Nature that embodies all the buddhas,
Source of all the pure transmission and realization Dharma,
Principal amongst all the arya Sangha:
I take refuge in all magnificent pure gurus.

Please bless my mind to become Dharma,
That Dharma to become the path,
And that path to be free of all hindrances.
Until I achieve enlightenment, may I,
Just like the bodhisattvas, Shönnu Norsang and Taktungu,³⁷
Practice pure devotion to my guru in thought and action,
See all the actions of my guru as excellent,
And fulfill whatever he advises.
Please bless me with the potential to accomplish this.
(This is relying on the spiritual friend.)

Knowing that this highly meaningful perfect human rebirth
Is difficult to obtain and easily lost,
Realizing the profundity of cause and effect
And the unbearable sufferings of the lower realms,
From my heart I take refuge in the Three Precious Sublime Ones,
Abandon negativity, and practice virtue in accordance with the Dharma.
Please bless me with the potential to accomplish this.
(This is the path of the being of lower capacity.)

In dependence on this, I am able to attain
Only the higher rebirths of humans and gods.
Not having abandoned afflictions,
I have to experience uninterrupted, limitless cyclic existence.
By contemplating well how cyclic existence works,
May I train day and night in the principal path
Of the three precious higher trainings—
The means of attaining liberation.
Please bless me with the potential to always train like this.
(This is the path of the being of middle capacity.)

In dependence on this, I am able to attain only self-liberation.
As there is not one sentient being in all the six realms
Who has not been my mother or father,
I will turn away from this lower happiness
And generate the wish to fulfill their ultimate purposes.
By contemplating the path of equalizing and exchanging self for others,
I will generate the precious bodhicitta
And engage in the bodhisattvas’ actions of the six perfections.
Please bless me with the potential to train in this way.
(This is the common path of the being of higher capacity.)

Having trained like this in the common path,
I myself will not have aversion to experiencing
The sufferings of cyclic existence for a long time,
But by the force of extraordinary unbearable compassion for sentient beings,
May I enter the quick path of the Vajrayana.
By observing purely my vows and pledges even at the cost of my life,
May I quickly attain the unified state of Vajradhara
In one brief lifetime of this degenerate age.
Please bless me with the potential to attain this.
(This is the secret mantra vajra vehicle of the being of highest capacity.)

Colophon: This glance meditation on the lamrim was composed by Vajradhara Losang Jinpa. Translated by Ven. Thubten Dekyong; lightly edited by Maureen O’Malley and Ven. Ailsa Cameron; lightly polished for distribution at the 1999 Vajrasattva retreat, Land of Medicine Buddha, by Ven. Ailsa Cameron, Ven. Constance Miller and Nicholas Ribush, April 1999.

NOTES

³⁷ Respectively, Young Sudhana in the Flower Ornament Scripture (Avatamsaka Sutra) and Sadaprarudita (Bodhisattva Always Crying) in the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita Sutra), classic examples of how to practice guru devotion. [Return to text]