The Guru Puja

Lama Chopa

Preliminaries

(1) Within a state of great bliss, I am a guru-yidam. From my body, arisen clearly in this state, a profusion of light-rays radiates to the ten directions, highlighting the glory of the environment and the beings therein. All become perfectly arrayed with only excellent qualities, infinitely pure.

(2) Out of a lustrously positive, vast state of mind, I and all beings, my mothers, throughout space, from now till enlightenment, take safe direction from the gurus and the Three Supreme Gems.

(3) Namo gurubhyah, namo buddhaya, namo dharmaya, namo sanghaya. [3x]

(4) For the sake of all beings, my mothers, I transform into a guru-yidam, and thus shall secure all limited beings in a guru-yidam's supreme state. [3x]

(5) For the sake of all beings, my mothers, I shall quickly, quickly, in this very life, manifest the high state of a primordial Buddha-guru-yidam.

(6) I shall liberate all beings, my mothers, from suffering and secure them in the stage of a Buddha's great bliss. To this end, I now shall practice the profound path of guru-yidam yoga. [Repeat verses 5 and 6 three times.]

(7) OM AH HUM. [3x]

(8) Clouds of outer, inner, and hidden offerings, fearsome items and objects to bond us closely spread out beyond the range of thought, pervading the reaches of space, the earth, and the sky. In essence, they are deep awareness, in aspect, inner offerings and offering items; the function of each, as objects enjoyed by the six sensors, is to enhance a special deep awareness of bliss and voidness.

Visualization

(9) In the vast heavens of inseparable bliss and voidness, amidst billowing clouds of Samantabhadra offerings, at the crest of a wish-granting tree, embellished with leaves, flowers, and fruit, is a lion-throne, ablaze with precious gems, with cushions of lotus, sun, and full moon.

(10) Upon them, sits my root guru, kind in three ways, in essence, all Buddhas, in aspect, a saffron-robed monk, with one face, two arms, and a radiant white smile. Your right hand is in the gesture of expounding the Dharma, your left in meditation pose cradles an alms bowl brimming with nectar. You are draped with three robes of lustrous saffron and your head is graced by a pandit's gold-colored hat.

(11) In your heart sits a Vajradhara, ruler of the all-pervasive, with a blue-colored body, one face, and two arms, holding vajra and bell, and embracing Vajradhatu-ishvari: they delight in the play of co-arising bliss and voidness, are adorned with jewel ornaments of many designs, and arrayed with garments of heavenly silk.

(12) Emblazoned with the signs and exemplary features of a Buddha, you yourself are radiant with thousands of light-rays, sitting in the vajra-position, enhaloed by a five-colored rainbow. Totally pure, your aggregate factors are the five Blissfully Gone Buddhas; your four elements, the four mothers; the stimulators of your senses, your channels, sinews, and joints are the actual bodhisattvas. The hairs of your pores are the twenty-one thousand arhats; your limbs, the furious powerful ones; your light-rays are directional protectors, and yaksha and guhyaka guardians of wealth; while worldly gods could be cushions for your feet.

(13) Surrounding you in successive rings is an encircling sea of my actual and lineage gurus, yidams with hosts of mandala figures, Buddhas, bodhisattvas, viras, dakinis, and protectors of the teachings.

(14) The three gateways of each are marked with three vajras. From the syllable HUM, hooked light-rays invite deep awareness beings from their natural abodes to merge inseparably and make them secured.

(15) You who are the sources of goodness, bliss, and perfection throughout the three times, o root and lineage gurus, yidams, Three Supreme Gems, viras, dakinis, and Dharma protectors with legions of guards, by the power of compassion, come forth and stay fast.

(16) Although everything is free of true coming and going, still you possess the enlightening activity of omniscience and affection to arise in whatever manners accord with the thoughts of varying disciples who wish to be tamed. Hallowed guardians for safe direction, come forth with your entourage.

(17) OM GURU BUDDHA BODHISATTVA DHARMAPALA SAPARIWARA E-HYE-HIH. JAH HUM BAM HOH – the awareness and bonding beings become nondual.

Prostration

(18) With compassion, in the sphere of great bliss, you direct us even to a state of Three Buddha-Bodies in this very instant, as gurus with jewel-like bodies. Holders of the Vajras, we prostrate at your lotus-feet.

(19) With deep awareness of all the infinite Triumphant, you impart, with supreme skillful means, whatever will tame, as portrayers of a dance of those clad in saffron. Hallowed guardians for safe direction, we prostrate at your feet.

(20) Your states of all faults and their habits extracted, and your treasures of fathomless jewel-like qualities are the sole gateways to benefit and bliss, barring none. Ennobling, impeccable gurus, we prostrate at your feet.

(21) You are actual examples of all the Buddhas, spiritual teachers of even the gods, sources of eighty-four thousand pure Dharmas; you tower in the midst of all hosts of aryas. kindly gurus, we prostrate to you.

(22) With belief in these facts and with firm conviction, with an ocean of lyric praise, and with emanated bodies as numerous as the atoms of the world, we offer prostration to you gurus of three times, dwelling in the ten directions, to the Three Supreme Gems, and all worthy of homage.

Offerings

(23) Guardians for safe direction, ennobling, impeccable gurus, together with entourage, we present you with oceans of clouds of various offerings.

(24) From expansive, well-fashioned vessels, radiant and precious, four streams of purifying nectars gently flow forth.

(25) Blossoms from trees, loose and exquisitely strung in garlands, and beautiful flowers fill the earth and the sky.

(26) Blue monsoon clouds of the beryl-like smoke of fragrant incense billow up to the highways of the gods.

(27) A feast of light from suns and moons, glittering gems, and scores of flaming lamps frolic, dispelling the darkness of a thousand, a million, a billion worlds.

(28) Vast seas of scented waters imbued with the fragrance of saffron, sandalwood, and camphor swirl out to the horizons.

(29) Delicacies of gods and humans, beverages, savories, and feasts with ingredients of a hundred flavors amass a Mount Meru.

(30) Music from an endless variety of instruments blends into a symphony and fills the three realms.

(31) Goddesses of outer and inner desirable objects, holding symbols of sights and sounds, fragrances, tastes, and physical sensations pervade all directions.

(32) Mount Meru and four island-worlds a billion times over, the precious seven royal fixtures, the precious royal trappings, and more, perfectly delightful environments and those dwelling within, enhancing happiness, and a magnificent treasure of everything desirable that gods and humans enjoy – we present them all, with sincere minds, o guardians for safe direction, treasures of compassion, best of all eminent fields for growing a positive force.

(33) To please you, ennobling, impeccable gurus, we offer these objects actually arrayed and those envisioned as a pleasure grove on the shore of a wish-granting sea. It captivates everyone's minds with fully bloomed lotuses of a thousand petals – offering objects arisen from the lustrous impulses of samsara and nirvana; sparkles everywhere with flowers – the worldly and transworldly constructive deeds of our own and others' three gateways of action; diffuses a myriad fragrances – Samantabhadra offerings; and bears sumptuous fruit – the three trainings, two stages, and five paths.

(34) We offer a libation of China tea the color of saffron, rich in a hundred flavors, with a delicate bouquet, and five hooks, five lamps and so forth purified, transformed, and expanded into a sea of nectar.

(35) We offer even beautiful, voluptuous, illusion-like consorts, a host of messenger dakinis – born from place, from mantra, and simultaneously born – having slender figures, aglow with vibrant youth, and skilled in the sixty-four arts of love.

(36) We offer you the deepest mind of bodhichitta: the great deep awareness of co-arising bliss, free from obstructions, the sphere free from fabrication about everything's nature, which inseparably establishes appearances spontaneously, and is beyond all words, thought, and expression.

(37) We offer a pharmacopoeia of potent medicine to cure the plagues of the four hundred twenty-four disturbing emotions, and ourselves as servants to please you: pray keep us in your service as long as the heavens endure.

The Remaining Five Branches of the Seven-Part Practice

(38) Before the eyes of those having great compassion, we openly admit, with minds of regret, whatever destructive, negative deeds we have done from beginningless time, have caused others to do, or in which we have rejoiced; we vow not to repeat them again.

(39) (Realizing that) everything is free from features of inherent existence and is like a dream, we sincerely rejoice in the lustrous actions that gave rise to whatever comfort and happiness any ordinary being or arya (has enjoyed).

(40) We request a rain of profound and vast Dharma to fall from the myriad billowing clouds of your eminent wisdom and affection to enhance, sustain, and propagate a garden of moon-flowers of benefit and bliss for us infinite beings.

(41) Though your vajra-bodies are subject to neither birth nor death, and are vessels that are kings with the authority of being unified pairs, please abide forever, in keeping with our wishes: do not pass beyond sorrow till samsara's end.

(42) We dedicate the network of lustrous positive force thus created that, as its legacy, we never be parted, in all future lives, from ennobling, impeccable gurus, kind in three ways, and that we may attain the authority of being a Vajradhara unified pair.

Optional: The Nine-Line Migtsema Verse of Tsongkhapa

You are mighty Vajradharas – sources of all actual attainments, Avalokiteshvaras – great treasures of unaimed affection, Manjushris – commanders of flawless wisdom, Vajrapanis – destroyers of all hordes of demonic forces, Losang Dragpas – crown jewels of the erudite masters of the Land of Snows, guru-yidams, incorporating all sources of safe direction, we make you requests with three gateways of respect: inspire us and all others to ripen and set ourselves free. Direct us to the supreme and common actual attainments.

ngödrub künjung tuwang dorjey-chang/ migmey tseway terchen chenray-zi/ drime kyenpay wangpo jampel-yang/ düpung malü jomdzay sangway-dag/ gangchen kaypay tsuggyen lozang-drag/ kyabnay kündü lama lhagpay-lha/ gosum güpay gonay sölwa-deb/ rangzhen minching drölwar jingyi-lab/ chogdang tünmong ngödrub tseldu-söl. [Repeat many times.]

Optional: Guru Name Mantras

(H. H. the Dalai Lama) OM AH GURU VAJRADHARA, VAGINDRA SUMATI, SHASANA-DHARA, SAMUDRA SHRI-BHADRA, SARVA-SIDDHI HUM HUM.

(Tsongkhapa) OM AH GURU VAJRADHARA, SUMATI-KIRTI, SARVA-SIDDHI HUM HUM.

(Shakyamuni) OM MUNI MUNI MAHA-MUNIYE SVAHA.

(Vajradhara) OM VAJRADHARA HUM HUM.

OM AH HUM.

[Repeat many times each.]

Requests

(43) You are sources of excellent qualities and vast oceans of ethical discipline, swelling with a treasure of gems of encyclopedic learning. Wearers of saffron, you are masters who are second Kings of the Sages. Holders of the Elders' Vinaya, we make you requests.

(44) You possess the ten qualities that render you suitable to indicate the path of the Blissfully Gone Buddhas; representatives of all the Triumphant Ones, you are Lords of the Dharma. Mahayana spiritual teachers, we make you requests.

(45) Your three gateways of action are well-tamed; you are highly intelligent, patient, and honest, without guile or pretense, learned in rituals and tantras, endowed with both sets of ten qualities, and skilled in drawing and explaining. Foremost Holders of the Vajras, we make you requests.

(46) To us beings of this degenerate age, unfit to be tamed by the countless Buddhas of the past and difficult to curb, you show, as it is, the excellent path of the Blissfully Gone Buddhas. Compassionate guardians for safe direction, we make you requests.

(47) The daylight hours of the Sage's sun have set and now you enact the Triumphant Ones' deeds for us wandering masses bereft of guardians or a safe direction. Compassionate guardians for safe direction, we make you requests.

(48) Even a single hair from your pores is for us a field for growing positive force more highly praised than all the Triumphant of the three times and the ten directions. Compassionate guardians for safe direction, we make you requests.

(49) From a stunningly beautiful mirage-like lattice of skillful means, the circles that adorn your Three Blissfully Gone Bodies manifest in ordinary forms to lead us who wander. Compassionate guardians for safe direction, we make you requests.

(50) Your aggregates, elements, the stimulators of your senses, and your limbs are in nature the five Buddha-family fathers, mothers, bodhisattvas, and the furious mighty protectors – the very essence of the Three Supreme Gems. Foremost gurus, we make you requests.

(51) Unfolding from the play of omniscient deep awareness, you are the quintessence of ten million mandala cycles, the all-pervading rulers of the hundred Buddha-traits, chief among the Holders of the Vajras. Unified pair First Guardians, we make you requests.

(52) Without obscurations, inseparable from the play of co-arising bliss, the nature of all things, pervading everything in motion and at rest, Samantabhadras free of beginning and end; actual examples of deepest bodhichitta, we make you requests.

Special Requests

(53) You are our gurus; you are our yidams; you are our dakinis and Dharma protectors. From this moment, till our enlightenment, we shall seek safe direction from none other than you. In this life, the bardo, till the end of all rebirths, hook us fast with your compassion. Free us from the fears of samsara and complacent nirvana; direct us to all actual attainments; be our constant companions; and guard against all interference. [3x]

(54) By the force of having thus been requested three times, from the centers of our guru's body, speech, and mind, white, red, and dark blue nectars and rays stream forth one by one and then all together. They dissolve into our own three centers, one by one, and then all together. Thereby, we are purged of our four obstructions, receive the four totally pure empowerments, and attain the Four Buddha-Bodies. By a replica guru happily dissolving into us, we become uplifted and inspired.

[If making a ritual offering feast of tsog, go to verse 55 at the end.]

The Stages of the Path

(84) By the force of having made offerings and having respectfully made you requests, o hallowed, ennobling, impeccable gurus, hallowed best fields for growing a positive force, inspire us to joyfully follow under your care, o guardians and roots of bliss and well-being.

(85) Inspire us to realize that this life of respites and enrichments is found but once, is difficult to obtain, and is easily lost, and thus, undistracted by meaningless affairs of this life, to partake of its essence and make it worthwhile.

(86) Inspire us to become aghast at the searing blaze of suffering in the worse realms, and thus, from the depths of our hearts, to take safe direction from the Three Supreme Gems, readily to strive to avoid any negative behavior, and to strengthen our networks of positive actions in numerous ways.

(87) Inspire us to develop an intense longing to be free from this monstrous ocean of boundless and vicious existence, in which we are violently tossed by waves of disturbing urges and upsetting emotions and are plagued by hordes of sea monsters – the three types of sufferings.

(88) Inspire us to rid ourselves of the minds that view this unbearable dungeon of recurring existence as a pleasure grove, and instead, to partake of the treasures of the threefold training and of the Aryas' jewels, and thereby to hoist the victory banner of liberation.

(89) Inspire us to consider how all these pitiful beings have been our mothers and have raised us in kindness again and again, and thus to develop unaffected compassion like that of a loving mother for her darling child.

(90) Inspire us to increase others' comfort and joy, by thinking that others and we are no different: no one wishes even the slightest suffering, nor is ever content with the happiness he or she has.

(91) Inspire us to see that this chronic disease of self-cherishing is the cause giving rise to our unsought suffering, and thus, begrudging it as what is to blame, to destroy the monstrous demon of selfishness.

(92) Inspire us to see that the mind that cherishes our mothers and would secure them in bliss is the gateway leading to infinite virtues, and thus to cherish these wandering beings more than our lives, even should they loom up as our enemies.

(93) In brief, inspire us to develop the minds that understand the distinctions between the faults of infantile beings slaving for their selfish ends alone and the virtues of the Kings of Sages working solely for the sake of others, and thus, to be able to equalize and exchange our attitudes concerning others and ourselves.

(94) Since cherishing ourselves is the doorway to all torment, while cherishing our mothers is the foundation for everything good, inspire us to make our core practice the yoga of exchanging others for ourselves.

(95) Therefore, compassionate, ennobling, impeccable gurus, inspire us that all the negative forces, obstacles, and sufferings of wandering beings, our mothers, ripen upon us right now, and that we may impart our happiness and positive forces to others and thereby secure all wanderers in bliss. [3x]

(96) Inspire us to see that even if the fruits of our negative actions overwhelm the environment and us dwelling therein, and unwished for sufferings pour down like rain, these serve as causes exhausting the results of our destructive impulses, and thus, to draft all miserable conditions into the path.

(97) In short, inspire us that, through practicing five forces, the quintessence of all Dharma, we may transform whatever appearances arise – be they good or bad – into paths augmenting the two bodhichittas and thus, attune ourselves solely to comfort of mind.

(98) Inspire us that, by the skillful means of the four acts of use, we may adapt to meditation whatever we occasion to meet, and may put into practice the close bonds and trainings of cleansing our attitudes, thus rendering this life of respites and enrichments worthwhile.

(99) Inspire us that, through love and compassion conjoined with the wondrous method of mounting giving and taking upon the breath, and through an exceptional resolve, we may become bodhichitta adepts to rescue beings floundering in the monstrous ocean of recurring existence.

Optional: The Eight Verses of Mind Training

(1) May we always cherish all limited beings by considering how far superior they are to wish-granting gems for actualizing the supreme aim.

(2) Whenever we come into anyone's company, may we regard ourselves less than anyone else and, from the depths of our hearts, value others more highly than we do ourselves.

(3) Whatever we are doing, may we check the flow of our minds, and the moment that conceptions or disturbing emotions arise, since they debilitate ourselves and others, may we confront and avert them with forceful means.

(4) Whenever we see beings instinctively cruel, overpowered by negativities and serious problems, may we cherish them as difficult to find as discovering a treasure of gems.

(5) When others, out of envy, treat us unfairly with scolding, insults, and more, may we accept the loss upon ourselves and offer the victory to others.

(6) Even if someone whom we have helped and from whom we harbor great expectations were to harm us completely unfairly, may we view him or her as a hallowed teacher.

(7) In short, may we offer to all our mothers, both actually and indirectly, whatever will benefit and bring them joy; and may we hiddenly accept on ourselves all our mothers' troubles and woes.

(8) Through a mind untarnished by stains of conceptions concerning eight passing things, throughout all of this, and that knows all phenomena as an illusion, may we break free from our bondage, without any clinging.

The Stages of the Path (continued)

(100) Inspire us to tame our mind-streams with pure bodhisattva vows, the single path journeyed by all the Triumphant of the three times and to exert ourselves readily in the practice of the three Mahayana ethical disciplines.

(101) Inspire us to perfect far-reaching generosity through the guideline instructions for enhancing the mind that gives freely, without attachment, namely transforming our bodies, wealth, and the networks of our constructive actions of the three times into the objects desired by each limited being.

(102) Inspire us to perfect the far-reaching ethical disciplines not to transgress the bounds prescribed by the pratimoksha, bodhisattva, or tantric vows – even at the cost of our lives – to build up constructive actions, and to work for the sake of limited beings.

(103) Inspire us to perfect the far-reaching patience that even if all beings in the nine states of rebirth throughout the three realms, barring none, become angry with us, humiliate, criticize, threaten, or even attempt to take our lives, we remain unperturbed, and work for their benefit in response to their harm.

(104) Inspire us to perfect far-reaching joyful perseverance that even if, for the sake of each limited being, we must remain for an ocean of eons in the fires of an Uninterrupted Hell, with compassion, we remain undiscouraged, and strive ever onward for supreme enlightenment.

(105) Inspire us to perfect far-reaching stability of mind – through absorbed concentration rid of the faults of dullness, flightiness, and mental wandering, and totally absorbed, single-pointedly, on the abiding nature of all things – their total absence of true existence.

(106) Inspire us to perfect far-reaching discriminating awareness through the yoga on space-like voidness, which is total absorption on the deepest fact, conjoined with great bliss from a sense of fitness induced by discriminating awareness investigating the particulars of suchness.

(107) Inspire us to perfect absorbed concentration on illusion-like voidness, by realizing how all outer and inner phenomena lack true existence, yet still appear like illusions, dreams, or the moon's image in a clear lake.

(108) Recurring existence and beyond lack even an atom of inherent nature, while cause and effect and dependent arising are never wrong. Inspire us that these two points dawn, not in contradiction, but in total agreement, and thus, that we realize the import of Nagarjuna's thought.

(109) Inspire us to traverse, thereafter, the ocean expanse of the tantra classes through your kindness as our navigators, Vajra-Holders, and to keep the close bonds and vows dearer than our lives: this is the root of the actual attainments.

(110) Inspire us that, through the first-stage yoga of transforming birth, death, and bardo into the Triumphant Three Bodies, we purge all stains of ordinary appearance-making and clinging, so that whatever appears arises as the body of a yidam.

(111) Inspire us that, by setting you, our guardians, with the nails on your feet at the center of the eight petals at our hearts in our central channels, we actualize the path of a unified pair: a clear light mind and illusory body, in this very life.

(112) Inspire us that, if we have not completed the points of the path at the time of our deaths, we pass on to pure lands, either by the drastic means of transference into the guru full state or through the instructions for properly applying the five forces.

(113) In short, inspire us to be cared for inseparably by you, o guardians, throughout all our lives, from one to the next, and thus, to become chiefs among your spiritual offspring, holding every hidden feature of your body, speech, and mind.

(114) O guardians, wherever you manifest Buddhahood, please make everything propitious for us to come among the very first of your circle, thus, spontaneously fulfilling, without any effort, all our provisional and ultimate wishes and needs.

(115) Having made you requests like these, supreme gurus, we further entreat you: to bring inspiration, happily alight on the crowns of our heads and settle once more with the radiant nails on your feet at the corollas of our lotus-hearts.

Dedication

(116) We dedicate the lustrous constructive steps, taken in this way, as causes for fulfilling, without an exception, the deeds and prayers of all Blissfully Gone Buddhas and their spiritual offspring, throughout the three times, and for upholding the hallowed Dharma of the scriptures and their realization.

(117) By that force, may we never be parted, in all our lives, from the Supreme Vehicle's four wheels, and thus, may we reach the end of our journeys on the paths of renunciation, bodhichitta, correct view, and two stages.

Verses for Propitiousness

(118) With whatever positive features there are in the luster of samsara or the peace beyond, may all be propitious for setting ourselves free, here and now, from all inauspiciousness and torment, and thus, for savoring the splendors and glories of a celestial treasure of everything provisionally and ultimately constructive and good.

(119) May all be propitious for the Sage's teachings to endure ever onward through the centers of the Dharma of Losang Dragpa, the omniscient, being filled with hosts of yogis and monastics striving to master, single-pointedly, the three pure trainings.

(120) May all be propitious to receive inspiration from Losang Dragpa, through making requests to the supreme guru-yidam from the time of our youths, and (thereby to attain) a Losang-Vajradhara state, spontaneously accomplishing the welfare of others.

(121) May all be propitious for our sum of enrichments wished for in life to swell like a lake in the monsoon rains, and for our rebirths of respite in faultless families to flow without break, that we may pass day and night with the hallowed Dharma of Losang, and thus savor every splendid and glorious attainment.

(122) By whatever buildup of constructive forces there may be from what all of us have done and shall continue to do from now till enlightenment, may all be propitious for the Bodies of Form of ennobling, impeccable hallowed ones to remain in this land, immutable like vajras.

Optional: The Lam-rim Dedication Prayer

(1) By however much we have built up our two networks as vast as space, from our longtime efforts in this practice, may we become Commanders among the Triumphant Ones, Universal Leaders for wanderers with wisdom-eyes blinded by ignorance.

(2) Even if we do not reach this state, may we follow under the affectionate care of Manjushri, for all our lives, and thus always finding the supreme path in which all the stages of the teachings are complete, may we please the Triumphant Ones with our practice.

(3) With the points of the path as we have understood them, and with skillful means drawn from strong affectionate care, may we clear the darkness from wanderers' minds, so that the Triumphant Ones' teachings are enduringly held.

(4) With our hearts going out with great compassion in whatever direction the precious-most teachings have not yet spread, or once spread have declined, may we reveal this treasure of happiness and aid.

(5) Through these very stages of the path to enlightenment, which have arisen so well through the wondrous influence of the Triumphant and their spiritual offspring, may we direct to glory the minds of those who wish liberation and enduringly further the Triumphant Ones' deeds.

(6) With the help of all human and nonhuman beings who make things conducive and eliminate adversity for practicing the excellent path, may we never be parted, in all of our lifetimes, from the purest path the Triumphant Ones praise.

(7) Whenever we strive to properly practice the ten Dharma actions to support Mahayana, may mighty ones always assist as companions and oceans of propitiousness spread everywhere.

Optional Concluding Verses

May our glorious gurus live long stable lives; may joy and happiness abound as extensively as space; and may we and all others, barring none, be inspired to build up our networks and cleanse away obstacles, and thus quickly become enlightened Buddhas.

In this land surrounded by a ring of snow mountains, may the lotus-feet of Avalokiteshvara, Tenzin-gyatso, the spring for all benefit and joy, remain firmly planted till samsara's end.

Offering a Feast of Tsog

(55) OM AH HUM. [3x]
Clouds of outer, inner, and hidden offerings, fearsome items and objects to bond us closely spread out beyond the range of thought, pervading the reaches of space, the earth, and the sky. In essence, they are deep awareness; in aspect, inner offerings and offering items; the function of each, as objects enjoyed by the six sensors, is to enhance a special deep awareness of bliss and voidness.

(56) E-ma-ho! In the grand play of deep awareness, all lands and regions are vajra-fields; the structures majestic vajra-palaces; oceans of clouds of Samantabhadra offerings billow forth.

(57) The objects of enjoyment possess every glory wished; all dwelling therein are actual viras and virinis; not even the words "impurity" or "flaw" exist: nothing is less than infinitely pure.

(58) HUM – within a state of Dharmakaya in which all fabricating is absolutely still, on top of a turbulent wind and blazing fire, upon the crown of a tripod of three human heads: AH – within a ritual skullcup, OM – the ingredients brilliantly appear one by one.

(59) Standing above them are an OM, AH, and HUM, each sparkling with its brilliant color. The wind becomes turbulent; the fire flares; the ingredients melt. From their boiling, vapors billow copiously forth.

(60) From the triad of syllables, a profusion of light-rays radiates to the ten directions, inviting the three vajras, together with nectars. They dissolve into the respective three syllables, which then melt into nectar and blend with the ingredients, purifying, transforming and expanding them. E-ma-ho! They become an ocean glittering with every glory wished.
OM AH HUM. [3x]

(61) Root and lineage gurus, compassionate in nature, yidams with hosts of deities, sources of safe direction – Three Supreme Gems, viras, dakinis, and Dharma protectors with legions of guards, we invite and request you: please grace with your presence this offering site.

(62) Amidst an ocean of clouds of outer, inner, and hidden offerings, on this elegant throne fashioned from precious gems, firmly plant your radiant feet and direct us, who strive for supreme attainment, to every actual attainment we might wish.

(63) Ho! This ocean of an offering feast of untainted nectars made glorious by samadhi, mantra, and mudra, we offer to please you hosts of root and lineage gurus. OM AH HUM. Having served you to contentment with an array of everything glorious anyone might wish, e-ma-ho! We request you, please, let a bounteous rain of inspiration pour down.

(64) Ho! This ocean of an offering feast of untainted nectars made glorious by samadhi, mantra, and mudra, we offer to please you hosts of yidam deities with your entourage. OM AH HUM. Having served you to contentment with an array of everything glorious anyone might wish, e-ma-ho! We request you, please, let a bounteous rain of actual attainments pour down.

(65) Ho! This ocean of an offering feast of untainted nectars made glorious by samadhi, mantra, and mudra, we offer to please you hosts of precious Supreme Gems. OM AH HUM. Having served you to contentment with an array of everything glorious anyone might wish, e-ma-ho! We request you, please, let a bounteous rain of hallowed Dharma pour down.

(66) Ho! This ocean of an offering feast of untainted nectars made glorious by samadhi, mantra, and mudra, we offer to please you hosts of dakinis and Dharma protectors. OM AH HUM. Having served you to contentment with an array of everything glorious anyone might wish, e-ma-ho! We request you, please, let a bounteous rain of enlightening influence pour down.

(67) Ho! This ocean of an offering feast of untainted nectars made glorious by samadhi, mantra, and mudra, we offer to please you masses of limited beings, our mothers. OM AH HUM. Having served you to contentment with an array of everything glorious anyone might wish, e-ma-ho! May you stop projecting deceptive appearances and thus end your sufferings.

[Hold up the feast of tsog before the spiritual master.]

(68) E-ma-ho – a lavish ritual feast! Knowing that in the footsteps tread by the Blissfully Gone Buddhas of the three times, you stand as the source of all actual attainments, we invite you now, great heroic vira, having shed all minds of conceptual thought, continually enjoy our ritual feast. Alala-ho!

[Accepting the feast of tsog, the master chants:]

(69) OM – with a nature of three inseparable vajras, I have arisen clearly as a guru-yidam. AH – this nectar of untainted deep awareness, HUM – without straying from a bodhichitta mind, I taste with delight, to serve to contentment, the deities located within my body. A-ho maha sukha! [Taste the feast of tsog.]

The Song to Move the Dakinis' Hearts

[Added, especially when practicing mother tantra.]

(70) HUM – all Blissfully Gone Buddhas, all viras, yoginis, dakas, and dakinis, we make you requests: as Herukas, delighting in blissful awareness supreme, who treat with respect yoginis bursting with joy, may we enter in union with co-arising bliss by experiencing pleasure according to the rites. Alala-lala-ho, a-i-ah, arali-ho, hosts of flawless dakinis, gaze with affection and bestow all enlightening effects.

(71) HUM – all Blissfully Gone Buddhas, all viras, yoginis, dakas, and dakinis, we make you requests: sporting in the lotuses of sealing consorts – minds enlivened by magnificent bliss, bodies swaying in a graceful dance – may we offer great bliss to you yogini hosts. Alala-lala-ho, a-i-ah, arali-ho, hosts of flawless dakinis, gaze with affection and bestow all enlightening effects.

(72) HUM – all Blissfully Gone Buddhas, all viras, yoginis, dakas, and dakinis, we make you requests: may yoginis dancing in gentle, elegant modes, guardians to full joy, with hosts of dakinis, alight before us, grant inspiration, and direct us to co-arising bliss. Alala-lala-ho, a-i-ah, arali-ho, hosts of flawless dakinis, gaze with affection and bestow all enlightening effects.

(73) HUM – all Blissfully Gone Buddhas, all viras, yoginis, dakas, and dakinis, we make you requests: great bliss, bearing freedom as your defining mark; great bliss, lacking which, a marathon of ascetic practice cannot bring liberation in this life – great bliss, may we savor you at your seat: in the corolla of a supreme lotus. Alala-lala-ho, a-i-ah, arali-ho, hosts of flawless dakinis, gaze with affection and bestow all enlightening effects.

(74) HUM – all Blissfully Gone Buddhas, all viras, yoginis, dakas, and dakinis, we make you requests: like a lotus sprung forth in a swamp of mud, the bliss of the lotus of yoginis supreme though born from desire, never is tainted by desire's faults. Through such bliss, may we too burst free from the bonds of samsaric existence. Alala-lala-ho, a-i-ah, arali-ho, hosts of flawless dakinis, gaze with affection and bestow all enlightening effects.

(75) HUM – all Blissfully Gone Buddhas, all viras, yoginis, dakas, and dakinis, we make you requests: like a swarm of bees from all sides sipping the essence of honey from its flowering source, may we taste to contentment the enrapturing essence of a fully bloomed lotus endowed with six qualities. Alala-lala-ho, a-i-ah, arali-ho, hosts of flawless dakinis, gaze with affection and bestow all enlightening effects.

[Optional: Additional Verses to the Song]

HUM – all Blissfully Gone Buddhas, all viras, yoginis, dakas, and dakinis, we make you requests: to practice correctly, may the viras and yoginis of unhampered might of our southern island's sacred twenty-four sites, with their circles, always assist us and not keep apart. Alala-lala-ho, a-i-ah, arali-ho, hosts of flawless dakinis, gaze with affection and bestow all enlightening effects.

HUM – all Blissfully Gone Buddhas, all viras, yoginis, dakas, and dakinis, we make you requests: please inspire the spiritual guardians who reveal the excellent path like this and the companions who practice along it correctly to plant their feet firmly to live long lives, and inspire us too to pacify fully the hordes of outer and inner hindrance. Alala-lala-ho, a-i-ah, arali-ho, hosts of flawless dakinis, gaze with affection and bestow all enlightening effects.

HUM – all Blissfully Gone Buddhas, all viras, yoginis, dakas, and dakinis, we make you requests: may we never be parted from perfect gurus in all our lives; may we joyfully experience the glories of Dharma; may we gain in full the qualities of the paths and stages, and thus attain quickly a Vajradhara state. Alala-lala-ho, a-i-ah, arali-ho, hosts of flawless dakinis, gaze with affection and bestow all enlightening effects.

Offering a Portion of Leftover Tsog for the Local Area Protectors Who Are Elemental Spirits

(76) HUM – the making of impure deceptive appearances is purified away in the sphere of reality; AH – this magnificent nectar fashioned from deep awareness, OM – becomes a vast ocean of everything wished. OM AH HUM. [3x]

(77) Ho! This ocean of leftover offering feast of untainted nectars made glorious by samadhi, mantra, and mudra, we offer to please you legions of local area protectors bound by oath. OM AH HUM. Having served you to contentment with an array of everything glorious anyone might wish, e-ma-ho! we request you, please, help the yogis' enlightening influence work as it should.

[Take the offering for the regional guardians outside.]

(78) Ho! By offering this ocean of leftovers from the ritual feast to you remaining guests and your crowd, may the precious teachings flourish; may the upholders of the teachings, the offering patrons, with their circle,

(79) And especially we yogis gain freedom from sickness, long lives, glory, fame, good fortune, and bounteous wealth.

(80) Open the way to our actual attainment of enlightening effects such as stilling and increasing. Oath-bound ones, protect and help us to meet the karmic price for all actual attainments.

(81) Exterminate untimely death, diseases, demons, and obstructing ghosts. Make nightmares, ill omens, and disasters all become extinct.

(82) May worldly happiness, crops, and harvests abound; may the Dharma thrive; all goodness and joy come about; and every wish in our minds be fulfilled.

[Optional Additional Verse:]

(83) When, by the force of this bountiful giving, we become Buddhas, automatically arising for wanderers' sake, may we free by our generosity the masses of beings untamed by the Triumphant of old.

[To conclude, return to verse 84, The Graded Path.]

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