In Praise of the Stūpas at the Eight Great Sacred Places
Translation of གནས་ཆན་པ་བརྒྱད་ཀྱ་མཆད་རྟན་ལ་བསྟད་པ (གནས་ཆེན་པོ་བརྒྱད་ཀྱི་མཆོད་རྟེན་ལ་བསྟོད་པ)
- Language
- English
- Translator
- samye-translations-monica-thunder-peter-woods
- Extent
- 15 passages, 348 words
- Text
- complete digital text
- Source
- lotsawahouse · Samye Translations; Monica Thunder; Peter Woods (tr.), In Praise of the Stūpas at the Eight Great Sacred… · CC BY-NC 4.0 (Lotsawa House); shown with attribution on a non-commercial site
Contents
Text
p1
In Praise of the Stūpas at the Eight Great Sacred Places
p2
by Ārya Nāgārjuna
p3
In the language of India: Aṣṭa-mahā-sthāna-caitya-stotra
In the language of Tibet: gnas chen po brgyad kyi mchod rten la bstod pa
p4
Homage to Youthful Mañjuśrī!
p5
The sole guru of beings was born in Lumbinī,
And he dwelt in the city of Kapilavastu—
Homage to the Stūpas of the Sugata,
Ornamented by ten million precious qualities.
p6
He sat beneath the bodhi tree in Magadha,
On the bank of the river called Nairañjanā—
Homage to the support for awakening,
The Stūpa of Vast Qualities.
p7
In Kāśikā, the city of Vārāṇasī,
With the marvelous, liberating Wheel of Dharma,
He cut through afflictions and obscurations—
Homage to the Four Wisdom Stūpas.
p8
At Śrāvastī, he thwarted the might of others,
And he displayed a great miracle at Jeta’s Grove,
And manifested a sublime thought in the three worlds—
Homage to the Stūpa of Defeating Extremists.
p9
In the sacred and exalted city of Sāṃkāśya,
He returned from heaven in a sublime descent.
Brahmā and Indra laid a crown at his feet—
Homage to the Stūpa of Thirty Gods’ Offerings.
p10
When the Saṅgha had become divided,
The Teacher’s listeners were reconciled
At the Bamboo Grove in Rājagṛha—
Homage to the Stūpa of Loving Kindness.
p11
When he gave up his conditioned lifetime,
His life was blessed yet again
And he was utterly free—
Homage to the Blessed Stūpa of Vaiśālī.
p12
In Kuśinagara, he inspired
Beings to practice virtue—
Homage to the Stūpa of Nirvāṇa,
Between the Mallas’ twin sal trees.
p13
I bow to all dharmakāyas abiding
At the eight stūpas of Śākyamuni,
In the ten directions, and elsewhere—
I humbly pay homage, always, to peace!
p14
In this way, I pay heartfelt homage to the pure essence, free from elaboration,
Ineffable and permanent—the dharmakāya buddha pervading beings like space.
Through whatever pristine merit, white as snow, has been gathered in my mindstream,
May every single sentient being attain samādhi, bliss, realization, and awakening.
p15
Thus concludes the Praise to the Stūpas at the Eight Great Sacred Places,
Composed by the Mahācārya, Ārya Nāgārjuna.