Longchenpa
Longchen Rabjam Drimé Özer, or simply Longchenpa was a Tibetan scholar-yogi of the Nyingma school, the 'Old School' of Tibetan Buddhism. According to tibetologist David Germano, Longchenpa's work led to the dominance of the Longchen Nyingthig lineage of Dzogchen, the Great Perfection, over the other Dzogchen traditions. He is also responsible for the scholastic systematization of Dzogchen thought within the context of the wider Tibetan Vajrayana tradition of Buddhist philosophy.
Dzogchen thought was highly developed among both the Old School and New Sarma schools. Germano also notes that Longchenpa's work is "generally taken to be the definitive expression of the Great Perfection with its precise terminological distinctions, systematic scope, and integration with the normative Buddhist scholasticism that became dominant in Tibet during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries."
Longchenpa is known for his voluminous writings, including the highly influential Seven Treasuries and his compilation of the Dzogchen text and commentary, the Nyingtig Yabshi, The Inner Essence in Four Parts.'''' Longchenpa was also a Tertön or treasure revealer, and some of his works, like the Khadro Yangtig, are considered terma and revealed treasure texts. Longchenpa's oeuvre of over 270 texts encapsulates the core of Nyingma thought and praxis and is a critical link between the school's exoteric Sutra and esoteric Tantra teachings.
Longchenpa's work also unified the various Dzogchen traditions of his time into a single system. Longchenpa is known for his skill as a poet and his works are written in a unique literary voice which was widely admired and imitated by later Nyingma figures.
Longchenpa was the Khenpo of Samye Monastery, Tibet's first monastery, and the first Buddhist monastery established in the Himalayas. He spent most of his life travelling or in spiritual retreat.
Biography
Incarnation lineage
The incarnation lineage of Longchenpa is traced to Princess Pema Sal, King Trisong Deutsen's daughter and Padmasambhava's student who died young from a bug bite. Padmasambhava briefly revived her to give her the Khandro Nyingtik empowerment.She incarnated as Pema Ledrel Sal, the "fifth pure rebirth" of Princess Pema Sal, who became a great Terton as prophesied by Padmasambhava. He revealed the Khandro Nyingtik cycle as a terma treasure at the age of 23 years. He then incarnated as the great Terton and scholar Longchenpa in the 14th century, who then incarnated as the Terton Pema Lingpa.
Youth
Longchen Rabjam was born in 1308 in a village in the Dra Valley in Yuru, U-Tsang. He was born to the Nyingma lama Lopon Tsensung, a descendent of the Rog clan. Longchenpa's mother died when he was nine and his father died two years after. After being orphaned, he entered Samye monastery in 1320 under the Abbot Sonam Rinchen and master Lopon Kunga Ozer. Longchenpa was an avid student with a great capacity for memory.In 1327, Longchenpa moved to the Kadam monastic college of Sangpu Neutok, the most esteemed center of learning in Tibet at the time. He stayed for six years at Sangpu, mastering the entire scholastic curriculum of logical-epistemology, yogacara and madhyamaka as well as poetics. During this period, Longchenpa also received teachings and transmissions from different Tibetan Buddhist traditions, including Kadam, Sakya, Kagyu and Nyingma. Longchenpa studied under various teachers, including the famous Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje, from whom he received the six yogas of the Kālacakra and the six dharmas of Nāropa.
Longchenpa left Sangpu to practice in the solitude of the mountains, after coming into conflict with certain Khampa scholars. After leaving Sangpu, Longchenpa entered a period of retreat for eight months in complete darkness, where he had some important visions of a young girl who promised to watch over him and grant him blessings. Afterwards, Longchenpa met his main teacher, the Ngagpa Rigdzin Kumaradza, from whom he received Dzogchen teachings while traveling from valley to valley with a nomadic group of about seventy students. It is said Longchenpa lived in great poverty during this period, sleeping on a sack and eating only barley.
Longchenpa accompanied Kumaradza and his disciples for two years, during which time he received all of Rigdzin Kumaradza's transmissions ''. Longchenpa was permitted to teach after a three-year period of retreat in mChims phu, not far from Samye. He is said to have had various visions of different deities, including Padmasambhava, black Vajravārāhī, Guru drag po, and the goddess Adamantine Turquoise Lamp
Mature period
In 1340, Longchenpa then gathered a group of eight male and female students in order to initiate them into the Dzogchen teachings. During this initial period of teaching, Longchenpa and his students experienced a series of visions of dakinis, and states of possession that only happened to the women of the group. These experiences convinced him and his disciples that Longchenpa should teach the Dzogchen lineage of the Menngagde, the Esoteric Instruction cycle.Longchenpa also compiled the main texts of the Vima Nyingthig and the Khandro Nyingthig along with a series of his own commentaries on these works. Most of Longchenpa's mature life was spent in his hermitage at Gangri Thokar, either in meditation retreat or studying and composing texts.
In 1350, at the age of 42, Longchenpa had a vision of Vimalamitra in which he was asked to restore the temple of Zhai Lhakhang, where the Seventeen Tantras had been concealed by Nyang Tingdzin Zangpo. In the process of this work, Longchenpa accepted a Drikung Kagyu student named Kunga Rinchen. Kunga Rinchen had political designs and came into conflict with the powerful Changchub Gyaltsen, who had the support of the Mongolian Authorities in Peking who attacked Kunga Rinchen's monastery.
Longchenpa fled to Bumthang, Bhutan to avoid conflict. Here he relinquished his monastic vows, married and had a daughter and a son. He also founded a series of small monasteries in Bhutan, including Tharpaling Monastery, his main seat. Longchenpa's lineage survives in Bhutan. After living in Tharpa Ling for 10 years, he returned to Tibet and was reconciled with Changchub Gyaltsen, who even became Longchenpa's student.
Legacy
Longchenpa's writings and compilations were highly influential, especially on the Nyingma tradition. According to Germano, Longchenpa's work:had an immediate impact, and in subsequent centuries was to serve as the explicit model for many Nyingma compositions. In particular, his Seminal Heart writings were intensely philosophical as well as contemplative, and architectonic in nature. Though on the whole their characteristic doctrines and terminology are present in the earlier literature stemming from ICe btsun seng ge dbang phyug onwards, their terminological precision, eloquent style, systematic range and structure, and integration with normative Buddhist discourse constitute a major innovation in and of themselves.
A detailed account of Longchenpa's life and teachings is found in Buddha Mind by Tulku Thondup Rinpoche, A Marvelous Garland of Rare Gems by Nyoshul Khenpo, and The Life of Longchenpa by Jampa Mackenzie Stewart. Pema Lingpa, the famous terton of Bhutan, is regarded as the immediate reincarnation of Longchenpa.
Dzogchen
View of Dzogchen
Longchenpa is widely considered the single most important writer on Dzogchen teachings. He was a prolific author and scholar, as well as a compiler of Dzogchen texts. According to David Germano, Longchenpa's work systematized the Dzogchen tradition and its extensive literature while also providing it with a scholastic and philosophical structure based on the standard doctrinal structures that were becoming dominant in the Tibetan Buddhism of late tenth to thirteenth centuries.According to Germano, Longchenpa's main Dzogchen scriptural sources were: " the Kun byed rgyal po, The Seventeen Tantras of the Great Perfection the Seminal Heart system of Vimalamitra and the Seminal Heart system of the Dakini." Longchenpa's Dzogchen philosophy is based on the Dzogchen view outlined in these tantric texts. This worldview sees all phenomena as the emanations or expressions, displays, and adornments of an ultimate nature or principle
This ultimate principle is described in various ways by Longchenpa, using terminology that is unique to Dzogchen, such as the basis or ground or the "nature of mind". Longchenpa describes this fundamental basis as being primordially pure and empty while also having the nature of a subtle self-arising awareness. This empty and spontaneous primordial glow is the subtle basis for the arising of all phenomenal appearances.
Longchenpa brought Dzogchen thought more closely into dialogue with scholastic Buddhist philosophy and the Sarma tantric systems which were normative in the Tibetan academic institutions of his time. One of Longchenpa's main motivations was to provide a learned defense of Dzogchen thought and practice. Longchenpa's writings also intended to prove the overall superiority of the Dzogchen path over the other eight vehicles of sutra and tantra. His work also posits that this supreme Dzogchen view is not just the pinnacle of Buddhism, but it is in fact a keystone to the entire Buddhist Dharma, without which the "lower vehicles" cannot be fully understood or justified.
In his Theg mchog mdzod'', Longchenpa also provides an extensive doxography of Buddhism in order to explain why Dzogchen deserves the highest rank in this doxography. Longchenpa's understanding of the relationship between Dzogchen and the lower vehicles is inclusive, and he sees Dzogchen as embracing all of the eight vehicles while also sublimating and transcending them.