Buddha

Buddha (sangs rgyas): One who has eliminated the two veils - the veils of emotional obscuration and cognitive obscuration, which is the dualistic conceptual thinking, which obscures natural omniscience - and who has developed the two wisdoms, the wisdom which knows this ultimate nature of mind and phenomena, and the wisdom which knows the multiplicity of these phenomena. [MR]

Buddha (sangs rgyas)

• The first of the Three Jewels (Skt. triratna), which are the foremost objects of refuge, in Buddhism. The Sanskrit term buddha literally means "awakened", "developed", and "enlightened", while its Tibetan equivalent sangs rgyas is a combination of sangs pa ("awakened" or "purified"), and rgyas pa ("developed"). These two syllables therefore denote a full awakening from fundamental ignorance (Skt. - avidyā) in the form of the two obscurations (dvayāvaraṇa) and a full realisation of true knowledge, ie. the pristine cognition (jñāna) of buddha-mind. A fully awakened being is herein one who, as a result of training the mind through the bodhisattva paths, has finally realised this full potential for complete enlightenment (bodhi), and has eliminated the obscuration to true knowledge and liberation. Buddhas are characterised according to their five fruitional aspects of Buddha-body (kaya), Buddha-speech (vāk), Buddha-mind (citta), Buddha-qualities (guṇa), and Buddha-activities (kötyakriyā), which are poetically described in the literature of the Nyingma school as the "five wheels of inexhaustible adornment" (mi zad pa'i rgyan gyi 'khor lo lnga). For a detailed explanation of these five aspects, see Dudjom Rinpoche's, The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism, pp. 115-148, 281-3. GD (from the Glossary to Tibetan Elemental Divination Paintings)