[Buddha-l] Prof. Guenther: some essays

[Dan Lusthaus]

> >4. a central term in Dzogchen and also in Guenther's book is "rigpa". He
> >translates rigpa with: "overconscious ecstatic intensity".
> >Well, until now, I understood rigpa as "insight/vipassana". What do you
> >think about "rigpa" and Guenther's view?
> >
> >
> I would vote for 'clear awareness', but Guenter tried to imitate
> Heidegger by making mysterious expressions. The problem is that there
> may not be a word or precise translation for rigpa, so the only
> legitimate thing to do is make the best description you can make and
> then stipulate a word for it. Guenthers strategy of condensing a
> description into a long wordcombination is perhaps the worst solution.

Among attested uses of Rig pa to represent/translate Sanskrit terms are:
rig pa -  sa.mvedana; {MSA}vid; {LCh,MSA,C}vidyaa; sa.mvid; {C}vij~na;
{C}viditvaa

These are not "mysterious" terms but are various ways of saying "to
experience, or know" or as the Tibetan Translation Tool (available online
for download from U of Virginia) suggests:

(JH-ENG) knower; knowledge; awareness; know; be aware; aware; basic
knowledge
(JH-OE) {C}lore; existence; science(s); secret lore; magical formula;
discern(ing); have understood; convinced; having known/seen/noticed
(JH-SE) Syn.: knowledge; cognition
(YOGA) vidyA
(JV) (pure, sheer, instantaneous, instant) presence, know, knower,
knowledge, understand, actually experience, (immediate, pure, intrinsic,
aesthetic, value-sustained, pure non-dual) awareness, noetic act, pure
sensation, information input, cognition, cognitive (capacity, being),
energetic charge, intrinsic perception, science, SA rtogs pa'i rig pa, the
flash of knowing that gives awareness its illumining quality, insight,
logic, mantra, talent, wit, science, learning, literature, intellectual
reasoning, awakened awareness, knowing in-a-flash, state of contemplation,
intelligence, true condition of the mind of the individual, conscious mind,
to notice, to recognize, to see, discovering, discovers, real knowledge,
recognition

The problem is that every manner of acquiring knowledge or insight that
various Tibetans wanted to legitimize got packed into the usages of this
term. Guenther's attempt to pack all that into an overwrought, virtually
incomprehensible English phrase doesn't clarify much, does it? Or, maybe
unpacking all those compressed indigestibles will lead to another sort of
insight.

Dan :Lusthaus