illusion metaphor

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.