Gurus and yidams, deities of the mandala,
Buddhas of the three times and ten directions and your offspring,
Consider me with kindness.
To fulfill these wishes, please pour your energy into me.
Commentary
For any undertaking, there are the two questions you have to answer. What are you doing? Why are you doing it? The first two verses are Rangjung Dorje’s answers with respect to this prayer. In Mahayana Buddhism, the answer to the first is refuge, and the answer to the second is awakening mind. In keeping with the Tibetan tradition, Rangjung Dorje invokes the power of the Mahamudra Lineage for the first and the power of dedication for the second.
Put yourself in Rangjung Dorje’s shoes. As you read this prayer, make his wishes your own. First, call on the lineage of teachers through whom you have connected with the possibility of awakening, whether you call it direct knowing, mahamudra, mind nature, or some other term. Then call on the yidams (the deities) who arise as ways for you to be infused with the spirit of this knowing. Finally, call on the buddhas present throughout time and space and the bodhisattvas they have inspired and led to awakening. Know in your heart that all these beings are here to help you in your journey.
Feel the yearning, the bottomless longing, that impels you to know and experience your life, your world, and yourself in a different way, a way that you may not yet know but feel is possible. Let go of any conventional sense of who you are or who you want to be and feel that yearning. Let go of the life you have created up to now. Step into the unknown and feel its presence—on the one hand an understanding that sees and knows to the very core of being, on the other, an indescribable compassion that is always there to hold and sustain you in this practice.
In other words, take refuge. Leave behind the way of life you have known and enter the way of awakening.