Wednesday, November 15, 2017

RIWO SANGCHOD: Mountain Smoke Offering
Lhatsun Namkha Jigme

Mountain Smoke Offering: from the Life-Force Practice of the Vidyādharas (Rigdzin Sokdrup)
revealed by Lhatsün Namkha Jikmé
༈ྃ བྷྲཱུྃ༔ རིན་ཆེན་སྣ་ཚོགས་དྭངས་མའི་སྣོད་ཡངས་སུ༔
droom rinchen natsok dangmé nö yang su
Bhrū! In the vast lustrous vessel, made of the essence of various jewels,
འཇིག་རྟེན་སྲིད་པའི་འདོད་རྒུ་དམ་ཚིག་རྫས༔
jikten sipé dögu damtsik dzé
The samaya substances, all the desirable objects in worldly existence, are
འབྲུ་གསུམ་ཡེ་ཤེས་བདུད་རྩིར་བྱིན་བརླབས་པས༔
dru sum yeshe dütsir jinlabpé
Transformed into the nectar of wisdom through the blessing of the three seed syllables o ā,
སྣང་སྲིད་མཆོད་པའི་འདོད་རྒུར་འཁྲིགས་པ་འདི༔
nangsi chöpé dögur trikpa di
So that all that appears and exists becomes an offering of all that is desirable.
བླ་མ་ཡི་དམ་ཌཱཀྐི་ཆོས་སྲུང་དང༌༔
lama yidam daki chösung dang
This I offer to the gurus, yidams, ākinīs, dharmapālas and
ཕྱོགས་བཅུ་རྒྱལ་བའི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་ཇི་སྙེད་དང༌༔
chok chu gyalwé kyilkhor jinyé dang
All the mandalas of the buddhas of the ten directions,
འཛམ་གླིང་གཞི་བདག་རིགས་དྲུག་ལན་ཆགས་མགྲོན༔
dzamling shyidak rik druk lenchak drön
To the local deities of this world, beings of the six realms and the guests to whom I owe karmic debts.
ཁྱད་པར་བདག་གི་ཚེ་འཕྲོག་སྲོག་རྐུ་ཞིང༌༔
khyepar dak gi tsé trok sok ku shying
And especially to those who would steal my life and deplete my life force,
ནད་གཏོང་བར་ཆད་རྩོམ་པའི་འབྱུང་པོ་དང༌༔
né tong barché tsompé jungpo dang
To the malicious jungpo demons who inflict sickness and obstacles,
རྨི་ལམ་རྟགས་མཚན་ངན་དང་ལྟས་ངན་རིགས༔
milam tak tsen ngen dang té ngen rik
Bad signs in dreams and all types of evil omens,
སྡེ་བརྒྱད་མ་རུང་ཆོ་འཕྲུལ་བདག་པོ་དང༌༔
dé gyé marung chotrul dakpo dang
The eight classes of negative spirits, the masters of magical illusions,
ཟས་དང་གནས་དང་ནོར་གྱི་ལན་ཆགས་ཅན༔
zé dang né dang nor gyi lenchak chen
And those to whom I owe karmic debts of food, place and wealth,
གྲིབ་བདག་སྨྱོ་འདྲེ་ཕོ་གཤིན་མོ་གཤིན་དང༌༔
drib dak nyodré poshin moshin dang
To forces that bring obscuration and madness, to the shades of men and women dead.
གྲི་བོ་ཐེའུ་རང་གྲོང་སྲིན་འདྲེ་མོ་བཅས༔
driwo terang drong sin dremo ché
To all the spirits, térangs, ghouls and female ghosts!
ལན་ཆགས་དམར་པོའི་མེ་ལ་ཇལ་ཏེ་བསྲེག༔
lenchak marpö mé la jal té sek
Now all my karmic debts are paid, burnt in the scarlet flames.
རང་རང་ཡིད་ལ་གང་འདོད་འདོད་རྒུའི་ཆར༔
rang rang yi la gang dö dögü char
Whatever each one desires, may the objects of their desires rain down:
ཇི་སྲིད་ནམ་མཁའ་གནས་ཀྱི་བར་ཉིད་དུ༔
jisi namkha né kyi bar nyi du
For as far and as long as space exists
འདོད་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན་ཟད་པ་མེད་པར་བསྔོ༔
döpé yönten zepa mepar ngo
I dedicate an inexhaustible amount of sensual stimulants!
བདག་གི་དུས་གསུམ་བསགས་པའི་སྡིག་སྒྲིབ་དང༌༔
dak gi dü sum sakpé dikdrib dang
May my negative actions and obscurations accumulated in past, present and future,
དཀོན་མཆོག་དད་གཤིན་དཀོར་ལ་སྤྱད་པ་རྣམས༔
könchok dé shinkor la chepa nam
And misuse of the offerings made to the Three Jewels, in devotion and for the dead,
སྦྱིན་སྲེག་མེ་མཆོད་འདི་ཡིས་དག་གྱུར་ཅིག༔
jinsek mechö di yi dak gyur chik
Be purified in the fire of this sang offering!
མེ་ལྕེ་སྣང་སྲིད་གང་བའི་རྡུལ་ཕྲན་རེས༔
meché nangsi gangwé dultren ré
Let its flames fill the entire universe and every minute particle of flame
ཀུན་བཟང་མཆོད་པའི་སྤྲིན་ཕུང་མི་ཟད་པ༔
kunzang chöpé trinpung mizepa
Become an inexhaustible cloud of offerings like Samantabhadra’s
རྒྱལ་བའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་ཡོངས་ལ་ཁྱབ་གྱུར་ཅིག༔
gyalwé shyingkham yong la khyab gyur chik
Pervading throughout all the buddha realms!
མེ་ལྕེ་ཡེ་ཤེས་འོད་ལྔའི་མཆོད་སྦྱིན་ཟེར༔
meché yeshe ö ngé chöjin zer
May these flames, offering-rays of five-coloured lights of wisdom,
རིགས་དྲུག་མནར་མེད་གནས་སུ་ཁྱབ་གྱུར་པས༔
rik druk narmé né su khyab gyurpé
Pervade throughout the six classes of beings, down to the Avīcī Hells,
ཁམས་གསུམ་འཁོར་བ་འཇའ་ལུས་འོད་སྐུར་གྲོལ༔
kham sum khorwa jalü ökur drol
The three realms of sasāra be liberated into the rainbow body,
འགྲོ་ཀུན་བྱང་ཆུབ་སྙིང་པོར་སངས་རྒྱས་ཤོག༔
dro kün changchub nyingpor sangye shok
And all sentient beings awaken into the heart of enlightenment!
ཨོཾ་ཨཱཿཧཱུྂ༔ ཞེས་བརྒྱ་སྟོང་འབུམ་ཕྲག་མང་པོས་འབུལ་བར་བྱའོ༔
om ah hung
With O āmake the offering a hundred, thousand, or several hundred thousand times.
སྐུ་གསུམ་དག་པ་སྣོད་ཀྱི་གཞལ་ཡས་སུ༔
ku sum dakpa nö kyi shyalyé su
All is purified into the three kāyas: the environment, a heavenly palace where
ཆོས་ལོངས་སྤྲུལ་གསུམ་སྣང་སྲིད་གཟུགས་ཕུང་རྣམས༔
chö long trul sum nangsi zukpung nam
Dharmakāya, sabhogakāya and nirmāakāya—appearance and the form aggregates of existence
བདུད་རྩིར་ཞུ་བས་འཇའ་འོད་བར་སྣང་གང༌༔
dütsir shyuwé ja'ö barnang gang
Melt into nectar, flooding the whole expanse of the sky with rainbow light.
འཁོར་བ་མྱང་འདས་ཟག་མེད་བདུད་རྩིའི་བཅུད༔
khorwa nyangdé zakmé dütsi chü
Sasāra is liberated into nirvāa; this essence of immaculate nectar,
ཐོག་མེད་དུས་ནས་ད་ལྟ་ཡན་ཆད་དུ༔
tokmé dü né danta yenché du
I share with all those who, from beginningless time until now,
སྣང་སྲིད་མགྲོན་དུ་གྱུར་པ་ཡོངས་ལ་བསྔོ༔
nangsi drön du gyurpa yong la ngo
Have been guests in worldly existence.
ས་ལམ་འབྲས་བུའི་ཡོན་ཏན་མཐར་ཕྱིན་ཞིང༌༔
salam drebü yönten tarchin shying
Having attained all the noble qualities of the stages, paths and fruition,
ལྟ་སྒོམ་སྤྱོད་པའི་བར་ཆད་ཀུན་བསལ་ནས༔
ta gom chö pé barché kün sal né
And dispelled all obstacles in view, meditation and action,
རྨད་བྱུང་ཀུན་བཟང་ཐུགས་ཀྱི་མཁའ་དབྱིངས་སུ༔
mejung kunzang tuk kyi khaying su
Within the sky-like space of Samantabhadra’s wondrous wisdom mind,
གཞོན་ནུ་བུམ་སྐུར་གཏན་སྲིད་ཟིན་པར་ཤོག༔
shyönnu bumkur tensi zinpar shok
May we seize the stronghold of the youthful vase body!
འཁོར་བའི་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ཆེན་པོ་སྟོངས་པའི་མཐར༔
khorwé gyatso chenpo tongpé tar
And when at last the great ocean of sasāra is emptied;
འོག་མིན་པདྨ་དྲྭ་བར་སངས་རྒྱས་ཤོག༔
womin pema drawar sangye shok
May all beings attain buddhahood in the Lotus Net of Akaniṣṭha!
ཕུང་ཁམས་བསྲེག་རྫས་བཀྲག་མདངས་གཟི་བརྗིད་འབར༔
pung kham sekdzé trakdang ziji bar
The sang offerings of the aggregates and elements blaze in vivid, brilliant splendour!
དཀར་དམར་བྱང་སེམས་བསྲེག་རྫས་བདེ་སྟོང་འབར༔
kar mar changsem sekdzé detong bar
The sang offerings of red and white bodhicitta blaze in bliss and emptiness!
སྟོང་ཉིད་སྙིང་རྗེའི་བསྲེག་རྫས་ཆོས་དབྱིངས་གང༌༔
tongnyi nyingjé sekdzé chöying gang
The sang offerings of emptiness and compassion fill the dharmadhātu!
སྣང་སྲིད་འཁོར་འདས་རྡོ་རྗེའི་འོད་ལྔའི་གཞིར༔
nangsi khordé dorjé ö ngé shyir
Upon the ground of five-coloured vajra light of phenomenal existence, sasāra and nirvāa,
ལྷུན་གྲུབ་རྫོགས་སངས་རྒྱས་པའི་བསྲེག་རྫས་འབུལ༔
lhündrub dzok sangye pé sekdzé bul
I offer the smoke offering of spontaneously accomplished perfect buddhahood.
སྔོན་གྱི་ལན་ཆགས་ཐམས་ཅད་བྱང་གྱུར་ཅིག༔
ngön gyi lenchak tamché jang gyur chik
May all my karmic debts from the past be purified!
ད་ལྟ་རྒྱུད་ལ་མི་གནས་མཐོལ་ལོ་བཤགས༔
danta gyü la miné tol lo shak
In the present so they do not remain in my mind-stream, I confess them!
མ་འོངས་སྒྲིབ་པའི་འཁོར་ལོར་མ་གྱུར་ཅིག༔
ma ong dribpé khorlor magyur chik
In the future, may I never be drawn into the wheel of obscuration!
སོ་ཐར་བྱང་སེམས་རིག་པ་འཛིན་པ་ཡི༔
sotar changsem rigpa dzinpa yi
All impairments of the vows of individual liberation, bodhisattva precepts,
སྡོམ་བཅས་བསླབ་པ་གསང་སྔགས་དམ་ཚིག་རིགས༔
dom ché labpa sang ngak damtsik rik
And samayas of the vidyādharas,
ཚོར་དང་མ་ཚོར་ཉམས་པ་མཐོལ་ལོ་བཤགས༔
tsor dang matsor nyampa tol lo shak
Conscious or unwitting, I openly admit.
ནད་གདོན་གྲིབ་དང་མི་གཙང་དག་གྱུར་ཅིག༔
né dön drib dang mitsang dak gyur chik
May illness, harmful influence, obscurations and impurities be purified!
ནད་མུག་མཚོན་གྱི་བསྐལ་པ་ཞི་གྱུར་ཅིག༔
né muk tsön gyi kalpa shyi gyur chik
May this age of plague, famine and warfare be pacified!
མཐའ་མི་དབུས་སུ་འོང་བའི་བསུན་མ་ཟློག༔
tami ü su ongwé sünma dok
May the attacks of invaders be repelled!
ཆོས་མཛད་བླ་མ་གདན་འདྲེན་བར་ཆད་ཟློག༔
chödzé lama dendren barché dok
May the forces that create obstacles by inviting the spiritual teacher to leave this world be averted!
བོད་ཡུལ་བཀྲ་མི་ཤིས་པའི་ལྟས་ངན་ཟློག༔
böyul trami shipé te ngen dok
May inauspicious bad omens for the land of Tibet be averted!
གཟའ་ཀླུ་རྒྱལ་པོས་སྲོག་དབུགས་སྡུད་པ་ཟློག༔
za lu gyalpö sokuk düpa dok
May the planetary forces, nāgas and arrogant king-like spirits, who cut short the breath of life, be repelled!
འཇིགས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་བརྒྱད་དང་བཅུ་དྲུག་ཟློག༔
jikpa chenpo gyé dang chudruk dok
May the eight great fears and sixteen lesser fears be overcome!
བདག་ཅག་འཁོར་བཅས་བཀྲ་མི་ཤིས་པ་ཟློག༔
dakchak khor ché trami shipa dok
For me and all those around me, may all that is inauspicious be averted!1
དམ་སྲི་འགོང་པོའི་མཐུ་སྟོབས་ནུས་པ་ཟློག༔
damsi gongpö tutob nüpa dok
May the powers and strength of samaya-breakers and gongpo demons be averted!
ས་མ་ཡ༔
samaya
ཞེས་ཤིང་སྣ་ཚོགས་པའི་བསངས་ཁ་བརྒྱ་དང་བརྒྱད། སྦྱིན་སྲེག་གི་ཆོ་ག་ལས་བྱུང་བ་ལྟར། རི་བོ་བསངས་མཆོད་འདིས་འཆི་བསླུ་དང་། དཀོར་སྦྱོང་། བར་ཆད་ཀྱི་རིགས་སེལ་བ་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཕ་ལམ་ལྟ་བུ་འདི། སྦས་ཡུལ་འབྲས་མོ་གཤོངས་ཀྱི་གནས་སྒོ་འབྱེད་པའི་ཆ་ལག་ཏུ་མཁའ་འགྲོས་གནང་བ་བཞིན་ནོར་འཁྲུལ་མེད་པར་སྦྱར་བའོ།། །།
As indicated in the ritual for the fire offering, use 108 incense burners and various kinds of wood. Through this diamond-like practice of Mountain Smoke Offering, one will be able to ‘ransom’ death, purify the misuse of offerings and avert various kinds of obstacle. In accordance with the ākinī’s instructions, this was set down, without any error, when revealing the hidden land of Sikkim.

Bibliography
Ri bo bsangs mchod in Rig 'dzin srog sgrub, 5 vols, Delhi: Chos spyod dpar skrun khang, 2000, (TBRC W13779) vol. 1, pp. 829–834

| Rigpa Translations, 2008. Corrected, 2016.
1.   (Ref: Lotsawa House)


Monday, November 13, 2017

RIGDZIN SOGDRUP AND RIWO SANGCHO
Lhatsun Namkha Jigme

The  famous cycle of terma teachings called Rigdzin Sokdrup (‘Accomplishing the Life-Force of the Vidyadharas’), emerged in a pure vision while Lhatsun Chenpo was in retreat in the cave of Lhari Rinchen Nyingphug near Tashiding in west Sikkim. These teachings, of which Riwo Sangcho forms the mengak or innermost instruction, are unsurpassed instructions on Dzogchen Atiyoga.
Terton Lhatsun Chenpo, Sikkim’s Patron Saint, discovered the “Attainment of the Vidyadhara Life” (rig 'dzin srog sgrub), from which the “Riwo Sangcho” (ri bo bsang mchod), meaning “Mountain Smoke Offering”, a terma hidden by Guru Rinpoche, comes from and “The Spontaneous Song of the Clouds: the Nucleus of Indestructible Reality” (rdo rje snying po sprin gyi thol glu).
Rigdzin Sogdrub (rig 'dzin srog sgrub) is a cycle of more than 800 pages in five volumes. The terma is a collection of core teachings of the Southern Treasure Text Lineage (lho gter) of the Dzogchen Tradition popular in Sikkim. The fifth volume is the famous Neysol (gnas gsol = 'Worship of the Place') often referred to in connection with the religious history of Sikkim.
Through his practice of Riwo Sangcho, Lhatsun was able to remove all human and non-human obstacles to the Dharma in Sikkim, opening it as a ‘secret land’ of the teachings. Because of this, he was able to teach Dzogchen very widely in Sikkim in the remaining years of his life, establishing a vibrant and unbroken lineage that continues to this day, known simply as ‘Sikkim Dzogchen’.
Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche
More than two hundred of Lhatsün Namkha Jigme’s writings have survived. Accomplishing the Life-Force of the Vidyadharas and The Spontaneous Song of the Clouds have continued to be transmitted and practised throughout Tibet and particularly in Sikkim right up to the present day without any decline.
THE TSUKLAKHAG TRUST
This month, under the leadership and guidance of the Chogyal Wangchuk Namgyal of Sikkim,who is engaged in the revival of Dharma, particularly the Rigdzin Sogdrup tradition,  H.E. Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche will bestow Rigdzin Sogdrup and Dorje Nyingpo Wang-Lung (empowerment and initiation) at Tashiding Monastery, West Sikkim, from November 16-22, 2017.
Dzongsar Rinpoche will also bestow Kawang at the Tsuklakhang Royal Chapel in Gangtok on November 26, 2017.The two functions are being organized under the auspices of The Tsuklakhang Trust.



Sunday, November 12, 2017

NO CHANGE OF MIND
“No regrets, no hard feelings”
In days and weeks to come you may be told by some people – genuinely or mischievously - that I would be joining politics and contesting the next Assembly elections  (slated for early 2019 but may take place in 2018) from the prestigious Gangtok constituency, which has equal number of voters from all four communities – Bhutia-Lepchas, Nepalese and byaparies (business community).
This is far from the truth. I have been out of politics and political affairs of Sikkim since 2004. I made an effort to form a credible team and make a comeback in 2008 but this was unsuccessful. Since then this part of my life has been a closed chapter. I intend to keep it that way. The details of what took place are recorded in great detail in my last book, “The Lone Warrior: Exiled in My Homeland” (now unofficially banned in Sikkim) for posterity to take note of.
My political thoughts, recorded in my three books (“Inside Sikkim: Against the Tide” – published in 1993,  “Sikkim For Sikkim: Distinct Identity Within the Union” – published in 2009, and “The Lone Warrior: Exiled In My Homeland” – published in 2014), in my numerous newspapers, including Sikkim Observer, and other writings focus on preservation of Sikkim’s ‘Distinct Identity within the Union’ and restoration of the political rights of the Sikkimese people as assured by New Delhi during the ‘merger’ era in 1973-75 and reflected in Article 371F of the Indian Constitution. These are two major issues raised by the Sikkimese people through their social and political organisations in the past four decades.
But despite this New Delhi has failed to meet the hopes and aspirations of the Sikkimese people. So far we have demanded preservation of our ‘distinct identity’ within the Union and within the framework of the Constitution of India. We have never demanded Independence. And yet New Delhi has gone about eroding the credibility of our political leadership and diluting our ‘distinct identity’ and political rights, leading to their eventual death.
Let me again warn New Delhi of what Hindustan Times wrote in April 1974: “Security depends on people, not territory.”
Is it because of New Delhi’s mischievous activities in Sikkim that a people like me have given up on Sikkim and the Sikkimese people? No. I have opted out because I truly believe that our majority Sikkimese Nepalese and their political leadership have made a U-turn along the way and are now not interested in preserving their political rights and distinct identity. They have every right to pursue their own political future and objectives and we must genuinely respect it.
My dream has been that the three ethnic communities (Bhutias, Lepchas, Nepalese), the old business community and others live side by side unitedly and harmoniously with their distinct identity intact and within the bounds of India.

So, with a heavy heart I have come to accept the reality and the death of my dream and called it a day. No regrets, no hard feelings. Its over.