In l. 17 the ‘till’ ought to be more emphatically rendered: until the very moment that, i.e. I shall not cease a moment before. Or else: till I reach the very heart of saintship. See J. s.v. བར་.
In l. 49 ‘May all those’ is more correct than ‘May all of you,’ for, unlike in the three preceding verses which are addressed to his pupils, the author now utters a universal prayer addressed to mankind in general.
Note to p. 2. Waddell, Lāmaist Graces before Meat, J.R.A.S., 1894, p. 265, says that the libation is sprinkled with the tips of the fore and middle fingers. This is denied by my informants who maintain their statement as given on p. 2, above.
To p. 4. After the Introduction was in print I have seen a copy of the དགའ་, ‘The Galdan Century of Gods,’ and had it copied for me. It is a small prayer-book to Tsoṅ kʽa pa, who manifests in a hundred different forms, and it contains 18 four-lined stanzas of 9 syllables each, with the single exception of the stanza quoted in the Introduction, which contains five lines.
This little book is the one mentioned in the Hor chos byuṅ (Huth’s translation, p. 387—see note 5—, and text p. 246). Huth gives as Sk. equivalent for the title: Tushitadevaçatikā. Galdan (Tushita) is here the heaven of that name, not the famous monastery. The stanza we are discussing is also mentioned in the same passage. Its name is དམིགས་ (The unfathomable love verse). This Dmigs brtse ma is of considerable theological importance. I possess a commentary on it [[76]]written by བློ་, the seventh Dalai Lama. Grünwedel, in the list of Dalai Lamas on p. 206 of his ‘Mythologie,’ etc., writes སྐལ་ and Rockhill, in ‘Tibet, a … sketch derived from Chinese sources,’ J.R.A.S., Vol. XXIII, new series, 1891, p. 287, སྐལ་.
Since, I have also found that this same stanza, with a modification, occurs on the title page of Sarat Chandra Das’ edition of the དཔག་ (Bibl. Ind.). The stanza as there given consists of six lines, by the addition of an initial line to
དངོས་,
i.e. the Thunderbolt-bearer, Vajradhara.
In another little work, the སྤྱན་, ‘The illuminator of body, speech and mind concerning the order of inviting, lustrating, making obeisance to and worshipping (Tsoṅ kʽa pa),’ the stanza occurs once more, again in a different form.
There, p. 9b, the prayer is as in our Introduction, but lacks the third line (བདུད་, etc.) and ends with དཔལ་. Also, instead of འཇམ་ in the second line, this text writes འཇམ་.