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The Lamp of Methods for Meditating on the Definitive Meaning — D4450

✦ ─── ⟐ ─── ✦

by Gnyan Dpal dbyangs

This brief meditation instruction presses the teaching of non-abiding
beyond its own formulas. Saying that mind rests nowhere may still conceal
a subtle fixation upon mind; deliberately correcting posture, body, or
conduct may preserve the very grasping it seeks to remove. When body and
mind are known as unborn, groundless, illusion-like, and space-like,
neither apprehension nor non-apprehension requires contrivance.

The work is D4450 / Toh 4450 in the Degé Tengyur, volume 211, folios
385a.6–385b.4. Its canonical opening gives the long title above, while an
early alternate title is The Small Collection of Quintessential
Instructions (Man ngag rgum chung). It is one of the Six Lamps associated
with the early Tibetan master Gnyan Dpal dbyangs (conventionally Nyen
Palyang) and
is discussed in scholarship as part of the formative or proto–Great
Perfection literature; the canonical title's “Yogācāra system” is retained
here for textual and catalog identity. The 84000 catalog renders the
personal name as Śrīghoṣa. This independent translation was made from the
pinned Esukhia Degé etext and checked against early citations and Tibetan
comparison witnesses. No translator is named. The work is distinct from
the immediately preceding D4449, The Lamp of Method and Wisdom.

When one strives for the Dharma as it is,
Dharma does not enter into Dharma.1
No matter how profound the words one speaks,
they do not accord with the meaning.

To say, “Mind rests nowhere
and takes nothing as its object,”
while trying to remove the faults of its resting and object-fixation,
still leaves a subtle fixation on mind.

If mind is unreal, like a mirage,
what is it that neither rests nor takes an object?
Telling space itself, “Do not abide!”
is a meaningless instruction.2

Likewise, sitting upright and cross-legged,
and every other adjustment of the body,
arise from manifest attachment to the idea of a body.
There is nothing to adjust in bodiless space.

Once the body is known to be like an illusion,
there is no upright sitting or arranging crossed legs.
In whatever of the three modes of conduct one remains,3
there is nothing deliberate to do and no doing.

Body and mind are unborn and groundless.
Like space, they leave no scope for adjustment.
Taking the adjustment of body and mind as the standard
plants the stake of grasping.4

Just as signless space is free of striving
either to take an object or to be objectless,
so too the space of mind itself
is naturally just so.

Body and everything else are likewise:5
since there is no striving, however things may be,
there is no abiding. When there is no abiding,
there is only nonconflict.

Colophon

The Method for Meditating on the Definitive Meaning Just As It Is in the
Yogācāra System is complete. The Small Collection of Quintessential
Instructions. Composed by Gnyan Dpal dbyangs.

Good Works Translation from Tibetan (Degé Tengyur D4450 / Toh 4450, volume
211, folios 385a.6–385b.4). Independently translated from the Tibetan source
for the Good Works Library, July 2026. The opening title includes “Lamp”; the
shorter closing title omits it. No translator is named.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Works Library, 2026.

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Source Text: རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྤྱོད་པའི་ལུགས་ངེས་པའི་དོན་ལ་ཇི་བཞིན་སྒོམ་ཐབས་ཀྱི་སྒྲོན་མ།

Tibetan source text from the Esukhia digital edition of the Degé Tengyur,
D4450, folios 385a.6–385b.4. Presented complete for reference and
verification; the D-number, opening and closing title forms, folio markers,
spelling, and line divisions are retained.

{D4450}༄། །རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྤྱོད་བའི་ལུགས་ངེས་པའི་དོན་ལ་ཇི་བཞིན་སྒོམ་ཐབས་ཀྱི་སྒྲོན་མ་
[385a.7]བཞུགས། །༄༅༅། །ཇི་བཞིན་པ་ཡི་ཆོས་བརྩོན་པར། །ཆོས་ལ་ཆོས་ནི་མི་འཇུག་སྟེ། །ཇི་ཙམ་ཟབ་པའི་ཚིག་བརྗོད་ཀྱང་། །དོན་དང་མཐུན་པར་མི་འགྱུར་རོ། །སེམས་ནི་ཅི་ལ་འང་མི་གནས་དང་། །ཅི་ལའང་མི་དམིགས་ཤེས་བྱ་བ། །སེམས་ལ་གནས་དམིགས་སྐྱོན་སེལ་བའི། །སེམས་འཛིན་
[385b]
[385b.1]ཕྲ་མོ་དེ་ལ་ཡོད། །སྨིག་རྒྱུ་བཞིན་དུ་སེམས་མེད་ན། །མི་གནས་མི་དམིགས་བྱེད་པ་གང་། །ནམ་མཁའ་རང་ལའང་མི་གནས་ཤེས། །བསྒོམ་པ་དོན་དང་ལྡན་མ་ཡིན། །དེ་བཞིན་སྐྱིལ་ཀྲུང་དྲང་འདུག་དང་། །ལུས་ཀྱི་བཅོས་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱང་། །ལུས་རྟོག་མངོན་པར་ཞེན་ལས་བྱུང་། །ལུས་མེད་
[385b.2]མཁའ་ལ་བཅོས་སུ་མེད། །སྒྱུ་མ་བཞིན་དུ་ལུས་ཤེས་ན། །དྲང་འདུག་སྐྱིལ་ཀྲུང་འཆའ་བ་མེད། །སྤྱོད་ལམ་གསུམ་གྱིས་གནས་པ་གང་། །ཆེད་དུ་བྱ་མེད་བྱེད་པའང་མེད། །ལུས་སེམས་མ་སྐྱེས་གཞི་མེད་པ། །མཁའ་ལྟར་བཅོས་པའི་ཁ་ན་མེད། །ཚད་མར་ལུས་སེམས་འཆོས་བྱེད་པ། །འཛིན་
[385b.3]པའི་ཕུར་པ་དེ་ལ་ཡོད། །ཇི་ལྟར་མཚན་མེད་ནམ་མཁའ་ནི། །དམིགས་དང་དམིགས་མེད་རྩོལ་དང་བྲལ། །དེ་བཞིན་སེམས་ཉིད་ནམ་མཁའ་ཡང་། །རང་བཞིན་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་དེ་ལྟའོ། །ལས་ལ་སོགས་ཀྱང་དེ་བཞིན་ཏེ། །རྩོལ་བ་མེད་ཕྱིར་གང་ལྟར་ཡང་། །གནས་པ་མེད་དེ་མི་གནས་ན། །
[385b.4]མི་འགལ་ཙམ་དུ་གྱུར་པ་ཡིན། །རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྤྱོད་པའི་ལུགས་ངེས་པའི་དོན་ལ་ཇི་བཞིན་བསྒོམ་ཐབས་རྫོགས་སོ།། །།མན་ངག་དགུམ་ཆུང་། གཉན་དཔལ་དབྱངས་ཀྱིས་མཛད་པའོ།། །།

Source Colophon

The controlling source is the Esukhia digital edition of the Degé Tengyur,
pinned at commit 174653137d62af481f53c6ae3dc842bf8629323e. The exact D4450
extraction is 3,355 bytes with SHA-256
4ceb1744c30f6f3db2f99f33ed2c194d1cf3786f160ecd25c86c0b464b210db6.
It begins on folio 385a.6, runs through the author statement on folio 385b.4,
and ends immediately before D4451. The Esukhia source is recorded as a
mechanical reproduction of a public-domain work.

The English follows three bounded, comparison-supported readings. The
opening normalizes spyod ba to spyod pa. Samten G. Karmay's critical
edition records Rongzom's early stanza-three reading, “Telling space itself,
‘Do not abide!’ is a meaningless instruction,” and establishes Man ngag
rgum chung as the alternate title. The Golden, Narthang, and Peking
witnesses and Karmay's edition read “body and everything else” in the final
stanza where Degé has “actions and everything else.” The diplomatic Degé
source block above remains unaltered. See Samten G. Karmay, The Great
Perfection (rDzogs chen),
2nd ed. (Brill, 2007), pp. 66–67 and 84–85.

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Footnotes

  1. The repeated chos can mean Dharma, teaching, or phenomenon. The line's precise internal relation is left open in the Tibetan. ↩

  2. The later Degé reads, literally, “knowing that it does not abide even in space itself; meditation is not meaningful.” Rongzom's earlier quotation preserves the coherent command translated here. ↩

  3. The source explicitly says “three modes of conduct” and does not enumerate them. ↩

  4. “Leave no scope for adjustment” and “as the standard” are contextual readings of two compressed phrases. The surrounding stanza clearly identifies deliberate correction as the “stake of grasping.” ↩

  5. Degé reads “actions and everything else.” Three other canonical witnesses and the critical edition read “body and everything else,” which fits the posture sequence and is followed here. ↩