Saturday, July 25, 2026 · 天火 · tianmu.org

A Very Concise Practice of the Mahāyāna Path — D3955

✦ ─── ⟐ ─── ✦

by Atiśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna

This brief path text begins by honoring practice itself as the father and
mother of the buddhas. Atiśa then gathers the Mahāyāna into refuge,
discipline, bodhicitta, recollection of death, the bodhisattva vow, the six
perfections, method and wisdom, and non-abiding nirvāṇa. The firestick image
makes the demand vivid: practice must be continuous, devoted, and dry of the
“moisture of attachment.”

The work is D3955 / Toh 3955 in the Degé Tengyur, volume 111, folios
302b.6–303a.6. The 84000 catalog calls it A Very Concise Practice of the
Mahāyāna Path and lists it as Not Begun, with no English translation body.
This independent translation was made from the pinned Esukhia D3955 etext
and checked line by line against its complete Sanskrit parallel and Atiśa's
longer Tibetan precursor D3954. Those witnesses repair four visibly damaged
readings without altering the diplomatic source reproduced below.

In the language of India: Mahāyānapathasādhanasaṃgraha.1

In Tibetan: A Very Concise Practice of the Mahāyāna Path.

Homage to all buddhas and bodhisattvas.

With pure speech and mind, I bow
in deepest devotion to the Dharma of practice,
the father and mother from whom all Sugatas
of past and present are born.

If you wish to attain awakening—
great, inconceivable, and unsurpassed—2
since awakening depends upon practice,
make practice your chief concern and essence.

Accordingly, take refuge in the Three Jewels,
turn away from every nonvirtue,
and keep the higher discipline pure.

Mounted on the steed of bodhicitta,
strike it again and again
with the goad of mindfulness of death.
Quickly cross this terrifying path
through cyclic existence3
and reach the fearless ground of buddhahood.

Standing on the foundation of aspiration,
fully adopt the bodhisattva vow
and properly practice bodhisattva conduct—
the six perfections and the rest.

All this is condensed into method and wisdom.
Train in these for non-abiding nirvāṇa;
the essence is twofold.

Like one seeking fire working a firestick,
free from the moisture of attachment,4
meditate constantly, without interruption,
and with devotion.5
Through this, you will quickly become a buddha.

Like a jewel, you will spontaneously
bring about the welfare of others.
Let the fortunate train well
in this concise Mahāyāna practice.

A drop of nectar settles in the heart;
an untrained intellect finds it difficult to grasp.6
Through the virtue of condensing this, may all beings
make Mahāyāna practice their chief concern.

When I too have attained the ground of buddhahood,
may I become a guide for beings.

Colophon

Thus concludes A Very Concise Practice of the Mahāyāna Path, composed by the
great master Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna.

It was translated, revised, and finalized by that same Indian preceptor and
paṇḍita together with the translator, the monk Gewé Lodrö (Kalyāṇamati).

Good Works Translation from Tibetan (Degé Tengyur D3955 / Toh 3955, volume
111, folios 302b.6–303a.6). Independently translated from the Tibetan root
and checked against the complete Sanskrit parallel and the longer Tibetan
D3954 precursor for the Good Works Library, July 2026. Composed and
co-translated by Atiśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna; translated into Tibetan with the
monk-translator Gewé Lodrö.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Works Library, 2026.

🌲

Source Text: ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་ལམ་གྱི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་ཤིན་ཏུ་བསྡུས་པ།

Tibetan source text from the Esukhia digital edition of the Degé Tengyur,
D3955, folios 302b.6–303a.6. Presented complete for reference and
verification; the D-number, folio markers, damage marks, spelling, and line
divisions are retained.

{D3955}#༄༅༅། །རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། མ་ཧཱ་ཡཱ་ན་པ་
[302b.7]ཐཱ་#སཱ་དྷ་ན་སཾ་གྲ་ཧ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ལམ་གྱི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་ཤིན་ཏུ་བསྡུས་པ། སངས་རྒྱས་དང་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །འདས་དང་ད་ལྟར་བདེ་གཤེགས་ཀུན། །སྐྱེད་པའི་ཡབ་དང་ཡུམ་གྱུར་པ། །སྒྲུབ་པའི་ཆོས་ལ་རབ་གུས་ཤིང་། །ངག་
[303a]
[303a.1]ཡིད་དང་བས་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །བསམ་གྱིས་མི་ཁྱབ་ཆེ་བ་མངའ། །བླ་མ་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཐོབ་འདོད་ན། །བྱང་ཆུབ་བསྒྲུབ་#ལ་རག་ལས་པས། །སྒྲུབ་པ་ལྷུར་བླང་སྙིང་པོར་བྱ། །དེ་ཡིས་གསུམ་ལ་སྐྱབས་འགྲོ་ཞིང་། །མི་དགེ་ཀུན་ལས་ལྡོག་པ་ཡིས#། །ལྷག་པའི་ཚུལ་
[303a.2]ཁྲིམས་དག་པར་བསྲུང་། །བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་ཀྱི་བཞོན་པ་ལ། །བརྟེན་ནས་འཆི་བ་རྗེས་དྲན་གྱི#། །ལྕག་ནི་ཡང་དང་ཡང་བརྡབ་ཅིང་། །སྲིད་ལམ་འཇིགས་#པ་ཆེ་ས་ཡི། །ལམ་འདི་མྱུར་དུ་འདས་བྱས་ལ། །འཇིགས་མེད་སངས་རྒྱས་སར་ཕྱིན་བྱ། །སྨོན་པའི་གཞི་ལ་གནས་པ་
[303a.3]ཡིས། །སེམས་དཔའི་#སྡོམ་པ་རབ་བཟུང་#ཞིང་། །ཕ་རོལ་ཕྱིན་དྲུག་ལ་སོགས་པ། །སེམས་དཔའི་#སྤྱོད་པ་ཚུལ་བཞིན་སྤྱད#། །དེ་བསྡུས་ཐབས་དང་ཤེས་རབ་ལ། །མི་གནས་མྱ་ངན་འདས་ཕྱིར་བསླབ། །དེ་ཡི་སྙིང་པོ་རྣམ་པ་གཉིས། །མེ་དོན་གཉེར་བས་གཙུབ་#ཤིང་ལྟར། །
[303a.4]ཆགས་པའི་ལྡན་#དང་བྲལ་བ་ཡིས། །རྟག་ཏུ་རྒྱུན་#ལྡན་གུས་པར་བསྒོམ#། །དེ་ཡིས་མྱུར་དུ་དེ་འཚང་རྒྱ། །ནོར་བུ་བཞིན་དུ་གཞན་གྱི་དོན། །ལྷུན་གྱིས་གྲུབ་པར་དེ་བྱེད་འགྱུར། །ཐེག་ཆེན་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་བསྡུས་འདི་ལ། །སྐལ་ལྡན་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ལེགས་པར་བསླབ། །སྙིང་ལ་
[303a.5]བདུད་རྩིའི་ཐིགས་པ་ཆགས། །བློ་མ་སྦྱངས་པས་བློས་རེག་དཀའ། །འདི་བསྡུས་དགེ་བས་འགྲོ་བ་ཀུན། །ཐེག་ཆེན་སྒྲུབ་པ་ལྷུར་ལེན་ཤོག །བདག་ཀྱང་སངས་རྒྱས་ས་ཐོབ་ནས། །འགྲོ་བའི་འདྲེན་པ་བྱེད་པར་ཤོག །ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ལམ་གྱི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་ཤིན་ཏུ་བསྡུས་པ། སློབ་
[303a.6]དཔོན་ཆེན་པོ་དཔལ་མར་མེ་མཛད་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱིས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ།། །།རྒྱ་གར་གྱི་མཁན་པོ་པཎྜི་ཏ་དེ་ཉིད་དང་། ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་དགེ་སློང་དགེ་བའི་བློ་གྲོས་ཀྱིས་བསྒྱུར་ཅིང་ཞུས་ཏེ་གཏན་ལ་ཕབ་པ།།

Source Colophon

The controlling source is the Esukhia digital edition of the Degé Tengyur,
pinned at commit 174653137d62af481f53c6ae3dc842bf8629323e. The exact D3955
extraction is 4,474 bytes with SHA-256
6300b108a6e1561f47ce11be196ff72cc4fff5014373f1fd55222ec9b022b540.
It begins with the D3955 marker at folio 302b.6, ends after the translator
statement at folio 303a.6, and closes immediately before D3956. The containing
volume has SHA-256
c80de88151da4417de019a6a8e4ae0e782d9ddb66b1de911e8c71ef77c10824c.
The Esukhia source is recorded as a mechanical reproduction of a
public-domain work.

The complete Sanskrit–Tibetan alignment contains nineteen aligned segments
and has SHA-256
d19bf7b3263215651c0bc0cab35aa747568714a4622f1874eab4b8c10b8127c7.
MITRA-parallel, by Sebastian Nehrdich and Kurt Keutzer, is used here as a
comparison witness under CC BY-SA 4.0. Atiśa's longer D3954 precursor is a
32,978-byte Tibetan packet with SHA-256
82bb94c41d9b5069e56c58b850d3b5d5b3e0bfc9fec6c53c0bbcc4d4c6477aef.
It preserves the same passages in fuller and less damaged form.

🌲

Footnotes

  1. The diplomatic Tibetan breaks the transliterated Indic title after patha. The complete Sanskrit text and current 84000 catalog support Mahāyānapathasādhanasaṃgraha; the unambiguous Tibetan title governs the English. A more literal rendering is “The Extremely Concise Method for Accomplishing the Mahāyāna Path.” ↩

  2. D3955 reads bla ma, but D3954 has bla med and the Sanskrit has anuttarām. “Unsurpassed awakening” is therefore secure; “guru awakening” is not. ↩

  3. D3955's damaged che sa yi is repaired from D3954's che ba yi and Sanskrit mahābhītim: this is the terrifying path through cyclic existence, not a separate “great ground.” ↩

  4. D3955's damaged chags pa'i ldan is repaired from D3954's chags pa'i rlan, “the moisture of attachment.” The firestick image depends on dryness. ↩

  5. D3955's broken rgyun ldan is clarified by D3954's rgyun dang ldan par. The Sanskrit independently distinguishes nityaṃ, satataṃ, and bhaktyā: constantly, without interruption, and with devotion. ↩

  6. The Tibetan literally says that a drop of nectar clings to the heart and that an untrained intellect finds it difficult to touch with intellect. The Sanskrit is also compressed; the translation preserves the image without expanding it into a doctrinal claim. ↩