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ལེགས་བཤད་ལྗོན་དབང་། Soon!
Franziska-la told on the next volume we will go over ལེགས་བཤད་ལྗོན་དབང་། so I made it into a note to start memorizing. Click on it, I also uploaded the recording.
Different Spellings on Transitive / Intransitive Verbs
Tibetan Verbs Two Versions Transitive Intransitive
Sometimes verbs in Tibetan language have different spellings based on whether they are ཐད་དད་པ་ or ཐད་མི་དད་པ་, for example:
Verb Meaning Volitional Type Example ལོག་ to return ✅ ཐད་མི་དད་པ་ ངའི་ལུང་པ་ལ་ལོག་འགྲོ་གི་ཡིན། སློག་ to return (something) ✅ ཐད་དད་པ་ ལྟོ་ཐུང་འདི་ཚོང་ཁང་ལ་སློག་གར་འགྲོ་དགོས་ཡོད། ཐད་དད་པ་ verbs are those where the action draws the subject and object being separate (or also verbs of motion, sense, natural phenomena, …), so we use
Link to original
Tibetans and Superstition
Collected some notes about it.
Tibetan Superstitions
Some Examples
When offering a cup of tea, filling until the edge. And ensuring it’s always filled.
When half-dreaming, that sensation of rapidly falling down, that produces scare-jump is seen to be a bad omen.
When passing the broom when sweeping to another person, not giving it from hand to hand, but placing it at the floor first.
བླ་གཡུ་ is a amulet with a turquoise stone that protects spiritual force (བླ་). As opposed to སྲོག་ (physical life force), you can still live physically without བླ་ but not in a comfortable or healthy way: you might have mental afflictions or obstacles.
A piece of dough is passed around the body to absorb the negativities and then pressed with the hand and disposed. I remember at the monastery a friend doing it, I would then have asked him to pass me the dough and he told me “No! This already has the negativities, you must use a clean one”. I wasn’t aware!
ལོ་གསར་ཚེས་པ་གཅིག་ལ་དངུལ་འགྲོ་སོང་བཏང་ན་ལོ་ཆ་ཚང་དངུལ་མང་པོ་འགྲོ་སོང་གཏོང་གི་རེད་ཟ། That’s another reasons why shops are closed on the first day of Losar: to prevent people from having lots of expenses later onto the year.
When someone manifests, shows up, when talking about him/her it’s said that person will have a long life!
Internal and External Perception
When doing kora the wrong way (སྐོར་ལོག་རྒྱག་པ་) it’s not only about the internal perception you are doing it “wrong” but also the affect of other people seeing it do like that. So there’s external as well as internal factors when it comes to superstition.
Conceptual Thought and Superstition
རྣམ་ཏོག་ refers to conceptual thought, and in Buddhist it has a slight negative connotation but not as much as རྣམ་ཏོག་ཚ་པོ་ which carries a stronger meaning supersition.
Blind Faith
The Dalai lama many a times speaks about not following faith blindly; to always be critical and examine. For this he uses the word རྨོངས་དད་, which might translate to stupid faith, blind faith, unfounded faith
Link to original
Careful With Indirects
Tibetan Language Question Indirect Objects Confusion
Some verbs like to look ལྟ་བ་ or to listen ཉན་པ་ take a ལ་དོན་ on the object.
- Is there a trick to know which verbs take ལ་དོན་?
- When deciding between སའི་ and པའི་ for relativizing do we do it based on (1) whether the object is direct / indirect or (2) whether the object takes ལ་དོན་ or not?
Example: The book which I am looking at is very expensive then which one would be?
- ངས་ལྟ་བཞིན་པའི་དེབ་དེ་གོང་ཆེན་པོ་འདུག
- ངས་ལྟ་སའི་དེབ་དེ་གོང་ཆེན་པོ་འདུག
I was using Claude to see what ལ་དོན་ cases apply to the sentences we are dealing with at our level and I extracted this. Which effectively destroys the mental rule I had that direct objects are not marked with ལ་དོན་. My SLC friend then with the example sentence above made me rethink.
The three case-functions the la-don covers:
2nd case — las su bya ba (ལས་སུ་བྱ་བ་), the object/patient. This is the la-don’s “direct object” use, as with ལྟ་: ཁོ་ལ་ལྟ་ (kho la lta) “look at him” — ལ་ marks the patient.
4th case — dgos ched (དགོས་ཆེད་), the dative/recipient/beneficiary. This is the “indirect object” use: ཁོ་ལ་དེབ་སྤྲོད་ (kho la deb sprod) “give the book to him” — ལ་ marks the recipient (him), while the book (དེབ་) is a bare absolutive direct object.
7th case — gnas gzhi (གནས་གཞི་), the locative (“in / at / on”): ནང་ལ་ (nang la) “inside,” ཁྲི་ལ་ (khri la) “on the throne.”
Is this valid? How do we write relative clauses for each case then?
Answer
The ལ་དོན་ cases (2nd, 4th and 7th) are correct.
Looking or Looking At?
In the case of ལྟ་ — to read, to look at —, or ཉན་ — to listen to — depending on how you use the verb the object will take a ལ་དོན་ or not.
When saying The book I was reading is expensive —we can use ལྟ་; similarly to watching a movie ལྟད་མོ་ལྟ་བ་—, you are not looking at the book really — you are not putting the attention on the fact of moving your eyes and attention towards that (indirect) object—, you are simply viewing it — No ལ་དོན།
Looking at on the other hand is more direct — Indirect objecy marked by ལ་དོན།
Link to original
Case Example Takes ལ་དོན་ (to look at) ངས་ལྟ་སའི་བྱ་དེ་མགྱོག་པོར་འཕུར་སོང་ད། Does not take ལ་དོན་ (to look, view) ངས་ལྟ་བཞིན་པའི་དེབ་དེ་གོང་ཆེན་པོ་འདུག
Clauses Eating Information
Tibetan Language Question Lost Information When Making Relative Clause
With verbs of motion, when building a relative clause, the prepositions, like ལ་དོན་ or ནས་ get lost, they fall. Those particles play a key role since the meaning can change a lot of it were a ནས་ instead of a ལ་. How can we retain the meaning, for example:
I jumped from that stone. That stone is wet.
ང་རྡོ་དེ་ནས་མཆོང་བ་ཡིན། རྡོ་དེ་རློན་པ་འདུགCareful! The stone from which I jumped is wet!
གཟབ་གཟབ་བྱེད་ཨ། ང་རྡོ་མཆོང་སའི་དེ་རློན་པ་འདུགI jumped to that stone. That stone is wet.
ང་རྡོ་དེ་ལ་མཆོང་བ་ཡིན། རྡོ་དེ་རློན་པ་འདུགCareful! The stone on to which I jumped is wet!
གཟབ་གཟབ་བྱེད་ཨ། ང་རྡོ་མཆོང་སའི་དེ་རློན་པ་འདུགSimilarly it happens with other verbs of motions like རྒྱུགས་པ་ or མོ་ཊ་གཏང་
- The place I am running to is X
- The place I’m running from is X
- I forgot the name of the city from which I drove
- I forgot the name of the city to which I drove
Not only that but also how can you retain the prepositional information with verbs like གཞག་ to put or ལངས་ to stand in those cases:
The table under of which I put my bag is dirty.
ངས་ལྟོ་ཕད་གཞག་སའི་ཅོག་ཙེ་དེ་བཙོག་པ་འདུག
- Where do we put the འོག་ལ་? Maybe ངས་ལྟོ་ཕད་འོག་ཕྱོགས་ལ་གཞག་སའི་ཅོག་ཙེ་དེ་བཙོག་པ་འདུག?
The seat in front of which I am standing is empty.
ང་མདུན་ཕྱོགས་ལ་ལངས་སའི་རྐུབ་ཀྱག་དེ་སྟོང་པ་རེད།However this doesn’t happen with the non-verb to have or to be:
That pen that is on the table is it yours?
ཅོག་ཙེ་སྒང་ལ་ཡོད་པའི་སྨྱུ་གུ་དེ་ཁྱེད་རང་གི་རེད་པས།Answer
Indeed the ནས་ or ལ་ is omitted, so we would then go by context.
About Driving
You wouldn’t say མོ་ཊ་བཏང་སའི་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་, we would need a verb of motion, and that verb would then inform about the direction:
- ➡️ མོ་ཊ་བཏང་ནས་འགྲོ་སའི་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་་་ (གྲོང་ཁྱེར་ལ་་་)
- ⬅️ མོ་ཊ་བཏང་ནས་ཡོང་སའི་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་་་ (གྲོང་ཁྱེར་ནས་་་)
About the Table Positioning
ངས་ལྟོ་ཕད་བཞག་སའི་ཅོག་ཙེ་དེའི་འོག་ལ་བཙོག་པ་འདུག
(The space under that table where I put my bag is dirty.)ངས་འོག་ལ་ལྟོ་ཕད་བཞག་སའི་ཅོག་ཙེ་དེ་བཙོག་པ་འདུག
Link to original
(The table, under which I put my bag, is dirty.)
Predisposition
Today I have learned བག་ཆགས། which refers to predisposition one has at doing something. This word came up in the context of discussing that learning Tibetan in this live would make learning it next life easier. The dictionary lists this word as predisposing latency which I love how it stirs into this direction.
To consider
I’ve learned a new verb: to consider རྩི་པ་. When speaking about རྣམ་ཏོག་ and རྟེན་འབྲལ་ my tutor used it many times. My family doesn’t consider (or hold as important) supersticious phenomena.
To offer yourself to do something: ཆོག་ versus དགོས་
It seems ཆོག་ is more formal and less used in colloquial than དགོས་. As an example: I will give you one:
- ཁྱེད་རང་ལ་གཅིག་སྤྲད་དགོས།
- ཁྱེད་རང་ལ་གཅིག་སྤྲད་ཆོག