Ten masteries

Ten masteries (Skt. daśavaśitā; T. dbang bcu དབང་བཅུ་) — part of the twenty-one sets of undefiled qualities, according to the Abhisamayalankara.

The ten masteries are:

1. mastery over life (Tib. ཚེ་ལ་དབང་བ་, tsé la wangwa, Wyl. tshe la dbang ba)
2. mastery over mind (Tib. སེམས་ལ་དབང་བ་, sem la wangwa, Wyl. sems la dbang ba)
3. mastery over material things (Tib. ཡོ་བྱད་ལ་དབང་བ་, yojé la wangwa, Wyl. yo byad la dbang ba)
4. mastery over action (Tib. ལས་ལ་དབང་བ་, lé la wangwa, Wyl. las la dbang ba)
5. mastery over birth (Tib. སྐྱེ་བ་ལ་དབང་བ་, kyewa la wangwa, Wyl. skye ba la dbang ba)
6. mastery over aspirations (Tib. མོས་པ་ལ་དབང་བ་, möpa la wangwa, Wyl. mos pa la dbang ba)
7. mastery over prayer (Tib.་སྨོན་ལམ་ལ་དབང་བ་, mönlam la wangwa, Wyl. smon lam la dbang ba)
8. mastery over miracles (Tib. རྫུ་འཕྲུལ་ལ་དབང་བ་, dzutrul la wangwa, Wyl. rdzu ‘phrul la dbang ba)
9. mastery over wisdom (Tib. ཡེ་ཤེས་ལ་དབང་བ་, yeshe la wangwa, Wyl. ye shes la dbang ba)
10. mastery over Dharma (Tib. ཆོས་ལ་དབང་བ་, chö la wangwa, Wyl. chos la dbang ba)

Explanation

Mipham Rinpoche says:

1. Mastery over life means that they can choose to relinquish their life, or, if they choose to remain, live for as long as they wish, even for an infinite number of aeons. This is mainly the result of having been generous.
2. Mastery over mind means that they have mastery over states of meditation and so on at will. This is the result of meditative concentration.
3. Mastery over material things means they can materialize the riches of the gods, human beings or bodhisattvas, just as they wish. This is the result of perfecting generosity.
4. Mastery over action means they have the power to do whatever must be done or whatever they wish.
5. Mastery over birth means they have the power to manifest a variety of births according to their wishes, in whichever place, or in whichever form, or however they choose. These last two powers are mainly the result of discipline.
6. Mastery over aspirations means they have the power to fulfil their disciples' aspirations. This is the result of patiently acting in accordance with disciples' wishes on the path of training.
7. Mastery over prayer means they can perfectly fulfil whatever prayers are made. This is the result of diligence.
8. Mastery over miracles means they have the unimpeded power to display whatever miracles they choose. This is the result of meditative concentration.
9. Mastery over wisdom means they possess the great wisdom which knows, without attachment or hindrance, all that can be known throughout the past, present and future.
10. Mastery over Dharma means they have the unimpeded power to teach, according to the wishes of disciples, all the forms of the Dharma of transmission included within the twelve branches of the excellent teaching. These last two powers are the result of wisdom.

Alternative translations

• Ten strengths (Padmakara Translation Group)
• Ten powers (Rigpa wiki)

Sources

• Mipham Rinpoche (2002), Gateway to Knowledge, vol. III, translated by Kunsang, Erik Pema, Rangjung Yeshe Publications