A Chariot of Devotion
Padmasambhava is the embodiment of all victorious ones,
Who—in the manner of a great saint—appeared in these degenerate times to tame beings.
As the sovereign of one-hundred buddha families, the great tertön dharma king—
To the feet of Dudjom Lingpa, I pray.
Although from beginningless time you attained the actual ambrosia of quiescence,
[You] fully purified the conjunction of the elaborations and attributes of craving and rebirth
Through infinite clouds of the magical manifestations of the four ways to tame—
To you, who delight in the one-hundred dances of magical manifestation, I pray.
Especially during this time of the doctrine of the fourth guide,
With the enlightened activities of the lives and liberation of the second buddha,
As arhats, vidyadharas, pandits, and accomplished masters from India and Tibet—
To your magnificent garland of rebirths, I pray.
During this degenerate time from the pure land of Lotus Light,
By the vajra command of the omniscient master of the three times [and]
Through the power of having been enthroned as his supreme regent—
To you, who took intentional rebirth in existence, I pray.
In Tibet’s golden valley of Amdo, the land of medicinal herbs,
In the extraordinary place blessed by the arya bodhisattvas,
In the Nub Clan, with a heritage of prodigious scholars and masters of practice—
To you, who knowingly took rebirth in this perfectly pure lineage, I pray.
When you entered the womb of your exceptional mother,
The dakas and dakinis escorted you with reverence—
To you, who blessed the bodies and minds of your father and mother with many amazing
signs of virtue, I pray.
In the Year of the Sheep, during the night of the tenth day of the miracle month,
The lotus of your exquisite body of marks and signs blossomed at birth—
To you, who appeared amidst boundless sublime signs such as rainbow tents and showers of
flowers, I pray.
At that time, many highly realized guides
Praised you as an unrivalled nirmanakaya.
Destined to be a great being accomplishing limitless benefit for the sake of others—
To you, who received these undeceiving predictions, I pray.
Until the age of three, you were befriended and guarded by gatherings of
Dakinis and dharmapalas offering song and dance.
Sometimes the haughty spirits attempted to create obstacles and oppose them—
To you, who witnessed these various visions, I pray.
2
One time, you journeyed to the northern pure land of Lapis Lazuli Light.
There, the Conqueror Akshobhya
Honored and confirmed you as his regent—
To you, who by that power recalled your previous lives, I pray.
In the pure land of Space Activity from the yogini mother of basic space,
The life essence of one-hundred thousand dakinis manifesting as syllables dissolved into you;
and you received the great empowerment of the transference of blessings—
To you, who are victorious over the onset of conflicting circumstances, I pray.
As a youth by perfecting your innate, dynamic strength, you transcended
The characteristics of an ordinary person through clairvoyance and
Boundless miraculous powers; and your sacred buddha nature awakened—
To you, who inspired the faithful to generate devotion, I pray.
At the age of nine, according to prophecy, a wisdom dakini offered you
Bliss-sustaining nectar from her breast.
Through study and contemplation, you relied upon a supreme spiritual teacher—
To you, who instantaneously developed hundreds of gateways of qualities, I pray.
The deity of great compassion (i.e., Avalokiteshvara) manifested as a lovely white youth,
Who inseparably guarded and befriended you;
And the Lion of Speech, Manjushri, blessed you directly—
To you, whose dynamic energy of prajna blazed, I pray
Held by the magical wisdom kayas of the three bodhisattvas;
Arya Tara, the mother of the Victors; Saraha, the Archer;
The eight accomplished vidyadharas; Longchenpa; and so forth—
To you, who received their blessings, I pray.
In particular, you actually departed for the glorious Copper-Colored Mountain;
And a single day became the length of twelve years’ time during which
You received the nectar of ripening and liberating empowerments from the Lord Guru (i.e.,
Padmasambhava)—
To you, who became his genuine successor, I pray.
Upon an extremely subtle particle, you saw countless pure lands and
Inconceivable arrays of kayas and enlightened deeds—
To you, whose infinite manifestations have received fathomless dharma teachings, I pray.
In short, without depending on study during this life,
The karmic connection of [your] previous familiarization awakened—
To you, whose knowledge and realization excelled to outshine all well-known learned and
accomplished masters, I pray.
An assembly of dakinis, such as Yeshe Tsogyal and others,
Cared for you like their own son and
Revealed the most hidden instructions as prophecies—
3
To you, to whom the oath-bound protectors and treasure guardians accompanied like your
shadow and acted as the messengers for whatever you might need, I pray.
Without attachment to the taste of ordinary sexual bliss,
You sustained the supreme morality of never losing the essential fluid;
And through the path of desire, you abandoned all faults such as desire and the rest—
To you, a genuine renunciate, I pray.
Due to your extremely stable courage cultivated over kalpas of practice,
Set in motion by the profound strength of love and compassion,
You practiced the fearless conduct of bodhisattvas
And brought benefit to whoever made a connection with you—
To you, great bodhisattva, tamer of beings, I pray.
Through the swift path of the supreme, secret great method,
You perfected the actual realization of the first stage
And saw that appearances and sound are pure as the wisdom mandala—
To you, the supreme powerful yogi, I pray
You actualized the wisdom that blazes in three ways,
And assemblies of three messengers gathered around you like clouds.
Having mastered the four activities and the eight accomplishments—
To you, who accomplished the enlightened activities of whatever was desired, I pray.
In the space of the central channel, the movement within the sun-moon
Rasana and lalana [channels] was completely bound
Through your practice of the astonishing direct method—
To you, who conquered the confused cycle of the contaminated city of impure karmic winds,
I pray.
By the strength and brilliance of your fierce wisdom (i.e., tummo) practice,
You were intoxicated by the taste of the unchanging sixteen joys—
To you, who through your fearless conduct of one-hundred dances suppressed phenomenal
existence and delivered exaltation to the fortunate ones, I pray.
You realized the secret that is even greater than the greatest of secrets;
The esoteric view of the great, secret vajra pinnacle;
The unfabricated, originally pure nature of naked empty awareness—
To you, who discovered the wisdom mind of Kuntuzangpo, I pray.
In the natural flow of the dharmata free from effort-based action,
The limitless expanse beyond mind, innate and unimpeded,
Is free from distraction or meditation—
To you, yogin of space with simultaneous realization and liberation, I pray.
The pure radiance of the spontaneously present, inner clarity of the strength of awareness
Arises as the astonishing phenomena of the rupakaya appearing on the path—
To you, who departed like a magical illusion to the ground of clear-light togal where qualities
having reached their fullness, I pray.
4
The queen of space Gaga Dhu, bestower of prajna and bliss,
Decoded the crucial pith of Ati and entrusted you with the dakini’s secret treasures—
To you, whom she exhorted to open the door of the profound treasures for the sake of the
vastly superlative purpose, I pray.
Through wisdom vision, your mind was pervaded with pure phenomena,
And inexhaustible mind treasures welled forth from the expanse of your wisdom intent—
To you, the universal monarch among treasure revealers, I pray.
Guru Yoga, Dzogchen, and Avalokiteshvara—these three;
Generation, completion, and perfection stages;
The root, branch, and activity rituals including the supplementary practices:
Through this wish-fulfilling treasure trove of astonishing termas—
To you, who gave a festival of delight to your fortunate disciples, I pray.
Here in this degenerate time, when it is difficult
For effort-based vehicles to tame disciples,
Just as it was praised through the truth of vajra speech—
To you, who rekindled the lamp of this doctrine of Mahasandhi, the definitive secret essence,
I pray.
Your unrivaled attractive kaya was adorned with
White garments and long flowing hair.
Singing glorious songs of realization through vajra laughter,
Liberating the mind streams of fortunate ones through the heat of realization—
To you, the unsurpassed heruka, I pray.
Through the strength of your having realized appearances to be nonexistent like magic
And by seeing the nature of unimpeded awareness,
You passed directly through all material substances—
To you, possessor of miraculous powers, I pray.
In these degenerate times when hordes of humans and nonhumans,
Demons, savages, and harmful spirits endanger the doctrine and beings,
You annihilated them through blazing wrathful powers—
To you, whose actions were victorious over all directions, I pray.
When conferring empowerments, great accomplishment rituals,
Feast gatherings (i.e., ganachakra), and the like, rainbows would appear,
Showers of flowers descend, sweet fragrances permeate, and dakinis’ symbolic songs could
be heard—
To you, who awakened the wisdom of fortunate disciples, I pray
Those who saw you, heard you, thought of you, or even just touched you
Were certainly given the experience of permanent exaltation—
To you, whose supreme qualities were famed across the earth, I pray.
The five wisdom dakinis and samaya dakinis as countless as the stars
Connected with you in a hidden manner through the path of desire—
To you, who gave them equal fortune with the heruka, I pray.
5
Your eight sons were holders of the family lineage of bodhisattvas,
Thirteen supreme disciples accomplished the body of rainbow light,
And one thousand achieved the stage of vidyadharahood—
To you, who established the kingdom of accomplished ones, I pray.
By the power of your ripened bodhichitta and the arrival of the time for taming
As far away as Ngari, Ütsang, the hidden land of Lomön,
Puwo, Dagpo, Kongpo, Amdo, Kham, India, Nepal, and others—
To you, who spread forth your enlightened activities and profound treasures, I pray.
When your enlightened deeds were complete in this world,
By directing your wisdom intent towards the great goals ahead—
To you, who departed for the Glorious Mountain of Chamara amid extraordinary signs,
sounds, lights, and the like, I pray.
In pure lands like the beautiful Pema Kö:
In order to spread Padmasambhava’s activity in hundreds of directions—
To you, who revealed inconceivable manifestations like water-moon sprouts of the lotus
family, I pray.
O Protector, the qualities of your life and liberation resemble the ocean.
By recalling them with respect and devotion,
When I supplicate you with intense yearning and fervent regard,
Through the kindness or your unceasing compassion,
I pray to never be separate from you and to be held as your disciple.
For those lineage disciples who possess heartfelt devotion,
Please show your loving face and joyfully bestow your supreme instructions.
Confer upon us the empowerment of great vajra wisdom
And grant blessings to remain inseparable with you.
You departed for the original kingdom by traversing the secret path;
You increased the profound earlier translation tradition across this world.
May the clouds of the inexhaustible ornamental wheel of your lives and liberation
Completely pervade the space of phenomena, and may I always be one with you.
Thus, by the request of numerous sincere disciples possessing the wealth of
devotion, I, Jigdrel Yeshe Dorje, easily spoke these words that were written down by Losel
Trinley Gyurmed.
Translated by Light of Berotsana Translation Group
Tashi Choling
winter 2011
