“At the centre of your enlightened intention of immeasurable limitless profundity, even the ocean renowned for its depths, is like no more than a footprint.–from the 150 Verses of Praise to Buddha by Mātṛceṭa
“We who claim to follow Shakya, even if we don’t appreciate or repay the kindness of others, if we don’t remember the kindness of the compassionate Teacher, it’s like a rotten head not being noticed by the nose. It has been a long time since the Teacher, the eye of the world, passed away, and the teachings of the Able One have been divided into many sectarian factions, with attachment and hatred for one’s own tenets increasing day by day. The altruistic intention for the general teachings is deteriorating day by day, and like old frogs in a well, clinging to the limited traditions of so-and-so lineage and so-and-so great person, they don’t regard the Teacher as the Teacher, and they don’t regard the teachings as the teachings.” –17th Karmapa (2022)
“The great teacher Mātṛceṭa, also known as Mākhola, composed two famous hymns: the 150 Verses of Praise and the 400 Verses of Praise [to Shakyamuni Buddha]. In the past, when the teachings flourished in India, all new monastics, without distinction between the Mahayana and Hinayana , recited these two hymns.” –17th Karmapa (2022)
Today, is the most important day in the Tibetan Buddhist calendar, the 15th day of the Lunar month, Saga Dawa, the day commemorated when the Buddha was born, attained enlightenment and parinirvana (also known as Vesak Day, which has already passed in SE Asian countries). When virtuous deeds done with good intentions are considered to be multiplied significantly. Regardless of whether the latter is true or not, it is considered to be a day on which to remember the amazing, awesome and incomparable deeds of the Buddha Shakyamuni himself.
I went to a special and auspicious Buddhist place today (which I will write about later!), but for my own offering here on this day, I re-post a link to a previous article I wrote about a new Buddha Shakyamuni in the Kadampa tradition ritual composed by the 17th Karmapa in 2022, which includes a transcript of some teachings he gave on it. As the 17th Karmapa reminds us, without “The Teacher”, Buddha Shakyamuni, Buddhism as we know it on this planet would not exist today and so we should remember him, his legacy, life and teachings and not get lost in cultural and political Buddhism.
In addition, I have translated a few of the many verses of In Praise to the Sage, containing the 150 Praises to the Buddha by Mātṛceṭa –published by the 17th Karmapa together with the new ritual in 2022 and which are performed at the end of the ritual itself. These stunning verses are very inspiring and speak about the “incomparability” of the Shakyamuni Buddha.
Also, I have created new section on this website, with links to much of the research, translations, transcriptions and compilations/transcripts I have done so far on Buddha Shakyamuni; his life, students, legacy and relics see here. In particular, there are the many transcripts of teachings by the 17th Karmapa on the Buddha (from the Origin of Secret Mantra teachings (2021-2024).
Music? Om Muni Muni Mahamuniye Svaha Buddha mantra.
Excerpt from the Tibetan language Introduction by 17th Karmapa in his Buddha Shakyamuni ritual (2022)
“Nowadays, people mainly focus on the practices of various schools, and few people hold the teacher Powerful Thubpa (Buddha Shakyamuni) in high regard. However, those who have entered this teaching without the perception of supreme devotion to the teacher will not become wise. Why is that? It is because this teacher himself, in this field and time, relied solely on the compassion of showing the deeds of the Buddha to us degenerate beings. This teaching includes the three pitakas, and not only that, but also the secret mantra Vajrayana teachings, which can manifest the union of the two truths that cannot be learned in a short lifetime of degenerate times. Furthermore, many noble Sangha, the upholders of the teachings who have entered the teachings of Sutra and Tantra, have also appeared.
If the Teacher [Buddha Shakyamuni] had not manifested the appearance of teaching in this expanse and time, we would not even hear the sound of the Three Jewels, let alone practice the path of Sutra and Tantra. Therefore, no matter what kind of practice one does according to the tradition of the old and new, one must always have a strong faith in the Teacher, and one must always respect the Teacher and strive for his yoga. Relying on the compassion of the Teacher, the generation and recitation of the deities of the different schools, peaceful and wrathful, the path of meditation has arisen. Just as the source of all the waters of Jambudvipa is Madrosa, all the great and small practices of the Sutra and Tantra path have arisen in this teaching, and therefore, it is certain that all of this is due to the compassion of the Teacher.
Just as praying to one’s root guru brings more blessings than praying to other gurus, due to the connection, praying to the Teacher, the Powerful One, is quicker in bringing blessings than praying to other Buddhas. As advised with loving-kindness, we who claim to follow Shakya, even if we don’t appreciate or repay the kindness of others, if we don’t remember the kindness of the compassionate Teacher, it’s like a rotten head not being noticed by the nose. It has been a long time since the Teacher, the eye of the world, passed away, and the teachings of the Able One have been divided into many sectarian factions, with attachment and hatred for one’s own tenets increasing day by day.
The altruistic intention for the general teachings is deteriorating day by day, and like old frogs in a well, clinging to the limited traditions of so-and-so lineage and so-and-so great person, they don’t regard the Teacher as the Teacher, and they don’t regard the teachings as the teachings. In such a degenerate time, those who have brains in their heads and memory in their hearts must understand the importance of not clinging to branches while abandoning the root. This is what I see as crucial.” –17th Karmapa (Introduction to Buddha Shakyamuni ritual 2022)
Translated verses from the In Praise of the Sage: A Treasury of the Two Accumulations (150 Praises to the Buddha (Tibetan and English)
3) Unparalleled Praise
“At the whirlpool centre of your enlightened intention of immeasurable limitless profundity, even the ocean renowned for its depths, is like no more than a footprint.
When seeing you, unmoving and steadfast amidst all things, the great, stable earth become like a fluttering heap of petals.
When the brilliance of your primordial awareness (ye-she) destroys the darkness of ignorance, even the sun’s rays become like a firefly.
The stainless autumn moon, clear skies, and pure river, in the presence of your pure body, speech and mind, seem to be turbulent.
Even if all the perfections of the world were arrayed as your example, they could not match even a fraction of you, being but tainted things.”
༣༽ དཔེ་མེད་པར་བསྟོད་པ། ༈ གང་ཚེ་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་དགོངས་པའི་དཀྱིལ། །གཏིང་དང་ཕ་མཐའ་མེད་པ་དེས། ། རྒྱ་མཚོ་ཟབ་པར་གྲགས་པ་ཡང་། །གནག་རྗེས་ལྟ་བུ་ལས་མ་འདས། ། ཆོས་རྣམས་ཀུན་ཀྱིས་མི་བསྐྱོད་པ། །བརྟན་ཅིང་སྙོམས་པ་ཁྱོད་མཐོང་ནས། ། ས་ཆེན་བརྟན་པ་འདི་ཉིད་ཀྱང་། །འདབ་མའི་ཕུང་པོ་བཞིན་དུ་གཡོ། ། ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྣང་བ་ཡིས། །མ་རིག་མུན་པ་འཇོམས་པས་ན། ། ཉིན་མོར་བྱེད་པའི་འོད་ཟེར་ཡང་། །མེ་ཁྱེར་ཙམ་དུ་མ་གྱུར་ཏམ། ། དྲི་མེད་སྟོན་ཀའི་ཟླ་བ་དང་། །དྭང་པའི་མཁའ་དང་ཆུ་བོ་ཡང་། ། རྣམ་དག་སྐུ་གསུང་ཐུགས་མཆོག་གི །དྲུང་ན་རྙོག་མ་ཅན་དུ་འགྱུར། ། འཇིག་རྟེན་ཁམས་ཀྱི་ལེགས་ཚོགས་ཀུན། །ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་དཔེ་རུ་བཀོད་བྱས་ཀྱང་། ། ཉོན་མོངས་ཅན་གྱི་དངོས་རྣམས་ཀྱིས། །ཆ་ཤས་ཙམ་ཡང་འགྲན་མི་བཟོད། །
Thank you for this and all your work.
For my small part I released 400 worms destined to die on a fishermans hook…
This I learned from Chagdud Tikul Rimpoche while I was building a temple for him in Brasil.
Like all Buddhad and bhodisatvas from the ten directions and four times … I dedicate this and all merit to the temporary and ultimate happiness of all beings without exception.