Prayer to Jamyang Khyenrab Tayé

The Fresh Utpala

A Prayer to the Great Learned Teacher and Vajra-Holder Jamyang Khyenrab Tayé

by Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö

Namo guru mañjughoṣāya!

Possessor of gentle splendour with a voice of oceanic melody,[1]
The brilliant of light of your wisdom is like the day-making sun,
And your ever-joyous activity extends throughout infinite realms—[2]
Glorious guru, at your feet I pray.

O protector, although you abide securely on a pure level,
Still you display the form of a spiritual friend
To protect the teachings and beings in this degenerate age—
Supreme guide and guru, at your feet I pray.

In the male Water Dog year[3] you took birth in a noble family,
Like a freshly sprouting shoot of major and minor signs,
And brought the pristine light of bounteous virtue and good—
Supremely valiant heir of the victorious ones, to you I pray.

You entered the door to the Buddha’s teachings at an early age.
Khyentse Wangpo conferred the upāsaka vows and so on upon you,[4]
And crowned you with a diadem-like name of great significance.[5]
To you in whom the Mahāyāna potential awakened, I pray.

In the Akaniṣṭha palace of Ngor Evaṃ Chöden,
The mighty Vajradhara Ngawang Lodrö Nyingpo
Granted the kindness of conferring the three sets of vows—
To you whose discipline was utterly pure, I pray.

With the brilliant scholar Yönten, master of the three trainings,
Mipham Namgyal and numerous other tutors
And spiritual friends, you trained in the sciences,
The outer and inner fields of knowledge—to you I pray.

From such noble guides as the lord of secrets, Loter Wangpo,
Lodrö Gyaltsen, Sherab Gyatso, and others,
You received empowerments, transmissions and instructions
Related to the four classes of tantra—to you I pray.

You mastered approach and accomplishment for the supreme deity,
Manifesting the signs of warmth in the yoga of the two stages.
The gurus and yidam deities showed their smiling faces directly and in visions,
And the dharma guardians did your bidding—to you I pray.

Hevajra, glorious Vajrayoginī,
White Tārā, Pañjaranātha and others—
To you who never parted trom profound practices
Of generation and completion based on such yidam deities, I pray.

In meditation, you experienced clear light, the view beyond conceptual elaboration,
And in post-meditation, sights and sounds dawned as deity and mantra in great bliss.
To you, the renunciant lord of yogis who remained unrestricted
By the convoluted web of the eight worldly concerns, I pray.

In exposition, you spoke with fluency and eloquence,
In debate, your logical arguments carried vajra-like force,
In composition, you expertly elucidated the teachings—
Omniscient lord among scholars, to you I pray.

To beings connected through outer, inner and secret conditions
You presented the light of benefit and happiness,
And with many instructions, profound and vast, on sūtra and mantra
Produced your dharma heirs—to you I pray.

You recognized the appearances of this world as dreamlike,
Upheld the way of illusory self-liberation beyond grasping,
And although gaining supreme attainment, concealed it—
Noble and reverend guru, at your feet I pray.

In the female Fire Ox, your seventy-sixth year,
You displayed signs of sickness, and on the fifteenth of the Kārttika month,
You passed beyond, travelling to the celestial realm of profound yoga—
Compassionate guide, to you I pray.

At that time there were wondrous signs, both outer and inner,
And your precious remains, committed to the flames, produced relics as supports for devotion
And boundless gatherings of gifts, the offerings of gods and human beings—
Guru, sovereign of Dharma, to you I pray.

Through the power of praying with devotion in this way,
May the sun of the glorious guru’s perfect wisdom
Banish the thick darkness of our ignorance
And cause the lotus of supreme intelligence to bloom!

In the vast, open sky of the infinite objects of knowledge,
Let the dharma sovereign unfurl the wings of intelligence,
And overcome the poisonous serpents of evil views.
And let all be auspicious for Kunga’s teachings[6] to spread far and wide!

Inspired by a request from the learned and honourable Khenpo Sonam Chokdrup, who was the master’s nephew, combined with my own feelings of devotion and longing, I, the monk Jamyang Chökyi Lodrö, who received many profound and vast instructions, including the empowerment of glorious Kālacakra, from this very protector, wrote this at the great dharma centre of Dzongsar Tashi Lhatsé during the auspicious conjunction of Venus and Revatī, on the third 'empty' day of the waning phase of the second month of the Earth Tiger year (1938).

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

Bibliography

Tibetan Edition

'Jam dbyangs chos kyi blo gros. "rdo rje 'dzin pa chen po 'jam dbyangs mkhyen rab mtha' yas kyi gsol 'debs/" in 'Jam dbyangs chos kyi blo gros kyi gsung 'bum. 12 vols. Bir: Khyentse Labrang, 2012. W1KG12986. Vol. 3: 189–192

Secondary Sources

Dilgo Khyentse. The Life and Times of Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö: The Great Biography by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and Other Stories. Boulder, CO: Shambhala Publications. 2017.

rab brtan dge legs phun tshogs. "rje btsun bla ma 'jam dbyangs mkhyen rab mtha' yas rnam thar." https://www.gyalyongsachen.com/?p=7477 Accessed 28 January 2022

Version: 1.1-20240226