Marpa the Lotzava

Missive to Master Jangch’ub Kyab (dpon byang-chub skyabs la sbkur-ba) by Marpa the Translator, Sheyrab Yéshey (smar-pa lo-tswa-ba shes-rab ye-shes, 1012–1097)

If original mind, the Absolute Body (dharmakāya), is not realized,

Then even staying in forest retreats is just paying rent.

If, in the realization of the mind of indivisible emptiness and compassion,

Which has neither center nor edge,

Mindfulness is without distraction,

Then even staying on the homestead is the hermitage supreme.

And so it is that I beseech thee not to let thy mind be depressed Continue reading »

Marpa the Translator

Letter Sent to Lama Lhumgompa (bla ma lhum sgom pa la bskur ba’i ‘phrin) by

Marpa the Translator, Sheyrab Yéshey (smar-pa lo-tswa-ba shes-rab ye-shes, 1012–1097)

OṂ SVĀSTI.
[“May all be auspicious.”]

I bow at the feet of the Precious One.
On the marvelous lotus in the sky,
There are thirty-seven pollen beds.
On each and every one of those pollen beds,

Are inconceivably many millions of light-beams.
That is the natural condition of Nirvāṇa.
As for the sole rabbit’s horn supreme,
It beautifies well the twelve wrinkles;

Whomever it strikes is stirred with pain. Continue reading »

Marpa the Lotzava or the Translator

Missive to Master Patron Draktokpa (dpon-yon brag-tog-pa la sbkur-ba) by Marpa the Translator, Sheyrab Yéshey (smar-pa lo-tswa-ba shes-rab ye-shes, 1012–1097)

One named Dönden Drakpa Yéshey!

“The nature of mind, free from base and root,

Is that which is, innately, spontaneously present:

The Absolute Body (dharmakāya)”; thus spoke the Dharma Lord.

I, the unpredictable wandering priest of Śākya,

Have a constitution, the Absolute Body of my own mind, which is at ease;

Rejoicing at having long associated

With the transcendent View, Conduct, and Meditation. Continue reading »

Marpa the Lotzava or the Translator

Personal Experiential Feelings of the Yogi (rnal ‘byor rang gi nyams tshor) by Marpa the Translator, Sheyrab Yéshey (smar-pa lo-tswa-ba shes-rab ye-shes, 1012–1097)

The intrinsically liberated original nature of mind:
Don’t let it be constrained by the knot of conceptual activity.
With body and all resources,
Day and night make offerings to the Precious Treasure of the Teacher.

All day and all night, practice the Transcendent Dharma:
When seeing that this has true essence,
If meditation is cultivated upon fathoming its great significance,
Visions of experience will come to dawn.

And so it is that, since no colophon is written here, one should be written, as found in the other texts. This note was written by the Karmapa of the Snowy Mountains (gangs-ri karma-pa).

(Translated from the Tibetan by Erick Tsiknopoulos, March 2016.
Found in the collection of poems, songs and other writings by Marpa Lotsáwa, chos-rgyal smar-pa’i mgur-‘bum legs-par bzhugs so, published by the Martsang Kagyu Global Corporation, Taipei/Delhi 2015, page 58).

http://buddha-nature.com/2016/03/18/personal-experiential-feelings-of-the-yogi-by-marpa-the-translator/

Marpa

Song of the Seven Essentials (gces pa bdun gyi mgur) by Marpa the Translator, Sheyrab Yéshey (smar-pa lo-tswa-ba shes-rab ye-shes, 1012–1097)

OṂ SWĀSTI.

When the precious human life is attained,
Practicing the precious Transcendent Dharma is essential.
When the precious instructions are obtained,
Staying in hermitage at isolated places is essential.

For persons with few antidotes,
The instruction on mindfulness of ripened effects is essential.
If the mind is not humbled even after getting old,
The instruction on counting numbers of years is essential.

For great fixation on Saṃsāra,
The instruction on cutting off the dynamic energy of Saṃsāra is essential.
For the arising of anger in the mind-stream,
The instruction on mindfulness of generating Awakened Mind (bodhicitta) is essential. Continue reading »