“Surrounded by circles of many dakinis.”
“It is said that though he was kind to Tibet, his kindness went unnoticed by many. Unlike other Indian scholars and translators, there were many in Tibet who objected to and denigrated Guru Padmasambhava.” –17th Karmapa (2021)
Today is Dakini Day, and I am sharing two video clips of the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa speaking about Guru Padmasambhava. First, here is the clip of the 17th Karmapa speaking about Tibetans not treating Guru Padmasambhava very well:
In it, the 17th Karmapa explains that although:
“It is said that though he was kind to Tibet, his kindness went unnoticed by many. Unlike other Indian scholars and translators, there were many in Tibet who objected to and denigrated Guru Padmasambhava.”
And went on to explain the reasons why.
This teaching reminded me of the 17th Karmapa’s teaching about Je Atisha, in which he described how Atisha was treated badly when he visited Tibet, one example being when he was left to starve without food for one week, by inconsiderate hosts. While traditional narratives focus primarily on Atisha’s monumental success in reforming Tibetan Buddhism, the 17th Karmapa’s teaching, as I documented in the Trials and Tribulations of Je Atisha highlighted specific hardships, political pushback, and neglect he endured.
In this respect, although not as detailed, the 17th Karmapa also alerts people to the fact that Guru Padmasambhava was not treated that well in Tibet initially either. I wrote about this teaching in January 2021 during the COVID epidemic called Aspirations to End Diversity, see here.
Seven-Line Supplication to Guru Padmasambhava: New Video of Chanting by 17th Karmapa
Second, in the same teaching the 17th Karmapa chanted three supplications to Guru Padmasambhava. One of these is the seven-line supplication (one of my personal favourites for chanting) and so have sampled the audio and created a new visuals video with the 17th Karmapa’s artworks, powerful vocals, together with Tibetan, phonetics and English subtitles.
Though it is considered the natural self-sound of reality rather than a human composition, it was hidden and later rediscovered as a terma (hidden spiritual treasure) by various tertöns (treasure revealers). It can be watched on Youtube here:
17th Karmapa’s explanation of the meaning
In a teaching during the Kagyu Monlam in 2021, the 17th Karmapa states that:
“The Lord Dezhin Zhekpa and others have foretold that in general, supplications to Guru Rinpoche are the essential and single means to benefit Tibet, the teachings, and living beings. These supplications are particularly important during these degenerate times.”
“If we summarise the supplication into the distinct meaning of each of its seven lines—first of all the person who is praying is oneself, and the object to whom one is praying is Guru Rinpoche:
- the first line states the land of his origin,
- the second his manner of dwelling there,
- the third his extraordinary qualities,
- the fourth his actual name, and the
- fifth his entourage, which completes the identification of the object of supplication.
- the sixth line explains how we are supplicating and how we are approaching him, and
- the seventh is our actual request, our actual petition that he bless us and all beings, based upon our unchanging entrustment of our welfare to him.”
” It ends with the mantra, Guru Padma Siddhi Hum. Guru means weighty or heavy with qualities or fine attributes. Padma is the first part of Guru Rinpoche’s name; siddhi or attainment is what we seek; and Hum here is an exhortation supplicating him to bestow the siddhi and blessings that we seek.”
The Outer, Inner & Secret Meaning of Each Line
I have also created this explanation of the Seven-Line Prayer, based on teachings given by the 17th Karmapa and also the inner-secret meaning.
- Line 1: ཧཱུྃ༔ ཨོ་རྒྱན་ཡུལ་གྱི་ནུབ་བྱང་མཚམས༔ (In the northwest of the land of Uddiyana)
-
- Outer: The birthplace of Guru Rinpoche.
- Inner / Secret: “Uddiyana” represents the heart center or the primordial source. “Northwest” signifies the union of wisdom (emptiness) and skillful means (compassion), or the point where dualistic concepts cease to exist. 2
-
- Line 2: པདྨ་གེ་སར་སྡོང་པོ་ལ༔ (Upon the anthers/pistils of a lotus)
-
- Outer: The physical lotus flower from which he miraculously emerged.
- Inner / Secret: The lotus represents the pure nature of our mind, completely unstained by the mud of samsara. The “anthers” or the heart of the lotus is the Rigpa—the spark of raw, unconditioned pristine awareness abiding at the center of our being. An anther is just the top, pollen-producing tip of the stamen—which also includes the stalk or filament.
-
- Line 3: ཡ་མཚན་མཆོག་གི་དངོས་གྲུབ་བརྙེས༔ (You achieved the wondrous supreme siddhi)
-
- Outer: Guru Rinpoche’s attainment of enlightenment and supernatural mastery.
- Inner / Secret: The “supreme siddhi” (spiritual attainment) is the recognition of one’s own Buddha-nature. It is “wondrous” because this realization instantly collapses all delusions of birth, death, and suffering.
-
- Line 4: པདྨ་འབྱུང་གནས་ཞེས་སུ་གྲགས༔ (And are renowned as the Lotus Born)
-
- Outer: The title given to him because he was born from a lotus. Although Je Tāranātha’s account says he was given the name due to his physical appearance of being like a blooming lotus, lips, eyes and skin.
- Inner / Secret: “Lotus-born” represents the realization that true awareness is birthless and deathless. It does not come from a womb (karma) but arises spontaneously out of absolute purity.
-
- Line 5: འཁོར་དུ་མཁའ་འགྲོ་མང་པོས་བསྐོར༔ (Encircled by many dakinis)
-
- Outer: The hosts of goddesses, spirits, and dakinis that serve and escort him.
- Inner / Secret: The dakinis represent the spontaneous, radiant expressions and energy (tsal) of our own wisdom mind. They are the thoughts and perceptions that are recognized as pure and self-liberated the moment they arise.
-
- Line 6: ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་རྗེས་སུ་བདག་བསྒྲབ་ཀྱི༔ (We practice following your example)
-
- Outer: The promise of the practitioner to walk the path he laid out.
- Inner / Secret: This is the merging of the practitioner’s dualistic ego with the non-dual state of the Guru. “Following your example” means resting in unconstructed, natural presence, recognizing that the external Guru and your own inner mind are completely inseparable.
-
- Line 7: བྱིན་གྱིས་བརླབ་ཕྱིར་གཤེགས་སུ་གསོལ༔ (We ask you come and grant your blessings)
-
- Outer: The plea for Guru Rinpoche to descend from his pure land and bless the practitioner.
- Inner / Secret: “Coming” means the awakening of this latent wisdom into active, lived experience. The “blessing” is the total purification of the mind’s delusions so that its true, inherent brilliance can shine through unobstructed.
-
- Mantra: གུ་རུ་པདྨ་སིདྡྷི་ཧཱུྃ༔ (GURU PADMA SIDDHI HŪṂ)
- Inner / Secret: GURU represents the ultimate reality (Dharmakaya); PADMA represents the radiant expression of energy (Sambhogakāya); SIDDHI is the manifestations in the physical world (Nirmanakāya); and HŪṂ is the indivisible oneness of all three within your own heart.
For another teaching I typed up by the 17th Karmapa on the seven-line supplication to Guru Rinpoche in 2024, see here.
For other translations, research and transcriptions about Guru Padmasambhava, see here: https://dakinitranslations.com/guru-padmasambhava/
Sources