Manjushri- the Embodiment of Wisdom.

The concept of Bodhisattvas, some of whom make a promise that as long as all beings are not totally free from suffering, they will never become a Buddha.

These Bodhisattvas are actually Buddhas, because their compassion is so great and have worked for so many lifetimes, their enlightenment is not a choice.

Buddha talked of three main Bodhisattvas- Manjushri-Wisdom, Avalokiteshvara -Compassion and Vajrapani-Power/Strength.  If you make a connection with them it can help to generate those qualities within us.

Manjushri practice is done to generate Clarity, Wisdom, Intelligence and to clear the obstacles of ignorance and misunderstanding.

We have these and all enlightened qualities within us but we need to uncover and encourage them.

The Praise to Mañjuśrī: Glorious Wisdom’s Excellent Qualities

dpal ye shes yon tan bzang po 

The Praise to Mañjuśrī

བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་འཇམ་པའི་དབྱངས་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །

chomden dé jampé yang la chaktsal lo

Homage to the Lord Mañjughoṣa!

Praises the Qualities of the Mind, Speech and Body of Manjushri

First, describing the Minds two qualities, Wisdom and Compassion.

གང་གི་བློ་གྲོས་སྒྲིབ་གཉིས་སྤྲིན་བྲལ་ཉི་ལྟར་རྣམ་དག་རབ་གསལ་བས། །

gang gi lodrö drib nyi trindral nyi tar namdak rabsalwé

Your brilliant intelligence is free from the two obscurations, completely pure and perfectly clear like the unclouded sun.

The obscuration of Kleshas-  Ignorance, Attachment and Aversion. Negative emotions that can arise in yourself and others from these.

The obscuration of habitual tendencies. Repeating these Negative emotions life after life creates a very strong but subtle habit. This can also be cleared but takes longer.

ཇི་སྙེད་དོན་ཀུན་ཇི་བཞིན་གཟིགས་ཕྱིར་ཉིད་ཀྱི་ཐུགས་ཀར་གླེགས་བམ་འཛིན། །

jinyé dön kün jishyin zik chir nyi kyi tukkar lekbam dzin

Thus you see everything just as it is, in all its manifold aspects. As signified by you holding a book to your heart.

Two wisdoms- To see things as they are, interdependent and empty, and the wisdom of the details of everything. This is the clarity of mind.

Manjushri shows this by holding a book of these two wisdoms.

Q and A regarding reincarnation.

Part 2

Refuge and Bodhisattva vows

Manjushri resumes at 41:00

Following on from the wisdom side of Manjushris enlightened mind, comes the compassion aspect.

གང་དག་སྲིད་པའི་བཙོན་རར་མ་རིག་མུན་འཐུམས་སྡུག་བསྔལ་གྱིས་གཟིར་བའི། །

gangdak sipé tsönrar marik mün tum dukngal gyi zirwé

For the multitude of beings, imprisoned in existence, who are enshrouded by the darkness of ignorance and afflicted by suffering, you have such great and compassionate love,  Caring for each one of them as an only child.

Bodhichitta is motivated by Compassion and this must start with compassion for oneself. If you don’t have this for yourself you cannot have it for others. Manjushris compassion is fully developed and comes with the Wisdom of how to take care of oneself. The imprisonment comes from our own ignorance and can be overcome.

Q and A session.

Compassion in action

The importance of doing things for ourselves and others.

Part 3

The praise is expressing the special qualities of Manjushri, an enlightened being.  These are also our natural qualities of our Buddha Nature. These are obscured by temporary defilements. Like unknown treasures hidden under the floor of a poor man.

These natural qualities are not developed but discovered or uncovered. Freed result rather than attained result.

Previously the prayer was regarding the mind now it goes on to discuss the speech.

འགྲོ་ཚོགས་ཀུན་ལ་བུ་གཅིག་ལྟར་བརྩེ་ཡན་ལག་དྲུག་བཅུའི་དབྱངས་ལྡན་གསུང༌། །

dro tsok kün la bu chik tar tsé yenlak drukchü yangden sung

Your melodious voice with sixty qualities roars like a great thunder.

འབྲུག་ལྟར་ཆེར་སྒྲོགས་ཉོན་མོངས་གཉིད་སློང་ལས་ཀྱི་ལྕགས་སྒྲོགས་འགྲོལ་མཛད་ཅིང༌། །

druk tar cher drok nyönmong nyi long lé kyi chak drok droldzé ching

Awakening us from the deep slumber of negativity, with the Power of Wisdom it can break us from the shackles of Karma.

མ་རིག་མུན་སེལ་སྡུག་བསྔལ་མྱུ་གུ་ཇི་སྙེད་གཅོད་མཛད་རལ་གྲི་བསྣམས། །

marik münsel dukngal nyugu jinyé chödzé raldri nam

Dispelling the darkness of Ignorance, the sword of Wisdom can cut the suffering.

གདོད་ནས་དག་ཅིང་ས་བཅུའི་མཐར་སོན་ཡོན་ཏན་ལུས་རྫོགས་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ཐུ་བོའི་སྐུ། །

döné dak ching sa chü tar sön yönten lü dzok gyalsé tuwö ku

Pure from the very beginning, you have totality of qualities coming from completion of the ten Bodhisattva levels, yet you manifest as one of the main sons of the Buddha.

བཅུ་ཕྲག་བཅུ་དང་བཅུ་གཉིས་རྒྱན་སྤྲས་བདག་བློའི་མུན་སེལ་འཇམ་པའི་དབྱངས་ལ་འདུད། །

chu trak chu dang chunyi gyen tré dak lö münsel jampé yang la dü

Adorned with the one hundred and twelve of the wondrous marks.

Manjushri, please dispel the darkness in my mind.

When you make such a request for yourself and all others, feel the glorious presence of Manjushri, completely compassionate with the energy of Wisdom that can cut off all negativity within us.

Feel this from the heart of Manjushri, radiating as bright orange light, it enters us through our heart and fills our body, all our negativity, all our darkness, all the temporary defilements of our body, speech and mind is totally burnt out.

We feel the confidence of loving kindness, the compassion, the wisdom, the brightness, the clarity of mind, the joy and freedom We also feel that the light is not only going to me, but all other sentient beings and transforming them.

Recite the Manjushri mantra- *

Om A Ra PA Tsa Na Dhih

Practice as receiving the blessings from Manjushri or as yourself as Manjushri depending on how you connect with the practice.

End the practice with Dedication.

Q and A session.

Manjushri thangka photograph by Conrad Harvey