This auspicious, wish-granting stupa is a tamer of maras, meaningful to behold. May it be virtuous!

JIGME Gyalwe Nyuku was a great meditator, bodhisattva, and adept. He was one of the two masters who were responsible for the spread of Longchen Nyingthig teachings all over Tibet, especially in Eastern Tibet. In his youth he was known as Pema Kunzang and later as Jigme Gyalwe Nyuku, the Fearless Son of the Victorious One (Buddha).

 

Gyalwe Nyuku was born in the Wood Bird year of the thirteenth Rabjung (1765) in the Getse nomadic group of Dzachukha Valley. His father was Ogyen Tashi of the Mange tribe of the Dong lineage, and his mother was Tashi Kyi of the Awö tribe. Dzachukha is the valley around the source of the Dza (Nyak Ch’u/Yalung) River. Gyalwe Nyuku was the second of nine children. From childhood he never had any interest in worldly enjoyments. In the spring, whenever he saw rainclouds floating in the sky and heard the sound of gentlethunder, he experienced an unbearable urge to go to a solitary place atop a high mountain and devote himself to Dharma meditation. Everybody in his family just wanted him to be a good householder, with the exception of his mother, who was very religious and who tried to support him in his Dharma aspirations.

 

At twelve he got the chance to learn to read. At fourteen he made a pilgrimage to Lhasa, Samye, and many other places and returned safely.

 

At fifteen he received instructions on Dzogpa Chenpo and on Tsasum Sangwa Nyingthig from Getse Lama Rigdzin Gyatso (?– 1816). The lama told him, “What you need in order to perfect your meditation on the nature of the mind is only to maintain what you have already realized.” He had amazing visions and was able to foresee many events that took place later.

 

At sixteen he was obliged to join his elder brother on his business trips. During these travels he was overcome with a strong revulsion for the lying and cursing practiced by laypeople.

 

At seventeen he took his mother on a pilgrimage to Lhasa with some friends. While they were in Central Tibet, he and a friend tried to run away to practice Dharma, but friends caught them and brought them back to Kham.

 

At eighteen he did a hundred-day meditation retreat. At nineteen, his elder brother died. This, more than any other single event, turned his mind resolutely toward Dharma, but Lobzang Chökyong, the chieftain of the Getse tribal group, and his relatives started to put great pressure on him to get married and to take care of the family. Yet he yielded not an inch in his determination to leave the householder’s life.

 

Since there was no way to devote himself to a life of Dharma if he stayed in Kham, he ran away to Central Tibet with a friend named Rigdzin, a Dharma meditator from the Barchung tribal group. He had managed to take a silver brick for their expenses. Traveling through Chabdo, Drikung, Gaden, Yamalung, and Samye, they reached Lhasa. Gyalwe Nyuku was not only endowed with spiritual wisdom, but was also very intelligent and practical. His friend Rigdzin was very trusting and spiritual but impractical and didn’t have much ability evento collect wood for fuel in the mountains. In Lhasa a thief in monk’s garb learned that they wanted to exchange the silver brick for money. One day when Gyalwe Nyuku was away, the thief came to Rigdzin and offered to change the silver brick into coins at the rate they wanted. Rigdzin handed over the silver, and the thief vanished. Thus, except for some donations that people gave them, they had nothing to live on. Instead of scolding his friend, Gyalwe Nyuku consoled him, saying, “We lost the silver because we didn’t have the merits to own and use it.”

 

After passing through Drak Yangdzong, they reached Samye. There they met the first Dodrupchen, whom Rigdzin had known in Kham. Dodrupchen advised them:

 

You are young children of rich families. . . . You could meditate at Chimphu with me, as I am going there, but before doing meditation you must receive proper instructions. There is a lama who knows all without any obscuration, and also he gives teachings according to the needs of the disciples without depending on whether or not they have material offerings. He is my lama, Khyentse Rinpoche [Jigme Lingpa]. I will send you to him with a letter. By happy.

 

Following Dodrupchen’s advice, they went to Tsering Jong and saw Jigme Lingpa. Gyalwe Nyuku writes that when he saw Jigme Lingpa, for a while all the feelings of this life dissolved and he experienced joy as if he had attained the path of insight. Then for fifteen days they received the empowerment of Rigdzin Düpa, the lung of Yönten Dzö, and detailed instructions on meditation on Dzogpa Chenpo according to the maturity of their minds (sMin Khrid).

 

Then they returned to Dodrupchen at Samye. After a brief pilgrimage, they went to Tsang to see the famed Gomchen Kuzhap, Rigdzin Pema She-nyen. On the way, although they didn’t know how to swim, they put Rigdzin between Dodrupchen and Gyalwe Nyuku and crossed the Kyichu River. Gyalwe Nyuku thought later that they had succeeded only by the blessing of the Triple Jewel. In Tsang theyreceived many Changter transmissions from Pema She-nyen and Chö transmissions from Drupchen Thupten Tendzin.

 

Then Dodrupchen was planning to leave for Lhasa alone to meet his friend and return to Kham. Gyalwe Nyuku insisted on accompanying him as far as Lhasa. On the way Dodrupchen got seriously ill, but he accepted his illness with great joy, and this greatly inspired Gyalwe Nyuku.

 

From Lhasa Gyalwe Nyuku went to Dorje Trak Monastery to join Pema She-nyen, who was giving transmissions of Rigdzin Chenmo. Then they returned to Tsang. After completing a retreat of two years and nine months, Gyalwe Nyuku and Rigdzin returned to Lhasa.

 

At Trak Yerpa, Gyalwe Nyuku met a lama with ragged, patched clothes. The mere sight of that lama aroused a strong faith in him, as if he were seeing Guru Rinpoche in person. The lama gave him clarifications on his meditation and prophesied that in the early part of his life Gyalwe Nyuku would not stay at one place but that in the latter part of his life he would have no wish to leave a valley that faces southeast, and there he would accomplish the goals for himself and others.

 

Gyalwe Nyuku went to Tsering Jong and received many transmissions and instructions from Jigme Lingpa. According to the advice of Jigme Lingpa, after receiving the Yumka empowerment he undertook the difficult journey to the sacred mountain of Tsāri. On the way he meditated at many sacred places for a week or more. As he had given his shoes to a beggar long before, when he got close to Tsāri he had to walk barefoot, even in snow. His feet became hard and deformed, so that when some children saw his footprints on the path they turned back, fearing that they were the footprints of a monster. In such circumstances of hardship, he went to circumambulate Tsāri Mountain, which takes many days. At one place, sacrificing his own safety, he saved the lives of some people who were being buried under snow in the course of their circumambulation. Instead of much pain or sorrow, he continuously experienced all appearances as the Sambhogakāya, the Buddha bodies of light and rays, which appear naturally without dualistic concepts.

 

For nine months he meditated in total seclusion in Tsāri. At the beginning he ate a little tsampa three times a day with a soup made from the bark of a tree. After some time, he ate tsampa once a day. Then all the tsampa was exhausted, and he boiled the old tormas, or dried offering cakes, that he had offered earlier and drank the soup of it once a day. When that also was exhausted, there was nothing to eat. After some time, he was able to see sunlight even through the joints of his bones. He boiled some nettles and drank the liquid, but it injured his throat. Then he found an old hip bone of a lamb. He boiled it and drank the soup, which brought some calm to his system.

 

After completing his nine-month retreat, he was ready to leave. Relying on the support of a walking stick by grasping it with both hands, he started to leave the cave. At every step he felt that he was about to lose consciousness and fall down. He couldn’t straighten his body, as he felt that his intestines were stuck to his spine. His neck was very long, and the joints of his neck and spine were easy to count. Drinking a cup of water would help him to walk a few more steps, but then the water caused him great trouble when he urinated.

 

After walking this way for four days, he finally met some people who gave him food, and slowly he started to regain his health without any complications. After traveling for many days, he reached Jigme Lingpa and received a brief blessing. Then he went to the hermitage of Ogyen Ling for a six-month retreat, during which he had many experiences and visions. One day he went out into the sunlight. He looked at the sky in the direction of his teacher, and a strong remembrance of his root master, Jigme Lingpa, and other teachers arose in his mind. He prayed to them with strong devotion. He experienced a revulsion toward saṃsāra stronger than he had ever felt before. For many sessions of practice he kept crying. Then, thinking this experience might be an obstruction, he contemplated the ultimate nature. For a while it was as if he had become unconscious. When he awakened, he found that there was nothing to view or meditate upon, as all the apprehensions of doing meditation had dissolved. Before he had had a subtle point of reference for his view and meditation, but now everything was gone.

 

Then Gyalwe Nyuku got a message from Dodrupchen to come to meet him at Tsering Jong, where he had just returned. Gyalwe Nyuku rushed to Tsering Jong and saw both Jigme Lingpa and Dodrupchen. He offered a detailed account of his meditative experience, in which he felt that there was no meditator who apprehended any meditation. Jigme Lingpa was pleased and he said:

 

That is right! Realization [of the ultimate nature] has to come through one of the four different ways. Some devotional, diligent, compassionate, and wise meditators realize it when they receive the “bestowal of wisdom” in an empowerment. Some realize it when they receive the “attainment of accomplishments,” when they have perfected the meditation and recitation of a sādhana of the yidam. Some realize it by transferring the realization of the lama to themselves by developing a strong faith in the lama, by seeing the lama as the actual Buddha. Some realize it when they successfully pacify the shaking-up disturbances that arise owing to the influence of negative forces in sacred or haunted places such as cemeteries. Now you have realized the ultimate nature through both the blessing of the lama and the accomplishment of the yidam. So from now on, as Lord Tampa [Sangye] Rinpoche says:

 

When I am sleeping alone hidden,

I remain in the naked intrinsic awareness.

When I am in the midst of many people,

I look at [the face of] whatever arises.

 

Let nirvāṇa be attained in the primordial state, without entrapping the realized intrinsic awareness, which is [the union of] openness and clarity arisen from its primordial state, in the nets of elaborations of characteristics.

 

At that time, Jigme Lingpa was experiencing an eye problem, and Gyalwe Nyuku was sent to get a doctor. The doctor performed a successful operation on Jigme Lingpa’s eyes.

 

At Dodrupchen’s insistence, Gyalwe Nyuku agreed to return to Kham with him. Gyalwe Nyuku’s mother was sick but expressed happiness about Gyalwe Nyuku’s dedication to Dharma. She said, “If you can succeed in your Dharma practice, there is no need to worry about me.” After getting permission from Dodrupchen, Gyalwe Nyuku did a recitation retreat at Barchung Latrang. That was in 1793.

 

Gyalwe Nyuku next went to Dodrupchen’s camp at Mamö Do in Dzachukha, but Dodrupchen had gone to the Dege Palace. He did a hundred days’ retreat in a cave near the camp and had many spiritual experiences and visions. After the retreat, when he saw Dodrupchen, who had returned from the Dege Palace, Dodrupchen said, “In a dream I saw myself on a high mountain leading along a small herd, and then I saw you down below, bringing up numerous animals. So you will benefit a greater number of beings than I will.”

 

For a while, Gyalwe Nyuku served Dodrupchen, who was teaching around Dzachukha. Then Dodrupchen left for Amdo and Mongolia in order to go to Wu Tai Shan, and sent Gyalwe Nyuku and Dodrupchen’s nephew, Jigme Changchup, to Dzogchen Monastery.

 

Gyalwe Nyuku did retreat in Tsering Phuk, near Dzogchen Monastery, where Dodrupchen had once done his own retreat. Soon after the retreat, he traveled to Central Tibet to see Jigme Lingpa once more.

 

At Tsering Jong, he experienced the great joy of seeing once more the omniscient Jigme Lingpa, who now no longer had any eye problems. He also met Gyalse, the young son of Jigme Lingpa. He received profound teachings for two and a half months. Jigme Lingpa told him, “Before, I wasn’t aware that you were so intelligent. . . . If you stay with me for three years, I will make you a special person.” Gyalwe Nyuku explained frankly that he had to go back home because of obligations to his friends. Jigme Lingpa replied:

 

That is fine. Trustworthiness is the quality of a supreme friend. In fact, for practicing true Dharma, there is no need to know many things. Information does not necessarily benefit the mind. Agood attitude benefits the mind. Nevertheless, you have sufficient wisdom in learning, analyzing, and meditation to be independent. There is no need to depend on monastic structures. You must try to meditate in caves or huts, where no negative circumstances will arise. If people come to you for teachings, instruct them with confidence. As your attitude is as excellent as pure gold, you will be helpful to others.

 

Then Gyalwe Nyuku returned to Kham. He did many years’ retreat around Dzogchen and a three-year retreat at Getse in Dzachukha.

 

In 1799, he went to Shukchen Tago to help Dodrupchen build his new gompa. With Dodrupchen he went to King Tsewang Lhündrup (?–1825) of Tsakho at Phüntsok Palace, to the king of Choktse, and to many places in Dzika Valley to help Dodrupchen with his teaching and raising funds for building the gompa.

 

Later Gyalwe Nyuku visited Phüntsok Palace by himself. The king asked him to stay as the head of either Chupho Gompa or Namgyal Teng Gompa, but he refused.

 

Gyalwe Nyuku wanted to go to Nakshö Sinmo Dzong to stay, but at the insistence of Dodrupchen he promised not to go anyplace farther than five or six days’ journey.

 

At Lhalung Khuk he attended the enthronement of Do Khyentse and saw Dodrupchen. Inspired by Gyalwe Nyuku, the queen-regent of Dege wished him to remain at Dege Palace, but thanks to Dodrupchen’s skillful intervention he was able to avoid this obligation.

 

In 1804, at the age of forty, Gyalwe Nyuku settled at Trama Lung, the Valley of Dry Twigs, in Dzachukha. After some time, he received a message from Dodrupchen that the queen-regent of Dege wanted him to come to the Dege palace. He wrote to Dodrupchen for help, Dodrupchen obtained release from her order for him. As a subject of the queen-regent, Gyalwe Nyuku had to be diplomatic.

 

At Trama Lung, with a few hermits Gyalwe Nyuku lived meditating and teaching for over twenty years, and he became known as Dza Trama Lama, after the name of the place. During that time, he didn’t go into total seclusion as many retreatants usually do, but taught andgave empowerments at Trama Lung and nearby places to meditators, monks, and the lay population.

 

In 1812 he had many experiences, such as turning the whole of phenomena into a ball of blue light and then merging it into himself, upon which his body melted into a phenomenon that appeared but was not apprehensible, and then came back together again as his body. He received empowerments from Kathok Getse Mahāpaṇḍita, who visited his hermitage.

 

In 1814 at Norbu Ri Gompa he gave teachings to Do Khyentse, the reincarnation of his teacher, and many others. Do Khyentse vowed to recite the Avalokiteshvara mantra one hundred million times.

 

In 1815 Do Khyentse was passing through Dzachukha on his second and last visit to Central Tibet, and Gyalwe Nyuku went to see him off. Afterward he went to Gyarong Monastery to receive a longlife empowerment from the master Namkha Tsewang Chokdrup (1744–?). He was also visited by Jigme Kalzang, the regent of Dodrupchen, and received empowerments from him. Around this time, one of his two main teachers in Kham, Getse Lama Rigdzin Gyatso, died.

 

In 1816 Gyalwe Nyuku went to welcome Do Khyentse, who was returning from his visit to Central Tibet. He saw both Do Khyentse and Dzogchen Rinpoche and received empowerments from them.

 

In 1817/18, after receiving a message from Dodrupchen to come to see him, he went with about ten monks to Yarlung Pemakö in Ser Valley. The Dharma father and son (or brothers) had a joyful reunion. Gyalwe Nyuku and his companions received all the teachings and empowerments they wished. Responding to Gyalwe Nyuku’s request, Dodrupchen gave a prophecy with a detailed description of a place where Gyalwe Nyuku should have his main residence. It said:

 

In the West of the five-peaked Dagyal [Dzagya] Lhünpo, a solitary site,

There is a place like a flower blooming.

The mountain behind is like a great meditator in contemplation.

The mountain in front is like a vessel being held up.

The mountain at the right is like [a roll of] cloth unfurled in the sky. . . .

Falling water sings vowels and consonants.

The land is colorful with vegetation and flowers.

Arrange to live in that excellent place.

 

As soon as Gyalwe Nyuku returned to Dzachukha, he moved to Gyagö Photrang, the place endowed with the characteristics prophesied by Dodrupchen. There he stayed for over ten years.

 

One night, Gyalwe Nyuku had a dream of peaceful and wrathful deities in the sky, and a ḍākinī was telling him that this was the time for him to leave. Then four beautifully ornamented ḍākinīs of four different colors lifted him and the first ḍākinī into the sky on an unfurled roll of silk. But at that moment he saw Dodrupchen coming down from the sky, telling the ḍākinīs to take him back, as this was not his time to leave, so they brought him back. Then the Buddhas dissolved into him, and he woke up from his sleep. Even when awake during the daytime, he kept having various experiences. For example,

he saw all appearances turning into peaceful and wrathful deities; they merged into him; his body burst into a phenomenon that appeared but was not apprehensible; or sometimes everything became total emptiness.

 

One night, in a dream he was led by a ḍākinī into an amazing palace. In it he sat between Jigme Lingpa and Dodrupchen. He was so happy that he requested them to let him stay, but they said, “No, you are only a visitor. This is not your time to come. Without being discouraged by the people of the dark age, maintain your two bodhichitta vows. Fill your life with the wheel of Dharma activities. There is no separation between us and you.”

 

In 1820, at Dzogchen Monastery, he received many empowerments from the fourth Dzogchen Rinpoche. He also gave teachings to Dzogchen Rinpoche and others.

 

On the seventeenth of the eighth month of the Iron Snake year (1821), Do Khyentse, who was visiting another part of Dzachukha, told his followers that he had received a prophecy that he would be leaving his body on the twenty-fifth of the same month. Only oneperson, who belonged to the Lotus family and was named Pema, could avert it. Do Khyentse said that that person was Gyalwe Nyuku. As soon as Gyalwe Nyuku heard these words, he traveled all night to get to Do Khyentse, who was in good health. With about fifty monks, he started to arrange a ceremony. On the twenty-fourth, Do

Khyenste suddenly got sick. All night Gyalwe Nyuku performed the Sündok ceremony of Yumka Dechen Gyalmo. Do Khyentse was dying and people were crying. With strongest devotion, deepest meditation, and boldest prayers Gyalwe Nyuku did the best that he could, and finally signs of the clearing of obstructions appeared in the ceremonial rites, and instantly Do Khyentse showed signs of reviving.

 

In 1821 Gyalwe Nyuku attended the funeral ceremony of the third Pönlop (1806–1821?) at Dzogchen and dispelled the life obstructions of the fourth Dzogchen Rinpoche and gave him teachings.

 

In 1830 he moved his residence from Gyagö Photrang to Dzagyal Dünlung. Gyagö Photrang was a very beneficial place for him, an auspicious place where he and his disciples achieved great meditative accomplishments, but now, because of a change in climate, the ground had become wet and it was unhealthy to live there any longer.

 

In 1833 Gyalse Zhenphen Thaye came to receive more teachings from him. In 1834 Gyalwe Nyuku gave the transmissions of Longchen Nyingthig to the second Dodrupchen (1824–1863/64) and empowered him as the supreme vajracharya.

 

He ends his autobiography at the age of seventy-four (1838).

 

At the age of seventy-nine, on the twenty-fifth day of the first of the month of the Water Hare year (1843), he passed away. The fourth Dzogchen Rinpoche, in a pure vision, received Gyalwe Nyuku’s testament. His physical remains were preserved at Dzagya Monastery in Dzachukha.

 

As advised by Jigme Lingpa, Gyalwe Nyuku devoted the entire latter part of his life to teaching whoever came to listen to him, giving empowerments or meditation instructions to all who were devout and sincere in meditation. For example, Paltrül Rinpoche received teachings on the Ngöndro of Longchen Nyingthig twenty-five times

from him. Paltrül Rinpoche wrote down Gyalwe Nyuku’s teachingson the Ngöndro as the Künzang La-me Zhalung.

 

His tülku was Künzang Dechen Dorje, who was recognized by the fourth Dzogchen Rinpoche.

 

*Above Contents from Masters of Meditation and Miracles: Lives of the Great Buddhist Masters of India and Tibet by Tulku Thondup (1999).