Artwork Details

Title
Ratnasambhava, from a Set of Initiation Cards (Tsakali)
Dimensions
6 3/8 × 3 7/8 in.
Medium
Pigments on paper
Origin
Tibet
Classification(s)
tsakali paintings
Date
ca. 14th century
Credit Line
Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, Gift of Dr. David Nalin
Object number
C2011.7.6.1
Inscribed

Translations of Tsakali texts by Namgyal Nyima for David Nalin ༄།། ཚོར་བའི་རྣམ་ཤེས་གི་ [ཀྱི་]ངོ་བོ་ཉིད།། {སེཾས་}སེམས་ཕྱིར་(add: མཚན་ཉིད་མ་སྐྱེས་པ)།། རིན་ཆེན་འབྱུང་ལྡན་རང་བཞིན་ལས།། ཏིང་འཛིན་{ཡོཏན་}ཡོན་ཏན་དུ་དབང་བསྒྱུར་[བསྐུར་]ན་[ནས]།། དངོས་གྲུབ་ལས་རྣམས་མངོན་བྱེད་ཤོག་།། ཆུའི་{ནཾ་}ནམ་མཁའི་ངོ་བོ་ཉིད།། {སེཾས་}སེམས་ཕྱིར་འདྲེ་[འགྲེ་?](add: མཚན་ཉིད་མ་སྐྱེས་པ)]།། མ་མ་ཀི་ཡི་རང་བཞིན་ལས།།ཏིང་འཛིན་{ཡོཏན་}ཡོན་ཏན་དུ་དབང་བསྐུར་ནས།། དངོས་གྲུབ་ལས་{རྣཾས་}རྣམས་མངོན་བྱེད་ཤོག་tshor ba’i rnam shes kyi ngo bo nyid / sems phyir (add: mtshan nyid ma skyes pa) / rin chen ‘byung ldan rang bzhin las / ting ‘dzin yon tan du dbang bsgyur nas / dngos grub las rnams mngon byed shog. chu’i nam mkha’i ngo bo nyid / sems phyir ‘gre (add: mtshan nyid ma skyes pa) / ma ma ki yi rang bzhin las / ting ‘dzin yon tan du dbang bskur nas / dngos grub las rnams mngon byed shog.Among the mind’s unborn characteristics, the essential nature of the sensory consciousness is the nature of Ratnasambhava. From that nature, the empowerment of samadhi as good qualities is bestowed. Through that, may the functions of siddhi become actualized. Among the mind’s unborn characteristics, the essential nature of water’s space is the nature of Mamaki. From that nature, the empowerment of samadhi as good qualities is bestowed. Through that, may the functions of siddhibring one to realization.KEY:༼archaic ༽[misspelling]{contraction}(addition)[{misspelling and contraction}]((numerical code))<>-? unable to read

Published references
* Melissa R. Kerin. Artful Beneficence: Selections from the David R. Nalin Himalayan Art Collection. (New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2009). Cat. No. 47a; Pp. 90-91.

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A meditation technique primarily used in tantric practice that involves imagining a deity in one’s mind or imagining oneself becoming a deity and carrying out various activities. Such techniques are intended to help a practitioner transform ordinary perception and achieve enlightened qualities.

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