Derge Kangyur/Tengyur e-text, Esukhia/Barom edition — public domain (mechanical reproduction)
This fragmentary text, titled Pañcatattvastotra, is a ritual praise dedicated to the deity Vajrabhairava. The work employs a symbolic mapping of the deity's form to metaphysical and spiritual concepts, identifying the deity's mind with the uncontrived expanse of phenomena and the body with the causal bodhicitta of Mañjuśrī. The text transitions from these abstract identifications to a detailed description of the deity's wrathful iconography, specifically the act of trampling various animals under sixteen feet. By linking the nature of reality (the five suchnesses/realities) with the terrifying form of the deity, the text commits the reader to a visualization practice where the destruction of worldly obstacles and delusions is embodied in the physical posture of the deity. The structure moves from the internal essence of wisdom to the external manifestation of power.
Provenance
About this text
A eulogy dedicated to the deity Vajrabhairava, the Pañcatattvastotra belongs to the collection of Other Skillful Means Tantras. Preserved in the classical Tibetan period, the text appears in the Tengyur, volume མི, under the Tibetan title de nyid lnga pa'i bstod pa, where it extends over two pages. The work enacts a ritual praise that maps the deity's form onto metaphysical concepts, identifying the mind with the uncontrived expanse of phenomena and the body with the causal bodhicitta of Mañjuśrī. It further details the deity's wrathful iconography, specifically the trampling of sixteen animals—including a buffalo, a lion, and a vulture—under sixteen feet. A scholar or serious reader consults this text to examine the symbolic relationship between the five realities and the terrifying manifestation of the deity, observing how the destruction of worldly obstacles is embodied in a specific visualization practice that moves from the internal essence of wisdom to the external manifestation of power.
Cite thisAnuvāda, “A Praise of the Five Suchnesses” (Toh 2009), machine draft, 2026.https://naxiai.com/tibetan/works/toh2009
Summary & commentary
Significance
The work is significant as an example of the integration of Madhyamaka-style ontology (the five suchnesses) with the complex iconography of the Anuttarayoga Tantra tradition. It demonstrates how abstract philosophical categories are transformed into a somatic and visual liturgy for the practitioner.
Structure
Passages
Section
Description
1
Invocation and Metaphysical Identification
Homage to Vajrabhairava and the identification of the deity's mind and body with wisdom and causal bodhicitta.
2
Iconographic Description
A detailed list of the animals trampled by the deity's sixteen feet.
Themes
Deity Yoga and Visualization (1-2)
Symbolism of Wrathful Action (2)
Non-dual Nature of Phenomena (1)
Summary, significance and provenance note generated by gemma4:31b from the translation and the catalogue record.
In the language of India: Pañcatattvastotra. In the language of Tibet: De nyid lnga pa’i bstod pa (Praise of the Five Realities). Homage to the glorious Vajrabhairava.
HŪṂ. Your mind is the uncontrived expanse of phenomena, your wisdom. Your body is the causal bodhicitta of Mañjuśrī. Holding an utpala and a sword, with five topknots and the color of saffron, seated upon a moon-disc, to you, the supreme embodiment of wisdom, I prostrate.
Upon a sun-maṇḍala that subdues the māras, the heart of Mañjughoṣa, the guide of the Buddhas and their heirs, has become the wrathful black HŪṂ. To you, the siddhi, I prostrate.
Through the wrath of the vajra, you unite the three realms. Expanding and contracting, you have the face of a buffalo. With tongue curled, you roar the thunder of PHAṂ. To you, whose speech of HŪṂ and ṢṬRĪḤ is terrifying, I prostrate.
With nine heads and thirty-four arms, and sixteen legs, you are the great hero. Your supreme body is like ground collyrium; you are Yamāntaka, like the fire at the end of an aeon. The central faces are black, red, and yellow; the left faces are white, smoke-colored, and black; the right faces are blue, red, and yellow. With nine faces, you consume the three realms.
In your right hands, you hold a curved knife, a single-pointed spear, a pestle, a small sword, a vajra, a battle-axe, a spear, an arrow, a hook, a club, a khaṭvāṅga, a wheel, a vajra, a skull-cup, a sword, and a ḍamaru.
In your left hands, you hold a skull-cup, a head, a shield, a leg, a lasso, a bow, intestines, a bell, a hand, a shroud from a cemetery, a stake, a shield, a fire-pit, a vessel for a corpse, a threatening gesture, a banner, and a wind-cloth. Two hands are clad in an elephant hide.
With your eight right feet, you trample a man, a buffalo, an ox, a donkey, a camel, a dog, a sheep, and a jackal. With your eight left feet, you trample a vulture, an owl, a crow, a lion, a hawk, a snowcock, a mantra-bearing bird, and a crane; I prostrate to you, the Terrifying One. Lord of the charnel grounds, unwavering in equanimity, you are the embodiment of the two fallen gods and of sin. With fierce threatening gestures, you subdue those difficult to tame. Having trampled them in reverse, you offer your profound prayer. Your liṅga is erect and you have abandoned conceptual thought. Abiding as a hero, you sport in non-duality. Even the lords of all the asuras and others bow to you. You are the manifestation of the wisdom-mind that dispels darkness. Those conceptualizations resembling the Lord of Death are, by your own playful conceptualization, established in their natural state by the dancing, blazing sword. Mañjughoṣa, the wisdom, compassion, and wrath; Ema! You dispel the malice of the three realms. Just as a mother scolds her child out of love, I prostrate to you, the one who has purified artificial wrath. This concludes the Praise of the Five Realities.
Translation status: Not among 84000's published translations, and not in progress there. Translations published elsewhere have not been searched for, so one may exist. (source: 84000 catalogue + registry; checked 2026-11-10).
Set in Newsreader and EB Garamond; Tibetan in Noto Serif Tibetan; Chinese in Noto Serif SC.