Lama Chöpa: The Guru Puja
52 pages, print, 5 x 8 inches, 29 Illustrations
Vajrayana Buddhism, Liturgy, Asian Culture: Tibetan music
LAMA CHÖPA, The Guru Puja
Composed by Panchen Lozang Chökyi Gyaltsen, the First Panchen Lama
Translated by Robert Preece
Forewords by Geshe Thubten Jinpa + Zasep Tulku Rinpoche
Performance notes by Karma Yönten Gyatso
Lama Chöpa is a practice of guru devotion special to the Gelugpa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. In Sanskrit, lama is guru, and chöpa is offering, so Lama Chöpa translates into English as “offering to the spiritual guide.” In the Gelugpa tradition, there are many guru yoga sadhanas, but Lama Chöpa is the most popular and sacred text. A special practice of Je Tsongkhapa (1357-1419), the founder of the Gelugpa School, Lama Chöpa was compiled by the first Panchen Lama, Panchen Lozang Chökyi Gyaltsen (1570-1662), who was the teacher of the fifth Dalai Lama (1617-1682). Lama Chöpa became so popular in Tibet and Mongolia that almost every monk of the Gelugpa tradition had it memorized, and recited it on a daily basis, both in the temple as a group practice, and individually.
Lama Chöpa is considered to be an Anuttarayoga Tantra or Highest Yoga Tantra practice. As indicated by the opening words, “Arising within the sphere of great bliss, I manifest as a Guru Yidam,” it contains the idea of personal transformation through the practitioner merging his or her mind with the guru as the meditational deity. The essence of the practice is to see the guru as an Enlightened Being, a Buddha, and to receive his or her blessings in return.
Half of the publisher's profits from this book go to Tashilhunpo, the Panchen Lama’s monastery-in-exile, in India.
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR
Rob Preece began his Buddhist practice in 1973 with Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Nepal, and he was part of a small group that founded a Buddhist centre in the UK for his Tibetan teachers. In 1980 he returned to India and was in retreat for much of the next five years. During that retreat, he composed this new version of the Lama Chöpa to be sung following the traditional Tibetan melodies.
Rob has been a practicing psychotherapist in England since 1988, gradually developing a style that is a synthesis of Buddhist and Jungian understanding. He leads many meditation retreats in the UK, some of which incorporate a movement practice facilitated by his wife Anna. As a father of two sons, author of The Wisdom of Imperfection and The Psychology of Buddhist Tantra, an experienced Thangkha painter and a keen gardener, he tries to ground Buddhist practice in a creative practical lifestyle.
For further information about Rob’s work, visit his website at www.mudra.co.uk
ABOUT THE BOOK
This unique edition features a complete version of the Lama Chöpa, a world heritage text, including all of the traditional music and mudras needed to perform the sadhana in its traditional form.
“It is a real delight to read the famed Lama Chöpa in Rob Preece’s new translation. In chanting the lines from this new rendering, one could almost hear echoes of the original Tibetan composed so eloquently by Panchen Lobsang Chögyen, one of Tibet’s greatest spiritual masters.”–Thupten Jinpa, PhD., principal English translator to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the author/translator of Essential Mind Training, Montreal, QC, 2012
ALSO AVAILABLE AS AN E-BOOK FROM YOUR FAVOURITE ONLINE E-BOOK STORE:ISBN 978-1-896559-13-1 ebook
