The Dalai Lama is one of those human treasures we’d be wise not to take for granted. He’s getting up there. I recently wrote up his new movie, which is full of joy and…the feeling that these two friends might never see each other, again.
Update: Send Your Birthday Greetings to His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
“As we celebrate the Dalai Lama’s life for his birthday, consider what His Holiness has to say about the gift of life.”
Every day, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to be alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others; to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others. I am going to benefit others as much as I can.
For more:
The Dalai Lama—a living member of the ahimsa/non-violence lineage that includes Henry David Thoreau, Gandhi, Vaclav Havel, the Reverend MLK Jr., Thich Nhat Hanh…is getting old. He’s worked hard and long for world peace under near hopeless conditions—let’s thank this living legend by taking a moment, today, to appreciate his smiling, truly humble leadership.
NEW DELHI (AP) — The Dalai Lama is 74 [80] today, and hundreds of his followers in exile with him in India celebrated in New Delhi and Dharmsala, where he’s lived the past 50 years. The Dalai Lama joked that so many people are praying for him that he may live to at least 100.
This Long Life Prayer for Tenzin Gyatso, The 14th Dalai Lama, may be recited on his Birthday—July 6, 2009—or any other auspicious time.
Update: Source. Thanks to Tyler Dewar, we think this English translation comes via Dr. Thupten Jinpa Langri.
OM SVASTI
To the assembly of most kind teachers, both present and past –
the miraculous dance of the body, speech and mind of innumerable Buddhas
manifesting in accord with aspirants’ spiritual capacities,
the wish-granting jewel, the source of all virtue and goodness –
to you, we offer our prayers with fervent devotion:
That Tenzin Gyatso, protector of the Land of Snows,
live for a hundred aeons.
Shower on him your blessings so that his aspirations are fulfilled
without hindrance.
To the assembly of all meditational deities
manifesting as countless mandalas and divinities –
the magical clouds of immaculate, transcendent wisdom
reaching to the farthest expanse of the space of ultimate reality –
to you, we offer our prayers with fervent devotion:
That Tenzin Gyatso, protector of the Land of Snows,
live for a hundred aeons.
Shower on him your blessings so that his aspirations are fulfilled
without hindrance.
To all the victorious Buddhas of the three times
endowed with ten powers and who are even masters of the gods,
and whose attributes of perfection are the source of all compassionate deeds
benefiting the vast ocean-like realm of sentient beings,
to you, we offer our prayers with fervent devotion:
That Tenzin Gyatso, protector of the Land of Snows,
live for a hundred aeons.
Shower on him your blessings so that his aspirations are fulfilled
without hindrance.
To the assembly of sacred doctrine embodied in the Three Vehicles,
supremely serene, a jewel-treasure of enlightenment,
stainless, unchanging, eternally good, and the glory of all virtues,
which actually liberates beings from the sufferings of the three worlds,
to you, we offer our prayers with fervent devotion:
That Tenzin Gyatso, protector of the Land of Snows,
live for a hundred aeons.
Shower on him your blessings so that his aspirations are fulfilled
without hindrance.
To all members of the enlightening, noble spiritual community,
who never stray from the thoroughly liberating adamantine city,
who possess the wisdom eye that directly sees the profound truth
and the highest valour to destroy all machinations of cyclic existence,
to you, we offer our prayers with fervent devotion:
That Tenzin Gyatso, protector of the Land of Snows,
live for a hundred aeons.
Shower on him your blessings so that his aspirations are fulfilled
without hindrance.
To the assembly of heroes and dakinis, heavenly beings of the three worlds,
who appear in the highest paradises, in the sacred places, and in the
cremation grounds, and who, through creative play in the hundred-fold
experiences of bliss and emptiness, support practitioners in their
meditation on the excellent path, to you, we offer our prayers
with fervent devotion:
That Tenzin Gyatso, protector of the Land of Snows,
live for a hundred aeons.
Shower on him your blessings so that his aspirations are fulfilled
without hindrance.
To the ocean of protectors endowed with eyes of transcendent wisdom –
the powerful guardians and upholders of the teaching
who wear inseparably on their matted locks
the knot symbolising their pledge to the Vajra Holder –
to you, we offer our prayers with fervent devotion:
That Tenzin Gyatso, protector of the Land of Snows,
live for a hundred aeons. Shower on him your blessings
so that his aspirations are fulfilled without hindrance.
Thus to this congregation of excellent, undeceiving refuge,
we pray that by the power of this prayer
expressed from a heart filled with fervent devotion and humility,
may the body, speech and mind of the soul of the Land of Snows,
the supreme Ngawang Lobsang Tenzin Gyatso,
be indestructible, unfluctuating and unceasing;
may he live immutable for a hundred aeons,
seated on a diamond throne, transcending decay and destruction.
You are the jewel-heart embodying all compassionate, beneficial deeds;
O most courageous one, you carry upon your shoulders
the burden of all the Buddhas of the infinite realms.
May all your noble aspirations be fulfilled as intended.
By virtue of this may the heavenly doors of the fortunate era open
eternally as a source of relief and respite for all beings;
And may the auspicious signs reach the apex of existence and release,
as the sacred teachings flourish through all times and in all realms.
May the nectar-stream of the blessings of the Lotus Holder
always enter our hearts and nourish it with strength.
May we please you with our offerings of dedicated practice,
And may we reach beyond the shores of perfect, compassionate deeds.
Through the blessings of the wondrous Buddhas and Bodhisattvas,
by the infallible truth of the laws of dependent origination,
and by the purity of our fervent aspirations,
may the aims of my prayer be fulfilled without hindrance.
Sarva Mangalm!
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