ཚགས་ས་བཅད་པ་བཞ་པ intro: 84000's introduction
The Four Stanzas intro
- Language
- English
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.