Mahāyānapathasādhanavarṇasaṃgraha

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महायानपथसाधनवर्णसंग्रह

Mahāyānapathasādhanavarṇasaṃgraha

ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་ལམ་གྱི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་ཡི་གེར་བསྡུས་པ

theg pa chen po'i lam gyi sgrub thabs yi ger bsdus pa

A Few Concise Words on Practicing the Mahāyāna Path (84000)

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Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

This text by Atiśa (Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna) is a concise guide to Mahāyāna Buddhist practice that begins with recognizing the precious rarity of human life and the urgency to practice due to impermanence, emphasizing taking refuge in the Three Jewels and maintaining ethical conduct as foundational steps. The core of the practice involves generating bodhicitta (the enlightened mind), which is described as essential for all Mahāyāna practice, since without it, even practicing the six perfections remains incomplete. The method requires combining skillful means and wisdom, like "father and mother," to produce the "bodhisattva child," emphasizing the cultivation of both śamatha (calm abiding) and vipaśyanā (insight meditation) in balanced unity. Throughout the path, practitioners are advised to avoid attachments, dwell in solitude when needed, maintain vigilance and mindfulness, see all beings as teachers, with special guidance given for ordained practitioners. The ultimate goal is attaining perfect enlightenment to benefit all sentient beings, becoming like a wish-fulfilling jewel that spontaneously helps others through a systematic path that unites compassionate method with transcendent wisdom from initial motivation through advanced meditation practices.

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Atīśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna (slob dpon chen po dpal mar me mdzad ye shes). mahāyānapathasādhanavarṇasaṃgraha [महायानपथसाधनवर्णसंग्रह]. theg pa chen po'i lam gyi sgrub thabs yi ger bsdus pa [ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་ལམ་གྱི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་ཡི་གེར་བསྡུས་པ]. [A Few Concise Words on Practicing the Mahāyāna Path (84000)]. Tengyur, RKTST 3295 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3295&typ=2.

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1 Full translations

Sherburne, Richard, trans. The Complete Works of Atīśa, Śrī Dīpaṁkara Jñāna, jo-bo-rje: The Lamp for the Path and Commentary, Together with the Newly Translated Twenty-five Key Texts. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan, 2003.

Books2009About this item

The complete works of Atīśa Śrī Dīpaṁkara Jñāna, Jo-bo-rje : The lamp for the path and commentary, together with the newly translated Twenty-five key texts (Tibetan and English texts)

1 A topic of

Sherburne, Richard, trans. The Complete Works of Atīśa, Śrī Dīpaṁkara Jñāna, jo-bo-rje: The Lamp for the Path and Commentary, Together with the Newly Translated Twenty-five Key Texts. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan, 2003.

Books2009About this item

The complete works of Atīśa Śrī Dīpaṁkara Jñāna, Jo-bo-rje : The lamp for the path and commentary, together with the newly translated Twenty-five key texts (Tibetan and English texts)

Mahāyānapathasādhanavarṇasaṃgraha/Full text

Atīśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna (slob dpon chen po dpal mar me mdzad ye shes). mahāyānapathasādhanavarṇasaṃgraha [महायानपथसाधनवर्णसंग्रह]. theg pa chen po'i lam gyi sgrub thabs yi ger bsdus pa [ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་ལམ་གྱི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་ཡི་གེར་བསྡུས་པ]. [A Few Concise Words on Practicing the Mahāyāna Path (84000)]. Tengyur, RKTST 3295 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3295&typ=2.

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Atīśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna (slob dpon chen po dpal mar me mdzad ye shes). mahāyānapathasādhanavarṇasaṃgraha [महायानपथसाधनवर्णसंग्रह]. theg pa chen po'i lam gyi sgrub thabs yi ger bsdus pa [ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་ལམ་གྱི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་ཡི་གེར་བསྡུས་པ]. [A Few Concise Words on Practicing the Mahāyāna Path (84000)]. Tengyur, RKTST 3295 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3295&typ=2.

Go to the page with the definition of 'theg pa chen po'i lam gyi sgrub thabs yi ger bsdus pa'

Atīśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna (slob dpon chen po dpal mar me mdzad ye shes). mahāyānapathasādhanasaṃgraha [महायानपथसाधनसंग्रह]. theg pa chen po'i lam gyi sgrub thabs shin tu bsdus pa [ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་ལམ་གྱི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་ཤིན་ཏུ་བསྡུས་པ]. [A Very Concise Practice of the Mahāyāna Path (84000)]. Tengyur, RKTST 3296 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3296&typ=2.

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Sādhana - Sādhana refers to a method of practice through which one can actualise a specific spiritual result, and by extension to the texts and manuals which present such methods. A sādhana in the Vajrayāna Buddhist context generally involves the worship and visualisation of a tantric deity, chanting of mantras, and associated practices. The practice often begins with verses of taking refuge and cultivating altruistic thought, then carrying out meditation on emptiness and the mandala of deity, seven-part worship, chanting of mantras, and finally the dissolution of the deity which was visualised. Skt साधन  Tib སྒྲུབ་ཐབས།  Ch 修行  

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Mahāyāna - Mahāyāna, or the Great Vehicle, refers to the system of Buddhist thought and practice which developed around the beginning of the Common Era, focusing on the pursuit of the state of full enlightenment of the Buddha through the realization of the wisdom of emptiness and the cultivation of compassion. Skt महायान  Tib ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ།  Ch 大乘  

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Śaraṇagamana - The foundational act of entering the Buddhist path by formally seeking protection and guidance from the Three Jewels: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha. Skt शरणगमन  Tib སྐྱབས་འགྲོ་  Ch 皈依  

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Ratnatraya - The Three Jewels—the Buddha, the Dharma (his teachings), and the Saṅgha (the spiritual community)—are the three central objects of refuge and inspiration for all Buddhists. Skt रत्नत्रय / त्रिरत्न  Tib དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་  Ch 三寶  

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Śīla - The Buddhist practice of ethical behavior, like being honest, kind, and not harming others. It means following guidelines for good conduct, which helps calm the mind and live a wholesome life. It is the first of the Three Higher Trainings (triśikṣā: śīla, samādhi, prajñā), and the second of the six perfections (pāramitās). In daily practice, śīla is cultivated through mindful attention to one's actions, regular reflection on precepts, and the development of wholesome habits. Skt शील  Tib ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་  Ch 戒  

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Bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt बोधिचित्त  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།  Ch 菩提心  

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Pāramitā - The six or ten types of practices which lead an individual to Buddhahood. The practice of perfections is particularly important in Mahāyāna Buddhism in which the entire path of the Bodhisattva to reach full enlightenment is included in the six or ten perfections. The six perfections are that of giving, of discipline, patience, zeal, meditation, and wisdom. The perfection of skill-in-means, aspirations, power, and pristine wisdom are added to them to make ten perfections. Skt पारमिता  Tib ཕར་ཕྱིན།;ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ།  Ch 波羅蜜  

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Prajñā - One of the key terms for wisdom or knowledge, most often having the sense of insight, transcendent knowledge, or perhaps gnosis. In some contexts it can also refer to cognition or intellectual understanding. Skt प्रज्ञा  Tib ཤེས་རབ་  Ch 般若  

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Saṃprajanyam - Vigilance or alertness is the mental function that monitors one's thoughts, speech, and physical actions to ensure they stay on the right path and avoid harmful distractions. Skt संप्रजन्य  Tib ཤེས་བཞིན་  Ch 正知  

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Apramāda - A state of being careful and attentive in one's actions, words, and thoughts. It means staying alert to avoid doing things that cause harm and focusing on what is helpful and virtuous. It is often called the 'path to the deathless' because it prevents the mind from wandering into negative habits. Skt अप्रमाद  Tib བག་ཡོད་པ་  Ch 不放逸  

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Smṛtiḥ - Mindfulness is the ability to keep a chosen object or the present moment in mind without forgetting it. It acts as a stable foundation for meditation and daily awareness. Skt स्मृति  Tib དྲན་པ་  Ch 念  

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Atīśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna (slob dpon chen po dpal mar me mdzad ye shes). mahāyānapathasādhanavarṇasaṃgraha [महायानपथसाधनवर्णसंग्रह]. theg pa chen po'i lam gyi sgrub thabs yi ger bsdus pa [ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་ལམ་གྱི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་ཡི་གེར་བསྡུས་པ]. [A Few Concise Words on Practicing the Mahāyāna Path (84000)]. Tengyur, RKTST 3295 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3295&typ=2.

Go to the page with the definition of 'महायानपथसाधनवर्णसंग्रह'

Atīśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna (slob dpon chen po dpal mar me mdzad ye shes). mahāyānapathasādhanavarṇasaṃgraha [महायानपथसाधनवर्णसंग्रह]. theg pa chen po'i lam gyi sgrub thabs yi ger bsdus pa [ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་ལམ་གྱི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་ཡི་གེར་བསྡུས་པ]. [A Few Concise Words on Practicing the Mahāyāna Path (84000)]. Tengyur, RKTST 3295 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3295&typ=2.

Go to the page with the definition of 'ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་ལམ་གྱི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་ཡི་གེར་བསྡུས་པ'