Praise of Amitāyus

Conqueror of Māra, Lord of Death

In Praise of the Immortal Protector Amitāyus

by Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö

Namo guru-aparamitāya!

To hear your name just once is enough
To banish all fears of death and rebirth.
Guru and lord Amitāyus, Boundless Life,
Be my refuge and protector, here and now.

You body is so vast in scale it pervades all realms,
And all realms, too, are complete within your form.
Most wondrous secret of the thus-gone buddhas,
Deathless Lord of the Blissful, homage and praise to you.

Oceanic qualities of freedom and ripening,
As numerous as grains of sand in the Ganges,
Are all perfectly complete within your rūpakāya—
Vast treasury of wisdom, homage and praise to you.

Perfectly emulating the element of space,
You are master of the domain of space itself
With your body of space and untold lifespan—
Bhagavān Boundless Radiance, homage and praise to you.

Your enlightened body is ablaze with splendour,
Like a mountain of ruby struck by the light of a billion suns.
Your two hands, in equanimity, hold the vase of deathless life—
Complete embodiment of enjoyment, homage and praise to you.

Your secret speech transcends all ordinary linguistic forms,
And proclaims the Dharma perfectly in all the ten directions,
Inseparable from the enlightened speech of all the buddhas.
Vajra speech, drumbeat of deathlessness, to you I offer praise.

Your enlightened mind, profound and vast, is unfathomable,
Encompassing the nature and multiplicity of knowable things—
Beyond duality, the ultimate meaning, grand and sublime.
Primordial buddha Unchanging Light, to you I offer praise.

In short, all victorious ones of past, present and future
Throughout the whole infinity of space and time
Are indivisible, as one, yet display a variety of forms.
To you, Boundless Life and Wisdom, I offer homage and praise.

Through my calling out to you devotedly in prayer,
Visualizing your form and reciting your great vidyā-mantra,
May I be entirely victorious over the enemy, untimely death,
And attain the vajra-like longevity that is indestructible.

Grant me the splendour of unfading youthfulness,
Elephantine strength and the lifespan of Brahmā,
And cause the knowledge, love and capacity
Of the bodhisattvas of the three families to infuse my body, speech and mind.

Let me have the power and strength swiftly to dispel
The darkness of decline in the teachings and among beings,
And may all be auspicious, so that a new golden age of perfection
May unfold as the teachings flourish and spread far and wide.

Thus, on the first 'joy' of the waxing phase of the month of miracles in the new year of the male Earth Dog (1958), Jigme Namkhai Dorje Tsewang Drubpa Tsal wrote down whatever came to mind in the Palace Monastery (Tsuklakhang) at Gangtok, Sikkim. May it bring victory in the battle with untimely death.

| Translated by Adam Pearcey 2022, with the generous support of the Khyentse Foundation and Terton Sogyal Trust.

Bibliography

Tibetan Edition

'Jam dbyangs chos kyi blo gros. "'chi med mgon po tshe dpag med la bstod pa 'chi bdag bdud bcom/" in 'Jam dbyangs chos kyi blo gros kyi gsung 'bum. 12 vols. Bir, H.P.: Khyentse Labrang, 2012. (BDRC W1KG12986). Vol. 2: 457–459

Version: 1.0-20220712