Six Verses on the Coemergent

We hope enjoy this verse by verse comparison of various English translations of Maitripa's Six Verses on the Coemergent (Sanskrit: Sahajaṣaṭka). Please keep in mind that these translations might be based on the original Sanskrit or the Tibetan translations of the original text.

List of translations (arbitrary order). Please use the checkboxes to show/hide translations:

Homage

རྡོ་རྗེ་འཛིན་པ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། (Yeshe Junge)

Homage to Vajradhara! (Klaus-Dieter Matthes)

Prostration to the Vajra Holder. (Tony Duff)

Verse 1

རྟག་དང་ཆད་ལས་ངེས་གྲོལ་བ། །
དེ་ཉིད་བདེར༡་གཤེགས་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་བཞེད། །
རང་བཞིན་ལས་སྐྱེས་ཆོས་རྣམས་ལ། །
སྒྲུབ་དང་སེལ་བར་ཕྱུག་ནི་བརྗོད། ། (Yeshe Junge)

Buddhists take true reality
To be free from permanence and nihilism;
To engage in affirmation and exclusion,
When it comes to naturally arisen phenomena—this is the talk of fools. (Klaus-Dieter Matthes)

Buddhists assert true reality
Free from permanence and extinction.
As for phenomena born by that nature,
To speak about accomplishing or eliminating is the talk of cattle. (Karl Brunnhölzl)

Definite liberation from permanence and nihilism
Is what is asserted by those gone to bliss.
For dharmas produced from a nature there is
Talk rich in establishment and elimination; (Tony Duff)

Verse 2

ཡོད་པར་སྨྲ་བ་རྣམས་ལ་བརྗོད། །
ཐམས་ཅད་རྣམ་པར་དཔྱད་ན་མེད། །
མེད་པར་སྨྲ་བ་ལ་བརྗོད་པ། །
རྣམ་པར་དཔྱད་ན་ཐམས་ཅད་ཡོད། ། (Yeshe Junge)

To those who claim that there is existence, we say
That, upon analysis, nothing exists.
To those who claim that there is no existence, we say
That, when no analysis is done, everything exists. (Klaus-Dieter Matthes)

To those who propound existence, we say,
“If analyzed, everything is nonexistent.”
To those who propound nonexistence, we say,
“If not analyzed, everything is existent." (Karl Brunnhölzl)

The ones who do it are called "propounders of existence"
Everything, when finely analysed, is not existent;
The ones who do it are called "propounders of nonexistence".
When finely analysed, everything exists. (Tony Duff)

Verse 3

ཇི་ལྟར་ཇི་ལྟར་སྒྲོ་བཏགས་པ། །
དེ་ཉིད་རྣལ་འབྱོར་པ་རྣམས་སྐྱེ། །
དེ་ལྟ་དེ་ལྟར་སྒྲོ་བཏགས་པ། །
རྣལ་འབྱོར་དེ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་ནི་འཇོམས། ། (Yeshe Junge)

In whatever manner superimpositions
Present themselves to the yogin of true reality,
In like manner, superimpositions
Are destroyed by the yogin of true reality. (Klaus-Dieter Matthes)

In whatever manner superimpositions
Emerge in yogins of true reality,
In like manner, superimpositions
Are vanquished by the yogin of true reality. (Karl Brunnhölzl)

Each of these with its way of exaggeration
Is produced within the yogin and then
Whatever exaggeration there might be
Is avoided by the yogin. (Tony Duff)

Verse 4

གང་ཕྱིར་ལྷན་ཅིག་སྐྱེས་མ་བཅོས། །
དེ་ཕྱིར་དོག༡་མེད་ལྷན་ཅིག་སྐྱེས། །
བདེ་ལས་ལྷན་ཅིག་སྐྱེས་གཞན་མིན། །
བདེ་བ་དོག་པ་མེད་མཚན་ཉིད། ། (Yeshe Junge)

As the coemergent is not fabricated,
Attachment does not pertain to the coemergent.
Bliss is not different from the coemergent;
Bliss has the defining characteristic of freedom from attachment. (Klaus-Dieter Matthes)

Since connateness is without artifice,
Connateness lacks attachment.
Bliss is nothing other than connateness—
Bliss has the characteristic of freedom from attachment. (Karl Brunnhölzl)

Because of which co-emergence is uncontrived and
Therefore is an un-restricted co-emergence.
Co-emergence is none other than bliss so
The bliss has the un-restricted characteristic and (Tony Duff)

Verse 5

ཤེས་ཕྱིར་དོག༡་པ་མེད་པའི་བདག །
དབྱེར་མེད་རྟོགས་པ་དམ་པ་བདེ། །
སྣ་ཚོགས་རང་རིག་རྟོགས་བྱས་པས། །
ལྷན་ཅིག་སྐྱེས་པའི་རྒྱ་མཚོར་ནུབ། ། (Yeshe Junge)

Once the genuine bliss associated with realization is known,
Bliss whose nature it is to be free from attachment,
The manifold world is turned into self-realization
And is dissolved into the ocean of the coemergent. (Klaus-Dieter Matthes)

Once the nature of freedom from attachment is known,
It is the genuine bliss of insight.
Once variety is realized to be one’s own awareness,
[The yogin] sinks into the ocean of connateness. (Karl Brunnhölzl)

Because it is a knower, it is an un-restricted self so
It is the holy realization of inseparability;
The variety having been realized as self-knowing
Subsides into the ocean of co-emergence. (Tony Duff)

Verse 6

སྔགས་ཀྱི་དེ་ཉིད་རྣལ་འབྱོར་པ། །
དོག་མེད་དོན་ལ་རབ་ཏུ་གནས། །
སྲིད་པ་ཡང་ནི་བླ་མར་བྱས། །
དོག༢་པ་མེད་པའི་ཡུལ་འདི༣་སྟོན། ། (Yeshe Junge)

The yogin of mantra reality
Is thoroughly established in a state without attachment.
Having transformed the factors of existence into gurus,
He will be without attachment to objects. (Klaus-Dieter Matthes)

Yogins who abide in the true reality of mantra
Stand firmly in the actuality of detachment.
Taking worldly appearances as their gurus,
Freedom from attachment becomes their sphere. (Karl Brunnhölzl)

The yogin of mantric suchness
Utterly abides in the fact of non-restriction and
Becoming also is made out as the guru whereby
This object of non-restriction is shown. (Tony Duff)

Colophon

ལྷན་ཅིག་སྐྱེས་པ་དྲུག་པ་བླ་མ་མཻ་ཏྲི་པས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ། (Yeshe Junge)

This work, the Six Verses on the Coemergent, by the learned renunciant, the glorious Advayavajra, is ended. Translated by the Indian paṇḍita and the Tibetan translator and monk from Tsur, Yeshé Jungné. (Klaus-Dieter Matthes)

This concludes the Six Stanzas on Connateness composed by the pandita and renunciant [called] glorious venerable Advayavajra. (Karl Brunnhölzl)

Six Verses on Co-emergenceI composed by Guru Maitripa is complete. The Indian Upadhyaya Vajrapani and the Tibetan Lotsawa Tshur Bhikshu Jñana Akara translated it. (Tony Duff)