Toh 1123 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

Praise of the Three Bodies

Translated from the Tibetan by buddhist-nlp/mitra-qwen35-translate · machine-assisted

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 1123
Genre: Eulogy
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 001_བསྟོད་ཚོགས།_ཀ.txt
Extent: 2 passages · 1,455 Tibetan characters · 335 English words
Translation: buddhist-nlp/mitra-qwen35-translate (English, machine-assisted)
Status: Edition 1.0 · 2026 · machine draft
Rights: Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)

Attributed to Ārya Nāgārjuna, this brief liturgical text serves as a formal invocation and a vow for spiritual attainment. The work begins with a salutation to Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta and a prostration to a non-dual entity described as neither one nor many, which functions as the ontological basis for the benefit of all beings. The text then transitions from an act of devotion to a specific aspiration: the author seeks to utilize the merit generated by this faith-based prostration to realize the three bodies (trikaya) of a Buddha. By doing so, the practitioner commits to the bodhisattva ideal, pledging to guide all sentient beings toward awakening. The text is structured as a concise ritual formula that links the physical act of prostration with the metaphysical goal of Buddhahood and the ethical commitment to universal liberation.

Provenance

About this text

A praise to the three bodies, the Kāyatrayastotra is a work of the classical Tibetan tradition. It is attributed to the Indian author Nāgārjuna. The text was translated into Tibetan by Kṛṣṇa Paṇḍita and the translator-monk lo tsa ba tshul khrims rgyal ba. It is preserved in the Tengyur, volume ཀ, where it comprises two pages and is situated within the Eulogy collection. In its enactment, the work begins with a salutation to Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta and a prostration to a non-dual basis that is neither one nor many, nor a thing or non-thing. Through this act of faith, the practitioner seeks to accumulate merit to attain the three bodies, thereby enabling the guidance of all beings toward awakening. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine the ritual formula that links the physical act of prostration with the metaphysical goal of Buddhahood and the ethical commitment to universal liberation.

Sanskrit title: Kāyatrayastotra
Indian author: Nāgārjuna
Tibetan translators: Kṛṣṇa Paṇḍita, lo tsa ba tshul khrims rgyal ba
Canonical collection: Eulogy
Genre: Eulogy
Source edition: Tengyur, vol. ཀ
Period: classical Tibetan

Read further

Catalogue

84000 catalogue entry

Bibliography

BDRC library search

Libraries

WorldCat

Sanskrit sources

Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon

Reference

Cite thisAnuvāda, “Praise of the Three Bodies” (Toh 1123), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1123

Summary & commentary

Significance

The work is significant for its synthesis of the trikaya doctrine with the practice of merit accumulation and the bodhisattva vow. Its attribution to Nāgārjuna suggests it was viewed as an authoritative expression of the relationship between non-dual philosophy and soteriological practice.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Invocation and Prostration	Homage to Mañjuśrī and prostration to the non-dual basis of benefit.
2	Aspiration and Conclusion	A vow to attain the three bodies and lead all beings to awakening, followed by the colophon.

Themes

The Three Bodies (Trikaya) (2)
Non-duality (1)
Merit and Awakening (2)
Universal Compassion (2)

Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.

AnuvādaPraise of the Three Bodies·

#༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། ཀཱ་ཡ་ཏྲ་#ཡ་སྟོ་ཏྲ་ནཱ་མ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། སྐུ་གསུམ་ལ་བསྟོད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ#། ། འཕགས་པ་འཇམ་དཔལ་གཞོན་ནུར་གྱུར་#པ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། གཅིག་མིན་དུ་མ་མ་ཡིན་བདག་དང་གཞན་ལ་ཕན་པ་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་ཆེན་གཞིར་གྱུར་པ། ། དངོས་མིན་ དངོས་པོ་མེད་པ་མ་ཡིན་མཁའ་ལྟར་རོ་གཅིག་རྟོགས་པར་དཀའ་བའི་རང་བཞིན་ཅན། ། གོས་པ་མེད་ཅིང་མི་འགྱུར་ཞི་ལ་མི་མཉམ་མཉམ་པ་ཁྱབ་པ་ཅན་ཏེ་སྤྲོས་མེད་པ། ། སོ་སོ་རང་རིག་རྒྱལ་བ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ཆོས་སྐུ་དཔེ་མེད་གང་ཡིན་དེ་ལ་བདག་ཕྱག་འཚལ། ། རང་གི་འབྱོར་པ་འཇིག་རྟེན་ལས་ འདས་བསམ་གྱིས་མི་ཁྱབ་ལེགས་མཛད་བརྒྱ་ཡི་འབྲས་བུ་ནི། ། བློ་ཅན་རྣམས་ཀྱི་དགའ་བ་བསྐྱེད་ཕྱིར་འཁོར་གྱི་ནང་དུ་སྣ་ཚོགས་རྒྱས་པར་སྟོན་མཛད་ཅིང་། ། རྟག་ཏུ་དམ་པའི་#ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྒྲ་སྐད་རྒྱ་ཆེན་འཇིག་རྟེན་ཀུན་དུ་འཕྲོ་བར་མཛད་པ་པོ། ། སངས་རྒྱས་ལོངས་སྤྱོད་རྫོགས་སྐུ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་ སྲིད་གནས་པ་གང་ཡིན་དེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། སེམས་ཅན་རྣམས་ནི་སྨིན་པར་མཛད་ཕྱིར་ལ་ལ་དག་ཏུ་མེ་འབར་བཞིན་དུ་གང་སྣང་ཞིང་། ། ལ་ལར་ཡང་#ནི་རྫོགས་པར་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ་རབ་ཏུ་ཞི་བར་གང་སྣང་ལ། ། སྣ་ཚོགས་ཐབས་ཚུལ་#རྣམ་པ་དུ་མར་འཇུག་ཅིང་སྲིད་པ་གསུམ་ གྱི་འཇིགས་སེལ་བ། ། ཕྱོགས་བཅུར་ཆུབ་མཛད་ཐུབ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་དོན་ཆེན་གང་ཡིན་དེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། སེམས་ཅན་དོན་གཅིག་རྒྱུན་དུ་མཛད་ཅིང་བསོད་ནམས་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཆེན་པོ་དཔག་མེད་ལས་བྱུང་བའི། ། བདེ་བར་གཤེགས་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སྐུ་གསུམ་ཡིད་དང་ཚིག་གི་ལམ་ ལས་རབ་ཏུ་འདས་པ་ལ། །

In the language of India: Kāyatrayastotra-nāma. In the language of Tibet: Sku gsum la bstod pa zhes bya ba (Praise to the Three Bodies). Homage to the noble Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta. I prostrate to that which is neither one nor many, the basis for the perfect excellence of benefit for self and others; which is neither a thing nor a non-thing, possessing a nature as difficult to realize as the single taste of space; which is unstained, unchanging, peaceful, equal to the unequaled, all-pervasive, and free from conceptual elaboration; the peerless dharmakāya of the Victorious Ones, to be known by individual self-reflexive awareness. I prostrate to the Buddha’s saṃbhogakāya, the sovereign of the Dharma, who dwells in the realm of the Dharma; who, in order to generate joy in the wise, displays a vast variety of forms within the assemblies as the fruit of hundreds of inconceivable, supramundane, and excellent deeds; and who constantly causes the vast sound of the sublime Dharma to radiate throughout all worlds. I prostrate to the great purpose of the nirmāṇakāya of the Munis, which brings enlightenment to the ten directions; which appears in some places like a blazing fire in order to ripen sentient beings, and in others appears as the perfectly peaceful turning of the wheel of Dharma at the site of awakening; which engages in manifold methods and modes, and dispels the fears of the three realms of existence. The three bodies of the Sugatas, which constantly act for the single purpose of benefiting sentient beings and arise from immeasurable great merit and wisdom, are utterly beyond the path of mind and speech.

structureTitle block: the Sanskrit title is given as it is transmitted in Tibetan transliteration, not reconstructed from Sanskrit sources; the Tibetan title is translated after it.

definitionབསྟོད་པ “praise” — An encomium or hymn of praise.

definitionའཕགས་པ “ārya” — The Sanskrit ārya has the general meaning of a noble person, one of a higher class or caste. In Buddhist literature, depending on the context, it often means specifically one who has gained the realization of the path an

definitionའཇམ་དཔལ “Mañjuśrī” — Mañjuśrī is one of the “eight close sons of the Buddha” and a bodhisattva who embodies wisdom. He is a major figure in the Mahāyāna sūtras, appearing often as an interlocutor of the Buddha. In his most well-known iconogr

definitionབདག “self” — A substantial, self-subsistent entity within beings or things, or the intrinsic reality of things, or the intrinsic identity of things, that is permanent and nonrelative. The Buddha’s teaching, in contrast to that of oth

definitionརྒྱལ་བ “Victorious One” — A particularly auspicious time that is marked by the moon passing through the constellation puṣya .

periodཆོས → “dharma”. In Abhidharma lists (སྐྱེ་མཆེད, ཁམས) ཆོས is 'phenomena', the objects of mind — not the Buddhist teaching. Same word, two referents; the list decides.

homonymཆོས is rendered “dharma” here; the glossary also records special qualities, phenomena, qualities for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཆོས “dharma” — The term “ dharma ” ( chos ) conveys ten different meanings, according to Vasubandhu’s Vyākhyāyukti . It may mean the Buddhist teachings, the awakened qualities which buddhas and bodhisattvas acquire, phenomena or thing

terminologyལས → “action”. 84000 uses 'action' where the mechanics matter, 'karma' where it is a fixed term.

homonymལས is rendered “action” here; the glossary also records act, Action, activity for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionལས “action” — Matters that govern the saṅgha community’s daily life, regular observances (such as the rains retreat and the restoration ) and special events (like ordination) are ratified by a formal act of the saṅgha. There are one h

definitionདགའ་བ “joy” — One of the four “immeasurables” of the Mahāyāna, known in early Buddhism as “pure abodes” (Skt. brahmavihāra ), which comprise (1) friendly kindness, (2) compassion, (3) joy, and (4) equanimity. Immeasurable joy arises f

terminologyསངས་རྒྱས → “buddha”. The title, not a name. In Old Tibetan the spelling is usually སངས་རྒྱས already; the plural sense ('the buddhas') is carried by context, not by a suffix.

termབསྟོད་པ → praise

termའཕགས་པ → ārya

termའཇམ་དཔལ → Mañjuśrī

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termབདག → self

termརྒྱལ་བ → Victorious One

བདག་གིས་#དད་པས་ཕྱག་བྱས་དགེ་བ་བྱང་ཆུབ་ས་བོན་བསགས་པར་གྱུར་པ་གང་ཡིན་དེས། ། སྐུ་གསུམ་ཐོབ་ནས་འགྲོ་བ་འདི་དག་མ་ལུས་བྱང་ཆུབ་ལམ་ལ་ངེས་པར་འཛུད་#པར་ཤོག། སྐུ་གསུམ་ལ་བསྟོད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་སློབ་དཔོན་འཕགས་ པ་ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་ཀྱིས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ། ། ། ། རྒྱ་གར་གྱི་མཁན་པོ་ཀྲྀཥྞ་པཎྜི་ཏ་དང་། ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་དགེ་སློང་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་རྒྱལ་བས་བསྒྱུར་ཅིང་ཞུས་ཏེ་གཏན་ལ་ཕབ་པའོ། ། ། །

By whatever merit I have accumulated through this act of prostration with faith, the seed of awakening, may I attain the three bodies and lead all these beings without exception onto the path of awakening. This concludes the Praise to the Three Bodies, composed by the master Ārya Nāgārjuna. It was translated, edited, and finalized by the Indian abbot Kṛṣṇapaṇḍita and the translator-monk Tsultrim Gyalwa.

structureColophon: closes the text and names the translators or author.

terminologyབོན → “Bon”. Do not translate as 'paganism' or 'shamanism'.

definitionབོན “Bon” — The word bon , while often understood as referring to the indigenous religion of Tibet, is here used to refer to local ritual practices in China that may have had some resemblance to those in Tibet. For more on this term

definitionསློབ་དཔོན “ācārya” — A spiritual teacher, meaning one who knows the conduct or practice ( ācāra ) to be performed. It can also be a title for a scholar, though that is not the context in this sūtra .

terminologyཀླུ → “nāga”. Serpent-deities, not 'dragons'. The Old Tibetan spelling ཀླུ is stable.

definitionཀླུ “nāga” — A supernatural being usually depicted as having the top half of a human and the bottom half of a snake. However, the nāga has a myriad of associations within Buddhism and Indian traditions in general; the term may be ass

terminologyམཁན་པོ → “abbot”. In colophons it is the Indian preceptor who authorised the translation; 'abbot' is wrong there. Use 'preceptor' in colophons.

homonymམཁན་པོ is rendered “abbot” here; the glossary also records upādhyāya, Preceptor for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionམཁན་པོ “abbot” — A person’s particular preceptor within the monastic tradition. They must have at least ten years of standing in the saṅgha, and their role is to confer ordination, to tend to the student, and to provide all the necessary

definitionཚུལ་ཁྲིམས “discipline” — In general, the first of the three trainings ( triśikṣā ), and in this text and others the first of five qualities of the Saṅgha that are also described in other texts as the five undefiled (or beyond-worldly) aggregates

adherencePinned rendering paraphrased here: self; Bon

termབདག → self

termབྱང་ཆུབ → awakening

termབོན → Bon

termབསྟོད་པ → praise

termསློབ་དཔོན → ācārya

termཀླུ → nāga

Terminology used in this text (23)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
བསྟོད་པ	praise	2
བདག	self	2
བྱང་ཆུབ	awakening	2
འཕགས་པ	ārya	1
འཇམ་དཔལ	Mañjuśrī	1
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	1
རྒྱལ་བ	Victorious One	1
ཆོས	dharma	1	In Abhidharma lists (སྐྱེ་མཆེད, ཁམས) ཆོས is 'phenomena', the objects of mind — not the Buddhist teaching. Same word, two
ལས	action	1	84000 uses 'action' where the mechanics matter, 'karma' where it is a fixed term.
དགའ་བ	joy	1
སངས་རྒྱས	buddha	1	The title, not a name. In Old Tibetan the spelling is usually སངས་རྒྱས already; the plural sense ('the buddhas') is carr
མེ	fire	1	In ritual and cosmological prose མེ is the element 'fire'; Agni is the deity only where he is named or invoked. Do not c
འཁོར་ལོ	cakra	1
སྲིད་པ	becoming	1
བསོད་ནམས	merit	1
ཡེ་ཤེས	wisdom	1	Distinguish from ཤེས་རབ (prajñā, 'insight'): ཡེ་ཤེས is the buddhas' non-dual wisdom, ཤེས་རབ the discriminating faculty o
བདེ་བར་གཤེགས་པ	sugata	1
བོན	Bon	1	Do not translate as 'paganism' or 'shamanism'.
སློབ་དཔོན	ācārya	1
ཀླུ	nāga	1	Serpent-deities, not 'dragons'. The Old Tibetan spelling ཀླུ is stable.
མཁན་པོ	abbot	1	In colophons it is the Indian preceptor who authorised the translation; 'abbot' is wrong there. Use 'preceptor' in colop
དགེ་སློང	monk	1
ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས	discipline	1

Colophon

Source: tengyur vol. 001_བསྟོད་ཚོགས།_ཀ.txt. Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction).

Translation status: 84000 catalogue + registry; grade no-translation-known; checked 2026-11-10.

Set in Newsreader and EB Garamond; Tibetan in Noto Serif Tibetan; Chinese in Noto Serif SC.

Anuvāda · NaxiAI