Rigzin Jigme Lingpa's Feast Song

Translation and hidden meaning

Rigzin Jigme Lingpa's Feast Song sung by Ani Choying Drolma.

ལས་སྨོན་རྟེན་འབྲེལ་དཔག་བསམ་ལྗོན་ཤིང་གི་སྟེང་དུ lé mön tem drel pak sam jön shing gi teng du

རྒྱ་གར་ཤར་གྱི་རྨ་བྱ་གཞོན་ནུ་ཡང་ཕེབས་བྱུང༌། gya gar shar gyi ma ja zhön nu yang pep jung

རྨ་བྱའི་གདུགས་སྐོར་དམ་པའི་ཆོས་ཕྱོགས་ལ་བསྒྱུར་དང༌། ma jé duk kor dam pé chö chok la gyur dang

གཞོན་པ་ང་ཚོས་ཐར་པའི་ལམ་སྣ་ཞིག་ཟིན་ཡོང༌། zhön pa nga tsö tar pé lam na zhik zin yong

བསོད་ནམས་དཔྱིད་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་མོའི་ཤིང་རྟ་ལ་ཕེབས་པའི། sö nam chi kyi gyel mö shing ta la pep pé

ལྷོ་མོན་ཤིང་ལོའི་ཚལ་གྱི་ཁུ་བྱུག་གི་གསུང་སྙན། lho mön shing lö tsel gyi khu juk gi sung nyen

ཡ་གི་དྲི་ཟའི་བུ་མོའི་གླིང་བུ་ལས་སྙན་པ། ya gi dri zé bu mö ling bu lé nyen pa

དབྱར་གསུམ་ནམ་ཟླ་སྤྲོ་བའི་རྟེན་འབྲེལ་ལ་ཡག་བྱུང༌། yar sum nam da trowé tem drel la yak jung

འདིར་འདུས་ལས་སྨོན་མཐུན་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཡི་སྤུན་གྲོགས། dir dü lé mön tün pé dor jé yi pün drok

ང་ཚོའི་བླ་མ་བཞུགས་པའི་ཆོས་ར་ལ་ཕེབས་དང༌། nga tsö la ma zhuk pé chö ra la pep dang

སྨིནགྲོལ་བདུད་རྩི་འཐུང་བའི་དགའ་སྟོན་གྱི་ངང་ནས། mindröl dü tsi tungwé ga tön gyi ngang né

ཉམས་དགའ་གླུ་རུ་ལེན་པའི་ཁྱད་ཆོས་ཤིག་ཡོད་དོ། nyam ga lu ru len pé khyé chö shik yö do

བདེ་ཆེན་འཕོ་འགྱུར་མེད་པའི་བཞུགས་གྲལ་གྱི་དབུས་ནས། dé chen po gyur mé pé zhuk drel gyi wü né

ལྷ་དང་བླ་མའི་ཞལ་རས་མ་བསྒོམས་ཀྱང་མཐོང་བྱུང༌། lha dang la mé zhel ré ma gom kyang tong jung

མ་དང་མཁའ་འགྲོའི་སྙིང་ཐིག་འོད་གསལ་གྱི་ཐེག་པས། ma dang khandrö nying tik ö sel gyi tek pé

འཇའ་ལུས་ཆོས་སྐུ་འགྲུབ་པའི་དངོས་གྲུབ་ཅིག་ཞུའོ། ja lü chö ku drup pé ngö drup chik zhuo

Translation

With auspicious karma and prayers, on the wish-fulfilling tree,

Comes again the youthful peacock from the east of India.

Turn the peacock’s parasol feather towards the holy Dharma,

We the young ones will embark upon the path of liberation.

Arriving on the queen’s chariot of virtuous spring,

Cuckoo’s melodious song from the forest of southern Mon,

More melodious than the flutes of the maidens of Gandharva.

It is a good auspicious sign for a refreshing season of three (months) summer (retreat).

Vajra friends who have gathered here with similar (past) karma and prayers,

Let's go to the teaching place where the Guru resides.

With the festive spirit of drinking the nectar of ripening and liberation,

Has a distinct quality of singing the joyful experience.

From the centre of the row of unmoving and unchanging great bliss,

Even without visualising, I can see the faces of my gurus and deities.

Through the tradition of Mother and Dakini’s Nyingthig Osel,

Will receive a siddhi to attain the rainbow body Dharmakaya.

The secret meaning of the first verse

Rigzin Jigme Lingpa

Rigzin Jigme Lingpa (18th-century Treasure Revealer) is one of the most prominent figures in the Nyingma tradition and his feast song is well-known to many people. There are many feast songs (tshogs glu) in the Nyingma tradition. These are called feast songs, but many of them (Terchen Dorje Lingpa’s feast songs) are more like a vajra songs, like those composed by earlier Indian Mahasiddhas. The title of this feast song is ‘Vajra speech with full of blessings’ (rdo rje'i gsung byin rlabs can).

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche has written a commentary on this feast song which reveals the hidden meaning behind the song. I have posted here the translation (based on my own understanding) of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche’s commentary (Clarifications on the Hidden Meaning of The Song of the Feast) on the first four lines of the feast song. The hidden meaning behind these four lines according to Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, shows the Vajrayana’s swift path to enlightenment through rtsa rlung thigle Tummo practice contrary to the long and arduous path of non-tantric Mahayana practice.

Through the past virtuous karmas and sincere prayers, one has now acquired a vajra body possessing six elements with nāḍīs, vāyus and bindus aligned to auspiciousness. Inside this vajra body, there is the central channel the wish-fulfilling tree where the wishes of ten grounds and five paths are fulfilled, and the vāyus, citta and bindus are purified. When the Tummo (it is called India, being a hot region) blazes, there occurs the movement in the moon, the white bindu (at the crown of the head) and this gives rise to the sun of primordial wisdom. (East refers to the sun and moon, as the external sun and moon rise from the east). The blazing (of Tummo) and dripping (of white bindu) bring the mixture of red and white bindu. This youthful peacock of the mixture of white and red bindu moves downward and comes back again giving rise to four joys (catur-ānanda). ‘Turn the peacock’s parasol feather towards the holy dharma’ means guiding the vāyu along with the bindu and citta inside the Avadhūti. Not relying on the long weary hardship youthful noble eightfold path, we will embark upon the path of great liberation by completing the ten bhumis in the space of the central channel in a short time.

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