Sakya Lekshé

Sakya Pandita.

Sakya Lekshé (T. sa skya legs bshad ས་སྐྱ་ལེགས་བཤད་), or "Wise Sayings of the Sakya Pandita", is a collection of "wise sayings" (subhāṣita) composed by the Sakya Pandita in the beginning of the 13th century.

The 41st Sakya Trizin states:

A profound, down-to-earth, and practical guide to the art of living as a wise and good human being, from the time of its composition and the early 13th century to the president, the Sakya Lekshé has been one of the most popular and widely read Tibetan books. Numerous Tibetans, common people, as well as nobility, have drawn from it inspiration and guidance in the conduct of their lives. It has been extensively studied by scholars and was considered a model literary style. Together with the number of other works by Sakya Pandita it has come to be highly valued, not only within Sakya, but by all the Buddhist traditions of Tibet. When someone was judged to have expressed themselves eloquently, it was common in Tibet for it to be said that they must have studied the Sakya Lekshé .

Written primarily for lay people, who generally did not have the time or resources for extensive study and consequently were not skilled in sophisticated philosophy, the Sakya Lekshé presents concrete examples expressed in pithy parables and aphorisms. Sakya Pandita describes the method of teaching he used in one of the books concluding versus […]:

As the physician Kumāra Jīvaka cured the seriously ill

By persuading them that medicine was food,

So have I taught this sacred Dharma

Through reference to the ways of the world.

Title variations

Tibetan title variations:

• ས་སྐྱ་ལེགས་བཤད་ (pron. Sakya Lekshé), Wise Sayings of the Sakya Pandita
• ལེགས་པར་བཤད་པ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་གཏེར་ (Skt. Subhāṣitaratnanidhi), The Jewel Treasury of Wise Sayings
• ལེགས་པར་བཤད་པ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་གཏེར་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་། The Treatise known as The Jewel Treasury of Wise Sayings

Title in Sanskrit:

• Subhāṣitaratnanidhi - although this text is not a translation from the Sanskrit, the Sanskrit title is presented in the Tibetan text to indicate that this text belongs to the Abhidharma category of teachings.

In English, the title rendered variously as:

• Wise Sayings of the Sakya Pandita
• Elegant Sayings of the Sakya Pandita
• The Jewel Treasury of Wise Sayings
• Sakya Pandita's Treasury of Good Advice
• Etc.

Literary style

José Ignacio Cabezón states:

The Sakya Lekshé, containing more than 450 verses, is the first book-length subhāṣita work written by a Tibetan; its influence on all subsequent Tibetan lekshé literature cannot be overestimated.

John Davenport states:

The Sakya Lekshé occupies a unique position in Tibetan literature, being an unusual secular literary composition in a world that consists mainly of religious works. It was the first and an original Tibetan expression of the subhāṣita form of traditional Indian nītiśāstra literature ― "elegant sayings" about secular affairs and daily human life. As such, it played a substantial role in forging cultural and religious ties between India and Tibet that continue to this day. It's enduring popularity inspired several subsequent indigenous Tibetan subhāṣita literary works that were patterned after the Sakya Lekshé and it's Indian nītiśāstras from which the Sakya Pandita drew for this work. That popularity continues today with the Sakya Lekshé being incorporated into the modern education curriculum of Tibet, India, and Bhutan. Its subject matter, the interweaving of religious and worldly aspects of life, is representative of the life of the author, Sakya Pandita, a learned Buddhist cleric who, after a productive life as a monk and scholar, spent his last years in the royal court of the Mongol empire forging ties between Tibet and Mongolia that survive today.

Contents

The text consists of 9 chapters:

1. Reflections on the wise
2. Reflections on the noble
3. Reflections on the foolish
4. Reflections on both the wise and the foolish
5. Reflections on misconduct
6. Reflections on natural behavior
7. Reflections on inappropriate behavior
8. Reflections on deeds
9. Reflections on Dharma

Tibetan text

Tibetan text:

• The Jewel Treasury of Wise Sayings ལེགས་པར་བཤད་པ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་གཏེར་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་བཞུགས་སོ།, IBA Sakya Paṇḍita Series, IBA Publications, 2024. Published on Tsadra Foundation website.
• legs par bshad pa rin po che'i gter, BUDA

Tibetan and Mongolian texts:

• A Treasury of Aphoristic Jewels; The Subhāṣitaratnanidhi of Sa Skya Paṇḍita in Tibetan and Mongolian. James E. Bosson. Bloomington: Indiana University, 1969.

Translations

Mongolian translation

The text was translated into the Mongolian language, and it became popular in Mongolia as well as Tibet.

English translations

• Sakya Pandita, Ordinary Wisdom: Sakya Pandita's Treasury of Good Advice, translated by John T. Davenport (Boston: Wisdom, 2000). Archive version
• James E. Bosson. A Treasury of Aphoristic Jewels; the Subhāṣitaratnanidhi of Sa Skya Paṇḍita in Tibetan and Mongolian. Phd. Thesis. Bloomington: Indiana University, 1969.
• Sándor Csoma de Kőrösi. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Vol. 24–25, 1855—1856
  • Archive verion: Vol 24
  • Archive version: Vol 25

Translations into other languages

• France 1858 – French translation by Philippe Édouard Foucaux
• Germany 1926 – Germany translation by V.Campbell
• China 1958 – Chinese translation by Wan Yao

Translating the Tibetan term "yon tan"

In the introduction to his translation of the Sakya Lekshé, John Davenport states:

Of central concern throughout this book is the subject of "yon tan," which we have translated in two ways, depending on the context. Often we use "good qualities," or "good personal qualities," and we also use "knowledge." At first glance, these may not appear to be equivalent terms in English, because our modern secularized notion of knowledge is usually that of acquired, practical, often career-oriented information or skills of one sort or another that enable us to perform some function, such as to program computers, fix cars, practice medicine or law. We also recognize that someone might be knowledgeable about some subject as a result of study or experience – again, the notion of acquired information.

The Tibetan term "yon tan," however, embraces a dynamic interrelationship between what is known, the knower, and the experience of knowing, and hence denotes that in the act or experience of knowing, the knower becomes characterized by qualities or attributes that are consistent with the nature of what is known. In the context of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist cultural heritage, knowledge most often refers to a penetrating inquiry into the nature of the self and the manner of existence. Therefore, becoming learned would imply not merely acquiring information about a given subject, for example, of the six perfections, but would also include becoming so deeply familiar with that knowledge through study, contemplation, and meditation that it becomes thoroughly internalized, allowing one gradually to acquire the "good qualities" of generosity, patience, enthusiastic perseverance, and so forth.

Selected verses

The verses below are provisional translations by Dorje108. For a full translation by John Davenport, with commentary, see Ordinary Wisdom: Sakya Pandita's Treasury of Good Advice (Wisdom Publications 2000).

From Chapter 1 (Reflections on the wise):

Verse 1:

།མཁས་པ་ཡོན་ཏན་མཛོད་འཛིན་པ། 
།དེ་དག་ལེགས་བཤད་རིན་ཆེན་སྡུད། 
།རྒྱ་མཚོ་ཆེན་པོ་ཆུ་བོའི་གཏེར། 
།ཡིན་ཕྱིར་ཆུ་བོ་ཐམས་ཅད་འབབ།

The wise are like a treasury of good qualities
Who gather to themselves the profound insights of the sages.
The great ocean is like a treasury of water
That takes in the water of all the flowing rivers.

Verse 2:

།སྐྱེ་བོ་ཡོན་ཏན་ཡོད་མེད་པའི། 
།བླང་དོར་བློ་གྲོས་ལྡན་པ་མཁས། 
།རྡུལ་དང་འདྲེས་པའི་ལྕགས་ཕྱེ་རྣམས། 
།ཁབ་ལེན་རྡོ་ཡིས་ལེན་པར་ཤེས།

Ordinary people may or may not understand how to conduct themselves.
The wise understand which actions to adopt and which to avoid.
When iron fillings are mixed with dust,
A magnet is able to extract the fillings.

Verse 3:

།ལེགས་བཤད་མཁས་པས་བློ་གྲོས་ཀྱིས། 
།གོ་ཡི་བླུན་པོས་དེ་ལྟ་མིན། 
།ཉི་མའི་འོད་ཟེར་ཤར་བ་ན། 
།འབྱུང་པོའི་བྱ་རྣམས་ལོང་བར་འགྱུར།

Skilled in reflecting on the pithy insights of the sages,
The wise understand the true nature of things.
The foolish are not like this.
When the sun rises,
The owl is blinded by its radiance.

Verse 4:

།ཤེས་རབ་ལྡན་པས་ཉེས་པ་དག
།སེལ་བར་ནུས་ཀྱི་བླུན་པོས་མིན། 
།ནམ་མཁའ་ལྡིང་གིས་དུག་ཅན་སྦྲུལ། 
།གསད་པར་ནུས་ཀྱི་ཁྭ་དས་མིན།

The wise have the power to purify their faults
But the foolish do not.
The garuda has the power to kill venomous snakes
But crows do not.

Verse 5:

།བློ་གྲོས་ཆེན་པོ་རྒུད་ན་ཡང༌། 
།ལྷག་པར་བློ་གྲོས་སྟོབས་ལྡན་འགྱུར། 
།རི་དྭགས་རྒྱལ་པོ་བཀྲེས་པ་ན། 
།གླང་ཆེན་སྤྱི་བོ་མྱུར་དུ་འགེམས།

When a wise person faces great difficulties
Their wisdom grows even deeper.
When the lion is hungry
He directly attacks the head of the elephant.

Verse 6:

།མཁས་པ་བརྩད་ཅིང་མ་དྲིས་པ། 
།དེ་ཡི་བར་དུ་གཏིང་མི་དཔོགས། 
།རྔ་ལ་དབྱུ་གུས་མ་བསྣུན་པ། 
།དེ་སྲིད་གཞན་དང་ཁྱད་ཅི་ཡོད། 

Until you question a learned person,
You can not measure the depth of their knowledge.
Until you strike a drum with a drum-stick,
You can not measure the quality of its sound.

Verse 7:

།རིག་པ་ནང་པར་འཆི་ཡང་བསླབ།
།ཚེ་འིདིར་མཁས་པ་མ་གྱུར་ཀྱིང༌།
།སྐྱེ་བ་ཕྱི་མར་བཅོལ་བ་ཡི།
།ནོར་ལ་རང་ཉིད་ལེན་པ་འདྲ།

Even though you may die tomorrow,
Study and practice the Dharma today.
While you may not become a sage in this life,
In your future lives, you will inherit a wealth of knowledge.

Verse 8:

།ཡོན་ཏན་ལྡན་ན་སྐྱེ་བོ་ཀུན།
།མ་བསྡུས་པར་ཡང་རང་ཉིིད་འདུ།
།དྲི་ལྡན་མེ་ཏེོག་རྒྱང་རིང་ཡང༌།
།བུང་བ་སྤྲིན་གྱིི་ཚོགས་བཞིན་འཁོར།

Students naturally gather around a virtuous teacher,
Without being called.
Bees hover like a cloud above a fragrant flower,
Drawn by its scent.

Verse 9:

།མཁས་པ་ཡོན་ཏན་ཀུན་བསླབས་པ།
།མཐར་ཕྱིན་གཅིག་གིས་འཇིག་རྟེན་གསལ།
།བློ་ངན་ཤེས་པ་མང་ན་ཡང་།
།རྒྱུ་སྐར་བཞིན་དུ་གསལ་མི་ནུས།

Through fully training in all good qualities
A single wise person illuminates the world.
But those whose minds are filled with doubts and wrong views,
Even though they are as plentiful as the stars in the sky,
Are unable to illuminate [anything at all].

Verse 10:

།མཁས་པ་ཡོན་ཏན་དཔག་མེད་ཀྱང༌།
།གཞན་གྱི་ཡོན་ཏན་ཆུང་ངུ་ལེན།
།དེ་ལྟར་རྒྱུན་དུ་སྤྱོད་པ་ཡིས།
།མྱུར་དུ་ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན་པར་འགྲོ།

Even though their knowledge is beyond measure,
A wise person embraces the lesser knowledge of others.
Through continuously engaging in this way,
They quickly become omniscient.

Verse 11:

།མཁས་པ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱིིས་བསྲུངས་ན།
།དགྲ་བོ་མང་ཡང་ག་ལ་ཚུགས།
།འཕགས་རྒྱལ་གྱིི་ནི་བྲམ་ཟེའིི་བུ།
།གཅིག་བུས་དགྲ་བོའི་ཚོགས་ཀུན་བཅོོམ།

Since a wise person is protected by superior knowledge (prajna),
How can they be harmed, even by many foes?
The Brahmin son of the city of Ujjayinī
Single-handedly vanquished a host of enemies.

Verse 12:

།བློ་ཆུང་གྲོས་ཉེས་འཁྲུགས་པའི་ཚེ།
།བློ་ལྡན་ཐབས་ཀྱིིས་བདེ་བར་གསོ།
།ཆུ་ཀླུང་རྙོག་པས་ཆུད་གསན་པ།
།ཆུ་འདང་ནོར་བུས་དང་བར་བྱེད།

When small-minded people are disturbed by quarrels and negative emotions,
Through various skillful means, a wise person easily restores harmony.
When a river is stirred by wind and rain, the water becomes unsuitable for drinking.
By placing a ketaka gemstone in the water, the water is quickly purified.

Verse 13:

།མཁས་པ་ཇི་ལྟར་ཐབས་རྡུགས་ཀྱང༌།
།བླུན་པོ་འཇུག་པའི་ལམ་མི་འགྲོ།
།ཆར་སྡོད་བྱེའུ་སྐོམ་ན་ཡང༌།
།ས་ལ་འབབ་པའི་ཆུ་མི་འཐུང༌།

A wise person, no matter how destitute they become,
Does not follow the ways of the foolish.
A careful bird, even though it is thirsty,
Does not drink the rain water from the ground.

Verse 14:

།ཤེས་རབ་ལྡན་པ་མགོ་བསྐོར་ཡང༌།
།བྱ་བའི་ཆ་ལ་རྨོངས་མི་འགྱུར།
།སྲོག་ཆགས་གྲོག་མ་མིག་མེད་ཀྱང༌།
།མིག་ལྡན་གཞན་པས་ལྷག་པར་མགྱོགས།

Even if a wise person is deceived,
They do not become confused in their actions.
Even though small ants cannot see,
They move more quickly and efficiently than many sighted animals.

Verse 15:

།བློ་གྲོས་ལྡན་པ་གཉིས་བགྲོས་ན།
།བློ་གྲོས་ལེགས་པ་གཞན་འབྱུང་སྲིད།
།ཡུང་བ་དང་ནི་ཚ་ལ་ལས།
།ཁ་དོག་གཞན་ཞིག་སྐྱེ་བར་འགྱུར།

When two wise people engage in debate,
Useful new insights will likely arise.
When yellow turmeric is mixed with Tibetan rock salt,
A pleasant new color is produced.

Verse 16:

།ཁོང་མཛངས་བསོད་ནམས་བསགས་པའི་མི།
།གཅིག་པུ་ཡིན་ཡང་ཀུན་ལས་རྒྱལ།
།རི་དྭགས་རྒྱལ་པོ་སེང་གེ་དང༌།
།འཁོར་ལོས་སྒྱུར་ལ་གྲོགས་མི་དགོས།

The wise person who has gathered merit,
Even though they stand alone,
Is victorious over all opponents.
The lion, the king of beasts,
And the universal monarch,
Have no need of allies.

Verse 17:

།ཐབས་ལ་མཁས་ན་ཆེན་པོ་ཡང༌།
།བྲན་དུ་བཀོལ་བ་ག་ལ་དཀའ།
།མཁའ་ལྡིང་མཐུ་རྩལ་ཆེ་ན་ཡང༌།
།གོས་སེར་ཅན་གྱིིས་བཞོན་པར་འགྱུར།

A wise person, skilled in means,
Can bring even the powerful into their service,
Without difficulty.
The golden-clad Vishnu
Subdued the mighty Garuda
And made him his mount.

Verse 18:

།འཇིག་རྟེན་འདི་དང་ཕ་རོལ་གྱི།
།བདེ་བ་བསྒྲུབ་པ་ཤེས་རབ་ཡིན།
།རྒྱལ་བུ་ཟླ་བའི་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱིིས།
།བྲན་བཟངས་འདི་དང་ཕྱི་མར་བསྐྱབས།

In this world and the next,
One attains happiness through wisdom.
Through the wisdom of Prince Canda,
Siṁha Sudāsa was protected in his lifetime and in those to come.

Verse 19:

།དཔའ་ཞིང་མཐུ་རྩལ་ཆེ་ན་ཡང༌། 
།མཁས་པ་མིན་པས་དཔལ་མི་ཐོབ། 
།འབྱོར་པ་ཐོབ་པར་གྱུར་ན་ཡང༌། 
།བསོད་ནམས་མེད་ན་ག་ལ་རྟག

Though you may possess great courage, strength, and power,
Without wisdom, you will not attain the supreme wealth
[that transcends the ordinary world].
Even though you gain a vast fortune in this life,
Without merit, how long can it last?

Verse 20:

།ཡོན་ཏན་སྐྱོན་གཉིས་སུས་ཀྱང་གསལ། 
།འདྲེས་པ་འབྱེད་ཤེས་མཁས་པ་ཡིན། 
།ཆུ་ལས་འོ་མ་ངང་པས་ཕྱེད། 
།བ་ལ་འོ་མ་ཀུན་གྱིས་ལོང༌།

Everyone understands the difference between good and bad qualities
When they manifest separately from one another.
But a wise person can distinguish between them
Even when they are mixed together.
In the same way, any ordinary person can take milk from a cow,
But a swan is able to separate milk from water.

Verse 21:

།སྨྲས་ཤིང་བསྐུལ་བར་གྱུར་པ་ན། 
།དུད་འགྲོ་ལ་ཡང་གོ་བ་སྐྱེ། 
།མ་བསྐུལ་གཞན་གྱིས་མ་སྨྲས་པར། 
།བསམ་པ་ཤེས་ན་མཁས་པ་ཡིན།

With clear instructions and repeated urging,
Even animals understand what is expected of them.
A wise person knows how to act [in any situation]
Without instructions or urging from another.

Verse 22:

བློ་དང་ལྡན་ན་མ་སྨྲས་ཀྱང༌། 
།རྣམ་འགྱུར་ཉིད་ལ་བསམ་པ་གོ
།བལ་བོའི་སེའུ་མ་ཟོས་ཀྱང༌། 
།ཁ་དོག་ཉིད་ལས་བྲོ་བ་ཤེས།

The wise recognize the intentions of others
From their demeanor alone, even if they do not speak.
One can discern the taste of a crab apple
From its color alone, even without tasting it.

Verse 23:

།མཁས་པ་རང་གི་ཡུལ་ལས་ཀྱང༌། 
།ཡུལ་ཁམས་གཞན་ན་མཆོད་པ་ཐོབ། 
།ནོར་བུ་གཞན་དུ་བྲིན་པ་ཙམ། 
།རྒྱ་མཚོའི་གླིང་དུ་ག་ལ་བྲིན།

A wise person is more honored in foreign lands
Then they are in their own homeland.
A jewel can be easily sold in a land where jewels are scarce,
But it is difficult to sell on an island where jewels are plentiful.

Verse 24:

།མཁས་པ་སློབ་པའི་དུས་ན་སྡུག
།བདེ་བར་སྡོད་ལ་མཁས་མི་སྲིད། 
།བདེ་བ་ཆུང་ལ་ཆགས་པ་དེས། 
།ཆེན་པོའི་བདེ་བ་ཐོབ་མི་སྲིད། 

Wisdom is gained through hardship and suffering.
Living an easy life, one does not become wise.
Attachment to small pleasures
Is an obstacle to attaining great happiness.

Verse 25:

།བློ་དང་ལྡན་ན་ཉམ་ཆུང་ཡང༌།
།སྟོབས་ལྡན་དགྲ་བོས་ཅི་བྱར་ཡོད། 
།རི་དྭགས་རྒྱལ་པོ་སྟོབས་ལྡན་ཡང༌། 
།རི་བོང་བློ་དང་ལྡན་པས་བསད། 

Even if a wise person is physically weak
What can a powerful enemy do?
One time, even the powerful king of beasts
Was brought down by a clever rabbit.

Verse 26:

།སེམས་ཅན་གཞན་དང་རྗེས་མཐུན་པའི།
།སྤྱོད་པ་ཤེས་ན་མཁས་པ་ཡིན། 
།དུད་འགྲོ་ཡིན་ཡང་རིགས་མཐུན་རྣམས། 
།ཁྱུ་གཅིག་ཏུ་ནི་མི་གནས་སམ། 

A wise person understands
How to live in harmony with other beings.
Do not even animals
Live in harmony with their own kind?

Verse 27:

།ངེས་པར་འབྱུང་བའི་བྱ་བ་འགའ། 
།མ་གྲུབ་པ་ན་དཔྱོད་པའི་ཚེ། 
།མཁས་རྨོངས་གཉིས་ཀྱང་ཁྱད་པར་ཤེས། 
།གྲུབ་ནས་དཔྱོད་པ་བླུན་པོའི་ཚུལ། 

The wise investigate first
Then take action.
The foolish act before thinking.
There lies the difference.

Verse 28:

།མཁས་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དཔྱད་པ་ཡི། 
།ཤེས་བྱ་ཤེས་ན་མཁས་པར་བགྲང༌། 
།བ་ལང་རྒན་གཞོན་དཔྱོད་པ་ལ། 
།བླུན་པོ་མཁས་ཀྱང་ཡོན་ཏན་མིན། 

If you seek to master the fields of knowledge studied by the wise
Then you can be counted among them.
Even a foolish person can make money trading cows,
But this is not a sign of wisdom or virtue.

Verse 29:

།རྒྱ་མཚོ་ཆུ་ཡིས་མི་ངོམས་ཤིང༌། 
།རྒྱལ་པོའི་བང་མཛོད་ནོར་གྱིས་མིན། 
།འདོད་ཡོན་སྤྱད་པས་མི་ངོམས་ཏེ། 
།མཁས་པ་ལེགས་བཤད་ཀྱིས་མི་ངོམས། 

The ocean is never filled, even by all the rivers in the world.
The king's greed is never quenched, even by all the jewels in his treasury.
The desires of the senses are never satiated, even through constant indulgence.
The curiosity of a wise person is never satisfied, even through constant inquiry.

Verse 30:

།ལེགས་བཤད་བྱིས་པ་དག་ལས་ཀྱང༌། 
།མཁས་པ་རྣམས་ནི་ཡོངས་སུ་ལེན། 
།དྲི་ཞིམ་བྱུང་ན་རི་དྭགས་ཀྱི། 
།ལྟེ་བ་ལས་ཀྱང་གླ་རྩི་ལེན། 

The wise readily accept good advice,
Even from children.
The perfume-maker creates a pleasing fragrance
Using the musk taken from the scent-gland of a deer.

Sources

• Jamgon Mipham (2017), The Just King: The Tibetan Buddhist Classic on Leading an Ethical Life, translated by José Ignacio Cabezón, Snow Lion 
• Sakya Pandita (2000), Ordinary Wisdom: Sakya Pandita's Treasury of Good Advice, translated by John T. Davenport, Boston: Wisdom . Archive version

External links

• Sakya Lekshé, Rigpa Shedra Wiki
• Subhashitaratnanidhi, Wikipedia