Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, Tāranātha and Nyingma lineage texts on Kālacakra
Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo ((‘jam dbyangs mkhyen brtse’ dbang po, 1820 – 1892) had a very strong connection with Tāranātha and the Kālacakra teachings via his deep friendship and connection with Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye (‘jam mgon kong sprul blo gros mtha’ yas, 1813-1899).
According to his biographers:
”Khyentse Wangpo met Jamgon Kongtrul at the end of 1840, when he went to Pelpung to receive teachings from the elder lama on Chandragomin’s grammar. They met again before Jamyang Khyentse went to Tibet the second time. Khyentse Wangpo’s beloved elder brother, Gyurme Dondrub had passed away in Tibet, and it appears that
in his grief Khyentse Wangpo turned to his growing friendship with Jamgon Kongtrul for companionship. He went to Pelpung for an extensive transmission of Jonang teachings, including the complete works of Tāranātha and the Kālacakra. Jamgon Kongtrul continued his
transmission of Jonang teachings to Khyentse Wangpo after the latter returned from Tibet in the early 1850s, giving Tāranātha’s Drubta Rinjung (sgrub thabs rin ‘ jung). At the time Khyentse Wangpo gave Jamgon Kongtrul a complete set of Tāranātha’s writings…..
Jamgon Kongtrul presided over the funeral of Khyentse Wangpo, in early 1892, washing his body and preparing them for cremation. He performed a five-day Vajrakila rite in his presence, and, with the aid of the Tartse
Khenpo and Loter Wangpo, performed three weeks of additional rituals. Jamyang Khyentse’s brother Kelzang Dorje, the head steward of Dzongsar, paid for much of the funeral. An elaborate reliquary was installed in Dzongsar, recently reconstructed together with much of the monastery.”
Recently, I came across a passage in the ‘Secret Autobiography of Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, Jamyang Chokyi Lodro’, (1896-1959) (the reincarnation of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo), where he mentions a
dream vision he had in 1943 of the Jonang master, Tāranātha who bestowed on him a Kālacakra empowerment in the dream. As a result of this experience he states that great faith in Tāranātha arose.
Jamyang Chokyi Lodro (1896-1959)
The passage from the Secret Autobiography of Jamyang Khyentse Chokyi Lodro regarding his dream of Tāranātha རྫོང་སར་མཁྱེན་བརྩེའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་བློ་གྲོས་གསང་བའི་རྣམ་ཐར་ལ་ཏཱ་ར་ནཱ་ཐའི་སྐོར་ལ་གསུང་པ་རེད
I presented this section of the text recently, in 2017, to Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche in person at the Deer Park Institute in Bir together with my recent publication and study of Tāranātha’s Heart Sutra Commentary.
Chokyi Lodro also stated in a shorter biography that he gave transmissions of Kalacakra to students both from the Jonang and Zhalu (Buton Rinchen Drub) lineages.
Although, I have not done much research on the Nyingma and it’s connection to the seventeen lineages of Kalacakra, the Nyimgma lineage appears to also generally follow the Dro lineage passed down by Tāranātha to Jamgon Kongtrul.
In The Life and Times of Khyentse Chokyi Lodro, The Great Biography by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (Shambhala Publications, 2017) there is an inspiring section dedicated to the visions and practice of Khyentse Rinpoche of Kālacakra (see pp.486-488).
The Nyingma lineage master, Mipham Gyatso (‘ju mi pham rgya mtsho, 1846 – 1912) who considered Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo to be his main teacher) also wrote major several texts on Kālacakra and the Six Yogas. Here
is a provisional catalogue of his Tibetan extant texts below. Another main person in the Nyingma lineage who wrote several texts on Kālacakra is Katog Rigdzin Tshewang Norbu (1698 – 1755). More on him and his texts in another post soon!
Mipham Gyatso’ works on Kālacakra
W23468
dus ‘khor lhan skyes sgrub thabs sogs rgyud bshad kyi skabs su
dpal dus kyi ‘khor lo’i rgyud kyi tshig don rab tu gsal byed rdo rje
dus ‘khor nang gi le’u’i ‘grel pa
dus ‘khor dbang le’i ‘grel pa
dus ‘khor sgrub thabs le’u’i ‘grel ba
dus ‘khor ye shes le’u’i ‘grel pa
dus ‘khor sgrub thabs snying por rab gsal
dus kyi ‘khor lo’i dkyil ‘khor mchod pa’i cho ga bsod nams gter mdzod
sdom bzung
dus ‘khor zur byang
dus ‘khor rtsa sngags
W1PD76231 mi pham gsung ‘bum las gzhung ‘grel skor/
dpal dus kyi ‘khor lo’i rdzogs rim rdo rje’i rnal ‘byor gyi dgongs gnad gsal byed baiDUr+ya’i me long /
dus ‘khor lhan skyes sgrub thabs sogs rgyud bshad kyi skabs su nye bar mkho ba/
dpal dus kyi ‘khor lo’i rgyud kyi tshig don rab tu gsal byed rdo rje nyi ma’i snang ba/
dus ‘khor nang gi le’u’i ‘grel ba/
dus ‘khor dbang le’i ‘grel ba/
dus ‘khor sgrub thabs le’u’i ‘grel ba/
dus ‘khor ye shes le’u’i ‘grel ba/
May the current Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche’s connection with Tāranātha and Kālacakra flourish in this life too!
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