View source for Fifty Stanzas on Following a Teacher

'''''Fifty Stanzas on Following a Teacher''''' (Skt. ''Gurupañcāśikā''; Tib. བླ་མ་ལྔ་བཅུ་པ་, [[Wyl.]] ''bla ma lnga bcu pa''), also known as the ''Fifty Stanzas on Guru Devotion'', is a text that explains how to relate to one's [[guru]]. Despite its brevity the text has played a crucial role in the history of the [[Vajrayana]]. It was widely cited and debated in several important commentaries written in the tenth and eleventh centuries. 

Although the text, composed in Sanskrit, has often been attributed to an [[Ashvaghosha]] in the Tibetan and Chinese translations, a newly found Sanskrit manuscript has the author as a certain Vapilladatta (Skt. ''Vāpilladatta''). This closely echoes the name [[Tsongkhapa]] has given: Bhabilha.

==Text==
The text is available partly in Sanskrit and in its entirety in Tibetan and Chinese. 

The Tibetan translation is found in the [[tantra]] section of the [[Tengyur]], [[Toh]] 3721.

==Tibetan Commentaries==
*[[Tsongkhapa]], ''Fulfillment of All Hopes''
**English translation: Tsongkhapa, ''The Fulfillment of All Hopes: Guru Devotion in Tibetan Buddhism'' (Somerville: Wisdom Publications, 1999)

==Further Reading==
*Peter-Daniel Szanto, ''Minor Vajrayāna text II. A new manuscript of the Gurupañcāśikā'' (available [https://openphilology.eu/media/pages/publications-peter-daniel-szanto/229737102-1639738170/papers_2013d_gurupancasika.pdf here])

==External Links==
*[http://viewonbuddhism.org/resources/50_verses_guru_devotion.html Translation on A View on Buddhism website]
*[http://www.lamayeshe.com/index.php?sect=article&id=373 Commentary by Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey]

[[Category: Texts]]