Ten Great Aspirations

Ten Great Aspirations[1]

by Gorampa Sönam Senge

Oṃ svasti!

1. May I swiftly fulfill the great aspiration:
In all my lifetimes, to honor, to make offerings,
To make the offering of practice,
And to serve, the tathagatās, in countless ways.

2. May I swiftly fulfill the great aspiration:
To hold and protect without fail
All the words and meanings of the Victorious One’s sublime Dharma,
And to correctly apprehend the profound modes of the Dharma.

3. May I swiftly fulfill the great aspiration:
To approach the Victorious One and gather all his teachings,
From the time of his residing in Tuṣita heaven
Until the final display of activity, passing into parinirvāṇa.

4. May I swiftly fulfill the great aspiration:
To perfect every form of bodhisattva conduct,
Such as the four means of gathering disciples in order to benefit others,
And the six perfections that perfect the Buddha’s qualities.

5. May I swiftly fulfill the great aspiration:
To ripen all beings through teaching the sublime Dharma,
Developing their faculties of faith and so forth,
So they may directly generate the noble path and become capable of eliminating obscurations.

6. May I swiftly fulfill the great aspiration:
To emanate as many world-systems as there are particles in all buddha-fields,
Within each pore of the body,
And in each, display the conduct of buddhas and bodhisattvas.

7. May I swiftly fulfill the great aspiration:
To completely eradicate faults in both environment and inhabitants,
And bring about all the qualities of buddha-fields,
Such as the golden ground and beings engaged in the ten virtuous actions.

8. May I swiftly fulfill the great aspiration:
To unify all thoughts and deeds toward benefitting others
And the bodhicitta intention of engaging in the Mahāyāna,
In every way and at all times.

9. May I swiftly fulfill the great aspiration:
From first generating the supreme bodhicitta,
Through to practicing the entire authentic path,
And finally achieving the meaningful result.

10. May I swiftly fulfill the great aspiration:
To attain awakening for the benefit of all beings—
Unsurpassable, complete awakening, accomplishing twofold benefit,
Which arises from the glorious ocean of the two accumulations.

The Mahāyāna sūtras declared that the countless hundreds of thousands of aspirations made by bodhisattvas dwelling on the first ground are encompassed in the meaning of the ten great aspirations. Their contents, following with the intent of the Stages of Bodhisattvas (Bodhisattvabhūmi), the Ornament of the Mahāyānasūtra (Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra), and the Explanation of the Introduction to the Middle Way (Madhyamakāvatārabhāṣya), have been versified by Sönam Senge, who possesses a slight intention to benefit others, on the day of the conjunction of Cancri and Jupiter, in the Month of Miracles. May all retain and recite this. Virtue!

| Translated by Lopön Sonam Jamtsho, 2024.

Bibliography

Tibetan Source

bsod nams sengge. gsung 'bum bsod nams sengge, Dehra Dun: Sakya College, 1979, Vol. 13: 685–686

Version: 1.0-20241015