Words of Truth

A Prayer Composed by:

His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso The Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet

 

Honoring and Invoking the Great Compassion

of the Three Jewels; the Buddha, the Teachings,

and the Spiritual Community

O Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and disciples

of the past, present, and future:

Having remarkable qualities

Immeasurably vast as the ocean,

Who regard all helpless sentient beings

as your only child;

Please consider the truth of my anguished pleas.

 

Buddha's full teachings dispel the pain of worldly

existence and self-oriented peace;

May they flourish, spreading prosperity and happiness through-

out this spacious world.

O holders of the Dharma: scholars

and realized practitioners;

May your ten fold virtuous practice prevail.

 

Humble sentient beings, tormented

by sufferings without cease,

Completely suppressed by seemingly endless

and terribly intense, negative deeds,

May all their fears from unbearable war, famine,

and disease be pacified,

To freely breathe an ocean of happiness and well-being.

And particularly the pious people

of the Land of Snows who, through various means,

Are mercilessly destroyed by barbaric hordes

on the side of darkness,

Kindly let the power of your compassion arise,

To quickly stem the flow of blood and tears.

 

Those unrelentingly cruel ones, objects of compassion,

Maddened by delusion's evils,

wantonly destroy themselves and others;

May they achieve the eye of wisdom,

knowing what must be done and undone,

And abide in the glory of friendship and love.

 

May this heartfelt wish of total freedom for all Tibet,

Which has been awaited for a long time,

be spontaneously fulfilled;

Please grant soon the good fortune to enjoy

The happy celebration of spiritual with temporal rule.

 

O protector Chenrezig, compassionately care for

Those who have undergone myriad hardships,

Completely sacrificing their most cherished lives,

bodies, and wealth,

For the sake of the teachings, practitioners,

people, and nation.

 

Thus, the protector Chenrezig made vast prayers

Before the Buddhas and Bodhisativas

To fully embrace the Land of Snows;

May the good results of these prayers now quickly appear.

By the profound interdependence of emptiness

and relative forms,

Together with the force of great compassion

in the Three Jewels and their Words of Truth,

And through the power

of the infallible law of actions and their fruits,

May this truthful prayer be unhindered

and quickly fulfilled.

This prayer, Words of Truth, was composed by His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet, on 29 September 1960 at his temporary headquarters in the Swarg Ashram at Dharamsala, Kangra District, Himachal State, India. This prayer for restoring peace, the Buddhist teachings, and the culture and self-determina-tion of the Tibetan people in their homeland was written after repeated requests by Tibetan government officials along with the unanimous consensus of the monastic and lay communities.