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Devotion is the Highest Practice

A Buddhist monk seated in meditation against a weathered wall, holding a ritual object, in a quiet and reflective setting.

[1]


ཐོ་རེངས་མལ་ནས་ལྡང་བའི་དུས། །

In the early morning, as you rise from bed, recite:

 

དུས་གསུམ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་ངོ་བོ་དཔལ་ལྡན་རྩ་བའི་བླ་མ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་མཁྱེན་ནོ། །

dü sum sang gyé tam ché kyi ngowo penden tsawé la ma rin po ché khyen no

Glorious, precious root guru, essence of all the buddhas of the three times, please think of me!

བདག་གི་རྒྱུད་བྱིན་གྱིས་བརླབ་ཏུ་གསོལ། །

dak gi gyü jin gyi lap tu söl

Please bless my mindstream!

ལུས་ལ་བདེ་བ་སྐྱེ་བར་བྱིན་གྱིས་རློབས། །

lü la dewa kyewar jin gyi lop

Please bless me with bliss born in my body!

ངག་ལ་ནུས་པ་འབར་བར་བྱིན་གྱིས་རློབས། །

ngak la nü pa barwar jin gyi lop

Please bless my speech to blaze in its own command![2]

སེམས་ལ་རྟོགས་པ་འཆར་བར་བྱིན་གྱིས་རློབས། །

sem la tok pa charwar jin gyi lop

Please bless me with the dawning of realizations in my mind!

ཚེ་འདི་བློ་ཡིས་ཐོང་བར་བྱིན་གྱིས་རློབས། །

tsé di lo yi tongwar jin gyi lop

Please bless me to give up thoughts of this life!

ངེས་འབྱུང་བློ་སྣ་སྐྱེ་བར་བྱིན་གྱིས་རློབས། །

ngé jung lo na kyewar jin gyi lop

Please bless me with an attitude of renunciation!

བདག་འཛིན་འཁྲུལ་བ་འཇིག་པར་བྱིན་གྱིས་རློབས། །

dakdzin trülwa jik par jin gyi lop

Please bless me to demolish the confusion of self-clinging!

བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་མཆོག་སྐྱེ་བར་བྱིན་གྱིས་རློབས། །

jang chup sem chok kyewar jin gyi lop

Please bless me with supreme awakened mind!


COLOPHON
 
ཞེས་བླ་མ་ལ་མོས་གུས་ཕུར་ཚུགས་སུ་བྱའོ། །

This was written in fervent devotion to the guru.


NOTES
 

[1] There seems to be a play on the word lama (bla ma), which means both guru and “highest.” In the title, “Devotion” is placed next to lama with no grammar particle clarifying the relation. Such juxtapositions usually indicate apposition. In between lama and practice/path (lam khyer), there is a genitive particle making “highest” the qualifier of “practice.” The short colophon arranges “devotion” and lama a little differently, where lama is given first in the accusative case, followed by devotion. In this arrangement, the meaning is clearly “devotion to the lama/guru.”

[2] This line is rendered loosely, simply for stylistic reasons. The general meaning is unambiguous. A literal translation could be “Bless potency/power/mastery to blaze in my speech.” When we refer to someone with excellent skill in speech, we often say they have great “command.”

Published: September 2022


BIBLIOGRAPHY
 

mkhan po ngag dgaʼ. mos gus bla maʼi lam khyer. In gsung ʼbum ngag dbang dpal bzang, 1: 628–29. khreng tu’u. BDRC MW22946_6A9C9F.



Abstract

In this succinct text, a practice a devotee resounds in the early morning, Khenpo Ngawang Palzang strikes a central point of Buddhist tantra and rings the ever-sounding bell in the belfry of devotion. 

LISTEN TO AUDIO

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TRADITION

Nyingma

INCARNATION LINE

None

HISTORICAL PERIOD

19th Century

20th Century

Devotion is the Highest Practice

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