Lineage Prayer Focused on Marpa
Emaho! My guru, Lord Marpa the Translator, has a great hammer that smashes revulsion, the feet of meditation. He smashed my right one, my left one, right, left, and above. This made me, a jaded person, let go of craving for any of the food and wealth of samsara. I became your elder brother of the mountains, a meditator who has cut through the bonds of this life. Yet I have much; I have both gain and respect in this life. Without craving I, the elder, have the wing-power to fly through the reaches of space. He smashed me from above, from below, from above, below, and between. He freed me, your elder, from craving for gain and respect. Oh, aside from my guru, the elder Lord Marpa the Translator, who has this ding ding, sang sang, lang lang, ting ting?
Emaho! My guru, Lord Marpa the Translator, has a great hammer that smashes devotion, the head of meditation. He smashed it from the right, from the left, right, left, and above. This caused me, a jaded person, to blaze with devotion for the guru, the door to the treasury of instructions. If there is a meditator with unfabricated good experience who continuously supplicates, unfabricated devotion will be born straight away. How easy! He smashed me from above, from below, from above, below, and between. Unfabricated devotion was born in me in a moment. Oh, aside from my guru, the elder Lord Marpa the Translator, who has this ding ding, sang sang, lang lang, ting ting?
Emaho! My guru, Lord Marpa the Translator, has an unmistaken wish-fulfilling jewel. It is the source of undistractedness, the body of meditation. He raised it to the right, to the left, right, left, and above. This caused me, jaded person, to become a meditator who rests without alteration in this jewel—the fresh, unfabricated, unaltered, sparkling stainless nature of whatever thoughts arise. My brothers, you have the outer appearance of a Brahmin and yet you wear the hides of elephants, humans, horses, cattle, and dogs. Oh, you lack my guru’s ding ding, sang sang, ting ting, If you have it, I will laugh aloud and stain my face with tears.
Emaho! My guru, Lord Marpa the Translator, revealed the essential point of space—that the nature of thoughts is the naked dharmakaya arising as anything; the unceasing, unchanging vajra of space. This is vividly, totally, utterly present, like the moon’s reflection in water, within all great, intermediate, and lesser disciples. However, rejecting this unceasing play of great wisdom—unchangeable awareness resplendent with the stars of a hundred thousand samadhis—childish shravakas seek some state devoid of wisdom beyond this. You lack this great blazing vajra—the prajna which knows the inseparability of samsara and nirvana—and you lack what my guru has—the realization of the ultimate lineage, the supreme medicine for a hundred ailments, which alone can remove all stains and veils. You lack this! You lack this! You lack this! You lack this! You lack this! If you have it, then the most sinful being of the three realms of samsara is an unchanging great garuda! My words are meaningful! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Do not forget this!
In the blazing sunlight of the ancient teachings
I hold a vajra that defeats adversity and perverted aspirations.
My helmet is as stable as the Himalayas, and I will never change
In my achievement of great good for beings and the teachings.
The great treasure-revealer Barway Dorje, also known by the name given him by the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa—Pal Traktung Jikdral Dongay Drayang Dechen Kunzang Barway Dorje—wrote this in New York on August 11th, 2008
More Songs
Letter to Jigme Tulku Rinpoche
Letter to Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche
Letter to Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche
Letter to Kyabje Tenga Rinpoche