Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
The Ship of the Precious Teaching of the Sugata is a didactic work that employs a progression from existential urgency to the realization of non-abiding nirvāṇa. The text begins by establishing the futility of worldly attachments and the inherent suffering linked to appropriation, urging the practitioner to recognize the precariousness of life. It argues that the cultivation of compassion is the essential catalyst for achieving the two bodies and attracting other beings toward liberation. The work commits the reader to a rigorous process of purifying the stains of body, speech, and mind to achieve a state of single taste and self-realization. Ultimately, the text posits that the path culminates in the dedication to non-abiding nirvāṇa, characterized by the union of coemergent, stainless wisdom. By framing the spiritual journey as a transition from delusion to the manifestation of the welfare of others, the text presents a synthesis of personal liberation and bodhisattva-like altruism.
Provenance
About this text
A treatise on the precious teaching of the Sugata, the Sugataśāsanaratnavohitthanāma is a work belonging to the General Unexcelled Yoga Tantra Works. It is attributed to the Indian author Ajitamitragupta. The work is preserved in the classical Tibetan tradition within the Tengyur, specifically in volume ཟི, where it extends over six pages. The Tibetan title is rendered as bde bar gshegs pa'i bstan pa rin po che'i gru bo zhes bya ba. The text functions as a didactic guide that begins by establishing the futility of worldly attachments and the inherent suffering linked to appropriation, urging the practitioner to recognize the precariousness of life. It argues that the cultivation of compassion is the essential catalyst for achieving the two bodies and attracting other beings toward liberation, committing the reader to a rigorous process of purifying the stains of body, speech, and mind to achieve a state of single taste and self-realization. Ultimately, the work posits that the path culminates in the dedication to non-abiding nirvāṇa, characterized by the union of coemergent, stainless wisdom. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine its framing of the spiritual journey as a transition from delusion to the manifestation of the well-developed wisdom.
Cite thisAnuvāda, “The Teachings of the Sugatas called “The Precious Ship”” (Toh 2462), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2462
Summary & commentary
Significance
The work is significant for its integration of early Buddhist themes of impermanence with the more complex Mahayana goals of the two bodies and non-abiding nirvāṇa. For the modern reader, it illustrates the traditional Indo-Tibetan pedagogical movement from the 'disgust' with samsara to the attainment of supreme wisdom.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1-3
Introduction and Existential Urgency
Opening homage followed by reflections on the isolation of death and the nature of suffering as connected to appropriation.
4
The Role of Compassion
Discussion on compassion as the cause for the accomplishment of the two bodies and the attraction of other beings.
5-6
Practice and Purification
Reflections on the brevity of life and the necessity of purifying body, speech, and mind to achieve self-realization.
7
Ultimate Goal
The dedication to non-abiding nirvāṇa and the realization of coemergent wisdom.
Themes
Impermanence and Suffering (2-3, 5)
Compassion and Altruism (4, 6)
Purification and Realization (6)
Non-abiding Nirvāṇa (7)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
AnuvādaThe Teachings of the Sugatas called “The Precious Ship”·
In the language of India: Sugataśāsana-ratnabhāṇḍa-dvāra-nāma. In the language of Tibet: Bde bar gshegs pa'i bstan pa rin po che'i gru bo zhes bya ba (The Ship of the Precious Teaching of the Sugata). Homage to the Blessed One, the Lord of the World.
I bow to the Guru, who is compassionate, endowed with realization and scripture, skilled in speech, tireless in mind, disciplined, with faculties perfectly pacified through training and restraint, and then I shall explain the teaching.
This leisure, so difficult to find, is like a cloud; it is characterized by suffering linked to the results of karma. With faith in the state [of liberation], compassion for beings, the discernment of the sublime Dharma, diligence, and the respectful request for the supreme [teaching], one should possess the excellent ritual and strive in meditative equipoise, along with the proper dedication. This is the object of contemplation, the goal to be accomplished, the supreme yoga, and the practice that is a ship for crossing the ocean of existence and peace.
It is said that leisure is extremely difficult to find, like a turtle’s neck entering the hole of a yoke, or a mustard seed passing through the eye of a needle, or a pea hitting a wall. Because the karma of all beings falls downward like a stream, and because non-virtue increases therein, and even if one is not [non-virtuous], virtuous conduct is difficult to perform, this support is difficult to obtain. Just as it is difficult to find, to that same extent, one should seek the sublime essence from this essenceless body. Therefore, those who desire their own welfare, in order to accomplish the purpose of a person, should use this body like a ship found by one sinking in the ocean. Because this life is conditioned, because it does not remain, because of the many conditions, and because it is likewise essenceless, the Lord of Death will surely devour me soon.
One's body, wealth, and beloved friends will not follow; alone and without a protector, one departs for the next world in a state of futility. If, for even a few lifetimes, I have not gained the confidence that afflictions will not arise, and if I do not even perceive [the truth] within myself, why do I remain at ease? Therefore, with every effort, disregarding the necessities of this life, the wise should accomplish the welfare of the future, just as one would strive to extinguish a fire on one's head.
Regarding the ripening, concordant, and dominant effects experienced in this and future lives, the connection between action and result is held to be infallible, like the sweet or sour taste of its own cause. Within the nature of mind, which is unceasing like space, various habitual tendencies gather like clouds; when they ripen, a stream of rain falls, causing the harvest of subsequent experience to mature. All phenomena are dependently originated, and that which is without support is the support of these; because the nature of cause and effect is dependent, the connection between white and black actions and their results is indeed infallible. Because they are individually determined and infallible, because great results arise from small causes, and because what occurred in the past will still be experienced, it is right for the intelligent to strive in adoption and abandonment.
Thus, all beings are tormented everywhere by the inconceivable results of various actions, like the heat of a flame. These include the suffering of change and the suffering of suffering itself, as well as birth, aging, sickness, decline, death, meeting the unpleasant, parting from the beloved, the difficulty of protection, and the search for what is needed. Just as auspiciousness is followed by misfortune, or as fragrance is followed by foul odor, and beauty by impurity, [so too is the nature of cyclic existence].
Suffering is always and innately connected to appropriation. While the deluded are terrified by suffering, they indulge with delight in its causes. Those who, like a person who knows poison to be like a disease, abandon both through understanding are the wise. Having well obtained the leisure so difficult to find in many eons, like an udumbara flower in a rocky ravine, this life once attained is also never permanent, like a stream in a steep mountain torrent. The white and black karma of embodied beings is also like seeds and their harvest. In these states, the torment of suffering is also like the flames of a blazing pit of fire. This is the summary of the dharma of the four points to be contemplated.
Regarding the Three Refuges, liberation, and the effects of karma: through intense faith, aspiration, and conviction, with an unstained and discerning mind, one proceeds with devotion and application, free from doubt. By knowing the qualities and seeing the faults of the other, along with weariness [with cyclic existence], and by relying on the realization of signs and experience, one will attain clarity. Because it is the precursor to all activities and the very cause of their performance, just as a sprout does not arise from a burnt seed, all dharmas do not arise without enthusiasm. In this world, for whoever possesses intense faith, whatever goal is difficult to accomplish, that too will be easily performed by others; thus, through being very easy, it will be achieved. Regarding sentient beings, the dharma, and the nature of phenomena (dharmatā): compassion is characterized by love, realization, and the absence of signs; it is the cause for the application of knowing the meaning and exhausting the stains. Through seeing the suffering of one's kin, recollection, and the selflessness of persons and phenomena, it is distinguished by the lineage, scripture, and pith instructions.
Seeing this, compassion arises for those who enter [the path]; it is the cause for the spontaneous accomplishment of the two bodies. Because it is the cause of the precious mind, and because it gathers beings just as a magnet attracts iron, generate the excellence of compassion, which is the cause of the Bodhisattvas' extraordinary deeds.
Know that in a city conjured by illusion, the joy and sorrow of those people are entirely dependent on place and time; though they appear, their reality is not established. Because they are unceasing and without limit, and because they arise from the unborn, whatever appears and arises is unborn. Since the root of dependent origination is exhausted, it is empty. In that state, because whatever appears and so forth exists, it is samsara; yet at that very time, when analyzed, it is as empty as space, and is thus described as the nature of nirvana.
Because it is not realized and is difficult to realize, yet if realized one will certainly be liberated, it is most profound, deep, and wondrous; therefore, the wise should utterly dismantle grasping. Since the excellent results are seen to depend on the effort of accomplishment, know that the goal is attained through continuous familiarization. Through reflection and diligence, one exerts irreversible effort; by recognizing the faults of others and the virtues of this [path], one is free from the lethargy of sleep and the like, and is undaunted.
Through training in skillful means, the heart is firm, and one is courageous and brave. The enthusiasm of the fortunate increases; for just as movement does not occur without wind, how can there be virtuous conduct without diligence? Even in a single moment, the enthusiastic generate the resolve to reduce Mount Meru to dust. Alas! There is no other place to place one's trust.
There is no time to waste at the moment of rebirth; even while alive, life is like a lamp in a cool chamber. Why then do I remain in a state of mental weariness?
My own self is a vivid red lotus, opened by the blazing rays of the sun of stainless faith and supreme joy. With the fluttering of the eyelashes of my eyes—like blue utpala flowers moistened by the water of compassion for infinite beings—I recognize the nature of dependent origination, the maṇḍala of all objects of knowledge appearing as the variety of mind, and the emptiness of that nature. I shall exert myself like one who, terrified by the many faults of the hosts of enemies of existence, strives to avoid a snake entering their lap.
This concludes the summary of the four points to be accomplished.
Having recollected the faults and virtues of existence and peace, in order to accomplish the welfare of oneself and others, one should then pray for the supreme siddhi, just as one polishes a wish-fulfilling gem.
Because even if one strives for hundreds of eons, one will not find even a fraction [of the goal], but through whose kindness great bliss itself is to be attained in a single instant—having actualized it exactly as it is through the ritual of the continuous yoga—one should pray to the two supports with hope, longing, and devotion.
When the blessings of the Guru, together with the gods, descend upon the heart, at that time one will attain a mind as clear as crystal, overwhelmed by joy.
Having transformed [the mind] through the three purities, one should make it stainless by means of luminosity. Through the union of the two, one attains wisdom; through the application of mastery, one accomplishes enlightened activity.
Deity, mantra, and meditative absorption itself, appearance, sound, and mindfulness itself—free from variety, all appear, and whatever appears is under the power of the other.
These are established as the purification of the stains of body, speech, and mind respectively; as the supreme, the single taste, and the accomplishment of the goal. Because it brings about self-realization, liberation through realization, and the manifestation of the welfare of others, this path is superior to other vehicles.
In Mahāyoga, one’s own mind is stainless, most clear, and refreshing; like the sky and moonlight, it is the vision of truth, described as non-conceptual, luminous, and great bliss. Illusion itself, its appearance, and all phenomena just as they are, are mind; because that very mind is luminous, the supreme intellect is non-conceptual.
Its nature is entirely unceasing, appearing in various forms as its own manifestation; its characteristic is all-pervasive and unstained. This is explained as the fortunate samādhi of luminosity. Because it is the vision of the supreme, free from dust, devoid of entities, and the manifest awakening to entities, it is free from attachment, untainted, utterly peaceful, and is held to be the bliss of refreshment.
Thus, the virtue born from this is signless and vast; with a mind of emptiness and compassion, one should dedicate it to the supreme conduct and the two bodies. Like the formations of objects in a dream, because the "what," "where," "by whom," and "how" of accomplishment are not perceived, virtue is said to be signless.
The non-perception that is clearly manifest as perception, the essence that follows from the absence of essence, and the basis for the appearance of the five branches—this is the supreme accumulation of the Bodhisattvas. Whoever is content, whoever knows the person, and whoever possesses wisdom and skillful means, is free from attachment and yet attached.
The dedication to non-abiding nirvāṇa is the marvelous wonder of the Great Being. The supreme deity, whose crown is a blooming red lotus, is adorned by the Protector, the Thousand-Complete Buddha. He sports in the union of the light of the coemergent, stainless wisdom of the outer, inner, and secret lords. Pure and brilliantly clear like a cloudless sky or the rays of the full moon, he thoroughly gladdens the mind with great bliss. That hero who, with the bow of compassion, draws the precious arrow of whatever roots of virtue have arisen and shoots it entirely at wandering beings. This concludes the summary of the Dharma of the four points of yogic practice.
Abiding in the ocean of existence, where the crocodiles of the afflictions gape their mouths, and where the waves of suffering churn in a terrifying, bottomless abyss—this excellent, precious ship of the Teaching is that which delivers one from both that and the great, swirling white lake of the jewel-like ocean of peace. Through this virtue of having well-composed [this work] with a mind of faith, joy, and compassion, and through the effort of a clear intellect, may I become a supreme captain who perfectly delivers those wandering beings not yet liberated by the Victors of the past.
This concludes "The Precious Ship of the Sugata’s Teaching," composed by the great accomplished paṇḍita Ajitamitragupta.
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.