1 Starting with this stanza, the following verses are from the Bodhicaryāvatāra (II:1–23) by Śāntideva.
2 The “Sanggye Nyenpa Supplication” was taken from the Palpung edition of the text. It also appears in the bka’-rgyud-chos-spyod. The last stanza is a traditional verse of aspiration.
3 By “infant death” is meant either death shortly after birth or stillbirth. Rituals exist for both protection from this condition and healing the infant susceptible to an early death.
4 See Afterword for a discussion of the discrepancy in Chökyi Wangchuk’s age.
5 The Tibetan calendar adds one “second” month every three years in order to right the calendar with cosmology.
6 Tibet proper includes the provinces of Ü and Tsang. Greater Tibet encompasses a larger area, including the province of Kham.
7 The five causes are the five kleśas. See kleśa in the Glossary.
8 According to Dilgo Khyentse, Rinpoche, the four strayings are:
Misunderstanding the great primordial emptiness, one labels mind with conceptual negation. This is known as straying into the realm of conceptual śūnyatā.
Not having faith in the ground and fruition of the ordinary mind within oneself, one hopes for a new acquisition of the fruition of dharmakāya elsewhere. This is known as straying in regard to the path.
Misunderstanding the way of self-liberation, one seeks antidotes elsewhere than in the kleśas themselves. This is known as straying in regard to the antidote.
Thinking that all dharmas of apparent existence, saṃsāra and nirvāṇa, are merely śūnyatā, one is stuck in the fixation of nihilism. This is known as straying into labeling.
According to Dilgo Khyentse, Rinpoche, the three misunderstandings are:
When one becomes attached to blissful meditative experiences, one strays into the desire realm.
When one becomes attached to luminosity, one strays into the realm of form.
When one becomes attached to nonthought, one strays into the formless realm.
The four joys are explained in the Glossary.
The three conditions are (1) effected by oneself, (2) effected by other, and (3) mutual sparking (T: bdag-rkyen, gzhan-rkyen, dema-thag-rkyen). They describe the birth of karma. With the realization of śūnyatā, they become the three purities—no self, no other, and no action.
The three stages of birth are: understanding, experience, and realization (T: go, nyams-myong, and rtogs). In the nges-don-phyag-rgya-chen-po’i-sgom-rim-gsal-bar-byed-pa’i-legs-bshad-zla-ba’i-’od-zer [fol. 329A], Trashi Namgyal writes:
According to Lord [Tsangpa] Gyare,
“Understanding arises from analytical investigation; the experiences are strong and weak bliss and luminosity; realization is recognizing things as they are.”
9 This is a reference to the tale of the donkey who is dressed in a tiger skin so that he may freely enjoy eating in the cornfields. However, he is killed when he is betrayed by his desire for a man dressed as a female donkey. According to Charles Lanman (A Sanskrit Reader, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, pp. 325–326), this tale is found in the Hitopadeśa (III:3) and reference is made to it in the Jataka tales, the Chinese Avadānas, and even in Aesop’s Fables and Plato.
10 “Paldenpa” here refers to Khyentse Öser, the author of the song.
11 “OṂ MAṆI PADME HŪṂ”—the well-known mantra of Avalokiteśvara.
12 The twelve trials that Nāropa underwent as a student of Tilopa: jumping off a tall building, jumping into a fire, receiving a beating upon ruining the food of those refusing to give alms, being attacked by leeches as he attempted to build a bridge, being burned by hot reeds at the hand of Tilopa, chasing an apparitional man to the point of exhaustion, receiving a beating upon attacking a minister, receiving a beating upon attacking a queen, receiving a beating upon attacking a prince, the dissatisfaction in his relationship with his consort and his job as well as hitting his penis with a rock, having his consort beaten by Tilopa, and the dismembering of his body for use as a maṇḍala. Nāropa underwent these twelve trials at the insistence of Tilopa over the course of twelve years. After each trial, Tilopa conveyed a particular teaching to Nāropa and was able to rectify the physical hardships that Nāropa experienced.
13 Both the Rumtek and Palpung editions of the text state that Mila also found the bones of his father. According to the Biography of Milarepa, however, his father had died long before Mila had even left his home and it is most unlikely that his bones could have been at the house upon Mila’s return. This inconsistency was deleted from the translation here.
14 Here, both the Rumtek and Palpung editions read “Listen Khyungza Paldrenma,” which is the name of Mila’s aunt and makes no sense in the context of the song. Hence, it has been corrected to “sister Peta Paldrenma.”
15 Equipped with flint and steel, one does not have to borrow fire from neighbors.
16 “Sound” (T: skad) was taken from the Palpung edition. The Rumtek reads “palate” (T: rkan).
17 In both the Rumtek and Palpung editions, Gampopa offers Mila gold but not tea. Hence, it is incongruous that Mila says, “There is no stove to brew the tea.” However, in Milarepa’s biography, it states that Gampopa offered both gold and tea.
18 Three meditation practices that Nāropa received: transference of consciousness, dream yoga, and illusory-body-luminosity.
19 The saṃstara—the mat that monks have traditionally carried since the time of Śākyamuni Buddha.
20 The ridge from which the monastery can first be seen, and at which approaching travelers would make prostrations.
21 At this point in the Rumtek edition a colophon was added solely for that edition, and hence does not appear in this translation.
22 The purpose of this Afterword is to provide the background and explanation necessary to understand these songs. In the pages that follow, we make no pretension to completeness, but have attempted to provide what seems essential to allow the reader unfamiliar with the contents a dependable access to the songs.
23 Our system for the orthographic transliteration of Tibetan words (noted by “T:”) is modeled after that devised by Turrell Wylie in his article “A Standard System of Tibetan Transcription,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 22 (1959): 261–267. Sanskrit words are transliterated throughout The Rain of Wisdom, and are sometimes signaled by “S:”.
24 According to Thrangu Rinpoche there have been four editions in total: (l) the original edition by Mikyö Dorje, (2) an edition by Tenpe Nyinche (Chökyi Jungne, the eighth Situ), which corresponds to the Palpung edition that we have consulted, (3) an edition by Khakhyap Dorje, printed at Tsurphu, and (4) an edition by Rangjung Rikpe Dorje, printed at Rumtek monastery.
25 We have omitted from our translation a brief colophon written by Tenpe Nyinche, since it only occurs in the Palpung edition. The colophon is as follows:
These vajra songs of the lineage gurus
Of the glorious Karma Kaṃtsang tradition
Cause wisdom to arise in whoever hears them.
This book was edited by Tenpe Nyinche
At the monastery Thupten Chökhor.
By whatever virtue arises out of producing this woodblock,
May the teachings of the Practice Lineage flourish and expand.
May all beings attain unsurpassable enlightenment.
MAṄGALAṂ
26 Our main sources for the dates and biographies of these lineage holders include: Nik Douglas and Meryl White, Karmapa: The Black Hat Lama of Tibet (London: Luzac & Co., 1976); Helmut Hoffman, The Religions of Tibet (New York: Macmillan & Co., 1961); Hugh Richardson, “The Karmapa Sect,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1958): 139–164 and (1959): 1–17; George N. Roerich, trans., The Blue Annals (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1976); E. Gene Smith, “Introduction” to the Shes-bya-kun-khyab, Lokesh Candra, ed., (New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1970), pp. 1–87; R. A. Stein, Tibetan Civilization (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1972); Karma Thinley, The History of the Sixteen Karmapas of Tibet (Boulder: Prañja Press, 1980); and Giuseppe Tucci, The Religions of Tibet (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980).
27 sgrub-brgyud-karma-kaṃ-tshang-brgyud-pa-rin-po-che’i-rnam-par-thar-pa-rab-’byams-nor-bu-zla-ba-chu-shel-gyi-phreng-ba by Si-tu-paṇ-chen-chos-kyi-’byung-gnas and ’Be-lo-tshe-dbang-kun-khyab (New Delhi: 1972), pp. 256–258.
28 Since Tibetan texts consist of unbound folios, this might be a debatable point. We are in possession of a hand-annotated text for use by an umdze (leader of liturgical chanting). Accordingly, this manuscript, which expresses the tradition at Rumtek monastery, establishes the order of pagination that we have followed.