The Second Case – Objective

བྱ་བའི་ཡུལ་གང་ཞིག་ལ་བྱེད་པ་པོ་རང་གི་དོན་དུ་བྱེད་པ་ཉེ་བར་སྟོན་པའི་རྐྱེན།
Meaning: A particle indicating an indirect object that is taken as the agent's objective.

This case is called the Objective due to that being its main usage; however, it has two subdivisions:

1. The Objective ལས་སུ་བྱ་བ།
2. The Denyi དེ་ཉིད།

Directionality

In terms of the above two usages:

• The Objective (ལས་སུ་བྱ་བ།) is indicating a literal destination
• The Denyi (དེ་ཉིད།) is indicating a metaphorical or abstract destination

Regarding the first, there is a directionality to the action towards its literal destination (marked with the Objective Case):

• “Tashi goes to the east.” བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཤར་ཕྱོགས་སུ་འགྲོ།
  The action of going is directed from where Tashi currently is to the east.
• “The seeds were planted in the field.” ས་བོན་ཞིང་ལ་བཏབ།
  The action of planting is directed from the hand to the field.
• “Losang looked at the flower.” བློ་བཟང་གིས་མེ་ཏོག་ལ་བལྟས།
  The action of looking is directed from where Losang is currently looking to the flower.

Regarding the second, there is directionality to the action towards a metaphorical or abstract destination (marked with the Denyi):

• “Apprehending the snow mountain as blue.” གངས་རི་སྔོན་པོར་འཛིན་པ།
  The action of apprehending is (metaphorically) going from the snow mountain (which is white) to seeing it as blue.
• “Knowing all sentient beings as our mothers.” སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་མར་ཤེས་པ།
  The action of knowing is going from sentient beings to seeing them as our mothers.
• “Some assert the mind as the illustration of the person.” ཁ་ཅིག་གིས་སེམས་གང་ཟག་གི་མཚན་གཞིར་འདོད་དོ།
  The action of asserting is going from the mind to it being the illustration of the person.

Moreover, these actions have an objective or result, which would mark their accomplishment or completion. In this way:

• “Tashi goes to the market.” is be accomplished and ceases upon his arrival at the market
• “The seeds were planted in the field.” is accomplished and ceases upon the seeds having been planted
• “Losang looked at the flower.” is accomplished upon looking at the flower but does not need to cease (See: Difference between direct and indirect objects).
• The result of “Apprehending the snow mountain as blue.” is that we apprehend the snow mountain as blue.
• The objective or goal of “Knowing all sentient beings as our mothers." is to know all sentient beings as our mothers.
• The objective of “Some assert the mind as the illustration of the person.” is to assert the mind as the illustration of the person.

In this way, both Second Cases indicate the destination (literal or metaphorical) of an action that has some directionality to it.

For more on this, see: The Difference between the Second, Fourth, and Seventh Cases.

Up a level: The eight cases