“Abandoning bliss will not liberate
Blissless struggle does not liberate
That bliss abides in the lotus [lit. centre of birth].
Do not change the desirous objects, you
Liberate them with great bliss.
With the taste of the ecstatic lotus
Be satiated like a bee.”
—words from the Blissful Taste of the Yogini’s Lotus
“The Kagyu tradition is said to be the most stubborn and honest in following its heritage. We take delight in our heritage. Doubt, challenge, hesitation-in brief, any form of second thoughts-are notregarded as obstacles, but rather as fuel to push us further and cause our devotion and heartfelt longing to blaze, to increase our intense desire to’ follow the example of our forefathers. So we, as Kagyus, have thrived on the transmissions of our forefathers, and sustained and nourished ourselves in reading and reciting their vajra songs along with their life stories.”
“These songs should not be regarded as ordinary poetry, as a purely literary endeavor. They are the insight of our forefathers, conceived, described, and proclaimed. The reason we refer to them as songs is because they are based on the melody of circumstance, and on meditative experience. They are cosmic onomatopoeia, the best expression of sanity. Traditionally they are known as vajra dohas.”
—Chogyam Trungpa in his foreword to Rain of Wisdom: Ocean of Kagyu Songs
Today for Ḍākinī Eve (or Day depending where you are), I offer a new translation of some verses regularly recited in Karma Kagyu texts and sadhanas (such as Chakrasamvara and Vajrvarahi), as well as during the performance of the Kagyu songs in the Kagyu Gurtso – The Rain of Wisdom -Ocean of Kagyu Vajra Songs, some of which were recently chanted on the final day of the Kagyu Winter Debate at Bokar Monastery Shedra, India. I wrote about this Kagyu Gurtso collection before in relation to one of the songs ‘A Canopy of Fresh Flowers’ composed by the 15th Karmapa, Khakyab Dorje about the 1st Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche, see here.
As the 17th Karmapa explained on the last Day (5) of his teachings for the Kagyu Guncho:
“There is a longer and shorter way to recite the songs. There is a framework laid out by the 8th Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje, on how to recite the songs depending on the amount of time there is. So one can add whichever and however many songs one wishes based around the time. In any case, we will do the songs of Marpa, Milarepa and Gampopa.
I was able to watch some of the songs performed live online. One song struck me in particular, about the blissful play and taste of the yogini’s lotus. I made a mental note to translate and publish it on Ḍākinī Day this month. While doing so, I was also filled with a deep, resonating and pulsating lotus bliss. Hopefully that energy has transferred into the translation! A LA LA LA LA LA HO! For more on the role of erotic bliss in tantra and Vajrayana, see here.
Music? Songs from the Kagyu Gurtso (Rain of Wisdom) recorded at Zurmang Dutsi Til monastery in eastern Tibet in 2010. For the ‘untraditional’ sweet, blissful lotus, Downtown by SWV; Love to Love You by Donna Summer; A Taste of Honey by The Beatles. For Adults only How Many Licks by Lil’Kim and Pussy Monster by Lil Wayne, I better stop there before I get too carried away with the bliss…..ha ha ha ha, ahhhhh.
Written and compiled by Adele Tomlin, on the Ḍākinī day/night of 15th February 2023.
Blissful taste of the Yogini’s Lotus
བདེ་ཆེན་བདེ་བའི་གར་གྱིས་རོལ།
རྣལ་འབྱོར་མ་མཆོག་པདྨའིབདེ།
ཨ་ལ་ལ་ལ་ལ་ལ་ཧོ། །
Play of blissfully dancing great bliss,
Bliss of the yogini’s supreme lotus
A LA LA LA LA LA HO!
དགྱེས་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་བདེ་བའི་མཆོག །
རྣལ་འབྱོར་མ་མཆོག་མཆོདཔར་བརྗོད། །
ཨ་ཨི་ཨ་ཨཱ་རལླི་ཧོ།
Cries of the yogini’s supreme offering of the
Supreme bliss of the ecstatic ones
A I A AH RALI HO
རབ་དགྱེས་མགོན་པོ་དགྱེས་བཞུགས་མཛོད། །
མཁའ་འགྲོ་དྲྭ་བའི་བདེ་བ་གསོལ། །
དགྱེས་པའི་བདེ་བ་གསོལ་བར་མཛོད། །
Extremely ecstatic protector, abiding in ecstasy,
Take the bliss of the dakini’s net.
Take the bliss of the ecstatic one.
ཞི་བའི་གར་གྱི་གར་མཛད་པ། །
བདག་ལ་བདེ་ཆེན་བདེ་བ་སྩོལ། །
ཐར་པའི་མཚན་ཉིད་ལྡནཔ་ཁྱོད། །
ཨ་ལ་ལ་ལ་ལ་ལ་ཧོ། །
Dancers of the pacifying dance
Give me the blissful great bliss!
You who possess the quality of freedom
A LA LA LA LA LA HO!
བདེ་བསྤངས་པས་གྲོའ་མི་འགྱུར། །
བདེ་མེད་སྡུག་བསྔལ་གྱིས་མི་གྲོལ། །
བདེ་དེ་སྐྱེས་དབུས་ན་གནས། །
ཆགས་པའི་དངོས་པོ་ཁྱོད་མ་སྦྱར།
བདེ་བ་ཚེ་ཡིས་གྲོལ་བར་མཛོད།
པདྨ་དགྱེསཔ་འཉིད་ཀྱིས། །
བུང་བ་ལྟ་བུར་ཚིམ་པར་མཛོད། །
Abandoning bliss will not liberate,
Blissless struggle does not liberate,
That bliss abides in the lotus [lit. centre of birth].
You, do not change the desirous objects, but
Liberate them with great bliss!
With the taste of the ecstatic lotus
Be satiated like a bee!
བདེ་བ་ཕུན་ཚོགས་ཡང་དག་ལྡན། །
ནད་མེད་དགེ་བའི་སེམས་དང་ནི། །
འདོད་དང་ཐརསོགས་ཡང་དག་ཐོབ། །
ཕུནསུམ་ཚོགས་པ་འགྲུབ་གྱུར་ཅིག། |
May we perfectly possess abundant bliss!
Without sickness and a virtuous mind.
May we perfectly attain our desires and freedom, and
Accomplish auspicious abundance!
Translated by Adele Tomlin on 15th February (Dakini Day) while in a state of ecstatic lotus bliss.
Note: I have kept the repetition of the Tibetan words in the English translation such as supreme (chog), ecstasy (gyepa) and bliss (dewa).
BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE CONTENTS OF THE OCEAN OF KAGYU SONGS (KAGYU GURTSO)
The Ocean of Kagyu Songs has several extant Tibetan editions online. The contents of the first translated edition produced by Chogyam Trungpa RInpoche and the Nalanda Translation Committee is here below. Interestingly it starts with the songs of the 8th Karmapa, Mikyo Dorje. The songs of the earlier Kagyu forefathers, such as Tilopa, Naropa, Milarepa and Gampopa come later in the book.
Recently, I also reviewed the new book by Charles Manson on the life and liberation of 2nd Karmapa, Karma Pakshi. In this book, Manson translates several songs by the 2nd Karmapa. In fact, tomorrow the Shangshung Institute UK will host an event about the book focusing on the songs of Karma Pakshi. However, the songs of Karma Pakshi are not included in the Gurtso (Ocean of Songs) collection.
THE FIRST ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE SONGS
In terms of the Kagyu songs in general, the 11th Chogyam Trungpa had this to say in his Introduction to the remarkable book of the Kagyu Vajra Songs, The Rain of Wisdom:
“The sense of dedication and exertion that is expressed in the life examples and songs of our Kagyu forefathers is something one can never forget. The Practice Lineage of the Kagyu tradition inspires one to become fully involved in a heartfelt connection with the teachings. From my childhood until the present day, each time I open The Rain of Wisdom and read a few passages it makes me appreciate the hardships that our forefathers endured for the sake of future generations such as ourselves.
The Kagyu tradition is said to be the most stubborn and honest in following its heritage. We take delight in our heritage. Doubt, challenge, hesitation-in brief, any form of second thoughts-are not regarded as obstacles, but rather as fuel to push us further and cause our devotion and heartfelt longing to blaze, to increase our intense desire to’ follow the example of our forefathers. So we, as Kagyus, have thrived on the transmissions of our forefathers, and sustained and nourished ourselves in reading and reciting their vajra songs along with their life stories. As for myself, the older I get, the more of a Kagyu person I become. Aging in this way is wonderful. My thanks and appreciation to the forefathers….
The readers of this book should reflect on the value and wisdom which exist in these songs of the lineage in the following ways. First there are the life examples of our forefathers to inspire our devotion. There are songs which help us understand the cause and effect of karma and so illuminate the path to liberation. There are songs which give instruction in relative bodhicitta, so that we can realize the immediacy of our connection to the dharma. Some are songs of mahamudra and transmit how we can actually join together bliss and emptiness through the profound methods of coemergence, melting, and bliss. Other songs show the realization of Buddha in the palm of our hand.
Needless to say, these songs should be regarded as the best of the butter which has been churned from the ocean of milk of the Buddha’s teachings. Reading these songs or even glancing at a paragraph of this literature always brings timely messages of how to conduct oneself, how to discipline oneself, and how to reach accomplishment. Furthermore, these songs are very pithy and direct. Their wisdom is both old and new. It is old because it is a tradition of twenty-five hundred years; it is new because it directs itself to one’s very moment of mind, at this very second.
These songs should not be regarded as ordinary poetry, as a purely literary endeavor. They are the insight of our forefathers, conceived, described, and proclaimed. The reason we refer to them as songs is because they are based on the melody of circumstance, and on meditative experience. They are cosmic onomatopoeia, the best expression of sanity. Traditionally they are known as vajra dohas. These vajra dohas of the Kagyu forefathers are read annually in the celebration of the parinirvana of Milarepa by a group of students who have accomplished the preliminary discipline of entering into Buddhism, taken the vow of benevolence of the bodhisattva path, and also glimpsed the power of vajrayana, so .that they are not fearful, but further inspired. Students are also advised to read this book for instructions when their life is filled with disruption and uncertainty and neurosis. Even reading only one passage is better than going to a psychiatrist or taking a. dose of aspirin. This is not a myth: from my personal experience these songs do provide a kind of staircase of liberation. They actually enable us to interrupt our perpetual subconscious gossip, awaken ourselves on the path, and energize ourselves so that we can help others….
So to begin with, the lineage songs are genuine and precise. Then, because of their genuineness, we find them powerful and helpful. And because we can follow them easily, insight does not come as an unusual climax; it is simply the natural and obvious clarity of wakefulness. In this way the Kagyu dharma is good and genuine.
We are so privileged to be in the world of the Kagyu dharma. I dedicate this book, The Rain of Wisdom, and its translation to all sentient beings without exception. May they benefit by it-those who oppose the Kagyu dharma of Vajradhatu as well as those who join in. Without exception, anyone who has had the slightest contact with our Kagyu dharma, whether with positive or negative reactions, is bound to become liberated.
HH 16th Gyalwang Karmapa, wrote the foreword to the book (see English and Tibetan below):
Dakini Translations and Publications མཁའ་འགྲོ་མའི་ལོ་ཙཱ་བའི་འགྱུར་དང་འགྲེམས་སྤེལ། 
Great thanks for reminding Kagyu songs and meaningful words of Trungpa Rinpoche !