Vast as the Heavens, Deep as the Sea: Verses in Praise of Bodhicitta

162 Pages·1999·5.291 MB·English

by  Khunu Rinpoche, Gareth Sparham, His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Vast as the Heavens
Deep as the Sea

Vast as the Heavens
Deep as the Sea
VERSES IN PRAISE OF BooHICITTA
Khunu Rinpoche
Foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Wisdom Publications • Boston
WisDoM PuBLICATIONs
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Somerville, Massachusetts 02144 USA
www. wisdompubs.org
© Gareth Sparham 1999
All righiS reserved.
No pan of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, elecuonic or
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Library ofCongms Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bstan-' dzin-rgyal-miShan, Khu-nu.
[Byail chub sems kyi bstod pa rin chen sgron rna 7.es bya ba
btugs so. English & Tibetan]
Vast as the heavens, deep as the sea : verses in praise of
bodhicitta I Khunu Rinpoche.
P· em.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN o-86171-146-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Bodhicina (Buddhism) I. Tide.
BQ4398.s.B7713 1999
2.94·3' 42.2.-dc2.1
ISBN o-86171-146-7
Desipul by: Jennie Malcolm
Covn-imagt: Khunu Rinpoche at Tso Padma (Rewalsar), India, 1976.
Photo by Christopher Fynn.
WISdom Publications' books are prinred on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for
the permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book
Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.
Prinred in Canada.
TABLE oF CoNTENTS
Publisher's Acknowledgment VI
Translator's Acknowledgments vu
Translator's Introduction 1
Foreword to the 1966 Edition by the Dalai Lama 20
(Tibetan and English)
The jewel Lamp: A Praise ofB odhicitta (Tibetan and English) 23
Translator's Dedication 146
Notes 147

TRANSLATOR'S ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This small book has been in the ~aking for many years.
Wendy Finster first suggested that I translate the verses into
English in 1980. I would like to thank her for motivating me and keeping
me going with her enthusiasm without any thought of personal gain. I
would also like to thank Joyce Murdoch, that most admirable of women,
who typed the original manuscript, and Patricia Donnelly and Sarah
Thresher who were instrumental in originally causing the work to appear in
English. I would also like to thank Ngawang Wangmo for painting a beau
tiful picture of a wish-fulfilling bodhicitta tree that I had hoped might be
used as an illustration for the book. When I finished the translation in 1992,
Lochen Rinpoche very kindly gave me a photocopy of the mDzad rnam and
rNam thar thar pa'i them skas by Ngodup Gasha (Angrup Lahuli), which
provided most of the information for Khunu Rinpoche's biography. I
would like to thank Lochen Rinpoche for giving me the book and Ngodup
Gasha for allowing me to make use of his work.
The translation of the verses was thoroughly revised and corrected by
Sara McClintock in 1997 and 1998. She also edited the introduction and
supervised the writing of the essay on bodhicitta. Her effort goes far beyond
usual editorial assistance and would be more accurately described as collab
oration. That having been said, all remaining errors in the work are mine
alone. I owe a debt of gratitude to Nick Ribush for initially accepting this
work for publication and to Tim McNeill for patiently smoothing away
bumps on the way to completion. Finally I would like to thank the Dalai
Lama T enzin Gyatso for taking an interest in this work and encouraging its
publication, Lobsang Gyatso (before his untimely death) for explaining
impenetrable verses to me, and Nga-hua Yeo for supporting me as a monk.
Thubten Thardo (Gareth Sparham)
Acknow/~d}(mmts vii