Prayers

21 Homages to Tara: Verse 16 Commentary Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

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Thupten Shedrub Gyatso, who was a Tulku in one of the Palyul Monasteries, wrote this commentary. His present incarnation, Rago Chogtrul currently lives in Tibet.

Translation by Khenpo Tenzin Norgey ~ Spring, 2004,
Palyul Retreat Center, Mc Donough, NY USA ~Wood Monkey Year 2131

Homage to you, who is surrounded by joyous ones
Who completely scatter the bodies of enemies.
You liberate all with your speech, adorned with ten syllables
And HUNG: your pristine awareness.

The sixteenth homage is to Drolma Barvai Odcan,Tib the “Tara Who Averts the Enemies and Mantra’s Spell,” who is red like the fire at the end of eon, sits on blue lotus, and holds a crossed vajra.  She is surrounded by a host of vidyadharas and mendicants who have accomplished the practice of mantra and power of truthful speech and are endowed with perfect joy of samadhi.  Their radiance scatters the bodies of the foes and overcomes the power of magical spells and the power of sorcery, destroying them without a trace.  By reciting her mantra arrangement of the ten syllables, OM TARE and so on, she At the heart of the wrathful lady, awareness rests in the form of a HUNG radiating light that clears the outer, inner, and secret obscurations of the beings to be tamed.  The ultimate meaning is that by subduing the foe of the impure appearance of our body, the awareness body of the Mother of the Victorious Ones is accomplished: the unchanging great blissful body endowed with the ten powers.

21 Homages to Tara: Verse 15 Commentary Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

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Thupten Shedrub Gyatso, who was a Tulku in one of the Palyul Monasteries, wrote this commentary. His present incarnation, Rago Chogtrul currently lives in Tibet.

Translation by Khenpo Tenzin Norgey ~ Spring, 2004,
Palyul Retreat Center, Mc Donough, NY USA ~Wood Monkey Year 2131

Homage to you, who is blissful, virtuous and tranquil,
And enjoys the domain of peaceful nirvana
With (mantra) endowed perfectly with SVAHA and OM
You destroy all awful non-virtuous karma.

The fifteenth homage is to Rabtu Zhima,Tib the “Perfect Pacifier”, who pacifies the obscuration of negative karma[i].  She sits on blue lotus, and is peaceful.  Her color is white like a crystal moon and she holds an anointing vase.  She is free from the fruition of suffering, and as a result, she is blissful She has eliminated non-virtue, and as a result, she is virtuous.  Her afflictions have ended, and as a result, she is tranquil.  She has gone beyond the sufferings of the two obscurations and she enjoys and abides in the sphere of sublime tranquility.  By her power of compassion, and power of reciting perfectly in accordance with the sadhana[ii] her twenty-three or eighteen syllable mantras, the five heinous negative karmas[iii]that make beings fall into the lower realms, and other karma that generates great sufferings are uprooted and purified.  The mantra includes the additional syllables,OMat the beginning and SVAHA at the end.  The ultimate meaning is that her blissfulness and other qualities are connected to the five wisdom minds: the wisdom of absolute space, mirror-like wisdom, the wisdom of equality, discriminating wisdom, and all-accomplishing wisdom.


[i] karma skt ~ The doctrine of actions and there causal consequences, the law of cause and effect.

[ii] sadhana skt ~ Translated as “means of accomplishment”  Usually is a complete set of tantric liturgies on the practice of a deity, starting from the lineage prayers to dedication of the merit to all the sentient beings.

[iii] five heinous negative karmas ~ Patricide,  matricide, killing an arhat, drawing blood from the body of a Buddha with evil intent, and causing a schism in the sangha.

21 Homages to Tara: Verse 14 Commentary Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

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Thupten Shedrub Gyatso, who was a Tulku in one of the Palyul Monasteries, wrote this commentary. His present incarnation, Rago Chogtrul currently lives in Tibet.

Translation by Khenpo Tenzin Norgey ~ Spring, 2004,
Palyul Retreat Center, Mc Donough, NY USA ~Wood Monkey Year 2131

Homage to you, who strikes the earth with your palms,
And stamps upon it with your feet.
With wrathful grimaces and HUNG syllable,
You scatter the seven underworlds.

The fourteenth homage is to Thronyer Chenzed,Tib the “Wrathful Wrinkled (Frowning) Tara” who subdues the eight classes of harmful spirits and nine malignant spirit brothers.  She is black like a dark night, and holds a wooden pestle upon a blue lotus.  She makes the world tremble and quake by striking the mountains and islands with the palms of her hands and stamping upon them with her feet.  By the power of her regal frowning, the resounding vibration of HUNG, and the glare from her radiant vajra light, which is like a fire-shower, she shatters the hearts and heads of all malignant spirits:  samaya[i] breakers, demons and others from the seven underworlds and above, and makes them faint into the state of dharmata[ii].  The seven underworlds, which are like layers of seven roofs, are: the abodes of demons, the general base, the higher base, the baseless, the specific base, the base of essence, the perfect base, and the pure base.  In reality, the two soles striking symbolize striking the crucial point of the path of the non-duality of pristine wisdom and the basic sphere, which uproots the seven latencies or seven cognitions with their objects.


[i] samaya skt  ~ A vow or word of honor, a promise, commitment,  usually in the context of a Tantric vow or empowerment.

[ii] dharmata  skt  ~ The void nature the emptiness aspect of Buddhahood.  It can be translated as the true nature of reality.

21 Homages to Tara: Verse 13 Commentary Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

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Thupten Shedrub Gyatso, who was a Tulku in one of the Palyul Monasteries, wrote this commentary. His present incarnation, Rago Chogtrul currently lives in Tibet.

Translation by Khenpo Tenzin Norgey ~ Spring, 2004,
Palyul Retreat Center, Mc Donough, NY USA ~Wood Monkey Year 2131

 Homage to you, who dwells amidst garlands
Blazing like the fire at the end of an eon.
With your right leg outstretched and left leg drawn in
Your joyful turning destroys enemy forces.

The thirteenth homage is to Drapung Jomma,Tib the “Tara Who Averts War”.  She averts wars and obstacles, and leads beings to victory in the war with form and formless enemies.  She is red in color and dwells amidst garlands of wisdom fire swirling like the fire at the end of an eon.  Her right leg is stretched out and left leg is drawn in.  Sparks of fire fly from the prongs of the vajra she brandishes, subduing all harmful enemies.  She comforts them by gathering them under the vajra-tent that protects them from their own evil.  With every skillful means[i], she turns the wheel of dharma, according to the disposition of the beings to be tamed.  She makes them content and joyous, and subdues the malefic forces of the two obscurations.  The inner meaning is that this indicates the realization that “exhausts all phenomena”.  Just as the fire at the end of the eon consumes the world, when the primordial wisdom swirls in dharmadhatu, the outer earth and stones, the inner animate body, and the secret conceptions are also exhausted.  So the foes of the two obscurations[ii] are subjugated, and the joy of the great tranquility of the core of inner clarity of primordial wisdom[iii]that does not dwell in the extremes of samsara and nirvana is experienced.


[i] skillful means ~ The Mahayana practice of adapting the doctrine to the capacities of one’s audience.

[ii] two obscurations  ~ There are two types of obscurations: those preventing liberation from the cycle of samsaric suffering, called afflictive obscurations, and those preventing omniscience, called the obscurations to the objects of knowledge.

[iii] primordial wisdom  ~The wisdom that has realized the primordial nature of all phenomena.

21 Homages to Tara: Verse 12 Commentary Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

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Thupten Shedrub Gyatso, who was a Tulku in one of the Palyul Monasteries, wrote this commentary. His present incarnation, Rago Chogtrul currently lives in Tibet. Translation by Khenpo Tenzin Norgey ~ Spring, 2004, Palyul Retreat Center, Mc Donough, NY USA ~Wood Monkey Year 2131


Homage to you, whose diadem is a crescent moon,
All your adornments dazzle brightly.
Excellent perpetual light shines
From Amitabha at your topknot.

The twelfth homage is to Tara, Tashi Dongyed Dolma,Tib the “One Who Bestows Auspiciousness” who brings timely rain, helps with childbirth, and makes places auspicious.  This golden Tara sits on blue lotus and holds an auspicious knot.  From the rays of her crescent moon diadem, showers of nectar fall, improving crops and vegetation.  Clear and brilliant white light radiates from all of her precious jewels and silken attire.  Amitabha, the lord of her Buddha family sits on her black hair knot.  From him too, boundless unceasing compassionate rays shine for the benefit of sentient beings.  These rays bring a shower of auspicious signs and articles.  They cleanse the poisonous bad omens of animate and inanimate existence, causing all beings and their environments to enjoy perfect, glorious, auspiciousness.  The ultimate meaning of the first line is ‘direct perception,’ the second line means the ‘enhancing experience’ and the last two of the lines mean ‘the completion stage of the expansion of primordial wisdom and kayas of the fourth empowerment[i],’(Word).


[i] empowerment  ~ A ritual transfer of power, an initiation.  The authorization to hear, study and practice the teachings of the Vajrayana.  This takes place in a ceremony that may be extremely elaborate or utterly simple, conducted by a Vajra master.

21 Homages to Tara: Verse 11 Commentary Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

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Thupten Shedrub Gyatso, who was a Tulku in one of the Palyul Monasteries, wrote this commentary. His present incarnation, Rago Chogtrul currently lives in Tibet.

Translation by Khenpo Tenzin Norgey ~ Spring, 2004,
Palyul Retreat Center, Mc Donough, NY USA ~Wood Monkey Year 2131

Homage to you,
Who can summon hosts of the protectors of earth.
By your frowning movements and HUNG syllable,
You bring freedom from all poverties.

The eleventh homage is to Thronyer Chenma,Tib the “Frowning Lady” who bestows wealth and dispels poverty.  She summons the goddess of earth, the nagas, the god of wealth, yakshas and other lords of ten directions and their retinues to serve her activities.  She is holds a treasure vase, and is orange in color.  She is majestic, with a scowling face and a furrowed brow.  Light radiates from the HUNG syllable at her heart, drawing in the wealth and prosperity of gods, nagas and humans.  She showers the poor and needy with wealth, satisfying all their needs and freeing them from their sufferings.  The inner meaning is that by purifying the earth-like ignorance that supports the world, the primordially perfect great merit is revealed, clearing samsara and nirvana of all poverty.  This also indicates the Secret and Wisdom path.

21 Homages to Tara: Verse 10 Commentary Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

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Thupten Shedrub Gyatso, who was a Tulku  in one of the Palyul Monasteries, wrote this commentary.  His present incarnation, Rago Chogtrul currently lives in Tibet.

Translation by Khenpo Tenzin Norgey ~ Spring, 2004,
Palyul Retreat Center, Mc Donough, NY USA ~Wood Monkey Year 2131

Homage to you, lady who unfurls
Garlands of joyous majestic light from your crown.
By your piercing laughter of TUTTARE,
You subjugate the world and maras.

The tenth homage is to Jigten Sumgyal,Tib “Victorious Over Three Worlds”, who subjugates worldly beings.  She is red and holds a victory banner.  Multi-colored lights radiate from her crown, giving perfect joy and fulfilling the temporal and ultimate wishes according to the desires of beings.  By saying the TUTTARE mantra melodiously with the eight attributes of laughter, (of the wrathful deity) she confuses and subjugates the demonic lords of the (sensory god realm), who are known as the “Controllers of Other’s Emanation”.  She also subjugates kings, ministers, sorcerers, and wealthy householders and leads them to the path of liberation.  In the root text, “the outer phenomena change only when self-appearances transform.”  Therefore, subjugation is possible if the intention of the spiritual mother (non-dual emptiness-compassion) is attained, and there is no alternate method.  The inner meaning is the four joys subjugate demons and afflictions.  The subjugation of the three doors by blissful primordial wisdom is subjugation of the three worlds.

21 Homages to Tara: Verse 9 Commentary Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

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Thupten Shedrub Gyatso, who was a Tulku  in one of the Palyul Monasteries, wrote this commentary.  His present incarnation, Rago Chogtrul currently lives in Tibet.

Translation by Khenpo Tenzin Norgey ~ Spring, 2004,
Palyul Retreat Center, Mc Donough, NY USA ~Wood Monkey Year 2131

Homage to you, who holds your fingers marvelously
In the mudra symbolizing the Triple Gem at your heart.
Swirling masses of light adorn you,
Permeating every direction in beautiful circles.

The ninth praise is homage to Sengdeng Nagi Drolma,Tib the “Tara of the Rosewood Forest” who protects from all kinds of fears.  Her color is dark green, with the dazzling radiance of emeralds.  Her right hand is in the boon-giving mudra, and the thumb and ring finger of her left hand holds a blue lotus engraved with a wheel.  Her remaining fingers are held gracefully upright at her heart in the mudra symbolizing the Triple Gem [i].  The swirling wheel of light, (a metaphor for protection) adorns her like the finest of garments, and it protects like a shield against all torments.  Likewise, all beings of the world in ten directions are protected from all kinds of fears by the all-pervasive light that beams from her body, clearing their fears in a display of extraordinary radiance.

The eight kinds of fears are:

1. The fear of elephants represents the power of ignorance.  When ignorance grows strong, one ignores the law of cause and effect, indulges in alcohol, (here the use of alcohol is a symbolic of wrong view) and becomes crazy.

2. The fear of iron chains symbolizes habituation to lust and desire that bind together the senses and their objects.

3. The fear of pishaca demons signifies the doubt that steals the life force of nirvana, as it moves in the sky of ignorance, and the doubt that harms the understanding of ultimate meanings.

4. The fear of rivers (floods) is a symbol of desire, acting savagely.  By the possession of spirits, the current of desire carries beings towards samsara in its tumultuous waves of birth, sick, aging and death caused by karmic wind.

5.  The fear of fire represents the power of anger that burns the forest of virtue.  Anger is the cause of anxiety, which in turn causes quarrels, disputes, and partialities.

6.  The fear of robbery corresponds to the wrong views that steal the treasure of the supreme goal.  This causes one to wander aimlessly in the barren ground of wrong view, (and to) believe in extremes and low ascetic practices.

7.  The fear of reptiles represents jealousy, the poison of intolerance of another person’s prosperity.  Jealousy results in everything becoming a cause for agitation.

8.  The fear of lions.  Signifies pride, the conceit of holding high ones own views and conduct.  Pride causes one to (metaphorically) develop claws as sharp as a lion’s to belittle others.

These and their casual factors are the eight fears.

Another set of eight fears, which are the fruition of secondary afflictions are:

1. The fear of punishment by kings caused by self-infatuation and harming others.

2. The fear of foes is caused by hypocrisy, gloom, sloth and excitement.

3. The fear of evil spirits is caused by dishonesty and deceit.

4. The fear of leprosy is caused by lack of shame and dread of blame.

5. The fear of being lonely is caused by disbelief.

6. The fear of poverty is caused by stinginess.

7. The fear of thunder is caused by anger and enmity.

8. The fear of failure is caused by indolence and carelessness.

 

Homage is paid to the lady who protects us from these two sets of fears.  The inner meaning is that her wheel of the three primordial wisdom-minds, (the wisdom-minds of emptiness, clarity and compassion, illustrated by the mudra symbolizing the Triple Gem) eliminates the nine bonds and other afflictions, which is a cause for accomplishing the fearless vajra of self-cognized luminosity.

 

[i] Triple Gem  ~ Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.  Buddha as the teacher of refuge, the doctrine as actual refuge, and the spiritual community as support for practice.

Prayer to Migyur Dorje

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Prayer To Migyur Dorje

SHU PU PAL SENG NGAM YUL SID PAR ZUNG
You are the emanation of Shupu Palseng, born in Ngam Yul

TSA SUM ZHAL ZING NAM CHÖ NYEN GYÜD PEL
Who had visions of the three roots deities, and propagated the Namcho aural lineage

JIN LAB TOB KYI ZHEN PHEN SAM MI KYAB
By the power of your blessings, you have benefitted others inconceivably

TRUL KU MIGYUR DORJE LA SO WA DEB
I pray to Tulku Migyur Dorje

From the Nam Cho Daily Practice at Palyul Ling

Prayer for Mental Clarity

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The following is from a twitter conversation between Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo and a follower on twitter:

Student: need your advice. I am so nervous to face my exam tomorrow. What should i do? is there a pray for it and to get success maybe?

Jetsunma: Hi, a good mantra to recite for memory, mental clarity, wisdom is to the great Manjushri. mantra: Pronounce “OM AH RA PA TSA NA DHI”

Student: Thanks a lot! It can be read anytime or just before doing something?

Jetsunma: Any time at all!

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