THL is a wonderful resource but...

Looking for translations, or for help with translations and transliterations? This is the place.
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Rinchen Dorje
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THL is a wonderful resource but...

Post by Rinchen Dorje »

http://www.thlib.org/reference/dictiona ... nslate.php

This is a great way to copy/paste Tibetan passages and get more than one dictionary giving a definition. The problem is that trying to put it into comprehensible English can be somewhat problematic. Any suggestions on a simple method one can use to do this so that one can have a deeper understanding of various passages and or sadhana?
"But if you know how to observe yourself, you will discover your real nature, the primordial state, the state of Guruyoga, and then all will become clear because you will have discovered everything"-Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche
Malcolm
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Re: THL is a wonderful resource but...

Post by Malcolm »

Fa Dao wrote:http://www.thlib.org/reference/dictiona ... nslate.php

This is a great way to copy/paste Tibetan passages and get more than one dictionary giving a definition. The problem is that trying to put it into comprehensible English can be somewhat problematic. Any suggestions on a simple method one can use to do this so that one can have a deeper understanding of various passages and or sadhana?
Learn Tibetan.
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Rinchen Dorje
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Re: THL is a wonderful resource but...

Post by Rinchen Dorje »

Dont have 3+ hours a day for the next 10 years...was just looking for a little help at making some of these things more understandable to aid my practice. Some of us have to work full time jobs and any extra hours are used for actual practice...thanks anyways...
"But if you know how to observe yourself, you will discover your real nature, the primordial state, the state of Guruyoga, and then all will become clear because you will have discovered everything"-Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche
Malcolm
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Re: THL is a wonderful resource but...

Post by Malcolm »

Fa Dao wrote:Dont have 3+ hours a day for the next 10 years...was just looking for a little help at making some of these things more understandable to aid my practice.
The problem with that dictionary is that it is a collection of translations. Without learning Tibetan to some degree, it will be of little use to you.

If you spent one half an hour a day studying Tibetan, within a year you would be able to effectively use that dictionary.
Some of us have to work full time jobs and any extra hours are used for actual practice...thanks anyways...
Learning a primary Dharma language is part of actual practice.
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Rinchen Dorje
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Re: THL is a wonderful resource but...

Post by Rinchen Dorje »

half an hour? I could do that...although Im a little skeptical as I did Chinese language/literature/history for my undergrad and I seem to remember that it took considerably more time...but hey, youre the expert....cool thanks...what do you think of the TLI under Lama David Curtis for a learning resource?
"But if you know how to observe yourself, you will discover your real nature, the primordial state, the state of Guruyoga, and then all will become clear because you will have discovered everything"-Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche
Malcolm
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Re: THL is a wonderful resource but...

Post by Malcolm »

Fa Dao wrote:half an hour? I could do that...although Im a little skeptical as I did Chinese language/literature/history for my undergrad and I seem to remember that it took considerably more time...but hey, youre the expert....cool thanks...what do you think of the TLI under Lama David Curtis for a learning resource?
It is fine.
florin
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Re: THL is a wonderful resource but...

Post by florin »

How about correct pronounciation and reading ?
Can they be learned without a teacher ?
Malcolm
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Re: THL is a wonderful resource but...

Post by Malcolm »

florin wrote:How about correct pronounciation and reading ?
Can they be learned without a teacher ?
There are any number of courses out there. However, in general, for most people, conversation is not the point.
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Grigoris
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Re: THL is a wonderful resource but...

Post by Grigoris »

Malcolm wrote:If you spent one half an hour a day studying Tibetan, within a year you would be able to effectively use that dictionary.
Half an hour a day? Challenge accepted! Could you please recommend a resource?
Last edited by Grigoris on Sun Feb 12, 2017 7:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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florin
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Re: THL is a wonderful resource but...

Post by florin »

Malcolm wrote:
florin wrote:How about correct pronounciation and reading ?
Can they be learned without a teacher ?
There are any number of courses out there. However, in general, for most people, conversation is not the point.
But if we want to be able to read and chant the texts of the various liturgies we would need serious work on pronounciation and that can only be done with the help of a native.
Also if one wants to listen to advice and dharma talks in tibetan one would need to know how everything is pronounced and sounds, in which case just the written word found in books doesnt help much.
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Re: THL is a wonderful resource but...

Post by Malcolm »

Grigoris wrote:
Malcolm wrote:If you spent one half an hour a day studying Tibetan, within a year you would be able to effectively use that dictionary.
Half an hour a day? Challenge accepted! Could you please recommend a resource?
For home study, Manual of Colloquial Tibetan is ideal.
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Grigoris
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Re: THL is a wonderful resource but...

Post by Grigoris »

Malcolm wrote:
Grigoris wrote:
Malcolm wrote:If you spent one half an hour a day studying Tibetan, within a year you would be able to effectively use that dictionary.
Half an hour a day? Challenge accepted! Could you please recommend a resource?
For home study, Manual of Colloquial Tibetan is ideal.
Thanks Loppon! :twothumbsup:

For learning to read/write?
Last edited by Grigoris on Sun Feb 12, 2017 8:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"My religion is not deceiving myself."
Jetsun Milarepa 1052-1135 CE

"Butchers, prostitutes, those guilty of the five most heinous crimes, outcasts, the underprivileged: all are utterly the substance of existence and nothing other than total bliss."
The Supreme Source - The Kunjed Gyalpo
The Fundamental Tantra of Dzogchen Semde
Malcolm
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Re: THL is a wonderful resource but...

Post by Malcolm »

florin wrote:
Malcolm wrote:
florin wrote:How about correct pronounciation and reading ?
Can they be learned without a teacher ?
There are any number of courses out there. However, in general, for most people, conversation is not the point.
But if we want to be able to read and chant the texts of the various liturgies we would need serious work on pronounciation and that can only be done with the help of a native.
Which dialect? Lhasa? Amdo? Khams?

Also if one wants to listen to advice and dharma talks in tibetan one would need to know how everything is pronounced and sounds, in which case just the written word found in books doesnt help much.
If you want to listen to to Dharma talks, you need much more than 1/2 hour a day. You need to be in a serious college level course for two years.

But to read a little bit and use a dictionary, etc., then my recommendation still stands.
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Lobsang Chojor
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Re: THL is a wonderful resource but...

Post by Lobsang Chojor »

Malcolm, is it better to do a solid half an hour or break it into sessions totalling to half an hour?
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Malcolm
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Re: THL is a wonderful resource but...

Post by Malcolm »

Lobsang Chojor wrote:Malcolm, is it better to do a solid half an hour or break it into sessions totalling to half an hour?
one half hour without break.
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Re: THL is a wonderful resource but...

Post by Lobsang Chojor »

Malcolm wrote:
Lobsang Chojor wrote:Malcolm, is it better to do a solid half an hour or break it into sessions totalling to half an hour?
one half hour without break.
Thank you Loppon, is it better to do the half hour in the morning or the evening?
"Morality does not become pure unless darkness is dispelled by the light of wisdom"
  • Aryasura, Paramitasamasa 6.5
ༀ་ཨ་ར་པ་ཙ་ན་དྷཱི༔ Oṃ A Ra Pa Ca Na Dhīḥ
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Palzang Jangchub
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Re: THL is a wonderful resource but...

Post by Palzang Jangchub »

florin wrote:
Malcolm wrote:There are any number of courses out there. However, in general, for most people, conversation is not the point.
But if we want to be able to read and chant the texts of the various liturgies we would need serious work on pronounciation and that can only be done with the help of a native.

Also if one wants to listen to advice and dharma talks in tibetan one would need to know how everything is pronounced and sounds, in which case just the written word found in books doesnt help much.
Certain courses use audio files, CDs, and/or DVDs, such as this one and some of the Tibetan Language Institute materials. There are also a few apps that have pronunciation by native speakers, some of which are free.
Image

"The Sutras, Tantras, and Philosophical Scriptures are great in number. However life is short, and intelligence is limited, so it's hard to cover them completely. You may know a lot, but if you don't put it into practice, it's like dying of thirst on the shore of a great lake. Likewise, a common corpse is found in the bed of a great scholar." ~ Karma Chagme

དྲིན་ཆེན་རྩ་བའི་བླ་མ་སྐྱབས་རྗེ་མགར་ཆེན་ཁྲི་སྤྲུལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ཁྱེད་མཁྱེན་ནོ།།
རྗེ་བཙུན་བླ་མ་མཁས་གྲུབ་ཀརྨ་ཆགས་མེད་མཁྱེན་ནོ། ཀརྨ་པ་མཁྱེན་ནོཿ
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Re: THL is a wonderful resource but...

Post by florin »

Karma Jinpa wrote: Certain courses use audio files, CDs, and/or DVDs, such as this one and some of the Tibetan Language Institute materials. There are also a few apps that have pronunciation by native speakers, some of which are free.
Pronunciation is difficult if not impossible to get it accurate just by listening to audio recordings.
Even working with a teacher it takes quite a lot of effort to pronounce all the right sounds.
Some sounds are notoriously difficult .
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Re: THL is a wonderful resource but...

Post by Thomas Amundsen »

Fa Dao wrote:what do you think of the TLI under Lama David Curtis for a learning resource?
It's excellent. I've gone through Levels I - III and have taken a few reader courses. Lama David has a really great system for learning the alphabet and taking you to the point of being able to use a dictionary. Lama David has been teaching that same intro program for over a decade now and has a lot of familiarity with it and how to teach students. The higher levels go into the 8 cases and other kinds of syntactic particles or "accessories". There's not as much on verb conjugation, I think that may be coming in his soon-to-be Level IV class.

Anyway, overall I'd highly recommend TLI and Lama David Curtis.
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Rinchen Dorje
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Re: THL is a wonderful resource but...

Post by Rinchen Dorje »

tomamundsen wrote:
Fa Dao wrote:what do you think of the TLI under Lama David Curtis for a learning resource?
It's excellent. I've gone through Levels I - III and have taken a few reader courses. Lama David has a really great system for learning the alphabet and taking you to the point of being able to use a dictionary. Lama David has been teaching that same intro program for over a decade now and has a lot of familiarity with it and how to teach students. The higher levels go into the 8 cases and other kinds of syntactic particles or "accessories". There's not as much on verb conjugation, I think that may be coming in his soon-to-be Level IV class.

Anyway, overall I'd highly recommend TLI and Lama David Curtis.
Cool...thanks bro!
"But if you know how to observe yourself, you will discover your real nature, the primordial state, the state of Guruyoga, and then all will become clear because you will have discovered everything"-Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche
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