Homage - Part 2

The beginning of the homage, in this Tibetan translation, and what the text pays homage to, is 'jam dpal gzhon nur gyur pa, Manjushri-kumara-bhuta. One English translation of this of many names of Manjushri is The Youthful Gentle Splendor.

'jam dpal is Manjushri, or Gentle Splendor. gzhon nur gyur pa is to become a youth, guyr pa is to become, gzhon nu is youthful, and the r in gzhon nur is a general subordination particle that organizes the right with the left. If there's something to be learned here is to always watch out for possible particles at the end of words, otherwise you will spend time trying to find words in a dictionary that are not present.

One way to interpret this homage is that Abhidharma is hard to understand, so paying homage to Manjushri is a way to pay homage to the highest wisdom ((see Jewel Ornament of Liberation Introduction.)

Another interesting interpretation is that when the texts where collected after the pari-nirvana of Buddha, Manjushri the bodhisattva recited the Abhidharma texts.

Also, in the classification system introduced by the Tibetan king Ralphachen, all Abhidharma texts should have this homage to classify them into the basket of Abhidharma.

Next, we will continue in the text, no worries, Abhidharma is not hard, it's actually fun!