Tuesday
Prime
Blessed One, come to my assistance
O’ Lord, make haste to help me
Glory be to the Blessed Buddha and to the Divine Dharma and to the Hallowed Sangha, both now and forever and ever. Swaha.
Hail, Holy Wisdom; hail, Blessed Dark-Womb of the Unborn, our Translucent Light, our Sweetness, and our Strength. To you do we make supplication, subdued children under Mara’s dominion. To you do we send up our lamentations and afflictions in this valley of dukkha. Turn then, most gracious Tara, your eyes of mercy towards us; and after this, our most lingering exile in samsara, show unto us the Immaculate Seed of your Most Beloved Bodhichild. O Temperate One, Most Loving, O Sweet Virgin Mother.
Om Tare, Tuttare, Ture Swaha.
Lauding the Infinite One: (Buddhist Psalms, by S. Yamabe and L. Adams Beck, [1921])
1. Since He who is Infinite attained unto the Wisdom Supreme, the long, long ages of ten Kalpas have rolled away.
The Light of His Dharma-Kaya is in this world eyes to the blind.
2. Seek refuge in the True Illumination! For the light of His Wisdom is infinite.
In all the worlds there is nothing upon which His light shines not.
3. Take refuge in the Light universal.
As the Light of His deliverance is boundless, he who is within it is freed from the lie of affirmation or denial.
4. Seek refuge in That which is beyond understanding,
For His glory is all-embracing as the air. It shineth and pierceth all things, and there is nothing hid from the light thereof.
5. Take refuge in the ultimate Strength, for His pure radiance is above all things. He who perceiveth this Light is set free from the fetters of Karma.
6. Seek refuge in the World-Honoured.
Since His glorious radiance is above all He is called the Buddha of Divine Light. And by Him is the darkness of the three worlds Enlightened.
7. Excellent is the Light of His Wisdom. Therefore is he called the Buddha of Clear Shining.
He who is within the Light, being washed from the soil of Karma, shall attain unto the final deliverance.
8. Take refuge in the Mighty Consoler. Wheresoever His mercy shineth throughout all the worlds, men rejoice in its gladdening light.
9. The darkness of ignorance perisheth before His light. Therefore is He hailed as the Buddha of Radiant Wisdom. All the Buddhas and the threefold choir of sages praise Him.
10. His glory shineth for ever and ever. Therefore is He called the Buddha of Everlasting Light.
Most excellent is the virtue of this light, for he who perceiveth it is born into Paradise without dissolution of being.
11. The glory of the Infinite is boundless, therefore is He known as the Buddha of Light Past Comprehension.
All the Buddhas glorify the majesty of His holiness that leadeth all the earth into His Kingdom.
12. His clear shining transcendeth all revelation, nor can human speech utter it. Therefore is He named the Buddha of Light Unspeakable.
All the Buddhas glorify the glory of the Infinite One who is Buddha through His promise of Light immeasurable. Swaha.
The Trisagion
Blessed Buddha, Mighty Lord, Unborn and Undying…Have mercy on us
Blessed Buddha, Mighty Lord, Unborn and Undying…Have mercy on us
Blessed Buddha, Mighty Lord, Unborn and Undying…Have mercy on us
Supplication
Mother Tara, Noble Queen of the Unborn,
In you we take refuge…
Immaculate Heart of Tara, Out of Your Infinite Compassion,
We consecrate ourselves to you…
Tara-Consoler of the afflicted, Dispense your Healing Mantle,
For we have recourse to you.
Glory be to the Blessed Buddha and to the Divine Dharma and to the Hallowed Sangha, both now and forever and ever. Swaha.
From The Śūrańgama Sūtra:
The Buddha’s compassion arose and he took pity on Ananda and on all in the great assembly and he spoke to the great assembly in a voice that swept over them like the ocean-tide.
“All of you good people, I have often said that form and mind and all conditions, as well as dharmas pertaining to the mind – all the conditioned dharmas – are manifestations of the mind only. Your bodies and your minds all appear within the wonder of the bright, true, essential, wonderful mind.
“Why do I say that you have lost track of what is fundamentally wonderful in you, the perfect, wonderful bright mind, and that in the midst of your bright and enlightened nature, you mistake the false for the real because of ignorance and delusion?
“Mental dimness turns into dull emptiness. This emptiness, in the dimness, unites with darkness to become form.
“Stimulated by false thinking, the form takes the shape of a body.
“As causal conditions come together there are perpetual internal disturbances which tend to gallop outside. Such inner disturbances are often mistaken for the nature of mind.
“The primary misconception about the mind and body is the false view that the mind dwells in the physical body.
“You do not know that the physical body, as well as the mountains, the rivers, empty space, and the great earth are all within the wonderful bright true mind.
“It is like ignoring hundreds of thousands of clear pure seas and taking notice of only a single bubble, seeing it as the entire ocean, as the whole expanse of great and small seas.
“You people are doubly deluded among the deluded. Such inversion does not differ from that caused by my lowered hand. The Thus Come One says you are most pitiable.” Swaha.
Hail Arya Tara, full of grace.
The Dharma Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among sentient beings,
and Blessed is the fruit of thy Bodhiwomb.
Holy Tara, Mother of all Buddhas,
pray for us transgressors,
now and at the hour of our
Transcendence over death.
Om Tare, Tuttare, Ture Swaha.
From Bankei:
“Because the Buddha Mind is marvelously illuminating, the traces of everything you’ve done are [spontaneously] reflected. It’s when you attach to these reflected traces that you produce delusion. Thoughts don’t actually exist in the place where the traces are reflected, and then arise. We retain the things we saw and heard in the past, and when these come up, they appear as traces and are reflected. Originally, thoughts have no real substance. So if they’re reflected, just let them be reflected; if they arise, just let them arise; if they stop, just let them stop. As long as you’re not attaching to these reflected traces, delusions won’t be produced. So long as you’re not attaching to them, you won’t be deluded, and then, no matter how many traces are reflected, it will be just as if they weren’t reflected at all. Even if a hundred, or a thousand thoughts spring up, it will be just the same as if they never arose. It won’t be any problem for you—no thoughts to ‘clear away,’ no thoughts to ‘cut off.’ So understand this well!”
Rahulabhadra. ‘Hymn To Perfect Wisdom’:
1. Homage to Thee, Perfect Wisdom,
Boundless, and transcending thought!
All Thy limbs are without blemish,
Faultless those who Thee discern.
2. Spotless, unobstructed, silent,
Like the vast expanse of space;
Who in truth does really see Thee
The Tathagata perceives.
3. As the moonlight does not differ
From the moon, so also Thou
Who abound’st in holy virtues,
And the Teacher of the world.
4. Those, all pity, who came to Thee,
Buddhadharmas heralding,
They will win with ease, O Gracious!
Majesty beyond compare.
5. Pure in heart, when once they duly
Look upon Thee, surely then
Their complete success is certain —
O, Thou fruitful to behold!
6. To all heroes who of others
Have the welfare close at heart,
Thou a mother, who doest nourish,
Givest birth, and givest love.
7. Teachers of the world, the Buddhas,
Are Thine own compassionate sons;
Then art Thou, O Blessed Lady,
Grandam thus of beings all.
8. All th’ immaculate perfections
At all times encircle Thee,
As the stars surround the crescent,
O Thou blameless holy one!
9. Those in need of light considering,
The Tathagatas extol
Thee, the Single One, as many,
Multiformed and many-named.
10. As the drops of dew in contact
With the sun’s rays disappear,
So all theorizings vanish,
Once one has obtained Thee.
11. When as fearful Thou appearest
Thou engender’st fear in fools;
When benignly Thou appearest
Comes assurance to the wise.
12. How will one who no affection
Has for Thee, though yet you saved him,
Have, O Mother, greed and loathing
For the many other things?
13. Not from anywhere Thou comest,
And to nowhere dost Thou go;
In no dwelling place have sages
Ever apprehended Thee.
14. Not to see Thee in this manner
Is to have attained to Thee,
Gaining thus the final freedom –
O how wonderful is this!
15. One indeed is bound who sees Thee;
One who sees not is bound too.
One again is freed who sees Thee;
One who sees not freed is too.
16. Wonderful, profound, illustrious,
Hard Thou art to recognize.
Like a mock show Thou art seen, and
Yet Thou art not seen at all.
17. By all Buddhas, Single Buddhas,
By Disciples courted, too,
Thou the one path to salvation,
There’s no other verily.
18. Saviours of the world, from pity,
So that men might understand,
Speak of Thee, observing custom,
Yet of Thee they do not speak.
19. Who is able here to praise Thee,
Lacking signs and featureless?
Thou the range of speech transcending,
Not supported anywhere.
20. In such words of current language
Constantly we laud Thee, whom
None of our acclaim concerneth;
So we reach beatitude.
21. By my praise of Perfect Wisdom
All the merit I may rear,
Let that make the world devoted
To this wisdom without peer.
From Shantideva’s Bodhicaryavatara–The benefit of the spirit of awakening:
Those who long to overcome the abundant miseries of mundane existence, those who wish to dispel the adversities of sentient beings, and those who yearn to experience a myriad of joys should never forsake the Spirit of Awakening.
When the Spirit of Awakening has arisen, in an instant a wretch who is bound in the prison of the cycle of existence is called a Child of the Sugatas and becomes worthy of reverence in the worlds of gods and humans.
Benedictus
Blessed be the Hallowed Lord of the Unborn;
because He has Revealed His Inmost-Self within his devotees:
And has raised-up a Salvific-Light unto us,
in the face of our enemies:
Once this Noble Self-Realization is reached,
nothing more need be done,
nor is there anything lost by doing nothing less than
basking in the divine Freedom of the Unborn.
Free to partake in His-Self without fear,
Thus filled with Right Devotion,
we unceasingly celebrate His Abiding Presence.
And You MY Child shall be called the Dharma-womb of the Most High:
for you shall go before the Unborn Lord to prepare His Way:
To bestow Buddha-gnosis upon those who live
in the darkness of ignorance.
In the tender compassion of our Dharma-Lord,
The dawn from on high shall break upon us,
To enlighten those who are in the bondage of Mara’s death,
And to guide all of us homeward bound in the Unborn.
Glory be to the Blessed Buddha and to the Divine Dharma and to the Hallowed Sangha, both now and forever and ever. Swaha.
May all the Buddhas and Dharma-Guardians bless us, protect us from all harm, and awaken us to the Light of Truth in the Unborn. Swaha.
