Mipham’s Sherab Raltri
(Sword of Prajna of the Completely True Meaning)

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[CONTENTS]
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[CONTENTS]
L1: [0. PRAISES]
L1: [1. FIRST OVERALL PART.]
L1: [2. SECOND OVERALL PART: THE MAIN TEXT THAT TEACHES WHAT THE TITLE DENOTES.]
L2: [2.1 THE ANCILLARY PARTS OF THE COMPOSITION THAT ARE GOOD IN THE BEGINNING]
L3: [2.1.1. The expression of offering:]
L3: [2.2.2. The promise to compose the text]
L2: [2.2 HOW THE TOPIC OF COMPOSITION IS GOOD IN THE MIDDLE]
L3: [2.2.1. The subject to be analysed: the two truths]
L3: [2.2.2. The meaning of the composition that is good in the middle]
L4: [2.2.2.1. The short teaching of the two correct reasonings:]
L4: [2.2.2.2. The extensive teaching of analysis by the four correct reasonings.]
L5: [2.2.2.2.1. First, the three first correct reasonings are explained together:]
L6: [2.2.2.2.1.A. First The general teaching of appearance as interdependent origination:]
L6: [2.2.2.2.1.B. The explanation of the particularizations of the correct reasonings of 1) essence, 2) cause, and 3) effect.]
L7: [i) The correct reasonings of dependence of the fruition on the cause and productive action,]
L8: [a. The main subject:]
L8: [Second [purpose?]]
L7: [ii) Second, the correct reasoning of nature is explained in two ways by means of the relative, appearance, and by means of the absolute, emptiness.]
L8: [1) First, The explanation by relative appearance]
L9: [First, The main topic:]
L9: [Second, The classifications]
L8: [2) Second explanation by means of the absolute:]
L8: [3) Third, The summary of the essence:]
L5: [2.2.2.2.2. Second, The reasoning of suitable establishing]
L6: [2.2.2.2.2.A. First, the brief teaching:]
L6: [2.2.2.2.2.B. Second Suitable establishing of perception and inference]
L7: [i. Suitable establishing of perception]
L8: [1) the general teaching:]
L8: [2) The explanation of the particular]
L9: [First, Sense perception:]
L9: [Second, Mental perception:]
L9: [Third, yogic direct perception:]
L9: [Fourth, self-awareness:]
L8: [3) Third, the summary of the meaning:]
L7: [ii. Second Inference]
L8: [The essence]
L9: [First, the mind that infers]
L9: [Second, the signs from which inferences are made:]
L9: [Third how to make inferences]
L10: [First, classifications of how to make inferences in terms of what is to be analyzed:]
L10: [Second, how to make inferences in terms of the manner of establishing:]
L10: [Third, how to make inferences in terms of the manner of engagement:]
L8: [Second, within the divisions of apparent refutation,]
L9: [First, The actual presentation of apparent refutation]
L10: [First, Conventional pramana:]
L10: [Second [the pramana that examines the absolute]:]
L9: [Second, the summary of the meaning]
L8: [Third, as for abandoning contention]
L9: [First, the general teaching of abandoning contention]
L10: [First, abandoning contention about what is impossible:]
L10: [Second, abandoning contention about what is unestablished:]
L10: [Third, abandoning contention about what is unnecessary:]
L9: [Second [the particulars]]
L10: [First, abandoning contention in conventional analysis:]
L10: [Second, abandoning contention in absolute analysis:]
L10: [Third, the common summary:]
L5: [2.2.2.2.3. Second, the action of the kayas and wisdoms, the four reliances]
L6: [First, the general teaching:]
L6: [Second, the four reliances,]
L7: [The first [reliance] is RELYING ON THE DHARMA, NOT THE INDIVIDUAL:]
L7: [Second [reliance]:]
L7: [Third [reliance]:]
L7: [Fourth [reliance]:]
L5: [2.2.2.2.4. Third, the explanation of the eight great treasures of confidence in the fruition:]
L3: [2.2.3. Third, the teaching of the fruition of analyzing in this way:]
L2: [2.3 FINALLY, THERE ARE THE TWO SECTIONS OF THE MEANING OF ENTERING INTO THE MERIT OF THIS,]
L3: [2.3.1. First, the manner of composition:]
L3: [2.3.2. Second, the dedication of merit:]
L1: [3. THIRD, THE COMPLETELY PERFECT, ULTIMATE MEANING:]
L2: [THE COLOPHON]

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L1: [0. Praises]
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PRAISE TO MAÑJUSHRI DORJE NÖNPO, VAJRA SHARPNESS.
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\ Namo shri Vajrapadmatikshnaye
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PRAISE TO BUDDHA SHAKYAMUNI
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\ In the wind-chariot of the two accumulations, excellently leading the four forces 5 of the army of the ten powers 6,
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\ You overcome the warfare of the gods of desire 7 and their host is overcome;
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\ While with the sharp fangs and claws of the four fearlessnesses 8, you drink from the skulls of vicious feuding elephants 9, the eternalists and nihilists.
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\ Knowing the nature and extent of dharmas 10, having removed the darkness of the two obscurations from the place of snow-mountains,11 by your generosity there are the two yogic disciplines.12
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\ In the center of the wheel of 112 13 spokes you, the supremely exalted lion of men, Siddartha, bestow auspicious fortune. 14
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\ Blazing with the deathless splendor of a thousand radiant marks, 15
\ Liberated 16 from a lotus blossom in the middle of a lake,
\ You are the nirmanakaya who overcomes the phenomenal world,17
\ My beautiful crown-ornament until the heart of enlightenment.
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REQUEST BY MIPHAM TO MAÑJUSHRI
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\ A hundred devotional petals crown the lotus anthers of teaching. 19
\ Dharma Lord, 20 I always offer you reverent homage. 21
\ You who are the ever-youthful lion of speech,
\ Bestow on these beings shining intelligence, filling the sky.
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PRAISE TO SARASVATI OR TARA
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\ In the expansive lotus-garden of speech of all the conquerors,
\ With 100,000 melodious blooms of holy Dharma,
\ You are a singing swan 23 that shines as bright as moonlight.
\ May you now enjoy the vast lake of my mind
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SUPPLICATION TO THE VIDYADHARAS OF THE THREE LINEAGES
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\ The secret streams of truth of the three collections of tantra 24
\ By a gulp of analysis swallowed into the belly of intellect. 25
\ Are regurgitated as excellent teaching, as with Agastya. 26
\ I praise a hundred times the former rigdzins and rishis.
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PRAISE TO LONGCHENPA
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\ At the council of well-written teachings, the sagely teacher,
\ In a bowing throng of attendant-ministers 27 unbiased in learning,
\ On his elephant vehicle, 28 which is the great perfection,
\ Surveying all like Indra, with a thousand different eyes, 29
\ Confidently manifesting the hundred pointed vajra 30
\ Whose prongs are the points of teaching, debate, and composition,
\ Wearing a crown that is set with gems of many traditions,
\ The incomparable lord of learning who is known as Longchenpa,
\ Is renowned as a king of the gods of a kind not seen before
\ His fame surpasses even that of the lord of the world. 31
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PRAISE TO MIPHAM
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\ A thousand elephants of vicious self-serving contention,
\ Arrogant, with no gentle thoughts of any kind,
\ You overcome and have no thought of enduring them,
\ The lion of speakers, with far-reaching laughter of proper reason,
\ Is the victorious one called Mipham Chokle Namgyal.
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MIPHAM’S PRAISE TO HIS GURUS
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\ By the sharp vajra-weapon of scripture and proper reason,
\ Opponent asuras’ arrogant power 32 is overcome.
\ Gracious one who sees the excellent path of truth,
\ Prevail among spiritual friends like Indra among the gods.
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L1: [1. First overall part.]
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\ (The Title
\ The Meaning of the subject
\ The profound and vast meaning
\ How the title express this)
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L1: [2. Second overall part: the main text that teaches what the title denotes.]
L2: [2.1 The ancillary parts of the composition that are good in the beginning]
L3: [2.1.1. The expression of offering:]
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\ The Doctrine never possesses any kind of confusion.
\ It has completely abandoned any kind of error.
\ It is mind without any doubt about the three meanings.
\ Let us bow to the treasure of Manjushri’s knowledge.
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L3: [2.2.2. The promise to compose the text]
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\ Its vastness and profundity are hard to realize,
\ As for the amrita of the Sugata teachings,
\ For whomever wishes to experience it,
\ May this light of understanding be completely granted.
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L2: [2.2 How the topic of composition is good in the middle]
L3: [2.2.1. The subject to be analysed: the two truths]
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\ The Buddhas taught the Dharma
\ In terms of 117 the two truths,
\ The relative truth of the world
\ As well as the absolute truth.
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L3: [2.2.2. The meaning of the composition that is good in the middle]
L4: [2.2.2.1. The short teaching of the two correct reasonings:]
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\ With regard to the natures of these same two truths,
\ If we enter into the non-erroneous mind of certainty,
\ The good eye of the two immaculate pramanas
\ Is the excellent view that is to be established.
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L4: [2.2.2.2. The extensive teaching of analysis by the four correct reasonings.]
L5: [2.2.2.2.1. First, the three first correct reasonings are explained together:]
L6: [2.2.2.2.1.A. First The general teaching of appearance as interdependent origination:]
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\ Thus, regarding these appearances
\ The pattern of their arising is interdependence
\ Therefore, something that is not dependent
\ Like a lotus in the sky will not appear
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L6: [2.2.2.2.1.B. The explanation of the particularizations of the correct reasonings of 1) essence, 2) cause, and 3) effect.]
L7: [i) The correct reasonings of dependence of the fruition on the cause and productive action,]
L8: [a. The main subject:]
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\ If all the assembly of causes is there,
\ Their productive action produces the fruition.
\ However many individual fruitions there may be,
\ Each depends on its own cause.
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L8: [Second [purpose?]]
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\ Therefore in regard to these causes and fruitions
\ Knowing the way in which they exist and do not exist,
\ Since by that they can be made to start and stop, 199
\ The arts and such 200 and doctrines all have this as their root.
\ Therefore these arts and doctrines have been gathered together,
\ As helpful advice 201 within the world and beyond the world.
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L7: [ii) Second, the correct reasoning of nature is explained in two ways by means of the relative, appearance, and by means of the absolute, emptiness.]
L8: [1) First, The explanation by relative appearance]
L9: [First, The main topic:]
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\ Having arisen interdependently
\ All dharmas, by their own natures,
\ Each have their individually existing characteristics.
\ Solidity, moisture, heat, and so forth
\ These conventional natures have no falsity.
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L9: [Second, The classifications]
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\ Within a single dharma are also various dharmas.
\ Conventional terms that establish and eliminate
\ Distinguish limitless classifications of different objects.
\ Each of these exists with 216 its own particular nature.
\ By perception these objects are completely grasped.
\ By means of what characteristics pertain to each of these
\ Dharmas have their different characterizations.
\ Joined and distinguished by conceptual mind.
\ Knowables are to be understood. 217 from these two kinds:
\ Real substantial things 218 and imputed characteristics 219
\ From that come the classifications of many complexities.
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L8: [2) Second explanation by means of the absolute:]
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\ Thus the dharmas whose essence is cause and its fruition
\ If they are rightly apprehended and analyzed,
\ They are not conceived as having been produced,
\ And so they also do not arise dependently.
\ Even though each appears according to its own essence,
\ The essence of all of these alike is emptiness, 230
\ Dharmadhatu possessing the three marks of liberation,
\ They are dharmata, the absolute nature of things.
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L8: [3) Third, The summary of the essence:]
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\ Production and dependence
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\ Since they are the nature of things themselves,
\ As for the end of correct reasoning,
\ When the nature 237 is reached, no reason is sought.
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L5: [2.2.2.2.2. Second, The reasoning of suitable establishing]
L6: [2.2.2.2.2.A. First, the brief teaching:]
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\ When something has been evaluated
\ According to the nature of the two truths,
\ Since it is established by the power of the thing itself,
\ This is the correct reasoning of suitable establishing.
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\ As it appears and as it exists
\ Its own essence is directly perceived.
\ Or depending on perceived appearances,
\ Without deception, other things are inferred.
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L6: [2.2.2.2.2.B. Second Suitable establishing of perception and inference]
L7: [i. Suitable establishing of perception]
L8: [1) the general teaching:]
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\ The classification of perception is four-fold:
\ There are the perceptions of non-confused sense and mind,
\ Those of self-awareness, and the perception of yoga.
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\ Their objects appear as individual characteristics.
\ Therefore they are always non-conceptual.
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\ If there is no perception, then there are no signs
\ Because there are no signs, there is no inference.
\ Things arising from cause, and cessation of such things,
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\ All these appearances would be impossible.
\ If it is like that, their emptiness and such,
\ Depending on what could they be possibly known?
\ Therefore, without depending on the conventional,
\ The absolute as well will never be realized.
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L8: [2) The explanation of the particular]
L9: [First, Sense perception:]
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\ By whatever mind-events 283 have arisen from the five senses
\ Apprehension 284 of their objects is experienced.
\ Without this sense perception, objects would not be seen,
\ As they are not in the case of those who are blind, and so forth.
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L9: [Second, Mental perception:]
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\ Of outer and inner objects that rise from the mental sense
\ Mental perception is the drawer of clear distinctions.
\ Without this mental perception all the dharmas would be
\ Without the knowledge of ordinary understanding.
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L9: [Third, yogic direct perception:]
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\ Meditating well according to the instructions
\ One apprehends experience of the ultimate as our object.
\ If there is not this kind of yogic direct perception,
\ We will not see the real beyond the everyday.
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L9: [Fourth, self-awareness:]
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\ Just as perceived experience of form cuts through distortion.
\ If such experience exists regarding our own mind,
\ Knowing that, we will not meet the existence of other.
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\ Therefore by the essence, gsal rig, luminous insight,
\ Aware of objects 295 is of the nature of oneself,
\ Self-apprehension, rang gsal, is without dependence.
\ This is what is meant by terms like self-awareness. 296
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\ That which is experienced by the other perceptions,
\ Being ascertained to be perception itself
\ Is the work of self-awareness. If that dod not exist,
\ No other modes of perceiving could establish anything.
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L8: [3) Third, the summary of the meaning:]
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\ Inference has perception existing as its root.
\ Perception in turn is ascertained by self-awareness.
\ Once experience by unconfused mind is reached,
\ There is no other establisher than that alone.
\ Therefore, for whomever relies on pure perception,
\ Unconfused and free from all conceptualization,
\ From whatever dharmas may be manifested
\ Exaggeration will be completely cleared away.
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L7: [ii. Second Inference]
L8: [The essence]
L9: [First, the mind that infers]
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\ After the universal marks 308 of things are fully grasped,
\ By being mixed with names, they are understood. 309
\ This is called conceptual mind, and by its concepts
\ Various conventions are proliferated.
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\ Even for persons who do not know linguistic symbols
\ Universal characteristics appear within their minds.
\ Mixable with names, conceptions such as these
\ Produce engagement and disengagement 310 with their objects.
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\ If there were no such thing as this conceptual mind,
\ There would be no conventional statements and denials.
\ Any kind of teaching would be impossible.
\ Of inference or of any subjects of learning and study.
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\ By concepts we can deal with the future and so forth.
\ We evaluate and establish what is not evident.
\ If there were conceptions, but no inference,
\ We would be like children who are newly born.
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L9: [Second, the signs from which inferences are made:]
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\ That relying on which something can be understood
\ Is that which is known as the reason or the sign of inference.
\ There are also the presence of the dharma in the subject
\ And the forward entailment and reversed entailment.
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\ The three modes are complete, there is no confusion.
\ From reasons or signs that are resolved by perception
\ That which is hidden can thereby be inferred.
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\ By the power of relations what is to be established,
\ In fruition will be established, and its nature, the reason,
\ Will be a reason such that by non-observation
\ Or that whose conception is contradictory with that,
\ That which is to be refuted, has been refuted.
\ Thus the three reasons will be purified.
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L9: [Third how to make inferences]
L10: [First, classifications of how to make inferences in terms of what is to be analyzed:]
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\ All that truly appears
\ Is therefore primordial equality, and
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\ By continua that are pure, since purity is seen,
\ One abides in possession of the nature in purity.
\ In dependence on things there is sure to be arising.
\ In dependence on non-things there is sure to be imputation.
\ Therefore things and non-things, are by nature emptiness.
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\ The actual natural state is the basis of emptiness;
\ And since it is not something different from emptiness,
\ Inseparable appearance/ emptiness is inexpressible.
\ It has to be apprehended by personal experience. 394
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L10: [Second, how to make inferences in terms of the manner of establishing:]
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\ As many aspects of assertion as there may be
\ May all be summarized under “has” and “is.”
\ As many aspects of negation as there may be
\ May all be summarized under “has not” and “is not.”
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L10: [Third, how to make inferences in terms of the manner of engagement:]
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\ Depending on pramana, after classification
\ Of assertions and denials has been properly ascertained,
\ Then moreover, in accord with correct reasoning,
\ Establishments and refutations are expounded.
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\ As for refutation, there are three classifications,
\ These are reasons established by asserting one’s own thesis,403
\ Those depending on proclamations of another,
\ And refutation that states the consequence of a position.
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L8: [Second, within the divisions of apparent refutation,]
L9: [First, The actual presentation of apparent refutation]
L10: [First, Conventional pramana:]
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\ The way that things appear within the conventional
\ Does not coincide, with the way things really are.
\ There are two pramanas of all the conventional.
\ These depend on the impure seeing of this side
\ And pure vision, as with the human and deva eye.
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\ These two are distinguished in essence, cause, fruition, and action.
\ The mind that is not deceived about temporary objects
\ Arises from having properly grasped its appropriate object.
\ Clearing exaggeration from objects perceived on this side,
\ It will completely grasp the meaning of situations.
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\ Vast wisdom arises from having perception of the nature.
\ Clearing exaggeration from inconceivable objects,
\ It has as its fruition the knowledge of extent.
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\ In the pramana that analyzes conventional truth
\ Are conventional pramana of impure seeing of this side
\ And conventional pramana of the pure seeing of the aryas.
\ The only proper thing is to make this distinction early.
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L10: [Second [the pramana that examines the absolute]:]
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\ Within the absolute there are also two divisions,
\ The accountable and the unaccountable absolute.
\ The pramana that analyzes for absolute truth
\ That evaluates these two is also of two kinds.
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L9: [Second, the summary of the meaning]
L8: [Third, as for abandoning contention]
L9: [First, the general teaching of abandoning contention]
L10: [First, abandoning contention about what is impossible:]
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\ Mind with thoughts or mind that is without any thoughts,
\ As with two moons, 424 or dreaming, or taking a rope for a snake,
\ Has confused aspects and aspects that are unconfused.
\ There is the classification of pramana and non-pramana.
\ If there is no pramana and no non-pramana,
\ Since it will never be possible to make the valid distinction
\ That the confused is false and the non-confused is true,
\ Established doctrine will not be able to exist.
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L10: [Second, abandoning contention about what is unestablished:]
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\ If we have genuinely examined and analyzed
\ Pramana and non-pramana of perception and inference,
\ Whatever sorts of classifications there may be,
\ And whatever sorts of complexities may occur in those,
\ These are all established as emptiness of essence. 426
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\ There is freedom from all complexities like the heat of fire,
\ Yet all that exists as conventional complexity,
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\ is inseparable with this as appearance/ emptiness.
\ Within all dharmas, upaya is found mixed with its source.
\ We cannot refute the one and still establish the other.
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L10: [Third, abandoning contention about what is unnecessary:]
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\ Not examining pramana and non-pramana,
\ Only by worldly seeing, might we enter the absolute?
\ Indeed, the possibility cannot be refuted.
\ But as for those who see that “This arises from that,”
\ By this very dependence on the world’s perception
\ There is inference that penetrates to the truth,
\ They do not use its name, but have not abandoned truth.
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L9: [Second [the particulars]]
L10: [First, abandoning contention in conventional analysis:]
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\ If there were not the two conventional pramanas,
\ The noble ones’ pure seeing would have to be called false.
\ Impure seeing of a white conch as yellow
\ Would then not properly be either true or false.
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L10: [Second, abandoning contention in absolute analysis:]
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\ If absolute analysis were not two-fold in nature,
\ The union of the two truths could never come about.
\ The absolute would fall into extremes of concepts,
\ And it would destroy itself by doing so.
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L10: [Third, the common summary:]
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\ If the relative, what is analyzed, is unestablished,
\ The analyzing mind, and self awareness too,
\ When analyzed, are not established, like the moon in water.
\ The ultimate truth, which is inseparable, single truth
\ Exists as nirvana, unqualified reality. 430
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\ Since all dharmas whatever are that ultimate,
\ It is the inseparable kaya of knowledge and knowables,
\ Appearance for wisdom free from any center or limit.
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L5: [2.2.2.2.3. Second, the action of the kayas and wisdoms, the four reliances]
L6: [First, the general teaching:]
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\ Those in whom this vast profound good eye of prajna
\ Has opened are the children of the Sugata.
\ From these beings who are of great intelligence 432
\ The path on which they go ought to be well discerned.
\ This is the way of the sutra and the mantra vehicles,
\ Which is so hard to attain within the diversions of time,
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\ Therefore let us not make it into something fruitless.
\ Those of brilliant intelligence who have the four reasonings,
\ Never abandon 433 others. By this discrimination,
\ The four reliances will certainly be produced.
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\ If we do not have an attitude like this,
\ It is like a blind man leaning on his staff.
\ Due to opinion and words, and easy understanding,
\ We will misunderstand the four reliances.
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L6: [Second, the four reliances,]
L7: [The first [reliance] is RELYING ON THE DHARMA, NOT THE INDIVIDUAL:]
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\ Therefore, do not rely on individuals.
\ It is the holy Dharma that we should rely upon.
\ One is liberated by the speaking, not the speaker,
\ Of the true path established by proper reasoning.
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\ If it has been properly taught by anyone,
\ It will do its job whoever the speaker may be.
\ The Sugata himself by his power of taming
\ Emanated as butchers and similar kinds of people.
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\ If the teachings contradict the meaning of Mahayana,
\ The seeming teacher, however good, will not succeed.
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L7: [Second [reliance]:]
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\ Even when we have heard and contemplated the Dharma,
\ Do not rely on the words, rely instead on the meaning.
\ If we realize the meaning, whatever words we say,
\ There will be no contradiction in what is said.
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\ Desiring verbal expressions to realize their meaning.
\ Understand them in terms of the meaning of their message.
\ Busying oneself with verbal complexities
\ Is like searching for an elephant we have already found.
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\ If wanting words, we go our way with merely words,
\ Discursive thoughts are not exhausted, but increase.
\ Becoming farther and farther removed from the actual meaning,
\ Is the cause of silly fools’ completely exhausting themselves.
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\ Yet even a single word, a little “and” or “but,”
\ If it reveals that the object, is inexhaustible,
\ By this alone and nothing more there will be suchness.
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\ This is the exhaustion of any need for words.
\ If a finger points to the moon, a fool looks at the finger.
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\ If fools depend on words alone and think they know,
\ The time of really knowing is difficult to find.
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L7: [Third [reliance]:]
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\ If we enter fully into the meaning of this,
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\ Having come to know the true and provisional meanings,
\ Not putting our reliance on the provisional meaning,
\ Instead we should rely on the meaning that is true.
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\ The omniscient one himself by using his omniscience,
\ Considers the powers and abilities of those to be tamed.
\ As for the stages and vehicles being in accord with those,
\ They are taught to be like the rungs of a ladder.
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\ Whoever has realized what is their basic intention 446
\ Then goes by the eight concealed intentions and intentions.
\ Going literally by pramana Is something to be destroyed.
\ The teachings exist for that reason. In the four schools of doctrine
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\ And in the vehicles up to the ultimate vajra vehicle,
\ Parts that are not understood by the lower ones
\ Have been explained by the higher ones.
\ Then what accords with scripture is made even greater by reason.
\ When it has been seen, the true meaning will be grasped.
\ Like milk rising out of water, is the play of supreme intelligence
\ Within the ocean of speech of all the victorious ones.
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\ The profundity of Vajrayana is also sealed
\ With six extremes and four ways of interpreting, 447
\ With the accompaniment the lineage instructions,
\ By undefiled correct reasoning they must be resolved.
\ All dharmas, eternally pure, are one in the great equality.
\ That is the meaning resolved by the two authentic pramanas
\ In the style of the paramitas, and of the developing stage,
\ The perfecting stage and also that of the great perfection;
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\ In these manners the general designation of words
\ Enters into the ultimate pith without contradiction.
\ We gain the deepest certainty about their meaning.
\ That limitless Dharma treasure of supreme intelligence,
\ Is the victory banner of teachings of scripture and realization
\ That waves in the hands of the children of the Victorious One.
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L7: [Fourth [reliance]:]
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\ If we practice the true meaning, we do not rely on consciousness,
\ The mind of grasper and grasped that follows verbal concepts,
\ Instead we put our reliance in non-dual wisdom itself.
\ As for the ego that has an object–that is mind.
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\ Its nature is the grasper and the object grasped.
\ Whatever object it has, it is always false.
\ The reality of nature has nothing to do with things.
\ Conceiving things or non-things, with duality or without,
\ All conceptual objects, however they are conceived,
\ Whatever may be grasped, belongs to the realm of Mara.
\ So it has been taught by the Buddha in the sutras.
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\ Denials or assertions can never destroy conceptions;
\ But if it is seen that there is no adding or taking away,
\ There is liberation, free from subject and object.
\ There is the natural radiance of luminosity.
\ Eliminating complexities of the four extremes,
\ This is taught to be the excellence of wisdom.
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\ To the fool who has never seen it, it is like the sun to the blind,
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\ They do not know it, but even from trying to think about it
\ Panic arises in the minds of fools like these.
\ Nevertheless by the power of authentic scriptural teachings,
.
\ By valid reasoning that eliminates all extremes,
\ And by the oral instructions given by the guru
\ It seems to us as if just now we first had eyes.
\ Then by the faith of experience of the Sugata’s Dharma-amrita,
\ Which is just a name for limitless expanding joy,
\ The wisdom of the Sugata is bestowed on us.
\ Since dharmas without remainder have reached the goal, equality,
\ One attains inexpressible depths of certainty.
.
\ The wise call this the inexhaustible Dharma treasure.
\ Having developed skill in the way of the two truths,
\ When the two truths are seen to be a unity
\ It is like threshing the husk for the sake of having the essence.
\ Know that all skillful means lead only to this end 480
\ Therefore, the Sugata, knowing these skillful means,
\ Referred to this as the genuine path of all skillful means.
.
\ Let irreversible faith arise for Teacher and teaching.
\ Having attained the supreme, non-dwelling state of wisdom,
\ We are free from all the extremes of samsara and nirvana.
\ The spontaneous flow of the stream of effortless compassion
\ Pervades to the farthest limits of time as well as space.
.

L5: [2.2.2.2.4. Third, the explanation of the eight great treasures of confidence in the fruition:]
.
\ Thus contemplating the way of the dharma of the two truths,
\ Using the skillful means of the four reliances,
\ The action of which is taught as the four correct reasonings;
\ From this undefiled 483 cause, by the deep wisdom of fruition,
\ If the phenomena of experience blossom forth;
\ One is set free by the eight great treasures of confidence.
\ That bring about this expansion into the space of insight.
.
\ Traditions that were formerly heard and contemplated,
\ Not forgotten, then become the treasure of memory.
\ The meaning of these, as profound as it is extensive,
\ Is then completely revealed as the treasure of intellect.
\ All the meanings of the sutras and the tantras
\ Are entered into as the treasure of realization.
.
\ All the details of the teachings we have heard
\ Never forgotten become the treasure of retention.
\ Explaining things properly to all sentient beings
\ Is the satisfaction-producing treasure of confidence.
\ As for the precious treasury of holy Dharma,
\ Completely guarded, this becomes the Dharma treasure.
\ The continuous families comprising the three jewels
\ Not cut off, are the treasury of bodhicitta.
\ In the unborn equality of the nature itself,
\ Attaining patience manifests as the treasure of practice.
\ These are inseparable and inexhaustible.
\ Those who attain the eight-fold power of the treasures of confidence,
\ As praised by the victorious ones and all their sons,
\ Over the three worlds they are empowered as lords.
.
L3: [2.2.3. Third, the teaching of the fruition of analyzing in this way:]
.
\ To gain pramana is the teaching of the Buddha.
\ If true authentic pramana has fully been established,
\ Through the certainty produced by the path of pramana,
\ By the teaching of pramana, we see the truth of fruition.
.

L2: [2.3 Finally, there are the two sections of the meaning of entering into the merit of this,]
L3: [2.3.1. First, the manner of composition:]
.
\ As a result of vision that is completely pure
\ One will reach the ultimate goal, the great compassion.
\ The Sugata said, after this path had been taught by him,
\ “As for the taste of amrita of that which I attained
.
\ Those who are possessors of these four proper reasonings
\ Experienced by the means of the four reliances,
\ Produce by that the fortune of sharing that amrita.”
\ Corrupted nowadays, by the power of the dark age,
\ Due to its way of reversing the four reliances,
\ The excellent taste of the teachings is hard to experience.
\ Having seen it, have an attitude of devotion
\ To this the finest of thoughts, the most excellent of teachings.
.
L3: [2.3.2. Second, the dedication of merit:]
.
\ Producing undefiled prajna from contemplating this,
\ By the merit embodied within this brief expression
\ My all beings come to abide in the state of Manjushri
.
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.

L1: [3. Third, the completely perfect, ultimate meaning:]
.
\ In the direction manifesting the sun of Manjushri,
\ If the lotus of the essence blooms because of faith,
\ By the red honey droplets of good explanation having arisen
\ May celebration increase for the bees of the excellent kalpa.
.
L2: [The colophon]
.
\ When these, my good explanations, have been contemplated,
\ May various great and subtle doubts unwind themselves.
\ May total certainty rise by supremely clear intellect,
\ Bestowing the treasures of inexhaustible confidence.
.
\ fire horse year, fourth month, fourth day.
.
\ Again this is said:
.
\ By the excellent teacher, the chief of two legged beings,
\ As for the natural state of knowing things without mixing,
\ The great knowledge mandala of the nature and extent
\ Seemingly emanating a hundred thousand rays,
\ The all-pervading light of the objectless compassion,
\ According with the powers and thoughts of those to be tamed,
\ Proclaiming the eighty-four thousands heaps of dharmas as one.
\ From the thick darkness of ignorance that makes them fall asleep
\ May the beings of the three worlds instantly be exalted.
.
\ Good in beginning, middle, and end, this excellent teaching,
\ Has the two-fold goodness and the four pure actions.
\ In the great ocean of amrita of this auspicious teaching,
\ There is seen the play of 10 million naga lords,
\ The learned accomplished ones of India and Tibet,
\ A country of valleys wreathed by surrounding snowy mountains.
\ Led by the three ancestral leaders, and khenpo, loppàn, and Dharma
\ The golden chariot of arousing bodhicitta
\ Is full of ten million rigdzins of the two accomplishments.
.
\ From now on possessors of the special six Dharmas
\ As the legacy of the ten million former rigdzins
\ Learned and accomplished, who have now passed on,
\ The difficult pith of the sutras, tantras, and oral instructions,486
\ The vajra vidya mantra tradition of joyful teachers
\ Is the play of the dance of the saffron lion of all teachers.
.
\ The three realms’ Dharma lord, jamgon guru Mipham,
\ From a meadow by the lake of play of supreme learning 487
\ From the welcome single circle the wheel 488 of the deepest sense,
\ With its day-producing power like the sun,
\ On the non-deceptive path of freedom and omniscience
\ May there gleam white parasol of pramana. 489
.
\ Within the circle of the two truths of the nine-fold vehicles,
\ May the retinue, the eighty-four thousand teachings,
\ Free from stain, amidst the great thousand petalled lotus
\ The explanation of teachings of the Victorious One,
\ Satisfy with the anthers of the four proper reasonings.
.
\ By interdependent arising, the essence of knowables,
\ Having the great vase of well-described analysis
\ Of the two pramanas, in the ocean of excellent teaching,
\ With the analysis of the two conventional pramanas,
\ Their insight flashing 490 auspiciously like the golden fish,
\ The nine-fold lineage precepts, coiled to the right,
\ May the dharma conch of the four reliances pleasantly sound.
.
\ From the pure and equal wisdom of the net of miracles,
\ Eight treasures of confidence gather into a knot of eternity,
\ The completely certain meaning of the sutras and tantras
\ May this victory banner the Sword of Prajna fly in samsara.
.
\ Within the vast and extensive ocean of all dharmas,
\ May those who want to sever at once the hundred nets,
\ The snares of non-realization, wrong realization, and doubt,
\ Grasp this thought-arisen razor-sharp Sword of Prajna.
.
\ Thus while staying in the great place of Varanasi,
\ In the Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies,
\ Being well-supplied with the needed Tibetan texts,
\ Since this is my own tradition, to benefit some new minds
.
\ By the kind teacher Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche
\ Quickly written, by the guru’s oral dictation,
\ With ornamentation by learned treatises of pramana,
\ He followed the early translation, a knower of ancient haughtiness
.
\ The supreme instructions of prajna, he arranged in the boldest style 491
\ I, by intellect, as narrow as the eye of a needle,
\ For the sake of good explanation as extensive as the sky
.
\ By the supreme and spotless merit of doing this
\ Having illuminated the thick darkness within all beings,
\ May they attain the ultimate level of omniscience,
\ Great prajna whose vision is the suchness of knowables.
.
\ Here within the extent of the limits of Jambudvipa,
\ The rain-clouds of the true view are gathering.
\ May rains of the benefits of loving-kindness fall,
\ May there be the perfect auspiciousness of the new young sun.
.
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[End]