Toh 1177 · classical Tibetan · Tengyur edition

Seven Praises of the Glorious Guru Vanaratna

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

Edition 1.0 · 2026 · not a critical edition machine draft

Catalogue: Toh 1177
Genre: Eulogy
Period: classical Tibetan
Edition: Tengyur vol. 001_བསྟོད་ཚོགས།_ཀ.txt
Extent: 2 passages · 1,820 Tibetan characters · 410 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)

The Seven Praises of the Glorious Guru Vanaratna is a devotional composition structured as a series of seven laudatory verses dedicated to the teacher Vanaratna. The provided fragments indicate that the text employs the stotra genre to establish the guru as a spiritual refuge and a catalyst for the maturation of sentient beings. The author utilizes paradoxical imagery, describing the guru as an arrow hitting the target of both existence and non-existence, thereby positioning Vanaratna as a master of non-dual realization. By emphasizing the guru's discipline and the resulting joy of the practitioner, the text commits the reader to a relationship of dependence and veneration. The work functions to validate the lineage and spiritual authority of Vanaratna, framing his guidance as a nectar that liberates the practitioner from attachment and leads them toward full spiritual maturity.

Provenance

About this text

A series of seven praises dedicated to the teacher Vanaratna, the Śrīmadguruvanaratnastotrasaptaka originates from the Indian tradition and is attributed to the author Sūryapāda. The work entered the Tibetan tradition through the translation of rtse thang lo tsa ba gzhon nu dpal, appearing in the classical Tibetan period. It is preserved in the Tengyur, volume ཀ, where it is situated within the Eulogy collection and spans two pages. Under the Tibetan title dpal ldan bla ma nags kyi rin chen gyi bstod pa bdun pa, the composition enacts a devotional relationship by framing the guru as a spiritual refuge and an elixir for sentient beings. The verses employ paradoxical imagery, describing Vanaratna as an arrow hitting the target of both existence and non-existence, while highlighting his role as a monk-king of Nepal and a treasury for the learned. A scholar or serious reader consults this text today to examine how it positions the guru as a catalyst for spiritual maturity and liberation from attachment, utilizing the specific laudatory structure to validate the spiritual authority and non-dual realization of the master.

Sanskrit title: Śrīmadguruvanaratnastotrasaptaka
Indian author: Sūryapāda
Tibetan translators: rtse thang lo tsa ba gzhon nu dpal
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, “Seven Praises of the Glorious Guru Vanaratna” (Toh 1177), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh1177

Summary & commentary

Significance

This work is significant as an example of the guru-praise tradition within Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, illustrating the role of the teacher as the primary vehicle for enlightenment. It provides insight into the historical and spiritual veneration of Vanaratna and the specific philosophical language used to describe the state of non-duality.

Structure

Passages	Section	Description
1-2	Introduction and First Praise	Contains the Sanskrit and Tibetan titles, an initial homage, and the beginning of the laudatory verses focusing on the guru's realization and his ability to guide beings.

Themes

Non-duality (2)
Guru as Refuge (2)
Spiritual Maturity (2)

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

AnuvādaSeven Praises of the Glorious Guru Vanaratna·

༄༅༅། ། རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། ཤྲཱི་གུ་རུ་བ་ན་རཏྣ་སྟོ་ཏྲ་སབྟ་ཀཾ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། དཔལ་ལྡན་བླ་མ་ནགས་ཀྱི་རིན་ཆེན་གྱི་བསྟོད་པ་བདུན་པ། དཔལ་ལྡན་བླ་མ་ནགས་ཀྱི་རིན་ ཆེན་གྱི་ཞབས་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། ། བལ་པོའི་ཡུལ་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་བདེ་བར་གཤེགས་པ་ཡི། ། ལུགས་ལ་རྟག་ཏུ་རྗེས་སུ་བརྩོན་པ་ལ་བཀོད་ཅིང་། ། མཁས་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་མཛོད་གྱུར་མཐར་ཐུག་ཡོན་ཏན་གྱི། ། ཚོགས་ཀྱི་ཟབ་མོ་སྣང་མཛད་དགེ་སློང་རྒྱལ་པོ་སྟེ། ། རྣམ་པར་གྲགས་ཤིང་མཚུངས་པ་མེད་པའི་ གྲགས་པ་ཡི། ། རྒྱལ་མཚན་བླ་བྲེ་དར་དཔྱངས་ཟབ་ཅིང་རྒྱ་ཆེའི་བློ། ། སྐུ་ཡང་སེམས་ཅན་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སྐྱབས་ནི་གཅིག་པུ་སྟེ། ། ཐེག་ཆེན་ཡང་དག་རྟོགས་པས་གྲུབ་པའི་མཐའ་ཡི་མཛོད། ། ནགས་ཀྱི་རིན་ཆེན་ཞེས་བྱ་སྡོམ་བརྩོན་མཆོག་གི་བློ། ། གནས་བརྟན་འདི་ན་གཉིས་མེད་ཆོས་ཀྱི་དེ་ཉིད་རིག། འདུལ་བའི་སྡོམ་ པས་ཡང་དག་སྡོམ་ལ་མངོན་པར་བརྩོན། ། ཕས་རྒོལ་གླང་པོའི་དབང་ལ་རི་དྭགས་རྒྱལ་པོ་ལགས། ། ཕྱག་འཚལ་སྡོམ་བརྩོན་ཆེན་པོའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་མཆོག། མཆོག་གི་ཚུལ་ལ་རབ་ཏུ་རྣམ་པར་ངེས་པ་སྐྱེ། ། སྐྱེ་བོ་སྡུག་བསྔལ་དག་ལས་འབྱིན་བྱེད་གཅིག་པུ་མཆོག། མཆོག་ཏུ་ནགས་ཀྱི་རིན་ཆེན་གནས་ བརྟན་ཆེན་པོ་ལགས། ། ཆགས་བྲལ་སེམས་ཅན་མ་ལུས་པ་དག་སད་པར་མཛད། ། ཕྱག་གི་ཆུ་སྐྱེས་དག་གིས་མཚོན་གྱི་གཞུ་འཆང་བ། ། འཛིན་པའི་མཐིལ་གྱི་རྒྱན་དུ་གྱུར་པ་མཛེས་པའི་སྐུ། ། གནས་བརྟན་ཆེན་པོ་ནགས་ཀྱི་རིན་ཆེན་རབ་ཏུ་མཛེས། ། དགའ་བྲལ་དགའ་བའི་གླང་པོ་ལ་སོགས་དྲི་མ་ཡི། ། དྲི་མ་དྲི་མ་ མེད་ཅིང་བྲལ་བ་ཉམས་སུ་མྱོང་། །

In the language of India: Śrī-guru-vana-ratna-stotra-saptakam. In the language of Tibet: Dpal ldan bla ma nags kyi rin chen gyi bstod pa bdun pa (The Sevenfold Praise of the Glorious Guru Vanaratna). Homage at the feet of the glorious guru Vanaratna. The king of Nepal, who was constantly established in the pursuit of the Sugata’s system, was a monk-king who became a treasury for the learned, illuminating the profound collection of ultimate qualities. Renowned and possessing peerless fame, his victory banner, canopy, and silk streamers are a vast and deep intellect. His very body is the sole refuge for sentient beings, a treasury of tenets established through the authentic realization of the Mahāyāna. Known as Vanaratna, his mind is the supreme diligence of vows. This elder here realizes the non-dual reality of the Dharma. Through the vows of the Vinaya, he is truly diligent in restraint. He is the king of wild beasts to the lordly elephants of opposing disputants. Homage to the king of great diligent vow-holders; supreme certainty arises in the highest manner. He is the sole supreme one who delivers beings from sufferings. He is the supreme great elder, Vanaratna. He awakens all sentient beings without exception who are free from attachment. Holding a bow marked by the lotuses of his hands, his beautiful body is the ornament of the palms of his grasp. The great elder Vanaratna is most beautiful. He experiences the stainless state, free from the stains of the elephant of joy and the like. Free from stains, he is stainless.

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.

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

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

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

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

definitionགནས་བརྟན “elder” — The term is used to designate a senior monk. The sixteen great arhats , or sixteen noble elders ( āryasthavira ), were the successors of the Buddha’s teaching after he passed. They promised to preserve the teaching until

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

terminologyདབང → “empowerment”. In compounds དབང་ཆེན is 'great power' (a deity epithet), not 'great empowerment'.

definitionསྡུག་བསྔལ “suffering” — The first of the four truths of the noble ones. The term “suffering” includes all essentially unsatisfactory experiences of life in cyclic existence, whether physical or mental. These comprise (1) the suffering of suffer

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

termབླ་མ → guru

termབསྟོད་པ → praise

termཕྱག་འཚལ → homage

termརྒྱལ་པོ → king

termབདེ་བར་གཤེགས་པ → sugata

termདགེ་སློང → monk

སྲིད་དང་སྲིད་པ་མ་ཡིན་གཉིས་ཀྱི་འབེན་ལ་མདའ། ། གནས་བརྟན་ཆེན་པོ་ནགས་ཀྱི་རིན་ཆེན་སྐྱབས་སུ་གྱུར། ། དགའ་བྲལ་དང་པོའི་བདུད་རྩིའི་བཏུང་བ་བདག་ལ་དགྱེས། ། དགྱེས་ཤིང་ངེས་ལ་དུལ་བའི་ཡན་ལག་བརྒྱ་ཕྲག་གིས། ། སེམས་ཅན་བརྒྱ་ཕྲག་ཚོགས་རྣམས་ཡོངས་ སུ་སྨིན་པ་དག། རྩི་མཛད་གནས་བརྟན་ཆེན་པོ་ནགས་ཀྱི་རིན་ཆེན་ནོ། ། བདུད་སྡེ་ལ་སོགས་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ཁ་ལ་རོ་མེད་མཛད། ། ཁ་ཡི་ཆུ་སྐྱེས་དག་ནི་དགྲ་ཡིས་གང་བ་འཇོམས། ། སྐྱེ་མཆེད་འདར་བའི་ཕས་རྒོལ་རི་ཡི་དབང་པོ་འཁྲུ། ། ཁྲུས་མཛད་ནགས་ཀྱི་རིན་ཆེན་གནས་བརྟན་ཆེན་པོའོ། ། དཔལ་ལྡན་བླ་མ་ནགས་ ཀྱི་རིན་ཆེན་གྱི་བསྟོད་པ་བདུན་པ་འདི་ནི་རྫོགས་སོ། ། ། ། ཡུལ་མ་ག་དྷཱ་ནས་བྱུང་བའི་དགེ་བསྙེན་དམ་པ་ཉི་མ་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བས་མཛད་པའོ། ། འདི་ནི་སྤྱན་མངའ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོས་གསེར་གྱི་མེ་ཏོག་དང་བཅས་པའི་བཀའ་ལུང་གིས། རྩེ་ཐང་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་གཞོན་ནུ་དཔལ་གྱིས་བསྒྱུར་བའོ། ། ། །

An arrow at the target of both existence and non-existence, The great elder Vanaratna is my refuge. I delight in the nectar of the first joy, free from attachment. With hundreds of limbs of joy, certainty, and discipline, He brings hundreds of assemblies of sentient beings to full maturity. The great elder Vanaratna is the one who acts as the elixir. He renders the mouths of the hosts of Māra and others tasteless. He destroys the enemies who fill the lotus of the mouth. He washes away the mountain-like adversaries who make the sense bases tremble. The great elder Vanaratna is the one who performs the ritual bath. This concludes the seventh praise of the glorious guru Vanaratna. It was composed by the noble layman Āditya from the land of Magadha. This was translated by the Tse-thang Lotsāwa Zhönnu Pal, by the command of the Sovereign of Dharma, Chennga, accompanied by golden flowers.

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

definitionསྲིད་པ “becoming” — Here, srid pa denotes the whole of existence, i.e., the five rebirth-destinies or the three worlds‍—all the possible kinds and places of karmic rebirth. It is also the tenth of the twelve links of dependent origination (

definitionབདུད “Māra” — Māra , literally “death” or “maker of death,” is the name of the deva who tried to prevent the Buddha from achieving awakening, the name given to the class of beings he leads, and also an impersonal term for the destruct

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

terminologyསྡེ → “class”. A division or group (སྡེ་ལྔ 'five classes'); in titles of canonical collections it is often left untranslated as part of a name.

homonymསྐྱེ་མཆེད is rendered “sense base” here; the glossary also records sense field, bases of cognition, sense fields for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionསྐྱེ་མཆེད “sense base” — These can be listed as twelve or as six entrances (sometimes also called sense sources, sense fields, bases of cognition, or simply āyatanas): In context of epistemology, it is one way of describing experience and the wo

definitionདབང་པོ “Indra” — “Faculties” is a translation meant to represent the preferred etymologization of indriya in Buddhist texts as indanti , meaning “they have power,” which is also reflected in the Tibetan translation as dbang po . Differen

definitionམ་ག་དྷཱ “Magadha” — An ancient Indian kingdom that lay to the south of the Ganges River in what today is the state of Bihar. Magadha was the largest of the sixteen “great states” ( mahājanapada ) that flourished between the sixth and third

definitionདགེ་བསྙེན “layman” — The upāsaka precepts for lay practitioners include the five fundamental vows ( pañcaśīla ) not to (1) kill, (2) steal, (3) commit sexual misconduct, (4) lie, or (5) use intoxicants. Additionally, three other precepts are

definitionཉི་མ “Āditya” — The sun; the god of the sun; the king identified as Ādityavardhana of the Śrīkaṇṭha - Sthāṇvīśvara dynasty who ruled in Madhyadeśa in the sixth century ᴄᴇ .

periodམེ → “fire”. In ritual and cosmological prose མེ is the element 'fire'; Agni is the deity only where he is named or invoked. Do not capitalise the element.

homonymམེ is rendered “fire” here; the glossary also records Āgneya, Analā, Acalā for other contexts — the sense follows the passage, not a fixed default.

definitionམེ “fire” — Classified as a “ lord of beings ” ( prajāpati ).

termསྲིད་པ → becoming

termགནས་བརྟན → elder

termབདུད → Māra

termབདག → self

termསྡེ → class

termསྐྱེ་མཆེད → sense base

Terminology used in this text (22)

Term	Rendering	×	Note
བླ་མ	guru	2
བསྟོད་པ	praise	2
གནས་བརྟན	elder	2
ཆོས	dharma	2	In Abhidharma lists (སྐྱེ་མཆེད, ཁམས) ཆོས is 'phenomena', the objects of mind — not the Buddhist teaching. Same word, two
ཕྱག་འཚལ	homage	1
རྒྱལ་པོ	king	1
བདེ་བར་གཤེགས་པ	sugata	1
དགེ་སློང	monk	1
མཚན	name	1	མཚན་བརྗོད is recitation of names; in མཚན་ཉིད it is a 'definition' (lakṣaṇa) — same spelling, different word.
དབང	empowerment	1	In compounds དབང་ཆེན is 'great power' (a deity epithet), not 'great empowerment'.
སྡུག་བསྔལ	suffering	1
ལས	action	1	84000 uses 'action' where the mechanics matter, 'karma' where it is a fixed term.
སྲིད་པ	becoming	1
བདུད	Māra	1
བདག	self	1
སྡེ	class	1	A division or group (སྡེ་ལྔ 'five classes'); in titles of canonical collections it is often left untranslated as part of
སྐྱེ་མཆེད	sense base	1
དབང་པོ	Indra	1
མ་ག་དྷཱ	Magadha	1
དགེ་བསྙེན	layman	1
ཉི་མ	Āditya	1
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

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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