[Buddha-l] Tibetan word for "meditation"

[Stephen Hodge]

Malcolm Dean wrote:

> Would anyone with a Tibetan-English dictionary and, say, Tibetan 201,
> please simply look the word "meditation" up and tell us all what the
> entry says?

Dear Malcolm,
The fact that you have not had a clear answer yet might alert you to the 
fact that this is not as straight forward as you seem to assume, although 
you have actually had a partial reply on this from Dan Lustaus, I believe. 
The problem is that there is actually no precise equivalent word in Tibetan 
for "meditation".  The most common term that might correspond would be 
"bsgom-pa" (Skt: bhaavanaa), but it does not mean "paying attention".  The 
other possibility is "dran-pa" (Skt: sm.rti), which means "mindfulness". 
There is also "sems rtse gcig-pa" (Skt:citta-eka-agrataa) meaning 
"one-pointedness of mind", used as a definition of samaadhi.  Another 
possibility is "lhag-mthong" (Skt: vipa"syanaa), often translated as 
"insight meditation", the practice of which would involve "paying 
attention".
Hope this helps.

Best wishes,
Stephen Hodge