Venice masks

Thursday 25 January 2018

Upon Arriving at Yangleshö - Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok

O Mañjuśrī, brave hero, all Conquerors’ activities gathered in one,
Dwell in my heart’s centre, the youthful vase body’s expanse,
And let mind lineage’s1 realisation descend with great power,
Bringing blessings of supreme wisdom’s light!

Upon arriving at Yangleshö,2 a place sacred and supreme,
Deluded, impure appearances like rainbow mist dissolve.
No mere divine forms wrought by paths of effort,
But definitive meaning I encounter, the magical net’s3 true face.

Here all phenomena are pure as empty awareness alone,
All hope and fears, grasping to things of life’s round and beyond, released.
When the delusion-destroying yogi rests in sweet repose,
Eloquent wisdom’s hundred doors are in a moment disclosed.

Happiness in this life is the goal lay folks seek,
Happiness in the next, the fruit sought by monks—
Golden leash or rope leash, they bind all the same,
Both ways make it hard to cross cliffs of hope and of fear!

The five poisoned thoughts that arose like foes before,
Today are pure as the essence of great empty awareness,
Dropping the tiring, meaningless four sessions’ succession,
The illusory yogi wishes but to lie in a bed of joy.

They say here, long ago, Loden Choksé Mañjuśrī,4
Manifested the vidyādhara of the great seal.5
Now I, the son, have caught up to his father,
Knotted hopes of further advice are undone, freed.

Seven in number gathered, same as royal treasures,6
Enjoy a feast left by the line of vidyādharas past,
Soaring like garuḍas through the vidyādhara's four grounds,7
Captains we’ll become, to guide all beings beyond bounds.

Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok (also Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok) (1933 - 2004) Tibet (China)
Translated by Peter Woods
Source: Lotsawa House

Notes:
  1. “mind-to-mind”, or direct and unmediated transmission of the Dharma teachings
  2. Located in Pharping, Nepal, about an hour from central Kathmandu
  3. This refers to the Mahāyoga tantras, which establish the purity of appearances
  4. Guru Padmasambhava took the name Loden Choksé
  5. Guru Rinpoche’s life stories hold that he reached this level, also known as the mahāmudrā vidyādhara
  6. These seven treasures refer to the possessions of a Universal Monarch (cakravartin), are: 
    1. precious wheel, 
    2. precious jewel, 
    3. precious queen, 
    4. precious minister, 
    5. precious elephant, 
    6. precious steed, 
    7. precious general. 
  7. The four grounds (or stages) are: 
    1. the matured vidyādhara, 
    2. the vidyādhara with power over life, 
    3. the mahāmudrā (great seal) vidyādhara, 
    4. the spontaneously accomplished vidyādhara.

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