Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
This fragment of Maitrīpa’s personal instructions presents a non-dualist ontological claim regarding the nature of reality. The text asserts that the fundamental nature of all phenomena is identical to Mañjuśrī Jñānasattva, a designation it identifies as the universal name of all Sugatas. By framing this assertion as the meaning sung by the Vajradharas, the text positions its argument within the authoritative tradition of the Mahāmudra or Vajrayāna lineages. The work is designed for practitioners of excellent intellect, suggesting that the instructions are intended to facilitate a direct realization of the emptiness and luminosity of the mind. The reader is committed to a view where the distinction between the phenomenal world and the enlightened state is collapsed into a single, primordial essence.
Provenance
About this text
Offering a condensed set of instructions, the gdams ngag nye bar bsdus pa belongs to the genre of instruction within the classical Tibetan tradition. The work is attributed to the Indian author Vajraghaṇṭa. It was translated into Tibetan by Mañjuśrīsiddhi and dge slong blo ldan shes rab, and is preserved in the Tengyur, volume ཚི, where it comprises two pages. Within the Tibetan canon, it is situated among the Other Skillful Means Tantras. The work enacts a non-dualist ontological claim, asserting that the fundamental nature of all phenomena is identical to Mañjuśrī Jñānasattva, a designation identified as the universal name of all Sugatas. By framing this assertion as the meaning sung by the great Vajradharas, the text positions its argument within an authoritative tradition. It is intended for practitioners of excellent intellect who possess bodhicitta and devotion to the supreme deity. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine how the distinction between the phenomenal world and the enlightened state is collapsed into a single, primordial essence through the application of the three illusory d.
Cite thisAnuvāda, “A Summary of [Maitrīpa’s] Personal Instructions” (Toh 2106), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2106
Summary & commentary
Significance
The text is significant for its identification of the nature of phenomena with a specific deity-aspect, reflecting the intersection of emptiness and deity-yoga in the Indo-Tibetan tradition. It provides insight into how Maitrīpa's lineage conceptualized the ultimate nature of the mind as an accessible, universal reality.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1
The Condensed Instructions
An introductory passage establishing the identity of all phenomena as Mañjuśrī Jñānasattva.
Themes
Non-duality of phenomena and enlightenment (1)
Authority of the Vajradharas (1)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
AnuvādaA Summary of [Maitrīpa’s] Personal Instructions·
The Condensed Instructions
Homage to the noble Mañjuśrī Jñānasattva.
The nature of all phenomena is Mañjuśrī Jñānasattva,
The name of all Sugatas without exception.
This is the meaning sung by the great Vajradharas,
For the sake of those with excellent intellects, profound and vast.
For those possessing bodhicitta and devotion to the supreme deity,
Through the application of the three illusory dependent originations,
The nine emanations, non-dual and all-pervading, appear without exception.
This collection of the unarisen and unceasing net of magical illusion
Should be viewed with the vajra eye until appearances are attained.
Having fully understood illusions, echoes, and the nature of space,
One should read with a mind free of attachment.
This is the path of the great system of Secret Mantra:
Just as all things abide in space,
So one abides in the samaya, the maṇḍala, and the Mahāmudrā.
Those who do not know this meaning follow other difficult paths;
They do not move beyond the three cities of saṃsāra.
Knowing this meaning, one abandons the faults of inherent nature.
Like a scent-elephant eating the ketaka flower,
The host of faults is destroyed, and one possesses the qualities of the scriptures.
One becomes a king of the unceasing Dharma.
The secret treasury of the heart, the jewel upon the crown,
The nature of the minds of all beings, the transmission of all phenomena,
Abides as the vajra words, the sovereign of all tantras.
This is the close succession following the Abbot.
The Condensed Instructions of the great master, the glorious Maitrīpa, is complete.
Translation status: Not among 84000's published translations, and not in progress there. Translations published elsewhere have not been searched for, so one may exist. (source: 84000 catalogue + registry; checked 2026-11-10).
Set in Newsreader and EB Garamond; Tibetan in Noto Serif Tibetan; Chinese in Noto Serif SC.