03 Feast Song By Jigme Lingpa (지그메 링파의 축제 노래)

Feast Song By Jigme Lingpa (지그메 링파의 축제 노래)

On the wish-fulfilling tree of karma linked with good wishes

The youthful peacock of East India has arrived.

Turn your tail parasol to face the sacred teachings

So we youngsters can also step onto the path of freedom.

In the Queen of Spring’s chariot of merit

The melodious voice of the cuckoo bird from the jungle of South Bhutan has arrived.

With a song sweeter than the flute of celestial maidens

We receive the auspicious omen of a joyful summer season.

Vajra brothers and sisters, assembled here with harmonious karma and wishes,

Our teacher is present and has come to this Dharma gathering.

During this feast of drinking the nectar of ripening and liberation,

I have the special task of singing a joyful song.

Amidst this gathering of unchanging great bliss,

We behold the countenance of the yidam and guru even without meditation.

So let us request the siddhi of attaining the rainbow body of dharmakaya

Through the vehicle of luminous clarity, the heart essence of the mother dakinis.

FEAST SONG’s MEANING BY JIGME LINGPA;

Karma literally means action, and refers to the law of cause and effect, which dictates that every action has its result. By acting in a positive way, by knowing what kind of behavior to adopt and what to avoid, we can affect our futures.  This can be illustrated by the most simple of examples: if we customarily smile at people, greeting them in a gentle and caring manner, we will be appreciated and well-liked; always scowling and grumbling will have the opposite effect.  The word karma is often mistaken to mean fate, and thought to convey a static or pessimistic view, when the converse is actually the case.  Buddhist doctrine is extremely positive and optimistic, believing that by taking charge of and changing our actions we can change our futures.

The tail of a peacock is frequently used in Buddhist rituals, its many circles radiating color representing the radiance of the Buddha’s wisdom. Merit is a technical term in Buddhism; one accumulates merit through worthy and beneficial action and through expanding one’s wisdom and understanding. The larger one’s accumulation of merit the swifter will one travel the path to the ultimate goal of complete and perfect enlightenment; hence merit is here likened to a chariot.

Vajra brothers and sisters are the disciples of the same teacher, and have a special bond.  The nectar of ripening and liberation alludes to the life-sustaining elixir that results from proper Dharma practice.  Ripening refers to the unfolding of the results of positive actions, while liberation from the ocean of worldly sorrow is considered the supreme result.

Unchanging great bliss is neither mindless happiness nor an ecstatic state, but is the condition of a mind that has overcome the sense of being at the center of the universe, of being the most important person in the world.  The Buddhist practice of developing bodhicitta, the compassionate mind of enlightenment, involves a gradual process that begins with considering the well-being of others to be as important as our own, until
finally the happiness of others becomes our primary concern.  Seeking to help beings in whatever way we can, with no attachment to our action, leads to a blissful feeling of openness.

Tibetan Buddhism explicates the nature of reality as three kayas, three dimensions of existence.The Dharmakaya represents the empty essence of reality, with emptiness meaning not a void, but a state of pure potentiality from which anything can arise. The other two kayas are the Sambhogakaya, representing the luminous clarity of wisdom; and the Nirmanakaya, the manifestation of unobstructed wisdom.  When we request the siddhi of attaining the rainbow body of Dharmakaya we are asking for the capacity to become one with the essential nature of reality.  The practice of the Great Perfection is the vehicle of luminous clarity that will bring us this power.

The final song is a supplication to the great treasure revealer, TertonChokgyurDechenLingpa (1820–1879).  A treasure revealer, a terton, is a realized master with the special power to reveal teachings that Guru Padmasambhava concealed before he left Tibet.  Recognizing that as times and outer conditions changed, people would need different kinds of spiritual practices, Guru Rinpoche hid his teachings in various places, including caves, steep mountain rock faces, deep lakes, and so on, and made predictions about the people who would find them and propagate the teachings in the future.

One of the greatest tertons of the 19th century, ChokgyurLingpa discovered the texts comprising the ChoklingTersar, the New Treasures of Chokling.  This vast compilation of practices and teachings is the basis of a major Nyingma lineage widely practiced today, the lineage of the late TulkuUrgyen Rinpoche, AniChoying’s guru.  It was from TulkuUrgyen that AniChoying learned to sing the sacred chants of the ChoklingTersar, and many of the prayers and chants she has sung over the years are from this sublime treasure.  The following supplication extols ChokgyurLingpa’s supreme qualities as a master inseparable from the deities and gurus of the highest realms and asks for his blessings.

The prayer begins by reciting the names of the root deities associated with the Tersar lineage and their dwelling places.  ChokgyurLingpa, here called DechenDorje–indestructible great bliss–is inseparable from them all.  Amitayus is the Buddha of Long Life and Avalokiteshvara the Buddha of Compassion.  Padma Vajra is a form of Lord Padmasambhava holding a vajra, a thunderbolt symbolizing the highest form of wisdom, the wisdom that instantaneously illuminates the darkness of ignorance; and Great Vajradhara is the Buddha Great Vajra holder, the lord of all Buddha families.

One’s own root guru, who resides on the crown of one’s head, is also ChokgyurLingpa. He is inseparable from the chiefs of all dakas and dakinis, and of all the protector deities who have vowed to uphold the sacred Dharma.  UrgyenNorlha is an emanation of Padmasambhava as the Wealth-granting Buddha.

Bringing to mind all of these sacred manifestations and remembering their inseparability from the great TertonChokgyurLingpa, we appeal for his help so that we can accomplish our spiritual aims in this life, and for his protection in the bardo, the transitional state following death.  We pray to realize our mind as Mahamudra, the great seal, the unity of emptiness and great compassion.