Lewin, Manual, p. 123, first word last line: ‘mat, seat’, in the same sentence taken over from Cs.’s Grammar. Two synonyms for J.’sམ་, quoted above, areརྨང་andགཞི་. Bell also has ‘mat.’བྱམས་, 50. Seems simply an amplified form for ‘love.’ Difficult to be translated exactly, Sk. maitrīkaruṇā, may be treated as a compound, loving-kindness, love and kindness, or pity. On the question of karuṇā, especially, the learned have descanted profusely.བླ་(ན་)མེད་(པ་), 52. Sk.अनुत्तर, unsurpassed, unexcelled, unrivalled, supreme, incomparable, most high, highest. Not specially entered in J. but illustrated by an example s.v.བླ་.[61]Altogether absent in Desg. S. Ch. D.བླ་, ‘to those who are supreme, or to the followers of the Anuttara school.’ A curious entry! See S. Ch. D. also s.v.བླ་.བླ་, 3. Here perhaps better ‘teacher’ than ‘priest’ or ‘superior.’ The word may be here equally well taken in the singular as in the plural, but the latter is perhaps more likely.བླ་, seeབླ་.བློ་,47. ‘Straight, upright, righteous mind.’ J.’s entry is a little vague. I think he takesཐུགས་in his exampleཐུགས་as an indication thatགཟུ་is also a honorific form. That, however, is not the case. Compare also the quotation from Cs. in S. Ch. D.,གཟུ་‘to be impartial and straightforward, to be on the side of honesty.’ I don’t find this example in Schmidt. Desg. ‘straight, upright, (élevé,) just, honest.’ According to the above the word is an adj.and the translation of the passage becomes ‘whether you persevere in a straight (righteous) mind.’ The verbགནས་has then to be taken as ‘to hold, adhere to, persevere in (an opinion,etc.).’ If however, we should find thatགཟུ་can also be sbst. ‘righteousness,’‘straightness,’ (not in any Dict.), thenགནས་would have the other meaning of ‘to dwell, reside’ and the phrase would have to be rendered ‘whether the mind (continues to) dwell(s) in righteousness.’ S. Ch. D. rendersཐུགས་as ‘honest mind,’ but the sense honest versus dishonest seems not quite applicable in our passage. J.is vague here. My informants gave the above definition ‘straight, upright’ as their own but felt afterwards vague about this example which, though they had framed it, they could not vouch for:མི་, ‘see whether the man keeps straight or not.’ The framer honestly confessed that whilst we were discussing the word he had been influenced by S. Ch. D.’sDict. in coining the sentence; a[62]confession so instructive for idiom-verifiers that I think it worth while to record it here.Finally, Desg. supports S. Ch.’s second meaning ‘witness’ forགཟུ་.He, however, does notgiveS. Ch.’s formགཟུ་. The ordinary word for witness is, of course,དཔང་(པོ་). It is characteristic of S. Ch. D. that he copies J.’s extract from Sch. underགཟུ་‘witness, mediator,’ but then immediately adds his own individual interpretation which not only is likely to be correct, but which also nullifies and contradicts the previous entry which he copied immediately above. He himself says, ‘an honest and truthful witness.’ It often occurs that S. Ch. D. brings modifications, extensions and even corrections to J.’s statements, but at the same time he copies J. far too slavishly and so contradicts himself in the pages of his own dictionary. Whether meanings like ‘reliable, straightforward, correct, proper,’ etc., have to be attached toགཟུ་is as yet uncertain.བློ་, 8. In Sk. Sumatikīrti. According to the Sk. dictionaries the primary sense of ‘sumati’ is ‘benevolence.’ In present-day Tibetanབློ་is rather ‘good-natured, kindhearted,’ as againstདྲིན་‘benevolent.’ So the Tibetan name has to be rendered as Good-nature-fame, or Famous good-nature, the personal name of Tsoṅ kʽa pa.དབང་(མ་)སོང་, 22. (Not) fallen under the power (of).…དབྱངས་, 54 and colophon. This word seems here hardly to mean ‘song, singing tune,’ but rather ‘melody, melodiousness, sweetness,’ etc. This tallies to a certain extent with Csoma’s translation of the title of list LXI (p. 86) of the Mahāvyutpatti, ‘Names of the 60 sorts (or divisions) of melody or melodious voices (or vocal sound).’ I take it that this list refers to what is mentioned here in our text. How these 60 branches of melody are exactly to be understood I have not been able to ascertain. The opinions of Pʽun Tsʽogs on the point are as follows. The Buddha’s voice had such a[63]variety of (magic?) qualities, sixty in number, that they made him understood by all beings, whatever their own languages. The Buddha was in this way simultaneously understood by men, devas, nāgas, etc. In proffering this explanation Pʽun Tsʽogs takesཡན་to mean rather ‘kind’ than ‘branch.’ As an alternative he suggests thatདབྱངས་is an adjective synonymous withརིང་༌, ‘high’ (as applied to voice or rather tone) [or perhaps long, lengthened?] and that thenདབྱངས་would mean a ‘variety’ of tones or modulations. I myself am inclined to think that if the Mahāvyutpatti list is not referred to, we have here to do with some scholastic scheme of rhetorics, though if so understood the exact value ofདབྱངས་is not clear and certainly not sufficiently defined in the Dicts.(Cf.S. Ch. D. s.v.ཟབ་(p. 1092a),ཟབ་=मन्द्र,मन्द्रक, ‘a deep voice, a musical tone.’ See alsoགདུང་.)དབྱིངས་seeསྤྲོས་.དབྱིངས་seeསྤྲོས་.འབར་seeདཔལ་.འབོལ་seeབྱང་.འབྲོག་, 6. Here ‘solitude, wilderness’ and so =རི་=དགོན་, ‘monastery.’ Not associated with any of the meanings connected with ‘pasturing.’Cf.S. Ch. D.འབྲོག་s.v.འབྲོག་.The famous Galdan monastery was erected on a site calledའབྲོག་. See S. Ch. D., The Monasteries of Tibet,J.A.S.B., Vol. I,N.S.(1905), p. 108.མི་seeགླུད་.[64]མི་seeགླུད་.མི་seeགླུད་.མིག་seeཡངས་.མིག་seeཡངས་.མེད་seeའཕུང་.མྱུར་, 52. J.མྱུར་adj., andམྱུར་adv., ‘quick(ly), swift(ly).’ In Mil. adj.མྱུར་. Desg.མྱུར་andམྱུར་(ཉིད་), subst. ‘promptness,’ andམྱུར་‘swift.’ As adv.མྱུར་, orདུ་, orགྱིས་. S. Ch. D.མྱུར་, verb, ‘to hurry by, to pass on swiftly,’ (exampleདུས་, ‘time quickly runs away.’ [=tempus fugit]), and adv. quickly. Further adv.མྱུར་. Some interesting compounds in S. Ch. D.:མྱུར་‘a dancing woman,’ etc. Note the expressionཅི་‘as speedily as possible,’ J.According to my informants S. Ch. D.’s exampleདུས་is not good Tibetan. It should either beདུས་(orབ་)ཡིན་, lit. ‘time is quick,’ or with another meaning also ‘the time is near’ (i.e. at hand,comingquickly), or againདུས་, ‘the quick time.’ Time quickly runs away, they say, should be expressed thus:དུས་.Cf.also J., Desg.:སྨྱུར་.མྱུར་seeམྱུར་.ཙམ་, 38. Here: ‘after only, as a result of only, in consequence[65]of only, mere, simple.’ Butཙམ་has also the meanings: as soon as, simply on (hearing), on the slightest (reproach, etc.) with a more prominent stress on the time element, instantaneousness.རྩེ་seeབརྩེ་.རྩེ་seeབརྩེ་.རྩེ་seeབརྩེ་.རྩོད་seeགཤགས་.བརྩེ་, 55.བརྩེ་=བརྩེ་, vb. ‘to love’ sbst. ‘love, kindness, affection,’ etc. Desg. has also aབརྩེ་, ‘acidity,’ which is also known to my informants. Hisབརྩེ་‘bodyguard of the Dalai Lama’ is held, by one of my informants, to be a mistake forརྩེ་(pronounce tsī-dung), the monk-employees of the Tibetan government (and in a narrower sense: the clerical staff, the clerks and secretaries amongst them) as contrasted with the lay-employees of noble birth (not officials in general as with S. Ch. D. 656a, but only those belonging to the nobility) who are calledདྲུང་. The wordརྩེ་in the compound is said to be derived from the designation of the Potala palace where many of the government offices are located, and which is calledརྩེ་, the Potala peak, but most commonly, by the people, brieflyརྩེ་, the peak. This explanation of tsī-dung as a general class of lama government-employees is wider than that given in Waddell’s table in his ‘Lhasaand its Mysteries,’ p. 165. See alsoརྩེ་, ‘chief clerk or secretary’ in S. Ch. D. s.v.རྩེ་(1013b), the latter being the special name of the former’s hat.བརྩེ་seeབརྩེ་.[66]བརྩོན་, 24. Equalsབརྩོན་(orགྱུར་) ‘to apply oneself, exert oneself, put one’s best energy into something’ =སྙིང་, ‘to be zealous, diligent.’ Alsoབརྩོན་(བྱེད་,རྩོམ་).ཚུལ་, 28. Here ‘conduct, behaviour’ pure and simple, without allusion to theཚུལ་, ‘religious law, discipline, monastic rules.’ཚུལ་seeཆོས་.མཚན་, 53. Here technically the (thirty-two) characteristic signs or marks of a ‘Great Man,’ the mahāpurusha. Mahāvyutpatti (Ed. A. S. B.), LXIII, p. 92. De Harlez, ‘Vocabulaire Bouddhique Sanscrit-Chinois,’ no. 3. Schiefner, ‘Triglotte,’ no. 3. See de la Vallée Poussin, ‘Bouddhisme,’ pp. 241 et seq.The transition of meaning of the wordམཚན་in modern Tibetan in such expressions asམཚན་, ‘a holy lama,’ orམཚན་, ‘a woman of good appearance and virtues’ (S. Ch. D.) should not be overlooked in the interpretation of our passage for its psychological value. See alsoདཔེ་.མཚན་seeམཚན་.མཚན་, 53. This is a compound substantive of an elliptic nature, and means: ‘the [well known 32 primary] characteristics [and the 80] beauties [of Buddhas]’=མཚན་(བཟང་). See alsoམཚན་andདཔེ་.མཚན་, 30.མཚན་is here hon. ofམིང་‘name,’ and the compound, literally ‘name grasping,’ means ‘ambition, thirst for fame, glory,’ etc. (D.eerzucht, roemzucht), perhaps even ‘vainglory, pride, conceit, egotism,’ i.e. the hugging of one’s own name and fame.[67]མཚན་, 7. To invoke by name, to address a prayer to by name. Applied to both spiritual and human beings.རྒྱལ་, ‘to address the king, speak to the king, direct, appeal to the king,’ but always by calling him by his name. ‘O king help me’ is not a proper example ofམཚན་, but ‘O, thou, King George, help me!’ would be one. To spiritual beings their names may be expressed in a paraphrase, metaphor or symbol, but they must be expressed in some way. The prayers to superhuman beings may be twofold, either an address containing requests, etc., or a mere litany of names without any further subject matter attached to them. The one is a recitation of names, the other a direct address by name; the one a litany proper, the other an invocation or prayer.འཚོལ་, 19. The formམི་was paraphrased to me asའཚོལ་=འཚོལ་= simple future, ‘not going to seek’ (D.niet zullende zoeken).ཞིབ་seeརྟོག་.ཞེ་seeཁྲེལ་.ཞེན་seeཁྲེལ་.གཞན་(པ་)འཛིན་seeརང་(པ་)འཛིན་.གཞུང་seeཁྲེལ་.གཞུང་seeསྒོ་.གཞུངས་seeཁྲེལ་.གཞེས་seeམགུར་.བཞག་seeརྒྱན་.ཟབ་, 10, 55.ཟབ་=ཟབ་. J. vb., adj., subst. and adv. ‘to be deep, deep, deeply, depth’; adj.ཟབ་andམོ་. Desg.[68]ཟབ་andམོ་adj. only. S. Ch. D.ཟབ་vb. ‘to make deep, to deepen,’ also adj. and sbst.; further inཔོ་andམོ་only adj. Note the additional meaning ‘dense’ (alsoཟབས་‘thickness’) in S. Ch. D., not in the two others. My teachers deny thatཟབ་can be a verb ‘to deepen,’ or ‘to make deep.’ཟབ་must also be understood as ‘profound’ (wisdom, teaching, etc.). Seeཆོས་, alsoདབྱངས་, alsoཐུགས་, etc.ཟབ་seeཐུགས་, etc.གཟུ་seeབློ་.གཟུ་seeབློ་.གཟུ་seeབློ་.འུ་seeསྡུག་.ཡང་seeདྭངས་.ཡངས་, 55. =ཡངས་orཔོ་, ‘wide, large.’ Desg. also ‘ample, abundant.’ S. Ch. D. onlyཡངས་. Note J. ‘*mig-yaṅ*’, C., W. liberal, generous, bounteous,’ but Desg.མིག་‘wide-eyes: envious, covetous, greedy.’ In S. Ch. D.ཡངས་=विशालाक्षी, ‘large-eyes, a handsome woman, name of a Goddess.’Cf.also in the same dict.མིག་, ‘beautiful-eyes, a very handsome woman, a nymph’s name.’ As to J.’s mig-yaṅ, one of my teachers holds with him as against Desg., the other does not know the expression.ཡངས་seeཡངས་.ཡན་seeདབྱངས་.ཡབ་(གསུམ༌), 8, 15, 16, 18. ‘Father (and) sons,’ or, as Csoma already has it in his Grammar, p. 28, ‘teacher and[69]pupils.’ With the additionགསུམ་‘three,’ and also as here without this addition, a very well known appellation of Tsoṅ kʽa pa and his two pupils (his spiritual sons). It is likely that to the Tibetan mind the expression means something like ‘spiritual family (of three),’ namely of one father and two sons. See introductory remarks. Free renderings like ‘spiritual trio’ or ‘teacher triad’ and the like are apt enough for practical purposes.Cf.an expression like the following:ཁྱོད་, ‘where have you two, father and son, come from?’ (But the sentence has also the second meaning ‘where do you live? where is your home?’).In the light of the above, has the note on p. 98 of the J.A.S.B., Vol. II, N.S., no. 4, 1906, in Satis Chandra Vidyābhūṣana’s article on ‘the Gyantse rock inscription’ to be rectified? My informants do not think that the expression is used among the Sakyapas in the sense given in that note.ཡིན་seeཀྱང་.ཡུས་seeསྡུག་.གཡུལ་seeའགྱེ་.གཡུལ་seeའགྱེ་.རང་seeདྭངས་.རང་(པ་)འཛིན་, 26. This expression must here not be understood as ‘to follow one’s own teaching.’རང་is here not one compound word. The meaning is: they who themselves follow the teaching, as against theགཞན་, the others who (also) follow the teaching. Seeགཞན་(པ་)འཛིན་, 27.རི་seeའབྲོག་andགངས་.རི་seeའབྲོག་andགངས་.རིག་seeམཁྱེན་.[70]རིག་seeགོལ་.རིང་seeདབྱངས་.རུས་seeདྭངས་.རེ་seeདོན་.རེ་seeསྤྲོས་.ལན་seeགཤགས་.ལམ་seeགོལ་.ལམ་seeགོལ་.ལམ་, 31. ‘The high, elevated road,’ has a religious connotation, the proper road that leads to heaven after death, the ‘narrow’ road of Christianity. See below.ལམ་, 48. The straight road (metaphorically), the road of righteousness, of straightness of mind.Cf.S. Ch. D. s.v.དྲང་, p. 649a. The meaning of this expression and that ofལམ་, in line 31 (see above), are quite different. The other is the highroad (towards heaven), the road of a high standard of moral conduct.ལམ་, 9. ‘Steps on the path,’ ‘degrees of advance,’ ‘steps towards perfection,’ is the short title of many mystical writings and especially of one by Tsoṅ kʽa pa, to which the words may allude here without specially designating it. In this place the meaning does not seem to be a specific work but merely ‘(religious) instructions, teaching in general.’ Theལམ་are here, according to my oral information, to be taken as the two halves or divisions of the Kandjur which is commonly divided intoམདོ་andསྔགས་, sūtra and tantra (or mantra, or dhāraṇī). In this division theརྒྱུད་or tantra section is calledསྔགས་, whilst all the rest, properly subdivided[71]in six divisions, is taken together asམདོ་, of which the realམདོ་or sūtra-division (the 5th in sequence in the Kandjur) is only one. Concerning Tsoṅ kʽa pa’s study of the ‘Sūtras and Tantras’ see S. Ch. D., ‘Contributions, etc. on Tibet,’ VI, in J.A.S.B., 1882, Vol. LI, Part I, no. 1, p. 53. J., s.v.བསྟན་, quotes aབསྟན་: ‘with Urgyan Padma, etc., the same as mdoi and sṅags kyi lam, v. mdo extr.’ This is seemingly the same as our expression.ལུས་, 42. J. has =སེམས་, ‘beings, creatures,’ but may not the idea rather be allembodiedcreatures; with the etymological sense still potent in connection with the Buddhist reincarnation theory? S. Ch. D. gives aལུས་=གྲོང་= ‘town, city,’ which seems rather to point to the meaning ‘man’ forལུས་. My informants don’t feel quite certain whether to include the five other classes of beings (including animals) amongst theལུས་, but are somewhat inclined to interpret the word asམི་, ‘man,’ in general.ཤ་seeཀྱུ་.ཤར་, title, 1. The author writes his poem in a place to the west of a snow-capped mountain, to the east of which the Galdan monastery is situated. See notes onའབྲོག་,དགེ་andགངས་. Which mountain or mountain chain is meant must be left undecided, even if granting that modern cartography could show it if identified. Local tradition, however, would most likely be able to point out a particular mountain.ཤེས་seeམཁྱེན་.ཤོས་seeརིན་.[72]གཤགས་seeགཤགས་.གཤགས་, 38. This expression cannot yet be explained with certainty. It may be taken here to mean, literally, ‘to send out (distribute, give, put forward) justice, right,’ but the exact idiomatic value of the phrase remains to be determined. It is not in the Dicts., and unknown to my informants. We may take the possible values of the expression as three, viz.: 1.གཤགས་=རྩོད་=གཤགས་= ‘to dispute, argue, contend with words.’ This seems the same expression as S. Ch. D.’sཁ་‘to hold controversy,’ p. 1248. (Perhaps also ‘to challenge, to be challenged to dispute.’) 2. =ལན་‘to be defeated in argument, in dispute, to be silenced in dispute.’
རྟོགས་seeསྤྲོས་.
ལྟ་51. This word seems here to mean ‘vision, illumination, (direct mystical) contemplation, the seeing face to face.’ In our passage it is the direct vision (the ‘vision direct’), proper to, inherent in, characteristic of, belonging to, the knowledge pertaining to the actionless (or undifferentiated) state, the ‘passive-state-knowledge-vision.’ See alsoསྤྲོས་.
ལྟག་seeསྒོ་.
ལྟོ་seeཁྲེལ་.
ལྟོ་seeགདན་.
ལྟོབ་seeཁྲེལ་.
སྟོང་seeསྤྲོས་.
བརྟག་seeརྟོག་.
བརྟག་seeརྟོག་.
བརྟགས་seeརྟོག་.
བསྟན་(གཉིས་) seeལམ་.
བསྟན་, 23. ‘To follow, to keep to the teaching; to be or remain true, faithful to the teaching, to hold fast to it, to stick to it.’ See alsoརྟེན་.[45]
ཐབས་seeའདུལ་.
ཐམས་, lit. ‘Great-all-knowing-clergy-perfection-good-glory,’ corresponds to a Sk. Mahā-sarva-jña-saṁgha-siddhi-shrī-bhadra. See for literature about him: Schulemann,Geschichte der Dalailamas, pp. 91–92, note 11, and S. Ch. D.: The Hierarchy of the Dalai Lamas, J.A.S.B., Vol. LXXIII, Pt. I, extra No., p. 81.
ཐུགས་, 55. This is here, in my opinion, not a sort of Hottentottenpotentatentantenattentater-like formation. I take theཟབ་to refer to theཐུགས་, a profound and wide mind, whilst theམཁྱེན་only refers to theགཏེར་, the treasury of omniscient mercy. It is not likely that the qualities of width and depth form part of an enumeration of which the remaining items are love and knowledge or even (as a compound) omniscient-mercy. See the various component words in this glossary.
ཐུགས་seeམཁྱེན་.
ཐུགས་seeབློ་.
མཐེབ་seeཀྱུ་.
མཐོན་seeལམ་.
འཐབ་seeའགྱེ་.
དག་, 43. J.’s entry under this entry is as follows: “དག་(པའི༌)སྣང་(བ་)Schr.‘good opinion’ (?), prob.: a pure, sound view or knowledgeGlr.; inMil.it has a similar meaning.” He adds an oral sentence: “*dhag-náṅ jón-wa* C. to lead a holy life.” (sic. jón = jóṅ?) Schroeter has (135b): “དག་, a good opinion, a good conception of any thing, a conceit, a thought.” [Based on an Italian ‘concetto’?] He has two further entries ‘དག་, to form a good[46]opinion of any individual,’ and ‘དག་(read:སྦྱོང་)བ་, to form a good opinion, or to conceive well of any one.’
In our passage we are inclined to takeསྣང་asསྣང་, as ‘view, thought, idea, conception,’ etc., andསྦྱོང་= ‘to exercise, practise, perform’, or even ‘to entertain, cherish (thoughts).’དག་we take asདག་, ‘pure’—the connection with thought not the opposite of false, erroneous, but of bad, cruel, unkind. So here the expression seems to mean ‘to think with goodwill, with kindness (of others),’not the colloquial ‘to have a good opinion of, to think well of.’ To think ‘good’ is here the opposite of to think ‘evil,’ but the idiomatic value of the expression ‘to think well of’ (as the opposite of ‘to think poorly of’) would make the latter rendering misleading. The real value, then, of the expression as used in this passage, seems to be: ‘to think good, kind thoughts of,’ i.e. purely, or saintly in the sense of kindly, lovingly, benevolently, in a friendly manner, with sympathy, but not, as J. seems to suggest, intellectually correct. We may expand the rendering into ‘with a holy mind, with thoughts of saintliness, thinking saintly thoughts.’ Compare J.’s colloquial phrase quoted above. So, as to the interpretation of the line in which the compound occurs, we take it that it means to enjoin, in contrast with the previous line in which it is said that beings in general must be thought of with kindness, that religious people (instead of the mere laymen) must be thought of in a still better, higher manner, namely with holiness and saintliness.
One of my informants was first inclined to takeདག་as ‘to teach, to preach the true knowledge.’ Though he later on sided with the explanation adopted above, the opinion should be recorded, but it should be added that a second informant rejected this view of the first one.
Attention should be drawn to the meaning ofསྣང་, ‘the soul’ (with spellingsསྣང་andནང་;དག་,རྟགས་,བརྟག་,སྟག་, s. J.). Also the curious expression ‘to be indifferent’སྣང་, S. Ch. D.; andསྣང་, Bell. These expressions not in Desg.[47]
དག་seeདག་.
དང་seeདཔེ་.
དྭངས་, 27. Adverb: ‘purely, first class, first rate.’ Not in J. but in Desg., yet here in a slightly different application. About S. Ch. D.’s ‘gravy’ and ‘relish’ see below.དྭངས་with the genitive seems to mean ‘acme’, ‘essence’, the typical embodiment of something, like in expressions as ‘a first class liar, a thief pure and simple, the very devil, satan himself, nothing short of an angel, a saint inpropria persona.’དགྲ་, ‘the very enemy.’ In the colloquialདྭངས་,ཡང་andཨང་may have the same meaning. The latter is something like pidgin-English ‘number one’ or the kitchen Malay equivalent ‘nommer satu.’ Other equations areགཅིག་(orཔུ་), alsoརང་, the Anglo-Indian ‘pukka.’
The wordདྭངས་may mean soup or gravy in the following case, when there is question of singling out the liquid portion from a mixture of broth and liquid. The primary meaning seems in that case rather to be liquid as contrasted to solid.ང་= give me (only) the liquid (not the solid stuff), pour out to me (only) the liquid. But thisདྭངས་has no finalམ་. A common word for soup which is not in the Dicts. is ‘rü thang’, probablyརུས་, orཐང་alone. This latter word is in J. with the meaning of ‘potion’, a medical term, and in S. Ch. D. as ‘potion, plain decoction, or mixture to be drunk after a medicinal pill has been taken.’ The wordརུས་means originally bone-soup, but has acquired also the more general meaning ‘soup.’ཐང་can be applied to meat-soup,ཤ་, butཤ་cannot be used. It might be thatཐང་andདྭངས་are really the same word.[48]
དད་seeསྐྱེ་.
དམ་, 30. Might here, in connection with ambition, be translated as ‘fierce,’ an extension of its primary meaning ‘strong.’
དུག་seeསྐྱོ་.
དུག་seeསྐྱོ་.
དུགས་seeསྐྱོ་.
དུས་, 24. For ever, always.
དུས་seeམྱུར་.
དོན་seeདོན་.
དོན་, 40. ‘Exceedingly stupid, meaningless, useless, silly, senseless.’ The particleརེ་has an emphatic value, but it is difficult to define its precise scope in English. Oral information is vague on the subject, and seems to point towards a possibility that theརེ་is a syllable of exclamation or turns the expression, of which it forms part, into an exclamation.དོན་. ‘Oh, how silly!’ An equivalent isདོན་=དོན་.དོན་alone is not used, andདོན་demands a finalརེད་orཡིན་.
S. Ch. D. (502a) translatesཁྱོད་as: ‘I pity you, ye Tibetans’; perhaps better ‘What a pity, O ye Tibetans.’ Compare the list of words with wedged-inརེ་in J. s.v.རེ་p. 533b.
དྲིན་, 16. Alsoདྲིན་, adjective ‘kind.’ According to S. Ch. D. also ‘very kind, great boon, and the great or greatest benefactor.’ S. Ch. D.’s wording is unsatisfactorily indefinite and his examples, taken from J., fit the text badly.[49]J. does not define the combinationདྲིན་though he has an exampleབཀའ་with the meaning ‘greatest benefit.’ Two colloquial examples are:དྲིན་, ‘the two (very) kind parents,’ andམི་, that man is (very) kind.
In formདྲིན་is a comparative, ‘kinder.’ཆེན་is one of those adjectives which have a comparative and superlative of their own as:
Great.Many.Good.Small.Bad.positiveཆེན་མང་ཡག་ཆུང་སྡུག་comparativeཆེ་མང་(orང་)ཡག་ཆུང་སྡུག་superlativeཆེ་མང་ཡག་ཆུང་སྡུག་
In practice, however, as shown by the above examples, the form is used for an ordinary quality in the positive degree though implying an amount of abundance or fullness of the quality referred to. Bell (p. 33) and Hannah (p. 129) have described these degrees of comparison. Short and partial notes in S. Ch. D.’s grammar (p. 31) and Henderson (p. 23). See J. Dict. s.v.ཤོས་, p. 564.དྲིན་, J. 262b(as equal toདྲིན་) is not acknowledged by my informants.
དྲིན་is objected to by my teachers because they say it never occurs alone but requires a finalབ་, except in the superlative formདྲིན་which, of course, is another thing. See, however, S. Ch. D.བཀའ་, p. 654, J. p. 13. As to theཆེན་orཆེན་in many Tibetan adjectives, this is better regarded as an enclitic particle, exactly corresponding to the English termination -ful. As little as the English -ful really[50]means ‘full’, does the Tibetanཆེན་(པོ་) as a termination of adjectives really mean ‘great.’
Bell hasདྲིན་for ‘kind.’
The wordདྲིན་and its uses merit a separate inquiry. In this place we shall limit ourselves to stating that the entry gratitude (S. Ch. D., Ramsay, Schroeter) seems incorrect. The confusion has most likely come about because aདྲིན་is an answer to kindness (return gift, etc.) and sobetokensgratitude.
དྲིན་(པོ་) seeདྲིན་.
དྲིན་, 21. Ellipse for: according to (or, in the measure of) whatever kindness (you have shown to me).
དྲིན་seeདྲིན་.
དྲུང་seeབརྩེ་.
གདན་seeབྱང་.
གདུག་, 35. The three Dicts. are not at one as to the exact shades of meaning ofགདུག་.
J. has, subst.: ‘anything hurtful, or any injury, mischief, harm, done.’
Desg., subst.: ‘dommage, perte, mal.’
S. Ch. D. no substantive.
J., adj. (=གདུག་༌), ‘noxious, mischievous, dangerous.’ Desg., adj. onlyགདུག་, notགདུག་alone: nuisible (noxious), and aགདུག་=གདོག་, deteriorated.
S. Ch. D., adj.:གདུག་, vicious, mischievous, deleterious, poisonous.
In J. and S. Ch. D.further applied meanings as: wild, hideous (screams); ferocity (in beasts), deleterious (smell), fierce (woman).[51]
In our passage the expressionགདུག་may be rendered by malign, wicked, evil, evil-minded, spiteful, with sufficient correctness.
གདུག་seeགདུག་.
གདུག་seeགདུག་.
གདུག་seeགདུག་.
གདུང་seeགདུང་.
གདུང་, Colophon. J. renders this word as ‘a song expressive of longing or of grief, an elegy (Mil.)’; but this definition is not quite typical of our present poem. S. Ch. D. has ‘a song of longing grief.’ J.’s exampleམོས་, whereགདུང་means (spiritual) love, seems to point out to a meaning more apposite here. So we would prefer a translation: paean, hymn of praise (D.lofzang), or psalm instead of elegy. Other words to be considered: song of thanksgiving, memorial song, lament, plaintive song (jammerklacht?), memorial verses, anin memoriam, a memorial, etc. See alsoདབྱངས་.
The dge rgan, however, explains the word indeed in J.’s manner, but states that the longing and grief are not the worldly sentiments but religious ones. The longing and grief are concerned with the sorrows of the world and a yearning after spiritual realities, but not with the memory of the three teachers mentioned in the poem. If this is true, the above hypothesis is likely to be a wrong one and in my translation of the colophon the words there used should in that case rather run ‘as a song of yearning for the higher life’ (cf.the G. ‘Weltschmerz’).
གདོག་seeགདུག་.
འདུལ་, 37. Steps, measures, to subdue or tame, etc.འདུལ་, to take such measures.[52]
འདོགས་seeརྒྱན་.
འདྲེན་, 20. (Fut.དྲང་). If theལྕགས་(seeཀྱུ་) is here to be thought of as a goad (like the one of the mahout) then the verb should be understood as sub J. 2, ‘to conduct, lead, guide’ (by prodding). My teachers take it as ‘to draw,’ or ‘pull.’ Pictorial representations might decide the point. My teachers think rather of a rod with a hook at the end, like the episcopal staff, and not of angling with a fishhook or prodding with a goad.
སྡུག་, 33. Or simplyཡུས་, here: ‘the loss of temper, wrath, angry explosion or outburst.’ This sense is not given in the Dicts., though J.’s 4, ‘ardour, fervour, transport’ comes near it.སྡུག་is the same asཡུས་, but for the fact that the former word shows the cause, an outburst on account of trouble, vexation, worry, pain, sorrow. (སྡུག་)ཡུས་(སྟོན་orབྱེད་)པ་= to show (or to lose) one’s temper, to flare up, to burst out, to break loose, to explode in anger, wrath.ཕ་, ‘don’t show temper to your parents.’དཔོན་, ‘don’t lose your temper before (or with) the master.’དེ་, ‘to-day he has entirely lost his temper before (or to) me.’ It is synonymous, in this sense, with the wordའུ་which is also dealt with inadequately in the Dicts. q.v.མི་, ‘don’t lose your temper to anyone, to whomsoever.’ཁྱོད་, ‘there is no reason (no need, or it is senseless) to lose your temper.’ (Cf.D.uitvallen, uitvaren, uitvoeteren, opstuiven, uitbarsten.)
གནམ་, 2. Either ‘as if rising towards the[53]sky,’ in which caseའདྲ་refers to all the previous words, or: as if risingwhilstin the sky, in which case theའདྲ་would only refer toསྙེག་.
གནས་seeབློ་.
མནོ་seeརྟོག་.
རྣལ་, 9. I have not received an explanation of the ‘etc.’ (སོགས་) in this place and I ignore what kind of category is alluded to here. It seems not probable that the ’18 classes of science’ can be meant, which, in the Mahāvyutpatti (Ed. M.A.S.B.), form group XXIV, p. 20. Group L, (p. 59), furnishes more likely material, but Yoga is missing in it.
སྣང་seeདག་.
དཔལ་, 56. ‘Glorious, noble,’ also ‘having abundance.’ Twice mentioned in J.’s article but not translated, perhaps because the meaning is so evident. Curious that neither Desg. nor J. specially cite this compound to which S. Ch. D. gives 7 lines, besides mentioning several combinations.
དཔལ་, 52. Is this one word?
དཔལ་, 53. ‘Glory- or splendour-burning,’ i.e. ‘to blaze with glory,’ or, more tamely, ‘to be famous, renowned, celebrated’; the latter quoted by J. from Cs. s.v.འབར་(It may also be taken as glory-spreading, i.e. getting more famous). Desg. quotes a geographical nameདཔལ་, Chinese Pienpa. The expression is not in Desg. or S. Ch. D., and in J. only as taken from Cs., so that the latter’s explanation needs verification. The literal translation ‘to blaze with glory’ fits here better.
Colloquiallyའབར་is ‘to thrive, to prosper, to do well.’འབར་, ‘he is doing well, is well-to-do, thriving.’འབར་[54]སོང་, he has become rich, has made a success of his life, has come out top dog, has made good, has become wealthy, opulent, is safe, got his ship home, has ‘got there,’ made his pile, is now a man of position. (Fr.est arrivé. D.is binnen, heeft zijn schaapjes op het drooge.)
དཔེ་, 53. Hereདཔེ་=དཔེ་orདཔེ་, technically ‘the eighty symmetrical parts, proportions, or points of beauty’(Cs., Mahāvyutpatti); or beauties, lesser signs (de Harlez); proportions (Schiefner). See the references underམཚན་andམཚན་. J. (s.v.དཔེ༌, p.327b) gives the full expression ‘the eighty physical perfections of Buddha,’དཔེ་, andདཔེ་alone ‘proportion, symmetry, beauty.’ J. has the entryདཔེ་‘symmetry, harmony, beauty (in certain phrases)’ but S. Ch. D. omits this. Our passage is an example of this use, but the syllableདཔེ་is really an abbreviation here and not a full and independent word. Desg. seems to be mistaken in saying:དཔེ་(sic, misprint forབྱད་) orམཚན་, ‘proportion, symmetry, the 80 marvels of the body of the Buddha.’ Soདཔེ་means indeed ‘symmetrical, showing 80 marvels,’ but these meanings would not be applicable toམཚན་which could only mean ‘showing the 32 signs and 80 beauties.’
For the rest Desg.’s 2nd article s.v.དཔེ་adds to J.’s data, and hisདཔེ་andདཔེ་‘custom, rule, example’ are new. In Desg. ‘custom, rule’ tally with S. Ch. D. ‘way of doing, method’ which J. has as ‘pattern, model,’ but which he translates more freely in his examples. J. s.v.བྱད་‘proportion, symmetry, beauty,’ quotes aདཔེ་from the Dzl. in the same[55]sense. According to thisདཔེ་would be equal toབྱད་which seems improbable and is denied by my informants. An example of the use ofདཔེ་is the following:དེ་, the new year’s dance of now-a-days in the monastery is in imitation of the old way, is after the ancient pattern, the old manner, follows the old example.དཔེ་is here not exactlyལུགས་‘custom’ but rather: ‘(with) the (ancient) method (as) an example.’
Note the use ofདང་in the above example as ‘old, ancient.’
དཔེ་seeསྒོ་.
དཔེ་seeདཔེ་.
དཔེ་(=བྱད་) seeདཔེ་.
དཔེ་seeདཔེ་.
དཔེ་seeདཔེ་.
སྤྲི་, 2, 5. The white cloud is a figure often occurring in Tibetan poetry. If used as an emblem of holiness or spiritual loftiness in connection with eminent persons, this expression may perhaps contain a stereotyped allusion to the name of the tenth and supreme bhūmi or stage of the Bodhisattva, the dharma-megha, ‘cloud of virtue,’ཆོས་. See Mahāvyutpatti, ed. A.S.B., p. 11. Here evidently not J.’s (336a) ‘emblem of transitoriness,’ though the point might be argued on the basis of the final remark s.v.གདུང་, see above.
སྤྲོས་, 51. This word corresponds according to S. Ch. D. to a Sk.nishprapañca(orapañca,aprapañca) which in Macdonell’s Sk. Dict. is rendered by ‘unevolved, exempt from[56]multiformity.’ We may, therefore, think of expressions like ‘the undifferentiated, homogeneous, absolute.’ The word dhātu being the Sk. equivalent for Tib.དབྱིངས་the whole expressionདབྱིངས་must correspond to a Sk.aprapañcadhātu. The same Sk. Dict. translates the word dhātu as ‘layer, component part, element.’ In Tibetanདབྱིངས་means, according to J.: (1) ‘the heavens’; (2) ‘height’; (3) ‘extent, region, space, in metaphysics an undefined idea.’ According to the etymologyསྤྲོས་should mean ‘passive, actionless, quietistic, inert,’ but according to the etymology of its Sk. prototype rather ‘undifferentiated, monadic.’ One of my informants compares it withཆོས་, dharma dhātu, andསྟོང་, shunyatā, the void, the absolute. In this connection one should compare J.’s statements (215a) that in modern (Tibetan) Buddhism the termམངོན་(अभिसमय), ‘clear understanding or perception’ means the same asསྟོང་, and further (259b) thatདོན་, originallyपरमार्थ, has, in later times, also become equivalent toསྟོང་. It seems that the old metaphysicians reached regions and distinctions where their followers could no longer join them, and hence the process became ‘omne ignotum proསྟོང་.’ For practical purposes the rendering ‘absolute,’ or ‘motionless’ might be used forསྤྲོས་, whilst the wordདབྱིངས་might be rendered by ‘principle, state, region.’ If occurring in a specimen of the more technically and theoretically philosophical literature of Northern Buddhism, a more precise rendering and more careful definition might be required. Taking the followingརྟོགས་as ‘knowledge, perception, cognition,’ then the whole expression becomes in English ‘the knowledge of the motionless state (or[57]region, or principle)’ or—more pedantic but perhaps truer—‘the knowledge of (that is: pertaining to, inherent in) the monadic state.’ Other equivalents: ‘a state of stillness, the still state’ and, mystically, ‘the wisdom of the silence.’
One of my informants, the dge rgan, knows of a colloquial use ofསྤྲོས་=རེ་= ‘hopeless,’ but my second authority ignores this use. The following two examples were given:འདི་, ‘it is labour lost (hopeless) to [try and] know this.’ You cannot hope to know this. (N.B.—Note the elliptic construction ‘hopeless to know’ for ‘to try to know, to study and so come to know.’)ཡི་, ‘As he does not even know how to read well (or properly), it is hopeless (lost labour), for him to (or: how can he?) study grammar’(Not: how can he pretend toknowgrammar?).
N.B.—The Tibetan does not ‘read’ but ‘reads books’; he does not ‘write’ but ‘writes letters,’ he does not ‘go’ but ‘goes to the shop.’ In short, he is a very objective being.
ཕ་,8. ‘Father.’ It is not clear why in the same line the same person is referred to by the ordinaryཕ་and then by the honorificཡབ་, unlessཡབ་is a standard expression which cannot be changed whilst the firstཕ་is used for the sake of variety in expression.
The same double use of the honorific and ordinary terms for father occurs in Laufer’s ‘Ein Sühngedicht der Bonpo’, line 41.
ཕྱོགས་, 5. In expressions likeལྡིང་theབའི་is explained as equivalent toསའི་, ‘of the place where.’ So the phraseམི་should be understood as ‘towards where the man has gone, to the place where the man has gone,’འགྲོ་.[58]
ཕྱོགས་, 14. Here verb, infinitive, connected with Gendundub in instrumental (agentive) or genitival relation: to turn, move towards, to tend to.
ཕྱོགས་, 46. Lit. ‘to fall aside,’ but here, as applied to the mind (ཡིད་), simply to be deflected, to go astray, to fall, sin (mentally), to deviate from the right path (religion, the right), to lapse (from virtue), etc.
འཕུང་, 29. ‘To wish the ruin, the undoing, destructionof, to be bent on the perdition of, to wish evil to’ =མེད་.
བྱང་, 17. The bodhimaṇḍa, according to the Dicts. historically and geographically Gaya, where the Buddha attained nirvāṇa. Here, however, it means rather the state implied by the locality, ‘illumination, the essence of purification, final sainthood’ literally ‘the quintessence of bodhi.’ In Christian language Golgotha (or the Cross) is similarly used in a metaphorical sense. In living Tibetanབྱང་(bodhi) is not understood as ‘wisdom’ but as ‘saintliness, purity.’ There is, it seems, a confusion in the group of Tibetan [and Chinese!] renderings of bodhimaṇḍa (bodhi-essence) and bodhi-maṇḍala (bodhi-round), and their synonyms, a confusion which may already have its origin in India itself. The treatment of these words in the Dicts. is not satisfactory. J. and S. Ch. D. give s.v.བྱང་this word as synonymous withརྡོ་, Vajrāsana, but underསྙིང་S. Ch. D. has the entry:‘བྱང་, the spirit of the Bodhisattva, i.e. Buddhahood.’ This is the sense meant in our passage, though it may be doubted whetherབྱང་really stands here forབྱང་as S. Ch. D. interprets it instead of only for bodhi. The Mahāvyutpatti (A.S.B., p. 44) has Bodhimaṇḍa =བྱང་, and Cs. translates, ‘the essence of sanctity[59]or holiness (name of the holy place at Gaya).’ I yet believe that here a confusion of maṇḍa and maṇḍala must be thought of. J. has, s.v.སྙིང་(p. 198b) ‘snyiṅ-po-byaṅ c̀ʽúb- (or byaṅ-c̀ʽub-snyiṅ-po)-la mc̀ʽís-pa, to become BuddhaThgy.’ Rockhill, Life of the Buddha, p. 35, mentions the form byang-tchub-kyi-snying-po as the equivalent for bodhimaṇḍa, and though Foucaux in the alphabetical index to his translation of the Lalita Vistāra gives only the form withoutཀྱི་, yet in his text, in the places I verified (p. 239, five times), there is theཀྱི་as with Rockhill.
In mentioning the wordརྡོ་a special reference must be made to the elementགདན་, commonly translated as bolster, cushion, seat, rug, etc. J. is very detailed about it. He has: ‘a bolster, or seat composed of several quilts or cushions, put one upon the other (five for common people, nine for people of quality).’ Desg. simply ‘stuffed cushion.’ S. Ch. D. more general ‘a low seat, a divan, cushion, a bolster.’ As to J.’s definition my authorities declare that this may be so perhaps ‘on the Ladakh side,’ but is certainly not so in Tibet and in the Darjeeling district. They do not know about the details of five and nine cushions. They take the meaning far wider than bolster or cushion. They say that anything used to support anything or to seat anybody may be calledགདན་, it may be a sheet of cloth, a carpet, a blanket, a cushion, a bolster, a seat in general, anything used for lying or sitting down on. The word has a meaning exactly opposite to the English ‘cover’ and can consequently be used in as many varied senses as the latter. Etymologically—if the root ofགདན་, as seems probable, means ‘to support’—the word would mean something like ‘bearer,’ ‘basis,’ ‘bed,’ ‘floor,’ ‘upholder.’ We might think of ‘underwear,’though in English that particular word is used with quite another association of ideas. In typography there is a word ‘underlay’ which corresponds exactly to the meaning ofགདན་. The word ‘bedplate’, used in engineering, comes also near to it. It will be easily seen how an applied meaning as ‘cushion, bolster,’ if given as the general sense of the word, would in many cases be totally inadequate. The line of associations to which ‘cushion’ belongs, and the line of associations to which ‘seat, support, underlay’ belong, intersect at only one[60]point and for the rest have nothing in common. A table-cloth may be calledགདན་because the food rests on it (ལྟོ་is used in this sense; lit. something like ‘food-sheet, that on which the food rests’). In a ritual it is prescribed that theགདན་for the offerings should be a spotless piece of white cotton or other cloth, calledམཆོད་, ‘offering sheet,’ ‘that on which the offerings rest.’ Bell hasས་for ‘carpet’; small cushion, placed on chairཁ་; large cushion on groundའབོལ་. This is a most interesting example illustrating the fact that it is strictly necessary first to find out the root-idea of a Tibetan word before translating it by words representing the incidental applications of that root-idea. Whoever has handled Chinese dictionaries knows how specially necessary this is in studying Indo-Chinese languages. The Sanskrit equivalent, āsana, is derived from the root ās, to sit or lie, but the Tib. root seems different.
Further notes onགདན་.Cf.J.མ་(pr. magdàn), ground, basis, foundation, p. 409a. Bell, apronཔང་.Cs., Grammar, p. 170, l. 10, translatesགདན་as couch (stuffed seat). Lewin, Manual, p. 123, first word last line: ‘mat, seat’, in the same sentence taken over from Cs.’s Grammar. Two synonyms for J.’sམ་, quoted above, areརྨང་andགཞི་. Bell also has ‘mat.’
བྱམས་, 50. Seems simply an amplified form for ‘love.’ Difficult to be translated exactly, Sk. maitrīkaruṇā, may be treated as a compound, loving-kindness, love and kindness, or pity. On the question of karuṇā, especially, the learned have descanted profusely.
བླ་(ན་)མེད་(པ་), 52. Sk.अनुत्तर, unsurpassed, unexcelled, unrivalled, supreme, incomparable, most high, highest. Not specially entered in J. but illustrated by an example s.v.བླ་.[61]Altogether absent in Desg. S. Ch. D.བླ་, ‘to those who are supreme, or to the followers of the Anuttara school.’ A curious entry! See S. Ch. D. also s.v.བླ་.
བླ་, 3. Here perhaps better ‘teacher’ than ‘priest’ or ‘superior.’ The word may be here equally well taken in the singular as in the plural, but the latter is perhaps more likely.
བླ་, seeབླ་.
བློ་,47. ‘Straight, upright, righteous mind.’ J.’s entry is a little vague. I think he takesཐུགས་in his exampleཐུགས་as an indication thatགཟུ་is also a honorific form. That, however, is not the case. Compare also the quotation from Cs. in S. Ch. D.,གཟུ་‘to be impartial and straightforward, to be on the side of honesty.’ I don’t find this example in Schmidt. Desg. ‘straight, upright, (élevé,) just, honest.’ According to the above the word is an adj.and the translation of the passage becomes ‘whether you persevere in a straight (righteous) mind.’ The verbགནས་has then to be taken as ‘to hold, adhere to, persevere in (an opinion,etc.).’ If however, we should find thatགཟུ་can also be sbst. ‘righteousness,’‘straightness,’ (not in any Dict.), thenགནས་would have the other meaning of ‘to dwell, reside’ and the phrase would have to be rendered ‘whether the mind (continues to) dwell(s) in righteousness.’ S. Ch. D. rendersཐུགས་as ‘honest mind,’ but the sense honest versus dishonest seems not quite applicable in our passage. J.is vague here. My informants gave the above definition ‘straight, upright’ as their own but felt afterwards vague about this example which, though they had framed it, they could not vouch for:མི་, ‘see whether the man keeps straight or not.’ The framer honestly confessed that whilst we were discussing the word he had been influenced by S. Ch. D.’sDict. in coining the sentence; a[62]confession so instructive for idiom-verifiers that I think it worth while to record it here.
Finally, Desg. supports S. Ch.’s second meaning ‘witness’ forགཟུ་.He, however, does notgiveS. Ch.’s formགཟུ་. The ordinary word for witness is, of course,དཔང་(པོ་). It is characteristic of S. Ch. D. that he copies J.’s extract from Sch. underགཟུ་‘witness, mediator,’ but then immediately adds his own individual interpretation which not only is likely to be correct, but which also nullifies and contradicts the previous entry which he copied immediately above. He himself says, ‘an honest and truthful witness.’ It often occurs that S. Ch. D. brings modifications, extensions and even corrections to J.’s statements, but at the same time he copies J. far too slavishly and so contradicts himself in the pages of his own dictionary. Whether meanings like ‘reliable, straightforward, correct, proper,’ etc., have to be attached toགཟུ་is as yet uncertain.
བློ་, 8. In Sk. Sumatikīrti. According to the Sk. dictionaries the primary sense of ‘sumati’ is ‘benevolence.’ In present-day Tibetanབློ་is rather ‘good-natured, kindhearted,’ as againstདྲིན་‘benevolent.’ So the Tibetan name has to be rendered as Good-nature-fame, or Famous good-nature, the personal name of Tsoṅ kʽa pa.
དབང་(མ་)སོང་, 22. (Not) fallen under the power (of).…
དབྱངས་, 54 and colophon. This word seems here hardly to mean ‘song, singing tune,’ but rather ‘melody, melodiousness, sweetness,’ etc. This tallies to a certain extent with Csoma’s translation of the title of list LXI (p. 86) of the Mahāvyutpatti, ‘Names of the 60 sorts (or divisions) of melody or melodious voices (or vocal sound).’ I take it that this list refers to what is mentioned here in our text. How these 60 branches of melody are exactly to be understood I have not been able to ascertain. The opinions of Pʽun Tsʽogs on the point are as follows. The Buddha’s voice had such a[63]variety of (magic?) qualities, sixty in number, that they made him understood by all beings, whatever their own languages. The Buddha was in this way simultaneously understood by men, devas, nāgas, etc. In proffering this explanation Pʽun Tsʽogs takesཡན་to mean rather ‘kind’ than ‘branch.’ As an alternative he suggests thatདབྱངས་is an adjective synonymous withརིང་༌, ‘high’ (as applied to voice or rather tone) [or perhaps long, lengthened?] and that thenདབྱངས་would mean a ‘variety’ of tones or modulations. I myself am inclined to think that if the Mahāvyutpatti list is not referred to, we have here to do with some scholastic scheme of rhetorics, though if so understood the exact value ofདབྱངས་is not clear and certainly not sufficiently defined in the Dicts.
(Cf.S. Ch. D. s.v.ཟབ་(p. 1092a),ཟབ་=मन्द्र,मन्द्रक, ‘a deep voice, a musical tone.’ See alsoགདུང་.)
དབྱིངས་seeསྤྲོས་.
དབྱིངས་seeསྤྲོས་.
འབར་seeདཔལ་.
འབོལ་seeབྱང་.
འབྲོག་, 6. Here ‘solitude, wilderness’ and so =རི་=དགོན་, ‘monastery.’ Not associated with any of the meanings connected with ‘pasturing.’Cf.S. Ch. D.འབྲོག་s.v.འབྲོག་.
The famous Galdan monastery was erected on a site calledའབྲོག་. See S. Ch. D., The Monasteries of Tibet,J.A.S.B., Vol. I,N.S.(1905), p. 108.
མི་seeགླུད་.[64]
མི་seeགླུད་.
མི་seeགླུད་.
མིག་seeཡངས་.
མིག་seeཡངས་.
མེད་seeའཕུང་.
མྱུར་, 52. J.མྱུར་adj., andམྱུར་adv., ‘quick(ly), swift(ly).’ In Mil. adj.མྱུར་. Desg.མྱུར་andམྱུར་(ཉིད་), subst. ‘promptness,’ andམྱུར་‘swift.’ As adv.མྱུར་, orདུ་, orགྱིས་. S. Ch. D.མྱུར་, verb, ‘to hurry by, to pass on swiftly,’ (exampleདུས་, ‘time quickly runs away.’ [=tempus fugit]), and adv. quickly. Further adv.མྱུར་. Some interesting compounds in S. Ch. D.:མྱུར་‘a dancing woman,’ etc. Note the expressionཅི་‘as speedily as possible,’ J.
According to my informants S. Ch. D.’s exampleདུས་is not good Tibetan. It should either beདུས་(orབ་)ཡིན་, lit. ‘time is quick,’ or with another meaning also ‘the time is near’ (i.e. at hand,comingquickly), or againདུས་, ‘the quick time.’ Time quickly runs away, they say, should be expressed thus:དུས་.
Cf.also J., Desg.:སྨྱུར་.
མྱུར་seeམྱུར་.
ཙམ་, 38. Here: ‘after only, as a result of only, in consequence[65]of only, mere, simple.’ Butཙམ་has also the meanings: as soon as, simply on (hearing), on the slightest (reproach, etc.) with a more prominent stress on the time element, instantaneousness.
རྩེ་seeབརྩེ་.
རྩེ་seeབརྩེ་.
རྩེ་seeབརྩེ་.
རྩོད་seeགཤགས་.
བརྩེ་, 55.བརྩེ་=བརྩེ་, vb. ‘to love’ sbst. ‘love, kindness, affection,’ etc. Desg. has also aབརྩེ་, ‘acidity,’ which is also known to my informants. Hisབརྩེ་‘bodyguard of the Dalai Lama’ is held, by one of my informants, to be a mistake forརྩེ་(pronounce tsī-dung), the monk-employees of the Tibetan government (and in a narrower sense: the clerical staff, the clerks and secretaries amongst them) as contrasted with the lay-employees of noble birth (not officials in general as with S. Ch. D. 656a, but only those belonging to the nobility) who are calledདྲུང་. The wordརྩེ་in the compound is said to be derived from the designation of the Potala palace where many of the government offices are located, and which is calledརྩེ་, the Potala peak, but most commonly, by the people, brieflyརྩེ་, the peak. This explanation of tsī-dung as a general class of lama government-employees is wider than that given in Waddell’s table in his ‘Lhasaand its Mysteries,’ p. 165. See alsoརྩེ་, ‘chief clerk or secretary’ in S. Ch. D. s.v.རྩེ་(1013b), the latter being the special name of the former’s hat.
བརྩེ་seeབརྩེ་.[66]
བརྩོན་, 24. Equalsབརྩོན་(orགྱུར་) ‘to apply oneself, exert oneself, put one’s best energy into something’ =སྙིང་, ‘to be zealous, diligent.’ Alsoབརྩོན་(བྱེད་,རྩོམ་).
ཚུལ་, 28. Here ‘conduct, behaviour’ pure and simple, without allusion to theཚུལ་, ‘religious law, discipline, monastic rules.’
ཚུལ་seeཆོས་.
མཚན་, 53. Here technically the (thirty-two) characteristic signs or marks of a ‘Great Man,’ the mahāpurusha. Mahāvyutpatti (Ed. A. S. B.), LXIII, p. 92. De Harlez, ‘Vocabulaire Bouddhique Sanscrit-Chinois,’ no. 3. Schiefner, ‘Triglotte,’ no. 3. See de la Vallée Poussin, ‘Bouddhisme,’ pp. 241 et seq.
The transition of meaning of the wordམཚན་in modern Tibetan in such expressions asམཚན་, ‘a holy lama,’ orམཚན་, ‘a woman of good appearance and virtues’ (S. Ch. D.) should not be overlooked in the interpretation of our passage for its psychological value. See alsoདཔེ་.
མཚན་seeམཚན་.
མཚན་, 53. This is a compound substantive of an elliptic nature, and means: ‘the [well known 32 primary] characteristics [and the 80] beauties [of Buddhas]’=མཚན་(བཟང་). See alsoམཚན་andདཔེ་.
མཚན་, 30.མཚན་is here hon. ofམིང་‘name,’ and the compound, literally ‘name grasping,’ means ‘ambition, thirst for fame, glory,’ etc. (D.eerzucht, roemzucht), perhaps even ‘vainglory, pride, conceit, egotism,’ i.e. the hugging of one’s own name and fame.[67]
མཚན་, 7. To invoke by name, to address a prayer to by name. Applied to both spiritual and human beings.རྒྱལ་, ‘to address the king, speak to the king, direct, appeal to the king,’ but always by calling him by his name. ‘O king help me’ is not a proper example ofམཚན་, but ‘O, thou, King George, help me!’ would be one. To spiritual beings their names may be expressed in a paraphrase, metaphor or symbol, but they must be expressed in some way. The prayers to superhuman beings may be twofold, either an address containing requests, etc., or a mere litany of names without any further subject matter attached to them. The one is a recitation of names, the other a direct address by name; the one a litany proper, the other an invocation or prayer.
འཚོལ་, 19. The formམི་was paraphrased to me asའཚོལ་=འཚོལ་= simple future, ‘not going to seek’ (D.niet zullende zoeken).
ཞིབ་seeརྟོག་.
ཞེ་seeཁྲེལ་.
ཞེན་seeཁྲེལ་.
གཞན་(པ་)འཛིན་seeརང་(པ་)འཛིན་.
གཞུང་seeཁྲེལ་.
གཞུང་seeསྒོ་.
གཞུངས་seeཁྲེལ་.
གཞེས་seeམགུར་.
བཞག་seeརྒྱན་.
ཟབ་, 10, 55.ཟབ་=ཟབ་. J. vb., adj., subst. and adv. ‘to be deep, deep, deeply, depth’; adj.ཟབ་andམོ་. Desg.[68]ཟབ་andམོ་adj. only. S. Ch. D.ཟབ་vb. ‘to make deep, to deepen,’ also adj. and sbst.; further inཔོ་andམོ་only adj. Note the additional meaning ‘dense’ (alsoཟབས་‘thickness’) in S. Ch. D., not in the two others. My teachers deny thatཟབ་can be a verb ‘to deepen,’ or ‘to make deep.’ཟབ་must also be understood as ‘profound’ (wisdom, teaching, etc.). Seeཆོས་, alsoདབྱངས་, alsoཐུགས་, etc.
ཟབ་seeཐུགས་, etc.
གཟུ་seeབློ་.
གཟུ་seeབློ་.
གཟུ་seeབློ་.
འུ་seeསྡུག་.
ཡང་seeདྭངས་.
ཡངས་, 55. =ཡངས་orཔོ་, ‘wide, large.’ Desg. also ‘ample, abundant.’ S. Ch. D. onlyཡངས་. Note J. ‘*mig-yaṅ*’, C., W. liberal, generous, bounteous,’ but Desg.མིག་‘wide-eyes: envious, covetous, greedy.’ In S. Ch. D.ཡངས་=विशालाक्षी, ‘large-eyes, a handsome woman, name of a Goddess.’Cf.also in the same dict.མིག་, ‘beautiful-eyes, a very handsome woman, a nymph’s name.’ As to J.’s mig-yaṅ, one of my teachers holds with him as against Desg., the other does not know the expression.
ཡངས་seeཡངས་.
ཡན་seeདབྱངས་.
ཡབ་(གསུམ༌), 8, 15, 16, 18. ‘Father (and) sons,’ or, as Csoma already has it in his Grammar, p. 28, ‘teacher and[69]pupils.’ With the additionགསུམ་‘three,’ and also as here without this addition, a very well known appellation of Tsoṅ kʽa pa and his two pupils (his spiritual sons). It is likely that to the Tibetan mind the expression means something like ‘spiritual family (of three),’ namely of one father and two sons. See introductory remarks. Free renderings like ‘spiritual trio’ or ‘teacher triad’ and the like are apt enough for practical purposes.Cf.an expression like the following:ཁྱོད་, ‘where have you two, father and son, come from?’ (But the sentence has also the second meaning ‘where do you live? where is your home?’).
In the light of the above, has the note on p. 98 of the J.A.S.B., Vol. II, N.S., no. 4, 1906, in Satis Chandra Vidyābhūṣana’s article on ‘the Gyantse rock inscription’ to be rectified? My informants do not think that the expression is used among the Sakyapas in the sense given in that note.
ཡིན་seeཀྱང་.
ཡུས་seeསྡུག་.
གཡུལ་seeའགྱེ་.
གཡུལ་seeའགྱེ་.
རང་seeདྭངས་.
རང་(པ་)འཛིན་, 26. This expression must here not be understood as ‘to follow one’s own teaching.’རང་is here not one compound word. The meaning is: they who themselves follow the teaching, as against theགཞན་, the others who (also) follow the teaching. Seeགཞན་(པ་)འཛིན་, 27.
རི་seeའབྲོག་andགངས་.
རི་seeའབྲོག་andགངས་.
རིག་seeམཁྱེན་.[70]
རིག་seeགོལ་.
རིང་seeདབྱངས་.
རུས་seeདྭངས་.
རེ་seeདོན་.
རེ་seeསྤྲོས་.
ལན་seeགཤགས་.
ལམ་seeགོལ་.
ལམ་seeགོལ་.
ལམ་, 31. ‘The high, elevated road,’ has a religious connotation, the proper road that leads to heaven after death, the ‘narrow’ road of Christianity. See below.
ལམ་, 48. The straight road (metaphorically), the road of righteousness, of straightness of mind.Cf.S. Ch. D. s.v.དྲང་, p. 649a. The meaning of this expression and that ofལམ་, in line 31 (see above), are quite different. The other is the highroad (towards heaven), the road of a high standard of moral conduct.
ལམ་, 9. ‘Steps on the path,’ ‘degrees of advance,’ ‘steps towards perfection,’ is the short title of many mystical writings and especially of one by Tsoṅ kʽa pa, to which the words may allude here without specially designating it. In this place the meaning does not seem to be a specific work but merely ‘(religious) instructions, teaching in general.’ Theལམ་are here, according to my oral information, to be taken as the two halves or divisions of the Kandjur which is commonly divided intoམདོ་andསྔགས་, sūtra and tantra (or mantra, or dhāraṇī). In this division theརྒྱུད་or tantra section is calledསྔགས་, whilst all the rest, properly subdivided[71]in six divisions, is taken together asམདོ་, of which the realམདོ་or sūtra-division (the 5th in sequence in the Kandjur) is only one. Concerning Tsoṅ kʽa pa’s study of the ‘Sūtras and Tantras’ see S. Ch. D., ‘Contributions, etc. on Tibet,’ VI, in J.A.S.B., 1882, Vol. LI, Part I, no. 1, p. 53. J., s.v.བསྟན་, quotes aབསྟན་: ‘with Urgyan Padma, etc., the same as mdoi and sṅags kyi lam, v. mdo extr.’ This is seemingly the same as our expression.
ལུས་, 42. J. has =སེམས་, ‘beings, creatures,’ but may not the idea rather be allembodiedcreatures; with the etymological sense still potent in connection with the Buddhist reincarnation theory? S. Ch. D. gives aལུས་=གྲོང་= ‘town, city,’ which seems rather to point to the meaning ‘man’ forལུས་. My informants don’t feel quite certain whether to include the five other classes of beings (including animals) amongst theལུས་, but are somewhat inclined to interpret the word asམི་, ‘man,’ in general.
ཤ་seeཀྱུ་.
ཤར་, title, 1. The author writes his poem in a place to the west of a snow-capped mountain, to the east of which the Galdan monastery is situated. See notes onའབྲོག་,དགེ་andགངས་. Which mountain or mountain chain is meant must be left undecided, even if granting that modern cartography could show it if identified. Local tradition, however, would most likely be able to point out a particular mountain.
ཤེས་seeམཁྱེན་.
ཤོས་seeརིན་.[72]
གཤགས་seeགཤགས་.
གཤགས་, 38. This expression cannot yet be explained with certainty. It may be taken here to mean, literally, ‘to send out (distribute, give, put forward) justice, right,’ but the exact idiomatic value of the phrase remains to be determined. It is not in the Dicts., and unknown to my informants. We may take the possible values of the expression as three, viz.: 1.གཤགས་=རྩོད་=གཤགས་= ‘to dispute, argue, contend with words.’ This seems the same expression as S. Ch. D.’sཁ་‘to hold controversy,’ p. 1248. (Perhaps also ‘to challenge, to be challenged to dispute.’) 2. =ལན་‘to be defeated in argument, in dispute, to be silenced in dispute.’