The Short Great Vajradhara Prayer - PKTC · Drigung , Taglung, Tsalpa ... Kagyu prayer are based on...

THE SHORT

GREAT VAJRADHARA PRAYER

COMPOSED BYBAN GAR WA JAMPAL ZANGPO

TRANSLATION AND EXPLANATION BY

TONY DUFF

PADMA KARPO TRANSLATION COMMITTEE

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The translations and commentaries contained herein aremade available online as a gift of dharma. They are beingoffered with the intent that anyone may download them,print them out, read and study them, share them withfriends, and even copy and redistribute the files privately. Still, the following must be observed:

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THE SHORT

GREAT VAJRADHARA PRAYER

COMPOSED BYBAN GAR WA JAMPAL ZANGPO

TRANSLATION AND EXPLANATION BY

TONY DUFF

PADMA KARPO TRANSLATION COMMITTEE

For enquiries regarding permission to reproduce this bookor any portion of it, or to obtain further books, please writeto the given address or contact the author via internet ande-mail.

Copyright © 2008 Tony Duff. All rights reserved. Noportion of this book may be reproduced in any form or byany means, electronic or mechanical, includingphotography, recording, or by any information storage orretrieval system or technologies now known or laterdeveloped, without permission in writing from thepublisher.

First edition, December 2008

Palatino typeface with diacritical marks andTibetan Classic typefaceDesigned and created by Tony Duff

Produced, Printed, and Published byPadma Karpo Translation CommitteeP.O. Box 4957KathmanduNEPAL

Web-site and e-mail contact through:http://www.pktc.org/pktcOr search Padma Karpo Translation Committee on the web.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii

THE SHORT GREAT VAJRADHARA PRAYER . . . . . . . . . . 1

A BRIEF EXPLANATION OF THE PRAYER WITH

COMMENTS ON THE TRANSLATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

TIBETAN TEXT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

i

INTRODUCTION

This is a new translation of one of the most used prayers ofthe Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, the “Short GreatVajradhara Prayer” as it is called. The new translation ismeant for practitioners but could also be used as an exerciseby those who are trying to learn to translate Tibetan texts.

There were many translations of the prayer around at the timeof writing, most of them based on one of the earliest transla-tions made, the one done by the Nalanda Translation Commit-tee in the 1970's. The first part of the prayer is straightforwardand easy to translate but the last two verses are not becausethey sum up very profound Mahāmudrā instruction. Alltranslations made so far have failed to translate them correctly. At the urging of several people, we made a fresh translationand a short commentary to the prayer that does correctly showthe meaning of the prayer.

STUDY TOOLS

In general, the Padma Karpo Translation Committee haspublished a wide range of books on Buddhist dharma. Anumber of them are on Kagyu Mahāmudrā and will be veryhelpful in understanding the prayer presented here. See our

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iv INTRODUCTION

website at the address given on the copyright page; you willfind texts free and for sale there, all of them prepared to thehighest level of quality.

We also provide many aids for those wanting to translate. We had the idea in producing this publication that it wouldhelp practitioners by giving to have a better version of aprayer which is so commonly used. We also had the idea thatit could be used as an exercise in translation by those whowere wanting to learn how to do that. You could easily usethe book here, with all it provides, to take this prayer as atranslation exercise. If you do so, we would strongly recom-mend the Illuminator Tibetan-English Dictionary as somethingyou should use when you are translating. It contains a largeamount of information about Tibetan grammar in general andall of the vocabulary mentioned in this prayer, too. You mightalso be interested in our major work on Tibetan grammar, TheThirty Verses of Minister Thumi, which presents, for the firsttime in the West, Tibetan grammar as it is actually used andunderstood by Tibetans. In fact, the translation exercise inhere is founded on the principles of Tibetan grammar whichare laid out very extensively in that book.

This e-book has a binding offset built in so that it can easilybe printed and bound as a book for your library.

The text in Tibetan script has been included for those wantingto study it.

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INTRODUCTION v

Finally, there are other publications on our website which canbe used as exercises in translation.

Our best wishes to you,Lama Tony DuffPadma Karpo Translation CommitteeSwayambhunath,Nepal19 February 2012.

v

THE SHORT GREAT VAJRADHARA PRAYER

Great Vajradhara, Tailo, Naro,Marpa, Mila, Lord of Dharma Gampopa,Knower of all three times and knowables Karmapa,Holders of the four great and eight lesser lineages ofDrigung, Taglung, Tsalpa, these three, glorious Drukpa, and

so on—You who have mastered the profound path of Mahāmudrā,Unequalled protectors of migrators, the Dvagpo Kagyu,I supplicate you the Kagyu gurus, I hold your lineage,Grant your blessings so that I might follow your example.

Revulsion is the foot of meditation as is taught.To this meditator who is not attached to food and wealth,Who decides to cut the ties to this life,Grant your blessings so that I have no attachment to honour

and gain.

Devotion is the head of meditation as is taught.To this meditator who continually supplicatesThe guru who opens the door to the foremost instructions,Grant your blessings so that genuine devotion is born in me.

1

2 THE SHORT GREAT VAJRADHARA PRAYER

Non-distraction is the body of meditation as is taught.To this meditator for whom thought shining forth in freshnessIs left unaltered and who stays in just that,Grant your blessings so that I am free of rational-minded

meditation.

Discursive thought’s entity is dharmakāya as is taught.To this meditator for whom nothing whatsoeverShining forth as everything, shines forth in unstopped play,Grant your blessings so that I realize the inseparability of

saṃsāra and nirvāṇa.

Composed by the man from Ban Gar, Jampal Zangpo.

Translated by Lama Tony Duff of Padma Karpo Translation Com-mittee according to the instructions received from many Kagyulineage holders, while staying with the Three Jewels at Swayambu-nath, Nepal, December, 2008.

A BRIEF EXPLANATION OF THE PRAYER

WITH COMMENTS ON THE TRANSLATION

The translation and explanation here of this very popularKagyu prayer are based on the explanations of the variouslineage gurus for whom I have personally translated or heardand the Tibetan commentaries I have read about it.

There are several translations of this text floating around. Thefirst few verses are not difficult to translate and are more orless correctly translated by everyone. There are differencesin style, with some definitely being better than others; theNalanda Translation Committee’s translation, with the imprintof the Vidyādhara Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche on it, standsout from the others in this regard. However the last twoverses of the prayer are not translated correctly in any of thetranslations that I have seen—even the latest ones. This mightnot be surprising because the last two verses deal with highlevels of practice whose details are secret. The informationneeded to translate these two verses correctly has obviouslynot been at the disposal of the people who have done thetranslations.

If a Tibetan teacher were to give you a commentary on thelast two verses, you could try to use the other translations with

3


it but it would not work as I found out several times over theyears when translating for Kagyu gurus. As a matter ofinterest, I found myself several times over the years in theposition where I was asked to translate such a commentary,on the fly, to these last two verses. Whenever I tried to usethe existing translations, it did not go well and I was ques-tioned about it. After careful examination, the various teach-ers said that there were major problems with the existingtranslations; they stated plainly that these translations didnot reflect the Tibetan at all and, as far as they were concerned,had obstructed the teacher’s teaching. So, the problem withexisting translations is not just my opinion but that of severalhigh level Kagyu teachers. Interestingly, the current Karmapa was also dissatisfied withthe current translations. He had his team of Tibetan lamaswork on a new translation which was presented at the 2007Kagyu Prayer Festival at Bodhgaya. Unfortunately, their lackof knowledge of English shows through very strongly andthat translation is even worse that some of the ones done byWesterners. Tibetans can be the teachers for non-Tibetansbut they absolutely should not be the translators; this is justas they themselves insisted when the Indians were transmit-ting the Buddha dharma to the Tibetans. At any rate, I ammaking the point that the Tibetan lineage holders all the wayup to the current Karmapa who do understand Englishenough to know are in universal agreement that this prayerhas not been correctly translated so far.

Thus, due to need and request, I have produced a new transla-tion that corrects the serious faults of all existing translationsof the last two verses and generally sets the rest of the prayerinto English according to what is written in the Tibetan. To

A BRIEF EXPLANATION OF THE PRAYER 5

do this, I decided not to reject all other work done but tohonour that by basing the new translation on the already-existing work of Nalanda Translation Committee, given thattheir translation is more or less correct for the first few versesand does have a better style than any of the other translationsthat I have seen. For those who know the Nalanda TranslationCommittee version, You will see that there are correctionsin a few places in the first few verses, which were necessary,and that the last two verses have been translated afresh. Thisway there is continuity to the work already done but with thenecessary improvements made. This new translation can beused with word by word commentaries given by Tibetanteachers because, apart from being generally correct, it doesfit the flow of the words and does not lose any of the impor-tant concepts involved.

THE MEANING OF THE PRAYER

There are four, main traditions of Buddhist dharma in Tibet. One of them is the Kagyu tradition. The Kagyu tradition hasfor its main practice what is called the practice of Mahāmudrā.

Mahāmudrā is a name that arose in India for reality. Thename means “the great imprint” and refers to the fact thatall phenomena are, without choice or variation, marked byreality. All phenomena are choicelessly imprinted with real-ity. When that is not words on a page but an actual, directexperience, it is said, in the Indian and Tibetan way of think-ing to be “great” in order to distinguish it from a purelyconceptual understanding of it. Thus reality itself that is


indivisibly part of every phenomenon is called “The GreatImprint”, “Mahāmudrā”.1

The prayer here was written by a follower of the Kagyu tradi-tion called Ban Garwa (meaning the man from Ban Gar)Jampal Zangpo. His prayer hits all the key points of the pathof Mahāmudrā in a very short space and in just the right way. It was so well-done that it quickly became a prayer used byall followers of his Kagyu tradition and he himself becamefamous as a result of it.

There is a fairly entrenched habit amongst Western dharmastudents of thinking that this is a “lineage prayer”. It is not. It is as just mentioned, a summation of the Mahāmudrā pathto enlightenment as practised by the Kagyus, built as a prayerthat asks for blessings so that the path could be achieved.

Traditionally, one would explain the meaning of the title first. A well-constructed title totally sums up the meaning of thecontent. That is the case here. The prayer starts with enlight-enment in the form of other, the external teacher Vajradhara,and goes all through the process of returning to that enlighten-ment, ending up on the last line with oneself returning to thatenlightenment, now as Vajradhara oneself. It is a short prayerindeed and it is about Vajradhara from primordial origin all

1 A great deal more about Mahāmudrā and its practice in the Kagyutradition starting with Gampopa’s instructions on it and includingtranslations of many key texts and a major commentary by TengaRinpoche can be found in Gampopa’s Mahāmudrā, The Five-PartMahāmudrā of the Kagyus published by Padma Karpo TranslationCommittee, ISBN 978-9937-2-0607-5.


the way through to your own Vajradhara manifested throughfollowing the path. In the Mahāmudrā system, the primordialbuddha, the buddha that represents primordial reality beforeall other buddhas, is Vajradhara. He is the buddha beforeall others so he is also called “Great Vajradhara”. Thereforethe prayer is called “The Short Great Vajradhara Prayer”.

The body of the prayer hits all the key points of the path ofpractise that goes with the Mahāmudrā system as follows:

1. It starts with enlightenment in the form of Vajradhara;2. Prays to the Mahāmudrā lineage connected with

realizing that;3. Asks for blessings for the key point of renunciation,

which is the basis for all practice;4. Asks for blessings for the key point of devotion, which

is the special feature needed for the practice ofMahāmudrā;

5. Asks for blessings for the key point of non-distractionleading to non-meditation, which is the style of es-sence Mahāmudrā meditation;

6. Asks for blessings for the practice of the ultimate view,which is expressed through Gampopa’s axiom mar-ried to the three characteristics of ultimate practice,leading to final realization which is expressed as thefruition, the inseparability of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa.

SUPPLICATING PRIMORDIAL ENLIGHTENMENT ANDTHE MAHĀMUDRĀ LINEAGE THAT HAS COME FROM

IT

To return to reality, you have to relate to the reality and topeople who are connected with it. The first part of the prayersets out the reality and the line of humans who have con-


nected with it via the Mahāmudrā teaching that came fromIndia into Tibet and then supplicates them for their assistance. In this system, primordial reality is represented, as mentionedabove, by Great Vajradhara. In other words, the prayer beginsby referring to the reality that we would like to return in itsmanifestation as Vajradhara, the buddha who transmittedthe teachings of reality to the humans who practised it andpassed it on.

Vajradhara gave the teachings to the Indian siddha Tailopa. Although he is commonly called Tilopa these days amongstWesterners, he was almost universally known as Tailopa orjust Tailo, in Tibetan Buddhism itself. The prayer, accord-ingly, calls him Tailo. Tailo received four main lines of teach-ing on reality from various other Indian siddhas, all of themtracing their lineages of teaching back to Vajradhara. Tailopahad these human gurus but he also had direct meetings withprimordial reality. Therefore, it is common that the humanlineages that connected him with primordial reality are notmentioned and that his direct connection to reality is men-tioned instead, as is done here.

One of Tailopa’s main disciples was the Indian siddha Naropa. Naropa in turn was the guru of the Tibetan man Marpa. Marpa went to India, received all of the teachings from Naro-pa and took them back to Tibet where he taught them to hisdisciples. Marpa had four main disciples, one of them thelegendary yogin Milarepa. The life stories of these earlyforefathers of the Kagyu lineage, as they are called, have beentranslated into English and are important reading for thosefollowing the path. Devotion is a key point of the practice


of Mahāmudrā in general and in the Kagyu lineage in particu-lar and reading their stories helps to make devotion blaze.

Milarepa had two main disciples, one of them Gampopa. AsMilarepa himself said to Gampopa2,

““Through you, there will be much benefit forsentient beings”, he said. I, Gampopa, askedhow that would be and he said, “When youcame here, a sign that you would benefit beingsarose. After you stayed here, I had a dream inwhich we had a race and you came first; it saysthat your benefit for sentient beings will begreater than mine. Again, one time I dreamedthat you hurled a boulder bigger than anomad’s tent to another land and by strikingthe boulder with both hands it was reduced todust—your body also was better than mine; Idid not have your capacity. It means that youwill not be afraid of external objects.”

As Milarepa predicted there and in other places, Gampopawas special in that he had a very great connection with sen-tient beings and because of him in particular, the Kagyulineage went from being narrowly practised to being practisedon a grand scale. The lineage down to Gampopa was like thetrunk of a tree. Gampopa represents the point from whichthe tree develops branches and spreads out into very luxuri-

2 Quoted from “Gampopa’s Questions and Answers with KarmapaDusum Khyenpa” as found in Gampopa’s Collected Works. This willbe published in a forthcoming book from Padma Karpo TranslationCommittee, a book that covers in depth the way that Gampopataught essence Mahāmudrā to his disciples.


ous growth. All of the lineage gurus mentioned so far werecalled “Lord of Dharma” at one time or another because ofeach one’s great realization. However, Gampopa was espe-cially known as “Lord of Dharma” because of his greatnessin making the Kagyu dharma spread widely. Hence, laterKagyu followers often refer to him as such, just as is done inthis prayer.

After Gampopa, the Kagyu lineage spread out and developedin many sub-lineages. They became known as the “four greatand eight lesser lineages”. The Illuminator Tibetan-EnglishEncyclopaedic Dictionary3 explains:

“The “Four Greater and Eight Lesser schools” isa formulation that does not include all of theKagyu traditions; it is really an abbreviatedstatement of what happened to the Kagyulineage after Gampopa. Kagyu schools thatcame into existence prior to Gampopa includethe Marpa Kagyu and Rechung Nyengyu; fromGampopa himself there is the Dvagpo Kagyuand another transmission; these lineages existseparately from the four greater and eightlesser schools.

The four greater Kagyu schools are: 1) theKarma Kagyu founded by one of the three menfrom Kham, Dusum Khyenpa; 2) the BaromKagyu founded by Barom Darma Wangchuk; ,

3 Published by and available through Padma Karpo TranslationCommittee. See the PKTC web-site at the address on the copyrightpage for full information.


3) the Tshalpa Kagyu founded by Lama Zhang,Zhang Tshalpa Tsondru Drakpa; and 4) thePhakdru Kagyu tradition founded by PhagmoDrupa another of the three men from Kham.

The eight lesser schools appeared due to eightof the great students of Phagmo Drupa. Theyare: 1) the Drigung Kagyu founded by KyobpaJigten Gonpo; 2) the Taglung Kagyu foundedby Taglung Thangpa Tashi Palden; 3) TrophuKagyu founded by Drogon Gyaltsha; 4) theLingre Kagyu founded by Lingje Repa PemaDorje (and which became the source of theDrukpa Kagyu); 5) the Martsang Kagyufounded by Choje Marpa Dondrup; 6) theYelpa Kagyu founded by Yelpa Yeshe Tsek; 7)the Yazang Kagyu founded by Zarawa YesheSenge; and 8) the Shugseb Kagyu founded byNyephu Gyergom Chenpo.”

The prayer continues by mentioning “Knower of all threetimes and knowables Karmapa”. This is the first Karmapa,Dusum Khyenpa. He was the founder of the Karma Kagyu,which is one of the four greater lineages. The reason thatKarmapa Dusum Khyenpa is mentioned specifically here andnot any of the other founders of the four great and eight lesserlineages is that the author of the prayer was a follower of theKarma Kagyu, so he is mentioning the source of his ownKagyu lineage.

The first Karmapa became known during his lifetime as apractitioner of consummate realization so was called “DusumKhyenpa” meaning “knower of the three times”, in reference


to the fact that a buddha has the capacity to know all of thepast, present, and future simultaneously. The prayer hereis very cleverly written; it builds on his name “Knower of thethree times”, and literally says “The all—the three times andknowables—knowing one Karmapa. This is a bit hard torender into English without becoming a mouthful so I’vetranslated it as I have. However, that is what it actually says. The point here is that buddhas do not only know the threetimes, they also know every single thing that could be known—all knowables. By the way, the text does not say that heis “omniscient”, it says that he is “all-knowing” which is aspecific epithet of the Tibetan tradition.

After the first Karmapa, it mentions all the rest of the lineageholders of the various Kagyu lineages by mentioning thelineage holders of the four great and eight lesser lineages. Even though there were other Kagyu lineages, as mentionedin the citation from the Illuminator Dictionary, mentioningthe four great and eight lesser lineages became a way, as itis here, of meaning all of the Kagyu lineages.

The prayer does not just mention the eight lesser lineages andleave it at that but goes on to pick out the Drigung, Taglung,Tshalpa, and Glorious Drukpa Kagyu lineages. It does thisbecause they were flourishing strongly compared to someof the others, so they got a special mention. The DrukpaKagyu, for example, was especially famous for consistingmainly of yogins who were practising and gaining accom-plishment.

To this point, the prayer has mentioned all of the lineage hold-ers of all the Kagyu lineages with emphasis, because of themention of Karmapa, on the Karma Kagyu. Later, other


lineages changed these last few lines slightly so that it wouldwork better for their particular Kagyu lineage. For example,there is a slightly modified version that removes KarmapaDusum Khyenpa and puts in the names of the main lineageholders of the Drukpa Kagyu lineage.

The prayer continues by praising these lineage holders. Theyare the great beings of the lineage who have mastered theprofound path of Mahāmudrā. Moreover, they are “theunequalled guardians of migrators, the Dvagpo Kagyu” .

“Unequalled” means that the Kagyu gurus are unequalledin their capacity for guiding sentient beings. Note that sometranslations of the prayer say “incomparable”; there is aspecific word for incomparable in Tibetan, just as there is inEnglish, and a specific word for “unequalled”, just as thereis in English. The word here is “unequalled”.

“Guardians of migrators” is a standard phrase used in allspheres of Tibetan Buddhism. “Migrators” is one of manyterms that the Buddha used to describe sentient beings ingeneral. The Buddha’s original word was, quite literally, “go-ers”; he used it to refer to the fact that sentient beings buzzabout blindly, zipping here and there between one existenceand another, like flies trapped in a jar. They need help. Thathelp comes in various ways. In this case, the gurus of theKagyu lineage are like their guardians. The word here is notmerely “protector” though it includes that notion, too. Theword is the specific word for someone older, wiser, and morecapable who stands over and protects another person in therole of being their guardian. The gurus of the Kagyu lineagehave actually taken on these blind migrators who are buzzingaround like senseless flies and stand over them, looking after


and guiding them, like the guardians of children who havelost their parents and need someone older to look after themin every way.

These unequalled guardians of beings are the Kagyu gurusof the lineage that came down from Gampopa. Gampopa ismostly known to Tibetans not as Gampopa but as “the manfrom Dvagpo” because that is where he came from and alsowhere he established his monastery on the advice of Milarepa. Thus, they are the unequalled guardians of beings, the gurusof the lineage of the Dvagpo Kagyu that came down throughGampopa.

Now that all of the lineage holders have been stated thenpraised, the first of several supplications is made. The remain-der of this first section, when paraphrased, says, “I supplicateyou the Kagyu gurus mentioned above. I too have the instruc-tions of the Kagyu lineage and practise them, thus I too am a holder of the Kagyu lineage. Therefore, please grant meyour blessings so that I too could practise dharma in the waysthat you have, as seen in your various life stories.”

With that, the practitioner has made a full connection withreality and the lineage of teachers who have practised andpassed on the teachings to him, and has asked for their bless-ings so that he too could practise and attain as they have. Having done that, the practitioner needs to have specificblessings so that he could have all the necessities of practiceitself and accomplish the practice according to how it shouldbe accomplished. Thus, the rest of the prayer is concerned


with supplicating for blessings so that practice could be en-tered and successfully accomplished.

SUPPLICATING FOR RENUNCIATION

The first thing needed for practice is renunciation. There aremany ways of summing up the path to enlightenment butthey always begin with renunciation because a person whohas not seen that his existence is fundamentally flawed willnot have the drive needed to go through the process of gettingto a more enlightened kind of existence.

Renunciation is a two fold process of seeing firstly that yourcurrent type of existence is fundamentally flawed and cannotbe fixed and secondly of turning towards a different type ofexistence that is not flawed and does not need to be fixed. The first step is to be revolted with your current, cyclic typeof existence then, from there, you can take the second stepof finding out which type of existence is better and re-orient-ing yourself firmly to that, which is actual renunciation. Thusrevulsion or disgust at one’s current state of existence is aprecursor for the renunciation that does the work of carryingyou all the way along your journey to a more enlightened styleof existence. Therefore, this verse says, “Revulsion is the footof meditation as is taught.”

Revulsion in Tibetan means to be disgusted with something,to be utterly fed up with it to the point of nausea. When youare this fed up with your deluded style of existence, otherwiseknown as cyclic existence or saṃsāra, you have the driveneeded to undertake what it takes to get to enlightenment. You will be prepared because of it to give up attachments tothe securities of your deluded kind of existence—food, wealth,


lodging, possessions, and so on—and put yourself whollyinto the practice. Giving up attempts to make this life work-able that will inevitably fail goes along with making a verydeliberate and no-turning-back-possible decision to abandonthat approach and to get on only with practice.

The Tibetan words in the prayer that correspond to “cut theties to this life” actually mean “to cut the mooring rope of aboat” and they have the sense of making a final, definitedecision that commits the person making the decision to acourse of action without any looking back. The Tibetanwording is quite strong and the English has to be understoodthat way. The prayer does not merely say that one “cuts theties to this life” but that one firmly decides to cut the ties tothis life and does actually do so.

So you, as the meditator are a person who has been revoltedby what you understand your cyclic existence to be and havegiven up on this life, having made a firm decision to cut allties to it. Therefore, you supplicate the ones before you whohave done the same, asking for their blessings so that you have“no attachment to honour and gain”. Here “gain” means tohave things as opposed to not having them; it is one elementof a comfortable, secure existence in this life, something thatthe meditator is abandoning or has abandoned. “Honour”means others holding you in high esteem and treating youvery well because of it. In short, you, the meditator are askingfor blessings so that you do not have the sorts of mind thatwould disturb your decision to abandon cyclic existence andget on with enlightenment.

SUPPLICATING FOR DEVOTION


Devotion is one of the key issues in Vajra Vehicle. Withoutit, nothing can happen. Devotion oversees the whole practiceand guides it along. Therefore it is likened to a head, witheyes and a brain.

When you have properly entered into relationship with some-one who can teach you Mahāmudrā, that person, your guru,opens to the door to your being able to practise Mahāmudrāspecifically by granting you the very special sort of oral in-structions that will enable you to progress on the path.

There are many types of oral instruction in Buddhism andeach has a specific name that tells exactly what it is. The mostspecial of all, called “upadeśha” in Sanskrit and “man ngag”in Tibetan, has the power to wake up certain kinds of experi-ence in you. The name literally means “foremost oral instruc-tion”. It is not enough just to think of this as oral instruction;there are many types of oral instruction but there is only onetype of this foremost instruction and it is universally describedas the special type of instruction needed for the transmissionof the Vajra Vehicle teaching.

The whole transmission of Mahāmudrā and Dzogchen de-pends on having a teacher who can impart this kind of instruc-tion to you. And your ability to receive it and do somethingwith it depends on your devotion to that person. Therefore,the guru is precious above all, and your devotion to him iskey. Because of that, you supplicate the lineage gurus so thata genuine devotion could be born in you. The Tibetan wordtranslated as “genuine” is actually “uncontrived”. It means“un-feigned” devotion, devotion with nothing artificial aboutit.


A lot could be said here about devotion but much of it isclosed teaching, available only to those who have entered theVajra Vehicle, and this small explanation is meant for widerpublic distribution.

SUPPLICATING FOR NON-DISTRACTION

The remaining two verses deal with the actual practice ofMahāmudrā meditation. There are two main approaches toMahāmudrā practice taught in the Kagyu; one is called es-sence Mahāmudrā and the other is called “The Four Yogasof Mahāmudrā”. The two verses here are about essenceMahāmudrā. This is the way that Gampopa, according towhat he himself says in his Collected Works, taughtMahāmudrā to his disciples.

The two remaining verses sum up the whole practice of es-sence Mahāmudrā and could easily have several large bookswritten about them. As mentioned before, the author wasvery erudite and actually compressed all the essential issuesinto just these two verses. However, as mentioned above, thisis only a small explanation of the prayer meant for widespreaddistribution, so a detailed explanation will not be given andthe secret details will not be discussed.

To understand the current verse, the one that starts with“Non-distraction”, you must understand that all lower typesof meditation, such as those found in sūtra, are meditationsin which you meditate using rational—or you can say dualistic—mind. And, you very consciously do a meditation that hasthe particular feature of developing a quality that you did nothave before or improving on one that you do have but whichcould be further developed. The meditations, for example,


on impermanence, loving kindness, compassion, calm-abid-ing, and so on are like that, and even meditation on emptinesscould be like that. They are meditations done with rationalmind, and they try to create or develop something in rationalmind.

Higher types of meditation are quite different. Rather thanusing rational mind to produce or improve something in thenormal, dualistic state of mind, these meditations do not createor improve anything in that mind. To the contrary, they arebeyond rational-mind made meditations and require that themeditator separates himself from that kind of meditation. The first of these two last verses is seeking blessings specifi-cally so that the practitioner can divorce himself from rational-mind styles of meditation and go to the beyond-mind stylemeditation of Mahāmudrā.

To enter the approach of a non-rational type of meditation—which is not even a meditation—there has, initially, to be non-distraction from the real situation as it is. You might not bedoing a conventional type, rational-minded meditation but,whatever else you do, you must remain without distractionin your practice. To do that, thoughts are not approached theway they are in rational-mind made meditations. In rational-mind made meditations, thoughts are seen as bad and haveto be stopped. In essence Mahāmudrā, thoughts are part ofreality and do not need to be prevented but they must alsonot be allowed to be a source of distraction. This point ofbeing “non-distracted” is a key point in Mahāmudrā. It is thebody, or the main part of meditation, as the prayer says.

A number of translations change “non-distraction” to itsopposite, “awareness”, and use that word instead of non-


distraction. This is a serious mistake as anyone who is well-acquainted with the practice and its transmission will know. The key point and the word for it is “non-distraction” andthere are extensive explanations on why that is so and whatit means.

The second and third lines present a progression with four,specific features of how a thought has to be dealt with initiallyfor it to be part of the non-distraction. They are like a livebroadcast of someone dealing with thoughts so that theyremain an integral part of the person’s non-distraction.

They are fresh things, those thoughts, when they do shineforth. What is “shining forth”? It is a specific technical termthat is not the same as the more general words “arising”,“occurring”, etc. It is a word specifically for things that hap-pen only in mind. When used in the Tibetan, you know ex-actly what you are dealing with. We have no word for thisin English, so I have used the phrase “shines forth” which bothmakes the term stand out—as it does in the Tibetan—andcorrectly translates the meaning.

They are fresh things, those thoughts, when they do shineforth. And you leave those things, in all of their freshness,untouched by any attempt to alter them. You put yourselfso that you are staying in just that, meaning just exactly whatthat un-distracted freshness is, and nothing more or less.

By putting yourself in that specific way in relation to anythought that shines forth, you develop the non-distractednesswhich is an essential component of every meditation but doit without the usual rational-minded approach to meditationseen in lower types of meditation. That is what you are aim-


ing for so you end this verse by asking for blessings so thatyou can, using this style of non-distraction, rid yourself of allstyles of rational-mind made meditation and move to the non-dualistic, non-meditation of essence Mahāmudrā.

Let me say here that, in the Tibetan of this verse, everythingis in the right place, there is great meaning, and the verse iseasy to chant. However, this is one of those cases where itis very difficult to get all of the qualities of the Tibetan verseinto English so that all details are included, are in the rightorder, and the whole thing is pleasant to chant. An equallyimportant point is not to fall into the mistake of looking atthis and saying, “Oh, I prefer some other translation becauseit sounds better or is easier to chant”. That would be likesaying, “I don’t care if the meaning is wrong and it takes mein the wrong direction, I just like it better”. The hard truthexposed by this situation is that we need to start writing ourown prayers in English.

THE CORE PRACTICE AND ITS RESULT,A RETURN TO ENLIGHTENMENT

The last verse succinctly describes ultimate Mahāmudrāpractice and supplicates for blessings for its accomplishment,which will be the fruition of the path, a return to buddhahood.

As with the last verse, the Tibetan in this verse incorporatesa number of key points in a flow. It’s rather beautiful, too,if you know all the details involved. Unlike the previousverse, it is straightforward to render into English though itdoes require a knowledge of the most profound points ofMahāmudrā, which admittedly is not something that manypeople have, even amongst practitioners.


The verse starts out with Gampopa’s statement that discursivethoughts are the entity of dharmakāya. The word entity herehas often been translated as “nature” or “essence” but thatis not the meaning of the word. The word means “whatsomething actually is”. This line is not saying “the essenceof discursive thought is dharmakāya”, which conveys thesense that there is something inside a thought that is dharma-kāya and then there is the thought as well. This line is saying“discursive thoughts themselves are the dharmakāya, theyare what dharmakāya is”.

There are two points connected with this. First, saying some-thing like “the nature or essence of discursive thought isdharmakāya” is not particularly hard to understand or acceptwithin Buddhism. However, saying that “the entity of discur-sive through is dharmakāya” is very radical! It is preciselybecause this is the meaning of this first line that masters ofother lineages, such as Sakya Paṇḍita, make trenchant criti-cisms of this statement. You can read more about these criti-cisms in PKTC’s books The Bodyless Dakini Dharma: The DakiniHearing Lineage Of the Kagyus4 and Drukchen Padma Karpo’sCollected Works on Mahamudra5

The second point is that meaning intended by Gampopa with“the entity of discursive thoughts” is very profound. It sumsup the entirety of Gampopa’s way of teaching essence Mahā-mudrā because of which it has become a central pillar of

4 Published by Padma Karpo Translation Committee, 2010, ISBN:978-9937-8244-8-4.

5 Published by Padma Karpo Translation Committee, 2011, ISBN:978-9973-572-01-9.


Kagyu teaching of Mahāmudrā. Gampopa once gave a teach-ing that summed up his “the entity of discursive thoughtsis dharmakāya” teaching. The teaching was recorded inwriting and is now part of his collected works. A translationof the teaching with extensive explanations is available inPKTC’s book Gampopa Teaches Essence Mahāmudrā Interviewswith His Heart Disciples, Dusum Khyenpa And Others6. Fromcover to cover this book sets out Gampopa’s way of teachingMahāmudrā; reading it will be especially helpful in under-standing the verse currently under consideration.

The style of practice connected with this is the non-meditation,free-of-rational-mind type of practice that goes with the non-distraction mentioned in the previous verse. When this typeof practice is done, the meditator experiences reality directlyand in a way that is described in the essence Mahāmudrāinstructions with the three characteristics. The three sum uphow the meditator knows reality, that is, Mahāmudrā, indirect experience.

There is an enormous body of teaching on the practice of thesethree characteristics but this is all at the secret level and cannotbe discussed here. Nonetheless, it is important to understandthat the verse is talking about a meditator who does arriveat this experience, with all three characteristics involved. Allother translations that I have seen mis-translate this verse,primarily because the translators did not know about this veryprofound—and hence not widely known—point.

6 Published by Padma Karpo Translation Committee, 2011, ISBN:978-9937–572-08-8.


The meditator’s direct experience of reality having the threecharacteristics is stated with these words,

“nothing whatsoever shining forth as everything, shinesforth in unstopped play…”

Note how there is no break between “nothing whatsoever”and “shining forth as everything”. That is correct: the word-ing is exactly that way in Tibetan and sounds that way whenread. That is so because it describes two processes occurringsimultaneously. When those two events are happening,whatever shines forth in mind shines forth in a process ofwhat is called “unstopped play”, just as this translation says.

The word “un-stopped” is a very special and important termthat points out a special quality of the first two characteristics. Most other translations have called this “unceasing” or“unhindered” but that is incorrect; those words and otherslike them are not grammatically correct and are also notcorrect in terms of the profound point being addressed.

The verse ends by asking for blessings so that the experienceof Mahāmudrā could shine forth in the meditator’s mind notmerely as the path experience just discussed but as the finalrealization of buddhahood, mentioned as the inseparabilityof saṃsāra and nirvāṇa.

The qualities of enlightenment are inconceivable, in the sensethat they are beyond the range of conceptual, that is rational,mind. However, for the sake of us practitioners, buddha, inits various manifestations such as Śhākyamuni Buddha,Vajradhara, and so on have given explanations of what it islike. One of the many ways of explaining it is to point outthat, when realized, there is no boundary any longer between


saṃsāra and nirvāṇa. There are various ways of explainingthis but before mentioning them, it is important to understandthat “the inseparability of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa” is not some-thing that can or ever will directly known by any saṃsāricsort of being. “The inseparability of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa”does not in any way mean that saṃsāra and nirvāṇa areinseparable in the way that a saṃsāric, conceptual, dualistic,rational mind would always think about it. “The inseparabil-ity of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa” are words that point at a stateof being in which there is a fundamentally different way ofknowing from that of the ordinary person. That different wayof knowing is called wisdom.

If you, as a person who has practised this kind of Mahāmudrāpath, have reached the point where the direct experience ofreality described in the middle lines of this verse is with youtwenty-four hours a day, around the clock, and without anyinterruption at all to its continuity, then you have reached thefruition. You have returned to your own, innate state ofVajradhara because of having followed the path as it shouldbe followed, as summed up in this prayer.

If someone else who had not arrived at the end came alongand asked you, “Well how is it?”, you would be stuck forwords just as all the other buddhas have been. However, ifyou were pressed on the matter, you might, as they all havedone, first offer the disclaimer, “Look, this is not expressibleby words and cannot be known through conceptual thinking”and then say, “All things of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa have onecommon point, which is that they all are empty. At this point,that emptiness has been fully realized; it is a fact continuouslybefore mind. Therefore, for me, the phenomena that arise inthat expanse of emptiness whether of saṃsāra or nirvāṇa, are


the same and cannot be separated. For me, saṃsāra andnirvāṇa are not two separate things the way that they are foryou”. Their way of being inseparable can be understood bya saṃsāric person using these kinds of words but the actualfact of inseparability can only be experienced when dualisticmind and all of its traces have been eliminated, at the pointwhen you have returned to your original condition. Theoriginal condition is The Great Imprint, Mahāmudrā whichmanifests in the forms such as Vajradhara in order to teachother beings how to return to their original condition.

The prayer is commonly recited with another verse addedto the end, one which sums up the path into just one verse:

“Through all my births may I not be separated…”

However, that is another prayer that is not part of the GreatVajradhara prayer.

May all be good andFinally beyond good.

Lama Tony Duff,Swayambhu,Nepal,24 December 2008

TIBETAN TEXT

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Tony Duff has spent a lifetime pursuing the Buddha’steaching and transmitting it to others. In the early1970's, during his post-graduate studies in molecularbiology, he went to Asia and met the Buddhistteachings of various South-east Asian countries. He

met Tibetan Buddhism in Nepal and has followed it since. After histrip he abandoned worldly life and was the first monk ordained in hishome country of Australia. Together with several others, he foundedthe monastery called Chenrezig Institute for Wisdom Culture wherehe studied and practised the Gelugpa teachings for several yearsunder the guidance of Lama Yeshe, Lama Zopa, Geshe Lodan, andZasep Tulku. After that, he offered back his ordination and left for theUSA to study the Kagyu teachings with the incomparable ChogyamTrungpa Rinpoche. Tony was very active in the community and wentthrough all possible levels of training that were available during histwelve year stay. He was also a core member of the Nalanda Trans-lation Committee. After Chogyam Trungpa died, Tony went to live inNepal where he worked as the personal translator for TsoknyiRinpoche and also translated for several other well-known teachers.He also founded and directed the largest Tibetan text preservationproject in Asia, the Drukpa Kagyu Heritage Project, which he oversawfor eight years. He also established the Padma Karpo TranslationCommittee which has produced many fine translations and mademany resources for translators such as the highly acclaimedIlluminator Tibetan-English Dictionary. After the year 2000, Tonyfocussed primarily on obtaining Dzogchen teachings from the bestteachers available, especially within Tibet, and translating andteaching them. He has received much approval from many teachersand has been given the titles “lotsawa” and “lama” and been stronglyencouraged by them to teach Westerners. One way he does that is byproducing these fine translations.

PADMA KARPO TRANSLATION COMMITTEEP.O. Box 4957KathmanduNepalhttp://www.pktc.org/pktc

The Short Great Vajradhara Prayer - PKTC · Drigung , Taglung, Tsalpa ... Kagyu prayer are based on...

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