Namchö


Namchö translates as the "sky/space dharma", a terma cycle especially popular among the Palyul lineage of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. It was revealed by the tertön Namchö Mingyur Dorje, transmitted to Kunzang Sherab and compiled by the Kagyu school master Karma Chagme.
Namchö comprises an entire cycle of practices ranging from preliminary practice to the "pointing out instructions" of dzogchen. While Mingyur Dorje's terma are said to have originated from his visionary encounters with deities, they also include instructions based on his own insights.
By and large they cover diverse subjects such as:
  1. ritual offerings ;
  2. funeral rites ;
  3. popular empowerments for long-life ; health ; and wealth ;
  4. thread rituals and protective amulets ;
  5. rites for propitiating protector deities ; demons ; high heaven spirits ; mountain gods ; nāgas ; and earth spirits ;
  6. divination and astrology ;
  7. preliminary tantric practices ;
  8. tantric practices and commentaries ;
  9. Pure land sādhanas and hundreds of meditation practices on peaceful and wrathful deities grouped under well-known Vajrayana cycles, such as the Bde mchog; Gu ru drag po; Ma ning; Sgrol ma; Phag mo; and
  10. Dzogchen philosophical commentaries