Toh 2385 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

The Consecration of the Cultivation of Compassion

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue
Toh 2385
Genre
Ritual
Period
classical Tibetan
Edition
Tengyur vol. 053_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཟི.txt
Extent
2 passages · 1,158 Tibetan characters · 277 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)

Attributed to the master Tilopa, this brief text serves as a pith instruction on the cultivation of compassion. The work posits that the realization of equality can be achieved instantaneously, provided the practitioner has first obtained the blessings of the guru. The author explicitly notes that the specific mechanism for this rapid realization is not clearly detailed within the standard tantric classes, suggesting that the text intends to fill a pedagogical gap by providing a direct, experiential method. By framing the practice as a consecration of compassion, the text commits the reader to a dependency on the guru-disciple relationship as the primary catalyst for spiritual insight, moving beyond theoretical study toward a sudden, non-conceptual realization of the nature of equality.

Provenance

About this text

A ritual work focused on the cultivation of compassion, the Karuṇābhāvanādhiṣṭāna is attributed to the Indian master Tilopa. Preserved in the classical Tibetan tradition, the text appears in the Tengyur, volume ཟི, where it comprises two pages and is situated within the General Unexcelled Yoga Tantra Works. In the Tibetan language, it is known as the snying rje bsgom pa'i byin rlabs. The work functions as a pith instruction, arguing that the realization of equality can be achieved in a single instant once the practitioner has obtained the blessings of the guru. Tilopa explicitly notes that because this process is not clearly explained within the tantra classes, he provides this specific practice to bridge that gap. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine a direct method of meditation that emphasizes the guru-disciple relationship as the primary catalyst for spiritual insight, moving the practitioner beyond theoretical study toward a sudden, non-conceptual realization.

Sanskrit title
Karuṇābhāvanādhiṣṭāna
Indian author
Tilopa
Tibetan translators
not recorded
Canonical collection
General Unexcelled Yoga Tantra Works
Genre
Ritual
Source edition
Tengyur, vol. ཟི
Period
classical Tibetan
Cite thisAnuvāda, “The Consecration of the Cultivation of Compassion” (Toh 2385), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2385
Summary & commentary

Significance

The work is significant for its emphasis on the role of the guru in facilitating an instantaneous realization, a hallmark of the Mahamudra and Dzogchen traditions associated with Tilopa. For the modern reader, it illustrates the tension between formal tantric literature and the 'pith instructions' intended for direct transmission.

Structure

PassagesSectionDescription
1Introduction and Core ThesisProvides the Sanskrit and Tibetan titles, offers homage to the gurus, and asserts that guru blessings lead to the instant realization of equality.
2ColophonIdentifies the work as the Pith Instructions for Meditating on Compassion by Tilopa.

Themes

  • Guru Devotion (1)
  • Instantaneous Realization (1)
  • Compassion and Equality (1-2)

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

AnuvādaThe Consecration of the Cultivation of Compassion·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། ཀཱ་རུ་ཎ་ཨ་དྷིཥྛཱ་ན་བྷཱ་བ་ན་ནཱ་མ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། སྙིང་རྗེ་བསྒོམ་པའི་བྱིན་རླབས་ཞེས་བྱ་བ། བླ་མ་དམ་པ་རྣམས་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་ཐོབ་གྱུར་པས། ། སྐད་ཅིག་གཅིག་ལ་མཉམ་པར་རྟོགས། ། རྒྱུད་སྡེ་རྣམས་ལ་མི་གསལ་བས། ། སྙིང་རྗེ་བསྒོམ་པའི་ཉམས་ལེན་བཤད། ། རྣལ་འབྱོར་དེ་ཉིད་དྲན་བྱས་ནས། ། མཚན་བཅས་མཚན་མེད་རང་བཞིན་གྱིས། ། སྙིང་གའི་དབུས་སུ་ཐིག་ལེ་ནི། ། མུན་པའི་རབ་རིབ་བསལ་གྱུར་པ། ། ཟླ་རྩེའི་སྟེང་དུ་བསམ་པར་བྱ། ། རང་བཞིན་བདག་པོ་རོལ་མཛད་པ། ། དྲག་པོའི་གཟི་བརྗིད་ཕྲེང་བས་བརྒྱན། ། ཧེ་རུ་ཀ་དཔལ་མགོན་པོ་ཆེ། ། བདུད་བཞི་ལས་ནི་རྣམ་པར་རྒྱལ། ། ལྷན་ཅིག་སྐྱེས་པའི་དུར་ཁྲོད་གནས། ། བདེ་བ་ཆེན་པོ་དགའ་བའི་མཆོག། རོ་མྱང་ལོངས་སྐུ་བྱང་སེམས་ལྡན། ། ཡི་གེ་རྒྱུ་མེད་ཡང་དག་གསུངས། ། ལྷ་སྒོམ་ཕྲེང་སྔགས་མཚམས་གཅོད་དང་། ། སྦྱིན་སྲེག་ཀློག་སོགས་དགོས་པ་མེད། ། རྟོག་པ་རྣམས་ནི་སྤངས་བྱས་ནས། ། འཇིགས་མེད་སྙིང་རྗེ་བསྐྱེད་བྱས་ལ། ། སློབ་མ་དང་ནི་བདག་ཉིད་ཀྱི། ། སྙིང་གར་བསྒོམས་པས་ཡེ་ཤེས་ནི། ། ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན་དང་མཉམ་པར་འགྱུར། ། དེ་ཉིད་རྟོགས་པས་ཡང་དག་ཕྲད། ། རྫུ་འཕྲུལ་བཞི་དང་ས་བཅུ་ཐོབ། ། ནམ་མཁར་སྤྱོད་དེ་མི་སྣང་འགྲུབ། ། སྐྱེ་བ་དྲན་ཞིང་རང་སེམས་རྟོགས། ། འདས་དང་མ་འོངས་ད་ལྟར་ནི། ། རང་རིག་གཞན་རིག་ཐམས་ཅད་སྐྱེ། ། མགལ་མེའི་འཁོར་ལོ་བསྐོར་བ་ལྟར། ། སྣ་ཚོགས་སེམས་ཀྱི་རང་བཞིན་གྱི། ། ཉམས་སྐྱེས་རྣལ་འབྱོར་གྲུབ་པ་ཐོབ། །

In the language of India: Karuṇādhiṣṭhānabhāvanā-nāma. In the language of Tibet: snying rje bsgom pa’i byin rlabs zhes bya ba. Homage to the sublime gurus. Having obtained the blessings of the guru, one realizes equality in a single instant. Since this is not clearly explained in the tantra classes, I shall explain the practice of meditating on compassion. Recalling that very yoga, by way of the nature of the characterized and the uncharacterized, one should contemplate a bindu in the center of the heart, which has cleared away the dimness of darkness, upon the tip of a moon. The Lord who sports as the natural master, adorned with a garland of fierce splendor, the glorious Heruka, the great protector, who is completely victorious over the four māras. Dwelling in the coemergent charnel ground, the supreme joy of great bliss, possessing the enjoyment body and the taste of bodhicitta, he perfectly speaks the syllables that are without cause. There is no need for deity meditation, mantra garlands, boundary-sealing, fire offerings, recitations, and so forth. Having abandoned all conceptual thoughts, generate fearless compassion. By meditating in the hearts of both the disciple and oneself, wisdom becomes equal to the omniscient. Through realizing that very reality, one meets with the authentic. One attains the four miraculous powers and the ten grounds. Wandering in space, one achieves invisibility. Remembering past lives, one realizes one’s own mind. The past, future, and present—all self-awareness and awareness of others—arise. Like the circling of a firebrand, through the various natures of the mind, the yogi who experiences these attainments achieves accomplishment.

སྙིང་རྗེ་བསྒོམ་པའི་མན་ངག་ཅེས་བྱ་བ་སློབ་དཔོན་ཏེ་ལོ་པས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ། །

This concludes "The Pith Instructions for Meditating on Compassion," composed by the master Tilopa.

Terminology used in this text (7)
TermRendering×Note
བླ་མguru1
ཕྱག་འཚལhomage1
ལྷgod1Standard 84000 rendering is 'god'; 'deity' where the text contrasts classes of beings.
སྔགསmantra1སྔགས་པ is a mantra-practitioner, not 'the mantric one'.
ཡེ་ཤེསwisdom1Distinguish from ཤེས་རབ (prajñā, 'insight'): ཡེ་ཤེས is the buddhas' non-dual wisdom, ཤེས་རབ the discriminating faculty o
ས་བཅུthe ten grounds1The bodhisattva levels. The single syllable ས is also the word for 'earth' and must not be pinned as 'ground' on its own
མེfire1In ritual and cosmological prose མེ is the element 'fire'; Agni is the deity only where he is named or invoked. Do not c

Colophon

Source: tengyur vol. 053_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཟི.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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