Calling The Guru From Afar: A Tormented Wail Quickly Drawing Forth The Blessing Of The Guru,
The Inseparable Three Kayas¹³⁷

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

The transcendental wisdom of all buddhas, one taste in the great bliss dharmakaya,
Is itself the ultimate nature of all kind gurus.
I beseech you, guru, dharmakaya,
Please guide me always without separation, in this life, future lives, and the bardo.

Wisdom’s own illusory appearance, the conqueror with seven branches,
Is itself the ultimate basis of emanation of all kind gurus.
I beseech you, guru, sambhogakaya,
Please guide me always without separation, in this life, future lives, and the bardo.

The play of various emanations, suiting the dispositions of the many to be subdued,
Is itself the behavior of the sambhogakaya of the kind gurus.
I beseech you, guru, nirmanakaya,
Please guide me always without separation, in this life, future lives, and the bardo.

All the infinite peaceful and wrathful yidams are also the guru’s nature
And since no yidam exists apart from the kind guru,
I beseech you, guru, who comprises all yidams,
Please guide me always without separation, in this life, future lives, and the bardo.

The ordinary form of all buddhas arises in the aspect of the guru,
Therefore, no buddhas are observed apart from the kind guru.
I beseech you, guru, who comprises all buddhas,
Please guide me always without separation, in this life, future lives, and the bardo.

The very form of all conquerors’ wisdom, compassion, and power arises as the guru,
Therefore, the supreme arya saviors of the three types¹³⁸ are also the kind guru.
I beseech you, guru, who combines the three types in one,
Please guide me always without separation, in this life, future lives, and the bardo.

The hundred, five, and three types, however many elaborated,are the guru.
The pervasive master in whom they are all included is also the guru.
I beseech you, guru, as master of all the types of buddhas,
Please guide me always without separation, in this life, future lives, and the bardo.

The creator of all buddhas, Dharma, and Sangha is the guru.
The one who combines all three refuges is the kind guru.
I beseech you, guru, whose presence combines all refuges,
Please guide me always without separation, in this life, future lives, and the bardo.

Thinking of how the actual form of all buddhas arises in the aspect of the guru
And mercifully guides me—reminds me of you, guru.

Thinking of how you show the excellent unmistaken path to me,
An unfortunate wretched being, abandoned by all the buddhas—reminds me of you, guru.

Thinking of this excellent body, highly meaningful and difficult to obtain,
And wishing to take its essence with unerring choice between gain and loss, happiness and suffering—reminds me of you, guru.

Thinking of the experience of not knowing what to do when the great fear of death
Suddenly descends upon me—reminds me of you, guru.

Thinking of the experience of just now suddenly separating from all the perfections of this life
And going on alone—reminds me of you, guru.

Thinking of the experience of my naked body falling into the terrifying fires of hell
And being unable to bear it—reminds me of you, guru.

Thinking of how the suffering of hunger and thirst, without a drop of water,
Is directly experienced in the unfortunate preta realm—reminds me of you, guru.

Thinking of how very repulsive and wretched it is to become a foolish stupid animal
And what it would be like to experience it myself—reminds me of you, guru.

Thinking of a refuge to protect me from this,
Since I am now about to fall into the wretched states of bad migration—reminds me of you, guru.

Thinking of how white and black actions are experienced
And of how to practice thorough and precise engagement and restraint—reminds me of you, guru.

Thinking of a method to escape this prison of endless existences,
The source of all suffering—reminds me of you, guru.

Thinking of the plight of my pitiful old mothers, pervasive as space,
Fallen amidst the fearful ocean of samsara and tormented there—reminds me of you, guru.

Therefore, guru, please bless me to generate in my mental continuum
Effortless experience of the profound three principles of the path and the two stages.

Please bless me to strive in one-pointed practice of the three trainings with the intense thought of renunciation
In order to reach the secure state of liberation.

Please bless me to train in the precious supreme bodhicitta with the special attitude,
Taking responsibility to liberate all migrators by myself alone.

Please bless me to follow after the ocean of conquerors with the will to cross
To the very end of the great waves of deeds of the conquerors’ sons.

Please bless me to realize the supreme view, free of extremes,
In which emptiness and dependent arising, appearance and emptiness, complement each other.

Please bless me quickly to generate the experience of taking the three kayas into the path,
Ripening the bases of birth, death, and bardo.

Please bless me to arise as the illusory divine body itself, the play of the four joys and four emptinesses
Of the wind and mind absorbed in the central channel.

Please bless me to meet the ultimate guru—the bare face of my innate mind
With the covering of perception of true existence and perceiving it as true removed.

Please bless me to be one with your three secrets, guru, in the vast dharmakaya of great bliss,
Which has exhausted the elaborations of the two obscurations.

In short, please abide inseparably in the center of my heart until the great enlightenment
And mercifully bless me, the child, to follow after you, the father.

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

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:

Original Colophon for Calling the Guru from Afar (Extensive Version):

Composed by Pabongkha Tulku at the great insistent request, and with the offering of three hundred silver coins, of Gelong Losang Rabyä of Bompa in the faraway area of Tsawa. The scribing was done by the monk Losang Dorje from the area of Den.

Publisher’s Colophon:

This translation of Pabongkha Dechen Nyingpo’s Calling the Guru from Afar: A Tormented Wail, Quickly Drawing Forth the Blessings of the Guru, the Inseparable Three Kayas (bla ma rgyang ’bod sku gsum dbyer med bla ma’i byin rlabs byung ’dren gdung dbyangs) was translated by Ven. George Churinoff and extracted from Nyung Nä: The Means of Achievement of the Eleven-Faced Great Compassionate One, Avalokiteshvara, Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1995. Permission kindly granted by the translator to replace “lama” with “guru,” and “families” with “types,” 2016. First line revised by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, 2014 and 2018.

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

¹³⁷ See Essential Buddhist Prayers, Volume 1, pp. 127–33 for the Tibetan phonetics of this prayer. [Return to text]

¹³⁸ Lama Zopa Rinpoche prefers to translate rig (Tib. rigs) in rig sum (Tib. rigs gsum), rig nga (Tib. rigs lnga), and rig gya (Tib. rigs brgya) as “types” rather than as “families” or as “lineages.” [Return to text]