Kambala

Kambala first bows to the Mother of the Buddhas, whose nature is the
absence of intrinsic nature and who lies beyond the domain of words. He
then gives a compact contemplation: a white five-pronged vajra and bindu at
the heart, the six perfections, a lotus expanding from eight to a thousand
petals, and indivisible wisdom beyond the nature of sound.

The work is D3919 / Toh 3919 in the Degé Tengyur, volume 110, folios
70b.5–71a.2. The same complete work is also preserved at D2642 / Toh 2642
in volume 68, folios 246b.2–246b.7. The 84000 catalog calls both placements
Personal Instructions on the Noble Perfection of Wisdom and lists both as
Not Begun, with no English translation body. This independent translation
was made from the pinned Esukhia D3919 etext and checked against the D2642
duplicate placement, the two matching ACIP transcriptions, and Narthang,
Peking, and Golden Tibetan witnesses. The catalog names the author as
Kambala; its D2642 record uses the form Kambalapāda. D3919 names no
translator. The D2642 duplicate adds a transmission colophon naming Atīśa
Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna and the Tibetan monk-translator Gewé Lodrö.

In the language of India: Āryaprajñāpāramitopadeśa-nāma.

In Tibetan: The Personal Instructions on the Noble Perfection of Wisdom.

Homage to all buddhas and bodhisattvas.

She is called the Mother of the Buddhas.
Her nature is the absence of intrinsic nature.
She utterly transcends the domain of words.
I bow in homage to that virtuous lady.

Because I cannot comprehend in full
the extensive presentation of the eight topics and the rest,
I shall clearly explain for those who follow
the meaning free from elaboration.¹

At the center of the heart abides
a perfectly beautiful white vajra,
majestic, with five prongs,
and a single white bindu at its hub.
The five prongs blaze upward in sequence.
Let the six perfections be purified in sequence.
At each successive bindu, free from sound,
cultivate a samādhi that grows stable and develops strength.²

Following the stages of the instruction, within sound,
focus on a lotus alone, from eight petals
up to a thousand petals.
Draw it back again, and aspire to indivisible wisdom
beyond the nature of sound.³
To make that very wisdom clear,
the learned should cultivate it fully.
I make this appeal to all sentient beings.⁴

Colophon

The work entitled The Vajra-Like Instruction on the Perfection of Wisdom,
composed by glorious Kambala, is complete.

The duplicate D2642 placement adds: The Tibetan translator, the monk Gewé
Lodrö, requested this from the Indian preceptor Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna.

Good Works Translation from Tibetan (Degé Tengyur D3919 / Toh 3919, volume
110, folios 70b.5–71a.2; duplicate placement D2642 / Toh 2642, volume 68,
folios 246b.2–246b.7). Independently translated from the D3919 Tibetan source
and checked against the duplicate placement and comparison witnesses for the
Good Works Library, July 2026. Composed by Kambala. D3919 names no translator;
D2642 names Atīśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna and the Tibetan monk-translator Gewé
Lodrö.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Works Library, 2026.

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Source Text: འཕགས་པ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པའི་མན་ངག

Tibetan source text from the Esukhia digital edition of the Degé Tengyur,
D3919, folios 70b.5–71a.2. Presented complete for reference and verification;
the D-number, folio markers, spelling, and line divisions are retained.

{D3919}༄༅༅། །རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། ཨཱརྱ་པྲཛྙཱ་པཱ་ར་མི་ཏཱ་ཨུ་པ་དེ་ཤ་ནཱ་མ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། འཕགས་པ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པའི་མན་ངག་ཅེས་བྱ་བ། སངས་རྒྱས་དང་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །སངས་རྒྱས་ཡུམ་གྱུར་དེ་ཡི་མིང་། །རང་བཞིན་
[70b.6]མེད་པའི་རང་བཞིན་ཅན། །ཚིག་མེད་ཡུལ་ལས་རྣམ་པར་འདས། །དགེ་མ་དེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་འདུད། །དངོས་པོ་བརྒྱད་སོགས་རྒྱས་པར་ནི། །ཁོང་དུ་ཆུད་ནུས་མ་ཡིན་པས། །རྗེས་འཇུག་སྤྲོས་པ་མེད་པའི་དོན། །བདག་གིས་རབ་ཏུ་བཤད་པར་བྱ། །སྙིང་གི་དཀྱིལ་དུ་གནས་
[70b.7]པ་ནི། །རྡོ་རྗེ་དཀར་པོ་རྣམ་པར་མཛེས། །རྩེ་མོ་ལྔ་པ་གཟི་བརྗིད་ཅན། །ལྟེ་བར་ཐིག་ལེ་དཀར་པོ་གཅིག །ལྔ་པོ་སྟེང་དུ་རིམ་བཞིན་འབར། །ཕ་རོལ་ཕྱིན་དྲུག་རིམ་བཞིན་དག །རིམ་བཞིན་ཐིག་ལེ་སྒྲ་སྤངས་ལ། །བརྟན་འགྱུར་སྟོབས་བསྐྱེད་ཏིང་འཛིན་སྦྱང་། །མན་
[71a]
[71a.1]ངག་རིམ་པས་སྒྲ་ནང་དུ། །ཆུ་སྐྱེས་འབའ་ཞིག་འདབ་བརྒྱད་ནས། །འདབ་མ་སྟོང་གི་བར་དུ་དམིགས། །སླར་བསྡུས་སྒྲ་ཡི་ངོ་བོ་ལས། །འདས་པའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་མི་ཕྱེད་འདོད། །དེ་ཉིད་གསལ་བར་བྱ་བའི་ཕྱིར། །མཁས་པས་རབ་ཏུ་བསྟེན་པར་གྱིས། །
[71a.2]སེམས་ཅན་རྣམས་ལ་བདག་གསོལ་འདེབས། །ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པའི་མན་ངག་རྡོ་རྗེ་ལྟ་བུ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་དཔལ་ཀ་མ་པ་ལས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ།།

Source Colophon

The controlling source is the Esukhia digital edition of the Degé Tengyur,
pinned at commit 174653137d62af481f53c6ae3dc842bf8629323e. The exact D3919
extraction is 2,872 bytes with SHA-256
ae4e89c908b419f757eae269bc3d833c6b6e4a160def31f36ce69e0bb05ce89f.
It begins at folio 70b.5, runs through Kambala's completion statement on folio
71a.2, and ends immediately before D3920. The Esukhia source is recorded as a
mechanical reproduction of a public-domain work.

D2642 is a duplicate Degé placement of the same complete work, in volume 68,
folios 246b.2–246b.7. Its exact Esukhia extraction is 3,230 bytes with SHA-256
522d0c074f9d76c22ce6e455aa1be0b6035571720f2daaa168f183ca7163f8e3.
It preserves a fuller transmission colophon and a genuine recensional
variant: where D3919 and its Narthang and Peking witnesses describe a single
lotus progressing from eight to a thousand petals, the D2642 family gives
four-petaled and eight-petaled lotuses progressing to a thousand. The English
follows its controlling D3919 recension; the D2642 wording is disclosed here
rather than silently substituted.

The matching ACIP transcriptions preserve both placements. The D3919 member
is 1,189 bytes with SHA-256
839c0f5dc048570bf97e523258e54e805d669bfccc78c4b0bcd2ae6f4e2cab17;
the D2642 member is 1,330 bytes with SHA-256
5674611adda1d47c38c92dc53c1ecf54033af015a49f1cfedef155aa236e7f1a.
The 84000 catalog and the IATTC attribution data independently normalize the
author as Kambala or Kambalapāda; the D3919 Tibetan transmits the diplomatic
form Ka-ma-pa-la. No English translation was used as a source. Earlier
internal source-language drafts served only as controls during final
adjudication.

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