Namkhai Nyingpo is a famous monk and one of the twenty-five
chief disciples of Guru Rinpoche. He was the heart son of Guru Rinpoche who
became an accomplished siddha through esoteric practice on Vishudha Sadhana the
deity of mind.
The lineage of His Holiness is continued to the present day
through successive reincarnations.
During the 8th century, Trisong Deutsen (790-844) out of his
deep desire to make the teachings of the Buddha flourish in the land of snow
invited Shantarakshita the Abbot of Nalanda University and a powerful Siddha
Guru Rinpoche of the same university to build a monastery at Samye.
Trisong Deutsen issued an edict that the first five monks
ordained by Master Bodhisattva be venerated as supreme beings of respect.
Namkhai Nyingpo was one of the first five monks. He received innumerable cycles
of ripening empowerment and pith instructions both directly from Guru Rinpoche and
Master Bodhisattva. The King had them trained in translation from the Indian
languages into Tibetan.
At the command of Trisong Deutsen, an adept translator,
travelled to India to receive the Vajrayana teachings of the Secret Mantra from
the learned and accomplished Indian siddhas like Rolang Dewa and Kukuradz. The
Vajrayana teaching of the Secret Mantra is the pith instructions for attaining
the supreme accomplishment of Mahamudra (phyag rgya chen po) in a single
lifetime.
Through the power of karmic link, Namkhai Nyingpo received
empowerment and essential transmissions from the accomplished Hungkara the
Indian Siddha, one of the eight Vidyadharas according to the prophecy. Having
bestowed the Empowerment, which is the root of Secret Mantra (gsang sngags),
Hungkara gradually opened up the mandalas of the Fifty-Eight Crescent and the
nine Crescents.
Namkhai Nyingpo had the vision of Great Glorious One with a
consort and attained the supreme and common accomplishment.
Namkhai Nyingpo was exceptionally intelligent and industrious.
He possessed great merit to (who) could walk with his feet the width of a hand
above the ground that the twenty-eight ishvari goddesses obeyed his command. On
receiving the invitation from Dharma King, Namkhai Nyingpo arrived miraculously
in Tibet and displayed his power by cutting open his chest with a curved knife
of white silver. He showed Trisong Detsen the vision of the forty-two peaceful
deities in the upper part of his chest and the fifty-eight heruka deities in
the lower part.
The Dharma King felt confident of such accomplishment that he regarded
Namkhai Nyingpo as a supreme object of veneration. From him, Trisong
Detsen received the glorious Vishudha Sadhana teaching. Namkhai Nyingpo was also one of the eight chief recipients of Eight Pronouncements (bka' brgyad of Mandalas), a Sadhana teaching transmitted by Guru Rinpoche at the cave hermitage of Chimphu. The flowers of Namkhai Nyingpo of Nub fell on the mandala of Vashuddha Mind; so this particular tantra was destined to Namkhai Nyingpo through the practice of which he could travel by riding on the rays of the sun. An imprint of his body and foot, which he left, can be seen even to this day.
Detsen received the glorious Vishudha Sadhana teaching. Namkhai Nyingpo was also one of the eight chief recipients of Eight Pronouncements (bka' brgyad of Mandalas), a Sadhana teaching transmitted by Guru Rinpoche at the cave hermitage of Chimphu. The flowers of Namkhai Nyingpo of Nub fell on the mandala of Vashuddha Mind; so this particular tantra was destined to Namkhai Nyingpo through the practice of which he could travel by riding on the rays of the sun. An imprint of his body and foot, which he left, can be seen even to this day.
The evil Bon ministers became envious and laid ambush for the
lives of the Dharma King and Namkhai Nyingpo. On discovering this plot through
his divination Namkhai Nyingpo exclaimed fiercely, HUNG! HUNG! By clapping his
hands he struck a lightning bolt from the sky and spun it around the fingertip
of his threatening hand gesture. It made some of the evil-minded ministers to
faint and speechless while others were paralyzed with fear.
Similarly in another occasion Namkhai Nyingpo revealed his
amazing signs of his achievement in occult powers by planting his teak dagger
at the boundary between the sunlight and the shade. The sun turned red and
disappeared as he later took out the dagger from the boundary of sunlight and
shade. He miraculously transformed the boulders and pebbles into grain seeds
and then flew in the sky. Delighted with such display of miraculously powers,
Trisong Detsen expressed inconceivable gratitude to all the translators and
proclaimed excellent Namkhai Nyingpo and Vairocana as his Vajra Masters.
In presence of people from all walks of life the King prostrated
before them with unflagging faith and became the most venerated tantric master
in Tibet.
Then Namkhai Nyingpo visited upper, middle and lower valleys of
Tibet and hid many profound termas for the benefits of future beings. As
specifically prophesied by Guru Rinpoche, he brought immense benefits to the
sentient beings through many forms of manifestation. While meditating in
Spindled Long Cave of Kharchu at Lhodra he had visions of numerous yidams and
attained the Vidyadhara (rig 'dzin) level of mahamudra. Finally he departed for
celestial realms without leaving a corpse behind.
Namkhai Nyingpo, the crown ornament of all the scholars and
siddhas of the land of snows, manifested his enlightened activity as a Terton
known as Jangchu Lingpa Palgi Gyaltshen. He then reincarnated as Terton Dawa
Gyalchen and revealed Tercho concealed by Guru Rinpoche for the sake of worthy
people in future generations.
During the age of degeneration through his karmic destiny and
previous aspirations, Namkhai Nyingpo was reborn in 1670 with many amazing
signs to Tshewang Ngedup and Logo, as his parents were known in the vicinity of
Lhodra Shartsen Drolung, located nearby the seat of Guru Chowang. Even as a
little boy of eight he was endowed with astonishing intelligence that the Dalai
Lama the Great Fifth recognized him as the direct incarnation of Namkhai
Nyingpo. He learned to read and write and developed an understanding of the
meaning of the Dharma effortlessly, simply upon exposure to these
subjects.
Thereafter, he establishing a permanent seat at Lhodra Kharchu
and since then the golden rosary of Namkhai Nyingpo lineage had been passed
down in an unbroken transmission. His incarnations have continued to the
present and his enlightened activity has spread far and wide.
The successive reincarnations are:
Rigzin Lobzang (1670), 1st incarnation
Jampal Ngawang Drukdra, 3rd incarnation
Kinzang Ggawang Namgyal, 4th incarnation Kelzang
Sangnag Thegchog, 5th incarnation
Pema Tenzin Thinley Namgyal, 6th incarnation
The present Namkhai Nyingpo,
His Eminence the 7th Namkhai Nyingpo was born in 1966 at
holy valley of Tongshang Thrichu Geonpa, Eastern Bhutan to Yab Tshering
Gyaltshen and Yum Sherabmo. His birth was accompanied by many auspicious and
wonderful signs such as appearing of spectacular rainbow in the sky, showering
of exquisite flowers and turning steam water into milky colour. The first word
His Eminence (H.E.) uttered were “Kharchu”, “Kharchu” which referred to his
monastery in Tibet. His Eminence vividly remembered the names of his old
attendants and many related incidents from his previous life.
His Holiness, 16th Gyalwa Karmapa recognized the boy as
7th Namkhai Nyingpo. In HH Karmapa’s prediction, the names of the parents and
other details of Rinpoche’s rebirth were described clearly. Further to
re-confirm the recognition of Tulku, the disciples and the royal government of
Bhutan examined the child in a traditional manner. The examination involved
various methods such as showing of various rosaries, reliquaries, bells and
vajras amongst which some belonging to the previous Namkhai Nyingpo. The child
unerringly chose the objects only belonging to his predecessor. This process
was witnessed by the representative of the Royal Government of Bhutan and
senior disciples of his predecessor. Thus, it was doubly re-confirmed the
rightful recognition of Tulku incarnation.
In 1972, at the
age of six, His Eminence ascended to throne at the Pema Shedrup Chholing, the
2nd Kharchu Monastery in Bumthang. His Eminence’s formal education began as
early as 1970. The basic reading and writing skills were picked up instantly
and had a natural ability to read, write and memorize essential prayers
effortlessly.
At the age of
eight, His Eminence received the refuge Ordination and received the Long Life
Empowerment from His Holiness, the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa on two occasions. In the
same year, His Eminence received the Kalachakra Empowerment, teachings on the
Bodhicharyavatra and many other major teachings from His Holiness, the 14th
Dalai Lama.
In accordance with
the instructions of His Holiness Dilgo Khentse Dorji Chang, His Eminence
studied complete thirteen great texts and commentaries from Khen Rinpoche Kunga
Wangchuk. He also received the teachings on BLabTue; the entire three parts of
Kamala Shila’s meditation practice, Bimalai Ba-dang Chigcharwa; Dakpo Thargyen
and Drubthab Kintue. This made His Eminence as one of the great sutra masters
of our time.
His Eminence
Namkhai Nyingpo Rinpoche continued his intensive study of Buddhist philosophy
with many masters. In the spirit of non-sectarianism, His Eminence has received
teachings and transmissions from the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism.
H.E has also transmitted his own special lineage JangTer (Northern Treasures)
teachings to other Lamas and Rinpoches.
His Holiness Namkhai
Nyingpo Rinpoche’s Zabten is given
below:
༄༅།ཨོཾ་སྭསྟི། ཚེ་དབང་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཉི་མའི་གཟི་འོད་ཀྱིས། འཆི་བདག་མུན་པའི་གཡུལ་ངོ་ཕམ་མཛད་པ། །བླ་མ་འཆི་མེདཔདྨ་བདེ་བ་ཆེ། དེང་འདིར་དགེ་ལེགས་མེ་ཏོག་ཆར་དུ་ཕོབ། །པད་འབྱུང་ཐུགས་ཀྱི་སྲས་དགུའི་ཡ་གྱལ་མཆོག །ཡང་དག་གྲུབ་བརྙེས་མཁའ་ལམ་ཉི་ཟེར་ཆིབས། །འགྲོ་འདུལ་ནམ་མཁའི་སྙིང་པོ་སྤྲུལ་པའི་གར། འདྲེན་པ་རྒྱལ་བའི་མྱུ་གུ་ཞབས་བརྟན་གསོལ། །གསང་ཆེན་བརྒྱུད་ལུང་མན་ངག་བསྟན་པའི་སྲོག །མི་ཉམས་འཛིན་སྤེལ་འཕྲིན་ལས་འཁོར་ལོས་སྒྱུར། །སྙིགས་མའི་གདུལ་བྱའི་མགོན་དང་དཔུང་གཉེན་ཁྱོད། །མི་ནུབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ཆེན་པོར་བརྟན་བཞུགས་གསོལ། །ཕྱི་ནང་བར་ཆད་བདུད་སྡེའི་གཡུལ་ལས་རྒྱལ། །བསྟན་འགྲོའི་དོན་ཆེན་བཞེད་རྒུ་ལྷུན་གྱིས་འགྲུབ། །སྨིན་གྲོལ་ཆོས་ཆར་འཛམ་གླིང་ཁྱབ་པར་འབེབས། ཞིང་ཀུན་བཀྲ་ཤིས་སྣང་བས་མཛེས་གྱུར་ཅིག །
འཇམ་དབྱངས་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཉིན་བྱེད་ཐུགས་ལ་ཤར། །ཐོས་བསམ་སྒོམ་པའི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་ཡོངས་སུ་རྫོགས། །མཁས་བཙུན་བཟང་པོའི་བསྟན་པའི་རྒྱལ་མཚན་འཛིན། །ཞབས་བརྟན་བཞེད་དོན་ལྷུན་གྱིས་གྲུབ་པར་ཤོག །
LONG LIVE RINPOCHE
