Calling the Guru from Afar¹³²

Guru, think of me.
Guru, think of me.
Guru, think of me.

Magnificently glorious guru, dispelling the darkness of ignorance;
Magnificently glorious guru, revealing the path of liberation;
Magnificently glorious guru, liberating from the waters of samsara;
Magnificently glorious guru, eliminating the diseases of the five poisons;
Magnificently glorious guru, the wish-granting jewel;
I beseech you, please bless me.

Magnificently glorious guru, please bless me
To remember impermanence and death from my heart.
Magnificently glorious guru, please bless me
To generate the thought of no-need in my mind.
Magnificently glorious guru, please bless me
To abide one-pointedly in practice in isolated places.
Magnificently glorious guru, please bless me
To not have any hindrances to my practice.
Magnificently glorious guru, please bless me
To realize, without error, the view of the fundamental nature
of reality.
Magnificently glorious guru, please bless me
So that all bad conditions appear as a support.
Magnificently glorious guru, please bless me
To accomplish effortlessly the two works of self and others.

Please bless me now, quickly.
Please bless me quickly, very quickly.
Please bless me on this very cushion.
Please bless me in this very session.

After reciting either the extensive or brief version of Calling the Guru from Afar, recite the following request:

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 pure.
With this devotion, may I receive the guru’s blessings in my heart.

Then recite the following verse and meditate on the guru entering your heart.

Magnificent and precious root guru,
Please abide on the lotus seat at my heart,
Guide me with your great kindness,
And grant me the realizations of your holy body, speech, and mind.

Colophons

Colophon for Calling the Guru from Afar (Brief Version):

Translated by Lama Zopa Rinpoche in 1985, transcribed and edited by Ven. Thubten Dondrub. Lama Zopa Rinpoche thinks that this version of Calling the Guru from Afar (bla ma rgyang ’bod) was composed by Kyabje Trulshik Rinpoche’s root guru, Rongphu Sanggye (Ngawang Tenzin Norbu, 1867–1940/42).

Colophon for the final two verses:

Translated by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Lightly edited by Ven. Constance Miller. Revised January 2003 by Kendall Magnussen, FPMT Education Services. Lightly revised based on the Tibetan by Ven. Joan Nicell, FPMT Translation Services, 2015.

NOTES

¹³² See Essential Buddhist Prayers, Volume 1, pp. 135–37 for the Tibetan phonetics of this prayer. [Return to text]