Here are classic prayers recited as an essential part of Tibetan Buddhist practice. The main ones used most often are the Refuge and Bodhicitta at the beginning of a practice session, and one or more of the Dedication prayers at the end of a session. A printable PDF of prayers 2-5 can be downloaded here.
Refuge and Bodhicitta Prayers
Dedication Prayers
1 – The 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.
2 – 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.
3 – The 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.
4 – Dedication
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.
5 – Bodhicitta
བྱང་ཆུབ་སེེམས་ནིི་རིིན་པོོ་ཆེེ། །
jang chub sem ni rin po che
Bodhichitta is precious.
མ་སྐྱེས་པ་རྣམས་སྐྱེས་གྱུར་ཅིག །
ma kye pa nam kye gyur chik
May it arise in whom it has not arisen.
སྐྱེེས་པ་ཉམས་པ་མེེད་པ་དང་། །
kye pa nyam pa me pa dang
Once arisen, may it not diminish
གོང་ནས་གོང་དུ་འིཕེལ་བར་ཤོོག །
gong ne gong du pel war shok
But ever grow and flourish.
6 – Supplication of Great Women Teachers
First: Chöpön does three prostrations and makes an offering to the shrine for our spiritual guides.
Bell rung
Great women of dharma
Mothers of our path
Great sisters in awakening
We supplicate wis-dom mind
Bell rung
Great Dharma Mother Mahaprajapati Gautami,
Bell rung
Great Dharma Mother Khema
Great Dharma Mother Bhadra
Great Dharma Mother Sakula
Great Dharma Mother Dharmadina
Great Dharma Mother Uppalavanna
Great Dharma Mother Bhadra Kundali
Great Dharma Mother Nanda
Great Dharma Mother Bhadra Kapila
Great Dharma Mother Patacara
Great Dharma Mother Sigalakamatra
Great Dharma Mother Sonya
Bell rung
Great Dharma Mother Bodhisattva-Mahasattva Tara
Bell rung
Great Dharma Mother Mandarava
Great Dharma Mother Sakyadevi
Great Dharma Mother Yeshe Tsogyal
Great Dharma Mother Kalasiddhi
Great Dharma Mother Lha-cham Pema-Sel
Great Dharma Mother Jetsunma Niguma
Great Dharma Mother Dakini Sukhasiddhi
Great Dharma Mother Gelongma Palmo
Great Dharma Mother Machig Lhab-Dron
Great Dharma Mother Rechungma
Great Dharma Mother Padarbum
Great Dharma Mother Sahle Aui
Great Dharma Mother Tseringma
Great Dharma Mother Jomo Menmo
Great Dharma Mother Jetsunma Mingyur Paldron
Great Dharma Mother Jetsunma Thinley Chodron
Great Dharma Mother Jetsunma Shuseb
Great Dharma Mother Sera Khandro
Great Dharma Mother Khandroma Palden Chotso
Great Dharma Mother Khandro Rinpoche
Great Dharma Mother Aya Khema
Great Dharma Mother Jetsun Kushok Chimey Luding
Great Dharma Mother Karma Pema Chodron
Bell rung
All Buddhas thought space and time,
All Honored Ones, Bodhisattvas, Mahasattvas,
Wisdom beyond wisdom,
Maha Prajna Paramita.
Bell rung
This supplication was composed in October 2023 by Karma Lekshe Wangmo (Julia King Tamang) with the wish to benefit beings. Version 2023-11-13.
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