Eight treasures of confidence

Eight treasures of confidence (Tib. སྤོབས་པའི་གཏེར་བརྒྱད་, pobpé ter gyé, Wyl. spobs pa'i gter brgyad) — eight qualities mentioned in the Lalitavistara Sutra and frequently referred to in the writings of Mipham Rinpoche. They are:

1. treasure of recollection (དྲན་པའི་གཏེར་, dran pa’i gter)
2. treasure of intelligence (བློ་གྲོས་ཀྱི་གཏེར་, blo gros kyi gter) 
3. treasure of realization (རྟོགས་པའི་གཏེར་, rtogs pa’i gter)
4. treasure of retention (གཟུངས་ཀྱི་གཏེར་, gzungs kyi gter)
5. treasure of confidence (སྤོབས་པའི་གཏེར་, spobs pa’i gter)  
6. treasure of Dharma (ཆོས་ཀྱི་གཏེར་, chos kyi gter)
7. treasure of bodhichitta (བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་ཀྱི་གཏེར་, byang chub sem kyi gter)
8. treasure of accomplishment (སྒྲུབ་པའི་གཏེར་, sgrub pa’i gter)

In the Lalitavistara Sutra

The Lalitavistara Sutra states:

What are these eight great treasures? They are:
the treasure of unfailing recall because of not forgetting,
the treasure of intelligence by careful analysis,
the treasure of realization by assimilating enthusiastically the meaning of all the sūtras,
the treasure of memorization by remembering everything that one hears,
the treasure of confidence by satisfying all sentient beings with good counsel,
the treasure of Dharma by preserving the true Dharma,
the treasure of the mind of awakening by maintaining the lineage of the Three Jewels, and
the treasure of accomplishment by developing receptiveness to the truth of nonorigination.

Commentary

Mipham Rinpoche's Sword of Wisdom states:

Scriptures heard and contemplated in the past
Are never forgotten—this is the treasure of recollection.
Knowing precisely their profound and vast points—
This is the treasure of intelligence. (94)

Understanding all the themes of the sutra and tantra collections—
This is the treasure of realization.
Never forgetting any detail from one’s studies—
This is the treasure of retention. (95)

Satisfying all beings with excellent explanations—
This is the treasure of confidence.
Safeguarding the precious treasury of sacred teachings—
This is the treasure of Dharma. (96)

Not severing the continuous line of the Three Jewels—
This is the treasure of bodhichitta.
Gaining acceptance of the nature of equality beyond arising—
This is the treasure of accomplishment. (97)

Alternative translations

• eight treasures of confidence (Rigpa wiki)
• eight treasures of courageous eloquence
• eight treasures of brilliance
• eight great treasure mines of courageous eloquence (T. spobs pa'i gter chen brgyad) (Rangjung Yeshe)
• eight great treasures of brilliance (spobs pa'i gter chen po brgyad) (John Petit, Beacon of Certainty)

Sources

• Dharmachakra Translation Committee (2013), A Play in Full: Lalitavistara, 84000 Reading Room 
• Pettit, John Whitney (1999), Mipham's Beacon of Certainty: Illuminating the View of Dzogchen, the Great Perfection, Wisdom Publications 

External links

• སྤོབས་པའི་གཏེར་ཆེན་པོ་བརྒྱད་, Christian-Steinert Dictionary
• spobs_pa'i_gter_chen_brgyad, Rangjung Yeshe Wiki
• Eight treasures of confidence, Rigpa Shedra Wiki