by Mātṛceṭa
The Triratna-stotra ("Praise of the Three Jewels") is a miniature devotional hymn by Mātṛceṭa, one of the most celebrated Buddhist poets in Indian history. Preserved in the Degé Tengyur (Tohoku catalogue 1144), in the Eulogy (bstod tshogs) collection, it has never before appeared in English.
Mātṛceṭa was an Indian Buddhist poet active around the 2nd century CE, praised across the ages by Candrakīrti, Xuanzang, and Tāranātha. His masterwork, the Śatapañcāśatka ("One Hundred and Fifty Verses of Praise"), is one of the most celebrated poems in Buddhist literature. This text is a miniature version of that ambition — the whole Triple Gem praised in three verses. The opening homage bows to each Jewel in turn; then each verse gives one Jewel its due. The Buddha is a wish-fulfilling tree. The Dharma is without arising or ceasing. The Sangha gradually clears the two obscurations and purifies the buddha-fields.
A companion commentary on this text (D1145) also survives in the Tengyur, and a separate "Auspicious Praise of the Three Jewels" (D1139), also by Mātṛceṭa, is preserved alongside it — the master returned to the Three Jewels more than once.
I bow to the Three Jewels.
I bow to the Buddha, the chief.
I bow to the Dharma that protects.
I bow to the great Sangha.
To these Three, I bow always.
I. The Buddha
The two great accumulations perfected, the four wisdoms and three bodies accomplished,
Without conceptual thought, who clearly knows all things,
Whose truth-body is like space, who possesses the beautiful form-body —
I bow to the Buddha, like the wish-fulfilling tree.
II. The Dharma
The nature of reality, the concordant causes, the twelve branches of scripture —
In phenomena there is no arising or ceasing, free from all elaboration.
By focusing on that, all qualities are accomplished —
I bow to the sublime Dharma, the cause of all goodness.
III. The Sangha
The afflictive obscurations and the cognitive obscurations —
Having gradually removed them through antidotes, they abide on the grounds.
Who act for beings' benefit and purify the buddha-fields —
I bow to the great and noble Sangha.
Colophon
Good Works Translation from Classical Tibetan (Degé Tengyur, Tohoku 1144). Translated by Lotsawa of the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. This is the first English translation.
The source text is from the Esukhia Degé Tengyur digital edition (GitHub: Esukhia/derge-tengyur, CC0). The translation was independently derived from the Tibetan. No existing English translation was consulted — none exists.
The author is identified in the Tibetan colophon as the "great ācārya Mātṛceṭa" (སློབ་དཔོན་ཆེན་པོ་མ་ཏི་ཙི་ཊ). No Tibetan translator attribution is recorded for this text.
Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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Source Text: དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་གྱི་བསྟོད་པ།
Classical Tibetan source text from the Esukhia Degé Tengyur digital edition (GitHub: Esukhia/derge-tengyur, CC0). Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.
རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། ཏྲི་རཏྣ་སྟོ་ཏྲཾ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་གྱི་བསྟོད་པ།
དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།
སངས་རྒྱས་གཙོ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།
སྐྱོབ་པའི་ཆོས་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།
དགེ་འདུན་ཆེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།
གསུམ་ལ་རྟག་ཏུ་བདག་ཕྱག་འཚལ།
ཚོགས་ཆེན་གཉིས་རྫོགས་མཁྱེན་བཞི་སྐུ་གསུམ་གྲུབ།
རྣམ་རྟོག་མི་མངའ་ཅི་ཡང་ས་ལེ་མཁྱེན།
ཆོས་སྐུ་མཁའ་འདྲ་གཟུགས་སྐུ་མཛེས་སྐུ་ལྡན།
སངས་རྒྱས་དཔག་བསམ་འདྲ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།
ཆོས་ཉིད་རྒྱུ་མཐུན་གསུང་རབ་བཅུ་གཉིས་དང་།
ཆོས་ལ་སྐྱེ་འགག་མེད་ཅིང་སྤྲོས་ལས་དབེན།
དེ་ལ་དམིགས་ཏེ་ཡོན་ཏན་ཀུན་གྲུབ་པ།
ལེགས་རྒྱུ་དམ་པའི་ཆོས་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།
ཉོན་མོངས་སྒྲིབ་དང་ཤེས་བྱའི་སྒྲིབ་པ་དག།
གཉེན་པོས་རིམ་པར་བསལ་ནས་སར་བཞུགས་ཤིང་།
སེམས་ཅན་དོན་མཛད་སངས་རྒྱས་ཞིང་སྦྱོང་བ།
འཕགས་པའི་དགེ་འདུན་ཆེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།
དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་གྱི་བསྟོད་པ་སློབ་དཔོན་ཆེན་པོ་མ་ཏི་ཙི་ཊས་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ།།
Source Colophon
Degé Tengyur (སྡེ་དགེ་བསྟན་འགྱུར), Tohoku catalogue number 1144. Eulogy section (བསྟོད་ཚོགས), Volume 1 (ཀ), folios 104b–105a.
Digital text from the Esukhia Degé Tengyur project (GitHub: Esukhia/derge-tengyur). Licensed CC0 (public domain). A commentary on this text by Mātṛceṭa himself survives as D1145 (Triratna-stotra-vṛtti).
Other works by Mātṛceṭa in the Good Work Library: Praise Expanding from One — Matrceta · Praise of the Thirty-Five Sugatas — Matrceta
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