A Prayer to the Vidyadhara and Great Tertön Lerab Lingpa

by Tertön Trimé[1]

Emaho: O Wonder!

The sovereign and ‘sole deity’ of the Land of Snows was Lord Trisong Detsen:

You were his Dharma minister, born into the Nanam clan,

Always cared for by Orgyen Pema, throughout your many lives,

Master of mantras, Dorje Dudjom—to you we pray!

You attained the supreme realization of buddhahood,

Yet, so as not to abandon, but care for, beings needing to be tamed,

You returned as Ngödrup Gyaltsen[2], Lekden Dorje[3], Pema Trinlé[4] and so on—

To you, the succession of glorious protectors of the teachings and beings, we pray!

Close by the peak of Kosala’s hidden land,

In the male fire dragon year of the fourteenth cycle[5],

You took birth in the household of Shyipa, in the family of Tra,

Nirmanakaya Sonam Gyalpo, ‘king of merit’—to you we pray!

Entering into the teachings, you mastered reading and writing unhindered, and then

On an isolated mountainside, in your sleep you dreamt that the

Mistress of Mantra, Ekadzati, showed you her face

And plunged her white fang into your heart. Startled and shaken,

You were stricken with sickness, and turned your back on parents and home.

Going to the Dharma camp of the powerful siddha Nyala Pema Duddul,  who attained the rainbow body,

You studied with Jetsün Chomden Dorje—Lama Sonam Thayé[6],

And through the oral instructions, liberated the stream of your wisdom mind—to you we pray!

Your karmic predisposition from before awakened and the guardian of the termas,

Placed the treasure casket in your hands. You went to Kathok,

Where from Tenpé Gyaltsen[7]—Shyingkyong Gönpo—who was Dorje Drolö in person, and from

Many other teachers, you received immeasurable empowerments and instructions,

From the dakinis’ code script, you deciphered immeasurable teachings,

Which you kept secret, reserving them solely for your own practice.

As the sign of accomplishment, you became inseparable from the deities;

Lord of siddhas—to you we pray!

Going to Dzahka, from Dzahka Choktrul Rinpoche[8]

You received the detailed profound instruction on the ‘Vajra Essence,’ and

At the feet of Nyoshul Lungtok Tenpé Nyima,

You received the nectar of the instructions, and perfected total understanding and knowledge.

From Jamyang Khyentse, Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thayé,

Mipham Jampal Dorje and the like, learned and accomplished masters,

You received, contemplated on and brought to fruition limitless empowerments and instructions.

Supreme chief among the learned—to you we pray!

In the lands of Tibet and Greater Tibet, China and the like,

You travelled to all the sacred places, and before all the holy images,

You practised and made countless offerings, prostrations and circumambulations.

You received many profound termas, and to fortunate disciples from everywhere

You granted empowerments and instructions, and set them on the path to liberation.

In this sublime activity of ripening, for the benefit of Dharma and beings,

You spent your entire life, from beginning to end.

To you who possess wondrous compassion, we pray!

Single-mindedly, in various places, you lived on remote, deserted mountains,

Concentrating all your innermost practice into one—

Abandoning harm towards others, along with the states of mind behind it,

And continuously using skilful means to benefit others, in whatever way they needed,

A devotion to the non-partisan teaching, and pure perception dawned.

Speaking to the learned, in precise detail, about all of the outer and inner Dharma

You ignited the torch of the teachings.

Supreme holder of the teaching of the buddhas—to you we pray!

Unobscured by any hindrance in explaining, debating or composing—

Without a break, day and night, you were merged continuously with luminosity.

As signs of your accomplishment, the butter lamps lit themselves,

From the practice torma—the deity phurba—flowed a great flood of nectar,

Through the power of your samadhi, you reconsecrated sites from far away, and

At your command, the guardians themselves removed profound hidden termas.

Though it was obvious that you could read the minds of others and the like,

You never vaunted your qualities. Hidden yogin—to you we pray!

Your whole life long, striving for the benefit of the teachings and beings,

You created countless supports for the body, speech and mind of the buddhas,

Manifesting the play of skilful means to tame each according to their needs,

Through your pure perception you met the deities and the masters,

In many pure visions you obtained empowerments and instructions of the oral lineage,

You opened the great Dharma door of earth treasures and mind treasures,

Your enlightened activity spread everywhere, your actions equal to space,

Trinlé Drodul Tsal—to you we pray!

With your activity, like this, equalling the sky,

So as to spur to the Dharma those who grasped at permanence,

In the fifteenth cycle, on the tenth day of the first month of the fire tiger year,

You straightened your body, and in a manner that brought benefit to others, you departed.

From your body came relics of the five families, and you attained complete enlightenment.

In your compassion, you did not forsake all the beings in samsaric existence,

But were reborn, returning in two incarnations, as made clear in the prophecies.

Supreme and completely perfect teacher—to you we pray!

Through the power and blessing of this prayer:

Throughout the whole world, may the benefit for the teachings and beings never fail but grow,

May I and beings who are my mothers, all together,

Purify all karma and obscurations, and never be parted from you, our noble teacher.

May we be worthy to receive your instructions:

Care for us, and grant us your blessings—we pray!

Having become inseparable from you, as our one and only deity,

May all beings, equal to the sky, be able to find liberation!

At the insistence of his own son, Pema Wangchuk and others, and without introducing ideas of his own, this life and liberation of the supreme master, whose kindness was beyond compare, was composed in the form of a prayer by old Trimé Özer (Tertön Trimé), in his sixty sixth year at his retreat place, ‘The Turquoise Fortress of the Mighty Lion’. May positivity abound! Virtue! Virtue! Virtue!

© Rigpa Translations, 1999. Reproduced with permission.