Zephr shows off a Buddha in the window of a cloisonne art gallery of religious images. Cloisonne Buddha Statue in Buddhist Art Gallery, Kathmandu, Nepal

Zephr shows off a Buddha in the window of a cloisonne art gallery of religious images. Cloisonne Buddha Statue in Buddhist Art Gallery, Kathmandu, Nepal, a photo by Wonderlane on Flickr.

Invoking the Tathagata’s Compassion
Om Svasti Siddham.
Homage to the Omniscient One.

Tathagata, Lord of the Three Realms, consider me for a moment!

Omniscient King,
The thorns of what I see are poking at my mind’s eyes.
I can’t see you.

In your heart you dwell upon the holy.
This is why you don’t see me in my destitution.
The emissaries of Mara grab at me every day.
I think back on my country
And get carried away in my attachments.
I am looking for a chance.

Kye Ma! Blessed One!
I have no freedom.
Your compassion turns out to be nothing but words.
If you actually used your compassion for the lowly
I would be released.
If your compassion was meant for me
I am out of luck.
Whom do you bestow your compassion on?
While you’re waiting for the right time to be compassionate
I’m falling into a horrible life right now.
Only when I cook in hell
Will my emotional problems
Be worse than they are right now.
Why is it that we who are messed up with emotional problems
Are so unfortunate?
While you are waiting for the right moment
Your compassion shrivels.

Maybe that’s not what’s happening,
But while I am waiting for you to protect me some day
It would be easy to give up right now.
So if you want me to live
You should concern yourself with me this very day.
I have problems.
Show me how you would deal with them.

Maybe I am making all this up in my mind;
I am not putting things together so they add up.
But maybe I have in fact put things together correctly.
Do something to make this work out!
If things don’t work out this time
I hope that [at least] it won’t be like it has been in the past.

If you don’t care about me,
Does it really matter whether things work out?
You might care.
But maybe you don’t know what’s going on.
Why are you called Omniscient?

If I use my poverty as a reason to hate you
I will instantly move on into a horrible life.
If you have compassion for the lowly
Use it to take me by the hand.
If you would just show me your ways and methods
What else would I spend my attention on?
But if I just don’t understand what you have taught
Kye Hud! Am I not a belly crawler?

Sometimes my mind is like an animal’s.
That’s when it’s appropriate to use some extra compassion.
That’s how it is.
But if you don’t care about me
Where can I go for shelter?
It would definitely be a waste
To seek shelter from anyone else.
So if there is no refuge other than you
Kye Ma! Why don’t you care about me?

Maybe you are forgetting the time:
Doing things in the present with equanimity,
Leaving your love for the future.
Maybe that’s not what you are doing.

You liberated Ajatashatru
When you cared about him in your heart.
You knew how to liberate Viradhana.
E Ma’o! Is there anything you don’t know how to do?
You can be compassionate to the likes of them
So what have I done wrong?

I used to be caught up in evil karma,
But please consider how hard I work to make the Sages happy.
That’s what I do,
When I collapse, however,
You dump additional crap on me.
I will continue to do this,
But I hope that you notice I am doing it.

I have thought about it, and looked everywhere,
But there is no teacher that I can talk to about this.
I pass my days and nights thinking about it,
Then I regret wasting the time.
I lose my sanity anyway.
Kye Kye! Why don’t you pay attention to me?

When I look at you as someone that exists
I get a better perspective on things that are subject to destruction.
When I look at you as a void Victorious One
I just criticize you.
If I cling to the idea that you both exist and don’t exist
I get delusional.
If I cling to a rejection [of both your existence and non-existence]
You become a Victorious One I can’t comprehend.

O Sage,
When I develop on these skewed ways of seeing things
It does nothing to make you change.
Is your heart balanced in such a way
That there is merit in pondering you
No matter what I decide?
It’s true that you taught me wisdom
Even when I was doing bad things.
You are still here,
And I have nothing else to pass the time on.
I calmly try to find your head,
But in my poverty I can’t even find your instructions.

If you were good in your previous lives
Why don’t you continue to be like that?
They say you are skilled in methods,
So are you purposefully distorting your methods?
Maybe your means and methods really work.
If so, Sage, are you forgetting something?

If I am making mistakes
Why don’t you stop me?
If it’s alright to do things at certain times
When is it not alright to do them?
If you, Sage, are concerned about my karma
Kyi Hud! Why do I have no freedom?
I am constantly spinning around in samsara,
So why don’t you act on your compassion?

I respectfully bow to the one who looks after living beings
In Samsara.
My first refuge is in the one who provides shelter
For those who have no shelter.
You are a teacher who has a vision
Of everything that can be known.
You don’t even have minor problems.
I carry a volume of your scriptures on top of my head.

Do you regret the promises you have made?
Have they vanished?
Keep your promise.
Have compassion on me.
You can take hundreds into your heart,
So think about saving me from this horrible life.
It may be that I am mistaken
And that you have already [saved me].
Great Compassionate One,
Be patient with me.

If I don’t put this down for you
Who will I ever talk to about it?
This is how the destitute scream out their curses.
Kye! See what emerges from their mouths.
If they have made it into your heart
I will be joining them from now on.

Kyi Hud! Thinking about myself realistically:
My future is to be cooked in the flames of sorrow.
I want to ask you for your kindness,
But I don’t know what that is.
If you can really see how it is for me
You know that I am in the dark right now.
If you ponder over and over how this feels
Your eyes will overflow with tears of compassion.
That’s how it is.
I’m falling down at your feet.
Don’t forget to have compassion for us all!

You have immediate knowledge of my sorrow.
Your love overflows.
But how can I invoke it?

It’s difficult to be immersed in mental agony.
I’m a fool, asking you for help with my personal sorrows.
Others are miserable,
But I think only of my own misery.
I cannot see the depths or limits of samsara.
What kind of Lord are you if this doesn’t make you cry?

It’s difficult to divert the river of rebirth.
It runs through the ravine of selfish grasping.
My karma makes me experience hell.
Even so, I hope for no shelter other than you.

The one saying these things is Kunga Gyaltsen Pal.
Actually, I am Zangpo.
I sit here being ashamed,
For scholars who are greater than I am
Will now be thinking about the ways I have gone wrong.

May anyone who sees, hears, believes, recites, or shows others
These words
Quickly be immersed in the freedom of the Victorious Ones
And their children.
May living beings be granted the realization of the Sage’s prayers,
The strength of character to be pure,
And all that the Victorious Ones of the three times
Consider to be good.

This is the Invocation of the Tathagata’s Compassion. It is an exact copy of the manuscript in Sakya Pandita’s personal library.

WORDS OF THE SAKYA MASTERS
Translated from the Tibetan by Chris Wilkinson