Sādhana of the Five Self-Arisen Noble Brothers

༄༅། །འཕགས་པ་རང་བྱོན་མཆེད་ལྔའི་བསྒྲུབ་ཐབས་བསྐྱེད་རྫོགས་ཟུང་འབྲེལ་དུ་གདམས་པ་བཞུགས་སོ། །

The Sādhana of the Five Self-Arisen Noble Brothers:¹
An Instruction in the Union of Generation and Completion

by Shikpo Lingpa

ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྂ།

om mani padme hung

oṃ maṇi padme hūṃ

སྦྲུལ་ལོ་ཆོ་འཕྲུལ་ཟླ་བ་ལ། །སྐྱེ་བདུན་བསྒྲུབ་ཆེན་བྱས་པའི་ཚེ། །ཚེས་པ་བཅོ་བརྒྱད་སྲོད་ཀྱིས་དུས། །རྨི་ལམ་འཁྲུལ་སྣང་འདི་ལྟར་བྱུང་། །དཀྱིལ་མཁར་མདོ་ནག་གསུམ་མདོ་རུ། །འཁྲུངས་པའི་གུ་རུ་ཁྱུང་གྲགས་དེ། །བདག་གི་མདུན་དུ་བྱོན་ནས་སུ། །ཚེ་གཅིག་ཐར་པ་བགྲོད་པའི་ཆོས། །འཕགས་པ་རིགས་ལྔའི་བསྐྱེད་རྫོགས་ཀྱིས། །ཉམས་ལེན་མཐིལ་ཕྱིན་འདི་ལྟར་བསྒོམ། །

In the miracle month of the snake year, at dawn on the 18th day,² during a seven-times born great accomplishment ritual,³ the following vision occurred, within a dream: At the place known as Khyung Drak, the confluence of Khardo Nak, my guru of many lifetimes appeared before me and said: “Meditate until you have perfected this practice. A teaching which brings liberation in this lifetime, it is the creation and completion stages of the noble ones of the five families:

འཁོར་བའི་ཆོས་ལས་ཡིད་འབྱུང་ཏེ། །དང་པོ་མི་རྟག་རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྒོམ། །དེ་ནས་སྐྱབས་འགྲོ་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་བྱ། །ཆོས་ཀུན་སྟོང་པའི་ངང་བསམས་ལ། །འགྲོ་བ་སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ། །མ་ལྟར་བརྩེ་བའི་སྙིང་རྗེ་བསྒོམ། །

Since samsaric dharmas arise from the mind, first cultivate the yoga of impermanence. Then, take refuge and arouse bodhicitta. Contemplate the nature of emptiness of all phenomena and generate compassion and love towards all wandering beings as if they were your own mothers.

སྟོང་ཉིད་སྙིང་རྗེའི་ངང་ཅན་ལས། །

tongnyi nyingjé ngangchen lé

Out of the state of emptiness and compassion,

པད་ཟླའི་གདན་ལ་ཧྲཱིཿཡིག་དཀར། །

pé dé den la hrih yik kar

Seated upon a lotus and moon-disc, appears the white syllable hrīḥ.

དེ་ལས་རང་ཉིད་སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས། །

dé lé rangnyi chenrezik

From it, I appear as Avalokiteśvara

ཞལ་གཅིག་ཕྱག་བཞིའི་སྐུ་རུ་སྒོམ། །

zhal chik chak zhi ku ru gom

With one face and four arms.

སྤྱི་བོར་འཕགས་པ་འཇའ་མ་ལི། །

chiwor pakpa ja ma li

On the crown of my head is Ārya Jamali,⁴

མདོག་མཐིང་པདྨ་གཡས་ན་སྣམས། །

dok ting pema yé na nam

Dark blue in colour, in his right hand a lotus,

གཡོན་པ་སྐྱབས་སྦྱིན་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཅན། །

yönpa kyab jin pak gyachen

His left hand in the mudrā of granting protection.⁵

མགྲིན་པར་འཕགས་པ་བ་ཏིའི་སྐུ། །

drinpar pakpa wati ku

In my throat is Ārya Vati,⁶

མདོག་དམར་པདྨ་སྐྱབས་སྦྱིན་ཅན། །

dok mar pema kyab jinchen

Red in colour, holding a lotus and granting protection.

སྙིང་ཁར་འཕགས་པ་བུ་ཁམ་དེ། །

nyingkhar pakpa bu kham dé

In my heart is Ārya Bukhaṃ,⁷

མདོག་སེར་སྐྱབས་སྦྱིན་པདྨ་འཛིན། །

dok ser kyab jin pema dzin

Golden in colour, holding a lotus and granting protection.

ལྟེ་བར་འཇིག་རྟེན་དབང་ཕྱུག་སྐུ། །

tewar jikten wangchuk ku

In my navel is Lokeśvara,⁸

མདོག་ལྗང་སྐྱབས་སྦྱིན་པདྨ་འཛིན། །

dok jang kyab jin pema dzin

Green in colour, holding a lotus and granting protection.

ཀུན་ཀྱང་ཕྱེད་དཀྱིལ་རོལ་པར་བཞུགས། །

kün kyang ché kyil rolpar zhuk

All are delightfully seated in crossed-leg posture.

རི་དགས་ལྤགས་པས་ནུ་མ་བཀག །

ri gé pakpé numa kak

In my mind’s eye, deerskins cover their chests

དར་དང་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་རྒྱན། །

dar dang rinpoche gyen

And graceful adornments of jewels and silks

ཚངས་སྐུད་སེར་པོས་རབ་ཏུ་མཛེས། །

tsang kü serpö rabtu dzé

And the sacred golden thread.⁹

གཙོ་འཁོར་ཐམས་ཅད་འོད་ཟེར་གྱི། །

tsokhor tamché özer gyi

The main deity and his entourage

གུར་དུ་བཞུགས་པར་བསམ་པའི་ངང་། །

gur du zhukpar sampé ngang

Reside within a dome of light.

པོ་ཊ་ལ་ནས་ཡེ་ཤེས་པ། །

potala né yeshé pa

From the Poṭala itself, I summon the jñānasattvas,

བཀུག་བསྟིམ་མཆོད་ཅིང་བསྟོད་པས་བསྟོད། །

kuk tim chö ching töpa tö

Dissolve them, presenting offerings and praise,

རིགས་བདག་སངས་རྒྱས་དམར་པོ་མཆོག །

rikdak sangyé marpo chok

And in my mind’s eye I see the lord of the family,
the buddha red and supreme,¹⁰

སྤྲུལ་པའི་སྐུ་ཡིས་དབུ་བརྒྱན་བསམ། །

trulpé ku yi u gyen sam

As the nirmāṇakāya adorning their crowns.

ཐུགས་སྲོག་ཧྲཱིཿཡི་མཐའ་སྐོར་དུ། །

tuk sok hrih yi takor du

Life-force of the heart centre, hrīḥ is surrounded

གཟུངས་སྔགས་འདི་ཉིད་འཁོར་བ་ལས། །

zung ngak di nyi khorwa lé

By the turning, self-spinning dhāraṇī mantra.

འོད་འཕྲོས་ནད་གདོན་སྡིག་སྒྲིབ་བསྲེགས། །

ö trö nedön dikdrib sek

Light rays stream outwards, burning up sickness,
Burning to ash all harmful influences,
Clearing all negativity and obstruction.

ཡར་འཕྲོས་སངས་རྒྱས་སྦྱངས་སེམས་མཆོད། །

yar trö sangyé jang sem chö

And light rays stream upwards, purifying buddha-fields,
And sending forth streams of imagined offerings.

འགྲོ་བ་སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི། །

drowa semchen tamché kyi

The light purifies all negativity and delusion

སྡིག་སྒྲིབ་སྦྱངས་ཤིང་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱང་། །

dikdrib jang shing tamché kyang

For wandering beings without exception,

འཕགས་པའི་སྐུ་རུ་གསལ་བར་བསྒོམ། །

pakpé ku ru salwar gom

And I rest in meditation, all appearances as the Noble One.¹¹

གཟུངས་སྔགས་འདི་ཉིད་གྲངས་མེད་བཟླ། །

Recite this dhāraṇī mantra innumerable times:

ཨོཾ་ཨཱརྻ་བ་ཏི་མ་ཎི་འཇའ་མ་ལི་པདྨེ་བྷུ་ཁམ་ལོ་ཀེ་ཤྭ་ར་ཧཱུྂ། ཤཱནྟཾ། པུཥྚིཾ། ཝ་ཤཾ། ཀ་རྨཱ་སིདྡྷི་ཕ་ལ་ཧཱུྂ། །

om arya wati mani jamali padmé bhukham lokeshwara hung shantim pushtim washam karma siddhi phala hung

oṃ ārya vati maṇi jamali padme bhukhaṃ lokeśvara hūṃ śāntiṃ puṣtiṃ vāśaṃ karma siddhi phala hūṃ

ཅེས་བཟླས་མཆོད་བསྟོད་བརྒྱས་པར་བྱ། །དེ་ལྟར་འཕགས་པའི་ལྷ་ཚོགས་རྣམས་རང་སེམས་ལས་བྱུང་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྐུ། བདག་གཞན་བརྗེ་ཕོད་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས། །རྒྱུན་དུ་བསྒོམ་ཞིང་གཟུངས་སྔགས་བཟླ། །སྟོང་ཉིད་ངང་བཞག་སྤྲོས་བྲལ་དུ། །མཉམ་པར་བཞག་ཅིང་ཕར་ཕྱིན་དྲུག །དོན་ལ་ལྟ་ཞིང་ཉམས་སུ་བླངས། །འདི་ལྟར་བགྱིས་པས་འཕགས་པའི་སྐུ། །དབྱེར་མེད་ཐོབ་ནས་རིགས་དྲུག་གིས། །འཁོར་བ་དོང་སྤྲུགས་ས་ཐོབ་འགྱུར། །རྗེས་སྤྱོད་འགྲོར་བསྔོ་སྨོན་ལ་གདབ། །

Having recited the mantra thus, present vast offerings and praise.

The assembled deities of Noble Ones,¹²
Arisen from your mind, are the dharmakāya.
While engaged in reciting the dhāraṇī mantra,
Continuously cultivate the awakened mind¹³
And exchange yourself with others.
Then, rest within emptiness, settle within equipoise,
Free from all mental fabrications,
Actualizing, taking to heart the six pāramitās.

If you practice these instructions,
You will become indivisible from the Noble One,
Dredging from saṃsāra’s depths the six classes of beings
And you will attain the bodhisattva bhūmis.

In post-meditation,
Dedicate your activities to the benefit of beings
And recite aspiration prayers.

འཕགས་པ་རང་བྱོན་མཆེད་ལྔ་ཡིས། །ལུས་དཀྱིལ་བསྐྱེད་རྫོགས་ལག་བཅངས་འདི། །པདྨའི་ཐུགས་སྤྲུལ་གུ་རུ་མཆོག །ཡེ་ཤེས་ཁྱུང་གྲགས་ཞལ་ཉིད་ནས། །རྨི་ལམ་དག་ཏུ་བྱུང་བ་དེ། །གར་གྱི་དབང་ཕྱུག་རྩལ་གྱིས་བཀོད། །དགེ་འདིས་སངས་རྒྱས་མྱུར་ཐོབ་ཤོག །མངྒ་ལཾ།

This practice of the Five Self-Arisen Noble Brothers
Delivers the creation and completion of the body maṇḍala
Into the palm of your hand.
It was spoken in my dream by Yeshé Kyungdrak,
The mind emanation of the supreme Guru Padma.
It was written down accordingly by Gargyi Wangchuk Tsal.¹⁴
Through this merit may we swiftly reach attainment and buddhahood! Maṅgalaṃ!

| Samye Translations, 2017. (Translated by Stefan Mang and Peter Woods with reference to Hubert Decleer’s translation of the same practice.¹⁵ Edited by Sara Lytle and Libby Hogg.)

1. ↑ Shikpo Linga’s sādhana is a unique practice focused on a set of four Avalokiteśvara statues that are highly sacred and revered among Tibetan Buddhists. What Shikpo Lingpa counts as the fifth brother is the self-visualization generated by the practitioner. The statues of the four self-arisen Avalokiteśvara brothers are located along the ancient trade route that begins in Patan, passing through the Kathmandu valley and continuing up the Trisuli river valley until it finally reaches Lhasa in Tibet. The history of the statues is deeply connected to the introduction and formation of Buddhism within Tibet in the 7th century. The history of the self-arisen Avalokiteśvara brothers begins with Avalokiteśvara sending and concealing sacred images of himself throughout our world, so as to benefit beings within this degenerate age. In the 7th century, there appeared King Songtsen Gampo (c.605-650), an emanation of Avalokiteśvara whose purpose was to establish the sacred Dharma within Tibet. Well aware of the power of these unique and sacred treasures, Songtsen Gampo sought to bring such a statue of Avalokiteśvara to Tibet, that it might bless the land and people and lay the ground for the establishment of the Dharma. King Songtsen Gampo shot forth a light ray from between his eyebrows, on the tip of which he sent an emanation—the monk Akaramatiśīla—to identify a particular Haricandana tree in the thick of a sandalwood forest somewhere in the Terai of southern Nepal, and to gently extract from it the self-arisen Avalokiteśvara brothers. During the process of extraction, the statues miraculously spoke and determined the location of their future residences, choosing the places where they are now situated. For a summary of the story, see: Hubert Decleer, “The Sacred Wati Image and Temple in Kyirong – Franz-Karl Erhard's Magisterial Magnum Opus,” The Tibet Journal XXXI.3, 2006. See also: Per K. Sørensen, Tibetan Buddhist Historiography: The Mirror Illuminating the Royal Genealogies: An Annotated Translation of the XIVth Century Chronicle rGyal-rabs gsal-ba'i me-long, (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 1994) 189-194. For an extensive discussion of the various stories, see: Franz Karl Ehrhard, Die Statue und der Tempel des Arya Va-ti bzang-po: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte und Geographie des Tibetischen Buddhismus, (Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 2004). For pictures of the four statues, see: http://www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setid=3934. And for a short discussion of the sādhana, see: Hubert Decleer, “Another Newar Link with Suratabajra & Lhasa’s White Crystal Cave? Zhigpo-lingpa’s Meditation Scenario on the Five Arya Brother Images,” The Great Compassion: International Buddhist Review, 1, 2004, 53-8.
2. ↑ Tuesday 26th February, 1557.
3. ↑ The seven-times born great accomplishment ritual is terma treasure practice, revealed by Shikpo Lingpa, aiming at repelling the invading Mongol armies and protecting the Tibetan borders.
4. ↑ Ārya Jamali, referred to by Tibetans as Jowo Dzamling Karpo and by Nepalis as Seto Machindranath, is located in Jana Bahal midway between Asan Tole and Indra Chowk, close to the Kathmandu Durbar Square.
5. ↑ The colour and attributes of the Avalokiteśvara statues change according to the various accounts of their origin.
6. ↑ Ārya Vati Zangpo’s original location was in the border-taming temple Jamtrim in Kyirong in Mangyul. However, it has been moved to Dharamsala, where it now remains in the possession of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
7. ↑ Ārya Bukham resides for one half of the year in Patan and for the other half of the year in Bungamati.
8. ↑ Ārya Lokeśvara resides in the Potala Palace in Lhasa.
9. ↑ The sacred thread (Skt. Yajñopavīta) is received by a boy during the traditional rite of passage (Skt. saṃskāra) that marked the acceptance of a student by a guru.
10. ↑ Amitābha
11. ↑ Avalokiteśvara
12. ↑ The self-visualization along with all sentient beings – all without exception are now visualised as Avalokiteshvara.
13. ↑ bodhicitta
14. ↑ Aka Shikpo Lingpa.
15. ↑ See: Hubert Decleer, “Another Newar Link with Suratabajra & Lhasa’s White Crystal Cave? Zhigpo-lingpa’s Meditation Scenario on the Five Arya Brother Images,” The Great Compassion: International Buddhist Review, 1, 2004, 53-8. For a Tibetan publication of the text, see: Franz Karl Ehrhard, Die Statue und der Tempel des Arya Va-ti bzang-po: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte und Geographie des Tibetischen Buddhismus, (Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 2004), 523-4.