Introduction to the Buddha’s Words

Introduction to the Buddha’s Words

A Praise and Aspiration Related to the Words of the Victorious One

by Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö

Namo guru śākyamunaye!

1. In the vast dharmakāya sphere as pervasive as the sky,
The saṃbhogakāya is the great radiance of the sun and moon,
And nirmāṇakāyas emanate in every realm of the ten directions.
Before the svabhāvikakāya, the four kāyas indivisible, I bow.

2. Dharmakāya speech transcends the application of language;
The great saṃbhogakāya conveys the Dharma symbolically;
And the nirmāṇakāya utters elegant words and expressions.
The supreme speech of awakened awareness reigns supreme!

3. Great doors through which all dharmas originate:
Oṃ – the door to wellbeing in existence and peace.
A – the door to mirror-like wisdom and Akṣobhya.
Ra - the door to discerning wisdom and Amitābha.

4. Pa – the door to dharmadhātu wisdom and Vairocana.
Na – the door to equalizing wisdom and Ratnasambhava.
Tsa – the door to all-accomplishing wisdom and Amoghasiddhi.
A – the door to unborn dharmas.

5. Ra – stainless and thus the ultimate.
Tsa – free from birth and transition.
Na – the door that is nameless.
Dhīḥ – the door of spontaneously present wisdom.

6. The great doors of dhāraṇī are not sought elsewhere.
By opening the door to primordially perfect natural clarity,
The song of the vajra nāda, the cloud of dharma,
Forever resounds—in timelessness beyond the three times.

7. Even a single statement is endowed with oceanic melody;
It penetrates the subtlest domain and extends all around.
It cannot be measured in its duration or extent.
It transcends the comprehension of even the āryas.

8. Attuned to the character, capacity and mindset of disciples,
Virtuous in the beginning, middle and end, flawless in syntax,
Dulcet and sonorous, indicative of the ultimate,
The Sage’s speech resounds like the great drums of the devas.

9. It rouses from delusion’s slumber, subdues the threefold veil;
It is distinct, perfectly complete, wholly pure and cleansing;[1]
It is well-spoken, composed, revealing, and engenders renunciation;
It is wholly the Dharma that induces supreme awakening.

10. It lacks disharmony, is inclusive, reliable, undeviating.
The calming and refreshing nectar of the sacred Dharma
Provides vital sustenance for those who long for liberation.
It is the supreme bolt that bars the way to the lower realms.

11. It is the door to the correct view among the worldly;
The way of victors, the fine path of the three individuals—
This sacred Dharma treasury reveals the three trainings
And directly provides all with their own form of fruition.

12. The store of scriptural Dharma, the truth of the path,
The treasury of the twelve branches and three collections,
And realization of the four āryas, actual truth of cessation—
It is by training in these that one reaches great awakening.

13. Not duplicitous, the lion’s roar of truthful speech
Crushes the fox-like proponents of heterodox untruth.
Well articulated with the four types of analytical insight,
The voice of Brahmā resounds through existence and peace.

14. Wherever it is heard in the realms of the ten directions
It does not become quieter at a distance or louder up close.
It is without such flaws, a mystery defying the imagination,
And a distinctive quality that is unique to a Tathāgata.

15. Just as rivers converge within the great ocean,
All that is taught ultimately comes down to a single point:
The great palace of definitive Perfection of Wisdom and the Middle Way,
Wherein those of the three types are led eventually to the single vehicle.

16. When infinite modes of Dharma, profound and vast,
Are set in motion in three stages, supremely gifted beings
See the truth directly while a seed is planted among the lesser.
Thus everyone is brought to liberation in great awakening.

17. Throughout the realms of gods, humans, nāgas and yakṣas,
And in the country of the āryas, the heartland of Jambudvīpa,
Arhats and bodhisattvas gathered and compiled the teachings.
So that they now reside within unnumbered volumes.

18. Of these but a fraction, like a drop of water on the tip of a hair,
Is found within this land, as if carried here upon an excellent chariot
Through the kindness of the Indian paṇḍitas and Tibetan lotsāwas,
To remain as more than a hundred sections of the Dharma.

19. This feast of nectar for the eyes and for the ears,
Which sprang from perfect merit garnered in the past,
Is like the rarest and most exquisite of all jewels,
A supreme gemstone that's available here and now.

20. From this moment on, in all our lives to come,
By tending the light of freely availing ourselves
Of this excellent speech of the great sage and teacher,
May darkness be dispelled throughout existence and peace.

21. May the great treasury of sublime Dharma teachings
Never diminish but flourish and expand until the end of existence.
May all the dark deceptions of barbarians be eradicated,
And the teachings of the Lion of the Śākyas spread far and wide!

Chökyi Lodrö made this aspiration on the fifteenth day of the first month—the Month of Miracles—in the Water Dragon year. May it be fulfilled!

| Translated by Adam Pearcey 2021, with the generous support of the Khyentse Foundation and Terton Sogyal Trust.

Bibliography

Tibetan Edition

'Jam dbyangs chos kyi blo gros. "rgyal ba'i gsung la bstod cing smon lam bya ba/" in 'Jam dbyangs chos kyi blo gros kyi gsung 'bum. 12 vols. Bir: Khyentse Labrang, 2012. W1KG12986. Vol. 2: 333–336

Version: 1.0-20211202