[Buddha-l] tibetan for meditation

[Blumenthal, James]

sgom pa also has a sense of "becoming accustomed to" or "familiarizing with" something.
Jim Blumenthal


James Blumenthal
Department of Philosophy
Oregon State University
102-A Hovland Hall
Corvallis, OR 97331

-----Original Message-----
From: buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com on behalf of Michael Essex
Sent: Sat 10/28/2006 11:20 AM
To: buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com
Subject: [Buddha-l] tibetan for meditation
 

Re: the usual Tibetan word that is translated as meditation, I will
quote the Illuminator dictionary;

I. <verb> v.t. bsgoms pa/ sgom pa/ bsgom pa/ sgoms/.  Translation of
the Sanskrit "bhavana" which literally means "to cultivate", "to bring
forth".  This is has been traditionally translated as "meditation" even
though it is not really accurate in many contexts.  The term is also
regularly translated on the one hand as "to practice" and the other as
"to contemplate / to ponder" but these words translate other terms
better (e.g., nyams su len pa and bsam pa respectively).  These days
translators have begun to use the more accurate term "to cultivate". 
E.g., snying rje sgom pa "to cultivate compassion".  Nonetheless, the
term does come to mean "to meditate", "to visualize" etc., in the sense
of saying "now cultivate that practice of meditation, visualization,
etc., etc. whatever is being discussed".
	II. <noun> Cognate to the meanings of the verb as just mentioned
"cultivation" or "meditation".

Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche may have been referring to the Tibetan word
that we tend to translate as "mindfulness" (dran pa) which also means
remembering. 
In developing "calm abiding" meditation there are two major necessary
functions dran pa, and shes bzhin (alertness). dren pa holds the mind
on its object (e.g. remembering what we are intending to be doing with
the mind) and shes bzhin pays attention to monitor what the mind
actually is doing.

Mike Essex
> Date: Sat, 28 Oct 2006 12:55:02 -0400
> From: "Malcolm Dean" <malcolmdean at gmail.com>
> Subject: [Buddha-l] Tibetan for "meditation"
 
> Ron Leifer quotes Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche as saying "Our [Tibetan]
> word for
> meditation means "paying attention."
> 
> Could someone with Tibetan language skills expand on this, please?
> 
> Malcolm Dean
> Los Angeles
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