by Paṇḍita Dānaśīla
The Pustakapaṭhopāya (གླེགས་བམ་ཀླག་པའི་ཐབས, "Method for Reading a Book") is a brief tantric instruction from the Indian Buddhist tradition, preserved in the Pramāṇa (epistemology) section of the Degé Tengyur (D4252). Its placement among hundreds of pages of logical treatises carries its own teaching: before you reason about what is true, consecrate the act of reading itself.
The text instructs the reader to visualize themselves as Vairocana, the cosmic Buddha of illumination, and to emanate Buddhalocanā — the golden goddess whose name means "Buddha's Eye" — from a seed syllable at the heart. She pours the nectar of wisdom from jeweled vases onto the text to be studied. Only then does one read.
The author, Paṇḍita Dānaśīla, was an Indian scholar who translated his own work into Tibetan without a Tibetan collaborator — a self-translation (rang 'gyur), relatively unusual in the Tengyur. Nothing else is known of him with certainty. His text is four sentences long.
Homage to the Three Jewels.
First, visualize yourself as Vairocana — white in body, adorned with various ornaments, seated upon a lotus and moon.
Before yourself, whether for your own benefit or another's, visualize the object to be accomplished, seated upon a moon.
Then, from the syllable BHRŪṂ upon a moon at your heart, emanate many golden goddesses Buddhalocanā, bearing precious vases filled with the nectar of wisdom. Visualize them bestowing empowerment upon the object to be accomplished.
Then read the book.
Colophon
The Method for Reading a Book (Skt. Pustakapaṭhopāya, Tib. གླེགས་བམ་ཀླག་པའི་ཐབས), Tohoku catalogue number D4252, from the Pramāṇa section of the Degé Tengyur.
Self-translated into Tibetan by Paṇḍita Dānaśīla (པཎྜི་ཏ་དཱ་ན་ཤཱི་ལ).
Good Works Translation from Classical Tibetan. A new English translation. Translated by the Good Works Library, 2026. No existing English translation was consulted. No AI translation tools were used.
Compiled and formatted for the Good Works Library, 2026.
Earlier English translation: 'Buddhist Classics AI Translation Series Vol.5: Complete Tengyur' (Zenodo, 2025; machine translation, not reviewed by specialists), freely available. This is a new translation made independently from the source language.
© 2026 Tianmu Anglican Church. This English translation is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0: you may share and adapt it for non-commercial use with credit to the Good Works Library, tianmu.org. The source text keeps its own terms. For other uses, see Rights and Reuse.
Source Text: གླེགས་བམ་ཀླག་པའི་ཐབས
Classical Tibetan source text from the Esukhia Digital Degé Tengyur (GitHub: Esukhia/derge-tengyur), CC0. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.
༄༅༅། །རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། པུསྟ་ཀ་པ་ཋོ་པ་ཡ། བོད་སྐད་དུ། གླེགས་བམ་ཀླག་པའི་ཐབས།
དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།
དང་པོར་རང་ཉིད་རྣམ་པར་སྣང་མཛད་སྐུ་མདོག་དཀར་པོ་སྣ་ཚོགས་པདྨ་ཟླ་བ་ལ་གནས་པ་བསམས་ཏེ། དེའི་མདུན་དུ་རང་གིའམ་གཞན་གྱི་ཆེད་གང་ཡིན་ཡང་རུང་སྟེ། ཟླ་བ་ལ་གནས་པའི་བསྒྲུབ་བྱ་བསམ་པར་བྱའོ།
དེ་ནས་རང་གི་སྙིང་གར་ཟླ་བ་ལ་གནས་པའི་བྷྲཱུཾ་ལས་ལྷ་མོ་སངས་རྒྱས་སྤྱན་མ་སེར་མོ་མང་པོ་སྤྲོས་ཏེ། རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་བུམ་པ་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་བདུད་རྩིས་གང་བས་བསྒྲུབ་བྱ་ལ་དབང་བསྐུར་བར་བསམས་ལ།
དེ་ནས་གླེགས་བམ་ཀླག་པར་བྱའོ།
གླེགས་བམ་ཀླག་པའི་ཐབས་པཎྜི་ཏ་དཱ་ན་ཤཱི་ལས་རང་འགྱུར་དུ་མཛད་པ་རྫོགས་སོ།།
Source Colophon
Tibetan source text from the Esukhia Digital Degé Tengyur (GitHub: Esukhia/derge-tengyur), file 190, lines 3967–3970. Degé xylograph edition, Tohoku catalogue number D4252. Folios 249b.1–249b.4. CC0 (public domain).