Although in recent times the historical date of Buddha Tönpa Shenrap’s human birth has been stated to be the 15th day of the 12th month by the scholar His Eminence Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoché, it continues to be a tradition to also celebrate the Buddha’s birth on the 15th lunar day of the 1st month which is the date that has been celebrated through countless generations. In 2025, this date coincides with March 14th on the Western calendar.

This day is an especially auspicious day to recite the following Homage to Tönpa Shenrap Miwo. Both His Eminence Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche and Menri Pönlop Yangtön Trinley Nyima Rinpoche recite this prayer before giving teachings.

“སྟོན་པའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་འཁོར་བ་འདྲེན་པའི་དཔལ། མུན་པའི་ཚོགས་རྣམས་འཇོམས་བྱེད་སྒྲོན་མེའི་འོད། མ་རིག་ནད་གདུང་སེལ་བ་སྨན་པའི་གཙོ། མི་ཡི་མཆོག་ཏུ་གྱུར་པ་དམུ་ཡི་རྒྱལ། དུག་ལྔའི་འདམ་དང་མཚོ་སྐེམས་མེ་ཆེན་དཔུང་། མཚན་དང་དཔེ་བྱད་སྡན་པའི་གཟི་འཕགས་པོ། དཀའ་བ་སྣ་ཚོགས་དང་དུ་བླངས་ནས་ནི། མཛད་པ་སྣ་ཚོག་མཐར་རུ་ཕྱིན་མཛད་ཅིང་། གཟིགས་ཚད་བཞི་དང་དགོངས་ཚད་དྲུག་གཉིས་ཀྱིས། བྱམས་པ་ཆེན་པོས་འཁོར་བ་སྒྲོལ་མཛད་པའི། གཤེན་རབ་སྤྲུལ་པའི་སྐུ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།

tönpé gyal po khor wa dren pé pel, mün pé tsok nam jom jé drön mé ö, ma rik né dung sel wa men pé tso,
mi yi chok tu gyur pa mu yi gyal, duk ngé dam dang tso kem mé chen pung, tsen dang pé jé den pé zi pak po, ka wa na tsok dang du lang né ni, dzé pa na tsok tar ru chin dzé ching, zik tsé zhi dang gong tsé druk nyi kyi, jam pa chen pö khor wa dröl dzé pé, shen rap trül pé ku la chak tsal lo

Homage to the Eighth Universal Guide, Sangyé Tönpa Shenrap Miwo

King of Teachers, you are a glorious guide out of cyclic existence. A lamp who dispels all darkness, you are the principal physician who clears away the torment of ignorance and illness.

Most supreme among humanity, you are a King of the Mu lineage. You are a mighty fire that dries up the ocean and swamp of the five poisons. You have the major and minor marks of a noble sage.

Having undertaken many various hardships, and having completed a diversity of activities, by means of the four kinds of valid perception and the six kinds of valid enlightened intention, through great love, you liberate from cyclic existence. I prostrate to the emanated body of the highest Shen!”

“Homage to the enlightened dimension of the All-knowing Tülku!

Namo!  You are a supreme teacher, one who has gone beyond bliss, an authentic and completely enlightened being, a manifested buddha and teacher, Tönpa Shenrap Miwo. You have the wisdom of omniscience and possesses both great compassion and skillful means. You are without emotional afflictions and have cut all defilements. You possess power and clear self awareness. A marvelous emanation, You have cleared all obstructions and destroyed the door to birth into cyclic existence. You clearly know the path to release. You have gone beyond suffering and cleansed all karmic potentialities. An ordained person who guides the way, you have the thirty-two major marks and the eighty-one minor characteristics. You have the 108 exalted qualities of excellence, and knowledge of the forty letters and the sixty-one radiating lights. You possess the 80 good qualities of meditative stability, and are the source of the sixty-one wisdoms of knowledge and other qualities. These attributes are fully perfected and inexhaustible.

Your face is like the sun and moon, and you see throughout the ten directions. A hundred thousand light rays emanate from your divine body. You are adorned with ornaments which are like rainbows, and your divine body is so beautiful that one does not know how to look away. In your right hand, you hold a golden chakshing painted with a turquoise yungdrung which shows that you are lord of the three thousand-fold universe and conqueror of this world system. Your left hand holds the mudra of equipoise which shows that you have destroyed the door to birth into cyclic existence.”

Excerpt from Homage to the Enlightened Dimension of the Omniscient Tülku, Remembering the Skillful Means of His Hundred Thousand Virtuous Acts

Tibetan translations by Raven Cypress Wood

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