Kangyur Translations

Toh 324 — The Four Stanzas

Caturgāthā

F.204.a 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.^[1]

Where the perfect buddhas were born,

Where they reached awakening,

Where they turned the wheel of peace, F.204.b

Where they passed into parinirvāṇa, free from defilement,

Where those sugatas^[2] 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,^[3]

The best of humans,

Who dwells in the northeastern direction.^[4]

Those who praise the tathāgatas

With these four stanzas

Will not go to the lower realms

For a thousand lifetimes.^[5]

Thus ends “The Four Stanzas.”

Notes

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):http://read.84000.co/translation/toh3968.htmlrgyal 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.
back
Kano’s Sanskrit edition reads tathāgatāḥ.
back
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”).
back
This stanza is missing in Yongle, Lithang, Kangxi, Narthang, and Choné.
back
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.”
back