Lamchen Gyalpo Rinpoche: Difference between revisions
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<big><big><big>སྒྱུ་མའི་དཔེ་</big></big></big>[[sgyu ma'i dpe]] māyopāma | <big><big><big>སྒྱུ་མའི་དཔེ་</big></big></big>[[sgyu ma'i dpe]] māyopāma | ||
Metaphors used to describe the inconcrete, empty, nature of phenomena | |||
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I believe that mgal me'i 'khor lo is the correct spelling for the Tibetan that corresponds to alātacakra. I don't think it means 'phosphene.' It just means the illusion of a circle that occurs when you whirl a burning branch around in a circle. 'Whirling firebrand' is one of the usual ways to translate it. mgal dum means branches that have been left hanging from the tree (but dead and dried), which are taken down for the purpose. See the fairly long entry on alātacakra in Malalasekera's Encyclopaedia of Buddhism (Ceylon 1964), 1st fascicle, p. 379: "wheel of fire, of a fire-brand whirled in the air, used as a simile which is much fancied by almost all schools of Buddhist thought. It symbolises the transitory, hence the illusory and essenceless nature of things, and also restless or unceasing motion." The entry continues for most of a page. |
Revision as of 13:31, 6 July 2006
སྒྱུ་མའི་དཔེ་sgyu ma'i dpe māyopāma
Metaphors used to describe the inconcrete, empty, nature of phenomena
Phenomenas are like a : | ||
rmi lam | svapana | dream |
sgyu ma | māya | magical illusion |
mig 'khrul | indrajāla | optical illusion |
smig sgyu | marīcī | mirage |
chu zla | jalacandra | reflections of the moon in water |
me long nang gi gzugs brnyan | darpaṇabiṃba | reflections in a mirror |
sgra brnyan | pratiśabda | echo |
dri za'i grong khyer | gandharva | fairy city of Gandharvas |
'gal maí khor lo | alātacakra | phosphene |
'ja mtshon | indraraṅga | rainbow |
glog | vidyuta | flash of lightning |
chu bur | budbud | water bubbles |
sprul pa | nirmāṇa | phantom or a magical creation |
I believe that mgal me'i 'khor lo is the correct spelling for the Tibetan that corresponds to alātacakra. I don't think it means 'phosphene.' It just means the illusion of a circle that occurs when you whirl a burning branch around in a circle. 'Whirling firebrand' is one of the usual ways to translate it. mgal dum means branches that have been left hanging from the tree (but dead and dried), which are taken down for the purpose. See the fairly long entry on alātacakra in Malalasekera's Encyclopaedia of Buddhism (Ceylon 1964), 1st fascicle, p. 379: "wheel of fire, of a fire-brand whirled in the air, used as a simile which is much fancied by almost all schools of Buddhist thought. It symbolises the transitory, hence the illusory and essenceless nature of things, and also restless or unceasing motion." The entry continues for most of a page.