by Ācārya Vimala

A concise verse manual on the six aspects of taking refuge in the Three Jewels — the foundational practice of all Buddhist traditions. Ācārya Vimala, an Indian Buddhist master, composed these thirteen verses for a royal court where the king and ministers had not yet gained conviction in the deeper tantric teachings. The six branches are: why one must go for refuge, the objects of refuge, the time, the benefits, the precepts, and the taking.

The work closes with a personal address to a scribe named Kumāra, asking him to write it well and dedicate the merit to all beings. This is the first known English translation. The Tibetan text is preserved in the Degé Tengyur (Tohoku catalogue number D3972), in the Madhyamaka section, folio 253b. The Sanskrit title is Ṣaḍaṅgaśaraṇa.

Homage to the Three Jewels!

I shall explain the six branches of going for refuge:
Why one must go, the objects, the time,
The benefits, the precepts, and the taking —
These I set forth in summary.

Through fear and through recollecting their qualities, one goes for refuge.
The objects are the three abodes that have been shown.
The time is from now until awakening is attained.
It is the turning away from non-Buddhist conduct.

One will not be born in the three lower realms, and it becomes a foundation.
Without obstacles, with little illness and long life —
Purification and such are the benefits.

The precept for the first of the three refuges:
Do not rely upon worldly spirits; do not prostrate to them.

For the second: toward all sentient beings,
Abandon harm and practice compassion.

For the third: in one's own realm and others',
Do not keep company with the wicked.

Upon sacred images, upon the verses,
And upon those who wear the yellow robe —
Through faith and devotion, rely upon these.

All that was spoken from the Teacher's mouth —
Do not disparage it. Receive it upon the crown of your head.

Persons pure and impure alike —
Regard them all as noble.

Even at the cost of body and life, do not abandon the Three.
Whatever circumstances arise in this time,
Do not seek refuge and protection elsewhere.

By recollecting their great qualities and by offering food,
Always remember them and make offerings.
The continuous refuge recitation should be spoken —
Six times a day is the continuous encouragement.

For the taking: first, understand what refuge is.
When fear arises, that is the encouragement.

Though there is much to know in the tantras,
Because the king and ministers have not yet gained conviction,
I have explained this rite of going for refuge.
Write it well, Kumāra!
May the merit be dedicated to all beings.

The Six Branches of Going for Refuge, composed by Ācārya Vimala, is complete.

Colophon

Source: Degé Tengyur, Tohoku catalogue number D3972, Madhyamaka section, folio 253b. Esukhia Unicode etext (GitHub: Esukhia/derge-tengyur, CC0 license).

Author: Ācārya Vimala (སློབ་དཔོན་བི་མ་ལ, slob dpon bi ma la). An Indian Buddhist master; dates unknown. The text's closing verses address a scribe named Kumāra and mention that the king and ministers have not yet gained conviction in the tantric teachings, suggesting a missionary or court context.

Tibetan translators: No translator colophon is attached to this text in the Degé edition. The immediately preceding text (D3971, Candrakīrti's Seventy Verses on Going for Refuge) was translated by the great paṇḍita Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna (Atiśa, 982–1054) and the translator-monk Rinchen Zangpo (958–1055). D3972 may have been translated by the same team, but this cannot be confirmed from the available evidence.

English translation: Good Works Translation from Classical Tibetan. Translated by Pema (པདྨ, Tibetan Translator, Life 161) independently from the Esukhia Unicode etext. This is the first known English translation. No existing English translation was consulted because none is known to exist.

Note on terminology: གནོད་སྦྱིན (gnod sbyin) is the standard Tibetan translation of Sanskrit yakṣa — nature spirits and minor deities in Indian religion. Here translated as "worldly spirits" to capture the text's intent: having taken refuge in the Buddha, one should not prostrate to non-Buddhist spiritual beings.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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Source Text: སྐྱབས་འགྲོ་ཡན་ལག་དྲུག་པ།

Classical Tibetan source text from the Esukhia Unicode etext of the Degé Tengyur (GitHub: Esukhia/derge-tengyur, CC0). Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.

༄༅༅། །རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། ཥ་ཌཾ་ཨ་ག་ཤ་ར་ཎཾ། བོད་ སྐད་དུ། སྐྱབས་འགྲོ་ཡན་ལག་དྲུག་པ། དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །སྐྱབས་འགྲོ་ཡན་ལག་དྲུག་པ་བཤད། །ཅིས་འགྲོ་དགོས་དང་ཡུལ་དུས་དང་། །ཕན་ཡོན་བསླབ་བྱ་བླང་བ་རྣམས། །རྩ་བ་སྡོམ་དུ་བཤད་པ་ཡིན། །འཇིགས་དང་ཡོན་ཏན་དྲན་པས་འགྲོ། ། གནས་གསུམ་བསྟན་པའི་ཡུལ་དེ་ལ། །འདི་ནས་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཐོབ་པར་རོ། །མུ་སྟེགས་སྤྱོད་ལས་ལོག་པ་ཡིན། །གསུམ་དུ་མི་སྐྱེ་རྟེན་དུ་འགྱུར། །བར་ཆད་མེད་པས་ནད་ཉུང་རིང་། །འབྱང་ཞིང་སོགས་པའི་ཕན་ཡོན་ནོ། །སྐྱབས་གསུམ་དང་པོའི་བསླབ་བྱ་ནི། །གནོད་སྦྱིན་མི་བསྟེན་ ཕྱག་མི་འཚལ། །གཉིས་པ་སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ། །འཚེ་བ་སྤང་ཞིང་བརྩེ་བར་བྱ། །གསུམ་པ་བདག་དང་གཞན་གྱི་ཡུལ། །སྡིག་པ་ཅན་དང་འགྲོགས་པ་མིན། །སྐུ་གཟུགས་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ་དང་། །ལྷན་པ་སེར་པོ་བཏབ་པ་ལ། །དད་མོས་སྒོ་ནས་བརྟེན་པར་ བདག །ཞལ་ནས་གསུངས་པ་མཐའ་དག་ལ། །སྐུར་པ་མི་གདབ་སྤྱི་བོར་བླང་། །གང་ཟག་དག་དང་མ་དག་ལ། །དམ་པར་བལྟ་བར་བྱ་བ་ཡིན། །ལུས་སྲོག་ཕྱིར་ཡང་གསུམ་མི་སྤང་། །དུས་འདིར་རྐྱེན་རྣམས་ཅི་བྱུང་ཡང་། །མགོན་སྐྱབས་གཞན་དུ་བཙལ་བ་མིན། །ཆེ་བའི་ ཡོན་ཏན་ཟས་དག་གིས། །རྟག་ཏུ་དྲན་ཅིང་མཆོད་པ་ཡིན། །རྒྱུན་གྱི་སྐྱབས་འགྲོ་བརྗོད་བྱ་བ། །དུས་དྲུག་རྒྱུན་གྱི་བསྐུལ་མ་ཡིན། །བླང་བ་དང་པོར་ཤེས་བྱ་བ། །འཇིགས་པ་བྱུང་ཚེ་བསྐུལ་མ་ཡིན། །རྒྱུད་ལ་ཤེས་བྱ་མང་མཆིས་ཀྱང་། །རྒྱལ་བློན་ཡིད་ཆེས་མ་གྱུར་པས། །སྐྱབས་ འགྲོའི་ཆོ་ག་བདག་གིས་བཤད། །ལེགས་པར་བྲིས་ཤིག་ཀུ་མཱ་ར། །བསོད་ནམས་འགྲོ་བ་ཡང་ལ་བསྔོ། །སྐྱབས་འགྲོ་ཡན་ལག་དྲུག་པ། སློབ་དཔོན་བི་མ་ལས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ།།

Source Colophon

Tibetan source text from the Esukhia Unicode etext of the Degé Tengyur (GitHub: Esukhia/derge-tengyur). Released under CC0 license. The Esukhia project digitized the Degé edition of the Tibetan Buddhist canon from the woodblock prints held at Degé Printing House, Sichuan, China. The text corresponds to Tohoku catalogue number D3972, located in the Madhyamaka (Middle Way) section, volume ཚ (tsha), folio 253b.

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