2023.12.The 21 Taras.Birthday Celebration for Pema Khandro

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TEXT: Daily Prayers (Traditional & Secular)

2023.12.The 21 Taras.Birthday Celebration for Pema Khandro TEXT: Daily Prayers (Traditional & Secular)

Prayers for the Beginning of Practice

These are the daily prayers that are used to be taught in a Buddhist setting or a setting where it is appropriate to bring Buddhist prayers. These are the opening and closing prayers that are the refuge and bodhichitta from the Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse, from the Nyingthig lineage by Jigme Linpa. The third part of the dedication is also a Nyingthig prayer, from the great Dzogchen master, Longchenpa.

Refuge

I take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma and Sangha
I take refuge in the Lama, Yidam and Khandro
I take refuge in the channels, winds, centers, and their nature, the bodhicitta,
I take refuge in complete openness, lucid presence and compassion

Bodhichitta Aspiration Prayer

Ho! Mesmerized by the sheer variety of appearances, which are like the illusory reflections of the moon in water,
Beings wander endlessly astray in samsara’s vicious cycle.
In order that they may find comfort and ease in the luminosity and all-pervading space of the true nature of their minds,
I generate the immeasurable love, compassion, joy and equanimity of the awakened mind, the heart of bodhicitta.

4 Bodhi Vows

Sentient beings are numberless, I train in order to free them
Delusions are inexhaustible, I train in order to transform them
Reality is boundless, I train in order to realize it
The awakened way is unsurpassable, I train in order to embody it

 

Secular Opening 1

Remember a time someone has helped you when you really needed it, or loved and supported you.
If no memory arises, imagine what that would be like to feel that love and support. Notice what feelings arise.

[pause]

Now imagine if every person you know could have that help, love, and support.
Make the wish that every person could have that experience of help and support.

Secular Opening 2

Imagine a time when you were very happy. If no memory arises, imagine what that would feel like.  Remember that happiness, what it felt like, what you say, what you thought, what you heard.

[pause]

Now imagine every person you know having that feeling right now too.  Make a wish that every person could experience happiness like that.

Prayers for the End of Practice

Short Dedication

May the teachings of the Buddha spread and flourish
May all sentient beings be happy and joyful
May we practice the dharma day and night
May the benefits for self and others be fully accomplished

Long Dedication

May all beings be free from suffering and the cause of suffering
May all beings experience happiness and its true cause
May the fruit of this practice be to accomplish the highest benefit for all beings and all things everywhere
May all beings everywhere experience the joy, clarity, dignity and fearlessness of peace
May all beings everywhere have peace

 

Chanting the Daily Prayers in Tibetan

Refuge

དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་དངོས་བདེ་གཤེགས་རྩ་བ་གསུམ༔

རྩ་རླུང་ཐིག་ལེའི་རང་བཞིན་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས༔

ངོ་བོ་རང་བཞིན་ཐུགས་རྗེའི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་ལ༔

བྱང་ཆུབ་སྙིང་པོའི་བར་དུ་སྐྱབས་སུ་མཆི༔

könchok sum ngo deshek tsawa sum

tsa lung thigle rangshyin changchub sem

ngowo rangshyin tukje kyilkhor la

changchub nyingpo bardu kyab su chi

Bodhichitta

ཧོཿ སྣ་ཚོགས་སྣང་བ་ཆུ་ཟླའི་རྫུན་རིས་ཀྱིས༔

འཁོར་བ་ལུ་གུ་རྒྱུད་དུ་འཁྱམས་པའི་འགྲོ༔

རང་རིག་འོད་གསལ་དབྱིངས་སུ་ངལ་བསོའི་ཕྱིར༔

ཚད་མེད་བཞི་ཡི་ངང་ནས་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་དོ༔

 

ho natsok nangwa chude dzun ri kyi

khorwa lugu gyu du khyampe dro

rangrig osal ying su ngalso chir

tseme shyi yi ngang ne semkye do

 

Refuge Prayer Without The Word Refuge

by Pema Khandro

(Refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha)

I have found deliverance and hope due to the one who demonstrated the possibility of awakening – the Buddha;

I enjoy immeasurable wealth, basking in the sunlight that dispels all darkness – the teachings on the nature of reality;

I receive strength and shelter from the lineage of heroes and heroines, the Buddhists before me and around me, the ones who sustained the teachings, the ones who will never abandon sentient beings. 

(Tantric Refuge – Refuge in the Lama Yidam and Khandro)

I rest into the support of all who have taught me, the masters of lineage and especially my kind root teacher who has guided me.  I am empowered by the love, wisdom and hope my teachers ignited in me. I am rich due to the generosity of all teachers who gave me what is most precious to them, in order to help me meet the inner guide, pristine wakeful mind.  

I am healed and uplifted by the wisdom beings who reveal the Buddha within me, exposing the constructed nature of my identity so that I can find my way home to indestructible authentic presence.

I lean into the unfaling help offered by the expressive dimension of phenomenon that communicates the radiance and vitality that is my own intrinsic nature.

(Inner Refuge – Refuge in the Tsa, Lung & Thigle)

I find comfort in the natural wisdom that courses through my body-mind, flowing through my channels.
I am refreshed and renewed by the pure wisdom energy that animates the currents of my heart-mind.
I am rescued by the ease and clarity found in the power centers which radiate an unrelenting impulse for awakening, the organizing principle of life.

(Secret Refuge)

I victoriously return to an unending source of intrinsic confidence found in the emptiness of complete openness, the luminosity of lucid presence and open-hearted responsiveness of compassion.

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