A Practice of Buddha Shakyamuni
A Practice of Buddha Shakyamuni by Mipham Rinpoche
Your wisdom body is like space,And remains changeless throughout past, present and future.Yet in the perception of those to be guided, you go through the display of birth and death,Even so, let your form body continue always to appear.Through all the virtues I have accumulated in the past, am accumulatingnow and will accumulate in the future,For the sake of benefitting all beings, who are as infinite as space,May you, the sovereign of Dharma, be forever pleased,And may all attain the state of the victorious one, the Lord of Dharma.Living beings like us, adrift in this degenerate age, have no guidance andprotection.Because of your kindness, caring for us with surpassing compassion,Every manifestation, in this world now, of the Three Jewels,Is your enlightened activity.You are then our only refuge, incomparable, supreme,So from our hearts we pray, with total confidence and faith:Do not neglect the great promises you made
in times gone by.But hold us, until we attain enlightenment, with your compassion.
With the strongest possible confidence and faith, consider that the Buddha is actually there, in front of you. Concentrate one-pointedly on his form. And recite the followingas many times as you can:
Supreme teacher, bhagavan, tathagata, arhat, complete and perfectBuddha, glorious conqueror, Shakyamuni Buddha, to you I pay homage! Toyou I make offerings! In you I take refuge!
Then, as a means of invoking his wisdom mind, recite as many times as you can thefollowing dharani, which is taught in the abridged Prajnaparamita: tadyatha om mune mune mahamunaye svaha
Then recite, as many times as possible, the same mantra from om onwards: om mune mune mahamunaye svaha
During all this, bring to mind the Buddha’s qualities and, with a mind full of devotion,concentrate one-pointedly on the clear visualization of his form. Then, through the power of uttering the names of the Buddha and reciting his dharani, imagine that:
From the Buddha’s body there emanates a great radiance, of multi-colouredrays of wisdom light, dispelling all our own and others’ obscurations,And causing all the genuine qualities of the Mahayana path to arise withinus, so that we
attain the level of perfection from which we will never returnagain to samsara.
Diligently apply yourself to this practice, as much as you can.In between sessions, practice mandala offering, and recite, to the best of your ability,whichever sutras you prefer, such as the Praises of the Buddha, White Lotus of Compassion, Lalitavistara, Jataka Tales, or The One Hundred and Eight Names of theTathagatas. Dedicate your sources of virtue towards unsurpassable awakening and recite prayers of aspiration.In general, whatever you are doing, whether it is moving, walking, sleeping or sitting,you should constantly remember the Buddha. Even at night, when you go to sleep,consider that the radiance of the Buddha’s form illuminates the whole of space inevery direction, lighting it up as
brightly as during the day. At all times, emulate the buddha’s actions from the moment he first generated themind of awakening, and follow the example of the buddhas and great bodhisattvas of the past, present and future. Maintaining
your commitment to precious bodhichitta,without ever allowing it to waver, exert yourself as much as possible in thebodhisattvas’ conduct in general, and in the practices of shamatha and vipashyana in particular, so as to make meaningful the freedoms and advantages of this humanexistence.It is said in several sutras that merely hearing the name of our teacher, the Buddha,ensures that one will gradually progress along the path to great enlightenment,without ever falling
back. It is also said that the dharani revealed above is the sourceof all the buddhas. It was through the force of discovering this dharani that the Kingof Shakyas himself attained enlightenment, and that Avalokiteshvara became thesupreme of all the bodhisattvas. Through simply hearing this dharani, a vast accumulation of merit will easily be gained and all karmic obscurations will be purified,and when reciting it, obstacles will not occur. This has been taught in the abridged Prajnaparamita.
Other teachings say that by reciting this dharani only once, all the harmful actionsyou have committed throughout 800,000 kalpas will be purified. They say that it possesses boundless qualities such as these, and is the sacred heart-
essence of Buddha Shakyamuni.The way to generate faith and exert oneself in the practices of shamatha and vipashyana are explained elsewhere.The intention to compose this text first arose due to the persistent encouragement of Ön Orgyen Tenzin Norbu, who is a holder of the treasury of threefold training, and who accompanied his request with the offering of auspicious substances. Morerecently, the same Ön Rinpoche sent Tulku Jikmé Pema Dechen, with gifts of gold and other auspicious substances, saying, “Please finish it quickly.” At the urging of thesetwo great masters, I, Mipham Jamyang Gyatso, a follower of Shakyamuni, who hasunshakeable faith in the supreme teacher and is a Dharma teacher in name only during this
final age, composed this at Phuntsok Norbüi Ling at the foot of Mount DzaDorje Penchuk. It was completed on the eighth day of the Month of Miracles in theIron Rat year.May this benefit the teachings and beings continuously, without interruption, on amarvellous scale, and may all who see, hear, think of, or come into contact with it inany way, truly receive the incomparable blessings of our teacher, the Lord of Sages.
| Translated by Rigpa Translations, with reference to existing versions by TulkuThondup Rinpoche and the Padmakara Translation Group
