Song of the Feast

༄༅། །ཚོགས་གླུ་རྡོ་རྗེའི་གསུང་བྱིན་རླབས་ཅན།

The Song of the Feast (Tsok Lu)¹

by Rigdzin Jigme Lingpa

ལས་སྨོན་རྟེན་འབྲེལ་དཔག་བསམ་ལྗོན་ཤིང་གི་སྟེང་དུ། །

lemön tendrel paksam jönshing gi tengdu

Karma and aspirations coincide² as a wish-fulfilling tree

རྒྱ་གར་ཤར་གྱི་རྨ་བྱ་གཞོན་ནུ་ཡང་ཕེབས་བྱུང༌། །

gyagar shar gyi maja zhönnu yang peb jung

Upon which the youthful peacock of eastern India alights.

རྨ་བྱའི་གདུགས་སྐོར་དམ་པའི་ཆོས་ཕྱོགས་ལ་བསྒྱུར་དང༌། །

majé duk kor dampé chö chok la gyur dang

As the peacock’s majestic tail display³ leads us to the sublime Dharma,

གཞོན་པ་ང་ཚོས་ཐར་པའི་ལམ་སྣ་ཞིག་ཟིན་ཡོང༌། །

zhönpa ngatsö tarpé lam na zhik zin yong

We, the youthful, set out on the path to liberation.

བསོད་ནམས་དཔྱིད་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་མོའི་ཤིང་རྟ་ལ་ཕེབས་པའི། །

sönam chi kyi gyalmö shingta la pebpé

The cuckoo’s song⁴ from Mön’s⁵ southern groves

ལྷོ་མོན་ཤིང་ལོའི་ཚལ་གྱི་ཁུ་བྱུག་གི་གསུང་སྙན། །

lho mön shinglö tsal gyi khujuk gi sung nyen

Rides upon⁶ the chariot of merit,⁷ the regal spring;⁸

ཡ་གི་དྲི་ཟའི་བུ་མོའི་གླིང་བུ་ལས་སྙན་པ། །

yagi drizé bumö lingbu lé nyenpa

Its melody, sweeter than the flutes of the gandharva maidens above,

དབྱར་གསུམ་ནམ་ཟླ་བསྲོ་བའི་རྟེན་འབྲེལ་ལ་ཡག་བྱུང༌། །

yar sum namda sowé tendrel la yak jung

Heralds the auspicious conditions for the three nourishing months of summer.

འདིར་འདུས་ལས་སྨོན་མཐུན་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེའི་དང་སྤུན་གྲོགས། །

dir dü lé mön tünpé dorjé dang pündrok

All you vajra brothers and sisters here, united in karma and aspiration,

ང་ཚོའི་བླ་མ་བཞུགས་པའི་ཆོས་ར་ལ་ཕེབས་དང༌། །

ngatsö lama zhukpé chö ra la peb dang

Come, join us in this Dharma gathering, over which our guru is presiding!

སྨིན་གྲོལ་བདུད་རྩི་འཐུང་བའི་དགའ་སྟོན་གྱི་ངང་ནས། །

mindrol dütsi tungwé gatön gyi ngang né

At this feast, as we partake of the ripening and freeing nectar,

ཉམས་དགའ་གླུ་རུ་ལེན་པའི་ཁྱད་ཆོས་ཤིག་ཡོད་དོ། །

nyamga lu ru lenpé khyechö shik yö do

We have good reason to sing of our joyful experience.⁹

བདེ་ཆེན་འཕོ་འགྱུར་མེད་པའི་བཞུགས་གྲལ་གྱི་དབུས་ནས། །

dechen pogyur mepé zhuk dral gyi ü né

Within this assembly, resting in unchanging great bliss,

ལྷ་དང་བླ་མའི་ཞལ་རས་མ་བསྒོམས་ཀྱང་མཐོང་བྱུང༌། །

lha dang lamé zhalré ma gom kyang tong jung

Even without meditating, we behold the faces of deity and guru.

མ་དང་མཁའ་འགྲོའི་སྙིང་ཏིག་འོད་གསལ་གྱི་ཐེག་པས། །

ma dang khandrö nyingtik ösal gyi tekpé

Through our practice of the vehicle of luminosity, this heart-essence of the mother and ḍākinīs,

འཇའ་ལུས་ཆོས་སྐུར་འགྲུབ་པའི་དངོས་གྲུབ་ཅིག་ཞུའོ། །

jalü chökur drubpé ngödrub chik zhu o

Grant us, we pray, the siddhi of the rainbow body, the dharmakāya!

འཇིགས་གླིང་གསུམ་འབུམ་ཏ་པར་རྣམ་ཐར་ལེགས་བྱས་ཡོངས་འདུའི་སྙེ་མ་ལས་ཁོལ་དུ་ཕྱུང་བའོ།  །དགེའོ།  །དགེའོ། །

Extracted from the biography known as Clustered Fruit from the Wish-Fulfilling Tree of Excellent Deeds, which appears in volume 9 (ta) of Rigdzin Jigme Lingpa's collected writings. Let it be virtuous! Virtuous!

| Samye Translations (Stefan Mang and Lowell Cook), 2025, with reference to earlier English versions by Thinley Norbu Rinpoche, Rigpa Translations, Erik Pema Kunsang, and Benjamin Bogin.

Tibetan Source:

kun mkhyen ʼjigs med gling pa. “mkhyen brtse'i 'od zer gyi rnam thar legs byas yongs 'du'i snye ma.” In gsung ʼbum ʼjigs med gling pa (sde dge par ma). 9 Vols. BDRC MW27300_5E9644. Gangtok, Sikkim: Pema Thinley For Dodrupchen Rinpoche, 1985, Vol 9: 210–211.

rig ‘dzin ʼjigs med gling pa. “tshogs glu rdo rje’i gsung byin rlabs can.” In nyer mkho’i cho spyod gces btus thar pa’i them skas. Kathmandu: Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling, 2018: 441-442.

English Sources:

Bogin, Benjamin. "Karma and Aspirations Converge: On Tendrel, Tsok, and Two Portraits of Jigmé Lingpa" in Holly Gayley and Andrew Quintman (ed.) Living Treasure: Buddhist and Tibetan Studies in Honor of Janet Gyatso. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications 2023, 177–191.

Dilgo Khyentse. “The Sun Illuminating the Wisdom of Empty Awareness”. Trans. Samye Translations, Lotsawa House. https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/dilgo-khyentse/tsok-lu-commentary

Kunsang, Erik Pema. “Feast Song by Kunkhyen Jigmey Lingpa.” In Dzogchen Essentials, edited by Marcia Binder Schmidt. Boudhanath: Rangjung Yeshe Publications, 2004: 249–250.

Thinley Norbu Rinpoche. Lay Mön Ten Drel by Rigdzin Jigmé Lingpa. Watsonville, CA: Bero Jeydren Publications, n.d.

Version: 2.2-20250829

1. ↑ The original song, found in Rigdzin Jigme Lingpa’s autobiography, appears without a title and is therefore referred to simply by its opening syllables, Lémön Tendrel. In later editions, however, a Tibetan line describing the song as “blessed vajra speech” is sometimes added as its title. This convention is reflected, for example, in the prayer collection of Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery.
2. ↑ Literally “auspicious conditions” (rten ’brel). That is: Karma and aspirations create the auspicious for a wish-fulfilling tree.
3. ↑ On an outer level, the physical marvel brought forth by the gathered offerings and practitioners is symbolized by the peacock’s display (Bogin 2023, 180).
4. ↑ On an outer level, the beauty of the practitioners’ chants, melodies, and music is likened to the song of the cuckoo (Bogin 2023, 180).
5. ↑ Lhomön (lho mon) or Mönyül (mon yul) are early Tibetan names for a region that includes most of modern Bhutan as well as parts of Arunachal Pradesh, India and southern Tibet.
6. ↑ A common variation of the verse, as reflected in Dilgo Khyentse’s commentary, reads phebs dang instead of phebs pa'i. Accordingly, the line may be rendered as: “Ride upon the chariot of merit, the regal Spring!”
7. ↑ With regard to the analogy drawn here, this song is therefore a Tsok Lu—a feast song (tshogs glu)—rather than an ordinary song. The Tibetan term tsok denotes the accumulation of merit (bsod nams); hence, it is ‘a song that rides upon the accumulation of merit.’
8. ↑ On an outer level, the arrival of spring signals the imminent three-month summer retreat (dbyar gnas), heralded by the cuckoo’s return from the south to Tibet and its call (Bogin 2023, 180).
9. ↑ While the line literally states that vajra songs are a hallmark or distinctive feature (khyad chos) of the Vajrayāna path, it is rendered here as “we have good reason to” in order to highlight its connection to the preceding line.