A Commentary on “Blessing the Speech According to the Instructions of Great Yogi Khyungpo”

Why and When to Do the Practice

Blessing the Speech According to the Instructions of Great Yogi Khyungpo^[1] is a method to make the speech perfect. According to my root guru Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche, this practice of blessing the speech multiplies the recitation of mantra ten million times. I received the oral transmission of this practice from Kyabje Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche.

You should do the blessing of the speech and recite the daily mantras first thing in the morning before you begin to speak, even while you are still in bed. You can do the motivation The Method to Transform a Suffering Life into Happiness (Including Enlightenment) before you bless your speech, as long as you don’t recite it verbally but just think it mentally. Alternatively, you can do the motivation after you bless your speech.

A Commentary on “Blessing the Speech According to the Instructions of Great Yogi Khyungpo”

Visualizing Yourself as a Deity

Visualization

I clarify myself as the deity.

To do this practice, you need to transform yourself into the form of a deity. You don’t just change a truly existent human body into a truly existent deity body; it is not like that. First you purify the truly existent I in emptiness by looking at the real I as empty, as it is empty. Then, your wisdom realizing emptiness, which is nondual with great bliss, manifests as a deity. Usually you arise as the main deity with whom you have a karmic connection and by means of which you will achieve enlightenment most quickly. However, if you are doing a deity retreat, you can arise as that deity.

You are only allowed to clarify yourself as a deity after having received a great initiation of a lower tantra or highest yoga tantra deity. If you haven’t received a great initiation, you can visualize yourself as Guru Shakyamuni Buddha. My guru Kyabje Denma Locho Rinpoche said that this is an exception based on Buddha being the founder of the present Buddhadharma. However, for Medicine Buddha, Chenrezig, and all other deities, you must have received the initiation of the deity in order to visualize yourself as that deity. If you haven’t received a great initiation, it might also be okay to do the blessing of the speech with your ordinary body, but I haven’t actually heard that.

A Commentary on “Blessing the Speech According to the Instructions of Great Yogi Khyungpo”

Visualizing the Seed Syllable and Mantra Garlands

On my tongue, a syllable ĀḤ (ཨཱཿ) transforms into a moon. On top of it appears a white syllable OṂ (ༀ) encircled by the white Sanskrit vowels standing clockwise, the red Sanskrit consonants standing counterclockwise, and the blue Heart Mantra of Dependent Relation standing clockwise.

On your tongue, in the center, visualize a white syllable ĀḤ. The ĀḤ transforms into a white moon disk, transparent like a magnifying glass and of the nature of light. In the center of the moon disk is a white OṂ, standing upright and facing forward. Standing clockwise around the OṂ are the white Sanskrit vowels, called ali in Sanskrit—OM A Ā I Ī U Ū ṚI ṜI ḶI ḸI E Ē O Ō ANG AH SWĀHĀ. Standing counterclockwise around the vowels are the red Sanskrit consonants, called kali in Sanskrit—OṂ KA KHA GA GHA ṄGA / TSA TSHA DZA GYA ÑA / ṬA ṬHA ḌA ḌHA ṆA / TA THA DA DHA NA / PA PHA BA BHA MA / YA RA LA WA / ŚHA KA SA HA KYA SWĀHĀ. Standing clockwise around the consonants is the blue Heart Mantra of Dependent Relation—OṂ YE DHARMĀ HETU PRABHAWĀ HETUN TEKÄN TATHĀGATO HYAVADÄ / TEKÄÑ TSA YO NIRODHA EWAM VĀDĪ MAHĀ ŚHRAMAṆAYE SWĀHĀ. All the letters of the mantras are standing upright and are radiant, like neon signs on hotels and restaurants at night. The three OṂs that begin the three mantras are in front of the syllable OṂ that is in the center of the moon disk. The mantra garlands do not circle the OṂ in the sense of turning or spinning around it.

A Commentary on “Blessing the Speech According to the Instructions of Great Yogi Khyungpo”

Visualizing Hooking Back the Power and Blessings of Speech

Light beams radiate from the syllable OṂ and the mantra garlands, hooking back the blessings and power of the speech of those beyond and not beyond the world in the form of the three mantras, the seven sublime precious objects of a king’s reign, the eight auspicious signs, [and the eight auspicious substances].

Visualize that light beams are emitted from the syllable OṂ and the three mantra garlands on your tongue. They hook back the blessings and power of speech of those who are beyond the world and those who are not beyond the world.

“Those who are beyond the world” does not mean those who are distant from the world, but those who are beyond samsara; that is, beyond aggregates caused by karma and delusions. They are the buddhas, arya bodhisattvas abiding on the three pure bhumis, and arhats—those who have achieved liberation from samsara through developing their minds in renunciation and the wisdom realizing emptiness.

First, visualize that beams are emitted from the syllable OṂ and the three mantra garlands on your tongue and hook back all the blessings and power of their holy speech in the form of the three mantras—the vowels, consonants, and Heart Mantra of Dependent Relation, which absorb into the mantras on your tongue. Then, beams are emitted and hook back all the blessings and power of their holy speech in the form of the seven precious objects of a king’s reign, the eight auspicious signs, and the eight auspicious substances. These fill the sky in different layers, like the layers of clouds you see when you travel by plane. Visualize that many sets of the seven precious objects of a king’s reign absorb into the mantras on your tongue, like snowfall or rainfall. Then visualize that many sets of the eight auspicious signs absorb into the mantras on your tongue, like snowfall or rainfall. Then visualize that many sets of the eight auspicious substances absorb into the mantras on your tongue, like snowfall or rainfall.

Those who are not beyond the world are samsaric beings—those whose aggregates are caused by karma and delusion. They include some yogis. Yogis can be of different levels—those who have achieved high realizations of secret mantra and are beyond samsara and those who are still samsaric beings. The beings who are not beyond the world also include sages who have actualized words of truth. Due to living their whole life in silence and practicing the morality of abandoning negative karmas of speech by abstaining from telling lies, gossiping, and so forth, their words have power and so their prayers are quickly actualized.

Visualize that the blessings and power of the speech of these yogis and sages are hooked back in the form of the three mantras, the seven precious objects of a king’s reign, the eight auspicious signs, and the eight auspicious substances. These are not material things; they are of the nature of light. They absorb into the mantras on the moon disk on your tongue, like rain falling on the ocean.

A Commentary on “Blessing the Speech According to the Instructions of Great Yogi Khyungpo”

Visualizing the Purification of Negative Karmas and Obscurations

I have added a visualization here that is not mentioned in the actual practice but comes in one of the commentaries to the practice. As you recite the vowels three times, visualize that from each syllable of the white vowels, white nectar beams are emitted. They totally illuminate and fill the inside of your whole body from your feet up to your head, like a glass filled with milk. All your negative karmas and obscurations collected with the body from beginningless rebirths are completely purified. As you recite the consonants three times, visualize that from each syllable of the red consonants, red nectar beams are emitted and completely fill your whole body. All your negative karmas and obscurations collected with the speech from beginningless rebirths are completely purified. As you recite the Heart Mantra of Dependent Relation three times, visualize that from each syllable of the blue mantra, blue nectar beams are emitted and completely fill your whole body. All your negative karmas and obscurations collected with the mind from beginningless rebirths are completely purified.

A Commentary on “Blessing the Speech According to the Instructions of Great Yogi Khyungpo”

Reciting the Mantras

Mantras for Blessing the Speech

Concentrate on the visualization and recite the mantras beginning from the inner circle.

Recite the mantras one by one, three times each, beginning with the vowels, the inner circle; then the consonants; and then the Heart Mantra of Dependent Relation, the outer circle.

When you recite mantras, you have to recite them very clearly and slowly. For example, when you recite the vowels, say OṂ A Ā (pause), I Ī (pause), U Ū (pause), ṚI Ṝi (pause), and so forth. When Kyabje Choden Rinpoche gave a commentary on Secret Vajrapani at Vajrapani Institute, Rinpoche talked about how important it is to recite mantras correctly. Rinpoche used this example of the Sanskrit vowels to show how they should be recited very clearly and very precisely, with the sounds of all the syllables pronounced correctly.

There are different techniques for reciting these mantras but according to the great yogi Drubchen Khyungpo, all three mantras—the vowels, consonants, and Heart Mantra of Dependent Relation—have OṂ at the beginning and SWĀHĀ at the end.

Sanskrit Vowels (Ali)

OṂ  A  Ā  I  Ī  U  Ū  ṚI  ṜI  ḶI  ḸI  E  Ē  O  Ō  ANG  AH SWĀHĀ   (3x) 

Sanskrit Consonants (Kali)

ༀ་ཀ་ཁ་ག་གྷ་ང་།  ཙ་ཚ་ཛ་ཛྙ་ཉ།  ཊ་ཋ་ཌ་ཌྷ་ཎ།  ཏ་ཐ་ད་དྷ་ན།  པ་ཕ་བ་བྷ་མ།  ཡ་ར་ལ་ཝ།  ཤ་ཥ་ས་ཧ་ཀྵ་སྭཱཧཱ།

OṂ  KA  KHA  GA  GHA  ṄGA / TSA TSHA  DZA  GYA ÑA  /  ṬA ṬHA  ḌA  ḌHA  ṆA  /  TA  THA  DA  DHA  NA /  PA  PHA  BA  BHA  MA  /  YA  RA  LA  WA  /  ŚHA  KA  SA  HA  KYA  SWĀHĀ   (3x)

The second set of consonants should be pronounced TSA TSHA DZA GYA ÑA, not CHA CHHA JA GYA ÑA,^[1] as that is how the ancient pandits wrote them in Tibetan. If you pronounce these letters as CHA CHHA JA GYA ÑA, it means that they made a mistake. Since those pandits had a purpose in writing them like this in Tibetan, I think it is better to recite them the Tibetan way.

Without the diacritic marks these two sets of Sanskrit letters-—ṬA ṬHA ḌA ḌHA ṆA and TA THA DA DHA NA-—look exactly the same, which would mean that you would say the same thing twice. But in Sanskrit and Tibetan they are totally different letters because the letters in the first set are reversed.

Then, there is ŚHA ṢHA SA HA KṢHA, but Tibetans normally say ŚHA KA SA HA KYA. I checked the pronunciation of these letters with a Sanskrit expert in the past but now I’ve forgotten what he said.

Heart Mantra of Dependent Relation

ༀ་ཡེ་དྷརྨཱ་ཧེ་ཏུ་པྲ་བྷ་ཝཱ་ཧེ་ཏུནྟེ་ཥནྟ་ཐཱ་ག་ཏོ་ཧྱ་ཝ་དཏ།  ཏེ་ཥཱཉྩ་ཡོ་ནི་རོ་དྷ་ཨེ་ཝཾ་བཱ་དཱི་མཧཱ་ཤྲ་མ་ཎ་ཡེ་སྭཱཧཱ།

OṂ YE DHARMĀ HETU PRABHAWĀ HETUN TEKÄN TATHĀGATO HYAVADÄ / TEKÄÑ TSA YO NIRODHA EWAM VĀDĪ MAHĀ ŚHRAMAṆAYE SWĀHĀ   (3x)

Although there is no break in the Tibetan writing, you have to pause between YO and NI. This is because if you recite YO and NI together as YONI, the mantra would have the very strange meaning of “May the female sex organ be destroyed.” But if you pause after YO and then recite NIRODHA EWAM VĀDĪ MAHĀ ŚHRAMAṆAYE SWĀHĀ, it doesn’t mean that. This way of reciting the mantra is explained and emphasized in the texts.

Reciting this mantra stops all inauspicious things, gathers all good things, and fulfills all wishes.

A Commentary on “Blessing the Speech According to the Instructions of Great Yogi Khyungpo”

Absorption of the Mantras

The Heart Mantra of Dependent Relation absorbs into the consonants, the consonants into the vowels, the vowels into the syllable OṂ (ༀ), and the OṂ into the moon cushion. That transforms into a syllable ĀḤ (ཨཱཿ). The ĀḤ melts into pink nectar and absorbs into my tongue, which becomes of the nature of a vajra.

When you have finished reciting the three mantras, visualize that the outer mantras gradually absorb into the inner ones. First visualize that the Heart Mantra of Dependent Relation absorbs into the consonants. Then the consonants absorb into the vowels. Then the vowels absorb into the syllable OṂ in the center of the moon disk. The OṂ absorbs into the moon disk. The moon disk transforms into a syllable ĀḤ, which is what it originally came from. Here you should visualize a Tibetan letter ĀḤ like this, ཨཱཿ, with a small A, འ, and the two dots, ཿ. The ཨཱཿ melts into pink nectar, which absorbs into your tongue. Your tongue becomes the nature of a vajra, indestructible. Eating black foods can no longer destroy the power of your speech. Think that your tongue becomes solid, like iron or a rock, as well as very strong and very heavy, almost as if you cannot move it. Generate very strong faith that the blessings and power of speech of all the buddhas, bodhisattvas, arhats, yogis, and sages have entered your speech and made it perfect. Think: “My speech has become perfect.”

A Commentary on “Blessing the Speech According to the Instructions of Great Yogi Khyungpo”

The Benefits of Blessing the Speech

The benefits of blessing the speech are: (1) the power of your speech becomes perfect; (2) whatever you recite is multiplied ten million times; (3) the power of your speech is not taken away by eating wrong foods; and (4) gossiping becomes the recitation of mantra.

When you bless your speech, all the blessings and power of the holy speech of all the buddhas and other holy beings are received in your tongue, and you get an unbelievable number of benefits. I don’t know how many millions and zillions of benefits are received! However, there are four particular benefits.

The first benefit of blessing the speech is that it makes the power of your speech perfect. Due to this, when you teach Dharma, everyone listens to you and practices Dharma. When you do counseling, everyone pays attention and follows your advice. When you give a lecture, even a political speech, all the people pay attention and listen to you. When you give advice to someone, that person does what you say. When you speak to an important person, they listen to and help you. In short, when your speech has power, other people listen to you, pay attention to you, keep your words in their hearts, and do what you say.

If, on the other hand, your speech doesn’t have power, when you give advice to people or when you ask them for help, they won’t listen to you and won’t do what you say. For example, I was told many times by a student that drinking Coca-Cola, even diet Coke, was bad for me, that it could harm my bones and even cause cancer, but still I kept on drinking it. I didn’t pay attention to her advice and it didn’t have any effect on my mind.

Then I went to Salt Lake City, where the two daughters of Gomo Tulku, who was my teacher in his past life, live. The elder daughter, Pema, came to see me and told me all the problems that come from drinking Coca-Cola. At the end she said, “Stop drinking Coca-Cola! When you come back next time, I want you to tell me that you haven’t been drinking Coca-Cola.” She just said that one time and I had no difficulty at all to stop drinking Coca-Cola. After that I never had any attraction to it at all and I never drank it again. I didn’t even have the problem of missing it on airplanes. This is because her speech has much power. It affected my mind and I was able to give up Coca-Cola immediately.

Therefore, you should bless your speech in the morning, not only for your recitation of mantras to have power, but even for your ordinary speech to have power. Whether it is to do your job, to request someone for help, or to explain something to someone, your speech needs power. If your speech doesn’t have power, nothing will work.

The second benefit of blessing the speech is that any prayer or mantra you recite is multiplied ten million times. For example, if you recite a mantra, such as OṂ MAṆI PADME HŪṂ or the Vajrasattva mantra one time, you get the benefit of having recited it ten million times. It is unbelievably powerful. However, other mantras and practices also do that.

The third benefit is a particular benefit of the practice of blessing the speech—it stops the power of your speech, including the power of your mantras, from being taken away or degenerated by eating black foods. According to the Kadampa text Tenrim Chenmo, eating garlic takes away the power of speech for seven days, onion for five days, and radish for nine days. There are different types of radish but I think this is a particular radish that is large, round, and very strong; it makes the breath smell, produces a lot of gas, and pollutes the whole body. Eating nettles causes the power of your speech to be lost for half a year. When nettles are cooked well they are very delicious, but eating them has this shortcoming. Eating animal tongue, in particular sheep tongue, takes away the power of your speech for your whole life. Animals such as sheep are extremely ignorant, so when you eat their meat, in particular the lower parts of their bodies, the heart, and, worst of all, the tongue, due to a dependent arising it dulls your mind and causes your intelligence and wisdom to degenerate. Blessing your speech in the morning stops all the harm that comes from eating these wrong foods.

If you are very sensitive, you can feel the harmful effects of having eaten black foods. They make your mind unclear and can also make your body kind of tough and even cause it to change color. Because black foods destroy the power of your mind and body, in addition to the power of your speech, it is best to avoid eating them. However, it is different for a great yogi of secret mantra who has complete control over their mind and the winds that are the vehicle of the mind. Such a person can eat black foods, and even poisons that would normally kill an ordinary person, and not be harmed. Instead these foods only become a cause to increase their bliss and realizations.

The fourth benefit is also a particular benefit of the practice of blessing the speech—anything you say, even gossip, becomes the recitation of mantra. If you do the practice of blessing the speech in the morning, from then until sunrise the next morning, by the power of this practice all your gossip becomes the recitation of mantra. This probably means that whatever you say becomes virtue.

There are also other specific benefits of blessing the speech. For example, Lama Atisha taught that when reciting a certain number of mantras, such as twenty-one or a hundred, if you engage in ordinary talk before you finish the recitation, your mantras are as if stabbed with a phurba^[1] and their power is taken away. If you do this blessing of the speech, that doesn’t happen.

A Commentary on “Blessing the Speech According to the Instructions of Great Yogi Khyungpo”

Dedication

DAG GI CHE YI WANG PO LA
   May my tongue sense base
DE SHEG POB PA DÄN PAR SHOG
   Have all the courage of the ones gone to bliss.
TSHIG GI ZI JI THU DE NI
   By the magnificence and power of my words,
SEM CHÄN THAM CHÄ DÜL WAR SHOG
   May all sentient beings be subdued.
DAG GI TSHIG NI CHI MÄ PÄI
   May all the meanings of whatever words I say
DÖN DE THAM CHÄ DRUB PAR SHOG
   Be accomplished.

I added this dedication from a Nyingma prayer book containing a collection of daily practices.[1] It is a very good and important dedication that summarizes the purpose of blessing the speech in three requests.

First dedicate for your tongue sense base, or sense power, to have the courage or power of the ones gone to bliss, the buddhas. Then dedicate for the magnificence and power of your words to subdue the minds of sentient beings, so that when you give teachings and when you talk to others, you will be able to bring inner peace to them by pacifying their delusions, selfish mind, and negative thoughts. Then, when you say, “May all the meanings of whatever words I say be accomplished,” dedicate that whenever you teach Dharma, or even when you explain something to someone, give someone advice, or ask someone to do something, you will be able to accomplish whatever you say because they will listen to you.

A Commentary on “Blessing the Speech According to the Instructions of Great Yogi Khyungpo”

Nagarjuna’s Heart Practice

Nagarjuna’s heart practice is to recite these three mantras—the Sanskrit vowels, Sanskrit consonants, and Heart Mantra of Dependent Relation—three times each after doing any virtuous activity of body, speech, or mind. In particular, it is good to recite these mantras after reciting the mantras of a deity when doing a sadhana or during a session in retreat. By doing this, the purpose for which you recited those particular mantras will be accomplished. For example, you can recite mantras for pacification (to pacify sicknesses, spirit harms, negative karmas, and defilements), for increase (to increase life, merits, wisdom, wealth, and realizations), for control (to have the necessary outer conditions, such as material things, for your practice of Dharma and your actions to benefit others to be successful), or for wrath (to gain control over evil beings so that they listen to you and stop engaging in heavy negative karma, and you can then bring them into the Dharma and to enlightenment).

Colophon

Commentary to “Blessing the Speech According to the Instructions of Great Yogi Khyungpo”: Compiled and edited by Ven. Joan Nicell from explanations given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche during nyung ne teachings at Lawudo Retreat Centre, Solu Khumbu, Nepal, in April 1978 (LYWA 133); during Lama Chopa and Six Yogas of Naropa teachings at Tushita Mahayana Meditation Centre, Dharamsala, India, in April-May 1990 (LYWA 510); during the 100 million mani retreat at Chenrezig Institute, Eudlo, Australia, in 2000 (LYWA 1261); during the Mitrugpa retreat at O.Sel.Ling, Bubion, Spain, in April 2001 (LYWA 1379); in dictation to Ven. Matthew Frum, Kachoe Dechen Ling, February, 2005; during the 100 million mani retreat at Institut Vajra Yogini, Lavaur, France, in May 2009; at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore, 2010 and 2016; at Light of the Path 2009, 2014, and 2016 in North Carolina, USA; at Great Stupa for Universal Compassion, Australia in September-October 2014; in Guadalajara, Mexico, in September 2015; during the November course at Kopan Monastery, Nepal, in December 2015; during the Medicine Buddha retreat at Rinchen Jangsem Ling, Triang, Malaysia, in 2016. Lightly edited by Ven. Ailsa Cameron, March 2018.