Yumka Dechen Gyalmo

Yumka Dechen Gyalmo
Courtesy of Chorten Dodrupchen Monastery

In the Longchen Nyingtik, from among the sādhanas of the 'three roots', namely the guru, yidam and ḍākinī, the peaceful ḍākinī practice is the Female Practice of the Queen of Great Bliss (Yumka Dechen Gyalmo).

Tulku Thondup explains that Yumka Dechen Gyalmo is a sādhana practice on Yeshe Tsogyal, the consort of Guru Rinpoche, as a wisdom ḍākinī. As the treasure text says:

In the expanse of dharmakāya she is Samantabhadrī. In the sambhogakāya realm she is Vajravārāhī, and in the nirmāṇakāya form she is Yeshe Tsogyal.

The revelation of text is described in full detail by Jigme Lingpa himself in The History of the Female Practice of the Queen of Great Bliss:

“In the female water-snake year, 1773, I went on pilgrimage to Drakyi Yangdzong, a remote, sacred place of the enlightened body. To make a connection with the place I performed thousands of feast-offerings, a fire-offering practice to the ḍākinīs, and other practices. On one occasion, when I arrived at Tsogyal Latso near the large village of Yoru Drak, I offered to the lake a bowl of amṛta, which liberates upon taste, together with a silken scarf. The bowl sank slowly, like a living being entering the water, while the end of the scarf remained fluttering above the surface, which amazed me. Then a pure state of consciousness arose spontaneously and my ordinary perception vanished. I drank some of the water, and, in the very instant that I touched it, a perfectly black bee, like an utpala flower, arose and hovered around. Three times it made a buzzing sound, like the sound of a sitar. This precipitated my ordinary perception dissolving into a state free from objective reference. From within the expanse where appearance, mind, and reality merge, a wisdom ḍākinī appeared. She was bright red and adorned with jewels and the six bone ornaments. She wore a garland of flowers, swaying to and fro. She then fully revealed to me a ritual of her own visualizations, which included all the essentials.

I, a ḍākinī, come from the dharmakāya expanse.
I have no thoughts of coming and going.
I, a girl, am mistress of the twenty-four sacred places.
I come from the emanated realm of Cāmara, the glorious mountain.
In the arrangement of my body the qualities of mantra are perfected.
I, a girl, am the mother of the victorious ones of the three times.
There are no Three Jewels but for those that arise from me.
If you accomplish me, the ḍākinī, you will accomplish the three kāyas.
For the benefit of beings to be tamed, I am in the south-western direction.
If auspicious interdependent circumstances are not disturbed,
I will nurture fortunate ones in the expanse of the six spheres with [ḍākinī sign].

As soon as she had said this, the inexhaustible, miraculous array of the ḍākinī’s secret syllables merged non-dually with me and dissolved into the centre of my heart.

At that time the Lord of Dharma Drakpukpa, who was beside me, earnestly paid his respects and asked: ‘What did you see in your vision?’ I had simply left the vision for what it was, but on account of his question, the auspicious interdependent circumstances were awakened. First, I protected the secret samaya for five days. Then, during the waning phase of the moon, the time when ḍākinīs gather, we performed a feast-gathering with plentiful offerings. In the palace of power of Yangdzong Düdra, through the auspicious interdependent circumstances and profound connections, the seal was released.”
— The History

From among the different sādhanas of the Longchen Nyingtik, the Yumka cycle is perhaps the most commented on, and there exist at least more than a dozen commentaries. As Jigme Lingpa’s own recitation manual says:

“Since Vajrayoginī is the source of all things and the mother of all the victorious ones, all the maṇḍalas of the various sections of the tantras are complete within her body. By accomplishing her practice, all auspicious interdependent circumstances of the profound and swift path of secret mantra will come together.”
— Yumka Recitation Manual
“Now, the Yumka dakini practice (Khandro Yumka) is a method of deity visualization that accords with the instantaneously perfected recollection... of the Atiyoga tradition, as the text itself explicitly indicates. All the vidyadharas of the Nyingtik lineage have relied on this method to attain supreme accomplishment, and all Tibetans owe Yeshe Tsogyal a huge debt of gratitude. Since she is the sovereign of all the tantras of the secret Vajrayana, and since the Transmitted Teachings of the Mother (yumka) are very closely linked to the Transmitted Teachings of the Father (yabka), you need to undertake this recitation practice. ”
— Wondrous Dance of Illusion, Khenpo Ngawang Palzang, Nevin and Leschly, page 67

Also connected to Yumka are several practices to ‘avert the summons of the ḍākinīs’ (khandro sungdok). This is a type of practice of Tibetan origin where it is thought that the ḍākinīs are eager to summon certain persons, mostly Vajrayāna masters, back to the ḍākinī realms (meaning those persons would die). In order to avert that, in these rituals an effigy that looks like that person is offered to the ḍākinīs.

The Inner Practice

Besides the main practice, there is also the inner practice called A Treasure Vase Containing the Essence of Great Bliss, which contains rituals for all the enlightened activities in relation to the 21 Tārās. The Guide to Yumka says:

“Thus, there are limitless activities which make all the particular activities of the four enlightened activities complete. As for these, it is well known that of the three roots, the root of enlightened activity is the ḍākinī. In particular, as I said before, since the venerable Tārā is the supreme deity of activity, she is more sublime than others when it comes to accomplishing anything from the collection of activities.”
— Yumka Zindri

For a more elaborate overview of the Yumka cycle and a discussion of all the practices and commentaries, please refer to our blog An Overview of the Literature related to the Queen of Great Bliss Cycle.

 

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.

Practice Texts

Lineage Prayers

Practice Texts

Fulfilment Practices

  • Jigme Lingpa, Rain of Accomplishments: A Concise Fulfilment Practice for the Female Awareness-Holder (རིག་འཛིན་ཡུམ་ཀའི་བསྐང་བསྡུས་དངོས་གྲུབ་ཆར་འབེབས་)

  • Third Dodrupchen, Jigme Tenpe Nyima, The Fulfilment Practice (ཡུམ་ཀའི་བསྐང་བ་)

  • Katok Situ Chökyi Gyatso, A Medium-length Fulfilment Practise for the Female Practice of the Queen of Great Bliss (ཡུམ་ཀ་བདེ་ཆེན་རྒྱལ་མོའི་ཐུགས་དམ་བསྐང་བ་འབྲིང་པོ)

  • Chönyön Dharma Senge, Mountain of the Two Accumulations: A Fulfilment Practice for the Ḍākinī Queen of Great Bliss (མཁའ་འགྲོ་བདེ་ཆེན་རྒྱལ་མོའི་ཐུགས་དམ་བསྐང་བའི་རིམ་པ་ཚོགས་གཉིས་ལྷུན་པོ)

  • Rago Choktrul Tupten Shedrup Gyatso, Lute of Lotus Flowers: A Concise Fulfilment for the Female Practice of the Queen of Great Bliss, from the Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse (ཀློང་ཆེན་སྙིང་གི་ཐིག་ལེ་ལས།་ཡུམ་བཀའ་བདེ་ཆེན་རྒྱལ་མོའི་སྐོང་བསྡུས་པདྨའི་རྒྱུད་མངས)

Brief practices of the Queen of Great Bliss

Activities

  • Jigme Lingpa, The Inner Female Practice of the Ḍākinī, A Treasure Vase Containing the Essence of Great Bliss, from the Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse (ཀློང་ཆེན་སྙིང་གི་ཐིག་ལེ་ལས། ཡུམ་ཀ་མཁའ་འགྲོའི་ནང་སྒྲུབ་བདེ་ཆེན་སྙིང་པོའི་གཏེར་བུམ)

  • Jigme Lingpa, Longevity Empowerment Connected with the Fourth Point from the Collection of Activities of the Female Practice of the Ḍākinī (ཡུམ་ཀ་མཁའ་འགྲོའི་ལས་ཚོགས་བཞི་བ་དང་འབྲེལ་བར། ཚེ་དབང་གི་མཚམས་སྦྱོར)

  • Jigme Lingpa, A Supplementary Text for Consecrating a Treasure Vase, from the Collection of Activities of the Female Practice of the Ḍākinī (བུམ་སྒྲུབ་ - ཡུམ་ཀ་མཁའ་འགྲོའི་ཚོགས་ལས།་གཏེར་བུམ་སྒྲུབ་པའི་ལྷན་ཐབས). 14th Activity.

  • Jigme Lingpa, The Purifying Treasure Vase: A Ritual Arrangement of a Guiding Practice Which Purifies Obscurations, from the Fifteenth Point of the Collection of Activities of the Ḍākinī, by Jikme Lingpa (མཁའ་འགྲོའི་ལས་ཚོགས་བཅོ་ལྔ་པ་སྒྲིབ་སྦྱོང་གནས་ལུང་གི་ཆོ་ག་བསྒྲིགས་དག་བྱེད་གཏེར་བུམ)

  • Jigme Lingpa, A Supplementary Text for Cleansing and Removing Poison based on the Yoginī Tārā (ཡུམ་ཀ་བདེ་ཆེན་རྒྱལ་མོ་ལས།་སྒྲོལ་མ་རྣལ་འབྱོར་མ་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་དུག་དབྱུང་བྱ་བ་བཀྲུའི་ལྷན་ཐབས). The 18th point of the collection of activities.

  • Jigme Lingpa, The Tree of the Life Force Ocean: A Supplementary Text for Ransoming the Life-force Spirit, from the Activities of the Female Practice of the Ḍākinī (ཡུམ་ཀ་མཁ་འགྲོའི་ལས་ཚོགས་ལས། བླ་བསླུའི་ལྷན་ཐབས་སྲོག་འཚོའི་ལྗོན་པ). This is the 21st activity which is based on the goddess Mārīcī.

  • Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, A Sādhana of Tārā Sarasvatī (སྒྲོལ་མ་དབྱངས་ཅན་མའི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་). 2nd activity.

  • Jigme Lingpa, Rejuvenation of the Ambrosia of the Three Kāyas, from the Cycle of the Ḍākinī Queen of Great Bliss (མཁའ་འགྲོ་བདེ་ཆེན་རྒྱལ་མོ་ལས། སྐུ་གསུམ་བདུད་རྩིའི་བཅུད་ལེན)

Turning back the summons

  • Jigme Lingpa, Turning Back the Summons of the Ḍākinīs: The Marvelous Appearance (མཁའ་འགྲོའི་བསུན་ཟློག ངོ་མཚར་སྣང་བ)

  • Jigme Lingpa, A Ritual for Offering the Ransoming Torma when an Elaborate Turning Back the Summons is Accumulated (གྲངས་གསོག་ཚེ་བསུན་བཟློག་རྒྱས་པའི་མཚམས་སུ་གླུད་གཏོར་རིལ་བུ་དང་ཅས་པ་ནམ་མཁའ་མཛོད་ཀྱི་སྔགས་རྒྱས་བརླབས་ནས་ཕུལ)

  • Jigme Lingpa, Confession and Fulfilment Insert for Accumulating the Practice of Turning Back the Summons of the Ḍākinīs (མཁའ་འགྲོ་བསུན་བཟློག་གི་གྲངས་གསོག་སྐོང་བཤགས་ཀྱི་འཛུད།)

  • Jigme Lingpa, Turning Back the Summons of the Heroes and Heroines, from the Female Practice of the Queen of Great Bliss (ཡུམ་ཀ་བདེ་ཆེན་རྒྱལ་མོ་ལས།་དཔའ་བོ་དཔའ་མོའི་བསུན་བཟློག)

  • Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, A Practice to Turn Back the Summons of the Ḍākinīs for the Female Practice of the Heart Essence (སྙིང་ཐིག་ཡུམ་བཀའི་མཁའ་འགྲོའི་བསུན་བཟློག)

Empowerment Texts

  • Jigme Lingpa, A Ritual of Blessing and Empowerment for the Female Practice, from the Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse (ཀློང་ཆེན་ཉིང་གི་ཐིག་ལེ་ལསཿ ཡུམ་ཀའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དབང་གི་ཆོ་ག་)

  • Jigme Lingpa, Illuminating the Meaning of Empowerment: A Self-Initiation for the Female Practice of the Ḍākinī (ཡུམ་ཀ་མཁའ་འགྲོའི་བདག་འཇུག་དབང་དོན་རབ་གསལ་)

  • Jamgön Kongtrul, The Cascading Essence of Great Bliss: An Empowerment Ritual for the Female Practice of the Queen of Great Bliss, from the Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse (ཀློང་ཆེན་སྙིང་གི་ཐིག་ལེ་ལས། ཡུམ་བཀའ་བདེ་ཆེན་རྒྱལ་མོའི་དབང་གི་ཆོག་སྒྲིག་བདེ་ཆེན་བཅུད་འབེབ)

  • Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, A Concise Longevity Empowerment Connected with the Fourth Point from the Collection of Activities of the Female Practice of the Ḍākinī (ཡུམ་བཀའ་མཁའ་འགྲོའི་ལས་ཚོགས་བཞི་པ་དང་འབྲེལ་བའི་ཚེ་དབང་ཉེར་བསྡུས)

  • Jigme Tenpe Nyima, A Heap of Pearls: An Empowerment for the Female Awareness Holder (རིག་འཛིན་ཡུམ་ཀའི་དབང་གི་མཚམས་སྦྱོར་མུ་ཏིག་ཆུན་པོ། )

  • Kunzang Tekchok, Illuminating Light, A Liturgy for the Stages of the Empowerment and Blessing Ritual for the Female Practice of the Queen of Great Bliss (ཡུམ་ཀ་བདེ་ཆེན་རྒྱལ་མོའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དབང་ཆོག་གི་རིམ་པ་ནག་འགྲོས་སུ་བཀོད་པ་གསལ་བའི་སྒྲོན་མེ)

  • Drodul Pawo Dorje (probably Adzom Drukpa), An Excellent Wish Fulfilling Vase, The Deity Empowerment of the Twenty-one Tārās, Connected with the Vase Empowerment of the Female Practice of the Queen of Great Bliss (ཡུམ་ཀ་བདེ་ཆེན་རྒྱལ་མོའི་བུམ་དབང་གི་རྗེས་འབྲེལ་སྒྲོལ་མ་ཉེར་གཅིག་གི་ལྷ་དབང་དགོས་འདོད་བུམ་བཟང). Written in the water hare year (1903), on the request of his students Muksang Khentrul (rmugs sangs mkhan sprul) and Drakmar Tulku Pema Gyaltsen (brag dmar sprul sku pad+ma rgyal mtshan). We suspect that this text was revealed by Khyentse Wangpo and written down by Adzom Drukpa.

Other Texts

  • Dodrupchen Jigme Trinle Özer, Brief Prayer to the Ḍākinī (མཁའ་འགྲོའི་གསོལ་འདེབས་བསྡུས་པ་བཞུགས་སོ)

  • Jigme Tenpe Nyima, The Vajra Lute: A Song of the Feast དགའ་སྟོན་ཚོགས་འཁོར་གྱི་གླུ་རྡོ་རྗེའི་རྒྱུད་མངས།

  • Khyentse Wangpo, The Melody of the Six Pāramitās that Delight the Ḍākinīs: A Praise And Vajra Song Based on the Root Mantra of the Wisdom Ḍākinī ཡེ་ཤེས་ཌཱཀྐི་ནི་ལ་རྩ་སྔགས་དང་སྦྱར་བའི་སྒོ་ནས་བསྟོད་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེའི་གླུ་ཕྱིན་དྲུག་དཔལ་མོ་བཞད་པའི་དབྱངས་སྙན།

Commentaries

Below is a list, mostly in chronological order, of the commentaries on Yumka and, if available, their English translations.

  • Third Dodrupchen, Jigme Tenpe Nyima, The Lamp That Illuminates the Excellent Path of Great Bliss: A Guide to the Practice Text of the Female Awareness-Holder, the Queen of Great Bliss (རིག་འཛིན་ཡུམ་ཀ་བདེ་ཆེན་རྒྱལ་མོའི་སྒྲུབ་གཞུང་གི་ཟིན་བྲིས་བདེ་ཆེན་ལམ་བཟང་གསལ་བའི་སྒྲོན་མེ་)

  • Dodrupchen Jigme Tenpe Nyima, Stairways to Omniscience: A Commentary on the Root Mantra of the Female Practice of the Queen of Great Bliss (ཡུམ་ཀ་བདེ་ཆེན་རྒྱལ་མོའི་རྩ་སྔགས་ཀྱི་འགྲེལ་བཤད་རྣམ་མཁྱེན་བགྲོད་པའི་ཐེམ་སྐས)

  • Dodrupchen Jigme Tenpe Nyima, Contemplations on the Female Practice (ཡུམ་ཀའི་དམིགས་སྐོར)

  • Lingtul of Wang­da, Golok (a disciple of Alak Dongak Gyatso. Possibly the same as Pema Lungtok Gyatso), A Concise Commentary on the Ritual of the Fundamental, Female Practice (ཡུམ་ཀའི་རྩ་སྒྲུབ་ཀྱི་ཆོ་གའི་བསྡུས་འགྲེལ). Probably lost.

  • Lushul Khenpo Könchok Drönme, The Oral Transmission of the Awareness Holders: An Addendum to 'A Guide to Yumka' Spoken by the Lord Guru (རྗེ་བླ་མས་གསུངས་པའི་ཡུམ་བཀའི་ཟིན་བྲིས་ཀྱི་ཁ་སྐོང་རིག་འཛིན་ཞལ་ལུང)

  • Sangye Özer of Gyarong (a disciple of Khenpo Chemchok), Dispelling the Darkness of Ignorance: A Guide to the Sādhana of Yumka, the Queen of Great Bliss (ཡུམ་ཀ་བདེ་ཆེན་རྒྱལ་མོའི་སྒྲུབ་གཞུང་གི་ཟིན་བྲིས་རྨོང་པའི་མུན་སེལ). Probably lost.

  • Rago Choktrul Tupten Shedrup Gyatso, The Supremely Generous Treasure Vase of Benefit and Happiness: A Concise Commentary on the Tantra of The Praise to Tārā with Twenty-One Verses of Homage (སྒྲོལ་མ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ཉེར་གཅིག་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་འགྲེལ་ཆུང་ཕན་བདེའི་གཏེར་བུམ་མཆོག་སྦྱིན)

  • Minyak Tsara Khenchen Tubten Chökyi Drakpa, A Garland of White Lotus Flowers: A Word by Word Commentary on the Female Practice of the Queen of Great Bliss, a Ritual of the Inner Practice of the Great Perfection Awareness Holders (རྫོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རིག་འཛིན་ནང་སྒྲུབ་ཀྱི་ཆོ་ག་ཡུམ་ཀ་བདེ་ཆེན་རྒྱལ་མོའི་སྒྲུབ་གཞུང་གི་འབྲུ་འགྲེལ་པུནྟ་རི་ཀའི་དོ་ཤལ). Written in 1958.

  • Gönpo Tseten of Amdo, A Beautiful Garland of White Lotus Flowers: A Word by Word Commentary on 'A Glorious Garland of Great Bliss—the Fundamental, Female Practice of the Queen of Great Bliss' (རྫོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རིག་འཛིན་ནང་སྒྲུབ་ཀྱི་ཆོ་ག་ཡུམ་ཀ་བདེ་ཆེན་རྒྱལ་མོའི་སྒྲུབ་གཞུང་གི་འབྲུ་འགྲེལ་པུནྟ་རི་ཀའི་དོ་ཤལ). Gönpo Tseten Rinpoche writes in the colophon that he composed this commentary on the request of some American students. He further adds that it is concise and easy to understand.

  • Lopön Thekchok Yeshe Dorje, Destroyer of Māra's Forces: A Commentary on the Female Awareness Holder (རིག་འཛིན་ཡུམ་བཀའ་འགྲེལ་བདུད་དཔུང་འཇོམས་མ)