Toh 2459 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

Advice on the Time for Commencing the Wisdom Empowerment

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

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 2459
Genre: Ritual
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 053_རྒྱུད་འགྲེལ།_ཟི.txt
Extent: 2 passages · 2,114 Tibetan characters · 552 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)

This text, titled Advice on the Time for Commencing the Wisdom Empowerment, serves as a cautionary guide regarding the prerequisites for entering a specific tantric initiation. The author argues that the attainment of high-level spiritual empowerments is contingent upon a foundation of ethical discipline and a specific quality of devotion. Specifically, the text asserts that without the supreme restraint of body, speech, and mind, as well as a non-referential and non-abiding connection to the Three Jewels, the practitioner remains susceptible to spiritual bondage. By addressing the reader through contrasting social markers—referring to both those of good birth and those of low birth—the text emphasizes that spiritual eligibility is determined by internal realization and ethical conduct rather than social status. It commits the reader to a rigorous standard of preliminary practice and mental discipline before attempting the Wisdom Empowerment, warning that proceeding without these qualifications is futile.

Provenance

About this text

A ritual work concerning the prerequisites for spiritual attainment, the Prajñātatsargaṃbhaviṣyaparikathānāma is attributed to the Indian author Avadhūtipa Advayavajra. The work is preserved in the classical Tibetan tradition under the title shes rab brtsam pa dus kyi gtam/, appearing across two pages in volume ཟི of the Tengyur. Within the Tibetan canon, it is categorized among the General Unexcelled Yoga Tantra Works. The text opens with homage to the Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha and the Dharma of the wheel of great bliss, subsequently arguing that the realization of great bliss and the path to becoming a holy being depend upon a foundation of ethical discipline. It asserts that without the supreme restraint of body, speech, and mind, and a non-referential, non-abiding connection to the Three Jewels, a practitioner remains bound. By addressing both those of good birth and those of low birth, the work emphasizes that spiritual eligibility is determined by internal realization and ethical conduct rather than social status. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to understand the specific requirements for entering tantric initiation and the author's views on the necessity of preliminary ethical restraint.

Sanskrit title: Prajñātatsargaṃbhaviṣyaparikathānāma
Indian author: Avadhūtipa Advayavajra
Tibetan translators: not recorded
Canonical collection: General Unexcelled Yoga Tantra Works
Genre: Ritual
Source edition: Tengyur, vol. ཟི
Period: classical Tibetan

Read further

Catalogue

84000 catalogue entry

Bibliography

BDRC library search

Libraries

WorldCat

Sanskrit sources

Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon

Reference

Cite thisAnuvāda, “Advice on the Time for Commencing the Wisdom Empowerment” (Toh 2459), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2459

Summary & commentary

Significance

The work is significant for its emphasis on the necessity of preliminary ethical and meditative foundations before engaging in advanced tantric practices. It reflects the traditional Buddhist tension between the inclusive nature of the Dharma and the restrictive requirements for specific high-level empowerments.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Introduction and Homage	Provides the Indian and Tibetan titles and offers homage to the Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha.
2	Prerequisites for Empowerment	Outlines the necessary ethical restraints and the nature of the connection to the Three Jewels required to avoid spiritual bondage.

Themes

Ethical Restraint (2)
Spiritual Eligibility (2)
The Three Jewels (2)

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

AnuvādaAdvice on the Time for Commencing the Wisdom Empowerment·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། པྲཛྙཱ་ཏཪྴ་གནྦྷོ་ཤི་པཱ་རི་ཀ་ཐཱ་ནཱ་མ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། ཤེས་རབ་བརྩམ་པ་དུས་ཀྱི་གཏམ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ། བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་སའི་སྙིང་པོ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། བདེ་ཆེན་འཁོར་ལོ་ཟག་མེད་སྤྲོས་པ་རྒྱས་པའི་སྐུ་དང་ཆོས། ། ཚོགས་པའི་ཞིང་དང་དངོས་གྲུབ་རྩ་བ་རྣམས་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ཏེ། ། གལ་ཏེ་བརྩོན་འགྲུས་ཕ་རོལ་ཕྱིན་པའི་དུས་མིན་གྱི། ། ཡིན་པའི་རྟགས་དང་ལྡན་དུས་རྟག་ཏུ་བཟོད་མེད་བརྩམ། ། སློབ་དཔོན་སློབ་མ་ཚོལ་བ་དང་། ། རིན་ཆེན་རྙེད་པར་བསྒྲུབ་པ་དང་། ། སློབ་མ་དོན་དྲིན་སླར་འདོན་དང་། ། དབང་བསྐུར་མེད་པར་སླར་འདོད་དང་། ། རེ་བའི་གོས་ཀྱིས་འགྲོ་བ་དང་། ། ལྕི་བའི་ཟས་ཀྱིས་འཚོ་བ་དང་། ། མི་ཕྱེད་རྙེད་སོགས་རྩོད་པ་དང་། ། དྲག་པོས་གཞན་ཟིལ་གནོན་འདོད་དང་། ། སྐུ་གཟུགས་རྩོད་པས་འཇིག་པ་དང་། ། མིག་ཅན་འགྲན་ཟླས་རྩོད་གྱུར་དང་། ། དགེ་སློང་གནས་ལ་རྩོད་པ་དང་། ། གྲུབ་མཐའ་སྐུར་བས་སུན་འབྱིན་དང་། ། འགྲོ་རྣམས་སྤྱོད་པ་ལྟ་བ་དང་། ། མཁའ་འགྲོ་འབྲས་བུར་འཕོ་བ་དང་། ། རིན་ཆེན་གྲགས་པ་འདས་པ་དང་། ། མི་རྣམས་གཡོ་སྒྱུས་འཚོ་བ་དང་། ། ཤིང་རྣམས་གཡབ་མོས་གཡབ་པ་དང་། ། རི་རྣམས་ཆོ་ངེས་འདེབས་པ་དང་། ། ཆུ་རྣམས་མེ་ཡི་འོད་འབྱིན་དང་། ། སྐལ་བ་ཅན་ལ་གྲགས་མིན་བརྗོད། ། རྩོད་རྟགས་ཉི་ཤུ་རྫོགས་པ་ཡིས། ། བྲམ་ཟེ་མོ་ཡི་མར་མེ་འདྲ། ། ཀྱེ་ལྷ་དང་དྲང་སྲོང་འཚོ་བའི་དུས་འདས་བསམ། ། སྙིང་རྗེས་དམན་པ་རྗེས་འཛིན་ཟླ་འབྱུང་དུས། ། སྐྱབས་སུ་འགྲོ་བ་དམ་པའི་རྟེན་འབྲེལ་ན། ། འཆི་བའི་དུས་ཚེ་སྡུག་བསྔལ་སོགས་འབྱུང་འགྱུར། །

In the language of India: Prajñā-tārṣa-garbhoṣi-pārikathā-nāma. In the language of Tibet: Shes rab brtsam pa dus kyi gtam zhes bya ba. Homage to the Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha. To the body and the Dharma of the wheel of great bliss, free from defilement and expansive in elaboration, to the gathered fields and the roots of accomplishments, I pay homage. If the time for the perfection of diligence has not yet come, yet one possesses the signs of it, one should always begin with unbearable perseverance. Seeking a teacher or a student; striving to obtain precious gems; seeking to repay the kindness of a student; desiring empowerment again without having received it; wandering in the clothes of hope; subsisting on heavy food; disputing over indivisible gains and the like; desiring to overwhelm others with force; destroying images through dispute; competing with those who have eyes; disputing over the dwelling of a monk; refuting through disparaging philosophical tenets; observing the conduct of beings; transferring the ḍākinīs into the result; the passing of the renowned jewel; people living by deceit; waving trees with the hand; mountains wailing; water emitting the light of fire; and speaking what is not renowned to the fortunate. With the completion of these twenty signs of dispute, it is like the lamp of a Brahmin woman. O gods and sages, consider that the time for living has passed. When the time for the moon to arise comes to care for the lowly with compassion, if the auspicious connection of the sublime refuge is present, then at the time of death, suffering and the like will arise.

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.

homonymཤེས་རབ is rendered “insight” here; the glossary also records discernment, wisdom, knowledge for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཤེས་རབ “insight” — In this text shes rab seems to mean primarily knowledge (defined as insight and understanding one has gained through studying and experience), specifically knowledge of the teachings of the Buddha in general, and of karm

periodཆོས → “dharma”. In Abhidharma lists (སྐྱེ་མཆེད, ཁམས) ཆོས is 'phenomena', the objects of mind — not the Buddhist teaching. Same word, two referents; the list decides.

homonymཆོས is rendered “dharma” here; the glossary also records special qualities, phenomena, qualities for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཆོས “dharma” — The term “ dharma ” ( chos ) conveys ten different meanings, according to Vasubandhu’s Vyākhyāyukti . It may mean the Buddhist teachings, the awakened qualities which buddhas and bodhisattvas acquire, phenomena or thing

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 ).

periodལྷ → “god”. Standard 84000 rendering is 'god'; 'deity' where the text contrasts classes of beings.

homonymལྷ is rendered “god” here; the glossary also records deva, divine being, God for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionལྷ “god” — In the most general sense the devas‍—the term is cognate with the English divine ‍—are a class of celestial beings who frequently appear in Buddhist texts, often at the head of the assemblies of nonhuman beings who atten

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

termཤེས་རབ → insight

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termཆོས → dharma

termདགེ་སློང → monk

termམེ → fire

termལྷ → god

ཀྱེ་སྐྱེ་བ་བཟང་ཐོབ་སྐྱེས་ངན་བུད་མེད་ཀྱིས། ། ལུས་དང་ངག་ཡིད་སྡོམ་པ་མཆོག་གསུམ་ལ། ། བརྩེ་ལྡན་དམིགས་མེད་འབྲེལ་པ་མི་གནས་པ། ། དམ་པར་འགྱུར་ཚུལ་བྲལ་ན་ངེས་པར་འཆིང་། ། ཀྱེ་དངོས་གྲུབ་ཉེ་བར་རྙེད་པར་མ་བཙལ་ན། ། རང་གི་བདེ་ཆེན་འབད་པས་རྟོགས་མི་འགྱུར། ། འོད་གསལ་མ་བརྙེས་ཉོན་མོངས་ལམ་མི་འགྱུར། ། ངག་དང་མི་ལྡན་ཆོས་ཉིད་རྒྱས་གདབ་བྲལ། ། བདེན་པ་བྲལ་བས་ངེས་འབྱིན་རྙེད་མི་འགྱུར། ། བརྟུལ་ཞུགས་བརྟན་ཏེ་མ་བྱས་གསལ་མི་རྙེད། ། སེམས་ཀྱི་མེལ་ཚེ་བྲལ་བས་མཆོག་ཐོབ་མིན། ། དབང་པོ་མ་ཡེངས་སྐྱེ་བ་རྣལ་འབྱོར་རྣམས། ། འདོད་པས་མ་གཡེང་བྱ་བ་ལ་མི་འཇུག། མན་ངག་འགྲོ་ལ་མ་གཡེང་གཉིད་མ་ལྡོག། དམ་པའི་བརྒྱུད་པ་མ་བསྐམ་འབྲས་མ་བཅད། ། ཀྱེ། ཀྱེ་མ་རྟག་ཏུ་ཕྱི་ནང་མཉམ་པར་བལྟ། ། དུས་ནི་ཡུན་ཐུན་འདི་ལ་མ་རྫོགས་ན། ། དུས་འགྱུར་བ་ཡིས་དུས་རབ་རྙེད་མི་འགྱུར། ། དེ་བས་བརྩོན་འགྲུས་དུས་ལ་བབ་ཀྱིས་བྱོས། ། རྟོགས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་བྲམ་ཟེ་སྟེ། ། འདོད་ལ་རབ་ཆགས་བྷ་བྷི་ཏི། ། ངོམས་མེད་ཉམས་བྲལ་བྷ་ལོ་ཤ། ད་ནི་དུས་འདས་ཉི་མ་འདྲ། ། བདག་གིས་གདམས་པ་འདི་བྲིས་པས། ། རིམ་གྱིས་ལམ་ལ་རྩོལ་འགྱུར་ཤོག། ཤེས་རབ་བརྩམ་པ་དུས་ཀྱི་གཏམ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་བྷངྒ་ལའི་མཁས་པ་དཔལ་ངེས་པར་སྦྱངས་པ་དཔལ་ལྡན་གཉིས་སུ་མེད་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེས་བྲམ་ཟེ་བྷ་ལོ་ལ་གདམས་པ་རྫོགས་སོ། ། ། །

O, you who have obtained a good birth, you woman of low birth: if you lack the supreme restraint of body, speech, and mind, and the compassionate, non-referential, and non-abiding connection to the Three Jewels, you will certainly be bound if you are devoid of the way to become a holy being. O, if you do not seek to find the accomplishments nearby, you will not realize your own great bliss through effort. Without attaining luminosity, the path of afflictions will not be transformed. Without possessing speech, one is devoid of the seal of the nature of phenomena. Being devoid of truth, one will not find the definitive deliverance. Without firm ascetic conduct, clarity will not be found. Devoid of the watchfulness of the mind, the supreme is not attained. O yogis, with senses undistracted, do not engage in activities distracted by desire. Do not be distracted from the pith instructions; do not let sleep overcome you. Do not let the lineage of the holy ones wither; do not sever the fruit. O, alas! Always view the outer and the inner as equal. If this session of time is not completed, the supreme time will not be found as time changes. Therefore, exert yourself; the time has come! The Buddha is the one who has realized; the Brahmin is the one intensely attached to desires. The one without satisfaction and devoid of experience is Bhalo-sha. Now the time has passed, like the sun. By my having written these instructions, may you gradually exert yourself on the path. This concludes "The Discourse on the Time for the Application of Insight," an instruction for the Brahmin Bhalo by the scholar of Bengal, the glorious and definitively trained Śrī Advayavajra.

structureColophon: closes the text and names the translators or author.

homonymཉོན་མོངས is rendered “affliction” here; the glossary also records afflictions, defilement, afflictive emotion for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཉོན་མོངས “affliction” — The essentially pure nature of mind is obscured and afflicted by various psychological defilements, which destroy the mind’s peace and composure and lead to unwholesome deeds of body, speech, and mind, acting as causes f

terminologyཆོས་ཉིད → “the nature of phenomena”. Not 'dharma-nature' in running prose; 84000 harmonises on 'the nature of phenomena'.

homonymཆོས་ཉིད is rendered “the nature of phenomena” here; the glossary also records true nature of things, suchness, basic nature for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཆོས་ཉིད “the nature of phenomena” — The real nature, true quality, or condition of things. Throughout Buddhist discourse this term is used in two distinct ways. In one, it designates the relative nature that is either the essential characteristic of a spec

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

termཉོན་མོངས → affliction

termཆོས་ཉིད → the nature of phenomena

termསངས་རྒྱས → buddha

termཤེས་རབ → insight

Terminology used in this text (10)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
ཤེས་རབ	insight	2
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	1
ཆོས	dharma	1	In Abhidharma lists (སྐྱེ་མཆེད, ཁམས) ཆོས is 'phenomena', the objects of mind — not the Buddhist teaching. Same word, two
དགེ་སློང	monk	1
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
ལྷ	god	1	Standard 84000 rendering is 'god'; 'deity' where the text contrasts classes of beings.
སྡུག་བསྔལ	suffering	1
ཉོན་མོངས	affliction	1
ཆོས་ཉིད	the nature of phenomena	1	Not 'dharma-nature' in running prose; 84000 harmonises on 'the nature of phenomena'.
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

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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