Sacred Songs | Bodhi Activity

Enter nondistraction’s path of hearing, thinking, training,
While it is just now I have the precious human form.
Since this free and favored form ought to have real meaning, Emotion and samsara shall no longer hold the reign.

EMA
Now that while the bardo of the dreamstate is unfolding,
I will not sleep like a corpse, so careless, ignorant.
Knowing everything is self-display, with recognition,
Capture dreams, conjure, transform, train lucid wakefulness. Instead of lying fast asleep like animals are sleeping,
I will use the Dharma just as in the waking state.

EMA
Now that while the meditation bardo is unfolding,
I will set aside every deluded wandering.
Free of clinging, settled within boundless nondistraction,
I’ll be stable in completion and development.
As I’m yielding projects to the single-minded training,
Delusion and unknowing shall no longer hold the reign.

EMA

Now that while the bardo of the death-state is unfolding,

I will cast away attachment, clinging to all things.

Enter undistractedly the state of lucid nature,

Suspending as a vast expanse this nonarising mind.

Leaving this material form, my mortal human body,

I will see it as illusion and impermanent.

EMA

Now that while the bardo of dharmata is unfolding,

I will hold no fear or dread or panic for it all.

Recognizing everything to be the bardo’s nature,

Now the time has come for mastering the vital point.

Colors, sounds and rays shine forth, self-radiance of knowing,

May I never fear the peaceful-wrathful self-display.

EMA

Now that while the bardo of becoming is unfolding,

I will keep the lasting goal one-pointedly in mind.

Reconnecting firmly with the flow of noble action,

I will shut the womb-doors and remember to turn back.

Since this is the time for fortitude and pure perception,

I will shun wrong views and train the guru’s union-form.

If I keep this senseless mind that never thinks of dying,

And continue striving for the pointless aims of life,

Won’t I be deluded when I leave here empty handed?
Since I know the sacred Dharma is just what I need,

Shouldn’t I be living by the Dharma right this moment,

Giving up activities that are just for this life?

These are the instructions which the gracious guru told me.

If I do not keep the guru’s teachings in my heart,

How can this be other than myself fooling myself?

Sovereign of deepest Great Compassion, at your right,

At your left the bodhisattva Master of Great Strength,

Countless buddhas bodhisattvas circle all around.

Place of wonderful serenity and boundless joy,

By the name of Sukhavati, in this blissful realm,

When the time has come for us to leave this present life,

May we not be interrupted by another birth,

And see Amitabha face to face when reborn here.

May this aspiration which is uttered in these words,

Blessed by ten directions’ buddhas bodhisattvas too,

So it is fulfilled, without the slightest obstacle.

TADYATHA PANCHENDRIYA AVABODHANAYA SOHA

When Tulku Mingyur Dorje was thirteen years old, on the 7th day of the month of Saga Dawa in the Hemalamba year (Fire Bird year, 1657), Buddha Amitabha spoke these words to him while he had a vision of the main buddha and surrounding bodhisattvas.

Essence of the buddhas in the triple times,

Sacred Dharma’s source of statements and insight,

Supreme among all groups, the noble sangha,

Please, root guru, would you hear us.

Greatest treasure of the kindest blessings,

Wellsprings of the two accomplishments,

Activity that fulfills the aims of everyone,

Please, root guru, would you hear us.

Guru Buddha Amitabha, please hear us.

Look here from dharmakaya’s sphere beyond concepts.

Lead us with bad karma, who roam in samsara,

To Sukhavati’s realm of pure perfection.

Guru Avalokiteshvara, please hear us.

Look from sambhogakaya’s realm, lucid knowing.

Calm from their root the pains of the six beings,

Churn from their depths the three realms of samsara.

Guru Padmasambhava, please hear us.

Look here from Chamara’s Lotus Light palace,

On us who are helpless, your Dark Age disciples,

Please rescue us right now with your compassion.

Guru Yeshe Tsogyal, please hear us.

Look from your realm, the divine Mahasukha.

Save us, the wretched, from samsara’s ocean,

To the great citadel of liberation.

Kahma and Terma lineage masters, please hear us.

Look from the realm of the unified wisdom.

Break down the dark house of our mind’s delusion

With the sunrise of the true realization.

All-knowing Drimey Özer, please hear us.

Look from your fivefold light-sphere of self-presence.

Fulfill insight’s great strength, pure and primordial.

And let us reach to the end of four visions.

Peerless Atisha and heart-sons, please hear us.

Look from Tushita’s one hundred devas.

Help to make dawn in our minds, bodhichitta,

Emptiness filled with the heart of compassion.

Marpa, Mila, Gampopa, please hear us.

Look from the vajra realms of Mahasukha.

Help in our heart dharmakaya to waken,

Great Seal’s bliss-void, the sublime of all siddhis.

Karmapa, lord of all worlds, please hear us.

Look from the sphere where you tame endless beings.

Help to see all things as unreal illusions

And to accept the perceiver’s three kayas.

Kagyus, four great and eight small, please hear us.

Look from your personal knowing, the pure realms.

Help to make vanish the four states of blindness

So practice-moods and the insights are perfected.

Five forefathers of the Sakyapas, please hear us.

Gaze from samsara-nirvana in union.

Combining the true view, with training and conduct,

Lead us onto the true path of all secrets.

Shangpa Kagyu masters, the matchless, please hear us.

Look from your buddha-realm, pure and primordial.

Help us train truly in means and in freedom

And to achieve unity beyond learning.

Tangtong Gyalpo, great siddha, please hear us.

Gaze from your effortless sphere of compassion.

Help reach the training, insight in illusion

So that we master the winds and the thought-flow.

Padampa Sangye, only father, please hear us.

Look from the realm of sublime, perfect action.

Suffuse our hearts with the lineage of blessings

To see beyond limits auspicious connections.

Machik Labdrön, only mother, please hear us.

Gaze from the sphere of the transcendent knowledge.

Help cut at the root proud beliefs in an ego

To see beyond ego the absence of concepts.

Dolpo Sangye, all-knowing, please hear us.

Look from the realm, the supreme of all aspects.

Help us to cease shifting winds in the dhuti

And gain vajrakaya beyond all transition.

Taranatha, most noble, please hear us.

Gaze from the sphere of the triple companions.

Lead us unhindered through vajra path’s secrets,

And help us gain the divine rainbow body.

Chokgyur Lingpa, great tertön, please hear us.

Look from dharmakaya’s expanse, all-pervading.

Help dual thoughts melt away, beyond rising,

And to attain our seat of self-knowing.

Orgyen Dechen Lingpa, please hear us.

Gaze from sambhogakaya’s realm, natural knowing.

Let us make real the five kaya’s self-presence,

The vastness transcending objects and attainments.

Shikpo Lingpa, all-pervasive, please hear us.

Look from compassionate states taming beings.

Please help us find the mind-gem within us

So that fruition matures in the basis.

Padma Nyugu, bodhisattva, please hear us.

Gaze from your magical net of illusions.

Let us be one with you, lord of four kayas,

Most sublime wakefulness of all the buddhas.

Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, please hear us.

Look from your sphere, the two knowing wisdoms.

Clear up our mind’s darkness of unknowing.

Help us to spread the light of great knowledge.

Ösel Trulpey Dorje, please hear us.

Gaze from your realm of five-colored rainbows.

Help rinse the stains of thoughts, winds and bindus,

And to awaken the youthful vase body.

Padma Do-ngak Lingpa, please hear us.

Look from your sphere, empty bliss beyond changing.

Help us be able to fulfill completely

All conquerors’ and their offsprings’ intentions.

Ngawang Yonten Gyamtso, please hear us.

Gaze from the space and wisdom united.

Help so belief in real things is dismantled

And we can use all events as the training.

Lodrö Taye, son of buddhas, please hear us.

Look from your realm of compassionate kindness.

Help us accept everyone as kind parents

So we can help every being sincerely.

Padma Gargyi Wangchuk, please hear us.

Gaze from your lucid sphere of mahasukha.

Help us in wakefulness to melt the five poisons

And to cut loss and gain’s twofold attachment.

Tennyi Yungdrung Lingpa, please hear us.

Look from samsara and nirvana in sameness.

Help us feel an authentic devotion,

The vast, simultaneous insight and freedom.

Child of the siddhas, Karma Urgyen, please hear us.

Gaze from your wakeful space, empty knowing.

Transmit the mind-lineage to your destined disciples,

Help us retake our kingdom, realization.

Kindest root guru, the gracious, please hear us.

Look from the crown of our head’s blissful mansion.

Help us to face dharmakaya’s self-knowing

And to reach buddhahood within this lifetime.

KYEMA

Sentient beings like ourselves with heavy dreadful karma

Drift since time without beginning through samsara’s realms.

While we still will have to go through torment that is endless,

Not a moment’s real remorse has ever filled our hearts.

Guru, would you hear us, help us right now with your kindness.

Inspire us to let the wish for freedom grow within.

This precious life is found, but our time completely wasted,

Meaningless pursuits always diverting our lives.

Laziness abducting the most meaningful, our freedom,

We leave empty-handed from this land of precious gems.

Guru, would you hear us, help us right now with your kindness.

Inspire us to make this life be truly meaningful.

Everyone upon this earth will die, without exception.

People pass away right now, like standing in a line.

Since we also have to die, and this can happen shortly,

It is surely foolish to make plans for many years.

Guru, would you hear us, help us right now with your kindness.

Inspire us to not waste time but keep to shorter plans.

Loving spouse and friends continue, each their separate journeys.

Others will enjoy the wealth we piled up stingily.

Also left behind will be this fondly treasured body,

While our mind will roam the bardo with no place or aim.

Guru, would you hear us, help us right now with your kindness.

Inspire us so we can see: for these we have no need.

Confronted with a terrifying darkness right before us,

Chased at our rear by karma’s cruel, ferocious storm,

Lord of Death’s repulsive thugs will batter us and force us

To endure the painful rebirths in the wretched states.

Guru, would you hear us, help us right now with your kindness.

Inspire us to flee the abyss of the lower realms.

Though our faults are mountains we maintain them veiled

from others.

Though another’s fault is slight we tell it far and wide.

Without the least of virtues we pretend to be outstanding.

While using dharma names we act exactly contrary.

Guru, would you hear us, help us right now with your kindness.

Inspire us to pacify conceited selfishness.

The self-belief, our nemesis, we keep concealed within us.

All our thoughts cause nothing but emotions to increase.

All our deeds will only bear a fruit that is unwholesome,

Not a single step forward on liberation’s path.

Guru, would you hear us, help us right now with your kindness.

Inspire us to cut self-clinging from its very root.

The slightest praise or blame can cause us so much

joy or sorrow.

A single hurtful word destroys our shield of tolerance.

When we see a destitute we feel no wish to help him,

Every chance for charity held back by stinginess.

Guru, would you hear us, help us right now with your kindness.

Inspire us to bring the truest Dharma to our hearts.

Samsara is just pointless but we think it has some purpose.

Just for food and clothing we discard the lasting good.

Having all we need we are consumed by further craving,

Letting magical illusions mislead our minds.

Guru, would you hear us, help us right now with your kindness.

Inspire us to shed the interest living on like this.

Bearing not the slightest pain, not physical or mental,

While our stone-hearts feel no fear of taking dreadful births.

Though we see directly: what you sow is what you’re reaping.

Rather than the wholesome it is harm we carry on.

Guru, would you hear us, help us right now with your kindness.

Inspire us to feel conviction in causation’s law.

Hating enemies we love our family and friendships.

Delusion’s gloomy clouds obscure what’s right

and what is wrong.

Training in the Dharma’s ways we’re drowsy, dim or sleepy,

During mundane deeds our senses are both sharp and clear.

Guru, would you hear us, help us right now with your kindness.

Inspire us: slay selfish feelings, the true enemy.

Looking from outside we seem the truest Dharma people,

While inside the Dharma has not even touched our hearts.

Just like lethal snakes, emotions are concealed within us,

The practitioner’s faults are all laid bare when put to test.

Guru, would you hear us, help us right now with your kindness.

Inspire us to try to soften up our rigid hearts.

While we fail to notice even our greatest defects,

We play Dharma people, doing every type of wrong.

Selfish deeds and feelings have become our ingrown habits.

Every time a good thought moves, each time it comes to naught.

Guru, would you hear us, help us right now with your kindness.

Inspire us to recognize the faults that are our own.

Every day that passes brings our passing that much closer.

Every day that passes our hearts have grown more cold.

Trust in our teachers have now steadily diminished.

Love and true respect for Dharma friends have dropped away.

Guru, would you hear us, help us right now with your kindness.

Inspire us to tame this savageness within our hearts.

While we chant the refuge, prayers, and form the bodhichitta,

Devotion and compassion are not felt in our hearts.

These activities of Dharma are no more than chanting.

We go through the motions while our hearts remain untouched.

Guru, would you hear us, help us right now with your kindness.

Inspire us so Dharma penetrates our every deed.

Misery, it’s said, is caused by wanting selfish pleasure.

Buddhahood is found from wanting every others’ well.

Forming bodhichitta but in secret we stay selfish.

While not helping others, we will bring them only harm.

Guru, would you hear us, help us right now with your kindness.

Inspire us that we can put ourselves in others’ place.

Though a buddha in the flesh, we think he’s just a person.

The guru’s gift of kind advice we often don’t recall.

When not getting our way we lose every conviction.

His noble thoughts and deeds get veiled by doubting and distrust.

Guru, would you hear us, help us right now with your kindness.

Inspire us so true devotion may not fade but grow.

Our minds are buddhas, but we do not recognize this.

Though our thoughts are dharmakaya, we don’t realize.

Uncontrived the natural way, but we fail to maintain it.

Naturalness the basic state, but we lack certainty.

Guru, would you hear us, help us right now with your kindness.

Inspire us to free our natural knowing in itself.

Though our death will clearly come, we lack the guts to face it.

Though the Dharma surely helps, we lack sincerity.

Though the law of karma works, we fail to choose in earnest.

Heedfulness is needed, but forgotten every time.

Guru, would you hear us, help us right now with your kindness.

Inspire us to keep an undistracted mindfulness.

Born of nasty karma here in Kaliyuga’s ending,

All we’ve done till now results in further painful states.

Veiled by negative companionship like blurring cloudbanks,

Spiritual activities are robbed by pointless talk.

Guru, would you hear us, help us right now with your kindness.

Inspire us to practice Dharma with more fortitude.

First we thought of nothing but a life with dharmic meaning,

But results are rebirths in samsara’s painful realms.

Fruits of freedom are now wrecked by frost of harmful actions,

The goal of lasting value has been savagely destroyed.

Guru, would you hear us, help us right now with your kindness.

Inspire us to practice Dharma until it’s complete.

Inspire us to disenchantment from our deepest being.

Inspire us to not waste time but keep to shorter plans.

Inspire us to think sincerely we are merely mortals.

Inspire us to feel deep trust in actions’ consequence.

Inspire us so our path is never blocked by hindrance.

Inspire us to practice with a joyous constancy.

Inspire us to see all pain as part of our journey.

Inspire us to use the remedies with steadfastness.

Inspire us to feel devotion that is true, authentic.

Inspire us to recognize our being’s natural state.

Inspire us so natural knowing wakens deep within us.

Inspire us to cut confusion at its very root.

Inspire us so in this life we reach enlightenment.

We call on you, precious guru.

With longing we cry, gracious Dharma Lord.

Have pity for us, we have no hope but you.

Bless us to see our minds are never two.

Although several devoted practitioners have encouraged me to write something like this for a long time, I neglected to do so. Recently, at the request of both Samdrub Drönma, a noble female practioner, and Deva Rakshita, this was written by Lodrö Thaye, someome who merely maintains the image of a dark age lama, at the great practice center Dzongshö Deshek Düpa.

May virtuous goodness increase!

Each of lotus nature, unattached in blissfulness,
Vajra Sun, your splendour is the vastest brilliance,

Dharmakaya Amitabha, Vajradharma too,
Lokeshvara, form of passion and the greatest love,
Lotus King, samsara and nirvana’s sovereign,
Mighty heruka, outshining beings and the world,

Secret Wakefulness as well as Vajravarahi,
Highest Bliss and Passion King, the wealth of greatest ease,
Kurukulle, captivating every being’s mind,
Mudra lords, supreme and common, dance in open ease,

Groups of vajra daka and dakinis magnetize
In the equal vastness of experienced openness.
Triple planes all tremble with your dance of vajra forms,
Ceaseless sounds of laughter summon all the triple worlds.

Both samsara and nirvana, brimming ruby lights,
Essences of life and peace are stirred and gathered in,
Let your vajra mind that is the greatest passion act,
Grant the twofold siddhis, most sublime of every wish.

Using your enormous vajra hooks and lasso ropes,
Bind the worlds and beings all within the greatest ease,
Actors in the endless web of magical displays,
Present like a sesame pod, fully opened up.

Magnetizing gods, all-encompassing triple roots,
Please inspire us, we call upon you from our hearts
To fulfill our every wish, both common and supreme,
Grant us unimpededly the gift to magnetize.

This was composed on the first day of the seventh month of the Earth Hare year (1879) by one named Dhih. Anyone who prays in this way will, without any doubt, accomplish all magnetizing activities exactly according to their wishes. This prayer may be written on red flags and flown in the air, or used in prayer wheels powered by heat or wind. Mangalam!

When Vajrasattva spoke in the spacious vast,

Prahevajra heard it on Mount Meru’s peak.

When Prahevajra spoke on Mount Meru’s peak,

Manjushrimitra heard it on Mount Meru’s slope.

Manjushrimitra spoke on Mount Meru’s slope,

Shri Singha heard it at Mount Meru’s base.

When Shri Singha spoke at Mount Meru’s base,

Padmasambhava heard it on the ocean’s shore.

Padmasambhava spoke on the ocean’s shore,

Yeshe Tsogyal heard it in the Land of Snow

It can not be known through the spoken word,

By the force of blessings, You are matured and freed.

Samantabhadra is beyond confines of thought.

Every being is suffused with the awakened state.

Buddhafields and worlds are realms of greatest ease.

Self-existing knowing fills the wakeful space.

Bardo Song of Reminding Oneself
From the Secret Practice of Mother Tantra

Brief Sukhavati Aspiration
From the terma of Mingyur Dorje

Calling the Guru from Afar
A Supplication to Pierce Your Heart with Devotion

Cloudbanks of Inspiration
A call to take charge of the mind and the perceived world
by Mipham Rinpoche

The Song of Dzogchen Origin

Bardo Song of Reminding OneselfFrom the Secret Practice of Mother Tantra

Brief Sukhavati AspirationFrom the terma of Mingyur Dorje

Calling the Guru from AfarA Supplication to Pierce Your Heart with Devotion

Cloudbanks of Inspiration A call to take charge of the mind and the perceived worldby Mipham Rinpoche

The Song of Dzogchen Origin

Bardo Song of Reminding Oneself
From the Secret Practice of Mother Tantra

Brief Sukhavati Aspiration
From the terma of Mingyur Dorje

Calling the Guru from Afar
A Supplication to Pierce Your Heart with Devotion

Cloudbanks of Inspiration
A call to take charge of the mind and the perceived world
by Mipham Rinpoche