Notes on Rigdzin Düpa Drupchens
The first sadhana in the Longchen Nyingtik tradition is the Gathering of Vidyādharas, also known as the Rigdzin Düpa. Many monasteries or Dharma centres conduct short intensive practices, called drupchö, but not many perform the more elaborate drupchen practices. Below are just a few notes on Rigdzin Düpa drupchens that we have heard about and several texts that we have discovered, which appear to be very rare, followed by a translation of the colophon of the text written by Khenpo Kunpal, which provides us with valuable information about the context in which it was composed.
The Drupchens
The main seat of the Longchen Nyingtik is Dodrupchen Monastery, which now has two locations, one in Tibet and one in Sikkim. In Sikkim, at Dodrupchen Chorten Monastery, they do three drupchens: Palchen Düpa, Lama Gongdü and Gyuluk Phurba, with the Rigdzin Düpa typically practiced only on the 10th days, during other occasions, or in retreat. However, we heard that around 1974, approximately one year before the kingdom of Sikkim lost its independence, the King of Sikkim at that time had requested if anything could be done to avert the impending calamities, and the Fourth Dodrupchen decided to do a Rigdzin Düpa Drupchen.
Dodrupchen Monastery has kindly provided us with a framework text (drupkok) for a Rigdzin Düpa drupchen composed by the Fourth Dodrupchen, and we suspect it might have been initially composed around that time. We do not know which drupchens are performed at Dodrupchen Monastery in Tibet.
Dzagyal Monastery, Tibet
Dzagyal Monastery is one of the Five Nyingtik Monasteries of Dzachuka & Sershul. Lama Jigme Namgyal tells us that they perform a Rigdzin Düpa drupchen every year during the winter. We suspect that they are using the drupkok written by Khenpo Kunpal, but we are not certain.
America
For some years Tromge Jigme Rinpoche and his sangha have been conducting a Rigdzin Düpa drupchen annually. They are using the generic drupkok written by Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye, called Knowing One Liberates All, which can be applied to any practice. We have been informed that Tromge Jigme Rinpoche aspires to use the drupkok written by the Fourth Dodrupchen, but they have not yet been able to complete the translation of the text.
The Texts: Frameworks for Rigdzin Düpa Drupchens
Fourth Dodrupchen, Tubten Trinlé Pal Zangpo, A Treasury of Siddhis, A Framework for the Accomplishment Practice of the Maṇḍala of The Gathering of Vidyādharas, The Inner Practice from the Heart-Essence of the Vast Expanse (ཀློང་ཆེན་སྙིང་གི་ཐིག་ལེ་ལས། ནང་སྒྲུབ་རིག་འཛིན་འདུས་པའི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་སྒྲུབ་མཆོད་ཀྱི་ཁོག་དབུབ་དངོས་གྲུབ་གཏེར་མཛོད།)
Not yet translated
Khenpo Kunpal, A Treasury of Accomplishments, A Key that Opens ‘The Precious Casket: A Framework for Accomplishment’ སྒྲུབ་པའི་ཁོག་དབུབ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་ཟ་མ་ཏོག་འབྱེད་པའི་ལྡེའུ་མིག་དངོས་གྲུབ་གཏེར་མཛོད། (དྷརྨ་ཀིརྟི)
Not yet translated
Jamgön Kongtrul, Knowing One Liberates All - A manual for drubchhen practice of the Peaceful and Wrathful deities of the Three Roots (རྩ་གསུམ་ཞི་ཁྲོ་སྤྱིའི་སྒྲུབ་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་ཁོག་དབུག་ཁྱེར་བདེར་བཀོད་པ་གཅིག་ཤེས་ཀུན་གྲོལ)
English translation: Richard Barron
The Colophon of A Treasury of Accomplishments, A Key that Opens ‘The Precious Casket: A Framework for Accomplishment’
by Khenpo Kunpal
I have composed this framework of accomplishment called “A Treasury of Accomplishments, A Key that Opens ‘The Precious Casket: A Framework for Accomplishment’” according to the tradition of the great accomplishment practice of ‘the vase that liberates on taste’, from the guru practice of the Gathering of Vidyādharas, which embodies all the deities of the three roots, when I personally served as the ritual master when this great accomplishment practice of the vase that liberates on taste was performed once again in this region.
I had kept in my heart the wish to arrange it systematically and thought it would be meaningful to compose such a text, since I had myself witnessed the practical tradition first hand, and observed how tiring it was to use several different frameworks for accomplishment. Others also spoke of the need for a systematic arrangement of the framework for accomplishment, because practices were becoming disordered and inconsistent with tradition, but due to lack of focused interest, it was temporarily set aside. Recently, however, the supreme incarnation of the great lord of accomplishment Rogza Sönam Palgye,[1] the vidyādhara and Śākya monk Thubten Paljor Gyatso Geleg Chokyi Nyima Palzangpo, was enthroned as the master of this monastery[2] by the supreme incarnation, the Fifth Drubwang Dzogchen.[3] He, along with devoted lay practitioners of this tradition, promised to release one hundred and twenty animals from slaughter, and also served as scribe, and thereby urging me to compose this text. I thought this was a worthy request and so I placed it upon the crown of my head. With reverence, I took as a foundation the texts from our own Heart-Essence tradition, such as the framework for accomplishment,[4] the Basic Principles of Empowerment[5] and Tantra Tradition Vajrakīlaya,[6] and the practical notes from the Gathering of Vidyādharas Vase Practice as it was performed at the seat of Kilung Lama—who was praised by the vajra prophecies of the Omniscient One as his Dharma custodian.[7] I adorned it by following the practical instructions of the vase practice as it is performed at the mother monastery of the Drubwang Dzogpachenpa, Samten Chöling,[8] and the great accomplishment practices of the Tantra Tradition Vajrakīlaya, ensuring everything conforms to the way the framework for accomplishment dictates it. For other parts of the ritual, such as the investiture,[9] and the invocation of the enchanted kīlas, I have incorporated some elements of The Eight Great Maṇḍalas: The Gathering of Sugatas[10] from the tradition of Orgyen Mindroling Monastery.
The personal seat of Patrul Rinpoche Orgyen Jigme Chökyi Wangpo—the magical display of the wisdom of the three secrets of all the victorious Ones and the three buddha families inseparable— is Gekong Monastery, which is the manifest result of the infallible truth of interdependent origination: the timely ripening of his perfect wish of bodhicitta to benefit the Teachings and sentient beings and the power of the devotion, virtue, karma and aspirations of his disciples. With the wish to perform, on numerous occasions, the guru practice of the Gathering of Vidyādharas on the tenth-day, or the great accomplishment practice (drupchen) of the vase filled with substances that liberates on taste, as a maṇḍala offering of feast gatherings, here at this monastery, I composed this. It was completed on the second day of the auspicious day when the Budhha was born with his major and minor marks,[11] in the Fire-Dragon year’s[12] fourth month, the propitious time when our supreme teacher and lord of sages manifested complete enlightenment, at the retreat place of Karchung, the main seat of Patrul Rinpoche, which is inseparable in essence from the sacred place of glorious Chimpu. It was composed by the lazy vagabond named Samanta Śrī or Samanta Dharmakīrti,[13] at the outer entrance of the retreat. May this benefit the teachings and beings and bring virtue and auspiciousness throughout all times and directions! Sarva maṅgalam!
[1] Rogza Sönam Palge (rog bza’ bsod nams dpal dge, probably 1800–1884). See https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/dodrupchen-III/sonam-palge-praise
[2] Gekong Monastery. See https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Gekong_Monastery .
[3] The Fifth Dzogchen Rinpoche, Thupten Chökyi Dorje (1872–1935). See https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Dzogchen-Drubwang-05-Tubten-Chokyi-Dorje/9646 .
[4] Probably A Precious Casket: A Framework for Accomplishment, from the Ocean-like Gathering of Awesome Ones.
[5] Probably Clarifying the Essential Meaning: Basic Principles of Empowerment.
[6] Jigme Lingpa’s Gyüluk Phurba.
[7] Jigme Lingpa also gave instructions regarding the building of Kilung monastery. See https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Jigme-Ngotsar/4622
[8] Dzogchen monastery.
[9] The investiture is the ceremony where, on the first day of the drupchen, everyone is assigned their roles, from the vajra master down to the vajra sweeper.
[10] Kagye Deshek Düpa.
[11] This refers to the 15th day of the lunar calendar. Sometimes in the Tibetan calendar, days are doubled, and so the ‘second day’ here refers to the second 15th day.
[12] This must be the year 1916.
[13] These are the Sanskrit translations of the author's names, Kunzang Palden and Kunzang Chökyi Drakpa.