Book Contents

Translator’s Introduction

The Songs of Barway Dorje:
A Collection of Instructions Given to Fortunate Disciples by Guru Vajradhara Barway Dorje

Notes

List of Songs

Acknowledgements

Resources

Book Excerpts

This Fresh Mind

This fresh mind of ours is the actual buddha.
Sustaining unaltered awareness is prayer.
Unlimited appearances are the actual path.
The absence of doubt is all-sufficient conduct and fruition.

I pray to Barway Dorje, the embodiment of all buddhas,
With one-pointed faith and fierce devotion.
Hold me with compassion in this and all future lives and between them.
Grant your blessing so that my continuum accords with dharma.

Written by Barway Dorje at the request of Ani Könchok Zangmo. Virtue!

The Song of Karma Ngedön Nyingpo

This song was offered by Karma Ngedön Nyingpo, a tulku of Kyodrak:

Single father, kind lord, all refuges embodied,
I have meditated through imagination on the authentic meaning.
I have kept dharma, twofold selflessness, in my heart.
I have entered the passage of the path, the two stages.
I wonder if I haven't gained irreversible confidence
In the great secret, the vehicle of fruition.
I know that all this is through your kindness, lord.
From now until awakening,
Never stop gazing upon me with great love.
Please ripen me with the amrita of your speech.

In reply, the lord Barway Dorje wrote:

My son, you intelligent, supreme nirmanakaya!
Your body is nothing more than an aggregate to which you cling.
Analyze its parts, down to subtle particles.
When analyzed, it is seen to be empty.
Your awareness is emptiness itself.
Its display is unreal appearances.
Meditate on them as the rainbowlike body of a deity.
Be without great fixation on reality.
Cultivate the nature of self-illuminating self-awareness.
I offer this to the eyes of this supreme nirmanakaya.
Please be persistent and courageous in meditation.
Kind, Kind Root Guru

namo!
Kind, kind root guru,
We have long been connected through deep aspiration.
You are committed to kindness; don't abandon me now!
Kind, single father: regard me with wisdom.

I am tormented by chains of karma and kleshas.
I am ignorant, stupid, and infantile.
I may be swept away by the waves of my suffering in the ocean of samsara.
Compassionate one, grasp me with the hook of your kindness.

When I embark on the path of the essence, supreme means,
My heart may be poisoned by the demon of pointless depression.
I may sink into the quicksand of distraction and laziness.
Kind one, extend the long arm of your power.

In the darkness of my obscurations' clouds,
I do not see the authentic essence, absolute truth.
I wander about, blinded by self-fixation.
One with blessing, grant me eyes of wisdom.

Your devoted child prays to you from afar.
Please hold me with great compassion.
Now, later, between, and always,
Hold me, beings' protector, supreme guru.
Beyond a moment's separation,
Grant the blessing of the your mind uniting with mine.

Written by Barway Dorje at the request of a young woman named Tseyang. Virtue!

An All-Inclusive Guruyoga for a Single Seat

Namo guru!

I take refuge in the sugatas, the trikaya gurus.
In order to place my mothers, all beings, in buddhahood
I generate the four immeasurables and supreme bodhichitta.

Above my head, on a lion throne, lotus, sun, and moon,
Is my root guru, unaltered Vajradhara,
In his actual form, resplendently clear.
He is the essence of all sources of hope and refuge.
I pray to him with unbearably strong devotion.

Namo!
All the three jewels and roots and all victors without exception
Are contained in my root guru's body, speech, mind, qualities,
and activity.
Your compassion is as vast as space.
The great clouds of your blessings send down rain of siddhi.
Your deeds in taming beings warm all beings' hearts.
I pray to my root guru, the all-inclusive embodiment.
My mind has turned to dharma through your kindness.
Dechen Barway Dorje Düdül Lingpa:
I pray to you from my heart. Bless me!
When sick I dream of lasting health.
Old, I still imagine living on.
I think of death but strive for food and wealth.
I've bad karma and a heart of stone!
Tame my being with great compassion.
Hold me with the hook of able kindness.
Raise me like a child with your great love.
Tame and change my cynical mind.
Bless my three gates with your body, speech, and mind.
Mature and liberate my body, speech, and mind.
Bless me so that my every thought and deed accord with dharma.

Om ah hum guru shri heruka mahasukha jnana jvala vajra sarva siddhi hum

Recite the prayer and the name mantra as many times as you can with strong devotion. At the end:

In order to bless me with great compassion
The guru emits white light from the om in his forehead.
The blessing of his body is like moonlight.
It dissolves into my forehead.
My physical obscurations are purified.
I receive the vase blessing-empowerment.
The nirmanakaya is matured.
From the ah in the guru's throat red light-rays are emitted.
Like sunlight, they dissolve into my throat.
My verbal obscurations are purified.
I receive the blessing of speech.
The resultant sambhogakaya is matured.
From the hum in his heart blue light-rays are emitted.
Like molten sky, they dissolve into my heart.
My mental obscurations are purified.
The blessing of mind is transferred to me.
The resultant dharmakaya is revealed.
From his navel light-rays of five colors are emitted.
The blessing of wisdom dissolves into my navel.
The equal, karmic, klesha, and cognitive obscurations
are purified.
My body is transformed into the seal of a deity, adorned
with marks and signs.
My speech and winds are the sound of the vowels and
consonants.
My mind, with hundreds of samadhis, is the five wisdoms’ play.
The svabhavikakaya is revealed.
Indivisible from the glorious guru, Mahavajradhara,
May I reveal unity.

With your mind, do not think of the past; it is indescribable.
The future is unborn; do not beckon thoughts.
Do not alter or remove present thoughts.
Let go of any desire for clarity or stillness beyond mere attention.
Whatever occurs is ordinary cognition itself.
Abandon speculation as to whether it is or is not.
Sustain undistractedness no matter what happens.
Pray to your guru and cultivate compassion for beings.
Be undistracted in this life, future ones, and in between.
If you sustain just that, great benefit will be spontaneously accomplished.
This old man has no instructions beyond that.
I, Dechen Barway Dorje, composed this to be easily understood
Out of my heartfelt love for my perfect servant Könchok.
It was simultaneously written down by the monk Lodrö Zangpo.
May it be advice befitting disciples' minds.
May they practice its meaning.