1.Ludwik Sternbach, “Subhāṣita-saṃgrahas, A Forgotten Chapter in the Histories of Sanskrit Literature,” Indologica Taurensia 1 (1973): 170.
2.Sir Monier Monier-Williams, Sanskrit-English Dictionary (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, 2nd reprint, 1981), 565.
3.For the range of meanings of the Sanskrit word nīti, see Chandra Rajan’s introduction to her translation of the Pañcatantra. Viṣṇu Śarma, The Pañcatantra, trans. Chandra Rajan (London: Penguin Books, 1993), xxvii–xxviii.
4.Khepa Deu, Extensive History of India and Tibet (Lhasa: Tibet Nationalities Press, 1987), 236. For a detailed analysis of this trio of stories, symbolic languages, and Bön rituals, see Namkhai Norbu, Drung, De’u, and Bön: Narrations, Symbolic Languages, and the Bön Tradition in Ancient Tibet, trans. Andrew Likianowicz (Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1995).
5.Tibetan: (1) ba mo dbyar ’jo dgun nas gso and (2) mar rdo la zhu na mar gyong rag / rdo mar la zhu na mar ngyong rag. A useful collection of these coded Tibetan sayings as well as other types of proverbs can be found in Kyabjé Zemey Rinpoché’s Collected Works, vol. 6 (Delhi: Tashi Gephel House, 1997), especially 583–620. For those who can read Tibetan, see my introduction to the Tibetan edition of this volume, where I discuss the different categories of Tibetan sayings and reference interesting new research published in Tibet on ancient Tibetan stories and proverbs.
6.For detailed information on the texts and other archeological items discovered in the Dunhuang caves, and the current locations of these finds, see the International Dunhuang Project’s website: http://idp.bl.uk/.
7.There is only one known commentary to Dromtönpa’s text, which was written by the nineteenth-century Geluk author Shangtön Tenpa Gyatso (1825–97) and will be featured in volume 26 of The Library of Tibetan Classics. The Garland of Jewels (Nor bu’i phreng ba) is not a typical commentary but more of an interwoven comparative analysis, again written in verse.
8.Phu bos nu bor gtams shing bstan pa’i mdo. The Chinese region of Dunhuang came under Tibetan rule in 786 CE. Even after the end of Tibetan rule in 848, people in the Dunhuang area seemed to have used the Tibetan language and followed Tibetan Buddhism for some time. See, for example, Christopher Beckwith, “The Tibetans in the Ordos and North China,” in Silver on Lapis: Tibetan Literary Culture and History (Bloomington, IN: The Tibetan Society, 1987).
9.I have used the Tibetan text along with a helpful word commentary by the twentieth-century Tibetan scholar Chapel Tseten Phuntsok, Sutra Extracted from Dunhang on an Elder Brother’s Advice to His Younger Brother: A Word Commentary, featured in volume 1 of the four-volume Anthology of Wise Sayings Treatises (Legs bshad bstan bcos phyogs bsgrigs) (Xining: Kokonor Nationalities Press, 2006).
10.Ibid., 15.
11.Ibid., 18–19.
12.Ibid., 20. Space prevents us from exploring this ancient Tibetan text in greater detail here, but the text and its central concept of mi chos certainly deserves an in-depth study.
13.Sam van Schaik, “The Naming of Tibetan Religion: Bon and Chos in the Tibetan Imperial Period,” Journal of the International International Association for Bon Research 1 (2013): 236.
14.One curious fact is that a cognate of mi chos—mi yi chos lugs, literally “the system of human dharma”—occurs in two of the Indian wisdom texts translated into Tibetan. One is from Nāgārjuna’s Hundred Stanzas on Wisdom, where we read: “If you properly practice human ethics, / the journey to the god realm will not be long (98a–b). The other is in the concluding verse of the Drop to Nourish a Person, where the text reads: “For those who do not sustain the holy Dharma in their mind / yet uphold in their mind the excellent human values, / I have composed this work to help them.” Since no original Sanskrit remains of these two texts, it is difficult to determine which Sanskrit words are rendered here as mi chos by the Tibetan translator. Even harder to determine is whether this term is being used in the technical sense in which Tibetan authors like Dromtönpa came to use it. My own feeling is that the technical sense is more of an indigeneous development than an import from Indian sources. R. A. Stein, by contrast, opines in Tibetan Civilization (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1972), 259, the mi chos aphorisms as bearing “the stamp of Chinese ethical and Buddhist religious ideas” while retaining a purely Tibetan flavor.
15.This system of enumeration is based on Pawo Tsuklak Trengwa’s Feast for the Learned: A History of Buddhism (Beijing: Nationalities Press, 1989), 1:192, where he also lists an alternative system of enumeration.
16.To date, several English translations have been made of the Jewel Treasury (see under Sakya Paṇḍita in the bibliography). The one by John T. Davenport includes a translation of the extremely helpful twentieth-century commentary by Khenpo Sangyé Tenzin.
17.Michael Hahn has convincingly demonstrated that this work cannot be by Nāgārjuna, especially since it contains verses from texts that are as late as the seventh century. See Michael Hahn, “The Tibetan Shes rab sdong bu and Its Indian Sources (1),” South Asian Classical Studies 24 (2009): 1–78.
18.For a complete list of Indian wisdom literature available in Tibetan translation and a detailed description of these texts, see Suniti Kumar Patak, The Indian Nītiśāstras in Tibet (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1974), part 4; and also Ludwik Sternbach, “Indian Wisdom and Its Spread beyond India,” Journal of American Oriental Society 101.1 (1981): 103. Sternbach identifies six known versions of the Cāṇakya Treatise and states that the one translated into Tibetan is the Cāṇakyarājanītiśāstra version, which, though not so well known today, must have been popular in the ninth century when it was translated into Tibetan. According to Sternbach this same version is included as the Bṛhaspatisaṃhita in the Garuḍapurāṇa.
19.On modern Western scholars’ study of the parallels between verses in the Jewel Treasury and Indian wisdom literature, see Sternbach, “Indian Wisdom and Its Spread beyond India,” 105. See also the introduction by John Davenport in Sakya Paṇḍita, Ordinary Wisdom (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2000), 15–17.
20.On the importance of Daṇḍin’s Mirror of Poetics and its influence on Tibetan literature, see the introduction to Thupten Jinpa and Jas Elsner, Songs of Spritual Experience: Tibetan Buddhist Poems of Insight and Awakening (Boston: Shambhala, 2000).
21.Many versions of the Pañcatantra exist, with variations in the selections of stories, because it has been disseminated widely since ancient times. On the problems concerning the dating of the Pañcatantra, see Patrick Olivelle’s introduction to Viṣṇuśarman, The Five Discourses on Worldly Wisdom, Clay Sanskrit Library (New York: New York University Press, 2006); also, Chandra Rajan’s introduction to Viṣṇu Śarma, The Panćantantra (London: Penguin Books, 1993), liii–liv. The Hitopadeśa, though popular in India, seems to have been completely unknown to the classical Tibetan authors. It was finally translated into Tibetan in the twentieth century and published in 1966 as Gzhan la phan pa’i ngag las mdza’ grogs thob pa.
22.Shang Gyalwa Pal, Biography of the the Great Sakya Paṇḍita (Sichuan: Nationalities Press, 1995), 7.
23.An English translation of this sutra from the Mongolian version by Stanley Frye was published as the Sutra of the Wise and Foolish by the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, Dharmsala, 1981.
24.In the endnotes of our Tibetan volume, the editors (myself as the chief editor) have identified the sources of the stories alluded to in the Jewel Treasury and spelled out in the commentary, as well as those found in Paṇchen Sönam Drakpa’s Ganden Wise Sayings and its commentary.
25.On the popularity and the spread of the Jewel Treasury in Mongolia, see James E. Bosson, A Treasury of Aphoristic Jewels: The Subhāṣitaratnaniddhi of Sa Skya Pandita in Tibetan and Mongolian, Uralic and Altaic Series 92 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1969).
26.In the multivolume Collected Works of Bodong Choklé Namgyal, an early fifteenth-century profilic Tibetan author, there is a text titled Bodong Wise Sayings (Bo dong legs shad). Closer inspection revealed that this is essentially a copy of the Treasury in its entirety, with a slight modification of chapter organization and the addition of few new verses. So I did not include this particular text in the present anthology. On the influence of the Treasury on subsequent Tibetan wise-sayings literature, including parallel passages between some of the well-known texts and the Treasury, see also the introduction by John Davenport in Sakya Paṇḍita, Ordinary Wisdom, 8–17.
27.Skyes bu’i rnam ’byed bshad pa gzhon nu’i mgul rgyan. Although I know of no commentary on this work, Yangchen Gawai Lodrö mentions it as a source and inspiration for Panchen Sönam Drakpa’s Ganden Wise Sayings: A Bouquet of White Lotuses, alongside the Jewel Treasury.
28.Legs par bshad pa shing gi bstan bcos kyi ’grel pa lung zung blang dor ’char ba’i me long, in the Collected Works of Kyabje Zemey Rinpoché (Mundgod: Tashi Gephel House, 1997). First published separately as a book under the same title by Drepung Loseling Printing Press, Mundgod, in 1980. I have also heard of the publication of commentaries on Gungthang’s two treatises in Bhutan by the country’s Department of Education in 1984 but have not been able to locate a copy of this book.
29.These treatises on fire and on metal, as well as other wise-sayings Tibetan texts, can be found in volume 4 of the six-volume Anthology of Wise Sayings Treatises, Legs bshad bstan bcos phyogs bsgrigs (Xining: Kokonor Nationalities Press, 2006), which also contains similar works of the wise-sayings genre written by authors like the historian Sumpa Yeshé Paljor, Dharmasūrya (possibly Paṇchen Chökyi Nyima), and Nomchi Khenpo.
30.Rgyal po’i lugs kyi bstan bcos sa gzhi skyong ba’i rgyan. For a brief description of this important treatise, with reference to existing contemporary studies of the socio-historical context in which the text might have emerged, see Sakya Paṇḍita, Ordinary Wisdom, 12. The work is translated and introduced by José Cabezón in The Just King: The Tibetan Buddhist Classic on Leading an Ethical Life (Boulder, CO: Snow Lion, 2017).
31.Lugs kyi bstan bcos dpag bsam ljon pa. Jampal Rolpai Lodrö’s collected works were published in two volumes as part of the series on the writings of Golok authors (Sichuan: Nationalities Press, 2004). According to the brief biography of the author in volume 1, he was a close disciple of the famed Geluk master Drakar Rinpoché, and his own students include Khyenrab Norbu, the official physician of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama.
32.Rdzogs pa chen po ’jam dpal thugs tig.
33.Horkhang Sönam Palbar, who was a student of Gendun Chöphel and the compiler of his collected works, asserts that this advice text was actually written by Drongtsé Losang Tsultrim, a tutor to the Paṇchen Lama. See the Collected Works of Horkhang Sönam Pelbar (Beijing: Krung go bod kyi shes rig dpe skrun khang, 1990), 504.
34.See, for example, Gendun Chopel, Grains of Gold: The Tales of a Cosmopolitan Traveler, trans. Thupten Jinpa and Donald S. Lopez Jr. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014), 399–400.
35.A translation of this text by Dawa Norbu and a study and review of the work by Tashi Tsering, two of the most prolific Tibetan writers in English in the twentieth century, appeared in the monthly Tibetan magazine Tibetan Review in 1986 and 1988, respectively.
36.Mi chos gnad kyi phreng ba. As the basis for this text the Tibetan editors chose the version found in a special anthology printed in Tibet entitled A Compilation of Requisite Mind-Training: A Collection of Folio Texts on Enlightenment (Blo sbyong nyer mkho phogs bsgrigs / byang chub lo mo dpe tsogs).
37.Dromtönpa is saying that if you are able to resist talking about the faults of those who depend on you—your family, friends, students, and so on—and let it go or “evaporate into thin air,” this is wise. If, by contrast, you talk about it to one person, you will start worrying that he might tell others, and when two people have heard, it starts to cause problems. By the time three people have heard it, then it will be reach everywhere as if spread by the wind.
38.Five “degenerations” are said to characterize a given era as being a degenerate age: (1) degeneration of lifespan, (2) degeneration of time, (3) denegeration due to proliferation of afflictions, (4) degeneration of views, and (5) degeneration of the quality of human experience.
39.Lañca is a script for writing Sanskrit that was particularly popular in Tibet. For a discussion on lañca and its relation to ancient Indian script that was the basis for the invention of Tibetan writing system, see Gendun Chopel, Grains of Gold, 191–93.
40.What Dromtönpa seems to be saying here is that, once these words of advice have been penned, Naktso would enjoy reading them as a source of entertainment when he is alone in a hermitage. But if he is able to familiarize himself with these verses, they will be helpful to him more generally.
41.This is a reference to the famous aspirational prayer of the bodhisattva Samantabhadra known as the Vows of Good Conduct (Bhadracaryāpraṇidhāna).
42.Legs par bshad pa rin po che’i gter.
43.These are names of ancient Indian sages who are revered as important figures in the history and mythology of the Indian Brahmanical traditions. Vyāsa is a sage associated with astrology; Vālmīki, the celebrated author of the much-loved epic the Rāmāyaṇa; and Akṣapāda Gautama, the author of the influential work on logic the Nyāyasūtra. No clear consensus exists on the dates of all of these sages.
44.This story is told in Rinchen Pal’s commentary (henceforth referred to as “the commentary”) featured in this volume; see pages 99–192. For verses not covered by Rinchen Pal’s commentary, a cross-reference is provided to the commentary of Khenpo Sangyay Tenzin translated in Sakya Paṇḍita, Ordinary Wisdom.
45.After reading these two lines from the Treasury, Drukpa Kunlek (1455–1529), the famous Tibetan mystic and satirist, is said to have quipped: “The great Sakya Paṇḍita had seen so much, he saw ants faster than horses!”
46.“Golden-clad one” refers to the Hindu god Viṣṇu, whose traditional mount is the powerful mythic bird garuḍa. For this story from the Indian myths, see commentary on pages 117.
47.See commentary, page 117–23.
48.A folk legend, probably from Indian sources, says that swans can extract just the milk when it is mixed with water.
49.Drigung Rinchen Pal tells the story behind this allusion in A Commentary on “A Jewel Treasury of Wise Sayings” on page 121 of this volume to elucidate verse 25 of A Jewel Treasury of Wise Sayings. Yangchen Gawai Lodrö also tells this story in Rays of Sunlight: A Commentary on “Ganden Wise Sayings” to elucidate verse 21 of Ganden Wise Sayings. See pages 238ff. This is story 5 of book I in Viṣṇuśarma, Pañcatantra, according to the numbering in the translation in Five Discourses on Worldly Wisdom by Patrick Olivelle, who follows a reconstruction produced by Edgerton in 1924. In Chandra Rajan’s translation, this is story 8 of book I.
50.“Malaya” here refers to a mountain range in the southern part of Indian subcontinent thought to be home to sandalwood trees mentioned often in ancient Indian texts. Malaya can also refer to a region that includes parts of modern-day Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka states.
51.The Tibetan word ku ru ra, rendered here as “sour fruit,” is myrobalan fruit, which is thought to have medicinal properties. See the story below in Rinchen Pal’s commentary.
52.In ancient Buddhist sources Mahāsaṃmata is recognized as the first king of the world and the founder of the Śākya dynasty to which the historical Buddha belonged. This story of King Mahāsaṃmata can be read in Sakya Paṇḍita, Ordinary Wisdom, 65–66.
53.This is story 11 of book I in Chandra Rajan’s translation of the Pañcatantra, where she lists it as “The Blue Jackal.” It does not appear in Olivelle’s translation.
54.Bāli is the lord of the realm of the demigods. In the story Viṣṇu assumes the form of a dwarf who tricks Bāli into offering him the space he can cover with one step, and he thereby secures the entire world under his dominion. See commentary, page 133.
55.See commentary, page 134. The story appears in the Pañcatantra as story 2.1 in book III in Olivelle and as story 2 of book III in Chandra Rajan.
56.This echoes a verse from chapter 5 of Cāṇakya, Cāṇakya Treatise on Kingship (Cāṇakyarājanītiśāstra), Toh 4334 Tengyur, thun mong ba’i lugs kyi bstan bcos, ngo, 132a7.
57.This story appears in the Pañcatantra, as story 8.1 in book I in Olivelle and as story 16 of book I in Chandra Rajan. There the story involves two flying geese carrying a turtle biting on a stick held in their beaks. Some children, witnessing this spectacle, start shouting about how two geese are carrying a turtle in the air. The turtle, wanting to say “It’s me who is flying!” opens its mouth and falls to the earth. A variant of this story also appears in Western folk tradition dating back to ancient Greece, including as one of Aesop’s fables.
58.This comes from the same story embedded in verse 64.
59.The wrathful lord Yama personifies death in both Buddhist and Hindu mythology.
60.See commentary, pages 139–40.
61.See commentary, pages 141–43. In Olivelle’s translation this is story 1 of book III in the Pañcatantra, while in Chandra Rajan it is story 7 of book IV.
62.See commentary, pages 143–44. This is story 3 of book III in Olivelle and story 4 of book III in Chandra Rajan.
63.See commentary, pages 144–47.
64.See commentary, pages 147–48.
65.In Indian and Tibetan folk beliefs, serpentine creatures known as nāgas (klu in Tibetan) are closely associated with water and trees and are believed to be responsible for rain.
66.See commentary, page 154 and Sakya Paṇḍita, Ordinary Wisdom, 125–26. This story appears in the Pañcatantra, book IV, story 10, in the Chandra Rajan translation.
67.In the Pañcatantra, book III, this is story 2 in Olivelle and story 1 in Chandra Rajan.
68.The author is referring here to a genre of Indian works that focus on the norms of kingship, such as the treatise of Cāṇakya.
69.This is almost identical to Masūrakṣa’s Treatise on Norms 3.3.
70.In Tibetan culture the right-curling conch is considered auspicious and a harbinger of good fortune. All straight things are not good and all twisted things are not bad, Sakya Paṇḍita is saying, so you should not jump to conclusions based on superficial appearances.
71.In Chandra Rajan (book III, story 5) there is a similar story where ants kill a large snake, not a lion cub.
72.Rinchen Pal’s commentary does not cover this verse, though glosses on it can be found in Ordinary Wisdom, where the sea monster is identified as a crocodile. My conjecture is that this is a reference to a Hindu myth according to which Krishna is said to have, after rescuing the son of a sage kidnapped by a sea monster, killed the monster and made a powerful conch from its bone.
73.For this story see Sakya Paṇḍita, Ordinary Wisdom, 148, where no source is provided.
74.The Malaya mountains are praised as the home of sandalwood trees. See note 50.
75.One of the emblematic symbols of the Hindu god Śiva is the crescent moon that adorns his crown. The “demigod” here refers to Rahula, whose swallowing of the moon is thought to cause the lunar eclipse.
76.See commentary, pages 160–67. This is a reference to the famous story of the five brothers or Pāṇḍavas and their dispute with their cousins as narrated in the Mahābhārata epic, referred to briefly in the Pañcatantra, book III, story 7, as well.
77.See commentary, page 168. Source of the story not identified.
78.This is the reference to the well-known Buddhist story of Aṅgulimāla (literally “finger necklace”), a serial killer who wore a garland made of fingers and was a source of terror in a region of central India during the Buddha’s time. Eventually tamed by the Buddha, Aṅgulimāla joined the monastic order and gained spiritual freedom.
79.According to popular folk belief in Tibet, probably with an Indian source, a unique relationship is said to exist between otters and owls, with the former catching fish and leaving them for owls as gifts.
80.See commentary, pages 169–71. This is story 3.1.1 of book I in Olivelle but does not appear in Chandra Rajan.
81.See commentary, pages 171–72. The source of this exact story remains unidentified, although the frame story of book III of the Pañcatantra concerns the ongoing enmity between owls and crows.
82.See commentary, page 170. The source of this story is unidentified.
83.Although a gloss on Śiva’s unique attributes, such as why he is called Maheśvara (the great god), wears a necklace of human skulls, and so on are described in Prajñāvarman’s Praise of the One More Perfect Than the Gods (Devātiśayastotraṭīkā, Toh 1113 Tengyur, bstod tshogs, ka, 47a5), the exact source of the story embedded here is unidentified.
84.See Sakya Paṇḍita, Ordinary Wisdom, 187–89. This is probably a reference to the myth whereby Viṣṇu, in the form of a lion-man (narasiṃha), slays the demigod Balāka.
85.See commentary, page 175.
86.See commentary, pages 176–81. This is a reference to the story in the Rāmāyaṇa epic where Rāma slays the demon Rāvaṇa, who had lustfully kidnapped Rāma’s wife, the beautiful Sītā. In the Buddhist sources, the story is told in Prajñāvarman, Explanation of Praise of the Exalted (Viśeṣastavanāmaṭīkā), Toh 1110 Tengyur, bstod tshogs, ka, 13b3
87.This and a subsequent verse, 449, echo Masūrakṣa’s Treatise on Norms 4.3.
88.This verse parallels Masūrakṣa’s Treatise on Norms 6.15.
89.This perceived enmity between crows and owls is part of Indian folk mythology and is extensively featured in the Pañcatantra stories, especially in book III.
90.See commentary, page 181. In the Hindu myths, Śiva’s son Kārtikeya defeats the demon Tāraka but spares her subjects. In the commentary, there is a conflation of Tāraka with *Karmadeva [sic], probably Kāmadeva, “god of love,” who awakens Śiva from his deep meditation by shooting “flower arrows” and thereby incurs his wrath and is incinerated. The story is found in Prajñāvarman, Commentary on Praise of the One More Perfect Than the Gods (Devātiśayastotraṭīkā), Toh 1113 Tengyur, bstod tshogs, ka, 48b4.
91.See commentary, pages 182–83. This is probably a reference to the frame story of book II of the Pañcatantra, where the crow Laghupatanaka, having witnessed how the mouse Hiraṇyaka had helped rescue the dove Citragrīva, sought the friendship of the mouse.
92.This echoes the first verse of chapter 8 of Cāṇakya, Cāṇakya Treatise on Kingship (Tengyur, thun mong ba’i lugs kyi bstan bcos, ngo, 134b7), where one reads: “A bad wife and a bad friend, / a bad king and bad company: / these relationships of negative influence, / cast them far away.”
93.This echoes Śāntideva’s Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 6:14ab, where one reads, “There is nothing that remains hard / if it becomes familiar.”
94.This echoes Āryadeva’s Four Hundred Verses 2.1, where we read: “Though this body might be seen as an enemy, / you should still look after it; / for through living a long life, a moral person / will perform with his body great acts of merit.”
95.The three lower realms—the hell realm, the realm of the hungry ghosts, and the animal realm—are the three realms among the six realms of cyclic existence where sentient beings are reborn as a result of their negative karma.
96.This echoes Śāntideva’s Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life 5.12. Also many of the subsequent verses dealing with the practice of patience, or forbearance, echo lines from Śāntideva’s chapter 6.
97.Legs par bshad pa rin po che’i gter gyi ’grel pa. This is the earliest commentary on Sakya Paṇḍita’s Jewel Treasury. Although many people identify this work with Martön Chögyal, an examination of the colophon shows that it was originally written by Rinchen Pal (thirteenth century, TBRC resource ID P5298) and that Martön Chögyal later edited and corrected mistakes in this text, verifying these with Sakya Paṇḍita himself. The commentary offers explanations of only select verses.
98.In this verse Rinchen Pal plays with the meaning of Sakya Paṇḍita’s full name, Kunga Gyaltsen Palsangpo. Each line uses one part of his name in various ways: every/all, joyful/festive/delight, victory banner, splendor/glory/perfection, beautiful/elegant.
99.See note 43 above.
100.This story is found also as story 61 in Tenzin, Selected Anthology of Vedic Myths.
101.The Buddha instructed his disciples to carefully examine his teachings. Just as jewelers inspect gold to determine its purity before purchase by rubbing, cutting, and heating it, disciples are to determine the obvious meaning of the teachings that is not in conflict with what is observed by the senses, the slightly hidden meaning that is not contradicted by logic, and the very hidden meaning that at first can only be accepted on faith.
102.A Hundred Stanzas on Wisdom (Prajñāśataka), v. 98, Toh 4328 Tengyur, thun mong ba’i lugs kyi bstan bcos, ngo, 103b4.
103.Four Hundred Stanzas (Catuḥśatakaśāstra) 7.19, Toh 3846 Tengyur, dbu ma, tsha, 8a4.
104.Śāntideva, Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra 5.93, Toh 3871 Tengyur, dbu ma, la, 13a7.
105.Maitreya, Uttaratantra (Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra) 1.22, Toh 4024 Tengyur, sems tsam, phi, 55a7.
106.This story is in the Account of the Noble Deeds of Sumāgadhā (Sumāgadhāvadāna), Toh 346 Kangyur, mdo sde, am, 291a1–298b6.
107.To count each person included in a group, monks would take a stick out of a set of sticks.
108.Although the legend of Nāgārjuna’s practice of alchemy is found in the tales of the eighty-four siddhas, the text does not contain this specific event of Nāgārjuna’s offering tree leaves to the sage. Abhayadattaśrī, Biographies of Eighty-Four Siddhas (Caturaśītisiddhapravṛtti), Tengyur P 5091, rgyud ’grel, lu, 19a1.
109.This story appears in Butön’s History of Buddhism (Tib.), 160, and in Jonang Tārānātha’s History of Buddhism in India (Tib.), 168, as well.
110.Rājaśrīvyākaraṇa (Rgyal po dpal gyi sgra). This is not a text in the Tengyur, but a Sanskrit palmleaf manuscript of this name is part of the collection of the Norbulingka Palace, according to an undated catalog in Beijing called the Krung go’i bod kyi shes rig zhib ’jug lte gnas su nyar ba’i ta la’i lo ma’i bstan bcos (spyin shog ’dril ma’i par) kyi dkar chag mdor gsal.
111.Nāgārjuna, Staff of Wisdom (Nītiśāstraprajñādaṇḍa) 171, Toh 4329 Tengyur, thun mong ba’i lugs kyi bstan bcos, ngo, 109a6.
112.This story about the great Indian poet Kālidāsa is found also in Tārānātha’s History of Buddhism in India, 75.
113.This story is in the Finer Points of Discipline (Vinayakṣudrakavastu), Toh 6 Kangyur, ’dul ba, da, 59a2–65b.
114.Source of the story not identified.
115.A similar story, in part, appears in the Finer Points of Discipline (Vinayakṣudrakavastu), Toh 6 Kangyur, ’dul ba, da, 59a2–65b.
116.Source of this story not identified.
117.We find similar lines in the Pañcatantra (Olivelle, book 2, v. 75): “Only the good can deliver the good from their misfortunes; / only elephants can pull elephants out of quagmire.”
118.See note 46 above. In the Buddhist sources the story is found, for instance, in Prajñāvarman, Commentary on Praise of the One More Perfect Than the Gods (Devātiśayastotraṭīkā), Toh 1113 Tengyur, bstod tshogs, ka, 50a3.
119.Āryaśūra, Garland of Birth Stories (Jātakamālā), jātaka 31, Toh 4150 Tengyur, skyes rabs, hu, 118a6. Yangchen Gawai Lodrö also tells this story in Rays of Sunlight: A Commentary on “Ganden Wise Sayings” to elucidate verse 15 of Ganden Wise Sayings. See pages 226ff.
120.Āryaśūra, Garland of Birth Stories (Jātakamālā), jātaka 31, Toh 4150 Tengyur, skyes rabs, hu, 125a1.
121.Ibid., 125a4.
122.Ibid., 125a6.
123.Ibid., 125a6.
124.Ibid., 125a7.
125.Ibid., 125b2.
126.Ibid., 125b2.
127.Ibid., 125a4.
128.See note 49 above on the location of this story in the Pañcatantra. Yangchen Gawai Lodrö also tells this story in Rays of Sunlight: A Commentary on “Ganden Wise Sayings” to elucidate verse 21 of Ganden Wise Sayings. See pages 238ff.
129.This tale is in the Finer Points of Discipline (Vinayakṣudrakavastu), Toh 6 Kangyur, ’dul ba, da, 69b.
130.Source of story not identified.
131.The story about *Śubhārtha (Dge don) and *Papārtha (Sdig don) is found in the Basis of Discipline (Vinayavastu), Toh 1 Kangyur, ’dul ba, nga, 186b7; in the Great Passing into Nirvana Sutra (Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra), Toh 119 Kangyur, mdo, ta, 159a3; and in the Sutra on the Wise and the Foolish (Damamūkanāmasūtra) 33, Toh 341 Kangyur, mdo, ah, 137a6.
132.Folk legends in the Tibetan texts, and their Indic predecessors, frequently relate tales of merchants braving the dangers of the great oceans to gather precious jewels.
133.The story of King Mahāsaṃmata is told to elucidate verse 39 of Ganden Wise Sayings in Rays of Sunlight: A Commentary on “Ganden Wise Sayings.” See pages 256–58 of this volume.
134.See note 53 above. This story is found also in the Basis of Discipline (Vinayavastu), Toh 1 Kangyur, ’dul ba, nga, 255b3. Yangchen Gawai Lodrö also tells a version of this story in Rays of Sunlight: A Commentary on “Ganden Wise Sayings” to elucidate verse 40 of Ganden Wise Sayings. See page 258.
135.This story from the Hindu myths is found in a number of Buddhist sources as well: Prajñāvarman, Explanation of Praise of the Exalted (Viśeṣastavanāmaṭīkā), Toh 1110 Tengyur, bstod tshogs, ka, 10b6; and Prajñāvarman, Commentary on Praise of the One More Perfect Than the Gods (Devātiśayastotraṭīkā), Toh 1113 Tengyur, bstod tshogs, ka, 41a2. See note 54 above as well.
136.Udbhaṭasiddhasvāmin, Praise of the Exalted (Viśeṣastava) 10, Toh 1109 Tengyur, bstod tshogs, ka, 2a3.
137.See note 55 above for the location of this story in the Pañcatantra.
138.This legend is found in the Sutra on the Wise and the Foolish (Damamūkanāmasūtra) 22, Toh 341 Kangyur, mdo, ah, 197a4.
139.Source of this story unidentified. Yangchen Gawai Lodrö identifies a verse from Nāgārjuna’s Staff of Wisdom alluding to this story. See note 212 below.
140.Cāṇakya, Cāṇakya Treatise on Kingship (Cāṇakyarājanītiśāstra), chap. 3. Toh 4334 Tengyur, sna tshogs, ngo, 134a6; also Nāgārjuna, Staff of Wisdom (Prajñādaṇḍa), Toh* Tengyur, sna tshogs, ngo, *
141.This story appears also in Clear Differentiation of the Discipline (Vinayavibhaṅga), Toh 3 Kangyur, ’dul ba, ja, 195b. Another version of this story is told in Rays of Sunlight: A Commentary on “Ganden Wise Sayings” on page 324 of this volume to elucidate verse 98 of Ganden Wise Sayings.
142.Masūrākṣa, Nītiśāstra 6.9, Toh 4335 Tengyur, thun mong ba’i lugs kyi bstan bcos, ngo, 14b5.
143.Source of story unidentified.
144.Probably all six are meant to refer to the owl.
145.See note 61 above for the locations of this story in the Pañcatantra.
146.See note 62 above for the locations of this story in the Pañcatantra.
147.This story appears in Khepa Deu, Extensive History of India and Tibet, 98, and Jonang Tārānātha, History of Buddhism in India (Sichuan: Nationalities Press, 1976), 51. A variation of this story is translated by Andy Rotman in Divine Stories: Divyāvadāna, Part 2 (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2017), 40–49. For a book-length investigation of the many variations of the Mahādeva legend in Buddhist literature, see Jonathan Silk, Riven by Lust (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2009).
148.Source of story unidentified. This story is also told in Rays of Sunlight: A Commentary on “Ganden Wise Sayings” on page 240 of this volume to elucidate verse 24 of Ganden Wise Sayings.
149.Source of story unidentified. This story is also told in Rays of Sunlight: A Commentary on “Ganden Wise Sayings” to elucidate verse 60 of Ganden Wise Sayings. See page 285.
150.This story is Jātaka 33 in Āryaśūra, Garland of Birth Stories (Jātakamālā), Toh 4150 Tengyur, skyes rabs, hu, 131b1. The three verses cited as part of the story come from the same text.
151.This story is in the Sutra on the Wise and the Foolish (Damamūkanāmasūtra) 24, Toh 341 Kangyur, mdo sde, ah, 170b6.
152.This story is found in Āryaśūra, Garland of Birth Stories (Jātakamālā), jātaka 24, Toh 4150 Tengyur, skyes rabs, hu, 89a7. All the verses in this story come from the same text. This story is also told in Rays of Sunlight: A Commentary on “Ganden Wise Sayings,” to elucidate verse 88 of Ganden Wise Sayings. See pages 309ff.
153.See note 66 above for the location of this story in the Pañcatantra. It can be found also in Vasubandhu, Rules of Exposition (Vyākhyāyukti), Toh 4261 Tengyur, sems tsam, shi, 129b5.
154.Āryaśūra, Garland of Birth Stories (Jātakamālā), jātaka 26, Toh 4150 Tengyur, skyes rabs, hu, 95b2. The verses in this story are from the same source. Yangchen Gawai Lodrö also tells this story in Rays of Sunlight: A Commentary on “Ganden Wise Sayings” to elucidate verse 18 of Ganden Wise Sayings. See pages 233ff.
155.See note 67 above on the lcoations of this story in the Pañcatantra.
156.Sources of this and the subsequent verses cited in this story are unidentified.
157.Source unidentified.
158.Source of this story unidentified.
159.This paragraph does not seem to fit here and might be an error in the Tibetan text.
160.See note 76 above. In the Buddhist sources, an abbreviated version of the Mahābhārata epic is also found in Prajñāvarman, Explanation of Praise of the Exalted (Viśeṣastavanāmaṭīkā), Toh 1110 Tengyur, bstod tshogs, ka, 33b4.
161.This is reference to Dharmakīrti’s explanation of how exclusionary terms function in sentences and their difference in scope. The phrase “Arjuna is an expert archer” is an exclusionary term in that it indicates there to be no better archer than him. In contrast the phrase “Kṛṣṇa is an expert archer” simply states that he too is a good archer, precluding only that he is not a good archer. See Dharmakīrti, Thorough Exposition of Valid Cognition (Pramāṇavārttika) 4.193, Toh 4210 Tengyur, tshad ma, ce, 147a1.
162.Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s hundred offspring are the Kauravas (“those from Kuru”), whereas their cousins the offspring of Pāṇḍu are the Pāṇḍavas.
163.Drigung Rinchen Pal says this is a citation from the Sanskrit work Tattvakaumudī by Vācaspatimiśra (eighth–ninth century). The editors and translator were not able to find the source of this quote.
164.Although the exact source of this citation is unidentified, the reference here is clearly to the sermon Viṣṇu in the form of Kṛṣṇa gives to Arjuna at the famous Kurukṣetra battle. This is part of a long sermon in the Bhagavadgītā, which is a part of the Hindu Mahābhārata epic.
165.Source of story unidentified.
166.Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra 19.11, Toh 4020 Tengyur, sems tsam, phi, 28b5.
167.Ibid, 14.8, 18a1.
168.Source unidentified.
169.See note 80 above on the location of this story in the Pañcatantra. In the Basis of Discipline (Vinayavastu) too there are two lines of a verse concerning two battling rams: “If you see someone smashed / in between two rams . . .” Toh 1 Kangyur, ’dul ba, ka, 213a7. Yangchen Gawai Lodrö also tells this story in Rays of Sunlight: A Commentary on “Ganden Wise Sayings” to elucidate verse 62 of Ganden Wise Sayings. See pages 286–87.
170.It is difficult to determine whether this is a summary verse from Rinchen Pal himself or a citation from another source.
171.Source of story unidentified.
172.The reference to a particular story is unclear.
173.Whether this refers to a particular myth of the Hindu god Śiva is not clear.
174.See note 83 above.
175.Source of story unidentified.
176.Source of story unidentified.
177.This is a note added by Martön Chögyal, a student of Sakya Paṇḍita, who corrected and edited Rinchen Pal’s commentary. He seems to be saying that the identification of this old abbot in the story with the historical person by the name of *Bhakanbha is something that he learned from Sakya Paṇḍita himself, who was his stainless savior (rnam ’dren), his revered teacher.
178.See note 85 above on the source of this well-known story in the Rāmāyaṇa epic. Rinchen Pal is probably drawing also from the Rāmāyaṇa itself, for although it was not available in Tibetan translation at that time, Sakya Paṇḍita would have been quite familiar with it.
179.“Mar” here refers to Martön Chögyal, and “the great venerable” probably refers to Sakya Paṇḍita. I am not sure if this clause was added by a later editor or if it is part of the original text. If the latter, it suggests that Martön was Rinchen Pal’s teacher.
180.See note 89 above.
181.See note 90 above on this story in the Pañcatantra.
182.The source of this quotation was not determined.
183.This story is found in the Śrīgupta Sutra, Toh 217 Kangyur, mdo sde, pa, 269a1 and 284a2; and Preeminent Account of Discipline (Vinayottaragrantha), Toh 7 Kangyur, ’dul ba, pa, 170a6. The story is also classed as a jātaka in Kṣemendra’s Wish-Granting Vine of the Bodhisattva’s Prior Lives (Bodhisatvāvadānakalpalatā), Toh 4155 Tengyur, skyes rabs, ke, 79b2.
184.Clear Differentiation of the Discipline (Vinayavibhaṅga), Toh 3 Kangyur, ’dul ba ca, 126a7.
185.The three lower realms—the hell realm, the realm of the hungry ghosts, and the animal realm—are the three realms among the six realms of cyclic existence where sentient beings are reborn as a result of their negative karma.
186.Ded dpon mdza’ bo’i bu mo. The story referred to was not identified.
187.Śāntideva, Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life (Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra) 5.31–32, Toh 3871 Tengyur, dbu ma, la.
188.This verse is often attributed to Dharmakīrti as if it is from Thorough Exposition of Valid Cognition; however, it is not found in the extant Tibetan version of the text.
189.Source unidentified.
190.Śāntideva, Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life (Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra) 6.14, Toh 3871 Tengyur, dbu ma, la, 15a3.
191.Dharmakīrti, Pramāṇavārttika 2.125, Toh 4210 Tengyur, tshad ma, ce, 112a5.
192.Ibid., 2.140, 112b6.
193.This story is found in Finer Points of Discipline (Vinayakṣudrakavastu), Toh 6 Kangyur, ’dul ba, tha, 275b2; also Basis of Discipline (Vinayavastu), Toh 1 Kangyur, ’dul ba, ga, 59a1.
194.This is a paraphrase of part of the concluding verses from the root text, A Jewel Treasury of Wise Sayings. See page 95 of this volume.
195.This too is part of the concluding verses of the root text.
196.Maitreya, Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra 12.60, Toh 4020 Tengyur, sems tsam, phi, 15b4.
197.Śāntideva, Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra 5.100, Toh 3171 Tengyur, dbu ma, la, 14a4. The second line of the verse is slightly different in this text.
198.Sakya Paṇdita Kunga Gyaltsen, Treatise on Music, vol. tha, 161a3.
199.The Tibetan text reads shā kya’i dge slong, which literally means “the Śākya monk,” meaning a monk in the order of Buddha Śākyamuni.
200.The full title of the text is Ganden Wise Sayings: A Bouquet of White Lotuses, being a Treatise on the Examination of the Wise and the Foolish (Mkhas pa dang blun po brtag pa’i bstan bcos dge ldan legs bshad padma dkar po’i chun po). The Tibetan editors chose the root text embedded in Yangchen Gawai Lodrö’s commentary, which is translated as the next text in the present volume, to be the basis of their critical edition.
201.Since Gawai Lodrö’s commentary includes every verse, please consult the commentary and its annotation for explanation of the stories referenced by the verses and for their sources in classical literature.
202.This is an allusion to Cāṇakya’s Treatise, chap. 3 (134a6).
203.In some versions of the root text there is the following additional verse after this stanza: “Someone to whom the great bow their heads / is considered by inferior people to be equivalent to straw. / The wise make obeisance to a stupa, / but crows use it as a roost.” This verse seems to be in fact a quote from Nāgārjuna’s Staff of Wisdom, and Yangchen Gawai Lodrö’s commentary treats it as such rather than as part of the root text.
204.In the Tibetan original too this a five-lined stanza.
205.Dge ldan legs bshad padma dkar po’i chun po’i ’grel pa nyi ma’i ’od zer. The Tibetan editors made the basic text for this publication the Commentary on the Good Advice of Ganden found in the collected works of A kyā Yongs ’dzin. They compared it in detail to the commentary published with root text of The Good Advice of Ganden by Mtsho sngon mi rigs dpe skrun khang.
206.Cāṇakya, Cāṇakyarājanītiśāstra 6.1, Toh 4334 Tengyur, thun mong ba’i lugs kyi bstan bcos, ngo, 132b6.
207.Nāgārjuna, Prajñādaṇḍa, v. 170, Toh 4329 Tengyur, thun mong ba’i lugs kyi bstan bcos, ngo, 109b6.
208.Staff of Wisdom (Prajñādaṇḍa) 11, Toh 4329 Tengyur, thun mong ba’i lugs kyi bstan bcos, ngo, 103b6. See also Hahn, “The Tibetan Shes rab sdong bu,” 14.
209.This refers to the passage in the Questions of Dhāraṇiśvarāja Sutra (Dhāraṇīśvararājasūtra) regarding how a master jeweler cleans a gem with three types of washing and three types of polishing. This sutra surives only in fragments cited in texts such as the Sūtrasamuccaya, attributed to Nāgārjuna.
210.Rinchen Pal also tells this story in A Commentary on “A Jewel Treasury of Wise Sayings” to elucidate verse 116 of the Jewel Treasury. See page 135.
211.This is a gloss on the word “in front of” (gam) in the first line of verse 5 in the root text, and the commentary lists two other terms that have the same meaning.
212.Nāgārjuna, Prajñādaṇḍa, v. 241, Toh 4329 Tengyur, thun mong ba’i lugs kyi bstan bcos, ngo, 112a7.
213.Ibid., 109a4.
214.This is a well-known jātaka. Āryaśūra, Garland of Birth Stories (Jātakamālā), jātaka 14, Toh 4150 Tengyur, skyes rabs, hu, 52a5.
215.Nāgārjuna, A Hundred Stanzas on Wisdom (Prajñāśataka), v. 69, Toh 4328 Tengyur, thun mong ba’i lugs kyi bstan bcos, ngo, 102a4.
216.This story appears in Clear Differentiation of the Discipline (Vinayavibhaṅga), Toh 3 Kangyur, ’dul ba, ca, 7b1; and also in the Pañcatantra. This story appeared in verse 93 of Sakya Paṇḍita’s Jewel Treasury as well; for its appearance in the Pañcatantra, see note 57 above.
217.Basis of Discipline (Vinayavastu), Toh 3 Kangyur, ’dul ba, ca, 7b1.
218.Āryaśūra, Garland of Birth Stories (Jātakamālā), jātaka 6, Toh 4150 Tengyur, skyes rabs, hu, 17a2. In A Commentary on “A Jewel Treasury of Wise Sayings,” Drigung Rinchen Pal also tells this story to elucidate verse 18 of the root text. See pages 115ff.
219.Basis of Discipline (Vinayavastu), Toh 3 Kangyur, ’dul ba, ja, 7b1.
220.Āryaśūra, Garland of Birth Stories (Jātakamālā), jātaka 19, Toh 4150 Tengyur, skyes rabs, hu, 62b1. All the verses cited as part of this story are also from Āryaśūra’s text.
221.Although this story is well known in Tibetan literature, its Indic source has not been identified.
222.Basis of Discipline (Vinayavastu) 79, Toh 3 Kangyur, ’dul ba, ka, 19b3. Disparaging a holy object is seventh in the count of ten downfalls.
223.Āryaśūra, Garland of Birth Stories (Jātakamālā), jātaka 22, Toh 4150 Tengyur, skyes rabs, hu, 43b2.
224.This story is in Kṣemendra, A Wish-Granting Vine of the Bodhisattva’s Prior Lives (Bodhisatvāvadānakalpalatā) 41, Toh 4155 Tengyur, skyes rabs, ke, 306b6; and appears also in Clear Differentiation of the Discipline (Vinayavibhaṅga), Toh 3 Kangyur, ’dul ba, nya, 102a7.
225.Āryaśūra, Garland of Birth Stories (Jātakamālā), jātaka 31, Toh 4150 Kangyur, skyes rabs, hu, 112a6.
226.This story appears in Basis of Discipline (Vinayavastu), Toh 1 Kangyur, mdo sde, ga, 28a5.
227.Sutra on the Wise and the Foolish (Damamūkanāmasūtra), 17, Toh 341 Kangyur, mdo sde, ah, 102b4.
228.This is the famous Viśvantara (Vessantara in Pali) story. It is jātaka 9 in Āryaśūra, Garland of Birth Stories (Jātakamālā), Toh 4150 Tengyur, skyes rabs, hu, 30b5.
229.This as well as all subsequent verses in this story are also from the Jātakamālā.
230.Jātaka 26 in Āryaśūra, Garland of Birth Stories (Jātakamālā), Toh 4150 Tengyur, skyes rabs, hu, 95a2. The verses in the story are also from the Jātakamālā. In A Commentary on “A Jewel Treasury of Wise Sayings,” Drigung Rinchen Pal also tells this story to elucidate verse 182 of the root text. See pages 152ff.
231.Āryaśūra, Garland of Birth Stories (Jātakamālā), jātaka 27, Toh 4150 Tengyur, skyes rabs, hu, 99b3.
232.Jātaka 34 in Āryaśūra, Garland of Birth Stories (Jātakamālā), Toh 4150 Tengyur, skyes rabs, hu, 133a1. The verses below are from the same source.
233.This story appears in the Pañcatantra, as story 5 of book I in Olivelle and as story 7 of book I in Chandra Rajan. In A Commentary on “A Jewel Treasury of Wise Sayings,” Drigung Rinchen Pal also tells this story to elucidate verse 25 of the root text. See pages 121ff.
234.Although the text of the commentary here suggests that the story embedded in this verse is also the same story that is alluded to in a later verse, no such verse exists in the root text itself. These lines bear similarity with verse 48, but there it is the mouse that comes to ruin. The commentator also admits here that he has failed to locate the full story and suggests that more research is required. A story about a herd of elephants fooled by a rabbit is cited by Sakya Paṇḍita in verse 87 of his Jewel Treasury. See note 55 above.
235.Nāgārjuna, Prajñādaṇḍa, v. 135, Toh 4329 Tengyur, thun mong ba’i lugs kyi bstan bcos, ngo, 108b2.
236.The source of the story remains unidentified. In A Commentary on “A Jewel Treasury of Wise Sayings,” Drigung Rinchen Pal also tells this story to elucidate verse 153 of the root text. See page 145.
237.This tale appears in Clear Differentiation of the Discipline (Vinayavibhaṅga), Toh 3 Kangyur, ’dul ba, nya, 19a3. The story of Svāgata/Durāgata is also translated in Andy Rotman, Divine Stories: Divyāvadāna, Part 1 (Boston: Wisdom, 2008), 289–323.
238.Āryaśūra, Garland of Birth Stories (Jātakamālā), Jātaka 16, Toh 4150 Tengyur, Skyes rabs, hu, 57a1. This story appears also in Basis of Discipline (Vinayavastu), Toh 1 Kangyur, ’dul ba, kha, 257b5.
239.Āryaśūra, Garland of Birth Stories (Jātakamālā), jātaka 16, Toh 4150 Tengyur, skyes rabs, hu, 57b3.
240.Āryaśūra, Garland of Birth Stories (Jātakamālā), jātaka 16, Toh 4150 Tengyur, skyes rabs, hu, 57b5.
241.This story is found in Clear Differentiation of the Discipline (Vinayavibhaṅga), Toh 3 Kangyur, ’dul ba, ca, 150b6; and it is elucidated in Finer Points of Discipline (Vinayakṣudrakavastu), Toh 6 Kangyur, ’dul ba, tha, 88b5. It appears also in Kṣemendra, A Wish-Granting Vine of the Bodhisattva’s Prior Lives (Bodhisatvāvadānakalpalatā), Toh 4155 Tengyur, skyes rabs, ke, folio 12, 113b2.
242.This story as well as the verse cited below as part of it appear in Basis of Discipline (Vinayavastu), Toh 1 Kangyur, ’dul ba, nga, 256b5.
243.Āryaśūra, Garland of Birth Stories (Jātakamālā), Jātaka 11, Toh 4150 Tengyur, skyes rabs, hu, 43a7.
244.Source of this story remains unidentified.
245.This is the famous story of the four harmonious animal friends (mthun pa spun bzi) depicted often in temple murals. It appears, for example, in Basis of Discipline (Vinayavastu), Toh 1 Kangyur, ’dul ba, nga, 189b.
246.This story appears in the Finer Points of Discipline (Vinayakṣudrakavastu), Toh 6 Kangyur, ’dul ba, tha, 237b2.
247.Āryaśūra, Garland of Birth Stories (Jātakamālā), jātaka 8, Toh 4150 Tengyur, skyes rabs, hu, 24b4. The story is also found in Basis of Discipline (Vinayavastu), Toh 1 Kangyur, ’dul ba, nga, 123a7.
248.See commentary on verse 28. Finer Points of Discipline (Vinayakṣudrakavastu), Toh 6 Kangyur, ’dul ba, tha, 93a4; also Clear Differentiation of the Discipline (Vinayavibhaṅga), Toh 3 Kangyur, ’dul ba, cha, 161a1.
249.Āryaśūra, Garland of Birth Stories (Jātakamālā), jātaka 25, Toh 4150 Tengyur, skyes rabs, hu, 92a5.
250.This probably refers to the famed Mahābhārata epic.
251.This legend appears in Sutra on Going Forth (Abhiniṣkramaṇasūtra), Toh 301 Kangyur, mdo sde, sa, 106b1; and Clear Differentiation of the Discipline (Vinayavibhaṅga), Toh 3 Kangyur, ’dul ba, ca, 48b3.
252.This story is found in Basis of Discipline (Vinayavastu), Toh 1 Kangyur, ’dul ba, nga, 255b3; it appears also in the Pañcatantra (Chandra Rajan, book I, story 11). In A Commentary on “A Jewel Treasury of Wise Sayings,” Drigung Rinchen Pal also tells a version of this story to elucidate verse 64 of the root text. See page 130.
253.Basis of Discipline (Vinayavastu), Toh 1 Kangyur, ’dul ba, nga, 256b1.
254.Ibid., 161a4.
255.Āryaśūra, Garland of Birth Stories (Jātakamālā), jātaka 4, Toh 4150 Tengyur, skyes rabs, hu, 12a2. The verses in the story are from this same source.
256.This tale appears in Great Passing into Nirvana Sutra (Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra), Toh 119 Kangyur, mdo sde, ta, 137a5; and Finer Points of Discipline (Vinayakṣudrakavastu), Toh 6 Kangyur, ’dul ba, tha, 12a4. It is found also in Kṣemendra’s Wish-Granting Vine of the Bodhisattva’s Prior Lives (Bodhisatvāvadānakalpalatā) 9, Toh 4155 Tengyur, skyes rabs, ke, 86b1. A translation of the Jyotiska story is in Rotman, Divine Stories, Part 2, 51–88.
257.Āryaśūra, Garland of Birth Stories (Jātakamālā), jātaka 12, D 4150, Toh 4150 Tengyur, skyes rabs, hu, 45a4. The verses in this story are from the same source.
258.This story appears in various Tibetan historical texts, such as Sönam Gyaltsen, Clear Mirror (Beijing: Nationalities Press, 1995), 101, as well as Panchen Sönam Drakpa’s own Magical Mirror of History (Beijing: Nationalities Press, 1989), 13a1.
259.This story, including the various feats achieved by Minister Gar at the Chinese court, when competing for the hand of princess Wencheng, is found in the Pillar Testament (Lhasa: Tibetan People’s Press, 2015), 161; and also in Sönam Gyaltsen, Clear Mirror, 101.
260.Āryaśūra, Garland of Birth Stories (Jātakamālā), jātaka 28, Toh 4150 Tengyur, skyes rabs, hu, 103b2. The verse cited below as part of the story is also from this same source. This story appears also in the Great Passing into Nirvana Sutra (Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra), Toh 119 Kangyur, mdo sde, ta, 159b5 and 103b2.
261.See verse 108 for elaboration on this tale, found in the birth stories of Dromtönpa, which is chapter 7 of the Son Teachings of Atiśa, Book of Kadam, 304–35.
262.Source of story unidentified. This is the story mentioned above in the commentary to verse 22. There Yangchen Gawai Lodrö said the source of this story needs investigation.
263.This tale appears in Clear Differentiation of the Discipline (Vinayavibhaṅga), Toh 3 Kangyur, ’dul ba, ca, 115a7.
264.Both the root text and commentary refer to Arjuna as a king rather than correctly as a prince. This tale is a famous part of the Mahābhārata where the five Pāṇḍava brothers engage in an epic battle with their cousins the Kauravas, and also the context in which the deeply revered Hindu scripture the Bhagavadgītā was taught as a sermon by Lord Kṛṣṇa to Arjuna. In the Buddhist sources, the story is found in Prajñāvarman, Explanation of Praise of the Exalted (Viśeṣastavanāmaṭīkā), Toh 1110 Tengyur, bstod tshogs, ka, 22a1, and mentioned also in Panchen Sönam Drakpa, Magical Mirror of History, 11a6.
265.In A Commentary on “A Jewel Treasury of Wise Sayings,” Drigung Rinchen Pal also tells this story to elucidate verse 246 of the root text. See pages 158ff. In Rinchen Pal’s version of the story, the demoness’s name is Aśvarūpa.
266.This is a well-known tale from Tibetan history found in various sources, such as the Pillar Testament, 84; Sönam Gyaltsen, Clear Mirror, 5; and Panchen Sönam Drakpa’s Magical Mirror of History, 11a6.
267.This story appears in Basis of Discipline (Vinayavastu), Toh 1 Kangyur, ’dul ba, nga, 245b5.
268.The source of this story is unknown.
269.This story appears in Basis of Discipline (Vinayavastu), Toh 1 Kangyur, ’dul ba, nga, 259b1; Clear Differentiation of the Discipline (Vinayavibhaṅga), Toh 3 Kangyur, ’dul ba, ca, 53b1; and in Great Passing into Nirvana Sutra (Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra), Toh 119 Kangyur, mdo sde, nya, 321na4.
270.This story appears in Sönam Gyaltsen, Clear Mirror, 54–223; and in Paṇchen Sönam Drakpa, Magical Mirror of History, 17b2.
271.A detailed, supposedly first-person account of how Śāntarakṣita came to Tibet is found in the famed Testament of Ba by Ba Selnang. For an English translation and study of this important historical document, see Pasang Wangdu and Hildegard Diemberger, dBa’ bzhed: The Royal Narrative Concerning the Bringing of the Buddha’s Doctrine to Tibet (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2000).
272.The story appears in Clear Differentiation of the Discipline (Vinayavibhaṅga), Toh 3 Kangyur, ’dul ba, ca, 48b3; and Great Passing into Nirvana Sutra (Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra), Toh 301 Kangyur, mdo sde, sa, 106b1.
273.This story appears is in Prajñāvarman’s Commentary on Praise of the One More Perfect than the Gods (Devātiśayastotraṭīkā), Toh 1113 Tengyur, bstod tshogs, ka, 50a3. In A Commentary on “A Jewel Treasury of Wise Sayings,” Drigung Rinchen Pal also tells this story to elucidate verse 17 of the root text. See page 115.
274.This story appears in the Pañcatantra as story 10 in book 4 in Chandra Rajan. In A Commentary on “A Jewel Treasury of Wise Sayings,” Drigung Rinchen Pal also tells this story to elucidate verse 170 of the root text.
275.Āryaśūra, Garland of Birth Stories (Jātakamālā), jātaka 23, Toh 4150 Tengyur, skyes rabs, hu, 89b5.
276.The source of this story is unidentified. In A Commentary on “A Jewel Treasury of Wise Sayings,” Drigung Rinchen Pal also tells this story to elucidate verse 155 of the root text. See page 145.
277.This animal fable appears in the Pañcatantra as story 5 in book 1 in Chandra Rajan and as story 3.1.1 in book 1 in Oliville. In A Commentary on “A Jewel Treasury of Wise Sayings,” Drigung Rinchen Pal also tells this story to elucidate verse 277 of the root text. See page 167.
278.Āryaśūra, Garland of Birth Stories (Jātakamālā), jātaka 30, Toh 4150 Tengyur, skyes rabs, hu, 114a1.
279.This is a reference to teachers in the Abrahamic traditions, although the actual names are erroneously rendered in the text.
280.There seems to have been a persistent legend in ancient India that somewhere in the Middle East, “a land where dates grow,” there is the abhorrent social custom that permits sons taking their own mother as a bride. Dharmakīrti’s Vādañyāya, for example, cites the presence of this custom and growing of dates as an example of pure coincidence, not a causal connection. The word gla glo (usually translated as “barbarians”) in the commentary is the Tibetan equivalent of the Sanskrit mleccha. In classical Indian sources, the term appears to refer to followers of all religions and cultures other than those of ancient India, regions where Sanskrit is not used. So, for classical Indian authors, such regions would include Tibet and China as well.
281.This is reference to the Yongle emperor Zhu Di, who reigned in 1402–24 and supported the Buddhist faith in China.
282.Gö Lotsawa Shönu Pal, Blue Annals, 1:83.
283.Accounts of Langdarma’s activities undermining Buddhism in Tibet in the ninth century, such as his persecution of the monastics and his subsequent assassination by Lhalung Palgyi Dorjé, are found in various historical sources—e.g., Sönam Gyaltsen, Clear Mirror, 234, and Pawo Tsuklak Trengwa, Feast for the Learned, 1:426.
284.There seems to have been an association between the island of Sri Lanka and man-eating ogres in ancient Indian texts. In the Rāmāyaṇa epic, for example, the ten-headed demon Rāvaṇa’s palace, where Sītā was confined, is said to be located on the island of Sri Lanka. The source of the story is given later in the commentary as the Sutra on Going to Laṅka.
285.Sutra on Going to Laṅka (Laṅkāvatārasūtra), Toh 107 Kangyur, mdo sde, ca, 247b.
286.Cāṇakya, Cāṇakyarājanītiśāstra 7.34, Toh 4334 Tengyur, thun mong ba lugs kyi bstan bcos, ngo, 134b4.
287.Āryaśūra, Garland of Birth Stories (Jātakamālā), jātaka 21, Toh 4150 Tengyur, skyes rabs, hu, 70a1. The verses cited as part of the story are also from this same source.
288.This story is probably the one that appears in Basis of Discipline (Vinayavastu), Toh 1 Kangyur, ’dul ba, nga, 138b5 or the one on 212a2
289.This story of enmity between the crows and owls appears in the Pañcatantra as the frame story of book 3.
290.As identified at the end of the story, this tale of Kumāra Sudhana is told in great detail in the Marvelous Array Sūtra (Gaṇḍavyūhasūtra), which is part of the Flower Ornament Scripture (Avataṃsakasūtra), Toh 44 Kangyur, phal chen, ga, 324b2.
291.Judging by the story, it appears to be from the Vinaya texts, but its exact source remains unidentified.
292.Staff of Wisdom (Prajñādaṇḍa) 46, Toh 4329 Tengyur, thun mong ba’i lugs kyi bstan bcos, ngo, 105a2.
293.Ibid., 230, 112a2.
294.Sakya Paṇdita, A Jewel Treasury of Wise Sayings, v. 24.
295.Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra, Toh 119 Kangyur, mdo sde, ya, 128a6.
296.This story appears in chapter 36 of the Sutra on the Wise and the Foolish (Damamūkanāmasūtra), Toh 341 Kangyur, mdo sde, ah, 254a4; in Dispelling Ajātaśatru’s Remorse (Ajātaśatrukaukṛtyavinodanā), Toh 216 Kangyur, mdo sde, tsha, 260b5 and 261a7; in the Great Passing into Nirvana Sutra (Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra), Toh 119 Kangyur, mdo sde, ta, 201a1; and in Basis of Discipline (Vinayavastu), Toh 1 Kangyur, ’dul ba, nga, 201b3.
297.Great Passing into Nirvana Sutra (Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra), Toh 119 Kangyur, mdo sde, ta, 187b3.
298.For the story alluded to here, see the commentary on verse 59, pages 282–84.
299.Āryaśūra, Garland of Birth Stories (Jātakamālā), jātaka 24, Toh 4150 Tengyur, skyes rabs, hu, 88b2. The verses cited as part of the story are also from the same source. For an alternative translation of these verses, see Peter Khoroche, Once the Buddha Was a Monkey (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989), 168–70. In A Commentary on “A Jewel Treasury of Wise Sayings,” Drigung Rinchen Pal also tells this story to elucidate verse 172 of the root text. See pages 148–51.
300.Udānavarga, Toh 326 Kangyur, mdo sde, sa, 218a1.
301.This story appears in Basis of Discipline (Vinayavastu), Toh 1 Kangyur, ’dul ba, nga, 103b6. This story is found also in the Pañcatantra, book II, story 1.1.1, in Olivelle and book II, story 4, in Chandra Rajan.
302.This verse is also from another Vinaya text, Finer Points of Discipline (Vinayakṣudrakavastu), Toh 6 Kangyur, ’dul ba, tha, 272a3.
303.This tale appears in Finer Points of Discipline (Vinayakṣudrakavastu), Toh 6 Kangyur, ’dul ba, tha, 270b2.
304.See pages 278–79, the commentary on verse 55, to read this story. This story appears in Sönam Gyaltsen’s Clear Mirror, 203; in Sönam Drakpa’s Magical Mirror of History, 17b2; and also in the Pillar Testament, 84.
305.This story appears in Clear Differentiation of the Discipline (Vinayavibhaṅga), Toh 3 Kangyur, ’dul ba, ja, 672a. The verses cited as part of the story are also from the same source. A translation of this story, the Cūḍāpakṣa-avadāna, appears in Rotman, Divine Stories, Part 2, 207–46.
306.This story appears in the Great Passing into Nirvana Sutra (Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra), Toh 119 Kangyur, mdo sde, ta, 199b5. See also the commentary on verse 85.
307.Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra, Toh 113 Kangyur, mdo sde, ja, 97b5.
308.This story appears in Clear Differentiation of the Discipline (Vinayavibhaṅga), Toh 3 Kangyur, ’dul ba, ja, 194a1. The verse cited as part of the story is from the same source. Another version of this story is told in A Commentary on “A Jewel Treasury of Wise Sayings” on page 136 of this volume to elucidate verse 117 of A Jewel Treasury of Wise Sayings.
309.This story appears in Clear Differentiation of the Discipline (Vinayavibhaṅga), Toh 3 Kangyur, ’dul ba, ja, 60a4 and 66b.
310.This story appears in Finer Points of Discipline (Vinayakṣudrakavastu), Toh 6 Kangyur, ’dul ba, tha, 296a4 and 306b1.
311.The story of Prince Sthiraśraddhā (ded pa brtan pa) appears as the seventh of Dromtönpa’s former birth stories in Atiśa, Book of Kadam, 304–35. However, the story as told here in the commentary in some length as well as the verses cited as part of the story appear to be drawn from a different source, which remains unidentified.
312.Āryaśūra, Garland of Birth Stories (Jātakamālā), jātaka 10, Toh 4150 Tengyur, skyes rabs, hu, 39a6.
313.This story appears in the Preeminent Account of Discipline (Vinayottaragrantha), Toh 7 Kangyur, ’dul ba, pa, 170a6, which also contains the verses cited here as part of the story. However, there is an entire sutra entitled the Śrīgupta Sutra (Śrīguptasūtra), Toh 217 Kangyur, mdo sde, pa, 269a1–284a2.
314.This story appears in Basis of Discipline (Vinayavastu), Toh 1 Kangyur, ’dul ba, nga, 237a2, and in Clear Differentiation of the Discipline (Vinayavibhaṅga), Toh 3 Kangyur, ’dul ba, nya, 174b3. See also Rotman, Divine Stories, Part 2, 258–65, where this story appears within the Mākandika-avadāna.
315.This story appears in Clear Differentiation of the Discipline (Vinayavibhaṅga), Toh 3 Kangyur, ’dul ba, nya, 158b2. An English translation of the Mākandika-avadāna is found in Rotman, Divine Stories, Part 2, 247–91.
316.This story appears in Finer Points of Discipline (Vinayakṣudrakavastu), Toh 6 Kangyur, ’dul ba, tha, 86b1 and 77a7.
317.This story of the Chinese Chan master Hashang, who is said to have propagated an antirational and quietist doctrine in Tibet and was later defeated by the Indian master Kamalaśīla in a debate, appears in the Testament of Ba, 64–76, and is repeated in subsequent historical texts like Sönam Gyaltsen’s Clear Mirror, 221, and Pawo Tsuklak Trengwa, Feast for the Learned, 1:385.
318.Clear Differentiation of the Three Codes, 26a4. In translation by Jared Douglas Rhoton (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002); see p. 118.
319.Kamalagupta, Vimala’s Questions and Answers: A Precious Garland (Vimalapraśnottararatnamālā), v. 5, Toh 4333 Tengyur, thun mong ba’i lugs kyi bstan bcos, ngo, 126b2.
320.A Hundred Stanzas on Wisdom (Prajñāśataka), v. 69, Toh 4328 Tengyur, thun mong ba’i lugs kyi bstan bcos, ngo, 102a4.
321.Staff of Wisdom (Prajñādaṇḍa), v. 240, Toh 4329 Tengyur, thun mong ba’i lugs kyi bstan bcos, ngo, 112b.
322.The commentary is here making a point pertaining to the different uses of similes according to the poetic rules of Indian kāvya (poetic) discipline.
323.Nāgārjuna, Prajñāśataka, v. 98, Toh 4329 Tengyur, thun mong ba’i lugs kyi bstan bcos, ngo, 103a4.
324.This concluding aspiration does not appear in the version of the root text used in this anthology.
325.The full title of this text is A Pearl Garland of Advice Uniting Spiritual and Temporal Ethics (Lugs zung gi bslab bya mi thi li phreng ba). See under Ngawang Losang Gyatso in the bibliography.
326.The work was composed at the behest of the Tüśiyetü Khan, a Mongolian ruler of Genghis’s descent, who met the Fifth Dalai Lama in 1674.
327.Tsuta, or Cūta, is a mythical place where the inhabitants are said to have only one leg. Those who have two legs are considered abnormal, and no one will believe a word they say. See Yangchen Gawai Lodrö’s commentary to verse 60 of the Ganden Wise Sayings on page 285.
328.The three spheres of action are the sphere of study (klog pa thos bsam gyi ’khor lo), the sphere of meditation of the renunciate (spong ba bsam gtan gyi ’khor lo), and the sphere of conduct and activity to benefit others (bya ba las kyi ’khor lo). The ten Dharma activities are (1) scribing scriptures, (2) worship, (3) giving, (4) listening to discourses, (5) reading the teachings, (6) retaining the teachings in one’s mind, (7) instructing others, (8) reciting holy works, (9) contemplation, and (10) meditation.
329.These three are important Dharma protectors in the Geluk tradition, with the first two having special connection with Tsongkhapa himself and Palden Lhamo enjoying a particular connection with the institution of the Dalai Lama.
330.Genghis Khan’s empire was divided into four administrative areas, the most important of which was Khalka Tüśiyetü. The proper name of the Khalka khan for whom this text was written is Chakhun Dorji. In his autobiography, the Fifth Dalai Lama says he met the Khalka Khan on February 1, 1674. In contemporary historical records this khan is referred to as Tüśiyetü Khan. Ahmad, Sino-Tibetan Relations in the Seventeenth Century, 261.
331.The full title of the text is: A Treatise on Trees: A Hundred Branches of Wise Sayings on Spiritual and Worldly Norms (Legs par bshad pa shing gi bstan bcos lugs gnyis yal ’dab brgya ldan).
332.The higher trainings in morality, meditation, and wisdom. These three are correlated in the Buddhist tradition as the principal subject matter of the Buddha’s teaching enshrined in the “three baskets” of discipline (vinaya), discourses (sūtra), and higher knowledge (abhidharma).
333.Literally “hearers” and “self-enlightened ones,” these terms refer to disciples of the Buddha whose primary objective is personal liberation rather than the universal emancipation from suffering sought by bodhisattvas.
334.Stanzas 25–28 pertain to the practice of the first four perfections of generosity, morality, forbearance, and joyful effort. The last two perfections, meditation and wisdom, are presented in two verses each (29–32).
335.On Malaya, a region in the southern part of India, see note 50 explicating a reference in verse 31 of Jewel Treasury of Wise Sayings, and page 215.
336.Zemey Rinpoché’s commentary (p. 30a) lists the four as the following: (1) unripe both inside as well as outside, (2) ripe outside but not inside, (3) ripe inside but not outside, and (4) ripe both outside and inside.
337.This is an allusion to the assertion in the Jain philosophy about the sentient nature of trees, an object of critique by Indian Buddhist thinkers.
338.According to an ancient folk belief, the touch of a young woman, or even spit from a woman chewing tobacco, can make an aśoka tree unfurl its blossoms.
339.In Tibetan, the single word shing covers tree, wood, and timber. Thus, in the Tibetan original, the author is indeed using the attributes of shing alone for his metaphors throughout the entire poem, an impressive literary achievement.
340.Sarasvatī is the goddess of wisdom, both in the Buddhist and Hindu iconographic tradition, and is characteristically depicted seated on a swan and holding a sitar. She is also the goddess of poetry and thus invoked here by the author.
341.This verse criticizes some of the Tibetan works in the wise-sayings genre by stating that although the authors employ a profusion of similes, the actual points being made are quite inconsequential. Zemey Rinpoché’s commentary does not attempt to identify the specific targets of this critique.
342.The full title of the Tibetan text reads: A Treatise on Water: A Hundred Waves of Wise Sayings (Legs par bshad pa chu’i bstan bcos).
343.This is a reference to the story of the Buddha’s former birth as the king of geese, as told in Āryaśūra’s Jātakamālā, jātaka 22, Toh 4150, skyes rabs, hu, 73b2, and in Khoroche, Once the Buddha Was a Monkey, 140–52. In this volume on page 224, this story is told in Rays of Sunlight: A Commentary on “Ganden Wise Sayings” to elucidate verse 13 of Ganden Wise Sayings.
344.See note 48 explaining this analogy, which is also found in verse 20 of A Jewel Treasure of Wise Sayings.
345.A version of this story is told in A Commentary on “A Jewel Treasury of Wise Sayings” on page 136 of this volume to elucidate verse 117 of A Jewel Treasury of Wise Sayings. Another version of this story is told in Rays of Sunlight: A Commentary on “Ganden Wise Sayings” on page 324 of this volume to elucidate verse 98 of Ganden Wise Sayings.
346.Source story not identified.
347.Exact source of story unidentified.
348.Drigung Rinchen Pal tells the story behind this allusion in A Commentary on “A Jewel Treasury of Wise Sayings” on page 121 of this volume to elucidate verse 25 of A Jewel Treasury of Wise Sayings. Yangchen Gawai Lodrö also tells this story in Rays of Sunlight: A Commentary on “Ganden Wise Sayings” to elucidate verse 21 of Ganden Wise Sayings. See page 238ff.
349.This is probably a reference to a story from the Hindu myths found in various sources including the Mahābhārata. In its original context, the story involves the gods and the demigods churning the great ocean using Mount Mandara as the churning rod and the serpent king Vasuki as the rope, and has more to do with the extracting of amrita, immortal nectar. See Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty, Hindu Myths (London: Penguin Books, 1975), 273–80.
350.“Wandering through Brahma’s matted hair” is probably an allusion to the origin myth of the Ganges River, which is said to have been sent down to the earth to help cleanse the ancestral sins of King Bhagīratha. Verse 81c onward presents the norms related to Dharma practice. This is the reverse sequence of Gungthang’s Treatise on Trees.
351.This is a reference to the story of one of the ten avatars of Viṣṇu, his incarnation as a fish. For this avatar story drawn from various sources, see O’Flaherty, Hindu Myths, 179–84.
352.See note 65.
353.The eight types of leisure refer to freedom from eight states of existence that preclude the opportunity to practice Dharma. They are freedom from (1) wrong views, and freedom from birth (2) in a place where the Buddha’s teaching is absent, (3) as an animal, (4) as a hungry ghost, (5) as a hell being, (6) in a barbarian land, (7) as a mute or dumb, and (8) as a long-lived celestial being.
354.The “eight special qualities” of water are its (1) crystal clarity, (2) coolness, (3) sweetness, (4) lightness, and (5) softness, and the way it (6) soothes the stomach, (7) is free of impurities, and (8) clears the throat.
355.It is said that, due to their own specific karmic power, when a human, animal, hungry ghost, and god look at a body of water, it appears differently to each—as plain water, as an abode, as pus and blood, and as ambrosia, respectively.
356.This echoes the opening salution verses of Candrakīrti’s Entering the Middle Way (Madhyamakāvatāra), where he pays homage to the three types of compassion—compassion focused on the suffering being, compassion focused on the phenomenal reality of the being, and nonobjectifying or nonreferential compassion.
357.There are variant readings of this line in the various Tibetan editions of the text. One reads “A miniscule piece of a ketaka fruit,” while another could be read as “With sand mixed with ketaka fruit.” I have read the word ’bras (“fruit”) in the text as an error, which should be read correctly as ’dres (“mixed”). Ketaka is the name of a mythic gem that is believed to have a magical cleansing power.
358.This is a reference to the sage Agastya (“mountain thrower”) mentioned in the ancient Hindu myths, although the source of the story about him drinking up all the rivers remains unidentified.
359.The four ways of gathering others are (1) giving what is materially needed, (2) speaking in a pleasant manner, (3) instructing what is righteous, and (4) setting an example through living the advice by oneself. These four are contrasted with the six perfections, the latter being the means by which a bodhisattva cultivates him- or herself.
360.This is probably a reference to the Ganges invocation prayer known as Gaṅga Ārti, which is performed regularly by the devout Hindus on the banks of the Ganges.
361.See note 350 on the connection between Bhagīratha and the Ganges River.
362.The full title of the text reads A Treatise on Wind: Wise Sayings That Flutter the Flag of the Two Norms (Lugs zung bad an gyo ba’i legs bshad rlung gi bstan bcos).
363.The three secrets of the guru’s enlightened activity refer to the guru’s body, speech, and mind.
364.This echoes Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra 4.20.
365.Precious Garland (Ratnāvalī) 4.17, Toh 4158 Tengyur, spring yig, ge, 118b7.
366.The four powers are the essential elements in the practice of confession: (1) the power of the support (refuge in the Three Jewels), (2) the power of regret, (3) the power of the resolve not to perform the act again, and (4) power of enacting the antidote.
367.The three are (1) the ethic of restraint, (2) the ethic of gathering virtues, and (3) the ethic of bringing about the welfare of sentient beings.
368.The author here seems to suggest, though admitting he himself has not seen them, that there are treatises on both earth and fire composed by Namgyal Söpa. This is probably an error. Kyilsur Losang Jinpa is likely referring to Nomchi Khenpo (Bya bral nom chi mkhan po blo bzang bshad sgrub, b. 1756), who wrote a treatise on fire as well as one on iron. However, no treatise on earth is known to have been composed by him. The treatise on earth that is known today and featured in this volume was composed by Paṇchen Chökyi Nyima. See next note.
369.The full title of the text is A Treatise on Earth: A Jewel Garland That Glows with a Hundred Lights of Wise Sayings on the Two Norms (Legs par bshad pa sa’i bstan bcos lugs gnyis ’od brgya ’bar ba’i dbyig gi ’phreng ba). The author, Thubten Chökyi Nyima (1883–1937), was sixth in the succession of Paṇchen Lamas that began with Losang Chökyi Gyaltsen in the seventeenth century. The Tibetan editors of this volume attributed authorship of this text to Paṇchen Losang Chökyi Nyima (1782–1853).
370.The story of Bāli losing the three worlds is told by Rinchen Pal in A Commentary on “A Jewel Treasury of Wise Sayings” to elucidate verse 72 of the Jewel Treasury. See page 131 of this volume.
371.Rinchen Pal tells this story in A Commentary on “A Jewel Treasury of Wise Sayings” to elucidate verse 321 of the Jewel Treasury. See pages 174–75.
372.Māndhātṛ, known also as Māndhātā, is the name of an ancient king mentioned in the Hindu myths. His name, literally “he shall draw sustenance from me,” was given by Indra. The story of this mythical king appears also in the Buddhist sources. See, e.g., Basis of Discipline (Vinayavastu), Toh 1 Tengyur, ’dul ba, kha, 169b6; translation in Rotman, Divine Stories, Part 1, 348–71.
373.Most of the lamrim literature presents three forms of generosity: (1) giving material things, (2) giving the Dharma, and (3) giving protection from fear.
374.The full title of the text reads Khaché Phalu’s Advice on How to Observe the Law of Karma in Everyday Life (Kha che pha lu’i ’jig rten las ’bras rtsi lugs kyi bslab bya). “Khaché” in Tibetan can mean Kashmir or Islam, and when used as an adjective it means a Muslim. Ostensibly, the text is offered as an advice from a Tibetan Muslim bearing the name Phalu Ju, although, as mentioned in the introduction, the exact authorship of the text remains hugely problematic. The Tibetan editors have used the version of this text published the Tibet Nationalities Press, prepared by one Losang Tsering, and compared it against other versions, including especially a small old woodblock print in the personal collection of Zemey Rinpoché.
375.This entire text of the preamble, with its reference to the time when the Buddha was ten years old, seems quite obscure.
376.The notes inserted by the translator to point out a few of the Islamic references in the Tibetan text should not be construed as an extensive analysis of this text. Many other passages seem to have clearly Buddhist references, and some allusions could be related to either religious tradition. In this verse “the center” is likely Mecca. Mecca is conventionally regarded by Muslims as the center of the world and the Kaaba is called “the center of the center.”
377.Khuda or Khoda (
) is the Persian word for “Lord” or “God.” The term is originally from a Middle Persian honorific and can also mean “king.” Formerly Persian speakers used it in reference to Ahura Mazda. Today in Islam it is reserved for God. Khuda is occasionally used as a loanword in Bengali, Urdu, Sindhi, Hindi, and several South Asian languages. From http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khuda, accessed January 10, 2014.
378.“The one” is likely a reference to God in Islam.
379.There are Islamic traditions that speak of miraculous trees with leaves bearing the names of Allah. Johan Van Manen, “Khacche Phalu: A Tibetan Moralist,” The Asutosh Mookerjee Silver Jubilee Volumes 3.2 (1925): 174.
380.The petitioner is perhaps requesting permission to go to Mecca (the center) from the authorities in Mecca or from Allah himself.
381.In some Islamic devotional writing, the phrase “Master of the precious stars” is used as an epithet for Allah. This same phrase occurs again in chapter 7, verse 4. The phrase “Garden of Light” is frequently used in the Qur’an as a metaphor for paradise. Hence the translator read gling as a shortened form of gling ka.
382.“Three days” (zhag gsum)—referring to today, tommorrow, and the day after—is a typical Tibetan expression used for describing the brevity of a particular temporal framework. This expression comes up repeatedly later in the text as well.
383.This may be a reference to Islamic burial practices. Traditional Tibetan Buddhists did not bury the dead.
384.The author is speaking here of the importance of giving away one’s wealth as a preparation for one’s impending death, the “solitary journey.”
385.Dried apricots are highly prized in Tibet as delicacies and they are imported from the Ladakh regions where they are grown. Ladakh and its neighbor Kashmir are also the regions from where Tibetan Muslims historically emigrated.
386.Arak is a widely used Arabic-derived word for alcoholic spirits.
387.This is criticism of monks who are self-centered but may have the alchemical practice known as “extracting the stone-like essence” (lde’u bcud len), which involves hermits surviving, through their meditative power, on only a few seeds or grains a day for a prolonged period.
388.Likely a reference to the main protagonist of the popular Tibetan opera The Righteous King Norbu Sangpo (Chos rgyal nor bu bzang po), who was given a musical nymph to be his wife.
389.This is a reference to the famous Tibetan epic of Gesar of Ling, in which King Gesar and his general Denma, a skilled archer, are two of the main characters.
390.This is possibly a reference to the formal salat, during which a Muslim performs a series of prostrations. One of the five daily required prayer sessions is in the evening.
391.This line perhaps references one of the ninety-nine names of Allah: the Eternal, the Protector, the Master, and so on.
392.This might be a reference to the Islamic stricture on eating properly butchered (halal) meat.
393.The author is saying that at the king’s court an education is the means to reach decisions whereas for a lama an education is the means to self-knowledge.
394.A hadith, possibly known to the author, contains the saying “The woman advances and retires in the shape of a devil.” Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2491.