The Seven-Line Supplication to Guru Rinpoche: Meaning and Commentary
This short translation is based on Ju Mipham’s ('ju mi pham, 1846–1912) commentary on the Seven-Line Prayer to Guru Rinpoche, titled White Lotus. The following is one section of that text.
Text and Translation
ཧཱུྃ༔
Hūṃ
ཨོ་རྒྱན་ཡུལ་གྱི་ནུབ་བྱང་མཚམས༔
Ogyen yul gyi nub jang tsamཔདྨ་གེ་སར་སྡོང་པོ་ལ༔
Padma gésar dongpo laཡ་མཚན་མཆོག་གི་དངོས་གྲུབ་བརྙེས༔
Yamtsen chok gi ngödrup nyéཔདྨ་འབྱུང་གནས་ཞེས་སུ་གྲགས༔
Padma jungné shyé su drakའཁོར་དུ་མཁའ་འགྲོ་མང་པོས་བསྐོར༔
Khor du khadro mangpö korཁྱེད་ཀྱི་རྗེས་སུ་བདག་བསྒྲུབ་ཀྱི༔
Khyé kyi jesu dak drub kyiབྱིན་གྱིས་བརླབ་ཕྱིར་གཤེགས་སུ་གསོལ༔
Jin gyi lab chir shek su solགུ་རུ་པདྨ་སིདྡྷི་ཧཱུྃ༔
Guru Padma Siddhi Hūṃ
Hūṃ — the self-arisen seed of vajra-mind — is uttered first, to summon forth your heart-vows into action.
The first line tells where Padmasambhava was born:
He was born in the northwestern corner of the land of Ḍākinīs known as Urgyen, where a lotus grove lies at Lake Dhanakośa — a lake that naturally appears in the form of the queen of the supreme emptiness of all form.
The second line tells how he was born:
At the center of the lotus grove, there is an exceptional lotus plant adorned with beautiful leaves, petals, and stamens. Upon it grow five lotus blossoms of five colors, symbolizing the five primordial wisdoms and the five Buddha families (Tathāgata, Vajra, Ratna, Padma, and Karma). At the center is the red lotus of the Padma family.
The syllable Hri, which embodies the blessings and qualities of the three secrets — body, speech, and mind — of the all-encompassing Buddha of the three times (past, present, and future), fills the treasure of Śrīvatsa (auspicious mark/love noose) in the chest of the Buddha of blazing with a thousand radiant lights. As the moment ripens for guiding disciples, it takes the form of a body of fivefold color and descends onto the anthers at the navel of the central red lotus flower.
The third line tells of his supreme qualities:
He appeared as self-born, in an immaculate body adorned with the major and minor marks of a Buddha. He ruled as the son of King Indrabhuti but later renounced the throne. He then engaged in tantric-yogic practice in the eight charnel grounds, and so forth. He has attained the supreme siddhi of the union of emptiness and bliss, and realized the state of great Vajradhara.
The fourth line tells his actual name:
This Lord Protector is known by the name Padmasambhava.
The fifth line tells to whom the supplication is made:
Padmasambhava, as the chief deity and king of the Vidyādharas, surrounded by many ḍākas and ḍākinīs who exist in nonduality with him, is the object of supplication.
The sixth line tells how the supplication is made:
By recognizing his qualities, you turn to Guru Rinpoche with irreversible faith and generate the aspiration to ultimately attain a state inseparable from Guru Rinpoche himself. With that intention, you then supplicate with your body, speech, and mind.
To request blessings and gather siddhi, the seventh line and its accompanying mantra are spoken:
O true protector, Guru Rinpoche — as your compassion is immeasurable, you do not abandon beings like myself and others who suffer in the ocean of the three kinds of suffering. At this very moment, bless our body, speech, and mind — those of all who rely upon you and take refuge in you — just as you would transform iron into gold, with your inconceivable three secrets: body, speech, and mind.
With that, recite the mantra:
Guru Padma Siddhi Hūṃ
Guru: Guru means lama, one who is “heavy” with all noble qualities.
Padma: Padma is the first part of his name, meaning lotus.
Siddhi: Siddhi refers to the accomplishments we seek — both ordinary and extraordinary.
Hūṃ: Hūṃ is the request for the bestowal of such siddhis.