𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐨𝐫𝐣𝐞

Once a Dorje and Drilbu have been selected, it is essential to mark the head of the Dorje so that it is always held in the correct orientation during practice or ritual. This ensures the integrity of the practice, as the Dorje is not to be treated casually but with mindfulness and respect, symbolizing the indestructible truth of awakened mind.

I have marked my Dorje with a small sacred cloth so that the head is always kept upright when in use. Likewise, my Drilbu is marked with a sacred cloth in such a way that, when the cloth is positioned behind, the face of Prajñāpāramitā, the Great Mother of Wisdom, is directed toward me. This methodical marking maintains the proper alignment of both ritual implements and honors their profound symbolism.

By preserving the correct position and handling of the Dorje and Drilbu, the practitioner not only safeguards the sanctity of the ritual space but also cultivates mindfulness, deepens the connection to the practice, and upholds the inseparability of wisdom and method.

Phub Dorji Wang

༄།། ཟས་ལྷག་སྦྱིན་པ་གཏོང་ཚུལ།། 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐋𝐞𝐟𝐭𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐨𝐨𝐝

ཨོཾ་ཨུ་ཙི་ཊ་ཨ་ཧ་ར་བྷེ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ།

Oṁ uciṭa ahāra svāhā

(Om U-tsi-ta A-ha-ra Bhé Svā-hā)

ཟས་ལྷག་དང་ཇ་ལྷག་མ་སོགས་སྣང་མེད་དུ་དོར་ན་རང་གི་བསོད་ནམས་ལ་ཧ་ཅང་གནོད་པས།

If leftover food, tea, and so forth are discarded without mindfulness, it greatly harms one’s merit.

གལ་ཏེ་ཅིས་ཀྱང་དོར་དགོས་ཐུག་ཚེ།

If one truly must discard it,

དངོས་སུ་ཡུལ་གྱར་པའི་སེམས་ཅན་སོགས་ལ་སྦྱིན་པ་གཏོང་བའམ།

one should give it directly to stray animals and other beings,

ཡང་ན་སྔགས་འདི་བཏོན་ཏེ་ཟས་ལྷག་སོགས་བཀྲེས་སྐོམ་གྱི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་མྱོང་བའི་ཡི་དྭགས་ལ་བསྔོ་བར་མོས་ན།

or one may recite this mantra with the aspiration to offer it to hungry ghosts who are tormented by the sufferings of hunger and thirst.

ཟས་ལྷག་སོགས་དོར་བའི་ཆུད་ཟོས་སུ་མི་འགྲོ་བར་མ་ཟད།

Not only will the leftover food not go to waste,

མ་མཐོང་ས་ནས་རང་གིས་བསོད་ནམས་བསགས་ཤིང་སེམས་ཅན་གཞན་ལའང་ཕན་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་འགྲུབ་པ་ཡིན་ནོ།།

but from unseen realms, one will accumulate merit for oneself and also bring vast benefit to other sentient beings.

Translated by Phub Dorji Wang

སྨོན་ལམ་རྣམ་དག། 𝐀 𝐏𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐀𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

ཇི་སྲིད་ནམ་མཁའ་གནས་པ་དང་།།

འགྲོ་བ་ཇི་སྲིད་གནས་གྱུར་པ།།

དེ་སྲིད་བདག་ནི་གནས་གྱུར་ནས།།

འགྲོ་བའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་སེལ་བར་ཤོག།

Ji si namkha népa dang,

Dro wa ji si né gyur pa,

De si dak ni né gyur né,

Dro wä dukngal sel war shok.

For as long as space endures,

For as long as sentient beings remain,

Until then, may I too abide,

To dispel the suffering of the world.

Source: Bodhicaryāvatāra (Byang chub sems dpa’i spyod pa la ’jug pa) by Śāntideva, Chapter 10, Verse 55.

This is one of the most revered verses in Mahāyāna Buddhism, often recited as a universal aspiration prayer by practitioners across all schools.

Phub Dorji Wang

༄༅། །བར་དོའི་གསོལ་འདེབས་བཞུགས་སོ། ། 𝐀 𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐨

ཨེ་མ་ཧོཿ

E MA HO!

ཐུབ་པའི་དབང་པོ་བྱམས་མགོན་སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས། །

To Avalokitesvara , the Lord of Victors and Compassion,

རྗེ་བཙུན་སྒྲོལ་མ་གུ་རུ་པདྨ་འབྱུང་། །

To the noble Lady Tara and to Guru Padmasambhava,

རྒྱལ་བ་སྲས་བཅས་དྲིན་ཅན་བླ་མ་ལ། །

To the Victorious Ones, their spiritual sons, and the kind lamas,

གསོལ་བ་འདེབས་སོ་ཐུགས་རྗེའི་སྤྱན་གྱིས་གཟིགས། །

I make this supplication; gaze upon me with your eyes of compassion.

བཟང་ངན་ལས་ཀྱིས་འབྲེལ་བའི་སེམས་ཅན་རྣམས། །

For all sentient beings bound by the connections of virtue and non-virtue,

འཁྲུལ་སྣང་བར་དོའི་འཇིགས་སྐྲག་སྡུག་བསྔལ་ལས། །

From the fear, terror, and suffering of the delusive appearances of the bardo,

རང་རིག་རང་ངོ་འོད་གསལ་ངོ་ཤེས་ནས། །

May they recognize their own awareness as their own nature, the radiant clear light,

མྱུར་དུ་བྱང་ཆུབ་ལམ་ལ་འདྲེན་པར་མཛོད། །

And swiftly guide them onto the path of awakening.

ཅེས་པའང་ཁོ་བོ་རང་ཉིད་རྨི་ལམ་འཁྲུལ་པའི་བར་དོ་ལ་སླེབ་དུས་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀརྨ་པའི་ཞལ་ནས་འདི་ལྟར་འདོན་ཞེས་པའི་གསུང་འདི་ཐོས་མ་ཐག་ཏུ་འཇིགས་སྐྲག་ལས་གྲོལ་བའི་སྣང་བ་ཅུང་ཟད་ཐོབ་པའི་བྱིན་རླབས་ཀྱི་ཚན་ཁ་ཆེ་བར་གདའ་འོ་ཨིཐྀ།

When I myself entered the bardo of delusive dreams,

I heard these words from the mouth of the Buddha Karmapa:

“Recite thus.”

Instantly, I was freed from fear and terror,

and a slight experience of liberation arose.

The blessing is vast.

- Dorje Lingpa

Translated by Phub Dorji Wang

𝙋𝙪𝙧𝙥𝙤𝙨𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙈𝙚𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜

The prayer is a supplication for guidance and liberation in the bardo, the intermediate state between death and rebirth. It is also effective when recited for the dying, the deceased, or oneself to invoke awareness and compassion during moments of transition — both literal (death) and symbolic (dream, sleep, or meditation).

In the colophon, Terton Dorje Lingpa recounts that he experienced this prayer as a direct instruction in a visionary bardo of dreams.

He heard the Buddha Karmapa say: “Recite thus.”

Upon hearing it, he was instantly freed from fear — gaining a glimpse of liberation (snang ba chung zad thob pa).

This moment of realization affirms that recognition itself is liberation — the essence of Dzogchen and Mahamudra teachings.

Thus, this text is not merely devotional; it embodies the direct path of recognizing one’s own awareness (rang rig rang ngo ’od gsal ngo shes nas) as the key to freedom in the intermediate states.

𝐓𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐲-𝐒𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐑𝐨𝐨𝐭 𝐒𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐲𝐚𝐬 (རྩ་བའི་དམ་ཚིག་ཉེར་བདུན།)

𝙰 𝚂𝚒𝚖𝚙𝚕𝚎 𝚁𝚎𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚛 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚅𝚊𝚓𝚛𝚊𝚢𝚊𝚗𝚊 𝙿𝚛𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚎𝚛𝚜

When we receive empowerment (དབང་ wang), we are reborn as Vajra sons and daughters of the Guru. From that moment, we belong to one sacred family.

Our greatest responsibility is to keep our samaya (sacred vow) pure — in body, speech, and mind.

Keeping samaya brings blessings and realization. Breaking samaya brings obstacles and confusion.

𝟭. 𝗦𝗮𝗺𝗮𝘆𝗮𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗼𝗱𝘆 (སྐུའི་དམ་ཚིག)

Outer:

• Do not kill.

• Do not steal.

• Do not commit sexual misconduct.

Inner:

• Do not harm or abuse your own Vajra family or your body.

• Do not harm others or the Dharma.

• Do not force extreme practices for pride or show.

Secret:

• Do not strike or criticize Vajra relatives.

• Do not behave improperly toward Lama’s consort or Vajra sisters.

• Do not step over or act carelessly in the Lama’s presence.

𝟮. 𝗦𝗮𝗺𝗮𝘆𝗮𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗲𝗰𝗵 (ངག་གི་དམ་ཚིག)

Outer:

• Do not lie.

• Do not use harsh or divisive speech.

• Do not gossip or slander.

Inner:

• Do not speak disrespectfully to Dharma teachers.

• Do not mock meditators or those who study the Dharma.

• Do not disrespect Dharma teachings.

Secret:

• Do not speak negatively about Vajra brothers and sisters.

• Do not gossip about those close to the Lama.

• Never speak disrespectfully about the Lama.

𝟯. 𝗦𝗮𝗺𝗮𝘆𝗮𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗱 (ཡིད་ཀྱི་དམ་ཚིག)

Outer:

• Do not hold anger or hatred.

• Do not be greedy or jealous.

• Do not hold wrong views denying karma or truth.

Inner:

• Do not be lazy or careless in practice.

• Do not allow dullness or restlessness in meditation.

• Avoid clinging to fixed views of eternalism or nihilism.

Secret:

• Maintain awareness of view, meditation, and action day and night.

• Remember and stay connected to your yidam deity.

• Keep unshakable faith in the Guru and love for Vajra brothers and sisters.

𝗜𝗻 𝗘𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲

Pure body — do not harm.

Pure speech — do not lie or gossip.

Pure mind — keep faith, awareness, and compassion.

𝗔 𝗚𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗹𝗲 𝗖𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻

Many today receive empowerments but forget their samaya soon after.

This weakens blessings and creates distance from the Guru and lineage.

Remember — your practice begins after the empowerment, not before it.

𝙆𝙚𝙚𝙥𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙨𝙖𝙢𝙖𝙮𝙖 𝙞𝙨 𝙠𝙚𝙚𝙥𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙚𝙣𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙞𝙩𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛.

Compiled and simplified for easy understanding by Phub Dorji Wang.