Chatuḥshataka shastra
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Four Hundred Verses (Skt. Catuḥśataka; Tib. བཞི་བརྒྱ་པ་, Wyl. bzhi brgya pa) - an important Madhyamika treatise by Aryadeva. It is included among the so-called "Thirteen great texts", which form the core of the curriculum in most shedras and on which Khenpo Shenga provided commentaries.
Outlines
The text has 16 chapters:
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བསྟན་བཅོས་བཞི་བརྒྱ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཚིག་ལེའུར་བྱས་པ་, bstan bcos bzhi brgya pa zhes bya ba'i tshig le'ur byas pa
Commentaries
Indian
Chandrakirti wrote a commentary called simply Commentary on the Four Hundred Verses on the Yogic Deeds of Bodhisattvas:
- བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྤྱོད་པ་བཞི་བརྒྱ་པའི་རྒྱ་ཆེར་འགྲེལ་པ་, byang chub sems dpa'i rnal 'byor spyod pa bzhi brgya pa'i rgya cher 'grel pa
Tibetan
Many Tibetan masters wrote commentaries on this text, including: Khenpo Ngawang Palzang, Pöpa Tulku Dongak Tenpé Nyima, Rendawa Shyönnu Lodrö, Gyaltsab Darma Rinchen and Khenpo Shenga.
Translations
- Ruth Sonam, Yogic Deeds of Bodhisattvas: Gyel-tsap on Aryadeva's Four Hundred, Snow Lion, 1994
- Karen Lang, Aryadeva's Catuhsataka: On the Bodhisattva's Cultivation of Merit and Knowledge. Copenhaven: Akademisk Forlag, 1986
Quotations
བསོད་ནམས་ཆུང་ངུ་ཆོས་འདི་ལ། །
ཐེ་ཚོམ་ཟ་བར་ཡང་མི་འགྱུར། །
ཐེ་ཚོམ་ཟ་བར་ཙམ་ཞིག་གིས། །
སྲིད་པ་ཧྲུལ་པོར་བྱས་པར་འགྱུར། །
Those with little merit will not
Even wonder about these things.
But merely to entertain doubts
About saṃsāra will make it fall apart.
- Āryadeva, Four Hundred Verses, VIII, 5
བསོད་ནམས་མིན་པ་དང་པོར་བཟློག །
བར་དུ་བདག་ནི་བཟློག་པ་དང༌། །
ཕྱི་ནས་ལྟ་བ་ཀུན་བཟློག་པ། །
གང་གིས་ཤེས་དེ་མཁས་པ་ཡིན། །
At first, turn away from non-virtue,
In the middle, dispel misconceptions of self,
Finally, go beyond all philosophical views—
One who understands this is wise indeed.
- Āryadeva, Four Hundred Verses, VIII, 15
དངོས་པོ་གཅིག་གི་ལྟ་པོ་གང༌། །
དེ་ནི་ཀུན་གྱི་ལྟ་པོར་བཤད། །
གཅིག་གི་སྟོང་ཉིད་གང་ཡིན་པ། །
དེ་ནི་ཀུན་གྱི་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད། །
Whoever sees the nature of one thing
Is said to see the nature of everything.
For the emptiness of one thing
Is the emptiness of everything.
- Āryadeva, Four Hundred Verses, VIII, 16