Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (1910–1991) was a highly accomplished meditation master, scholar, and poet, and a principal holder of the Nyingma lineage. His extraordinary depth of realization enabled him to be, for all who met him, a foundation of loving-kindness, wisdom, and compassion. A dedicated exponent of the nonsectarian Rime movement, Khyentse Rinpoche was respected by all schools of Tibetan Buddhism and taught many eminent teachers, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He tirelessly worked to uphold the Dharma through the publication of texts, the building of monasteries and stupas, and by offering instruction to thousands of people throughout the world. His writings in Tibetan fill twenty-five volumes.

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (1910–1991) was a highly accomplished meditation master, scholar, and poet, and a principal holder of the Nyingma lineage. His extraordinary depth of realization enabled him to be, for all who met him, a foundation of loving-kindness, wisdom, and compassion. A dedicated exponent of the nonsectarian Rime movement, Khyentse Rinpoche was respected by all schools of Tibetan Buddhism and taught many eminent teachers, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He tirelessly worked to uphold the Dharma through the publication of texts, the building of monasteries and stupas, and by offering instruction to thousands of people throughout the world. His writings in Tibetan fill twenty-five volumes.

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GUIDES

Rabjam Rinpoche in US September and October 2023: A Reader's Guide

Rabjam Rinpoche in US September - October 2023

Rabjam Rinpoche

Rabjam Rinpoche will be offering teachings and empowerments in New York, Montana, and Colorado in September and October 2023. Below you will find reading recommendations to complement these special teachings and empowerments.

New York
September 30-October 4

Montana
October 6-11

Colorado
October 13-15, Lojong Teachings

October 19: Empowerments of Dilgo Khyentse's special lineage of Ladrub Tigle Gyachen and Mindroling Vajrasattva

October 21: Rabjam Rinpoche Bestowing The Sadhana Of Mahamudra Abhisheka

October 22nd: Rabjam Rinpoche Bestowing Guhyagarbha And White Manjushri Abhishekas

The Great Medicine That Conquers Clinging to the Notion of Reality: Steps in Meditation on the Enlightened Mind

Rinpoche's main book is his commentary on the works of the previous Shechen Gyaltsap.  In these inspiring teachings on how to open the heart, a contemporary Tibetan Buddhist master shows us how to change our self-centered attitude and develop concern for the well-being of others. He teaches that when we acknowledge our own wish for happiness, we realize that all beings wish for the same. With a broader perspective, we can develop the strength to extend gratitude and kindness first to those we love, and eventually to everyone.

In his warm and informal style, Rabjam offers accessible Buddhist teachings that will appeal to anyone who would like to find more meaning in life. Based on classical Tibetan teachings, his commentary is fresh, humorous, and sharply insightful. Here is a modern Tibetan teacher who appreciates the challenges of living in today’s world. The Great Medicine will help contemporary readers draw on ancient teachings to find their way to wisdom, freedom, and joy amid the struggles of real life.

Tibetan Buddhism, Dilgo Khyentse

The Works of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Many of the teachings and empowerments come through Rabjam Rinpoche's grandfather the great Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.

Visit our guide to Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche's works, nearly twenty of which are available in English, here.

Shechen Gyaltsap Gyurme Pema Namgyal

Shechen Gyaltsap is one of the main figures in the lineage held by Rabjam Rinpoche.  He recently gave the reading transmisiion to his works to many thousands.

Visit our guide to the works of Shechen Gyaltsap Gyurme Pema Namgyal.

Rinpoche will be teaching on his grandfather's famous commentary, Enlightened Courage, on this essential teacing of mind training, or lojong.  Participants may benefit from having read it prior to the teaching.

The Sadhana of Mahamudra

On October 21st in Boulder, Rinpoche will bestow the abhisheka for the Sadhana of Mahamudra.  

Included in Volume Five of the Collected Works of Chogyam Trungpa are excerpts from The Sadhana of Mahamudra, the tantric text that Chögyam Trungpa received as terma in Bhutan in 1968.  This is followed by ‘‘Joining Energy and Space,’’ an article based on some of the teachings that he subsequently gave to his students about the significance of the sadhana. The Sadhana of Mahamudra brings together the ultimate teachings from two great Tibetan spiritual lineages: the dzogchen, or maha ati, teachings of the Nyingma and the mahamudra teachings of the Kagyu.

The Guhyagarbha is the essential tantra of the Nyingma tradition in particular, along with Longchenpa's commentary.

Note, thisbook is a restricted title, but receiving the empowerment Rinpoche is offering in Boulder will fulfill the requirement (see the book page for details).  This can only be purchased from this website, it is not available in stores or online.

Note - this expected to be back in stock in September 2023.  If you order it now, it will ship as soon as it arrives from the printer.

The Guhyagarbha Tantra

$150.00 - Hardcover

By: Lama Chonam & Longchenpa & Sangye Khandro

A Guide to the Guhyagarbha Tantra

We have created a spearate resource guide to the Guhyagarbha tantra and the many books related to it.  We encourage you to take a look.

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Except from A Brief Biography of Dilgo Khyetnse Rinpoche by Tulku Thondup

The following except by Tulku Thondup can be found in Volume 2 of The Collected Works of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.

A   B R I E F   B I O G R A P H Y    O F

DILGO    K H Y ENTSE   R I N POC H E

by Tulku Thondup

Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche Tashi Paljor (1910–1991) was one of the few great lineage holders, writers, teachers, and transmitters of teachings and powers of Nyingma tantras in general and Longchen Nyingthig in particular who reached numerous disciples in Tibet, India, Nepal, Bhutan, and the West.

He is also known as Gyurme Thekchok Tenpe Gyaltsen, Jigme Khyentse Özer, and Rabsel Dawa.

He was born on the thirtieth of the fourth month of the Iron Dog year of the fifteenth Rabjung (1910) in the family of Dilgo, a minister (nyerchen) of the king of Dege in the Nyö clan in Dan Valley. His father was Tashi Tsering. It was the very day that the great master Mipham Namgyal and his disciples were performing the feast ceremony at the completion of his one-and-a-half-month teaching on his Commentary on Kalachakra at Dilgo. Mipham immediately gave pills of Sarasvati, the female Buddha of wisdom, with the sacred letters dhih and hrih to the baby to eat even before tasting his mother’s milk. About a month after the birth, Mipham gave empowerments for purification and longevity and named him Tashi Paljor. Since then until Mipham died at the beginning of 1912, Khyentse was given blessed substances continuously.

When he was only four months old, Ngor Pönlop Loter Wangpo recognized him as the tulku of Khyentse Wangpo. At the time of the death of Mipham, Shechen Gyaltsap Pema Namgyal (1871–1926) saw him and asked the family to give him to Shechen.

At the age of six, he was accidentally burned badly in a fire and was seriously ill for about six months, which caused him to take ordination as a novice.

When he was fifteen, Gyaltsap recognized him as a tulku of Khyentse Wangpo, enthroned him at Shechen Monastery, and named him Gyurme Thekchok Tenpe Gyaltsen. He also gave him numerous transmissions, including those of the Dam-ngak Dzö and Nyingthig Yabzhi. From Khenpo Pema Losal of Dzogchen he received the transmission of Longchen Nyingthig. From Adzom Drukpa, he received teachings on Longchen Nyingthig Ngöndro.

With Khenpo Zhenphen Chökyi Nangwa (Zhen-ga) of Dzogchen, Khenpo Thupten Chöphel (Thupga) of Changma hermitage, Dza Mura Dechen Zangpo, and other masters, he studied the texts of Nagarjuna, Asanga, Abhidharma, Yo¨nten Dzo¨, the commentaries of Guhyagarbha-maya-jala-tantra, and many others. Khenpo Thupga recognized him as the tulku of Önpo Tenzin Norbu (Tenli).

Then from Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö he received the transmissions of Sakya, Kagyu, Geluk, and Nyingma teachings, including Rinchen Terdzö, Nyingthig Yahzhi, Longchen Nyingthig, and Lama Gongdu. From Khenpo Tendzin Dargye of Shechen he received the transmission of the nine volumes of Jigme Lingpa. From Shechen Kongtrul (1901–1959?) he received transmissions of the thirteen volumes of the Minling cycle. He received teachings of all the Buddhist traditions of Tibet from over seventy teachers. Among them, Shechen Gyaltsap and Khyentse Chö kyi Lodrö were his principal teachers.

Starting from the age of eighteen, for twelve years he stayed in solitary places and practiced various teachings, including the Three-Root Sadhanas of Minling Terchen and Longchen Nyingthig.

Throughout his life he dedicated himself to giving teachings and transmissions to all, whoever came to receive them. He wrote that by the age of sixty-four, he had given empowerments of Nyingthig Yabzhi and Longchen Nyingthig over ten times. From the age of forty till eighty-two he gave discourses on Chokchu Münsel, the commentary on Guhyagarbha by Longchen Rabjam, at least once a year, and gave extensive commentaries on Jigme Lingpa’s Yönten Dzö. Among countless other teachings, he gave five times the transmission of the Rinchen Terdzö, four times those of the Nyingma Kama, thrice that of the Dam-ngak Dzö, and twice that of the Kanjur.

Rinpoche and his consort, Khandro Lhamo, had two daughters. His daughter Chime’s son is the seventh Shechen Rabjam.

At the invitation of the royal family of Bhutan, he spent many years in Bhutan teaching and transmitting the teachings.

Since the early 1960s, he single-handedly maintained and propagated the unique nonsectarian tradition of Khyentses, and tirelessly with the continuity of a stream he spread the teachings by traveling, teaching, practicing, and building monuments without any pause, for the sake of Dharma and people.

In 1980 he built Shechen Tennyi Dargye Ling Monastery (a name he took from his monastery in Tibet) at Bodhnath in Nepal, an elaborate complex with over two hundred monk-students. In 1988 he established a shedra at the new monastery, where monks are studying scholarly texts. Starting in 1975, he visited many countries in the West many times and taught various levels of teachings and transmissions. Also he established Thekchok Ösal Chöling, a Dharma center in France. He visited Tibet three times from exile to teach and to help in rebuilding the monasteries and the faith in his homeland.

He conferred on the fourteenth Dalai Lama many empowerments and teachings on the commentaries of Guhyagarbha and Yönten Dzö and oral teachings of Dzogpa Chenpo combined with the teachings on Yeshe Lama.

He discovered many teachings and sadhanas as terma and wrote many scholarly texts and commentaries on various subjects, totaling twenty-three volumes. Among his writings on Longchen Nyingthig are a commentary on Palchen Düpa and Wangki Chokdrik.

At the age of eighty-one, at three a.m. on the twentieth of the eighth month of the Iron Sheep year (September 28, 1991), his enlightened mind merged into the ultimate openness at a hospital in Thimbu, the capital of Bhutan. Since then, his monastery in Nepal has been presided over by his Dharma heir and grandson, Rabjam Rinpoche, Gyurme Cho¨kyi Senge.

He was one of the greatest learned and accomplished masters of Tibet of our age. He was tall and giant. When he was among other masters, he stood like a mountain in the midst of hills or shone as the moon among stars, not because of his physical prominence, but because of the breadth of his scholarship and the depth of his saintliness. When he gave teachings, it was like the flow of a river, with hardly any pause. If strangers heard his lectures, their first impression might be that he was reading a beautiful text from memory, as the words of his talks were poetry, his grammar was perfect, and the meaning was profound.

Another most astonishing feature was his memory. He remembered not only scholarly and liturgical texts and details about his teachers and friends, but also those people whom he had seen only once years earlier. His kindness was boundless, and there was room for everybody.

Whenever I had an audience, he gave me the feeling that there was a place for me reserved in his vast mind. If you watched carefully, you got the feeling that he was always in the meditative or realized wisdom of openness and reaching out to people with the power of compassion, love, and directness, without any alteration.

He practically held the transmissions of all the Buddhist teachings of Tibet, but was constantly searching for additional transmissions, no matter how minor they might be. He had a huge library collection, but never stopped looking for even a page of a rare writing. He was also immensely loyal.

In his last trip from Bhutan to Kalimpong, instead of flying he insisted on making the arduous journey by car in order to see an old disciple of his on the way. While that effort might have exhausted the last drops of his physical strength, it would have been his joy and fulfillment, an act of compassion.

Urgyen Tenzin Jigme Lhundrup (b. 1993), the grandson of Tulku Ugyen Rinpoche (1919–1996) and the son of Kela Chokling Rinpoche and Dechen Paldron of Terdhe, has been enthroned as the reincarnation of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
tulku thondup
Tulku Thondup Rinpoche

Books by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

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Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche: A Guide for Readers

Dzigar Kongtrul

About Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

Dzigar Kongtrul was born in the Northern Indian province of Himachal to his parents Neten Chokling Rinpoche and Mayum Tsewang Palden. During his monastic education, he was trained in the Nyingma school's Longchen Nyingtik lineage under his root guru, the renowned Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. Additionally, he studied extensively under Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche and Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche.

In 1989, he moved to the United States with his family where he began a five-year tenure as professor of Buddhist philosophy at Naropa University. He later founded Mangala Shri Bhuti, with the intent to establish a genuine sangha of the Longchen Nyingtik in the west. At present MSB has five main centers including two in Colorado, and one in Vermont, Brazil, and India along with several Mangalam Dharma Groups around the world.

When not guiding students in long-term retreats and not in retreat himself, Rinpoche travels widely throughout the world teaching and furthering his own education. He is also an avid artist, seeing creativity as an extension of his Dharma practice.

"The goal of most conventional thinking is to preserve the ego. This is our unconscious habit and default mode. The unconventional thinking of dharma, however, aims to preserve the peaceful heart of tsewa. This requires conscious reasoning that is based on wisdom rather than habit."

-Dzigar Kongtrul, Peaceful Heart

 

Peaceful Heart
The Buddhist Practice of Patience

by Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

An introductory guide to cultivating patience and opening your heart to difficult circumstances from leading Buddhist teacher, Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche.

In the Buddhist tradition, “patience” is our mind’s ability to work positively with anything that bothers us—a vast spectrum of particulars that all boil down to not getting what we want or getting what we don’t want. In fluid, accessible language, Dzigar Kongtrul expands on teachings by the ancient sage Shantideva that contain numerous powerful and surprising methods for preventing our minds from becoming consumed by what bothers us—especially in anger. The result of practicing patience is a state of mind where we can feel at home in every situation and be fully available to love and care for others. Patience is the lifeblood of a peaceful heart.

Training in Tenderness
Buddhist Teachings on Tsewa, the Radical Openness of Heart That Can Change the World

by Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

This is a call to a revolution of heart. In Tibetan Buddhism, it is taught that one of the most essential qualities of enlightenment is tsewa, a form of warm energy and openness of heart. It is the warmth we express and receive through empathy with others, especially those closest to us. In this compact book, Dzigar Kongtrul opens the door to this life-changing energy and shows us how to transform our attitude toward ourselves and those around us through its practice. This is a guide to the building blocks of compassion and the purest and deepest form of happiness. And with these tools, we can awaken the most powerful force for healing our fractured world—a tender, open heart.

Pema Chödrön on Training in Tenderness

"Dzigar Kongtrul stresses the importance of having a good relationship with oneself; otherwise, the path of awakening can backfire and fuel discouragement."

-Pema Chödrön, No time to Lose

 

The Intelligent Heart
A Guide to the Compassionate Heart

by Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

Compassion arises naturally when one comes to perceive the lack of solid distinction between self and other. The Buddhist practice known as tonglen—in which one consciously exchanges self for other—is a skillful method for getting to that truthful perception. In this, his commentary on the renowned Tibetan lojong (mind training) text the Seven Points of Mind Training, Dzigar Kongtrul reveals tonglen to be the true heart and essence of all mind-training practices. He shows how to train the mind in a way that infuses every moment of life with uncontrived kindness toward all.


"The Intelligent Heart shines a clear light on the method for exchanging self for other, developing compassion, and freeing one’s heart. In addition, it’s fun to read, with helpful illustrations and a keen sense of humor."

—Sharon Salzberg, author of Lovingkindness and Real Happiness


Light Comes Through
A Guide to the Compassionate Heart

by Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

Buddhahood, says Dzigar Kongtrül, is nothing but an unobstructed experience of the nature of mind, boundlessly spacious and limitlessly compassionate. The trick is that in order to see the mind accurately, we must use the particular aspect of mind he calls natural intelligence. Natural intelligence enables us to discriminate between what helps or hinders us. But most of all, it’s the part of us that searches for happiness and meaning. In Light Comes Through, he shows us how to skillfully use our wish for happiness as a tool in awakening to the joyous wisdom of mind.

It's Up to You
The Practice of Self-Reflection on the Buddhist Path

by Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

On the spiritual path we speak of enlightenment. But how do we reconcile the idea of enlightenment with what we see when we look in the mirror—when insecurities, doubts, and self-centered tendencies arise in our minds? Dzigar Kongtrül suggests that we need not feel “doomed” when these experiences surface. In fact, such experiences are not a problem if we are able to simply let them arise without judging them or investing them with so much meaning. This approach to experience is what Kongtrül calls self-reflection.

Self-reflection is a practice, a path, and an attitude. It is the spirit of taking an interest in that which we usually try to push away. When we practice self-reflection we take liberation into our own hands and accept the challenge and personal empowerment in Kongtrül’s title: it’s up to you.

Enlightened Courage
An Explanation of the Seven-Point Mind Training

by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Highly respected by thousands of students throughout the world, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche was one of the foremost poets, scholars, philosophers, and meditation masters of our time. Here he speaks frankly, drawing on his own life experience. Condensing the compassionate path to Buddhahood into practical instructions that use the circumstances of everyday life, Rinpoche presents the Seven-Point Mind Training—the very core of the entire Tibetan Buddhist practice.

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (1910–1991) was a highly accomplished meditation master, scholar, and poet, and a principal holder of the Nyingma lineage. His extraordinary depth of realization enabled him to be, for all who met him, a foundation of loving-kindness, wisdom, and compassion. A dedicated exponent of the nonsectarian Rime movement, Khyentse Rinpoche was respected by all schools of Tibetan Buddhism and taught many eminent teachers, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He tirelessly worked to uphold the Dharma through the publication of texts, the building of monasteries and stupas, and by offering instruction to thousands of people throughout the world. His writings in Tibetan fill twenty-five volumes.

Taking the Leap
Freeing Ourselves from old Habits and Fears

by Pema Chödrön

Ever feel trapped in the same old habits and painful emotions time and time again? These are patterns we all face, and sometimes they feel impossible to shake. So how can we get unstuck? Drawing on time-honored Buddhist teachings on shenpa (all the attachments and compulsions that cause us suffering), Pema Chödrön shows how certain habits of mind tend to “hook” us and get us stuck in states of anger, blame, self-hatred, addiction, and so much more—and, most of all, how we can liberate ourselves from them. “This path entails uncovering three basic human qualities,” explains Pema. “They are natural intelligence, natural warmth, and natural openness. Everyone, everywhere, all over the globe, has these qualities and can call on them to help themselves and others.” Pema shares insights and exercises from her lifetime of practice that we can immediately put to use in our lives to awaken these essential qualities and help us to take a bold leap toward a new way of living—one that will bring about positive transformation for ourselves and for our troubled world.

Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche and Pema Chödrön Discuss the Innate Tenderness of Our Hearts

Access the Complete Video Interview for Free!

The Logic of Faith
A Buddhist Approach to Finding Certainty Beyond Belief and Doubt

by Elizabeth Mattis-Namgyel

Faith is a thorny subject these days. Its negative expressions cause many to dismiss it out of hand—but Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel urges us to reconsider, for faith is really nothing but our natural proclivity to find certainty in a world where certainty is hard to come by. And if we look carefully, we’ll discover that the faith impulse isn’t separate from reason at all—faith and logic in fact work together in a playful and dynamic relationship that reveals the profoundest kind of truth—a truth beyond the limits of “is” and “is not.” Using the traditional Buddhist teachings on dependent arising, Elizabeth leads us on an experiential journey to discover the essential interdependence of everything—and through that thrilling discovery to open ourselves to the whole wonderful range of human experience.

Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel

Elizabeth has studied and practiced Mahayana Buddhism, as well as the Vajrayana tradition of the Longchen Nyingthik, for over 30 years under the guidance of her teacher and husband, Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. She has been intimately involved with Rinpoche’s work in bringing Buddhist wisdom to the West, in particular the development of Mangala Shri Bhuti. She is also a founding member and teacher of the Wilderness Dharma Movement, the Middle Way Initiative, and on the advisory boards of Prison Mindfulness Network and the Buddhist Arts and Film Festival.

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Chanting the Names of Manjushri: A Reader's Guide

The Litany of the Names of Manjushri or Chanting the Names of Manjusri (’jam dpal mtshan brjod; Skt. Manjushrinamasamghiti) and also referred to as The King of All Tantras and Net of Magical Manifestation of Manjushri, is an extremely important tantric text, relied on by all the schools of Tibetan Buddhism. In particular it is connected with the Hevajra, Guhyagarbha, and Kalachakra tantras.

It was first translated into Tibetan by Rinchen Zangpo, but soon thereafter was revised and commented on. Jamgon Kongtrul mentions  Smritijnana, an Indian scholar who traveled to eastern Tibet where he taught extensively, helped in the translation of the new tantras, and wrote commentaries such as his commentary on Chanting the Names of Manjushri (Manjushrinamasamgiti). Some believe that after his death [Smritijnana] reincarnated in Tibet as the renowned Rongzom Mahapandita and subsequently Dudjom Lingpa and Dudjom Rinpoche.

It comprises 169 (in some editions) stanzas and begins with Vajrapani asking the Buddha Shakyamuni to explain the "chanting of the names" which has profound meaning. There are various levels of this, but one meaning of the"names" is the deities of the mandala.

Manjuvajra, the tantric form of Manjushri. This statue, which appears in The Art of Buddhism, is believed to be related to he Chanting the Names of Manjushri and comes from the tantric Bengal region in the Pala Dynasty.

Chanting the Names of Manjushri in English.

There are several straight translations that are easy to find online.

The most comprehensive commentary in English is included in the great 19th century Dzogchen yogi Choying Tobden Dorje's The Complete Nyingma Tradtion: The Essential Tantras of Mahayoga, Volumes 15-17.

As the translator, the late Gyurme Dorje, explains, Choying Tobden Dorje draws the interlinear commentary

specifically from the treatise of Candragomin, which is entitled Extensive Commentary on the Sublime Litany of the Names of Mañjuśrī. This commentary, which Candragomin is said to have received in a vision from Avalokiteśvara, is contained in the yogatantra section of the Derge Tengyur and in the yoganiruttara section of the Peking Tengyur ....The criteria on which the classification of the Litany of the Names of Mañjuśrī as Yogatantra or Yoga–niruttaratantra are based have been briefly noted in Davidson 1981,and Wayman 1983. Those same translators of the root verses have opted to follow commentarial sources other than Candragomin. Wayman, for example, bases his annotations largely on the treatises of Narendrakīrti, Candrabhadrakīrti, and Smṛtijñānakīrti, while Davidson utilizes the commentaries of Prahevajra, the prolific Mañjuśrīmitra , Vilāsavajra , and Vimalamitra, which have primacy within the Nyingma tradition. However, Choying Tobden Dorje and indeed Candragomin both acknowledge that the vajrapada of the root tantra lend themselves to multiple levels of interpretation. Those familiar with the earlier published translations and editions of the root tantra will note that, according to Candragomin, the core eulogies of the text are addressed to Mañjuśrī in the second person.

Another translation, dated but still of interest, with comments from a Tibetlogist is by Alex Wayman, Chanting the Names of Manjushri.

Some History

In The Ri-me Philosophy of Jamgon Kongtrul the Great:A Study of the Buddhist Lineages of Tibet Ringu Tulku details some of the history and classification of this tantra.

The third class among the Father tantras is the Ignorance class, and its primary text is the tantra of the Manjushri Namasamgiti, or Chanting the Names of Manjushri. This text is the “Net of Meditations” chapter from the large tantra, the Manjushri Net of Magical Display in Sixteen Thousand Stanzas. This tantra is explained in different ways. For example, the bodhisattva kings of Shambhala explain it according to the Kalachakra Tantra, Lalitavajra explains it as a Father tantra of Anuttarayoga, and the bodhisattvas Manjushrikirti and Manjushrimitra explain it according to Yoga Tantra. In Tibet it is sometimes explained according to Atiyoga, and in India it is sometimes explained according to Madhyamaka. Around the year 1000, Lochen Rinchen Zangpo translated Chanting the Names of Manjushri into Tibetan. Later on, several translators revised the translation. Panchen Smritijnana gave the complete teaching of this tantra, including the empowerment, tantra, and pith instructions, to Kyi Jema Lungpa, who transmitted it to Ngogtön Chöku Dorje. This teaching lineage accords with the Yoga Tantra. Marpa Chökyi Lodrö received this teaching according to the Anuttarayoga Tantra from Maitripa. Marpa’s lineage of the empowerment and reading transmission still exists today, as does the teaching lineage that began with Panchen Smritijnana.

There are many different translations of Chanting the Names of Manjushri, but there are not many different meanings. The only difference is the wording, “the empty essence—one hundred letters” according to the Yoga Tantra, and “the empty essence—six letters” according to the Anuttarayoga Tantra.

It is said that if one gains confidence in this king of tantras, then one will gain confidence in all the Anuttarayoga tantras. And if one does not understand the meaning of this tantra, then one does not understand the meaning of Anuttarayoga altogether. It says in the Stainless Light:

In order to free all beings from doubt, the Tathagata collected Chanting the Names of Manjushri from all the Mantrayana teachings and taught it to Vajrapani. Whoever does not know Chanting the Names of Manjushri does not know the wisdom body of Vajradhara. Whoever does not know the wisdom body of Vajradhara does not understand the Mantrayana. Whoever does not understand the Mantrayana remains in samsara, separated from the path of the conqueror Vajradhara.

Further on Ringu Tulku relates that the "Sarma tantras are held in common by both the Early and New Translation traditions. Not only did the Nyingmapas spread the Sarma tantras through explanation and practice, but they never criticized them. Also, the Nyingmapas have held the teaching lineages of Chanting the Names of Manjushri and the Kalachakra Tantra with particular respect."

Chanting the Names of Manjusri in the Life of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

To demonstrate the centrality of this text for those in the Nyingma tradition, we do not have to look much further than Brilliant Moon: The Autobiography of Dilgo Khyentse where this texts come up repeatedly.

[Shechen] Gyaltsap Rinpoche was in the process of establishing a monastic school at Shechen, and on one astrologically favorable day, he said they should hold the opening ceremony. For a few days Khyentse Chökyi Lodro gave elaborate teachings based on a commentary written by Khyentse Wangpo on Chanting the Names of Manjushri, and together with Shechen Kongtrül, Gontoe Chöktrul, Gyaltsap Rinpoche’s nephew Khenchen Lodro Rabsel, and Khenpo Phakang, it was attended by all the participants of the Treasury of Spiritual Instructions. Later they all became unrivaled practitioners of sutra, tantra, and science, endowed with learning, discipline, and goodness.

and later:

From Lama Rigzin Tekchok, I received Mipham Rinpoche’s exegesis of the Novice Aphorisms, as well as Dodup Tenpai Nyima’s guidance on Chanting the Names of Manjushri.

And another instance:

Next I went to Dzongsar to study with the omniscient Jamgön Chökyi Lodro. He gave the long-life empowerment of the rediscovered treasure Combined Sadhana of the Three Roots, the explanation of the Condensed Perfection of Wisdom based on Mipham Rinpoche’s commentary, the great pandita Vimalamitra’s commentary on Chanting the Names of Manjushri, Hevajra according to the Sakya tradition, the major empowerment of the Khon tradition, and the major empowerment of the protector Gur.

Brilliant Moon also includes reminiscences from other masters who mention this text.

Rabjam RinpocheRabjam Rinpoche relates, "

Until Khyentse Rinpoche passed away, I used to do my morning and evening prayers with him. In the morning we did Chanting the Names of Manjushri and in the evening we did the protector chants. So I learnt most of them by heart, but there were maybe a hundred points where I made mistakes. When I chanted them by heart in front of Rinpoche, he knew exactly where I would make mistakes, and just before reaching the passage where I was about to go wrong, he would raise his voice to guide me to say it right. Later Rinpoche wrote all the sentences where I made mistakes in a small notebook—he had actually memorized all the mistakes I made!

Also, Trulshik Rinpoche wrote,

The daily ceremonies include morning and evening prayers according to the Mindroling tradition, starting with refuge, bodhichitta, the seven-branch offering, and the renewal of the two bodhisattva vows, followed by the reading of the Guhyagarbha Tantra and the Magical Net of Vajrasattva, one different chapter every day. Then there is the reading of Chanting the Names of Manjushri, the Epitome Sutra, and the Prayer of Excellent Conduct, which were spoken by the Buddha himself.

Jamgön Kongtrul Rinpoche on This Text
Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye

Jamgön Kongtrul mentions the text multiple times in the ten-volume Treasury of Knowledge.

In Volume 8, Book 3, in the section on "The Completion Phase in Father and Mother Tantras", he describes the text in this way:

To the family of delusion tantras, of those translated into Tibetan, belongs Chanting the Names of Manjushri. This is considered a delusion tantra because it teaches methods to purify delusion and is intended to treat persons whose strongest affliction is delusion.

The translators of this volume, Elio Guarisco and Ingrid McLeod include the following note:

This work, the first in the tantric section of the Dergé Kangyur, forms a class of its own. One set of commentaries explains it in terms of the system of highest yoga tantra; and another set, in terms of that of yoga tantra.

Manjushriyashas, in his Extensive Explanation of Chanting the Names of Manjushri, and Manjushrimitra, in his Commentary on Chanting the Names of Manjushri, expound this tantra from the perspective of yoga tantra, while Lalitavajra, in his Extensive Commentary on Chanting the Names of Manjushri, expounds it from the perspective of highest yoga tantra. The authors of the Commentaries by the Bodhisattvas interpret the Net of Magical Manifestation from the Kalachakra point of view. It has also been treated from the perspective of the central way and from that of the great perfection. Butön and others considered this tantra to be of the class of highest yoga tantra in terms of its nature but explained the sadhana in the format of yoga tantra.

Kongtrul states that, of the highest yoga tantra families of attachment, aversion, and delusion, Chanting the Names of Manjushri belongs to the delusion family. The main deity is usually a male figure without consort, although some sadhanas include a consort. However, there is neither the urging of the molten form of the deity nor the creation of the deities by emanating them from the womb of the consort. Moreover, Chanting the Names of Manjushri describes the ground, path, and result in detail but merely alludes to practices such as release and union. It teaches primarily a nonconceptual form of the phase of creation.

Kongtrul further points out that although some Indian scholars have explained this tantra in terms of yoga tantra, this does not necessarily signify that it is a yoga tantra, just as the fact that Anandagarbha’s expositions of the Guhyasamaja are written in terms of yoga tantra does not prove that the Guhyasamaja tantra belongs to the yoga class. In particular, as indicated in the Indian treatise written by Varabodhi, Mandala Rite of Manjushri: Source of Qualities, the descriptions of the secret initiation and the initiation of pristine awareness through wisdom are teachings on the inner-fi re practices involving four channel-wheels, the liberative path of contemplation of the deity in union, typical of highest yoga tantras. Th is point is explained in Smritishrijnana’s commentary on the Sadhana of the Net of Magical Manifestation of Manjushri. Moreover, the presence within the sadhanas of the Chanting the Names of Manjushri of the four seals and other practices that are the same as those of yoga tantras does not prove that this tantra does not belong to the highest yoga tantra class since such practices are also found in the Chatuhpitha.

Ngoktön Chöku Dorjé (1036-1102) was the holder of two lineages of the Chanting the Names of Manjushri: one transmitted from Marpa, who received the initiation and teachings on the tantra from Maitripa, and the other, from Purang Sherab Dorjé . (Ngoktön received the transmission from Purang before meeting Marpa.) The first of these lineages is exclusively that of the highest yoga tantra; the second lineage (which eventually vanished) was in accordance with yoga tantra. See Kongtrul’s Sadhana of Chanting the Names of Manjushri, Lord of All Tantras, Union of Families: The Blazing Sword of Pristine Awareness.

Chōgyam Trungpa Rinpoche on This Text

A final anecdote comes from Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche's third volume of the Profound Treasury trilogy"

The First Trungpa and Adro Shelu-bum

When Künga Gyaltsen left Trung Ma-se, he visited various places. As he traveled around eastern Tibet, he came to the fort of Adro Shelu-bum, who was the local landowner and local lord. When Künga Gyaltsen arrived, he was repeating a line from a very famous Manjushri text, the Manjushri-nama-sangiti (Chanting the Names of Manjushri). In the text there is a phrase, chökyi gyaltsen lekpar dzuk, which means “Firmly plant the victorious banner of dharma.” So he arrived at the door of Adro Shelu-bum’s castle with that particular verse on his lips, and he repeated that line three times. For that reason, at my principal monastery in Tibet, Surmang Dütsi Tel, we always repeated that same line twice when we chanted the text. And here in the West, that line has been made into one of the main slogans of Naropa University. We have translated it in that context as “We firmly plant the victory banner of dharma.”

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SNOW LION NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche on Training the Mind

“Carrying Difficult Situations onto the Path to Enlightenment”

An excerpt from

Enlightened Courage

Enlightened Courage

by H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Lay the blame for everything on one.

All suffering, all sickness, possession by spirits, loss of wealth, involvements with the law and so on, are without exception the result of clinging to the “I.” That is indeed where we should lay the blame for all our mishaps. All the suffering that comes to us arises simply through our holding on to our ego. We should not blame anything on others. Even if some enemy were to come and cut our heads off or beat us with a stick, all he does is to provide the momentary circumstance of injury. The real cause of our being harmed is our self clinging and is not the work of our enemy. As it is said:

All the harm with which this world is rife,
All the fear and suffering that there is:
Clinging to the ‘I’ has caused it!
What am I to do with this great demon?

When people believe that their house is haunted or that a particular object is cursed, they think that they have to have it exorcized. Ordinary people are often like that, aren’t they? But ghosts, devils and so on are only external enemies; they cannot really harm us. But as soon as the inner ghost of ego-clinging appears—that is when the real trouble starts.

A basis for ego-clinging has never at any time existed. We cling to our “I,” even when in fact there is nothing to cling to. We cling to it and cherish it. For its sake we bring harm to others, accumulating many negative actions, only to endure much suffering in samsara, in the lower realms, later on.

It says in the Bodhicharyavatara:

O you my mind, for countless ages past,
Have sought the welfare of yourself;
Oh the weariness it brought upon you!
And all you got was sorrow in return.

It is not possible to point to a moment and say, “This was when I started in samsara; this is how long I have been here.” Without the boundless knowledge of a Buddha, it is impossible to calculate such an immense period of time.

Because we are sunk in the delusion of ego-clinging, we think in terms of “my body, my mind, my name.” We think we own them and take care of them. Anything that does them harm, we will attack. Anything that helps them, we will become attached to. All the calamities and loss that come from this are therefore said to be the work of ego-clinging and since this is the source of suffering, we can see that it is indeed our enemy. Our minds, which cling to the illusion of self, have brought forth misery in samsara from beginningless time. How does this come about? When we come across someone richer, more learned or with a better situation than ourselves, we think that they are showing off, and we are determined to do better. We are jealous, and want to cut them down to size. When those less fortunate than ourselves ask for help, we think, “What’s the point of helping a beggar like this? He will never be able to repay me. I just can’t be bothered with him.” When we come across someone of equal status who has some wealth, we also want some. If they have fame we also want to be famous. If they have a good situation, we want a good situation too. We always want to compete. This is why we are not free from samsara: it is this that creates the sufferings and harm which we imagine to be inflicted on us by spirits and other human beings.

Once when he was plagued by gods and demons, Milarepa said to them: “If you must eat my body, eat it! If you want to drink my blood, drink it! Take my life and breath immediately, and go!” As soon as he relinquished all concern for himself, all difficulties dissolved and the obstacle-makers paid him homage.

That is why the author of the Bodhicharyavatara says to the ego:

A hundred harms you’ve done me
Wandering in cycles of existence;
Now your malice I remember
And will crush your selfish schemes!

The degree of self-clinging that we have is the measure of the harms we suffer. In this world, if a person has been seriously wronged by one of his fellows, he would think, “I am the victim of that man’s terrible crimes, I must fight back. He ought to be put to death, or at least the authorities should put him in prison; he should be made to pay to his last penny.” And if the injured man succeeds in these intentions, he would be considered a fine, upstanding, courageous person. But it is only if we really have the wish to put an end to the ego-clinging which has brought us pain and loss from beginningless time—it is only then, that we will be on the path to enlightenment.

And so, when attachment for the “I” appears—and it is after all only a thought within our minds—we should try to investigate. Is this ego a substance, a thing? Is it inside or outside? When we think that someone has done something to hurt us and anger arises, we should ask ourselves whether the anger is part of the enemy’s makeup or whether it is in ourselves. Likewise with attachment to friends: is our longing an attribute of the friend, or is it in ourselves? And if there are such things as anger or attachment, do they have shape or colour, are they male, female or neither? For if they exist, they ought to have characteristics. The fact is, however, that even if we persevere in our search, we will never find anything. If we do not find anything, how is it that we keep on clinging? All the trouble that we have had to endure until now has been caused by something that has never existed! Therefore, whenever the ego-clinging arises we must rid ourselves of it immediately and we should do everything within our power to prevent it from arising again. As Shantideva says in the Bodhicharyavatara:

That time when you could beat me down
Is in the past, it’s no more here.
Now I see you! Where will you escape?
I will crush your haughty insolence!

“In this short lifetime,” Geshe Shawopa used to say, “we should subdue this demon as much as possible.” Just as one would go to lamas for initiations and rituals to exorcize a haunted house, in the same way, to drive away this demon of ego-clinging, we should meditate on Bodhichitta and try to establish ourselves in the view of emptiness. We should fully understand, as Geshe Shawopa would say, that all the experiences we undergo are the fruit of good or evil actions that we have done to others in the past. He had the habit of giving worldly names to selfish actions, and religious names to actions done for others. Then there was Geshe Ben who, when a positive thought occurred to him, would praise it highly, and when a negative thought arose, would apply the antidote at once and beat it off.

The only way to guard the door of the mind is with the spear of the antidote. No other way exists. When the enemy is strong, we too have to be on the alert. When the enemy is mild we can loosen up a little bit as well. For example when there is trouble in a kingdom, the bodyguards will protect the king constantly, neither sleeping at night nor relaxing by day. Likewise, in order to drive away the mischiefmaker of our ego-clinging, we should apply the antidote of emptiness as soon as it appears. This is what Geshe Shawopa used to call “the ritual of exorcism.”

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (1910–1991) was a highly accomplished meditation master, scholar, and poet, and a principal holder of the Nyingma lineage. His extraordinary depth of realization enabled him to be, for all who met him, a foundation of loving-kindness, wisdom, and compassion. A dedicated exponent of the nonsectarian Rime movement, Khyentse Rinpoche was respected by all schools of Tibetan Buddhism and taught many eminent teachers, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He tirelessly worked to uphold the Dharma through the publication of texts, the building of monasteries and stupas, and by offering instruction to thousands of people throughout the world. His writings in Tibetan fill twenty-five volumes.

Books by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

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Trulshik Rinpoche (1923-2011)

The following article is from the Autumn, 2011 issue of the Snow Lion Newsletter and is for historical reference only. You can see this in context of the original newsletter here.

Honoring

ONE OF THE GREAT MASTERS of Tibetan Buddhism,

His Eminence Kyabje Trulshik Rinpoche Ngawang Chokyi Lodoe (1923-2011)

images

ONE OE THE GREAT MASTERS OF Tibetan Buddhism, His Eminence Kyabje Trulshik Rinpoche, passed away on September 2, 2011. Most recently he served as head of the Nyingma School, but was known as a leading proponent of the Rime (non-sectarian) approach.

The heart son of both Dudjom Rinpoche and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, he also gave rare Nyingma and Dzogchen teachings to His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Kyabje Trulshik Rinpoche Ngawang Chokyi Lodoe was born in Tibet in 1923. He was recognized at the age of four as the reincarnation of his own heart lama, Trulshik Tendru Dorje, a famous discoverer of hidden treasures (terma). He was also considered to be the manifestation of Lord Buddha's disciple Ananda, as well as of Aryadeva and other key figures in Buddhism.

Thupten Choling Monastery, Nepal, Tibetan Buddhism,

Thupten Choling Monastery (Photographer: Sergey Pashko)

In 1959, when His Holiness the Dalai Lama went into exile in India, Trulshik Rinpoche also fled across the Himalayas into the Everest region of Nepal. Later, he and his followers established Thupten Choling monastery, now the largest monastery in Nepal with 150 monks and 350 nuns studying and meditating there.

His direction of the annual Mani Rimdu festival of masked dance-drama is documented in Richard Kohn's film Lord of the Dance, Destroyer of Illusion (1986), the title of which is in part derived from his name, Trulshik Rinpoche, the Precious Destroyer of Illusion.

Tibetan Buddhism, Mani Rimdu festival of masked dance-drama

For more information:

Originally titled: Lord of the Dance ~ Destroyer of Illusion (1985)

Narrated by Richard Gere

Directed by Richard Kohn

 

NY Times Article: Film: Documentary on Tibetan Ritual

The filming took place in the autumn of 1984 in the Mount Everest area of Nepal, where a Tibetan lama, Trulshig Rinpoche, settled after being driven from his native land during the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

Website: Buddhist Film Foundation Festival Media

Trailer: Destroyer of Illusion

Thubten Choling Monastery

The retreat community and monastery established by Kyabje Trulshik Rinpoche in the 1960s in the Solu Khumbu district of northeastern Nepal.

Kyabje Trulshik Rinpoche's (1923-2011) Reincarnation:

Article: Trulshik Rinpoche’s successor recognized

The reincarnation, Ngawang Tenzin Choekyi Lodoe Rabsel, was born in Kathmandu on July 25, 2013. The announcement about his recognition was made on July 6th to coincide with His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s 80th birthday.

Web Announcement: Tulku of Trulshik Rinpoche Recognized

Related Books

Steps to the Great Perfection

$24.95 - Paperback

By: Cortland Dahl & Jigme Lingpa

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Guru Rinpoche: His Life and Times

The following article is from the Spring, 2002 issue of the Snow Lion Newsletter and is for historical reference only. You can see this in context of the original newsletter here.

See also our Reader's Guide to Guru Rinpoche Padmasmbhava with a full list of resources.

Guru Rinpoche: His Life and Times

Padmasambhava, Guru Rinpoche, His Life and Times, Tibetan Buddhism

by Ngawang Zangpo

About this Book

To Tibetan Buddhists Guru Rinpoche is a Buddha. In 763, Tibet's powerful armies overran the capital of China and installed a puppet emperor. Why didn't Tibet continue its aggressive military campaigns? This transformation was due to Guru Rinpoche who tamed and converted Tibet to Buddhism and thereby changed the course of Asian history.

This book recounts Guru Rinpoche's historical visit to Tibet and explains his continuing significance to Buddhists. Four very different Tibetan accounts of his story are presented:

Buddhist accounts:

     A Biography of Guru Rinpoche by Jamgon Kongtrul

     The Immaculate While Lotus by Yeshe Tsogyal

One according to the pre-Buddhist Tibetan religion, Bon:

     The Bon Version of the Life of Guru Rinpoche by Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo

One based on Indian and early Tibetan historical documents:

     The Indian Version of the Life of Guru Rinpoche by Taranata.

In addition, there are supplications by Guru Rinpoche and visualizations to accompany them by Jamgon Kongtrul.

Praise for Guru Rinpoche: His Life and Times

"The presence of Guru Rinpoche, a figure so important to Tibetan Buddhists he is called simply 'The Precious Master', can be felt still in each of these liberating stories translated here. Read side-by-side, they reveal an even wider picture, deftly highlighted by Ngawang Zangpo's introduction, of how history and culture interact with the inner spirituality that is beyond time and place."— Sarah Harding, author of Creation and Completion

"With a thought-provoking introduction and stimulating cultural, religious, and literary insights, Ngawang Zangpo offers welcome translations of four biographies of Gum Rinpoche and a set of famous supplications. This new work will certainly be enjoyed by everyone interested in the vast spiritual legacy of the Second Buddha' in Tibet." —Cyrus Stearns, author of Buddha from Dolpo

Ngawang Zangpo (Hugh Thompson) lives near Santa Cruz, California. His previous works include Sacred Ground: Jamgon Kongtrul on Pilgrimage and Sacred Geography.

Persons who cannot force themselves to board an airplane cannot fly; people who cannot accept a relationship based on faith and devotion cannot practice tantra.

Excerpt From Guru Rinpoche: His Life and Times

Non-Tibetans can now meet Guru Rinpoche, but the encounter can only be meaningful with faith. Our faith and devotion provide the only access possible to the timeless, ever-present Guru Rinpoche, and this faith and devotion must begin in relation to a human spiritual master and a lineage. For some people this is an impossible task, which should not be a problem unless they imagine they want to practice tantra. Persons who cannot force themselves to board an airplane cannot fly; people who cannot accept a relationship based on faith and devotion cannot practice tantra. Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche writes in the same book:

guru rinpoche padmasamb

The purpose of Dharma practice is to attain enlightenment. Actually, attaining enlightenment is exactly the same as ridding ourselves of ignorance, and the root of ignorance is the ego. Whichever path we take, whether it's the long and disciplined route, or the short and wild one, at the end of it the essential point is that we eliminate ego.

There are many, many different ways we can do this, for example through Shamatha [tranquility] meditation, and they all work to one extent or another. However, since we have been with our ego for so many lifetimes and we are so familiar with it, every time we take to a path in our efforts to eliminate ego, that very path is hijacked by ego and manipulated in such a way that rather than crushing our ego, our path only helps to reinforce it.

That is the reason why, in the Vajrayana, guru devotion, or Guru Yoga, is taught as a vital and essential practice. As the guru is a living, breathing human being, he or she is able to deal directly with your ego. Reading a book about how to eliminate ego may be interesting, but you will never be in awe of a book, and anyway, books are entirely open to your interpretation. A book cannot talk or react to you, whereas the guru can and will stir up your ego so that eventually it will be eliminated altogether. Whether this is achieved wrathfully or gently doesn't matter, but in the end this is what the guru is there to do, and this is why guru devotion is so important.

I believe that all tantric Buddhists should be as frank as this master about their path and what sets it apart from the other Buddhist paths: faith and devotion to the spiritual master. In Sanskrit they say, "Guru Yoga;" in English we might say, "communion with the spiritual master's mind." Tantra takes pride in its plethora of practices: it aims to answer everyone's needs with easy, accessible, and efficient ways to enlightenment. Yet every single one of those skillful means depends on the spiritual master, a human being from whom we receive transmission of empowerment, the lineage, and guidance; and, after we receive instruction, our success or failure depends not on our diligence, not on our goodness, and not on our intelligence, but on our faith and devotion to our spiritual master.

Tantra cannot be all things to all people. Some of us have serious issues with a relationship grounded in the intense devotion tantra demands. It is in no way a judgment of those individuals or of tantra to say that they were not made for one another. Tantra is not to everyone's taste, nor can it ever be made to be.

"...attaining enlightenment is exactly the same as ridding ourselves of I ignorance, and the root of ignorance is the ego. Whichever path we take, whether it's the long and disciplined route, or the short and wild one, at the end of it the essential point is that we eliminate ego."

Guru Rinpoche is for most Himalayan Buddhists the second Buddha, the Buddha of every form and teaching of enlightenment, with an accent on the tantras. Just as the Great Way teaches us to identify our enlightened nature and call it buddha-nature, tantra teaches us to first see our teachers as Guru Rinpoche. Then we see all phenomena as Guru Rinpoche, down to every atom of our own body, every atom of all beings equally, and every atom of every blade of grass, every grain of sand. Finally, when we recognize our own innate, timeless awareness, it as well is none other than Guru Rinpoche.

Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche writes:

The first stage of guru devotion, then, is to awaken and enhance our devotion, until it becomes sound and strong and we can actually look upon the guru as the Buddha.

Gradually we will reach the second stage, where we don't simply think the guru is the Buddha, we see he is the Buddha. As our devotion becomes stronger still, it is with a growing sense of joy that we begin to rely entirely on the guru for everything. An inner confidence arises, an absolute certainty that the guru is the only source of refuge. No longer do we have to create or fabricate our devotion now it comes quite naturally.

Then, all our experiences, good or bad, are manifestations of the guru. Everything we experience in life becomes beneficial and has a purpose; everything we encounter becomes a teaching. Total trust and devotion for the guru is born within our heart, and the blessing of the guru dissolves into our mind.

With this, we reach the third stage, which is when we realize that our mind is none other than the guru whom we have seen as the Buddha.

This Guru Rinpoche, while timeless, is introduced to us thanks to a lineage of masters who have passed on their wisdom in an uninterrupted stream to the present. In the preface to Masters of Meditation and Miracles, Tulku Thondup makes a statement that should be repeated in every Tibetan translation:

It was improper and indeed impossible for me to try to avoid the typical characteristic of Tibetan biographies, namely the inclusion of endless lists of teachers, teachings, and disciples of the masters, even though those lists might be boring for readers who are not Tibetan.

He then traces the lineages from Guru Rinpoche and other great masters down to the present, each an essential link. Each deserves to be honored by our attention. How many of us learned (or still learn?) the names of members of sports teams, or of rock bands, or of political parties, during their fleeting moments of fame and fortune? We definitely have the capacity to learn the names and personal histories of the enlightened individuals who have contributed to the wisdom bridge that reaches us.

The members of lineages from Guru Rinpoche should not be faceless, nameless persons: they have kept real and alive what is most important to us the full presence and blessing of Guru Rinpoche.

Lineages of wisdom have been compared to electricity that flows from a power plant to one's home: If the flow is interrupted or faulty at any point, the flow of electricity will stop. The members of lineages from Guru Rinpoche should not be faceless, nameless persons: they have kept real and alive what is most important to us the full presence and blessing of Guru Rinpoche. Different masters reflect the needs of their time on a superficial level, and thus might seem foreign to us, but the wisdom-electricity we receive from our teachers has passed through them and, thanks to them, is exactly the same as it was a thousand years ago.

Guru Rinpoche first appeared as an Indian, a guise that caused his expulsion from Tibet. Yet, with some more reflection over time, Tibetans came to worship Indian spirituality and Indian masters. To the present day, the focus of Tibetan Buddhism remains fixed not upon indigenous Tibetan masters, however impressive they were, but upon non-Tibetans, Buddha Shakyamuni and Guru Rinpoche.

These days, Guru Rinpoche first appeared to us primarily in a Tibetan guise. The Tibetan masters' priceless gift to us has been to introduce foreigners worldwide to Guru Rinpoche's timeless wisdom in such ways as to make it comprehensible, attractive, and accessible. They have had to confront in their new students many non-conducive attitudes, such as distrust, self-seriousness and solemnity, but they disarmed and relaxed us with their light humor, gentle warmth, and sincere concern (or love, to be more precise). Not only did they bring Guru Rinpoche into our lives, they made it seem that the most natural, clear-headed, and light-hearted thing to do is to discover eternal Guru Rinpoche within ourselves. What we saw as insurmountably distant proved to be innate, and what intimidated us proved to be child's play.

What we saw as insurmountably distant proved to be innate, and what intimidated us proved to be child's play.

Modern spiritual masters of all races now bring Guru Rinpoche to our level, but that is not to say that it would not be wise for us, on our part, to rise to the occasion. If you feel the urge to do yourself an enormous favor, attend any lecture by the Dalai Lama (or so many other tantric masters I could name) when he visits your continent. Or plunge into Journey to Enlightenment, Matthieu Ricard's book on the life of Dilgo Kyentse Rinpoche.

These masters, who introduce us so surely and gently to what has always been our nature, making it seem so familiar and close, provide living proof of the wondrous qualities of that same nature's manifest expression, which surpass all measure and understanding.

Who are these unfathomable beings if they are not Guru Rinpoche?

I cite them because they are persons of living memory, whom we can meet in person or in photographs or in words spoken directly in English, and I mention them because, they present us with a paradox. On the one hand, our recognition of our inner nature must accompany us on a "kitchen-sink level," as Trungpa Rinpoche used to remind us, and yet our inner Guru Rinpoche's positive qualities are what, we call, for lack of better words, inconceivable and inexpressible. These masters, who introduce us so surely and gently to what has always been our nature, making it seem so familiar and close, provide living proof of the wondrous qualities of that same nature's manifest expression, which surpass all measure and understanding.

Ngawang Zangpo (Hugh Leslie Thompson) completed two three-year retreats under the direction of the late Kalu Rinpoche. He is presently working on a number of translation projects that were initiated under the direction of Chadral Rinpoche and Lama Tharchin Rinpoche. He has also contributed to Kalu Rinpoche's translation group's books Myriad Worlds and Buddhist Ethics.

Guru Rinpoche

Padmasambhava (eighth century), the Indian meditation master, is the founder of the Nyingma tradition, the oldest Buddhist tradition in Tibet. In addition to introducing the practices of tantric Buddhism to Tibet, he also completed the building of Samye, the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet.

More Books by Ngawang Zangpo

Other Books Related to Guru Rinpoche

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Buddhism With An Attitude

The following article is from the Spring, 2001 issue of the Snow Lion Newsletter and is for historical reference only. You can see this in context of the original newsletter here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

by B. Alan Wallace

ISBN: 9781559392006

...an extraordinary book. Howard Cutler, co-author of The Art of Happiness

 

All of us have attitudes. Some of them accord with reality and serve us well throughout the course of our lives. Others are out of alignment with reality, and cause us problems.

Tibetan Buddhist practice isn't just sitting in silent meditation, it's developing fresh attitudes that align our minds with reality. Attitudes need adjusting, just like a spinal column that has been knocked out of alignment. B. Alan Wallace explains a fundamental type of Buddhist mental training called lojong, which can literally be translated as attitudinal training. It is designed to shift our attitudes so that our minds become pure well-springs of joy instead of murky pools of problems, anxieties, fleeting pleasures, hopes and frustrations.

The author draws on his thirty-year training in Buddhism, physics, the cognitive sciences, and comparative religion to challenge readers to reappraise many of their assumptions about the nature of the mind and physical world.

The following is an excerpt from the Preface of the book.

In this book I will explain a type of mental training Tibetans call lojong. The Tibetan word lojong is made up of two parts: lo means attitude, mind, intelligence, and perspective; and jong means to train, purify, remedy, and clear away. So the word lojong could literally be translated as attitudinal training, but I'll stick with the more common translation of mind-training.

Over the past millennium, Tibetan lamas have devised many lojongs, but the most widely taught and practiced of all lojongs in the Tibetan language was one based on the teachings of an Indian Buddhist sage named Atisha (982-1054), whose life spanned the end of the first millennium of the common era and the beginning of the second. Atisha brought to Tibet an oral tradition of lojong teachings that was based on instructions that had been passed down to him through the lineage of the Indian Buddhist teachers Maitriyogin, Dhamiarakshita, and Serlingpa. This oral tradition may represent the earliest such practice that was explicitly called a lojong, and it is probably the most widely practiced in the whole of Tibetan Buddhism. This training was initially given only as an oral instruction for those students who were deemed sufficiently intelligent and highly enough motivated to make good use of it. Only about a century after Atisha's death was this secret training written down and made more widely available in monasteries and hermitages, Tibet's unique kinds of attitudinal correction facility. This delay probably accounts for the minor variations in the different versions of the text we have today.

For centuries we in the West have wondered whether intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe. If there are highly advanced, intelligent beings out there, what might they have to teach us? What have they learned that we have not? Along similar lines we can ask: is there intelligent life on our planet outside of our Euro-American civilization? Of course that sounds like a dumb question, but it's still worth asking, since there still persists an attitude in our society that we know more about everything than any previous generation and more than any other, less developed society today. It takes quite an ethnocentric leap of faith to swallow that, but many people seem to manage it. Indian civilization a thousand years ago, during the time of Atisha, had evolved with very little influence from European civilization; and Tibetan civilization, tracing back more than two millennia, was hardly influenced by the West until the mid-twentieth century. Ironically, Tibetans' first major encounter with Western thought occurred due to the invasion of their homeland by the Chinese Communists in 1949, who forced upon them the economic doctrine of Marxism and scientific materialism.

...lo means attitude, mind, intelligence, and perspective; and jong means to train, purify, remedy, and clear away. So the word lojong could literally be translated as attitudinal training.

Have Indian and Tibetan civilizations made any great discoveries of their own that we have not, and might they have anything to teach us? I will be tackling these questions throughout this book, drawing on a thousand-year-old set of aphorisms that embody much of the wisdom of ancient India and Tibet. If these aphorisms strike a chord of wisdom for us living today, whose lives span the end of the second millennium and the beginning of the third, that wisdom will be something that is not uniquely Eastern or Western, and not ancient or modern. It will be a type of wisdom that cuts across such cultural divides and eras, something universal that speaks deeply to and from the hearts and minds of humanity.

Over the past millennium, Tibetan Buddhism has maintained its vitality from generation to generation by teachers passing on oral commentaries to traditional root texts such as the Seven-Point Mind-Training. Root texts preserve the depth and wisdom of the teachings, and the oral commentaries link these texts with the experiences and views of practitioners of each generation. In the explanation of the text I offer here, I draw upon the earliest Tibetan commentary I have been able to find, composed by Sechil Buwa, who was a direct disciple of Chekawa Yeshe Dorje (1101-1175), who first wrote down this mind-training. Chekawa Yeshe Dorje had received the transmission of this teaching from Sharawa Yönten Drak, and the lineage before him goes back to Langri Thangpa, Potowa, Dromtonpa, and Atisha. I also draw on a very recent commentary entitled Enlightened Courage: An Explanation of Atisha's Seven Point Mind Training by the late Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, one of the greatest Tibetan meditation masters of the twentieth century.

The teacher from whom I received the oral commentary on this training was a learned, humble, and compassionate Tibetan named Kungo Barshi. I was living in Dharamsala, India, at the time, in 1973, and there were many erudite lamas from whom I could have sought this instruction. But I was particularly drawn to Kungo Barshi for various reasons. At that time, he was the chief instructor in Tibetan medicine at the Tibetan Astro-Medical Institute, and he was renowned for his mastery of many of the fields of traditional Tibetan knowledge. But he was not only an outstanding scholar. As a member of the nobility in Tibet, he had owned several estates and devoted himself to the life of a gentleman scholar, while his wife largely took over the practical affairs of running their estates. But when the Chinese Communists invaded Tibet and especially targeted the aristocracy for imprisonment and torture, he, his wife, and one of his sons fled to India. Others of his children remained behind, only to be killed by the Chinese, and the son who fled with him into exile also met a tragic end. Adversity mounted upon adversity in Kungo Barshi's life, and yet when he was passing on this teaching to me, he told me, Personally, I have found the Chinese invasion of Tibet to be a blessing. In Tibet before this cataclysm, I took much for granted, and my spiritual practice was casual. Now that I have been forced into exile and have lost so much, my dedication to practice has grown enormously, and I have found greater contentment than ever before. Rarely have I met anyone whose presence exuded such serenity, quiet good cheer, and wisdom as he did. He was for me a living embodiment of the efficacy of this mind-training, and his inspiration has been with me ever since.

As I pass on my own commentary to this text, I address many practical and theoretical issues that uniquely face us in the modern world. This book is based on a series of public lectures I gave in Santa Barbara, California, during the years 1997-1998. I have tried at all times to be faithful to the original teachings I received, while making them thoroughly contemporary to people living in a world so different from that of traditional Tibet. If even a fraction of the wisdom and inspiration of Atisha, Sechil Buwa, Kungo Barshi, and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche is conveyed to the readers of this book, our efforts will have born good fruit.

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