The Bodhisattva Path of Wisdom and Compassion

by Chogyam Trungpa

  Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thaye (1813–1899 CE). One of the most prominent Buddhist masters of nineteenth-century Tibet, credited as one of the founders of the Ri-me, or nonsectarian, movement. Jamgön Kongtrül achieved great renown as a scholar and writer, and authored more than one hundred volumes of scriptures. Trungpa Rinpoche used Jamgön Kongtrül’s commentary on slogan practice, The Great Path of Awakening, and his monumental work, The Treasury of Knowledge, as primary references for his presentation of the three yanas.

  jangkawa (Tib.: sbyang dka’ ba). Difficult to accomplish. The fifth bhumi.

  jhana (Pali; Skt.: dhyana; Tib.: samten; bsam gtan). State of meditative absorption. According to Trungpa Rinpoche, attachment to such absorption states is an obstacle that can lead to becoming trapped in the god realm, and therefore it is better not to seek out such states.

  jinpa (Tib.: sbyin pa; Skt.: dana). Generosity. The first of the six paramitas, or transcendent actions. See also paramita.

  jnana (Skt.; Tib.: yeshe; ye shes). Wisdom. The wisdom activity of enlightenment, transcending all dualistic conceptualization. Spontaneous wisdom that need not be sought. Primordial knowing.

  ka (Tib.: bka’). Sacred command.

  Kadam/Kadampa (Tib.: bka’ gdams pa). Oral instruction. School of Tibetan Buddhism founded by Atisha and noted for its emphasis on lojong, or mind-training teachings.

  Kagyü (Tib.: bka’ brgyud). One of four main sects of Tibetan Buddhism. Kagyü means “command” lineage. Due to its emphasis on meditation and on direct experience, it is referred to as the “practice lineage.” As the eleventh Trungpa tülku, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche was a Kagyü lineage holder, although he also studied within the Nyingma tradition.

  kalpa (Skt.). An endlessly long period of time; world cycle, world age.

  kalyanamitra (Skt.; Tib.: ge-we shenyen; dge ba’i bshes gnyen). Spiritual friend. The mahayana teacher, who guides students through wisdom, compassion, and skillful means.

  karma (Skt.; Tib. le; las). Action. The chain-reaction process of action and result, or cause and effect, arising from the habit of ego fixation. According to this doctrine, one’s present experience is a product of previous actions and volitions, and future conditions depend on what is done in the present. Virtuous actions leads to positive results, and nonvirtuous actions to negative results. Ultimately, the goal is to break the karmic chain and free oneself from the destructive habit of ego by means of wisdom and skillful means.

  Karmapa. The spiritual head of the Karma Kagyü school and the oldest tülku lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. The appearance of the Karmapa as an embodiment of compassion was prophesied by both the Buddha and Padmasambhava. In seventeen incarnations, the Karmapa has worked for the welfare of all sentient beings. In the Black Crown Ceremony, performed since the fifteenth century, the Karmapa shows himself as the embodiment of Avalokiteshvara. The sixteenth Karmapa, Rikpe Dorje (1924–1981), was the Kagyü lineage holder during Trungpa Rinpoche’s lifetime. The current, or seventeenth, Karmapa is Ogyen Trinley Dorje (b. 1985). See also Black Crown Ceremony.

  karuna (Skt.; Tib.: nyingje; snying rje). Compassion; noble heart. The second of both the four brahmaviharas and the four limitless ones.

  kayas, four (Skt.). The four kayas are dharmakaya (body of nonreference point), sambhogakaya (body of complete joy), nirmanakaya (body of emanation), and svabhavikakaya (the totality of panoramic experience). In context of the lojong slogan, “Seeing confusion as the four kayas is the supreme shunyata protection,” the four kayas are the four mental processes of perception: openness, clarity, joining the two, and the totality of panoramic experience. See also kayas, three.

  kayas, three (Skt.). The three bodies, or forms, of a buddha: dharmakaya (body of nonreference point); sambhogakaya (body of complete joy); and nirmanakaya (body of emanation). See also kayas, four.

  khorsum yangdak (Tib.: ’khor gsum yang dag). Threefold purity. The three purities are no action, no actor, and no object of the activity.

  klesha (Skt.; Tib.: nyönmong; nyon mongs). Defilement or conflicting emotions, also referred to as poison. Kleshas are properties that dull the mind and lead to unwholesome actions. The three main kleshas are passion, aggression, and ignorance or delusion.

  kshanti (Skt.; Tib.: söpa; bzod pa). Patience, forbearance. The third of the six paramitas or transcendent actions. See also paramita.

  kündzop (Tib.: kun rdzob). Relative or conventional truth. This is contrasted to töndam, or “absolute truth,” in the teaching of the two truths. See also töndam.

  künshi ngangluk kyi gewa (Tib.: kun gzhi ngang lugs kyi dge ba). The natural virtue of the alaya. A natural state of goodness, or basic goodness. See also alaya.

  küntak (Tib.: kun brtags). Random labeling; false conceptions.

  küntu ö (Tib.: kun tu ’od). Always luminous; complete radiance. The last of the ten bhumis, the equivalent of buddhahood.

  lakshana (Skt.). Permanence. One of the four aspects of ultimate truth; the others are joy, purity, and being.

  lamkhyer (Tib.: lam khyer). Carrying all life circumstances to the path.

  lek-pe lodrö (Tib.: legs pa’i blo gros). Good intellect. The ninth bhumi.

  lelo (Tib.: le lo). Laziness.

  lhakpa (Tib.: lhag pa). Supreme.

  lobur gyi trima (Tib.: glo bur gyi dri ma). Temporary stain.

  lodrö (Tib.: blo gros). Intellect.

  lohan (Chin.; Skt.: arhat). A close disciple of the Buddha.

  lojong (Tib.: blo sbyong). Mind training; specifically the practice of cultivating loving-kindness and compassion by working with the slogans of The Seven Points of Mind Training, a teaching compiled by Geshe Chekawa and attributed to Atisha.

  madhyamaka (Skt.). The “middle-way” school, a philosophical school based on the dialectical approach of undercutting any attempt to establish a solid logical position, developed by the great logician Nagarjuna (second to third century CE).

  Madhyamakavatara (Skt.). Chandrakirti’s commentary on Nagarjuna’s Root Stanzas on the Middle Way.

  mahakaruna (Skt.; Tib.: nyingje chenpo; snying rje chen po). Great love, great compassion. First of the four aspects of great compassion.

  mahamudra (Skt.; Tib.: chaggya chenpo; phyag rgya chen po). Great symbol. The meditative transmission handed down especially by the Kagyü school, from Vajradhara Buddha through Tilopa up to the present lineage holders. A tradition of systematic meditative training leading to a direct nonconceptual understanding of the vivid-empty nature of phenomenal reality.

  mahasattva (Skt.). Great being.

  mahasukha (Skt.; Tib.: bde ba chenpo; bde ba po’i). Great bliss.

  mahavipashyana (Skt.). Panoramic awareness that is both precise and all-encompassing. A greater form of vipashyana that leads to a glimpse of shunyata and the realization of the four noble truths. See also vipashyana.

  mahayana (Skt.; Tib.: thekpa chenpo; theg pa chen po). Great vehicle. The stage of Buddha’s teaching that emphasizes the practice of compassion and the realization of both the self and phenomena as vast openness, or emptiness. It is the path of the bodhisattva, the practitioner whose life is dedicated to helping others on the path to liberation.

  maitri (Skt.). Love, or loving-kindness. The first of the four brahmaviharas, as well as the four limitless ones.

  Manjushri (Skt.). “He who is noble and gentle.” The bodhisattva of wisdom, often depicted holding a two-bladed sword and a prajnaparamita text, symbolizing the cutting of twofold ego and the power of prajna.

  Mara/maras (Skt.; Pali). Literally “death” or “destruction.” Mara is the demon who tempted Buddha with seductive visions. He is the embodiment of death who symbolizes the passions that overwhelm beings, as well as everything that hinders the arising of wholesomeness and progress on the path. More generally, maras refer to evil, seductive forces.

  Marpa (1012–1097 CE). Renowned Tibetan Kagyü yogi and translator; principle teacher of Tibet’s poet saint Milarepa.

  mepa lelo (Tib.: smad pa le lo).
Degraded laziness. The third of the three categories of laziness.

  mik-che kyi nying-je (Tib.: dmigs bcas kyi snying rje). Deliberate compassion.

  Milarepa (1040–1123 CE). One of the forefathers of the Kagyü lineage. A student of Marpa who attained enlightenment in one lifetime, he is the most famous of Tibetan saints and is known for his spontaneous spiritual songs, or dohas (Skt.).

  mi-lob-lam (Tib.: mi slob lam). Path of no more learning. Fifth of the five paths

  Mind-only school. See Yogachara school.

  miyowa (Tib.: mi gyo ba). Not moving. The eighth bhumi.

  mönlam (Tib.: smon lam; Skt.: pranidhana). Aspiration, vision, or prayer.

  mudita (Skt.). Joy. The third of the four brahmaviharas, as well as the third of the four limitless ones.

  Nagarjuna (second to third century CE). A great Indian teacher of Buddhism, the founder of the Madhyamaka school of Buddhist philosophy. He contributed greatly to the logical development of the doctrine of shunyata and was the author of many key texts. According to tradition, he was also the guru of various important Buddhist teachers.

  nampar mitokpa (Tib.: rnampar mi rtog pa). Complete nonconceptualization; the experience of the first bhumi.

  namtok (Tib.: rnam rtog). Concept; conceptualization.

  namdrang ma-yin-pe töndam (Tib.: rnam grangs pa’i don dam). “Uncountable” töndam. Vast experience beyond fixation. One of two types of töndam. See also nam-drang-pe töndam.

  nam-drang-pe töndam (Tib.: rnam grangs ma yin pa’i don dam). “Countable” or categorized töndam. A partial transcending of fixation. One of two types of töndam. See also namdrang ma-yin-pe töndam.

  ngetsik (Tib.: nges tshig). The discrimination of definition, the third of four types of discriminating awareness of the ninth bhumi.

  ngöndu kyurpa (Tib.: mngon du gyur pa). Becoming manifest. The sixth bhumi.

  nidana (Skt.). One of the twelve links of interdependent origination: ignorance, formation, consciousness, name and form, six sense faculties, contact, feeling, craving, clinging, becoming, birth, and death. The web of mutually conditioned psychological and physical phenomena that constitute individual existence, and entangle sentient beings in samsara.

  nirmanakaya (Skt.; Tib.: tülku; sprul sku). Form body or emanation body. See also kayas, three.

  nirvana (Skt.; Tib.: nya-ngen ledepa; mya ngen las ’das pa). Extinguished. The Tibetan translation means “gone beyond suffering”; a state of no more suffering achieved when one is enlightened. Used in contrast to samsara.

  nyam (Tib.: nyams). Temporary experience.

  nying-je (Tib.: snying rje; Skt.: karuna). Compassion; literally, “noble heart.”

  Nyingma (Tib.: rnying ma). The ancient ones. The oldest of the four principal schools of Tibetan Buddhism, focusing on the early transmission of Buddhist teachings brought from India to Tibet by Padmasambhava, as well as monks and scholars such as Vimalamitra and Vairochana in the eighth century.

  nyom-le kyi lelo (Tib.: snyom las kyi le lo). The first category of laziness. Casualness and attachment to leisure. Slothfulness.

  öjepa (Tib.: ’od byed pa). Illuminating. The third bhumi.

  öselwa (Tib.: ’od gsal ba). Luminosity. Second of four aspects of great compassion.

  ötrowa (Tib.: ’od phro ba). Radiating light. The fourth bhumi.

  pagyang (Tib.: bag yangs). Naiveté.

  pagyö (Tib.: bag yod). Bare attention, heedfulness.

  pandita (Skt.). Scholar.

  paramita (Skt.; Tib.: pharchen; phar phyin). Perfection; in Tibetan “gone to the far shore.” The six paramitas are the transcendent virtues of generosity, discipline, patience, exertion, meditation, and prajna (knowledge).

  pharöl tu chinpa (Tib.: pharol tu phyin pa; Skt.: paramita). Transcendent virtue. In condensed Tibetan style referred to as pharchen (phar phyin). See paramita.

  poppa (Tib.: spobs pa). Confidence. The fourth of the four types of discriminating awareness.

  postmeditation. Follow-up to formal sitting practice. Bringing the practice of mindfulness and awareness into all the activities of one’s daily life.

  prajna (Skt.; Tib.: sherap; shes rab). Perfect knowledge, meaning wisdom, understanding, or discrimination. Ordinary prajna is understanding the world and how things work on a mundane level. In the beginning of the path, higher prajna encompasses direct experience of the mind and its processes; in later stages, it means penetrating insight that discovers both the world and the self to be illusory. Sixth of the six paramitas.

  pranidhana. See mönlam.

  pratyekabuddha (Skt.). Solitary realizer. A term for a person who has realized one-and-a-half-fold egolessness (egoless of self and a partial realization of the ego of phenomena) due to insight into dependent arising, without relying on a teacher.

  pratyekabuddhayana (Skt.). The path of the “solitary realizer” of the hinayana.

  rapkar gewa (Tib.: rab dkar dge ba). White virtue. Unstained basic goodness.

  raptu gawa (Tib.: rab tu dga’ ba). Very joyful. The first bhumi.

  refuge vow. The vow marking one’s formal entry into the Buddhist path, and one’s commitment to the Buddha, the dharma, and the sangha.

  rikpa (Tib.: rig pa). Knowing; insight.

  ringdu songwa (Tib.: ring du song ba). Far gone. The seventh bhumi.

  rochik (Tib.: ro gcig). One flavor, or one taste. A mental approach that is very open, spacious, and direct. Seeing all phenomena as one flavor: awake.

  samadhi (Skt.; Tib.: tingdzin; ting ’dzin). One-pointedness, meditation. Sixth of the seven limbs of a bodhisattva. The third of the three supreme disciplines.

  Samadhiraja Sutra (Skt.). King of Samadhi Sutra. A mahayana sutra on wisdom and emptiness, viewed in the Kagyü tradition as establishing a foundation for the practice of mahamudra.

  sambhogakaya (Skt.; Tib.: longku; longs sku). Enjoyment body. See also kayas, three.

  samsara (Skt.; Tib.: khorwa; ’khor ba). Cyclic existence; the continual repetitive cycle of birth, death, and bardo that arises from ordinary beings’ grasping and fixating on a self and experiences. All states of consciousness in the six realms, including the god realms, are bound by this process. Samsara arises out of ignorance and is characterized by suffering.

  samten (Tib.: bsam gtan; Skt.: dhyana). Meditative stabilization, concentration. Fifth of the six paramitas.

  sattvic (Skt.). Purified, or blessed. For example, sattvic food refers to food that is pure, clean, and wholesome.

  sem (Tib.: sems). Mundane mind.

  semchen tön-che (Tib.: sems can don byed). The third type of the three types of discipline. The discipline of benefiting sentient beings.

  semjung (Tib.: sems byung; Skt.: samskara). Mental factor; the fifty-one mental events arising from the mind. In the context of the five categories of mind, samjung refers to the thinking or watching process as the mind relates to the phenomenal world.

  sending and taking. See tonglen.

  Seven Points of Mind Training. A compilation of lojong or mind-training teachings in the form of fifty-nine slogans divided into seven main points composed by the Kadampa master Geshe Chekawa Yeshe Dorje.

  shamatha (Skt.; Tib.: shi-ne; zhi gnas). Peaceful abiding. Mindfulness practice; taming and stabilizing the mind. The central practice of the hinayana path and a key component of the practice tradition throughout all three yanas.

  shamatha-vipashyana (Skt.). The union of mindfulness and awareness, in which the concentration, stillness, and precision of shamatha is in harmonious balance with the expansiveness, inquisitiveness, and clarity of vipashyana, or awareness practice.

  shengyi nöpa la söpa (Tib.: gzhan gyi gnod pa la bzod pa). Patience with other people’s destructiveness. The first of the three types of patience.

  shepa (Tib.: shes pa). Consciousness.

  sherap (Tib.: shes rab; Skt.: prajna). Knowledge, superior knowing.

  shikantaza (Jpn.). Zen formless meditation practice of just sitting.

  shila (Skt.;
Tib.: tsültrim; tshul khrims). The first of the three supreme disciplines. It comprises generosity, discipline, and patience, the first three paramitas.

  shinjang (Tib.: shin sbyang). Thoroughly processed or trained through meditation practice. The fifth of the seven limbs of a bodhisattva.

  shiwa (Tib.: zhi ba; Skt.: shanti). Peace. Fourth of the four aspects of great compassion.

  shravaka (Skt.). Hearer; a practitioner of the shravakayana.

  shravakayana (Skt.; Tib.: nyenthö; nyan thos). The path of the “hearer” of the hinayana.

  shunyata (Skt.; Tib.: tongpanyi; stong pa nyid). Emptiness. A completely open and unbounded clarity of mind characterized by groundlessness and freedom from all conceptual frameworks. Emptiness does not mean voidness or blankness, but an openness that is inseparable from compassion and all other awakened qualities.

  six realms. Realms of samsaric existence. The three lower realms of hell beings, hungry ghosts, and animals; and the three higher realms of humans, jealous gods, and gods.

  skandha (Skt.; Tib.: phungpo; phung po). Heap or basket; aggregate. The five skandhas describe the aggregates or collection of phenomena that we take to be a self. The five aggregates are: form, feeling, perception / impulse, formation or concept, and consciousness.

  söpa (Tib.: bzod pa; Skt.: kshanti). Patience, forbearance. The third of the six paramitas, or transcendent actions. See also paramita.

  soso rangrik (Tib.: so so rang rig). Discriminating awareness; seeing things as distinct entities, just as they are.

  soso yang-dak-par rikpa (Tib.: so so yang dag par rig pa). Discriminating awareness or intelligence.

  sosor tok-pe sherap (Tib.: so sor rtog pa’i shes rab). Discriminating awareness, individually seeing things as they are as separate entities.

  sosor tok-pe söpa (Tib.: so sor rtog pa’i bzod pa). Individually examining. The third of three types of patience.

  spiritual friend (Tib.: ge-we shenyen; dge ba’i bshes gnyen; Skt.: kalyanamitra). A mahayana teacher. See kalyanamitra.