Hi all,
I'm back after a hiatus of what looks like... a year and a half. Yikes!
My last post was at the of end of February 2016. It was about that time that the Masters was heating up, I was struggling with emotional battles, and Nepal was hit with a 7.2 earthquake two months later. I don't wish to make excuses, but reflecting back, I understand why this blog came to a stand still. My musings on Tibetan language certainly never stopped as I've kept reading as much as I could, however, I simply didn't have the capacity to share them.
Now, a year and a half later, I have finished the MA, starting practicing more seriously (and, I believe, by virtue of that attained some basic mental-emotional stability), and life has more or less smoothed out.
There's many musings I'd love to share, but today I want to create some "tendrel" or auspicious circumstances (rten 'brel) for this blog by sharing some advice from Dza Paltrul (Rdza dpal sprul). These lines really spoke to me about the ideal of the scholar-practitioner---someone who is neither a dry intellectual nor someone informed by blind faith; someone who possess great learning and wisdom yet is accompanied by great humility and compassion:
I have translated this below in what many would call an "interpretive" manner (although I would argue that there is no translation that is not interpretive). What I mean to say is that, I translated it as it spoke to me:
It's great to study Buddhism. It's great to study philosophy. It's great to study language, grammar, history, and so on. It really is a joy. But if we leave our studies merely at an intellectual level, it would really be a loss. Instead, let us let them let them transform us for the better! The majority of the musings on this blog will be on random fun facts and discoveries about the Tibetan language but nevertheless, let's see what happens!
I'm back after a hiatus of what looks like... a year and a half. Yikes!
My last post was at the of end of February 2016. It was about that time that the Masters was heating up, I was struggling with emotional battles, and Nepal was hit with a 7.2 earthquake two months later. I don't wish to make excuses, but reflecting back, I understand why this blog came to a stand still. My musings on Tibetan language certainly never stopped as I've kept reading as much as I could, however, I simply didn't have the capacity to share them.
Now, a year and a half later, I have finished the MA, starting practicing more seriously (and, I believe, by virtue of that attained some basic mental-emotional stability), and life has more or less smoothed out.
There's many musings I'd love to share, but today I want to create some "tendrel" or auspicious circumstances (rten 'brel) for this blog by sharing some advice from Dza Paltrul (Rdza dpal sprul). These lines really spoke to me about the ideal of the scholar-practitioner---someone who is neither a dry intellectual nor someone informed by blind faith; someone who possess great learning and wisdom yet is accompanied by great humility and compassion:
དེ་ལྟར་ཡུལ་ཤེས་བྱ་སྤྱི་གནས་ལུགས་རྟོགས་ཀྱང་། ཡུལ་ཅན་ཤེས་པ་རང་གི་གནས་ལུགས་མ་རྟོགས་ན། ཆོས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཤེས་བྱའི་ཡུལ་དུ་ལུས་ནས་ཉོན་མོངས་པའི་གཉེན་པོར་མི་འགྲོ་སྟེ་རྟོགས་པ་དེ་ཉིད་ལ་སླར་ང་རྒྱལ་དང་རློམ་སེམས་སྐྱེ་ཞིང་། གང་ཟག་གི་བདག་རགས་སུ་འགྲོ་བས། ཤེས་བྱ་ཤེས་མཁན་གྱི་བློའམ་སེམས་སམ། ཡིད་དམ་རྣམ་ཤེས་ཁོ་རང་གི་གནས་ལུགས་རྟོགས་དགོས།
I have translated this below in what many would call an "interpretive" manner (although I would argue that there is no translation that is not interpretive). What I mean to say is that, I translated it as it spoke to me:
Even if you understand the general reality of external objects and intellectual facts, you may have still not realized the particular reality of the inner subject or the mind. If that is the case, then everything will simply remain within the realm of [mere] facts and will not serve to remedy your disturbing emotions. Likewise, you will feel more pride and arrogance with respect to your knowledge and [your sense of] personal self will become coarser. Therefore, you must realize the natural state of that which knows objects of knowledge--the intellect, the mind, consciousness, or whatever you may call it.
It's great to study Buddhism. It's great to study philosophy. It's great to study language, grammar, history, and so on. It really is a joy. But if we leave our studies merely at an intellectual level, it would really be a loss. Instead, let us let them let them transform us for the better! The majority of the musings on this blog will be on random fun facts and discoveries about the Tibetan language but nevertheless, let's see what happens!
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རྒྱལ་ཀུན་གྱི་སྐྱེད་ཡུམ་ལྷ་མོ་དབྱངས་ཅན་མ་ལ་ན་མོ།
Homage to Sarasvatidevi, the mother of all awakened ones.
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