Report September 2021
After a short intermission in August, in September we have once again been working on several new translations. We want to thank and express our immense gratitude to you all for supporting our work. Without your support, we cannot work on translating, editing and researching the Core Texts of the Longchen Nyingtik, the revelations of Jigme Lingpa.
Also, we are happy to have reached more than a 1000 followers on Facebook.
We started off on the 25th day of the lunar calendar with a new translation of another treasure revelation by Jigme Lingpa, belonging to the Longchen Nyingtik cycle, with a sādhana of Hayagrīva, the wrathful form of the Natural Liberation of Suffering (Dukngal Rangdrol) practice of Avalokiteśvara: A Sādhana of Hayagrīva’s Assembly, from the Heart-Essence of the Vast Expanse.
Then, for the anniversary of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche we presented a new translation of a text written by Dilgo Khyentse himself, a self-initiation for the Rigdzin Düpa sadhana called Shower of Indestructible Splendour: A Self-Initiation for the Guru Practice of the Vidyādhara Assembly, from the Heart-Essence of the Vast Expanse. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche wrote this self-initiation (bdag 'jug) for the Vidyādhara Assembly (Rigdzin Düpa) when he presided over a group practice (tshogs sgrub) in Bhutan and the need for such a text became clear. He explains that "until you recognise that all appearances of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa—appearance, sound and awareness—are purified within the space of the inexhaustible wheel of ornament, the three vajra secrets of the guru, there is great need for, and immense benefit in, doing this self-initiation: it restores the power of the four empowerments, heals impairments and breakages of enlightened body, speech and mind, and offers a training in maturing through self-entry to the maṇḍala; and so the tantras and accomplished adepts have lauded the practice [of self-initiation] again and again."
With special thanks to Sean Price and Mattieu Ricard for sending us these newly scanned images of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche:
Photos by Matthieu Ricard
As often we’ll end with a few words of inspiration by Jigme Lingpa:
“When the glamour of youth is trampled underfoot by the army of months and years,
The tree of vitality is splintered by the axe of the Lord of Death,
And the lifeline of liberation withers away,
It’s to you I pray, Avalokiteśvara: look on me with your compassion,
Bless me to become a bodhisattva, just like you!
ལང་ཚོའི་མཛེས་པ་ལོ་ཟླའི་དམག་གིས་བཅོམ། །
བླ་ཚེའི་ལྗོན་པ་གཤིན་རྗེའི་སྟ་རེས་བསུས། །
ཐར་པའི་སྲོག་རྩ་ཕྲ་མོར་བྱས་པའི་ཚེ། །
གསོལ་བ་འདེབས་སོ་འཕགས་པས་ཐུགས་རྗེས་གཟིགས། །
རྒྱལ་སྲས་ཁྱེད་རང་ལྟ་བུར་བྱིན་གྱིས་རློབས། །”
And:
“42. Then, those who have renounced the four roots
And abstain from alcohol,
Renouncing thus all five,
Are honored as upasakas of pure conduct.”
“31. Conditioning effects are linked with outer habitat.
The burden of the evil deed of killing
Leads to cramped environments
Where healing trees and flowers are few,
Where crops and food and drink lack virtue and are indigestible,
To places that are hazardous for life.
32. Theft brings birth in places where the crops are easily destroyed.
Where plants, though edible, give meager fruit
Or are assailed by frost and flattened by the hail,
Where suffering of famine overwhelms the mind.
33. Sexual misdeeds engender irresistibly the creeping vine
Of birth in filthy swamps of excrement and urine,
Where breath is stifled by the unclean stench,
In dirty, loathsome places narrowly confined.
34. Through lies one has unstable wealth in unpropitious lands.
Betrayed by others, one will live in dread, beset by fears.”
A tablet with an inscription of the five vows at Lumbini, Nepal. Photo by Han Kop.