“VAM HA RI NI SA” YESHE TSOGYEL DAKINI MANTRA: Listening to and understanding the meaning and purpose of Yeshe Tsogyel’s mantra, and a new musical and vocal composition by Adele Tomlin/Dakini Songs

“You are a fully qualified dakini and the mother who gives life to all triumphant buddhas.” –Guru Padmasambhava to Yeshe Tsogyel

New Musical Composition and Inspiration

These days, the main energy and inspiration for my activities is coming from Guru Padmasambhava and one of his main and most influential consorts, Yeshe Tsogyel.

This article explores the meaning, purpose and energy of Yeshe Tsogyel’s name and mantra (ཨོཾ་ཛྙཱ་ན་ཌཱ་ཀི་ནཱི་བཾ་ཧ་རི་ནི་ས་སིདྡྷི་ཧཱུྃ། oṃ jñāna ḍākinī vaṃ ha ri ni sa siddhi hūṃ).  And also shares my new musical composition and melody of her mantra, combined with Guru Padmasambhava’s main mantra (Om Ah Hum Vajra Guru Padma Siddhi Hum). 

As I was singing and recording the vocals and arranging them with musical instrumental backgrounds on my laptop (provided by Suno), I felt again the energy of Padmasambhava and his deep love and bliss for Yeshe Tsogyel. A mutual devotion and bliss indeed. As I felt here, after translating Tsogyel’s songs, and recording one of them, A Woman’s Longing for Meaning here.

The word Guru (lama in Tibetan) means “heavy” with qualities and influence, as recently described here  by the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje (2024).  I composed and sang the melody with that energetic sense of “heavy” for the power, presence and amazing mind of Padmasambhava. Feeling the love and devotion Yeshe Tsogyel had for her beloved Guru and master, and eventually equal partner in union, inseparable [1].  Starting with her mantra, I then added backing track overlay of my vocals of the main mantra of Padmasambhava himself.  An entwined devotional wisdom-bliss union, as I speak about in this short reel here.

The audio-only track is also available on Spotify and major streaming channels, as well as a visuals video I created on Youtube with images of her and Padmasambhava and the seed syllable mantras.

Below is my explanation of Yeshe Tsogyel’s name and mantra, as well as an overview of some of the other articles I have written about her, and her connection with Vajrayogini, whose mantra also contains those five “dakini” seed syllables.

Yeshe Tsogyel’s Name and Five Seed-syllable Mantra

Yeshe Tsogyel (ཡེ་ཤེས་མཚོ་རྒྱལ་)’s name means  jñāna sagara in Sanskrit. Jñāna (Yeshe) means primordial awareness and Sagara (Tso-gyel) means Ocean (or Lake)- Queen(Gyel): for a discussion of the difference between Yeshe and Sherab see my short article (2020) here.

There are two widely used versions of Yeshe Tsogyel’s mantra.

1. One, is this form of her mantra together contained in my translation of this 15th Karmapa composed Guru Yoga for Tsogyel.

ཨོཾ་ཨཱཿཧཱུྃ་བཛྲ་གུ་རུ་ཛྙཱ་ན་སཱ་ག་ར་བཾ་ཧ་རི་ནི་ས་སིདྡྷི་ཧཱུྃ༔

oṃ āḥ hūṃ vajra guru jñānasāgara vaṃ ha ri ni sa siddhi hūṃ

2. The Khandro Thuk-Tik (Dakini Mind-Essence-Drop) mind treasure of Dudjom Rinpoche, gives a shorter form:

ཨོཾ་ཛྙཱ་ན་ཌཱ་ཀི་ནཱི་བཾ་ཧ་རི་ནི་ས་སིདྡྷི་ཧཱུྃ།

oṃ jñāna ḍākinī vaṃ ha ri ni sa siddhi hūṃ

In this recording I have used the latter version,

The five seed syllables, Dakini Families & Wisdoms

The five seed syllables VAM HA RI NI SA appear in both. Listening to and chanting her mantra and those seed syllables, invokes her energy and presence and invites us to listen to Yeshe Tsogyel’s mantra as an expression of her lineage, life and awakened activity. In particular, it invokes the energy and blessings of Guru Padmasambhava himself.

• བཾ། Vam – serves as the supreme central core. It represents Buddha Dākiṇī (the central head of the five families) and the heart-essence of the primordial wisdom dakini, Yeshe Tsogyel.
• Ha (ཧ་) — Vajra Dākiṇī: Represents the East, colored white. It cuts through the poison of anger and aversion, transforming it into clear, Mirror-like Wisdom.
• Ri (རི་) — Ratna Dākiṇī: Represents the South, colored yellow. It subdues pride and ego, transmuting them into the Wisdom of Equanimity.
• Ni (ནི་) — Padma Dākiṇī: Represents the West, colored red. It dissolves sticky attachment, passion, and desire, turning them into Discriminating Wisdom.
• Sa (ས) — Karma Dākiṇī: Represents the North, colored green. It conquers jealousy and envy, transforming them into All-Accomplishing Wisdom.

Mantra means “mind-protection” and contain sacred Sanskrit seed syllables to invoke energy seen and unseen. These five syllables are placed  in different lineage versions of her mantra. A mantra associated with Tsogyel therefore raises a question deeper than how to pronounce five syllables.  If we think of her only as Padmasambhava’s consort or student, we may miss the wisdom, compassion, determination and teaching activity for which she is revered. If we imagine that the syllables have a simple dictionary translation, we may miss how mantra functions within a particular Vajrayāna practice, as the meaning of each  syllable is not something that can easily be verbally/conceptually described.

Vajrayogini, Yeshe Tsogyel and the five seed syllables

These four seed syllables are also often used when chanting the mantra of Vajravarahi/Vajrayogini too. I have written here before about Yeshe Tsogyel’s profound connection/and emanation of Vajrayogini. So it is not surprising that her mantra contains them too.

Yeshe Tsogyel as a Dakini and inspiring woman

In my article introducing a Yeshe Tsogyel guru yoga composed by the 15th Karmapa, Khakyab Dorje, I quoted a praise attributed to Padmasambhava:

“You are a fully qualified dakini and the mother who gives life to all triumphant buddhas.”

The praise is striking because it addresses Tsogyel as a source of awakened benefit. It asks us to see more than a supporting figure beside a male master.  The Karmapa’s guru yoga also matters for that reason. When I introduced my English translation, I drew attention to its presentation of Yeshe Tsogyel in her human form as the focus of practice. A realised woman is placed before the practitioner as a teacher to whom devotion can be directed. That has a particular force in traditions where women’s contributions have sometimes been celebrated symbolically while their authority as teachers has received less attention.

The syllables HA RI NI SA can be heard within that wider recognition, as these syllables often preceded by the syllable VAM is the sacred root mantra of the Dakinis.  So, they point toward a ḍākinī whose life is remembered through practice, praise and story.

They also prompt a reader to ask whose voice is present when women transmit the Dharma, as Tsogyel is not only someone about whom teachings were told. Tibetan Buddhist traditions remember her as someone entrusted with teachings and central to their transmission. Listening to her mantra thus can sharpen, rather than soften, our attention to that powerful and essential female role.

Yeshe Tsogyel is often introduced as a student and consort of Guru Padmasambhava. Those descriptions matter, but they do not contain the whole of her life.

In my translation, research and podcast interview with contemporary scholar, Dr. Jue Liang (2024) about Yeshe Tsogyel, she is recognised as a realised teacher, a figure associated with the preservation and transmission of teachings, and a woman whose example continues to inspire practitioners.  In my interview with scholar Liang, we explored how accounts of Tsogyel portray her as disciple, consort, ḍākinī and “Mother of Tibet.”

In another article, I explored how Tsogyel went to Tiger’s Nest, Paro Tagtsang, in a place now called Bhutan,  and meditated there, teaching her own students and male consort.

In the conversation with Liang, we examined the complexity of Tsogyel’s literary lives. The accounts place her in relationships with teachers and rulers, but also present her through questions of gender, discipleship and spiritual authority and even as a survivor of sexual assault/rape. Liang’s research encourages us to distinguish the woman said to have lived in Tibet from the literary traditions through which later communities remembered her.

Liang and I discussed how Tsogyel’s identity as a khandroma, or ḍākinī, intersects with her portrayal as a woman, a disciple and a teacher. If we call her a ḍākinī but stop there, the word risks becoming an attractive image that conceals the experiences, difficulties and achievements attributed to her. If we read her life attentively, it directs us back to her practice and her work for others, including meditating alone in dangerous caves and solitary places.

Even descending into the hell realms to help a being who had harmed her and tried to prevent her practising Dharma, to the admiration of her teacher and consort, Guru Padmasambhava. This distinction is especially helpful when discussing ḍākinīs. The word can carry different meanings in different settings. As I spoke about here in this short video, the word Khandro (the Tibetan translation of Dakini) means “space-mover” (often translated as “sky-dancer” by male translators).

Yet, as I explained, based on experience and study, the Dakini is the one who moves through space, and influences that space and also cuts through delusion and hypocrisy within the space of a practitioner’s mind. As Tilopa the great Indian Mahasiddha exclaimed, “Dakini is Truth!”

Why Tsogyel’s presence, wisdom and mantra matters even more now

Yeshe Tsogyel’s example speaks with particular clarity to women practitioners. In my articles, I wrote of her resilience, determination and intelligence in the face of obstacles and assumptions about women’s bodies. I also discussed the admiration expressed for her by nuns at Larung Gar. What inspires here is not a claim that awakening came easily to Tsogyel, she is a woman who studied and practised, endured difficulties, and came to be revered as a teacher, during times when women were seen as inferiors to men (and still are!)

That is why I dedicated my translation of the 15th Karmapa’s guru yoga to female teachers, translators, practitioners and students, with the wish that they be treated with respect and kindness. A mantra does not replace that ethical responsibility, as reverence for a female Buddhist heroine should have consequences for how living women are heard and treated. The sound of a ḍākinī’s mantra and respect for women’s learning, safety and authority all belong in the same conversation.

Ultimately, the mantra syllables are memorable because they are brief and cut straight to the heart of the meaning. But that leaves room for a much larger question: what do we remember when we invoke Yeshe Tsogyel?    Yeshe Tsogyel’s mantra sounds and energy call us to invoke and remember her example: wisdom joined with passion, devotion, compassion, sustained diligent heroic practice, and the possibility of full awakening in a woman’s life and body, despite many obstacles. Something we as women can all relate to in one way or another: the longing for meaning and liberation.

Endnotes