NOBLE MAITREYA’S “HEAVY BLESSINGS” AND HIS KING OF ASPIRATIONS: 12th Khenting Tai Situpa’s empowerment in Borobudur, Indonesia, new translation of “Maitreya’s Aspiration” and full oral commentary transcript of 12th Tai Situpa’s commentary on the Aspiration Prayer at the Kagyu Monlam, Bodh Gaya (2024)

“ཕྱོགས་བཅུ་དག་གི་ཞིང་ཁམས་སུ། །
Throughout the pure realms of the ten directions,
སངས་རྒྱས་མཆོད་པ་གང་བྱུང་བ། །
Whatever offerings are made to the awakened ones/Buddhas,
སངས་རྒྱས་མཁྱེན་པས་ཡི་རང་བ། །
The buddhas know and rejoice.
དེ་ལ་བདག་ནི་ཡི་རང་ངོ༌། །
In that, I also rejoice.”  –Verse from Noble Maitreya’s Aspiration

“Buddhas do not vilify sentient beings who are suffering, who have afflictions. They do not despise them. They do not give up on them. They do not disrespect them. They do not say: “Oh, this being is wicked. This being has afflictions. This person is bad. That person is toxic or lower.” They do not disregard, or give up on any sentient beings in this way. This is what is meant by the words “not vilify.”

“Actually, the omniscient Buddha has described many different ways of pleasing the Buddhas, making long life offerings, making different offerings and so forth. However, among all of these different ways, the one that is the best long-life offering is the offering of having a kind heart, is the practice of making the aspiration of bodhicitta, of putting bodhicitta in practice, and of practicing the inseparability of emptiness and compassion. These are the greatest of all long-life offerings as it is said.”

“There are two reasons why we need to be respectful of beings in all situations. The first reason is because sentient beings have Buddha Nature, every being, even insects, have Buddha nature, which means they are all future Buddhas. They all at some point will definitely achieve Buddhahood, this is the nature and essence of all beings. So if we are disrespectful towards them, or speak badly about them, or treat them poorly then we are being disrespectful of a future Buddha.” –12th Tai Situpa (Maitreya Aspiration teaching, 2024)

Introduction: Noble Maitreya, the Tai Situpa lineage, the empowerment and offerings

After receiving the Noble Maitreya empowerment for the first time from HH 12^th Khenting Tai Situpa, Pema Donyo Nyingche Wangpo (1954–) in the sacred Buddhist heritage land of Borobudur, Indonesia (11^th January 2026) to share the blessings and preserve the Dharma, here is a short report of the empowerment.

In addition, am also offering two new e-book downloadable texts:

1) a new translation of Maitreya’s Aspiration (arranged with Tibetan, phonetics and English), included below the report here, and as a pdf file: Maitreya’s Aspiration New Translation 2026

2) an original transcript of the full oral commentary given on Maitreya’s Aspiration by 12th Tai Situpa at the 38th Kagyu Monlam, in Bodh Gaya (2024) (together with footnotes and descriptions of texts Rinpoche referred to). Available to download as a pdf file here: Maitreya Aspiration teaching Bodh Gaya 2024 Tai Situpa

12th Khenting Tai Situpa had already explained about Bodhisattva Maitreya and his own connection to Maitreya in his opening speech for the new Indonesian centre (see report and transcript here). In brief, the Tai Situpa lineage is proclaimed in a number of sacred texts as the incarnation of Bodhisattva Maitreya who currently resides in Tushita heaven and will be the fifth Buddha of this aeon, who was crowned as the future Buddha by Buddha Sakyamuni, as well as subsequent incarnations as Guru Padmasambhava. As the Supreme Head of Palpung Monastic Seat, Jamgon Kenting Tai Situpa oversees 180 monasteries of Kagyu lineage, 300 Bon and Buddhist monasteries, over 1,000 affiliated branch temples and 18 monastic estates throughout Tibet.

The Maitreya empowerment was given by 12th Tai Situpa in Tibetan (with no oral translation), was profoundly “heavy” in various ways. Before that was a short speech, but as it was not livestreamed, there is no audio record of the speech itself. The majority of people who were there did not speak any Tibetan so would not have been able to follow it. However, fortunately, even though my aural Tibetan is a bit rusty these days, I could follow most of it, that is why studying Tibetan language is very useful!

As the OM AH HUM emanated from Maitreya, I felt what can only be described as GRAVITY-heavy descent of wisdom blessings. Transforming into Maitreya and filling up myself but also the whole room and everyone it. Giant feet and legs got larger and larger until they filled up the entire space. It was like a crushing, force-field obliterating and including everyone and everything in it! Then it got smaller and smaller like an atom. Maitreya seemed to be saying that all appearances, and universes were consumed, obliterated by it, and that VIP seating was irrelevant (in some kind of humorous way).

Thus, the final day of the event in Borobodur went auspiciously and meaningfully. A reminder of one’s “smallness” relatively speaking, but also of one’s “gigantic universe-encompassing” Buddha Nature like Maitreya within.

There were a few minor annoyances related yet again to constant and invasive photography (many of which were not even posted on social media) and the General Secretary of Sherab Ling monastery, India (Lama Dragpa) getting up from his seat and coming over to talk about unnecessary administrative matters with two Indonesian MCs in English (who were sitting right next to me) during the peak of the empowerment, while Tai Situpa was still bestowing it.   The organisers were humble, polite, kind and friendly in general to all who attended.

In any case, petty and worldly disturbances aside, we all had the great fortune to be there for it, and it went smoothly due the the vajra wisdom of Maitreya and 12th Tai Situpa’s presence. We all dedicated the merit to attaining the state of Maitreya for the benefit of all beings.  Thus the final day of the event in Borobodur went auspiciously and meaningfully. A reminder of one’s “smallness” relatively speaking, but also of one’s “giant” Buddha Nature like Maitreya within.

So I hope this new translation of the Aspiration, together with the original transcript of the full oral commentary on the Aspiration given by 12^th Tai Situpa, adds something original and beneficial to the textual Dharma legacy not only of the Tai Situpas, the Karma Kagyu, but also to Buddhism in general.

In that respect, I offer this new translation and transcript in the pure spirit of Maitreya’s Aspiration as an offering to the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, the gurus, yidam deities and protectors, that they will know of and rejoice at.  In particular, to the Dharma, noble spiritual friends, and to the 12^th Tai Situpa himself and his community of monastics and laypeople. Without the vajra connection of the 17^th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje  and 9^th Gyalton Rinpoche, none of this activity or offering would happen, so I offer it also as my offering to them and their gurus. May all be auspicious and meaningful!

The new Maitreya Aspiration translation and oral commentary transcription

Afterwards, as a result of my ongoing devotion and connection to the 9^th Gyalton Rinpoche and the teachings of 12th Tai Situpa in Borobudur, as well as personally meeting Tai Situpa at a small public event in Bali, where I asked him to bless a Vajravarahi thangka (more on that in another post!), I felt inspired to do a new translation of the well-known “Maitreya’s Aspiration” (ārya-maitrī-praṇidhānarāja: Phagpai Jampa Monlam). Moreover, for anyone who has received a Maitreya empowerment from Tai Situpa, it is important to know who Maitreya is, why he is considered important, by the Shakyamuni Buddha too, and what this Aspiration says.

I then discovered online that this Aspiration had been  taught by 12^th Tai Situpa at the 38^th Kagyu Monlam, Bodh Gaya 2024.  I had been thinking of attending this Monlam but circumstances seemed to be saying not to attend the Monlam in person. Nonetheless, I wrote up the speeches given by Mingyur and Gyalton Rinpoche on the red crown ceremony performed by Tai Situpa, and created a short video with Tibetan and English subtitles on the Karmapa’s words about the Red Crown of the Tai Situpa.  I also wrote up the transcript of HH 17^th Karmapa’s closing speech for the 38^th Monlam, in which he spoke about the Tai Situpa lineage, its importance and connection to the 17^th Karmapa, which I would recommend reading and listening to here.

I looked for a transcript/report of these two-day teachings on “Maitreya’s Aspiration” on the Kagyu Office and Monlam websites, but the only website link to them was broken and led to another unrelated page. In fact, bizarrely, there seem to be no publicly available transcripts of 12^th Tai Situpa’s teachings at all, unlike those of the 17^th Karmapa. So, I typed up this one by hand.

In any case, it was interesting to listen to the teaching, the Sutra origin of the Maitreya’s Aspiration (told in the words of Shakyamuni Buddha) and the explanation of the verses themselves.  I have based my new translation of the Aspiration, with extensive footnotes and commentary by 12^th Tai Situpa from that teaching (which has not been written up anywhere else).

There is only one other English translation of this Aspiration freely available online, but it does not contain any of this oral transmission, detail, or explanation from a such a qualified lineage master. Thus it (in my humble view) lacks the detail and blessings of that added dimension.

NEW TRANSLATION: Noble Maitreya’s King of Aspirations

༄༅། །འཕགས་པ་བྱམས་པའི་སྨོན་ལམ་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ།

Compiled and translated by Adele Tomlin

རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། ཨཱརྻ་མཻ་ཏྲཱི་པྲ་ཎི་དྷཱ་ན་རཱ་ཛ།

gyagar ké du arya maitri pranidhanaradza

In the language of India: ārya-maitrī-praṇidhānarāja

བོད་སྐད་དུ། འཕགས་པ་བྱམས་པའི་སྨོན་ལམ་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ།

böké du pakpa jampé mönlam gyi gyalpo

In the language of Tibet: pakpa champé mönlam gyi gyalpo

In the English language: The Noble Maitreya’s King of Aspirations

 

སངས་རྒྱས་དང་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །

sangye dang changchub sempa tamché la chaktsal lo

I prostrate to all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas!

ཀུན་དགའ་བོ་ཇི་ལྟར་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་སེམས་དཔའ་ཆེན་པོ་བྱམས་པས་སྔོན་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྤྱད་པ་སྤྱོད་པའི་ཚེ། ཉིན་ལན་གསུམ་མཚན་ལན་གསུམ་དུ་བླ་གོས་ཕྲག་པ་གཅིག་ཏུ་གཟར་ནས་པུས་མོ་གཡས་པའི་ལྷ་ང་ས་ལ་བཙུགས་ཏེ། ཐལ་མོ་སྦྱར་ནས་སངས་རྒྱས་ཐམས་ཅད་མངོན་དུ་བྱས་ཏེ་ཚིག་འདི་སྐད་ཅེས་སྨོན་ལམ་བཏབ་བོ། །

Ānanda, in the past, when the Bodhisattva Mahāsattva Maitreya was engaged in the bodhisattva practices, he would drape his upper robes over one shoulder, bend his right knee to the ground, and join his palms together, three times a day and three times a night. He would then directly focus on all the Buddhas and say the words of this aspiration:

 

Prostration/Homage

སངས་རྒྱས་ཀུན་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །

sangye kün la chaktsal lo

I prostrate to all Buddhas!

དྲང་སྲོང་ལྷ་མིག་ལྡན་པ་ཡི། །

drangsong lha mik denpa yi

To those with the divine vision [eye] of sages,

བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་རྣམས་དང་ཡང༌། །

changchub sempa nam dang yang

To Bodhisattvas and

ཉན་ཐོས་རྣམས་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །

nyentö nam la chaktsal lo

To Hearers/ Śrāvakas, I prostrate as well.

 

ངན་འགྲོ་ལས་ནི་བཟློག་བགྱིད་ཅིང༌། །

ngendro lé ni dok gyi ching

To that which reverses lower wanderings[1],

མཐོ་རིས་ལམ་ནི་རབ་སྟོན་ལ། །

and reveals the higher realms,

རྒ་ཤི་མེད་པར་འདྲེན་བགྱིད་པ། །

gashi mepar dren gyipa

Leading beyond old-age and dying,

བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །

changchub sem la chaktsal lo

To Bodhicitta [the mind of awakening] I prostrate!

 

སེམས་ཀྱི་དབང་དུ་གྱུར་པས་ན། །

sem ki wang du gyur pe na

When mind is overpowered,

བདག་གིས་སྡིག་པ་ཅི་བགྱིས་པ། །

dak gi dikpa chigyi pa

Whatever negativities I have committed

སངས་རྒྱས་སྤྱན་སྔར་མཆིས་ནས་སུ། །

sangye chen ngar chi ne su

I go before the presence of the Buddhas

བདག་གིས་དེ་དག་བཤགས་པར་བགྱི། །

dag gi de dag shag par gyi

And confess them all.

 

གང་ལས་རྣམ་པ་གསུམ་གང་གིས། །

ganglé nampa sum gang gi

May the three kinds of actions and

བསོད་ནམས་ཚོགས་ནི་བསྐྱེད་པ་དེ། །

sönam tsok ni kyepa dé

Accumulation of merit gathered

བདག་གི་ཀུན་མཁྱེན་ས་བོན་ཏེ། །

dak gi künkhyen sabön té

Become a seed for my omniscience

བདག་གི་བྱང་ཆུབ་མི་ཟད་ཤོག །

dak gi changchub mizé shok

And my[2] inexhaustible bodhicitta.

 

ཕྱོགས་བཅུ་དག་གི་ཞིང་ཁམས་སུ། །

chok chu dak gi zhingkham su

Throughout the pure realms of the ten directions,

སངས་རྒྱས་མཆོད་པ་གང་བྱུང་བ། །

sangye chöpa gang jungwa

Whatever offerings are made to the awakened ones/Buddhas,

སངས་རྒྱས་མཁྱེན་པས་ཡི་རང་བ། །

sangye khyenpé yirangwa

The Buddhas know and rejoice.

དེ་ལ་བདག་ནི་ཡི་རང་ངོ༌། །

dela dak ni yi rang ngo

In that, I also rejoice.

 

སྡིག་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་བཤགས་པར་བགྱི། །

dikpa tamché shakpar gyi

I confess all negative actions

བསོད་ནམས་ཀུན་ལ་ཡི་རང་ངོ༌། །

sönam kün la yi rang ngo

And rejoice in all merit.

སངས་རྒྱས་ཀུན་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལ། །

sangye kün la chaktsal la

I prostrate to all Buddhas.

བདག་ནི་ཡེ་ཤེས་མཆོག་ཐོབ་ཤོག །

dak ni yeshe chok tob shok

May I attain the supreme primordial awareness[3].

 

ཕྱོགས་བཅུ་དག་གི་ཕྱོགས་རྣམས་ན། །

chok chu dak gi chok nam na

To all those dwelling in the ten directions

ས་བཅུ་དག་ལ་གནས་པ་ཡི། །

sa chu dak la nepa yi

And upon the ten Bodhisattva levels

བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་བྱང་ཆུབ་མཆོག །

changchub sempa changchub chok

The Bodhisattvas with supreme mind of Bodhicitta

འཚང་རྒྱ་བགྱིད་པར་བསྐུལ་མ་འདེབས། །

tsanggya gyipar kulma deb

I exhort to attain full enlightenment.

 

བྱང་ཆུབ་དམ་པར་སངས་རྒྱས་ཤིང༌། །

changchub dampar sangyé shing

Having awakened to sublime Buddhahood,

སྡེ་དང་བཅས་པའི་བདུད་བཏུལ་ནས། །

dé dang chepé dü tul né

And subdued demons and all their hordes,

སྲོག་ཆགས་ཀུན་ལ་སྨན་སླད་དུ། །

sokchak kün la men ledu

To provide support and healing to all living creatures[4],

ཆོས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ་བསྐོར་གྱུར་ཅིག །

chö kyi khorlo kor gyur chik

Please turn the wheel of Dharma.

 

ཆོས་རྔ་ཆེན་པོའི་སྒྲ་ཡིས་ནི། །

chö nga chenpö dra yi ni

May the beat of the great Dharma drum

སྡུག་བསྔལ་སེམས་ཅན་ཐར་བགྱིད་ཤོག །

dukngal semchen tar gyi shok

Free beings from their suffering

བསྐལ་པ་བྱེ་བ་བསམ་ཡས་སུ། །

kalpa jewa samyé su

For unimaginable billions of eons,

ཆོས་སྟོན་མཛད་ཅིང་བཞུགས་གྱུར་ཅིག །

chö tön dzé ching zhuk gyur chik

May the awakened ones teach Dharma and remain.

 

འདོད་པའི་འདམ་དུ་བྱིང་གྱུར་ཅིང༌། །

döpé dam du jing gyur ching

Sinking in the swamp of desires,

སྲེད་པའི་སྲད་བུས་དམ་བཅིངས་པ། །

sepé sebü dam chingpa

Bound by the cords of craving,

འཆིང་བ་ཀུན་གྱིས་བཅིངས་བདག་ལ། །

chingwa kün gyi ching dak la

And in other ways totally bound.

རྐང་གཉིས་མཆོག་རྣམས་གཟིགས་སུ་གསོལ། །

kang nyi chok nam zik su sol

Please look upon us, the supreme among bi-peds [humans].

 

སེམས་ཀྱི་དྲི་མར་གྱུར་པ་ལ། །

sem kyi drimar gyurpa la

 Those with impure minds

སངས་རྒྱས་རྣམས་ནི་སྨོད་མི་མཛད། །

sangye nam ni mö mi dzé

The Buddhas do not vilify.

སེམས་ཅན་རྣམས་ལ་བྱམས་ཐུགས་ལྡན། །

semchen nam la jam tukden

May they have a mind of loving-kindness for sentient beings,

སྲིད་པའི་མཚོ་ལས་སྒྲོལ་བར་ཤོག །

sipé tso lé drolwar shok

And liberate them from the ocean of existence!

 

རྫོགས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་གང་བཞུགས་དང༌། །

dzokpé sangye gang zhuk dang

Wherever perfectly awakened Buddhas abide,

གང་དག་འདས་དང་མ་བྱོན་པ། །

gangdak dé dang majönpa

In the past, present and future,

དེ་དག་རྗེས་སུ་བདག་སློབ་ཅིང༌། །

dedak jesu dak lob ching

May I follow and emulate them,

བྱང་ཆུབ་སྤྱད་པ་སྤྱོད་གྱུར་ཅིག །

changchub chepa chö gyur chik

And perform Bodhisattva conduct.

 

ཕ་རོལ་ཕྱིན་དྲུག་རྫོགས་བགྱིས་ནས། །

pharol chin druk dzok gyi né

May I bring to completion the six perfections[5]

འགྲོ་དྲུག་སེམས་ཅན་མཐར་བགྱིད་ཤོག །

dro druk semchen tar gyi shok

And lead the six classes of beings to that final end.

མངོན་ཤེས་དྲུག་པོ་མངོན་བགྱིས་ནས། །

ngönshé drukpo ngön gyi né

May I manifest directly the six clairvoyances[6]

བླ་མེད་བྱང་ཆུབ་རེག་གྱུར་ཅིག །

lamé changchub rek gyur chik

And reach the unsurpassed bodhicitta.

 

མ་སྐྱེས་པ་དང་མི་འབྱུང་དང༌། །

makyepa dang minjung dang

Unborn and unoriginated

རང་བཞིན་མ་མཆིས་གནས་མ་མཆིས། །

rangzhin ma chi né ma chi

No nature nor location

རྣམ་རིག་མ་མཆིས་དངོས་མ་མཆིས། །

namrik ma chi ngö ma chi

No mental process nor  substance.

སྟོང་པའི་ཆོས་ནི་རྟོགས་པར་ཤོག །

tongpé chö ni tokpar shok

 May I realise the empty nature of phenomena!

 

སངས་རྒྱས་དྲང་སྲོང་ཆེན་པོ་ལྟར། །

sangye drangsong chenpo tar

Just like the great sage, Buddha himself,

སེམས་ཅན་མ་མཆིས་སྲོག་མ་མཆིས། །

semchen ma chi sok ma chi

May I realise there are no sentient beings, nor life-force,

གང་ཟག་མ་མཆིས་གསོ་མ་མཆིས། །

gangzak ma chi so ma chi

There are no individual persons, nor living creatures,

བདག་མ་མཆིས་པའི་ཆོས་རྟོག་ཤོག །

dak machipé chö tok shok

May I realise the selflessness [identitylessness] of phenomena.

 

བདག་འཛིན་བདག་གིར་འཛིན་པ་ཡི། །

dakdzin dakgir dzinpa yi

Clinging to identity with egoistical clinging,

དངོས་པོ་ཀུན་ལ་མི་གནས་པར། །

ngöpo kün la mi nepar

Towards material objects that lack substance,

སེམས་ཅན་ཀུན་ལ་ཕན་སླད་དུ། །

semchen kün la pen ledu

In order to benefit all beings.

སེར་སྣ་མ་མཆིས་སྦྱིན་གཏོང་ཤོག །

serna ma chi jin tong shok

May I practice generosity free from stinginess.

 

དངོས་པོ་དངོས་པོར་མ་མཆིས་པས། །

ngöpo ngöpor machipé

Since material things do not exist substantively,

བདག་གི་ལོངས་སྤྱོད་ལྷུན་གྲུབ་ཤོག །

dak gi longchö lhündrub shok

May all my necessities be spontaneously accomplished.

དངོས་པོ་ཐམས་ཅད་རྣམ་འཇིག་པའི། །

ngöpo tamché nam jikpé

Since all material things are disintegrating,

སྦྱིན་པའི་ཕ་རོལ་ཕྱིན་རྫོགས་ཤོག །

jinpé parol chin dzok shok

May I complete the perfection of generosity.

 

ཁྲིམས་ཀྱི་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་སྐྱོན་མེད་ཅིང༌། །

trim kyi tsultrim kyönmé ching

With discipline completely flawless,

ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་རྣམ་པར་དག་དང་ལྡན། །

tsultrim nampar dak dangden

Discipline that is perfectly pure,

རློམ་སེམས་མེད་པའི་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་ཀྱིས། །

lomsem mepé tsultrim kyi

And discipline without haughty arrogance,

ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་ཕ་རོལ་ཕྱིན་རྫོགས་ཤོག །

tsultrim parol chin dzok shok

May I complete the perfection of discipline.

 

སའམ་ཡང་ན་ཆུའམ་མེ། །

sa am yangna chu am mé

Like the earth, water, fire and

རླུང་གི་ཁམས་ལྟར་མི་གནས་ཤིང༌། །

lung gi kham tar mi né shing

Wind elements, not abiding anywhere,

བཟོད་པའམ་ཁྲོ་བ་མ་མཆིས་པར། །

zöpa am trowa ma chipar

With patience, or without anger,

བཟོད་པའི་ཕ་རོལ་ཕྱིན་རྫོགས་ཤོག །

zöpé parol chin dzok shok

May I complete the perfection of patience.

 

བརྩོན་འགྲུས་བརྩམས་པའི་བརྩོན་འགྲུས་ཀྱིས། །

tsöndrü tsampé tsöndrü kyi

With persistent application of diligence

བརྟན་སྤྲོ་ལེ་ལོ་མ་མཆིས་ཤིང༌། །

ten tro lelo ma chi shing

May I always be stable, vital and free from slothful laziness,

སྟོབས་དང་ལྡན་པའི་ལུས་སེམས་ཀྱིས། །

tob dang denpé lü sem kyi

And with strength in both body and mind,

བརྩོན་འགྲུས་ཕ་རོལ་ཕྱིན་རྫོགས་ཤོག །

tsöndrü parol chin dzok shok

May I complete the perfection of diligence.

 

སྒྱུ་མ་ལྟ་བུའི་ཏིང་འཛིན་དང༌། །

gyuma tabü tingdzin dang

With illusion-like meditative concentration [Samadhi],

དཔའ་བར་འགྲོ་བའི་ཏིང་འཛིན་དང༌། །

pawar drowé tingdzin dang

Hero-moving meditative concentration, and

རྡོ་རྗེ་ལྟ་བུའི་ཏིང་འཛིན་གྱིས། །

dorjé tabü tingdzin gyi

Vajra-like meditative concentration,

བསམ་གཏན་ཕ་རོལ་ཕྱིན་རྫོགས་ཤོག །

samten parol chin dzok shok

May I complete the perfection of concentration.

 

རྣམ་པར་ཐར་པའི་སྒོ་གསུམ་དང༌། །

nampar tarpé go sum dang

Acting with the three gates of liberation,

དུས་གསུམ་མཉམ་པ་ཉིད་དང་ཡང༌། །

dü sum nyampa nyi dang yang

Within the sameness of the three times[7],

རིག་གསུམ་མངོན་སུམ་བགྱིས་པ་ཡིས། །

rik sum ngönsum gyipa yi

Realising directly the three awarenesses/knowledge [8],

ཤེས་རབ་ཕ་རོལ་ཕྱིན་རྫོགས་ཤོག །

sherab parol chin dzok shok

May I complete the perfection of wisdom.

 

སངས་རྒྱས་ཀུན་གྱིས་བསྔགས་པ་དང༌། །

sangye kün gyi ngakpa dang

May I be praised by all Buddhas,

འོད་དང་གཟི་བརྗིད་འབར་བ་དང༌། །

ö dang ziji barwa dang

Blazing with majestic luminosity,

བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་བརྩོན་འགྲུས་ཀྱིས། །

changchub sempé tsöndrü kyi

And with the diligence of a Bodhisattva,

བདག་གི་བསམ་པ་རྫོགས་གྱུར་ཅིག །

dak gi sampa dzok gyur chik

May I complete all my intentions.

 

དེ་ལྟར་སྤྱད་པ་སྤྱོད་བྱེད་ཅིང༌། །

detar chepa chö jé ching

As I engage in this very conduct,

བྱམས་པ་གྲགས་དང་ལྡན་པ་ཡིས། །

jampa drak dang denpa yi

May I, the one known as Maitreya,

ཕ་རོལ་ཕྱིན་དྲུག་རྫོགས་བགྱིས་ནས། །

parol chin druk dzok gyi né

Bring to completion the six perfections,

ས་བཅུ་པོ་ལ་རབ་ཏུ་གནས། །

sa chupo la rabtu né

And dwell on the peak of the tenth Bodhisattva level[9].

Translator’s Colophon: This Maitreya’s Aspiration was translated into English, and arranged with Tibetan and phonetics by Adele Tomlin (Dakini Translations, January 2026). The translation is also based on an oral commentary teaching on the Aspiration, given by 12^th Khenting Tai Situpa at the 38^th Kagyu Monlam, Bodh Gaya (January 2024).  This new translation is downloadable as a pdf file here: as a pdf file: Maitreya Aspiration teaching Bodh Gaya 2024 Tai Situpa.

Endnotes

[1] Here the Tibetan word literally means “bad goings/wanderings”. In English, it is often translated as “lower realms” and refers to existences where there is a lot of suffering and afflictions, such as animals, hungry ghosts and hell realms.

[2] Interestingly here, the Tibetan word “my” (dag-gi) is used explicitly in Tibetan. So clearly Maitreya is referring to his aspirations.

[3] Here the Tibetan word is not sherab (prajñā: wisdom/special insight) but yeshe (jñāna) , which means “primordial awareness”.

[4] The word here in Tibetan is not “beings” (sem-chen) but living creatures (sog-chag).

[5] The six paramitas or ‘transcendent perfections’ (Skt. ṣaṭpāramitā; Tib. ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་དྲུག་, parol tu chinpa druk) comprise the training of a bodhisattva, which is bodhichitta in action.

• Generosity: to cultivate the attitude of generosity.
• Discipline: refraining from harm.
• Patience: the ability not to be perturbed by anything.
• Diligence: to find joy in what is virtuous, positive or wholesome.
• Meditative concentration: not to be distracted.
• Wisdom: the perfect discrimination of phenomena, all knowable things.

The first five paramitas correspond to the accumulation of merit, and the sixth to the accumulation of wisdom. The sixth Pāramitā can be divided into four, resulting in ten paramitas

[6]   མངོན་ཤེས་དྲུག  ngon she drug,  ṣaḍabhijñā . The definition in the Ratnakuta text: “The six superknowledges in Siṃha’s Question are discussed in verses 27–30 in the following order: (1) divine sight, a form of clairvoyance; (2) divine hearing, a form of clairaudience; (3) knowing the dying, transmigration, and rebirth of sentient beings; (4) knowing how to extinguish the defilements; (5) the recollection of former lives; and (6) knowing how to perform miraculous transformations. In Buddhist literature, the six are not always given in this order, and sometimes the super-knowledges are listed as five, excluding knowing how to extinguish the defilements.” See: https://84000.co/glossary/37164

[7] This Tibetan term, དུས་གསུམ་མཉམ་པ་ཉིད་ du-sum-nyampa-nyi, is from the Sanskrit: tryadhvasamatāniryātaḥ, and means “the equality/sameness of the three times, of past, present and future”.

[8] The Tibetan here: རིགས་གསུམ། rig-sum, means three kinds of knowledge obtained by the Buddha on the night of his enlightenment. These consist of the knowledge of the death and rebirth of sentient beings, the knowledge of past lives, and the knowledge of the cessation of defilements. These are the last three of the ten powers of the tathāgatas.

[9]   Ten bhumis (Skt. daśabhūmi; Tib. ས་བཅུ་, sa chu) are the ten stages or ‘grounds’ used in the Mahayana to describe the progression of a practitioner on the path to enlightenment.  The tenth Bodhisattva level is called Cloud of Dharma (Skt. dharmameghaābhūmi; Tib. ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྤྲིན་, chökyi trin).  The eleventh bhumi, Universal Radiance (Tib. ཀུན་ཏུ་འོད་, kuntu ), is Buddhahood according to the Sutra system.

[10] For a full transcript and Introduction to the Maitreya Aspiration teaching of 12^th Khenting Tai Situpa in January 2024, as well as a report on the Maitreya empowerment in Borobudur, Indonesia (January 2026), see: https://dakinitranslations.com/2026/01/31/noble-maitreya-aspiration-heavy-blessings-and-his-aspiration-12th-tai-situpa-translation/