Eighty inexhaustibles
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The eighty inexhaustibles (Skt. *akṣaya-aśīti[1]; T. mi zad pa brgyad bcu མི་ཟད་པ་བརྒྱད་བཅུ་) or "unceasing factors," are eighty aspects of the dharma that summarize the Mahayana path.
The Khenjuk states:
- It is difficult to fathom the extent of the presentations of the profound and vast nature of the Mahayana path, which resembles the sky or the ocean. Nevertheless, its practice can be condensed into the system of the eighty inexhaustibles.[2]
The eighty inexhaustibles are:[3][4]
- 1) generation of bodhichitta (སེམས་བསྐྱེད་, sems bskyed),
- 2) aspiration (བསམ་པ་, bsam pa),
- 3) application (སྦྱོར་བ་, sbyor ba),
- 4) superior intention (ལྷག་པའི་བསམ་པ་, lhag pa’i bsam pa),
- 5-10) the six paramitas (ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་དྲུག་, pha rol tu phyin pa drug),
- 11-14) the four immeasurables (ཚད་མེད་བཞི་, tshad med bzhi),
- 14-19) the five superknowledges (མངོན་ཤེས་ལྔ་, mngon shes lnga),
- 20-23) the four means of attraction (བསྡུ་བའི་དངོས་པོ་བཞི་, bsdu ba'i dngos po bzhi),
- 23-27) the four correct discriminations (སོ་སོ་ཡང་དག་པ་རིག་པ་བཞི་, so so yang dag pa rig pa bzhi),
- 28-31) the four reliances (རྟོན་པ་བཞི, rton pa bzhi),
- 32-33) the two accumulations (ཚོགས་གཉིས་, tshogs gnyis),
- 34-70) the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment (བྱང་ཕྱོགས་སོ་དབདུན་, byang phyogs so bdun),
- 71-72) shamatha and vipashyana (ཞི་ལྷག་གཉིས་, zhi lhag gnyis),
- 73-74) retention and eloquence (གཟུངས་སྤོབས་གཉིས་, gzungs spobs gnyis),
- 75-78) the four seals of the Dharma (ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྡོམ་བཞི, chos kyi sdom bzhi),
- 79) the single path to be traversed (བགྲོད་པ་གཅིག་པ་, bgrod pa gcig pa), and
- 80) skillful means (upāya)
These eighty aspects are presented in the Akṣayamatinirdeśa and the Sagaramatiparipriccha Sutra (blo gros rgya mtshos zhus pa'i mdo).
They are also discussed in commentaries such as Mipham Rinpoche's Khenjuk.
Alternative translations
- Eighty inexhaustibles (Erik Pema Kunsang)
- Eighty unceasing factors (Kretschmar & also Padmakara)
- Eighty imperishables (Jens Braarvig)
Notes
- ↑ This is a backward translation into Sanskrit; it might not be entirely accurate.
- ↑ Mipham Rinpoche 2002, line 18.1.
- ↑ Mipham Rinpoche 2002, Chapter 18.
- ↑
Eighty inexhaustibles, Rigpa Shedra Wiki
Sources
Mipham Rinpoche (2002), Gateway to Knowledge, vol. III, translated by Kunsang, Erik Pema, Rangjung Yeshe Publications
མི་ཟད་པ་བརྒྱད་བཅུ་, Christian-Steinert Dictionary