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Kurukulla Meditation A5
Kurukulla Meditation A5
Kurukullā
Composed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
FPMT
Education Services
Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Practice Series
Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition, Inc.
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© 2022
Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition, Inc.
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without permission in writing from the publisher.
Set in Calibri 12/15, Century Gothic, Helvetica Light, and Lydian BT.
Practice Requirements
Restricted. In order to do this practice, you must have received the initiation
of Kurukullā.
Technical Note
Comments by the compiler or editor are contained in instruction boxes. For
example:
Italics and a small font size indicate instructions by Lama Zopa RInpoche and
are not for recitation. For example:
This is the common graduated path of the great capable being.
Four Immeasurables
How wonderful it would be if all sentient beings were to
abide in equanimity, free from attachment and hatred,
discriminating some beings as close and others as distant.
May they abide in equanimity.
I myself will cause them to abide in equanimity.
Please, Guru-Buddha, bless me to be able to do this. (3x)
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Motivation
The purpose of my life is to free all sentient beings from all their
suffering and bring them to happiness, especially to full enlight-
enment. To do this, I must attain buddhahood, full enlighten-
ment, which has the perfect qualities of omniscient mind, perfect
power to reveal all the various methods, and perfect compassion
embracing all living beings. Therefore, I must actualize the stages
of the path to enlightenment, and for this I need to have control
over my mind, especially my extremely subtle mind. Now in order
to be successful in benefiting other sentient beings, I am going to
do the meditation of Kurukullā.
Seven-Limb Prayer
Prostration
I prostrate reverently with my body, speech, and mind.
The benefits of prostration are that you cease all obscurations of body,
speech, and mind and achieve the infinite qualities of the holy body,
speech, and mind of all the buddhas. This limb is the specific remedy to
pride.
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Offering
I present clouds of every type of offering, both actually
arranged and mentally emanated.
The benefit of offering is that you will have enjoyments as limitless as
the sky when you become enlightened. This limb is the specific remedy
to miserliness.
Confession
I confess all my negative actions and downfalls collected from
beginningless time.2
The benefit of confession is that you cease the two obscurations. This
limb is the specific remedy to negative karmas and disturbing thoughts,
including the three poisonous minds.
Rejoicing
I rejoice in the virtues of ordinary beings and āryas.3
The benefit of rejoicing is that you achieve the holy body of a buddha,
which is beautiful in all ways and has no unpleasant qualities. This limb
is the specific remedy to jealousy.
Request to Remain
Please remain until the end of saṃsāra,4
The benefit of requesting the guru to remain in this world is that you
achieve the holy body of a buddha. This limb is the specific remedy to the
negative karma of having disturbed the guru’s holy mind, and the karmic
obscurations that prevent you from meeting a guru.
Dedication
I dedicate my own and others’ virtues to great enlightenment.
The benefit of dedication is that a seed is planted in your mind to achieve
all the qualities of a buddha. This limb is the specific remedy to heresy.
Maṇḍala Offering
Maṇḍala offering practice is one of the best means of accumulating
inconceivable, extensive merit in the shortest time. When you visualize
the entire universe and all the offerings on the maṇḍala base, right that
second you collect inconceivable merit. It is said that King Aśoka was
able to build ten million stupas in a single day because in a past life,
he had offered grains of sand in Buddha Namtsig’s begging bowl while
visualizing them as gold. Here, by offering the entire universe visualized
on the maṇḍala base, you receive much more merit than King Aśoka
received because you are collecting the extensive merit of having actu-
ally offered the whole universe.
Lama Tsongkhapa mentioned that the two most important points of
maṇḍala offering meditation are to visualize many maṇḍalas and to visu-
alize them clearly. Therefore, you should visualize maṇḍalas of the high-
est quality, and as many of them as possible, filling the whole sky. The
fully ordained nun Gelongma Palmo accumulated much merit through
doing maṇḍala offerings and was thereby able to accomplish the Com-
passionate Buddha. Lama Tsongkhapa was able to realize the unmis-
taken right view by offering many hundreds of thousands of maṇḍalas.
Thus, may the virtuous friends who reveal the noble path
And the spiritual practitioners who correctly accomplish it have
long lives.
Please bless me to pacify completely
The collections of outer and inner obstacles.
Mantra
Do the following visualization for a little while, according to the time you
have available, and then continue with the second and/or third visualiza-
tion as needed. With each visualization, recite one or more mālās of the
Kurukullā mantra.
*
Lama Zopa Rinpoche pronounces HRĪṂḤ as “HRING.”
Kurukullā
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Your whole body and mind are completely filled with red beams
of light. You achieve the power to control all the devas and human
beings, your own self-cherishing thoughts, and the appearances
of your own mind, so that you can lead all suffering beings to the
peerless happiness of enlightenment. You also receive all the per-
fections and goodness of saṃsāra and peace. You and other sen-
tient beings generate the whole path to enlightenment, especially
bodhicitta on the side of sūtra, and clear light on the side of high-
est tantra.
Conclusion
Make a vow to practice bodhicitta, the ultimate good heart. Think: “I am
going to make my life most useful by freeing others from suffering and
bringing them to happiness.” Feel that Kurukullā is extremely happy with
you for dedicating your life to sentient beings.
She melts into red light, which absorbs into your forehead between
your eyebrows. Think that all the blessings and qualities of her holy body,
speech, and mind enter your three doors and you receive all the powers
of control.
Dedication
Dedicate all the merit you have collected to achieve enlightenment for
the benefit of all sentient beings.
Due to all the past, present, and future merits collected by me and
all the merits of the three times collected by numberless buddhas
and numberless sentient beings, may bodhicitta be generated
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in the hearts of all the sentient beings of the six realms, and
especially in the hearts of everybody in this world, including all the
students, benefactors, and volunteers in the FPMT organization.
May it be generated in the hearts of all those who rely upon me,
all those for whom I have promised to pray, and all those whose
names have been given to me. May it be generated in my heart
and in the hearts of all my family members, those who are living
and those who have died. May the bodhicitta that has already
been generated increase.
Colophon:
This practice was compiled by Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche. Additional
modifications were made by Lama Zopa Rinpoche in Hong Kong, May 1996.
Edited by Ven. Constance Miller, September 1999. Revised edition, August
2001. Further revision by Vens. Joan Nicell and Tenzin Tsomo, and edited by
Doris Low, December 2022. FPMT Education Services.
Notes
1 The original version of “Immeasurable Loving Kindness”:
Sem chän tham chä de wa dang de wäi gyu dang dän na chi ma
rung / dän par gyur chig / dän par dag gi ja o / de tar je nü par
la ma lhä jin gyi lab tu söl
How wonderful it would be if all sentient beings were to have
happiness and the causes of happiness. May they have happiness
and its causes. I myself will cause them to have happiness and its
causes. Please, Guru-Deity, bless me to be able to do this..
2 Here you can stand up and prostrate to the Thirty-Five Buddhas, if you like.
3 Pause here to meditate on rejoicing. First rejoice in your own beginning-
less past, present, and future merits, repeating “How wonderful!” or “How
fortunate I am!” as many times as you wish. The first time you rejoice all
the merits are doubled, the second time they are quadrupled, and so forth.
Then rejoice in the past, present, and future merits of all sentient beings,
including bodhisattvas; and then rejoice in the past, present, and future
merits of all buddhas.
If a sentient being’s level of mind is lower than yours, by rejoicing in
their merits you collect double their merits (and there are numberless
sentient beings with a lower level of mind). If they have a higher level of
mind, you collect half the merits they collect. If they have the same level
of mind, you collect the same merits. By rejoicing in a buddha’s merits you
collect one tenth of their merits.
4 At this point visualize offering numberless golden thrones decorated with a
double vajra and supported by eight snow lions. Think that Guru Śākyamuni
Buddha accepts your request to remain by verbally saying, “Yes, yes,” or
accepts in the dharmakāya way, which means in silence. After you have
offered the thrones, they absorb into Guru Śākyamuni Buddha’s throne.
5 At this point visualize offering numberless radiant thousand-spoked golden
dharmacakras. Guru Śākyamuni Buddha accepts your request verbally by
saying, “Yes, yes,” or in the dharmakāya way, in silence.
6 Here, “black” and “white” are being used metaphorically for “negative
karma” and “positive karma.”
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