Wylie:Gcod yul rgya mtsho'i snying po stan thog gcig tu nyams su len pa'i tshul zab mo'i yang zhun
གཅོད་ཡུལ་རྒྱ་མཚོའི་སྙིང་པོ་སྟན་ཐོག་གཅིག་ཏུ་ཉམས་སུ་ལེན་པའི་ཚུལ་ཟབ་མོའི་ཡང་ཞུན་
gcod yul rgya mtsho'i snying po stan thog gcig tu nyams su len pa'i tshul zab mo'i yang zhun
A Distillation of the Profound: The Way to Practice the Essence of the Vast Object-Severance in a Single Sitting
This is Jamgön Kongtrul’s own liturgy for the donation of the body as food; it is included in the collection of his compositions called Treasury of Extensive Teachings (rGya chen bka’ mdzod). The idea of practice “in a single sitting”—literally, “on a single seat” (stan thog gcig tu)—basically indicates that the various extensive instructions, rituals, and postmeditation activities have been distilled into a manageable daily practice. Kongtrul stated his intention clearly in the colophon: the text was intended for use in the three-year retreat that he established in the upper hermitage at Palpung Monastery, Kunzang Dechen Ösal Ling. Although not specifically listed in the retreat curricula that he composed, the practice of Severance is a well-known integral part of the program. The successor of that retreat tradition, Kyapje Kalu Rinpoche, went on from Palpung to establish such retreats around the world. At some point, this composition of Kongtrul’s was replaced in the retreats by the now popular version attributed to the Fourteenth Karmapa, Tekchok Dorje, called The Concise Charity of the Body for Daily Practice.
Kongtrul also names his sources in the colophon: Samten Özer and Jamyang Gönpo, whose teachings from visionary experiences of Machik are called direct lineages (nye brgyud); and the composed teachings from Jonang Tāranātha and Minling Terchen Rinpoche. The Jonangpa tradition of Tāranātha’s Severance coming from Kunga Drölchok was discussed in the introduction to chapter 14. Kongtrul regarded himself as an incarnation of Tāranātha, affirming his deep spiritual connection with that lineage. Minling Terchen (sMin gling gter chen, 1646–1714), also known as Terdak Lingpa (gTer bdag gling pa) and Gyurme Dorje (’Gyur med rdo rje), was the great treasure revealer and founder of Mindroling Monastery, one of the six main Nyingma monastic complexes in Tibet. Jamgön Kongtrul relates many dreams of this master in his autobiography and mentions several great lamas who believed that Kongtrul himself was an incarnation of Minling Terchen.[1] Kongtrul’s inspiration from these two masters is obviously much deeper than just an appreciation of their work.
There may be a direct connection here to Minling Terchen’s brief composition (not a revealed text) bearing the similar name Hero’s Loud Laugh: Instructions on Object Severance in a Single Sitting (as well as several supportive texts with the “single sitting” signature).[2] The basic procedure for the all-at-once practice in both texts is comparable, although by Minling Terchen’s time this had become fairly standard. This text by Kongtrul, however, differs in several ways. The inclusion of the origin story based on the Verse Summary quotation and the classical definition of the term gcod is unusual for a short sādhana practice, though typical of Kongtrul. Kongtrul also makes the correlation between the three Buddhist meditative absorptions (Skt. samādhi) with the three phases of view, meditation, and conduct as applied to Severance practice.[3] Finally, the Samten Özer and Tāranātha connections are revealed in the inclusion of their two outstanding instructions: “the meaning of the Mother” and “severing the four devils in basic space.” Thus it is truly a distillation of the many deep dharma streams of which Kongtrul was the beneficiary.
- Translator's notes
- Note from Ringu Tulku
- How to Practice the Essence of the "Ocean of Chod Practice" in One-Sitting, Called "Cream of the Profound".
- Notes on individuals related to text
- I'm pretty sure that the jo nang rje btsun chen po in the colophon is Taranatha in this case (based on his authorship of other texts in this volume) but could use a second opinion on that- mainly because the dates for gyur med rdo rje and Tāranātha don't exactly match up (which I assume would be pretty important in order to call it a nye brgyud, or short/direct lineage). I've linked this name to a disambiguation page with Tāranātha and kun dga' grol mchog on it, and listed Tāranātha in the category data for this page for now.
- Other notes
- Genre from Richard Barron's Catalog
- Liturgy
- Genre from dkar chag
- gcod yul skor
- BDRC Link
- VolumeI1CZ3976
- BDRC Content Information
- No note on contents
Information about Unicode Tibetan and the digitization of this text
As the only available unicode Tibetan text at the time, Nitartha International's version of the Paro Edition of the gdams ngag mdzod is provided here. However, note that it has not been thoroughly edited and that there may also be mistakes introduced through the conversion process. Eventually we will provide a fully edited version of the entire Shechen Edition, entered and edited multiple times by Pulahari Monastery in Nepal, but as of fall 2017 that project has not been finished. Note that the folio numbers that appear throughout were added by Nitartha Input Center at the time of input.
Provided by Nitartha International Document Input Center. Many thanks to Lama Tenam and Gerry Wiener for help with fonts and conversion.
- Gcod yul rgya mtsho'i snying po stan thog gcig tu nyams su len pa'i tshul zab mo'i yang zhun
- 'jam mgon kong sprul
- Tibetan texts
- Gdams ngag mdzod Volume 14
- Gdams ngag mdzod Shechen Printing
- Gdams ngag mdzod Catalog
- Rgyal thang pa bsam gtan 'od zer
- 'jam dbyangs mgon po
- Tāranātha
- Gter bdag gling pa 'gyur med rdo rje