“Eating Father’s Meat”

Last year, to be precise on 16.11.2022, I posted a query on my FB page, with the hope that someone may provide me with some insight. Except for a few likes and shares, however, no insights were forthcoming. My query was about an Indic source of a popular floating verse that we find mostly in Tibetan Lam-rim literature. My first encounter with the verse is the one we find in dPal-sprul’s Kun bzang bla ma’i zhal lung (p. 313.14–15): pha sha za shing ma la rdeg || las ngal dgra bo pang na bzung || chung mas khyo yis rus pa ’cha’ || ’khor ba’i chos la gad mo bro ||. Naturally, this verse has been translated into several modern languages. For an English translation, see, for example, Thondup 1990: 153. To be sure, one can find several versions of the verse. Thanks to the BuddhaNexus, we can see that one of the earliest Tibetan sources could be the Kun ’dus rig pa’i sgron me by the thirteenth-century Tibetan scholar Hor-po Shākya-rdo-rje. The Great Fifth very likely had access to this work. Hor-po Shākya-rdo-rje has the same standing as Rong-zom-pa and Klong-chen-pa, hence the expression: rong klong shāk gsum (cf. rong klong ’ju gsum). For mNga’-ris-paṇ-chen, Klong-chen-pa and Shāk-rdor were like the sun and the moon (Rin phreng lta bu’i gtam, pp. 61–62). The verse cited there reads: pha sha za zhing ma la brdeg || las ngan dgra bo pang du khur || chung mas khyo yi rus pa ’cha’ || ’khor ba’i chos la gad mo bro ||. Here is yet another version of the verse: las ngan dgra bo pang du thogs || pha sha za zhing ma la rdung || chung ma khyo yi rus pa ’cha’ || ’khor ba’i chos la gad mo bro ||. Many more versions can be found.

Despite the availability and accessibility of numerous electronic texts, I had not been able to trace an Indic source of this verse, and hence I had to post a query on the FB page. But I felt lonely in the absence of any light of insight. Last night, no, actually this morning (21.06.2023), I almost exploded with joy. I was going through Sylvain Lévi’s edition of the Karmavibhaṅga, and lo, it was right there. See the Mahākarmavibhaṅga §.XL (Skt. Lévi 1932: 73): pitur maṃsāni khādate, mātuḥ kṣipati kaṇṭakān | bhāryā jāraṃ ca poṣeti, loko mohatamovṛtaḥ ||  (punctuation mine); Tib. (Lévi 1932: 202): de yi pha yi sha za zhing || ma la rus pa gra ma ’dor || chung ma’i byi bo gso byed pa || gti mug dang ni chags pas bsgribs ||. The Karmavibhaṅga provides also the background story. To be noted is that the Karmavibhaṅga has already been translated by the 84,000. The electronic version of the Indic text, too, has been all the time in the BuddhaNexus (GRETIL). The lesson I learnt is that despite the availability and accessibility of numerous electronic texts, it is not always easy to trace the source that one seeks. Obviously tracing texts is a bit easier but tracing ideas is a bit more challenging. Finally and most importantly, it is not Mahākātyāyana who is speaking here but Mahāmaudgalyāyana.  

A Partial Bibliography

Lévi 1932 = Sylvain Lévi (ed. & tr.), Mahākarmavibhaṅga (La Grande Classification des Actes) et Karmavibhaṅgopadeśa (Discussion sur le Mahā Karmavibhaṅga): Textes sanscrits rapportés du Népal, Édités et traduits avec les textes parallèles en Sanscrit, en Pali, en Tibétain, en Chinois et en Koutchéen. Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1932.

Kun bzang bla ma’i zhal lung = dPal-sprul O-rgyan-’jigs-med-chos-kyi-dbang-po, rDzogs pa chen po klong chen snying tig gi sngon ’gro’i khrid yig kun bzang bla ma’i zhal lung. In dPal sprul o rgyan ’jigs med chos kyi dbang po’i gsum ’bum. 8 vols. [Xining]: mTsho-sngon-nang-bstan-rig-gnas-sgyu-rtsal-zhabs-zhu-lte-gnas-zhabs-zhu-khang, n.d., vol. 7.

Thondup 1990 = Tulku Thondup (tr.), Enlightened Living: Teachings of Tibetan Buddhist Masters, edited by Harold Talbott. Boston: Shambhala, 1990.