Note the use of དང་ in the above example as ‘old, ancient.’
དཔེ་ see སྒོ་.
དཔེ་ see དཔེ་.
དཔེ་ (= བྱད་) see དཔེ་.
དཔེ་ see དཔེ་.
དཔེ་ see དཔེ་.
སྤྲི་, 2, 5. The white cloud is a figure often occurring in Tibetan poetry. If used as an emblem of holiness or spiritual loftiness in connection with eminent persons, this expression may perhaps contain a stereotyped allusion to the name of the tenth and supreme bhūmi or stage of the Bodhisattva, the dharma-megha, ‘cloud of virtue,’ ཆོས་. See Mahāvyutpatti, ed. A.S.B., p. 11. Here evidently not J.’s (336a) ‘emblem of transitoriness,’ though the point might be argued on the basis of the final remark s.v. གདུང་, see above.
སྤྲོས་, 51. This word corresponds according to S. Ch. D. to a Sk. nishprapañca (or apañca, aprapañca) which in Macdonell’s Sk. Dict. is rendered by ‘unevolved, exempt from [[56]]multiformity.’ We may, therefore, think of expressions like ‘the undifferentiated, homogeneous, absolute.’ The word dhātu being the Sk. equivalent for Tib. དབྱིངས་ the whole expression དབྱིངས་ must correspond to a Sk. aprapañca dhātu. The same Sk. Dict. translates the word dhātu as ‘layer, component part, element.’ In Tibetan དབྱིངས་ means, according to J.: (1) ‘the heavens’; (2) ‘height’; (3) ‘extent, region, space, in metaphysics an undefined idea.’ According to the etymology སྤྲོས་ should mean ‘passive, actionless, quietistic, inert,’ but according to the etymology of its Sk. prototype rather ‘undifferentiated, monadic.’ One of my informants compares it with ཆོས་, dharma dhātu, and སྟོང་, shunyatā, the void, the absolute. In this connection one should compare J.’s statements (215a) that in modern (Tibetan) Buddhism the term མངོན་ (अभिसमय), ‘clear understanding or perception’ means the same as སྟོང་, and further (259b) that དོན་, originally परमार्थ, has, in later times, also become equivalent to སྟོང་. It seems that the old metaphysicians reached regions and distinctions where their followers could no longer join them, and hence the process became ‘omne ignotum pro སྟོང་.’ For practical purposes the rendering ‘absolute,’ or ‘motionless’ might be used for སྤྲོས་, whilst the word དབྱིངས་ might be rendered by ‘principle, state, region.’ If occurring in a specimen of the more technically and theoretically philosophical literature of Northern Buddhism, a more precise rendering and more careful definition might be required. Taking the following རྟོགས་ as ‘knowledge, perception, cognition,’ then the whole expression becomes in English ‘the knowledge of the motionless state (or [[57]]region, or principle)’ or—more pedantic but perhaps truer—‘the knowledge of (that is: pertaining to, inherent in) the monadic state.’ Other equivalents: ‘a state of stillness, the still state’ and, mystically, ‘the wisdom of the silence.’
One of my informants, the dge rgan, knows of a colloquial use of སྤྲོས་ = རེ་ = ‘hopeless,’ but my second authority ignores this use. The following two examples were given: འདི་, ‘it is labour lost (hopeless) to [try and] know this.’ You cannot hope to know this. (N.B.—Note the elliptic construction ‘hopeless to know’ for ‘to try to know, to study and so come to know.’) ཡི་, ‘As he does not even know how to read well (or properly), it is hopeless (lost labour), for him to (or: how can he?) study grammar’ (Not: how can he pretend to know grammar?).
N.B.—The Tibetan does not ‘read’ but ‘reads books’; he does not ‘write’ but ‘writes letters,’ he does not ‘go’ but ‘goes to the shop.’ In short, he is a very objective being.