In this review of Longchenpa’s life I rely on biographies from close disciples as well as hagiographies to construct a simple chronological overview of significant events and periods of writing; I am not adding anything new to what scholars already know. 207 Born in
1308, Longchenpa’s maternal lineage traced itself back to one of the primary students of the influential teacher Atiśa Dīpaṃkara Śrījñāna. His father was a non-monastic, tantric practitioner from a Nyingma family lineage called Rog, claiming as its ancestor one of the original seven monks ordained by Śāntarakṣita. According to hagiographies, Longchenpa showed signs of tremendous intelligence as a young boy and began his studies at age five. His father initiated him into Nyingma tantras—likely Mahāyoga and Anuyoga—as well as Treasure teachings. Following the death of his mother—when he was just nine years old— and then his father—when Longchen was age eleven, he sought to ordain by entering monastic training and study.
At twelve, Longchenpa received his monastic vows in Samye Monastery and commenced its ecumenical system of scholarship and ritual training. His ordination name was Ethical Intellect (Tshul khrims blo gros). At this time, some of the greatest masters in Tibet visited Samye to offer teachings from a range of different traditions, including the Third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje (Rang 'byung rdo rje) (1284-1339) who, while being the primary teacher of the Karma Kagyu lineage, exhibited a particular interest in the Great Perfection and Treasure cycles. We also know that the Sakya scholar, Lama Dampa Sonam
207 More information on Longchenpa’s biography may be found in English in Dudjom
Rinpoche and Matthew Kapstein, The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism: Its Fundamentals and History, (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1991); a complete compilation of
hagiographical stories is provided in Stewart, Life of Longchenpa. See also Hillis, “Rhetoric of Naturalness,” 112-115 for more Tibetan sources. The most authoritative Tibetan biographies are probably that of his direct disciple, Bya bral pa bzod pa, and that by Chos grags bang po. For an account of his time in exile, see Dorji Penjore, “Oral Construction of Exile Life and Times of Künkhyen Longchen Rabjam in Bumthan,” (Journal of Bhutan Studies and paper presentation, Fifth Colloquium on Tangible and Intangible Culture, National Museum of Bhutan, Paro, Bhutan, February 2005.)
Gyaltsen (bLa ma dam pa bsod nams rgyal mtshan) (1312-1375) taught Longchenpa during this period.208 When he turned sixteen he formally began tantric initiation and study.
Samye’s multiple lineages interacted to create a rich spiritual environment and Longchenpa would have been exposed to Nyingma teachings as well as The Wheel of Time, the Sakya tantric system of Path and Fruit and the Kagyu “Six Dharmas” yogic practice.
At the age of eighteen Longchenpa enrolled in the greatest university of the day, Sangpu (gSang-phu Ne'u-thog), located about 15 kilometers southwest of Lhasa in central Tibet. Founded by Kadam teachers in 1073 upon the model of an Indian scholastic institution, Sangpu offered rigorous training in logic, epistemology, poetics, and the dialectical philosophical systems.209 When Longchenpa later penned his detailed scholastic
interpretations and doxographies, both the confidence of his positions and the clarity of his prose stem from this period of sophisticated scholastic formation and debate. In those cases where Longchenpa’s rhetorical positions and aesthetic tend toward a criticism of elite intellectualism, this is not due to resistance to scholarship or lack of erudition, but rather, to a result of his substantial intellectual development within a major center of study and debate.
Longchenpa’s mastery of poetics, metered composition, metaphor, and belles lettres are also products of this period of intellectual formulation.210 His poetry makes it apparent
that Longchenpa studied Indian poetic science based upon Daṇḍin's Kāvyādarśa (sNyan ngag
me long). While most previous Tibetan authors had composed commentaries on Daṇḍin,
208 S. Arguillère has collected all of the references to Longchenpa’s teachers in Profusion de
la Vaste Sphere, 23-87. Some biographies state that Longchenpa studied with Sonam Gyaltsen later in Sangpu.
209 For studies of Gsang phu refer to Leonard van der Kuijp, “The Monastery of Gsang-phu
Ne'u-thog and Its Abbatial Succession from ca. 1073 to 1250.” Berliner Indologische Studien 3 (1987): 103-127; Shunzo Onoda, “Abbatial Successions of the Colleges of gSang phu sNe'u thog Monastery,” Bulletin of the National Museum ofEthnology 15, no. 4 (1990): 1049-1071;
Karl-Heinz Everding, "gSang phu Ne'u thog. Tibet's Earliest Monastic School (1073). Reflections on the Rise of its Grva tshang bcu gsum and Bla khag bcu," Zentralasiatische Studien: des Seminars für Sprach-und Kulturwissenschaft 38 (2009): 137-154.
210 Leonard van der Kuijp, “Tibetan Belles-Lettres: The Influence of Daṇḍin and
Kṣemendra,” in Tibetan Literature: Studies in Genre, eds. Roger Jackson and José Cabezón (Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications), 393-410.
according to Guenther, Longchenpa was one of the first Tibetans to apply his rules in unique compositions penned in Tibetan.211
Biographers note that at least some periods of his studies in Sangpu were difficult, in large part because of struggles with his colleagues from Eastern Tibet. Evidently regional and clan cliques forced Longchenpa into an outsider position, only exacerbated by his precocious intellect. Thus, after a few years, he decided to drop out of Sangpu in 1334, in search of a personal teacher. In a well-known story, tradition recounts how Longchenpa composed a poem criticizing the aggressive behavior of the Easterners, a poem in which each of the thirty lines begins with a consecutive letter of the Tibetan alphabet.212 This in
itself is an ostentatious show of learning. He is said to have posted the poem in a highly visible location and walked into the mountains.
The break from Sangpu also represented a turn away from scholastic education and institutional prominence to a more radical, solitary, and materially difficult lifestyle of wandering the countryside, meditating in caves with little to eat—a form of life that was of course also valued in the life stories and ideals of his religious world. While in the
mountains of central Tibet, Longchenpa eventually made his way to the encampment of a Great Perfection guru named Kumārādza (rig 'dzin ku ma ra dza) Shönnu Gyalpo (gzhon nu rgyal po) (1266-1343). Kumārādza had been a tantric yogi and artist known for his painting. His biographies mention that he worked to prevent fishing and trapping of animals. 213
Significantly, the history of Tibet called the Blue Annals states that Kumārādza taught the Great Perfection “with the help of terminology peculiar to that system,” perhaps rather than in the context of the developmental tantric systems or in reference to causal scholastic philosophy.214 This could imply that Longchenpa’s most important teacher of the Seminal
Essence viewed it as a system complete unto itself, rather than as the end-result of training
211 Longchenpa, A Visionary Journey: The Story of The Wildwood Delights, The Story of The
Mount Potala Delights, trans. Herbert V. Guenther (Boston: Shambhala, 1989), xi.
212 Arguillère dates the letter addressed to the Khampas to the year 1332. S. Arguillère,
Vaste Sphere, 156.
213 Albion Moonlight Butters, “The Doxographical Genius of Kun mkhyen kLong chen rab
'byams pa,” (PhD diss., Columbia University, 2006), 29.
214 Deb ther sngon po, Gö Lotsawa Shyönnu Pal (1392-1481), see The Blue Annals, trans. G.
in other methods. If this interpretation is correct, it means that part of Longchenpa’s most formative training under Kumārādza may have viewed the Seminal Essence—and its
spontaneous approach—as at least in part a sufficient soteriological method. The encounter with this Great Perfection master reoriented Longchenpa’s life towards the Great
Perfection and eventually the Seminal Essence, in particular.
According to the account in Dudjom Rinpoche’s history of the Nyingma, before meeting Kumārādza, Longchenpa undertook a five-month retreat in complete darkness.215
As reviewed above, such a practice could have been informed by The Wheel of Time, or perhaps a Seminal Essence Treasure instruction, although it is unclear which system Longchenpa relied upon. Within this immersive retreat, Longchenpa is said to have received profound visionary experiences, in particular witnessing before him a young maiden on horseback who offered him blessing and protection, according to Dudjom, and a direct encounter with Padmasambhava and Yeshe Tsogyel, according to other
hagiographies.216
With a background of scholastic learning and at least some yogic and visionary experience, Longchenpa arrived in Kumārādza’s encampment in the mountains above Samye. When Kumārādza saw Longchenpa, he is said to have recounted a dream from the previous night in which a bird carried dharma books in all directions, and foresaw that this young man would become his principle disciple.
Steep valleys and wide vistas, access to the open sky, and the vast horizons so prominent in Longchenpa’s poetry from this period surrounded the gathering of disciples. The scene in the encampment itself included about seventy rickety cloth tents and
handmade shelters, for Kumārādza kept his community always moving and wandering from place to place, seeking to break free from any attachments to shelter, comforts, or
institutions. It is said that during the spring and summer of that one year alone, the encampment moved nine times.217
Because it seemed as if they had to move just as they made camp, Longchenpa could obtain neither food, nor clothing. With the change of seasons he was
215 Dudjom Rinpoche and Kapstein, Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism, 579.
216 Ibid. For alternative accounts, see Butters, “Doxographical Genius.”
completely worn down by the bitter cold and the icy terrain; and he survived for two months on nothing but three measures of flour and twenty-one mercury pills. Then, when the snow fell he lived inside a sack garment which served both as a robe, and as a bed.218
As Hillis notes, “This quasi-nomadic lifestyle is quite consonant with tropes and metaphors commonly found in Great Perfection literature valorizing space, the absence of boundaries, natural freedom, simplicity, spontaneity, and so forth. Hence, this training with his teacher Kumārādza may be understood as a period during which these images became vivid
experiences connected to specific behaviors and lifestyles for Longchenpa.”219
Significantly, one of Longchenpa’s fellow practitioners in the encampment returned from travels with a text entitled The Seminal Essence of the Sky Dancer (Khandro Nyingthig, Mkha’ ‘gro snying thig). An uneducated teenage Treasure discoverer named Pema Ledrelsel (Padma las 'brel rtsal) (1291-1315) had only recently discovered the text in the midst of spontaneous visions guiding him to uncover the location of the teachings. The boy attributed the authorship of this extensive Seminal Essence teaching to the early tantric master Padmasambhava, who imparted the text to King Trisong Deutsen and his daughter, the princess. Further, Pema Ledrelsel understood that he himself was the rebirth of this very princess, destined to recall the teachings from the past. Killed by the husband of one of his numerous lovers, this eccentric treasure-discoverer died at a young age, likely just before Longchenpa’s birth. Though understood as Nyingma, the Khandro Nyingthig, represented inspired new instructions and Great Perfection reflections that further guided Longchenpa into his deepening connection with the Seminal Essence approach.
After about two years of wandering, meditation, empowerment, and continual training together, Kumārādza invited Longchenpa to begin teaching and composition. It seems that Longchenpa was particularly inspired to offer transmissions from The Seminal Essence of the Sky Dancer, and he gathered eight of his own closest disciples to enter into this esoteric material in a retreat in Chimpu, above Samye in the valley below.
During the next period of his life, Longchenpa composed extensive teachings emerging from contemplation and visionary experiences, including discovering Treasures
218 Dudjom Rinpoche and Kapstein, Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism, 581. 219 Hillis, “Rhetoric of Naturalness,” 122.
of his own. Biographies state that female divine presences, known as “sky-dancers” or
dākinīs, came to him with both encouragement and challenges. Through his visionary
experiences, Longchenpa entered into a phase of prolific writing, systematizing and explaining the Great Perfection—at times in reference to the scholastic, ethical, and tantric traditions of India and Tibet, and at other times scripting contemplative instructions, practice manuals, texts, and rituals to elaborate upon the Seminal Essence and the three Series of Mind, Space, and Instructions. This prolific work remains the primary and most influential description and codification of the Seminal Essence, and perhaps of Nyingma tantric thought in general. His combination of intellect, scholarly training, poetic mastery, and profound contemplative experience conjoined in one of the most brilliant
contributions to Tibet’s literature.
Eventually, Longchenpa settled into his own more-established encampment and retreat area on the top of a high ridge in proximity to Samye called White Skull Mountain (gangs ri thod kar). While there, the range of visionary experiences increased and intensified and he simultaneously received and taught his own Treasure instructions, immediately gathering into experience the methods thus revealed. His fame grew.
Though the exact reasons are not explicit, Longchenpa came to be embroiled in the political feuding between the Drigung and Changchup Gyaltsen, discussed in the previous chapter. Sometime near 1350, the myriarch of the Drigung invited Longchenpa to be one of his primary teachers and to restore a temple important in the history of the Seminal Essence. This was the Zha’i lha kang founded by Nyang Tingdzin Zangpo (Myang ting 'dzin bzang po) (eighth and ninth centuries) and in which the Vima Nyingthig was supposedly discovered in the tenth century. This evidently gave the impression that the two important figures were perhaps plotting together; Changchup Gyaltsen forced Longchenpa into exile in what is present-day Bhutan, perhaps fleeing for his life around 1350. While an
expatriate for a period of roughly seven years, Longchenpa composed some of his most significant writings, including a catalogue of his own works.220 It is possible that
220 Dorji Wangchuk, “Cross-Referential Clues for a Relative Chronology of Klong chen
Longchenpa composed the entirety or sections of two of the texts most important for this dissertation while in Bhutan: the Treasury of the Basic Space of Phenomena and the Treasury of
the Way of Abiding.221 Oral tradition in Bhutan states that Longchenpa settled in and taught
the Great Perfection in eight different areas or “glings,” the most famous of which was thar
pa gling.222 He also restored a number of monasteries, taught widely, was a regular presence
at the Bhutanese royal court, and fathered at least two children: a daughter in 1351 and a son in 1356, according to Bhutanese oral tradition.223 After various efforts from his
students and followers, Longchenpa returned to Tibet in around 1360 and was reconciled with Changchup Gyaltsen, evidently establishing an amicable relationship. Returning to White Skull Mountain, Longchenpa entered into the final years of his life, composing his last teachings and instructions. He became severely ill in 1363 and died in 1364 at the age of 56.
II. Longchenpa’s Body of Writings
Following Dudjom Rinpoche, Longchenpa’s primary works may be organized into five groupings:224 1. The Trilogy of Dispelling Darkness, (Mun sel skor gsum); 2. Trilogy on Resting
at Ease (Ngal gso skor gsum); 3. Trilogy on Natural Freedom (Rang grol skor gsum); 4. The Fourfold
Seminal Essence (Snying thig Ya bzhi);225 5. The Seven Treasuries (Mdzod bdun).226 While the fifth
grouping of The Seven Treasuries is most relevant to this dissertation, I present an overview of Longchenpa’s corpus through the lens of the dichotomy between spontaneous and
Proceedings of the Eleventh Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies (PIATS), 2006.)
221 Based on Dorji Penjore, “Oral Construction,” and Meme Ngonjungla, oral
communication, Sonam Tshering.
222 Ibid.
223 Ibid. See also Butters, “Doxographical Genius,” 29.
224 Dudjom Rinpoche and Kapstein, Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism, 575-596. See also
Germano, Poetic Thought, 10 ff.
225 Also known as the Trilogy on Quintessence (Yang tig skor gsum).
226 I am here following Arguillère, Vaste Sphere; Longchen Rabjam, Kindly Bent to Ease Us:
Part 1, trans. Herbert Guenther, (Emeryville: Dharma Publishing, 1975); Germano, Poetic Thought, chapter 2; and Dorji Wangchuk, “Cross-Referential Clues.”
gradual methods in each of the text groupings. This will provide context for my reading of the Treasure of the Basic Space of Phenomena and the Treasure of the Way of Abiding. My reading of Longchenpa’s major works is that it is in these final two poetic texts that Longchenpa articulated his most boldly spontaneous approach, despite the obvious presence of a gradual model in many of his other works.
I see three broad registers in Longchenpa’s writings. These are not necessarily chronological. The first register corresponds to texts that assume a causal perspective rooted in theory. In brief, these are texts that explicate classical Buddhist philosophy as well as gradual path literature, for example the Yid bzhin mdzod, Grub mtha’ mdzod, and the Sem nyid rngal gso. This first register also includes ethical exhortations that assume the causal-vehicle’s perspective of self-cultivation. The second register corresponds to texts that assume a causal perspective rooted in practices and rituals. This register generally refers to tantric texts, as well as Seminal Essence texts such as the Zab mo yang thig and
commentaries on the Seventeen Tantras as well as the Precious Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle (Theg mchog rin po che’i mdzod) and the Precious Treasury of Words and Meanings (Tshig don rin po che’i mdzod). Here Longchenpa emphasizes the esoteric body, specific rituals and
methods from the perspective of tantric technique and visionary experience. Often the causality is fruition-based. The cosmogonic unfolding of the ground (gzhi) is also definitive for this register. Finally, in the third register, we have poetic texts, in particular The Precious Treasury of the Basic Space of Phenomena and The Precious Treasury of the Way of Abiding that attempt to write from the perspective of neither theories of being nor specific techniques or rituals, but from the way of abiding (gnas lugs) itself. This entails moving back and forth between view statements and contemplative instructions within both the structure of the texts and within single verses. Overcome by his experience of the spontaneous way of abiding, these texts stand out as Longchenpa articulates a world in which actions, methods, and ontology are also spontaneous and simultaneous. My use of these registers is general and full of exceptions. For example, there are many moments of third-register instructions in the Precious Treasury of Philosophical Positions even though its overall orientation is gradual. Therefore, I will classify many texts as included in more than one register.
Overview of the Textual Groupings
1. The Trilogy of Dispelling Darkness, (Mun sel skor gsum), is Longchenpa’s commentary on the Secret Nucleus (Guhyagarbha) tantra of Great Yoga. It interprets this fundamental Nyingma tantra from the perspective of the spontaneous visionary effulgence of the Seminal Essence. Arguillère dates the composition of the text at 1352-1353, most