The Short Vajradhara Prayer

We hope you enjoy this verse by verse comparison of various translations of Bengar Jampal Zangpo's Short Vajradhara Prayer.

List of translations (arbitrary order). Please use the checkboxes to show/hide translations:

Lineage Supplication

རྡོ་རྗེ་འཆང་ཆེན་ཏཻ་ལོ་ནཱ་རོ་དང་། །
མར་པ་མི་ལ་ཆོས་རྗེ་སྒམ་པོ་པ། །
དུས་གསུམ་ཤེས་བྱ་ཀུན་མཁྱེན་ཀརྨ་པ། །
ཆེ་བཞི་ཆུང་བརྒྱད་བརྒྱུད་པར་འཛིན་རྣམས་དང་། །
འབྲི་སྟག་ཚལ་གསུམ་དཔལ་ལྡན་འབྲུག་པ་སོགས། །
ཟབ་ལམ་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེ་ལ་མངའ་བརྙེས་པའི། །
མཉམ་མེད་འགྲོ་མགོན་དྭགས་པོ་བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་ལ། །
གསོལ་བ་འདེབས་སོ་བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་བླ་མ་རྣམས། །
བརྒྱུད་པ་འཛིན་ནོ་རྣམ་ཐར་བྱིན་གྱིས་རློབས། །

Great Vajradhara, Telo, Naropa,
Marpa, Mila, Dharma lord Gampopa,
The knower of three times, omniscient Karmapa,
Those who hold the four elder and eight younger lineages,
The Drikung and Taklung and Tsalpa, great Drukpa,
And others who’ve mastered mahamudra’s profound path,
Unequaled protectors of beings, Dakpo Kagyu,
We supplicate you. Kagyu gurus, we uphold
Your lineage: Please bless us to follow your example. (Kagyu Monlam Translation Team)

Great Vajradhara, Telo, Naro, Marpa, Milarepa,
The Dharma Lord Gampopa, knower of three times Karmapa,
And lineage holders of the elder four and younger eight —
The Drikung, Taklung, Tsalpa, glorious Drukpa and so forth.
Protectors of all beings, the unequalled Dakpo Kagyu
Who have gained mastery of the profound path, mahamudra:
O Kagyu gurus, heed my prayer; your lineage I uphold,
Please bless me so I may adopt your ways of liberation. (Lama Eric Trinle Thaye)

Great Vajradhara, Tilopa, Naropa,
Marpa, Mila, Lord of Dharma Gampopa,
knower of the Three Times, omniscient Karmapa,
holders of the four great and eight lesser lineages—
Drikung, Taklung, Tsalpa, these three, glorious Drukpa and so on,
masters of the profound path of Mahamudra,
unequalled protectors of beings, the Dakpo Kagyü,
Kagyu lamas, I supplicate you
Grant your blessing that I follow your example and hold your lineage. (Nalanda Translation Committee / Michele Martin)

Great Vajradhara, Tilopa and Nāropa,
Marpa, Milarepa, and Gampopa, lord of Dharma,
You who know all past, present and future — the Karmapa,
Holders of the four earlier and eight later lineages,
Drikung, Taklung, Tsalpa, the glorious Drukpa and the rest,
Masters of the profound path of Mahāmudrā,
Unequalled protectors of beings, the Dakpo Kagyü,
To all of you, the Kagyü lamas, I pray: inspire me
With your blessing to uphold this lineage, and follow you to liberation. (Rigpa Translations, 2011)

Verse 1

ཞེན་ལོག་སྒོམ་གྱི་རྐང་པར་གསུངས་པ་བཞིན། །
ཟས་ནོར་ཀུན་ལ་ཆགས་ཞེན་མེད་པ་དང་། །
ཚེ་འདིའི་གདོས་ཐག་ཆོད་པའི་སྒོམ་ཆེན་ལ། །
རྙེད་བཀུར་ཞེན་པ་མེད་པར་བྱིན་གྱིས་རློབས། །

Revulsion’s the foot of meditation, as it’s taught.
As ones with no craving for food or for wealth,
Who cut all the ties to this life: Please bless us
To have no attachment to honor or to gain. (Kagyu Monlam Translation Team)

Just as revulsion’s taught to be the legs of meditation,
This meditator does not cling to any food or wealth
And severs all the ties that bind me to this present life.
Please bless me to be unattached to honor or to gain. (Lama Eric Trinle Thaye)

Detachment is the foot of meditation, as is taught.
To this meditator who is not attached to food and wealth,
who cuts the ties to this life,
Grant your blessing that I have no attachment to honor or gain. (Nalanda Translation Committee / Michele Martin)

Revulsion for saṃsāra is the feet of meditation; so it is taught.
Free of craving and attachment to things like food and wealth,
Having severed the ties to this life, inspire this meditator
With your blessing, to be rid of addiction to possessions and fame. (Rigpa Translations, 2011)

Verse 2

མོས་གུས་སྒོམ་གྱི་མགོ་བོར་གསུངས་པ་བཞིན། །
མན་ངག་གཏེར་སྒོ་འབྱེད་པའི་བླ་མ་ལ། །
རྒྱུན་དུ་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས་པའི་སྒོམ་ཆེན་ལ། །
བཅོས་མིན་མོས་གུས་སྐྱེ་བར་བྱིན་གྱིས་རློབས། །

Devotion’s the head of meditation, as it’s taught.
As ones who pray always to the lama who opens
The gate to the treasury of oral instructions:
Please bless us to develop genuine devotion. (Kagyu Monlam Translation Team)

Just as devotion’s taught to be the head of meditation:
Continually this meditator supplicates the guru,
Who opens up the doorway to the trove of pith instructions.
Please bless me so that uncontrived devotion may well forth. (Lama Eric Trinle Thaye)

Devotion is the head of meditation, as is taught.
The lama opens the gate to the treasury of oral instructions.
To the meditator who always supplicates you,
Grant your blessings that genuine devotion is born within. (Nalanda Translation Committee / Michele Martin)

Devotion is the head of meditation; so it is taught.
The lama opens the door to the treasure of the pith instructions;
Praying constantly to him, inspire this meditator
With your blessing, so that uncontrived devotion is born within me. (Rigpa Translations, 2011)

Verse 3

ཡེངས་མེད་སྒོམ་གྱི་དངོས་གཞིར་གསུངས་པ་བཞིན། །
གང་ཤར་རྟོག་པའི་ངོ་བོ་སོ་མ་དེ། །
མ་བཅོས་དེ་ཀར་འཇོག་པའི་སྒོམ་ཆེན་ལ། །
བསྒོམ་བྱ་བློ་དང་བྲལ་བར་བྱིན་གྱིས་རློབས། །

The main practice is being undistracted, as it’s taught.
As ones who whatever arises, rest simply,
Not altering, in just that fresh essence of thought:
Please bless us with practice that’s free of conception. (Kagyu Monlam Translation Team)

As nondistraction’s taught to be the core of meditation,
This meditator just remains, not altering at all
The fresh and pristine essence of whatever thought occurs.
Please bless me to be free from thinking there’s a “meditation.” (Lama Eric Trinle Thaye)

Non-distraction is the body of meditation, as is taught.
Whatever arises is fresh, the nature of realization.
To the meditator who rests simply in naturalness,
grant your blessings that meditation is free from conceptualization. (Nalanda Translation Committee / Michele Martin)

Non-distraction is the main body of meditation; so it is taught.
Whatever arises, in that very essence of thought, fresh, natural,
Unaltered—leaving it just there, inspire this meditator
With your blessing, so my meditation is free from conceptual mind. (Rigpa Translations, 2011)

Verse 4

རྣམ་རྟོག་ངོ་བོ་ཆོས་སྐུར་གསུངས་པ་བཞིན། །
ཅི་ཡང་མ་ཡིན་ཅིར་ཡང་འཆར་བ་ལ། །
མ་འགགས་རོལ་པ་འཆར་བའི་སྒོམ་ཆེན་ལ། །
འཁོར་འདས་དབྱེར་མེད་རྟོགས་པར་བྱིན་གྱིས་རློབས། །

The essence of thought’s the dharmakaya, as it’s taught.
Not anything at all, yet arising as anything,
In unceasing play we arise: Please bless us
To realize samsara and nirvana inseparable. (Kagyu Monlam Translation Team)

Just as it’s taught, the essence of all thought is dharmakaya,
Not anything at all and yet arising in all ways,
Appearing for this meditator as unceasing play.
Bless me to know samsara and nirvana are not two. (Lama Eric Trinle Thaye)

The nature of thought is dharmakaya, as is taught.
Nothing whatsoever, it arises as everything.
To the meditator for whom all arises in unceasing play,
grant your blessings that I realize samsara and nirvana undivided. (Nalanda Translation Committee / Michele Martin)

The nature of thoughts is dharmakāya; so it is taught.
They are nothing whatsoever, yet appear as anything at all,
Arising as an unceasing display; inspire this meditator
With your blessing, to realize that saṃsāra and nirvāṇa are not separate. (Rigpa Translations, 2011)

Aspiration

སྐྱེ་བ་ཀུན་ཏུ་ཡང་དག་བླ་མ་དང་། །
འབྲལ་མེད་ཆོས་ཀྱི་དཔལ་ལ་ལོངས་སྤྱོད་ཅིང་། །
ས་དང་ལམ་གྱི་ཡོན་ཏན་རབ་རྫོགས་ནས། །
རྡོ་རྗེ་འཆང་གི་གོ་འཕང་མྱུར་ཐོབ་ཤོག །

In all of our births may we never be separate
From the perfect guru, enjoying Dharma’s splendor.
Perfecting the qualities of the paths and levels,
May quickly we reach the state of Vajradhara. (Kagyu Monlam Translation Team)

In all my future lives, may I never be apart
From the authentic gurus and embrace the dharma’s glory.
May I perfect the qualities of all the paths and levels,
And may I swiftly realize the state of Vajradhara. (Lama Eric Trinle Thaye)

Through all my births, may I not be separated from the perfect lama,
and always enjoy the splendor of Dharma.
Perfecting the qualities of the paths and stages,
may I swiftly attain the state of Vajradhara. (Nalanda Translation Committee / Michele Martin)

In all my lives, may I never be separate
From the perfect lama, and so enjoy the splendour of Dharma;
Mastering completely the qualities of the path and stages,
May I swiftly attain the sublime state of Vajradhara. (Rigpa Translations, 2011)

Colophon

ཅེས་པའང་བན་སྒར་བ་འཇམ་དཔལ་བཟང་པོས་མཛད་པའོ། །

Composed by Pengar Jampel Sangpo. (Kagyu Monlam Translation Team)

Composed by Bengar Jampal Zangpo (Rigpa Translations, 2011)

Remarks

Translated by the Nalanda Translation Committee with revisions by Michele Martin, 2002. (Nalanda Translation Committee / Michele Martin)