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Dictionary of Key Spiritual Terms


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Wylie | Tibetan

enlightenment

  1. བྱང་​ཆུབ།

    enlightenment; the state of impersonal moral and spiritual perfection sought in Bsm. བྱང་​ཆུབ་​ལམ། the path to enlightenment (UCO 148), བྱང་​ཆུབ་​འདོད་​པས་​ལུས་​ཀྱང་​བཏང་​། those who seek enlightenment will even give up their bodies (GSL 22). Enlightenment differs profoundly from the Biblical idea of salvation in being impersonal, non-theistic, and ineffable.

  2. བྱང་​ཆུབ་​ཀྱི་​སེམས།

    [Skt. boddhichitta]

    the mind of enlightenment; the desire to attain enlightenment in order to benefit other living beings (TRC 317). Attaining enlightenment is believed to be one of the first steps toward becoming a boddhisattva or བྱང་​ཆུབ་​སེམས་​དཔའ། the ultimate goal of Tibetan Bsm: ཐེག་​པ་​ཆེན་​པོའི་​ལམ་​ལ་​ཞུགས་​པ་​ལ་​དེའི་​འཇུག་​སྒོ་​ནི། བྱང་​ཆུབ་​ཀྱི་​སེམས་​ཟེར་​བ་​དེ་​རེད། the gate of the Mahayana path is the mind of enlightenment (TRC 318). It is produced through a six or seven step series of meditations which include considering all beings as one's mother in previous rebirths མར་​ཤེས། remembering the kindness of others in other rebirths དྲིན་​དྲན། mentally repaying those kindnesses དྲིན་​གཟོ། developing the wish for others to be free from suffering བྱམས་​པ། and resolving to become an enlightened being in order to effect this (TRC 319).

  3. བྱང་​ཆུབ་​སེམས་​དཔའ།

    [Skt. boddhisattva]

    one who dedicates the merit of his religious practice towards the liberation of all sentient beings; a Bst. saint and future Buddha. Some boddhisattvas are described as shepherds leading their flocks of sentient beings to buddhahood (JPG 428).