༄༅།། ཨེ་མ་ཧོའི་རིག་མཛོད།

The Excellent Path to Omniscience: The Dzogchen Preliminary Practice of Longchen Nyingtik

1. ↑ Jikme Trinle Özer pays homage to his master Rigdzin Jikme Lingpa, employing another of his names—Khyentse Özer—which means ‘light rays of knowledge and love.’
2. ↑ In the speech cakra is the letter hrīḥ, from which a red eight-petalled lotus appears, its roots in the throat, its petals in the mouth. The front petal forms the tongue, which has become the wisdom of discernment of Buddha Amitābha. The three spoked vajra symbolizes the mind of all the buddhas, the red light the buddhas of the five families.
3. ↑ The mantras are set anti-clockwise in concentric circles within the ‘belly’ of the vajra. Innermost are the vowels which are red; in the middle the consonants which are white; and on the outside the mantra of the Essence of Interdependent Origination which is blue.
4. ↑ At the end of the Rays of light appear thousands of offering goddesses making offerings to all the buddhas, bodhisattvas and buddha realms.
5. ↑ This verse is taken from the Bodhicaryāvatāra, I, 4.
6. ↑ This verse is taken from the Lalitavistara Sūtra.
7. ↑ This verse is taken from the Rājāvavādaka Sūtra.
8. ↑ This verse is taken from the Lalitavistara Sūtra.
9. ↑ External, internal and specific obscurations. See The Words of My Perfect Teacher (revised ed.), pp. 72-3.
10. ↑ Or miserliness. ‘Because of attachment, being incapable of enjoying one’s own possessions and other material objects, clinging to them and being unwilling to part with them or share them with others. It is one of the twenty secondary negative emotions.’
11. ↑ The headings in this section have been adapted from the commentary by Lobpön Thegchok.
12. ↑ The eight samsaric dharmas, or worldly concerns, are where all one’s actions are governed by: hope for happiness and fear of suffering, hope for fame and fear of insignificance, hope for praise and fear of blame, hope for gain and fear of loss; basically attachment and aversion.
13. ↑ Literally, like a cascade of camphor.
14. ↑ While in Sanskrit, the source language of the word, 'vajra' consists of two syllables, in Tibetan the transliterated 'badzra' is written together, without the dot that usually separates individual syllables, and is therefore counted as only one written "syllable".
15. ↑ Literally, ‘A third-order thousand world system’. See Myriad Worlds, Jamgön Kongtrul Lodro Thaye, Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 1995, pp. 102-3.
16. ↑ The seven jewels of royal power (རྒྱལ་སྲིད་རིན་ཆེན་སྣ་བདུན་ Skt. saptaratna), the attributes of the universal monarch (Cakravartin) are: i) the precious golden wheel, ii) the precious wish-fulfilling jewel, iii) the precious queen, iv) the precious minister, v) the precious elephant, vi) the precious horse, and vii) the precious general (or householder). See Buddhist Symbols, Dagyab Rinpoche, Boston: Wisdom, 1995, pp. 65-83.
17. ↑ The five certainties or perfections are the certain or perfect: teacher, teaching, place, disciples and time.
18. ↑ Skt. devaputra.
19. ↑ Skt. kleśas.
20. ↑ The skandhas.
21. ↑ Also, by offering to the ḍākinīs and protectors, obscurations and obstacles are removed, and all good wishes and activity enhanced.
22. ↑ The seven branches serve as antidotes. Prostration is the antidote to pride; offering is the antidote to attachment, greed, meanness and poverty; confession is the antidote to aggression and anger; rejoicing is the antidote to envy and jealousy; requesting the turning of the Wheel of Dharma is the antidote to ignorance; requesting the buddhas and teachers to remain is an antidote to wrong views; and dedication is an antidote to uncertainty and doubts
23. ↑ Literally, ‘For the three kinds of beings to be tamed’. This line was later composed and added by Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo. ‘The three kinds’ of capacity, ability or receptivity can refer to: śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas and bodhisattvas, or the three scopes or kinds of individuals. Gyalse Shenpen Thaye added an alternative version for this line: གདུལ་བྱའི་ཁམས་དབང་བསམ་པ་བཞིན།, duljé kham wang sampa shyin, 'According to the capacities, faculties and mentalities of different beings.'
24. ↑ The following verses were added in later times to document the specific continuation of this lineage. They can differ reflecting other lineage transmissions. See Tulku Thondup: Masters of Meditation and Miracles, p. 333 for lineage trees of the Longchen Nyingtik up to present days.
25. ↑ Adzom Drukpa, (1842-1924)
26. ↑ Liberation through: seeing cakras, hearing mantras and dhāraṇīs, tasting nectar, touching the mudrā and remembering the phowa.
27. ↑ The five pure realms are: Ngönpar Gawa (Vajra-East), Paldangdenpa (Ratna-South), Pema Tsekpa (Padma-West), Lerab Drubpa (Karma-North), and Meri Barwa (Buddha-Centre).
28. ↑ Guru Rinpoche, identical to our own teacher.
29. ↑ Skt. nāḍī
30. ↑ Also translated as ‘vidyādhara with residue’.
31. ↑ Skt. prāṇa
32. ↑ The ground of all or universal ground: ཀུན་གཞི་ (Tib.), ālaya (Skt.). Tulku Thondup, in Enlightened Journey, Boston: Shambhala, 1995, p.207, writes, ‘the karma of the universal ground is the karma that is stored in the universal ground or according to Khenpo Ngagchung, it is the karmas created by the consciousness of the universal ground, which has dualistic concepts (an intellectual obscuration) with traces.’
33. ↑ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche says: ‘Through the blessing of the Guru, our body, speech and mind and the Guru’s enlightened body, speech and mind will become indistinguishably one. Here, we simply remain in equipoise, within the state of emptiness and pure awareness.’ According to Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö, if we cannot rest fully in that state at this point, we can recite the Vajra Guru mantra.
34. ↑ This verse is from Nāgārjuna’s Sixty Stanzas of Reasoning (Yuktiṣaṣṭikākārika in Sanskrit). The following verse comes from the Avataṃsaka Sūtra.
35. ↑ These two famous verses come from Samantabhadra’s Aspiration to Good Actions—the King of Aspiration Prayers, the Ārya Bhadrā Carya Praṇidhāna Rāja, which is the final part of the Gaṇḍavyūha Sūtra, the last section of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra.
36. ↑ The seven qualities of birth in higher realms are: long life, freedom from ill-health, a beautiful form, good fortune, high birth, great riches, and great wisdom. This final prayer is by Longchen Rabjam.