The Prayer of Yeshe Tsogyal
"May I be able to take it to the highest level: wisdom, love, and power,
and thus achieve perfect awakening!
And that all beings that wander
through the six kingdoms,
this immense ocean of suffering of saṃsāra,
break free and arrive quickly
to true and perfect enlightenment!"
Yeshe Tsogyal
in “The Prayer of Yeshe Tsogyal”
These verses conclude Yeshe Tsogyal's Prayer (Mahā Guru Söldeb), the aspiration that Yeshe Tsogyal addressed to Guru Padmasambhava at the moment he left Tibet for the southwest, to the land of the rakṣasas. At the top of the Gung-thang gorge, in Mang-yul, she prostrated herself, encircled him, and, placing the master's feet on her own head, formulated this vow; these were her last words to him, full of devotion and longing.
Yeshe Tsogyal (8th century) was Padmasambhava's principal Tibetan disciple and companion, venerated as a female Buddha. Alongside her master, she hid countless termas, the Dharma treasures destined to reappear in due time.
Centuries later, it was Pema Lingpa (1450–1521) – a great Bhutanese tertön and one of the five treasure-revealing kings of the Nyingma school – who brought this prayer back to light: he revealed it from a rock shaped like a lion's face in the Lhodrak Valley of medicinal plants. Recited to this day by practitioners, it is said that Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche pronounced it at the end of each practice session.
Translation from Tibetan: Padmakara Translation Group, Portuguese-speaking branch.
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