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Dictionary of Key Spiritual Terms


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Wylie | Tibetan

sacrifice

See also atonement, gift, offering

མཆོད་​པ།

Biblical: an offering or sacrifice: ང་​ནི་​མཆོད་​པར་​མི་​དགའ་​སྙིང་​རྗེར་​དགའ། I desire mercy, not sacrifice (Mt. 9:13), ཁྱེད་​ཀྱི་​ལུས་​ནི་​གསོན་​པོ་​དང་​། དམ་​པ་​དང་​། དཀོན་​མཆོག་​ཐུགས་​མཉེས་​པའི་​མཆོད་​པར་​ཕུལ་​ཞིག offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God (Rom. 12:1), མ་​ཤི་​ཀའང་​མང་​པོའི་​སྡིག་​པ་​བཞེས་​པའི་​ཕྱིར་​ལན་​གཅིག་​མཆོད་​པར་​གྱུར་​ཏེ། Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people (Heb. 9:28).

Buddhist: 1) sacrifice of oneself. Tales of the sacrifice of various body parts are common in the Bst. scriptures; those making such sacrifices are thought to have great merit (thus the rationale for "sky burial"). The story of Aryadeva is typical: ཁྱེད་​ཀྱི་​སྤྱན་​ལ་​ཆགས་​ནས་​འབྲེངས་​པ་​ཡིན་​པས་​སྤྱན་​དགོས་​ཟེར་​བ་​ལ། སློབ་​དཔོན་​གྱིས་​རང་​གི་​སྤྱན་​གཡས་​པ་​བཏོན་​ནས་​དེ་​ལ་​བྱིན་​པས། "I am bound by attachment to your eye, give it to me" the [woman] said, and the master took out his right eye and gave it to her (BLI 337); the Buddha is also depicted as a king who sacrificed his life for his people in a previous rebirth (JPG 436); 2) animal sacrifice, which is condemned in Bsm: གཏི་​མུག་​གིས་​གསོད་​པ་​ནི། སེམས་​ཅན་​བསད་​ནས་​མཆོད་​སྦྱིན་​བྱས་​ན་​དགེ་​བ་​ཡིན་​པར་​བསམས་​ནས་​གསོད་​པ་​ལྟ་​བུ་​རེད། to kill on account of ignorance is, say, to kill with the thought that it is a virtue if, having killed a living creature, one makes of it a religious offering (TRC 243). See offering.

Cognates: 1) མཆོད་​པར་​ཕུལ། [lit. to give as an offering] to sacrifice, to make an offering of human or animal life: ཨི་​སག་​མཆོད་​པར་​འབུལ། offered Isaac as a sacrifice (Heb. 11:17), དེ་​ལ་​མཆོད་​པ་​ཕུལ། they sacrificed to [the golden calf] (Acts 7:41); 2) དམར་​མཆོད། [lit. red + offering] blood sacrifice, sacrifice which takes the life of that which is offered: སྤྱིན་​སྲེག་​དང་​། དམར་​མཆོད། burnt offerings and sacrifices (Mk. 12:33), ལུ་​གུ་​དམར་​མཆོད་​དུ་​ཕུལ་​བའི་​པེ་​སག་​གི་​ཉིན་​མོ། the day on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed (Lk. 22:7), རང་​གི་​སྡིག་​པའི་​ཆེད་​དུའང་​དམར་​མཆོད་​འབུལ། to offer sacrifices for his own sins (Heb. 5:3).