Calling the Lama from Afar

༁ྃ༔ བླ་མ་རྒྱང་འབོད་བཞུགས༔

Calling the Lama from Afar

by Apang Tertön

 

ཀྱཻ༔  དབྱིངས་བདེ་བ་ཆེན་པོའི་ཕོ་བྲང་ནས༔

kyé, ying dewa chenpö podrang né

Kye! From the blissful palace of basic space,

དཔལ་ཆོས་སྐུ་སྣང་བ་མཐའ་ཡས་མཁྱེན༔

pal chöku nangwa tayé khyen

Glorious dharmakāya Amitābha, watch over me.

གཞི་ཀ་དག་ལྷུན་གྲུབ་རང་ཞལ་སྟོན༔

zhi kadak lhündrub rang zhal tön

Show me my true face—the primordially pure and spontaneously present ground of being.

རྗེ་དྲིན་ཅན་བླ་མའི་ཐུགས་རྒྱུད་བསྐུལ༔

jé drinchen lamé tukgyü kul

As I beg for your mind-to-mind transmission, holy and gracious teacher,

བདག་ཟག་ཕུང་འཇའ་སྐུར་གྲོལ་བར་ཤོག༔

dak zak pung ja kur drolwar shok

May my impure aggregates be liberated as a rainbow body.

 

འོད་ལྔ་དང་ཡེ་ཤེས་འདྲེས་པའི་རྩལ༔

ö nga dang yeshe drepé tsal

Energy enwrought¹ with five lights and wisdoms,

ལྷ་ལོངས་སྐུ་སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་དབང་མཁྱེན༔

lha longku chenrezik wang khyen

Divine saṃbhogakāya, powerful Avalokiteśvara, watch over me.

རྩལ་རིག་པ་ཡེ་ཤེས་འཁོར་ལོས་སྒྱུར༔

tsal rigpa yeshe khorlö gyur

Turn the wheel of energy, awareness, and wisdom,²

རྗེ་བླ་མའི་ཐུགས་ཀྱི་དགོངས་པ་སྤོར༔

jé lamé tuk kyi gongpa por

Transmit the perspective of your enlightened mind, holy teacher,

བདག་ཕུང་ཁམས་ལྷ་སྐུར་དག་པར་ཤོག༔

dak pung kham lha kur dakpar shok

And let my physical body be liberated as the pure form of the deity.

 

གནས་གང་འདུལ་སྤྲུལ་པ་དཔལ་རིའི་ཞིང༔

né gang dul trulpa palri zhing

Emanating wherever you are needed, from the pure realm of the Glorious Mountain—³

མགོན་རྒྱལ་དབང་ཨོ་རྒྱན་པདྨ་མཁྱེན༔

gön gyalwang orgyen pema khyen

Protector, king of conquerors, Orgyen Pema, watch over me.

ཆོས་གང་ཤར་སྣང་བ་བདེན་མེད་རྟོགས༔

chö gangshar nangwa denmé tok

As I understand that all arisen things are appearances devoid of truth,

རྗེ་བླ་མའི་གསང་གསུམ་དབྱེར་མེད་གྱུར༔

jé lamé sang sum yermé gyur

And as I merge with your three secrets,⁴ holy teacher,

གཞི་འཁོར་འདས་དག་མཉམ་བྱིན་གྱིས་རློབས༔

zhi khordé dak nyam jingyi lob

Bless me to realize the ground of being—the purity and unity of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa.

 

དུས་གསུམ་གྱི་རྒྱལ་བའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་དངོས༔

dü sum gyi gyalwé yeshe ngö

Embodiment of the wisdom of the buddhas of the three times,

གྲུབ་རིགས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཐང་སྟོང་མཁྱེན༔

drub rik kyi gyalpo tangtong khyen

King of the family of siddhas, Thangtong Gyalpo, watch over me.

གང་ཤར་གྱི་ཞེན་འཛིན་ཐད་ཀར་གྲོལ༔

gangshar gyi zhen dzin tekar drol

As my fixation on all that dawns is instantly free,

རྗེ་བླ་མའི་གྲུབ་རྟགས་མངོན་དུ་གྱུར༔

jé lamé drubtak ngön du gyur

And as I actualize the signs of your accomplishment, holy teacher,

འགྲོ་ཁམས་ཀྱི་སྣང་བ་དབང་སྡུད་ཤོག༔

dro kham kyi nangwa wangdü shok

May I take control of the appearances of the realms of beings.

 

སྙིགས་མ་ལྔའི་སེམས་ཅན་ཐུགས་ཀྱིས་བཟུང༔

nyikma ngé semchen tuk kyi zung

Holding in your heart beings afflicted by the five degenerations,⁵

འགྲོ་འདྲེན་མཆོག་ཕྲིན་ལས་གླིང་པ་མཁྱེན༔

dro dren chok trinlé lingpa khyen

Supreme guide, Trinlé Lingpa,⁶ watch over me.

ཐབས་མཁས་ཀྱི་སྤྱོད་པས་སྣང་སེམས་སྡུད༔

tabkhé kyi chöpé nang sem dü

As I integrate appearances and mind through skillful conduct,⁷

བདག་ལོག་རྟོག་འཁྲུལ་སྣང་བ་བདེན་མེད་ཞིག༔

dak loktok trulnang ba denmé zhik

And lay waste to my wrong views and invalid, confused experiences,

གཞིར་རང་བྱུང་འོད་གསལ་མངོན་གྱུར་ཤོག༔

zhir rangjung ösal ngöngyur shok

May the self-arising luminosity of the ground of being become evident.

 

དུས་སྙིགས་མ་ལྔ་ཡི་མར་གཤམ་འདིར༔

dünyik ma nga yi mar sham dir

Here in the bowels of the degenerate age,

སྐྱབས་བྲལ་གྱི་ལོང་བ་བཤེས་མེད་བདག༔

kyabdral gyi longwa shemé dak

I’m blind and exposed, without a friend.

མགོན་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་ཐུགས་ཀྱི་འདོར་ཕོད་དམ༔

gön khyö kyi tuk kyi dor pö dam

Protector, will you really abandon me?

ཞལ་བཞེས་ཀྱི་དམ་བཅའ་གནད་ནས་བསྐུལ༔

zhalzhé kyi damcha né né kul

I call on the essential promises you have made.

 

བདག་སྒོ་གསུམ་ཞེན་པ་བཙན་ཐབས་ཆོད༔

dak go sum zhenpa tsentab chö

Snuff out my three doors’ compulsions.

སྣང་བ་ལ་སྒྱུ་མའི་རྒྱ་ཡིས་ཐེབ༔

nangwa la gyumé gya yi teb

Let appearances be stamped with the seal of illusion.

འཛིན་པ་ནི་གཞི་མེད་འོད་གསལ་ངང༔

dzinpa ni zhimé ösal ngang

In the ongoing flow of luminosity without any basis,

རང་བྱུང་གི་ཀུན་བཟང་དགོངས་པར་ཡང༔

rangjung gi kunzang gongpar yang

In the naturally occurring enlightened perspective of Samantabhadra,

ཚེ་འདི་རུ་གྲོལ་བར་བྱིན་གྱིས་རློབས༔

tsé diru drolwar jingyi lob

In this very life, bless me to be free from all grasping.

 

ཕྱི་ནང་གི་བར་ཆད་མ་ལུས་ཞི༔

chinang gi barché malü zhi

Pacify all my outer and inner obstacles.

ཉམས་རྟོགས་ཀྱི་ཡོན་ཏན་ཡར་ཟླ་བཞིན༔

nyamtok kyi yönten yar da zhin

With meditative experience and realization expanding like the waxing moon,

ས་ལམ་ཀུན་མིག་འཕྲུལ་ལྟ་བུར་བསྒྲོད༔

salam kün miktrul tabur drö

May I traverse, like magic, all the bodhisattvas’ paths and levels,

འགྲོ་དོན་དུ་བྱང་ཆུབ་མྱུར་ཐོབ་ཤོག༔

dro döndu changchub nyur tob shok

And may I quickly awaken for the benefit of beings.

 

ཨེ་ཁྱབ་བདག་གདོད་མའི་མགོན་པོ་དཔལ་ལྡན་རྩ་བའི་བླ་མ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་མཁྱེན་ནོ༔

é khyabdak dömé gönpo palden tsawé lama rinpoche khyen no

É, presiding master, primordial protector, precious, glorious guru, watch over me.

 

ཞེས་ལན་གསུམ་བརྗོད་པའི་ཐུགས་ཡིད་དབྱེར་མེད་བསྲེ༔  དེ་མཐུས་བྱིན་རླབས་མྱུར་དུ་འཇུག་གོ༔

Repeat the above three times and blend your mind with the guru’s wisdom mind. Through this, you will swiftly be filled with blessings.

ས་མ་ཡཱ༔  རྒྱ་རྒྱ་རྒྱ༔  གཏེར་རྒྱ༔  སྦས་རྒྱ༔

Samaya. Sealed, sealed, sealed. The treasure is sealed. Sealed in secrecy.

 

ཞེས་ཨོ་རྒྱན་ཕྲིན་ལས་གླིང་པས་སོ། །

By Orgyen Trinlé Lingpa.

 

| Translated by Joseph McClellan, 2024.

 

Sources:

Apang Terton Choying Dorje (a pang gter ston chos dbyings rdo rje). bla ma rgyang ʼbod, in gter chos dpaʼ bo chos dbyings rdo rje, 1:47–50. Gangtok: Dodrup Sangey Lama, 1976. BDRC MW23183_A8CF2A

Apang Terton Choying Dorje (a pang gter ston chos dbyings rdo rje). Grub chen thang stong rgyal po dang ʼbrel baʼi bla maʼi rnal ʼbyor, pp. 1–5. BDRC MW3CN7561

 

Version: 1.0-20240307

1. ↑ The Tibetan verb here is 'dres pa, "mixed [with]." We use "enwrought" in deference to W.B. Yeats' classic line from "Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven": "Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,/ Enwrought with golden and silver light,"
2. ↑ Here we follow BDRC MW3CN7561, which we find more straightforward in grammar and meaning. The phrase "turn the wheel" refers to the activity of a universal emperor, connoting that the guru is in complete mastery of energy, awareness, and wisdom. The Gangtok edition reads, rtsal rig pa ye shes 'khor lor gyur, which might be interpreted as "You who has become the very maṇḍala of energy, awareness, and wisdom."
3. ↑ Short for Copper-Colored Mountain, Guru Rinpoche’s pure land.
4. ↑ The three secrets are enlightened body, speech, and mind.
5. ↑ The five degenerations are the worsening conditions beings face in an age of decline. They are (1) the degeneration of views, which refers to beings' increased confusion about reality; (2) the degeneration of afflictions refers to the increase in hostility, desire, and indifference; (3) the degeneration of good fortune; (4) the degeneration of lifespan; and (5) the degeneration of sentient beings, which refers to beings' decreased physical and mental strength and acuity.
6. ↑ Short for one of Apang Terton's main aliases, Orgyen Trinlé Lingpa.
7. ↑ We propose a hybrid reading of the two available editions, as neither seem wholly adequate. The Gangtok edition reads, thabs mkhas kyi spyod pa snang sems bsdus, which does not clearly mark a grammatical relation between the first and second clauses ("skillful conduct / integrating appearance and mind"). Moreover, in that edition, the verb bsdus is in the future tense, which is slightly incongruous. The alternative edition (BDRC MW3CN7561) does not resolve all the confusion. It reads, thabs mkhas kyi spyod pa'i snang sems sdud. Here, there is a genitive linking "skillful conduct" with "appearances and mind," resulting in an unclear sense of "appearance and mind that are skillful conduct." However, the verb sdud is in the easier to handle present tense. We propose the common revision of changing the genitive -'i to the instrumental -s, while keeping the present tense of the verb. This gives us the sensible "Integrating appearances and mind through skillful conduct."