Of all the devotional prayers used as a support for Dharma practice, the Seven-Line Prayer is the most essential, often repeated many thousands of times by practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism. This concise prayer invokes the blessings of Padmasambhava, also called Guru Rinpoche (“Precious Teacher”) and known as the Buddha of our time.
Although the prayer is short and simple, its different levels of meaning make this commentary a welcome study aid for practitioners. The book also includes the text of the Seven-Line Prayer in English and Tibetan.
Thinley Norbu (1931–2011) was a master teacher of the Nyingma lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, with many devoted students in the West as well as Asia. Revered as an emanation of the fourteenth-century master Kunkhyen Longchenpa, Kyabje Thinley Norbu Rinpoche was a scholar, writer, poet, and translator, whose prolific publications include A Cascading Waterfall of Nectar, his masterwork on the ngöndro (or preliminary practices); The Sole Panacea, on the Seven-Line Prayer of Guru Rinpoche; and A Brief Fantasy History of a Himalayan, an illustrated account of personal reminiscences.