[Buddha-l] Tibetan word for "meditation"

[Joy Vriens]

Stephen wrote:
>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". 

I would say the general word, or at least as vast and general as "meditation" (the way it is used nowadays), would be sgrub pa (generally translated as to practice). In actual practice, the main practice in Tibetan Buddhism is not samatha and vipassana as such, although it has become more widely taught in the West by Tibetan teachers, but recitations and deity practice (sadhana). The sadhanas consist of phases of more explicitly imaginative meditation, hathayogic meditation, and of formless meditation/non-meditation. All of which have their own technical terms, that could all be simplified and reduced in translation to "meditation", as is often done. As I understand it, "sgom" mostly refers to constructed meditation with effort. Terms like "mnyam bzhag" refer to more passive forms of meditation, or perhaps contemplation, in which less and less effort is involved.