Report October 2020
This month was an auspicious one, coinciding with the anniversary of Jigme Lingpa on the 19th of October. For that joyous occasion we translated a short prayer called Calling the Guru from Afar written by Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lödro. Composed in Darjeeling (most likely in 1958), this short invocation of Jigme Lingpa calls upon the famed Dzogchen master and treasure-revealer by his various names and invokes his blessings and inspiration. The translation was done in the context of the Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö Sungbum Project, which aims to translate all his works into English.
བཀའ་གཏེར་མན་ངག་གི་གཏེར་མཛོད། །
You are a treasury of the Buddha’s Words, the treasure revelations, and pith instructions,
སྔ་འགྱུར་རིག་འཛིན་གྱི་གཙུག་རྒྱན། །
The crown ornament of the vidyādharas of the Early Translations School,
མཁའ་འགྲོ་འབུམ་ཕྲག་གི་མིང་པོ། །
And elder brother to hundreds of thousands of ḍākinīs—
མཁྱེན་བརྩེའི་འོད་ཟེར་ཁྱེད་མཁྱེན་ནོ། །
Khyentse Özer—‘Rays of Wisdom and Love’—know me, care for me!
Also this month was the anniversary of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, one of the most outstanding masters of the 20th century and one of the main holders of the Khyentse lineage. You can read more about Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and in particular his contributions to the Longchen Nyingtik cycle in our blog post.
Our second new publication is a text by Khyentse Wangpo, a Concise Garland of Offerings of the Sixteen Vajra Goddesses—The Offering Clouds Of the Indestructible Ladies of Sound. This is a relatively brief offering text to the sixteen offering goddesses, as compared to Jigme Lingpa's own offering text, 'The Lute of the Gandharvas', which is much longer. Both texts are used during all the sādhanas of the Longchen Nyingtik. It seems these sixteen offering goddesses have their origin in the Cakrasamvara tantra cycle.
Our third text for this month is the famous Restorative Offering to the Eight Classes or Degye Serkyem, by the ninth-century master Nubchen Sangye Yeshe. This text for making offerings to the various spirits of the world is used throughout the Nyingma tradition.
Our fourth text for this month is a text that belongs to the Rigdzin Düpa (The Vidyādhara Assembly) cycle, The Vase of Immortal Life - The Long-Life Practice of the Vidyādharas. This longevity practice includes a means of attaining immortality through Amitāyus and a summoning of longevity (tshe 'gugs) that invokes the eight vidyādharas.
We are currently committed to making the whole Rigdzin Düpa cycle available, and are working on a new edition of the main Rigdzin Düpa sadhana.
As always, for most of our texts the 'restricted text warning' applies:
"Vajrayāna Buddhism places restrictions on the reading and practice of certain texts, which are intended only for those who have received the requisite empowerments, transmissions and instructions. If you are unsure as to whether you are entitled to read or practice a particular text please consult a qualified lineage-holder."