Prajnaparamita Terms Flashcards
“The four rivers of saṃsāra”
A term from Abhidharma literature. These four rivers sweep one further and further down the stream of saṃsāra. Because they function that way to keep one in saṃsāmra, this term has also been translated as “the four currents of saṃsāra”. However, the literal translation is “four rivers”. They are also named སྲིད་པའི་ཆུ་བོ་བཞི་ “the four rivers of becoming. The four rivers are: 1) འདོད་པའི་ཆུ་བོ་ “the river of desire”; 2) སྲིད་པའི་ཆུ་བོ་ “the river of existence”; 3) ལྟ་བའི་ཆུ་བོ་ “the river of views”; 4) མ་རིག་པའི་ཆུ་བོ་ “the river of ignorance”.
They actual four rivers are ཟག་པ་བཞི་ “the four outflows” q.v.
“The four outflows”
These were explained by the Buddha to be the actual འཁོར་བའི་ཆུ་བོ་བཞི་ “four rivers of cyclic existence” also known as སྲིད་པའི་ཆུ་བོ་བཞི་ “the four rivers of becoming” q.v. They are enumerated in the Abhidharma literature e.g., in the ཆོས་མངོན་མཛོད་ Abhidharmakoṣha.
The four outflows are: 1) འདོད་པའི་ཟག་པ་ “the outflow of desire”; 2) མ་རིག་པའི་ཟག་པ་ “… ignorance”; 3) ལྟ་བའི་ཟག་པ་ “… views”; and 4) སྲིད་པའི་ཟག་པ་ “… becoming”.
“The four seals which signify the view”
lta ba bka’ rtags kyi phyag rgya bzhi
These are four seals which, if present, show that the view of whatever being expressed is a view that accords with the view of the Buddha. These are also known as the ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་བཞི་ “four seals of dharma” and ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྡོམ་བཞི་ “the Four Summaries of the Dharma”.
[DGT] gives as: 1) འདུས་བྱས་ཐམས་ཅད་མི་རྟག་པ་ “all compounds are impermanent”; 2) ཟག་བཅས་ཐམས་ཅད་སྡུག་བསྔལ་བ་ “all outflowed things are unsatisfactory”; 3) ཆོས་ཐམས་ཅད་བདག་མེད་པ་ “all dharmas are without self”; 4) མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ་ཞི་བ་ “nirvāṇa is peace”.
Also spelled ལྟ་བ་བཀར་བཏགས་ཀྱི་ཕྱག་རྐྱ་བཞི་ and often given as just བཀར་བཏགས་ཀྱི་ཕྱག་རྐྱ་བཞི་ or བཀའ་བཏགས་ཀྱི་ཕྱག་རྐྱ་བཞི་.
arhat
dgra bcom pa
» Lit. “foe destroyer”, however it is the official equivalent of the Sanskrit “arhat” which is derived from the Sanskrit “arhan” meaning “to be worthy of praise” or “venerable”
The Buddha explained that an arhat is a person who has extricated himself from samsara and has therefore become noble, spiritually speaking, compared to those who are still in samsara. It is this new, higher position that makes the arhat worthy of praise or veneration.
The Tibetan rationale for the term is that, “An arhat in the Buddhist tradition is someone who has destroyed (བཅོམ་ bcom) the principal enemy (དགྲ་ dgra) of sentient beings, the afflictions
“The outflow of desire”
The affliction of “desire”, “wanting”. This is one of the prime afflictions that keep sentient beings in cyclic existence
“Desire realm”
‘dod pa’i khams
Translation of the Sanskrit “kamadhātu”. This is the lowest of the ཁམས་གསུམ་ three realms comprising འཁོར་བ་ cyclic existence. It is called the “desire realm” because the beings who live there are characterized by strong wanting, the result of which is the (relatively) coarse, material existence they have in that realm. The desire realm beings have produced a coarse material existence for themselves and are constantly desirous of this coarse materiality. Cf. with the form realm in which there is only the subtlest of form and the formless realm where there is no form. See also འདོད་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན་ “the desirables of the desire realm.
There are six types of beings living in this realm; see འགྲོ་བ་རིགས་དྲུག་ “six classes of migrators”. Note that the highest of the six classes comprises all the gods of the desire realm, and all the beings of the form and formless realms, too.
“The three realms”
khams gsum
Translates the Sanskrit “tridhātu”. The Buddha taught that the whole of cyclic existence was contained within three main spheres of existence, i.e., three realms. The three realms are [DGT]: 1) འདོད་པའི་ཁམས་ “the desire realm”; གཟུགས་ཁམས་ “the form realm”; and གཟུགས་མེད་ཀྱི་ཁམས་ “the formless realm”.
“The six classes (or kinds or types) of beings”
‘gro ba rigs drug
A formulation which encapsulates all of the different types of sentient beings wandering in saṃsāra. It refers to རིགས་དྲུག་ six classes of འགྲོ་བ་ “migrators” q.v. living in the six realms which constitute cyclic existence.
[NDS] gives in order from lowest to highest: 1) དམྱལ་བ་ hell-beings; 2) ཡི་དྭགས་ pretas; 3) དུད་འགྲོ་ animals; 4) མི་ humans; 5) ལྷ་མ་ཡིན་ asuras; 6) ལྷ་ gods /devas.
[DGT] gives in order from highest to lowest: 1) ལྷ་ gods /devas; 2) ལྷ་མ་ཡིན་ asuras; 3) མི་ humans; 4) དུད་འགྲོ་ animals; 5) ཡི་དྭགས་ pretas; and 6) དམྱལ་བ་ hell-beings the last three of which are ངན་སོང་གསུམ་ the three bad migrations.
“Migrator”
a synonym for སེམས་ཅན་ sentient beings who, being trapped in their deluded and karmically driven situations, go hither and hither, willy nilly, from one situation in འཁོར་བ་ cyclic existence to another. Some commentators claim that the meaning of “to go” in this sense is that sentient beings go from one rebirth to another and hence use the term “transmigrator”. However, Thrangu Rinpoche and others clearly state that the meaning is that sentient beings buzz back and forth within the various སྲིད་པ་ possibilities of cyclic existence—which includes the circumstances within a rebirth as well as rebirths themselves—like flies trapped in a jar.
To translate this meaning, the most common word in use these days is “being” but although this points to the general meaning, it falls short of the full meaning; additionally, there are many other words, such as སྐྱེ་བུ་, which need translations and which are better translated by “being”. The next most common translations are “migrator” and less frequent “transmigrator”. These terms capture the sense of movement but lose the more specific sense of helplessly driven (by karma) on and on movement. Unfortunately, there is no word in the English which would capture this. “Creatures” has been used but this misses the meaning quite widely. “Migrators” comes closest to the meaning at present. Recently someone suggested “saṃsāra trotter” which, while odd, actually does capture the meaning extremely well.
Generally speaking ལུས་ཅན་ bodied being, སེམས་ཅན་ sentient being, and འགྲོ་བ་ migrator are synonyms.
“The outflow of ignorance”
One of the ཟག་པ་བཞི་ four outflows q.v. This refers to the མ་རིག་པ་ ignorance which operates throughout the three realms i.e., for all sentient beings. In relation to the four outflows, it is the basis of two others, འདོད་པའི་ཟག་པ་ “the outflow of desire” and སྲིད་པའི་ཟག་པ་ “the outflow of becoming”.
“Ignorance”
ma rig pa
» “Ignorance”. Translation of the Sanskrit [NDS] “avidyā”. As one of the three poisons, one of the six root afflictions, one of the twelve links, and one of the ཆུ་བོ་བཞི་ four currents, etcetera, this is one of the most important terms in Buddhism.
In all meditational and philosophical systems of Buddhism, ignorance is considered as the root cause of འཁོར་བ་ cyclic existence which is by nature སྡུག་བསྔལ་ unsatisfactory. Some schools, such as the ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་ Mahāmudrā system, further describe the root ignorance as being two-fold; ལྷན་ཅིག་སྐྱེས་པའི་མ་རིག་པ་ co-emergent ignorance and ཀུན་བརྟགས་མ་རིག་པ་ conceptualizing ignorance. Then the ཁྲེགས་ཆོད་ Thorough Cut and ཐོད་རྒལ་ Direct Crossing paths of the Great Completion teachings alone describe a third cause, the བདག་ཉིད་གཅིག་པུའི་མ་རིག་པ་ ignorance of same identity, which precedes the two causes just mentioned (see མ་རིག་པ་རྣམ་གསུམ་ the three types of ignorance).
Ignorance is an active quality of not seeing reality; the original Sanskrit term and the Tibetan translation like it use the term “(actively) not knowing” where རིག་པ་ knowing has the sense of seeing with the mind. The original usage in Sanskrit and Tibetan has more the sense of “ignoring” rather than the static “ignorance”. As is said in some Tibetan commentaries, “ignorance produces obscuration that prevents the seeing of the real meaning and in doing so creates a mistaken approach altogether”.
Ignorance is the very root of the process that drives sentient beings’ cycling through births in deluded existence and hence is the first of the རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་བའི་ཡན་ལག་བཅུ་གཉིས་ twelve links of dependent-related arising q.v. for more information on ignorance in this context.
In summary, because it is the process of mind operating in a mode contrary to reality, it opens the door to the birth of the ཉོན་མོངས་པ་ afflictions which are the driving forces that create the various circumstances of cyclic existence. When a being in cyclic existence turns away from it they instead གནས་ལུགས་རིག་པ་ see reality.
“The outflow of becoming”
srid pa’i zag pa
One of the ཟག་པ་བཞི་ four outflows q.v. This refers to the further ཉོན་མོངས་ afflictions that arise in the higher realms due to ignorance and views.
“The outflow of views”
lta ba’i zag pa
One of the ཟག་པ་བཞི་ four outflows also called the སྲིད་པའི་ཆུ་བོ་བཞི་ four rivers of becoming q.v. This refers to views engendered within the three realms that are associated with ཉོན་མོངས་ affliction.
“With outflows”, “having outflows”
zag pa dang bcas pa
Translation of the Sanskrit “sāsrava”. Commonly abbrev. to ཟག་བཅས་; most related listings are under that. Opp. is ཟག་པ་མེད་པ་ q.v.
A specific technical term of Buddhism meaning that a given situation has outflows. Outflow means that, from the undisturbed primordial mind, the various afflictions have “flowed out”. This is commonly translated as being “contaminated” or “defiled” but these are all descriptions of the result and not translations of the word itself. It has also been translated as “conditioned” but that is very mistaken; this is not referring to whether a situation is causal or not but whether it has become defiled or not. The word means that a given situation is one that has outflow associated with it and as such implies a saṃsāric situation. It is a very pejorative term. The phrase is often connected with another word or phrase to modify the meaning of the other word or phrase to show that the thing being referred to is a saṃsāric situation. E.g., in ཟག་བཅས་ཀྱི་ལས་ says that karma is connected with outflow; ཟག་བཅས་དགེ་བ་ is virtue associated with outflow.
“To bind”
The verb and its noun form are heavily used in Buddhist literature to describe the various forms of bondage of living in འཁོར་བ་ cyclic existence. The opp. of being bound is being གྲོལ་བ་ liberated and the two terms are often found together: འཆིང་བ་དང་གྲོལ་བ་ “bondage and liberation”.
Note that in Ancient India and Tibet following it, the term was used as a way of talking about being overcome by affliction, and often meaning desire. In this usage, it is more like the modern English “caught up in desire”. E.g., [GSB] ཉོན་མོངས་པའི་འཆིང་བར་སོང་། “at that time (when he was doing practices connected with sexual heat) I became caught up in desire (which is a possible problem with that kind of practice)”.
II. Cognate to the verb: “binds”, “bonds”, “fetters”, “bondage”. Note that, as with the verb, this noun has the connotations of being bound and fettered. The English word “tie” which is more neutral is better translated by several other Tibetan words, e.g., དཀྲིས་, and is better not used for this term. 1) In Buddhism, it is usually used when speaking of sentient beings who are bound into cyclic existence by their delusion and afflictions. 2) One of the མུ་སྟེགས་གཅེར་བུ་པའི་དོན་དགུ་ the nine topics of the Tīrthika Jains q.v.
