White Conch Fragments Padampa Translated by Dan Martin
White Conch Fragments Padampa Translated by Dan Martin
White Conch Fragments Padampa Translated by Dan Martin
Namo Guru.
Lord Dampa Rinpoche crown jewel of all the six families of beings, hero who vanquishes the
armies of sufferings, physician who cures the illnesses of mental afflictions, refuge for those
oppressed by severe suffering, the glorious Ajitantha compassionately performed the
Buddha Activities in Tibet, and in the last of the three times he did so, lived in glorious Tingri in
the land of Nyima Lat. He spiritually matured animate beings through symbols and
interdependent connections. He did not teach commentaries on tantras. He would express
himself in scattered bits of heartfelt talk to a few of those with fortunate karma.
If you would wholeheartedly serve the people, first seek some autonomous
ground (take over the territory of self-governance). If you serve others by power
of your profits and popularity (wealth and reputation), you are just a high-class
slave of delusion. Acts of charity that are not occupied by love and compassion
wear you down to no end. This tool that doesn't accomplish good (that doesn't
accomplish the accumulation of virtue) is to be kept as an earth treasure (buried
in the ground). Insight that doesn't understand the profound essential points is
like the eye of the Chinese mask. What Lord Tripa does is make big effort for
the short term, but over the long term it makes little difference. That's just how
it is.
Note: Although Tripa was one of the earliest members of the community at Tingri Langkor, and although he is
frequently mentioned in the Zhij Collection, not much is known about him. He was clearly of royal blood, a member of
the ruling family of Western Tibet. We know there was an "emperor of Samy" in around the same time with the
identical name Tripa, but it isn't clear whether or not we ought to consider them as one person. The name Tripa might
simply mean 'throne holder.'
When you meet the lord Lama, don't have veneration that is overly strong or too
weak. When you have done the difficult practices a long time, don't let your
body and speech remain normal. When you have a human body endowed with
the necessary leisure and faculties, don't pay the indemnity of rebirth in the
lower realms. When you have requested profound precepts, don't fall under the
power of lethargy. This life is like lightning, bright but not long lasting. Erase
from your mind the eight worldly dharmas. Apply all your efforts to the
virtuous practices.
Note: The name pa Spoch simply means 'The Man from [the Central Province] Big Belly.' Obviously it is a
nickname. The 'eight worldly dharmas' are happiness with gains, disappointment with losses, happiness with fame,
unhappiness with obscurity, happiness with comfort, dissatisfaction with discomfort, happiness when praised, and
discontent with blame.
If you haven't tamed the afflictions in your own mind stream, you won't stop up
the sufferings of the six families. If you haven't emptied the grasping
consciousness, the karmic propulsion will be non-stop grasping. If you don't
pull out the arrowhead of I and mine, the dregs of those old diseases of
attachment and aversion will re-emerge. If you haven't dissolved pride in
charity that is just for show (khong-yus), it will just serve as a suppressor of
Dharma understandings.
Because you are too learned in the jargon of Dharma, it won't serve as antidote
for afflictive thoughts. Dharma teachings that have not been reflected upon will
not carry you through the paths and stages. An objective sphere (goal)
untouched by aspiration prayers will not serve spiritual aspirants (gdul-bya). If
you haven't cultivated beneficial thought internally, you'll not accomplish
benefits for others externally. Filled with pride in your talents, you despise other
people. Some Tibetan teachers (ston-pa) specialize in the absence of cause and
effect.
If you have a heartfelt idea to practice Dharma, your better refuge is taking a
Lama. [p. 425] The chief object of virtuous practice is benefiting others. The
chief object of the precepts is arousing certainty. The chief object of learning
and reflection is to tame your own mind. The chief object of realization is to
dissolve reifications. In so far as these things are grasped upon for [other]
reasons, they are causes for sangsara.
Under the oppression of disease, regret (skyo-ba) arises. Under the oppression
of dn-spirits, blessings enter in. Under the oppression of opponents, clinging
attachments are turned around. If deceived by friends and relatives, cut off
attachment. Without things and possessions, the accumulations [of merit and
Full Knowledge] come easily. Don't think, 'Here comes someone who like me
has not gained accumulations.' It is the gaining of [those very] accumulations
that brings you to the Dharma. Finding perfect fulfillment of this life is not what
is needed.
Dissolving belief in the truth of appearances, that's what 'view' means. Abiding
in the continuity of evenness, that's what 'meditation' means. Doing what
benefits others indiscriminately, that's what 'activity' means. Cutting the
tangling creepers of the eight dharmas, that's what 'yoga' means. Overturning
attachments from the very depths is what 'pure renunciation' means. Not being
familiar with anyone, separating from them, is what 'retreat' means. Dissolving
the most fundamental delusion is what 'Buddha' means.
A lion [sengg] will not stay in the land of his birth forever. He doesn't stay
among his relatives forever. He doesn't pursue accumulations of wealth and
objects. The heap (body) of four elements doesn't stay forever. These
conventional Dharmas are the deception that results from taking things as being
truly true. Up until now two-thirds of your human life-span have passed
by. Wouldn't it be good if you would practice Dharma yourself?
The sun may be rising in the sky, but to the island people it stays dark. The
Lord of the World (the Buddha) may arrive, but the unfortunate will have wrong
views about Him. They may meet with the Lord Lama, but counterproductive
karma will make them criticize him. He may teach them the profound precepts,
yet the small-minded will have doubts. People who have not purified their own
way of seeing, even the Muni cannot help. Virpa. Here, here!
Son, there are many Dharma practitioners, but few who have done the
practices. How can they afford to remain ordinary in body and in speech if they
have a heartfelt fear of death? They believe in Buddhahood without the least bit
of effort paid for the practices, but how can that be? Now is the time you must
make efforts in virtuous practices of body, speech and mind. The mirror that
hasn't been wiped clean of corrosion doesn't reveal any reflection. [p. 427]
The person who hasn't let go of thoughts for this life has no chance to practice
Dharma. A man incapable of suffering knows no happiness. If you haven't
gained the Lama's heart, you will not obtain the precepts. Not put into practice,
they won't arise in your mind stream. Without the mind to help, benefits for
others will not be accomplished. A person whose mind is filled with all kinds of
plans will never bring anything to completion.
The worthy Lama should never be divorced from the crown of your head. This
body of five heaps (lnga phung) should never be separated from the divine form
of high aspiration (the yidam). The awareness that reasons and recollects should
never be divorced from the healthy glow of meditative experience. The
conversations of your speech should never be divorced from continual mantra
recitation. This is what is called the Yoga of Body, Speech and Mind.
The way things appear to you in the spheres of sense, when you realize there is
nothing there to grasp onto, there is no other [philosophical or doctrinal] view
than this. The stainless mind, when you realize it has no extremes, there is no
meditation apart from this. If the vacillations of memories and awarenesses
have dissolved in awakened clarity, there is no meditative experience apart from
that. If you know how to integrate meditative experience with everyday life,
there is no 'activity' apart from that. For persons who have blended mind and
objective sphere (goal) into one, there is no reason they would have phenomenal
experiences in the intermediate state, is there? [p. 428]
If you give up the household life, experiential practice comes to you like a force
of nature. Where there is no grasping, there is no need for gathering the
accumulations. If you give up your fatherland, the eight dharmas are by force of
that destroyed. When there is no face-saving, the sdhana practice naturally
increases. Those engaged in experiential practice need to recognize merit as the
delusionary power it is, don't they?
If faith is something that can be taken from your mental continuum, what will
help you on your way to Dharma? If the paint of veneration sticks, the Lamas
will by all means take you under their care. If you have a grasp on certainty
within, there is no Dharma that will not serve as a precept. If you have a bone in
your own heart (if you have courage), no matter through which door you entered
the Dharma, when you work for benefits they come.
Divine Dharma that has not left behind human dharma, it hardly
exists. Blessings for those without veneration, they hardly exist. Precepts for
those who have not done service [to a Lama], they hardly exist. Experiential
practice for those who have not abandoned the household life, it hardly
exists. Buddhas who haven't put [the teachings] into practice, they hardly exist.
The purpose of learning and reflection is the taming of your own mind. Don't
bring the Dharma down by crushing it with pride. The purpose of scholarship is
to resolve mental doubts. Don't let your own mind remain normal. The purpose
of knowledge is served when putting it into experiential practice. Don't leave
the Dharma in a pothi (spo-ti, a sacred volume). The purpose of friendship is
helping animate beings in every possible way. Don't exchange Dharma for
wealth. The Buddhists of Tibet don't know how to identify virtue and sin.
If you know your own true nature, that's the ultimate in 'view.' If things are kept
on their own level, that's the ultimate in 'meditation.' If you obtain
independence, that's the ultimate in 'activity.' If you have purified your way of
seeing, that's the ultimate in 'goal.' Purity of the very mind is the ultimate in
'goal.'
Don't push your human life into old age with idle distractions. Don't let your
human embodiment go to waste in vile excretions (ca-ma-li). Don't try to bring
about your own defeat with fear of losing face. Don't accumulate sin to no
purpose in public displays of happiness. They may see it, for now, as a joke
being played on them, but one day the meaning will hit them. [p. 430]
Nurture faith from the time of its youth. Let your energy rise beyond the
ordinary. Keep even the smallest vows. Store up even the smallest
advice. Whatever Dharma you know, put it into practice. Haven't you heard
about the ocean that resulted from the accumulation of drops? Don't cast an eye
on those who have results from their prior cultivation. Instead it would be good
to cultivate at your own level.
Join both faith and energy under the same yoke. Join learning and experiential
practice under the same yoke. Join experiential practice and realization under
the same yoke. Join the precepts and certainty under the same yoke. Join
emptiness and compassion under the same yoke. Join method and insight under
the same yoke. Join benefiting your own practice and benefiting others to the
same yoke. One ox without a second one under the yoke will not be able to pull
the plow.
For a meaningless job you have worked with such effort. For some profit or
fame you have accumulated sin. Your most beautiful possessions you left
outside, and you carry your bad karma on your back. [p. 431] There is no way for
you to get off the path to low rebirth. Of those who have obtained a human
body, none is more defeated than you.
Don't bring down the seed of faith to burn it in a fire. Don't give the sword of
insight into the hand of a madman. The ritual that is for gathering
accumulations, don't dump it into the river of profit and popularity. The lamp
holding the fire of learning, don't extinguish it in the wind of the eight
dharmas. The innermost treasury of your meditative experiences, do not put it
on display in the marketplace of frivolous conversations. If you don't curb
desire for honor and recognition, Dharma will be lost in [the motives for] profit
and popularity.
If it doesn't reduce grasping to the false sense of self, learning Dharma loses its
purpose. If body and speech are not placed in the service of virtue, the human
body loses its purpose. [p. 432] If you do not know your own true nature, insight
loses its purpose. If you don't reverse attachments to objects, the difficult
practices lose their purpose. If you don't give up business of body and speech,
retreat has lost its purpose. And once these have lost their purpose, you will be
saving up a lot of unnecessary things, that's for sure.
Self and other are blended together, so there is nothing to do for the sake of
sentient beings. Dharma and non-Dharma are blended together, so there is
nothing to purposefully put into experiential practice. Realization is dissolved at
its foundation, so there is no hope or fear for sangsara and nirvana. Neither you
nor I know anything about Dharma, so let's just stay quiet.
The renunciate order is the ornament of the teaching, so bring this object of
veneration (rten) to its ultimate completion. The ornament of [the human life
with] the necessary endowments is moral discipline, so act without damaging
your commitments. The life-blood of moral discipline is in the countermeasures
(gnyen-po, antidotes), so sink your teeth into whatever doesn't violate this. It
could serve as a basis for the sins of small-minded people, so keep the profound
significance hidden within, since this will benefit animate beings.
If you're afraid of bad rebirths, give up sinful karma. If you want good qualities
to rain down, make requests to the Lama. If you want meditative experiences to
arise, check the interdependent connections in the body. [p. 433] If you want to
bring an end to exaggerations and doubts, seek out the precepts of profound
meaning. If your mind abides in wickedness, how will you traverse the Paths
and its stages? This Dharma of you Tibetans, 'Should I do this or not do that?'
means nothing for attaining siddhis.
If it's going away, catch it. If it's staying still, send it away. If there is
attachment, dissolve it. Cut the roots again and again. There is no other way to
free the mind.
Not to be stuffed up by learning, not to get stuck to meditation, not to grow stiff
with realization, not to leave the practice (?)... This mind, doing its
housecleaning over and over again, how can it possibly be fixed?
Lordly arrogance binds up your voice. Monkhood binds up your body. Birth
status binds up your mind. In this kind of mind Dharma will scarcely
occur. When searching for jewels you have to bend your rank and aim your eyes
for the ground. If you are gazing at the sky you won't see the jewels on the
ground.
Note: The title Lhatsn tells us he was a person of the royal family who had joined the monkhood.
The king among those worthy of offerings is the Lama, so tighten the bowstring
of veneration. The king of precepts is certainty, so have confidence in what the
Lama says. The king of experiential practice is taming your own mind, so serve
as watchman on your mind. [p. 434] The king of benefit for others is rejoicing in
the accomplishments of others without any envy, so do good with good
thoughts. There is nothing more fickle than saying 'Dharma, Dharma.' Some
people, without giving up their manipulative motives, do a lot of hurried
Dharma activities, but that's no help. Eating digestible food is fine, but what is
really needed is not to be suffering from phlegmatic imbalance.
When you know that appearances are illusory, attachment and aversion
decline. When it occurs to you that they are not essential, grasping is cut
off. When you have achieved certainty, doubts are cut off. When negative
circumstances have been elevated to the Path, nothing is in discord.
When you travel, take the wind as your friend. When you remain at home, take
the bird as your friend. When you eat take the pig as your friend. When you
sleep take the ocean as your friend. If you have good friends enemies won't
carry you away.
Note: I think it goes without saying that when Padampa says to take the pig as your friend, he doesn't mean to eat in pig-
like quantities. He means to be indiscriminate about the quality or type of food, to accept whatever comes along.
You need to have a few provisions for the road. Take a knife that cuts. Polish
the mirror of View. Ride a horse that can go. Look for a house to sleep
in. Take some food for the road.
With merits accumulated in previous lives you may have been reborn in the
family of Holy Dharma, but if now you don't accumulate energy, your own mind
will remain in banality. You may have consummate wealth resulting from
generosity in previous lives, but if now you don't accumulate magnanimity, you
will go to future lives empty handed. You may have a pure human body today
because of moral discipline cultivated in the past, but if you don't accumulate
energy now you will go to a lower rebirth. Pity the poor person who falls back
down after reaching the top of the pass. [p. 436]
You have met the lineage-holding Lama, but have no veneration. You have
profound precepts, but do not put them into experiential practice. You've given
up the business of this life, but have no motivation to do the sdhana
practice. You stay in retreats and hermitages, but body and speech remain in a
bad mind-stream. You've practiced Dharma for the length of your life, but don't
encounter signs of progress on the Path. People take you for a follower of
Dharma, but you are not up to the task. The deities and skygoers are so
ashamed!
Tame your own mind. That is the purpose of learning and reflection. Put them
into experiential practice. That is the purpose of precepts. Gather the
accumulations. That is the purpose of implements (tools). Now, when you have
the necessary independence, make efforts with your body, speech and
mind. The merit from this will quickly bring what is needed for divine
Dharma. Don't look for what you can pick up here and there along the
way. You will go plundering all your needs.
One Dharma, one Vehicle. One crucial point, one precept. One goal, one
sdhana. Understand that you have to make the arrow hit the target, but you
don't have to be some great Dharma advocate. The Sage of the kyas taught
various teachings fitting to the varied constitutions of sentient beings. There is
no saying exactly what Dharma is. It's karma that comes to your own tongue.
Learning brings order to the within and the without. Meditation brings
experience within. The two purposes abide in these two, but for meditative
experience, strength is more important [than learning]. Learning cannot bring
you through the intermediate state [between death and rebirth]. Don't think,
'Who has realizations like mine? I have no reason to meditate.' Even now the
steam of attraction and aversion is swirling about. In the past beings strayed
from the continuity of void nature. So if awareness is to be liberated upon the
Realm, it requires practice.
If you have no thought about death, Dharma will not come. If you don't
generate certainty, you won't enter into it. If you don't see the purpose of it,
entangling distractions will not be cut off. If you don't purify your own way of
seeing, awakening will not expand (you will not Buddhaize). You must yourself
load impermanence on your mindstream. Make use of urgent energy. What is
not useful, cast behind. Knowing Dharma is not enough, you have to look
where you're going. Seek out a path you can trust.
Train the body with postures ('dug-stangs, or Sanskrit sana). Train the mind
with meditative equipoise and post-meditation. Make energy train all three:
body, speech and mind. There is no power that does not dawn in meditative
experience.
The Lord Tripa is great in power, but independence for practicing divine
Dharma is greater. [p. 438] Not running after things, not wanting things, is a
happy cheerful state, but staying in a hermitage the independence is greater
still. Sumpa, although you have no friends among the young men (??), by
Then he said,
In general the Words of Sugatas is one thing, the holy Lama's precepts makes
two, and one's own meditative experience makes three. You need to roll them
altogether toward a single purpose. You have to concentrate hard on a tough
question.
With initiations ripen the mind stream. With learning resolve doubts. With the
crucial points see the purpose. Disentangle thoughts in Dharma Proper. If you
master these four, Dharma will come for sure.
Blessings, what are called blessings, have a great power. If they are not there, it
is like grain mash without the added yeast starter. Some people perform hard
the virtuous practices while counting the Lama's faults. They don't sense the rot
right in front of them. But you, you have such pure vision that, even without
knowing Dharma, both self and others are ripened. [p. 439]
If you don't separate the cream from the dregs of awareness, there is no blocking
the paths of [rebirth in] the six families. Encompass intensity in freshness. If
meditative equipoise and post-meditation are not each left alone, that female
thief delusion will lie in wait. Join the gazes together in pieces. (??) If you
haven't used forceful methods on the objective spheres, the embers of
attachment and aversion will reignite. Knowing this, divorce yourself from
entanglements. If this time around you aren't liberated from sangsara, you can
If you don't keep armor on your back you will not achieve the desired
purpose. If you don't first conquer the outer spheres of sense, the face of adverse
circumstances will not be averted. If you do not subsequently dissolve the
countermeasure, meditative experience will serve to bind you.
Note: Since Kunga was the original compiler of this collection (later rearranged by his own disciple Patsab), it is
interesting that it ends with words intended specifically for him. It should go without saying that, given that Kunga had a
longing for the company of women, it is the desire that is the yogi's opponent, not women themselves.
This text called White Conch Fragments was written down from the scattered statements
pronounced by the Emanation Body Gyagar Rinpoch. Later on Lama Patsab divided the
fragments into series (sde-tshan).
A note on the text: This text is one of a number that belong to the Responsa (Zhus-lan)
section. In the published reprint edition the title is not visible, and it is only barely possible to
make it out in the microfilm of the original manuscript: Dkar-po dung-gi cho-lu lags-so. It is
found in volume 2, pages 423-439 of the Zhij Collection. The publication details are as follows:
The Tradition of Pha Dampa Sangyas: A Treasured Collection of His Teachings Transmitted by
Thugs-sras Kun-dga', reproduced from a unique collection of manuscripts preserved with
'Khrul-zhig Rinpoche of Tsa-rong Monastery in Ding-ri, edited with an English introduction to
the tradition by B. Nimri Aziz, Kunsang Tobgey (Thimphu 1979), in 5 volumes.
Wylie concordance:
Charchenpo = Phyar-chen-po (one of the four main pillars of the Tingri Langkor community)
Charchung = Phyar-chung (one of the four main pillars of the Tingri Langkor community)
Chupa = Chu-pa
Dachungpa = Brda'-chung-pa
Daggom = Dags-sgom
Darmi Tsabp = Dar-myi Tshab-pe
Darr = Dar-re
Dars = Dar-bsod
Datn Chdrag = Mda'-ston Chos-grags
dn = gdon
Dnmowa = Don-mo-ba
Dorjebar = Rdo-rje-'bar
Dragchung = Grags-chung
Drags = Grags-se
Dro Dragpa = 'Bro Grags-pa
Dro Dragpa = 'Bro Grags-pa
Dro Sengg= 'Bro Seng-ge
Drochapoigo =Sgro-bya-po'i-mgo
Drochungpa = 'Bro-chung-pa
Dzongpa = Rdzong-pa
Gelong = Dge-slong (bhikshu, fully ordained monk)
Gesh = Dge-bshes (a scholar of the Kadampa school)
Gompa Drags = Bsgom-pa Grags-bsod
Gyagar Rinpoch = Rgya-gar Rin-po-che (precious teacher of India, epithet for Padampa)
Gyagom = Rgya-sgom
Jangpa Goms = Byang-pa Sgom-bsod
Jepo Pal = Rje-po Dpal-'od
Jos Nyima = Jo-sras Nyi-ma
Jos Rambu = Jo-sras Ram-bu
Khamtn Yorpo = Khams-ston Yor-po
Khyungpo Dorjedrag = Khyung-po Rdo-rje-grags
Knwang = Dkon-dbang
Kunga = Kun-dga' (one of the four main pillars of the Tingri Langkor community, he was the
source of the 'later transmission' lineage, and compiler of most of the
sayings of Padampa)
Kyerchungpa = Skyer-chung-pa
Kyij = Kyi-rjes
Kyurchung = Skyur-chung
Lhatsn Trid = Lha-btsun Khri-lde (he was a monk belonging to the royal line)
Menyag Kndrag = Me-nyag Dkon-grags
Naljor = Rnal-'byor (yogi)
Namkhadorj = Nam-mkha'-rdo-rje
Ngaripa = Mnga'-ris-pa (person from Ngari, the western province of Tibet)
Nubtn Sengg = Snubs-ston Seng-ge
Nyen Palwang = Gnyan Dpal-dbang