This is the final article in the series by Lama Padma Drimed Norbu recounting the lives of great beings who have maintained the teachings and practice of the Dzogchen path, particularly those of the Longchen Nyingtik lineage revealed by the great Rigdzin Jigme Lingpa.
Khenpo Ngaga had many students, but the one who most pertains to our lineage was one of H.E. Chagdud Rinpoche’s teachers, Khenpo Dorje. Aside from what Chagdud Rinpoche recounts in his autobiography, Lord of the Dance, little has been written about Khenpo Dorje. What follows are a few words that Rinpoche has passed on to us.
As a young boy, Khenpo Dorje was very inspired by the dharma and studied assiduously. Having no lamp to read by, he would often study in the moonlight, moving up the hillside as the moon traveled across the night sky. Sometimes he would read by the glow of an incense stick. After many years of study and contemplation, he concluded that knowledge gained through study would not lead to full realization of the true nature of mind and that he should now follow the path of meditation.
After receiving empowerments and teachings of the Longchen Nyingtik cycle from Khenpo Ngaga, he went into a three year retreat. As a minor accomplishment of his meditation, he became clairvoyant. Whenever anyone traveled to his retreat site to bring him food and supplies— a three-day journey— Khenpo Dorje knew who it was, what he was bringing, and what he was thinking.
After three years, he examined his mind honestly and saw that his attachment and aversion hadn’t really changed, so he left retreat and returned to Khenpo Ngaga for more teachings. After completing another retreat, he was still not satisfied and went to a great siddha to request further teachings. The siddha began to dance, and when he made a particular gesture, the fixations of Khenpo Dorje’s ordinary mind dissolved and everything changed. When practicing the path of tögal, he experienced the four visions unceasingly, day and night, for two weeks.
Khenpo Dorje didn’t chant or use a mala but always simply rested in equipoise, in the nature of mind. Chagdud Rinpoche met Khenpo Dorje in Central Tibet, where he studied with and served him. Once as they sat together at the site of a former charnel ground, Khenpo Dorje told Rinpoche to get some chang (alcohol). When Rinpoche returned, Khenpo Dorje blessed the chang, offering it as tsok. He poured some into his small cup, drank a little, and then offered the tsok chang to Rinpoche. In this way teacher and student offered tsok and then shared it with one another.
During the Chinese occupation, Khenpo Dorje and Chagdud Rinpoche fled Tibet together. During the arduous journey, they lost all their possessions. At one point, realizing that there was not enough food for the two of them, Rinpoche offered to go his own way so that his teacher would not go hungry. Khenpo Dorje ended up in Bhutan, where he founded a small gonpa just outside of T’himpu that is maintained to this day. Practitioners do private retreat there, and the main shrine room houses a small golden stupa containing Khenpo Dorje’s relics.
Khenpo Dorje passed the Dzogchen lineage on to his student Chagdud Rinpoche, our beloved lama. One of Rinpoche’s names, Padma Gargi Wangchuk, means “Powerful Lord of the Dance of the Lotus Family.” “Of the Lotus Family” means that he is free of all attachment and that his perception of samsara and nirvana is pure. He has the eyes of lotus wisdom, discerning wisdom. “Powerful Lord” means that he has complete mastery over all phenomenal appearances. “Of the Dance” means that he moves like a dancer through the phenomenal world, manifesting as our teacher, caring for and guiding us without his mind ever moving from the vast expanse of awareness. This is dakini.
We are fortunate indeed to have found a guru in whom the entire Dzogchen lineage is embodied. This series of articles ends with a quote from Padgyal Lingpa, treasure discoverer of a Red Vajrasattva cycle and Chagdud Rinpoche’s dharma friend: “If you aspire to become free from the dungeon of samsaric ignorance, you must first of all rely on a spiritual teacher. To start with you should be wise in searching for a teacher. In the middle you should care for him as you would your own life, through the three ways of pleasing him, and in the end you should receive his wisdom mind, like a vase being filled to the brim. “Without reliance on a spiritual teacher, there would be no buddhas of the three times. Without being cared for by a teacher, one would never gain realization. Whoever is under the guru’s care will reach the land of unending bliss. The guru is the source of an ocean of siddhis; therefore, be earnest in relying on him in the right way.”
This is the final article in the series by Lama Padma Drimed Norbu recounting the lives of great beings who have maintained the teachings and practice of the Dzogchen path, particularly those of the Longchen Nyingtik lineage revealed by the great Rigdzin Jigme Lingpa.
Khenpo Ngaga had many students, but the one who most pertains to our lineage was one of H.E. Chagdud Rinpoche’s teachers, Khenpo Dorje. Aside from what Chagdud Rinpoche recounts in his autobiography, Lord of the Dance, little has been written about Khenpo Dorje. What follows are a few words that Rinpoche has passed on to us.
As a young boy, Khenpo Dorje was very inspired by the dharma and studied assiduously. Having no lamp to read by, he would often study in the moonlight, moving up the hillside as the moon traveled across the night sky. Sometimes he would read by the glow of an incense stick. After many years of study and contemplation, he concluded that knowledge gained through study would not lead to full realization of the true nature of mind and that he should now follow the path of meditation.
After receiving empowerments and teachings of the Longchen Nyingtik cycle from Khenpo Ngaga, he went into a three year retreat. As a minor accomplishment of his meditation, he became clairvoyant. Whenever anyone traveled to his retreat site to bring him food and supplies— a three-day journey— Khenpo Dorje knew who it was, what he was bringing, and what he was thinking.
After three years, he examined his mind honestly and saw that his attachment and aversion hadn’t really changed, so he left retreat and returned to Khenpo Ngaga for more teachings. After completing another retreat, he was still not satisfied and went to a great siddha to request further teachings. The siddha began to dance, and when he made a particular gesture, the fixations of Khenpo Dorje’s ordinary mind dissolved and everything changed. When practicing the path of tögal, he experienced the four visions unceasingly, day and night, for two weeks.
Khenpo Dorje didn’t chant or use a mala but always simply rested in equipoise, in the nature of mind. Chagdud Rinpoche met Khenpo Dorje in Central Tibet, where he studied with and served him. Once as they sat together at the site of a former charnel ground, Khenpo Dorje told Rinpoche to get some chang (alcohol). When Rinpoche returned, Khenpo Dorje blessed the chang, offering it as tsok. He poured some into his small cup, drank a little, and then offered the tsok chang to Rinpoche. In this way teacher and student offered tsok and then shared it with one another.
During the Chinese occupation, Khenpo Dorje and Chagdud Rinpoche fled Tibet together. During the arduous journey, they lost all their possessions. At one point, realizing that there was not enough food for the two of them, Rinpoche offered to go his own way so that his teacher would not go hungry. Khenpo Dorje ended up in Bhutan, where he founded a small gonpa just outside of T’himpu that is maintained to this day. Practitioners do private retreat there, and the main shrine room houses a small golden stupa containing Khenpo Dorje’s relics.
Khenpo Dorje passed the Dzogchen lineage on to his student Chagdud Rinpoche, our beloved lama. One of Rinpoche’s names, Padma Gargi Wangchuk, means “Powerful Lord of the Dance of the Lotus Family.” “Of the Lotus Family” means that he is free of all attachment and that his perception of samsara and nirvana is pure. He has the eyes of lotus wisdom, discerning wisdom. “Powerful Lord” means that he has complete mastery over all phenomenal appearances. “Of the Dance” means that he moves like a dancer through the phenomenal world, manifesting as our teacher, caring for and guiding us without his mind ever moving from the vast expanse of awareness. This is dakini.
We are fortunate indeed to have found a guru in whom the entire Dzogchen lineage is embodied. This series of articles ends with a quote from Padgyal Lingpa, treasure discoverer of a Red Vajrasattva cycle and Chagdud Rinpoche’s dharma friend: “If you aspire to become free from the dungeon of samsaric ignorance, you must first of all rely on a spiritual teacher. To start with you should be wise in searching for a teacher. In the middle you should care for him as you would your own life, through the three ways of pleasing him, and in the end you should receive his wisdom mind, like a vase being filled to the brim. “Without reliance on a spiritual teacher, there would be no buddhas of the three times. Without being cared for by a teacher, one would never gain realization. Whoever is under the guru’s care will reach the land of unending bliss. The guru is the source of an ocean of siddhis; therefore, be earnest in relying on him in the right way.”
This is the final article in the series by Lama Padma Drimed Norbu recounting the lives of great beings who have maintained the teachings and practice of the Dzogchen path, particularly those of the Longchen Nyingtik lineage revealed by the great Rigdzin Jigme Lingpa.
Khenpo Ngaga had many students, but the one who most pertains to our lineage was one of H.E. Chagdud Rinpoche’s teachers, Khenpo Dorje. Aside from what Chagdud Rinpoche recounts in his autobiography, Lord of the Dance, little has been written about Khenpo Dorje. What follows are a few words that Rinpoche has passed on to us.
As a young boy, Khenpo Dorje was very inspired by the dharma and studied assiduously. Having no lamp to read by, he would often study in the moonlight, moving up the hillside as the moon traveled across the night sky. Sometimes he would read by the glow of an incense stick. After many years of study and contemplation, he concluded that knowledge gained through study would not lead to full realization of the true nature of mind and that he should now follow the path of meditation.
After receiving empowerments and teachings of the Longchen Nyingtik cycle from Khenpo Ngaga, he went into a three year retreat. As a minor accomplishment of his meditation, he became clairvoyant. Whenever anyone traveled to his retreat site to bring him food and supplies— a three-day journey— Khenpo Dorje knew who it was, what he was bringing, and what he was thinking.
After three years, he examined his mind honestly and saw that his attachment and aversion hadn’t really changed, so he left retreat and returned to Khenpo Ngaga for more teachings. After completing another retreat, he was still not satisfied and went to a great siddha to request further teachings. The siddha began to dance, and when he made a particular gesture, the fixations of Khenpo Dorje’s ordinary mind dissolved and everything changed. When practicing the path of tögal, he experienced the four visions unceasingly, day and night, for two weeks.
Khenpo Dorje didn’t chant or use a mala but always simply rested in equipoise, in the nature of mind. Chagdud Rinpoche met Khenpo Dorje in Central Tibet, where he studied with and served him. Once as they sat together at the site of a former charnel ground, Khenpo Dorje told Rinpoche to get some chang (alcohol). When Rinpoche returned, Khenpo Dorje blessed the chang, offering it as tsok. He poured some into his small cup, drank a little, and then offered the tsok chang to Rinpoche. In this way teacher and student offered tsok and then shared it with one another.
During the Chinese occupation, Khenpo Dorje and Chagdud Rinpoche fled Tibet together. During the arduous journey, they lost all their possessions. At one point, realizing that there was not enough food for the two of them, Rinpoche offered to go his own way so that his teacher would not go hungry. Khenpo Dorje ended up in Bhutan, where he founded a small gonpa just outside of T’himpu that is maintained to this day. Practitioners do private retreat there, and the main shrine room houses a small golden stupa containing Khenpo Dorje’s relics.
Khenpo Dorje passed the Dzogchen lineage on to his student Chagdud Rinpoche, our beloved lama. One of Rinpoche’s names, Padma Gargi Wangchuk, means “Powerful Lord of the Dance of the Lotus Family.” “Of the Lotus Family” means that he is free of all attachment and that his perception of samsara and nirvana is pure. He has the eyes of lotus wisdom, discerning wisdom. “Powerful Lord” means that he has complete mastery over all phenomenal appearances. “Of the Dance” means that he moves like a dancer through the phenomenal world, manifesting as our teacher, caring for and guiding us without his mind ever moving from the vast expanse of awareness. This is dakini.
We are fortunate indeed to have found a guru in whom the entire Dzogchen lineage is embodied. This series of articles ends with a quote from Padgyal Lingpa, treasure discoverer of a Red Vajrasattva cycle and Chagdud Rinpoche’s dharma friend: “If you aspire to become free from the dungeon of samsaric ignorance, you must first of all rely on a spiritual teacher. To start with you should be wise in searching for a teacher. In the middle you should care for him as you would your own life, through the three ways of pleasing him, and in the end you should receive his wisdom mind, like a vase being filled to the brim. “Without reliance on a spiritual teacher, there would be no buddhas of the three times. Without being cared for by a teacher, one would never gain realization. Whoever is under the guru’s care will reach the land of unending bliss. The guru is the source of an ocean of siddhis; therefore, be earnest in relying on him in the right way.”
This is the final article in the series by Lama Padma Drimed Norbu recounting the lives of great beings who have maintained the teachings and practice of the Dzogchen path, particularly those of the Longchen Nyingtik lineage revealed by the great Rigdzin Jigme Lingpa.
Khenpo Ngaga had many students, but the one who most pertains to our lineage was one of H.E. Chagdud Rinpoche’s teachers, Khenpo Dorje. Aside from what Chagdud Rinpoche recounts in his autobiography, Lord of the Dance, little has been written about Khenpo Dorje. What follows are a few words that Rinpoche has passed on to us.
As a young boy, Khenpo Dorje was very inspired by the dharma and studied assiduously. Having no lamp to read by, he would often study in the moonlight, moving up the hillside as the moon traveled across the night sky. Sometimes he would read by the glow of an incense stick. After many years of study and contemplation, he concluded that knowledge gained through study would not lead to full realization of the true nature of mind and that he should now follow the path of meditation.
After receiving empowerments and teachings of the Longchen Nyingtik cycle from Khenpo Ngaga, he went into a three year retreat. As a minor accomplishment of his meditation, he became clairvoyant. Whenever anyone traveled to his retreat site to bring him food and supplies— a three-day journey— Khenpo Dorje knew who it was, what he was bringing, and what he was thinking.
After three years, he examined his mind honestly and saw that his attachment and aversion hadn’t really changed, so he left retreat and returned to Khenpo Ngaga for more teachings. After completing another retreat, he was still not satisfied and went to a great siddha to request further teachings. The siddha began to dance, and when he made a particular gesture, the fixations of Khenpo Dorje’s ordinary mind dissolved and everything changed. When practicing the path of tögal, he experienced the four visions unceasingly, day and night, for two weeks.
Khenpo Dorje didn’t chant or use a mala but always simply rested in equipoise, in the nature of mind. Chagdud Rinpoche met Khenpo Dorje in Central Tibet, where he studied with and served him. Once as they sat together at the site of a former charnel ground, Khenpo Dorje told Rinpoche to get some chang (alcohol). When Rinpoche returned, Khenpo Dorje blessed the chang, offering it as tsok. He poured some into his small cup, drank a little, and then offered the tsok chang to Rinpoche. In this way teacher and student offered tsok and then shared it with one another.
During the Chinese occupation, Khenpo Dorje and Chagdud Rinpoche fled Tibet together. During the arduous journey, they lost all their possessions. At one point, realizing that there was not enough food for the two of them, Rinpoche offered to go his own way so that his teacher would not go hungry. Khenpo Dorje ended up in Bhutan, where he founded a small gonpa just outside of T’himpu that is maintained to this day. Practitioners do private retreat there, and the main shrine room houses a small golden stupa containing Khenpo Dorje’s relics.
Khenpo Dorje passed the Dzogchen lineage on to his student Chagdud Rinpoche, our beloved lama. One of Rinpoche’s names, Padma Gargi Wangchuk, means “Powerful Lord of the Dance of the Lotus Family.” “Of the Lotus Family” means that he is free of all attachment and that his perception of samsara and nirvana is pure. He has the eyes of lotus wisdom, discerning wisdom. “Powerful Lord” means that he has complete mastery over all phenomenal appearances. “Of the Dance” means that he moves like a dancer through the phenomenal world, manifesting as our teacher, caring for and guiding us without his mind ever moving from the vast expanse of awareness. This is dakini.
We are fortunate indeed to have found a guru in whom the entire Dzogchen lineage is embodied. This series of articles ends with a quote from Padgyal Lingpa, treasure discoverer of a Red Vajrasattva cycle and Chagdud Rinpoche’s dharma friend: “If you aspire to become free from the dungeon of samsaric ignorance, you must first of all rely on a spiritual teacher. To start with you should be wise in searching for a teacher. In the middle you should care for him as you would your own life, through the three ways of pleasing him, and in the end you should receive his wisdom mind, like a vase being filled to the brim. “Without reliance on a spiritual teacher, there would be no buddhas of the three times. Without being cared for by a teacher, one would never gain realization. Whoever is under the guru’s care will reach the land of unending bliss. The guru is the source of an ocean of siddhis; therefore, be earnest in relying on him in the right way.”
This is the final article in the series by Lama Padma Drimed Norbu recounting the lives of great beings who have maintained the teachings and practice of the Dzogchen path, particularly those of the Longchen Nyingtik lineage revealed by the great Rigdzin Jigme Lingpa.
Khenpo Ngaga had many students, but the one who most pertains to our lineage was one of H.E. Chagdud Rinpoche’s teachers, Khenpo Dorje. Aside from what Chagdud Rinpoche recounts in his autobiography, Lord of the Dance, little has been written about Khenpo Dorje. What follows are a few words that Rinpoche has passed on to us.
As a young boy, Khenpo Dorje was very inspired by the dharma and studied assiduously. Having no lamp to read by, he would often study in the moonlight, moving up the hillside as the moon traveled across the night sky. Sometimes he would read by the glow of an incense stick. After many years of study and contemplation, he concluded that knowledge gained through study would not lead to full realization of the true nature of mind and that he should now follow the path of meditation.
After receiving empowerments and teachings of the Longchen Nyingtik cycle from Khenpo Ngaga, he went into a three year retreat. As a minor accomplishment of his meditation, he became clairvoyant. Whenever anyone traveled to his retreat site to bring him food and supplies— a three-day journey— Khenpo Dorje knew who it was, what he was bringing, and what he was thinking.
After three years, he examined his mind honestly and saw that his attachment and aversion hadn’t really changed, so he left retreat and returned to Khenpo Ngaga for more teachings. After completing another retreat, he was still not satisfied and went to a great siddha to request further teachings. The siddha began to dance, and when he made a particular gesture, the fixations of Khenpo Dorje’s ordinary mind dissolved and everything changed. When practicing the path of tögal, he experienced the four visions unceasingly, day and night, for two weeks.
Khenpo Dorje didn’t chant or use a mala but always simply rested in equipoise, in the nature of mind. Chagdud Rinpoche met Khenpo Dorje in Central Tibet, where he studied with and served him. Once as they sat together at the site of a former charnel ground, Khenpo Dorje told Rinpoche to get some chang (alcohol). When Rinpoche returned, Khenpo Dorje blessed the chang, offering it as tsok. He poured some into his small cup, drank a little, and then offered the tsok chang to Rinpoche. In this way teacher and student offered tsok and then shared it with one another.
During the Chinese occupation, Khenpo Dorje and Chagdud Rinpoche fled Tibet together. During the arduous journey, they lost all their possessions. At one point, realizing that there was not enough food for the two of them, Rinpoche offered to go his own way so that his teacher would not go hungry. Khenpo Dorje ended up in Bhutan, where he founded a small gonpa just outside of T’himpu that is maintained to this day. Practitioners do private retreat there, and the main shrine room houses a small golden stupa containing Khenpo Dorje’s relics.
Khenpo Dorje passed the Dzogchen lineage on to his student Chagdud Rinpoche, our beloved lama. One of Rinpoche’s names, Padma Gargi Wangchuk, means “Powerful Lord of the Dance of the Lotus Family.” “Of the Lotus Family” means that he is free of all attachment and that his perception of samsara and nirvana is pure. He has the eyes of lotus wisdom, discerning wisdom. “Powerful Lord” means that he has complete mastery over all phenomenal appearances. “Of the Dance” means that he moves like a dancer through the phenomenal world, manifesting as our teacher, caring for and guiding us without his mind ever moving from the vast expanse of awareness. This is dakini.
We are fortunate indeed to have found a guru in whom the entire Dzogchen lineage is embodied. This series of articles ends with a quote from Padgyal Lingpa, treasure discoverer of a Red Vajrasattva cycle and Chagdud Rinpoche’s dharma friend: “If you aspire to become free from the dungeon of samsaric ignorance, you must first of all rely on a spiritual teacher. To start with you should be wise in searching for a teacher. In the middle you should care for him as you would your own life, through the three ways of pleasing him, and in the end you should receive his wisdom mind, like a vase being filled to the brim. “Without reliance on a spiritual teacher, there would be no buddhas of the three times. Without being cared for by a teacher, one would never gain realization. Whoever is under the guru’s care will reach the land of unending bliss. The guru is the source of an ocean of siddhis; therefore, be earnest in relying on him in the right way.”
