A highly learned and attained lama who was head of the Tsarpa branch of the Sakya tradition; a guru of Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

The great fifteenth-century siddha whose chief disciple was Gyalwa Ensapa.

The title given to a monk, usually a tulku, who has made a substantial offering to the monastery and is therefore exempt from work obligations.

A long dress or coat worn by Tibetan lay people.

Literally, “taking the essence.” Chulen pills are made of essential ingredients; taking but a few each day, accomplished meditators can remain secluded in retreat for months or years without having to depend upon normal food.

A practice of purifying negative karma and accumulating merit in which a person walks clockwise around a holy object such as a stupa or statue.

See Tara Cittamani.

The Mind Only school, one of the two Mahayana (Great Vehicle) philosophical schools. The Mind Only school does not accept external objects but does assert truly established self-knowers. See also the four Buddhist philosophical schools.

The extremely subtle mind which is directly recognized as the culmination of successful tantric practice, and is also accessible or recognizable to ordinary beings at the time of death.

See union of clear light and illusory body.

See obscurations to knowledge.

A preliminary subject in the Tibetan Gelug tradition that serves as an introduction to syllogistic reasoning and systematizes and defines basic Buddhist concepts and terms.