Our trilingual glossary combining entries from all of our publications into one useful resource, giving translations and definitions of thousands of terms, people, places, and texts from the Buddhist canon.
ཕྱག་རྒྱ། | Glossary of Terms
ཕྱག་རྒྱ།
phyag rgya
mudrā
- Term
A seal, in both the literal and metaphoric sense. Mudrā is also the name given to an array of symbolic hand gestures, which range from the gesture of touching the earth displayed by the Buddha upon attaining awakening to the numerous gestures used in tantric rituals to symbolize offerings, consecrations, etc. Iconographically, mudrās are used as a way of communicating an action performed by the deity or a specific aspect a deity or buddha is displaying, in which case the same figure can be depicted using different hand gestures to signify that they are either meditating, teaching, granting freedom from fear, etc. In Tantric texts, the term is also used to designate the female spiritual consort in her various aspects.
Warning: Readers are reminded that according to Vajrayāna Buddhist tradition there are restrictions and commitments concerning tantra. Practitioners who are not sure if they should read this translation are advised to consult the authorities of their lineage. The responsibility for reading this text or sharing it with others who may or may not fulfill the requirements lies in the hands of readers.
- Mudrā
- ཕྱག་རྒྱ།
- phyag rgya
- mudrā
Seal; ritual hand gesture; female consort in sexual yoga.
Warning: Readers are reminded that according to Vajrayāna Buddhist tradition there are restrictions and commitments concerning tantra. Practitioners who are not sure if they should read this translation are advised to consult the authorities of their lineage. The responsibility for reading this text or sharing it with others who may or may not fulfill the requirements lies in the hands of readers.
- Mudrā
- ཕྱག་རྒྱ།
- phyag rgya
- mudrā
A position of hands, also the “source” deity visualized at the top of the head.
- Mudrā
- ཕྱག་རྒྱ།
- phyag rgya
- mudrā
A particular position of hands of magical or esoteric significance; also an emblem or insignia.
- Mudrā
- ཕྱག་རྒྱ།
- phyag rgya
- mudrā
- Mudrā
- ཕྱག་རྒྱ།
- phyag rgya
- mudrā
Warning: Readers are reminded that according to Vajrayāna Buddhist tradition there are restrictions and commitments concerning tantra. Practitioners who are not sure if they should read this translation are advised to consult the authorities of their lineage. The responsibility for reading this text or sharing it with others who may or may not fulfill the requirements lies in the hands of readers.
- Mudrā
- ཕྱག་རྒྱ།
- phyag rgya
- mudrā
A seal, in both the literal and metaphoric sense; a ritual hand gesture.
Warning: Readers are reminded that according to Vajrayāna Buddhist tradition there are restrictions and commitments concerning tantra. Practitioners who are not sure if they should read this translation are advised to consult the authorities of their lineage. The responsibility for reading this text or sharing it with others who may or may not fulfill the requirements lies in the hands of readers.
- Mudrā
- ཕྱག་རྒྱ།
- phyag rgya
- mudrā
Ritual hand gesture.
- Mudrā
- ཕྱག་རྒྱ།
- phyag rgya
- mudrā
Hand gesture that invokes a particular type of magical power.
Warning: Readers are reminded that according to Vajrayāna Buddhist tradition there are restrictions and commitments concerning tantra. Practitioners who are not sure if they should read this translation are advised to consult the authorities of their lineage. The responsibility for reading this text or sharing it with others who may or may not fulfill the requirements lies in the hands of readers.
- Mudrā
- ཕྱག་རྒྱ།
- phyag rgya
- mudrā
An emblem, symbol, or gesture of esoteric significance related to specific deities or ritual acts.
- Seal
- ཕྱག་རྒྱ།
- phyag rgya
- mudrā
- Seal
- ཕྱག་རྒྱ།
- phyag rgya
- mudrā
Warning: Readers are reminded that according to Vajrayāna Buddhist tradition there are restrictions and commitments concerning tantra. Practitioners who are not sure if they should read this translation are advised to consult the authorities of their lineage. The responsibility for reading this text or sharing it with others who may or may not fulfill the requirements lies in the hands of readers.
- Seal
- ཕྱག་རྒྱ།
- phyag rgya
- mudrā
- Seal
- ཕྱག་རྒྱ།
- phyag rgya
- mudrā
A polysemous term that indicates a “seal” in both the literal and metaphoric sense. It can refer to an emblem or symbol, a ritual hand gesture, or a consort in sexual practices. When paired with the term dhāraṇī it conveys the idea that a dhāraṇī seals or stamps the nature that it embodies upon the reciter or the targeted phenomenon.
- Emblem
- ཕྱག་རྒྱ།
- phyag rgya
- mudrā
See “mudrā.”
- Stamp
- རྒྱ།
- rgya
- mudrā
A stamp, signet, or seal.