Three Principle Aspects of the Path

Please enjoy this verse by verse comparison of various English translations of the "Three Principle Aspects of the Path" by Je Tsongkhapa.

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

Homage

།རྗེ་བཙུན་བླ་མ་རྣམས་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།

Homage to the precious noble masters! (Adam Pearcey)

I bow down to my perfect gurus. (Lama Zopa)

Homage to the most venerable teachers! (Geshe Thupten Jinpa)

I prostrate to my ennobling, impeccable lamas. (Alexander Berzin)

Verse 1

རྒྱལ་བའི་གསུང་རབ་ཀུན་གྱི་སྙིང་པོའི་དོན། །
རྒྱལ་སྲས་དམ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་བསྔགས་པའི་ལམ། །
སྐལ་ལྡན་ཐར་འདོད་རྣམས་ཀྱི་འཇུག་ངོགས་དེ། །
ཇི་ལྟར་ནུས་བཞིན་བདག་གིས་བཤད་པར་བྱ། །

The very essence of all the buddhas’ teachings,
The path that is praised by the noble bodhisattvas,
And the entrance for all fortunate ones desiring liberation—
To the best of my ability, I shall now set forth. (Adam Pearcey)

The essential meaning of the Victorious Ones’ teachings,
The path praised by all the holy Victors and their Children,
The gateway of the fortunate ones desiring liberation –
This I shall try to explain as much as I can. (Lama Zopa)

I shall explain here to the best of my ability:
The essential points of all the scriptures of the Conqueror;
The path acclaimed by all excellent bodhisattvas;
The gateway for the fortunate ones aspiring for liberation. (Geshe Thupten Jinpa)

I shall try to explain, to the best of my ability, the essential meaning of all the scriptural pronouncements of the Triumphant Ones, the path praised by the Triumphants’ holy offspring, the fording passage for the fortunate desiring liberation. (Alexander Berzin)

Verse 2

གང་དག་སྲིད་པའི་བདེ་ལ་མ་ཆགས་ཤིང༌། །
དལ་འབྱོར་དོན་ཡོད་བྱ་ཕྱིར་བརྩོན་པ་ཡིས། །
རྒྱལ་བ་དགྱེས་པའི་ལམ་ལ་ཡིད་རྟོན་པའི། །
སྐལ་ལྡན་དེ་དག་དང་བའི་ཡིད་ཀྱིས་ཉོན། །

You who are unattached to saṃsāra’s pleasures,
And strive to make full use of the freedoms and advantages,
You who follow the path delighting all the buddhas,
Fortunate ones, listen well, with a clear and open mind. (Adam Pearcey)

Those who are not attached to the pleasures of circling [samsara],
Who strive to make freedom and endowments meaningful,
Who entrust themselves to the path pleasing the Victorious Ones –
You fortunate ones: listen with a calm mind. (Lama Zopa)

Those who are not attached to the joys of cyclic existence,
Who strive to make meaningful this life of leisure and opportunity,
And who place their trust in the path that pleases the Conquerors -
O fortunate ones, listen with an open heart. (Geshe Thupten Jinpa)

Listen with a clear (mind), O fortunate one, whose mind would rely on the path pleasing to the Triumphant, through being unattached to the pleasures of compulsive existence and eager to make meaningful your life of respites and enriching factors. (Alexander Berzin)

Verse 3

རྣམ་དག་ངེས་འབྱུང་མེད་པར་སྲིད་མཚོ་ཡི། །
བདེ་འབྲས་དོན་གཉེར་ཞི་བའི་ཐབས་མེད་ལ། །
སྲིད་ལ་བརྐམ་པ་ཡིས་ཀྱང་ལུས་ཅན་རྣམས། །
ཀུན་ནས་འཆིང་ཕྱིར་ཐོག་མར་ངེས་འབྱུང་བཙལ། །

Whilst lacking pure renunciation there is no way to pacify
The continual thirst for pleasure in the ocean of saṃsāra,
And since all living beings are bound by their craving for existence,
You must begin by finding the determination to be free. (Adam Pearcey)

Without the complete intention definitely to be free from circling,
There is no way to pacify attachment seeking pleasurable effects in the ocean of circling.
Also, by craving for cyclic existence, embodied beings are continuously bound.
Therefore, at the very beginning seek renunciation. (Lama Zopa)

Without pure renunciation there is no means to pacify
The yearning for the joys and fruits of samsaric ocean;
And as craving for existence chain us thoroughly,
At first search for a true renunciation. (Geshe Thupten Jinpa)

Since taking keen interest in the pleasurable fruits of the ocean of compulsive existence, without pure renunciation is no method for (achieving) the peace (of liberation) – in fact, by craving what is found in compulsive situations, limited beings are completely bound – first, strive for renunciation. (Alexander Berzin)

Verse 4

དལ་འབྱོར་རྙེད་དཀའ་ཚེ་ལ་ལོང་མེད་པ། །
ཡིད་ལ་གོམས་པས་ཚེ་འདིའི་སྣང་ཤས་ལྡོག །
ལས་འབྲས་མི་བསླུ་འཁོར་བའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་རྣམས། །
ཡང་ཡང་བསམ་པས་ཕྱི་མའི་སྣང་ཤས་ལྡོག །

The freedoms and advantages are rare, and there’s no time to waste—
Reflect on this again and yet again, and dispel attachment to this life.
To dispel attachment to your future lives, contemplate repeatedly
The unfailing effects of karma and the sufferings of saṃsāra. (Adam Pearcey)

Freedom and endowments are difficult to find and life has no time to spare.
By gaining familiarity with this, attraction to the appearances of this life is reversed.
By thinking over and over again that actions and their effects are unbetraying,
And repeatedly contemplating the miseries of cyclic existence, attraction to the appearances of future lives is reversed. (Lama Zopa)

By cultivating in mind that this human life is so hard to find
Yet has no time to spare, preoccupations with this life will cease;
By contemplating repeatedly the truth of karma and samsaric suffering,
Preoccupations with next life will come to cease (Geshe Thupten Jinpa)

By accustoming your mind that there is no time to waste when a life of respites and enrichments is so difficult to find, turn from your obsession with the appearances of this life. By thinking over and again about the problems of recurring rebirth and that (the laws of) behavioral cause and effect are never fallacious, turn from your obsession with the appearances of future (lives). (Alexander Berzin)

Verse 5

དེ་ལྟར་གོམས་པས་འཁོར་བའི་ཕུན་ཚོགས་ལ། །
ཡིད་སྨོན་སྐད་ཅིག་ཙམ་ཡང་མི་སྐྱེ་ཞིང༌། །
ཉིན་མཚན་ཀུན་ཏུ་ཐར་པ་དོན་གཉེར་བློ། །
བྱུང་ན་དེ་ཚེ་ངེས་འབྱུང་སྐྱེས་པ་ལགས། །

When, through growing accustomed to thinking in this way,
Hope for the pleasures of saṃsāra no longer arises even for an instant,
And throughout both day and night you long for liberation,
Then, at that time, true renunciation has been born. (Adam Pearcey)

When, by having trained in that way,
There is no arising, even for a second,
Of attraction to the perfections of cyclic existence,
And all day and night the intention seeking liberation arises –
Then the thought of renunciation has been generated. (Lama Zopa)

As you habituate in this way and when not even an instant
Of admiration arises for the prosperities of cyclic existence,
And when the thought aspiring for liberation arises day and night,
At this point true renunciation has arisen. (Geshe Thupten Jinpa)

When, by accustoming yourself in this way, you never generate, for even an instant, a mind that aspires for the splendors of recurring samsara, and you develop the attitude that day and night always is interested keenly in liberation, at that time, you have generated renunciation. (Alexander Berzin)

Verse 6

ངེས་འབྱུང་དེ་ཡང་རྣམ་དག་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་ཀྱིས། །
ཟིན་པ་མེད་ན་བླ་མེད་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི། །
ཕུན་ཚོགས་བདེ་བའི་རྒྱུ་རུ་མི་འགྱུར་བས། །
བློ་ལྡན་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་མཆོག་བསྐྱེད། །

Yet if this renunciation is not embraced
By the pure motivation of bodhicitta,
It will not become a cause for the perfect bliss of unsurpassed awakening,
So the wise should generate supreme bodhicitta. (Adam Pearcey)

Even if renunciation has been developed,
If it is not possessed by the mind of enlightenment
It does not become the cause of the perfect bliss of unsurpassed enlightenment.
Therefore the wise generate the supreme mind of enlightenment. (Lama Zopa)

Such renunciation too if it is not sustained
By pure awakening mind it will not become a cause
Of the perfect bliss of unexcelled enlightenment;
Therefore O intelligent ones, generate the excellent awakening mind. (Geshe Thupten Jinpa)

But since even this renunciation, if not held with the development of a pure bodhichitta aim, will not become a cause for the splendors and bliss of a peerless purified state (of enlightenment), those with sense generate a supreme bodhichitta aim. (Alexander Berzin)

Verse 7

ཤུགས་དྲག་ཆུ་བོ་བཞི་ཡི་རྒྱུན་གྱིས་ཁྱེར། །
བཟློག་དཀའ་ལས་ཀྱི་འཆིང་བ་དམ་པོས་བསྡམས། །
བདག་འཛིན་ལྕགས་ཀྱི་དྲ་བའི་སྦུབས་སུ་ཚུད། །
མ་རིག་མུན་པའི་སྨག་ཆེན་ཀུན་ནས་འཐིབས། །

Beings are swept along by the powerful current of the four rivers,[1]
Tightly bound by the chains of their karma, so difficult to undo,
Ensnared within the iron trap of their self-grasping,
And enshrouded in the thick darkness of ignorance. (Adam Pearcey)

Swept away by the current of the four powerful rivers,
Tied by the tight bonds of karma, so hard to undo,
Caught in the iron net of self-grasping,
Completely enveloped by the total darkness of ignorance, (Lama Zopa)

They’re being swept away constantly by four powerful rivers;
They’re bound tightly with fetters of karma most difficult to escape;
They’re trapped inside the iron mesh of self-grasping;
They're enveloped from everywhere by thick mists of ignorance; (Geshe Thupten Jinpa)

Carried by the currents of the four violent rivers, tied by the tight fetters of karma, hard to reverse, thrown into an iron-mesh pit of grasping for true identities, completely enshrouded in the heavy gloom of the darkness of unawareness, (Alexander Berzin)

Verse 8

མུ་མེད་སྲིད་པར་སྐྱེ་ཞིང་སྐྱེ་བ་རུ། །
སྡུག་བསྔལ་གསུམ་གྱིས་རྒྱུན་ཆད་མེད་པར་མནར། །
གནས་སྐབས་འདི་འདྲར་གྱུར་པའི་མ་རྣམས་ཀྱི། །
ངང་ཚུལ་བསམས་ནས་སེམས་མཆོག་བསྐྱེད་པར་མཛོད། །

Again and yet again, they are reborn in limitless saṃsāra,
And constantly tormented by the three forms of suffering.[2]
This is the current condition of all your mothers from previous lives—
Contemplate their plight and generate supreme bodhichitta. (Adam Pearcey)

Endlessly reborn in cyclic existence,
Ceaselessly tormented by the three sufferings –
Thinking that all mothers are in such a condition,
Generate the supreme mind of enlightenment. (Lama Zopa)

They take birth within cyclic existence that has no end,
Where they’re endlessly tormented by the three sufferings.
By reflecting on all your mothers who suffer such conditions,
Please generate the supreme awakening mind. (Geshe Thupten Jinpa)

Unrelentingly tormented by the three types of suffering, life after life in limitless compulsive existence – having thought about the condition of your mothers who have found themselves in situations like these, develop a supreme bodhichitta aim. (Alexander Berzin)

Verse 9

གནས་ལུགས་རྟོགས་པའི་ཤེས་རབ་མི་ལྡན་ན། །
ངེས་འབྱུང་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་ལ་གོམས་བྱས་ཀྱང༌། །
སྲིད་པའི་རྩ་བ་བཅད་པར་མི་ནུས་པས། །
དེ་ཕྱིར་རྟེན་འབྲེལ་རྟོགས་པའི་ཐབས་ལ་འབད། །

If you lack the wisdom that realizes the nature of things,
Although you might grow accustomed to renunciation and bodhicitta,
You will be incapable of cutting through conditioned existence at its root,
Exert yourself, therefore, in the methods for realizing interdependence. (Adam Pearcey)

Without the wisdom realizing ultimate reality,
Even though you have generated renunciation and the mind of enlightenment
You cannot cut the root cause of circling.
Therefore, attempt the method to realize dependent arising. (Lama Zopa)

If you do not have the wisdom realising the ultimate nature,
Even if you gain familiarity with renunciation and awakening mind,
You will not be able to cut the root of samsaric existence;
So strive in the means of realizing dependent origination. (Geshe Thupten Jinpa)

Even if you have built up as habits renunciation and a bodhichitta aim, still, if you lack the discriminating awareness of realizing the abiding nature of reality, you will be unable to sever the root of your compulsive existence. Therefore, make effort in the methods for realizing dependent arising. (Alexander Berzin)

Verse 10

གང་ཞིག་འཁོར་འདས་ཆོས་རྣམས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི། །
རྒྱུ་འབྲས་ནམ་ཡང་བསླུ་བ་མེད་མཐོང་ཞིང༌། །
དམིགས་པའི་གཏད་སོ་གང་ཡིན་ཀུན་ཞིག་པ། །
དེ་ནི་སངས་རྒྱས་དགྱེས་པའི་ལམ་ལ་ཞུགས། །

The one who sees that cause and effect operate infallibly
For all the phenomena of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa,
And for whom any objects of conceptual focus have subsided,
Has set out upon the path delighting all the buddhas. (Adam Pearcey)

One who sees the cause and effect of all phenomena
Of both cyclic existence and the state beyond sorrow as forever unbetraying,
And for whom any object trusted in by the grasping mind has completely disappeared,
Has at that time entered the path pleasing the Buddhas. (Lama Zopa)

When with respect to all phenomena of samsara and nirvana,
You see that cause and effects never deceive their laws,
And when you have dismantled the focus of objectification,
At that point you have entered the path that pleases the Buddhas. (Geshe Thupten Jinpa)

Anyone who has seen that (the laws of) behavioral cause and effect regarding all phenomena of samsara and nirvana are never fallacious, and who has had fall apart the sustaining supports of his or her (cognitions) aimed (at inherent existence), whatever they might have been, has entered the path pleasing to the Buddhas. (Alexander Berzin)

Verse 11

སྣང་བ་རྟེན་འབྲེལ་བསླུ་བ་མེད་པ་དང༌། །
སྟོང་པ་ཁས་ལེན་བྲལ་བའི་གོ་བ་གཉིས། །
ཇི་སྲིད་སོ་སོར་སྣང་བ་དེ་སྲིད་དུ། །
ད་དུང་ཐུབ་པའི་དགོངས་པ་རྟོགས་པ་མེད། །

The knowledge that appearances arise unfailingly in dependence,
And the knowledge that they are empty and beyond all assertions—
As long as these two appear to you as separate,
There can be no realization of the Buddha’s wisdom. (Adam Pearcey)

If the appearance of dependent relation,
Which is unbetraying, is accepted separately from emptiness,
And as long as they are seen as separate,
Then one has still not realized the Buddha's intent. (Lama Zopa)

So long as the two understandings - of appearance,
Which is undeceiving dependent origination,
And emptiness devoid of all theses - remain separate,
So long you have not realized the intent of the Sage. (Geshe Thupten Jinpa)

Appearances are non-fallacious dependent arisings and voidness is parted from any assertions (of impossible ways of existing). So long as you have these two understandings appearing to you separately, you still have not realized the Able Ones’ intention. (Alexander Berzin)

Verse 12

ནམ་ཞིག་རེས་འཇོག་མེད་པར་ཅིག་ཅར་དུ། །
རྟེན་འབྲེལ་མི་བསླུར་མཐོང་བ་ཙམ་ཉིད་ནས། །
ངེས་ཤེས་ཡུལ་གྱི་འཛིན་སྟངས་ཀུན་ཞིག་ན། །
དེ་ཚེ་ལྟ་བའི་དཔྱད་པ་རྫོགས་པ་ལགས། །

Yet when they arise at once, not each in turn but both together,
Then through merely seeing unfailing dependent origination
Certainty is born, and all modes of misapprehension fall apart—
That is when discernment of the view has reached perfection. (Adam Pearcey)

If [these two realizations] are happening simultaneously without alternation,
And from merely seeing dependent relation as completely unbetraying
The definite ascertainment comes that completely destroys
The way all objects are apprehended [as truly existent],
At that time the analysis of the ultimate view is complete. (Lama Zopa)

However at some point when, without alternation but at once,
The instant you see that dependent origination is undeceiving,
If the entire object of grasping at certitude is dismantled,
At that point your analysis of the view has culminated. (Geshe Thupten Jinpa)

But when, not in alternation, but all together at once, your certitude from the mere sight of non-fallacious dependent arising causes all your ways of taking objects (as inherently existent) to fall apart, you have completed discerning the correct view. (Alexander Berzin)

Verse 13

གཞན་ཡང་སྣང་བས་ཡོད་མཐའ་སེལ་བ་དང༌། །
སྟོང་པས་མེད་མཐའ་སེལ་ཞིང་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད། །
རྒྱུ་དང་འབྲས་བུར་འཆར་བའི་ཚུལ་ཤེས་ན། །
མཐར་འཛིན་ལྟ་བས་འཕྲོག་པར་མི་འགྱུར་རོ། །

When you know that appearances dispel the extreme of existence,
While the extreme of nothingness is eliminated by emptiness,[3]
And you also come to know how emptiness arises as cause and effect,
Then you will be immune to any view entailing clinging to extremes. (Adam Pearcey)

Furthermore, appearance eliminates the extreme of existence
And emptiness eliminates the extreme of non-existence.
If you realize how emptiness manifests in the manner of cause and effect
Then you are not captivated by wrong notions holding extreme views. (Lama Zopa)

Furthermore when appearance dispels the extreme of existence,
And when emptiness dispels the extreme of non-existence,
And if you understand how emptiness arises as cause and effect,
You will never be captivated by views grasping at extremes. (Geshe Thupten Jinpa)

Further, when you know how appearance eliminates the extreme of existence and voidness eliminates the extreme of nonexistence, and how voidness dawns as cause and effect, you will never be stolen away by views that grasp for extremes. (Alexander Berzin)

Verse 14

དེ་ལྟར་ལམ་གྱི་གཙོ་བོ་རྣམ་གསུམ་གྱི། །
གནད་རྣམས་རང་གིས་ཇི་བཞིན་རྟོགས་པའི་ཚེ། །
དབེན་པ་བསྟེན་ཏེ་བརྩོན་འགྲུས་སྟོབས་བསྐྱེད་ནས། །
གཏན་གྱི་འདུན་མ་མྱུར་དུ་སྒྲུབས་ཤིག་བུ། །

When, in this way, you have correctly understood
The key points of the three principal aspects of the path,
Withdraw to solitude, dear son, strengthen your diligence,
And swiftly accomplish the ultimate and lasting aim. (Adam Pearcey)

In this way you realize exactly
The vital points of the three principal aspects of the path.
Resort to seeking solitude, generate the power of effort,
And quickly accomplish your final goal, my child. (Lama Zopa)

Thus when you have understood as they are
The essentials of the three principal aspects of the path,
O son, seek solitude and by enhancing the power of perseverance,
Swiftly accomplish your ultimate aspiration. (Geshe Thupten Jinpa)

When you have understood the points of these three principle aspects of the path, as they are, rely on solitude and, by generating the power of joyful perseverance, quickly realize, my son, your immemorial goal. (Alexander Berzin)

Colophon

ཞེས་པ་འདི་ནི་མང་དུ་ཐོས་པའི་དགེ་སློང་བློ་བཟང་གྲགས་པའི་དཔལ་གྱིས་ཚ་ཁོ་དབོན་པོ་ངག་དབང་གྲགས་པ་ལ་གདམས་པའོ།། །།

This advice was given by the bhikṣu of extensive learning, Lobzang Drakpé Pal, to Tsakho Önpo Ngawang Drakpa. (Adam Pearcey)

These teachings by the virtue beggar [gelong] Losang Drakpa, who has extensive listening, were composed as advice for the nephew of Ponpo Ngawang Drakpa. (Lama Zopa)

This advice was given by the monk Lobsang Drakpai Pal to Ngawang Drakpa, a leading person of Tsakho region. (Geshe Thupten Jinpa)

Remarks

Translated by Adam Pearcey, 2006. Revised 2012. (Adam Pearcey)

It was translated into English by the beggar of food and sleep named Lama Zopa, with the editorial assistance of the devoted Jonathan Landaw, in November, 2006 at Kachoe Dechen Ling, Aptos, California. (Lama Zopa)

English translation. Geshe Thupten Jinpa, 2003. (Geshe Thupten Jinpa)

Bodh Gaya, India, January 1981, translated and compiled by Alexander Berzin; originally published in "Four Essential Buddhist Commentaries," transl. Alexander Berzin. (Dharamsala, India: Library of Tibetan Works & Archives, 1983). Revised translation by Dr. Berzin, 2003. (Alexander Berzin)