As Dzongsar Khyentse told me, “Each major tertön must reveal a minimum of three major themes: Guru Sadhana, Great Perfection, and Avalokiteshvara. In our time, Old Khyentse and Chokling were specifically endowed with seven transmissions.”
Dzongsar Khyentse continued explaining that over the centuries, various cycles of Great Perfection teachings came to light and spread among people. The older tradition flourished all the way until the time of Chetsun Senge Wangchuk. Later on, Longchenpa codified the teachings into The Four Branches of Heart Essence, which flourished. Later still, there were the Great Perfection teachings of the Tawa Long-Yang, The Vast Expanse of the View, revealed by Dorje Lingpa, and Rigdzin Gödem’s Dzogchen revelation called the Gongpa Sangtal, The Direct Showing of the Realization of Samantabhadra. Jatsön Nyingpo revealed the Könchog Chidü, and later on, Jigmey Lingpa revealed the root scriptures of the innermost essence.
The chief termas throughout all these centuries were revealed by the three eminent tertöns: Nyang Ral Nyima Özer, Guru Chöwang, and Rigdzin Gödem, “the vidyadhara with vulture feathers.” Each teaching was appropriate for its own age. Recently, Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, Jamgön Kongtrül, and Chokgyur Lingpa revealed several cycles of the Great Perfection. Chokgyur Lingpa personally revealed seven Nyingtig cycles. But now, during this time period, there are two particular teachings, one revealed by Jamyang Khyentse and one by Chokgyur Lingpa, which will be very influential for the age we are in now. One text is the Chetsün Nyingtig, revealed by Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, while the other is Chokgyur Lingpa’s Kunzang Tuktig. These practices were personally applied by the two “siddha kings” who lived in recent times, both disciples of Jamyang Khyentse: mahasiddha Shakya Shri and mahasiddha Adzom Drugpa. Both practiced these cycles. Dzongsar Khyentse recommended that I focus on the Kunzang Tuktig, because it is very suitable in this day and age. He pointed to the last statement made by Padmasambhava in the Leyjang section of the text, where it says, “When the Dark Age arrives, this teaching will cause the heart of Samantabhadra’s Dzogchen teachings to spread and flourish.”
This activity practice, the Manifest Essence,
Which benefits whoever encounters it,
Will spread the heart-teaching of Samantabhadra,
From the conclusion of the Dark Age until the end of this aeon.
Intent: To Recognize Mind’s Nature
Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
Kunzang Tuktig belongs to the Great Perfection, and, therefore, its exclusive focus is on recognizing mind-essence. That is the entire intent. The sadhana involving the one hundred peaceful and wrathful sugatas is a very precious and profound support for that. The mandala of peaceful and wrathful deities includes any possible yidam, the Three Jewels, the Three Roots, the deities of the three kayas, and so forth, in myriad ways. They are not something different from the inner core of our basic nature. Often they are called the deities naturally dwelling in the mandala of one’s vajra body. In other words, through this practice and training, we realize the various aspects of our basic nature.
That is the support of this practice, which is not limited to a retreat situation or a certain stretch of time. This practice of Kunzang Tuktig is a sufficient path for our entire life; it is not something we finish after a while.
It is not like that at all; it is for our entire life. Yidam practice means something we bring into our life in any situation, at any moment, not only when we’re sitting down. Therefore, the Kunzang Tuktig is something you bring along, whether you sit or walk, in whatever you are doing. Don’t have the idea that you should stop after a set number of recitations. On the contrary, continue it for your entire life. You may not count in the same way or do the practice with the same number of sessions, but still it would be excellent to do the sadhana at least once a day for your entire life and to do a certain number of recitations in that session.
This is such a profound support, because it contains all the different aspects of Vajrayana practice. Since it belongs to Dzogchen, you’re not limited by a material situation; you also have what is mentally created—both materially present as well as mentally created. So the offerings, the praises, all the different aspects you usually find in the Seven Branches—prostrating, apologizing, making offerings, rejoicing, requesting to turn the wheel of dharma, beseeching not to pass into nirvana, and dedicating the merit for all beings—you can train in all these on a mental level. You don’t need to have something materially present, and the same is true for all the other aspects of the sadhana that are the support.
To do this practice is an immense great fortune, because the tantras are contained in Mahayoga, which is contained in the scriptures of Anu Yoga, and these are contained in the pith instructions of Ati Yoga. Ati Yoga is contained within the sadhana practice, and the sadhana is contained within the daily, personal application. Mahayoga has an incredibly extensive and profound scope or perspective, which is primarily presented in the eighteen tantras of Mahayoga. Anu Yoga has the four major or grand scriptures. Ati Yoga has the seventeen Dzogchen tantras, in addition to the tantra of The Brilliant Expanse of the Blazing Sun of Samantabhadri and a nineteenth one, The Tröma Nagmo Tantra of Ekajati. That is the perspective of Ati Yoga, but all of that is included within one sadhana text, and the sadhana text is embodied in one’s personal application. To practice a sadhana text such as Kunzang Tuktig as a daily sadhana accumulates immense merit and will purify a vast amount of obscurations. It is a great fortune.
When the buddhas teach, they teach in various ways adapted to the different types of recipients. When the recipients are shravakas, it is not possible for the buddhas to teach the three principles of deity, mantra, and samadhi. They are not taught to the pratyekabuddha type either. To some extent, these three principles are taught, but not completely, to Mahayana type people. Only the Vajrayana has two main aspects, called the outer and inner tantras. The outer tantras—Kriya, Upa, and Yoga—do not give the complete teaching either. The divine principles are introduced, but in Kriya Yoga they always appear as superior to oneself, and one is an inferior ordinary being. In other words, the deity is like a king, and one is like a subject, with an emphasis on the purity of the deity. In Upa, the perspective changes slightly, where the deity becomes like an older brother. In the Yoga Tantra, one is equal to the deity, but it is still dualistic.
In the inner tantras, the perspective is radically different. From the very onset, everything is all-encompassing purity. In other words, this body in itself is a mandala of the victorious ones, in the sense that the five aggregates, in their pure nature, are the five male buddhas. The five elements