Patrul Rinpoche (1808–1887) does not mince words in this pithy, plainspoken advice for himself. Constance Wilkinson's translation successfully captures the tone of the original.
Latest from the Nyingtik Yabzhi Project
The first of three testaments received by Garab Dorje and preserved in the Vima Nyingtik. This text is also reproduced in the Damngak Dzö collection.
Verses of invocation and offering as a means of accumulating merit in preparation for receiving empowerment and instructions.
Latest from the Longchen Nyingtik Project
This prophetic guide of the Longchen Nyingtik was revealed during Jigme Lingpa's initial vision in which he flew to the Boudha stūpa in Nepal. The text recounts the history of Padmasambhava's entrustment of the treasure to the destined disciples, who would later emanate as Jigme Lingpa and his students, to reveal and propagate the Longchen Nyingtik. It also refers to key events in Jigme Lingpa's life and the physical and psychological attributes that identify him as the treasure revealer.
Latest from the Khenchen Ngawang Palzang's Counsels Project
Verses of advice that stress the importance of recollecting impermanence, training in study, contemplation and meditation, and avoiding the pitfalls of dry scholasticism.
General advice from Khenchen Ngawang Palzang (1879–1941), alias Khenpo Ngakchung, on the common preliminaries followed by pithy instructions on the practice of the Great Perfection.
Other recent additions
Dudjom Rinpoche tells us that he composed this aspiration for his own recitation based on the vajra words of advice from great masters of the past. The prayer became one of his best known compositions.
Gorampa composed this poetic praise of the liberatress Tārā in fifteen verses on an auspicious date in 1470 or early 1471.
Latest from Samye Translations
A general prayer to the Three Roots from the compilation A Shower of Precious Blessings: A Garland of Supplications to Guru Rinpoche, Embodiment of All Refuge Objects, and to the Three Roots and Lineage Masters.
A two-verse prayer addressed to the Fourteenth Gyalwang Karmapa, Tekchok Dorje (1797–1867) to dispel outer and inner obstacles and bestow common and supreme siddhis.
Latest from the Ḍākinī Treasury Series
Seven verses of advice on the nature of the ground, path and fruition and the techniques of view, meditation and conduct.
Verses of advice stressing the importance of maintaining ethical discipline, generating a vast altruistic motivation and diligently practising the Great Perfection.
Highlights from Archive
Composed in Lerab Ling, France in 2005 at the request of several translators, led by Tenzin Jamchen (Sean Price) and Chökyi Nyima (Richard Barron), this is a prayer of aspiration to be recited by modern-day lotsāwas.
Jamyang Khyentse offered these words of heart-advice, encapsulating the entire Buddhist path, to Khandro Tsering Chödrön (1929–2011), his spiritual consort.
Featured Topic
Texts on the theme of nonsectarianism, impartiality or the absence of sectarian bias, a central ideal of the so-called nonsectarian or rimé (ris med) movement that blossomed in nineteenth-century Kham.
* Lotsāwa ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་; lo tsā ba n. Title used for native Tibetan translators who worked together with Indian scholars (or paṇḍitas) to translate major buddhist texts into Tibetan from Sanskrit and other Asian languages; it is said to derive from lokacakṣu, literally "eyes of the world". See also paṇḍita.
Lotsawa House is registered in the UK as a Community Interest Company (#14358325), a category of company which exists primarily to benefit a community or with a view to pursuing a social purpose, with all profits having to be used for this purpose.