This is the whole fourth immeasurable. One possible translation is below, but based on the earlier postings you could actually put together your own personal translation!
May all live in equanimity, free from attachment and aversion towards near and far ones.
To add my notes, all means all, including bigger and smaller animals you encounter, even things like snakes, spiders, nasty dogs and so on.
This is the whole third immeasurable. A typical translation is something like this:
Maybe all sentient beings never be separated from the bliss without sorrow.
As mentioned earlier, this is the code word for bliss that enlightened beings experience. It is the only form of bliss that is not tainted, compared with samsaric bliss that has to end at some point. The only reason samsaric bliss was in first place was specific good deeds in the past that created the causes for this bliss.
Fortunately, there are ways to create this sorrowless bliss that will never cease.
This is the whole second immeasurable: may all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering.
The sufferings could be classified into three kinds, sdug bsngal gsum:
sdug sgnal gi sgud bsngal, the suffering of suffering. This is ordinary suffering, headaches, cold, sore throat and so on.
'gyur ba'i sdug bsngal, the suffering of change. This is based on wrong world views where the assertion is that nothing will change, a new car will always be new, the new job will always be rosy, and so on.
'du byed kyi sdug bsngal, the all-persistent suffering. This is stuck in samsara, where all the sufferings are present.
So the second immeasurable is to wish and act that all sentient beings are free from these sufferings.
So here's the first line of the four immeasurables: May all sentient beings have happiness and the causes of happiness.
This is the limitless loving-kindness aspiration as well as activity, to make sure all sentient beings, whoever they are, known or unknown, friend or foe, that they all should be happy and have all the causes of happiness. The amount of sentient beings is limitless, so the karma created from this thinking and action is also limitless.
So how do we know what the chapter names are? In this text the chapter titles are defined at the end of each chapter.
One way to quickly find where an important section ends, and the next one starts, is to look for the double shah endings. You could see them on the third line.
Secondly if you go backwards from this, it says le'u dang po'o. le'u means chapter, and dang po means first. So this has to do with the first chapter.
ste is a connecting particle, so it connects the first chapter with somehing to the left.
zhes bya ba means known as, or the title. Ok, we are getting somewhere!
byang chub sems is bodhichitta, kyi binds this with the next to the right, phan yon is benefits.
bshad pa is explanations.
So we got the chapter title translated: The first chapter's title is explaining the benefits of bodhichitta. You could do similar searches in the rest of the text and find the other chapters, as well as the titles for each chapter.
The first line is the title of the text -- that we have gone through -- and the last word on the first line is the particle las, from.
After the homage the actual verses start. Notice that we don't have titles telling that this is the first chapter, or who the author was -- more about this in later postings.
The verses are typically based on a shloka that has four lines (padas). The other way to break down the verses is to find out that the last word usually is an ending verb such as bya (to do), and not a binding particle, or something that implies that the next line is connected with the current line. But just now it's easy to just take four lines, make sure the last word makes sense as an ending word, and this way break down the text in order to see how various translators have translated it.
We will not translate this verse, the best is to look at existing translations such as Alex Berzin's online version to see how the verses are translated. Okey, here's that translation of the first shloka!
(1) Respectfully, I prostrate to the Blissfully Gone (Buddhas) endowed with Dharmakaya,
As well as to their (bodhisattva) offspring and to everyone worthy of prostration.
Let me explain (how to) engage in the Blissfully Gone offsprings' code,
Which I’ve compiled and condensed in accord with Buddhas’ words.
Next is the homage, this is a classification system ordered by the Tibetan king Ralpachen long time ago, a way to define the classification of the text that is translated or composed. This text belongs to the sutra basket (sutra-pitaka) so the homage is to Buddhas and bodhisattvas. The reason is that Buddha taught sutra as a question and answer session with bodhisattvas!
The other reason writers pay homage in the beginning is to ensure that they could complete the text without obstacles.
sangs rgyas is buddhas -- note again that there's no plural but later you will see why this is plural.
dang is the binding particle.
byang chub sems dpa' is bodhisattvas.
thams cad is all, so this is where the plural came fom.
la is the oblique particle, pointing at something from the right to the left.
phyag 'tshal is to pay homage, prostrate, relate to something, requesting the same realizations and qualities as the object one is prostrating towards, getting inspiration. As this is here a complete sentence, the verb is ended with a lo.
Parts of Khenpo Kunpal's excellent commentary of this text, translated by Andreas Kretschmar, is available here. Especially the introduction is fascinating, it goes through the history and lineages of various presentations of Bodhisattva Way of Life in India and Tibet.
Here's the translation of this famous 55:th verse from the tenth chapter of Shantideva's Bodhisattva way of life. I'm using the translation by Alex Berzin:
(55) For as long as space remains,
And for as long as wandering beings remain,
May I too remain for that long,
Dispelling the sufferings of wandering beings.
You could actually take this translation -- or any of the other ones -- and compare it with the actual Tibetan text, for example the version available from ACIP.
We will actually look through this text next, so you will learn how to navigate around it.
Next, let's take a verse from Shantideva's Bodhisattva Way of Life that HH Dalai Lama is very fond of, and is often quoting. This has to do with the mind of enlightenment, or byang chub kyi sems, bodhichitta.
There are actually two forms of byang chub kyi sems, the first one is smon pa'i byang chub kyi sems, aspirational bodhichitta. This form is agreeing and supporting the ideals of benefiting all sentient beings -- in other words, you like the concept, and support it. smon pa means aspiration.
The other form is 'jug pa'i byang chub kyi sems - engaged bodhichitta. The person is actually working each moment with the bodhisattva ideal, benefiting all sentient beings. 'jug pa means to engage.
The four verses will be presented as four entries, with just the word translations explained, and it will be your job to figure out the translation. The full translation of all four verses will be given at the end.
PS: Here's the full Shantideva Bodhisattva Way of Life text from ACIP.
I just saw that my friend Erik Schmidt uploaded the famous Shantideva dedication about the precious and supreme bodhichitta up on www.dharmadictionary.net. And I added links in the verse back to the dictionary itself.
This verse is very profound, it is used in many occasions to dedicate merit, and so on. It's actually worth memorizing.
But study the words and the verse, as it has many good words to learn, and the two translation examples below in the same page also shows how it's translated.
I just added the Freedom from the Four Attachments Tibetan Lo Jong quote to the dharmadictionary, so anyone interested to see how it's put together, click on the Tibetan words and see the entries in the dictionary. From now I will add more quotes into the quote database in this format, so anyone who wants to learn could quickly see how the quotes are translated.
See this dharmadictionary page I just created that has the definition of Abhidharma by Vasubandhu, from Abhidharma Kosha. I added links of the Tibetan words to the dictionary, so you could follow along this short one-liner and learn new words, and other Abhidharma terms.
One way to learn more how translations are done is to study various quotations.
Now, over at www.dharmadictionary.net there's a new section for quotations. Some of us have uploaded various quotations, and there's more in the pipeline. Furthermore, we will try to link the various words and constructs back to the actual Tibetan dictionary itself, so you could easily puzzle together how the translation was done.
I will try to upload a couple of mor quotations this weekend, and more along the way, so check out this place from time to time -- I like doing multitasking, i.e. this way it serves multiple purposes.
Final verse of the famous four-verse statement by Nagarjuna.
de la - for those
thams cad - everything
mi rung - not possible
'gyur - become (passive Sanskrit form used in Tibetan).
Or, going back to the third verse: those for whom emptiness is not possible.
And this fourth line then: for them everything is not possible.
Or, going back to the third verse: those for whom emptiness is not possible.
And this fourth line then: for them everything is not possible.
So, for those with a world view, lta ba, that does not accept dependent origination, causality, or things lacking self-existence, they have in place boundaries. There are no ways to remove such boundaries, such as purifying one's mind so it's free from any mental suffering and obstructions to all-knowing. This is for example the justification why a limitless amount of time makes it possible to remove any possible mental block and suffering, and cultivate each and every positive good quality, including knowing everything. In other words, the work a Bodhisattva needs to do could be done.
All this just by logically realizing that the world is based on lack of self-existence, or it's all interconnected.
Funny, while I'm writing this iTunes on my computer plays "Sowing the Seeds of Love" with Tears for Fears.
The next verse talks about the opposite world view, lta ba, of not accepting emptiness and dependent origination.
gang la as mentioned was for those in this context.
stong nyid is an example of telegram-Tibetan where the word is stong nyid, but it implies stong pa nyid, emptiness. All this to fit into the seven-syllable verse format.
rung ba is possible, but note the mi in front, this is a negation, so the verb negates, is not possible. mi also means human being, in Sanskrit manushya. But when looking at the context, such as seeing mi in front of a verb, in most cases it's a negation.
Anyway, if you memorized the first verse, it should be dead-easy to memorize the third one, too. It's actually very, very good to memorize verses -- by this you get the patterns burned into your mind, and you could see more words and sentences when reading arbitrary Tibetan texts.
This is the next line in the verse. First let's go through it, and then combine it with the previous line.
de la is for those. The normal translation for de la is in this regard, or that is to say. However, the previous verse talked about those, so it's best to bind this back to the same group, and translate this also as for those. It's not so straight-forward to just drop in words and sentences, even if such translations kind of works (fora while, then such translations are not very lively).
thams cad means everything, all, in sanskrit sarva.
rung bar is rung ba with an ending r particle. rung ba is suitable, possible. The r particle here is a general subordination particle. Any words ending with a vowels such as rung ba and the ' letter will get this particle in form of an r. The general subordination particle indicates relationships, a meaning between two parts, such as the verb rung ba, and the following verb 'gyur. As a quick translation, use the word as to start with.
'gyur means become. It's a very common verb -- the Tibetans used this word to translate Sanskrit passive verbs. So it indicates a passive action. Especially in verse form it's easy to sneak in a 'gyur to make the verse a seven-syllable format.
To recap the first verse: For whom emptiness is possible.
The second verse then is: For those everything is possible.
The following verses will point out the opposite world view, lta ba, that does not take into account dependent origination, or emptiness.
Note that in a world view of stong pa, then there are not restrictions or any boundaries, there are enlightened beings, nagas, other realms, karma, bodhichitta, inner channels, bardo states, other planets and civilizations, you name or imagine it. The only issue is if a specific mind could experience such things or not.
Ok, let's look at the first part of the verse about emptiness by Nagarjuna. We've gone through these words before, so it should be easy.
gang la is for whom.
stong pa nyid is emptiness.
rung ba is possible.
Or, translated: For whom emptiness is possible.
The next verse is then the punch line stating more about this first assertion.
Remember that emptiness and dependent origination is two sides of the same coin. That will be important when understanding the commentaries around this verse.
Ok, let's tackle the second sentence in the commentary about the starting verses of the chaper of wisdom.
I must confess that I'm not that happy with my rough translation -- but to keep this realistic it's very common that it takes a long time before a translation is fully settled down with. A common reason -- as also in this case -- is lack of context. To fully translate a text, you need a common understanding of the topic, as well as possibly translating the text from beginning, or looking at the original commentary upon a specific commentary is based upon. You will see soon what I'm talking about.
Anyway, it's worth trying, and feedback is most definitely appreciated. To recap, we are dealing with the definition of why wisdom is much more important than either the previous perfection, or all the five perfections.
sbyin sogs par is giving and the rest, with the ending r being a subordination particle.
Let's skip to the end! 'chad pa'i lugs gnyis las means from the two traditions of explanations. This is where it becomes tricky, what are the two traditions? Earlier context might have given us the clue to this part...
Back to the beginning part, phyin lhag ma means the remaining perfections. thams cad la - to all those.
Puzzling all this together: In the two traditions of explanations this is referring to giving and the other five perfections.
Phew. Let's do Nagarjuna emptiness root verses next!
Here's the first sentence of the Khedrup Je commentary about the opening lines of Master Shantideva's Bodhisattva Way of Life, Wisdom (ninth) chapter. We have gone through the words in previous blog entries, so now here's an attempt to make a cohesive sentence from this.
First a rough block-by-block sentence breakdown that usually does not make sense.
yan lag 'di di dag was these branches. ces pa means like that. le'u brgyad pa is chapter eight. nas is from, binding all this on the left with something to the right. bshad pa'i zhi gnas is single-pointed meditation teachings. tsam is merely. la is a particle, like a pointer, connecting things on the right with the left side. 'chad pa is explanation.
The end is dang, so it means there's more, but for this case we could just ignore the follow-up and use a whole sentence in English.
So, to really understand this is to make boxes around the two particles, nas and la, and connect things together, nothing that the verb is at the end.
Another rough translation pass is: These branches taught only to the practice of single-pointed meditation from the eight chapter like that.
To do a better pass on this. "These branches" are sometimes explained referring to the single-pointed meditation practice taught in the eight chapter.
This sentence could be reworked even more, but let's stop here and continue with the next sentence. I think this gave us a flavor of how there's a need to redo and rework on sentences while we translate them.
This is the opening lines in the ninth chapter of Master Shantideva's Bodhisattva Way of Life. You've seen the partial and the full translation before, but here's another translation of this verse.
The Able One has taught all these branches
For the sake of the Wisdom
This points out the importance of the Perfection of Wisdom, it is the tool that will perfect the other five perfections.
Now, how this is interpreted, especially what is meant with 'all these branches', is the next step. Root texts such as this one is short and to the point, and there's a need to further elucidate the meaning. There are many cases where even the author of the root text has written an auto-commentary based on the text.
Looking at this from a higher point of view, all the teachings about the Perfection of Wisdom are in the Sutras, but to understand those you need to read about it in the commentaries by Indian masters. To understand such commentaries you need a second level of a commentary, in the Tibetan tradition by a Tibetan master who further explains this. We will use Khedrub Je's commentary on Bodhisattva Way of Life to see how he explains this verse. At the same time you get a taste of how to read and translate commentary texts.
