Thursday, June 19, 2008

Reflections on The Melody of Great Bliss : A Supplication to the Wisdom Dakini Sukhasiddhi

Bestower of uncontaminated, coemergent bliss;
Radiant with the full splendor of sixteen-year-old youth;
Leader of every assembly of dakinis in the three locations
Venerable Accomplishment of Bliss [Sukhasiddhi], to you I pray.

You manifested in a pauper's home in Kashmir
And trained in realization on the path.
Having completed the force of faith and great compassion,
You diligently gave gifts without attachment; to you I pray.

Millions of eons ago, you perfected the cultivation of merit and wisdom
And the result of your training manifested.
The awakening of your karmic connections
Made you renounce home life; to you I pray.

In the land of Oddiyana, source of great mysteries,
Men were spiritual warriors; women, female warriors.
Just by your reaching the center of that gathering,
The power of your enlightened potential awakened; to you I pray.

You demonstrated the skillful means of illusory conduct as a vendor of delicious alcohol.
You gave twice-strained rice alcohol to a female adept.
This created a connection through faith
With a tantric practitioner in the forest; to you I pray.

Noble Virupa accepted you as his disciple
And gave you the full four empowerments into secret practice.
Instantly, your ripened karmic body of sixty-one years
Became that of a sixteen-year-old maiden; to you I pray.

Taking the inner path, you truly traversed in a single moment
The major vajra stages of awakening,
And you appeared in an uncontaminated, vajra rainbow body.
Powerful one of the celestial realms, to you I pray.

You became the manifest form of coemergent wisdom, Buddha Selfless One,
To remain until the end of cyclic existence.
You watch over the three realms' beings during the six periods of day and night.
Honored female buddha, to you I pray.

You manifestly bless those who pray to you
And lovingly watch over your children who preserve your lineage, never parting from them.
You bestow common and supreme accomplishment in a matter of months or years.
Powerful one of great compassion, to you I pray.

Vajra Yogini, perfection of transcendent knowledge,
You appear to help beings in a body that has form.
The exquisite flower of your body, which one never tires of seeing,
Blooms with the marks and signs of physical perfection; to you I pray.

In the Teaching's infinite gates, which have the nature of emptiness,
You speak according to beings' dispositions.
Your speech, invincible sweet sound in every situation,
Flows imbued with the sixty tones of Brahma's voice; to you I pray.

Inseparable bliss and emptiness, the true vajra of space,
Pervades all animate and inanimate life.
Your sublime enlightened mind of luminous Great Seal
Is coemergent and uncontaminated; to you I pray.

Epitome of the qualities of freedom and maturity,
You have an inconceivable life.
Just hearing your voice inspires uncontaminated bliss.
Sublime wish-fulfilling jewel, to you I pray.

You unite in pleasure with all victors and bodhisattvas.
Your emanations reach the four elements' limits.
Like an excellent vase, a gem, or a wish-fulfilling tree,
Your enlightened activity is spontaneously present; to you I pray.

Your compassion knows no distance and embraces all equally.
You guide fortunate persons on the path to the celestial realms.
Your loving face wears the conscientious smile of compassion.
Friend to all beings, to you I pray.

To your child who preserves the lineage and who prays to you,
Show your loving face and joyfully grant me your supreme prophecy.
Bestow the empowerment of great vajra wisdom,
And bless me that I merge inseparably with you.


by Jamgon Kongtrul.

Excerpted from Timeless Rapture, by Ngawang Zangpo.

SukhasiddhiAs always with these devotional poems, there's so little to add of any substance. What always strikes me is the beauty of the devotion, the sheer beauty in the heart that lets go in supplication, which opens to that which is possible, even that which seems beyond or impossible from our limited perspective.

Sukhasiddhi's story is inspiring in itself, with her ease of realisation a particular source of gentle encouragement. Not all masters seems to have to take the rough roller coaster ride to liberation!

Her images always seem to open something out deep within me, speaking to me in a way that words cannot. It's strange how some images do this, yet others speak of nothing. So easy to understand why beings grasp at 'explanations' such as karma and past lives to explain this. Why does this need explaining? Why not remain in the not-knowing, and just sit in the wonderment and blessedness?

Jamgon Kongtrul speaks so eloquently of the qualities that cannot be spoken. How marvellous it is to read the words of one who has realised. How utterly different it is to read the words of those of us who 'understand', but do not 'know'.

Profound thanks for the teachings, the lineage, the blessings of Sukhasiddhi and Jamgon Kongtrul, which resonate beyond time and space, and envelop me in their gentle uplift.

For someone like me trained in intellect, how liberating the open heart which inclines to devotion.

And how interesting the whole area of prayer .... of what this is, in its various manifestations.

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