FOOTNOTES:

1. ‘kneel and rise’: the common translation for the word ‘ཕྱག་འཚལ་’, as we have observed, would be ‘prostrate’. The reason for the difference in our translation is to keep close to the literal meanings of the word, with ཕྱག་ being emptying out or empty of and འཚལ་ being fresh. Figuratively, we have understood that while bowing down, one empties out his/her ego, dissolving into the generated object, to then rise up in the own true nature of selflessness, completing the perfection. 

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2. ‘cyclic existence’: ‘འཁོར་བ་’, as a translation, is often moved back to its source in Sanskrit, being ‘Samsara’. We have also seen ‘Samara’ applied for the other related names: ‘འཇིག་རྟེན་’ to which the equivalent in Sankrit is ‘Loka’ and ‘སྲིད་པ་’, ‘Bhava’. We have chosen ‘cyclic existence’ as it expresses the act of wheel spinning which comes again in a loop. This choice is also to obey the differences of those other related names, for in our understanding, although pointing to the same thing, they are there to make characteristical distinctions. 

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3. ‘Thus, those who have The Refuge will not be deceived’: here we see two possible ways to understand and hence translate the last two line: 
The first more common way, written in full would be དེ་ཕྱིར་གང་ལ་སྐྱབས་[སུ་འགྲོ་]ན་[དེས་ནི་]མི་བསླུ་བའི།།, where གང་ speaks of the object of refuge, The Jewel (དཀོན་མཆོག་ said in the following line), for whom, if go for or become as, will not deceive (for this, འབྲེལ་སྒྲ་ ‘འི་’ functions as relative clause)
The second less common way, written in full would be དེ་ཕྱིར་གང་ལ་སྐྱབས་[དེ་ཡོད་]ན་[དེ་ནི་]མི་བསླུ་བ་[དེ]འི།།, where གང་ refers to the individual having The Refuge (with first letters kept in capital to emphasise its definitiveness), who will not be deceived (for this, འབྲེལ་སྒྲ་ ‘འི་’ functions as possession of such individual)

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4. ‘Three existences’: The literal meaning of སྲིད་ is possible, which, in our understanding, speaks of the characteristics of the reality of unrealised beings like ourselves. Such characteristics are, firstly, being merely seemingly possible for happiness, but enough hopeful for us to stay attached; secondly, possible for anything to happen, which in turns also means great risks; and thirdly, abiding to the law of causes and effects, where if this is done, that is entirely possible. 

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5. ‘the Enlightening Mind’: in most translations we have seen, ‘བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སེམས་’ is kept in its Sanskrit source, as ‘Bodhicitta’. In some others, it is translated as ‘the Enlightened Mind’. In our understanding, this name speaks of a mind which aims for the complete purification (བྱང་) of faults and embracement (ཆུབ་) of qualities and such a mind itself has the ability to lead the bearer to perfection. 

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6. ‘proper acts’: while ‘ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་’ is commonly translated as ‘moral discipline’, here we are humbly offering a different name, with the intention to make it more soothing to the ears of this generation, who might have some hesitation towards what they think ‘discipline’ means.

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7. ‘Bodhisattva’: is a Sanskrit word which in Tibetan, is equivalent to ‘བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་’, whereas ‘རྒྱལ་སྲས་’, which is another name for it, is used here, in this stanza. The full form of this name is རྒྱལ་བའི་སྲས་ with རྒྱལ་བ་ being the Victor and སྲས་ being the offsprings of such Victor or his/her ‘heir’ to the crown.  

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8. ‘the Seniors’: the common translation for this is ‘Hearers and Solitary Realisers’. We have chosen ‘the Seniors’ as a united name for Practitioners of the Fundamental Vehicle. 

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9. ‘The Four Formless’: refers to the four meditative absorptions of the formless state, which is a distracted state where one falls due to being attached to thoughtless experiences in meditation. The four meditative absorptions are 

1. the meditative absorption of infinite space

2. the meditative absorption of infinite consciousness

3. the meditative absorption of nothingness

4. the meditative absorption of the peak of existence

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10. ‘the firm mind state’: the common translation for བསམ་གཏན་ is seen as ‘meditative concentration’. In our understanding, ‘བསམ་’ means motivation and ‘གཏན་’ means settled, to which ‘the firm mind state’ is more closely matching. 

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11. ‘The Three Bonds’: the commonly used term for ‘འཁོར་གསུམ་’ is ‘The Three Sphere (of subject, object and their interactions shown through verbs)’. Here we have chosen the word ‘bonds’ to stress the unbreakable tie between those three, with the presence of one unavoidably simultaneously means the presence of the other two, which altogether create and sustain the endless cycle of existence.  

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12. ‘sincerely’: is there to comply with the highly honorific verb ‘མཛད་’.   

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