Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche’s Empowerment Manual

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Before the time of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, several individual empowerment manuals had been written for the Longchen Nyingtik cycle by masters such as the First Dodrupchen, Jigme Trinle Özer (for example Rigdzin Düpa and Dukngal Rangdrol), Jamgön Kongtrul (Ridzin Düpa and Yumka Dechen Gyalmo) and Dodrupchen Jigme Tenpe Nyima (Yumka Dechen Gyalmo). Yet until Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche wrote his lengthy empowerment manual for the entire Longchen Nyingtik, there was no complete manual for all the empowerments. Because of that, some empowerments, such as those for Palchen Düpa, were difficult to bestow.

While they were stil in Tibet, Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö Rinpoche said that there was a need for empowerment manuals for the Tikle Gyachen, the inner practice of Yumka called A Treasure Vase Containing the Essence of Great Bliss and the four specific empowerments for the Palchen Düpa. He assigned Dilgo Khyentse the job of writing them. Later on, after having fled Tibet, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche had a vision of Jigme Lingpa at Paro Taktsang in which Jigme Lingpa told him that the tradition of the Longchen Nyingtik belonged to him, and he can do whatever he feels is appropriate. That was the catalyst for Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche to begin writing the empowerment manual, and while staying at Paro Taktsang, on the anniversary of Mipham Rinpoche, on the 25th day of the fourth month of vaiśākha in the Fire Horse Year of the 16th calendrical cycle (13th of June, 1966), he began, and he finished it at Kyichu Lhakhang. He mentions that he based himself on the Sphere of Liberation[1] empowerment manual written by Jigme Lingpa and other texts.

Given the importance of this manual and in the anticipation that this empowerment manual will be given again and again in the future, we at the Longchen Nyingtik project have began to translate this enormous text, counting more than 300 pages, which we will hope to finish in about a years time.

A Feast that Delights the Fortunate Ones and Reveals the Nectar of the Profound and Secret: A Garland of Liturgies for Bestowing the General and Specific Empowerments of the Three Roots of the Great Perfection Heart-Essence of the Vast Expanse (རྫོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ཀློང་ཆེན་སྙིང་ཐིག་ལེའི་རྩ་གསུམ་སྤྱི་དང་བྱེ་བྲག་གི་དབང་བསྐུར་གྱི་ཕྲེང་བ་བཀླག་ཆོག་ཏུ་བཀོད་པ་ཟབ་གསང་བདུད་རྩིའི་སྒོ་འབྱེད་སྐལ་བཟང་ཀུན་དགའི་རོལ་སྟོན)

• Chapter 1. The Peaceful and Wrathful Deities Who Empty the Lower Realms (Shyitro Ngensong Jongwa, 72 pages)

• Chapter 2. Gathering of Vidyādharas (Rigdzin Düpa, 31 pages)

  For the Takyung Barwa he refers to other manuals: First Dodrup, Jamgön Kongtrul.

• Chapter 3. Vajrasattva (5p)

• Chapter 4. Vajrasattva amrita (7p)

• Chapter 5. Gathering of Awesome Ones (Palchen Düpa, (52p)

• Chapter 6 Specific deities - Yamāntaka (17p)

• Chapter 7 Hayagrīva (19p)

• Chapter 8 Yangdak (11p)

• Chapter 9 Vajrakīlaya (19p)

  For Dukngal Rangdrol he refers to the manual by the First Dodrupchen. Dukngal Rangdrol pills (3p)

• Chapter 10. Sealed Quintessence (Tikle Gyachen, 28p)

  -Rigdzin Sok-khor (6p)

  -For Yumka Dechen Gyalmo he refers to the texts by Jamgön Kongtrul and the Third Dodrupchen.
  -For the inner practice, he says the text should be inserted once it is found. (it has been found)

• Chapter 11 Lion-Faced Ḍākinī (Senge Dongma, 10 pages)

• Chapter 12. Magön Chamdral (20 pages)

• Chapter 13. Tseringma (15 pages)

Footnotes

[1] Tib. Droltik (grol thig), revealed by Trengpo Tertön Sherab Özer (1518–1572/84)