The Four Stanzas
Translation of ཚགས་ས་བཅད་པ་བཞ་པ (ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ་བཞི་པ)
- Language
- English
- Translator
- Giuliano Proença
- Extent
- 28 passages, 1,140 words
- Text
- complete digital text
- Source
- 84000 · Published by 84000 (v 1.0.0 2025). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha,… · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha). Shown whole and unaltered, with its notes, on a…
Contents
- intro 84000's introduction — 7 parts
- 1
- 2
- notes Notes — 19 parts
Text
84000's introduction
intro.1
The Four Stanzas consists of six verses in total. It is a praise to the Buddha, to the places associated with his presence, and to stūpas. The praise itself comprises the first four verses, hence the text’s title. The last two verses explain the origin of the text and the benefits that accrue from its recitation.
intro.2
The Four Stanzas consists of six verses¹ and is a praise to the Buddha, to the places associated with his presence, and to stūpas. The praise itself comprises the first four verses, hence the text’s title. The last two verses explain the origin of the text and the benefits that accrue from its recitation.
intro.3
The Sanskrit text of The Four Stanzas is extant in several manuscripts from Nepal. Gergely Hidas edited one of these manuscripts as part of his edition of two dhāraṇī collections.² Kazuo Kano has also published a critical edition of the Sanskrit text of The Four Stanzas,³ together with a Japanese translation. The initial stanza in the extant Sanskrit versions differs from the Tibetan translation found in The Four Stanzas, but the Tibetan translation of the first verse in Jetāri’s Bodhicittotpādasamādānavidhi (Toh 3968) aligns perfectly with the Sanskrit. The earliest quotation of The Four Stanzas can be found in the Tibetan translation of Bhāviveka’s Tarkajvālā (Toh 3856), composed during the sixth century.⁴ This was followed by several quotations in other works.⁵
intro.4
Kano concludes that The Four Stanzas was part of a set of five texts used for recitation in India,⁶ which also included The Dhāraṇī of the Six Gates (Toh 141, 526, 916),⁷ The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī (Toh 143, 611, 918),⁸ The Single Stanza (Toh 323),⁹ and The Prayer of Good Conduct (Toh 1095, 4377).¹⁰ Initially, these five texts circulated individually. However, they had become popular in India as a set by the time of Advayavajra or Ratnākaraśānti (eleventh century) and were later incorporated into the dhāraṇī collections of Nepal.
intro.5
The Four Stanzas is found in the Sūtra section in all Kangyurs of the Tshalpa, Thempangma, and mixed lines, as well as in independent Kangyurs such as the Phukdrak manuscript and the Langdo collection. It is also included in some collections from Western Tibet.¹¹ It is not known who translated The Four Stanzas into Tibetan, for neither the colophons nor Tibetan historical works mention the translators.¹²
intro.6
The Tibetan scholar Tāranātha (1575–1634) composed a commentary on The Four Stanzas as well as sequential commentaries on three of the other five texts in the above-mentioned set,¹³ corroborating Kano’s view that these texts were seen as related.¹⁴ The importance of The Four Stanzas and the other texts in the set for recitation is evident, for in Tibet they are included in extracts from sūtra and tantra (gces btus), collected liturgical texts (chos spyod), collections of mantras and dhāraṇīs for recitation, and collections of sādhanas. They are also sometimes mentioned as texts for recitation in preliminary practices.
intro.7
This English translation is based on the Degé print and on Kano’s Sanskrit edition, in consultation with the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma), as well as the Phukdrak and the Stok Palace manuscripts. The most significant variants are mentioned in the notes.
1
Homage to the Three Jewels!
I pay homage to all victorious ones,
Those celebrated perfect buddhas,
And to their bodies
That possess the thirty-two supreme marks.¹⁵
Where the perfect buddhas were born,
Where they reached awakening,
Where they turned the wheel of peace,
2
Where they passed into parinirvāṇa, free from defilement,
Where those sugatas¹⁶ sat,
Where they walked and stood,
And where they slept like lions—
To all those places I bow.
I also bow to all stūpas,
With and without relics,
Above, in between, below,
And in the cardinal and intermediate directions.
These stanzas were uttered
By the victorious one Difficult to Follow,¹⁷
The best of humans,
Who dwells in the northeastern direction.¹⁸
Those who praise the tathāgatas
With these four stanzas
Will not go to the lower realms
For a thousand lifetimes.¹⁹
Notes
notes.1
1. The Yongle, Lithang, Kangxi, Narthang, and Choné Kangyurs omit one stanza.
notes.2
2. Cambridge manuscript Add.1680.8 (fragmentary, in palm leaf, ca. twelfth/thirteenth century). See Hidas 2021, p. 32.
notes.3
3. His sources are four manuscripts from Nepal, three on paper (one from 1792), and one palm leaf manuscript: Matsunami no. 419 (A.D.1792 = samvat 912), no. 202 (date unknown), NGMPP A131/9, and Asiatic Society of Bengal no. 9987. See Kano 2011, pp. 61–65.
notes.4
4. Bhāviveka was also called Bhāvaviveka and Bhavya. He flourished ca. 500–570.
notes.5
5. The text is also cited in Prajñākaramati’s Bodhicaryāvatārapañjikā (Toh 3872), Vitakarman’s Mudrācaturaṭīkāratnahṛdayanāma (Toh 2259), Rāmapāla’s Sekanirdeśapañjikā (Toh 2253), and Kṛṣṇa Paṇḍita’s Kṛṣṇayamāritantrarājāprekṣaṇapathapradīpanāmaṭīkā (Toh 1920).
notes.6
6. Kano concludes this by studying the sūtras listed in Ratnākaraśānti’s Muktāvalī (Toh 1189), Kāṇha’s Yogaratnamālā (Toh 1183), and Advayavajra’s Kudṛṣṭinirghātana, as well as by analyzing the structure of the Tibetan canonical collections, the Nepali collections of dhāraṇīs, and several Tibetan commentaries.
notes.7
7. Ṣaṇmukhīdhāraṇī , Toh 141, 526, 916.
notes.8
8. Gāthādvayadhāraṇī , Toh 143, 611, 918.
notes.9
9. Ekagāthā , Toh 323.
notes.10
10. Bhadracaryāpraṇidhāna , Toh 1095, 4377.
notes.11
11. The Gondhla, Egoo, Stagrimo, Stongde, Bardan, and Reruk collections.
notes.12
12. The Four Stanzas is not listed in the imperial catalogs, but it is included in Butön’s History of Buddhism. See Butön Rinchen Drup (bu ston rin chen grub), folio 161.b.
notes.13
13. The Dhāraṇī of the Six Gates (Toh 141, 526, 916), The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī (Toh 143, 611, 918), and The Single Stanza (Toh 323). See Jonang Jetsün Tāranātha (jo nang rje btsun tA ra nA tha), pp. 709–54.
notes.14
14. In the Phukdrak Kangyur, and in the Bardan, Stagrimo, and Stongde collections, The Single Stanza, The Four Stanzas, and The Two Stanza Dhāraṇī also appear in sequence. In the Bardan collection, The Prayer of Good Conduct comes before The Single Stanza, so that the four texts are grouped together.
notes.15
15. Kano’s Sanskrit edition reads sarvabuddhān namasyāmi jinān apratipudgalān/ śarīrāṇi ca sarveṣāṃ saṃbuddhānāṃ yaśasvinām: “I pay homage to all buddhas, the matchless victorious ones, and to the relics [or bodies] of all celebrated perfect buddhas.” This matches exactly the quotation of this stanza in the Tibetan translation of Jetāri’s Bodhicittotpādasamādānavidhi (Toh 3968): rgyal ba gang zag bla na med pa yi/ /sangs rgyas rnams ni thams cad dang/ /rdzogs pa’i sangs rgyas grags ldan pa/ /kun gyi sku la phyag ’tshal lo.
notes.16
16. Kano’s Sanskrit edition reads tathāgatāḥ.
notes.17
17. The Tibetan in most witnesses reads bsten dka’ (“Difficult to Follow”), except for Lhasa, which reads bstan dka’ (“Difficult to Teach”). Kano’s edition of the Sanskrit reads duṣprasava (“Difficult to Command”?). Hidas’s edition (p. 32) reads duṣprasaha (“Difficult to Bear”).
notes.18
18. This stanza is missing in Yongle, Lithang, Kangxi, Narthang, and Choné.
notes.19
19. The Sanskrit in Kano’s edition reads kalpakoṭisahasrebhir na te gacchanti durgatim, which corresponds to the Stok Palace Kangyur: bskal pa bye ba stong du ni/ de ni ngan ’gror ’gro mi ’gyur, and Phukdrak: bskal pa bye ba stong du yang/ de ni ngan ’gror ’gro mi ’gyur. “They will not go to the lower realms for ten billion eons.”