Verse IV

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lugs gnyis blang dor shes pa yis
gnas skabs mthar thug don 'grub ste
brtag pa kun la mkhas pa yis
ded dpon rgya mtshor zhugs pa bzhin

The scholar, in examining everything, enters into the ocean (of Dharma) according to the captain (Bodhisattva).  So knowledge, in navigating secular and religious discourse, establishes meaning [according to] ultimate and conventional truth.

Textual Notes:

blang dor is literally "adoption and rejection," but I take the liberty of translationg it as "navigation" because it flows better and because it fits with the simile.  I don't think it detracts from the original because navigation means to adopt one direction while rejecting the other, so the inherent meaning is not lost but consolidated.

gnas skabs is literally "abiding in the moment" and mthar thug is literally "meeting at the end."  I've interpreted this to mean ultimate (mthar thug) and conventional (gnas skabs) truth - a common distinction made in Buddhist doctrine (this concept is explained more fully in the Cultural Notes section, which might be worth checking before continuing).  This contributes to the overall meaning of the verse because it can be adapted to the simile of a captain on the open sea: a captain sails according to the final destination (mthar thug) as well as where he is at the moment (gnas skabs).  Also, before continuing, note the mirror image of the first two lines with the second two lines.  So gnas skabs mthar thug and ded dpon are synonymous - this adds another layer of meaning because the word ded dpon is a complicated word: ded comes from 'ded pa which literally means "pursuer" or "driver" and connotes a Bodhisattva.  dpon comes from tshong dpon which means "merchant."  Together the word has a literal (merchant) and a symbolic (Bodhisattva) meaning.  In other words, when drawn parallel to gnas skabs mthar thug the merchant can be read as the conventional truth while the Bodhisattva is the ultimate truth.  Drawing out this metaphor further, the ocean becomes the ocean of Dharma.  As such the two ultimate truths, which I feel are implied via the structure of the poem, are included in parentheses.  

Again, due to the symmetry of this particular verse I’ve included two “according to” statements even though there’s only one written down in Tibetan. Specifically, I think the “according to" I added in the example (in brackets) is inferred via the simile - because of the bzhin in the simile, I infer a bzhin in the example. 

The bzhin itself, however, is problematic because of its placement.  It is hard to explain why it is not located after the subject I assume it is modifying – that is, the captain.  Why does the line not read ded dpon bzhin rgya mtshor zhugs pa?  In fact, the line as it is makes more sense (out of context) translated as “like entering into the ocean . . .”  Because of the context I find it highly unlikely, but if this translation is actually the case, then the meaning supplied in my current translation would be fundamentally altered.  This worries me, and therefore I am especially interested in alternate translations of this verse.  

Cultural Notes:

The concept of ultimate and conventional truths is tied in with the well known saying "form is emptiness and emptiness is form."  But what does this actually mean?  At its simplest, ultimate truth is objective truth and conventional truth is subjective truth.  The ultimate truth is objective and empty because of the absence of self, and conventional truth is subjective and takes form because of the presence of self.  So a normal person, because they are still attached to an 'I,' will be aware only of their conventional (subjective) reality - that of forms.  An enlightened person, like a Bodhisattva, who has abandoned the 'I' will be aware of the ultimate (objective) reality - that of emptiness.  The two are dependent upon one another – subjectivity is the illusion of objectivity and form is the illusion of emptiness, and neither objective truth nor emptiness exists independent of subjective truth or form.  That would be like saying the moon exists without making a reflection in the water . . .

Signing off in Lhasa, Miss A.