Verses of the Eight Noble Auspicious Ones
The Verses of the Eight Noble Auspicious Ones (Tib. འཕགས་ཕ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་བརྒྱད་པའི་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ་, Wyl. ‘phags pa bkra shis brgyad pa’i tshigs su bcad pa) were written down in 1896 by Jampal Gyepé Dorjé (Tib. འཇམ་དཔལ་དགྱེས་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེ་, Wyl. ‘jam dpal dgyes pa’i rdo rje), otherwise known as Jamgön Mipham Gyatso or Ju Mipham Rinpoche (1846-1912)—a great Nyingma master and writer of the last century—based on a sutra with a similar title, The Sutra of Eightfold Auspiciousness.[1] Mipham also wrote a short commentary on the prayer.
These verses of auspiciousness invoke the power of goodness exemplified by the buddhas and bodhisattvas, so that any harm or obstacles may be overcome. As it says in the colophon to the prayer:
- If you recite this upon waking, all the tasks of the day will be accomplished. If you recite it when going to sleep, it will bring you good dreams. If you recite it when entering battle, it will bring total victory. If you recite it at the outset of a project, all aims and wishes will be fulfilled. If you recite it continually, you will enjoy a long life, glory, renown, prosperity, auspiciousness, abundant happiness and positivity, and the fulfilment of all wishes; all your misdeeds and obscurations will be purified, and you will achieve the higher realms and liberation. This was declared by the sublime victorious one himself.
In more detail, these verses invoke and pay homage to:
- the Three Jewels,
- the Eight Sugatas[2],
- the eight great bodhisattvas, each holding their emblem,
- the eight offering goddesses, each holding one of the eight auspicious symbols, and
- the Eight Guardians of the World, each one holding their divine emblem.
Tibetan Texts in Mipham’s Collected Works (digital version)
- Prayer: འཕགས་པ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་བརྒྱད་པའི་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ་, ‘phags pa bkra shis brgyad pa’i tshigs su bcad pa – Vol. 1, pp.1-4
- Commentary: བཀྲ་ཤིས་བརྒྱད་པའི་དོན་བཤད་, bkra shis brgyad pa’i don bshad – Vol. 1, pp.5-12
Notes
- ↑ Tib. འཕགས་པ་བརྐ་ཤིས་བརྒྱད་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ་, Wyl. ‘phags pa bkra shis brgyad bzhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo; Skt. Mangalastaka sutra – [Kangyur] Derge Edition - Vol. 68 pp.104-108.
- ↑ As explained in The Sutra of Eightfold Auspiciousness, there is power in reciting the names of these particular eight buddhas because their aspirations were quite extraordinary, and their buddha realms are exceptionally pure.
