Baby name: tenzin

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shantheman
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Baby name: tenzin

Post by shantheman »

My wife and I are not Buddists, but very much respect many of the teachings of the Dalai Lama. We are considering giving our soon to be born son the middle name Tenzin, in honor of the Dalai Lama. Is this frowned upon? We obviously don't want to do this if it would be insulting to Buddhists. Thanks!
Huseng
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Re: Baby name: tenzin

Post by Huseng »

Having a Tibetan name in a western environment and not being Tibetan might lead to awkward questions throughout life.
Sherlock
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Re: Baby name: tenzin

Post by Sherlock »

On the other hand I don't think it would be considered offensive.
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chokyi lodro
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Re: Baby name: tenzin

Post by chokyi lodro »

I think it's a nice gesture, considering the motivation. The fact that it will be the middle name diminishes concerns I would have; were it to be the first name, I would have the same concerns as Huseng.
~ Chökyi Lodrö
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conebeckham
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Re: Baby name: tenzin

Post by conebeckham »

Just as an FYI, "Tenzin" is perhaps the most common Tibetan name.....certainly in the top five.
It usually signifies a relationship with the Geluk lineage (though not always, or not exclusively).
And in Tibetan society, names are often given by High Lamas to children before they are born.

Those are just some things worth saying, to be considered with the other comments on this thread.
དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།


"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
JohnRammy
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Re: Baby name: tenzin

Post by JohnRammy »

If you want to honor HH Dalai Lama, name your kid after Nagarjuna, Shantarakshita, or any of the other masters the Dalai Lama constantly mentions
Everything lacks the identity (atman) imputed by mere conceptual labels.
shantheman
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Re: Baby name: tenzin

Post by shantheman »

All great feedback. Thanks everyone for taking the time, we really appreciate it. We will definitely think over the feedback we were given and figure out if it makes sense to use Tenzin or not. Thanks again (and if others still have feedback, feel free to keep commenting).
dakini_boi
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Re: Baby name: tenzin

Post by dakini_boi »

Tenzin's a great name. Why not? I consider myself Buddhist, and I personally wouldn't be offended.
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