Toh 2643 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

The Lamp Illuminating Suchness

Machine translation from the Tibetan by MITRA-QWEN · no human review

1 passages · 857 Tibetan characters · 206 English words · 2026 machine draft Read ↓

The provided fragment of The Lamp Illuminating Suchness serves as the introductory protocol of a philosophical treatise. The text begins by establishing its identity through its titles in both Sanskrit (Tattvabhāṣaṇadīpanāma) and Tibetan (De kho na nyid gsal bar byed pa’i sgron ma), signaling its position within the cross-cultural transmission of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist thought. The author employs a traditional devotional opening, directing homage toward the buddhas and bodhisattvas. More significantly, the text commits the reader to a specific ontological focus: the nature of reality as 'suchness' (tathatā). The author defines this state as being definitively liberated from all conceptualization and characterized by 'signless emptiness.' By framing the work in this manner, the text positions itself as an inquiry into the non-conceptual nature of existence, requiring the reader to move beyond linguistic and mental constructs to apprehend the ultimate nature of phenomena.

About this text · details, context, rights

Genre: Treatise
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 068
Extent: 1 passages · 857 Tibetan characters · 206 English words
Rights: Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)

Provenance

About this text

An illumination of suchness, the Tattvaprabhāsakaraṇadīpa is a treatise belonging to the Yoga Tantra Treatises. The work is attributed to the Indian author Kambalapāda. Preserved in the classical Tibetan tradition, the text appears in the Tengyur, volume ཇུ, where it extends over two pages under the Tibetan title de kho na nyid gsal bar byed pa'i sgron ma. The treatise enacts a devotional and philosophical inquiry into the nature of reality, beginning with homage to the buddhas and bodhisattvas. It argues for an understanding of suchness as a state definitively liberated from all conceptualization, characterized specifically by signless emptiness. A scholar or serious reader consults this work today to examine these non-conceptual ontological definitions and the traditional framing of the Perfection of Wisdom within the context of the Yoga Tantra collection.

Sanskrit title: Tattvaprabhāsakaraṇadīpa
Indian author: Kambalapāda
Tibetan translators: not recorded
Canonical collection: Yoga Tantra Treatises
Genre: Treatise
Source edition: Tengyur, vol. ཇུ
Period: classical Tibetan

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Catalogue

84000 catalogue entry

Bibliography

BDRC library search

Libraries

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Sanskrit sources

Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon

Reference

Summary & commentary

Significance

The work is significant for its focus on the concept of suchness and signless emptiness, which are central to the Prajñāpāramitā and Madhyamaka traditions. For the modern reader, it illustrates the formal structure of Tibetan scholasticism, where the definition of the object of study is embedded within the initial prostrations.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Introduction	Contains the Sanskrit and Tibetan titles and the opening prostrations to the buddhas and the nature of signless emptiness.

Themes

Non-conceptualization (1)
Signless emptiness (1)

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

AnuvādaThe Lamp Illuminating Suchness·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། ཏཏྟྭ་བྷཱ་སཱ་ཀ་ར་ཎ་དཱི་པ་ནཱ་མ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། དེ་ཁོ་ན་ཉིད་གསལ་བར་བྱེད་པའི་སྒྲོན་མ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ། སངས་རྒྱས་དང་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། རྟོག་པ་ཀུན་ལས་ངེས་གྲོལ་གང་། ། མཚན་མེད་སྟོང་པའི་ངོ་བོ་ཅན། ། དགེ་བ་དེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ནས། ། དེ་ཉིད་གསལ་བ་བྲི་བར་བྱ། ། ཡུམ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་མ་འདི་ལ་ཀུན་ནས་ཉོན་མོངས་པ་དང་རྣམ་པར་བྱང་བའི་སྒོ་ནས་ཤེས་པར་བྱས་ནས། དེ་ཁོང་དུ་ཆུད་པར་བྱ་བ་ཡིན་ན་ཡང་ཕལ་ཆེའི་སྤྱོད་ཡུལ་མ་ཡིན་པས་ཁོ་མོས་ནི་སྒྲ་ལས་འདས་པའི་རིམ་པ་འདི་བསྟན་ཏེ། དང་པོར་སེམས་མི་གཡོ་བར་འདུག་པ་སློབ་པར་འདོད་པས་ལུས་སེམས་ངལ་དུབ་མེད་པར་བྱས་ནས་གནས་བདེ་བར་གནས་པར་བྱའོ། ། དེ་ནས་རང་གི་སྙིང་དབུས་སུ། ། ཆུ་སྐྱེས་དཀར་པོ་འདབ་བཞིའི་དབུས། ། པཾ་ནི་དཀར་པོ་བསམ་པར་བྱ། ། བརྟན་གྱུར་རིམ་པས་སྒྲ་ལ་དམིགས། ། དེ་ནས་པདྨ་འདབ་བརྒྱད་དང་། ། བརྒྱ་ཡི་བར་དུ་སྤྲོ་བསྡུ་བྱ། ། དེ་ནས་མི་གཡོ་བརྟན་གྱུར་ནས། ། དམ་པ་རྣམས་ལ་བསྙེན་བཀུར་གྱིས། ། དེ་ཁོ་ན་གསལ་བར་བྱེད་པའི་སྒྲོན་མ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་དཔལ་ཀམྤ་ལའི་ཡུམ་གྱིས་མཛད་པའི་རིམ་པ་རྫོགས་སོ། །

In the language of India: Tattvabhāṣaṇadīpanāma. In the language of Tibet: De kho na nyid gsal bar byed pa’i sgron ma zhes bya ba. Homage to all buddhas and bodhisattvas! To that which is definitively liberated from all conceptualization, Whose nature is the signless emptiness, I prostrate to that virtue, And shall write this illumination of suchness. Although this Mother, the Perfection of Wisdom, is to be understood by way of the afflicted and the purified, and is to be realized, it is not the domain of most people. Therefore, I shall teach this sequence that transcends sound. First, one who wishes to train in the mind remaining unmoving should ensure that body and mind are free from fatigue and dwell in a comfortable place. Then, in the center of one’s own heart, In the center of a white four-petaled lotus, One should visualize a white syllable PAṂ. Once it is stable, one should gradually focus on the sound. Then, one should perform the radiation and reabsorption Of an eight-petaled lotus, up to a hundred. Then, once it has become stable and unmoving, One should honor the sublime beings. The sequence composed by the Mother of the glorious Kampa, titled The Lamp Illuminating Suchness, is complete.

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.

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.

Terms and glossary notes (6)

definitionདེ་ཁོ་ན་ཉིད “suchness” — The ultimate nature of things, the way things are in reality as opposed to the way they appear to beings who have not awakened.

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.

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.

termདེ་ཁོ་ན་ཉིད → suchness

termསངས་རྒྱས → buddha

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

Terminology used in this text (3)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
དེ་ཁོ་ན་ཉིད	suchness	1
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
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	1

Cite thisAnuvāda, “The Lamp Illuminating Suchness” (Toh 2643), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2643

Colophon

Source: tengyur vol. 068. 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.

Anuvāda · NaxiAI