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Dictionary of Key Spiritual Terms


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Wylie | Tibetan

blessing

  1. བྱིན་​རླབས།

    Biblical: blessing: མ་​ཤི་​ཀའི་​བྱིན་​རླབས། the blessing of Christ (Rom. 15:29 SV), ཨབ་​ར་​ཧམ་​ལ་​གནང་​བའི་​བྱིན་​རླབས། the blessing given to Abraham (Gal. 3:14 SV).

    Buddhist: a term for religious power, as opposed to ordinary power ནུས་​པ། (AMD): 1) empowerment through speech, tantric teaching, or meritorious acts e.g. counting prayer beads (KTM): བྱིན་​རླབས་​འཕོ་​བའི་​དབང་​བསྐུར། the initiation that transfers spiritual power (BLI 351), སྔགས་​ཕྱག་​རྒྱ་​ཏིང་​ངེ་​འཛིན་​གསུམ་​གྱིས་​བྱིན་​གྱིས་​བརླབས། the blessing of mantras, mudras, and samadhi, or one-pointedness (BLI 344). Such power may also be resident in blessed objects, e.g. if a high lama gives one a pen, that object has བྱིན་​རླབས། (AMD); 2) the Buddha is believed to convey blessings: བྱིན་​གྱིས་​བརླབས་​པའི་​བཀའ། the blessed words of the Buddha (TRI 185), བྱིན་​རླབས་​བཞི། the four blessings: བདེན་​པ། truth, གཏོང་​བ། giving, ཉེ་​བར་​ཞི་​བ། ultimate peace, ཤེས་​རབ། wisdom (TRI 185). Even animals may be blessed by the Buddha, as in the story of a wandering pig that died near a stupa མཆོད་​རྟེན། and through the Buddha' blessing was reborn as a desire realm god (JPG 209).

    Cognates: 1) བྱིན་​ཅན། holy, sacred; 2) བྱིན་​ནུས། blessing.

  2. ཤིས་​རྗོད།

    [lit. spoken blessing, benediction]

    Biblical: ཤིས་​རྗོད་​འདི་​ཡ་​ཧུ་​ད་​པའི་​རྟགས་​ལྡན་​པ་​ལ་​ཡིན་​ནམ། is this blessedness only for the circumcised? (Rom. 4:9).

    Buddhist: 1) to recite auspicious verses at the conclusion of a ceremony (TRI 273); 2) in spoken language ཤིས་​རྗོད། implies blessing with the connotation of prayer for the one blessed, e.g. a lama may bless a soldier for success in battle, or a newborn child for a good life (AMD).