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ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས། | Glossary of Terms
ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
chos kyi dbyings
dharmadhātu
- Term
- Realm of phenomena
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
Defined in the commentary as the ultimate nature of phenomena, or as the supreme amongst phenomena. Also defined as the essence of the Dharma. Dhātu can be used to mean an essential element or a realm, and so dharmadhātu is also used to mean “the realm of phenomena,” meaning all phenomena. Also translated here as “essence of phenomena.”
- Realm of phenomena
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
- 法界
The “sphere of dharmas,” a synonym for the nature of phenomena.
- Realm of phenomena
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
A synonym for emptiness or the ultimate nature of things (see i.4). This term is interpreted variously—given the many connotations of dharma / chos—as the sphere, element, or nature, of phenomena, reality, or truth. In this text it is used with this general, Mahāyāna sense, not to be confused with its rather different meaning in the Abhidharma as one of the twelve sense sources (āyatana) and eighteen elements (dhātu) related to mental perception.
- Realm of phenomena
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
The “sphere of dharmas,” a synonym for the nature of things. Also translated here as “realm of Dharma.”
- Realm of phenomena
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
The element, or nature, of ultimate reality.
- Realm of phenomena
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
A synonym for the nature of things.
- Realm of phenomena
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
A synonym for ultimate truth, the nature of phenomena.
- Realm of phenomena
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིང་།
- chos kyi dbying
- dharmadhātu
The “sphere of dharmas,” a synonym for the nature of things.
- Realm of phenomena
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
The “sphere of dharmas,” a synonym for the nature of things.
- Realm of phenomena
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
The “sphere of dharmas,” a synonym for the nature of things.
- Realm of phenomena
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
A synonym for emptiness, the ultimate reality, or the ultimate nature of things. This term is interpreted variously due to the many different meanings of dharma as element, phenomena, reality, truth, and/or the teaching.
- Realm of phenomena
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
The “sphere of dharmas,” a synonym for the nature of things.
- Realm of phenomena
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
A synonym for ultimate truth, the nature of phenomena.
- Realm of phenomena
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
A synonym for emptiness or the ultimate nature of things. This term is interpreted variously—given the many connotations of dharma/chos—as the sphere, element, or nature of phenomena, reality, or truth.
- Realm of phenomena
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
The “sphere of dharmas,” a synonym for the nature of things.
- Realm of phenomena
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
The “sphere of dharmas,” a synonym for the nature of things.
- Realm of phenomena
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
The element, or nature, of ultimate reality.
- Realm of phenomena
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
The field or nature of ultimate reality.
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.
- Realm of phenomena
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
A synonym for the nature of things.
- Dharmadhātu
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
A synonym for emptiness or the ultimate nature of reality (dharmatā). This term is interpreted variously—given the many connotations of dharma/chos—as the sphere, element, or nature of phenomena, reality, or truth. In this text it is used with this general, Mahāyāna sense, not to be confused with its rather different meaning in the Abhidharma as one of the twelve sense fields (Skt. āyatana) and eighteen elements (Skt. dhātu), and comprising all objects of mental perception.
- Dharmadhātu
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
The nature of phenomena; the dimension or space (dhātu) in which phenomena (dharma) appear.
- Dharmadhātu
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
“The sphere of dharmas,” “the base of dharmas,” “the ore of dharmas”—a synonym for the nature of things.
- Dharmadhātu
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
- Dharmadhātu
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
This term is interpreted variously—given the many connotations of both dharma and dhātu—as the sphere, element, or nature, of phenomena, reality, or truth. In this text it is used with this general, Mahāyāna sense, not to be confused with its rather different meaning in the Abhidharma as one of the twelve sense sources (āyatana) and eighteen elements (dhātu) related to mental perception.
- Dharmadhātu
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
In combination with pratītyasamutpāda (in this text rten cing ’brel bar ’byung ba chos kyi dbyings), the term dharmadhātu can refer to a type of Buddhist relic which is said to embody the essence of the Buddhist doctrine.
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.
- Dharmadhātu
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
The “sphere of phenomena,” a totality of things as they really are.
- Dharmadhātu
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིང་།
- chos kyi dbying
- dharmadhātu
See “sphere of phenomena.”
- Dharmadhātu
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
A technical term used to express ultimate reality. It is interpreted variously—given the many connotations of dharma/chos—as the sphere, element, or nature of phenomena, reality, or truth.
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.
- Dharmadhātu
- ཆོས་དབྱིངས།
- དྷརྨ་དྷཱ་ཏུ།
- chos dbyings
- d+harma d+hA tu
- dharmadhātu
The condition of phenomena as they truly are, undistorted by conceptual thinking.
- Expanse of reality
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
- dharmaniyāmatā
- Expanse of reality
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
- 法界
The fundamental space that is the characteristic of all phenomena.
- Expanse of reality
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
Varyingly, “the sphere of dharmas,” “the base of dharmas,” “the realm of dharmas”—a synonym for the nature of phenomena.
- Expanse of reality
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
- Sphere of phenomena
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
Synonymous with the very limit of reality, it refers to the ultimate reality that is the absence of an intrinsic nature.
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.
- Sphere of phenomena
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
See “dharmadhātu.”
- Sphere of phenomena
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
Things as they truly are, with nothing imputed to them through dualistic thinking. The term is rendered elsewhere in this translation as “dharmadhātu.”
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.
- Sphere of phenomena
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
See “dharmadhātu.”
- Essence of phenomena
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
See “realm of phenomena.”
- Essence of phenomena
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
Defined as the ultimate nature of phenomena, and also as the essence of the Dharma. Literally “the element of phenomena, or the Dharma.” This term is also used to mean “the realm of phenomena,” meaning all phenomena.
- Essence of phenomena
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
Defined in the commentary as the ultimate nature of phenomena, or the supreme among phenomena. Also defined as the essence of the Dharma. Literally “the element of phenomena, or the Dharma.” This term is also used to mean “the realm of phenomena,” meaning all phenomena.
- Sphere of reality
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
The element, or nature, of ultimate reality.
- Sphere of reality
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
- Sphere of reality
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
A synonym for emptiness, the ultimate reality, or the ultimate nature of things. This term is interpreted variously due to the many different meanings of dharma (chos) as element, phenomena, reality, truth, and/or the teaching.
- Dharma-constituent
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- ཆོས་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- chos dbyings
- dharmadhātu
Dharma-dhātu is a synonym for emptiness or the ultimate nature of phenomena (dharmatā). This term is interpreted variously—given the many connotations of dharma/chos—as the sphere, element, or nature of phenomena, suchness, or truth. In this text it is used with this general, Mahāyāna sense, not to be confused with dharma constituent (Tib. chos kyi khams), also called in Sanskrit dharmadhātu, which is one of the eighteen constituents. See also “dharma constituent.”
- Dharma-constituent
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- ཆོས་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- chos dbyings
- dharmadhātu
Dharma-dhātu is a synonym for emptiness or the ultimate nature of phenomena (dharmatā). This term is interpreted variously—given the many connotations of dharma/chos—as the sphere, element, or nature of phenomena, suchness, or truth. In this text it is used with this general, Mahāyāna sense, not to be confused with dharma constituent (Tib. chos kyi khams), also called in Sanskrit dharmadhātu, which is one of the eighteen constituents. See also “dharma constituent.”
- Domain of truth
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
- Domain of truth
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
The expanse of phenomena, the sphere of ultimate reality.
- Realm of reality
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
A synonym for the nature of things, ultimate reality.
- Realm of reality
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
- Dharma realm
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
The realm of the ultimate reality of the emptiness of all phenomena.
- Expanse of phenomena
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
Varyingly, “the sphere of phenomena,” “the base of phenomena,” “the ore of phenomena”—a synonym for the nature of things.
- Field of phenomena
- ཆོས་དབྱིངས།
- chos dbyings
- dharmadhātu
The nonconceptual, boundless field (dhātu) in which all phenomena (dharma) appear. A term for ultimate reality.
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.
- Mental objects
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
- Nature of phenomena
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
A synonym for emptiness or the ultimate nature of things. This term is interpreted variously—given the many connotations of the Sanskrit dharma, Tibetan chos—as the sphere, element, or nature of phenomena, reality, or truth.
- Realm of Dharma
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
The “sphere of dharmas,” a synonym for the nature of things. Also translated here as “realm of phenomena.”
- Ultimate realm
- ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས།
- chos kyi dbyings
- dharmadhātu
This compound is actually metaphorical in sense, with (at least) two interpretations possible because of ambiguities in the word dhātu. Dhātu as in the expression kāmadhātu (desire-realm), may mean “realm”; or it may mean “element,” as in the eighteen elements (see entry), where it is explained as analogous to a mineral such as copper. Thus the realm of the Dharma is the dharmakāyā, the pure source and sphere of the Dharma. And the element of the Dharma is like a mine from which the verbal Dharma, the buddha-qualities, and the wisdoms of the arhats and bodhisattvas are culled. This is metaphorical, as Vimalakīrti would remind us, because the Dharma, the ultimate, is ultimately not a particular place; it is immanent in all places, being the actuality and ultimate condition of all things and being relatively no one thing except, like voidness, the supremely beneficent of concepts.