New Translation of ‘Calling the Lama from Afar’ by Jamgon Kongtrul the First

Wonderful to read this new translation of Calling the Lama From Afar (བླ་མ་རྒྱང་འབོད་ཀྱི་གསོལ་འདེབས་ མོས་གུས་སྙིང་གི་གཟེར་འདེབས། ) by Michele Martin; an important and beautiful supplication text in the Kagyu and Rimey tradition by Jamgon Kongtrul the First (‘jam mgon kong sprul yon tan rgya mtsho) (1813-1899). The text is available to download for free at the excellent online resource Dharma E-books.

As many of you may be aware, Jamgon Kongtrul was a huge admirer and student of the Jonang and Kālacakra shared the same Jonang lama, Ngawang Chopel (sngags dbang chos ‘phel) as another great Jonang and Rimey master, Bamda Gelek Gyatso. He spent many years studying at the main Jonang monastery in Dzamthang and was such a fan of the Jonang master,Tāranātha, that he not only copied many of his texts verbatim in his magnus opus, a Treasury of Knowledge but also commemorated his life and works annually.

In this beautiful text calling on the lineage masters and lamas, Kongtrul mentions both Jonang masters, Dolpopa and Tāranātha in the supplication as well as masters of other lineages, such as the Nyingma master Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo.

I reproduce that part of the text below:

༡༨ | 18

ཀུན་མཁྱེན་དོལ་པོ་སངས་རྒྱས་མཁྱེན་ནོ། །

kun khyen döl po sang gye khyen no

Omniscient Dölpo Sangye,23 think of us.

རྣམ་ཀུན་མཆོག་ལྡན་དབྱིངས་ནས་གཟིགས་ཤིག །

nam kun chok den ying ne sik shik

Behold us from the space endowed with the supreme aspect.24

འཕོ་བའི་དབུགས་རྣམས་དབུ་མར་འགགས་ནས། །

po way uk nam u mar gak ne

Help us to bring shifting breath into the central channel

འཕོ་བྲལ་རྡོ་རྗེའི་སྐུ་ཐོབ་མཛོད་ཅིག །

po dral dor jey ku top dzö chik

And thus attain the immovable vajra body.

༡༩ | 19

རྗེ་བཙུན་ཏཱ་ར་ན་ཐ་མཁྱེན་ནོ། །

je tsun tā ra na ta khyen no

Jetsun Taranatha,25 think of us.

རྣམ་གསུམ་ཕོ་ཉའི་དབྱིངས་ནས་གཟིགས་ཤིག །

nam sum po nyay ying ne sik shik

Behold us from the space of the three messengers.

རྡོ་རྗེའི་གསེང་ལམ་གེགས་མེད་བགྲོད་ནས། །

dor jey seng lam gek me drö ne

Help us to travel the vajrayana path free of obstacles

འཇའ་ལུས་མཁའ་སྤྱོད་འགྲུབ་པར་མཛོད་ཅིག །

ja lu kha chö drup par dzö chik

And attain a rainbow body in the celestial realm.

༢༠ | 20

འཇམ་དབྱངས་མཁྱེན་བརྩེའི་དབང་པོ་མཁྱེན་ནོ། །

jam yang khyen tsey wang po khyen no

Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo,26 think of us.

མཁྱེན་གཉིས་ཡེ་ཤེས་དབྱིངས་ནས་གཟིགས་ཤིག །

khyen nyi ye she ying ne sik shik

Behold us from wisdom’s space of twofold knowing.27

མི་ཤེས་བློ་ཡི་མུན་པ་སངས་ནས། །

mi she lo yi mun pa sang ne

Clear away the mental darkness of our ignorance

མཁྱེན་རབ་སྣང་བ་རྒྱས་པར་མཛོད་ཅིག །

khyen rap nang wa gye par dzö chik

And expand the vision of our supreme knowing.

Thank you Michele Martin. May it be of benefit!

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