Longchen Nyingtik (information courtesy of RigpaWiki)
A Nyingma cycle of teachings and practice, which was discovered by Jikmé Lingpa as mind terma.
The Revelation of Longchen Nyingtik
Regarding the revelation of the Longchen Nyingtik teachings, Tulku Thondup writes:
While Guru Rinpoche was visiting Tibet…he conferred the Longchen Nyingtik teachings on King Trisong Detsen, Khandro Yeshe Tsogyal, and Vairochana… He gave prophetic empowerments by saying that the teachings would be discovered by Jikmé Lingpa, an incarnation (tulku) of King Trisong Detsen.
So centuries later, when the prophetic empowerments of Guru Rinpoche ripened and the favorable circumstances came to fruition, the concealed Longchen Nyingtik teachings were accordingly awakened in the enlightened mind of Jikmé Lingpa as mind ter.
Jikmé Lingpa discovered the Longchen Nyingtik teachings as mind ter at the age of twenty-eight. Tulku Thondup writes:
In the evening of the twenty-fifth day of the tenth month of the Fire Ox year of the thirteenth Rabjung cycle (1757), Jikmé Lingpa went to bed with an unbearable devotion to Guru Rinpoche in his heart; a stream of tears of sadness continuously wet his face because he was not in Guru Rinpoche’s presence, and unceasing words of prayers kept singing in his breath.
He remained in the depths of that meditation experience of clear luminosity for a long time. While being absorbed in that luminous clarity, he experienced flying a long distance through the sky while riding a white lion. He finally reached a circular path, which he thought to be the circumambulation path of Jarung Khashor, now known as Boudhanath Stupa, an important Buddhist monument of giant structure in Nepal.
In this vision, the wisdom dakinis gave Jikmé Lingpa a casket containing five yellow scrolls and seven crystal beads. One of the scrolls contained the prophetic guide of Longchen Nyingtik, called Nechang Thukkyi Drombu. At the instruction of a dakini, he ate the yellow scrolls and crystal beads, and all the words and meaning of the Longchen Nyingtik terma were awakened in his mind.
Jikmé Lingpa kept this terma secret for years, and he did not even transcribe the terma until he entered another retreat in which he had a series of visions of Longchen Rabjam. Tulku Thondup explains:
In the earth-hare year (1759) he started another three-year retreat, at Chimpu near Samye monastery. During that retreat, because he was inspired by three successive pure visions of Longchen Rabjam, and he was urged by repeated requests of dakinis, he transcribed his terma as the cycle of Longchen Nyingtik. On the tenth day of the sixth month (monkey month) of the monkey year (1764) he made his terma public for the first time by conferring the transmission of empowerment and the instructions upon fifteen disciples.
The Longchen Nyingtik terma consists of tantric sadhanas and teachings.
Longchen Rabjam (1308-1364), also known as Longchenpa, was one of the greatest Dzogchen masters in the Nyingma tradition, and amongst the most brilliant and original writers in Tibetan Buddhist literature. He brought together into a cohesive system the teachings of Vima Nyingtik and Khandro Nyingtik, on which he wrote the ‘Three Yangtik’ or Inner Essencess.
Four centuries later, Jikmé Lingpa was tremendously inspired by the teachings of Longchenpa. After Jikmé Lingpa discovered the terma of Longchen Nyingtik (which included tantric sadhanas and teachings) he entered into a three-year retreat in the caves of Chimphu in which he fervently invoked Longchenpa with a Guru Yoga he had composed. Longchenpa appeared to him in three visions, through which he received the blessing and transmission of the wisdom body, speech and mind of Longchenpa, empowering him with the responsibility of preserving the meaning of the teachings of Longchenpa, and of spreading them. As a result, Jikmé Lingpa’s mind became one with the wisdom mind of Longchenpa.
In this way, Jikmé Lingpa became the lineage holder of Longchenpa’s teachings on the Vima Nyingtik and Khandro Nyingtik. Jikmé Lingpa was a reincarnation of both King Trisong Detsen and Vimilamitra. Therefore, the Nyingtik teachings of these two major lineages flowed together in Jikmé Lingpa.
The Longchen Nyingtik lineage includes both the terma of Longchen Nyingtik discovered by Jikmé Lingpa, and teachings of Longchen Rabjam on Vima Nyingtik and Khandro Nyingtik that were revealed to Jikmé Lingpa in a series of visions.
The Major Texts
The major texts of Longchen Nyingtik are as follows:
Original Tantras
1. The root tantra: Kuntu Zangpo Yeshe Longki Gyü
2. The subsequent tantra: Gyü Chima
3. Teachings: Kuntu Zangpö Gong-nyam
4. Instructions
a. Instructions: Nesum Shenje and Neluk Dorje Tsigang
b. Their commentaries: Yeshe Lama with its supporting texts
Sadhanas
1. Male vidyadharas
a. Peaceful:
outer: Guru Yoga
inner: Rigdzin Düpa
secret: Dukngal Rangdrol
innermost secret: Ladrup Tiklé Gyachen
b. Wrathful:
blue: Palchen Düpa
red: Takhyung Barwa
2. Female vidyadharas
a. Peaceful: root sadhana: Yumka Dechen Gyalmo
b. Wrathful: secret sadhana: Senge Dongchen
The Detailed Longchen Nyingtik Lineage
Some of the main lineage holders of the Longchen Nyingtik lineage are listed below.
First stage
* Samantabhadra, the Dharmakaya
* Vajrasattva, the Sambhogakaya
* Prahevajra (Tib. Garab Dorje), the Nirmanakaya; the first human master of Dzogpa Chenpo whos teachings include 'Hitting the Essence in Three Words'
* Mañjushrimitra whos teachings include 'Six Experiences of Meditation'
* Shri Singha whos teachings include 'Seven Nails'
* Jñanasutra whos teachings include 'Four Means of Abiding'
* Vimalamitra - Vima Nyingtik
* Guru Rinpoche - Khandro Nyingtik
* King Trisong Detsen, received Nyingtik teachings from Guru Rinpoche and Vimalimitra
* Yeshe Tsogyal
* Vairotsana
* Longchen Rabjam
* Ridgzin Jigmé Lingpa, revealed the Longchen Nyingtik teachings
* Jigmé Gyalwa Nyugu
* Dza Patrul Rinpoche