Tuesday, May 12, 2026 · 天火 · tianmu.org
Candragomin
Works by Candragomin preserved in Tibetan, including letters, drama, reasoning, and bodhisattva discipline.
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Texts
Letter to a Student — CandragominCandragomin's letter to a student who broke his monastic vows — a fifth-century masterwork on impermanence, the hells, the rarity of human birth, and the bodhisattva's compassion. Good Works Translation from the Dege Tengyur (D4183). Liberation of Hahn 1999.Praise of Confession — CandragominCandragomin's confession that every spiritual remedy produces a new disease — a masterpiece of Buddhist psychological honesty from 5th-century India, translated from Tibetan for the first time.The Lamp of Established Reasoning — CandragominA Buddhist layman's treatise on the foundations of valid reasoning — the four types of reasoning, how each corrupts when misused, and how all logic dissolves into a single principle. First English translation from the Tibetan.The Play of Universal Joy — CandragominA five-act Buddhist drama by Candragomin (5th century) about the Bodhisattva Prince Crest-Jewel and his supreme generosity. First English translation from Tibetan.The Utterance Discourse — CandragominA Buddhist verse epistle on death, karma, and refuge by the Indian poet-grammarian Candragomin, in which the poet addresses his own mind with unflinching directness — from the jaws of the sea-monster to the marketplace of the living to the compassionate Buddha who never forgets. First English translation from the Tibetan (Tengyur D4173).Twenty Verses on the Bodhisattva’s Discipline — CandragominA twenty-verse guide to the bodhisattva vow by Candragomin (c. 5th century CE), enumerating the four root downfalls, the confession protocol, and the secondary infractions — closing with the principle that where there is compassion, there is no fault. First English translation from the Tibetan Buddhist Tengyur (D4081).