Toh 2317 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

The Lamp of the Correct View

Translated from the Tibetan by buddhist-nlp/mitra-qwen35-translate · machine-assisted

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 2317
Genre: Treatise
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 052_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཞི.txt
Extent: 2 passages · 1,201 Tibetan characters · 328 English words
Translation: buddhist-nlp/mitra-qwen35-translate (English, machine-assisted)
Status: Edition 1.0 · 2026 · machine draft
Rights: Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)

The Lamp of the Authentic View (Saṃdarśa-pradīpa-nāma) is a concise philosophical treatise that seeks to establish a non-partial perspective on the nature of perception. The text opens with traditional invocations to Mañjuśrī and enlightened beings, framing the subsequent technical claims within a lineage of innate wisdom. The central argument posits that appearance and sound constitute the capacity of grasping, suggesting a framework where sensory phenomena are analyzed as functions of cognitive apprehension rather than independent external entities. By identifying the 'view of the measure of the symbol' as unceasing, the text commits the reader to a view free of partiality, implying a move toward a non-dualistic or empty understanding of sensory experience. The work is structured as a brief assertion of a specific epistemological position, moving rapidly from devotional preamble to a definitive statement on the nature of grasping and appearance.

Provenance

About this text

A treatise establishing a non-partial perspective on the nature of perception, the Saṃdarśanapradīpa (Tibetan: yang dag lta ba'i sgron ma) belongs to the General Unexcelled Yoga Tantra Works. This classical Tibetan work is preserved in the Tengyur, volume ཞི, where it extends over two pages. The text opens with an invocation to Mañjuśrī and enlightened beings, proceeding to argue that appearance and sound constitute the capacity of grasping. By asserting that the view of the measure of the symbol is unceasing and accords with all philosophical systems, the work enacts a framework for understanding the mode of being through a view free of partiality. A scholar or serious reader consults this brief work today to examine its specific epistemological position on the relationship between sensory phenomena and cognitive apprehension.

Sanskrit title: Saṃdarśanapradīpa
Indian author: not recorded
Tibetan translators: not recorded
Canonical collection: General Unexcelled Yoga Tantra Works
Genre: Treatise
Source edition: Tengyur, vol. ཞི
Period: classical Tibetan

Read further

Catalogue

84000 catalogue entry

Bibliography

BDRC library search

Libraries

WorldCat

Sanskrit sources

Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon

Reference

Cite thisAnuvāda, “The Lamp of the Correct View” (Toh 2317), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2317

Summary & commentary

Significance

The work is significant for its attempt to synthesize the relationship between sensory perception and the cognitive act of grasping. For the modern reader, it provides a primary example of how Tibetan Buddhist philosophy utilizes brief, aphoristic formats to transmit complex views on phenomenology.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Introduction and Invocations	Provides the Sanskrit and Tibetan titles and offers homage to Mañjuśrī and the sources of innate wisdom.
2	Philosophical Assertion	Defines the relationship between appearance, sound, and the capacity of grasping to establish a view free of partiality.

Themes

Epistemology of Grasping (2)
Non-partiality (2)
Devotional Framing (1)

Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.

AnuvādaThe Lamp of the Correct View·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། སཾ་དརྴ་པྲ་དཱི་པ་ནཱ་མ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། ཡང་དག་ལྟ་བའི་སྒྲོན་མ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ། འཇམ་དཔལ་སྨྲ་བའི་སེང་གེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། ལྷན་སྐྱེས་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྟེར་མཛད་པ། ། དམ་པ་སྐྱེས་མཆོག་རྣམས་ལ་འདུད། ། མཚོན་ཚོད་ལྟ་བ་མ་འགགས་པས། ། གྲུབ་མཐའ་ཀུན་དང་ཕྱོགས་གཅིག་མཐུན། ། ཡིན་ལུགས་ལྟ་བ་མཐའ་དང་བྲལ། ། གྲུབ་མཐའ་ཀུན་གྱི་བློ་མ་ཤོག། ལྟ་བ་རྒྱ་ཆེ་མཐའ་བྲལ་ནི། ། མཐའ་བཞིའི་སྐྱོན་དང་བྲལ་བས་ན། ། གྲུབ་མཐའ་ཀུན་ལ་མི་གནས་པས། ། ཡང་དག་ལྟ་བར་ཡིད་ཆེས་བྱ། ། བལྟ་བྱ་ལྟ་བྱེད་གཉིས་དང་བྲལ། ། ལྟ་བ་མེད་པའི་ལྟ་བ་ནི། ། ལྟ་བའི་དམ་པ་ཁོ་ན་ཡིན། ། དངོས་འཛིན་ལྟ་བ་ཀུན་ལས་གྲོལ། ། མ་རིག་པ་ཡི་མིག་ཕྱེ་ནས། ། ཡེ་ཤེས་མིག་གིས་བལྟས་པས་ནི། ། རིག་པ་དྲི་མ་མེད་པ་ལྟ། ། དྲི་མེད་མཐོང་ཞེས་ལྟ་བ་ཡིན། ། མཐོང་བྱ་མཐོང་བྱེད་གཉིས་བྲལ་ནས། ། ཟུང་འཇུག་ལྟ་བ་གཟའ་གཏད་མེད། ། ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་ལྟ་མཆོག་ཡིན། ། དེ་ཉིད་རྟོགས་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན་ནི། ། མཚན་ཉིད་བཞི་རུ་ཤེས་པར་བྱ། ། རིག་པ་དྲི་མ་མེད་པ་ལ། ། རྣམ་དག་སྒྲིབ་གཡོགས་མེད་པས་ནི། ། གཟུང་འཛིན་གཡའ་ཡིས་མ་གོས་པའོ། ། གཅིག་གི་སངས་རྒྱས་ཨེ་མ་ཧོ། ། རིག་པ་གཅེར་བུར་གནས་པ་ལ། ། མཚན་མའི་གོས་ཀྱིས་མ་གཡོགས་པ། ། རང་བྱུང་ཡེ་ཤེས་དྲོད་པོ་ཆེ། ། ཆགས་སྡང་མཚན་མ་མེ་བཞིན་སྲེག། ཀུན་ཤེས་རིག་པ་རྟེན་མེད་པའོ། ། བག་ཆགས་སྦུབས་སུ་མ་ཞུགས་པར། ། སྡུག་བསྔལ་འཁོར་བ་གཟུགས་མི་དགོས། ། འདོད་ཡོན་སུན་མ་རང་སར་གྲོལ། ། འཛིན་མེད་རིག་པ་བརླིངས་པ་ནི། ། དངོས་འཛིན་ཡུ་བ་བུད་པས་ན། །

In the language of India: Saṃdarśa-pradīpa-nāma. In the language of Tibet: Yang dag lta ba'i sgron ma (The Lamp of the Authentic View). Homage to Mañjuśrī, the Lion of Speech! I bow to the sublime, supreme beings who bestow innate wisdom. Since the view of the measure of the symbol is unceasing, It accords in a single direction with all philosophical systems. The view of the mode of being is free from extremes; It does not fall within the intellect of any philosophical system. This vast view, free from extremes, Being free from the faults of the four extremes, And not abiding in any philosophical system, Should be trusted as the authentic view. Free from both the object of view and the viewer, The view that is without a view Is the very pinnacle of all views. Liberated from all views that grasp at entities, Having opened the eye of ignorance, By looking with the eye of wisdom, One sees stainless awareness. Seeing the stainless is the view. Free from both the seen and the seer, The view of union is without a focal point. This is the supreme view of Mahāmudrā. The qualities of realizing that very reality Should be understood through four characteristics. In stainless awareness, Because it is pure and without obscuration, It is unstained by the rust of subject and object. The Buddha of the single [awareness]—Emaho! In awareness abiding naked, Uncovered by the garments of signs, The great warmth of self-arisen wisdom Burns the signs of attachment and aversion like fire. All-knowing awareness is without support. Without entering the cocoon of habitual tendencies, There is no need for the form of suffering saṃsāra. The sensory objects are liberated in their own place without being rejected. When awareness is stable and without grasping, The handle of grasping at entities is broken.

structureTitle block: the Sanskrit title is given as it is transmitted in Tibetan transliteration, not reconstructed from Sanskrit sources; the Tibetan title is translated after it.

terminologyཡེ་ཤེས → “wisdom”. Distinguish from ཤེས་རབ (prajñā, 'insight'): ཡེ་ཤེས is the buddhas' non-dual wisdom, ཤེས་རབ the discriminating faculty on the path.

homonymཡེ་ཤེས is rendered “wisdom” here; the glossary also records awareness, Wisdom, knowledge for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཡེ་ཤེས “wisdom” — The term jñāna is formed by the root jñā , meaning “to know,” “to know of,” “to understand,” “to be aware of,” with the addition of the pratyaya lyuṭ , which can be interpreted as having different values (the instrument

periodརིག་པ → “knowledge”. 'awareness' belongs to the Dzogchen (11th c. onward) usage; in earlier tantras and in རིག་པ་དང་མ་རིག་པ it is 'knowledge' versus 'ignorance'.

homonymརིག་པ is rendered “knowledge” here; the glossary also records awareness, spell, incantation for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionརིག་པ “knowledge” — This term may, according to context, refer to exoteric or esoteric knowledge, a goddess, her associated dhāraṇī , or some combination of these. In the body of this scripture, the dhāraṇī is referred to as a vidyā . In ta

terminologyསངས་རྒྱས → “buddha”. The title, not a name. In Old Tibetan the spelling is usually སངས་རྒྱས already; the plural sense ('the buddhas') is carried by context, not by a suffix.

homonymསངས་རྒྱས is rendered “buddha” here; the glossary also records Awakened, awakened, Buddha for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionསངས་རྒྱས “buddha” — The Indic term buddha means "The Awakened One" and is used in Buddhism as an epithet for the historical Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama as well as other spiritually enlightened beings in general. “ Buddha ” is the past partici

periodམེ → “fire”. In ritual and cosmological prose མེ is the element 'fire'; Agni is the deity only where he is named or invoked. Do not capitalise the element.

homonymམེ is rendered “fire” here; the glossary also records Āgneya, Analā, Acalā for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionམེ “fire” — Classified as a “ lord of beings ” ( prajāpati ).

definitionསྡུག་བསྔལ “suffering” — The first of the four truths of the noble ones. The term “suffering” includes all essentially unsatisfactory experiences of life in cyclic existence, whether physical or mental. These comprise (1) the suffering of suffer

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termཡེ་ཤེས → wisdom

termརིག་པ → knowledge

termསངས་རྒྱས → buddha

termམེ → fire

termསྡུག་བསྔལ → suffering

སྣང་གྲགས་འཛིན་པ་ནུས་པ་ཡིན། ། ཕྱོགས་ཆ་མེད་པའི་ལྟ་བའོ། ། ཡང་དག་ལྟ་བའི་སྒྲོན་མ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་རྫོགས་སོ། ། ། །

Appearance and sound are the capacity of grasping; this is the view free of partiality. This concludes "The Lamp of the Authentic View."

Terminology used in this text (6)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	1
ཡེ་ཤེས	wisdom	1	Distinguish from ཤེས་རབ (prajñā, 'insight'): ཡེ་ཤེས is the buddhas' non-dual wisdom, ཤེས་རབ the discriminating faculty o
རིག་པ	knowledge	1	'awareness' belongs to the Dzogchen (11th c. onward) usage; in earlier tantras and in རིག་པ་དང་མ་རིག་པ it is 'knowledge'
སངས་རྒྱས	buddha	1	The title, not a name. In Old Tibetan the spelling is usually སངས་རྒྱས already; the plural sense ('the buddhas') is carr
མེ	fire	1	In ritual and cosmological prose མེ is the element 'fire'; Agni is the deity only where he is named or invoked. Do not c
སྡུག་བསྔལ	suffering	1

Colophon

Source: tengyur vol. 052_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཞི.txt. Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction).

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.

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