Three Statements of Garab Dorje

These three profound statements are known as The Three Statements of Garab Dorje (Tsik Sum Né Dek), which form the essential pith instructions of the Dzogchen (Great Perfection) tradition in Tibetan Buddhism.

1. ངོ་རང་ཐོག་ཏུ་སྤྲད།

Wylie Transliteration: ngo rang thog tu sprad

Phonetic: Ngo rang thok tu tré

Tibetan	Wylie	English Meaning	Sanskrit Equivalent
ངོ་	ngo	Face / Essence / Nature	Mukha / Svarūpa
རང་	rang	Self / Own / Fresh	Sva
ཐོག་ཏུ་	thog tu	Directly / Onto / At the point of	Sākshāt / Upari
སྤྲད	sprad	To introduce / To meet	Sampradāna / Pratyabhijñā

Full Translation: “Direct introduction to the nature of mind itself.”

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2. ཐག་གཅིག་ཐོག་ཏུ་བཅད།

Wylie Transliteration: thag gcig thog tu bcad

Phonetic: T’hak chik thok tu ché

Tibetan	Wylie	English Meaning	Sanskrit Equivalent
ཐག་	thag	Boundary / Distance / Decision	Sīman / Niścaya
གཅིག་	gcig	Single / One	Eka
ཐོག་ཏུ་	thog tu	On / In the state of	Upari
བཅད	bcad	To cut / To decide	Chheda

Full Translation: “Decide directly upon this single state.”

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3. གདེང་གྲོལ་ཐོག་ཏུ་བཅའ།

Wylie Transliteration: gdeng grol thog tu bca’

Phonetic: Deng drol thok tu cha

Tibetan	Wylie	English Meaning	Sanskrit Equivalent
གདེང་	gdeng	Confidence / Assurance	Viśvāsa
གྲོལ་	grol	Liberation / Release	Mukti / Moksha
ཐོག་ཏུ་	thog tu	In / On / Directly	Upari
བཅའ	bca’	To gain / To settle / To stabilize	Sthāpana

Full Translation: “Confidence directly in the liberation of thoughts.”

Contextual Summary

These three points represent the entire path of Dzogchen practice:

1. View: Recognizing the pristine clarity of the mind.

2. Meditation: Resolving that there is no other state to seek.

3. Conduct: Having confidence in the self-liberation of whatever arises.

Sanskrit Translation

Here is one attempt at translating the three words to sanskrit.

1. स्वस्वरूपं साक्षात्कृतम् (Svasvarūpaṃ sākṣātkṛtam)

   Direct Recognition: One’s own essential nature has been directly realized.

   • (Sva-svarūpaṃ: own nature; sākṣāt-kṛtam: directly made manifest/realized.)

2. अद्वय-निश्चयेन छिन्नम् (Advaya-niścayena chinnam)

   Absolute Cutting: Everything has been cut by the non-dual conviction.

   • (Advaya-niścayena: by non-dual certainty; chinnam: has been severed/cut.)

3. मुक्ति-विश्वासे स्थितम् (Mukti-viśvāse sthitam)

   Stable Confidence: The state has settled in the confidence of liberation.

   • (Mukti-viśvāse: in the confidence of release; sthitam: has stood/abided.)