37 Practices of a Bodhisattva

[kirtu]

རྒྱལ་བའི་སྲས་ཀྱི་ལག་ལེན་སོ་བདུན་མ་བཞུགས་སོ།

རྒྱལ་བའི་སྲས་ = (n), Bodhisattva (Conqueror's Child), gyal-ras
ཀྱི་ = genitive particle, of, kyi
ལག་ལེན་ = practical procedures, practices, traditions, lag-len
སོ་བདུན་ = number, thirty-seven, sö-dun
མ་ = negative particle, not, ma (what is this doing?)
བཞུགས་སོ་ = said, entitles, herein contained, zhug-sö

Title: The Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva

but what is that ma doing? Without a verb ma isn't a negating particle.

Thanks!

Kirt

[kirtu]

ན་མོ་ལོ་ཀེ་ཤྭ་ར་ཡ

ན་མོ = Sanskrit, Homage, Namo
ལོ་ཀེ་ཤྭ་ར་ཡ = Lökeshraya

Namo Lökeshraya
Homage to Avalokiteshvara

[tantular]

ma is not just a negating particle (dgag sgra), but also a feminine personifying particle (bdag sgra). Titles of beloved texts (esp. practices/prayers) are often personified as female: e.g. the Drodön-ma, Sampa Lhundrub-ma, etc.

also, bzhugs is actually a verb meaning to dwell, abide, sit, remain (honorific). it's used idiomatically in titles to indicate that the text is contained in these pages, i.e. "lives" there. ma bzhugs could be a negation, only context tells us it isn't.

[mañjughoṣamaṇi]

ན་མོ་ལོ་ཀེ་ཤྭ་ར་ཡ

ན་མོ = Sanskrit, Homage, Namo
ལོ་ཀེ་ཤྭ་ར་ཡ = Lökeshraya

Namo Lökeshraya
Homage to Avalokiteshvara

I believe this should actually be Namo Lokeśvaraya, i.e. Homage(namo) Lokeśvara to (ya). The ཤ་ has a wa sur below it which should be pronounced when the Tibetan alphabet is being used to transliterate Sanskrit. The ya is the Sanskrit dative case ending for a masculine a-ending noun, in this case Lokeśvara.

[kirtu]

ན་མོ་ལོ་ཀེ་ཤྭ་ར་ཡ

ན་མོ = Sanskrit, Homage, Namo
ལོ་ཀེ་ཤྭ་ར་ཡ = Lökeshraya

Namo Lökeshraya
Homage to Avalokiteshvara

I believe this should actually be Namo Lokeśvaraya, i.e. Homage(namo) Lokeśvara to (ya). The ཤ་ has a wa sur below it which should be pronounced when the Tibetan alphabet is being used to transliterate Sanskrit. The ya is the Sanskrit dative case ending for a masculine a-ending noun, in this case Lokeśvara.

So the wa subscript is pronounced when it is used to transliterate Sanskrit?

Kirt

[tantular]

Yes, in Sanskrit words wa subscript is pronounced. If you're also interested in Sanskrit grammar (I assumed you weren't) the homage should be:

ན་མོ་ལོ་ཀེ་ཤྭ་རཱ་ཡ་

with long -āya for the dative case. Never assume Sanskrit found in Tibetan texts is reliable: it almost always includes errors.