Jorcho: The Six Preparatory Practices Adorning the Buddha's Sublime Doctrine

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Publisher's Note

We are happy to present this translation into English of The Six Preparatory Practices Adorning the Buddha's Sublime Doctrine. Mr. Losang C. Ganchenpa and Ani-la Karma Lekshe Tsomo are to be congratulated for their most competent translation of this valuable Tibetan texts, which is both a complete daily recitation and meditation practice and all the preliminaries essential to subsequent higher practices. An appealing feature of this text is that it may be used by the practitioners of all schools and at all levels of practice-beginning, intermediate, and advanced.

We are sure that this work will be of great help to non-Tibetan-speaking Buddhist scholars and practitioners. The original edition of this rare text can11 be found in the manuscript section of this Library.

Translator's Note

The Six Preparatory Practices Adorning the Buddha's Sublime Doctrine (sByor-ba'i-chos-drug bya-Tshul thub-stan lhun-po'I mdzes-rgyan) is important as an example of that body of Tibetan literature explaining preparatory practices. It outlines the organization of a Buddhist practitioner's daily meditation session, including visualizations, verses of praise, and a convenient condensation of the Graded Path (Lam-rim) contemplations. All the major points of the Graded Path meditation, including Bodhicitta and right view, are touched upon. In addition, the verses of the famous and well-loved prayer Yon-tan bzhi-gyur-ma are to be found herein.

In the colophon of the text, the author's name is not mentioned. The author himself merely states that it was composed by "this humble bhikshu." However, there is a reference in a commentary to the text entitled Byang-chub lam-gyi rim-pa'I sngon-'gro'I zin-bris sbyor-ba'I chos-drug thub-bstan lhun-po'I mdzes rgyan-la khungs-ldan man-ngag du-mas slar-yang brgyan-te cung-zad gsal-bar byas-pa thubdbang rdo-rje- 'chang chen-po'I zhal-bzang blta-ba'I dvangs-shel me-long and written by Ser-sngags nam-mkha' bstan-skyong (Ser-sngags drva-thang edition, Folio 4, reverse), which ascertains that the text is the work of mKhan ngag-dbang chos-'byor.

The precise date of the text is also absent in the original Tibetan edition. However, the chronology of the text can be established by noting the name of [The Second rva-sgreng Khri-chen] bLo-bzang yeshes bstan-pa rab-rgyas (1759?-1816), who appears last in the lineage prayer (page 17 of this English translation), indicating that he was contemporary with Ngag-dbang chos-'byor. Thus the date of authorship can be assumed to be sometime in the early 19th century.

We wish to express our sincere thanks to Ven. Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey and Ven. Geshe Sonam Rinchen for their valuable clarification of difficult sections of the text. In addition, we are grateful to Jeremy Russell and Elizabeth Richards for their kind suggestions regarding the English expression, and to all those others who contributed in bringing this project to completion.

Back of the Book

The Six Preparatory Practices Adorning the Buddha's Sublime Doctrine (sbyor-ba'I chos-drug bya-tshul thub-bstan lhun-po'I mdzes-rgyan) is important as an example of that body of Tibetan literature explaining preparatory practices. It outlines the organization of a Buddhist practitioner's daily meditation session, including visualizations, verses of praise, and a convenient condensation of the Graded Path meditation, including bodhicitta and right view, are touched upon. In addition, the verses of the famous and well-loved prayer Yon-tan bzhi-gyur-ma are to be found herein.