Rigdzin Düpa

The inner guru practice and the first sādhana of the Longchen Nyingtik cycle is the Gathering of Vidyādharas (Rigdzin Düpa). The main deity is the Lotus-Born, Padmasambhava, ‘Prevailing Over All That Appears and Exists’. He is in union with his consort Mandāravā and surrounded by the eight great vidyādharas of India and the twenty-five disciples.

There are many stories of the great masters of the past who practiced this sādhana and gained realization. Nyoshul Lungtok told Khenpo Ngakchung that through this practice one achieves the seven impure bodhisattva levels according to the common generation stage. He also told him:

Rigdzin Düpa maṇḍala
courtesy of Dodrupchen Monastery

 
“Although this inner sadhana, Guru Embodiment of Vidyadharas [i.e., the Guru practice of the Gathering of Vidyādharas], resembles Anuyoga in terms of its tantric classification, from the standpoint of the descent of the Treasure Revelations it is classified as a guru-blessing sadhana (byin rlabs bla ma’ i sgrub pa), one of the Three Roots of Mahayoga. Although the verse that reads, ‘The state of uncontrived awareness, empty and clear ... ‘ does refer to the Anuyoga meditation on the vibrant display of nondual space and wisdom, at this point it will be best for you to focus on absorption according to Mahayoga, by means of the three modes of absorption. [i.e., the three samādhis]”
— Wondrous Dance of Illusion, Khenpo Ngawang Palzang, Nevin and Leschly, page 64

There is also a story of when Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö went to Dodrupchen Monastery to receive the Nyingtik from the Third Dodrupchen, Jigme Tenpe Nyima:

“One day, as Chökyi Lodrö was alone with his teacher, receiving the empowerment of the Rigdzin Dupa (“Gathering of Vidyadharas,” from the Longchen Nyingthig tradition), light rays began to shine forth from the main vase placed at the center of the mandala, and the room became filled with red light to such an extent that Chökyi Lodrö could hardly see Tenpai Nyima anymore. When the light subsided, Chökyi Lodrö realized that there was now a beautiful woman bedecked with ornaments, acting as a ritual attendant to Dodrupchen during the empowerment. Later, Tenpai Nyima told Chökyi Lodrö that the lady was none other than the protrectress of the Longchen Nyingthing teachings, Dorje Yudrönma. ”
— Enlightened Vagabond: The Life and Teachings of Patrul, Matthieu Ricard

Tantric text warning
Readers are reminded that according to Vajrayāna Buddhist tradition there are restrictions and commitments concerning tantra. Practitioners who are not sure if they should read translations in this section are advised to consult the authorities of their lineage. The responsibility for reading these texts or for sharing them with others—and hence the consequences—lies in the hands of readers.

To do this practice, besides the main sādhana of The Gathering of Vidyādharas, one needs the general lineage prayers and the Rain of Siddhis & A Prayer to the Eight Supreme Vidyādharas of India, the Amṛta Offering, the Manual of Concealed Instructions and either the long Garland of Offerings of the Sixteen Vajra Goddesses or the Concise Garland of Offerings. In some traditions the Long Life Practice of the Vidyādharas: The Vase of Immortal Life is added during regular practice or special days, but mostly this is only done in retreat.

For the feast offering normally the fulfilment offering called The Vajra Lute is added and also the Spontaneous Vajra Song of Fulfilment and Confession (Kongshak Dorje Töllu).

Finally, the supplementary texts such as blessing the activity vase, the white and obstructors tormas (kator and gektor) and the concluding rituals need to be added according to each tradition throughout the practice.

Practice Texts

  • Jigme Lingpa, 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་པ་)

  • Jigme Lingpa, A Glimpse of the Crucial Points—The Vidyādhara's Manual of Concealed Instructions, from the Heart-Essence of the Vast Expanse (ཀློང་ཆེན་སྙིང་གི་ཐིག་ལེ་ལས༔ རིག་འཛིན་གྱི་གབ་བྱང་གནད་ཀྱི་མིག་ཚག་)

  • Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Shower of Indestructible Splendour: A Self-Initiation for the Guru Practice of the Vidyādhara Assembly, from the Heart-Essence of the Vast Expanse (ཀློང་ཆེན་སྙིང་ཐིག་ལེ་ལས། བླ་མ་རིག་འཛིན་འདུས་པའི་བདག་འཇུག་རྡོ་རྗེའི་བྱིན་འབེབས་)

  • Fourth Dodrupchen Rinpoche, Tubten Trinlé Pal Zangpo, (ཀློང་ཆེན་སྙིང་གི་ཐིག་ལེ་ལས། ནང་སྒྲུབ་རིག་འཛིན་འདུས་པའི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་སྒྲུབ་མཆོད་ཀྱི་ཁོག་དབུབ་དངོས་གྲུབ་གཏེར་མཛོད་)

  • 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།

Lineage prayers

Offering texts

Empowerment texts

  • Jigme Lingpa, The Root Empowerment of the Vase Conferring Majesty: The Inner Enabling Empowerment of the Heart-Essence of the Vast Expanse (ཀློང་ཆེན་སྙིང་གི་ཐིག་ལེ་ལསཿ རྩ་དབང་རྒྱལ་ཐབས་སྤྱི་བླུགས་བཞུགས༔ ནང་ནུས་པ་འཇུག་པའི་དབང་ངོ་)

  • First Dodrupchen, Jigme Trinle Özer, A Garland of Ruby: The Empowerment for the Deities of the Gathering of Vidyādharas of the Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse (ཀློང་སྙིང་རིག་འཛིན་འདུས་པའི་ལྷ་དབང་པདྨ་རཱ་གའི་ཕྲེང་བ་)

  • Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé, A Necklace of Lotus Flowers: A Conveniently Arrange Empowerment Manual Connected with the Root Empowerment of the Vase Conferring Majesty, from the Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse (ཀློང་ཆེན་སྙིང་གི་ཐིག་ལེ་ལས།་རིག་འཛིན་འདུས་པའི་རྩ་དབང་རྒྱལ་ཐབས་སྤྱི་བླུགས་ཀྱི་མཚམས་སྦྱོར་ཁྱེར་བདེས་བརྒྱན་པ་པདྨའི་དོ་ཤལ་)

    • English translation: A Necklace of Lotus Flowers: An [Empowerment manual] which is Easy to Perform, Connected with the King’s Coronation Kamandalu Vase Root Empowerment, in Jigme Lingpa, Patrul Rinpoche, Khenpo Chemchok, and Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye, The Gathering of Vidyadharas: Text and Commentaries on the Rigdzin Düpa, translated by Gyurme Avertin (Boulder: Snow Lion, 2017).

  • Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, Brief Supplementary Instructions for the Root Empowerment for the Assembly of Awareness Holders Composed by Künzang Shyenphen (གྲུབ་ཆེན་ཀུན་བཟང་གཞན་ཕན་གྱིས་མཛད་པའི་རིག་འཛིན་རྩ་བའི་དབང་སྐུར་ལ་མཚམས་སྦྱོར་ཉུང་ངུ་རྗེ་བླ་མས་མཛད་པ་)

  • Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, Deathless Amṛta's Innermost Heart: Instructions For Times Such as When Accumulating The Long-life Empowerment of the Assembly of Vidyādharas (རིག་འཛིན་ཚེ་དབང་གྲངས་གསོག་སོགས་ཀྱི་ཚེ་ཉེ་བར་བསྡུད་པ་འཆི་མེད་བདུད་རྩིའི་ཡང་སྙིང་)

  • Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, A Feast that Pleases the Fortunate Ones and Reveals the Profound and Secret Ambrosia: A Garland of Ritual Arrangements for Bestowing the General and Specific Empowerments of the Three Roots of the Great Perfection Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse (རྫོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ཀློང་ཆེན་སྙིང་ཐིག་ལེའི་རྩ་གསུམ་སྤྱི་དང་བྱེ་བྲག་གི་དབང་བསྐུར་གྱི་ཕྲེང་བ་བཀླག་ཆོག་ཏུ་བཀོད་པ་ཟབ་གསང་བདུད་རྩིའི་སྒོ་འབྱེད་སྐལ་བཟང་ཀུན་དགའི་རོལ་སྟོན་). Chapter 2: Rigdzin Düpa.

Commentaries

Below is a list in chronological order of the commentaries on the Gathering of Vidyādharas and, if available, their English translations.

  • Jigme Lingpa, The Casket of Siddhis: A Recitation Manual for the Vidyādhara Assembly (ཀློང་ཆེན་སྙིང་ཏིག་ལས། རིག་འཛིན་བསྙེན་ཡིག་དངོས་གྲུབ་ཀྱི་ཟ་མ་ཏོག)

  • Jigme Lingpa, Crucial Points on the Visualization of 'The Long Life Practice (Tsedrup) of the Vidyādharas' (རིག་འཛིན་ཚེ་སྒྲུབ་དམིགས་གནད་གལ་མདོ་)

    • English translation: The Crucial Points of Visualization for the Rigdzin Düpa Long-Life Practice, in Jigme Lingpa, Patrul Rinpoche, Khenpo Chemchok, and Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye, The Gathering of Vidyadharas: Text and Commentaries on the Rigdzin Düpa, translated by Gyurme Avertin (Boulder: Snow Lion, 2017).

  • Jigme Lingpa, Amṛta of the Vase of Immortal Life: An Explanation of the Empowerment of 'The Long Life Practice of the Vidyādharas' (ཚེ་སྒྲུབ་བདུད་རྩི་བུམ་བཅུད་ཀྱི་དབང་བཤད་)

  • Patrul Rinpoche, A Mirror Reflecting Clearly the Chöpön Activities for Rigdzin Düpa (ནང་བསྒྲུབས་རིག་འཛིན་འདུས་པའི་ཕྱག་ལེན་མཐོང་གསལ་མེ་ལོང)

    • English translation: A Clearly Reflecting Mirror, Chöpön Activities for the Rigdzin Düpa, the Inner Sadhana of the Longchen Nyingtik Cycle, in The Gathering of Vidyadharas, translated by Gyurme Avertin (Boulder: Snow Lion, 2017), page 169.

  • Khenpo Chemchok Döndrup Tsal, The Words of the Vidyadhara which Bestow the Majesty of Great Bliss: A Guide to the Gathering of Vidyādharas (rig ‘dzin ‘dus pa’i zin bris rig ‘dzin zhal lung bde chen dpal ster)

    • English Translation: The Words of the Vidyadhara that Bestow the Majesty of Great Bliss, Notations on the Rigdzin Düpa, the Inner Sadhana for the Longchen Nyingtik Cycle, in The Gathering of Vidyadharas, translated by Gyurme Avertin (Boulder: Snow Lion, 2017),

  • Khangsar Tenpé Wangchuk (aka Tulku Tenpo), The Light of the Sun and the Moon— Generation and Perfection Stages, Notes Explaining the Words of the Rigdzin Düpa, the Inner Sadhana of the Longchen Nyingtik Cycle (ཀློང་ཆེན་སྙིང་གི་ཐིག་ལེ་ལས་ནང་བསྒྲུབ་རིག་འཛིན་འདུས་པའི་འབྲུ་འགྲེལ་གྱི་ཟིན་བྲིས་བསྐྱེད་རྫོགས་ཉི་ཟླའི་འོད་སྣང་)

    • English translation: The Light of the Sun and the Moon— Generation and Perfection Stages, Notes Explaining the Words of the Rigdzin Düpa, the Inner Sadhana of the Longchen Nyingtik Cycle, in The Gathering of Vidyadharas, translated by Gyurme Avertin (Boulder: Snow Lion, 2017), page 95.

  • Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, Rigdzin Düpa Manual, based on oral teachings at Rigpa, 1999.

  • Lopön Thekchok Yeshe Dorje, An Ocean of Siddhis: An All-encompassing Retreat Manual for the Gathering of Vidyādharas (རིག་འདུས་བསྙེན་ཡིག་ཀུན་བཏུས་དངོས་གྲུབ་རྒྱ་མཚོ)