Report May 2021
This month we have published two new translations and an article that gives a complete overview of all the literature related to the Queen of Great Bliss cycle, the practice of Yumka Dechen Gyalmo.
In most treasure cycles the sādhana is the centerpiece around which other treasure texts or compositions revolve. Often, later on it is the treasure revealer himself, his or her associates, or later authors who reveal or compose additional liturgical texts and commentaries. This is certainly the case for the Queen of Great Bliss sādhana, which has been at the center of a fairly large amount (a few dozen) of additional texts such as empowerment manuals (dbang yig), lineage prayers (brgyud ‘debs), additional practices (las tshogs) and commentaries (‘grel pa). Read our elaborate overview of the texts belonging to the Yumka Dechen Gyalmo practice on our blog.
Our first new translation is A Brief Practice of Consecrating Amṛta for the Vidyādhara Assembly (Rigdzin Düpa) by Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo.
Our second text is an aspiration prayer written by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, The Vidyādharas' Words of Truth: An Aspiration Connected with the Stages of the Path of the Three Roots, from the Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse'. Written in Nepal at the then newly-built Shechen monastery during a great accomplishment (sgrub chen) ritual of Tsokchen Düpa, this is an aspiration to accomplish the entire Longchen Nyingtik path, from the preliminaries through to the generation and completion stages and the practices of the Great Perfection.
This month also partly coincided with the fourth month of the Tibetan lunar calendar, Saga Dawa (Skt. Vaiśākha), in which we celebrate the Buddha's birth, enlightenment and parinirvana.
དགའ་བ་བརྒྱ་ལྡན་འཆི་མེད་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་ནས། །
In the city of the immortal gods, in the heaven of Tuṣita,
བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་ཀྱི་དམ་པ་ཏོག་དཀར་པོ། །
The bodhisattva, holy Śvetaketu, saw the vessel
ཤཱཀྱའི་རིགས་ཀྱི་ཐིག་ལེར་འཛིན་པའི་སྣོད། །
To contain the successor of the Śākya clan
སྒྱུ་འཕྲུལ་ལྷ་མོ་རི་དྭགས་མིག་ཅན་ཡིན། །
Was the lady Māyādevī, her eyes of doe-like beauty.
འོད་སྟོང་ཤར་གྱི་རི་ལ་ཆས་པ་བཞིན། །
Like the splendour of a sunrise on a mountain’s eastern face,
ལྷུམས་ཀྱི་གེ་སར་བཞད་པ་ལུམྦིའི་ཚལ། །
She gave birth, a lotus opening in blossom, in the Lumbinī grove,
ཚངས་དང་དབང་པོས་སྲི་ཞུས་མཛེས་བྱས་ཤིང་། །
Brahmā and Indra there to serve you, to tend you with all their grace;
བྱང་ཆུབ་རིགས་སུ་ལུང་བསྟན་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ། །
You who were prophesied into the lineage of enlightened ones, I bow to you in homage!
From the Praise of the Twelve Acts of the Buddha, by Jigme Lingpa
Buddha Shakyamuni painted on a bodhi tree leaf, by Artist Ling Lhadri