Kangyur Translations

Toh 551 — The Blessed One’s Praise of Sharp Mañjuśrī

Translated by the Tibetan Classics Translators Guild of New York under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha

The Blessed One’s Praise of Sharp Mañjuśrī

F.15.b Homage to the Omniscient One!

The Blessed One praised sharp Mañjuśrī:

Your head shines gently with the beauty of midnight splendor.^[1]

Your braids sway like a boat amid azure ocean waves.

At the noble crown of your head, the supreme mark, coiled to the right—

An uṣṇīṣa lofty beyond the sight of ordinary beings.^[2]

That all suffering of existence be overcome

And your brilliant powers vanquish the enemy,

The crown upon your head conceals a conqueror’s excellence;^[3]

Your perfections of might and skill are those of a dharmarāja.

As in cat’s-eye gems and water lilies, so in your eyes,

White and black are distinguished with perfect clarity.

Your elegant eyebrows glisten like crescent moons,

And the sidelong glances of your smiling eyes signal your affection.

You are the foundation of countless Dharma gates to limitless liberation,

In the sundry plethora of the victors’ fields,

Embellished by pure music, excellent qualities,^[4] ample grain,

And jewels of every type.

The beautiful form of your nose is noblest of all—

Highly ridged, with corners slight, and elegant of shape,

Finely channeled like a slender stream. F.15.b

One will not tire of gazing upon its virtues even in a hundred eons.

Your lips, the red of a mañjiṣṭhā flower,^[5]

Your exquisite body, perfectly formed, quelling deluded thought,^[6]

Your lovely complexion, radiant as a lotus, clear as a lake,^[7]

And the lucidity of your mind—all give reason to smile.

Your moon-like countenance is golden and effulgent,

A maṇḍala of light resplendent with golden garlands,

An orb of pure light to outshine a hundred suns,

Emitting many colors like a mass of clouds.

O Gentle Voice, the dharmadhātu you proclaim—

Alluring as the song of the kalaviṅka bird.

Your voice, perfect, pristine, and melodious,

Roars like a lion and chimes like a golden bell.

The body that you cultivate^[8]—a body cloaked in noble splendor^[9]—

Performs the deeds of the most excellent of beings.

It is youthful in appearance and youthful in bearing,

A youthful form that trains the ready.

You wear a crown replete with many jewels;

Pearls are embedded in your golden necklace.

Layered garments, a divine lotus, envelop you.^[10]

In your right you brandish the finest weapon, which tames through skillful means—

It is insight itself, incomparably keen,

Perfectly expressing the dharmadhātu principle,

Incisive in manner, unbreakable as vajra.

In your left is the Perfection of Wisdom,

The inconceivable sphere where nothing is cultivated nor cast aside—

Such is the fathomless dharmatā,

The truth you embrace in your heart.

This concludes “The Blessed One’s Praise of Sharp Mañjuśrī.”

Notes

The use of the third person as a polite form of second-person address is common in Sanskrit literature. Since such usage is comparatively rare in contemporary English, we have chosen to translate the scripture’s third-person praises in the second person to emphasize their directness and devotional context.
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Tib. dge ba’i spyi gtsug mtshan mchog g.yas su ’khyil/ gtsug tor ’phags pas skye bos bltar mi mthong. Translation tentative.
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“A conqueror’s excellence” is presumably a reference to the uṣṇīṣa.
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Tib. mtshan rab.
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Also known as red lotus or Indian madder.
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“Quelling deluded thought” for yid gzhungs [sic] sel ba, which we have elected to read as yid gzhung sel ba (giving precedence to the verb). The Comparative Edition records the variant yid gzhungs ’phel (“increasing intelligence/perspicacity”) in a number of other Kangyurs. Alternatively, a Tibetan reader has suggested that perhaps the text should read yid zhum sel ba (“dispelling timidity”).
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Tib. mtsho lo bzhin. Translation tentative. The Comparative Edition notes no variants. One wonders whether this might be an extremely rarely seen two-syllable version of the common mtsho, similar to ’khor lo, ’phang lo, tshe lo, and cho lo. To our knowledge mtsho lo does not appear elsewhere in the Kangyur.
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The Degé Kangyur version here reads rgam par [sic]. We have translated the variant reading found in the Lhasa Kangyur version: sgom par.
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Tib. cha lugs bzhin ’chang gzi brjid ’phags pa’i sku. Translation tentative.
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Tib. pad ma lha yi na bza’ sil ma bsnams. Translation tentative.
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