Further notes on གདན་. Cf. J. མ་གདན་ (pr. magdàn), ground, basis, foundation, p. 409a. Bell, apron པང་གདན་. Cs., Grammar, p. 170, l. 10, translates གདན་ as couch (stuffed seat). Lewin, Manual, p. 123, first word last line: ‘mat, seat’, in the same sentence taken over from Cs.’s Grammar. Two synonyms for J.’s མ་གདན་, quoted above, are རྨང་གདན་ and གཞི་གདན་. Bell also has ‘mat.’ བྱམས་སྙིང་རྗེ་, 50. Seems simply an amplified form for ‘love.’ Difficult to be translated exactly, Sk. maitrīkaruṇā, may be treated as a compound, loving-kindness, love and kindness, or pity. On the question of karuṇā, especially, the learned have descanted profusely. བླ་ (ན་) མེད་ (པ་), 52. Sk. अनुत्तर, unsurpassed, unexcelled, unrivalled, supreme, incomparable, most high, highest. Not specially entered in J. but illustrated by an example s.v. བླ་. Altogether absent in Desg. S. Ch. D. བླ་མེད་རྣམས་ལ་, ‘to those who are supreme, or to the followers of the Anuttara school.’ A curious entry! See S. Ch. D. also s.v. བླ་ན་. བླ་མ་, 3. Here perhaps better ‘teacher’ than ‘priest’ or ‘superior.’ The word may be here equally well taken in the singular as in the plural, but the latter is perhaps more likely. བླ་མེད་, see བླ་ན་མེད་པ་. བློ་གཟུ་བོ་, 47. ‘Straight, upright, righteous mind.’ J.’s entry is a little vague. I think he takes ཐུགས་ in his example ཐུགས་གཟུ་བོ་ as an indication that གཟུ་བོ་ is also a honorific form. That, however, is not the case. Compare also the quotation from Cs. in S. Ch. D., གཟུ་བོར་གནས་ པ་ ‘to be impartial and straightforward, to be on the side of honesty.’ I don’t find this example in Schmidt. Desg. ‘straight, upright, (élevé,) just, honest.’ According to the above the word is an adj. and the translation of the passage becomes ‘whether you persevere in a straight (righteous) mind.’ The verb གནས་པ་ has then to be taken as ‘to hold, adhere to, persevere in (an opinion, etc.).’ If however, we should find that གཟུ་བོ་ can also be sbst. ‘righteousness,’ ‘straightness,’ (not in any Dict.), then གནས་པ་ would have the other meaning of ‘to dwell, reside’ and the phrase would have to be rendered ‘whether the mind (continues to) dwell(s) in righteousness.’ S. Ch. D. renders ཐུགས་གཟུ་བོ་ as ‘honest mind,’ but the sense honest versus dishonest seems not quite applicable in our passage. J. is vague here. My informants gave the above definition ‘straight, upright’ as their own but felt afterwards vague about this example which, though they had framed it, they could not vouch for: མི་དེ་གཟུ་བོར་གནས་མི་གནས་ལྟོས་ཤིག་, ‘see whether the man keeps straight or not.’ The framer honestly confessed that whilst we were discussing the word he had been influenced by S. Ch. D.’s Dict. in coining the sentence; a confession so instructive for idiom-verifiers that I think it worth while to record it here.