Wylie:Grub chen tai lo pa'i phyag rgya chen po gang+gA ma'i gzhung sa bcad 'grel pa dang bcas pa
གྲུབ་ཆེན་ཏཻ་ལོ་པའི་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་གངྒཱ་མའི་གཞུང་ས་བཅད་འགྲེལ་པ་དང་བཅས་པ་
grub chen tai lo pa'i phyag rgya chen po gang+gA ma'i gzhung sa bcad 'grel pa dang bcas pa
Ganges Mahāmudrā: Esoteric Instructions on Mahāmudrā
Tilopa (c. 988–c. 1069) is often considered the first human guru in the Marpa Kagyu lineage of mahāmudrā instructions. Although the accounts of his life vary, all seem to agree that he was born into a brahman family in Sahor (in present-day Bangladesh). Some biographies say he entered the monastery of Somapura in northern Bangladesh or a charnel ground of the same name, where he took monk vows and studied. All concur that he was urged by a ḍākinī to seek the ultimate instructions, though they differ as to whether he studied with his human gurus before or after he went to Oḍḍiyāna where he received the Cakrasaṃvara Aural Transmission from Jñānaḍākinī. He is said to have spent twelve years working for the prostitute Bharimā at night and grinding sesame seeds by day, probably after he received instructions from his four human gurus and before he went to Oḍḍiyāna. During the last period of his life, when he was living as a vagrant siddha, Nāropa found him and began his apprenticeship, undergoing twelve major and twelve minor hardships. This training culminated in Nāropa’s attainment of realization and was the occasion for this song.[1] Of the numerous songs and texts attributed to Tilopa, these instructions on mahāmudrā sung on the banks of the Ganges River to Nāropa are probably his most famous and have been translated into English numerous times. The paracanonical edition contained here was translated by Marpa Lotsāwa. The canonical edition found in the Tengyur differs significantly in both word choices and line order and does not state the translator in the colophon, leading to suppositions that it was not translated by Marpa. As Jan Sobisch remarks:
One of the most significant differences between the paracanonical and the canonical versions can be found in the structure of the text itself. It was a great surprise to discover the vast extent of structural intervention undertaken by the redactors of the canon. . . . One of the key features of this structure is that the [paracanonical] text directly introduces with 25 lines the nature of the mind to the yogis of highest capacity. The practice of individuals of lesser talents is relegated to the very end of the treatise, almost as an afterthought. The key feature of the structure of the canonical version, on the other hand, is that the text teaches (after the same brief advice to listen) first a gradual teaching of 28 lines before it offers an introduction to the nature of the mind. The chief structural intervention of the redactors of the canon is therefore that they change the very nature of the text, namely from being right from the beginning an upadeśa directly introducing individuals of the highest capacity to the nature of their mind, into being a gradual (rim gyis) introduction to the practice of mahāmudrā. The second intervention of the editors of the canon is that they have changed the irregular pattern of the number of syllables per line into a regular pattern of nine syllables. . . . Thus, at some point there seems to have been an intention to streamline this teaching both in form and content, that is, it was made to fit a very widely used highly regular verse pattern, and it was adjusted to what we could almost call the “dogma of gradualism.”[2]
The paracanonical editions have long been favored in the Kagyu traditions. Pema Karpo included one in his Aural Transmission Collections, and paracanonical editions are the basis for commentaries by Rangjung Dorje, Shamar Könchok Yenlak, and the recently published ones by Thrangu Rinpoche and Sangyes Nyenpa Rinpoche.[3]
Given the differences between the paracanonical versions and the canonical ones, Draszczyk, in “Tilopa’s Upadeśa,” raises the possibility that Marpa was not the translator for all versions, though it may be, as Sobisch says in “Paracanonical Tibetan Texts” and “Paracanonical Translation,” that the editors of the Tengyur took a great deal of liberty and created a version more in keeping with an orthodox gradual approach.
Transmission lineage received by Jamgön Kongtrul. Tilopa to Nāropa, Marpa Lotsāwa, Milarepa, the unequaled Dakpo [Gampopa], Dusum Khyenpa, Drogön Rechen, Pom Drakpa, Drupchen Pakshi, Nyenre, Rangjung Dorje, Yung Tönpa, Rolpai Dorje, Khachö Wangpo, Dezhin Shekpa, Drung Mase Lodrö Rinchen, Chöpal Yeshe, Lodrö Drakpa, Jatang Lodrö Gyatso, Döndrup Tashi, Lekshe Drayang, Lodrö Namgyal, Sangye Rinchen, Drung Rinpoche Kunga Namgyal, Garwang Karma Tenkyong, Sönam Gyurme, Könchok Tenzin, Drupgyu Tenpa Namgyal, Sungrap Gyatso, Chökyi Jungne, Gelek Rapgye, Drung Gyurme Tenpal, Tenzin Gelek Nyima, and Jamgön Kongtrul.5
{{#cargo_store: _table=WyliePageContent |TextAuthor=Tilopa |VolumeNumber=7 |TextNumber=005 |PageNumbers=33-36 |FolioNumbers=17a1 - 18b7 |TibTitle=གྲུབ་ཆེན་ཏཻ་ལོ་པའི་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་གངྒཱ་མའི་གཞུང་ས་བཅད་འགྲེལ་པ་དང་བཅས་པ་ }}
- Other notes
- Genre from Richard Barron's Catalog
- Instruction manual
- Genre from dkar chag
- gzhung rtsa 'grel
- BDRC Link
- VolumeI1CZ3969
- BDRC Content Information
- No note on contents
- Other Translations
- Brunnhölzl, Karl. Straight from the Heart: Buddhist Pith Instructions. Ithaca, New York: Snow Lion Publications, 2007. Chogyam Trungpa. The Myth of Freedom. Berkeley: Shambhala, 1976. Morrell, Jerry, trans. The Life of Tilopa and the Ganges Mahamudra. Auckland, New Zealand: Zhyisil Chokyi Ghatsal Trust, 2002. (translation of "phyag chen gang+gA ma") Sangyes Nyenpa Rinpoche. Tilopa’s Mahamudra Upadesha: The Gangama Instructions with Commentary. Translated by David Molk. Boston & London: Snow Lion Publica-tions/Shambhala, 2014. Tiso, Francis, and Fabrizio Torricelli. “The Tibetan Text of Tilopa’s Mahāmudro-padeśa.” East and West 41 (1991): 205–229. see http://www.naturalawareness.net/ganges.html for translations by Ken McLeod, Ari Kiev, Chogyam Trungpa, Keith Dowman, Garma C.C. Chang, Yeshe Gyamtso,, Karl Brunnholzl, Rodney Devenish, and Lex Hixon. Published commentaries: Thrangu Rinpoche teachings given in Vancouver BC in June 1998, published in Shenpen Osel, Vol 3, No 3 (Dec 1999) Thrangu Rinpoche, The Life of Tilopa & The Ganges Mahamudra (Namo Buddha Publications & Zhyisil Chokyi Ghatsal Publications, 2002) Fifth Shamarpa Goncho Yenla (1525-1583) commentary published in: Straight from the Heart: Buddhist Pith Instructions, translated by Karl Brunnholzl (Snow Lion Publications, 2007) Teaching by the Tenth Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche at Benchen Phuntsok Dharje Ling, Kathmandu Nepal. Transcript (in Tibetan) by Karma Lekshey Ling Institute.
- Commentary(s) of this Text in the DNZ
- Phyag rgya chen po gang+gA ma'i gzhung sa bcad, Phyag rgya chen po gang+gA ma'i 'grel pa
Information about Unicode Tibetan and the digitization of this text
As the only available unicode Tibetan text at the time, Nitartha International's version of the Gdams ngag mdzod Paro Edition of the gdams ngag mdzod is provided here. However, note that it has not been thoroughly edited and that there may also be mistakes introduced through the conversion process. Eventually we will provide a fully edited version of the entire Shechen Edition, entered and edited multiple times by Pulahari Monastery in Nepal, but as of fall 2017 that project has not been finished. Note that the folio numbers that appear throughout were added by Nitartha Input Center at the time of input.
Provided by Nitartha International Document Input Center. Many thanks to Person:Namdak, Tenzin and Person:Wiener, G. for help with fonts and conversion.
{{#cargo_query: tables=WyliePageContent |fields=_pageName,TextAuthor,VolumeNumber,TextNumber,PageNumbers,FolioNumbers,TibetanContent |where=_pageName="Wylie:Grub chen tai lo pa'i phyag rgya chen po gang+gA ma'i gzhung sa bcad 'grel pa dang bcas pa" |format=json }}
{{#cargo_query: tables=WyliePageContent |fields=_pageName,TextAuthor,VolumeNumber,TextNumber,PageNumbers,FolioNumbers,TibetanContent |where=_pageName="Wylie:Grub chen tai lo pa'i phyag rgya chen po gang+gA ma'i gzhung sa bcad 'grel pa dang bcas pa" |format=exhibit |view=tabular }}