“The method for attaining Buddhahood in one lifetime is to definitely generate great bliss. In a place of mindfulness, recite: Om Ah Hum Vajra Guru Pema Siddhi Hum. It is said to be liberation upon sight and touch.” –Guru Padmasambhava to Yeshe Tsogyel
ཚེ་གཅིག་ཏུ་སངས་རྒྱས་པའི་ཐབས༔ བདེ་ཆེན་ངེས་པར་སྐྱེ་བ་གཅིག་ཡིན་ནས༔ དྲན་པའི་གནས་སུ༔ ཨཱོྃ་ཨཱཿཧཱུྃབཛྲ་གུ་རུ་པདྨ་སིདྡྷི་ཧཱུྃ༔ ཞེས་བཟླས་ནས༔ མཐོང་གྲོལ་རེག་གྲོལ་ཡིན་གསུངས༔
“Other women merely speak of longing for Dharma
She has faith from the core of the heart!
Other women have faith in ornaments and decoration,
She has longing for the essence of the three times, absent of good and bad.
My reasoning is inferior but determination is huge!” —Yeshe Tsogyel’s song
གཞན་གྱི་བུད་མེད་ཁ་ཡི་ཆོས་མོས་པ༔ ཁོ་མོ་སྙིང་གི་དཀྱིལ་ནས་དད་པ་ཡོད༔ གཞན་གྱི་བུད་མེད་མཆོར་ལ་དད་པ་ཡོད༔ ཁོ་མོ་དུས་གསུམ་ངོ་བོ་བཟང་ངན་མེད་ལ་ མོས༔ རིག་པ་དམན་ནམ་སྙིང་རུས་ཆེ༔
Introduction
Today for Dakini day, I am delighted to share a new translation, and first time ever published with the original Tibetan and phonetics, of four of Yeshe Tsogyel’s songs (Tibetan: Gur) that are contained in her extended life story composed by Jigme Lingpa[i]. My translations of these songs are quite different in some respects from that of Dr. Jue Liang, who does not seem to strictly follow the Tibetan original in terms of sentence order and repetition of the repeating words, and she even adds some words in for meaning/flow (although perhaps that is due to her using the handwritten manuscript and/or editors) [ii]. It is always good to have more than one translation (and analysis of a text/song) so please feel free to compare them! The translation with this introduction is also available as a pdf free download: Songs of Yeshe Tsogyel Translation and Phonetics by Adele Tomlin, or on academia.edu here.
The songs were translated spontaneously (completed and compiled within twenty-four hours) [iii] and are themselves are a joy to read in the original Tibetan, with a meter 8 or 9 syllables per line. One can really feel Tsogyel’s frustration at her ‘meaningless’ family and their lack of purpose, not being able to get Dharma teachings and practice, and how she has so much genuine faith and devotion, whereas other women are only interested in looking ‘glamourous, and worldly and householder things, such as décor, clothing, jewellry, adornments, speaking about devotion only rather than have it authentically within. Tsogyel’s desire to not speak any dishonesty and only truth! A woman I can really admire and relate to!
Also, interestingly, Tsogyel refers to herself (kho-mo: ཁོ་མོ་) in the third person, ‘she/her’ which I see as a sign of her growing detachment from her worldly identity/self, to one of observing! Tsogyel uses the Tibetan word nying-ru (སྙིང་རུས) several times in her songs too, which literally means ‘heart-bone’, and can be translated variously in English as perseverance, resilience, determination, courage, back-bone etc. It is one of those Tibetan terms whose sound gives its meaning, English terms cannot really get it across other than sheer ‘heart-bone’ courage! Tsogyel also uses the term ‘zhelo de’ (ཞེ་བློ་བདེ༔) which can be translated as at ease, or carefree.
On a personal note, as I was finishing this late last night, as it drew towards the midnight hour, while playing the Yeshe Tsogyel mantra, I felt an unmistakable energy and voice descending into my anonymous hotel room. A vision of a wide-eyed, golden skinned, Guru Paldmasambhava’s energy and face, completely covered my mind. Big, bright aware eyes, handsome, smiling, brilliant and kind. Like being in the presence of Shakyamuni Buddha I felt great bliss, and then closed my eyes to see more clearly. I asked “Is it you, Guru Padmasambhava?” to which he replied “Yes it is.” and smiled. I replied smiling with joy and awe saying: “I never thought I would see you.” To which he smiled, an endless smile and I started uncontrollably weeping with joy and awe. He held me in his “embrace” in union with him for a short time. Then the face and energy just vanished. Like Tsogyel, I wanted to hold onto ‘him’ but I was left with a huge smile and longing in my face and heart. And an unforgettable experience. The article/translation had been truly blessed by the Guru! For other research and translations on Yeshe Tsogyel, see here.
I have translated songs of other female masters, such as Milarepa’s students Saley O and Rechungma’s Songs of Fifteen Realisations here. As I did recently with the 16th Karmapa’s Ala-tha-la song (gur). As with liberation-stories (Nam-thar) are not similar to worldly biographies of ordinary beings, the same is true of poetic songs (gur). They are sang by people with great devotion, realisations and merit. They are not like ordinary worldly songs sung by pop stars/celebrities/ordinary people.
As all poets/musicians know the melody, rhythm and tone of a song comes from the words themselves, which is why it can be so difficult to render a poem or song well in another language. A lot is ‘lost in translation’ as they say! As I am a poet myself, I am often surprised at how English translations of songs, are so often done without following the repetition or even tone of the song, and often never published with the original Tibetan. In my renderings of the songs, I have tried as far as possible to follow the repetition, and rhythm of the original Tibetan. However, one thing is also for sure, AI systems cannot translate such songs or poems well at all, the metaphors, idioms etc. are often lost on a robotic computer, and even on human beings sometimes![iv]
Music? Yeshe Tsogyel mantra Om Ah Hum Vajra Guru Jnanasagara Bam Ha Ri Ni Sa Siddhi Hum, He Was Beautiful by Cleo Laine, and Seven Line Prayer of Guru Padmasambhava by Karma Tseten, Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen for that huge Padmasambhava and Tsogyel energy.
Written, compiled and translated by Adele Tomlin, 25th November 2024. Copyright.
SONGS OF YESHE TSOGYEL
SONG ONE: Tsogyel bemoans her unimportant birthplace and meaningless family lineage
In the first song, typical of many women fed up with ordinary, worldly life, a young Tsogyel bemoans her situation, place of birth and meaningless Kharchu lineage.
ཡེ་ཤེས་མཚོ་རྒྱལ་གྱིས་དགོངས་ནས༔ ངས་ཆོས་ལ་མོས་པས་ཆོས་གཅིག་བྱེད་བསམ་ན་ཉིན་དུས་བསམ་པ་ནུབ་དུས་བསམ་ནས་ཆོས་བྱེད་བསམ་ནས་མགུར་འདི་ལྟར་བཞེངས་སོ༔
Yeshe Tsogyel thought: “As I only think about practicing only Dharma and long for Dharma, I will practice Dharma day and night.” She sang this song:
ཨེ་མ་ཧོ༔ གླིང་ཉམས་ཡུལ་ཉམས་སྐྱེས་པ་མི་སྲིད་དོ༔
é maho/ ling nyam yül nyam kyé pa mi si do/
རྩང་སྟོད་མཁར་ཆུ་ཡུལ་ནས་སྐྱེས་སྲིད་པ༔
tsang tö khar chu yül né kyé si pa/
མཁར་ཆུ་བུད་མེད་མཚོ་རྒྱལ་ང་༔
khar chu bümé tsogyel nga/
འདི་ལ་ཐོས་པས་དུས་མེད་གངས་བཅས་པ༔
di la tö pé dü mé gang ché pa/
ཆོས་ཤིག་བྱེད་བསམ་གང་དུ་ཆོས་སྐལ་ཡོད༔
chö shik jé sam gang du chö kel yö/
མི་མོ་ཁོ་མོ་བདག་གིས་ཆོས་ཤིག་བྱས༔
mi mo kho mo dak gi chö shik jé/
དགེ་ལ་མོས་པ་དམ་པའི་ཆོས་བསམ་པ༔
gé la mö pa dam pé chö sam pa/
རིགས་ནི་མ་མཆིས་མཁར་ཆུ་རྒྱུད་པའི་རིགས༔
rik ni ma chi khar chu gyü pé rik/
ལུས་མ་མཆིས་པའི་བུ་མོ་བདག་གི་ལུས༔
lü ma chi pé bu mo dak gi lü/
སྐྱེས་པའི་ལུས་ཡིན་བདག་གིས་ཆོས་བྱེད་དམ༔
kyé pé lü yin dak gi chö jé dam/
Emaho! It is not possible to experience birth in a realm of experience.
In the land of Upper Tsang, Kharchu, it is possible to be born.
I, the girl, Tsogyel of Kharchu,
Here, having heard in the place of endless snow,
Wishing to practice only Dharma, where is the opportunity
For I, a female girl, to practice?
Longing for virtue, I think of the sacred Dharma.
There is no lineage, but the lineage of Kharchu
There is no body, but the body of I, the girl
Being born with this body, can I practice Dharma?
རང་དབང་འཚོ་བའི་བར་སྐབས་དུས་གནས་པ༔
rang wang tsowé bar kap dü né pa/
ལྟ་བའི་མཐུན་འཇུག་གྲོགས་པོའི་གནས་པ་མེད༔
tawé tün juk drok pö né pa mé/
བུ་མོ་བདག་གིས་དམ་ཆོས་བྱེད་བསམ་ནས༔
bu mo dak gi dam chö jé sam né/
སྐབས་ལ་བབ་པ་ཡོད་ན་བདག་གིས་བྱེད༔
kap la bap pa yö na dak gi jé/
Abiding in a time when one has to live independently,
There is no abode of friends with similar views.
I, this girl, think of practicing sacred Dharma.
If the opportunity descends, I will practice.
མཁར་རྒྱུད་འདི་ལ་སྐྱེས་པའི་བཟང་ངམ་ཡོད༔
khar gyü di la kyé pé zang ngam yö/
ཕ་ནི་རྒྱལ་སྲས་མཁར་ཕུབ་མཆིས་པ་མེད༔
pa ni gyel sé khar pup chi pa mé/
མ་ནི་རྩང་ཟ་སྦས་སྒྲོན་དོན་མ་མཆིས༔
ma ni tsang za bé drön dön ma chi/
ནུ་བུ་མཚོ་སྒྲོན་གནས་པ་འཆི་མེད་པ༔
nu bu tso drön né pa chi mé pa/
མིང་པོ་དཔལ་གྱི་དབང་ཕྱུག་དོན་མ་མཆིས༔
ming po pel gyi wang chuk dön ma chi/
In this Khar [castle] lineage, is there any excellence that has been born?
The father has not built any castles (Khar) for his offspring.
The mother is Tsangza Bedron, who has no purpose.
The sister, Tsodron remains immortal,
The brother, Pelgi Wangchug is without purpose.
མཆིས་པའི་སྐབས་ཀྱི་དོན་གོ་ལས་སྔས་པ༔
chi pé kap kyi dön go lé ngé pa/
བུ་མོ་བདག་གིས་ལུས་རྙེད་རབ་དགའ་བ༔
bu mo dak gi lü nyé rap gawa/
ཆོས་གཅིག་མི་བྱེད་བདག་གི་ཕུང་ཁམས་འདི༔
chö chik mi jé dak gi pung kham di/
མི་ལུས་སྟོང་ཟད་བྱེད་པའི་དོན་ཆུང་བ༔
mi lü tong zé jé pé dön chungwa/
ཆོས་གཅིག་བྱས་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན་བགྲང་མི་ནུས༔
chö chik jé pé yön ten drang mi nü/
The most urgent meaning of this situation is
I, this girl am delighted to have found this excellent body!
If I do not practice Dharma only, my aggregates
This human life will become empty and exhausted and with little meaning.
The virtuous qualities of practicing only Dharma are uncountable!”
[Since publishing this someone kindly translated it into simple Chinese:
SONG TWO: Tsogyel’s dream of Padmasambhava and his instructions
The second song in this translation happens after Tsogyel has a dream with Guru Padmasambhava, and sings a song of longing to see his ‘face’, if she is to be his spiritual companion. Here Tsogyel already has the aspiration to be his consort.
Padmasambhava then appears to her in the sky, showing ‘his face’ and asks her why she is calling out to him. Tsogyel then begs him to teach her the Dharma and give her a transmission, which she is hungry/starved for.
བུ་མོ་ནུབ་མོ་རྨི་ལམ་རྨིས་པ་ཉི་མ་དུང་ཤར་སྐར་ཚོགས་མང་པོ་རྒྱས་པ་གཅིག་རྨིས༔ དེ་ནང་པར་ཡེ་ཤེས་མཚོ་རྒྱལ་གྱི་ཞལ་ནས༔ ཨེ་མ་ངས་མདང་རྨི་ལམ་གཅིག་ རྨིས་ནས་དུས་བཟང་བའི་སྐབས་ཅི་ཡིན་ནམ་དྲིས༔ མའི་རྨི་ལམ་རང་རྨིས་པ་དག་པའི་ལས་ཅི་ཡང་མེད་ཟེར༔ ཁོ་མོ་ཉིན་བསྒོམ་ནུབ་བསྒོམ་ནས་ཆོས་གཅིག་བྱེད་བསམ་པའི་མཁར་ཡུལ་ནམ་མཁའ་ནས་བལྟས་ནས་འདི་གསུངས་སོ༔
At night, the girl (Tsogyel) had a dream about the sun rising shaped like a conch shell and many stars spread out. In the morning, Yeshe Tsogyel declared: “Wow, last night’s dream was so auspicious!” “There will be no pure karma from your woman’s dream”. She (Tsogyel) meditated day and night, gazing into space towards the region of Khar, she said:
སྔ་རབས་དྲིན་ཅན་བླ་མ་མེད་པ་ནས༔
nga rab drin chen la ma mé pa né/
ད་ཡང་ཁོ་མོས་བསྒོམ་པས་པདྨ་འབྱུང་༔
da yang kho mö gom pé pema jung/
ནུབ་དུས་རྨིས་བའི་དོན་གོ་གནས་ཀྱི་ཚེ༔
nup dü mi bé dön go né kyi tsé/
ཐུགས་རྗེས་བཟུང་བའི་སྐབས་ནས་ཨེ་མཆིས་སམ༔
tuk jé zungwé kap né é chi sam/
ཆོས་གསུངས་པདྨའི་མདུན་དུ་ཡོད་ན་དགའ༔
chö sung pemé dün du yö na ga/
པི་ཝང་རྒྱུན་ཐག་པདྨའི་གསུང་སྐད་དྲན༔
pi wang gyün tag pemé sung ké dren/
“In previous lives there was no kind lama.
Now, she meditates and there is Padmasambhava (Pema Jung)!
When the meaning of the dream last night remains,
I wonder when I will be held with compassion?
How delightful to be in front of the Dharma teacher, Padma!
Remembering Padma’s voice of the teachings, the lute continues on.
མཚན་མཆོག་ལྡན་པའི་པདྨ་འབྱུང་གནས་དྲན༔
tsen chok denpé pema jungné dren/
གང་ལ་དྲན་ནས་པདྨ་མེད་ཐབས་མེད༔
gang la dren ne pema me thab me/
ཆོས་གཅིག་བྱེད་ན་ཁོ་མོ་ཞེ་བློ་བདེ༔
chö chik jé na kho mo zhé lo dé/
འདི་ལ་ཐོས་ནས་དྲན་པའི་དུས་མཆིས་པ༔
di la tö né dren pé dü chi pa/
པདྨ་མཐོང་བའི་ཞལ་གཅིག་ཨེ་གཟིགས་སམ༔
pema tongwé zhel chik é zik sam/
མ་འོངས་གྲོགས་བྱེད་ཡིན་ན་པདྨའི་ཞལ་གཟིགས་ཤོག༔
ma ong drok jé yin na pemé zhel zik shog/
Remembering the Lotus-born One (Pema-jung), who bears the supreme marks,
Whenever remembering, without Padma, there is no method.
If one does a single practice, her mind is carefree.
Having heard this, comes a time of recollection.
I wonder if Padma sees a single face?
If I will be his future companion, may I see Padma’s face!”
ནམ་མཁའ་ནས་སྤྲིན་འཇའ་གཅིག་ཡོང་ནས་ཁོ་མོ་ཐོག་ནས་ཐོན་པའི་དུས༔ ཨུ་རྒྱན་ནམ་མཁའ་ནས་ཞལ་གཟིགས་ནས༔ རིགས་ཀྱི་བུ་མོ་བདག་ལ་འབོད་པ་ཅི་ཞིག་ཡིན༔ ཁྱོད་ལ་ཅི་བྱུང་ནས་ཐབས་གང་ལ་ཡང་མ་རག་པ༔ ང་ལ་འབོད་ནས་ཅི་བྱེད་དམ༔ ཞེས་གསུངས་པ༔ མཚོ་རྒྱལ་གྱི་ཞལ་ནས༔ བདག་གིས་ཆོས་གཅིག་རབ་བྱེད་བསམ་ནས༔ ཁྱོད་ནས་འབོད་པ༔ ང་ལ་རེག་ཅིང་དགེ་འདོད་པ༔
Having said this, a rainbow appeared in the sky and landed above her head. She saw the face of Ogyenpa (Padmasambhava) in the sky/space, who said: “Daughter of the lineage, why did you call for me? What has happened to you that you have not got any method? Why did you call out for me?” Tsogyel replied: “having thought of thoroughly practicing one single Dharma, I called out to you.”
ང་ལ་རེག་ཅིང་དགེ་འདོད་པ༔
nga la rek ching gé dö pa/
དཔའ་བོ་གཡུལ་ལས་རྒྱལ་གྱུར་པའི༔
pawo yül lé gyel gyur pé/
ཆོས་ལ་མོས་པས་ཁོ་མོ་ཞེ་བློ་བདེ༔
chö la mö pé kho mo zhé lo dé/
ཁྱེད་མཐོང་ཙམ་ནས་བདག་ནི་རབ་གྲོལ་བ༔
khyé thong tsam né dak ni rap drölwa/
བུ་མོ་བདག་གིས་རྟོགས་པས་ཞེ་བློ་བདེ༔
bu mo dak gi tok pé zhé lo dé/
ཆོས་གསུངས་བུ་མོ་བདག་གིས་རབ་རྟོགས་ནས༔
chö sung bu mo dak gi rap tok né/
Touching me, I desire virtue.
Like a victorious hero in battle.
Longing for Dharma, her mind is carefree.
Merely seeing you, I am liberated.
I, the woman due to realization, mind is carefree.
Teaching Dharma, to I, the woman due to excellent realization,
ཁྱེད་ལ་འབོད་པ་བདག་གིས་བཀའ་མ་བདེ༔
khyé la bö pa dak gi ka ma dé/
རིགས་ཤིང་དབུལ་བའི་བདག་ལ་བཀའ་སྩལ་པ༔
rik shing ülwé dak la ka tsel pa/
ཐོས་ནས་དགའ་བའི་བདག་གིས་རིགས་རྟོགས་པ༔
thö né gawé dak gi rik tok pa/
Having called out to you, if I do not obey your command, it will not be well.
Please grant your teachings to me, the impoverished lineage.
Having heard it, I will joyfully realise what is correct.”
པདྨའི་ཞལ་ནས༔ མངོན་སྤྱོད་ལས་ཀྱིས་བཀའ་མི་མཐུན་པའི་ཆོས་མོས་པའི་རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་བསྒྱུར་བའི་ཐབས་ཡིན་ནམ༔ ཅི་བྱེད་པ༔ ཁོ་མོས་ཞུས་པ༔ ཚེ་གཅིག་ཏུ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཐབས་གཅིག་གནང་བར་ཞུ༔ ཨུ་རྒྱན་གྱི་ཞལ་ནས༔ ཚེ་གཅིག་ཏུ་སངས་རྒྱས་པའི་ཐབས༔ བདེ་ཆེན་ངེས་པར་སྐྱེ་བ་གཅིག་ཡིན་ནས༔ དྲན་པའི་གནས་སུ༔ ཨཱོྃ་ཨཱཿཧཱུྃབཛྲ་གུ་རུ་པདྨ་སིདྡྷི་ཧཱུྃ༔ ཞེས་བཟླས་ནས༔ མཐོང་གྲོལ་རེག་གྲོལ་ཡིན་གསུངས༔
“Is this a method for translating Indian texts into languages that do not agree with the Buddha’s teachings? What is being done?”Tsogyel asked. Ogyen replied: “The method for attaining Buddhahood in one lifetime is to definitely generate great bliss. In a place of mindfulness, recite: ཨཱོྃ་ཨཱཿཧཱུྃབཛྲ་གུ་རུ་པདྨ་སིདྡྷི་ཧཱུྃ༔ Om Ah Hum Vajra Guru Pema Siddhi Hum. It is said to be liberation upon sight and touch.”
SONG THREE: A carefree, easy mind
Guru Padmasambhava then disappears from the space, at which Tsogyel sings another song, tormented by her situation, and bemoaning other women who have no interest in Dharma or merit, and why
ཨུ་རྒྱན་ནམ་མཁའ་ནས་ཡལ་ནས༔ མཚོ་རྒྱལ་ཆོས་མང་པོ་ཉན་པར་མ་ཡོང་བ་བསམ་ནས་མགུར་འདི་ལྟར་དུ་བཞེངས་པ༔
After Uḍḍiyāna (Padmasambhava), vanished into space, Tsogyal thinking that many Dharma teachings had not come for her to listen to, this song rose up:
ཀྱེ་མ་མི་རྟག་འཁོར་བའི་ཆོས༔
kyema mitag khorwai chö/
ལས་དབང་ཆེ་བས་ཆོས་མ་བཅས༔
lé wangchewé chö ma ché/
སྣང་བ་རྫུན་པས་ཆོས་མ་ལོབ༔
nangwa dzünpé chö ma lob/
ཆོས་ལ་མོས་པས་ཞེ་བློ་བདེ༔
chöla möpé zhélo dé/
ཁོ་མོ་སྙིང་རུས་ཆེ་བས་ཞེ་བློ་བདེ༔
khomo nyingrü chewé zhélo dé/
བརྩོན་འགྲུས་ཆེ་བས་ཞེ་བློ་བདེ༔
tsöndrü chewé zhélo dé/
བཟོད་དཀའ་ཐར་པས་ཞེ་བློ་བདེ༔
zöka tharpé zhélo dé/
ནན་ཏན་ཆེ་བས་ཞེ་བློ་བདེ༔
nenten chewé zhélo dé/
Alas! impermanent, samsaric phenomena!
Due to the power of massive karma, Dharma was not established.
Due to false appearances, Dharma was not studied.
Due to devotion to the Dharma, mind is carefree.
Due to great courage, mind is carefree.
Due to great diligence, mind is carefree.
Due to liberation from the unbearable, mind is carefree.
Due to great perseverance, mind is carefree.
གཞན་གྱི་བུད་མེད་ཁྱིམ་ཐབ་འདོད༔
zhenkyi bümé khyimthab dö/
ཁོ་མོས་ཁྱིམ་ཐབ་སྤངས་འདོད་ཞེ་བློ་བདེ༔
khomö khyimthab pangdö zhélo dé/
གཞན་གྱི་བུད་མེད་འཕྱོར་འདོད་པས༔
zhenkyi bümé chor döpé/
ཁོ་མོས་སྣང་བ་རྫུན་ཆེན་རང་ཐག་ཆོད༔
khomö nangwa dzünchen rang thakchö/
Other women desire households,
She who desires to give up household life, mind is carefree.
Other women desire to be glamorous,
She who decisively realizes appearances to be massively fake.
གཞན་གྱི་བུད་མེད་སྡིག་ལ་མོས༔
zhenkyi bümé dik la mö/
ཁོ་མོ་མཁར་ཟ་དགེ་ལ་དད༔
khomo kharza géla dé/
གཞན་གྱི་བུད་མེད་ཚུལ་འཆོལ་བ༔
zhenkyi bümé tsul cholwa/
ཁོ་མོ་བདག་གིས་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་བསྲུངས༔
khomo daki tsultrim sung/
Other women are inclined towards negativity,
But she, Kharchen, has faith in virtue.
Other women are promiscuous,
But she, I have kept ethical discipline.
དབུས་ཡུལ་རྩང་ཡུལ་བུ་མོ་རྣམས༔
üyul tsangyul bumo nam/
བློ་མང་གཏམ་པའི་རྫུན་ཚིག་སྨྲས༔
lomang tampai dzüntsik mé/
ཁོ་མོ་ཚེ་གཅིག་ལུས་གཅིག་ཆོས་བྱེད་མོས༔
khomo tséchik lüchik chöché mö/
ཞེས་གསུངས༔
The girls of central and Tsang regions
Speak many words of deception.
She longs for Dharma [practice] of one life, one body[v].
SONG FOUR: Longing for truth and liberation
མཚོ་རྒྱལ་གྱིས་ངས་ཆོས་ལ་མོས་ནས་ཆོས་བྱེད་འགྲོ་བསམ་པ་འདི་གསུངས་སོ༔
Tsogyel thought “I think only of Dharma, so I must go and practice Dharma!”
ཀྱེ་མ་ལས་དབང་ཆེ་བས་དམ་ཆོས་བསམ༔
kyema lé wangchewé damchö sam/
བུ་མོ་སྣང་བ་རྫུན་པས་མ་ལོབ་ནས༔
bumo nangwa dzünpé malob né/
བསམ་སྟེ་མོས་པའི་ངག་མི་སློབ༔
samté möpai ngakmi lob/
Kyema! Due to the vast power of karma, I think about the sacred Dharma.
Due to false appearances and not studying,
I have not studied how to voice my longing
གཞན་གྱི་བུད་མེད་ཁ་ཡི་ཆོས་མོས་པ༔
zhenkyi bümé khayi chö möpa/
ཁོ་མོ་སྙིང་གི་དཀྱིལ་ནས་དད་པ་ཡོད༔
khomo nyingki kyilné depa yö/
གཞན་གྱི་བུད་མེད་མཆོར་ལ་དད་པ་ཡོད༔
zhenkyi bümé chorla depa yö/
ཁོ་མོ་དུས་གསུམ་ངོ་བོ་བཟང་ངན་མེད་ལ་ མོས༔
khomo düsum ngowo zang ngen mé la mö /
རིག་པ་དམན་ནམ་སྙིང་རུས་ཆེ༔
rigpa men namnying rü ché/
Other women speak of longing for Dharma
She, has faith from the core of the heart!
Other women have faith in ornaments and decor,
She has longing for the essence of the three times, absent of good and bad.
My reasoning is inferior but determination is huge!
གཞན་གྱི་བུད་མེད་ཡར་གཏམ་མར་གཏམ་བྱེད༔
zhenkyi bümé yartam martam jé/
ཕ་ཁུ་སྦྱིན་པའི་མི་ལ་འགྲོ་མི་མེད༔
phakhu jinpai mila dro mime/
ཆོས་ལ་མི་མོས་སྣང་བ་མཆོར་ལ་མོས༔
chöla mimö nangwa chorla mö/
ཁོ་མོ་ཚེ་གཅིག་ཁ་གཏིང་མེད་པར་བསམ༔
khomo tséchik khating mepar sam/
ཁོ་མོ་ཁ་གཏིང་མེད་པའི་ཆོས་འདོད་པ༔
khomo khating mepai chö döpa/
སྙིང་རུས་ཆེ་བས་ཆོས་ལོབ་པ༔
nyingrü chewé chö lobpa/
མ་ལོབ་ཁོ་མོ་ཁྲེལ་བ་མེད༔
malob khomo trelwamé/
སྐྱབས་གནས་བླ་མེད་ཐུགས་རྗེས་ཨེ་བཟུང་ངམ༔
བདག་བསམ་གཞན་གྱིས་ཨེ་སྤྱོད་དམ༔
dag sam zhenkyi é chö dam/
Other women chatter away back and forth
Given away to other people by father and uncles.
Without longing for Dharma and only longing for baubles and appearances, whereas
She, thinks only of speaking without hypocrisy.
Due to huge determination, having studied Dharma,
Or not, she is without shame.
Will she be held with compassion by the unsurpassed refuge?
Do I have any other intentions?
གཞན་གྱི་བུད་མེད་མཐོ་བདམ་བྱེད༔
zhenkyi bümé tho dam ché/
ཁོ་མོ་མཐོ་དམན་མེད་པའི་སེམས་སྐྱེད་བྱེད༔
khomo thomen mepai sem kyeché/
ཆོས་རྣམས་རང་གྲོལ་བྱིན་གྱིས་རློབས༔
chönam rangdrol jingyi lob/
ཕ་བཀའ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་གྱིས་རློབས༔
Pha ka gyü lamai jingyi lob/
འགྲོ་བའི་དོན་དུ་རང་གྲོལ་ཤོག༔
drowai döntu rangdrol shog/
མཁར་ཆུ་རྒྱུད་པའི་ཐར་ལམ་ཟིན་པར་ཤོག༔
kharchu gyüpai tharlam zinpar shog/
ཅེས་གསུངས་པ༔
Other women want high positions,
She practices bodhicitta, without high or low.
May the blessings of Dharma that self-liberates descend!
May the blessings of the Kagyu forefather lineage descend!
May the self-liberation for the benefit of beings descend!
May the liberation path of the Kharchu lineage be held!
Translated and compiled by Adele Tomlin. Copyright Tomlin/Dakini Publications. 2024. These songs and this intro can be downloaded as a pdf here. They are intended for free use and recitation, but if used or copied in any format, please cite this source and website.
Endnotes
[i] The text is available on BDRC at “mKhaʼ ʼgro ye shes mtsho rgyal gyi skyes rabs rnam thar rgyas pa.” ʼPhags bod kyi skyes chen ma dag gi rnam par thar ba padma dkar poʼi phreng ba, Par gzhi dang po, vol. 6, Bod ljongs bod yig dpe rnying dpe skrun khang, 2013, pp. 17–191. Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC), purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW1KG16649_43376F.
For more on the dating of Lingpa’s liberation-story of Tsogyel, see Dr. Jue Liang’s (2020) article Branching from the Lotus-Born: Padmasambhava in the Extensive Life of Ye shes mtsho rgyal. About Padmasambhava: Historical Narratives and Later Transformations of Guru Rinpoche. According to Liang (2020): “the Extensive Life) is the longest rnam thar of Ye shes mtsho rgyal so far. Its colophon contains a prophecy of its place, time, and person of discovery, In this Life, Ye shes mtsho rgyal is not one of the queens of Khri Srong lde brtsan (a narrative element usually found in the later stratum of her literary tradition) rather, her karmic connection with Padmasambhava was predestined”.
[ii] I am grateful to the work of Dr. Jue Liang on Yeshe Tsogyel, whom I recently interviewed for a podcast about her work here. Liang’s recent published translation in Yeshe Tsogyal Laments. Longing to Awaken: Buddhist Devotion in Tibetan Poetry and Song (eds. Gayley and Townsend, University of Virginia Press, 2024) of some of these songs, alerted me to their presence in this Jigme Lingpa liberation story. However, as Liang has not included the original Tibetan, or phonetics, I have thus given my own interpretation and introduction to the songs, and translated them as close to the melody, rhythm and poetry of the Tibetan original, and transcribed the Tibetan with English phonetics.
[iii] I was informed by the two female editors of the new 2024 Tibetan poetry collection, Holly Gayley and Dominique Townsend, featuring Jue Liang’s translation of the songs that it took them six months workshopping the short songs with several translators! Unless they used a different Tibetan text to the one I used, it did not seem to work out that well though, “too many cooks (translators) spoil the broth” as we say!
[iv] No disrespect to the new Monlam AI (which is very useful for scanning photos of texts, to transfer them to text) but when I typed in some Tibetan text even that was a teaching and very straightforward, much that came up in its English translation was ‘gobbledegook’ as we say, and needed re-doing by someone listening to, or reading the original. One particular glitch in the AI programme bizarrely kept producing “The Dalai Lama wants to go to Potala Palace, but does not know where he is going.” Also the name Dalai Lama kept being used as a translation, when it was not related at all.
[iv] Here Tsogyel is referring to the possibility of attaining full awakening in one life and one body, as is spoken about in Kālacakra Tantra.
Bhadri,
that is so inspiring, so here’s a little dittie to tickle your whatever .
Maybe we’ll call it the L-word
the Oneness is a Dance of Solitude
Alone, we saunter and we slide,
destined to reach the other side.
but what seems to be,
is more popular than three.
It takes”Two to Tango” is what they say
but it turns to be the “Tangle” if too long you stay.
when we’re Alone it is the little elle that needs a companion,
for if she finds one just like her- in fun
there is Two and in that Al-is-One. AllOne.
so there you go back to what
four beatle Bodhisattvas put to song,
Love is all you need, one can’t get it wrong.
that little ‘l’ you add fixes it All .
looking at It end to end, what we truly see
EVOLves to Be the Reality.
-Surrounded by Space in Manifold Motion.
khor du khadro mang pa’i kor
Budhri,
Looks like i missed one of the “khors” . it would probably work as Perpetual.
i do seem to get Hung up on certain words,, for years it seems. It’s the unseen cultural, conceptual limitations that obscure, like dare we use a term that defies the law of impermanence, such as eternal, long lasting, constant, changeless or perpetual motion even. then there’s exotic terms like dakinis, maybe
just a thought (lots of them)
..If nothing is actually happening, then what’s going on?
yours Truly ,
a scarecrow looking for a brain.