Commentary on Calling the Guru from Afar

Ornament of Samantabhadra’s Wisdom

A Commentary on The Spontaneous Song of the Genuine Nature – A Prayer of Calling the Guru from Afar

by Tulku Pema Rigtsal Rinpoche

Oṃ svasti!
Though your wisdom-heart never wavers from the dharmakāya state,
With myriad emanations, you act as beings’ guide.
King of Dharma, sovereign of the kama and terma teachings,
Orgyen Drodül Lingpa, [1] I pay homage to you on my crown.

The quintessence of all the tantras is the Great Perfection.
These teachings are not the domain even of bodhisattvas on the bhūmis,
So how can a common man like me think to explain them?
Nevertheless, to do so as an offering to the teachings and to beings—what’s wrong with that?

Moreover, the revealed prophecies of Orgyen Dechen Lingpa tell how:

In the future, to the east of Mount Kailash, the nine-stacked snow mountain of Tibet,
In the secret, self-arisen pure realm of Vajravārāhī,
An emanation of Drokben Lotsāwa will be born into a noble family.
He will be named Jñāna (Primordial Wisdom) and assume the conduct of a tantrika.
He will dress freely, behave like a child, and possess knowledge and intelligence.[2]
Either he’ll reveal new treasures, or he’ll propagate the older treasures.
He will lead all beings who connect with him to the Glorious Copper-Coloured Mountain.

As pronounced and praised by this prophecy, an emanation of Drokben Khyeuchung Lotsāwa—regent of the second buddha, the Lotus-Born—appeared in this world. He was a miraculous being whose feats of learning and accomplishment were unmatched throughout the three planes. His name—so difficult to utter but mentioned here for the sake of communication—was Kyabjé Jikdral Yeshe Dorje. This master composed a prayer of calling the guru from afar entitled Spontaneous Song of the Genuine Nature. It is this prayer that I will now explain. I have divided my explanation into three parts: (I) an explanation of the title, (II) an explanation of the main text, and (III) an explanation of the colophon of the text.

I. An Explanation of the Title

The title explains that this is a prayer (or supplication) calling, or invoking, from afar the noble guru’s wisdom-heart. This prayer is a song of spiritual experience that was intoned spontaneously as the natural resonance of the unfabricated genuine nature.

II. An Explanation of the Text

This consists of two parts: (A) a discussion of how the ultimate guru of self-awareness manifests as the three kāyas, and (B) an explanation of how to practice the path of the Great Perfection—naked empty awareness.

A. How the Ultimate Guru of Self-Awareness Manifests as the Three Kāyas

The prayer begins with a supplication of the three-kāya manifestations of the ultimate guru of self-awareness: (1) the primordially pure, unimpeded dharmakāya guru; (2) the sambhogakāya guru of luminous nature; and (3) the nirmāṇakāya guru of compassionate self-display.

1. Supplicating the Manifestation of the Primordially Pure, Unimpeded Dharmakāya Guru

The essence, never changing, the natural, unelaborated condition,
Primordially pure, profoundly luminous—you who dwell in the youthful vase body,
Dharmakāya guru Yeshe Dorje, care for me!
Inspire me to gain the vast assurance of the view.[3]

The essence or abiding nature that pervades the whole of existence and peace is, by its very nature, primordially pure. It is not born from causes and conditions. Therefore, it is never changing. This is the great unconditioned nature. The natural condition is free of all conceptual elaborations and extremes. The profound luminosity, or inner luminosity, that is the natural radiance of primordially pure wisdom, dwells as the youthful vase body, beyond the conceptual elaborations of faces, hands, and implements. Ultimate dharmakāya guru, you who abide as the immutable (Dorje) essence, as self-arisen primordial wisdom (Yeshe)—from the undefiled expanse of your wisdom-heart, care for me!

As for the vast assurance in the expansive view of the dharmakāya, the natural state, the Self-Arisen Vidyā Tantra explains:

The view of dharmakāya
Is not to be seen in the future, has already been seen, and is perfectly seen right now.[4]

Thus, inspire me (or bless me) that I may attain the vast assurance (or indwelling confidence) in this, the ultimate wisdom lineage.

2. Supplicating the Manifestation of the Sambhogakāya Guru, the Luminous Nature

The nature, unceasing, the maṇḍala gathering of the union of luminosity—
You who dwell in the spontaneously perfect display complete with the five certainties,
Sambhogakāya guru Dechen Dorje, care for me!
Inspire me to perfect the great strength of meditation.

The natural radiance of the true nature, the dharmakāya, is unceasing (or unobstructed). It is the gathering, or maṇḍala, of ultimate luminosity—the indivisible union of awareness and emptiness—that is uncreated and spontaneously perfect. This mandala gathering is complete with the five certainties (or five perfections): The certain place is the Palace of Lotus Light in the ultimate Akaniṣṭha pure-land of self-appearance, while the certain time is the timelessness beyond the three times, the expanse of primordially pure equality. In this place and time abides the certain teacher, Padmasambhava, king of self-arisen awareness, together with the certain retinue, the gathering of vidyādhara-ḍākas and -ḍākinīs who are none other than the teacher himself. The certain teaching is the 6,400,000 tantras of the Great Perfection. In this way, you who dwell in the perfect display complete with the five certainties—Sambhogakāya guru of luminosity, Dechen Dorje, care for me!

The meditation is non-meditation, as explained in the Self-Arisen Vidyā Tantra:

The meditation of dharmakāya is Vivid, limpid, and unwavering.[5]

Inspire me (or bless me) to perfect the great strength of meditation in the continuous state of non-meditation so that, in this life, the wisdom realization of ultimate luminosity—the empty clarity of the symbolic lineage of the vidyādharas—is perfected within me.

3. Supplicating the Manifestation of the Nirmāṇakāya Guru, Compassionate Self-Display

The compassionate capacity, unlimited, is wisdom free from extremes—
You who dwell in the essence of all-pervasive, naked awareness and emptiness,
Nirmāṇakāya guru Drodül Lingpa, care for me!
Inspire me to master the great enhancement of action.

The self-display, or compassionate capacity, of the primordially pure dharmakāya is vast and pervasive, permeating the reaches of space. It does not fall into any extreme, it is beyond all bias, it is void of all elaborations, and it is free of all fixation on the four extremes. It is ultimate wisdom, as described in the Guhyagarbha Tantra:

Being beyond singularity and multiplicity,
It is devoid of centre and edge. This, the intrinsic nature,
Which is not seen even by the buddhas,
Manifests, without abode, as self-arisen wisdom.

You who dwell in the essence of all-pervasive, naked awareness and emptiness are the nirmāṇakāya guru of compassionate capacity, the King of Dharma in the three realms, Dudjom Drodül Lingpa. With your intense love and compassion, care for me!

The great enhancement, or development, of action (or conduct) is the yogic discipline of awareness that is free of attachment and notions of accepting and rejecting. As taught in the Self-Arisen Vidyā Tantra:

The conduct of dharmakāya
Is unimpeded, without clinging, and without attachment.[6]

Inspire me (or bless me) that the wisdom realisation of the dharmakāya—the indivisible empty awareness of the oral lineage of humans—may enter my mind-stream, so that I master the great enhancement of action.

B. How to Practice the Path of the Great Perfection—Naked Empty Awareness

This has four parts: (1) introducing the Great Perfection through the view, (2) perfecting the strength of recognition through training, (3) resolving through conduct, and (4) the fruition, the attainment of stability.

1. Introducing the Great Perfection Through the View

This has two parts: (1.1) introducing the free and expansive view and (1.2) demonstrating how, through the strength of that, one does not need to rely on effortful paths.

1.1 Introducing the Free and Expansive View

The primordial ground of self-awareness is unmoving and unchanging.
Whatever arises as the play of dharmakāya is neither good nor bad.
Since this present awareness is the actual buddha,
I find the guru of openness and contentment within my heart.

You might think that when you realise your own awareness—the primordial ground—to be free of obscurations, like space, you’ll become awakened as a result, and that by failing to realise this, you wander astray in saṃsāra. Yet, this is not the case. There are in fact no changes, no fluctuations, nor any conditions that can change the way things are. When ground-appearances arise from the ground, they are like reflections appearing in the surface of a mirror. In that way, whatever appearances (or experiences) of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa might arise, they are all the play, or potential, of the dharmakāya. You can search here for positive concepts to be adopted and for negative concepts to be abandoned, but you will not find any.

As the all-knowing Jigme Lingpa taught:

Although the appearance of objects arises unceasingly in the face of awareness, since awareness does not merge with the objects, all dualistic perception—the heart of saṃsāra—is like a drawing on water. Obscurations and their remedies are self-liberated. And so, with a joyful smile, Saraha said, when awareness does not get lost in objects, no attachment or grasping arises, nor any notions of refuting and asserting, and the binds of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa come undone. In this state, the holy Indian Padampa Sangye shines.

This fresh present awareness cannot be tainted by the flaws of saṃsāra or the virtues of nirvāṇa. It is the actual (or living) buddha. As the great omniscient Longchenpa said:

Everything is excellent. There is nothing that is not excellent. Beyond good and bad, all is one in excellence.[7]

In that way, when you let appearances be in an open and content state, the dharmakāya guru needn’t be searched for elsewhere; they’re within your own heart. This is to say that when you leave your mind at natural ease in its uncontrived state, the dharmakāya guru will be found, or attained, right there.

1.2 Demonstrating How, Through the Strength of That, One Does Not Need to Rely on Effortful Paths

By virtue of the strength (or power) of this free and expansive view, one does not need to rely on effortful paths. This is one of the special features of the Great Perfection. As the prayer states:

When I realise that this genuine mind is the very nature of the guru,
There is no need for attached and grasping prayers or artificial complaints.

The intrinsic nature of the genuine (or innate) mind is untainted by dualistic fixation. This itself is the very nature of the root guru who shows us the threefold kindness. Once you realise this, you no longer need to make attached and grasping prayers or artificial complaints, all of which are based on the notions of an independently existing guru—the object, who’s in fact the creation of dualistic mind—and a supplicant—the subject, who’s held to be truly existent.

2. Perfecting the Strength of Recognition Through Training

This has two parts: (2.1) resting in a state free of focus and mental activity, and (2.2) demonstrating how awakening is not accomplished through conceptual references.

2.1 Resting in a State Free of Focus and Mental Activity

By relaxing in uncontrived awareness, the free and open natural state,
I obtain the blessing of the aimless self-liberation of whatever arises.

It’s not enough merely to recognise the free and expansive view. One needs to perfect the strength of one’s training in (or cultivation of) that. To that end, without blocking the gateways of lucid awareness and free of conceptual references and elaborations, relax in uncontrived present awareness. In that state, try neither to abandon nor to restrain the various movements of mind and proliferations of thought. Simply let be in the free and open natural state. As Rongzom Mahāpaṇḍita teaches in Entering the Way of the Great Vehicle:

Since neither faults nor qualities are generated, No matter what marks of conceptualization arise, They are uncontrived, unfabricated, and luminous in and of themselves, Unobstructed, naturally arising, unpursued, and naturally at peace.[8]

Thus, when objectless and unimpeded awareness is left aimless (or free of conceptual focus), whatever thoughts of the six collections arise, whether they be positive or negative, they are all liberated in one of the four great modes of liberation—primordial liberation, naked liberation, complete liberation, and self-liberation—into dharmadhātu, the all-pervasive space-like nature. Such is the blessing that the fortunate disciple obtains.

2.2 Demonstrating How Awakening is Not Accomplished Through Conceptual References

Buddhahood is not attained by fabricated dharmas;
Speculative meditation, fabricated by the intellect, is the deceiving enemy.

According to the common vehicle, those of lesser faculties who enter the Mahāyāna path must gather vast accumulations of merit with concepts and accumulations of wisdom without concepts for thirty-seven countless aeons. Likewise, those of middling faculties must gather the accumulations for seven countless aeons and those of superior faculties must gather the accumulations for three countless aeons. Failing to do so, there’s no way that they’ll ever obtain buddhahood. According to the approach (or path) of the uncommon vehicle of mantra, the practitioner must train in austerities of body, speech, and mind for sixteen, seven, or three lifetimes. In contrast to these ordinary approaches that require great effort, the approach of the extraordinary teachings of the Great Perfection is effort-free. With this approach one can attain awakening within a single lifetime. By comparison, the lower approaches take so long that the attainment of buddhahood seems to be almost an impossibility.

This being so, in the Causal Vehicle, the intrinsic nature remains an object of speculation (or mental analysis), while in the common tantras of the Fruitional Vehicle the practitioner imposes an intellectually fabricated [image of the intrinsic nature] through the practices of generation and completion. When the practitioner then encounters various circumstances, whether they be positive or negative, and falls back on these remedies, they don’t hold up. And furthermore, they deviate from the fruition, the effortless Great Perfection that is self-arisen wakefulness. In this way, these temporary paths, which leave the practitioner confused as a bewildered child, are the deceiving enemy.

3. Resolving Through Conduct

This has four parts: (3.1) the conduct of crazy abandon that occurs once the deceptive veil of hope and fear has been broken through, (3.2) the unique qualities of practicing like that, (3.3) the unique qualities of the great treasure-revealing guru, and (3.4) the unique qualities of Ati, the Great Perfection teachings that constitute the pinnacle of all vehicles.

3.1 The Conduct of Crazy Abandon That Occurs Once the Deceptive Veil of Hope and Fear Has Been Broken Through

Now clinging to style and manner is destroyed with crazy abandon.
Let this life be spent in this state of uninhibited naked ease.

When you directly see the true face of the dharmakāya, the luminous genuine state that is free of references and beyond all mental projection and dissolution, all object-subject clinging to style and manner is destroyed (or collapses) in its own place. As the teachings explain, to begin with, thoughts are liberated when you recognize them, like meeting an old acquaintance. Later on, thoughts liberate themselves naturally, like a snake freeing itself from knots. Finally, thoughts are liberated without benefit or harm, like a thief entering an empty house. When you understand this vital point regarding the dissolution of grasping, then whatever thoughts arise, whether they be positive or negative, there’s no need to eliminate or remedy them. By simply resting at ease in natural relaxation, thoughts are purified into dharmakāya.

If it were necessary to apply a custom remedy to each arising thought, since thoughts are endless, it would be impossible ever to reach a point where all thoughts have been eliminated by remedies. As Rongzom Mahāpaṇḍita teaches in Entering the Way of the Great Vehicle:

In one sense, if a person’s father is killed by a piece of wood, the person might generate hatred toward that piece of wood. If the person generates hatred toward that piece of wood, then afterward, if the person feels hatred for a second or third piece of wood [because they remind him or her of the wood that killed his or her father], would those [additional] instances of hatred all comprise one single entity of hatred? Or would it be the case that each instance of hatred for each specific stick is a distinct entity of hatred? If those instances of hatred comprise a single entity of hatred, then inasmuch as the piece of wood were burned to ashes, it would seem reasonable that all instances of like hatred would be correspondingly eliminated—but that is not the case. If the instances of hatred are specifically distinct, an enumeration of them could not be reckoned even by the end of an aeon; and to the degree that those instances of hatred are eliminable, each instant eliminating each instance of hatred would not in fact achieve an exhaustive end.[9]

For the practitioner whose grasping has collapsed, there is not even a hair tip’s worth of a truly existing saṃsāra and nirvāṇa to be found anywhere. Everything is awareness and the natural display of awareness, like the various reflections that appear unimpededly on the surface of a mirror. Whatever appears, it never moves away from the essence of basic space, the ground of being, which is free of corners and edges and devoid of elaborations, and so the dualistic polarity of saṃsāra as negative and nirvāṇa as positive is exhausted. Thus, in the natural state of the Great Perfection, there is no conceptual focus on a key point, nothing independently existent. Hence the crazy abandon that is freedom from grasping. As Dudjom Rinpoche said:

I’m free of the idiot’s hopes for happiness
And free of the scholar’s fear of losing face.
I, a nutter free of hope and fear,
Will share these instructions that are free of yes and no.

And, as Lord Milarepa said:

I, the yogi Milarepa,
Am suspected to be crazy by other folk.
I too suspect I’m crazy.
This craziness runs in the family.
The father’s crazy, the son’s crazy, the entire line’s crazy.
The line of Vajradhara is crazy!

These are words of experience spoken from the direct realization of the Great Perfection. Such a practitioner recognizes all speech to be unfabricated, unborn empty sound. As a result, they experience all words as echoes of senseless speech and their fixation on distinctions such as high, low, pure, and impure are purified. Thereby, hope and fear are worn away and speech becomes uninhibited and free-flowing. The mind expands into the continuous state of reference-free awareness, while the body is purified into the unfabricated, vivid yet empty wisdom form of the deity. As such, one is not tormented by the self-cherishing that concerns itself with enhancing and maintaining one’s appearance but remains in naked ease such that one would happily and unabashedly lie around stark naked in the middle of a crowd. Thus, within the naked emptiness of appearances, sounds, and awareness, one spends this life, or passes one’s time, however one pleases.

3.2 The Unique Qualities of Practicing Like That

Joyful in all action, the Dzogchen yogi,
Happy in any company, child of the lineage of Padmākara,

The yogi who is immersed in this state without any fluctuation or any distinction between meditative equipoise and post-equipoise, is in all their actions like a ball of mercury that’s fallen to the floor. For no matter what actions of body, speech, and mind they perform, no matter how they appear and how they behave, whether it be in accord or in discord with the perceptions of worldly beings, they remain untouched by the faults of saṃsāra—dualistic fixation. Thus, they are utterly joyful, meaning full of delight.

Such a Dzogchen yogi is happy in any company. And whomever they keep company with, their actions never displease others, because they have mastered the ability to influence others’ perceptions. They naturally draw others’ minds towards the Dharma. Those who form positive connections with them are blessed to obtain buddhahood in a single lifetime, while those who form negative connections with them are blessed to gradually bring their experience of saṃsāra to an end. Such are their abilities. At all times and in all circumstances, they are happy, meaning they’re filled not with the conceptual sensation of bliss but with the sacred great bliss that is unchanging and everlasting. These are the unique qualities of the children of the lineage of Padmākara, the second buddha Padmasambhava, the master who is the godfather of the hundreds of siddhas endowed with the special blessings of the wisdom, symbolic, and hearing lineages of Ati, the Great Perfection.

3.3 The Unique Qualities of the Great Treasure-Revealing Guru

Lord who has no peer, great treasure-revealing guru,
Dharma without equal, heart-essence of the ḍākinīs.

These lines are referring to Kyabjé Jikdral Yeshe Dorje—the king of Dharma in all three realms, emanation of the great treasure-revealer Dudjom Lingpa, crown ornament of all the scholars and siddhas of Tibet, and sovereign of the Early Translations of kama and terma. As taught in the Union of Sun and Moon Tantra:

If its history is not explained,
Confidence in this definitive, supremely secret teaching
Will fail to arise.

Accordingly, I will explain here the lineage of this master, the great treasure-revealing guru. The transmission from dharmakāya Samantabhadra down to Vajrasattva, or Vajrapāṇi, is the wisdom lineage of the victorious ones. The transmission from Garab Dorje down to the great master Padmasambhava is the symbolic lineage of vidyādharas. The transmission from Padmasambhava to the trio of King Tri Songdeutsen, his disciples, and his consort, the ḍākinī Yeshe Tsogyal, down to our present-day root guru—the chief of all buddha families and maṇḍalas, Kyabjé Dudjom Jikdral Yeshe Dorje—is the hearing lineage of humans. These are the three lineages (or lines of transmission). In addition, there are the three lineages pertaining to the terma (or treasure) teachings: the lineage of prophesied transmission, the lineage empowered by awakened aspirations, and the lineage of the ḍākinīs’ seal of entrustment. The blessed transmission of all six of these lineages was bestowed upon the treasure-revealing guru not by humans but by ḍākinīs who broke the seal of the instructions and embraced him by transmitting this hearing lineage. As such, the lineage is still warm with the breath of the ḍākinīs and cannot be illustrated with spoken words or conceptual mind. The blessings of this short lineage surpass those of other lineages. Such are its unique qualities.

In the lineage of both the first and second great treasure-revealing gurus (that of Dudjom Lingpa and Dudjom Jikdral Yeshe Dorje Rinpoche, respectively), there are widely known accounts of disciples who in this lifetime, through the paths of cutting-through (trekchö) and direct crossing (tögal), attained the rainbow body of light and whose physical bodies dissolved into atoms. Many others displayed extraordinary signs of spiritual accomplishment at the time of death, such as rainbows and clusters of light, precious remains and relics, and all manners of awe-inspiring miracles. Many such signs—signs that are beyond the understanding of ordinary beings—were displayed in the past and continue to be displayed by present-day practitioners. These are genuine signs of having attained the fruit of accomplishment and are beyond dispute.

This master, Orgyen Drodül Lingpa, the guardian of saṃsāra’s three realms, is unmatched in his qualities of elimination and realization even by the bodhisattvas of the ten bhūmis. For he has overcome even the most subtle of habitual tendencies for dualistic appearance and awakened to the full in the transcendental, primordially pure exhaustion of phenomena. As Dudjom Rinpoche himself said:

To the vidyādhara of the past, Mighty Vajra (Nüden Dorje),
To the buddha of the future, Infinite Aspirations (Möpa Tayé),
To the present-day regent of the Lotus Guru, Drokben Lotsāwa incarnate—
Jikdral Yeshe Dorje, I pray to you!

Not only is he the buddha of past, present, and future, he is also the present-day regent of the Lotus-Born, the master Drokben Khyeuchung Lotsāwa incarnate, the great treasure-revealer and Dharma king who is the unsurpassed guru of the whole of existence and peace.

3.4 The Unique Qualities of Ati, the Great Perfection Teachings That Are the Pinnacle of All Vehicles

Dharma without equal, heart-essence of the ḍākinīs.

This Dharma—this innermost secret pith instruction—belongs to the three cycles of the Great Perfection teachings (the mind cycle, space cycle, and pith-instruction cycle) and is without equal, meaning unrivalled. As Longchenpa teaches in the Treasury of the Basic Space of Phenomena:

Once one has reached the summit of a majestic mountain,
One can see the valleys below all at once,
While from the valleys one cannot see what it is like at the summit.
Similarly, Ati, the vajra heart-essence,
Is the pinnacle spiritual approach and sees what is meaningful in all others,
While the lower approaches cannot see its ultimate meaning.
It is, therefore, the pinnacle, the peak experience, which is spontaneously present.[10]

This pinnacle of all vehicles—the heart-essence of the wisdom ḍākinīs—is the most profound of instructions. It arose from the swirling depths of the eternal knot of the ḍākinīs’ wisdom-heart, the unchanging, eternal, and pervasive supreme state.

4. The Fruition—the Attainment of Stability

This has two parts: (4.1) discovering buddhahood—the supreme transcendental exhaustion of phenomena—within oneself, and (4.2) recalling the kindness of the guru who shares with you these Great Perfection pith instructions.

4.1 Discovering Buddhahood—The Supreme Transcendental Exhaustion of Phenomena—Within Oneself

Having naturally purified the great delusion, the heart’s darkness,
The radiant light of the unobscured sun continuously arises.
This good fortune…

The emotional and cognitive obscurations arise from the great delusion of ignorance, their cause, and pollute the heart, meaning they veil the mind in darkness. This darkness is naturally dispelled, or purified, by awareness—profound, peaceful, elaboration-free, unconditioned luminosity—so that the unobscured sun—the realization of ultimate radiant light (or luminosity)—continuously arises throughout day and night as meditative equipoise and post-equipoise become indistinguishable. The body dissolves into atoms, the mind dissolves into the intrinsic nature, and in this very life one awakens into the supreme state, the exhaustion of phenomena and mind. As it’s taught:

The practitioner who has broken the seal is like the morning sun.
This is the appearance of dharmakāya. How amazing!

Thus, those who encounter this path have the most exceptional good fortune. They are abundantly rich with the two types of merit.

4.2 Recalling the Kindness of the Guru Who Shares with You These Great Perfection Pith Instructions

… is the kindness of the guru, my only father and mother.
Guru of unrepayable kindness, I only remember you!

This good fortune of attaining the swift path, the path of the Great Perfection, is attained solely through the kindness of the glorious guru whose qualities of elimination and realization are inseparable with the only father, the dharmakāya Samantabhadra. We might try to repay the guru’s kindness in nurturing us with compassion by exerting ourselves physically, vocally and mentally until the end of the aeon, worshipping them with material and imagined offerings of the entire three-thousandfold universe and so on. Yet this still wouldn’t repay even a fraction of their kindness. Their kindness is simply unrepayable. Furthermore, as the All-Knowing Bötrül taught:

Endless study and practice—that’s not the measure of realisation.
The fortunate one who directly realizes the meaning—she is full of joy.
Vidyādharas of the Ancient Translations lineage, I recall your kindness.
O gracious glorious guru, your compassion knows no ends.

The great treasure-revealing guru, our guide who’s endowed with such kindness, who shakes saṃsāra from its depths, who is the regent of the second buddha, the Guru of Uḍḍiyāna, I remember you, only you, from within the state of genuine, unfabricated awareness.

III. An Explanation of the Colophon of the Text

At the request of my foremost vajra student, the tulku Jigme Chöying Norbu Dön Tamché Drubpé Dé, this was spoken as delirious chatter by Jikdral Yeshe Dorje. May virtue abound!

I wrote this commentary inspired not by another’s request,
But by my own interest in this wondrous prayer I so deeply admire.
Whatever faults it might contain, I confess them
In the expanse of primordial purity, beyond elaborations.

If by chance it contains a glimmer of merit, like a star in the daytime sky,
This is due to the kindness of the unequalled glorious guru.
May the virtue from composing this be a cause for Buddha’s teachings to spread
And for all beings to be liberated in the primordial ground!

This was written in breaks between practice sessions by Tulku Pema Rigtsal, also known as Jikmé Pema Künzang Namgyal, the very lowest of the disciples of the great treasure-revealing guru, while feeling deeply inspired by this teaching of Uḍḍiyāna (Kyabjé Jikdral Yeshe Dorje). Maṅgalam! (Auspiciousness!)

| Translated by Laura Swan, February 2023 at Tulku Pema Rigtsal Rinpoche’s request. Text in parentheses ( ) has been added by the translator for the sake of clarity. Words in bold are those quoted from the root text by the commentator. Gratitude to Daniel Dorje for his feedback. If there are any errors, they are the shortcoming of the translation. Please send feedback to lauragraceswan@gmail.com.

© 2023 by Pema Riksal Lama aka Pema Rigtsal Rinpoche. Reproduced with permission.

Version: 1.1-20240216