Toh 1131 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

Ultimate Praise of the Noble and Venerable Mañjuśrī

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

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 1131
Genre: Eulogy
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 001_བསྟོད་ཚོགས།_ཀ.txt
Extent: 2 passages · 1,484 Tibetan characters · 370 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)

This short liturgical text is a praise dedicated to the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, structured as a paradoxical meditation on the nature of reality. The author employs a dialectical approach to praise, arguing that because all phenomena are empty, the traditional duality of the praiser and the praised is fundamentally nonexistent. By asserting that Mañjuśrī is devoid of coming, going, beginning, or middle, the text positions the deity as the embodiment of non-conceptual awareness. The work commits the reader to a state of cognitive shift where the act of prostration and praise is not a transaction between two entities, but an acknowledgment of the abandonment of subject and object. Ultimately, the text uses the form of a hymn to negate the conceptual constructions that underpin ordinary perception, aligning the practitioner with the ultimate nature of emptiness.

Provenance

About this text

A praise of the ultimate nature of the Noble Lord Mañjuśrī, the Āryabhaṭṭārakamañjuśrīparamārthastutināma is attributed to the Indian author Nāgārjuna. This work entered the Tibetan tradition through the efforts of the translators Tilakakalaśa of Kaśmīr and pa tshab lo tsa ba nyi ma grags pa. It is preserved in the Tengyur, volume ཀ, where it is situated within the Eulogy collection and spans two pages. In the classical Tibetan translation, titled 'phags pa rje btsun 'jam dpal gyi don dam pa'i bstod pa, the work enacts a paradoxical meditation on emptiness. It argues that because all phenomena are empty, the traditional duality between the one who praises and the one who is praised is fundamentally nonexistent. By describing Mañjuśrī as free from conceptual construction and devoid of coming, going, beginning, or middle, the text positions the deity as the embodiment of non-conceptual awareness. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine how the act of prostration and praise is used to negate the conceptual constructions of subject and object, thereby aligning the practitioner with the ultimate nature of reality.

Sanskrit title: Āryabhaṭṭārakamañjuśrīparamārthastutināma
Indian author: Nāgārjuna
Tibetan translators: Tilakakalaśa (Kaśmīr), pa tshab lo tsa ba nyi ma grags pa
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, “Ultimate Praise of the Noble and Venerable Mañjuśrī” (Toh 1131), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1131

Summary & commentary

Significance

The work is significant for its application of Madhyamaka philosophy to devotional practice, transforming a praise into a negation of duality. For the modern reader, it illustrates how Tibetan Buddhist liturgy functions as a pedagogical tool to dismantle the conceptual framework of the self.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1	Introduction and Invocation	Provides the Sanskrit and Tibetan titles and an initial homage to Mañjuśrī.
2	Philosophical Negation and Praise	Argues the impossibility of praise based on emptiness and offers prostrations to the non-conceptual nature of the deity.

Themes

Emptiness (Śūnyatā) (2)
Non-duality of subject and object (2)
Non-conceptual construction (2)

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

AnuvādaUltimate Praise of the Noble and Venerable Mañjuśrī·

#༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། ཨཱརྱ་བྷནྚཱ་ར་ཀ་མཉྫུ་ཤྲཱི་པ་#ར་མ་ཨརྠ་#སྟུ་ཏི་ནཱ་མ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། འཕགས་པ་རྗེ་བཙུན་འཇམ་དཔལ་གྱི་དོན་དམ་པའི་བསྟོད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ། འཇམ་དཔལ་གཞོན་ནུར་གྱུར་པ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། བྱོན་པ་མ་ལགས་བཞུད་མི་མངའ། ། བཞེངས་པ་མ་ལགས་ བཞུགས་མི་མངའ། ། འཇིག་རྟེན་པ་ལས་ཤིན་ཏུ་འདས། ། ཚིག་ལས་འདས་པའི་སྤྱོད་ཡུལ་ལགས། ། མགོན་པོ་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཇི་ལྟར་བསྟོད། ། འོན་ཀྱང་འཇིག་རྟེན་བཏགས་#རྟེན་གྱིས། ། ཁྱོད་ནི་ཅི་འདྲ་དེ་བཞིན་དུ། ། བདག་གིས་གུས་པས་བླ་མ་བསྟོད། ། ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་མ་སྐྱེས་ཏེ། ། ཁྱོད་ ལ་སྐྱེ་བ་ཡོང་མི་མངའ། ། མགོན་པོ་གཤེགས་དང་བྱོན་མི་མངའ། ། དངོས་མེད་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད། ། ཁྱོད་ལ་དངོས་དང་དངོས་མེད་མིན། ། ཆད་པ་མ་ལགས་ཐེར་ཟུག་མིན། ། ཁྱོད་རྟག་མ་ལགས་མི་རྟག་མིན། ། གཉིས་མེད་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད། ། དམར་དང་ལྗང་དང་ལེ་ བརྒན་དང་། ། སེར་དང་དཀར་དང་གནག་མ་ལགས། ། ཁྱོད་ལ་ཁ་དོག་ཡོང་མི་མངའ། ། མདོག་བྲལ་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད། ། ཁྱོད་ནི་ཆེ་དང་ཆུང་བ་དང་། ། སྦོམ་དང་ཕྲ་བ་ཁྱོད་མིན་ཏེ། ། རིང་དང་ཐུང་བའི་ཁམས་མ་ལགས། ། ཚད་མེད་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད། ། ཤེས་པས་ སྲིད་ལ་མི་གནས་ཤིང་། ། སྙིང་རྗེས་ཞི་ལ་མི་གནས་ཏེ། ། མྱ་ངན་འདས་དང་འཁོར་མི་གནས། ། མི་གནས་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད། ། ཆོས་རྣམས་ཀུན་ལ་མི་གནས་ཤིང་། ། ཆོས་ཀུན་རྟོགས་པར་ཐུགས་སུ་ཆུད། ། མཆོག་ཏུ་ཟབ་པ་ཉིད་བརྟེན་#པ། ། ཟབ་པ་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད། ། དེ་ ལྟར་བསྟོད་ན་བསྟོད་བགྲང་གི། །

In the language of India: Ārya-bhaṭṭāraka-mañjuśrī-paramārtha-stuti-nāma. In the language of Tibet: ’Phags pa rje btsun ’jam dpal gyi don dam pa’i bstod pa zhes bya ba (The Ultimate Praise of the Noble Lord Mañjuśrī). Homage to Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta! You have not come, nor do you depart; You have not arisen, nor do you abide. You have utterly transcended the world; You are the sphere of experience beyond words. O Protector, how can I praise you? Nevertheless, relying on worldly conventions, I praise the Guru with devotion, Just as you are in your true nature. By your very essence, you are unborn; You have no birth whatsoever. O Protector, you neither go nor come; I prostrate to and praise you, the non-existent. You are neither existent nor non-existent; You are neither annihilated nor eternal. You are neither permanent nor impermanent; I prostrate to and praise you, the non-dual. You are not red, green, or vermilion; You are not yellow, white, or black. You have no color whatsoever; I prostrate to and praise you, who are free of color. You are neither large nor small; You are neither thick nor thin. You are not an element of long or short; I prostrate to and praise you, the immeasurable. Through wisdom, you do not abide in existence; Through compassion, you do not abide in peace. You do not abide in nirvāṇa or saṃsāra; I prostrate to and praise you, the non-abiding. You do not abide in any phenomena, Yet you have realized all phenomena. Relying upon the most profound itself, I prostrate to and praise you, the profound. If one praises in such a manner, it is a praise beyond counting.

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.

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

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

definitionའཇམ་དཔལ་གཞོན་ནུར་གྱུར་པ “Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta” — Evolved from the gandharva Pañcaśikha in early Buddhism, which remains one of Mañjuśrī ’s alternate names. Pañcaśikha was a gandharva who lived on a five-peaked mountain, and who brought the Buddha information on what wa

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

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

definitionབླ་མ “guru” — One of the fourteen rākṣasīs .

definitionསྐྱེ་བ “birth” — The eleventh of the twelve links of dependent origination . See “ dependent origination .”

terminologyཁམས → “element”. In ཁམས་གསུམ it is the three realms, not 'three elements'.

homonymཁམས is rendered “element” here; the glossary also records constituent, domain, elements for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionཁམས “element” — In the context of epistemology, it is one way of describing experience and the world in terms of eighteen elements (eye, form , and eye consciousness ; ear, sound, and ear consciousness ; nose, odor, and nose consciousne

termའཕགས་པ → ārya

termའཇམ་དཔལ → Mañjuśrī

termདོན་དམ → ultimate

termབསྟོད་པ → praise

termའཇམ་དཔལ་གཞོན་ནུར་གྱུར་པ → Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

གཞན་དུ་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཇི་ལྟར་བསྟོད། ། ཆོས་རྣམས་ཐམས་ཅད་སྟོང་པ་ལ། ། སུ་ལ་བསྟོད་ཅིང་སུ་ཡིས་བསྟོད། ། མཐའ་མ་མཆིས་ཤིང་དབུས་མ་མཆིས། ། གཟུང་དང་འཛིན་པ་རྣམ་སྤངས་པའི། ། རྟོག་བྲལ་ཁྱོད་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བསྟོད། ། བླ་མ་ མགོན་པོ་འཇམ་དབྱངས་ཀྱི། ། དོན་དམ་ཡང་དག་མཚན་བརྗོད་པའི། ། བསོད་ནམས་འདི་ཡིས་འཇིག་རྟེན་འདི། ། བདེ་བར་གཤེགས་པ་འདྲ་བར་ཤོག། འཕགས་པ་རྗེ་བཙུན་འཇམ་དཔལ་གྱི་དོན་དམ་པའི་བསྟོད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་སློབ་དཔོན་ཆེན་པོ་#ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་ཀྱི་ཞལ་སྔ་ནས་མཛད་པ་ རྫོགས་སོ། །

Otherwise, how could I praise you? Since all phenomena are empty, who is there to be praised and who is there to praise? To you who are without end and without middle, who have utterly abandoned subject and object, and who are free from conceptual construction, I prostrate and offer praise. By this merit of reciting the ultimate, authentic names of the Guru, the Protector Mañjughoṣa, may this world become like the Sugatas. The Ultimate Praise of the Noble and Venerable Mañjuśrī, composed by the great master Ācārya Nāgārjuna, is hereby complete.

terminologyམཚན → “name”. མཚན་བརྗོད is recitation of names; in མཚན་ཉིད it is a 'definition' (lakṣaṇa) — same spelling, different word.

homonymམཚན is rendered “name” here; the glossary also records major signs, buddha marks, auspicious marks for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionམཚན “name” — The thirty-two primary physical characteristics of a “great being,” mahāpuruṣa , which every buddha and cakravartin possesses. They are considered “major” in terms of being primary to the eighty minor marks or signs of a

definitionབསོད་ནམས “merit” — In this text, merit is established as the most prized possession of human beings, more than good looks, diligence , artistry , and insight . In Buddhism more generally, merit refers to the wholesome tendencies imprinted

definitionབདེ་བར་གཤེགས་པ “sugata” — Here it is the fifth epithet through which the Buddha Śākyamuni is to be recollected. One of the standard epithets of the buddhas. A recurrent explanation offers three different meanings for su- that are meant to show th

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

adherencePinned rendering paraphrased here: homage

termཆོས → dharma

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termབླ་མ → guru

termདོན་དམ → ultimate

termམཚན → name

termབསོད་ནམས → merit

Terminology used in this text (17)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
འཕགས་པ	ārya	2
འཇམ་དཔལ	Mañjuśrī	2
དོན་དམ	ultimate	2
བསྟོད་པ	praise	2
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	2
བླ་མ	guru	2
ཆོས	dharma	2	In Abhidharma lists (སྐྱེ་མཆེད, ཁམས) ཆོས is 'phenomena', the objects of mind — not the Buddhist teaching. Same word, two
འཇམ་དཔལ་གཞོན་ནུར་གྱུར་པ	Mañjuśrī Kumārabhūta	1
ལས	action	1	84000 uses 'action' where the mechanics matter, 'karma' where it is a fixed term.
བདག	self	1
སྐྱེ་བ	birth	1
ཁམས	element	1	In ཁམས་གསུམ it is the three realms, not 'three elements'.
མཚན	name	1	མཚན་བརྗོད is recitation of names; in མཚན་ཉིད it is a 'definition' (lakṣaṇa) — same spelling, different word.
བསོད་ནམས	merit	1
བདེ་བར་གཤེགས་པ	sugata	1
སློབ་དཔོན	ācārya	1
ཀླུ	nāga	1	Serpent-deities, not 'dragons'. The Old Tibetan spelling ཀླུ is stable.

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.

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