The Flight of the Gacuda

Abstract

The Flight of the Garuda, written by Shabkar Lama in the nineteenth century, comprises a series of twenty-three songs designed to inspire and instruct the yogin practising Dzokchen trekcho meditation. The two shorter versified works are extracts from liturgical "revealed texts." Emptying the Depths of Hell revealed by Guru Chowong in the thirteenth century, provides a Dzokchen confessional liturgy, and The Wish-Granting Prayer of Kuntu Zangpo, revealed by Rikdzin Godemchan in the fourteenth century as part of an extensive Dzokchen tantra, is a prayer for attainment of the Dzokchen goal. In the introduction to the book I have attempted to place Dzokchen in a nondogmatic, less abstract and more human context, by providing a subjective explication of it. Necessarily, western notions and personal proclivities, needs and biases have slipped into this interpretation. Insofar as my understanding is imperfect the result is partial and unorthodox. However, the reader may benefit from this personal commentary if, through inspiration derived from the translations, he fills the gaps, bridges the contradictions, and jumps beyond the verbal inadequacies to a Dzokchen view.