Nyoshul Lungtok Tenpe Nyima

The Manifestation of an Emanation

The master was born in 1829 (the Iron Tiger year of the fourteenth sexagenary cycle of the Tibetan calendar) into the Nyoshul family within the territory of Derge, his lineage belonging to the Minyak Dong clan; later generations therefore took "Nyoshul" as his name. The tradition unanimously recognizes the master as an emanation of Khenpo Shantarakshita—the bodhisattva who in former times came to Tibet to establish Samyé Monastery and to first confer monastic ordination upon the Tibetans, returning again by the power of his aspiration. It was prophesied that he would have thirteen successive incarnations, all bearing the name "Nyima" (Sun), who would uphold the teachings generation after generation, their radiance never ceasing. The master's appearance in the world carried, for the Longchen Nyingtik lineage, the great significance of receiving what came before and transmitting it onward.

Taking Refuge and Receiving Ordination

In his youth the master traveled to Dzogchen Monastery, where he received ordination at the feet of Gyalsé Shenpen Thayé and was given the dharma name "Lungtok Tenpe Nyima," meaning "the Sun of the Buddhist Teaching of Scripture and Realization," symbolizing his aspiration to shoulder the teachings and to illuminate all beings. Thereafter he drew close to Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, from whom he received the empowerments and oral transmissions of the Nyingtik Yabzhi (The Four Volumes of Heart Essence) and other teachings; he also studied widely in both sutra and tantra under such great masters as Jamgön Kongtrul; and together with Khenpo Kunzang Sonam he studied the Bodhicharyavatara (The Way of the Bodhisattva) more than eighty times, steeping himself deeply in the teachings of bodhichitta. Such broad and thorough study laid a firm foundation for his later single-pointed practice of the Dzogchen heart essence.

Twenty-Eight Years at His Master's Side

The most crucial connection of the master's life was his reliance upon his root guru, Patrul Rinpoche. From the time he first drew near, for twenty-eight years he remained inseparable from him like a shadow, receiving in full the entire transmission of the Longchen Nyingtik—from the preliminary practices and the main practices, down to the generation and completion stages, and on to the most ultimate pith instructions of Dzogchen's "cutting through" (trekchö) and "direct crossing" (tögal)—all of which he heard directly from his master's mouth and put into practice in his own being, perfecting each one. Patrul Rinpoche so cherished his sincerity and pure single-mindedness that he affectionately called him "Ami," meaning "my son"—so deep was the bond between master and disciple. The tradition holds the saying, "Without Lungtok, Patrul would have no heir," and the master came thus to be revered as the foremost in realization among Patrul's heart-sons.

The Direct Introduction Upon the Grass

The master's awakening is the most celebrated account in the Dzogchen transmission. At the retreat place above Dzogchen Monastery, one night master and disciple lay together upon the grass, gazing up at the stars. Patrul Rinpoche asked him: Do you see the stars in the sky? Do you hear the dogs barking? Do you hear what I am saying? To each the master replied. Patrul Rinpoche then said slowly, "The nature of Dzogchen is just this." In that very instant the master broke through to complete realization, nakedly beholding the buddha-mind in which awareness and emptiness are united—awareness and emptiness indivisible, with nothing else besides. This awakening, this "direct introduction to the nature of mind," spread widely through the various streams of the Longchen Nyingtik, an enduring model of mind transmitted directly to mind between master and disciple.

Dwelling in the Mountains, Spreading the Teaching

In keeping with his master's charge, the master devoted his whole life to giving teachings and oral transmissions, and did not become known through written composition. Following Patrul's command, he expounded the Bodhicharyavatara over a hundred times and the Guhyagarbha Tantra forty times, causing the heart essence of scripture and realization of the Longchenpa and Jigme Lingpa lineage to flourish widely in the world. The master also entrusted the secret meaning of Dzogchen pith instructions to Lama Rangrik Dorje, which were later transcribed and preserved; and he composed an "Aspiration Prayer of Bodhichitta" and a "Supplication to Avalokiteshvara" appended with the six-syllable mantra, and other works—concise in words yet complete in meaning, all serving later practitioners as material for recitation and cultivation of the mind. At around sixty years of age, the master returned to the region of his homeland, Tsomu, and made his encampment atop Mount Pema Ridrak, taming and guiding beings as conditions allowed, liberating sentient beings far and wide.

Entrusting the Teaching and Passing into Peace

The most important dharma act of the master's later years was to entrust the pure transmission of the Longchen Nyingtik in its entirety to Khenpo Ngakchung. This disciple had received teachings personally at his feet from boyhood, taking in full the entire set of preliminary practices, main practices, and Dzogchen pith instructions; he would later become a great commentarial master of modern Nyingma Dzogchen, spreading it widely at Katok and in all directions. The heart essence of scripture and realization that the master transmitted thus continued on unbroken from this point. Besides Ngakchung, Loter Wangpo, Nyala Rangrik Dorje, and others also came from his lineage. In 1901 (the seventeenth day of the fifth month of the Iron Ox year of the Tibetan calendar), the master passed into peace, at the age of seventy-two. Receiving from above the Longchenpa–Jigme Lingpa lineage transmitted by Patrul, and opening the way below for the masters of modern Nyingma Dzogchen, the master was truly the pivotal hub of the dharma lineage that sustained and propagated the pure oral transmission of Dzogchen in the nineteenth century.