1. Homage and Verses of Auspiciousness³⁰

Of the nature of every buddha,

an exalted gnosis all-pervading,

on the hundred-petal lotus of the navel,

in complete and perfect enlightenment,

omniscient of past, present, and future,

of the lotus family, tathāgata, god of gods,

light from your enlightened features

arises everywhere in all worlds,

immediately opening the gates

to shine on the supreme level,

great king of glory upon glory³¹

for the realms of sentient beings in general,

tormented by the five degenerations,

and specifically for those of the snowy land of Tibet,

you are the creator of all happiness and welfare.

With great compassion you perform the dance

of the red-robes, a vow-holding monk and king,

my root guru, Ngawang Losang Gyatso,

deliberately come again for the doctrine and sentient beings,

Great Sixth born of the celestially descended Nyöpa lineage,

in this life, as promised by your previous incarnation,

care for us and grant us all the happiness of samsara and nirvana.

Amid the stars of fully enlightened and perfect buddhas,

the light of your exalted wisdom of insight and abandonment,

which fill the skies of pure bodhi-mind prayers

reaching all beings fallen into the night of the five dark degenerations,

your full moon of compassion brighter than that of other tathāgatas,

supreme among the eight medicine buddhas,

from the glorious throat of Ṣaṣṭimukti

you taught the medical sutras in eight hundred verses,

medicine for the disease of ignorance,

and in the manifested place of Sudarśana,³²

a city of qualities beautiful to behold,

you taught the gods, rishis, insiders, and outsiders

the truths of the eight branches of medical science.

Guru of medicine, grant all auspiciousness.

From the pure innate tones

representing the five types of gnosis,

which are born from the nonconceptual realm

found at the five secret places of his body,

the five rishis appear individually,

like separate water reflections of the moon.

Vidyājñāna, gnosis perceiving ultimate truth

and in essence the four brothers;

and Manasija, born from the mind,

the manifestation of enlightened speech;

by the illusion of manifestation

you are companions carrying out the Conqueror’s deeds, [4]

of benefit to others, wearers of the brahman thread,

you five great rishis,³³ drench all realms and all living beings

who seek long life, Dharma, wealth, and happiness

with the rains of the ambrosia of medical science.

Four-faced Caturmukha³⁴ blessed by the Buddha

to recall the supreme Āyurveda,

Prajāpati, Aśvinīputra, and other gods,

the eight rishis,³⁵ Ātreya and so forth,

of the scriptural traditions of methods

of maintaining good health, of living long

and of curing disease;

outsiders such as Brahmā, patriarch and creator of all worlds,

the insider entourage of Mañjuśrī, Avalokiteśvara, and others,

who show the path to sentient beings in these degenerate times,

all present as requestors of the teachings;

let the carriage of sentient beings be heavy with the load of happiness.

Born into the Videhan race, named because of their lofty qualities

found at the very pinnacle of the human race,³⁶

the son of the householder queen of Bimbisāra, king of Magadha.

His instincts, by the power of training in former lives,

brought him to seek out and study the Āyurveda,

and perfect every branch of medical science.

He was known as Kumāra Bhṛtya,³⁷

raised like a son by his elder brother

to become the greatest of physicians.

Grant us happiness and virtue in the three worlds.

Born in the southern region of Veta,

a great and precious source for the understanding

of sutras and tantras, old and new,

his Dharma is peace, free of fabrication,

destroying the torments of samsara and nirvana,

ripening fully as uncontaminated ambrosia essence,

and in his practice of medicine for all living beings,

he is as kind as the supreme buddha of beryl light.

Prophesied by the Buddha, master of the profound path,

Nāgārjuna, grant us the great ambrosia of immortality.

Born in the west, son of the purely practicing brahman doctor Saṃghagupta,

the ripening of previous faith and prayer at a shrine of Īśvara

meant that he first became learned and practiced in outsider doctrine.

Finally, his wrong views of true existence conquered by Āryadeva,

he saw the words of the Buddha, found faith in cause and effect, [5]

and became a follower of the Buddha and a great scholar of India.

Śūra, grant us confidence in Āyurveda.

Great grandson³⁸ in the pure lineage of the above, son of Kāmānandana,

in the sacred moon of his waxing mind of enlightenement,

the gift of the well-written teachings of Śūra sent as far as Abhirati.³⁹

His moonlight perfectly illuminating the jasmine treasury,

the smile at the very essence of the eight lotus-petal branch

of working for the welfare of others.

May we be nourished by these beings,

who spread far and wide the science of medicine.

Your own form that of Amitābha,

born magically within a supreme lotus,

making the lives and health of others as strong as vajras,

not only through the medical science of Āyurveda

but also with the source of the four rivers of enlightened deeds.

Second Buddha, your Manasarovar lake of vast kindness

is of a depth hard to fathom;

watch over us Padmākara.

Master and father of every buddha, hair tied in five places,

deliberately come to and perform the dance of the robed monk

with wisdom, discipline, and goodness

to plant the code of morality within the minds of all beings.

Master of the doctrine of the perfect Buddha,

Losang Drakpa, I bow to you with the crown of my head.

Sun manifested from the gnosis of Vairocana in Akaniṣṭha,

known in the world as a translator

but in reality a pandit master of the five sciences,

I bow to Vairocana, illuminator of the Buddha’s doctrine.

Sugata, guide of the world, crown of the conquerors,

Rasmi Samudgata Śrīku Rāja in the form of a king,

deliberately come to protect the people of Tibet,

object of homage, flower of the god Brahmā.⁴⁰

In reality the sugata Vimaladhvaja,

provisionally a bodhisattva on the path,

working for the welfare of beings,

lord of Purgyal, of an exceptional and virtuous mind,

I bow to you, Muné Tsenpo.⁴¹

Skilled in opening the lotus gates to profound treasures

that remained a long time in the ambrosia of immortality,

their taste dripping into the honey of virtuous Dharma,

you were the incarnation of Vairocana,

discoverer of certainty, Drapa Ngönshé Wangchuk,⁴²

friend to the teachings and to living beings.

Great redactor who cleaned the face of the tantra

according to the time and place in Tibet, [6]

king of physicians, Yuthok Yönten Gönpo,

in whom all tathāgata lineages are gathered,

I bow to you with reverence.

Lokeśvara, revealing three times a dance

in a pure birth under the control of compassion,

a holy being fully accomplished

in the supreme meditative retention of life and gnosis,

you too are a venerable object of homage.⁴³

Of the lineage of a minister who recited

secret words with Dharma king Aktsom Chen,⁴⁴

and from a family of royal physicians,

Palden Tsojé of the Drangti line,

master of healing, I prostrate before you.

Born into the Tongkhün⁴⁵ race from Minyak,

who with his vast knowledge in general

and of medicine in particular was of great kindness

in restoring the welfare and happiness of all beings,

truly a king of physicians,

I bow to you, Jangdak Namgyal Drakpa Sangpo.⁴⁶

Of the lineage of the great Tibetan Dharma kings,

Holding the three great refuges as supreme,

a layman who avoided meat and alcohol like poison,

sun-like friend to the hundred-petal lotus of medical science,

Jangpa physician, Minyima, to you I bow.⁴⁷

Trisong Detsen having taken upon his shoulders

worldly affairs and the Dharma of men and gods,

Chösang was a master physician by royal appointment.

From this physician on down to the one named Dorjé:

how could one not have faith in this lineage

of practice and the discovery of medicines?⁴⁸

Blessed with a vision of Yönten Gönpo,

coming from the region of Surkar,

holding self and others as equal,

well possessed of the vajra of life,⁴⁹

I bow to the lamas of the support transmission

up to Terdak Lingpa, who drank to satisfaction

from the vase of Dharma.

By the power of protector Rājānaka Vajra Mārajit,

who was entrusted with the tantra by Buddha and Padmākara,

may the host of māras be crushed like jewels,

and with feats such as the gift of removing fear,

accomplish the four activities.⁵⁰

You with qualities of a treasure protector

and with the nature of Shingja Chen;

wrathful Apsé, like a butcher slaughtering a sheep,

your function to kill those with broken vows;

Red Jackal Face, the color of your enemy’s blood:

these and other protectors, fulfill all wishes without hindrance.⁵¹ [7]

In particular, doctrine protectors of the profound heartdrop,

the supreme and final path of this tradition,

the nine oath-bound guardians, too, protecting like a vajra canopy:

in this and future lives ensure the accomplishment

of a host of virtuous activities.

To find freedom from samsara’s constant rain of suffering

and reach the supreme level of omniscience,

you need to study the sciences.

And from among Buddha’s teachings, as vast as an ocean,

the science that brings to this hard-to-find human form

of opportunity and leisure — albeit only temporarily —

good health, respite from the suffering of sickness, and long life,

bringing even the vigor of youth to the elderly

and ultimately the achievement of the gnosis

of perfect enlightenment, the state of a buddha,

is a great science more precious and essential than the others,

this science of medicine that cares for all beings.

Drawing from various accounts of its history

the uncorrupted literary traditions of the science of life,

with the excellent credentials of rishi practices,

made even purer with untainted scripture

and the complete process of detailed reasoning,

this good explanation that erects the structure

of the glorious medical science tradition,

as it was done by the king of medicine,

a stainless mirror of beryl

reflecting the faces of the delighted Āyurveda⁵² rishis,

with their mandalas of manifest virtue;

this great offering of the ambrosia of life,

may it become a glorious spring feast, granting long life

to all living beings here and now.⁵³