Avalokiteshvara
Sadhana
Prayers and requests to the
Buddha of Compassion
Liberating Prayer
Praise to Buddha Shakyamuni
O Blessed One, Shakyamuni Buddha,
Precious treasury of compassion,
Bestower of supreme inner peace,
You, who love all beings without exception,
Are the source of happiness and goodness;
And you guide us to the liberating path.
Your body is a wishfulfilling jewel,
Your speech is supreme, purifying nectar,
And your mind is refuge for all living beings.
With folded hands I turn to you,
Supreme unchanging friend,
I request from the depths of my heart:
Please give me the light of your wisdom
To dispel the darkness of my mind
And to heal my mental continuum.
Please nourish me with your goodness,
That I in turn may nourish all beings
With an unceasing banquet of delight.
Through your compassionate intention,
Your blessings and virtuous deeds,
And my strong wish to rely upon you,
May all suffering quickly cease
And all happiness and joy be fulfilled;
And may holy Dharma flourish for evermore.
Avalokiteshvara Sadhana
Going for refuge
I and all sentient beings, until we achieve enlightenment,
Go for refuge to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.
(3x)
Generating bodhichitta
Through the virtues I collect by giving and other
perfections,
May I become a Buddha for the benefit of all.
(3x)
Visualizing Arya Avalokiteshvara
I and all living beings as extensive as space
Have at our crowns a white lotus and a moon seat.
Upon these, from HRIH, arises Arya Avalokiteshvara.
He has a white, translucent body that radiates five-coloured lights.
He has a smiling expression, and gazes upon us with eyes of compassion.
He has four hands, the first two pressed together at his heart,
And the lower two holding a crystal mala and a white lotus flower.
He is adorned with silks and jewelled ornaments
And wears an upper garment of an antelope skin.
His crown is adorned with Amitabha.
He sits with his legs crossed in the vajra posture,
Supported from behind by a stainless moon.
He is the synthesis of all objects of refuge.
Prayer of seven limbs
With my body, speech and mind, humbly I prostrate,
And make offerings both set out and imagined.
I confess my wrong deeds from all time,
And rejoice in the virtues of all.
Please stay until samsara ceases,
And turn the Wheel of Dharma for us.
I dedicate all virtues to great enlightenment.
Offering the mandala
The ground sprinkled with perfume and spread with
flowers,
The Great Mountain, four lands, sun and moon,
Seen as a Buddha Land and offered thus,
May all beings enjoy such Pure Lands.
Contemplating how all these pitiful migrators are my
mothers,
Who out of kindness have cherished me again and again,
I seek your blessings to generate a spontaneous
compassion
Like that of a loving mother for her dearest child.
IDAM GURU RATNA MANDALAKAM NIRYATAYAMI
Praise to Arya Avalokiteshvara
You whose white-coloured body is unstained by faults,
Whose crown is adorned with a fully enlightened
Buddha,
Who gaze upon migrators with eyes of compassion,
To you Arya Avalokiteshvara I prostrate.
Requesting the five great meanings
O Arya Avalokiteshvara, Treasury of Compassion,
And all your retinue, please listen to me.
Please quickly release me and all my mothers and
fathers,
The six classes of living being, from the ocean of
samsara.
Please generate quickly in our mental continuum
The vast and profound Dharma of the unsurpassed
bodhichitta.
With your compassionate nectar please purify swiftly
The karma and delusion we have accumulated since
beginningless time.
And with your hands of compassion please swiftly
lead me
And all living beings to the Pure Land of Bliss.
O Amitabha and Avalokiteshvara,
Throughout all our lives please be our Spiritual Guide;
And by perfectly revealing the unmistaken path
Please lead us all swiftly to the state of Buddhahood.
Request prayer
O Guru Avalokiteshvara, Buddha of Compassion,
Please bless my mental continuum quickly,
So that I will quickly complete
The training in purifying and transforming the six
classes of living being.
(3x)
As a result of these single-pointed requests,
Light rays radiate from Arya Avalokiteshvara’s body
And purify all impure karmic appearances and
mistaken awareness.
The environment becomes the Pure Land of Bliss,
And the body, speech and mind of all the inhabitants
Transform into the body, speech and mind of
Avalokiteshvara.
Everything that we know through seeing, hearing and
thinking becomes inseparable from emptiness.
Mantra recitation
OM MANI PÄME HUM
The meaning of this mantra is: with OM we are calling
Avalokiteshvara, MANI means the precious jewel of
enlightenment, PÄME means liberation and HUM means
please bestow. Together the meaning is: ‘O Avalokiteshvara,
please bestow the precious jewel of enlightenment to liberate
all living beings.’ Through the recitation of this mantra we
train in the compassionate mind of bodhichitta.
All the physical forms of myself and others are
[manifestations of] Arya Avalokiteshvara’s body,
All sounds are [manifestations of] the six-letter mantra,
And all mental activity arises from great exalted wisdom.
Dedication
Through the virtues I have accumulated
By training in compassion and wisdom,
May all the impurities of the six classes of living being
be purified,
And thus may they all transform into enlightened
beings.
Prayers for the Virtuous Tradition
So that the tradition of Je Tsongkhapa,
The King of the Dharma, may flourish,
May all obstacles be pacified
And may all favourable conditions abound.
Through the two collections of myself and others
Gathered throughout the three times,
May the doctrine of Conqueror Losang Dragpa
Flourish for evermore.
The nine-line Migtsema prayer
Tsongkhapa, crown ornament of the scholars of the
Land of the Snows,
You are Buddha Shakyamuni and Vajradhara, the
source of all attainments,
Avalokiteshvara, the treasury of unobservable
compassion,
Manjushri, the supreme stainless wisdom,
And Vajrapani, the destroyer of the hosts of maras.
O Venerable Guru-Buddha, synthesis of all Three Jewels,
With my body, speech, and mind, respectfully I make
requests:
Please grant your blessings to ripen and liberate myself
and others,
And bestow the common and supreme attainments.
(3x)
Colophon: This sadhana or ritual prayer for spiritual attainments
was translated under the compassionate guidance of Venerable Geshe
Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche, 1978, revised 2017.
Liberating Prayer was composed by Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso
Rinpoche and is recited at the beginning of teachings, meditations and
prayers in Kadampa Buddhist Centres throughout the world.