The Palyul Lineage

In Tibet, there were six mother monas­ter­ies which upheld the Nyingma tra­di­tion. In east­ern Tibet, the fore­most of these was the glo­ri­ous Palyul. The land the monastery is sit­u­ated on was blessed by many great saints and bod­hisattvas and it was dur­ing the time of the great vidyad­hara Kuzang Sherab that the Palyul tra­di­tion was estab­lished and the monastery known as Palyul Nam­gyal Changchub Chol­ing became one of the major Nyingma monas­tic institutions.

As with all Nyingma Dharma lin­eages, the Palyul holds the com­plete canon of the Mahayana sutras and tantras as well as the Kama (long), Terma (short) and Pure Vision trans­mis­sions. How­ever, the Palyul lin­eage is dis­tinct in that it con­tin­ues to prac­tice, real­ize and trans­mit all the var­i­ous lin­eages and trans­mis­sions that were held and passed on by Kun­zang Sherab into one vast Dharma Ocean.

The Kama or long lin­eage is the com­bined oral tra­di­tion of Panchen Vimalami­tra, the trans­la­tor Vairo­cana and mas­ter Pad­masamb­hava on the inner yogas of Gen­er­a­tion Stage Maha Yoga, Trans­mis­sion stage Anu Yoga and the Great Per­fec­tion stage Ati Yoga. The Palyul also holds the Non-dual Great Seal Mahamu­dra – Great Per­fec­tion Ati Yoga, unit­ing the high­est Nyingma teach­ings of Dzog Chen with the orna­ment of the Kagyu school, the Mahamu­dra of Marpa the trans­la­tor, fore­fa­ther of the Kagyu.

From Kun­zang Sherab to the present throne holder, His Holi­ness Karma Kuchen Rin­poche, as well as the greater Palyul sangha, this has been main­tained as a prin­ci­pal prac­tice which includes: clear light togyal, inner togyal, dark­ness prac­tice, dream prac­tice, train­ing in the nature of sound and pure realms prac­tice. The terma or short lin­eage refers to spir­i­tual trea­sures (terma) that were con­cealed by Pad­masam­bava and his close dis­ci­ples to be revealed at a later, more appro­pri­ate time. These ter­mas were hid­den in both phys­i­cal ele­ments and within beings mind streams, to be remem­bered and revealed in later incar­na­tions. As such, the lin­eage for these ter­mas is con­sid­ered “short” his­tor­i­cally, as opposed to the long lin­eages orig­i­nat­ing with Sakya­muni Bud­dha.

The prin­ci­pal terma lin­eages of the Palyul are those of Ter­ton Nyang, Guru Chowang, Ratna Lingpa, Jigme Lingpa, Karma Lingpa and Mingyur Dorje. The Pro­found lin­eage of Pure Vision orig­i­nates with Ter­ton Mingyur Dorje’s Nam Cho Great Per­fec­tion rev­e­la­tions, trans­mit­ted directly to Kun­zang Sherab.

For fur­ther read­ing please see: Zangpo, Ven. Tser­ing and Khan­dro, Sangye, A Gar­land of Immor­tal Wish Ful­fill­ing Trees: The Palyul Tra­di­tion of Nyingmapa, Ithaca, N.Y., Snow Lion Pub­li­ca­tions, 1988.


His Holi­ness Pema Norbu Rinpoche


His Holi­ness Penor Rin­poche Kyabje Drub­wang Pema Norbu Rin­poche was born in 1932 in the Powo region of Kham, East­ern Tibet. His Holi­ness set­tled in South India where he built, with his own hands and with the help of a few monks, Nam­drol­ing Monastery. The monastery has grown into one of the largest Tibetan Bud­dhist Dharma cen­ters in the world, hous­ing over 6000 monks and nuns in the com­plex. His Holi­ness also built tem­ples and estab­lished dharma Cen­ters around the world – in Tai­wan, Hong Kong, Sin­ga­pore, Malaysia, Philip­pines, Aus­tralia, United King­dom, Greece, Canada and the United States – among oth­ers. His Holi­ness fre­quently trav­eled to teach and give empow­er­ments at all of them. World­wide, His Holi­ness is uni­ver­sally revered for his lov­ing kind­ness and com­pas­sion, pure uphold­ing of the Vinaya and cease­less ded­i­ca­tion to the wel­fare of all beings. Wher­ever His Holi­ness went, he estab­lished and nour­ished the Bud­dha Dharma. He will live for­ever in our hearts.

    “His Holi­ness Penor Rin­poche is one of the great Bud­dhist saints alive today. He is a great real­ized being, and see­ing him is like being face to face with the Bud­dha and Padmasambhava.”

    –Vajracharya Ven. Pel­ing Tulku, Rinpoche

Source

www.palyulcanada.org