1
Somadatta, Gift of the Amrita Moon, The Lord of Speech
Now enters the Crystal Palace of the Kalapa Court.
He is the fourth Dharma Raja of Shambhala,
Dharma Raja Somadatta enters this world as an emanation
Of the transcendent Bodhisattva
Sarvanivaranavikrambhin, the Conqueror of All Hindrances .
Sarvanivaranavikrambhin is pale blue like a summer moon
He is very young and his smile is inviting.
He holds in his right hand a white lotus.
On it, as if floating in the sky, the full moon of compassion shines.
His left hand makes the gesture that overcomes all fear
And opens the moonlit path of self-existing fulfillment.
2
The Dharma Lord Somadatta sits on a throne on a high mountain peak.
His face is the color of pearl. His gaze is passionate.
His hair and mustache are fine and black.
He wears the gold crown of a dharma king surmounted by a moonstone
Whose soft luster fills the sky at evening.
He wears a robe of pale orange brocade marked with mating tigers.
His silk sash is turquoise like a summer sea.
He wears the gold necklaces, earrings, and bracelets of an earth-protector.
In his right hand he holds the iron mace, the power of time
Which intoxicates and stupefies the mind, and breaks all who oppose it.
In his left hand he holds the diamond chains that bind the three worlds to nowness.
Thus he floods the world with a moon ocean of bliss, luminosity and complete non-thought.
To stand before him is to feel shy and eager like a passionate virgin
Meeting a lover for the very first time.
3
In his unchanging secret form, the Dharma Raja Somadatta
Is the all pervasive blue-black color of midnight.
His teeth are clenched in a fierce smile,
And his three eyes gaze passionately into all phenomena.
He is the lord who exhausts all hunger and fulfills all thirsts.
He wears the crown of the five families of thataghatas.
And a halo of ruby light shines all around him.
He wears a heavy crimson robe embroidered in gold with coils of joy.
Beneath that he wears a white under-robe covered with silver clouds.
He sits on a red throne, and his left foot rests on a lotus and moon disc.
He holds in his raised right hand the flaming vajra sword
Cutting through the obsessions of all-consuming need.
In his left hand, he holds the golden shield,
The self-existing satiety of the mind of nowness.
His golden consort holds a fan adorned with blue peacock's feathers,
The sign of endless and uninterrupted offering,
The love that ends the tortured cravings of beings.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Saturday, November 6, 2010
THE RADIANT SUCCESSION OF SHAMBHALA: DHARMA RAJAH TEJIN
1
Now the third Dharma Raja of Shambhala
Takes his seat within the Crystal Palace of the Kalapa Court:
He is Tejin, Glowing with the Splendor and Dignity of Unconditional Confidence,
The bearer of the dharma wheel and auspicious conch.
The Dharma Raja Tejin enters this world as an emanation
Of the terrifying Conqueror and Lord of Death, Yamantaka.
Yamanataka is Dark blue in color with thirty-four arms, sixteen legs, and nine heads,
His principal face is that of enraged buffalo.
His three blood-shot eyes wheel madly,
And below his burning snout his pointed iron teeth gnash.
He is adorned by serpents and garlands of human heads.
Because he sees to the core of all the cycles of time,
The empty radiance of reality itself.
2
The Dharma Lord Tejin sits erect near a fresh stream in a forest glade.
His face is dark brown and stern. His gaze is uncompromising.
His hair and mustache are black and cool.
He wears the gold crown of a dharma king, surmounted by a yellow diamond
Which shines like the sun appearing through the smoke of a battle-field.
He wears a glistening white robe embroidered with golden lions.
His sash is orange like an early sun.
He wears the gold necklaces, earrings and bracelets of an earth-protector.
In his right hand, he holds a golden eight-spoked dharma-chakra,
And in his left he holds a conch shell.
Thus he proclaims the unceasing path of liberation
And the truth which is not limited by words.
To see him is to experience a terror that cuts to the marrow,
As all one's self absorption, one's schemes for self-satisfied happiness
Are revealed as cowardly vain, and finally fatal self- deceptions.
3
In his unchanging secret form, the Dharma Raja Tejin
Is the color of a lake of molten gold,
And he is youthful, naked to the waist.
His teeth are clenched,
And his three eyes stare implacably into the depths of space.
He wears the crown of the five families of Thatagathas,
And his red hair, the color of fire is bound into a top-knot.
As the lord who is unaltered by time's endless cycles
And is never confused by changing reference points,
Blue serpents twine around his neck, wrists and ankles as ornaments.
His legs are covered by a silk rainbow and he wears a tiger-skin skirt.
In his raised right hand he upholds that which never changes,
The golden eight spoked dharma cakra;
In his left hand he holds a pure white conch
Whose turnings shape the elements in ever shifting forms
And whose sound is the birth-cry of all creation.
His throne is a black and red jeweled palace
Floating amid clouds and a halo of time-ending fire,
And supported from below by three blue and two bronze water buffalo.
His consort, on his right, is the color of pure lapis,
She holds the kapala of amrita which overcomes death
By dissolving belief in the permanence of individual existence
And the hooked knife which returns all thoughts to the essence.
Now the third Dharma Raja of Shambhala
Takes his seat within the Crystal Palace of the Kalapa Court:
He is Tejin, Glowing with the Splendor and Dignity of Unconditional Confidence,
The bearer of the dharma wheel and auspicious conch.
The Dharma Raja Tejin enters this world as an emanation
Of the terrifying Conqueror and Lord of Death, Yamantaka.
Yamanataka is Dark blue in color with thirty-four arms, sixteen legs, and nine heads,
His principal face is that of enraged buffalo.
His three blood-shot eyes wheel madly,
And below his burning snout his pointed iron teeth gnash.
He is adorned by serpents and garlands of human heads.
Because he sees to the core of all the cycles of time,
The empty radiance of reality itself.
2
The Dharma Lord Tejin sits erect near a fresh stream in a forest glade.
His face is dark brown and stern. His gaze is uncompromising.
His hair and mustache are black and cool.
He wears the gold crown of a dharma king, surmounted by a yellow diamond
Which shines like the sun appearing through the smoke of a battle-field.
He wears a glistening white robe embroidered with golden lions.
His sash is orange like an early sun.
He wears the gold necklaces, earrings and bracelets of an earth-protector.
In his right hand, he holds a golden eight-spoked dharma-chakra,
And in his left he holds a conch shell.
Thus he proclaims the unceasing path of liberation
And the truth which is not limited by words.
To see him is to experience a terror that cuts to the marrow,
As all one's self absorption, one's schemes for self-satisfied happiness
Are revealed as cowardly vain, and finally fatal self- deceptions.
3
In his unchanging secret form, the Dharma Raja Tejin
Is the color of a lake of molten gold,
And he is youthful, naked to the waist.
His teeth are clenched,
And his three eyes stare implacably into the depths of space.
He wears the crown of the five families of Thatagathas,
And his red hair, the color of fire is bound into a top-knot.
As the lord who is unaltered by time's endless cycles
And is never confused by changing reference points,
Blue serpents twine around his neck, wrists and ankles as ornaments.
His legs are covered by a silk rainbow and he wears a tiger-skin skirt.
In his raised right hand he upholds that which never changes,
The golden eight spoked dharma cakra;
In his left hand he holds a pure white conch
Whose turnings shape the elements in ever shifting forms
And whose sound is the birth-cry of all creation.
His throne is a black and red jeweled palace
Floating amid clouds and a halo of time-ending fire,
And supported from below by three blue and two bronze water buffalo.
His consort, on his right, is the color of pure lapis,
She holds the kapala of amrita which overcomes death
By dissolving belief in the permanence of individual existence
And the hooked knife which returns all thoughts to the essence.
Friday, September 24, 2010
THE RADIANT SUCCESSION OF SHAMBHALA: DHARMA RAJAH SURESVARA
1
Now the second Dharma Rajah enters the Crystal Hall of the Kalapa Court.
He is Dharma Raja Suresvara, Lord of Asuras,
Binding All Beings by Love in Union with Pure Nowness.
The great Dharma King Suresvara enters this world
As an emanation of Bodhisattva Kshitigharbha,
Who, because he loves all living beings as if he were their mother,
Is called :The 'Womb of Earth'.
Kshitigharbha appears as a simple monk.
The mark of perfection shines on his forehead.
He holds the wish-fulfilling gem in his right hand.
Because his love supports all beings in the six realms,
He holds in his left hand, a staff with six rings.
Determined that none who are born shall linger in the bonds of suffering,
He is the protector of all children
And carries a child in the crook of his right arm.
He is the compassion of the Buddha,
Inseparable from every form of life,
The final liberator of all who suffer all the tortures of hell.
2
Ruling from within the Crystal Palace, the Dharma Lord Suresvara
Sits at ease beside the wish-fulfilling tree
In a garden filled with fragrant trees.
His face is ruddy and his expression is determined and loving.
His hair and mustache are black and oiled.
He wears the gold crown of a dharma king
Surmounted by a ruby that glows like a dawn sun.
He wears a vermilion brocade robe adorned with gold garudas.
His sash is white as winter ocean spray.
He wears the gold necklaces, earrings and bracelets of an earth-protector.
In his right hand, he holds the gold Vajra prod
Which guides the mad elephant of mind
Through the jungles of claustrophobia and aggression,
In his left hand, he holds a rope of iron
Which draws all beings out of hell
With the ring of faith and hook of longing.
The sight of him overcomes all chaos, uncertainty, and anger
And one experiences complete confidence in the power unconditional love.
4
In his unchanging secret form, the Dharma Raja Suresvara
Is dark red in color like heart's blood.
Youthful, naked to the waist,
He smiles and the sweetness of his expression pervades all space
Like the scent of honey-suckle on a summer night.
He wears a crown of pink utpala flowers
And a scarf the color of laurel leaves.
He wears red pants and a skirt of blue brocade
Adorned with golden swirling clouds.
Because all aspects of the world are dear to him,
His body is adorned with golden necklaces.
And his arms with gold bracelets.
He sits on a throne before the coral and crystal gold-roofed palace of Kalapa
On a throne surmounted by the three jewels.
With his raised right hand, he plays an ivory damaru,
From which emerge all the vowels and consonants.
Thus all the senses vibrate in pure nowness.
In his left hand he holds a lotus the color of dawn
On which stands the blue jewel of the Buddha-nature itself,
Glowing amid the gold flames of all consuming compassion.
His consort, gentle and white a noon-day cloud,
Sits next to him holding the sun-disc of the complete power of mind.
Now the second Dharma Rajah enters the Crystal Hall of the Kalapa Court.
He is Dharma Raja Suresvara, Lord of Asuras,
Binding All Beings by Love in Union with Pure Nowness.
The great Dharma King Suresvara enters this world
As an emanation of Bodhisattva Kshitigharbha,
Who, because he loves all living beings as if he were their mother,
Is called :The 'Womb of Earth'.
Kshitigharbha appears as a simple monk.
The mark of perfection shines on his forehead.
He holds the wish-fulfilling gem in his right hand.
Because his love supports all beings in the six realms,
He holds in his left hand, a staff with six rings.
Determined that none who are born shall linger in the bonds of suffering,
He is the protector of all children
And carries a child in the crook of his right arm.
He is the compassion of the Buddha,
Inseparable from every form of life,
The final liberator of all who suffer all the tortures of hell.
2
Ruling from within the Crystal Palace, the Dharma Lord Suresvara
Sits at ease beside the wish-fulfilling tree
In a garden filled with fragrant trees.
His face is ruddy and his expression is determined and loving.
His hair and mustache are black and oiled.
He wears the gold crown of a dharma king
Surmounted by a ruby that glows like a dawn sun.
He wears a vermilion brocade robe adorned with gold garudas.
His sash is white as winter ocean spray.
He wears the gold necklaces, earrings and bracelets of an earth-protector.
In his right hand, he holds the gold Vajra prod
Which guides the mad elephant of mind
Through the jungles of claustrophobia and aggression,
In his left hand, he holds a rope of iron
Which draws all beings out of hell
With the ring of faith and hook of longing.
The sight of him overcomes all chaos, uncertainty, and anger
And one experiences complete confidence in the power unconditional love.
4
In his unchanging secret form, the Dharma Raja Suresvara
Is dark red in color like heart's blood.
Youthful, naked to the waist,
He smiles and the sweetness of his expression pervades all space
Like the scent of honey-suckle on a summer night.
He wears a crown of pink utpala flowers
And a scarf the color of laurel leaves.
He wears red pants and a skirt of blue brocade
Adorned with golden swirling clouds.
Because all aspects of the world are dear to him,
His body is adorned with golden necklaces.
And his arms with gold bracelets.
He sits on a throne before the coral and crystal gold-roofed palace of Kalapa
On a throne surmounted by the three jewels.
With his raised right hand, he plays an ivory damaru,
From which emerge all the vowels and consonants.
Thus all the senses vibrate in pure nowness.
In his left hand he holds a lotus the color of dawn
On which stands the blue jewel of the Buddha-nature itself,
Glowing amid the gold flames of all consuming compassion.
His consort, gentle and white a noon-day cloud,
Sits next to him holding the sun-disc of the complete power of mind.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
THE RADIANT SUCCESSION OF SHAMBHALA: DHARMA RAJAH SUCANDRA
The Earth Protector Kings
Who ruled the land called Shambhala,
Which means "Held by the Source of Happiness",
Were all descended from Shambhaka of the Sakya clan,
Emerging from this immemorial lineage,
Sucandra, Auspicious Moon, the Lord of Secrets
Is the first to be called a Dharma King.
Now he enters the Crystal Hall of the Kalapa Court.
This great Dharma Raja enters this world as an emanation of Vajrapani,
The All-Conquering Lord of Secrets
Who brings the blazing light of wisdom
Into the fickle realities of the human realm.
Vajrapani is the master of Buddha Activity
Beyond the waxing and waning of life and death.
Out of Vajrapani’s heart, the Dharma King Sucandra takes birth
As the first son of King Suryaprabha and Queen Vijaya.
Thus he enters the Kalapa Court and takes his seat on the Lion Throne.
His pale face is serene and his dark gaze fathomless.
His hair and mustache are black and smooth.
He wears the Gold Crown of Reality Beyond the Limit of Knowledge
Which is surmounted by a white diamond free of any flaw.
As the lord of heart and mind,
He wears gold earrings shaped like sea-dragons.
His dragon-patterned brocade robe is turquoise.
His sash is pale red like an early winter moon.
In his right hand he holds a white lotus
On which stands a crystal Vajra;
In his left a silver bell.
He sits on a glowing golden throne
Beneath the rainbow colored parasol of complete fearlessness
Which is vast as the sky and supported by a golden pole high as Mount Meru.
Encountering him is overwhelming
As if one had emerged in the night from a narrow mountain pass
And found oneself suddenly on an immense plain bathed in full moonlight.
2
In his unchanging secret form, the Great Dharma King Sucandra
Is ever youthful and his body is white as a conch.
His face is inviting and completely peaceful.
Because he has attained the summit of dharma,
His top-knot is surmounted by the three jewels
Blazing with their own radiance.
He wears the flower garland crown of the five senses
And a necklace of the five elements displayed as five kinds of gem-stones.
He wears a red and gold brocade shawl as radiant as the splendor of love.
His golden bracelets are the four aims of life.
He wears the Jewel Treasure of the Ocean on a gold chain at his heart.
In his right hand, he holds the Wish Fulfilling Tree,
And in his left a red lotus,
On which stands the golden eight spoked wheel of unobstructed truth
Surmounted by the three jewels.
His consort on his right, gold as the dawn sun,
Makes the gesture of timeless offering,
Extending the gold vase of eternal life surmounted by the flaming three jewels.
The Dharma King Sucandra is surrounded
By all the offerings of the phenomenal world.
In the peace of his radiance, there is no room for doubt or discursiveness.
3
The Great Dharma Raja Sucandra journeyed to the stupa of Dhyanakataka,
Accompanied by a great retinue of Nagas, Dralas,
And a vast number of his own subjects.
There the Great Lord prostrated to the Enlightened One,
Sage of the Sakyas, the Gautama Buddha,
The conqueror of the three worlds and light of this age.
The Dharma Raja requested the teachings for one who remains a King,
Remains in the embrace of the senses, and seeks the well being of all.
He requested the teachings that unfold outer life as an inner path.
He requested the teachings that open the gate of the seventh consciousness, And purify the full display of the ayatanas.
He requested the teachings that show the world of Basic Goodness
Glowing and fertile in the light of the Great Eastern Sun.
According to the text of The Supreme First Buddha,
The way in which he made his request is told as follows:
To eliminate the kleshas of sentient beings
By the union of body, speech and mind,
He supplicated the Bhagavan by offerings
Of jewel flowers strewn at his lotus feet.
He supplicated with the petals of precious flowers,
With prostrations made on bended knee.
With right knee to the floor
And with palms joined at the forehead,
The Lord of Shambhala requested:
"The Unsurpassed Highest Tantra, The First Buddha
Gathers all siddhis, possesses the vowels and consonants,
The Glorious Yoga of Kalachakra
Instantly manifests perfect Buddhahood.
“Possessing the four times
By its 60 divisions,
It holds the four bindus:
The emptiness and wisdom bindu,
The great supreme Vajra Holder,
The great emptiness of five words,
The empty bindu of six letters.
“Outer, body, Buddha, god, and non-god, 25 classes of beings,
All are within the nature
With bodies of various scale
Which are the cause of the three worlds' arising,
The enjoyment of gods and non-gods;
All these without exception
I ask the teacher to explain."
(2)
Then interior of the stupa became transformed into an immeasurable skull cup,
The inconceivable expanse of the dharmadhatu.
There, in the infinite expanse without beginning or end,
The Buddha arose in the form Vajrasattva
And opened the mandala of Kalachakra, The Lord of Time.
In the great dance of Vajra compassion,
He opened the immeasurable palace:
Below, he displayed the twelve blissful aspects
Of the Lord of Vajradhatu Speech;
Above, he displayed the sixteen mandalas of stars.
All this had not been seen, heard or known
Since the eon of Buddha Dipankara.
In this way, the Buddha himself gave the initiation
Into the great Mandala of Vajradhatu
And conveyed the root text of the Tantra of Glorious Kalachakra.
The Root Tantra explains the essence:
Ka is pacification of cause.
La is dissolving.
Cha is the motion of mind.
Kra is being bound to the stages.
And the Great Commentary expands this:
Whoever has neither cause nor characteristics,
Is without movement and free from stages:
This is the meaning of Kalachakra.
To that non-duality, I make homage.
(3)
So upon returning to Shambhala, Dharma Raja Sucandra
Recorded all this in writing, the "Paramadibuddha" in 12,000 verses,
With commentary five times that length.
Upon returning to Kalapa,
Dharma King Sucandra manifested his pure perception
As a great pleasure garden
To the south of the Palace of Kalapa and to the West of the "Near Lake".
In the midst of that vast park called Malaya,
From liquid gold, rubies, sapphires, emeralds,
Crystal, coral, and turquoise, and silver,
The Dharma Lord built the great Body Mandala of the Lord of Time,
A perfect square with four gates, four arches, and eight charnel grounds
With five surrounding fences,
And beyond them the mandala of the elements adorned with vajra chains.
Near it he built the Speech Mandala of Kalachakra, alike in form,
And close to that, he built the Mind Mandala of Kalachakra,
Alike in form but with three surrounding fences.
Closer still, he placed the Wisdom Mandala of Kalachakra
Surrounded by sixteen jeweled towers.
Again nearest yet to the Kalapa Court, the Dharma King Sucandra
Created a vast eight-petalled lotus
Whose golden anthers sway on breezes of delight and brush the sky,
Radiating like a hundred suns.
Placed in the timeless expanse of pure perception
The Mandalas of the Lord of Time are utterly complete
In every aspect and characteristic, and power.
From this moment on, time is marked with the names of the Kings of Kalapa.
It is from this time that the names of the Lords of Kalapa are known to all.
It is from this time that the teachings of Shambhala flourish,
Blazing through all the human realm and in every human heart.
Who ruled the land called Shambhala,
Which means "Held by the Source of Happiness",
Were all descended from Shambhaka of the Sakya clan,
Emerging from this immemorial lineage,
Sucandra, Auspicious Moon, the Lord of Secrets
Is the first to be called a Dharma King.
Now he enters the Crystal Hall of the Kalapa Court.
This great Dharma Raja enters this world as an emanation of Vajrapani,
The All-Conquering Lord of Secrets
Who brings the blazing light of wisdom
Into the fickle realities of the human realm.
Vajrapani is the master of Buddha Activity
Beyond the waxing and waning of life and death.
Out of Vajrapani’s heart, the Dharma King Sucandra takes birth
As the first son of King Suryaprabha and Queen Vijaya.
Thus he enters the Kalapa Court and takes his seat on the Lion Throne.
His pale face is serene and his dark gaze fathomless.
His hair and mustache are black and smooth.
He wears the Gold Crown of Reality Beyond the Limit of Knowledge
Which is surmounted by a white diamond free of any flaw.
As the lord of heart and mind,
He wears gold earrings shaped like sea-dragons.
His dragon-patterned brocade robe is turquoise.
His sash is pale red like an early winter moon.
In his right hand he holds a white lotus
On which stands a crystal Vajra;
In his left a silver bell.
He sits on a glowing golden throne
Beneath the rainbow colored parasol of complete fearlessness
Which is vast as the sky and supported by a golden pole high as Mount Meru.
Encountering him is overwhelming
As if one had emerged in the night from a narrow mountain pass
And found oneself suddenly on an immense plain bathed in full moonlight.
2
In his unchanging secret form, the Great Dharma King Sucandra
Is ever youthful and his body is white as a conch.
His face is inviting and completely peaceful.
Because he has attained the summit of dharma,
His top-knot is surmounted by the three jewels
Blazing with their own radiance.
He wears the flower garland crown of the five senses
And a necklace of the five elements displayed as five kinds of gem-stones.
He wears a red and gold brocade shawl as radiant as the splendor of love.
His golden bracelets are the four aims of life.
He wears the Jewel Treasure of the Ocean on a gold chain at his heart.
In his right hand, he holds the Wish Fulfilling Tree,
And in his left a red lotus,
On which stands the golden eight spoked wheel of unobstructed truth
Surmounted by the three jewels.
His consort on his right, gold as the dawn sun,
Makes the gesture of timeless offering,
Extending the gold vase of eternal life surmounted by the flaming three jewels.
The Dharma King Sucandra is surrounded
By all the offerings of the phenomenal world.
In the peace of his radiance, there is no room for doubt or discursiveness.
3
The Great Dharma Raja Sucandra journeyed to the stupa of Dhyanakataka,
Accompanied by a great retinue of Nagas, Dralas,
And a vast number of his own subjects.
There the Great Lord prostrated to the Enlightened One,
Sage of the Sakyas, the Gautama Buddha,
The conqueror of the three worlds and light of this age.
The Dharma Raja requested the teachings for one who remains a King,
Remains in the embrace of the senses, and seeks the well being of all.
He requested the teachings that unfold outer life as an inner path.
He requested the teachings that open the gate of the seventh consciousness, And purify the full display of the ayatanas.
He requested the teachings that show the world of Basic Goodness
Glowing and fertile in the light of the Great Eastern Sun.
According to the text of The Supreme First Buddha,
The way in which he made his request is told as follows:
To eliminate the kleshas of sentient beings
By the union of body, speech and mind,
He supplicated the Bhagavan by offerings
Of jewel flowers strewn at his lotus feet.
He supplicated with the petals of precious flowers,
With prostrations made on bended knee.
With right knee to the floor
And with palms joined at the forehead,
The Lord of Shambhala requested:
"The Unsurpassed Highest Tantra, The First Buddha
Gathers all siddhis, possesses the vowels and consonants,
The Glorious Yoga of Kalachakra
Instantly manifests perfect Buddhahood.
“Possessing the four times
By its 60 divisions,
It holds the four bindus:
The emptiness and wisdom bindu,
The great supreme Vajra Holder,
The great emptiness of five words,
The empty bindu of six letters.
“Outer, body, Buddha, god, and non-god, 25 classes of beings,
All are within the nature
With bodies of various scale
Which are the cause of the three worlds' arising,
The enjoyment of gods and non-gods;
All these without exception
I ask the teacher to explain."
(2)
Then interior of the stupa became transformed into an immeasurable skull cup,
The inconceivable expanse of the dharmadhatu.
There, in the infinite expanse without beginning or end,
The Buddha arose in the form Vajrasattva
And opened the mandala of Kalachakra, The Lord of Time.
In the great dance of Vajra compassion,
He opened the immeasurable palace:
Below, he displayed the twelve blissful aspects
Of the Lord of Vajradhatu Speech;
Above, he displayed the sixteen mandalas of stars.
All this had not been seen, heard or known
Since the eon of Buddha Dipankara.
In this way, the Buddha himself gave the initiation
Into the great Mandala of Vajradhatu
And conveyed the root text of the Tantra of Glorious Kalachakra.
The Root Tantra explains the essence:
Ka is pacification of cause.
La is dissolving.
Cha is the motion of mind.
Kra is being bound to the stages.
And the Great Commentary expands this:
Whoever has neither cause nor characteristics,
Is without movement and free from stages:
This is the meaning of Kalachakra.
To that non-duality, I make homage.
(3)
So upon returning to Shambhala, Dharma Raja Sucandra
Recorded all this in writing, the "Paramadibuddha" in 12,000 verses,
With commentary five times that length.
Upon returning to Kalapa,
Dharma King Sucandra manifested his pure perception
As a great pleasure garden
To the south of the Palace of Kalapa and to the West of the "Near Lake".
In the midst of that vast park called Malaya,
From liquid gold, rubies, sapphires, emeralds,
Crystal, coral, and turquoise, and silver,
The Dharma Lord built the great Body Mandala of the Lord of Time,
A perfect square with four gates, four arches, and eight charnel grounds
With five surrounding fences,
And beyond them the mandala of the elements adorned with vajra chains.
Near it he built the Speech Mandala of Kalachakra, alike in form,
And close to that, he built the Mind Mandala of Kalachakra,
Alike in form but with three surrounding fences.
Closer still, he placed the Wisdom Mandala of Kalachakra
Surrounded by sixteen jeweled towers.
Again nearest yet to the Kalapa Court, the Dharma King Sucandra
Created a vast eight-petalled lotus
Whose golden anthers sway on breezes of delight and brush the sky,
Radiating like a hundred suns.
Placed in the timeless expanse of pure perception
The Mandalas of the Lord of Time are utterly complete
In every aspect and characteristic, and power.
From this moment on, time is marked with the names of the Kings of Kalapa.
It is from this time that the names of the Lords of Kalapa are known to all.
It is from this time that the teachings of Shambhala flourish,
Blazing through all the human realm and in every human heart.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
from THE MIRROR OF NOWNESS- THE KINGDOM OF SHAMBHALA AND THE KALAPA COURT
THE RADIANT SUCCESSION OF THE LORDS OF KALAPA:
THE KINGDOM OF SHAMBHALA
1
Floating on the radiance of nowness
In the infinite circle of the cosmic mirror,
The Kingdom of Shambhala appears as a pure realm.
The Kingdom of Shambhala appears on the face of this earth.
The Kingdom of Shambhala appears as the secret form of the human heart.
Because Shambhala is nowness,
It is all pervasive as basic goodness.
Because Shambhala does not rely on confirmation,
It expands as the vastness of the ayatanas.
Because Shambhala vaults over the apparent opposition of phenomena,
It rises as the power of wind horse.
Because Shambhala is timeless
It is always appropriate,
Because Shambhala is self-fulfilling,
It is awake in the primordial stroke.
It posses the spontaneous confidence of Lion, Tiger, Garuda, Dragon.
2
Luminous, immense, verdant, stately and eternal,
The Kingdom of Shambhala is hidden.
A towering range of impenetrable, glistening snow-mountains,
Formed from time
Frozen by the anger, lust and ignorance of egoistic fixation,
Completely surrounds it.
Within this circular ice mountain wall,
The Kingdom of Shambhala, "Held by the Source of Happiness", opens
In the shape of vast lotus with eight petals.
The melting waters of Shambhala’s mountains
Form eight cold blue racing streams
Which enrich its fields and forests
And mark the boundaries of the Kingdom’s eight provinces.
In each province, farms, forests, lakes and towns
Adorn the land, as dew in sunlight
Sparkles on a lotus' outstretched petals.
This is the land where the intrinsic sacredness
Of humanity has never been lost,
And is always whole.
The births of all who dwell here are free of pain.
Following the ways of their ancestors and the guidance of elders,
They are raised according to the inner path of meditation,
And cultivate the outer paths of art and warrior discipline.
Their manner is dignified, direct and considerate,
And their lives are untouched by sickness, hunger, unhappiness or poverty.
Both men and women are true warriors,
But live the lives of ordinary householders.
Their life spans last a hundred years,
And they view their deaths with equanimity
As no different from the transitions of life.
(1&2)
Their confidence and kindness
Appear in the ordinary human realm
As galaxies of stars in the dark of night.
In each province, as on the apex of a lotus petal’s gentle curve,
Sits a glittering capital city.
In the east is The Proud One; in the southeast, The Vast Field;
In the south, the Secret; in the west, The Flexible One;
In the northwest, The Happy One; in the north, The Originating One;
And in the northeast, The Radiant One.
In the gleaming inner courts of these capitals
Reside the Lords of Shambhala,
The father and mother lineages of dralas.
Their minds do not stray from nowness.
They are gentle and fearless.
By speech and symbol,
They expand the luminous, vast perception of nowness
Unrestricted by the limits of conventional thought.
Their brilliance blazes through the realm of human time
As protectors, as mountain gods and goddesses of lakes,
As non-dual sudden wakefulness.
THE KINGDOM OF SHAMBHALA
1
Floating on the radiance of nowness
In the infinite circle of the cosmic mirror,
The Kingdom of Shambhala appears as a pure realm.
The Kingdom of Shambhala appears on the face of this earth.
The Kingdom of Shambhala appears as the secret form of the human heart.
Because Shambhala is nowness,
It is all pervasive as basic goodness.
Because Shambhala does not rely on confirmation,
It expands as the vastness of the ayatanas.
Because Shambhala vaults over the apparent opposition of phenomena,
It rises as the power of wind horse.
Because Shambhala is timeless
It is always appropriate,
Because Shambhala is self-fulfilling,
It is awake in the primordial stroke.
It posses the spontaneous confidence of Lion, Tiger, Garuda, Dragon.
2
Luminous, immense, verdant, stately and eternal,
The Kingdom of Shambhala is hidden.
A towering range of impenetrable, glistening snow-mountains,
Formed from time
Frozen by the anger, lust and ignorance of egoistic fixation,
Completely surrounds it.
Within this circular ice mountain wall,
The Kingdom of Shambhala, "Held by the Source of Happiness", opens
In the shape of vast lotus with eight petals.
The melting waters of Shambhala’s mountains
Form eight cold blue racing streams
Which enrich its fields and forests
And mark the boundaries of the Kingdom’s eight provinces.
In each province, farms, forests, lakes and towns
Adorn the land, as dew in sunlight
Sparkles on a lotus' outstretched petals.
This is the land where the intrinsic sacredness
Of humanity has never been lost,
And is always whole.
The births of all who dwell here are free of pain.
Following the ways of their ancestors and the guidance of elders,
They are raised according to the inner path of meditation,
And cultivate the outer paths of art and warrior discipline.
Their manner is dignified, direct and considerate,
And their lives are untouched by sickness, hunger, unhappiness or poverty.
Both men and women are true warriors,
But live the lives of ordinary householders.
Their life spans last a hundred years,
And they view their deaths with equanimity
As no different from the transitions of life.
(1&2)
Their confidence and kindness
Appear in the ordinary human realm
As galaxies of stars in the dark of night.
In each province, as on the apex of a lotus petal’s gentle curve,
Sits a glittering capital city.
In the east is The Proud One; in the southeast, The Vast Field;
In the south, the Secret; in the west, The Flexible One;
In the northwest, The Happy One; in the north, The Originating One;
And in the northeast, The Radiant One.
In the gleaming inner courts of these capitals
Reside the Lords of Shambhala,
The father and mother lineages of dralas.
Their minds do not stray from nowness.
They are gentle and fearless.
By speech and symbol,
They expand the luminous, vast perception of nowness
Unrestricted by the limits of conventional thought.
Their brilliance blazes through the realm of human time
As protectors, as mountain gods and goddesses of lakes,
As non-dual sudden wakefulness.
Monday, June 14, 2010
THE MIRROR OF NOWNESS: THE LEGACY OF THE RIGDEN KINGS OF SHAMBHALA
FOREWORD
The core of what follows is an account of the thirty-two rulers of the legendary Kingdom of Shambhala. The first eight were titled Dharma Kings and the latter twenty-five titled Rigdens or ‘Caste Holders’. The eighth Dharma King, Manjusrikirti-Yasas was responsible for the change of social arrangements resulting in the change of title.
The Kingdom of Shambhala is said to have three aspects first as a pure realm, secondly as a real though seldom seen place on the earth, and thirdly as an essential part of human nature. Thus Shambhala is the fruition, path and ground of the social manifestation of enlightened mind.
Only four of its rulers are spoken of as having manifested directly in human historical time: Sucandra, Pundarika, Manjusrikirti-Yasas, and the future twenty-fifth Rigden, Raudracakrin. The rest are known only by the description of their outer appearance in the Kingdom of Shambhala and by the description of their inner manifestation in Sambhogakaya form.
One of the distinguishing characteristics of those who dwell in pure realms is that their compassion can manifest anywhere, uncircumscribed by the concepts of space and time. Thus the inner descriptions of the rulers of Shambhala portray the aspects of enlightenment which they display and which radiate during their reign throughout the human world. Through their complex forms, colors, attributes and atmospheres, the rulers of Shambhala manifest the mind of timelessness in the world of time and move in the hearts of all human beings.
THE RADIANT SUCCESSION OF THE LORDS OF KALAPA:
THE COSMIC MIRROR
1
In the all-pervasive pure immensity of primordial space,
The limitless, the timeless;
Space before stillness, time before occurrence,
The signless, the directionless, the gateless;
In this realm which neither appears nor disappears;
Space without other, ground without path, the primordial mandala
Is pure presence, is pure reality itself.
Now
Without beginning,
Now
Without end,
The cosmic mirror
Is the spontaneous expanse of infinite space.
The first moment without the second,
The cosmic mirror is primordial nowness.
2
Now,
Radiating within the space beyond space and the time beyond time,
Everywhere and simultaneously
Now,
Light before illumination and shadow;
Luminosity inseparable from bliss,
The radiance of all, bliss of all:
The self-luminous blazes as gates of light.
Now
Without logic or consequence,
Sight, sound smell, taste and touch
Shine
Free from the limits of perceiver, perception or consciousness.
This is the all-encompassing radiance
Of the cosmic mirror.
3
Now,
As a bolt of lightning, as a sharp cry
All the wisdom of the cosmic mirror
Condenses.
A sudden dot,
Vibrant, alive, awake,
Pulses in the infinite expanse of luminous space.
Now is the all pervasive life
Of vision, tenderness and courage.
The Kingdom of Shambhala
Rises beyond time
Complete, Brilliant and all pervasive
In every instant.
THE RADIANT SUCCESSION OF THE LORDS OF KALAPA:
THE KINGDOM OF SHAMBHALA
1
Floating on the radiance of nowness
In the infinite circle of the cosmic mirror,
The Kingdom of Shambhala appears as a pure realm.
The Kingdom of Shambhala appears on the face of this earth.
The Kingdom of Shambhala appears as the secret form of the human heart.
Because Shambhala is nowness,
It is all pervasive as basic goodness.
Because Shambhala does not rely on confirmation,
It expands as the vastness of the ayatanas.
Because Shambhala vaults over the apparent opposition of phenomena,
It rises as the power of wind horse.
Because Shambhala is timeless
It is always appropriate,
Because Shambhala is self-fulfilling,
It is awake in the primordial stroke.
It posses the spontaneous confidence of Lion, Tiger, Garuda, Dragon.
2
Luminous, immense, verdant, stately and eternal,
The Kingdom of Shambhala is hidden.
A towering range of impenetrable, glistening snow-mountains,
Formed from time
Frozen by the anger, lust and ignorance of egoistic fixation,
Completely surrounds it.
Within this circular ice mountain wall,
The Kingdom of Shambhala, "Held by the Source of Happiness", opens
In the shape of vast lotus with eight petals.
The melting waters of Shambhala’s mountains
Form eight cold blue racing streams
Which enrich its fields and forests
And mark the boundaries of the Kingdom’s eight provinces.
In each province, farms, forests, lakes and towns
Adorn the land, as dew in sunlight
Sparkles on a lotus' outstretched petals.
This is the land where the intrinsic sacredness
Of humanity has never been lost,
And is always whole.
The births of all who dwell here are free of pain.
Following the ways of their ancestors and the guidance of elders,
They are raised according to the inner path of meditation,
And cultivate the outer paths of art and warrior discipline.
Their manner is dignified, direct and considerate,
And their lives are untouched by sickness, hunger, unhappiness or poverty.
Both men and women are true warriors,
But live the lives of ordinary householders.
Their life spans last a hundred years,
And they view their deaths with equanimity
As no different from the transitions of life.
(1&2)
Their confidence and kindness
Appear in the ordinary human realm
As galaxies of stars in the dark of night.
In each province, as on the apex of a lotus petal’s gentle curve,
Sits a glittering capital city.
In the east is The Proud One; in the southeast, The Vast Field;
In the south, the Secret; in the west, The Flexible One;
In the northwest, The Happy One; in the north, The Originating One;
And in the northeast, The Radiant One.
In the gleaming inner courts of these capitals
Reside the Lords of Shambhala,
The father and mother lineages of dralas.
Their minds do not stray from nowness.
They are gentle and fearless.
By speech and symbol,
They expand the luminous, vast perception of nowness
Unrestricted by the limits of conventional thought.
Their brilliance blazes through the realm of human time
As protectors, as mountain gods and goddesses of lakes,
As non-dual sudden wakefulness.
THE RADIANT SUCCESSION OF THE LORDS OF KALAPA:
THE KALAPA COURT
1
At the center of the Kingdom of Shambhala,
Like silver anthers rising amid golden lotus petals,
A towering ring of crystal mountains rises
Formed from time frozen by concepts of eternalism and nihilism.
Theses glittering peaks surround a lofty circular green plateau,
The great park of Malaya, adorned with turquoise lakes and crystal streams.
Glades of juniper, tamarisk, bamboo, and rhododendron perfume the air.
Here stands the mandala of Kalachakra,
Surrounded by the mandalas of the eight gods, the eight Naga kings,
The protectors of the ten directions,
The nine great destroyers, the gods of the eight planets,
The twenty-eight stars, and innumerable other protector deities.
At the center of Malaya, arising in the spontaneous heart of nowness,
Is the ultimate court of primordial time,
Kalapa, "The Timely”, the capital of Shambhala,
Glowing with an intense radiance that fills the whole of space.
Here dwell the Earth Protectors and Rigdens
Who rule over all Shambhala
And radiate the heart of all true human law.
Kalapa is a vast square with high bright ruby walls
Surmounted by golden balustrades.
Its four gates are made from sapphire, yellow diamond, ruby and emerald.
Within the walls are the inner gates and courtyards paved with white opal.
In the center, on a platform of pearl, is a great palace, the Kalapa Court.
It is made of gold and looms nine stories high
With pillars and beams made of cinnabar, silver, coral and gzi.
Its floors are ebony, sandalwood and cedar.
It's moldings are made of silver and liquid gold,
And its roof and the floor of its throne room
Are made from crystal plates that radiate heat.
Its roof is surmounted by victory banners and a gold dharmachakra.
Garlands of gold and pearl hang from its eaves.
The luster of the palace is so great that it dims the sun and moon,
And the sky above the palace shines like a sparkling sea.
Also within the ruby walls of Kalapa, surrounding the central palace
Are thirty-one smaller pavilions built in the same way.
Each is surrounded by gardens and streams.
The sound of chimes and the scent of flowers fill the air.
Here dwell of the Rulers of Shambhala,
The seven Earth Protector Dharma Rajahs and twenty-five Rigdens.
The Rulers of Shambhala appear directly from the heart of the cosmic mirror
As nowness pervades the endless succession of time.
As timelessness pierces the endless stream of cause and effect,
The rulers of Shambhala follow one after another
Just as the sun moves across the sky.
Thus primordial time radiates within the realm of time
As ruler, as guide, as sustenance, as vision.
2
Inseparable from the fabric of the vast and minute cycles of time itself,
The thirty-two Lords of Kalapa
Move slowly across the luminous court yard.
Each in turn dwells in each of the thirty-two pavilions of Kalapa.
Each in succession appears in rulership,
Resolving, one into the other,
As the many rays and aspects resolve into a single blazing sun.
The True Law of the human realm
Resounds with their foot-fall.
Time unfolds as the vowels and consonants
Weave the binding of the senses and elements
To the pervasive unwavering blue light of Samantabhadra.
Thus the mind of the rulers shines in light.
The mood of their command colors the sky.
Their deeds are the dance of the elements.
The sun and moon are their wisdom display,
The stars and planets show their path,
The four seasons are their law
In order that confidence blaze like a prairie fire
In the hearts of all men, women and children.
In order to show the law inherent in the movements of the human,
The Lords of Kalapa, the Rulers of Shambhala
Appear in the Kalapa Court,
One after the other;
Appear in slow procession
And the whole of time resounds from their footsteps.
So
Through the blessings of the elements and ayatanas,
The Kingdom of Shambhala appears
As living reality on the very face of this earth,
Alive in every breath, sound, mood, season, hour and instant.
The core of what follows is an account of the thirty-two rulers of the legendary Kingdom of Shambhala. The first eight were titled Dharma Kings and the latter twenty-five titled Rigdens or ‘Caste Holders’. The eighth Dharma King, Manjusrikirti-Yasas was responsible for the change of social arrangements resulting in the change of title.
The Kingdom of Shambhala is said to have three aspects first as a pure realm, secondly as a real though seldom seen place on the earth, and thirdly as an essential part of human nature. Thus Shambhala is the fruition, path and ground of the social manifestation of enlightened mind.
Only four of its rulers are spoken of as having manifested directly in human historical time: Sucandra, Pundarika, Manjusrikirti-Yasas, and the future twenty-fifth Rigden, Raudracakrin. The rest are known only by the description of their outer appearance in the Kingdom of Shambhala and by the description of their inner manifestation in Sambhogakaya form.
One of the distinguishing characteristics of those who dwell in pure realms is that their compassion can manifest anywhere, uncircumscribed by the concepts of space and time. Thus the inner descriptions of the rulers of Shambhala portray the aspects of enlightenment which they display and which radiate during their reign throughout the human world. Through their complex forms, colors, attributes and atmospheres, the rulers of Shambhala manifest the mind of timelessness in the world of time and move in the hearts of all human beings.
THE RADIANT SUCCESSION OF THE LORDS OF KALAPA:
THE COSMIC MIRROR
1
In the all-pervasive pure immensity of primordial space,
The limitless, the timeless;
Space before stillness, time before occurrence,
The signless, the directionless, the gateless;
In this realm which neither appears nor disappears;
Space without other, ground without path, the primordial mandala
Is pure presence, is pure reality itself.
Now
Without beginning,
Now
Without end,
The cosmic mirror
Is the spontaneous expanse of infinite space.
The first moment without the second,
The cosmic mirror is primordial nowness.
2
Now,
Radiating within the space beyond space and the time beyond time,
Everywhere and simultaneously
Now,
Light before illumination and shadow;
Luminosity inseparable from bliss,
The radiance of all, bliss of all:
The self-luminous blazes as gates of light.
Now
Without logic or consequence,
Sight, sound smell, taste and touch
Shine
Free from the limits of perceiver, perception or consciousness.
This is the all-encompassing radiance
Of the cosmic mirror.
3
Now,
As a bolt of lightning, as a sharp cry
All the wisdom of the cosmic mirror
Condenses.
A sudden dot,
Vibrant, alive, awake,
Pulses in the infinite expanse of luminous space.
Now is the all pervasive life
Of vision, tenderness and courage.
The Kingdom of Shambhala
Rises beyond time
Complete, Brilliant and all pervasive
In every instant.
THE RADIANT SUCCESSION OF THE LORDS OF KALAPA:
THE KINGDOM OF SHAMBHALA
1
Floating on the radiance of nowness
In the infinite circle of the cosmic mirror,
The Kingdom of Shambhala appears as a pure realm.
The Kingdom of Shambhala appears on the face of this earth.
The Kingdom of Shambhala appears as the secret form of the human heart.
Because Shambhala is nowness,
It is all pervasive as basic goodness.
Because Shambhala does not rely on confirmation,
It expands as the vastness of the ayatanas.
Because Shambhala vaults over the apparent opposition of phenomena,
It rises as the power of wind horse.
Because Shambhala is timeless
It is always appropriate,
Because Shambhala is self-fulfilling,
It is awake in the primordial stroke.
It posses the spontaneous confidence of Lion, Tiger, Garuda, Dragon.
2
Luminous, immense, verdant, stately and eternal,
The Kingdom of Shambhala is hidden.
A towering range of impenetrable, glistening snow-mountains,
Formed from time
Frozen by the anger, lust and ignorance of egoistic fixation,
Completely surrounds it.
Within this circular ice mountain wall,
The Kingdom of Shambhala, "Held by the Source of Happiness", opens
In the shape of vast lotus with eight petals.
The melting waters of Shambhala’s mountains
Form eight cold blue racing streams
Which enrich its fields and forests
And mark the boundaries of the Kingdom’s eight provinces.
In each province, farms, forests, lakes and towns
Adorn the land, as dew in sunlight
Sparkles on a lotus' outstretched petals.
This is the land where the intrinsic sacredness
Of humanity has never been lost,
And is always whole.
The births of all who dwell here are free of pain.
Following the ways of their ancestors and the guidance of elders,
They are raised according to the inner path of meditation,
And cultivate the outer paths of art and warrior discipline.
Their manner is dignified, direct and considerate,
And their lives are untouched by sickness, hunger, unhappiness or poverty.
Both men and women are true warriors,
But live the lives of ordinary householders.
Their life spans last a hundred years,
And they view their deaths with equanimity
As no different from the transitions of life.
(1&2)
Their confidence and kindness
Appear in the ordinary human realm
As galaxies of stars in the dark of night.
In each province, as on the apex of a lotus petal’s gentle curve,
Sits a glittering capital city.
In the east is The Proud One; in the southeast, The Vast Field;
In the south, the Secret; in the west, The Flexible One;
In the northwest, The Happy One; in the north, The Originating One;
And in the northeast, The Radiant One.
In the gleaming inner courts of these capitals
Reside the Lords of Shambhala,
The father and mother lineages of dralas.
Their minds do not stray from nowness.
They are gentle and fearless.
By speech and symbol,
They expand the luminous, vast perception of nowness
Unrestricted by the limits of conventional thought.
Their brilliance blazes through the realm of human time
As protectors, as mountain gods and goddesses of lakes,
As non-dual sudden wakefulness.
THE RADIANT SUCCESSION OF THE LORDS OF KALAPA:
THE KALAPA COURT
1
At the center of the Kingdom of Shambhala,
Like silver anthers rising amid golden lotus petals,
A towering ring of crystal mountains rises
Formed from time frozen by concepts of eternalism and nihilism.
Theses glittering peaks surround a lofty circular green plateau,
The great park of Malaya, adorned with turquoise lakes and crystal streams.
Glades of juniper, tamarisk, bamboo, and rhododendron perfume the air.
Here stands the mandala of Kalachakra,
Surrounded by the mandalas of the eight gods, the eight Naga kings,
The protectors of the ten directions,
The nine great destroyers, the gods of the eight planets,
The twenty-eight stars, and innumerable other protector deities.
At the center of Malaya, arising in the spontaneous heart of nowness,
Is the ultimate court of primordial time,
Kalapa, "The Timely”, the capital of Shambhala,
Glowing with an intense radiance that fills the whole of space.
Here dwell the Earth Protectors and Rigdens
Who rule over all Shambhala
And radiate the heart of all true human law.
Kalapa is a vast square with high bright ruby walls
Surmounted by golden balustrades.
Its four gates are made from sapphire, yellow diamond, ruby and emerald.
Within the walls are the inner gates and courtyards paved with white opal.
In the center, on a platform of pearl, is a great palace, the Kalapa Court.
It is made of gold and looms nine stories high
With pillars and beams made of cinnabar, silver, coral and gzi.
Its floors are ebony, sandalwood and cedar.
It's moldings are made of silver and liquid gold,
And its roof and the floor of its throne room
Are made from crystal plates that radiate heat.
Its roof is surmounted by victory banners and a gold dharmachakra.
Garlands of gold and pearl hang from its eaves.
The luster of the palace is so great that it dims the sun and moon,
And the sky above the palace shines like a sparkling sea.
Also within the ruby walls of Kalapa, surrounding the central palace
Are thirty-one smaller pavilions built in the same way.
Each is surrounded by gardens and streams.
The sound of chimes and the scent of flowers fill the air.
Here dwell of the Rulers of Shambhala,
The seven Earth Protector Dharma Rajahs and twenty-five Rigdens.
The Rulers of Shambhala appear directly from the heart of the cosmic mirror
As nowness pervades the endless succession of time.
As timelessness pierces the endless stream of cause and effect,
The rulers of Shambhala follow one after another
Just as the sun moves across the sky.
Thus primordial time radiates within the realm of time
As ruler, as guide, as sustenance, as vision.
2
Inseparable from the fabric of the vast and minute cycles of time itself,
The thirty-two Lords of Kalapa
Move slowly across the luminous court yard.
Each in turn dwells in each of the thirty-two pavilions of Kalapa.
Each in succession appears in rulership,
Resolving, one into the other,
As the many rays and aspects resolve into a single blazing sun.
The True Law of the human realm
Resounds with their foot-fall.
Time unfolds as the vowels and consonants
Weave the binding of the senses and elements
To the pervasive unwavering blue light of Samantabhadra.
Thus the mind of the rulers shines in light.
The mood of their command colors the sky.
Their deeds are the dance of the elements.
The sun and moon are their wisdom display,
The stars and planets show their path,
The four seasons are their law
In order that confidence blaze like a prairie fire
In the hearts of all men, women and children.
In order to show the law inherent in the movements of the human,
The Lords of Kalapa, the Rulers of Shambhala
Appear in the Kalapa Court,
One after the other;
Appear in slow procession
And the whole of time resounds from their footsteps.
So
Through the blessings of the elements and ayatanas,
The Kingdom of Shambhala appears
As living reality on the very face of this earth,
Alive in every breath, sound, mood, season, hour and instant.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
INTRODUCTION to CROSSINGS ON A BRIDGE OF LIGHT
The Gesar epic is a vast body of literature that recounts the struggles of Gesar Norbu Dradul, the legendary 12th century King of Ling in Eastern Tibet. Gesar was renowned for the many battles and quests he undertook to secure the wellbeing, prosperity and peace of his embattled kingdom, and he came to be regarded as the embodiment of continuous cultural and spiritual renewal.
In all his endeavors, Gesar is inspired by fearless compassion. Unafraid of chaos, he is able to uncover a path of wakefulness and harmony even in the most perilous and compromising situations. His unconditional commitment to others gives birth to the confidence that always uncovers spontaneous, precise and vital expressions of enlightened mind. Thus, he is revered throughout central Asia in Buddhist, Shambhala and shamanic teachings as the perfect warrior.
The Spirit of Renewal
Gesar's character in all his journeys is somewhat unique in Asian folklore. He is, even from before his birth, an enlightened being. However he is also a classic epic hero, prey to a range of flaws. Unlike the Buddha who, having once realized enlightenment, was invulnerable to worldly sorrows and blandishments, Gesar is repeatedly caught in nets of outer and inner conflict. And he repeatedly engages his torment and confusion in order to uncover the freedom of fundamental wakefulness.
The deepest impulse in the Gesar tradition is the constant renewal of enlightenment in the world. It is this dynamic—the constant rediscovery of wakefulness and compassion within the most horrific, grotesque, and frightening situations—that accounts for the Gesar epic's continued vitality and its many elaborations.
A Living Tradition
One of the world’s most extensive bodies of epic lore, the Gesar songs and stories have long focused the social and spiritual aspirations of Eastern Tibet, Western China, Mongolia, Buryatsia, and the Kalmuk Republic. This epic tradition is still alive, in a wide variety of forms, today.
Itinerant Gesar singers perpetuate the saga’s basic episodes and characters in improvised songs and chants, with some illiterate singers pretending to recite from written texts, and others unfurling scrolls that depict the tales of their songs. In eastern Tibet and elsewhere, an elaborate theatrical tradition boasts distinctive dances, costumes, and backdrops.
The epic has also been composed in written form, most famously in the early 20th century at the behest of Mipham Rinpoche, the great Nyingma lama and scholar. This written tradition includes many liturgies invoking Gesar as a deity, protector, and spiritual guide. Of the written versions now available to us from Tibet, Mongolia, and Ladakh, many were adapted in whole or in part from the songs and performances of one or more singers. Meanwhile new episodes arise in response to the inspiration and needs of the time. One lama, for example, hearing of the horrors of World War Two, composed an episode in which Gesar goes to Germany to conquer Hitler.
The Gesar epic is unlike the Mahabharata, which exists in one definitive written form, or the Ramayana which exists in two. Throughout India and South East Asia, the many theatrical and spiritual variations of these two great Indian epics assume the stability of the root texts. By contrast, there is no “definitive” Gesar epic, which is constantly evolving—as are its modes of presentation (with some songs and performances containing only selected episodes). In this sense, it is very much a living, improvisatory tradition. Because its message continues to inspire people in many cultures to find courage and hope in the hardships they encounter daily, new renditions of the Gesar epic have often arisen in times of special uncertainty and danger.
The Heart of the Story
The Gesar Epic has a core repertoire of episodes. These include Gesar's celestial origin and miraculous birth, his childhood and accession to the throne, his four great campaigns against the demonic lords of the four directions, and his departure from this earth. Other episodes tell of his battles in foreign lands, undertaken to procure various spiritual and material riches for the people of Ling. (These can be found in Alexandra David Neel’s Superhuman Life of Gesar of Ling, Douglas Penick’s Warrior Song of King Gesar, and Robin Kornman forthcoming translation, among others.)
The episode recounted here is also part of the traditional canon, but less well known and tells of Gesar’s journey to rescue his mother from hell. To do so, Gesar, after encountering the great protectors Vajrasadhu and Vetali, enters the kingdom of Yama, Lord of Death (part 1) he then travels through the six realms of existence and the interim states or bardos (part2). And afterwards, he visits the Kingdom of Shambhala, where he meets four great warrior rulers who frame this journey in a worldly societal context (part 3). Finally, (in part 4), King Gesar makes his last return to Ling.
This episode is in some ways the epitome of all Gesar’s other endeavors. Here he experiences of the six realms of being: hell, the realm of hungry ghosts, animals, humans, jealous gods, and gods. These realms are traditional in Tibetan, Indian and other central Asian cosmologies, but even as they may be considered ‘real’ places, they also represent the kinds of worlds that evolve from our own states of mind. Thus, when our anger becomes completely solid, our world becomes a constant source of pain; when our craving becomes incessant, we inhabit a world of utter deprivation; willful ignorance makes a world of endless apprehension; clinging to stability accentuates a world of constant change; envy produces a world where what is most desired is the possession of others; and the hallucinations of self-absorption flourish in complete indifference. From this point of view, we may find that all these realms not just resonate but even exist in our human world.
At the same time, the actual experiences of anger, craving, ignoring and so forth are all intensely, even unsparingly alive. We try to harness them to our narrative of a solid self achieving goals in a solid world, but, letting go of such reference points, the energy of the passions themselves becomes a path of enlightenment. Passions wake us up to what is real in the world, in ourselves, in life, in dying. Thus, Gesar’s experience of each realm leads him to realize the immediate enlightenment within it.
Although in this rendition, the six realms and the Buddhas within them are represented traditionally, this story lives beyond its original cultural framework. The inner truth of Gesar’s journey is not ultimately confined to any specific imagery. The demonic figures are expressions of our own inner terrors; the Buddhas ( literally: ‘awakened ones’) refer to the intrinsic clarity and vividness of our own minds. Beyond any specific cultural or spiritual tradition, Gesar continues to provoke and inspire because we continually feel that there is an intensity, a truthfulness beyond our own limitations, and we continue to dare to seek it, even beyond the limits of life and death.
*
As this entire episode has never been translated into English, I have relied on the Gesar tradition as transmitted to me by the Vidyadhara, the Venerable Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, the Dorje Dradul of Mukpo Dong. I have also been given unstinting and generous assistance from the teachings of His Holiness Orgyen Kusum Lingpa, the Venerable Tulku Thondup, the Venerable Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, the Venerable Yangthang Tulku, and the Venerable Namkhai Drimed Rinpoche. I am also deeply indebted to Ives Waldo, the late Robin Kornman, Blake Thomson, and the works of R.A. Stein, Alexandra David Neel, Ida Zeitlin, and Geoffrey Samuels.
In all his endeavors, Gesar is inspired by fearless compassion. Unafraid of chaos, he is able to uncover a path of wakefulness and harmony even in the most perilous and compromising situations. His unconditional commitment to others gives birth to the confidence that always uncovers spontaneous, precise and vital expressions of enlightened mind. Thus, he is revered throughout central Asia in Buddhist, Shambhala and shamanic teachings as the perfect warrior.
The Spirit of Renewal
Gesar's character in all his journeys is somewhat unique in Asian folklore. He is, even from before his birth, an enlightened being. However he is also a classic epic hero, prey to a range of flaws. Unlike the Buddha who, having once realized enlightenment, was invulnerable to worldly sorrows and blandishments, Gesar is repeatedly caught in nets of outer and inner conflict. And he repeatedly engages his torment and confusion in order to uncover the freedom of fundamental wakefulness.
The deepest impulse in the Gesar tradition is the constant renewal of enlightenment in the world. It is this dynamic—the constant rediscovery of wakefulness and compassion within the most horrific, grotesque, and frightening situations—that accounts for the Gesar epic's continued vitality and its many elaborations.
A Living Tradition
One of the world’s most extensive bodies of epic lore, the Gesar songs and stories have long focused the social and spiritual aspirations of Eastern Tibet, Western China, Mongolia, Buryatsia, and the Kalmuk Republic. This epic tradition is still alive, in a wide variety of forms, today.
Itinerant Gesar singers perpetuate the saga’s basic episodes and characters in improvised songs and chants, with some illiterate singers pretending to recite from written texts, and others unfurling scrolls that depict the tales of their songs. In eastern Tibet and elsewhere, an elaborate theatrical tradition boasts distinctive dances, costumes, and backdrops.
The epic has also been composed in written form, most famously in the early 20th century at the behest of Mipham Rinpoche, the great Nyingma lama and scholar. This written tradition includes many liturgies invoking Gesar as a deity, protector, and spiritual guide. Of the written versions now available to us from Tibet, Mongolia, and Ladakh, many were adapted in whole or in part from the songs and performances of one or more singers. Meanwhile new episodes arise in response to the inspiration and needs of the time. One lama, for example, hearing of the horrors of World War Two, composed an episode in which Gesar goes to Germany to conquer Hitler.
The Gesar epic is unlike the Mahabharata, which exists in one definitive written form, or the Ramayana which exists in two. Throughout India and South East Asia, the many theatrical and spiritual variations of these two great Indian epics assume the stability of the root texts. By contrast, there is no “definitive” Gesar epic, which is constantly evolving—as are its modes of presentation (with some songs and performances containing only selected episodes). In this sense, it is very much a living, improvisatory tradition. Because its message continues to inspire people in many cultures to find courage and hope in the hardships they encounter daily, new renditions of the Gesar epic have often arisen in times of special uncertainty and danger.
The Heart of the Story
The Gesar Epic has a core repertoire of episodes. These include Gesar's celestial origin and miraculous birth, his childhood and accession to the throne, his four great campaigns against the demonic lords of the four directions, and his departure from this earth. Other episodes tell of his battles in foreign lands, undertaken to procure various spiritual and material riches for the people of Ling. (These can be found in Alexandra David Neel’s Superhuman Life of Gesar of Ling, Douglas Penick’s Warrior Song of King Gesar, and Robin Kornman forthcoming translation, among others.)
The episode recounted here is also part of the traditional canon, but less well known and tells of Gesar’s journey to rescue his mother from hell. To do so, Gesar, after encountering the great protectors Vajrasadhu and Vetali, enters the kingdom of Yama, Lord of Death (part 1) he then travels through the six realms of existence and the interim states or bardos (part2). And afterwards, he visits the Kingdom of Shambhala, where he meets four great warrior rulers who frame this journey in a worldly societal context (part 3). Finally, (in part 4), King Gesar makes his last return to Ling.
This episode is in some ways the epitome of all Gesar’s other endeavors. Here he experiences of the six realms of being: hell, the realm of hungry ghosts, animals, humans, jealous gods, and gods. These realms are traditional in Tibetan, Indian and other central Asian cosmologies, but even as they may be considered ‘real’ places, they also represent the kinds of worlds that evolve from our own states of mind. Thus, when our anger becomes completely solid, our world becomes a constant source of pain; when our craving becomes incessant, we inhabit a world of utter deprivation; willful ignorance makes a world of endless apprehension; clinging to stability accentuates a world of constant change; envy produces a world where what is most desired is the possession of others; and the hallucinations of self-absorption flourish in complete indifference. From this point of view, we may find that all these realms not just resonate but even exist in our human world.
At the same time, the actual experiences of anger, craving, ignoring and so forth are all intensely, even unsparingly alive. We try to harness them to our narrative of a solid self achieving goals in a solid world, but, letting go of such reference points, the energy of the passions themselves becomes a path of enlightenment. Passions wake us up to what is real in the world, in ourselves, in life, in dying. Thus, Gesar’s experience of each realm leads him to realize the immediate enlightenment within it.
Although in this rendition, the six realms and the Buddhas within them are represented traditionally, this story lives beyond its original cultural framework. The inner truth of Gesar’s journey is not ultimately confined to any specific imagery. The demonic figures are expressions of our own inner terrors; the Buddhas ( literally: ‘awakened ones’) refer to the intrinsic clarity and vividness of our own minds. Beyond any specific cultural or spiritual tradition, Gesar continues to provoke and inspire because we continually feel that there is an intensity, a truthfulness beyond our own limitations, and we continue to dare to seek it, even beyond the limits of life and death.
*
As this entire episode has never been translated into English, I have relied on the Gesar tradition as transmitted to me by the Vidyadhara, the Venerable Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, the Dorje Dradul of Mukpo Dong. I have also been given unstinting and generous assistance from the teachings of His Holiness Orgyen Kusum Lingpa, the Venerable Tulku Thondup, the Venerable Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, the Venerable Yangthang Tulku, and the Venerable Namkhai Drimed Rinpoche. I am also deeply indebted to Ives Waldo, the late Robin Kornman, Blake Thomson, and the works of R.A. Stein, Alexandra David Neel, Ida Zeitlin, and Geoffrey Samuels.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
THE GATES OF KALAPA
GATE 1
Beyond the small stream of a life
Led striving with memory,
A cold thought at one's back:
Possibility, obligation, achievement
Heard of but not yet known or seen;
To turn from this
Past the poverty of holding back,
Past choosing,
Past consulting needs as oracles;
Past the all-consuming vacuum
That is called a self,
Wandering diminished in a shadow world:
To turn from this,
And see beneath a clear vast cobalt sky
The world in autumn,
In hazy gilded light
Turned crisp by cold air.
The mountain's purple shadowed clefts
Blacken remote stands of pine.
Against the dust of early snow.
Tree tops burn against the sky,
Yellow and red light filling leaves,
And ripple with the sound of distant clapping hands.
The smell of wood smoke hovering in the dry air
Bears the deeper scent of horses and of mouldering grass;
A taste in the air of dried corn and snow:
Here, in this world, longing ripens
In fulfillment of an afternoon
As gold fulfills light and space,
Pervading mountain tops, wheat stalks, a ripe pear.
Deer move warily to fodder, and geese arch to winter home,
And stillness.
GATE 2
In this mirror of limitless ayatanas,
The Kingdom of Shambhala opens from the heart
In this, the immediate path of timeless time,
The gold eight petalled heart lotus of Shambhala opens.
Watching a hornet circle in the air,
Sight, turning beyond aims,
Enters into ceaseless expansion,
Is pure awareness.
Listening to a silvery wind chime,
Hearing, turning beyond questioning,
Enters into silent immensity,
Is pure space.
Smelling the perfume on a passerby,
Smell, turning beyond memories,
Enters into wordless depth,
Is pure time.
Tasting the bitterness of strong black tea,
Taste, turning beyond satisfactions,
Entered into inescapable intimacy,
Is pure love.
Feeling the thick fur of a horse's winter coat,
Touch, turning beyond preference,
Enters into all-pervasive contact,
Is real non-duality.
Aware of time's passage,
Consciousness, turning beyond meanings,
Enters into its unobstructed boundlessness,
Is pure light.
Body and wakefulness inseparable:
This is the spontaneous union of kaya and jnana:
The self-existing mandala of dralas.
The Kingdom of Shambhala
Lives as a pure realm,
On the earth, and in the heart.
Shambhala is alive in the senses
And opens itself
As one turns one's face
To the full hot light of the blazing sun.
GATE 3
Like touching a rock face,
Because it is the support of life,
Entering it is like falling
Into a fathomless golden sea.
Like drinking liquor,
Because it is luminous,
Entering it is like being flooded
With joy.
Like hearing the sound of a silver bell
Because it is true,
Entering it is like being stripped
Of petty mind.
Because it is powerful
Entering it is like being struck
By a blue-white lightening bolt.
Because it is all victorious,
Entering it is like knowing reality
Irreversibly.
Douglas Penick, Magyel Pomra Sayi Dakpo 10/18/94
Beyond the small stream of a life
Led striving with memory,
A cold thought at one's back:
Possibility, obligation, achievement
Heard of but not yet known or seen;
To turn from this
Past the poverty of holding back,
Past choosing,
Past consulting needs as oracles;
Past the all-consuming vacuum
That is called a self,
Wandering diminished in a shadow world:
To turn from this,
And see beneath a clear vast cobalt sky
The world in autumn,
In hazy gilded light
Turned crisp by cold air.
The mountain's purple shadowed clefts
Blacken remote stands of pine.
Against the dust of early snow.
Tree tops burn against the sky,
Yellow and red light filling leaves,
And ripple with the sound of distant clapping hands.
The smell of wood smoke hovering in the dry air
Bears the deeper scent of horses and of mouldering grass;
A taste in the air of dried corn and snow:
Here, in this world, longing ripens
In fulfillment of an afternoon
As gold fulfills light and space,
Pervading mountain tops, wheat stalks, a ripe pear.
Deer move warily to fodder, and geese arch to winter home,
And stillness.
GATE 2
In this mirror of limitless ayatanas,
The Kingdom of Shambhala opens from the heart
In this, the immediate path of timeless time,
The gold eight petalled heart lotus of Shambhala opens.
Watching a hornet circle in the air,
Sight, turning beyond aims,
Enters into ceaseless expansion,
Is pure awareness.
Listening to a silvery wind chime,
Hearing, turning beyond questioning,
Enters into silent immensity,
Is pure space.
Smelling the perfume on a passerby,
Smell, turning beyond memories,
Enters into wordless depth,
Is pure time.
Tasting the bitterness of strong black tea,
Taste, turning beyond satisfactions,
Entered into inescapable intimacy,
Is pure love.
Feeling the thick fur of a horse's winter coat,
Touch, turning beyond preference,
Enters into all-pervasive contact,
Is real non-duality.
Aware of time's passage,
Consciousness, turning beyond meanings,
Enters into its unobstructed boundlessness,
Is pure light.
Body and wakefulness inseparable:
This is the spontaneous union of kaya and jnana:
The self-existing mandala of dralas.
The Kingdom of Shambhala
Lives as a pure realm,
On the earth, and in the heart.
Shambhala is alive in the senses
And opens itself
As one turns one's face
To the full hot light of the blazing sun.
GATE 3
Like touching a rock face,
Because it is the support of life,
Entering it is like falling
Into a fathomless golden sea.
Like drinking liquor,
Because it is luminous,
Entering it is like being flooded
With joy.
Like hearing the sound of a silver bell
Because it is true,
Entering it is like being stripped
Of petty mind.
Because it is powerful
Entering it is like being struck
By a blue-white lightening bolt.
Because it is all victorious,
Entering it is like knowing reality
Irreversibly.
Douglas Penick, Magyel Pomra Sayi Dakpo 10/18/94
Monday, February 8, 2010
TILOPA; THE STREAM OF SELF-EXISTING FIRE
THE STREAM OF SELF-EXISTING FIRE
A GURU YOGA FEAST INVOKING
THE LIFE FORCE OF LINEAGE
THE DEATHLESS TILOPA
1
Gathered here in the charnel ground of all phenomena
Surrounded by the corpses of rotting hopes, false assumptions,
Decaying love, possessions that will soon be stolen away;
Sitting amidst the ashes of dreams and secret ambitions,
The air is choked with the smoke of ignorance
That renders all around us almost invisible;
Here we are paralyzed by the winds of hope and fear
As predatory ghosts of uncertainty, doubt, and anguish swirl about.
Confessing our myriad delusions,
O Tilopa,
We look for you, the fount of lineage,
The father of refuge.
Aspiring to see the living face of enlightenment
In the darkness of this world,
We call on you.
2
Now, on this powerless ground of utter futility,
Arise from the eternal womb of emptiness,
Telo come here in this very place
Come here and display the Vajra Dance
Utterly consume this vajra feast.
In consuming the offering of food,
Display the living body of reality.
In accepting the offering of song
Display the living speech of reality.
In consuming the offering of amrita,
Display the living mind of reality.
I offer myself in body speech and mind.
Please take your seat here.
Please show yourself now as life itself
3
Accepting these offerings,
Consuming us utterly,
Though you do not move or stir,
We request you now to appear.
As you crush the husk of a body that clings to an I,
May we meet you face to face
In the living paths of development and completion.
As you crush the husk of a body that clings to an I,
May we meet you face to face
In the living experience free from bias.
As you crush the husk of samsara itself,
May we meet you face to face
In the living bond of samaya.
As you crush the husk of a body that arises from karma,
May we meet you face to face
In the complete committment of inner heat.
As you crush the husk of a body that clings to an I,
May we meet you face to face
In the lilmitless illusion of embodiment
As you crush the husk of the three worlds,
May we meet you face to face
In the luminous expanse of dream.
As you crush the husk of a body that clings to an I,
May we meet you face to face
In the unimpeded flow of all-pervasive luminosity.
As you crush the husk of a body that tends to clings to an I
May we meet you face to face
In passing freely from illusory life to life.
As you crush the husk of a body that cling to an I,
May we meet you face to face
In completely transforming the apparition of existence.
As you crush the husk of craving in the duality of samsara and nirvana,
May we meet you face to face
In the one taste of great bliss.
Offering the mudra to the Guru who is Buddha himself,
May we meet you face to face
In the great mirror of Mahamudra which is Reality itself.
Offering you our body as the mandala of existence,
May we live in the ever present spontaneous union
Of mother and child luminosity
Inseparable from your body, speech, and mind
In the ceaseless co-emergence of the bardo.
4
Here, by the power of life itself,
You arise unborn
From the red thousand-petalled lotus
Which is the spontaneous flowering,
The living purity of all outer and inner phenomena,
The secret space of Prajnaparamita.
Seated with your left leg down and your right knee raised,
Your naked body shimmers
Like the pale autumn sky at sunrise.
You are covered with ash.
Your wild black hair is bound up into a loose topknot.
Your blood-shot eyes burn like the noon sun.
Your face is sun-burned and unshaven.
You grimace and your sharp irregular teeth clash
With the sound of breaking glass.
You smile lasciviously
And every movement of the air seems melodious.
Your expression, is shameless, impenitent
Lustful and indifferent.
In your right hand you hold an ancient skull-cup
Brimming with liquor.
In your left hand, you hold a living silver fish
Whose red guts hang from its belly.
Your scent is tangy and feral.
You are still as a wolf awaiting its prey.
You are luminous as the full moon at midnight.
Suddenly, you arise on your seat
In the shimmer of all perception.
Suddenly you sing
In the beating heart of the body.
You are presence itself.
5
In endless union with the self-existing consort,
In the yoga of Chandali,
You are the heat of fire.
In endless union with the self existing consort,
In the yoga of illusory body,
You are the solidness of earth.
In endless union with the self existing consort,
In the yoga of dream,
You are the movement of wind.
In endless union with the self existing consort,
In the yoga of luminosity,
You are primordial space.
In endless union with the self existing consort,
In the yoga of transference,
You are the pervasiveness of water.
In endless union with the self existing consort,
In the yoga of bardo,
You are consciousness itself.
In inseparable non-dual union,
You dwell in the empty essence
In the luminous heart of the primordial consort
Where all inner and outer phenomena
Rise, dwell and die.
Free from experience,
You are not born;
You do not remain;
You do not die.
OM AH HUM
TILO, TILO TILO
HRIH AH HAM
AH AH AH HUM PHAT
6
Sought in the mirage of appearance,
You change form and disappear.
Found in the mirage of appearance,
You are mute.
Supplicated in the mandala of appearance,
You show the luminous empty heart
Piercing through all the illusions of pleasure and pain.
All that exists and does not exist,
All that moves and does not move,
All that is mind and is beyond mind,
Offering and offered inseparable,
Swirls in your kapala.
RAM YAM KAM
Unborn,
As our senses shine.
This is the direct experience
Of Tilopa, the corpse,
The natural kingdom of body.
Living,
As the seasons pass.
This is the direct experience
Of Tilopa, the root,
The unceasing power of speech.
Without past
As in the alternation of day and night,
This is the direct experience
Of Tilopa, the tree,
The deathless lineage co-emergent wisdom.
Beyond awareness
There is reality here and now.
This is the direct experience
Of Tilopa, the stream
Ungraspable, complete, alive.
Experience now
The bliss of Tilopa's mind:
This unborn word:
This naked world.
7
(These are the oral instruction which Tilopa himself sang to Naropa)
You are a worthy vessel.
In the monastery of Pullahari,
In the limitless expanse of luminosity, beyond concept,
The sparrow of mind, moving from life to life,
Has flown on the wings of co-emergence.
Do not yearn for belief in a self.
In the monastery of non-dual prajna,
In the offering pit of the illusory body,
By the radiance of awareness rising from the bliss and heat of inner heat,
The fuel of the kleshas and conventional concepts
Of body, speech and mind has been burnt up.
Do not pine for the duality of this and that.
In the monastery free from words and concepts,
The sharp knife of prajna,
Of Mahasukha, of Mahamudra
Has cut the rope of ambition in the bardo.
Dismiss the craving which causes all attachment.
Walk the hidden path of the Wish-Fulfilling Gem
Leading to the realm of the heavenly tree, the changeless.
Untie the tongues of mutes.
Stop the stream of samsara, of belief in a self.
Recognize your true nature as a mother knows her child.
Prajna is self-aware,
Beyond the path of speech
And the object of no thought whatsoever .
I, Tilopa have nothing at which to point.
Know this as pointing in itself to itself.
Do not imagine, think, deliberate,
Meditate, act, but be at rest.
Do not be concerned with any object.
Reality, self-existent, radiant,
In which no memory can disturb you,
Cannot be called a thing
(1)
8
O great Tilopa
O incomparable
O unborn and deathless one,
As you have never departed,
By your unsparing kindness,
May we remain In the Great Inseparability
Of your unchanging body speech and mind.
If there is any continuity of anything,
It is you.
If there is any lineage of anything anywhere,
It is you.
If there is love,
It is you.
By the power of your motiveless intention
Which fills the sky like ceaseless wind,
May every illusory being,
Drifting frantically through the skies like dust
Find completion
In the vast luminous single mandala of your being.
AH AH AH
**********************************************************
The spontaneously arisen, mysterious and eternal Khenpo Ganshar, the deathless Mahasiddha, Tilopa himself is an unceasing, boundless, torrential river of purity raging through the polluted desert of this age.
This has been written with one pointed devotion and confidence so that his children and grandchildren and all generations yet to come never imagine they are parted from him.
Chodzin Paden
Magyel Pomra Sayi Dagpo
October 15, 1996 Boulder, Colorado
_________________________________________________________
(1) Adapted from The Life and Teaching of Naropa- Herbert V. Guenther
Oxford University Press, Clarendon Press, Oxford, UK 1963 :PP 94-5
A GURU YOGA FEAST INVOKING
THE LIFE FORCE OF LINEAGE
THE DEATHLESS TILOPA
1
Gathered here in the charnel ground of all phenomena
Surrounded by the corpses of rotting hopes, false assumptions,
Decaying love, possessions that will soon be stolen away;
Sitting amidst the ashes of dreams and secret ambitions,
The air is choked with the smoke of ignorance
That renders all around us almost invisible;
Here we are paralyzed by the winds of hope and fear
As predatory ghosts of uncertainty, doubt, and anguish swirl about.
Confessing our myriad delusions,
O Tilopa,
We look for you, the fount of lineage,
The father of refuge.
Aspiring to see the living face of enlightenment
In the darkness of this world,
We call on you.
2
Now, on this powerless ground of utter futility,
Arise from the eternal womb of emptiness,
Telo come here in this very place
Come here and display the Vajra Dance
Utterly consume this vajra feast.
In consuming the offering of food,
Display the living body of reality.
In accepting the offering of song
Display the living speech of reality.
In consuming the offering of amrita,
Display the living mind of reality.
I offer myself in body speech and mind.
Please take your seat here.
Please show yourself now as life itself
3
Accepting these offerings,
Consuming us utterly,
Though you do not move or stir,
We request you now to appear.
As you crush the husk of a body that clings to an I,
May we meet you face to face
In the living paths of development and completion.
As you crush the husk of a body that clings to an I,
May we meet you face to face
In the living experience free from bias.
As you crush the husk of samsara itself,
May we meet you face to face
In the living bond of samaya.
As you crush the husk of a body that arises from karma,
May we meet you face to face
In the complete committment of inner heat.
As you crush the husk of a body that clings to an I,
May we meet you face to face
In the lilmitless illusion of embodiment
As you crush the husk of the three worlds,
May we meet you face to face
In the luminous expanse of dream.
As you crush the husk of a body that clings to an I,
May we meet you face to face
In the unimpeded flow of all-pervasive luminosity.
As you crush the husk of a body that tends to clings to an I
May we meet you face to face
In passing freely from illusory life to life.
As you crush the husk of a body that cling to an I,
May we meet you face to face
In completely transforming the apparition of existence.
As you crush the husk of craving in the duality of samsara and nirvana,
May we meet you face to face
In the one taste of great bliss.
Offering the mudra to the Guru who is Buddha himself,
May we meet you face to face
In the great mirror of Mahamudra which is Reality itself.
Offering you our body as the mandala of existence,
May we live in the ever present spontaneous union
Of mother and child luminosity
Inseparable from your body, speech, and mind
In the ceaseless co-emergence of the bardo.
4
Here, by the power of life itself,
You arise unborn
From the red thousand-petalled lotus
Which is the spontaneous flowering,
The living purity of all outer and inner phenomena,
The secret space of Prajnaparamita.
Seated with your left leg down and your right knee raised,
Your naked body shimmers
Like the pale autumn sky at sunrise.
You are covered with ash.
Your wild black hair is bound up into a loose topknot.
Your blood-shot eyes burn like the noon sun.
Your face is sun-burned and unshaven.
You grimace and your sharp irregular teeth clash
With the sound of breaking glass.
You smile lasciviously
And every movement of the air seems melodious.
Your expression, is shameless, impenitent
Lustful and indifferent.
In your right hand you hold an ancient skull-cup
Brimming with liquor.
In your left hand, you hold a living silver fish
Whose red guts hang from its belly.
Your scent is tangy and feral.
You are still as a wolf awaiting its prey.
You are luminous as the full moon at midnight.
Suddenly, you arise on your seat
In the shimmer of all perception.
Suddenly you sing
In the beating heart of the body.
You are presence itself.
5
In endless union with the self-existing consort,
In the yoga of Chandali,
You are the heat of fire.
In endless union with the self existing consort,
In the yoga of illusory body,
You are the solidness of earth.
In endless union with the self existing consort,
In the yoga of dream,
You are the movement of wind.
In endless union with the self existing consort,
In the yoga of luminosity,
You are primordial space.
In endless union with the self existing consort,
In the yoga of transference,
You are the pervasiveness of water.
In endless union with the self existing consort,
In the yoga of bardo,
You are consciousness itself.
In inseparable non-dual union,
You dwell in the empty essence
In the luminous heart of the primordial consort
Where all inner and outer phenomena
Rise, dwell and die.
Free from experience,
You are not born;
You do not remain;
You do not die.
OM AH HUM
TILO, TILO TILO
HRIH AH HAM
AH AH AH HUM PHAT
6
Sought in the mirage of appearance,
You change form and disappear.
Found in the mirage of appearance,
You are mute.
Supplicated in the mandala of appearance,
You show the luminous empty heart
Piercing through all the illusions of pleasure and pain.
All that exists and does not exist,
All that moves and does not move,
All that is mind and is beyond mind,
Offering and offered inseparable,
Swirls in your kapala.
RAM YAM KAM
Unborn,
As our senses shine.
This is the direct experience
Of Tilopa, the corpse,
The natural kingdom of body.
Living,
As the seasons pass.
This is the direct experience
Of Tilopa, the root,
The unceasing power of speech.
Without past
As in the alternation of day and night,
This is the direct experience
Of Tilopa, the tree,
The deathless lineage co-emergent wisdom.
Beyond awareness
There is reality here and now.
This is the direct experience
Of Tilopa, the stream
Ungraspable, complete, alive.
Experience now
The bliss of Tilopa's mind:
This unborn word:
This naked world.
7
(These are the oral instruction which Tilopa himself sang to Naropa)
You are a worthy vessel.
In the monastery of Pullahari,
In the limitless expanse of luminosity, beyond concept,
The sparrow of mind, moving from life to life,
Has flown on the wings of co-emergence.
Do not yearn for belief in a self.
In the monastery of non-dual prajna,
In the offering pit of the illusory body,
By the radiance of awareness rising from the bliss and heat of inner heat,
The fuel of the kleshas and conventional concepts
Of body, speech and mind has been burnt up.
Do not pine for the duality of this and that.
In the monastery free from words and concepts,
The sharp knife of prajna,
Of Mahasukha, of Mahamudra
Has cut the rope of ambition in the bardo.
Dismiss the craving which causes all attachment.
Walk the hidden path of the Wish-Fulfilling Gem
Leading to the realm of the heavenly tree, the changeless.
Untie the tongues of mutes.
Stop the stream of samsara, of belief in a self.
Recognize your true nature as a mother knows her child.
Prajna is self-aware,
Beyond the path of speech
And the object of no thought whatsoever .
I, Tilopa have nothing at which to point.
Know this as pointing in itself to itself.
Do not imagine, think, deliberate,
Meditate, act, but be at rest.
Do not be concerned with any object.
Reality, self-existent, radiant,
In which no memory can disturb you,
Cannot be called a thing
(1)
8
O great Tilopa
O incomparable
O unborn and deathless one,
As you have never departed,
By your unsparing kindness,
May we remain In the Great Inseparability
Of your unchanging body speech and mind.
If there is any continuity of anything,
It is you.
If there is any lineage of anything anywhere,
It is you.
If there is love,
It is you.
By the power of your motiveless intention
Which fills the sky like ceaseless wind,
May every illusory being,
Drifting frantically through the skies like dust
Find completion
In the vast luminous single mandala of your being.
AH AH AH
**********************************************************
The spontaneously arisen, mysterious and eternal Khenpo Ganshar, the deathless Mahasiddha, Tilopa himself is an unceasing, boundless, torrential river of purity raging through the polluted desert of this age.
This has been written with one pointed devotion and confidence so that his children and grandchildren and all generations yet to come never imagine they are parted from him.
Chodzin Paden
Magyel Pomra Sayi Dagpo
October 15, 1996 Boulder, Colorado
_________________________________________________________
(1) Adapted from The Life and Teaching of Naropa- Herbert V. Guenther
Oxford University Press, Clarendon Press, Oxford, UK 1963 :PP 94-5
Monday, January 4, 2010
THE STREAM OF SELF-EXISTING FIRE
A GURU YOGA FEAST INVOKING
THE LIFE FORCE OF LINEAGE
THE DEATHLESS TILOPA
1
Gathered here in the charnel ground of all phenomena
Surrounded by the corpses of rotting hopes, false assumptions,
Decaying love, possessions that will soon be stolen away;
Sitting amidst the ashes of dreams and secret ambitions,
The air is choked with the smoke of ignorance
That renders all around us almost invisible;
Here we are paralyzed by the winds of hope and fear
As predatory ghosts of uncertainty, doubt, and anguish swirl about.
Confessing our myriad delusions,
O Tilopa,
We look for you, the fount of lineage,
The father of refuge.
Aspiring to see the living face of enlightenment
In the darkness of this world,
We call on you.
2
Now, on this powerless ground of utter futility,
Arise from the eternal womb of emptiness,
Telo come here in this very place
Come here and display the Vajra Dance
Utterly consume this vajra feast.
In consuming the offering of food,
Display the living body of reality.
In accepting the offering of song
Display the living speech of reality.
In consuming the offering of amrita,
Display the living mind of reality.
I offer myself in body speech and mind.
Please take your seat here.
Please show yourself now as life itself
3
Accepting these offerings,
Consuming us utterly,
Though you do not move or stir,
We request you now to appear.
As you crush the husk of a body that clings to an I,
May we meet you face to face
In the living paths of development and completion.
As you crush the husk of a body that clings to an I,
May we meet you face to face
In the living experience free from bias.
As you crush the husk of samsara itself,
May we meet you face to face
In the living bond of samaya.
As you crush the husk of a body that arises from karma,
May we meet you face to face
In the complete committment of inner heat.
As you crush the husk of a body that clings to an I,
May we meet you face to face
In the lilmitless illusion of embodiment
As you crush the husk of the three worlds,
May we meet you face to face
In the luminous expanse of dream.
As you crush the husk of a body that clings to an I,
May we meet you face to face
In the unimpeded flow of all-pervasive luminosity.
As you crush the husk of a body that tends to clings to an I
May we meet you face to face
In passing freely from illusory life to life.
As you crush the husk of a body that cling to an I,
May we meet you face to face
In completely transforming the apparition of existence.
As you crush the husk of craving in the duality of samsara and nirvana,
May we meet you face to face
In the one taste of great bliss.
Offering the mudra to the Guru who is Buddha himself,
May we meet you face to face
In the great mirror of Mahamudra which is Reality itself.
Offering you our body as the mandala of existence,
May we live in the ever present spontaneous union
Of mother and child luminosity
Inseparable from your body, speech, and mind
In the ceaseless co-emergence of the bardo.
4
Here, by the power of life itself,
You arise unborn
From the red thousand-petalled lotus
Which is the spontaneous flowering,
The living purity of all outer and inner phenomena,
The secret space of Prajnaparamita.
Seated with your left leg down and your right knee raised,
Your naked body shimmers
Like the pale autumn sky at sunrise.
You are covered with ash.
Your wild black hair is bound up into a loose topknot.
Your blood-shot eyes burn like the noon sun.
Your face is sun-burned and unshaven.
You grimace and your sharp irregular teeth clash
With the sound of breaking glass.
You smile lasciviously
And every movement of the air seems melodious.
Your expression, is shameless, impenitent
Lustful and indifferent.
In your right hand you hold an ancient skull-cup
Brimming with liquor.
In your left hand, you hold a living silver fish
Whose red guts hang from its belly.
Your scent is tangy and feral.
You are still as a wolf awaiting its prey.
You are luminous as the full moon at midnight.
Suddenly, you arise on your seat
In the shimmer of all perception.
Suddenly you sing
In the beating heart of the body.
You are presence itself.
5
In endless union with the self-existing consort,
In the yoga of Chandali,
You are the heat of fire.
In endless union with the self existing consort,
In the yoga of illusory body,
You are the solidness of earth.
In endless union with the self existing consort,
In the yoga of dream,
You are the movement of wind.
In endless union with the self existing consort,
In the yoga of luminosity,
You are primordial space.
In endless union with the self existing consort,
In the yoga of transference,
You are the pervasiveness of water.
In endless union with the self existing consort,
In the yoga of bardo,
You are consciousness itself.
In inseparable non-dual union,
You dwell in the empty essence
In the luminous heart of the primordial consort
Where all inner and outer phenomena
Rise, dwell and die.
Free from experience,
You are not born;
You do not remain;
You do not die.
OM AH HUM
TILO, TILO TILO
HRIH AH HAM
AH AH AH HUM PHAT
6
Sought in the mirage of appearance,
You change form and disappear.
Found in the mirage of appearance,
You are mute.
Supplicated in the mandala of appearance,
You show the luminous empty heart
Piercing through all the illusions of pleasure and pain.
All that exists and does not exist,
All that moves and does not move,
All that is mind and is beyond mind,
Offering and offered inseparable,
Swirls in your kapala.
RAM YAM KAM
Unborn,
As our senses shine.
This is the direct experience
Of Tilopa, the corpse,
The natural kingdom of body.
Living,
As the seasons pass.
This is the direct experience
Of Tilopa, the root,
The unceasing power of speech.
Without past
As in the alternation of day and night,
This is the direct experience
Of Tilopa, the tree,
The deathless lineage co-emergent wisdom.
Beyond awareness
There is reality here and now.
This is the direct experience
Of Tilopa, the stream
Ungraspable, complete, alive.
Experience now
The bliss of Tilopa's mind:
This unborn word:
This naked world.
7
(These are the oral instruction which Tilopa himself sang to Naropa)
You are a worthy vessel.
In the monastery of Pullahari,
In the limitless expanse of luminosity, beyond concept,
The sparrow of mind, moving from life to life,
Has flown on the wings of co-emergence.
Do not yearn for belief in a self.
In the monastery of non-dual prajna,
In the offering pit of the illusory body,
By the radiance of awareness rising from the bliss and heat of inner heat,
The fuel of the kleshas and conventional concepts
Of body, speech and mind has been burnt up.
Do not pine for the duality of this and that.
In the monastery free from words and concepts,
The sharp knife of prajna,
Of Mahasukha, of Mahamudra
Has cut the rope of ambition in the bardo.
Dismiss the craving which causes all attachment.
Walk the hidden path of the Wish-Fulfilling Gem
Leading to the realm of the heavenly tree, the changeless.
Untie the tongues of mutes.
Stop the stream of samsara, of belief in a self.
Recognize your true nature as a mother knows her child.
Prajna is self-aware,
Beyond the path of speech
And the object of no thought whatsoever .
I, Tilopa have nothing at which to point.
Know this as pointing in itself to itself.
Do not imagine, think, deliberate,
Meditate, act, but be at rest.
Do not be concerned with any object.
Reality, self-existent, radiant,
In which no memory can disturb you,
Cannot be called a thing
(1)
8
O great Tilopa
O incomparable
O unborn and deathless one,
As you have never departed,
By your unsparing kindness,
May we remain In the Great Inseparability
Of your unchanging body speech and mind.
If there is any continuity of anything,
It is you.
If there is any lineage of anything anywhere,
It is you.
If there is love,
It is you.
By the power of your motiveless intention
Which fills the sky like ceaseless wind,
May every illusory being,
Drifting frantically through the skies like dust
Find completion
In the vast luminous single mandala of your being.
AH AH AH
**********************************************************
The spontaneously arisen, mysterious and eternal Khenpo Ganshar, the deathless Mahasiddha, Tilopa himself is an unceasing, boundless, torrential river of purity raging through the polluted desert of this age.
This has been written with one pointed devotion and confidence so that his children and grandchildren and all generations yet to come never imagine they are parted from him.
Chodzin Paden
Magyel Pomra Sayi Dagpo
October 15, 1996 Boulder, Colorado
_________________________________________________________
(1) Adapted from The Life and Teaching of Naropa- Herbert V. Guenther
Oxford University Press, Clarendon Press, Oxford, UK 1963 :PP 94-5
THE LIFE FORCE OF LINEAGE
THE DEATHLESS TILOPA
1
Gathered here in the charnel ground of all phenomena
Surrounded by the corpses of rotting hopes, false assumptions,
Decaying love, possessions that will soon be stolen away;
Sitting amidst the ashes of dreams and secret ambitions,
The air is choked with the smoke of ignorance
That renders all around us almost invisible;
Here we are paralyzed by the winds of hope and fear
As predatory ghosts of uncertainty, doubt, and anguish swirl about.
Confessing our myriad delusions,
O Tilopa,
We look for you, the fount of lineage,
The father of refuge.
Aspiring to see the living face of enlightenment
In the darkness of this world,
We call on you.
2
Now, on this powerless ground of utter futility,
Arise from the eternal womb of emptiness,
Telo come here in this very place
Come here and display the Vajra Dance
Utterly consume this vajra feast.
In consuming the offering of food,
Display the living body of reality.
In accepting the offering of song
Display the living speech of reality.
In consuming the offering of amrita,
Display the living mind of reality.
I offer myself in body speech and mind.
Please take your seat here.
Please show yourself now as life itself
3
Accepting these offerings,
Consuming us utterly,
Though you do not move or stir,
We request you now to appear.
As you crush the husk of a body that clings to an I,
May we meet you face to face
In the living paths of development and completion.
As you crush the husk of a body that clings to an I,
May we meet you face to face
In the living experience free from bias.
As you crush the husk of samsara itself,
May we meet you face to face
In the living bond of samaya.
As you crush the husk of a body that arises from karma,
May we meet you face to face
In the complete committment of inner heat.
As you crush the husk of a body that clings to an I,
May we meet you face to face
In the lilmitless illusion of embodiment
As you crush the husk of the three worlds,
May we meet you face to face
In the luminous expanse of dream.
As you crush the husk of a body that clings to an I,
May we meet you face to face
In the unimpeded flow of all-pervasive luminosity.
As you crush the husk of a body that tends to clings to an I
May we meet you face to face
In passing freely from illusory life to life.
As you crush the husk of a body that cling to an I,
May we meet you face to face
In completely transforming the apparition of existence.
As you crush the husk of craving in the duality of samsara and nirvana,
May we meet you face to face
In the one taste of great bliss.
Offering the mudra to the Guru who is Buddha himself,
May we meet you face to face
In the great mirror of Mahamudra which is Reality itself.
Offering you our body as the mandala of existence,
May we live in the ever present spontaneous union
Of mother and child luminosity
Inseparable from your body, speech, and mind
In the ceaseless co-emergence of the bardo.
4
Here, by the power of life itself,
You arise unborn
From the red thousand-petalled lotus
Which is the spontaneous flowering,
The living purity of all outer and inner phenomena,
The secret space of Prajnaparamita.
Seated with your left leg down and your right knee raised,
Your naked body shimmers
Like the pale autumn sky at sunrise.
You are covered with ash.
Your wild black hair is bound up into a loose topknot.
Your blood-shot eyes burn like the noon sun.
Your face is sun-burned and unshaven.
You grimace and your sharp irregular teeth clash
With the sound of breaking glass.
You smile lasciviously
And every movement of the air seems melodious.
Your expression, is shameless, impenitent
Lustful and indifferent.
In your right hand you hold an ancient skull-cup
Brimming with liquor.
In your left hand, you hold a living silver fish
Whose red guts hang from its belly.
Your scent is tangy and feral.
You are still as a wolf awaiting its prey.
You are luminous as the full moon at midnight.
Suddenly, you arise on your seat
In the shimmer of all perception.
Suddenly you sing
In the beating heart of the body.
You are presence itself.
5
In endless union with the self-existing consort,
In the yoga of Chandali,
You are the heat of fire.
In endless union with the self existing consort,
In the yoga of illusory body,
You are the solidness of earth.
In endless union with the self existing consort,
In the yoga of dream,
You are the movement of wind.
In endless union with the self existing consort,
In the yoga of luminosity,
You are primordial space.
In endless union with the self existing consort,
In the yoga of transference,
You are the pervasiveness of water.
In endless union with the self existing consort,
In the yoga of bardo,
You are consciousness itself.
In inseparable non-dual union,
You dwell in the empty essence
In the luminous heart of the primordial consort
Where all inner and outer phenomena
Rise, dwell and die.
Free from experience,
You are not born;
You do not remain;
You do not die.
OM AH HUM
TILO, TILO TILO
HRIH AH HAM
AH AH AH HUM PHAT
6
Sought in the mirage of appearance,
You change form and disappear.
Found in the mirage of appearance,
You are mute.
Supplicated in the mandala of appearance,
You show the luminous empty heart
Piercing through all the illusions of pleasure and pain.
All that exists and does not exist,
All that moves and does not move,
All that is mind and is beyond mind,
Offering and offered inseparable,
Swirls in your kapala.
RAM YAM KAM
Unborn,
As our senses shine.
This is the direct experience
Of Tilopa, the corpse,
The natural kingdom of body.
Living,
As the seasons pass.
This is the direct experience
Of Tilopa, the root,
The unceasing power of speech.
Without past
As in the alternation of day and night,
This is the direct experience
Of Tilopa, the tree,
The deathless lineage co-emergent wisdom.
Beyond awareness
There is reality here and now.
This is the direct experience
Of Tilopa, the stream
Ungraspable, complete, alive.
Experience now
The bliss of Tilopa's mind:
This unborn word:
This naked world.
7
(These are the oral instruction which Tilopa himself sang to Naropa)
You are a worthy vessel.
In the monastery of Pullahari,
In the limitless expanse of luminosity, beyond concept,
The sparrow of mind, moving from life to life,
Has flown on the wings of co-emergence.
Do not yearn for belief in a self.
In the monastery of non-dual prajna,
In the offering pit of the illusory body,
By the radiance of awareness rising from the bliss and heat of inner heat,
The fuel of the kleshas and conventional concepts
Of body, speech and mind has been burnt up.
Do not pine for the duality of this and that.
In the monastery free from words and concepts,
The sharp knife of prajna,
Of Mahasukha, of Mahamudra
Has cut the rope of ambition in the bardo.
Dismiss the craving which causes all attachment.
Walk the hidden path of the Wish-Fulfilling Gem
Leading to the realm of the heavenly tree, the changeless.
Untie the tongues of mutes.
Stop the stream of samsara, of belief in a self.
Recognize your true nature as a mother knows her child.
Prajna is self-aware,
Beyond the path of speech
And the object of no thought whatsoever .
I, Tilopa have nothing at which to point.
Know this as pointing in itself to itself.
Do not imagine, think, deliberate,
Meditate, act, but be at rest.
Do not be concerned with any object.
Reality, self-existent, radiant,
In which no memory can disturb you,
Cannot be called a thing
(1)
8
O great Tilopa
O incomparable
O unborn and deathless one,
As you have never departed,
By your unsparing kindness,
May we remain In the Great Inseparability
Of your unchanging body speech and mind.
If there is any continuity of anything,
It is you.
If there is any lineage of anything anywhere,
It is you.
If there is love,
It is you.
By the power of your motiveless intention
Which fills the sky like ceaseless wind,
May every illusory being,
Drifting frantically through the skies like dust
Find completion
In the vast luminous single mandala of your being.
AH AH AH
**********************************************************
The spontaneously arisen, mysterious and eternal Khenpo Ganshar, the deathless Mahasiddha, Tilopa himself is an unceasing, boundless, torrential river of purity raging through the polluted desert of this age.
This has been written with one pointed devotion and confidence so that his children and grandchildren and all generations yet to come never imagine they are parted from him.
Chodzin Paden
Magyel Pomra Sayi Dagpo
October 15, 1996 Boulder, Colorado
_________________________________________________________
(1) Adapted from The Life and Teaching of Naropa- Herbert V. Guenther
Oxford University Press, Clarendon Press, Oxford, UK 1963 :PP 94-5
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