Dzogrim
Among the revelations of the Longchen Nyingtik one can find as well the practices for the second and third empowerments that are concerned with the perfection phase. As it in says in the literature of the Treasury of Precious Qualities: “in the perfection stage that uses visual forms, primordial wisdom must be generated by mastering the channels, winds, and essence-drops.”
During his first three year retreat, Jigme Lingpa himself brought the practices of the channels and wind-energies, which he refers to as ‘the vajra path’, to perfection by practicing them intensely. He writes in his short auto-biography:
It is said that during Jigme Lingpa's time the Nyingtik tsalung practices flourished and were widespread, and Tibet was filled with cotton-clad yogis practicing it. Yet later these practices of the channels and wind-energies belonging to the Longchen Nyingtik declined, and the only lineage holder left was Patrul Rinpoche.[1] Patrul Rinpoche was famed for his mastery of the tsalung practices of the Longchen Nyingtik and practiced the five fundamental movements of the trulkhor yogic exercises right up to his passing away:
In his auto-biography, Khenpo Ngakchung describes the experiences he had while, following the instructions of his teacher Nyoshul Lungtok, he did a hundred day retreat:
At another occasion, Khenpo Ngakchung had the following vision:
Fortunately for us, it seems later in his life the right circumstances did come together. On one occasion during a retreat, he was practicing the breathing of the three vajra syllables at night, and experienced extraordinary signs that all the wind-energies entered and remained in the central channel. He writes:
To this day these two texts have been preserved, yet they are closely guarded and are considered to have the seal of secrecy.
In more recent times, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche also practiced the Longchen Nyingtik tsalung during certain of his extensive retreats. Orgyan Tobgyal Rinpoche tells us:
Although it goes without saying that for all tantric practices one needs to receive the appropriate empowerments (wang), scriptural transmissions (lung) and explanations (tri), this is even more so for the practices of the second and third empowerments, since if these practices are done incorrectly, they can cause serious harm.
Tantric text warning
Readers are reminded that according to Vajrayāna Buddhist tradition there are restrictions and commitments concerning tantra. Practitioners who are not sure if they should read translations in this section are advised to consult the authorities of their lineage. The responsibility for reading these texts or for sharing them with others—and hence the consequences—lies in the hands of readers.
The Secret Empowerment
Jigme Lingpa, Wish-Fulfilling Jewel: The Scroll of the Aural Lineage for the Praṇa-Based Perfection Stage of Bliss and Emptiness, from the Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse (ཀློང་ཆེན་ཉིང་གི་ཏིག་ལེ་ལས་བདེ་སྟོང་རླུང་གི་རྫོགས་རིམ་སྙན་རྒྱུད་ཤོག་དྲིལ་ཡིད་བཞིན་ནོར་བུ་)
English translation: The Scroll of the Aural Lineage of Empty Exaltation and Wind in the Stage of Completion. The Wish-fulfilling Jewel. Translated by the Light of Berotsana Translation Group (2003) (restricted publication).
Jigme Lingpa, A Manual of Oral Instructions on the Bliss-emptiness and Wind Perfection Phase, from the Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse (ཀློང་ཆེན་ཉིང་གི་ཏིག་ལེ་ལས། བདེ་སྟོང་རླུང་རྫོགས་ཞལ་ཤེས་)
English translation: The Explanation of Empty Exaltation and Wind in the Stage of Completion, translated by the Light of Berotsana Translation Group (2003) (restricted publication).
Jigme Lingpa, Notations on the Blazing and Dripping of Fierce Inner Heat, from the Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse (ཀློང་ཆེན་ཉིང་གི་ཏིག་ལེ་ལས་། གཏུམ་མོའི་འབར་འཛག་ཡིག་ཆུང་)
English translation: Notes on Blazing and Dripping Through the Power of the Fierce Wisdom, translated by the Light of Berotsana Translation Group (2003) (restricted publication).
The Third Empowerment
Jigme Lingpa, The Concealed Meaning of the Hearing Lineage Wish-fulfilling Jewel Scroll: The Path of Method called Buddhahood Without Meditation (སྙན་རྒྱུད་ཤོག་དྲིལ་ཡིད་བཞིན་ནོར་བུའི་སྦས་དོན་ཐབས་ལམ་མ་བསྒོམས་སངས་རྒྱས་)
Jigme Lingpa, Clarifying the Concealed Meaning of the Vidyādhara's Yogic Exercises, from the Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse (ཀློང་ཆེན་ཉིང་གི་ཏིག་ལེ་ལས་རིག་འཛིན་འཁྲུལ་འཁོར་སྦས་དོན་གསལ་བ་)
English translation: The Illumination of the Hidden Meaning of the Wheels of Technique of the Holders of Awareness, translated by the Light of Berotsana Translation Group (2003) (restricted publication).
Jigme Lingpa, The Vajra Verses: A Prayer of the Fierce Inner Heat, from the Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse (ཀློང་ཆེན་ཉིང་གི་ཏིག་ལེ་ལས།་གཏུམ་མོའི་གསོལ་འདེབས་རྡོ་རྗེའི་ཚིག་རྐང་)
Arrangements & Liturgies (chok-trik, ཆོག་ཁྲིགས)
Drodul Pawo Dorje (Adzom Drukpa), The Heart of the Swift Path, The Main Visualization for the Secret Path of the Vidyādharas, A Liturgy for Wish-Fulfilling Jewel: The Scroll of the Aural Lineage for the Praṇa-Based Perfection Stage of Bliss and Emptiness
བདེ་སྟོང་རླུང་གི་རྫོགས་རིམ་སྙན་བརྒྱུད་ཤོག་དྲིལ་ཡིད་བཞིན་ནོར་བུའི་ངག་འདོན་རྩ་བསྐྱེད་རིག་འཛིན་གསང་ལམ་འཁྲིགས་སུ་སྡེབ་པ། (འགྲོ་འདུལ་དཔའ་བོ་རྡོ་རྗེ)
Commentaries
Jigme Trinle Özer, Practical Instructions that Elucidate the Inner Fire Practice of the Heart-Essence of the Vast Expanse ཀློང་ཆེན་སྙིང་ཐིག་གི་གཏུམ་མོའི་གདམས་པ་ལག་ལེན་ལ་འདེབས་ཚུལ། (འཇིགས་མེད་ཕྲིན་ལས་འོད་ཟེར)
Do Khyentse / Doshul Özer Taye, A Guide to the Pith Instructions of the Wish-Fulfilling Jewel: The Scroll of the Aural Lineage for the Praṇa-Based Perfection Stage of Bliss and Emptiness བདེ་སྟོང་རླུང་གི་རྫོགས་རིམ་སྙན་བརྒྱུད་ཡིད་བཞིན་ནོར་བུའི་ཤོག་དྲིལ་དུ་གབ་པའི་མན་ངག་སྐོར་རེ་ཞིག་བར་དུ་ཟིན་བྲིས་སུ་བཀོད་པ་རྗེ་བླ་མའི་ཐུགས་ཀྱི་ཐིག་ལེ་དཔའ་བོ་མཁའ་འགྲོའི་སྙིང་མཛོད་གསང་རྒྱ་ཅན (མདོ་ཤུལ་འོད་ཟེར་མཐའ་ཡས)
Shenpen Tayé, Revealing the Secrets: Visualizations that Enhance the Inner Fire Practice of the Heart-Essence of the Vast Expanse ཀློང་ཆེན་སྙིང་ཐིག་གི་གཏུམ་མོའི་མེའི་བོགས་དབྱུང་གི་དམིགས་པ་གབ་པ་མངོན་ཕྱུང་། (གཞན་ཕན་མཐའ་ཡས)
Khenpo Kunpal, (སྙིང་ཐིག་རྩ་རླུང་གི་ལག་ལེན་ཞལ་ཁྲིད་ནག་འགྲོས་སུ་བཀོད་པ་བླུན་པོའི་མགུལ་རྒྱན་, snying thig rtsa rlung gi lag len zhal khrid nag 'gros su bkod pa blun po'i mgul rgyan)
Namkha Gyatso (Aka Drubwang Tadral Dorje Rinpoche, a disciple of the 1st Dodrupchen), Illuminating the Hidden Meaning, A Word-by-Word Commentary on the Hidden Meaning of the Path of Skillful Means of the Heart-Essence of the Vast Expanse ཀློང་སྙིང་ལས་ཐབས་ལམ་སྦས་དོན་འབྲུ་འགྲེལ་གབ་དོན་གྱི་མངོན་གསལ། (ནམ་མཁའ་རྒྱ་མཚོ)
Namkha Gyatso, Words of the Guru, Instructions that Remove Doubts About the Wish-Fulfilling Jewel: The Scroll of the Aural Lineage of the Cycle of the Vajra Matrix of Pith Instructions ཞལ་གདམས་རྡོ་རྗེའི་དྲྭ་མིག་སྐོར་སྙན་བརྒྱུད་ཤོག་དྲིལ་ཡིད་བཞིན་ནོར་བུའི་དོགས་བསལ་བླ་མའི་ཞལ་ལུང་། (ནམ་མཁའ་རྒྱ་མཚོ)
Künkhyen Ngagi Wangpo, Practical Instructions from the Lineage of Vidyādharas for the Yogic Exercises of Trulkhor that Remove Obstacles to the Praṇa-Based Perfection Stage of Bliss and Emptiness of the Heart-Essence of the Vast Expanse ཀློང་ཆེན་སྙིང་གི་ཐིག་ལེའི་བདེ་སྟོང་རླུང་གི་རྫོགས་རིམ་གེགས་སེལ་གྱི་འཁྲུལ་འཁོར་རིག་འཛིན་བརྒྱུད་པའི་ཕྱག་བཞེས། (ཀུན་མཁྱེན་ངག་གི་དབང་བོ)
Künkhyen Ngagi Wangpo, Words of the Omniscient One, Oral Instructions on the Praṇa-Based Perfection Stage of Bliss and Emptiness of the Heart-Essence of the Vast Expanse ཀློང་ཆེན་སྙིང་གི་ཐིག་ལེ་ལས་བདེ་སྟོང་རླུང་གི་རྫོགས་རིམ་གྱི་ཞལ་ཤེས་ཀུན་མཁྱེན་ཞལ་ལུང་། (ཀུན་མཁྱེན་ངག་གི་དབང་པོ)
Adzom Gyalse Gyurme Dorje, Notes on the Heart-Essence Practices of the Channels and Wind-Energies སྙིང་ཐིག་རྩ་རླུང་ཟིན་བྲིས། (རྒྱལ་སྲས་འགྱུར་མེད་རྡོ་རྗེ)
English translation: Notes on the Heart-Essence Practices of the Channels and Wind-Energies
Ngakchang Gönpo Tseten, Bearing the Seal of Secrecy, A Guide to the Hidden Cycle of Pith Instructions of the Wish-Fulfilling Jewel: The Scroll of the Aural Lineage for the Praṇa-Based Perfection Stage of Bliss and Emptiness བདེ་སྟོང་རླུང་གི་རྫོགས་རིམ་སྙན་བརྒྱུད་ཤོག་དྲིལ་ཡིད་བཞིན་ནོར་བུའི་མན་ངག་གབ་པའི་སྐོར་ཟིན་བྲིས་སུ་བཀོད་པའི་གསང་རྒྱ་ཅན། (སྔགས་འཆང་མགོན་པོ་ཚེ་བརྟན)
Khaleg Tulku (Muksang Tulku Pema Kunzang Rangdrol), Words of the Holy Beings, A Guide to the Yogic Exercises of Trulkhor and the Channels and Wind-Energies of the Heart-Essence སྙིང་ཐིག་རྩ་རླུང་འཕྲུལ་འཁོར་ཟིན་བྲིས་དམ་པའི་ཞལ་ལུང་། (ཁ་ལེགས་སྤྲུལ་སྐུ)
Tulku Tubzang, A Guide to the Liturgy of the Praṇa-Based Perfection Stage of Bliss and Emptiness and the Perfection Stage of Inner Fire from the Heart-Essence of the Vast Expanse ཀློང་ཆེན་སྙིང་ཐིག་གི་བདེ་སྟོང་རླུང་གི་རྫོགས་རིམ་དང་གཏུམ་མོའི་རྫོགས་རིམ་བཅས་ཀྱི་ངག་འདོན་ཟིན་བྲིས། (སྤྲུལ་ཐུབ་བཟང)
Footnotes
[1] Ani Jinba Palmo, Brilliant Moon: The Autobiography of Dilgo Khyentse (Shambhala, 2008), page 304, note 19.