Eight treasures of confidence

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Eight treasures of confidence (Tib. སྤོབས་པའི་གཏེར་བརྒྱད་, pobpé ter gyé, Wyl. spobs pa'i gter brgyad) — eight qualities mentioned in the Lalitavistara Sutra and frequently referred to in the writings of Mipham Rinpoche. They are:

  1. treasure of recollection (དྲན་པའི་གཏེར་, dran pa’i gter)
  2. treasure of intelligence (བློ་གྲོས་ཀྱི་གཏེར་, blo gros kyi gter
  3. treasure of realization (རྟོགས་པའི་གཏེར་, rtogs pa’i gter)
  4. treasure of retention (གཟུངས་ཀྱི་གཏེར་, gzungs kyi gter)
  5. treasure of confidence (སྤོབས་པའི་གཏེར་, spobs pa’i gter)  
  6. treasure of Dharma (ཆོས་ཀྱི་གཏེར་, chos kyi gter)
  7. treasure of bodhichitta (བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་ཀྱི་གཏེར་, byang chub sem kyi gter)
  8. treasure of accomplishment (སྒྲུབ་པའི་གཏེར་, sgrub pa’i gter)

Commentary

From Mipham Rinpoche's Sword of Wisdom:

Scriptures heard and contemplated in the past
Are never forgotten—this is the treasure of recollection.
Knowing precisely their profound and vast points—
This is the treasure of intelligence. (94)
Understanding all the themes of the sutra and tantra collections—
This is the treasure of realization.
Never forgetting any detail from one’s studies—
This is the treasure of retention. (95)
Satisfying all beings with excellent explanations—
This is the treasure of confidence.
Safeguarding the precious treasury of sacred teachings—
This is the treasure of Dharma. (96)
Not severing the continuous line of the Three Jewels—
This is the treasure of bodhichitta.
Gaining acceptance of the nature of equality beyond arising—
This is the treasure of accomplishment. (97)

Alternative translations

  • eight treasures of courageous eloquence
  • eight treasures of brilliance