Memorize the Prayer

1. Hear it before you read it

   Prayers like this one are traditionally learned by ear, often long before anyone explains them. Listening to a recitation first gives you the rhythm and the sounds, and the words follow. You can listen to it recited at the top of this page.

   The scholar Georges Dreyfus, himself trained in Tibetan monasteries, describes young monks memorizing by voicing the words, often to a tune, rather than by reading them. The free Seven Line Prayer app from Southern California Yeshe Nyingpo, a Dudjom Tersar community, includes a recitation by Tertön Pema Thinley Drodul as a pronunciation guide.

2. One line at a time, then the whole chain

   Learn a single line until you can say it without looking. Then add the next, and each time go back to the beginning and say everything you know so far. Seven lines learned this way, over a few evenings, tend to stay.

   Dreyfus describes Tibetan novices learning a small, fixed portion each day that slowly grows, and rehearsing it aloud. Alexander Berzin notes that monks memorize in the early morning and go over their texts through the day at full voice. The learning aid below walks you through the same idea.

3. Say it aloud, and let it become a song

   The prayer is meant to be voiced. A tune carries words into memory far better than reading silently, and it is most often chanted to a simple, unhurried melody.

   The early twentieth-century master Dodrupchen Jigme Tenpe Nyima advised reciting it clearly and melodiously, with the longing of a child calling for its parents, and without letting idle talk mix into the recitation. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche likewise speaks of chanting it with a yearning melody.

4. Know what each line is saying

   Words you understand are easier to keep. The first four lines tell a story you can picture: a land, a lotus, an accomplishment, a name. Then come his companions, your promise, and your request. Linking each line to its image gives your memory something to hold.

   Teachers have explained the prayer on many levels, most famously Jamgön Mipham in his commentary White Lotus. Read our plain-language summary in What the lines say, and the story of the Lotus-Born. The Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, has taught the prayer this way, line by line from his homeland to the final request, and Dodrupchen Jigme Tenpe Nyima encouraged recalling Guru Rinpoche's life while reciting.

   Tibetan or your own language? Communities commonly recite in Tibetan and print a translation beside it, as our panel does. If you have a teacher, follow their preference.

5. Count on a mala

   Many practitioners keep count on a mala, a string of 108 beads, moving one bead for each recitation. In common Tibetan custom a full round is counted as one hundred, with the extra eight making up for slips, and you turn back at the large guru bead rather than passing over it.

   Customs for counting vary from teacher to teacher. If you are counting for a commitment, ask your teacher how they would like it done.

6. Give it a place in your day

   A prayer you say every day learns itself. Many people recite it on waking, before other prayers, or before sleep. It is recited at the opening of many Nyingma practices, and it appears within the guru yoga of well-known daily practices such as the Longchen Nyingtik preliminaries.

   Phakchok Rinpoche encourages beginning practice on Guru Rinpoche Day, the tenth day of the lunar month, and on Dakini Day, the twenty-fifth, with the Seven-Line Prayer, reciting it at least three times. Dodrupchen Jigme Tenpe Nyima cites a traditional instruction to pray six times through the day and night.

7. Let devotion matter more than numbers

   You do not need a shrine, offerings or perfect pronunciation to begin. What the tradition asks for is sincerity: saying the words as if you mean them.

   In the teaching attributed to the treasure revealer Guru Chöwang, who revealed the prayer in the thirteenth century, no elaborate offerings are needed, only heartfelt devotion. The Karmapa has said that how many times you recite matters less than reciting with complete trust, though he still asked people to keep count.

8. Join an accumulation

   Some communities gather recitations together, each person adding their count to a shared total. It can be a gentle way to keep going on the nights you would otherwise skip.

   The Dudjom Tersar community Southern California Yeshe Nyingpo keeps a worldwide count in its app, toward a goal of 21 billion recitations. Phakchok Rinpoche's Samye Institute sangha gathered over 518,000 in 2022. Lama Sonam Rinpoche of the Dudjom Tersar Ngöndro Program invites, without requiring, 10,000 recitations before beginning ngöndro, the foundational practices.

9. Close by dedicating it

   When you finish, pause and offer whatever good came from your recitation to the benefit of all beings. It is a small, warm ending, and it gives each session a clear shape.

   Dedicating the merit at the end of a session is advised by Dodrupchen Jigme Tenpe Nyima, and is how the Samye Institute closed its accumulation.

Recitation only. This page is about learning and reciting the words. Visualizations, practice instructions and empowerments belong with a qualified teacher. When you are ready for more, find a teacher near you.