[To show such a pure nature naturally-arrived-at to be of a nondual character, an illustration of how it has dawned from a single Realm, has dawned on its own and so is, in its appropriate substance, nondual.]
Everything is, in the single Realm (the self-engendered Full Knowledge),
nondual in a substantial way.
Dualistic appearances, unimpeded, have dawned as play from its
special powers.
No duality of so-called ‘appearance’ is what we call Bodhicitta.
[Just as no matter what reflections appear on the surface of a single mirror, they are nondual with respect to the mirror, even so, since all dharmas have dawned in the Awareness continuity, they are nondual with respect to Awareness. Just as the several dreams which HAVE dawned during a single period of sleep do not exist apart from the period of sleep, even so, sangsara/nirvana does not exist apart from the role-playing of Awareness. Just as all the waves, big or small, do not exist apart from the water since they have emerged from [and plunge back into] the continuity of a single river, just so all dharmas appear to emerge from the continuity of the not-at-all-existing even while it is clear it doesn’t exist. Aside from the mere appearance, there is no duality between Awareness (which is the void nature Dharma Proper) and the voidness of dharmas.]
˚
[All the dharmas which have dawned from the self-engendered Full Knowledge are situated in the unpreferential Great Levelness. But to the yoga practitioner, they do not exist. They are seen as void forms which appear clearly. This is a song of praise to Realized ones when (void forms) have dawned as appearance:]
discarding/
Appearance/becoming and sangsara/nirvana have dawned without obtaining
on clearly comprehended Awareness beyond transforming/transporting.
The face of the yoga practitioner beyond subject/object dichotomies
breaks out in startled laughter at
these appearances in the nonexistent.
[Those who are conversant with the magic business understand magic to be appearances in the nonexistent. To those with thoughts wanting to believe, the magic appears in the void-like. At those thoughts [the magicians] look on in laughter. In the unarrived-atness of accepting-rejecting good/bad, appearances have dawned unimpededly. Just so, all dharmas of sangsara/nirvana are known as the play of appearances in the nonexistent.]
˚
[There is no Dharmabody from the exact time of the appearances and, when nonexistence has dawned, the appearance of nonexistence is shown to be a mere reflected image of the Void.]
In the nothing-to-appear, the various things
dawn as appearances.
In the nothing-to-be-void, the centre/circumference
spreads out pervasively.
In the subject/object-less, ‘I’ and ‘self’
strive for distinction.
In the rootless & foundationless, rebirths appear
in chains (like mountains).
In the unpreventable & unstrivable, comfortable/uncomfortable
& accepting/rejecting deeds get acted out.
[When you reflect on the meaning of ‘Dharma Proper’, the dharma-having appearances are just a miraculous dawning.]
˚
[Now, what is not produced from inner or external dharmas is sky-like pure. Of the two distinct manners of understanding, the first: The appearances in the external objective realm are established as void forms, foundationless illusions.]
When you look outward, you are amazed at appearances of production & animation.
You wanted the untrue to be true, so it seems to be really true.
You wanted the unerred to be error, so it seems to be truly in error.
You took uncertainty for certainty, so it seems to be actually certain.
You took is/isn’t to be, so it seems to really be.
You took the disagreeable for agreeable, so it seems to be truly agreeable.
[In this way, the unsophisticated who are not familiar with Suchness attach their meanings to “appropriate names” in the nature of external appearances which are, substantially, merely illusory appropriate Void forms.]
˚
[So they grasp to external and internal dharmas like this: They grasp the untrue as true, the unerred as error, the uncertain as certain, that which is beyond is/isn’t as being. Because they grasp the disagreeable as agreeable…]
When various trivial objects entice your attention
you join meaningless momentary awarenesses in a chain
and thus days, months, years and lifetimes pass by.
Because the nondual is nondual, animate beings have been tricked.
[Time passes because when momentary knowledges have not recognized their appropriate substance, they form a flow of erroneous graspings. Error enters in shortly after several momentary (knowledges) and moments into days, days into months, months into years they have error.]
[Habituated to externals, the error of beings is like this: The foundationless Awareness is situated in the sky-like pure Dharmabody. There are merely temporary accidents so long as this is not recognized.
The Pearl Strand says,
The sky-like Dharmabody
the temporary clouds of distraction obscure.
Even the errorless Dharma Proper
appears to thoughts as if in error,
Whatever has cause and conditioning is momentary.]
˚
[When there is sky-like Dharma Proper with no graspable objects because the external sphere is understood to be lacking, the internal grasping subject is established to be foundationless and unsupported.]
When you look back in on the pure joined-to-the-real mind,
Awareness foundationless and unsupported
(wordless, yet talked about;
unseen, yet meditated on and philosophized about),
and thoughts break out in an unbroken queue,
you have not experienced the vast spread-out-to-the-limit buoy floating freely.
It needs no retreat place.
It is utterly free-ranging,
utterly u-n-c-o-n-t-a-i-n-a-b-l-e.
[When you look at the mind, its substance is beyond recognition. Awakening into the foundationless sky nature is the Dharma Proper of self-pure mindfulness, the Dharmabody beyond existence/nonexistence.]
˚
[Awareness where subjective and objective have been realized to be nondual is nonpreferential Great Naturally-arrived-at. It is like this:]
When the vast sky receptive centre is levelly spread-out-to-the-limit
without being handed over to the physical body or objects or appearances,
the so-called “internal dharmas” are not held to constitute a “self”.
[Even though we have this technical term “Self-engendered Full Knowledge” for the substantiality of this Awareness where the absolute absence of subjective and objective has been realized, we are not asserting, like the Mind Only School, that “Self-awareness is self-illumined.” There is no external/internal, so it is not arrived-at in the internal mind. There is no self/other, so it is not arrived-at in self-awareness only. The existence of subjective/objective is not experienced, so it is not arrived-at in their absence. Feeling does not exist as an objective sphere of Awareness, so it is not arrived-at even in a nondual “experience”. There is neither mind nor mental product, so it is not arrived-at “In your own mind”. It is not illumined or unillumined, so it is not arrived-at in “self-illumination”…]
˚
[Now, so long as the nonexperience of the existence of both subjective and objective is realized, all dharmas, being unstable, dawn as a Great Total Disentanglement to the yoga practitioners. Therefore, as a sign that the internal grasping subject has been cleared up, the external graspable objects are disentangled into spread-out space.]
When looking off toward the sphere of external appearances,
everything is flawed, irregular, unpenetrable, faulty and falling apart,
[When the yoga practitioners understand themselves, they are ready to understand the appearance of anything, just as a slight-of-hand expert knows his own magic shows to be untrue and, so, is in a position to understand the magical illusions of other sleight-of-hand experts as well.]
˚
[The appearances which dawn from within realization are further shown to be unreliable.]
Of friend/enemy, like/dislike, close/distant
there is no conception.
Making no difference between day and night,
a single beam,
they have wakened from the vicious circle
where mental objects are taken as definitive.
They don’t worry themselves over a
“self-engendered Full Knowledge continuity,”
being as they are beyond the encagements of accepting, rejecting,
renouncing things or using them as ethical antidotes.
When such is realized, it is nondual Full Knowledge
and they have come to the underlying meaning of self-engendered Total Good.
There is no place to turn back. They have come to the final ground.
[Note: “Day” = Friends. Like. Close.
“Night” = Enemies. Dislike. Distant.]
˚
[Getting rid of the four similacra that seem to be sheer hype.]
While not realizing levelness through the self-engendered continuity,
they are attached to the word “nonduality”.
So they are confident in their intellectual probings
of what is not at all a mental object.
This is the very embodiment of backwards thinking,
receptive centre of unaware darkness.
˚
[Precepts so that the lucky ones will realize their implicit substantiality as a spacious foundation receptive centre, level and complete.]
Therefore, the Thought Completion King learns the nondual
in the untransformed and untransported self-engendered.
The meaning of the nonduality of sangsara/nirvana,
the three realms totally released,
is the CITADEL of Dharmabody self-dawned from
the insides of its nature.
It appears sky-like pure beyond compare.
˚
[Now realizations of the ungrasping and unattached are subsumed in a single essential meaning as the spacious sky receptive centre.]
So long as one is attached to distinctions, “this and that,”
one remains in duality, the encagement of error in oneself and others.
As soon as there is no preferences for the separateness that “this” implies,
as soon as everything is a level beam with no mental objectives,
Padampa in Saspola Cave, Ladakh Photo by Rob Linrothe
Here you will find on offer translations of six Tingrian Couplets. They were preserved in a 15th-century Nyingma & Kagyü meditation manual composed by Khedrup Yeshé Gyeltsen. Those interested in Tibeto-logical details can read all the way to the end of the blog if they like.
The Tingri Gyatsa, or Tingri Hundred is a widely renowned monument of Tibetan literature, always attributed to the authorship of Padampa Sangye, the south Indian meditation master who died in Tibet in 1105 or 1117 CE. Like Kabir’s Dohas, it’s all in two-line verse form. Each couplet ought to end with a vocative, “[oh my] Tingrians!” And I should add, the word “my” is not intended as an expression of ownership, but one of affectionate concern. Now you know what a Tingrian Couplet is, and you are welcome to read a few samples just below.
I realize these couple of verses may not be enough for everyone, so with those less easily satisfied people in mind I’d like to offer a complete English translation (Tibetan text also supplied) of one version of the Tingri Hundred:
Delusions are not there in the base, they arise incidentally.
Comprehending this characteristic is enough, my Tingrians.
• 2 •
Lord Dampa Gyagar said,
If you are unable to renounce sangsaric dharmas,
even knowing all the scriptures is of no help.
• 3 & 4 •
By Dampa:
When your own aims are not fulfilled you do the aims of others no good.
First of all, do your practices, my Tingrians.
Forming easy relations with delusive appearances, you mix with them.
Bring understanding in their wake, my Tingrians.
• 5 •
If there is something you are attached to, that same thing also binds you.
There is no need for it whatsoever, my Tingrians.
• 6 •
By Padampa Gyagar:
Of all the virtues, rejoicing in others’ success is the best.
Don’t be envious of others my Tingrians.
§ § §
Bibliographical affairs
I made use of one particularly fine cursive manuscript version of a previously unstudied (and needless to say untranslated) text by a teacher of Katok Monastery named Khedrup Yeshé Gyeltsen. I want to give him the dates 1395 to 1458 CE simply because that’s what I find in Cuevas’ book and Ehrhard’s essay, both listed below. However, Chatral Rinpoche’s history of Katok Monastery gives him a birthdate of 1455, sixty years later, so there is room for discussion. For the time being we can at least be satisfied that he lived in the 15th century. He exists in the BDRC database (see no. P10291), but no dates were there when I looked earlier today.
I would say that there is nothing remotely comparable to his meditation manual, but that isn’t quite true. It reminds you overall of a much better known anthology of quotations about meditation, the one by Takpo Tashi Namgyal. The latter, written a century later, is entirely a Kagyü work. It scarcely quotes from works of Nyingmapas and Zhijepas, whereas this meditation manual from Katok Monastery explicitly states in its opening words that it encompasses “Zhi Rdzogs Phyag.” That means Zhijé, Dzogchen and Mahâmudrâ. We don’t often see them in a triad like this.*
(*Indeed, searching through the 15 million pages of the BUDA database in less than half a minute turns up only three positive matches, and wouldn’t you know, all three of them appear to share the same authorship with the meditation manual.)
Folio 1 verso of the meditation manual. Notice the phrase zhi rdzogs phyag gsum in the middle of line 3.
Another difference is that the meditation manual starts out with a lengthy section covering the normal topics of preliminary practices, or sngon-'gro, that we are accustomed to finding in Path Stage, tenrim (bstan-rim) and lamrim (lam-rim) texts. These topics include contemplations on impermanence, the rareness of human rebirth, and so on. I think you probably know about these things already.
As far as Zhijé materials are concerned, the meditation manual embraces a lot more than just the few Tingrian couplets we’ve included in this weblog. Most remarkably, it has an entire section near the end, running from folios 523 through 550, filled with material from the Kunga questions-and-answers texts (I haven’t identified which one yet, but you can be sure I will be looking into this sometime soon).
Chatral Rinpoche (Bya-bral Sangs-rgyas-rdo-rje, 1913-2015), Dpal Kaḥ-thog-pa’i Chos-’byung Rin-chen Phreng-ba, Snga-’gyur Bstan-pa’i ’Byung-gnas Kaḥ-thog Rdo-rje-gdan (n.d.), in 221 pages, composed between 1985 and 1988. TBRC no. W3CN3398.
The biographical sketch of Khedrup Yeshé Gyaltsen is found at pp. 53-55. Here we find his Dzogchen and Marpa Kagyü (that means Smar-pa Bka'-brgyud, not Mar-pa Bka'-brgyud) studies emphasized, with no mention of Zhijé. We do find mention of his composition of our meditation manual, on p. 54, with the title Phyag-rgya-chen-po'i Khrid-gzhung Snying-po Don-gyi Man-ngag Rgya-mtsho'i Gter-mdzod. It’s intriguing to know that he spent much of his later life in meditation retreats in regions of far eastern Tibet, in the neighborhoods of the holy mountain Kawa Karpo, and even in ’Jang, or present-day north Yunnan. He may have even visited Shangrila, made virtually real only recently.
Bryan Cuevas, The Hidden History of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Oxford University Press (Oxford 2003), p. 144.
Franz Karl Ehrhard, “Kaḥ thog pa Bsod nams rgyal mtshan (1466-1540) and His Activities in Sikkim and Bhutan,” Bulletin of Tibetology, vol. 39, no. 2 (November 2003), pp. 9 26. At p. 9 please note the dates of our author. The same date for him, along with an alias Bu-’bor Ye-shes-rgyal-mtshan, may be found in Cuevas’ book.
Matthew T. Kapstein, ed., Tibetan Manuscripts and Early Printed Books, Cornell University Press (Ithaca 2024), in 2 vols.
I urge you, order this exceptionally interesting and beautiful book, then look at vol. 1, p. 131. Figure 4.7 shows the title page, in color, of a different manuscript of the meditation manual than the one I used. It labels as its source The British Library Board, Or.15292, dating the manuscript to ca. 16th century. To see it in black-and-white, see TBRC no. W1CZ892. Its title-page title is Rdzogs-pa-chen-po Snying-po Don-gyis Gter-mdzod. This manuscript has quite a few very well executed miniature paintings, but seeing them in TBRC’s poorly scanned microfilm is more than a little sad.
The label says it’s Garab Dorje
Khedrup Yeshé Gyaltsen (Mkhas-grub Ye-shes-rgyal-mtshan), Mkhas-grub Dznyâ-na-ke-tus* mdzad-pa'i Man-ngag Rgya-mtsho, a cursive manuscript in 587 folios. TBRC no. WA3CN2867.
This is the only version I’ve made use of here (I supply the original folio numbers, not those “image numbers” that are no more than accidental byproducts of the scanning process), even though there are at least three and maybe four other versions of it that are possible to locate at BUDA website. Their titles are different, so best of luck finding them. One advantage of the version I used is that it marked the persons or texts it quotes from with red letters most of the time. That made it easier for me to find the quotations I did find.
(*Technically Sanskrit ketu ought to be tog, ‘pinnacle,’ in Tibetan. However, dhvaja-ketu (rgyal-mtshan-gyi tog, ‘pinnacle of the victory banner’) is such a common phrase, you could see how the two parts could get confounded. That’s how Dznyâ-na-ke-tu can be a Tibskritic form of Ye-shes-rgyal-mtshan. Is it clear? Putting the names of respected Tibetan teachers into Sanskritic form isn’t just a game they play. It shows respect.)
Takpo Tashi Namgyal (Dwags-po Bkra-shis-rnam-rgyal, 1513-1596?), Mahāmudrā: The Quintessence of Mind and Meditation, translated by Lobsang P. Lhalungpa, Shambhala (Boston 1986). A fresh translation by Elizabeth Callahan was published not long ago.
The problem of the author’s identity has been addressed and solved by Matthew Kapstein and David Jackson, and I believe them, but there is no way you can make me go into all that discussion right now.
—
Try going to the website of Katok Monastery at this address, and then look for "Yeshe Gyamtsen." The title of the work we used here can be found there, listed among the thirteen primary sources for teachings at Katog. Its title is given in English as “Ocean of Mahamudra Core Instructions.” This is interesting, as other versions of the title lead you to think it would be exclusively devoted to Dzogchen.
Afterword
From my Tibeto-logical research perspective, I was very excited to find these few quotations of Tingrian couplets. Why? First of all, just because I’ve found so little evidence for them between the 13th and 17th centuries. I always assumed or felt fairly sure they would have been known to many throughout that time, but even just a little more evidence is nice to see. Another matter: If you put the various versions side by side and compare them (as I have done, in a document that isn’t quite in good enough shape to share), you can see that over the centuries significant transformations took place. Some verses are made to yield quite different messages, and this is not always due to accidental misreadings of the manuscript by careless scribes. Sometimes motivated changes are the only explanations with feet on them. Our Tingrian Couplet no. 1 already supplies a good example.
I believe I have good enough reasons to support me if I say that the only Tingrian couplets Padampa actually composed was a set I call the Tingri Thirteen (or should that be Tingri Twelve?). These couplets were pronounced by Padampa as part of his last will and testament shortly before his death in 1105 or 1117. I’ve been meaning to put up a translation of it, but it needs more polishing.
A much longer set was pronounced by his disciple Kunga shortly before his own death seven years later on. Both versions (for short I call them versions A and B) are 100% exclusive to the Zhijé Collection, or so I had thought until today. To my amazement, our meditation manual preserves two lines from the introductory verses to Kunga’s 118 Tringrian couplets (so it is not technically a Tingrian couplet, but nonetheless...). It also quotes two couplets(nos. 3&4, above) that have parallels only in B, which tells us our 15th-century author had the Kunga version available to him. I can’t imagine how. (See now the added Postscript below.)
I would understand if you were to voice loud objections, criticizing the existing broad acceptance of all hundred or so Tingrian couplets as being by Padampa himself, when here we find the larger set is indeed spoken by Kunga. The introduction to Kunga’s set clarifies this. He is reading from something he had written down previously, and he insists that it does represent the essence of Padampa’s teachings. As I understand it, they were written after the model of the Tingri Thirteen as a homage, incorporating Padampa’s ideas and perhaps quite a few of his exact words, but, yes, written by Kunga.
Let me quote from my draft translation of the most relevant passage:
Standing before the yogis gathered here in glorious Tingri,
All people of stainless insight,
Great Sons happily abiding together.
It isn't right for me to be giving this kind of muddled speech,
I who am like a firefly in the presence of the sun.
Still, these are the basic essentials of the teachings that came from Dampa,
So with affectionate thoughts I have set them down in writing.
Later on we will not meet, so listen as I read them to you now.
The intertextual connectedness between all the different versions is a subject I’ve been thinking over for a long time, but we can say that connections between A and the later versions C through F are quite few. Connections between B and the later versions are more evident and numerous, yet fully identical couplets are rare. Looking only at the later versions C through F, we can identify two recensions I believe are basic ones. I’ve called them the monkey and rhino recensions in an earlier blog. But as I said before, these critical reflections of mine about authorship have no bearing whatsoever on the Buddhist truth and/or spiritual authority of the texts themselves. The Tingrian couplets are great Tibetan poetry. Together they are a monument to the Tibetan language, a source of wisdom and inspiration regardless of your ideas about religions, and a trigger for reflection on life and its [mis]guided aims, no matter who wrote which one when.
I know I should end on an uplifting note, but somehow I’m inclined to do nothing of the sort. These poetic lines from the meditation manual that follow are not Tingrian couplets, as you can see, and neither could they be verified in any other source at my disposal as yet. It’s about disenchantment with religion. You can find them on folio 511 recto, line 3:
de yang pha dam pa rgya gar kyis /
dang po dad pa skyes pas gnam du dil dil mchong /
bar du dad pa yal ba ri kha (~re kha) rjes kyis gang /
tha ma dad pa log pas 'khor ba'i rting rdo btags / ces gsungs so //
Padampa Gyagar had something to say about that:
When faith first arose, you leapt freely into the sky.
In the meantime faith dissolved, and you were full of erased sketches.
In the end faith was reversed, and sangsara’s anchor was tied fast.
Keep the faith, my friends, no matter what.
Philological scratchpad
Tingrian Couplet One (22r.2)
dam pas /
'khrul pa gzhi la med de glo bur byung /
mtshan nyid go bas chog go ding ri pa /
Dampa said,
“Delusions are not there in the base, they arise incidentally.
Comprehending this characteristic is enough, my Tingrians.”
Our new source for this verse certainly supports the readings of version B over C. The second line of Version C reads quite differently, and yields a meaning that is less radically formulated* even while it introduces the potentially problematic concept of a ‘creator’ for delusion,** saying: “Look at the characteristics of its creator, my Tingrians” or “Inspect it for the marks of its maker”?
(*A reader of centuries gone by may have had problems with the idea that just comprehending the incidental character of delusion would be in itself sufficient for Enlightenment. These qualms may have lead them to imagine ways to improve it. **I don’t expect it to make sense very quickly, but Buddhists don’t award creator status to Brahma the way most other Indian religions do, although they do credit him with the narcissisticidea that he was the creator, as it was his belief that world-creation happened because of his wish. Brahma, as a creator figure, does supply Buddhists with a myth of origins for delusion itself.)
-C12-(compare B51 and D37)
'khrul pa gzhi la med de glo bur gyur ||
byed mkhan mtshan nyid ltos shig ding ri ba ||
-B51-(compare C12 and D37)
'khrul pa gzhi la myed de blo bur byung /
mtshan nyid go bas chog go ding ri ba /
•
Tingrian Couplet Two (215r.1)
rje dam pa rgya gar gyis
'khor ba'i chos la mi 'byung ma nus na /
sde snod ma lus shes kyang phan mi thogs / ces gsung /
Lord Dampa Gyagar said,
“If you are unable to renounce sangsaric dharmas,
even knowing all the scriptures is of no help.”
These two lines belong uniquely — to my utter amazement — to the Kunga version (version B) at the end of the introductory section that immediately precedes the first couplet, with Kunga doing the speaking:
skyid kyang 'gro dgos rin chen gling gi myi /
bstan yul ma yin 'jig rten brang ba'i sa /
'khor ba'i chos la yid 'byung ma nus na /
sde snod ma lus shes kyang phan mi thogs /
dam pa'i gdams pa yin no ding ri ba /
Even if he’s contented there,
the man in the jewel island still has to go.
This world is no permanent abode.
It’s nothing more than a travellers’ lodge.
If you are unable to renounce sangsaric dharmas,
even knowing all the scriptures would be no help.
This is the teaching of Dampa, my Tingrians.
•
Tingrian Couplets Three and Four (388r.1)
Note: I quote the larger context here starting at folio 388 recto, line 1, but only the couplets are translated.
dam pas /
bdud kyi 'jug pa dang po bya ba yin / rang lu (~chu) nang du 'jugs nas gzhan skal par thon par gar 'ongs skabs 'dir rang gis 'phel ba chad / gzhan la phan mi 'dog pas gzabs 'tshal / yang bsgrubs pa'i dus su gzhan don byar mi rung / dge sbyor 'phel ba chad do rang bzhin pa (~sa?) /
rang don ma 'grubs gzhan don mi 'byung bas /
thog mar bsgrub pa gyis cig ding ri pa /
'khrul pa'i snang ba 'brel sla sru ba yin /
go ba rjes la skyol cig ding ri pa /
By Dampa,
“When your own aims are not fulfilled you do the aims of others no good.
First of all, do your practices, my Tingrians.
“Forming easy relations with delusive appearances, you mix with them.
Bring understanding in their wake, my Tingrians.”
For comparison (both verses are only found in B):
-B93-
rang don ma bsgrubs gzhan don myi 'ong pas /
thog mar bsgrub pa gyis cig ding ri ba /
-B94-
'khrul pa'i snang ba 'dris par sla ba yin /
go ca rjes la khol cig ding ri ba /
It's easy to get entangled in delusive apparitions.
Keep armour on your backs, my Tingrians.
The written similarity, particularly in a cursive manuscript, between go-ba, understanding, and go-ca (=go-cha, both spellings are found in Dunhuang texts), armor or military equipment is a problem, admittedly, although I believe the reading go-ba carries more weight, has more immediate cogency.
•
Tingrian Couplet Five (389v.5)
gang la zhen pa yod na de yang 'ching /
cis kyang dgos pa med do ring ring pa [~ding ri ba] / ces gsungs /
If there is something you are attached to, that same thing also binds you.
There is no need for it whatsoever, my Tingrians.
It is odd that this couplet doesn’t seem to exist in versions B or D, while the segment “de yang ’ching” finds no collaboration in any of the previously recorded versions. Still, I believe our new version is preferable.
For comparison:
-C16- (compare E14 and F14)
gang la zhen pa byung na de yang thongs ||
cis kyang dgos pa med do ding ri ba ||
-E14- (compare C16)
gang la zhen pa yong pa de blos thongs //
cis kyang dgos pa med do X [3v]
Note: Correct yong-pa to yod-pa.
•
Tingrian Couplet Six (467v.5)
pha dam pa rgya gar kyis /
dge ba'i nang nas rjes su yi rang mchog /
gzhan la 'phrag dog ma byed ding ri pa / ces gsungs pas /
By Padampa Gyagar:
“Of all the virtues, rejoicing in others’ success is the best.
Don’t be envious of others my Tingrians.”
For comparison:
-B88-
dge ba'i nang nas rjes su yi rang mchog /
gzhan la phrag dog ma byed ding ri ba /
• • •
Postscript (July 20, 2024)
This dark and unclear detail, clipped from a Shakyamuni Buddha thangka belonging to the Giuseppe Tucci collection, can be better seen of you go here:
Once you are there, scroll down to the second painting. One thing I see significant about this is that Padampa is on the Kagyü side of the painting, balanced off by Gelugpa monks on the other side. If this is indeed as it says a 15th-century painting, it makes even more sense to find Padampa on a thangka likely made in an emerging Gandenpa/Gelugpa context. And we are reminded that the First Dalai Lama (1391-1475) had a family background of Zhijé practitioners.
To analyze what you see here a little more, the white blanket being the only clothing loosely wrapped around the lowest part of the body, and the ankles-crossed/knees-up seating posture are both fairly secure diagnostic features of Padampa. The fact that he has ornaments on his otherwise unclothed torso and arms is frequent (its correctness is historically questionable if we rely on the earliest sources), but along with the flowers in his hair this might seem to point to (or indicate conflation with) the iconography of Virûpa. Still, I have no doubt it is Padampa who is depicted here.
The same painting also features in a 5-minute Asia Society video. I will try to embed it here, although if the embedding is unsuccessful you will see a jumble of letters and numbers that lead nowhere:
If you do not see the video here just above, scroll down to the end of this blog because it might be "embedded" there. If not, go to YouTube and use their search facility to search for the following title, using the quote marks around it:
“A Closer Look at Tibetan Thangkas”
I just wanted to tag on this bit of artistic evidence that helps us to argue for popular knowledge of Padampa in the 15th century, as if any such argument were needed.
Perhaps yet more persuasive would be more literary sources quoting from “his” Tingrian Couplets. I do know of some.
Most relevent here and now is one couplet quoted in the 15th-century Sakya teacher Müchen Könchog Gyaltsen's (1388-1469) Supplement to the Oral Tradition, as contained in Thupten Jinpa, tr., Mind Training: The Great Collection, Wisdom (Boston 2006), at p. 483:
The master Dampa states:
“Contemplating the sufferings of samsara pierces my heart;
People of Dingri, laugh not at these matters.”
The Tibetan for it reads:
rje dam pa'i zhal nas |
'khor ba'i sdug bsngal bsam na snying rlung ldang ||
'di la gad mo mi bro d[i]ng ra ba ||
With nothing to say about the translation already given, except to say that it’s a great one, I still try my hand at it:
“At thought of the bad points* of sangsara my heart pressure rises.
Nothing to laugh and dance about here, my Tingrians.”
(*I follow the text of B108 by reading nyes-dmigs in place of sdug-bsngal.)
What impresses me almost as much as its very serious message with so much confirming evidence in today’s world, is that this couplet is uniquely found in Kunga’s set (version B), number 108 of his 118 couplets. This does make the meditation manual’s use of the Kunga set not quite unique, only nearly unique.
EVERYTHING IS TOTALLY NATURALLY-ARRIVED-AT IN BODHICITTA
[Not only are all dharmas included in Bodhicitta, they are naturally-arrived-at.]
The scriptural authority of Bodhicitta is of a nature
naturally-arrived-at:
The summit of the King of Mountains, arriving-at the meaning
of the Unmade,
is exalted over all, the great king Supreme Vehicle.
[Just as the King of Mountains is exalted in the middle of the four world-continents, the Ati Vajra Heart Vehicle is explained as the peak of peaks, exalted over all.]
˚
[A simile showing Ati to be the summit of all.]
When one has arrived at the summit of the King of Mountains,
all the lower valleys are seen at once.
The valleys do not see the nature of the peak.
Just so, the Vajra Heart Ati
is the peak of peaks of Vehicles
which clearly sees the meanings of all the others.
The lower Vehicles do not see the meaning of this Ati.
That is left for the time when they have arrived-at the naturally-arrived-at
peak.
[While from the summit of the mountain all the valleys are seen all at once, from the valleys the top of the mountain cannot be clearly seen. Just so, the significances of each of the lower Vehicles are seen simultaneously from the Ati perspective. The significance of Ati the lower Vehicles do not see since they confuse the high with the low.]
˚
[The relative greatness and specialities of the higher and lower vehicles are further explained.]
When you make a request to the great Wish Granting Jewel,
everything wished for naturally comes.
Most people, if asked, will say it isn’t so.
Because the Vajra Heart Three Bodies are naturally-arrived-at
out of the Realm as it is, Buddhahood arrives-at itself.
The greatness of Ati is just this—no pushing, no striving.
While the lower Vehicles exert themselves in accepting some things
and rejecting others,
they don’t get there for aeons. They have some thick phlegm congestion
disease.
[When someone gets everything desired just by asking the Wish Granting Jewel, that is something only for lucky people. When the qualities in self-engendered Full Knowledge are realized in a naturally-arrived-at way, and stay at rest without pushing, it is something for only the best practitioners. When they make wishes to the all-purpose Jewel, some people make their requests to a piece of wood in the shape of a jewel and so, do not reach their aim. It is the same with those who want to be buddhaized through the pushing and striving of the lower Vehicles. They teach that there is nothing more because they are worn-out and congested with thick, sticky phlegm.]
˚
[Awareness beyond working/pushing is taught to be the Three Bodies. The underlying meaning of “Dharmabody as it lays” is…]
Totally level by nature, Awareness-Bodhicitta
(spread-out Dharma Proper-as-it-lays)
is receptive centre of primordially level Nature Dharmabody;
is, while all have it, objective sphere of the fortunate few;
is, according to how it is placed, arrived-at by leaving it lay
in that continuity.
[The meaning of Dharmabody is the undiffusive void-clarity substance of Awareness. Realization of the Mind Proper as-it-lays is, aside from a few, not something for all. Its style is Great Levelness beyond extremes since it is the substance of the Realm of Vajra.
Awareness Self-dawned says,
The void-clarity mandala of Vajra is
the Dharmabody itself, undistracted and
passing-right-through.
It is beyond the extreme views that postulate
a subjective ‘grasper’.
In the Dharma beyond extreme views is no desire.]
˚
[The underlying meaning of “Assets Body as-it-lays”:]
The Perfect Assets are in all, while seeing is a thing for the few.
When whatever appears is left ‘as is’ without working or pushing,
it is revealed.
[Awareness self-luminous is the nature of this Assets Body. It shines to perfection when, after it dawns without impediment on the apparent objects, it is left to be bright without entering into grasping.]
˚
[The underlying meaning of “Emanation Body”:]
A spreading receptive centre, the Emanation Body with
unlimited roles to play
is in everything, luminous from the time when it dawns.
The miracles of wish granting qualities and activities
are nowhere else to be found.
The receptive centre of pure self-Awareness
like muddied water will, if allowed to clean itself,
come out clear.
[When Awareness dawns from the continuity of its appropriate abode, the part which seems to dawn, naked and passing-through, is the Emanation Body. It has totally dawned as qualities and activities. So its dawning, a mirror of clairvoyance and Buddha-eye, into this continuity beyond accepting/rejecting and working-pushing is like the appearance of a clear reflection on water pure of muddiness.]
˚
[Now the underlying meaning of “Three Bodies” is shown as a single Realm beyond working-pushing.]
Pushing doesn’t get it. The dharmas primordially pure
shine in the receptive centre of self-produced, clearly
comprehended Buddhahood.
What you’ve already arrived-at doesn’t need to be striven for
starting now.
This is the underlying meaning of “Greatness situated in itself”:
Dharma Proper receptive centre.
Don’t push to arrive-at the untransformable Naturally-arrived-at.
[The Mind Proper-Suchness, the substance of Dharmabody, is arrived-at on its own part. So pushings-strivings are unnecessary.]
˚
[Such an Awareness is taught to be single & self-situated.]
It is the total basis, the laid-down basis, the clearly comprehended
heart basis.
From the Continuity of its nature it has not the least bit moved.
So don’t compromise on the meaning of the luminous receptive centre
Awareness.
[The appropriate substance of Awareness is no where arrived-at and not to be fused or diffused. If you want to realize and have revealed to you its meaning, the meditative absorption where knowing is settled in its own place, and no compromising from the continuity of the naked passing-right-through, are two most important things. Dharma Proper lacks a mover because it is contradicted by the movement of thoughts distracted toward objects.]
˚
The reason it is arrived-at when everything is placed?
The five Full Knowledges, untransformable lords embracing all beings.
The five Bodies. The five Speeches. The five Minds.
The five Qualities. the five Activities.
Even the Adi-Buddha is naturally-arrived-at in
this receptive centre beyond beginning and ending.
So don’t look elsewhere. Its nature is totally arrived-at.
[The substance of Awareness, being beyond transforming and transporting, is the five—Vajra Body, etc. The substance of Awareness, being incommunicable, is the five—Dharma Proper clearly comprehended Speech, etc. The substance of Awareness, being undiffusive, is the five—self-engendered Full Knowledge Mind, etc. The substance of Awareness, being all Qualities—the basis of all completion, etc. Since everything is, in the substance of Awareness, arrived-at as pure & level Full Knowledge and the four Activities, it is the five—immaculate Dharma Proper Activity, etc. The completion of these twenty-five is the Adi-Buddha Total Good clearly comprehended. Being totally arrived-at in the substance of Awareness, it is not to be looked for elsewhere.]
˚
[While sangsara/nirvana is arrived-at in Awareness, there is no Dharmabody apart from Mind Proper.]
Though the Dharmabody of all Buddhas be clearly comprehended,
there is nothing other than the meaning of untransformable levelness.
Because the former is self-engendered and naturally-arrived-at in the
latter,
it is unsearched for, unstriven for. Hopes and fears are naturally
put to rest.
[Even that attainment of Buddhas’ Dharmabody is nothing other than the substance of Awareness revealed without outside contaminants or contrivance. And Awareness is, because everything has it without transforming or transporting, alighted in naturally-arrived-atness, implicit Awareness uncontrived.
The Pearl Strand says,
Complete Buddhahood is implicit Awareness alone.
The All Making King says,
I, the All Making Bodhicitta,
am unproduced. When there is no longer subject and object,
“Unborn Dharmabody” are just words that have occurred.]
˚
[The Mind Proper of sangsara is arrived-at as Buddhabody. So renunciation is unnecessary.]
The self-engendered Full Knowledge of all sentient beings
is also unmade and unsearched for, naturally-arrived-at as Buddhabody.
So do not cling to accepting/rejecting. Settle down
in this Realm of Dharmas continuity.
[This word for sentient beings, “Citta possessors,” means nothing apart from the continuity of Awareness. Since the same Awareness is not to be divided up between sangsara and nirvana, there is no need for pushing and striving.]
˚
[Awareness is passed beyond moving and pushing.]
In the unmoving, unthinkable naturally level substance,
the meaning of Unmade is arrived-at. It is a spacious receptive centre
foundation.
[Because Dharmabody is naturally-arrived-at in the Awareness substantiality, abiding in the substance behind “the meaning of Unmade arrived-at” is the strange and marvelous Full Knowledge. This is shown to be the foundation of the Realm of Dharmas beyond all horizons.]
˚
[The stream of naturally-arrived-at empowerment is shown to be totally completed in the Awareness substantiality.]
The MASTER Body and Total Wisdom of All Animate Beings Untransformable
and the EMPOWERMENT Royal Method Head Anointing Great Self-engendered
have naturally-arrived-at the total disentanglement of
appearances/becoming and material/vital
Working/seeking is unnecessary. The nature naturally-arrived-at
arrives-at absolutely everything,
expands into Great Naturally-arrived-at.
[Total Awareness is completed in the naturally-arrived-at substance of the Three Bodies. So when the complete empowerment arrived-at in self-engendered Full Knowledge takes hold, there is no depending on present exertion and pushing or on empowerments employing consecrated articles.]
[It has been shown that all dharmas are included in the purity of the Awareness substantiality. Meanwhile, it will be shown that, because Dharma Proper and suchness are on the same side, everything is included in the Unproduced continuity.]
As lights are gathered in the essence of the Sun, even
so, the roots of all dharmas are gathered in Bodhicitta.
Appearances/becoming, material/vital and even impure error,
in short, all occurrences are, when the realm of their situations
and dependencies is examined,
gathered in the continuum of foundationless, totally disentangled
citta.
The continuum of the great x—pansive total receptive center that
Dharma Proper is
is gathered in a place beyond the words and meanings of
‘error’ and ‘unerror’.
˚
[Just as dreams are included in the sleep continuity, so all dharma-having (objects) are included in the continuity of Awareness.]
The appropriate manifestations which are pure—
Body, Buddha, and
the miraculous play of Full Knowledge activity as well,
are included without inclusion or exclusion
in the continuity of the self-engendered.
Including all appearances/becoming and sangsara/nirvana,
the Bodhicitta
is an uncompounded void-clarity like the sun-sky.
From the beginning, it is an expansive total receptive centre,
self-engendered.
[This Awareness-Bodhicitta which excludes no dharmas whatsoever is, like the sun, naturally and implicitly luminous and, like the sky, void and ownerless. The self-engendered Full Knowledge is called “the primordial Dharmabody which has buddhaized whatever is.”
The All Making King says,
Dharma Proper beyond everything is Bodhicitta.
Bodhicitta is the heart of all dharmas.
Bodhicitta is the root of all dharmas.
As the root, it combines the purpose of everything.]
˚
[The great receptive centre shows the nature of citta.]
The continuity of the changeless sky great receptive centre that
Mind Proper is
has no fixed part to play. It is Bodhicitta’s special power.
Since it steers all sangsara/nirvana Vehicles,
the one thing that is unemployed is the master of all.
It isn’t separated from objective spheres of those who have
gone to extremes.
There has been no place to go besides the Dharma-Proper-Bodhicitta.
˚
[Now there will be closely formulated for the All-including a simile of its unmovedness.]
The total good of everything has dawned as one naturally-arrived-at.
Everything without exception included, its supremacy is beyond compare.
The greatest of greats total good Realm of Dharmas,
like a king, draws everything together.
Unmoved, yet it has wielded its power over all sangsara/nirvana.
[Just as a king, without moving from his own palace, draws his subjects under his rule, the continuum of Awareness, without moving from Dharma Proper, draws together all sangsara/nirvana.
Everything was made by Bodhicitta and, while everything has dawned from citta, the Mind Proper was not made by anything. It is beyond all actions and things to do; so things to do are shown to be unnecessary.
The All Making King says,
Bodhicitta made everything. One was not made.
The all-made the nature of clear comprehension made.
For the one unmade, making is unnecessary.]
˚
[Because the nature of the totality of dharmas is levelness, it is shown to lack good/bad, pushing/striving.]
Everything is totally good. Not one is bad.
Without good/bad, things are one in Total Good.
Things arrived-at or unarrived-at are all one Realm.
All are, in naturally-arrived-at unmoving levelness, one.
˚
[What has dawned from the Realm is in itself beyond pushing/striving.]
Everything has dawned from one. The Realm of All Dharmas
is nothing to be made. In its continuity
is nothing to be pushing, nothing to be striving for.
Pushing/striving do not exist apart from the appropriate Realm.
So from where did you push? To where do you strive?
˚
[Therefore, it is beyond both cause/effect & pushing/striving.]
There is no objective field of pushing, nothing to see in meditation,
no place to strive for. It hasn’t come from somewhere else
It doesn’t come. It doesn’t go. It is levelness,
the Dharmabody.
It is subsumed into the Realm of the Great Drop, naturally completed.
[The sky-like substance of Mind Proper is a single spot Realm. Since all dharmas are included in its continuity, there is nothing to be pushed by the ten natures, etc. That which isn’t to be pushed is the Realm of Dharmas, undelineated.]
˚
[Now it will be shown that in Awareness-Bodhicitta all Vehicles are included. The way the three lesser Vehicles are included:]
The scriptural authorities of Hearers,
Solitary Realizers &
Bodhisattvas
have determined the non existence of me and mine.
The underlying meaning to the “sky-like undiffusive” is the same.
And the scriptural authorities of the supremely secret great yoga of Ati?
Because no matter how it is that the self-engendered Full Knowledge
is actually assigned
to the expansive sky-without-self/other-divisions,
the underlying intention is, in any case, included
in this supreme Heart Ati.
[The Hearers hold that all internal and external dharmas are sky-like, lacking selfhood and ‘person’. The Solitary Realizers say, moreover, that half of the dharmas are not things to be grasped. The Bodhisattvas say that the absence of grasper and grasped, of selfhood pertaining to either dharmas or ‘person’, is sky-like. These views affirm rather than contradict the view of Ati-yoga.]
˚
[The middling three Vehicles are also included in Ati.] [Note: The Diamond Peak is a tantra of the Yoga class held as especially authoritative by the Japanese Shingon school.]
All the three classes of Kriya,
Upa &
Yoga
are the same in holding that the immaculate attainments of body,
speech &
mind
come from the offering rituals of oneself,
the divinities &
samadhi.
According to the secret king of scriptural authorities,
the Diamond Peak,
appearances and sounds are immaculate Awareness totally divinized.
Since they bring the immaculate attainments of body,
speech &
mind into the open,
all their underlying intentions are included in this supreme Heart Ati.
˚
[The superior three Vehicles are completed in Ati.]
The three grades Maha,
Anu &
Ati believe
in the unmoving Dharma Proper and self-engendered Full Knowledge.
Since appearances/becoming, material/vital, the fields of gods & goddesses,
and Realm-Full Knowledge are immaculate in their indivisibility,
in this most secret supreme, everything is immaculate.
Everything is disentangled into the total vastness receptive centre of
Dharmabody.
Without named dharmas, pushing-working or accepting/rejecting,
everything is from the unmade Palace, the total receptive centre
field of comfort
with no in or out side, spread-out, embracing all.
All these underlying intentions are included in the great secret
Heart Ati.
˚
[Now, everything being included in Bodhicitta, the meaning is completely summed up.]
One complete. All complete. The receptive centre where
all dharmas are included
is included in the totally settled, self-luminous Great
Naturally-arrived-at.
[“One complete.” means completion in Bodhicitta.
“Two complete.” means the creations of mind are complete.
“All complete.” means every last thing is perfect.]
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