The order of Tibetan Buddhism founded in the eleventh century by Atisha, Dromtönpa and their followers, the "Kadampa geshes"; the forerunner of the Gelug School.

The order of Tibetan Buddhism founded in the eleventh century by Marpa, Milarepa, Gampopa, and their followers. One of the four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Cf. Nyingma, Sakya and Gelug.

Literally, Cycle of Time. A male meditational deity of Highest Yoga Tantra. The Kalachakra Tantra contains instructions in medicine, astronomy and so forth.

The great Indian scholar from Nalanda Monastery who accompanied Shantarakshita to Tibet to try to revitalize Buddhism there. He is noted for his three texts called Stages of Meditation (Skt: Bhavanakrama).

The part of the Tibetan Canon that contains the sutras and tantras; literally, "translation of the (Buddha's) word." It contains 108 volumes.

Action; the working of cause and effect, whereby positive (virtuous) actions produce happiness and negative (non-virtuous) actions produce suffering.

The way in which things appear to us influenced by karma created in the past.

Buddha-body or holy body. A body of an enlightened being. See also dharmakaya, rupakaya, two kayas, three kayas and four kayas.

Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme, a female oracle to His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama and highly realized being, now also teaching throughout the world.

See Khadro-la. 

A disciple of Gönpawa Wangchuk Gyaltsen; the dedicated meditator who could not even find time to cut the thorn bush outside his meditation room.

A tantric implement, a trident with symbolic elements.

Khunu Lama Rinpoche, Tenzin Gyaltsen, was born in the Kinnaur region of Himachal Pradesh, northern India. The people there revered him and called him “Khunu” Rinpoche (meaning “precious one from Kinnaur”). Also known as Negi Lama, he was an Indian scholar of Sanskrit and Tibetan and a great master and teacher of the Rime (non-sectarian) tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. He famously gave teachings to His Holiness the Dalai Lama on Shantideva's Guide and was also a guru of Lama Zopa Rinpoche. He composed a well-known text, The Jewel Lamp: A Praise of Bodhicitta, translated into English as Vast as the Heavens, Deep as the Sea.

In full, The Extraordinary Aspiration of the Practice of Samantabhadra. A long prayer on the benefits of the mind of bodhicitta, one that Lama Zopa Rinpoche often suggests his students read.

See delusion.

A great meditator who spent over twenty years (including six years in strict austerity with chulen practice) in retreat in Tsum, a valley in Nepal, before becoming one of the main teachers at Kopan Monastery, Nepal.

A multi-layered term that can mean wealth or material offerings given to the Sangha and the Three Jewels, and can also have a negative connotation of misusing offerings. Read more about the term dkor here.