Dudjom Lingpa - The Vajra Essence: Dudjom Lingpas Visions of the Great Perfection (volume 3)

D DJOM LINGPAS (18351904) was one of the foremost tantric masters of nineteenth-century Tibet, and his powerful voice resonates strongly among Buddhist practitioners today. The Vajra Essence is Ddjom Lingpas most extended meditation on the path of Great Perfection, in many senses a commentary on all his other Dzokchen works. Dzokchen, the pinnacle of practice in the Nyingma school, is a radical revelation of the pure nature of consciousness that is delivered from master to disciple and perfected in a meditation that permeates every moment of our experience.

Revealed to Ddjom Lingpa as a visionary treasure text in 1862, the Vajra Essence takes the reader through seven stages of progressively deeper practice, from taking the impure mind as the path up to the practice of direct crossing over (tgal). The longest of Ddjom Lingpas five visionary works on Dzokchen, readers will find this a rich and masterful evocation of the enlightened experience. This is the first translation of this seminal work in any Western language, and B. Alan Wallace, with his nearly five decades of extensive learning and deep meditative experience, is one of the most accomplished translators of Tibetan texts into English.

B. ALAN WALLACE has served as the interpreter for both the Venerable Gyatrul Rinpoche and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Today he is a prolific writer and translator of Tibetan Buddhism. He has edited, translated, authored, and contributed to many books, including Stilling the Mind and The Attention Revolution.

DDJOM LINGPAS VISIONS OF THE GREAT PERFECTION

This three-volume series presents English translations of Ddjom Lingpas five visionary teachings on Dzokchen, the Great Perfection, along with three essential commentaries by his disciples.

VOLUME 1. HEART OF THE GREAT PERFECTION

The Sharp Vajra of Conscious Awareness Tantra, Ddjom Lingpa

Essence of Clear Meaning, Pema Tashi

The Foolish Dharma of an Idiot Clothed in Mud and Feathers, Ddjom Lingpa

The Enlightened View of Samantabhadra, Ddjom Lingpa

VOLUME 2. BUDDHAHOOD WITHOUT MEDITATION

Buddhahood Without Meditation, Ddjom Lingpa

The Fine Path to Liberation, Sera Khandro

Garland for the Delight of the Fortunate, Sera Khandro

VOLUME 3. THE VAJRA ESSENCE

The Vajra Essence, Ddjom Lingpa

The revelations of the great treasure revealer, enlightened master, and fearless conduct yogi from eastern Tibet Heruka Ddjom Lingpa are treasure troves of teaching, advice, and insights into the human minds true nature of wisdom awareness. For those who connect to the lineage through empowerment, transmission, and instruction under the guidance of qualified lineage masters, these teachings hold the key to understanding the true meaning of permanent happiness and benefit. Having known Alan for many years and observed his enthusiastic devotion and passion for Dharma in general and especially for the teachings of the Great Perfection as transmitted through Heruka Ddjom Lingpas revelations, I am certain that he has done his very best to make these translations as accurate as possible and I rejoice in this effort from the bottom of my heart. This trilogy of English translations is a wondrous gift for disciples of the tradition. May there be great waves of benefit for countless sentient beings!

Gyatrul Rinpoch

Tashi Choling

Foreword

TWELVE HUNDRED YEARS AGO, one of the most dramatic and daring spiritual undertakings in history took place in Central Asia. The entire teaching of the Buddha, as it existed at the time in India and the Himalayan region, was imported and transplanted in Tibet. Sometimes I try to imagine what it must have been like to be there at that spectacular moment. To see the unforgettable, awe-inspiring figure of Guru Rinpoch, Padmasambhava, whose protection and inspiration enabled this whole revolutionary endeavor to unfold. To witness the great Madhyamaka scholar and abbot ntarakita, who brought with him the vast heritage of Nland Monastery, and the Tibetan king Trisong Detsen, the thirty-seventh in his line, who sponsored this massive and imaginative program. Or to gaze in wonder as Guru Rinpoch stood atop Mount Hepori and bound the spirits of Tibet under his command, and to watch the first monastic university, called Samy The Inconceivable, gradually take shape. If you had been there, you would have caught sight of scores of realized and learned paitas, who had made the arduous journey across the Himalayas and were working with translators to render the sutras, tantras, and treatises into Tibetan. Transmissions of various kinds were taking place, the first seven Tibetan monastics were being ordained, and Guru Padmasambhava was opening the maala of the Secret Mantrayna teachings at Chimpu for his twenty-five disciples. They were the first saints and siddhas of Tibet, headed by Guru Rinpochs closest disciple and consort, Yesh Tsogyal, the king himself, and the virtuoso translator Vairocana. What a glorious and momentous time this must have been! And although history tells us that this did not happen without opposition and resistance, both human and nonhuman, as Kyapj Ddjom Rinpoch explains, Because the kingdom was protected by the true Dharma, Tibet is known to have enjoyed the happiness of paradise.

For about fifty-five years, it is said, the Great Guru stayed in Tibet and the Himalayan regions, sowing his blessings into the environment and the psyche of the Tibetan people. Foreseeing the needs of future generations and the limits of peoples understanding at the time, Padmasambhava concealed countless terma treasure teachings in the landscape and in the unchanging pure awareness of his realized disciples. The terma teachings remain concealed until the precise moment in time when they will be of maximum benefit and relevance, and they are then revealed by a continuing series of incarnations of the same twenty-five disciples whom Padmasambhava had entrusted with his teachings and his blessings. As a result, the ancient Nyingma tradition of early translations that follows Padmasambhavas vision comprises both the long, unbroken kama lineage of canonical teachings and the close lineage of terma treasures. And at the heart of the Nyingma tradition flows the deepest current of wisdom within the Buddhist teachings of Tibet, the pinnacle of all spiritual vehicles the Great Perfection, Dzokpachenpo, with its living lineage of realization stretching from the Primordial Buddha Samantabhadra down to the present day.

One of Guru Rinpochs twenty-five disciples showed remarkable aptitude at a very early age. He learned Sanskrit with ease and was quickly chosen to be part of the group of Tibetan translators. Drokpen Khyeuchung Lotsawa lived as a ngakpa, a lay mantric practitioner, wearing his hair long and dressing in white. He mastered all the secret Mantrayna teachings Padmasambhava conferred on him and became a great siddha. His realization and power were such that he could summon birds from the sky through his mere gaze or a gesture of his hand, and then, it is said, give them teachings. Like others among the twenty-five disciples, Khyeuchung Lotsawa reincarnated over the centuries as a series of realized masters who spread and deepened the teachings of the Buddha and brought enormous benefit to beings. In the nineteenth century he appeared as the great treasure revealer, visionary, and powerful mystic Ddjom Lingpa.