Eh Ma Oh !
Vajrasattva painted by Aloka
Dharma Wondrous Strange !
Profoundest Mystery of the Perfect Ones.
Within the Birthless, all things take their birth,
Yet in that birth, nothing is borne.
Eh Ma Oh !
Dharma Wondrous Strange !
Profoundest Mystery of the Perfect Ones.
Within the Ceaseless, all things cease to be
Yet in that ceasing, nothing ceases.
Eh Ma Oh !
Dharma Wondrous Strange !
Profoundest Mystery of the Perfect Ones.
Within the Non-abiding, all abides,
Yet thus abiding, there abideth naught.
Eh Ma Oh !
Dharma Wondrous Strange !
Profoundest Mystery of the Perfect Ones.
In Non-perception, everything is perceived,
Yet this perceiving is quite perceptionless.
Eh Ma Oh !
Dharma Wondrous Strange !
Profoundest Mystery of the Perfect Ones.
In the Unmoving, all things come and go,
Yet in that movement, nothing ever moves.
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10/03/2011 at 6:09 pm
Bodhipaksa
I wonder where that translation’s from? Or if it’s simply an adaptation of the only translation I know of: Blofeld’s The Tantric Mysticism of Tibet. That version is only slightly different:
E Ma 0! O wondrous Dharma most marvellously rare, Profoundest mystery of the Perfect Ones,
Within the Birthless, all things take their birth, Yet taking birth is naught which can be born!
E Ma 0! O wondrous Dharma most marvellously rare,
Profoundest mystery of the Perfect Ones,
Within the Ceaseless, all things cease to be
Yet ceasing thus, is nothing which can cease!
E Ma 0! O wondrous Dharma most marvellously rare,
Profoundest mystery of the Perfect Ones,
Within the Non-Abiding, all abides,
Yet, thus abiding, there abideth naught!
E Ma 0! O wondrous Dharma most marvellously rare,
Profoundest mystery of the Perfect Ones,
In Non-perception, all things are perceived,
Yet this perceiving’s quite perceptionless!
E Ma 0! O wondrous Dharma most marvellously rare,
Profoundest mystery of the Perfect Ones,
In the Unmoving, all things come and go,
Yet in that movement nothing ever moves!
10/03/2011 at 6:19 pm
Alan Ashley
I’m interested to hear of that translation – I’ve looked for it previously and failed to find any other references – although I was using ‘Dharma wondrous strange’ as my search term, which would explain it. I took this from one of Lokabandhu’s sites, and (thanks to a bit of homework by Jayarava) I think it’s the version Sangharakshita uses in Lecture 72: The Buddha and Bodhisattva: Eternity and Time http://www.freebuddhistaudio.com/texts/lecturetexts/072_The_Buddha_and_Bodhisattva_-_Eternity_and_Time.pdf (1969)
“These verses have never been published; they were privately translated… almost exactly ten years ago.”
As Jayaraja observes: – I think this is saying that Bhante or someone close to him translated them in 1959. Dhardo Rimpoche? The English has Bhante’s touch I think. Maybe the Sadhana remains untranslated? There are 1000’s of them.
19/01/2021 at 12:05 pm
secret
According to ‘My Precious Teachers’, Sangharakshita received the ‘Confounder of Hell’ abhisheka from Dudjom Rimpoche in Kalimpong on 18th April 1959. He was accompanied by John Blofeld, who was staying with him at the time, and John Driver, the translator of the Manjushri Stuti Sadhana and other texts used in the Triratna Buddhist Order. The text of the Sadhana, ‘The Essence of Profound Meaning’, presumably containing these verses, was translated literally first by John Driver, ‘which was then turned into proper English’ by John Blofeld. Sangharakshita comments that Blofeld then used some of the material for this in his book, ‘The Way of Power’. I take it that the version here is what Driver and Blofeld produced between them, sticking closely to the Tibetan text, and that the version Bodhipaksha quotes is Blofeld’s later, freer rendering of it.
It may also be noted that these verses are also to be found in the ‘Guhyagarbha Tantra’, which is probably their source. A different translation, taken from the Tantra, is to be found in ‘Finding Rest in the Nature of Mind’, footnote 107.
Please also note that there is a problematic slip of the finger in the last line of verse one. ‘Yet in that birth, nothing is borne’ should of course read ‘Yet in that birth, nothing is born’. Of course, the error itself leads to interesting reflection.