Thekchen Chöling, Dharamsala, HP, India - Today, prayers were offered for His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s long life in the Tsuglagkhang, the Main Tibetan Temple here in Dharamsala, by the Dhasa Dhotoe (Kham) Welfare Society and Lodrik (Mustang families) Welfare Association. Representatives of these patrons greeted His Holiness at the gate to his residence and then escorted him to the temple. While singers sang, dancers performed the Tashi Shölpa dance in welcome. His Holiness smiled and waved to members of the estimated 5000 strong congregation. Inside the temple he took his seat on the throne.
On this occasion the longevity ritual was based on the practice of White Tara of the Wish-Fulfilling Wheel, originally composed by the Great Fifth Dalai Lama. The Abbot of Namgyal Monastery, Khensur Lobsang Samten, presided over proceedings. He began by making prostrations and offering His Holiness a silk scarf. Seated to his right were Keutsang Rinpoché, the former Abbot of Ganden Jangtsé monastery and the Namgyal Monastery Lobpön, while to his left sat the Abbot and Former Abbot of Dzongkha Chödé Monastery. Behind them was Bodong Panchen Rinpoché.
The ritual began with a series of offerings leading to a praise of Arya Tara:
Mother 'Tare', you liberate beings from samsara.
With 'tuttare', you liberate beings from the eight fears.
With 'tare', you liberate beings from death.
We prostrate to you, O Tara ...
The Lady who grants sublime accomplishments.
Next was a description of mantras visualized at the heart of the Lama:
At the heart of the Lama, who is seen as Tara, there is a white wheel which has the nature of the moon. The wheel has eight spokes and five rims. At its hub is the white seed syllable TAM. The TAM is surrounded by His Holiness’s long name-mantra: OM AH GURU VAJRADHARA BHATTARAK MANJUSHRI VAGINDRA SUMATI JNANA SHASANA DHARA SAMUDRA SHRI BHADRA SIDDHI AYUR PUNYA JNANA PUSHTIM KURU. Several more mantras were described standing on the respective rims of the wheel.
There followed an invocation of the Lamas of the lineage who were called upon to grant the Lama immortality. After their names were invoked, each was requested as follows:
We invite you to come to this place.
Having come to this supreme abode,
May you prolong the life of our
Glorious sacred Lama by a hundred aeons.
Please grant him the spiritual accomplishment of an immortal life.
The presiding Lama, the Namgyal Monastery Abbot, flourished the long-life arrow and then approached the throne to give it to His Holiness, who wielded it gently in the several directions.
The ritual continued: “Amitabha, who adorns the head of the Lama, is visualized transforming into Amitayus, the protector of immeasurable longevity and primordial wisdom. His body is white with a red tinge, and he has one face and two arms. His hands are in the gesture of meditative equipoise, holding a golden vase filled with the nectar of immortality. The nectar overflows and enters the body of the glorious Lama through the opening at the crown of his head. His entire body is filled with nectar, purifying all the dangers of disease, negative influences, harmful actions, obscurations, and premature death that appear to our impure perception. The Lama attains the spiritual accomplishment of immortality.
“Then rays of light shine out through the pores of his body, forming a large cocoon of white light that surrounds his body at a distance of an arm's length. All the peaceful enlightened activities are accomplished. Rays of yellow light shine out through the pores of his body, forming a cocoon of yellow light an arm's length beyond the white cocoon formed earlier. All the increasing enlightened activities are accomplished. Rays of red light shine out through the pores of his body, forming a cocoon of red light an arm's length beyond the yellow cocoon. All the powerful enlightened activities are accomplished.
“Rays of deep blue light shine out through the pores of his body, forming a cocoon of deep blue light an arm's length beyond the red cocoon. All the wrathful enlightened activities are accomplished. Rays of green light shine out through the pores of his body, forming a cocoon of green light an arm's length beyond the deep blue cocoon. All enlightened activities are accomplished. Rays of brown light shine out through the pores of his body, forming a cocoon of brown light an arm's length beyond the green cocoon. Through this all the blessings and enlightened activities are stabilized.
“These six cocoons of light form a single egg-shaped structure that is solid and firm, and not even the wind at the end of an aeon can destroy it. The space between them is filled with newly blossomed and fresh blue utpala flowers that are pliant, swirling and insubstantial.”
A white wheel is visualized inside the white cocoon. The wheel turns clockwise. A mass of fire blazes and instantly burns up negative forces and obstacles like a feather that has fallen on a blacksmith's forge.
A thread, one end of which was in His Holiness’s hand was distributed to the Lamas leading the ritual forming a link between them as they recited White Tara’s mantra many times. The thread was then retrieved.
A mandala was offered in supplication requesting His Holiness to live long for the benefit of sentient beings and the Buddha’s teaching. The presiding Lama then offered a statue of White Tara representing the body of enlightenment, a scripture representing enlightened speech and a stupa representing the enlightened mind.
There was an offering of a vase containing the elixir of longevity, symbols of the Buddhas of the five families, long-life liquor, long-life pills and the seven royal emblems: a precious wheel, a precious jewel, a precious queen, a precious minister, a precious elephant, a precious supreme horse, and a precious general. These seven precious royal emblems are endowed with the sovereignty of the Dharma of the supreme vehicle, praised by all the Conquerors of the three times. They were offered with the wish that the sovereignty of the Dharma may always be firm.
Offerings were made of the eight auspicious symbols — the wheel, the victory banner, the parasol, the infinite knot, the lotus flower, the excellent vase, the golden fishes, and a right-coiled conch shell. They were followed by the eight auspicious substances — a mirror, the anitdote bezoar, yogurt, durva grass, wood apple, a right-turned conch-shell, vermilion powder and mustard seeds.
Meanwhile the procession of patrons bearing offerings of statues, scriptures, robes and so forth, passed briskly before the throne. Representatives of sponsoring groups approached the throne to receive His Holiness’s blessing.
There was a recitation of the ‘The Melody of the Nectar of Immortality, a Prayer for the Long Life of His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Supreme Victor and Omniscient One’ by Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö, followed by the single verse prayer for His Holiness’s long life.
A thanksgiving mandala was presented to His Holiness in gratitude for his having agreed to live long. The assembly then chanted ‘The Sage's Harmonious Song of Truth — A Prayer for the Flourishing of the Non Sectarian Teachings of the Buddha’, composed by His Holiness, of which the gist is:
This is the supreme and noble tradition for practising,
Without mistake, the essence and gradual stages of the path,
Which incorporates all three baskets and all four classes of tantra,
Long may these teachings of the Buddha flourish in the Land of Snows!
The prayer concludes:
In short, for as long as space endures,
And for as long as there is suffering among beings,
May I too remain, to bring them benefit and happiness,
In all ways, directly and indirectly!
Auspicious prayers were said to bring the occasion to a propitious end, including the ‘Prayer of the Words of Truth’. His Holiness rose from the throne and left the temple. As he walked to the lift he smiled radiantly at members of the crowd on either side. Then, back in the courtyard, he boarded a golf-cart to drive back to his residence, acknowledging the crowd on the way.
