A Short Text on the Four Phurpas attributed to Pad- masambhava, passed down through the Transmitted Teachings (bka' ma)

Cathy Cantwell

(Associate Faculty Member, Oriental Institute, University of Oxford, Honorary Research Fellow, School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent)

I recently completed an article on the early history of an important classification of Vajrakīlaya teachings in terms of Four Phurbas,2 considering links between revelatory (gter ma) and transmitted (bka' ma) sources (Cantwell in press). One of the early teachings I referred to is a short text said to be by Padma Thod phreng rgyal po (AKA Padmasambhava)3 found within a group of similar texts on the Eightfold Buddha Word tantric deities (sgrub pa bka' brgyad) located within a collection of the Fortress and Precipice (rdzong 'phrang) cycle of transmitted teachings. Unlike most texts said to be by the great guru, the group of texts it is included within has been transmitted through a clear line of masters and is recorded as received by gTer bzhad rtsal (= gNubs Yon tan rgya mtsho) from his master, rDo rje Yang dbang gter, who is in fact the famous ninth to tenth century gNubs chen Sangs rgyas ye shes. I see no reason to doubt this attribution, given that we have a plausible record of the further transmission down to Myang ral Nyima 'odzer, and then further prominent teachers who passed on the sacred collection in

1 This article builds on work supported by the DFG Germany under Grant number ME 2006/3–1, Myang ral’s Codification of rNying ma Literature and Ritual, at the Center for Religious Studies (CERES) of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 2017– 2019; and on work begun under earlier research projects at the Oriental Institute, University of Oxford. I must thank Dylan Esler for his help in locating additional rdzong 'phrang versions, especially that in the mKhan po Mun sel bKa’ ma shin tu rgyas pa (KM), which has no outline.

2 Note that in this article I am using the word, phurba, as an English equivalent for phur pa or phur bu in Tibetan.

3 The names, Padma rgyal po, and/or Padma Thod phreng, appear to be used in some early sources when the Guru is being presented – or presents himself – as the enlightened tantric master, while the name Padmasambhava or Sambhava is perhaps more often used when presenting accounts of the historical transmission.

Cantwell, Cathy, “A Short Text on the Four Phurbas attributed to Padmasambhava, passed down through the Transmitted Teachings (bka' ma)”, Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines, no. 64, Juillet 2022, pp. 45-56.

later times, based on a manuscript handwritten by Myang ral.4 The teachings had earlier passed through gNyags Jñānakumara, whose connection with gNubs chen is well known (see Esler 2018: 6), and Jñānakumara seems early enough that it would seem not beyond the realm of possibility that our short text may actually preserve a teaching transmitted by the historical Padmasambhava.5

In any case, it is clearly very early. After completing that article, I have reflected that the short text in question is worthy of a more detailed treatment, both because it may give a flavour of the earliest tradition of Padmasambhava's tantric teachings, and because the subject matter of the Four Phurpas becomes so central to later teachings on Vajrakīlaya, and this short text may be the earliest presentation of it.

Thus, I present here the text and a translation of it, and I hope this will be a suitable offering for our esteemed friend and colleague, Dan Martin, who has done so much to illuminate the early history of Tibetan culture.

The earlier article considers at some length the subject matter of the Four Phurpas, including variations in lists of the four, and their significance to the Vajrakīlaya traditions. It also discusses connections between this particular short piece and other presentations of the Four Phurbas. I will not repeat that discussion here, but I preface the text and translation with a few brief remarks. It is clear that the text does not represent a self-sufficient practice. Rather, it sums up the approach to be taken throughout the process of performing and perfecting the tantric deity practice. As is the case in all versions of the four phurpa list, it is clear that the four categories are not entirely separate but illustrate different aspects of the tantric path and goal, only making sense in relation to each other.

The text in the Fortress and Precipice compilation is part of a series, each of which focuses on one of the eight principal tantric deities (bka' brgyad), and in most cases is associated with one of the early tantric masters, while the first six specifically deal with the "enlightened attention" (dgongs pa) needed for the practice of the particular deity (KM: 209-237). The association between "enlightened attention" and the Four Phurpas persists in numerous later presentations of Vajrakīlaya teachings which no longer link the subject to different

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4 rdzong 'phrang srog gsum gyi chings kyi man ngag, KM: 425; see also KM: 27, 59, 63, 76, 83, 100, 106, where Myang ral's teacher, Grub thob dNgos grub is specified as passing the collection or parts of it to Myang ral. Dudjom Rinpoche's lineage list for the Fortress and Precipice cycle gives the intermediate figures following the two gNubs as: Padma dbang rgyal, Tshul khrims rgyal mtshan, lDan brtson, Ye shes dbang phyug, Se ston pa (Dudjom bKa' ma Volume Pa: 591).

5 Jñānakumara is said to have received all the Fortress and Precipice teachings from

the Four Wise Humans (mkhas pa mi bzhi), that is, Padmasambhava, Vimalamitra, gNubs nam mkha'i snying po, and either Vairocana or g.Yu sgra snying po.

types of "enlightened attention" needed for the other principal deities.

The teaching is in PadmaTho phreng rgyal po's voice. At the outset, he proclaims his identity with the deity Vajrakīlaya, and at the end of the text tells us that he wrote it at the rock cavern of Yang-le- shod, famed throughout the Vajrakīlaya traditions as the place where Guru Padma displayed his realisation of the Phurpa deity. A potentially confusing feature of the presentation is a phrasing apparently so reminiscent of Treasure revelations: annotations on the title suggesting it to be sealed by samaya; the final seals at the end; and above all, the statement that rDo rje Yang dbang gter has hidden the text as treasure in entrusting it to gTer bzhad rtsal.

Many of the other short texts and sections of this Fortress and Precipice collection give similar statements, and even more share the seals which serve to mark off many of the sections. Yet although the language is reminiscent of Treasure revelation, a careful examination of all such wording throughout the compilation led me to the conclusion that at this early stage, such phrasing was not confined to the revelatory traditions, and that in this case, the idea is simply that this is a secret tantric teaching hidden in the mind of the recipient, so that it can later be transmitted without corruption.6

In the initial introduction to the topic, the first reference to the bodhicitta phurpa apparently refers to the broadest category: the phurpa of the enlightened mind, rather than the specific bodhicitta phurpa which is one of the four, and referenced in the idea of sameness or non-dual union in the final words of introduction.

A more extended comparison with other early sources on the four- fold classification is made in the earlier article. I do note here, howev- er, short specific parallels with two texts in Myang ral's Eightfold Buddha Word, Embodying the Sugatas (bka' brgyad bde gshegs 'dus pa). As mentioned above, Myang ral is a key figure in the line of transmission for this Fortress and Precipice collection, as well as the fount of the Eightfold Buddha Word revelatory traditions. In general terms, those familiar with teachings on the four phurbas will observe that the im-

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6 This is discussed at greater length in the previous article. In brief, I reiterate here an example of the early lineage transmission, in which each master "buries" the text as "treasure" within the heart/mind of each recipient (རྒྱ་དང་བོད་ཀྱི་མཁས་པ་མི་བཞི་ཡིས།་་ ་ བུ་གཅིག་པོ་གཉ་ནའི་ཐུགས་ཀྱི་གཏེར་དུ་སྦས། དེས་སོག་པོ་ལྷ་དཔལ་གྱི་ཡེ་ཤེས་གཏེར་དུ་སྦས། དེས་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཡང་དབང་གཏེར་གྱི་ཐུགས་གྱི་གཏེར་དུ་ སྦས། དེས་གནུབ་ཁུ་ལུང་པ་ཡོན་ཏན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ཡི་གཏེར་དུ་སྦས། དེས་པདྨ་དབང་རྒྱལ་གྱི་ཐུགས་ཀྱི་གཏེར་དུ་སྦས།, KM: 126). Note also an example of gTer bzhad rtsal "burying" a teaching inwardly (གཏེར་བཞད་རྩལ་གྱིས་ཁོང་པར་ སྦོས།, KM: 200; 248).

agery in this short text is very much in line with standard presentations found throughout rNying ma traditions of Vajrakīlaya. However, perhaps one aspect stands out as a little distinctive. This is the treatment of the uniquely special bodhicitta phurpa, which concerns the tantric practice of sexual union. Generally, this bodhicitta phurpa is linked with yogic teachings on the channels and airs (rtsa rlung) which may emphasise the avoidance of conception, yet here the fundamental purpose is stated to be the production of bodhisattva children,7 a purpose which fits well with hereditary transmission so important to rNying ma pa mantra practitioner (sngags pa) traditions.

As typical, the material symbolic phurpa is primarily to be associated with the rite of release or liberation (sgrol ba, bsgral ba), and its purpose defined in terms of protecting the Buddhist dispensation, suggestive of clearing away outwardly manifesting as well as inward obstacles of mental conceptualisations. Yet it is interesting that the presentation here rather merges into the final section which focuses on the main principles of the practice as a whole. Thus, here the sense of an equation between the practitioner, the deity, and the phurpa implement is rather pronounced.

The text concludes with the classic categories of body, speech, mind, qualities and actions, all of which are to be in line with pure vision, in this case connecting with enlightened attention to the four phurbas. One's body is the buddha body of the deity, whatever one is doing. One's speech is the deity's mantra and the mind is constantly attending to the enlightened attentions. Thus, the buddha qualities are continually present. The buddha actions are the tantric rituals, but they are also nothing other than the expression of primordial buddhahood. Such enlightened attention to the four phurbas is summed up in the closing words as, "flawless and uncontrived".

Text and Translation

I have not attempted a critical edition, but simply present an eclectic text; there are in any case mostly minor variant readings. I have fol- lowed the pagination of the bKa' ma shin tu rgyas pa mKhan po Mun sel edition Volume Ju (KM) which reproduces the same manuscript and gives the same pagination as the mKhan po 'Jam dbyangs edition Volume Ha (KJ), although KM includes a few minor spelling corrections, which have most likely been introduced by the editors. The later computer input version (KT; this text is found p. 258-262) intro-

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7 This purpose is shared with the presentation in the two texts which deal with the topic in Myang ral's Eightfold Buddha Word, where it is developed at slightly greater length. It is reflected also in later teachings which appear to derive from Myang ral but does not otherwise seem to be witnessed widely.

duces further small spelling corrections. It is not certain on the basis of this short text whether KM or KJ has been copied since all the vari- ants would be easily conjectured.8 BDRC have also made available two other versions. One is a xylograph edition (KN; this text is found

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f. 77r-78v, p. 168-171 of the pdf). It gives only two significant variants, one of which does not seem altogether coherent in the context of this text (see note 21

below). The other version is an dbu med manuscript (DB; this text is found p. 397-402 of the pdf), which has rubrication of some of the names. It shares the two significant variant readings given in KN, and introduces another, which may also be shared by KN, although KN's reading is uncertain at that point (see note 28 below). It also has a number of spelling errors not noted here).

[KM 230]

༄༅། རྫོང་འཕྲང་ལས།ས་མ་ཡ། ཕུར་རྒྱ་རྒྱ་རྒྱ།པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཕུར་པ་ཐལ་འབྱིན་གྱི་དགོངས་པར་རྫོགས་པ་ཞེས་

བྱ་བ་བཞུགས་སོ། ཨྠྀི། ༄༅། །དཔལ་རྡོ་རྗེ་གཞོན་ནུ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །པདྨ་ཐོད་ཕྲེང་རྒྱལ་པོ་ངས། །རྡོ་རྗེ་ཕུར་པ་སྲིད་

གསུམ་མགོན། །སྲིད་གསུམ་གདུག་པ་བསྒྲལ་བའི་ཕྱིར། །མདོར་བསྡུས་ཕུར་པ་བཞི་རུ་བསྟན།

From The Fortress and Precipice (dots link to samaya on the next line),9 this is The Totality of Phurbas (dots link to sealed sealed sealed on the next line), Perfecting Enlightened Attention to the Phurpa Perforations.10 Īthi.11

Prostrations to Glorious Vajrakumāra!

I, Padma Skull-garlanded King, am Vajrakīlaya, protector of the three planes of existence. In order to release all evils throughout the three planes of existence, (I) teach the concise 12 four phurbas.

།བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་ཀྱི་ཕུར་པ་ཡིས། །སྲིད་གསུམ་འགྲོ་བ་བརྡར་ཤ་གཅོད། །མ་བཏབ་བཞིན་དུ་ལྷུན་གྱིས་རྫོགས། །མཉམ་པའི་རྒྱལ་

8 For further information on these three editions of the bKa' ma shin tu rgyas pa, see Paldor and Sheehy 2014, and Almogi and Wangchuk 2016, especially p. 15-17. 9 KN shares this format. KT gives the annotations in small writing on the line after las/, but not attached to specific words. DB gives them at the top of the page above the title, also without linking dots.

10 It is not easy to give the full sense of the term thal 'byin applied to the action of the four phurbas in the Vajrakīlaya traditions. It implies not only a piercing and destructive action, but a complete penetration and transformation. I have used the English word, perforation(s), and the verbal form, to perforate, to pick up one of the literal senses of the term and related words, in the idea of boring or drilling into an object (see, for instance, the example given in the Bod rgya tshig mdzod chen mo for thal byung: སྙུང་བུ་རྣོན་པོས་པང་ལེབ་ཐལ་བྱུང་དུ་ཕུག་ནས་བུག་པ་འདོན་པ་, Volume 2, 1157).

11 Tibetan transliteration of Sanskrit, iti, meaning, "thus!". It is used as a conventional expression indicating ritual injunctions or teachings, signifying, "thus it is said/taught".

12 mdor bsdus: KM, KJ give mdor bdus, a spelling error.

པོ་རིག་པས་གདབ། །སེམས་ལ་བཏབ་པས་རིག་པ་ཤར། །དབྱིངས་ལ་བཏབ་པས་དོན་དམ་རྫོགས། །གཉིས་སུ་མེད་པས་མཉམ་ པའི་ངང། །བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་ཀྱི་ཕུར་པ་ཡིན།

The bodhicitta phurpa sharpens one's view of beings throughout the three planes of existence.

It perfects spontaneously, as if there were no striking at all; for pure awareness which is the king of sameness, will strike. By striking the mind, pure awareness arises; by striking the spatial field, the ultimate truth is perfected. The condition of their non-dual sameness is the bodhicitta phurpa.

།དེ་ལ་ཕུར་པའི་རྒྱུ་བཞི་སྟེ། །རིག་པའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་ཕུར་པ། །ལྷག་པ་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་ཀྱི་ཕུར་པ་དང། །ཚད་མེད་སྙིང་རྗེའི་ཕུར་པ་ དང། །འདུས་བྱས་རྫས་ཀྱི་ཕུར་པ་དང་བཞི་སྟེ་དེ་ལ་རིག་པ་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་ཕུར་པ་དེ་ཡུལ་གང་ལ་འདེབས་ན། །ཡུལ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས་ ལ་གདབ།

In this, there are four phurpa materials: the pure awareness primordial wisdom phurpa; the uniquely special bodhicitta phurpa; the immeasurable compassion phurpa; the material manufactured phurpa.

These are the four, and of these, what object does the pure awareness primordial wisdom phurpa strike? The object it will strike is the dharma- dhātu.

[KM 231] །དེ་ལ་དགོས་པ་ཅི་ཡོད་ན། །དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་ཐུགས་ཡང་དག་པའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་རྟོགས་པར་བྱ་བའི་ཕྱིར་བཏབ་སྟེ། དེ་ཡང་བཀའ་ ལས། །ལྷང་ཀྱི་རྟོགས་ནས་ཐེབས་པ་ཡིན། ཅེས་པས་གསལ་ལོ།

Why does it need to do so? It strikes so that there should be realisation of the authentic primordial wisdom of the mind/heart of the tathāgatas. The scriptural authority clarifies further: "realising vividly is the striking/planting".13

ལྷག་པ་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་ཀྱི་ཕུར་པའི་ཡུལ་ནི། ཡུམ་གྱི་མཁའ་ལ་གདབ་པའོ། །དེ་ལ་དགོས་པ་ཅི་ཡོད་ན། །དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་ པའི་སྲས་རྣམས་འཐོན་པར་བྱའི་ཕྱིར་གདབ་སྟེ། དེ་ཡང་བཀའ་ཉིད་ལས། །གཉིས་སུ་མེད་ན་སྦྱོར་བ་ཡིན། ཅེས་འབྱུང་བས་སོ།

13 Here, I have emended lhangs to lhang; the same point is made in The Commands of the Secret Mantra Scriptural Authorities (gsang sngags lung gi bka' bsgo), from Myang ral's Eightfold Buddha Word, Embodying the Sugatas: "the sign of striking/planting is vivid realisation" (ཐེབས་པའི་རྟགས་ནི་ལྷང་གྱིས་རྟོགས་ནི་ཐེབས་ཏེ༔ TSH volume 4: 491). Note that TSH gives bka' mgo in the text title but I am assuming that bka' bsgo, found in the Kaḥ thog version (KAḤ), is intended.

The object which the uniquely special bodhicitta phurpa will strike is the consort's space.14 Why does it need to do so? It strikes in order to produce sons of the tathāgata (i.e. bodhisattva children). Further, it says in the scriptural authority itself: "(Their) non-duality is union".15

།ཚད་མེད་སྙིང་རྗེའི་ཕུར་པའི་གདབ་པའི་ཡུལ་ནི། འགྲོ་བ་རིགས་དྲུག་གི་སེམས་ཅན་ལ་གདབ་པའོ། །དེ་ལ་དགོས་པ་ཅི་ཡོད་ ན། དཔྱད་ཐག་ཆད་པའི་འགྲོ་བ་རྣམས། བླ་ན་མེད་པའི་གནས་སུ་དྲངས་བར་བྱ་བའི་ཕྱིར་གདབ་སྟེ། དེ་ཡང་བཀའ་ལས། །དཔྱད་ ཐག་ཆད་པ་ཐུགས་རྗེས་བཟུང་སླད་དུ། སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་འདི་ནི་བདག་གིས་བཤད་པར་བྱ། ཞེས་འབྱུང་ངོ།

The object that the immeasurable compassion phurpa16 will strike: it will strike/be planted in sentient beings of the six classes of transmigrators. Why does it need to do so? It strikes so that those beings who have been cast adrift 17 should be led to the incomparable abode (buddhahood). Further, it says in the scriptural authority: "In order that those who have been cast adrift should be seized by compassion, this practice method is to be explained by me."18

[KM 232] འདུས་བྱས་རྫས་ཀྱི་ཕུར་པ་ནི། གདབ་པའི་ཡུལ་ཡིད་ཀྱི་དམིགས་པའི་དགྲ་ལ་གདབ་བོ། །དེ་ལ་དགོས་པ་ཅི་ཡོད་ན། བསྟན་པ་ལ་ བར་དུ་གཅོད་པ་བསྒྲལ་པའི་ཕྱིར་རོ། །དེ་ཡང་བཀའ་ལས། དཀར་ནག་མཚམས་ནས་དྲངས་ནས་སུ། ལྷུ་གཟུགས་བྲལ་ཏེ་ཟོས་ བསམ་ན། །རྡོ་རྗེ་རིགས་ཀྱང་འཇིགས་པར་འགྱུར། །སྡིག་ཆེན་གཞན་ལྟ་སྨོས་ཅི་དགོས། ཞེས་འབྱུང་བས།

The object that the material manufactured phurpa will strike: it will strike/be planted in the hostile forces of mental conceptualisations. Why does it need to do so? It strikes so that hindrances to the (Buddha's) dispensation should be released. Further, it says in the scriptural authority: "Considering that (they) have been dragged by (their

---

14 Space (mkha') here is a euphemism for the female genitals.

15 The same point is made in The Commands of the Scriptural Authorities for the Tantric Practice (sgrub pa lung gi bka' bsgo), from Myang ral's Eightfold Buddha Word,

Embodying the Sugatas: "striking space, there is non-dual union" (མཁའ་ལ་ཐེབས་པས་གཉིས་མེད་

སྦྱོར༔ TSH volume 4: 528). Note that both TSH and KAḤ give bka' mgo in the text title but I am assuming this to be a non-standard or incorrect spelling of bka' bsgo. 16 snying rje'i: KM, KJ, KT give snying rjes (snying rje'i]] is, of course, given above).

17 literally, whose (rescue) rope has been cut.

18 The same point is made in The Commands of the Secret Mantra Scriptural Authorities (gsang sngags lung gi bka' bsgo), དཔྱང་ཐག་ཆད་པ་ཐུགས་རྗེས་ཟིན་ཏེ་ (TSH volume 4: 491); and in The Commands of the Scriptural Authorities for the Tantric Practice (sgrub pa lung gi bka' bsgo), དཔྱང་ཐག་ཆད་པ་ཐུགས་རྗེས་བཟུང་བའི་ཆེད་ (TSH volume 4: 528).

hearts at) the locus of white and black,19 their body parts dismembered, and eaten, even vajra rock 20 would be destroyed, so there is no need to mention (the fate of) others of great evil."

།དགོངས་པ་གོང་མ་དེ་ལྟ་བུ་དང་ལྡན་ནས་རྣལ་འབྱོར་ལ་གནས་ན། ཕུར་པ་ཐལ་འབྱིན་གྱི་དགོངས་པ་ཞེས་བྱའོ། །དགོངས་པ་དེ་ལྟ་ བུ་དང་ལྡན་པའི་སྒོ་ནས་འདུས་བྱས་རྫས་ཀྱི་ཕུར་པའོ། དེ་ཡང་རི་རབ་ལྟར་བརྗིད་པ་བཏབ་ན་ཐལ་འབྱིན་པ། གསོར་ན་གསོར་བྱིན་ པ། གྲུབ་གསུམ་ཤེར་གྱི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་ལུས་ལ་རྫོགས་པ། སྟོད་ཁྲོ་བོར་ཞལ་གསུམ་ཕྱག་དྲུག་པ་སྨད་ལྕགས་ཀྱི་ཕུར་པ་ཟུར་གསུམ་ པས་ཐལ་འབྱིན་པ།

If you abide in this yoga, endowed like this with the above- mentioned enlightened attentions, it is called, Enlightened attention in perforating with the phurpa. Through being endowed with such enlightened attention, [the phurpa] becomes the manufactured material phurpa. For even if a mountain as imposing as mount Meru should be struck, it would be perforated/ reduced to ashes. If (the phurpa) is brandished, (it) will drill into (the object), perfecting the wisdom maṇḍala of the three (body, speech, and mind) accomplishments in this [ordinary] body.21 It is the phurpa whose upper body is the wrathful deity, with three faces and six arms; and whose lower body is an iron phurpa, with a three-sided blade, who is performing the perforations.

[KM 233] སྐུ་གསུམ་གྱི་ས་ལ་སྦྱོར་བ་གཅིག་ཏུ་བདག་ཉིད་འགྲོ་ཉལ་འདུག་སྡོད་དུ། དེ་ལས་མི་ཉམས་པར་གནས་པར་བྱའོ། སྐུ་དེའི་ངང་ལས་ མི་འདའ་སྟེ། གསལ་ལ་རྟོག་པ་མེད་པར་གནས་པའོ།

So you yourself should always dwell on the level of the three kāyas unified in a single [[deity] form, whether moving, sleeping, or resting, never degenerating from this. Not relinquishing 22 the condition of this buddha body, you abide in clarity without discursive thoughts.

19 dkar nag: KM, KJ give dka' nag (a clear spelling error; this locus is evidenced throughout the Vajrakīlaya literature as the point at which to aim the phurpa).

20 brag: KM, KJ, KT give rig, although KM adds a final sa as a small letter beneath the line, giving rigs. Here we have a meaningful variant. Instead of vajra rock, the KM, KJ, KT reading would suggest, those of vajra nature (literally, of vajra family, assuming that rigs and not rig is intended).

21 grub gsum sher gyi dkyil 'khor: KN, DB give gru gsum shel gyi dkyil 'khor, triangular crystal maṇḍala. This reading would not seem to make very good sense here, although it is possible that it refers to a feature which was later lost. The central maṇḍala of Vajrakīlaya generally has a dark blue triangle.

22 'da' ste: KM, KT give 'das te; KJ gives 'das ste.

གསུང། ཨོཾ་བཛྲ་ཀཱི་ལི་ཀཱི་ལ་ཡ་སརྦ་བིག་ནན་བཾ་ཧཱུྃ་ཧཱུྃ་ཕཊ་ ཅེས་རྒྱུན་མི་ཆད་པར་འདྲེན་པའོ།

Your buddha speech recites continually without interruption, drawing on [the mantra, oṃ vajra kīli kīlaya sarva vighnan baṃ hūṃ hūṃ phaṭ.23

།ཐུགས་དགོངས་པ་གོང་མ་རྣམས་ལས་མ་གཡོ་བའོ།

Your buddha mind is unmoving from the above-mentioned enlightened attentions.

།ཡོན་ཏན་དེ་རྣམས་རྫོགས་པས་ཡོན་ཏན་ཟད་མི་ཤེས་ཏེ་ནོར་བུ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་དང་འདྲའོ།

By perfecting these buddha qualities, such qualities become inexhaustible, so they are like a precious gem.

།ཕྲིན་ལས་ནི། ཞི་རྒྱས་དབང་དང་མངོན་སྤྱོད་ལ་སོགས་པ་རྣམ་པ་བཞི་འམ་ལྔ་ལ་ལོངས་སྤྱོད་ཅིང་རོལ་བའོ།

Your buddha actions are to indulge in and enjoy the four or five actions of pacifying, increasing, controlling, destroying etc.

།དེ་དག་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱང་རང་གི་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སེམས་ལས་མ་འདས་ཏེ། བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སེམས་ལས་གཞན་མེད་ལ་སེམས་ཡེ་ནས་ སངས་རྒྱས་ཡིན་བས། དེ་ལྟར་ཤེས་ཤིང་དོན་མ་བཅོས་པའི་ངང་ལས་མ་ཡེངས་པ་ནི། །ཕུར་པ་ཐལ་འབྱིན་གྱི་དགོངས་པ་ཞེས་བྱའོ།

None of them go beyond your own bodhicitta; they are nothing other than bodhicitta, the mind primordially buddha. So understanding in this way, you do not waver from the uncontrived ultimate state. This is called enlightened attention to the phurpa perforations.

[KM 234] །དོན་དེ་ལྟར་བུ་དང་ལྡན་ན། ལྟེ་བར་ཕྱུང་བའི་ཕུར་པ། བྱི་ཏོ་ཏ་འབུམ་སྡེ། སྒྲུབ་པར་ཕྱུང་བའི་ཕུར་པ། ཕུར་པ་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་ པ། ཕྲིན་ལས་སུ་ཕྱུང་བ་ནི་རྡོ་རྗེ་གཞོན་ནུའོ།

If you are endowed with the meaning in this way, the phurpa emerging from the navel is the Vidyottama-la 100,000 Collection.24 The phurpa

23 KJ, KN give a slightly unconventional rendition of the name, ki li ki la yā, and DB gives kī li kī la yā.

24 This refers to the early textual authority for the entire Phurpa tradition, variously called, the Phur pa 'bum sde, or Kīlaya 'bum sde (the 100,000 Phurpa Collection), or a Tibetan transcription of Sanskrit, Vidyottama, sometimes given as Rig pa mchog kyi rgyud in Tibetan (the Supreme Pure Awareness Tantra). The title is used either for a specific text or collection of Phurpa tantras associated with Guru Padma and/or with his preceptor for Phurpa, Prabhahasti, or it may also be used as a general term to describe the Phurpa tantras as a whole.

which emerges in the practice, is the phurpa perfections (phun sum tshogs pa). (That) emerging in buddha actions, is Vajrakumāra.25 དེའི་ངང་ལས་མི་འདའ་བར་གནས་པས། །དེ་དག་ཀྱང་དོན་རང་གི་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སེམས་ལས་མ་གཡོས་པར་ཤེས་ན། ཡང་དག་དོན་ གྱི་ཕུར་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་སྟེ། བུདྡྷའི་དགོངས་པ་མ་ནོར་མ་བཅོས་པ་དེའོ།

Dwelling without relinquishing this state, when you understand all these phurbas as in truth unmoving from your own bodhicitta, this is called the authentic ultimate phurpa. This buddha enlightened attention is flawless and uncontrived.

།གནས་ཡང་ལེ་ཤོད་ཀྱི་བྲག་ཕུག་ཏུ། པདྨ་ཐོད་ཕྲེང་རྒྱལ་པོ་ངས། ཕྱི་རབས་རྣམས་ལ་སྨན་སླད་དུ། །འདི་བརྩམ་དགེ་བའི་རྩ་བ་ རྣམས། །འགྲོ་བ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་དོན་དུ་བསྔོ། ཕུར་པ་ཐལ་འབྱིན་དགོངས་པ་འདི། རྡོ་རྗེ་ཡང་དབང་གཏེར་ང་ཡིས། །གཏེར་བཞད་ རྩལ་ལ་གཏད་པ་ནི། །སྤེལ་བའི་གནས་མེད་གཏེར་དུ་སྦོས། རྒྱ་རྒྱ་རྒྱ། ཨྠྀི། གསང་ངོ།

At the place of the Yang-le-shod rock cavern, I, Padma Skull- garlanded King, composed this as a medicine for later generations,26 and I dedicate the roots of virtue for the benefit of beings. This Enlightened Attention to the Phurpa Perforations has been entrusted by myself,27 rDo rje yang dbang gter, to gTer bzhad rtsal; hidden as treasure, not (in) a place where it will be spread.28 Sealed sealed sealed! īthi!29 Kept secret!

25 gzhon nu: KJ gives gzhan nu.

26 phyi rabs: KM, KJ give phyi rab, but KM adds the final sa of rabs as a small letter beneath the line.

27 nga yis: KM, KJ, KT give ba yis (generally, in this compilation, we find the impersonal, yang dbang gter gyis, but there are several other instances of yang dbang gter nga yis, KM, KJ: 186, 254, 269, 281, 415, 425).

28 spel ba'i: : KM, KJ, KT give srel ba'i; KN's reading is uncertain, srel ba'i or spel ba'i; DB spel bas (The verb in KM, KJ, KT suggests taking care of/keeping something safe, holding and maintaining it, which in this case is not necessary. So the translation would be: hidden as treasure, and not (in) a place where it needs to be looked after.

See the bTsan lha dictionary entry for srel ba/bsrel ba: འཆང་བ་དང་འཛིན་སྐྱོང་བྱེད་པ་སྟེ་ཉ་ར་བྱེད་ པའི་མིང་. A similar point is made in another section of this compilation, where we have: སྤེལ་བའི་གནས་མེད་རིག་པའི་གཏེར་དུ་སྦོས། (KM, KJ: 372). This would suggest hiding the teaching in the awareness, which is a place where it will not be spread or propagated. In this case, spel is clear in KM and KJ, so it would seem more likely that in our text, srel may be an error for spel, rather than the other way round, although both readings are coherent.

29 see note 11 above.

References

Almogi, Orna, and Dorji Wangchuk

"Prologue: Tibetan Textual Culture between Tradition and Modernity", in Orna Almogi (ed.) Tibetan Manuscript and Xylograph Traditions: The Written Word and its Media within the Tibetan Cultural Sphere. Hamburg, Department of Indian and Tibetan Studies, 2016: 5–30.

Bod rgya tshig mdzod chen mo. Tibetan-Tibetan and Chinese dictionary. Chengdu, Szechuan: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1985. Cantwell, Cathy

“Early teachings on the Four Phurbas in the light of the Eightfold Buddha Word, Embodying the Sugatas (bka’ brgyad bde gshegs ’dus pa) revelation of Myang ral Nyi ma ’od zer (1124-1192), and the relationship between the Revelatory (gter ma) and Transmitted (bka’ ma) Textual Traditions.“ In Journal of Tibetology, Sichuan University. Special Issue on “New Directions in Gter ma Studies”, edited by Jue Liang, in press (June 2022).

Esler, Dylan

“The Lamp for the Eye of Contemplation, The bSam-gtan mig-sgron by gNubs-chen Sangs-rgyas ye-shes: Hermeneutical Study with Eng- lish Translation and Critical Edition of a Tibetan Buddhist Text on Contemplation.” PhD diss., Université catholique de Louvain, 2018.

Dudjom Rinpoche / Bdud 'joms 'jigs bral ye shes rdo rje (1904-1987)

Man ngag rdzong ’phrang srog gsum gyi bla brgyud gsol ’debs, in the Dudjom bKa' ma, 1982-1987, Rñin ma Bka' ma rgyas pa compiled by Bdud-'Joms 'Jigs-bral-ye-śes-rdo-rje. The Expanded Version of the Nyingma Kama Collection Teachings Passed in an Unbroken Lineage. 58 volumes. Kalimpong: Dupjung Lama. (TBRC W19229). Volume Pa: 591-592.

rdzong 'phrang srog gsum gyi chings kyi man ngag. Available versions:

bKa' ma shin tu rgyas pa (snga 'gyur bka' ma). n.d. 110 vols. Chengdu: Kaḥ thog mKhan po Mun sel (TBRC W21508). Volume Ju (67): 15- 425/426. (dBu can manuscript.) KM.

bKa' ma shin tu rgyas pa (snga 'gyur bka' ma). 1999. 120 vols. Chengdu: Kaḥ thog mKhan po 'Jam dbyangs (TBRC W25983). Volume Ha (29): 15-425/426. (dBu can manuscript.) KJ.

30 For a longer Bibliography of relevant related sources, see Cantwell in press.

sNga’ ’gyur bka’ ma shin tu rgyas pa 2009. 133 Vols. Chengdu, Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang: Tshe ring rGya mtsho (TBRC W1PD100944). Volume Tsa (17): 93–404 (dBu can computer input). KT.

sNga ’gyur bka’ ma’i yig rnying phyogs bsdus. n.d. 50 vols. n.p.

(TBRC W3CN53). Volume Ja (7): 1r–140r; PDF 10–292. (dBu can blockprint). KN.

bKa’ brgyad rdzong ’phrang (A Collection of Kagye Teachings by Nyang Ral Nyima Odzer). n.d., n.p., pagination discontinuous (TBRC W8LS19778). PDF 15–678. (dBu med manuscript). DB. Note also that this manuscript is reproduced also in gZhi chen mkhar dmar gsang sngags bstan rgyas gling du bzhugs pa’i dpe dkon phyogs bsdus. n.d. 69 vols. n.p. (TBRC W3PD889). Volume 67, pagination discontinuous. PDF 17–680.

Myang ral Nyi ma 'od zer (1124-1192)

bKa' brgyad bde gshegs ’dus pa’i chos skor [Eightfold Buddha Word, Embodying the Sugatas, here referencing two versions:

The mTshams brag bka’ brgyad bde gshegs ’dus pa’i chos skor in 13 vols (TSH). Paro: Lama Ngodrup, Kyichu Temple, reproduced from the complete Mtshams-brag manuscript, 1979-1980 (TBRC W22247).

The Kaḥ thog bka’ brgyad bde gshegs ’dus pa’i chos skor in 13 vols (KAḤ). Gangtok, Sikkim (Kaḥ thog rdo rje dgan gyi par khang): Sonam Topgay Kazi, 1978 (TBRC W1KG12075).

Zagtsa Paldor and Michael Sheehy

“The Nyingma Kama Collections“, blog post, 19 February 2010; revised version 12 March 2014, https://www.bdrc.io/blog/2014/03/12/the-nyingma-kama- collections/.

bTsan lha Ngag dbang tshul khrims

brDa dkrol gser gyi me long, Beijing, Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1997.