༈ ཞེན་པ་བཞི་བྲལ་གྱི་གདམས་པ་བཞུགས།
The Instruction on Parting from the Four Attachments
Tibetan title: zhen pa bzhi bral gyi gdams pa bzhugs
ས་ཆེན་ཀུན་དགའ་སྙིང་པོ།
by Sachen Künga Nyingpo (sa chen kun dga’ snying po, 1092-1158)
Translated from the Tibetan by Erick Tsiknopoulos
ཨོཾ་སྭསྟི་སིདྡྷཾ།
OṂ SVASTI SIDDHAṂ!
(“OṂ: MAY GOOD FORTUNE BE ACCOMPLISHED!”)
བླ་མ་ས་སྐྱ་པ་ཆེན་པོ་དགུང་ལོ་བཅུ་གཉིས་བཞེས་པའི་ཚེ། འཕགས་པ་འཇམ་པའི་དབྱངས་ཀྱི་སྒྲུབ་པ་ཟླ་བ་དྲུག་མཛད་པས། དུས་གཅིག་གི་ཚེ་འོད་ཚོགས་ཀྱི་དབུས་ན་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་ཁྲི་གཅིག་གི་སྟེང་ན་རྗེ་བཙུན་འཇམ་དབྱངས་དམར་སེར་ཆོས་འཆད་ཀྱི་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཅན། བཟང་པོའི་སྟབས་ཀྱིས་བཞུགས་པ། འཁོར་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་གཉིས་གཡས་གཡོན་དུ་གནས་པ་མངོན་སུམ་གཟིགས་ཏེ། གཙོ་བོའི་ཞལ་ནས།
When the Great Lama Sakyapa (Sachen Künga Nyingpo) had reached the age of twelve years old,1 he undertook a six-month practice retreat on the Noble Mañjuśrī. On a certain day during this period, he directly beheld the Venerable Lord Mañjughoṣa (Mañjuśrī), dwelling in the center of a mass of light atop a bejeweled throne, orange2 (in bodily color), with (his hand displaying) the Mudrā3 of Expounding the Dharma, sitting in the Posture of Excellence4 (with both feet flat on the ground); and as his attendants, to the left and right, stood two Bodhisattvas. Thereupon, from the mouth of the Lord (Mañjuśrī) came the following words:
ཚེ་འདི་ལ་ཞེན་ན་ཆོས་པ་མིན། །
ཁམས་གསུམ་ལ་ཞེན་ན་ངེས་འབྱུང་མིན། །
བདག་དོན་ལ་ཞེན་ན་བྱང་སེམས་མིན། །
If you are attached to your own self-interest,10 you do not have the altruistic heart of awakening (bodhicitta11).
འཛིན་པ་བྱུང་ན་ལྟ་བ་མིན། །
ཞེས་གསུངས་པའི་དོན་ལ་དཔྱད་པས། ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པའི་ལམ་གྱི་ཉམས་ལེན་ཐམས་ཅད་ཞེན་པ་བཞི་དང་བྲལ་བའི་བློ་སྦྱོང་དུ་འདུ་བར་དགོངས་ཏེ། ཆོས་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་ངེས་ཤེས་ཁྱད་པར་ཅན་ཐོབ་པ་ཡིན་ནོ།
By analyzing the meaning of that which had been spoken thus (by Mañjuśrī), he came to comprehend that all the spiritual practices of the Path of Transcendental Perfections15 (pāramitās) are condensed within this mind training practice16 of Parting from the Four Attachments. And through this, he gained an extraordinary certainty of understanding with regard to all Dharmas.17
། །ས་མཱཔྟ་མི་ཐི།། །།
SAMĀPTAM-ITHI!
(“IT IS THUS COMPLETE!”)
Root Verses of the Parting from the Four Attachments
ཚེ་འདི་ལ་ཞེན་ན་ཆོས་པ་མིན། །
TS’É DI LA SHYEN NA CH’ÖPA MIN
(1.) If you are attached to this life, you are not a Dharma practitioner.
ཁམས་གསུམ་ལ་ཞེན་ན་ངེས་འབྱུང་མིན། །
KHAM SUM LA SHYEN NA NGEYJUNG MIN (2.) If you are attached to the Three Realms (of Saṃsāra), you do not have renunciation.
བདག་དོན་ལ་ཞེན་ན་བྱང་སེམས་མིན། །
DAK DÖN LA SHYEN NA JANGSEM MIN
(3.) If you are attached to your own self-interest, you do not have the altruistic heart of awakening (bodhicitta).
འཛིན་པ་བྱུང་ན་ལྟ་བ་མིན། །
DZINPA JUNG NA TAWA MIN
(4.) If you engage in grasping, you do not have the View.
Translated from the Tibetan by Erick Tsiknopoulos, October 23rd-24th, 2018.
Revised on January 21st, 2023.
Footnotes:
1 In 1104 or 1105 CE.
2 Or ‘reddish-yellow’ (dmar ser).
3 'Symbolic hand gesture' (Skt. mudrā, Tib. phyag rgya)
4 Like the way that Maitreya Bodhisattva sits seated upon his throne, with his feet flat on the ground.
5 That is, this present or current lifetime
6 chos pa, or ‘spiritual practitioner’, ‘religious practitioner’, but the implication here is specifically Buddhist (chos=Dharma), especially with regard to the aims of Buddhist spiritual practice, namely liberation and enlightenment
7 khams gsum, Skt. tri-dhatu: The form realm (rūpa-dhātu), the formless realm (arūpa-dhūtu), and the desire realm (kāma-dhātu)
8 And conditioned existence (srid pa), synonymous with Saṃsāra, ‘cyclic existence’
9 Or ‘the determination for emancipation/liberation’ (nges ‘byung)
10 Or ‘your own personal purpose/aim/goals’ (bdag don)
11 On the conventional level of Relative Bodhicitta, bodhicitta is the altruistic wish to attain the state of complete Enlightenment or Awakening, Buddhahood, for the sake of all sentient beings, in order to benefit them generally, and also to bring them to the state of Enlightenment in particular; as well as the determination to practice the Bodhisattva Path of love, compassion, the Six Transcendental Perfections (pāramitā-s), etc., which are necessary for achieving that goal of Buddhahood. On the absolute level of Ultimate Bodhicitta, bodhicitta is the practice of direct insight into the ultimate nature of phenomena and the true nature of mind. Here the discussion mainly concerns Relative Bodhicitta, especially in its altruistic aspirations for the benefit of others.
12 Or “if grasping arising/occurs”. For various reasons I have opted for a more active form here (‘engage’), rather than the passive form used by other translators, although the verb here (byung) is generally of the more passive and indeed involuntary variety, and usually means “to occur, emerge, happen, to come to pass, to get”. Using a more active form here also fits in with the previous pattern set in the foregoing first three lines, namely “If you…”, wherein the instrumentality of an agent is implied in all three cases (albeit less directly in the original Tibetan text). Some have also translated this fourth line as “if there is grasping”. Here a more active verb form is generally more appropriate in English, because it is the agent who is ‘engaging’ in grasping, and that this selfsame grasping does not come from some outside source nor from elsewhere than the grasping mind of the implied agent. In other words, we would not tell someone to “not let grasping happen”, we would tell them to “not engage in grasping”.
13 Or ‘clinging’, 'fixation' (‘dzin pa)
14 That is, the Right View or the appropriate view of discerning insight (prajñā) which realizes Emptiness and Non-Self, wherein there is no grasping, clinging or fixation on the conceptual elaborations of existence, non-existence, both existence and non-existence, and neither existence nor non-existence, with regard to all phenomena. ‘Grasping’ here is thus attachment to a ‘self’ and to true or inherent existence with regard to oneself, others, and all things, including thoughts and concepts.
15 Or ‘Transcendental Practices’ (pha rol tu phyin pa). ‘The Path of Transcendental Perfections’ (pha rol tu phyin pa’i lam) is another way of referring to the Mahāyāna or Bodhisattvayāna systems or ‘vehicles’ of Buddhism, which are also sometimes called the Pāramitāyāna.
16 blo sbyong, methods of training the mind in important topics of contemplation using short instructions
17 The meaning of “all Dharmas” (chos thams cad) here is specifically “all Buddhist Dharma teachings”, but the grammar is perhaps intentionally ambivalent, and could also mean “all phenomena” or “all things”.
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