Missive to Master Patron Draktokpa (dpon-yon brag-tog-pa la sbkur-ba) by Chöjé Marpa Sheyrab Yéshey (smar-pa shes-rab ye-shes, 1135–1203) Translated from the Tibetan by Erick Tsiknopoulos
One named Dönden Drakpa Yéshey!
“The nature of mind, free from base and root,
Is that which is, innately, spontaneously present:
The Absolute Body (dharmakāya)”; thus spoke the Dharma Lord.
I, the unpredictable wandering monk of Śākya,
Have a constitution, the Absolute Body of my own mind, which is at ease;
Rejoicing at having long associated
With the transcendent View, Conduct, and Meditation.
And so it is that, although there is no addendum the end of this text, here I shall write one at this point, following the example of the others. This note was written by the Karmapa of the Snowy Mountains (gangs-ri karma-pa, Gangri Karma Rinpoche).
(Translated from the Tibetan by Erick Tsiknopoulos, March 2016.
Found in the collection of poems, songs and other writings by Marpa Sheyrab Yéshey, chos-rgyal smar-pa’i mgur-‘bum legs-par bzhugs so, published by the Martsang Kagyu Global Corporation, Taipei/Delhi 2015, pages 150-151)
Notes:
“wandering priest of Śākya” (shaa+kya’s ban-ldom): ‘priest of Śākya’ is a synonym for someone in the Buddhist clergy; ban usually refers to a Buddhist monk, and probably comes from bhante, a Pāli/Sanskrit form of polite address to monks still current in Sri Lanka. Śākya was the family ethnic tribe of the Buddha Gautama, and therefore he is referred to as Śākyamuni, the Sage of the Śākyas (the Śākya tribe still flourishes in Nepal to this day).
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