Longchenpa is the Buddha of Tibet and my all-time spiritual hero. His teachings are the catalyst for the genuine inner awakening of countless women and men throughout the ages. I am delighted that Jampa Mackenzie Stewart has written a book on the life of Longchenpa with great care and devotion. May this book let many fall in love with the timeless wisdom of Longchenpa.
Anam Thubten, author of The Magic of Awareness and No Self, No Problem
Jampa Stewarts elegant combination of poetic language and scholarly research shows his deep affinity with the matchless master of the Great Perfection. May this book profoundly inspire thousands of people.
Erik Pema Kunsang, translator of Wellsprings of the Great Perfection
ABOUT THE BOOK
Renowned as a peerless teacher, practitioner, and scholar, Longchenpa thoroughly studied and mastered every one of the many Buddhist vehicles and lineages of teachings existing in Tibet at his time. Through his radiant intellect and meditative accomplishment, in both his teachings and written works, he was able to reconcile the seeming discrepancies and contradictions between the various presentations of the view and the path within the many lineages of transmission. His written works are also famous for being able to transfer true blessings just by reading or hearing his enlightened words.
Compiled from numerous Tibetan and Bhutanese sources, including Longchenpas autobiography, and stories of his previous lives and subsequent rebirths, The Life of Longchenpa weaves an inspiring tale of wonder and magic, of extraordinary visions and spiritual insight, set in the kingdoms of fourteenth-century Tibet and Bhutan. It also reveals for the first time fascinating details of his ten years of self-exile in Bhutan, stories that were unknown to his Tibetan biographers.
JAMPA MACKENZIE STEWART is a student of the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages of Tibetan Buddhism. In 1987 he was ordained into the Tiep Hien order by Thich Nhat Hanh and has assisted him in leading retreats in North America. He has written over thirty articles on Buddhist Taoist practices and has collaborated with Mantak Chia on several books. He lives in Austin Texas where he practices Chinese medicine, medical qigong, and directs the Austin Yeshe Khorlo and Healing Tao Institute.
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L ONGCHEN R ABJAM
The Life of Longchenpa
The Omniscient Dharma King of the Vast Expanse
COMPILED AND EDITED BY
Jampa Mackenzie Stewart
INTRODUCTION BY
Yangthang Tulku Rinpoche
S NOW L ION
B OSTON & L ONDON
2013
Snow Lion
An imprint of Shambhala Publications, Inc.
Horticultural Hall
300 Massachusetts Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts 02115
www.shambhala.com
2013 by Jampa Mackenzie Stewart
Cover art: Thangka of Longchenpa from the James Wainwright Collection, used with permission.
Photo by James Wainwright.
Cover design by Gopa & Ted2, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The Life of Longchenpa: The Omniscient Dharma King of the Vast Expanse/Compiled and Edited by Jampa Mackenzie Stewart; Introduction by Yangthang Tulku Rinpoche. First edition.
pages cm
eISBN 978-0-8348-2911-4
ISBN 978-1-55939-418-5 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Klo-chen-pa Dri-med-od-zer, 13081363.
2. Ri-ma-pa lamasBiography. I. Stewart, Jampa
Mackenzie, 1951, editor of compilation.
BQ7950.K667l55 2013
294.3923092dc23
[B]
2013006446
To Gangteng Tulku Rinpoch, Adzom Paylo Rinpoch, Khen Namdrol Rinpoch, and Yangthang Tulku Rinpoch, my kind teachers, with gratitude for introducing me to the great works and blessings of Longchenpa; to my loving parents, Jim and Natalie Stewart, for their deep goodness, generosity, and support; to Shanti Dechen, my stalwart companion on the path; to my two sons, Adam and Gabriel Stewart; and to all mother beings throughout space.
This book is especially dedicated to all the devoted and dedicated translators upon whom I have relied in the making of this book, and through whose diligent efforts the precious teachings of Tibetan Buddhism are being made accessible to the world.
Equal to the six ornaments of our world and the two supreme ones,
With a spirit of compassion, scriptural understanding, and realization,
Living as a hidden yogi, practicing in forest retreats
Longchenpa, the perfection of samsara and nirvana as dharmakaya,
Drim zer, at your feet I pray.
Fill me with your blessing so that I may realize the natural state, the essence of my mind.
Since everything is but an apparition,
perfect in being what it is,
having nothing to do with acceptance or rejection, good or bad,
one may well burst out in laughter.
L ONGCHENPA
From The Natural Freedom of Mind ( Semnyi Rangdrl )
Translated by Herbert Guenther in Crystal Mirror , vol. 4 (Berkeley, Calif.: Dharma Publishing, 1975), pp. 124125.
C ONTENTS
Photo Section
G URU DEVOTION is taught as the highest practice for Tibetan Buddhists. Seeing your teacher as an actual buddha is the swiftest path to enlightenment. And not only your own teacher; a sincere practitioner must arouse true uncontrived devotion to the entire lineage of transmission, from the primordial buddha Samantabhadra down to ones own kind root lama. One needs to arouse faith in the enlightenment of the lineage masters and in their actual attainment of the deepest wisdom and compassion. In this way one can open oneself, become a suitable vessel to receive the inconceivable blessings of the lineage masters.
As the first of the Three Roots, your guru is the root of all blessings. Teachers often quote the saying, If you see your teacher as an ordinary being, you receive the blessings of an ordinary being. If you see your teacher as a bodhisattva, you receive the blessings of a bodhisattva. If you see your teacher as the buddha, you receive the blessings of a buddha.
So just how does one develop such devotion, this powerful level of faith that can catapult one to awakening? In ones own teacher one naturally responds with faith because the teacher is right in front of one; one sees and hears him or her in the flesh; one can know and be directly moved through ones senses by the amazing field of love and awareness radiating from the actual presence of the body, speech, and mind of the master before one. But what of the lineage masters; what about ones teachers teachers teacher; what about those who have passed beyond centuries or millennia ago? How can we feel devotion toward them if they are just names, just figures in a thangka painting, just verses in a lineage prayer?
