I'm looking to translate into English the name Namkha Chenpo Dewachen Gompa. Any idea of its precise meaning? Thanks a lot!

The following Tibetan Buddhist (thangka) painting is a version of a visual representation of the 9 Stages (~11 stages) of Samatha meditation. Who is the *original* artist who painted it? It would have been painted about a millennium ago or so.

What is the Tibetan term for describing the realm containing all of one individual mindstream's karma? I think it starts with the letter A. Thank you 🙏

Do the children and grandchildren etc. of eminent "buddhas" get blesssed in any way? I know the buddha had a child, before his enlightenment, and that most important buddhists are celibate, but I wondered, supposing I were the great great... grandchild of e.g. Linji or Dogen or Mahakasyapa or whoever, if it's be fortunate of me etc.. Don't worry, I am not!

It appears at the top of two different thangkas in a gompa, one representing Sakyamuni and another one with Vajrasattva in yab yum, and I am unable to find what it means.please help me clarify what mantra is that?

In the "Tibetan Book of The Living and Dying" it is said that the state one dies in, is the state one enters the Bardo in. Are there any resources someone can point me to that can clarify how to live in a state that makes on better prepared for the Bardo, but at the same time not be attached to the thought of it. I figure that if one is always concentrated on being in a certain state in preparation, that this would be considered attachment, or even become an obsession.

Title really. I am reading the tibetan lamrim version of the 9 mental abiding and trying to correlate it to the theravada 8 jhanas, I can't seem to find which jhana/abiding is which in regards to the other tradition. The practice for both is still samatha. If anyone has an informed opinion or understanding of the practices I could really do with some help understanding how the 2 different explanations coincide.

According to Tibetan Buddhism, what does it mean LHA? (LHA body?)

Alan Wallace says this regularly, for example, at the beginning of this lecture: http://media.sbinstitute.com/courses/fall2012/13-loving-kindness-1/ Is it Tibetan? What is its direct translation?

A lot of Buddhist texts come from Sanskrit or Chinese. I am looking at the Kangyur and Tengyur, and a few scattered others. But a lot of those are from Sanskrit and Chinese as well (or other languages, Pali, etc.). What books or groups of books/works can only be found in Tibetan script? _Whether or not it has been translated to other languages isn't important, the original language should be Tibetan though._ I am trying to mentally gather an image of how much reading would be required to gain the knowledge unique to Tibetan Buddhism.

Not knowing Tibetan or having access to a wide array of sources, I am using the (Tibetan script) Kangyur from [these](http://www.asianclassics.org/tibetan/) . The table of contents is [here](https://gist.github.com/lancejpollard/386a51710e8403c3774e2f3b7e105fbb) pretty much. After converting their Excel file to a CSV, I was able to find at least the English titles for "The Perfection of Wisdom in X Lines" series. For example: - KL00012-001(eTB) - _'PHAGS PA SHES RAB KYI PHA ROL TU PHYIN PA BRGYAD STONG PA_ - **འཕགས་པ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་བརྒྱད་སྟོང་པ།** - _The Exalted Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 Lines (Arya Ashta Sahasrika Prajna Paramita)_ Searching Google for the Sanskrit Romanization (I'm guessing), such as "_Arya Ashta Sahasrika Prajna Paramita_" yields **no exact matches** (no matter what romanization from what CSV line I search, I get no results). Google returns [Prajnaparamita](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prajnaparamita) as the first result, which is _correct_ ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ no idea how Google is doing that. It is technically correct in this case, even though there is not a direct text match between Prajnaparamita and Prajna Paramita, though, well, I guess it's pretty much exact. They get other ones with less similarity correct as well, at least the general category (that may have not been the best example). However, "_Arya Ashta Sahasrika_" returns nothing, I don't even know what that means (I don't know Tibetan or Sanskrit today). Luckily I have spent hours on THLib to know that there is a document with the exact same Tibetan script title (འཕགས་པ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་བརྒྱད་སྟོང་པ།) [here](http://www.thlib.org/encyclopedias/literary/canons/kt/catalog.php#cat=kt/d/0013/text/v033p1b) . So that confirms -- _in this case_ -- that the Kangyur "_Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 Lines_" from asianclassics.org is correct, it matches something else on the web at least. But searching for other Tibetan texts on Wikipedia returns language/orthography that is completely different from these two sites (asianclassics.org and thlib.org vs. wikipedia.org). For example, Wikipedia has a nice simple page called [Diamond Sutra](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_Sutra) and even goes so far as to write out the Sanskrit name _Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra_, using _some_ romanization system which I am not familiar with. Looking back in the asianclassics.org [CSV](https://gist.github.com/lancejpollard/386a51710e8403c3774e2f3b7e105fbb) I made, there's no exact matches for those words, but there is **Vajra** in a few places, which leads to **Vajrachedaka**, which is pretty close to the Wikipedia **Vajracchedikā**. Again, not knowing Sanskrit or Tibetan, I am left guessing if they are the same. 1. Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra 2. Arya Vajrachedaka Nama Prajna Paramita Mahayana Sutra **Seems like it could be the same thing.** I'm not sure though. Needless to say, this is my approach. I want to find some of the good/classic/standard/interesting/long _Tibetan script_ texts in the Kangyur, based on what I've seen on Wikipedia, but I am not sure I am finding them correctly. Given that THLib's site is broken on most of the documents, we are left with asianclassics.org. So I wanted to ask, what are the Wikipedia titles for these asianclassics.org titles, (from the [CSV](https://gist.github.com/lancejpollard/386a51710e8403c3774e2f3b7e105fbb)) ? - KL00001-001(eTB),'DUL BA GZHI 1,འདུལ་བ་གཞི་།,"Foundation of Vowed Morality, Part 1 (Vinaya Vastu 1)",༡ འདུལ་བ།/ཀ། - KL00007-111(eTB),'DUL BA GZHUNG DAM PA 1,འདུལ་བ་གཞུང་དམ་པ་།,"The Perfect Classic on Vowed Morality, Part 1 (Vinaya Uttara Grantha B, 1)",༡ འདུལ་བ།/ན། - KL00001-002(eTB),'DUL BA GZHI 2,འདུལ་བ་གཞི་།,"Foundation of Vowed Morality, Part 2 (Vinaya Vastu 2)",༡ འདུལ་བ།/ཁ། - KL00003-001(eTB),'DUL BA RNAM PAR 'BYED PA 1,འདུལ་བ་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པ་།,"The Divisions of Vowed Morality, Part 1 (Vinaya Vibhangga 1)",༡ འདུལ་བ།/ཅ། - MDO,འཕགས་པ་བསྐལ་པ་བཟང་པོ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།,"An Exalted Sutra of the Greater Way entitled The Book of the Eon of Good Fortune"" (Arya Bhadra Kalpika Nama Mahayana Sutra)""",༡༠ མདོ་མང་།/ཀ། - KL00133(eTB),'PHAGS PA DA LTAR GYI SANGS RGYAS MNGON SUM DU BZHUGS PA'I TING NGE 'DZIN CES BYA BA THEG PA CHEN PO'I MDO,འཕགས་པ་ད་ལྟར་གྱི་སངས་རྒྱས་མངོན་སུམ་དུ་བཞུགས་པའི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་ཅེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།,An Exalted Sutra of the Greater Way entitled The Meditation of the Buddha Who is Directly Present Now(Arya Pratyutpanne Buddha Sammukha Avasthita Samadhi Nama Mahayana Sutra),༡༠ མདོ་མང་།/ཐ། - KL00134(eTB),'PHAGS PA BSOD NAMS THAMS CAD BSDUS PA'I TING NGE 'DZIN CES BYA BA THEG PA CHEN PO MDO,འཕགས་པ་བསོད་ནམས་ཐམས་ཅད་བསྡུས་པའི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་ཅེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་མདོ།,"An Exalted Sutra of the Greater Way entitled A Meditation which Incorporates Every Virtue(Arya Sarva Punye Samuchaya Samadhi Mahayana Sutra)""",༡༠ མདོ་མང་།/ཐ། KL00135(eTB),RDO RJE'I TING NGE 'DZIN GYI CHOS KYI YI GE,རྡོ་རྗེའི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་གྱི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཡི་གེ,A Word of Teaching on the Diamond Meditation (no Sanskrit),༡༠ མདོ་མང་།/ཐ། - KL00136(eTB),'PHAGS PA KHYE'U BZHI'I TING NGE 'DZIN CES BYA BA THEG PA CHEN PO'I MDO,འཕགས་པ་ཁྱེའུ་བཞིའི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་ཅེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།,"An Exalted Sutra of the Greater Way entitled The Meditation of the Four Youths"" (Arya Chatur Daraka Samadhi Mahayana Sutra)""",༡༠ མདོ་མང་།/ཐ། - KL00137(eTB),'PHAGS PA TING NGE 'DZIN MCHOG DAM PA,འཕགས་པ་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་མཆོག་དམ་པ།,"The Exalted Most Supreme of Meditations"" (Arya Samadhyagrottama)""",༡༠ མདོ་མང་།/ཐ། - KL00138(eTB),'PHAGS PA 'DUS PA CHEN PO RIN PO CHE TOG GI GZUNGS ZHES BYA BA THEG PA CHEN PO'I MDO,འཕགས་པ་འདུས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ཏོག་གི་གཟུངས་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།,"An Exalted Sutra of the Greater Way entitled The Great Gathering, the Secret Formula of the Tip of Jewel"" (Arya Mahasannipata Ratna Ketu Dharani NamaMahayana Sutra)""",༡༠ མདོ་མང་།/ཐ། - KL00139(eTB),'PHAGS PA RDO RJE'I SNYING PO'I GZUNGS ZHES BYA BA THEG PA CHEN PO'I MDO,འཕགས་པ་རྡོ་རྗེའི་སྙིང་པོའི་གཟུངས་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།," An Exalted Sutra of the Greater Way entitled The Secret Formula of the Essence of Diamond"" (Arya Vajra Manda Nama Dharani Mahayana Sutra)""",༡༠ མདོ་མང་།/ཐ། - KL00140(eTB),'PHAGS PA SGO MTHA' YAS PA SGRUB PA ZHES BYA BA'I GZUNGS,འཕགས་པ་སྒོ་མཐའ་ཡས་པ་སྒྲུབ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་གཟུངས།,"An Exalted Secret Formula entitled, The Accomplishment of Infinite Goals"" (Arya Ananta Mukha Sadhaka Nama Dharani)""",༡༠ མདོ་མང་།/ཐ། - ... Specifically, in the CSV, I am looking for the various [Mahayana Sutras](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahayana_sutras) . 1. Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra 1. Infinite Life Sutra 1. Lotus Sutra 1. Pure Land sutras 1. Akṣobhyatathāgatasyavyūha Sūtra 1. Ugraparipṛcchā Sūtra 1. Mañjuśrīparipṛcchā Sūtra 1. Drumakinnararājaparipṛcchā Sūtra 1. Śūraṅgama Samādhi Sūtra 1. Bhadrapāla Sūtra 1. Ajātaśatrukaukṛtyavinodana Sūtra 1. Kāśyapaparivarta Sūtra 1. Lokānuvartana Sūtra Or any other standard/key sutras which would be interesting. The main thing is, I guess, what are the top 10 or 20 sutras in that CSV, and what are their "common" names so I can find out more info on them on Wikipedia?

Does anyone know where I can find a version of the Diamond Sutra that is in one of these three formats: 1. Classical Tibetan with Romanized Tibetan and English 2. Devangari with Romanized Sanskrit and English 3. Japanese with Romaji and English

In the movie Samsara by Pan Nalin, an older monk shows some sketches to the protagonist monk. The sketches are erotic in nature but when held in front of flame reveal true nature as skeletons. It's a very powerful teaching. Do these sketches have any significance? What are they called? This is the youtube link for the movie (look @44:37). Screenshots from the movie are copied below -- they are hidden using 'spoiler' tags because they are "erotic in nature", so mouse-over the image if you want to make them visible. >! And after changing the angle of the 'paper' (there's light from a candle on the other side): >!

 So, apparently, this won't let me post unless I have thirty characters, so I'm going to ask the same question in the comments. In the above image, a Tibetan Buddhist is praying (or speaking, what have you) in the top left corner. Can you translate this prayer?

I finished watching two movies on the life of H.H the Dalai Lama (Kundun and Seven years in Tibet ) which also highlight the tragedy of Tibet. Historically Tibet can be said as the only country which has dedicated itself to the attainment of Nibbana (take this with a pinch of salt). A huge amount of cultural heritage and Buddhist documents must have been lost during the cultural revolution. So what do you make out of the tragedy of Tibet? Do we learn any lessons about Karma? Do you think that for protection of Dhamma Tibet should have indulged in dealing with arms? If you are a Vajrayana, do you care for Liberation of Tibet? ***P.S: Not being judgemental towards the Chinese.***

I love the Tibetan tradition - Palyul Vajrayana is specifically the one I'm in. I would like to learn more about it, but the amount of texts available is just mind-boggling. I'd like to learn Abidhamma, the Lam-rim, and other texts that Tibetan masters have written. However, many of these texts (of the few that are translated) depend on the knowledge of other Buddhist concepts to be understood. For example, for the Diamond Sutra - I needed understanding of form and emptiness, and still I do not fully understand it because I do not have an understanding of what Dhammas are in Buddhist philosophy. I know there are resources at fpmt that deal with this specifically. And, if anyone wants to take a look, here they are: http://fpmt.org/education/programs/basic-program/#12 However, I am ignorant as to what percentage of philosophical understanding this covers, and how much pre-requisite knowledge you need. **TL;DR: Looking for a list of books by teaching that you'd find in a Shedra environment.** If you know such a list, please answer! Thank you

I have heard that there is a Tibetan word that roughly translates to "The truth that we deny" and sounded close to the English word "gotcha." I however cannot locate this word or a source of it. Can anyone provide a source? It is possible that it translates to either "The truth that I deny" or "The truth that you deny." I am not sure if "we" was the right pronoun. I think it might have been used in debates within the monasteries.

First of all is the "rainbow body" almost similar in the different lineages of Tibetan Buddhism? Then the above question. Thanks