The Ārya-mañjuśrī-nāma-saṅgīti (Chanting the Names of Noble Manjushri) prayer is regarded as extremely important. It contains the most profound teaching on tantra, as extensive as the Pacific Ocean. It is also said to contain all four classes of tantra. 

This prayer is recited in all four traditions, with many lamas reciting it every day. Of course, not Mickey Mouse, me—I don’t do the daily recitation myself. But it’s commonly recited in the four traditions. Even in Solu Khumbu, where I was born, it’s very common for the Nyingma lamas there to recite it.

The first time I received the oral transmission of Ārya-mañjuśrī-nāma-saṅgīti was probably the first time we went to see Kyabje Trulshik Rinpoche, who is one of the gurus of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and His Holiness Serkong Tsenshab Rinpoche. His Holiness took the Vajrakilaya initiation from Kyabje Trulshik Rinpoche, and Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche took Vajrayogini initiation from Rinpoche.

Kyabje Trulshik Rinpoche is the reincarnation of Ananda, Buddha’s attendant. It is said that at different times in Tibet various incarnations of Ananda did great activities for sentient beings and for the teaching of Buddha. For example, when Langdarma, the irreligious king with an ox-like horn on his head, destroyed the Buddhadharma in Tibet, he was killed by Pelgyi Dorje, and Kyabje Trulshik Rinpoche is the incarnation of Pelgyi Dorje. And then, during Milarepa’s time, there was an incarnation called Chira Gonpo Dorje, the hunter who was hunting deer with a dog when he met Milarepa. There were different incarnations at different times.

When we went to see Kyabje Trulshik Rinpoche for the first time in Nepal, we were taking the lung of the Kangyur from him. The Nyingma lama, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, who is also one of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s gurus, was also attending the teaching. At that time Kyabje Trulshik Rinpoche said that he kept the Ārya-mañjuśrī-nāma-saṅgīti text on his pillow and recited it. Rinpoche didn’t say much more about it, but I think it shows its importance.

The benefits of reciting Ārya-mañjuśrī-nāma-saṅgīti

Ārya-mañjuśrī-nāma-saṅgīti is recited to develop wisdom; it’s incredible in developing wisdom and memory, so that you don’t forget things. Geshe Lobsang Tenzin, an ex-abbot of the Lower Tantric College, is a disciple of Geshe Sopa and a teacher of Yangsi Rinpoche’s teacher and of many of our Kopan geshes in Sera. I heard that after Geshe-la had read a long Tibetan text three or four times, he was always able to completely remember it. This was because he recited Ārya-mañjuśrī-nāma-saṅgīti every day. 

Geshe Lobsang Donyo, an ex-abbot of Sera Je, was able to remember much of the teachings he had studied in Tibet many years before. One day Tsen-la asked Geshe-la, “How do you remember all this?” Geshe Donyo replied that he always recited Ārya-mañjuśrī-nāma-saṅgīti every day. He had incredible wisdom and also a perfect memory, as well as the ability to learn very fast. These recent stories prove its benefits.

The other thing is that it brings incredibly powerful purification and collects inconceivable merits, like the atoms of this earth. You then don’t get reborn in the lower realms. All your wishes get fulfilled, and you’re always protected. It is said that the bodhisattvas also descend and bless your mental continuum. Vajrapani, wrathful male and female deities, Brahma, Indra, and so forth and the nagas and devas of the white side protect you all day and night. Like that, you purify all your negative karmas; gain a higher rebirth; remember your past lives; and are never separated from bodhicitta, which is very important, nor from right view. You’re quickly able to complete the work of collecting the merit of wisdom and the merit of fortune and achieve enlightenment.

That’s a very brief explanation of the benefits of reciting Ārya-mañjuśrī-nāma-saṅgīti. It was supposed to be the extensive benefits, but I haven’t yet seen the text with them. I’m trying to find it. 

I’m going to recite Ārya-mañjuśrī-nāma-saṅgīti slowly so that when you play the recording you can also recite along with it. There will then be unbelievable merit, not only from playing the recording but also from reciting. Then, sooner or later, you will learn it by heart, which is unbelievable. It means that you can then recite it in a car, a plane, or wherever you are. Maybe you can also recite it when you are dying, in the intermediate state, or in your mother’s womb. If you chant it your mother’s womb, she will wonder why there’s a noise coming from her stomach. You can then chant Ārya-mañjuśrī-nāma-saṅgīti as you are coming out of your mother’s womb….

Generating a bodhicitta motivation

When you chant Ārya-mañjuśrī-nāma-saṅgīti, you should, of course, do it with a bodhicitta motivation, thinking:

"The numberless hell beings, from whom I receive all my numberless happiness of the three times—past, present, and future—including liberation and enlightenment, are most precious and most kind. I must free them from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to full enlightenment by myself alone. 

"The numberless hungry ghosts, from whom I receive all my numberless past, present, and future happiness, are most precious and most kind. I must free them from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to full enlightenment by myself alone.

"The numberless animals, from whom I receive all my numberless past, present, and future happiness, are most precious and most kind. I must free them from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to full enlightenment by myself alone.

"The numberless human beings, from whom I receive all my numberless past, present, and future happiness, are most precious and most kind. I must free them from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to full enlightenment by myself alone.

"The numberless asuras, from whom I receive all my numberless past, present, and future happiness, are most precious and most kind. I must free them from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to full enlightenment by myself alone.

"The numberless suras, from whom I receive all my numberless past, present, and future happiness, are most precious and most kind. I must free them from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to full enlightenment by myself alone.

"The numberless intermediate state beings, from whom I receive all my numberless past, present, and future happiness, are most precious and most kind. I must free them from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to full enlightenment by myself alone.

"Since I receive all my numberless past, present, and future happiness, liberation, and enlightenment from all these sentient beings, they are the most precious and most kind ones. I must free them from all their suffering and its causes and bring them to enlightenment. Therefore, I must achieve enlightenment. Therefore, I must achieve enlightenment. Therefore, I’m going to recite the Ārya-mañjuśrī-nāma-saṅgīti."

Reciting with the four types of charity

Whether you are reciting while you are walking or while sitting, it’s always good to think that you are giving teachings to sentient beings. Here you are not just reciting words, but actually practicing by giving teachings to all sentient beings. That is excellent.

It also then becomes part of the four types of charity. Dharma charity is there, but there is also the charity of fearlessness, because your giving Dharma to sentient beings purifies their negative karma and liberates them from the lower realms, from samsara, and from the lower nirvana and brings them to enlightenment. The charity of loving kindness, wishing them happiness, is also there. Miscellaneous charity involves giving food, drink, medicine, or other material things. You can also practice miscellaneous charity while the recitation is happening; otherwise, just practice the three other charities.

It also means, if you have taken a highest yoga tantra initiation, that you are able to practice the samaya of Ratnasambhava, as mentioned in Six-Session Guru Yoga. You also have to understand that.

Reciting with the four unimaginables

Also, Kyabje Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche advised that when you recite texts such as Ārya-mañjuśrī-nāma-saṅgīti, King of Prayers, Golden Light Sutra, or Diamond Cutter Sutra, you can think of the four unimaginable things.
The first unimaginable thing is that there are all the numberless buddhas and bodhisattvas, equal in number to the atoms of the universes of the ten directions.

The second unimaginable thing is that you yourself are equal in number to the atoms of the universes of the ten direction universes. 

Third, there are also the same number of sentient beings.

The fourth unimaginable thing is that nectar beams are emitted from the numberless buddhas and bodhisattvas to purify your negative karmas collected from beginningless rebirth, as well as those of the numberless other sentient beings.

Brief preliminaries

When you recite Ārya-mañjuśrī-nāma-saṅgīti while sitting (this may be difficult to do while you’re walking), think that Buddha is in front of you and is giving a teaching of these words to you, and that you then attain realizations. As you recite, all sentient beings also attain realizations. It’s very good to do that. 

You then chant TADYATHA OM DHARE DHARE BHENDARE SVAHA seven times. This multiplies whatever you recite millions of times. 

Extensive preliminaries

When you recite a text or give an oral transmission, if there’s time, you can do the practice more elaborately, of course. Visualize the merit field, then begin with refuge and bodhicitta, generate the four immeasurable thoughts and a bodhicitta motivation, do the seven-limb prayer and a short mandala offering with the request for the three great purposes. After that, you can make requests by reciting Requesting Prayer to the Lamrim Lineage Gurus, which comes from Jorchö or Abbreviated Request to the Lineage Gurus, which is from the beginning of Lama Tsongkhapa’s Lamrim Chenmo. Of course, the verse for Lama Tsongkhapa is not included there, so you have to add it, as well as the verses for your own root guru and other gurus. Conclude with the general verse for all gurus and the verse about not giving rise to heresy:

Eyes viewing all the infinite scriptures, 
Supreme gateway for the fortunate traveling to liberation, 
Engaging with skillful means moved by love:
To the illuminating spiritual friends, I make requests. 

May I not give rise to heresy for even a second
In regard to the actions of the glorious guru.
May I see whatever actions are done as the stainless [actions of a buddha].
With this devotion, may I receive the guru’s blessings in my heart. 

After that, you can do a lamrim prayer, such as The Foundation of All Good Qualities or The Three Principal Aspects of the Path.

You can then visualize that Shakyamuni Buddha sends beams through his pores, with a buddha on the tip of each beam. A buddha descends onto the crown of every sentient being: every one of the numberless hell beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, numberless human beings, numberless asuras, numberless suras, and numberless intermediate state beings. Each and every sentient being is then purified.

While you are doing that, chant TADYATHA OM MUNE MUNE MAHA MUNAYE SVAHA. Then think that you have enlightened all of the sentient beings; they all become buddha. All the buddhas then absorb back into Guru Shakyamuni Buddha.

Then recite the increasing mantra TADYATHA OM DHARE DHARE BHENDARE SVAHA seven times.

You can then recite the refuge and bodhicitta verse that a teacher normally recites before giving a teaching:

SANG GYÄ CHHÖ DANG TSHOG KYI CHHOG NAM LA
JANG CHHUB BAR DU DAG NI KYAB SU CHHI
DAG GI CHHÖ SHÄ GYI PÄI SÖ NAM KYI
DRO LA PHÄN CHHIR SANG GYÄ DRUB PAR SHOG  (3x)

Visualize that you are giving teachings to all sentient beings in their own language, and think that they are hearing the teaching in their own language. We just think like that, but Buddha actually does it. Remember the verse in King of Prayers, the prayer of Samantabhadra:

May I teach the Dharma in the language of gods, 
In every language of spirits and nagas, 
Of human and of demons, 
And in the voice of every form of being. 

You then chant Ārya-mañjuśrī-nāma-saṅgīti.

Dedications

After the recitation, you then do dedications. 

"Due to all the past, present, and future merits collected by me and the three-time merits collected by others, may bodhicitta, the source of all happiness and success for us and for all sentient beings, be actualized within my own heart and in the hearts of my family members, in the hearts of all the people around me, and in the hearts of all sentient beings without the delay of even a second. And may those in whose hearts bodhicitta has been generated have it increase.

"Due to all the three-time merits collected by me and by others, may bodhicitta be generated in the hearts of all the leaders of the world, so that all the millions of people in every country will have perfect peace and happiness and be led in the correct path to peace."

JANG CHHUB SEM CHHOG RIN PO CHHE
MA KYE PA NAM KYE GYUR CHIG
KYE PA NYAM PA ME PA YI
GONG NÄ GONG DU PHEL WAR SHOG

"Due to all the past, present, and future merits collected by me and the three-time merits collected by others, may His Holiness the Dalai Lama, sole object of refuge of us, all sentient beings, and originator of all our happiness and the development of all our faith in the Buddhadharma, have a stable life, and may all His Holiness’s holy wishes succeed immediately."

JIG TEN KHAM DIR PHÄN DE MA LÜ PA
GANG LÄ JUNG WÄI SAM PHEL YI ZHIN NOR
KA DRIN TSHUNG ME TÄN DZIN GYA TSHO CHOG
KU TSHE TÄN CHING THUG ZHE LHÜN DRUB SHOG

This next prayer is a special prayer for the fulfillment of all His Holiness’s holy wishes.

TONG NYI NYING JE ZUNG DU JUG PÄI LAM
CHHE CHHER SÄL DZÄ GANG CHÄN TÄN DRÖI GÖN
CHHAG NA PÄ MO TÄN DZIN GYA TSHO LA
SÖL WA DEB SO ZHE DÖN LHÜN DRUB SHOG

"Due to all the past, present, and future merits collected by me and the three-time merits collected by others, may all the father and mother sentient beings have happiness; may the three lower realms be empty forever; may all the buddhas’ prayers succeed immediately; and may I be able to cause all this to happen by myself alone." 

Then recite Nagarjuna’s tonglen prayer from Jewel Garland, from where the Eight Verses and other prayers come.

Whatever suffering sentient beings have, 
May it ripen on me.
Whatever happiness and merit I have, 
May it ripen on all sentient beings. 

Don’t just recite the words, but do the meditation. This is actually the best practice, a quick way to achieve enlightenment and to liberate the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to enlightenment. 

"Due to all the past, present, and future merits collected by me and the three-time merits collected by others, may I be able to actualize in this very lifetime the entire meaning of the whole path to enlightenment and then liberate the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to enlightenment as quickly as possible. 

"Due to all the past, present, and future merits collected by me and the three-time merits collected by others, may the negative karmas of all sentient beings, including me and those connected to me, who are living in this universe, world, country, place, or house, be purified. Just by that, may they be free from all sicknesses, spirit harms, and so forth and never ever be reborn in the lower realms. May they find faith in refuge and karma, actualize bodhicitta, complete the path, and achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible." 

Please dedicate all these merits that the activities of the FPMT organization, especially its service to monasteries and nunneries, which preserve and spread the Dharma, flourish forever. 

This dedication is very, very important, because without the monasteries and nunneries, the teachings cannot be spread, which then means that sentient beings cannot have peace and happiness. 

"Due to all the past, present, and future merits collected by me and the three-time merits collected by others, may the war, famine, disease, torture, poverty, sickness, dangers of fire, water, air, and earth, and all the other undesirable things happening in any part of the world be stopped immediately, and may nobody in this world ever experience any of these things again. 

"Due to all the past, present, and future merits collected by me and the three-time merits collected by others, which exist but which are empty from their own side, may the I, who exists but who is empty from its own side, achieve Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment, which exists but which is empty from its own side, and lead all the sentient beings, who exist but who are empty from their own side, to that state of full enlightenment, which exists but which is empty from its own side, by myself alone, who exists but who is empty from its own side." 

I full dedicate all these virtues
To be able to train just like
The hero Manjushri, who knows reality, 
And just like Samantabhadra as well. 

I full dedicate all my roots of virtue, 
With the dedication praised as the best
By all the gone-beyond victors of the three times, 
In order to have good conduct. 

Prayers for multiplying merit

Immediately chant the names and mantras to multiply any merit you have collected 100,000 times. 

CHOM DÄN DÄ DE ZHIN SHEG PA DRA CHOM PA YANG DAG PAR DZOG PÄI SANG GYÄ NAM PAR NANG DZÄ Ö KYI GYÄL PO LA CHHAG TSHÄL LO   (1x)
   To Bhagavan, Tathagata, Arhat, Perfectly Complete Buddha, Vairochana, King of Light, I prostrate. (1x)

JANG CHHUB SEM PA SEM PA CHHEN PO KÜN TU ZANG PO LA CHHAG TSHÄL LO (1x)
   To Bodhisattva Mahasattva Samantabhadra, I prostrate.   (1x)

TADYATHĀ [OM] PAÑCENDRIYA AVA BODHANĀYE SVĀHĀ / OM DHURU DHURU JAYA MUKHE SVĀHĀ (7x)

Now, recite the names for all your prayers to be actualized. First comes the Medicine Buddha. 

CHOM DÄN DÄ DE ZHIN SHEG PA DRA CHOM PA YANG DAG PAR DZOG PÄI SANG GYÄ MĀN GYI LA BAI DUR YĀI Ö KYI GYÄL PO LA CHHAG TSHÄL LO   (1x) 
    To Bhagavan, Tathagata, Arhat, Perfectly Complete Buddha, Medicine Buddha, King of Vaidurya Light, I prostrate.   (1x)

CHOM DÄN DÄ DE ZHIN SHEG PA DRA CHOM PA YANG DAG PAR DZOG PÄI SANG GYÄ NGO WA DANG MÖN LAM [THAM CHÄ RAB TU DRUB PÄ GYÄL PO LA CHHAG TSHÄL LO   (1x)
    To Bhagavan, Tathagata, Arhat, Perfectly Complete Buddha, Vairochana, King Fully Accomplishing All Dedications and Prayers, I prostrate.   (1x)

Due to the blessings of the eminent victorious ones and the bodhisattvas, 
The truth of infallible dependent arising, 
And the power of my pure special attitude taking responsibility, 
May all the aims of my pure prayers be accomplished immediately.

Excerpt from a teaching given by Kyabje Zopa Rinpoche in New York, USA, on September 6, 2007. Transcribed by Ven. Thubten Munsel; checked and edited by Ven. Ailsa Cameron.