Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
This text, composed as a song, serves as a didactic exhortation to renounce saṃsāra by confronting the inherent suffering of cyclic existence. The author argues that sentient beings are fundamentally deluded, mistaking suffering for happiness and procrastinating on spiritual practice despite the certainty of death. To counteract this delusion, the text appeals to the authority of the entire Buddhist canon—including the Abhidharma, Yogacarya, and Vinaya—to validate the necessity of liberation. The work commits the reader to a rigorous regimen of meditative contemplation and cognitive shifts. Specifically, it prescribes the contemplation of the impure body to eliminate aversion, the practice of loving-kindness to extinguish hatred, and the study of dependent origination to dispel ignorance. By framing the human condition as one of precariousness and blindness, the text seeks to provoke an urgent psychological shift from worldly attachment to disciplined spiritual practice.
Provenance
About this text
A song designed to effect a determined departure from cyclic existence, the Saṃsāramanoniryāṇīkāranāmasaṃgīti is a treatise within the classical Tibetan tradition. The work is attributed to the Indian author Atīśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna. Its transition into the Tibetan language was carried out by Atīśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna and zhu chen gyi lo tsa ba rgya brtson seng ge. This translation is preserved in the Tengyur, volume ཞི, where it comprises four pages and is categorized within the General Unexcelled Yoga Tantra Works. The text serves as a didactic exhortation to renounce saṃsāra by confronting the inherent suffering of existence. It argues that sentient beings are fundamentally deluded, mistaking suffering for happiness and procrastinating on spiritual practice despite the certainty of death. By framing the human condition as one of precariousness and blindness, the work seeks to provoke a cognitive shift in the reader. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine its arguments regarding the fickle nature of existence and its prescriptions for overcoming the delusions of the conditioned world through the realization of suffering.
Sanskrit title
Saṃsāramanoniryāṇīkāranāmasaṃgīti
Indian author
Atīśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna
Tibetan translators
Atīśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna, zhu chen gyi lo tsa ba rgya brtson seng ge
Cite thisAnuvāda, “A Song called “Bringing About the Definite Liberation of the Mind from Saṃsāra”” (Toh 2313), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2313
Summary & commentary
Significance
The work is significant for its synthesis of various Buddhist philosophical schools and its use of the 'song' genre to deliver a direct, urgent call to practice. It reflects the traditional Indo-Tibetan emphasis on the 'four thoughts that turn the mind' as a prerequisite for higher study.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1-2
Invocation and Diagnosis
Homages to the Three Jewels and the Guru, followed by a critique of the deluded state of beings who mistake suffering for happiness.
3
Impermanence and Procrastination
A reflection on the contrast between seasonal joys and the inevitable end of life, criticizing the habit of delaying practice.
4
Canonical Authority
An appeal to the totality of Buddhist scriptures, including the seven valid cognitions and various philosophical stages, to support the urgency of liberation.
5
Prescribed Antidotes
Specific instructions on using impurity, loving-kindness, and dependent origination to overcome aversion, hatred, and ignorance.
Themes
The delusion of saṃsāra (1-2)
Impermanence and death (3)
Scriptural authority (4)
Meditative antidotes (5)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
AnuvādaA Song called “Bringing About the Definite Liberation of the Mind from Saṃsāra”·
In the language of India: Saṃsāra-niyatodvigna-nirgama-gītikā-nāma-saṃgīti. In the language of Tibet: ’Khor ba las yid nges par ’byung bar byed pa zhes bya ba’i glu. Homage to the gurus! Homage to the Three Jewels!
Ema! To the King of Physicians who protects from all suffering—the suffering of conditioned formations, the suffering of change, and the suffering of suffering, and so forth, numbering one hundred and ten—to him I prostrate.
O, O, friends! The causes of saṃsāra are the afflictions and karma. The afflictions dwell in the ninety-eight abodes of the three realms. They arise through the power of the outflows, the floods, the yokes, and the grasping, produced by the force of causes, objects, and application.
O, O, friends! These various things arise from karma; that, in turn, arises from the power of the afflictions. There are virtuous, non-virtuous, and neutral [karmas]; those to be experienced in this life, those to be experienced after rebirth, those to be experienced in other lives, and those that are indefinite. There are white, black, and mixed [karmas].
Regarding the karma of saṃsāra, whichever is heaviest, whichever is proximate, whichever is habitual, or whichever was performed first—among these, the former will ripen first.
Friends, reflect! From beginningless time, the eleven links beginning with ignorance and ending with old age and death—the twelve links in three sections, like a waterwheel—this internal dependent origination revolves again and again. In birth after birth, throughout countless lifetimes, one is tormented again and again by the sufferings of birth, aging, sickness, and death. Having wandered in delusion, one wanders in delusion and will continue to wander.
Alas! Travelers weary by the path of cyclic existence,
Who mistake suffering for happiness and feel no weariness,
You whose minds are constantly attached to that—
The Guru says you are no different from cattle.
The wise, those individuals held by the Guru,
Moment by moment, see all five classes of beings
As if the thorns of cyclic suffering were piercing them;
From the very marrow of their bones, who would not feel compassion?
Under the power of negative karma, in this ocean of cyclic existence,
Born again and again, aging and falling ill again and again,
And dying again and again—without reflecting on this,
How can I, who am attached to sense objects, continue on?
Friends, all who dwell within the three realms of existence are suffering.
I have seen the suffering of humans:
They dwell in such suffering within the womb,
Passing through the stages of the oval, the oblong, the round, the elongated,
The flesh-like, and the firm, until the limbs are gradually complete.
Nourished by breast milk and butter,
Extremely fragile, they lie on their backs.
From childhood, youth, and the prime of life,
Through old age, one returns once more to childhood.
Life is impermanent and extremely fickle;
It does not have the power to remain for even a moment.
Friends, that person who does not think, "I will certainly die,"
Is truly a great wonder.
Because they do not know the faults and defects of cyclic existence,
And dwell in the four inversions,
Without thinking, "I will certainly die,"
They pass day and night in meaningless attachment to sense objects.
For those of Jambudvīpa, untimely death occurs;
Since even the certain lifespan is subject to exhaustion,
It is right to think again and again, "I will certainly die,"
O fair-faced ones!
When the summer season of blooming flowers arrives, and when the autumn season marked by the bright moon comes, all people rejoice; yet, there is no such lack of sorrow when they think, "This life of mine is coming to an end."
Thinking, "I will do this today, I will do that tomorrow, and after that, this and that," beings who do not understand the fickle nature of existence seek vain security. Like a ship that has entered the jaws of a sea monster, they fall into the turbulent waves of sensory objects before their tasks are finished.
"This I will do tomorrow, this I will do in a moment, and this I will do later"—while people are thinking thus, Yama, the Lord of Death, brandishes his club and glares from the corner of his eye. With bloodshot, wrathful eyes and a malicious laugh, he strikes down their hopes.
Though one may be well-versed in all the treatises of yoga and many practical applications, if one says, "I will do it today, I will do it tomorrow," one will die despite being full of such intentions.
This life is more impermanent than a bubble on water tossed by the wind of many harms. That one has the leisure to wake up tomorrow after falling asleep and breathing in and out is truly a great wonder.
O friends! Life is short and the objects of knowledge are many. Since the duration of one's life is unknown, take up your own desired goals like a swan extracting milk from water.
O friends! When one looks at the conduct of the world, all that is done is meaningless and a cause of suffering. Since no matter what one thinks of, it will not be of benefit, habituate yourself to looking at your own mind.
O, O, friends! The seven valid cognitions and the four grammars, the Abhidharma and the Yogacarya stages, the Sutras and the Vinaya and Abhidharma—all the texts that have been composed without exception—do not say, "I have not seen, heard, explained, or written them." Therefore, O fair-faced ones, do not feel such longing for them. Seek only that which is the nectar-like essence of the guru’s pith instructions, by which the mind is placed in equanimity; what need is there for many texts? They are all causes that delude the mind. Since this state of cyclic existence is uncertain, and since fathers, mothers, and so forth are not fixed as such, abandon attachment to relatives and kin. Since enemies are also not fixed, abandon hatred toward them. Naturally abandon attachment to health, the perfection of youth, and the five sensory pleasures. Abandon gain, honor, fame, lineage, clan, and verses of praise. Abandon the connection to disciples, grand-disciples, and the Dharma. O, O, friends! Considering the world to be like a tiger, a snake, fire, or poison, abandon it and dwell in solitude. Abandon the study and recitation of treatises on the characteristics of women or men, the examination of medicines or elephants, astrology and calculations, the examination of weapons, veterinary science, or one's own fabrications. When a mind of manifest delight in sense objects arises, and when those conceptual thoughts arise, remember that you will certainly die and avert them with the antidotes that follow. Quell the abundance of conceptual thoughts by counting the breaths. That conceptual thought which is the arising of a mind of desire—
Aversion is averted by contemplating the nature of the impure skeleton; hatred is doused with the water of loving-kindness; and ignorance is dispelled by the path of dependent origination. One should practice the instructions on impurity, loving-kindness, and dependent origination exactly as they emerge from the mouth of the guru. This concludes the song entitled "Bringing About Certainty Regarding Saṃsāra," composed by the master, the glorious Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna. It was translated at the Vikramaśīla monastery by the Indian abbot himself and the chief editor-translator Gya-ton Seng-ge. Later, it was revised and finalized by that same guru and the translator Tsultrim Gyalwa.
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.