འཕགས་པ་འད་ཤས་བཅ་གཅག་བསྟན་པའ་མད intro.4

intro.4

The list of saṃjñā enumerated in these two sūtras appears to be unique in the Kangyur, but there are several other sets of ten saṃjñā that at least partially overlap with the set of eleven found here. These include those found in the Girimānanda Sutta (Aṅguttara Nikāya 10.60) of the Pali canon, a version of which was translated into Tibetan in the fourteenth century by Tharpa Lotsawa and Ānandaśrī of Lankā (The Sūtra of Giriyānanda, ri’i kun dga’ bo’i mdo, Toh 38), in the Mahā­parinirvāṇa Sūtra (Toh 119), and in the Artha­vistara­dharma­paryāya (Toh 318). To illustrate, The Sūtra of Giriyānanda enumerates ten saṃjñā to be taught to the monk for whom the sūtra is named, who is suffering from a severe illness. Those ten are those of impermanence, the lack of self, impurity (mi gtsang ba), impediments (bar du gcod pa), abandoning, being without desire (’dod chags), cessation, not delighting in any world, impermanence in all conditioning (’du byed), and mindfulness of in- and out-breathing. By contrast, the Mahā­parinirvāṇa Sūtra presents a list of ten saṃjñā that consists of impermanence, suffering, the lack of self, abandoning food (kha zas spong ba), nonattachment to any world, death, the many faults of wrongdoing (nyes pa’i skyon mang ba), abandoning, cessation, and the lack of craving (sred pa med pa). The Mahā­parinirvāṇa Sūtra prefaces its presentation of this list by saying that a bodhisattva great being, monk, nun, layman, or laywoman who endeavors in these ten will attain nirvāṇa.