འཕགས་པ་ད་བཞན་གཤགས་པ་བདན་གྱ་སྔན་གྱ་སྨན་ལམ་གྱ་ཁྱད་པར་རྒྱས་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.24

intro.24

Inspired by certain passages in the sūtra that describe the worship of the seven thus-gone ones, as well as by the sūtra as a whole, a number of commentaries have detailed how one might actually perform the rites they contain. The earliest examples of these liturgical commentaries in Tibet are now found in the Tengyur, where they are attributed to one “Bodhisattva,” commonly taken as the famous Indian abbot and scholar Śāntarakṣita (Tib. zhi ba ’tsho, eighth century), who composed them for the Tibetan emperor Tri Songdetsen (Tib. khri srong lde btsan, 742–97).¹² Since that time, rituals associated with the sūtra have been especially esteemed by political leaders not only in Tibet but in Mongolia and China as well, probably due to the promises within the text that whoever offers worship to the seven thus-gone ones will have an abundance of prosperity and health.¹³