Report July 2023
This month we have once again added two new translations and created a new page about Palchen Düpa.
Our first text is the Concise and Clear Supplementary Instructions for the Transference Practice of the Great Perfection’s Heart-Essence of the Vast Expanse, by Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo. Khyentse Wangpo elaborates on the fundamental teachings of Jigme Lingpa by providing 1) transference instructions for someone who has recently died, 2) transference instructions as part of the ongoing ritual for guiding the deceased, and 3) instructions for the living. With this final text, we have now translated all the texts belonging to the Longchen Nyingtik phowa cycle!
Our second new text is the Red Sur Offering for ‘Ransoming’ Oneself and Others from Death, by Jigme Lingpa. This is an offering of red sur for the four types of guest, especially yakṣas, rākṣasas and harmful spirits, so that they may become free of resentment and anger and arouse bodhicitta.
We're making several new pages on our website: each sadhana of the Longchen Nyingtik will have its own page with a short history, an introduction and a complete list of all the practice texts and commentaries. This month we announced the Palchen Dupa page, which, given the paucity of information on the Kagye practices of the Nyingma tradition, includes a complete history of the Kagye based on both traditional and modern sources.
"The main yidam deity of the Longchen Nyingtik is the Gathering of Awesome Ones (Palchen Düpa), a practice of the Eight Great Maṇḍalas (Kagye) revealed by Jigme Lingpa. Traditionally, it is classified as the ‘blue’ wrathful practice (the ‘red’ wrathful practice being the Takhyung Barwa).
When Jigme Lingpa was in his sixties he ‘translated the signs’ of the four specific sādhanas of Palchen Düpa for Yamāntaka, Hayagrīva, Yangdak and Vajrakīlayaya, based on the request of the First Dodrupchen Jigme Trinle Özer, Jigme Loselchen and the queen of Derge Tsewang Lhamo. This must have been in the 1790’s. Jigme Lingpa mentions that these practices had been translated during the time of Trisong Detsen (742-c.800), but their lineage had been interrupted, thus showing the need for them to be revealed again."
We conclude with this famous aspiration prayer:
“གང་དུ་སྐྱེས་པའི་སྐྱེ་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་དུ། །
In all my lives, wherever I am born,མཐོ་རིས་ཡོན་ཏན་བདུན་ལྡན་ཐོབ་པར་ཤོག །
May I obtain the seven qualities of birth in higher realms.
སྐྱེ་མ་ཐག་ཏུ་ཆོས་དང་འཕྲད་གྱུར་ཅིང༌། །
As soon as I am born, may I meet the Dharma,
ཚུལ་བཞིན་བསྒྲུབ་པའི་རང་དབང་ཡོད་པར་ཤོག །
And have the freedom to practise it correctly.
དེར་ཡང་བླ་མ་དམ་པ་མཉེས་བྱེད་ཅིང༌། །
Then, may I please the noble lama,
ཉིན་དང་མཚན་དུ་ཆོས་ལ་སྤྱོད་པར་ཤོག །
And put the Dharma into action day and night.
ཆོས་རྟོགས་ནས་ནི་སྙིང་པོའི་དོན་བསྒྲུབ་སྟེ། །
May I realize the Dharma, actualize its innermost meaning,
ཚེ་དེར་སྲིད་པའི་རྒྱ་མཚོ་བརྒལ་བར་ཤོག །
And so cross the ocean of existence in this very life.
སྲིད་པར་དམ་པའི་ཆོས་རབ་སྟོན་བྱེད་ཅིང༌། །
May I teach the sacred Dharma to beings wandering in saṃsāra,
གཞན་ཕན་བསྒྲུབ་ལ་སྐྱོ་ངལ་མེད་པར་ཤོག །
And never tire or weary of working to help others.
རླབས་ཆེན་གཞན་དོན་ཕྱོགས་རིས་མེད་པ་ཡིས། །
Through my vast and impartial service to others,
ཐམས་ཅད་ཕྱམ་གཅིག་སངས་རྒྱས་ཐོབ་པར་ཤོག །
May all beings attain buddhahood together, as one!”
Guru Yoga field of accumulation, courtesy of Chorten Dodrupchen Monastery, Sikkim.
(the Special Prayer of Aspiration from 'The Excellent Path to Omniscience: The Dzogchen Preliminary Practice of the Heart-Essence of the Vast Expanse'. The actual author of this prayer is Longchenpa, and it is found in his Treasury of Pith Instructions (Mengak Dzö).