Seven Line Prayer

Guru Rinpoche from the private collection of Sogyal Rinpoche, painted by Salga

Seven Line Prayer (Tib. ཚིག་བདུན་གསོལ་འདེབས་, Wyl. tshig bdun gsol 'debs) also known as The Seven Verses of the Vajra. The invocation by which Guru Rinpoche came into this world.

༄༅། །གུ་རུ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་ཚིག་བདུན་གསོལ་འདེབས་བཞུགས་སོ། ། The Seven Line Prayer   ཧཱུྂ༔ ཨོ་རྒྱན་ཡུལ་གྱི་ནུབ་བྱང་མཚམས༔ hung orgyen yul gyi nubjang tsam Hūṃ! In the north-west of the land of Oḍḍiyāṇa, པདྨ་གེ་སར་སྡོང་པོ་ལ༔ pema gesar dongpo la In the heart of a lotus flower, ཡ་མཚན་མཆོག་གི་དངོས་གྲུབ་བརྙེས༔ yatsen chok gi ngödrub nyé Endowed with the most marvellous attainments, པདྨ་འབྱུང་གནས་ཞེས་སུ་གྲགས༔ pema jungné shyé su drak You are renowned as the ‘Lotus Born’, འཁོར་དུ་མཁའ་འགྲོ་མང་པོས་བསྐོར༔ khor du khandro mangpö kor Surrounded by many hosts of ḍākinīs. ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་རྗེས་སུ་བདག་བསྒྲུབ་ཀྱི༔ khyé kyi jesu dak drub kyi Following in your footsteps, བྱིན་གྱིས་བརླབ་ཕྱིར་གཤེགས་སུ་གསོལ༔ jingyi lab chir shek su sol I pray to you: Come, inspire me with your blessing! གུ་རུ་པདྨ་སིདྡྷི་ཧཱུྂ༔ guru pema siddhi hung

Commentary

Chökyi Drakpa says:

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HUNG is an expression of magnetism and a skilful means to invoke the wisdom minds of the jñānasattvas.

The place where the Precious Master took birth was in the northwest of the land of Oddiyana. There, in the Milky Lake, where the water has the eight qualities of purity, he was born in the form of an eight-year old child in the heart of a lotus flower. The King of Oddiyana found that he was endowed with the most marvellous attainments and invited him to his palace. As he had been born from the heart of a lotus, he became renowned as the 'Lotus Born'. At the time of his birth, he was surrounded by hosts of dakinis. Following in the footsteps of this wonderful master, vow to practise until you reach his level of realization. Pray that just as he arrived at the palace of the King of Oddiyana in the past, he may come now and inspire you with his blessing.

GURU means master. PADMA signifies that he is an emanation of Amitabha, since Amitabha belongs to the buddha family of lotus speech. SIDDHI stands for the accomplishments, and HUNG for gathering. So altogether it means, 'Gather the accomplishments of the Lotus Master!'

Sogyal Rinpoche says:

When you invoke Padmasambhava you can do so by chanting the ‘Seven-Line Prayer’, the prayer that is most commonly used in the Nyingma and Dzogchen traditions. “To this very prayer, you can give your whole mind, in devotion,” said Guru Rinpoche. He also said:

When a disciple calls upon me with yearning devotion,

And with the melodious song of the Seven-Line Prayer,

I shall come straightaway from Zangdokpalri,

Like a mother who cannot resist the call of her child.

Seven Line Prayer

Significance

Mipham Rinpoche wrote: "This prayer in seven vajra lines is the most majestic of all prayers to the great and glorious one of Oddiyana, the essence of all the victorious ones of the three times. Arising as the inherent vibration of naturally occuring vajra sound, it constitutes a great treasure trove of blessings and spiritual attainments." In a hidden treasure teaching revealed by Jamgön Kongtrul, Padmasambhava says:

Billions of wisdom dakinis joined, as of one voice,

And in order to ensure the flourishing of the secret mantra teachings,

In this world, the realm tamed by Shakyamuni,

They invited me, with the melody of these seven lines.

Further Reading

• Jamgön Mipham, White Lotus: An Explanation of the Seven-line Prayer to Guru Padmasambhava, translated by the Padmakara Translation Group, Shambhala 2007
• Tulku Thondup, Enlightened Journey: Buddhist Practice as Everyday Life, Shambhala 2001, pp. 166-190

External Links

• The Seven Line Prayer: Accomplishing the Lama through the Seven Line Prayer: A Special Teaching from the Lama Sangdü, The Terma Revelation of Guru Chöwang