Vajrakilaya - Dakini Music

Vajrakilaya
The Razor That Destroys at a Touch
A Treasure of Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche chanted by
CHAGDUD TULKU RINPOCHE
2
3
Guru Padmasambhava
and Vajrakilaya
The practice of the meditation deity Vajrakilaya provides an unsurpassed
method to remove obstacles on the path to enlightenment. Blazing forth in the
glorious manifestation of a wrathful male deity, Vajrakilaya embodies the
enlightened activity of all the buddhas. Through Vajrakilaya, Guru
Padmasambhava gained mastery over the four kinds of meditative
accomplishment (siddhis): longevity, enlightened activities, the revelation of
hidden treasures, and the sublime accomplishment of mahamudra.
Guru Padmasambhava mastered ancient lineages of Vajrakilaya that he received
from the Indian master Prabhahasti. Later, he journeyed to Nepal to the
Yangleshö Cave to accomplish the deity Yangdag Heruka. However, before he
could begin his retreat, three powerful demons inflicted drought and famine on
the entire region, whereupon Padmasambhava sent to Prabhahasti for the
Vajrakilaya tantras. The mere arrival of these texts counteracted the adverse
conditions, and Padmasambhava and his consort were able to attain the
realization of mahamudra. Afterwards he commented that Yangdag Heruka
confers sublime accomplishment, but like a merchant ship that requires an
armed escort, it requires Vajrakilaya to clear obstacles.
Guru Padmasambhava
4
Vajrakilaya is often performed extensively at the beginning of a retreat or other
dharma activity to overcome obstructions, the forces of delusion (maras) foremost
Lineage
of The Razor that Destroys at a Touch
among them. Delusion can be defined and categorized in various ways, but in
Vajrakilaya practice it most particularly refers to dualistic grasping at fictitious
appearances—the appearances that arise as the outer environment and its
Guru Padmasambhava transmitted Vajrakilaya to different disciples on various
beings, and the appearances that arise inwardly as concepts and afflictive
occasions, giving rise to a number of Kilaya lineages. Some of them were held in
emotions.
the oral tradition of kama, but in order to benefit future generations in times of
These impermanent and composite appearances arise interdependently as the
particular treasure, The Razor that Destroys at a Touch: Vanquishing the Legions of
degeneration, most were hidden as terma, treasures to be revealed later. This
display of relative reality. As the components of ordinary experience, they have
Mara in Battle, was not widely disseminated by Padmasambhava. Rather, he gave
their own validity. However, if inherent existence is mistakenly attributed to them,
the transmission solely to his heart consort, Dakini Yeshe Tsogyal, whose primary
they lead one astray into ceaseless cycles of desire and aversion. Mind’s absolute
meditation deity was Vajrakilaya. Receiving it, she did not impart the teachings to
nature is obscured and its pure qualities of compassion are impeded. Confusion
anyone, but hid them by placing the seal of her command in the heart of
compounds itself through negative actions, speech, thoughts and emotions. The
Padmasambhava’s disciple, Drogban Khye’u Chung, the previous incarnation of
karmic seeds thus planted ripen as suffering in lifetime after lifetime.
Kyabje Dudjom Jigdral Yeshe Dorje.
In the practice of Vajrakilaya, one summons wrathful, energetic compassion from
Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche received this Vajrakilaya treasure when he was thirty-
the very ground of mind. Vowing to vanquish the outer and inner forces of
four years old while practicing in a cave in Bhutan. Dakini Yeshe Tsogyal came to
delusion, one invokes the blessings of the Vajrakilaya lineage masters. Then,
him in a dream as a beautiful and splendidly adorned young woman. She held a
integrating their blessings into one’s own powers of visualization, mantra
meteorite p’hurba, which she tucked into his clothes. Then she told him that
recitation, and awareness, one embarks on the stages of practice with fierce
Guru Padmasambhava himself had manifested as Dorje Drolod in this cave and,
determination to find freedom for oneself and all other beings.
with this same p’hurba, had subdued the eight classes of powerful worldly ones
5
6
7
and liberated the male and female kingly demons. Before he left the land of
Tibet for the final time, she continued, “he gave me this p’hurba, and now I give it
to you. Keep it as your heart’s jewel.”
Joyously, he accepted the p’hurba and touched it to his forehead, throat and
heart, and he and the p’hurba instantaneously became inseparable. His upper
body remained in its natural form; his lower body became the blade of the
p’hurba, radiating fire and sparks. He chanted the Vajrakilaya mantra and the
earth shook.
“Now you have the actual empowerment!” exclaimed Yeshe Tsogyal with delight.
“Don’t lose it, for it is of great importance.” As she was leaving, she tugged at his
hand, asking, “Do you remember all the empowerments and the direct and oral
transmission you took before Guru Padmasambhava?” He woke up and did
indeed remember. Eleven years later Dudjom Rinpoche wrote a very clear,
condensed version of the Vajrakilaya treasure revealed in the cave, which is
entitled The Razor that Destroys at a Touch.
Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche
8
H.E. Chagdud Tulku
and Vajrakilaya
While they were still living in Tibet, Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche advised Chagdud
Tulku, who was a young man in his twenties, that he should extensively practice
either Vajrakilaya or another wrathful deity. Rinpoche decided to accomplish
Vajrakilaya, and indeed, he was concluding a three-day Vajrakilaya ceremony
when an attack by the Chinese military forced him to flee to India. In India and
Nepal he sometime demonstrated masterful accomplishments of the practice.
Twenty-two years later, in 1980 during an interview that took place in California,
Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche told Rinpoche that Vajrakilaya would be especially
helpful in removing obstacles to Tibetan Vajrayana being established in the West.
The following year Rinpoche’s sangha undertook the first of unbroken series of
elaborate Vajrakilaya ceremonies that take place each year at Tibetan New Year.
The ceremonies focus on averting the obstacles and negativity that might
otherwise carry over from the previous year. As well, Vajrakilaya is practiced on a
daily basis in the main Chagdud Gonpa centers, in both North and South
America.
H. E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche
9
10
11
Chanting Lineage
for The Razor That Destroys at a Touch
The chanting in formal Tibetan Buddhist ceremonies is maintained according to
specific lineages of style and melodies. Chagdud Rinpoche, with his wondrous
voice, was revered as one of the great chant masters in the Nyingma Tradition. He
rendered the richly ornamented melodies of Vajrakilaya with both precision and
power that has been preserved with this recording. On the occasion of the first
when his Western students were about to record him chanting the Vajrakilaya
liturgy, he commented:
“This is not necessary [to record this] for the Nyingma lineage because there are
many very great lamas and lineage masters . . . who are capable of maintaining and
teaching this. But,” he added, “for those who are part of my sangha family, you
might want to remember my style of chanting just like children and parents look at
home movies to remember their grandparents.”
Rinpoche learned this style of chanting in the 1960s, first in Kalimpong with one of
Dudjom Rinpoche’s best students. He and a Bhutanese lama learned chanting
together, and then they were examined by Dudjom Rinpoche. He approved.
Later Dudjom Rinpoche suggested that Rinpoche study with the great Mindroling
Trichen Rinpoche, whose monastery is renowned for its chanting style. Rinpoche
Vajrakilaya
12
was among a group of about ten lamas and practitioners who studied chanting
together.
13
Chagdud Gonpa
A Short History
Six or seven years passed, then Rinpoche and the group were reunited for a series
of empowerments offered by Dudjom Rinpoche. At one point they began to chant
In the 12th century, Chagdud Gonpa monastery was built by Chagdud Sherab
and Rinpoche was surprised to discover that although they all had learned
Gyaltsen, the spiritual advisor to the Mongol emperor of China. He was given the
together, now variations occurred in the singing. When asked about this, the son of
name, “Chagdud,” when he turned the barrel of the emperor’s gun inside out and
Dudjom Rinpoche, Thinley Norbu Rinpoche, said, “You can’t expect chanters with
into nine knots with his bare hands.
He then made an offering of it to create
different voice to sound exactly alike. There are differences that occur according to
auspicious conditions free of war and social unrest. The title, “Chagdud,” in
the quality of the voices. It isn’t the case that one is right and one is wrong.”
Tibetan means “iron knot.”
About the recording Rinpoche said, “In the monasteries of Eastern Tibet, some
H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, born in 1930, was recognized at the age of two as
effort was made to continue traditional lineages and styles of chanting. I’m not
being the incarnation of the abbot of Chagdud Gonpa monastery, a monastery
trying to force anything on the future so that you have to dispute every melodic
which is active today. His mother, Delog Dawa Drolma, was one of Tibet’s most well
ornament of the song. It is appropriate for you to try to remember and replicate it,
known lamas and as such, was able to establish excellent training for her son.
but without worrying and losing the essence of the practice.”
Chagdud Rinpoche belonged to the last generation of teachers to have inherited
Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche’s voice itself represents the sublime accomplishment of
the prayer, “May whoever hears me find liberation.” It resonates in the heart and
memories of thousands of people. This precious Vajrakilaya disc shimmers like a
the vast wealth of Tibetan Vajrayana teachings and methods before the occupation
of Tibet in the 1950s. He held many great lineages of the Nyingma tradition: the
Dudjom, Khyentse, Apong Terton, Khenpo Ngaga, Padgyal Lingpa and Longchen
wish-fulfilling jewel, endowed with all qualities of lineage blessing, pure intention,
Nyingt’hig.
profound meaning, and sound inseparable from wisdom essence. May it benefit all
Early in his life, it was prophesied that he would travel to a country whose name
beings!
contained the Tibetan letters “A” and “KHA.” At that time, no one knew of a
CHAGDUD KHADRO
14
15
Country with the name “America.”
With the Communist invasion and the
subsequent exile of 100,000 refugees, Chagdud Rinpoche fled to India where he
served both as lama and physician during the difficult refugee resettlement. Here
and later in Nepal, he met several North American Buddhist practitioners,
including his wife-to-be, now known as Chagdud Khadro. They eventually brought
him to the States in 1979. In the 1980s, Rinpoche traveled and taught constantly,
11
establishing a sangha of practitioners. In the fall of 1988, he and his students
acquired 286 acres in northern California and Rigdzin Ling, Chagdud Gonpa’s
Chagdud Gonpa, Tibet
main North American center, was born.
The scope of the prophecy concerning the country with “A” and “KHA” was
understood more deeply when, in 1995, Chagdud Rinpoche moved to Brazil to
establish the first Tibetan Buddhist organization in South America.
“A” and
“KHA” stand for the entire Western Hemisphere of the Americas, thus indicating
the extent of Rinpoche’s role in establishing the Buddhist tradition in the West. In
1999, the construction of a Tibetan style temple in Tres Coroas in the southern
state of Rio Grande do Sul was completed under his direction.
Here, on November 17, 2002, H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche passed into
Parinirvana. According to his wishes, the spiritual directorship of Chagdud Gonpa
Brasil Khadro Ling was assumed by his wife, Chagdud Khadro.
Chagdud Gonpa Brasil
Chagdud Gonpa Rigdzin Ling, USA
16
Vajrakilaya
17
The Razor That Destroys at a Touch
A Treasure of Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche
chanted by
Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche
CD 1
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
Seven-Line Prayer
Prayer to the Three Kayas of the Lama
Prayer to Padmasambhava
Prayer to Attain the Citadel of Intrinsic Awareness
Prayer to His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche,
Jigdral Yeshe Dorje
Lineage Supplication
Lineage Supplication (ornamented melody)
Lineage Supplication (chant melody)
Invitation
Refuge, Bodhicitta and Seven Branch Prayer
The Absorption
Establishing the Boundary
Offering the White Torma to the Local Gods
Offering the Red Torma
Establishing the Boundary, cont.
Establishing the Boundary (ornamentedmelody)
Establishing the Boundary (ornamented melody, cont.)
Establishing the Boundary (chant melody)
Confession
Descent of Blessing
Blessing the Offering Substances
Blessing the Offering Substance (mantra section)
Main Practice: Visualization (ornamented melody)
Main Practice: Visualization (chant melody)
Main Practice: Visualization (mantra section)
Invitation to the Pristine Awareness Aspects
(Ornamented melody)
Invitation to the Pristine Awareness Aspects
(chant melody)
1:25
1:06
1:37
1:16
0:17
0:24
1:04
5:22
0:17
2:23
0:11
0:15
0:25
2:08
2:09
1:06
1:03
0:25
1:25
3:14
1:00
1:45
3:11
2:38
2:31
2:18
0:46
28. Request for the Commitment and Wisdom
Aspects to Remain Inseparable
29. Homage
30. General Offerings
31. Special Offering: Medecine
32. Offering of Torma
33. Offering of Rakta
34. Offering of the Three Poisons
35. Offering of Union and Liberation
36. Praises (ornamented melody I)
37. Praises (ornamented melody II)
38. Praises (chant)
39. Lineage Supplication: Concise Practice
40. Mantra Recitation: Exhortation
41. Mantra Recitation: Visualization
42. Main Mantra
43. Vajrakilaya Longevity Sadhana
44. Longevity Mantra
45. Summoning Longevity
46. Request
47. Activity Mantra
48. The Wrathful Razor Mantra
49. Introductary Prayer to:
50. Sanskrit Vowels and Consonants
51. Hundred-Syllable Mantra
52. Essence of Interdependent Origination
53. Between Meditation Sessions
54. Knowing One Liberates All: Thirty-five syllable
wrathful mantra and mantra of the claw
55. Establishing the Boundary (return)
56. Knowing One Liberates All: Jinbeb
57. Slow Mantra
58. Great Clouds of Blessings
59. Prayer for the Tradition of Guru Padmasambhava
to Flourish
0:23
1:47
1:54
0:28
0:19
0:18
0:21
1:21
0:55
1:08
1:22
0:29
1:21
0:49
4:13
0:36
0:40
3:21
0:16
2:44
2:53
0:09
0:09
0:18
1:18
0:47
1:40
0:50
0:57
0:24
0:54
0:14
18
Vajrakilaya
The Razor That Destroys at a Touch
A Treasure of Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche
chanted by
Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche
CD 2
1. The Inexpressible Ultimate Confession
2. The Essence of Confession, Which Reveals the Most Majestic Purification from
the Flawless Secret of Vajrasattva
3. Hundred-Syllable Mantra
4. Tsog: Introduction
5. Tsog Offering (ornamented melody)
6. Inviting the Feast Assembly
7. The First Portion of the Feast
8. Confession
9. Power of Truth
10. Liberation of Rudra
11. Kangwa (chant melody)
12. Tsog Offering by Jigmed Lingpa
13. Tsog Offering by Dudjom Rinpoche
14. Tsog Offering
15. Dispelling Obstacles on the Path, Barched Lamsel
16. Remainders
17. Remainders, Calling the Guests (ornamented melody)
18. Remainders, Calling the Guests (chant)
19. Power of Truth
20. Recalling the Contract (ornamented melody)
21. Recalling the Contract (chant melody)
22. Offering to the Tanma Sisters (ornamented melody)
23. Offering to the Tanma Sisters (chant melody)
24. Performing the Dance of Suppression
25. General Offerings
26. Praises
27. Confession
28. Hundred-Syllable Mantra
29. A Closing Prayer
30. Essence of Interdependent Origination
31. Stabilizing the Presence of the Deity
32. Dissolution
33. Dedication and Aspiration
34. Essence of Interdependent Origination
35. Auspicious Wishes
3:06
0:51
0:22
0:46
1:27
1:28
1:01
0:21
1:26
1:17
2:23
1:43
1:32
1:43
1:21
1:10
1:15
0:43
1:19
1:00
0:43
0:56
0:58
0:59
0:46
0:10
0:08
1:02
0:22
0:07
0:11
0:21
0:27
0:12
2:17
19
Credits
Produced by: Liz Hamill
Recorded by: Sibele Corrêa e Liz Hamill
Recorded live at: Chagdud Gonpa Khadro Ling, Três Coroas, RS, Brazil at the
Vajrakilaya Drubchen in February 2001
Mixed by: Gustavo Breher, Liz Hamill and Fernanda Alvarenga, TecAudio, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil
Masterized by: Dr. Toby Mountain, Northeastern Digital, Southboro, MA, Estados Unidos
Graphic Design: Fernanda Alvarenga
Liner notes by: Chagdud Khadro
Line drawings: Palden Tondub (p’hurba and tray card up)
Photographs: Liliane Soares and the archives at Chagdud Gonpa Brasil
Musicians: Chagdud Rinpoche and Lama Jigme (cymbals), Mauriã Sabbado (cymbals, second umze),
Palden Tondub and Liz Hamill (gyalings), Gus Friedman and Maria Inez Ribeiro (kanglings),
Maurício Sabbado and William de Martino Jorge (long horns), Andrea de Lima (Tibetan drum)
Thank you to Chagdud Khadro, Lama Tsering, Lama Sherab Drolma, Sibele Corrêa, Adam Koch,
Summer, Christine Boedler, Patrícia Vieira, Suzanne Meister, Luciana Frugoli, John Swearingen,
Katia of TecAudio, Carol Young of Young/Hunter Management, Darleen Wilson, Susan Bernstein,
Jane Goodwin, Andrea and Gessner Geyer, Janet Filardo and Howard Figler.
Vajrakilaya is a Vajrayana practice that requires empowerment from a qualified lama, and the chanting style arises from
the oral lineage. May all who hear this recording find the auspicious conditions to receive empowerment, teachings, and
the traditional oral transmission from a qualified lama.
Dakini Music
POB 4763
Harrisburg, PA 17111- 0763 USA
web: www.dakinimusic.com
e-mail: dakinimusic@yahoo.com
Chagdud Gonpa Brasil
Cx. Postal 121
Três Coroas, RS, 95660 000 Brasil
Tel: (51) 546-8200, 546-8201
Fax: 546-8232
web: www.chagdud.org
MAY ALL BEINGS BENEFIT
2004 Chagdud Gonpa
2004 Dakini Music
Proceeds are used to support
Chagdud Gonpa Brasil, the first
Tibetan Buddhist monastery for
laypeople in Latin America and its
work in preserving the Vajrayana
teachings in the West.