Buddha

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

Buddha (sangs rgyas)

• The first of the Three Precious 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 (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 therefore one who, as a result of training the mind through the bodhisattva paths, has finally realised the full potential for complete enlightenment (bodhi), and has eliminated all the obscurations to true knowledge and liberation. Buddhas are characterised according to their five fruitional aspects of buddha-body (kāya), buddha-speech (vāk), buddha-mind (citta), buddha-attributes (guṇa), and buddha-activities (kötyakriyā), which are poetically described in the literature of the rNying-ma 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 bDud-'joms Rin-po-che, NSTB, pp. 115-148, 281-3. GD (from the Glossary to Tibetan Elemental Divination Paintings)