The Contents of the Prayer

The Utterance of the Seed Syllable

[HŪṂ ]

The Objects of the Prayer

line 1. The place of birth.

line 2. The way of taking birth.

line 3. The greatness of his qualities.

line 4. The name of Guru Rinpoche in particular.

line 5. Retinues.

The Prayer

line 6. Praying with the aspiration of achieving inseparability from Guru Rinpoche or developing confidence in him.

line 7. Accomplishment of the inseparability of Guru Rinpoche from oneself.

The Mantra for Invoking Blessing

[GURU PADMA SIDDHI HŪṂ ]

Structure of this edition

Because of the complex organization of the text a number of headings, subheadings and small capitals, and brackets have been supplied and a note of explanation may therefore be of benefit to the reader.

Mipham’s commentary has divided each level of interpretation of The Vajra Seven-Line Prayer into an introduction, the utterance of the seed syllable, the object of the prayer, the prayer, the mantra for invoking blessings, and (for the first level of interpretation only) the contents of the prayer.

On the basis of each level of interpretation given by Mipham’s commentary I have extracted a root meaning for The Vajra Seven-Line Prayer, and the reader will find that, for each level of interpretation, the root meaning is given first, followed by Mipham’s commentary (with its subdivisions).

Bold text are use for:

1) Tibetan words in Wylie transliteration

2) Sanskrit words

Small capitals are used for:

1) In the commentary, to indicate words that they are the translated words of The Vajra Seven-Line Prayer itself.

2) Beginning with the hidden meaning (second) level of interpretation onward, the esoteric meanings in the root-meaning sections are followed by the corresponding phrases of The Vajra Seven-Line Prayer, which are given in parentheses in bold Tibetan Wylie transliteration.

3) Titles of works.

4) Emphasis.

Throughout the text, square brackets are sometimes used to indicate words added so as to make the meaning clear. Finally, in order to keep the number of footnotes to a minimum, key Tibetan terms are put in parentheses in a transliterated form.

There are differences in spelling at two places in the Tibetan of The Vajra Seven-Line Prayer. They are indicated on the pages where the Tibetan text is found: Tibetan letters, Tibetan transliteration and Tibetan phonetic equivalence.