The Lotus Essence Tantra Talks with Kyabgon Phakchok Rinpoche

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Here are some words from Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche about the Lotus Essence Tantra:

My guru uncle Samten Gyatso had many lay students and they all knew the Lotus Essence Tantra by heart. There wasn’t a single one of his students who didn’t know how to chant this tantra. Whenever they had a free moment or even while walking about they would recite it from memory. Many of his old students said that it was very good to chant because whoever hears it will be liberated. That is the kind of pure appreciation that they had.

There is a long version of Liberation Through Hearing called the Single Child of All Buddhas Tantra, which is a much longer text but still there were many of Samten Gyatso’s students who knew that by heart as well.

Samten Gyatso once said that, “I have two things through which I can benefit other beings, one is the Single Child of All Buddhas Tantra and the other is the Lotus Essence Tantra. And there is absolutely no doubt about that!” Normally he would never mention anything of the kind, he was what is called a ‘hidden yogi.’ He would never talk about himself as being anything special, not even a single word. He was never heard saying, “I have realized …” or “I am special. I have special qualities.” Not once. He would move around just as if he was a completely ordinary person. But he did say, “There truly are two things that I have which can benefit others. One is the Single Child of All Buddhas Tantra and the other is the Lotus Essence Tantra.”

From Blazing Splendor, the biography of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche.*

And this is the colophon of the Lotus Essence Tantra (first translated by Erik Pema Kunsang, edited by Michael Tweed; revised by Peter Woods and Laura Dainty, and re-edited by Ted Alexander and Libby Hogg):

“Whether regularly or, especially,༔ when noises and earthquakes occur, in large gatherings, and so forth, you should recite this so that everyone can hear.” Just as this quote says, you should make an effort to read the tantra aloud.

The precious Master of Uddiyana also mentioned the benefits of making it into a book that can be carried on the person, and so forth: “This pith of the tantra section is the supreme quintessence, the wisdom of the original lord Samantabhadra༔ vividly self-manifest.༔ As one is liberated just by seeing this scripture, it hardly needs to be said that it liberates through being recited. It is the sovereign of all that liberates through hearing.༔ Tying it around your neck will liberate through wearing. Whatever is anointed with fragrant substances and amrita༔ during recitation of this tantra becomes the supreme liberation through smell and taste.༔ When you wear this and are touched by it, or when you touch someone else while wearing it,༔ great bliss will arise and liberation is effortless. Ema! How wonderful, this marvelous path, the heart essence of Self-Existing Padma!”

Bearing in mind how Padmakara extensively praised this profound tantra with his infallible vajra speech, you should study this tantra, contemplate it, train in it, memorize it, write copies of it, wear it, use it in your daily recitation, and correctly transmit it to others, fully and widely. By doing so you will expand the activity of Samantabhadra Padmakara until it pervades throughout all of space. Thus exert yourself one-pointedly in constantly spreading the superb light of benefit and happiness––to illuminate not only your own mind, but that of others as well.

Through the kindness of the undisputed and timely incarnated great tertön Orgyen Chokgyur Dechen Lingpa, I, Jamyang Khyentsé Wangpo, a joyful servant of the Lotus Master, and the one who possesses the good fortune of being the first to have heard this secret, profound teaching in completeness, wrote this down in conjunction with the perfect coincidence of time and place, while also offering its entire ripening empowerments, liberating instructions, explanations, and reading transmission to [a gathering of] sublime great beings of all schools, without partiality.

May the virtue of arranging thus the vajra words of the terma root text, so they can be practiced through recitation, be a cause for all beings who see, hear, think of, or are touched by this teaching to realize the state of Samantabhadra Padmakara within this very lifetime! Sarvada mangalam bhavatu!