Lineage Prayers of the Longchen Nyingtik
In the Buddha Dharma, and in the Vajrayana in particular, the lineage of teachers is of the utmost importance. It is therefore customary before one starts any sadhana to recite prayers to each of the gurus in the lineage. This blog post is to accompany our publication of the Lineage Prayers for the Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse, according to the lineage of Dodrupchen.
In the Nyingma tradition it is nearly unthinkable to start a practice without beginning with the famous invocation of Padmasambhava, the Seven Line Prayer. Other prayers are also often recited, such as The Prayer to the Three Kāya Guru. Each sadhana would normally have its own special lineage prayer. For example, for the Rigdzin Düpa sadhana there is the Prayer to the Eight Supreme Vidyādharas of India, “A Constant Stream of Blessings” and the Rain of Siddhis. These lineage prayers are often supplemented with additional lines to remain up to date. Finally, it is also costumery to recite four-line verses to each of the gurus in the lineage, and we will look at these in a little bit more detail below.
These collections always start with a general supplication to founding figures of the tradition.
ཀུན་བཟང་རྡོར་སེམས་དགའ་རབ་ཤྲཱི་སིང༌། །
Samantabhadra, Vajrasattva, Garab Dorje, Śrī Siṃha,
པདྨཱ་ཀ་ར་རྗེ་འབངས་ཉི་ཤུ་ལྔ། །
Padmasambhava, the twenty-five disciples—king and subjects,
སོ་ཟུར་གནུབས་གཉགས་གཏེར་སྟོན་རྒྱ་རྩ་སོགས། །
So, Zur, Nub, Nyak [or Nyang], the hundred treasure revealers and all others,
བཀའ་གཏེར་བླ་མ་རྣམས་ལ་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས། །
To you, the gurus of Kama and Terma, I pray!
Longchen Nyingtik field of accumulation,
Dodrupchen monastery
The Longchen Nyingtik tradition was founded by Jigme Lingpa, inspired by Longchenpa; and thus the lineage prayers start with verses dedicated to them. Jigme Lingpa was a yogi and did not travel much, remaining in his hermitage of Tsering Jong. Yet his disciples spread the Longchen Nyingtik far and wide in Tibet, and beyond, to other countries such as Bhutan and Mongolia. Most famous among them were those known as the four Jigmes:
• Dodrupchen Jigme Trinlé Özer of Golok
• Jigme Gyalwe Nyugu of Drachukha
• Jigme Ngotsar of Dzachukha
• Jigme Kundrol Namgyal of Bhutan
An alternative list consists of the 'four Jigmes from Kham', where Jigme Kundrol Namgyal is exchanged with Jigme Gocha. In any case, innumerable lineages sprung from these masters. The most important of them are listed in Tulku Thondup’s Masters of Meditation and Miracles, pages 333-350.
In present times, in exile, the following traditions are fairly widespread (this is not meant to be exhaustive):
Generally, only those lineage masters through whom the actual lineage flows are mentioned. Yet this is not always the case and sometimes other important figures are also mentioned.
Dodrupchen
The lineage prayers of Dodrupchen contain the following masters:
Prayer the Gurus of the Lineage
As mentioned above, a booklet containing these lineage prayers according to the lineage of Dodrupchen, including Tibetan and English translation, can be found here.
Chatral Rinpoche
Prayer the Gurus of the Lineage
Namdroling
Prayer the Gurus of the Lineage
Shechen
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche has composed one called A Complete Lineage Supplication for the Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse (translation forthcoming). In the colophon he mentions that it is a prayer ‘where all the gurus of the lineage are gathered together.’ He also says that ‘it can be used for any of the rituals of the Heart Essence.’
Prayer to the Gurus of the Lineage
Könchok Drakpa (check)
Khenpo Kunzang Palden (check)
Kunzang Degyal (probably Kunzang Dechen Dorje aka Pema Kunzang (ca.1845-ca.1925), an incarnation of Jigme Gyalwe Nyugu)
Tubten Chödor, the Fifth Dzogchen Rinpoche
Khenpo Yönten Gyatso, from Gemang
Pema Dechen (check)
Khenchen Tekchok Jamyang Tendzin from Gemang
Other lineage prayers
There are many more lineage prayers in general, most famously Jigme Lingpa’s Continuous Shower of Blessings: A Prayer to the Lineage of the Great Perfection’s Heart-Essence of the Vast Expanse, which was incorporated into the Longchen Nyingtik Ngondro by the First Dodrupchen. Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö has written a supplement for it.
Other examples are:
Khenpo Pema Vajra, Clouds of Blessing: Paying Homage to the Lineage of the Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse ཀློང་ཆེན་སྙིང་གི་ཐིག་ལེའི་བརྒྱུད་པའི་ཕྱག་འཚལ་བྱིན་རླབས་སྤྲིན་ཕུང་།
Adzom Gyalse Gyurme Dorje, Shower of Blessings: Prayers to the Lineage of the Heart Essence སྙིང་ཐིག་བླ་མ་བརྒྱུད་པའི་གསོལ་འདེབས་བྱིན་རླབས་ཆར་འབེབས་
Adzom Gyalse Gyurme Dorje, The Play of Clouds of Blessing: A Prayer to the Lineage of the Heart Essence སྙིང་ཐིག་བརྒྱུད་པའི་གསོལ་འདེབས་བྱིན་རླབས་སྤྲིན་གྱི་རོལ་མོ།
An excellent resource on the Longchen Nyingtik lineage is The Longchen Nyingtik ritual tradition at All-OTR by Orgyen Tobgyal Rinpoche.
Footnotes
[1] Shechen Monastery in Nepal used to practice the Longchen Nyingtik sadhanas on the 10th and 25th days of the lunar month, yet recently they switched to the treasures of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.