Tsering Jong
The hermitage of Jigme Lingpa
The History
The Longchen Nyingtik, or Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse, is a cycle of teachings and practice in the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism that was discovered by Jigme Lingpa as a mind treasure (Tib. terma). Jigme Lingpa (1730-1798) is regarded as one of the most important figures in the Nyingma lineage. He was a great scholar and visionary, and discovered the Longchen Nyingtik cycle through a series of visions of the great fourteenth-century master, Longchenpa.
From your twenty-fifth year, you traversed the paths of accumulation and joining.
Through enduring hardships while cultivating devotion and compassion
And following the path of skilful means on the generation and perfection stages,
You saw the dharmatā nature of reality directly and unerringly—to you, I pray!
Jigme Lingpa is also remembered for scholarly works such as the Treasury of Precious Qualities (including its massive auto-commentary), his immensely popular exposition of Dzogchen called Yeshe Lama, and a history of the Nyingma tradition. With the patronage of the Derge royal family, he also published the compilation of Nyingma tantras known as the Nyingma Gyübum and composed a catalogue to accompany it.
When the Nyingma tenets were sullied and denigrated
By various other traditions,
Your great chariots of the Treasury of Precious Qualities
Elevated our own tenets—to you I pray!
Jigme Lingpa discovered the Longchen Nyingtik teachings as a mind treasure at the age of twenty-eight. Tulku Thondup writes:
“In the evening of the twenty-fifth day of the tenth month of the Fire Ox year of the thirteenth Rabjung cycle (1757), Jigme Lingpa went to bed with an unbearable devotion to Guru Rinpoche in his heart; a stream of tears of sadness continuously wet his face because he was not in Guru Rinpoche’s presence, and unceasing words of prayers kept singing in his breath. He remained in the depths of that meditation experience of clear luminosity for a long time. …
…While being absorbed in that luminous clarity, he experienced flying a long distance through the sky while riding a white lion. He finally reached a circular path, which he thought to be the circumambulation path of Jarung Khashor, now known as Boudhanath Stupa, an important Buddhist monument of giant structure in Nepal.”
In this vision, the wisdom ḍākinīs gave Jigme Lingpa a casket containing five yellow scrolls and seven crystal beads. One of the scrolls contained the prophetic guide of Longchen Nyingtik, called Nechang Thukkyi Drombu. Upon the instruction of a ḍākinī he swallowed the yellow scrolls and crystal beads, and all the words and meaning of the Longchen Nyingtik treasure were awakened in his mind.
Jigme Lingpa kept this treasure secret for years, and he did not even transcribe the treasure until he entered another retreat in which he had a series of visions of Longchen Rabjam. Tulku Thondrup explains:
In the earth-hare year (1759) he started another three-year retreat, at Chimpu near Samye monastery. During that retreat, because he was inspired by three successive pure visions of Longchen Rabjam, and he was urged by repeated requests of ḍākinīs, he transcribed his treasure as the cycle of Longchen Nyingtik. On the tenth day of the sixth month (monkey month) of the monkey year (1764) he made his treasure public for the first time by conferring the transmission of empowerment and the instructions upon fifteen disciples.
The cycle of the Longchen Nyingtik includes the preliminary and main practices, the development and completion stages, and the practice of Dzogchen, the Great Perfection. It therefore constitutes a complete path to enlightenment.
Jigme Lingpa’s disciples, and particularly his two main disciples, the First Dodrupchen Rinpoche Jigme Trinle Özer and Jigme Gyalwe Nyugu, spread his teachings far and wide and contributed to the flourishing of the Longchen Nyingtik lineage.
Continue reading about the Core Texts.