Translations

Khyentse Wangpo Biographies and Praise

༄༅། །འཇམ་དབྱངས་མཁྱེན་བརྩེའི་དབང་པོའི་རྣམ་ཐར་ཉུང་ངུར་བསྡུས་པ། Abbreviated Biography of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo

Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye praises Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo’s profound accomplishment in many of Tibet’s spiritual traditions. An inspiring telling of the teacher’s life.

༄༅། །ངོ་མཚར་སྤྲུལ་པའི་ཕྲེང་བ། An Amazing Line of Incarnations

A supplication to the incomparable previous lives of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, in his own words.

༄༅། །ངོ་མཚར་དཔལ་སྐྱེད། Generating Wonder and Glory: A Supplication to Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo’s Successive Lives Arranged in a Rough Summary

Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye supplicates the previous incarnations of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo. You might be surprised by the list of important masters he was associated with.

Aspiration Prayers and Praises

༄༅། །འཇམ་དབྱངས་མཆོག་གྲུབ་སྨོན་ལམ། Aspiration Prayer for Jamyang Chogdrub

This prayer was written for Khyentse Wangpo’s disciple Jamyang Chogdrub to propitiate one’s teacher. A distinctive feature of this brief work is its style of combining elements of aspiration, supplication, and a description of the stages of the path, including the approaches of the Śrāvakayāna, Mahāyāna, and Vajrayāna.

༄༅། །གཞན་གསོས་མགྲིན་པའི་རོལ་མོ། The Cuckoo’s Song: A Spontaneous Vajra Song Linking Symbols with Meanings

Looking at the Tibetan landscape below him from high in the mountains, Khyentse Wangpo sings a poignant song of renunciation.

༄༅། །ཁྱིམ་ལྷ་བསྟོད་པ། In Praise of the Domestic Deity

This ritual text for propitiating the domestic deity, believed to inhabit the central pillar of the house, is likely a pastiche of invocations and prayers recorded by Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo. Including offerings to the local spirits and mountain gods, such rituals likely existed prior to the introduction of Buddhism in Tibet, and they are still carried out by tantric practitioners belonging to the Bön and Buddhist traditions.

༄༅། །འཕགས་མ་རྡོ་རྗེ་དབྱངས་ཅན་མ་ལ་བསྟོད་པ། In Praise of Vajra Sarasvatī with Appended Verses

Join Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo in his sweet-toned praise of Vajra Sarasvatī — Goddess of Melody, Glory of Speech.

༄༅། །ཕྱོགས་བཅུ་དུས་བཞིའི་ཞལ་གདམས། The Ten Directions and Four Times

This short supplication prayer to the guru uses evocative language to express devotion and other key elements of the Vajrayāna path, such as offering, confession, and mingling of the student’s ordinary mind with the awakened mind of the teacher.

Mind Training (Lojong)

༄༅། །བློ་སྦྱོང་སྙན་བརྒྱུད་ཀྱི་བླ་མ་བརྒྱུད་པའི་གསོལ་འདེབས། Lineage Prayer to the Teachers of Sumpa Lotsāwa’s Ear-Whispered Mind Training

This prayer traces the oral lineage of this remarkable mind training teaching from its miraculous origin in Bodhgaya in the twelfth century to when it reached Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo himself, seven centuries later. The masters of this lineage are variously associated with the Sakya, Jonang, Kadam, Kagyu, and Nyingma traditions.

༄༅། །སུམ་པ་ལོ་ཙཱ་བའི་བློ་སྦྱོང་སྙན་བརྒྱུད་ཀྱི་ཁྲིད་ཡིག་སྙིང་གི་བདུད་རྩི། Nectar of the Heart: A Guide to Sumpa Lotsāwa’s Ear-Whispered Mind Training

Inspired by Sumpa Lotsāwa’s vision of Tārā and Vajrayoginī, this text proposes methods for dealing with life’s most difficult challenges based on four vajra statements. The first of these sets the scene: “If you’re content with whatever happens, whatever you do brings happiness.”

༄༅། །བློ་སྦྱོང་ཐུན་བརྒྱད་མའི་ཟིན་བྲིས་ཉུང་གསལ། Succinct Notes on the Eight Sessions Mind Training

Eight precise techniques to transform the mind by abandoning self-clinging and developing boundless altruistic love. Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo received them from his Gelugpa teacher Könchok Tenpa Rabgye.

Severance (Chöd)

༄༅། །འཁོར་འདས་རང་གྲོལ། The Self-Liberation of Saṃsāra and Nirvāṇa: A Spontaneous Vajra Song about Taking as the Path the Yogic Discipline of the Profound Severance of Demons

Khyentse Wangpo offers pithy instructions for the practice of severance (chöd).

Mahāmudrā

༄༅། །དཔྱིད་ཀྱི་ཐིག་ལེ། The Drop of Spring: A Spontaneous Vajra Song of Definitive Meaning That Supplicates the Great Charioteers of the Luminous Mahāmudrā

The drop of spring inspires us by supplicating the early Dagpo Kagyu lineage and making aspirational prayers on the path of the luminous Mahāmudrā.

Liturgies and Lineage Supplications

༄༅། །བསམ་དོན་ཀུན་འགྲུབ། Fulfilling All Wishes – New

A short liturgy based on Guru Rinpoche that combines all aspects of the path & fulfills all our wishes.

༄༅། །བྱིན་རླབས་སྤྲིན་ཕུང་། Cloudbanks Of Blessings: A Supplication to the Oceanlike Assemblies of the Three Roots and Dharma Protectors

This lineage prayer is associated with the important Combined Practice of the Three Roots (Tsasum Drildrub) cycle. In addition to its inspiring beauty, it offers us a detailed picture of the early lineages of the Great Perfection and other levels of Tantra in the Nyingma tradition.

༄༅། །འཇམ་དགོན་དགྱེས་པའི་མཆོད་སྤྲིན། Clouds of Offerings to Delight the Gentle Protector: How to Practice the Profound Sādhana of The Praise to Noble Mañjuśrī

This wonderfully concise yet evocative Mañjuśrī sādhana offers a loving practice to dispel the darkness of ignorance. In particular, it embellishes on The Praise to Mañjuśrī, a celebrated text said to have been authored by five hundred Indian paṇḍitas, whose compositions were all identical through the blessings of the bodhisattva.

༄༅། །རྗེ་བཙུན་འཇམ་པའི་དབྱངས་ཀྱི་བསྟོད་སྒྲུབ་ཀྱི་གསོལ་འདེབས། Supplication for the Profound Sādhana of The Praise to Noble Mañjuśrī

Composed to accompany the sādhana of The Praise to Noble Mañjuśrī titled Clouds of Offerings to Delight the Gentle Protector, this lineage prayer pays homage to those erudite Buddhist masters who studied and taught The Praise in India and Tibet across the centuries and appeals to them to grant their blessings so that the practitioner’s own intellect and wisdom may increase.

༄༅། །ཚེ་དཔག་མེད་དྭངས་མ་བཅུད་འདྲེན་གྱི་རྒྱུན་ཁྱེར་འཆི་མེད་སྙིང་པོ། Immortality in a Nutshell: A Daily Practice for Amitāyus Extracting the Pristine Nectar

This Amitāyus sādhana is based on one of the treasure texts contained in Bearing the Seal of Secrecy, a terma cycle comprising twenty-five sections that was revealed by the Fifth Dalai Lama in a pure vision, and has a special focus on Guru Padmākara.

Philosophy

༄༅། །གྲུབ་པའི་མཐའ་རྣམ་པར་དབྱེ་བའི་གཏམ་ངེས་དོན་རྣ་ཆ། The Earring of the Definitive Meaning: The Speech That Classifies the Tenets

This distinctive work discusses the fundamental beliefs of the Buddhist schools of India and Tibet and offers responses to typical queries about complex philosophical points.

༄༅། །གྲུབ་པའི་མཐའ་རྣམ་པར་དཔྱད་པའི་སྙིང་པོ། Essential Points for the Investigation of Philosophical Tenets

This concise text, based on a teaching by the Indian scholar Ume Senge, begins with a refutation of the principal point of debate between Buddhist and non-Buddhist schools—the existence of the self—then proceeds to a systematic deconstruction of the tenets of various Buddhist traditions.

༄༅། །བདེན་བཞི་དང་རྟེན་འབྲེལ་གྱི་རྣམ་གཞག་ཚིག་གི་ས་བོན། Seminal Words: A Systematic Presentation of the Four Truths and Dependent Arising

This exposition succinctly introduces the core pillars of Buddhist doctrine—the four ārya truths and dependent arising—and explains how the twelve links are the causal mechanism perpetuating the never-ending cycle of birth and death. It concludes by addressing rebirth from the perspective of the highest class of Buddhist Tantra.

༄༅། །གཞན་གསོས་དགའ་བའི་རོལ་མོ། Song of the Joyful Cuckoo: Verses on the Tenets

In this short poem, Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo skilfully introduces the distinct tenets of the four philosophical traditions, culminating with pith instructions on the tantric path. These inspiring verses guide readers, stanza by stanza, through the systems of increasing subtlety of Buddhist view and practice.

History

༄༅། །ངོ་མཚར་པདྨོའི་དགའ་ཚལ། The Grove of Wondrous Lotus Flowers: A Brief Account of the Lineage Holders of the Old and New Schools of the Secret Mantrayāna Teachings in the Snowy Land of Tibet

This excerpt from Khyentse Wangpo’s comprehensive summary of the lines of succession of the major schools of Tibetan Buddhism highlights the Sakya tradition—with detailed focus on the early history of that school and recording its many famous lineage holders.