Seven Branch Prayer
With complete faith I bow
To Buddha Shakyamuni and
All the victorious ones and their followers
Abiding in the ten directions and three times.
I offer flowers, incense, light,
Perfume, food, music, and many other things,
Both in substance and in my imagination.
I ask the noble gathering to accept them.
I confess all evil actions that i have done
In the grip of emotional reactions,
From time without beginning until now:
The five that ripen immediately,
The ten non-virtuous acts, and others.
I rejoice in the goodness of all the virtue
Listeners, independent buddhas,
Bodhisattvas, and ordinary people
Gather throughout the past, present, and future.
I pray for the Dharma Wheel to be turned,
The teachings of the universal and individual paths,
In ways suitable for the different aptitudes
And motivations present in sentient beings.
I ask the buddhas not to pass into nirvana,
But, with great compassion and until samsara is completely empty,
To look after all sentient beings
Who are drowning in this ocean of suffering.
May whatever goodness I have generated
Become a seed for the awakening of all beings.
Without delay, may I become
A wonderful leader for sentient beings.
Refuge and Bodhicitta
༄༅། །སངས་རྒྱས་ཆོོས་དང་ཚོོགས་ཀྱིི་མཆོོག་རྣམས་ལ། །
sang gye cho dang tsok kyi nam la
Until enlightenment, I go for refuge in the
བྱང་ཆུབ་བར་དུ་བདག་ནིི་སྐྱབས་སུ་མཆིི། །
jang chub bar du dak ni kyap su chi
Buddha, the Dharma, and the supreme Sangha.
བདག་གིིས་བྱིིན་སོོགས་བགྱིིས་པའིི་བསོོད་ནམས་ཀྱིིས། །
dak gi jin sok gyi pe so nam kyi
By the merit of generosity and other virtues,
འགྲོོ་ལ་ཕན་ཕྱིིར་སངས་རྒྱས་འགྲུབ་པར་ཤོོག །
dro la pen chir sang gye drup par shok
May I attain buddhahood for the benefit of beings.
Four Immeasurables
སེེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་བདེེ་བ་དང་བདེེ་བའིི་རྒྱུ་དང་ལྡན་པར་གྱུར་ཅིིག །
sem chen tam che de wa dang de we gyu dang den par gyur chik
May all sentient beings have happiness and the causes of happiness.
སྡུག་བསྔལ་དང་སྡུག་བསྔལ་གྱིི་རྒྱུ་དང་བྲལ་བར་གྱུར་ཅིིག །
duk ngal dang duk ngal gyi gyu dang dral war gyur chik
May we be free of suffering and the causes of suffering.
སྡུག་བསྔལ་མེེད་པའིི་བདེེ་བ་དམ་པ་དང་མིི་འབྲལ་བར་གྱུར་ཅིིག །
duk ngal me pe de wa dam pa dang mi dral war gyur chik
May we never be separated from true happiness which is free from suffering.
ཉེེ་རིིང་ཆགས་སྡང་གཉིིས་དང་བྲལ་བར་བཏང་སྙོོམས་ཆེེན་པོོ་ལ་གནས་པར་གྱུར་ཅིིག །
nye ring chak dang nyi dang dral war tang nyom chen po la ne par gyur chik
May we abide in great equanimity, free from the partiality of attachment and aversion.
Closing Prayers
Dedication of Merit
དགེེ་བ་འདིི་ཡིིས་མྱུར་དུ་བདག །
ge wa di yi nyur du dak
By this virtue, may I quickly
ཕྱིག་རྒྱ་ཆོེན་པོ་འིགྲུབ་གྱུར་ནས། །
chak gya chen po drup gyur ne
Realize mahamudra
འགྲོོ་བ་གཅིིག་ཀྱང་མ་ལུས་པ། །
dro wa chik kyang ma lu pa
And bring every sentient being,
དེ་ཡིི་ས་ལ་འིགོད་པར་ཤོོག །
de yi sa la gö par shok
Without exception, to that state.
Awakening Mind
བྱང་ཆུབ་སེེམས་ནིི་རིིན་པོོ་ཆེེ། །
jang chub sem ni rin po che
Bodhichitta is precious.
སྐྱེེས་པ་ཉམས་པ་མེེད་པ་དང་། །
kye pa nyam pa me pa dang
Once arisen, may it not diminish
མ་སྐྱེས་པ་རྣམས་སྐྱེས་གྱུར་ཅིག །
ma kye pa nam kye gyur chik
May it arise in whom it has not arisen.
གོང་ནས་གོང་དུ་འིཕེལ་བར་ཤོོག །
gong ne gong du pel war shok
But ever grow and flourish.
Soothing the Pain of Faith
Revulsion and determination form the foundation.
Supreme pure bodhicitta in its two aspects
Is the secret for never veering from the Mahayana path.
May bodhicitta arise, be stabilized, and grow in strength.
When the confusion of the eight concerns has been thrown over,
Ego-clinging completely severed, and genuine concern for others thoroughly developed,
Whatever appears can be an aid on the path of awakening.
Bless me that mind training be complete.
With the direct understanding that what is ultimate
has no origin, cessation, or duration, is empty,
Yet what is present arises from dependence and coincidence like an enchantment,
May I come to see everything and work naturally
for the welfare of limitless beings
As long as samsara exists.
Printable PDF version available here.
Sources:
Refuge, Four Immeasurables, and Dedication prayers translated by Lama Eric Triebelhorn.
Seven Branch Prayer from Aspirations for Noble Conduct, translated by Ken McLeod, 2005.
Verses from Soothing the Pain of Faith by Jamgon Kongtrul, translated by Ken McLeod, 1987.