Nam Cho
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Nam Cho (Wylie: gnam chos, THL transcription: namchö) translates as the "sky/space dharma", a terma cycle especially popular among the Tibetan Buddhist Nyingma Palyul Lineage as revealed by Terton Namcho Migyur Dorje and transmitted to Rigdzin Kunzang Sherab and compiled by Kagyu master Karma Chagme Raga Asya.
The Nam Cho comprises an entire cycle of practices ranging from preliminary practice (Ngöndro) to the "pointing out instructions" of Dzogchen. While Migyur Dorje's space-treasures are said to have originated from his visionary encounters with deities, they also include instructions based on his own insights.
By and large they cover diverse subjects such as:
- i) ritual offerings (bsang / chab gtor / bum gter);
- ii) funereal rites (byang chog);
- iii) popular empowerments for long-life (tshe dbang); health (sman lha dbang); and wealth (nor dbang);
- iv) thread rituals and protective amulets (mdos / srung ba);
- v) rites for propitiating protector deities (chos skyong / zhing skyong / gter srung); demons (btsan / gnod sbyin / bdud); high heaven spirits (lha); mountain gods (spom ri / thang lha); nāgas (klu); and earth spirits (sa bdag);
- vi) divination and astrology (rde’u dkar mo / spar kha / rtsis);
- vii) preliminary tantric practices (sngon ’gro);
- viii) tantric practices (rmi lam / ’pho ba / gtum mo / phur ba / gcod) and commentaries (rgyud ’grel);
- ix) pure-land sādhanas (zhing khams sgrub), and hundreds of meditation practices on peaceful (zhi ba) and wrathful (khro bo) deities grouped under well-known Vajrayāna cycles (chos skor), such as the Bde mchog; Gu ru drag po; Ma ning; Sgrol ma; Phag mo; and last, but not least,
- x) philosophical commentaries (khrid) belonging to Dzogchen (rdzogs chen),the Great Perfection teachings of the Nyingma school; see: [Halkias, Georgios. 2006. ‘Pure-Lands and other Visions in Seventeenth-Century Tibet: a Gnam-chos sādhana for the pure-land Sukhāvatī revealed in 1658 by Gnam-chos Mi-’gyur-rdo-rje (1645-1667).’ In Power, Politics and the Reinvention of Tradition: Tibet in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century. Proceedings of the 10th International Association for Tibetan Studies (2003) ed. B. Cuevas et al. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 121-151].
