Permission Empowerments

Introduction

Losal Tenkyong (or Rinchen Mangtö Losal Tenkyong Palzangpo) is the author of the following two lengthy texts, which together contain the liturgies for empowerment into nearly all the main practices in the Shangpa tradition. As he was abbot of Zhalu Monastery in Tsang, his primary residence was Ripuk Ritrö, “Mountain Cave Hermitage,” which had been established in the caves above Zhalu by Butön Rinchen Drup (1290– 1364). Hence he was also known as Ripuk Tulku, and he refers to himself in these two texts as Ritröpa Losal, “the hermit Losal,” reflecting the name of his hermitage. Kongtrul also dubs him Zhalu Choktrul after his recognition as the incarnation of Tsechokling Yeshe Gyaltsen (1727–1802). Zhalu Monastery in Tsang is one of the oldest monasteries in Tibet still functioning. One temple, Serkhang Tramo, was originally built by Chetsun Sherap Jungne in 1027. Famous for its ancient murals, which are currently undergoing restoration, it was loosely associated with the Sakya and Kadam schools, though famously upholding its own tradition.

The eclectic Losal Tenkyong was very important in the Jonang transmission and thus also in the Shangpa. He is counted in the transmission lineage of Kunga Drolchok’s One Hundred and Eight Guidebooks of Jonang, the accepted antecedent and inspiration for Jamgön Kongtrul’s Treasury of Precious Instructions. Losal Tenkyong often remarks in these texts on his confidence in Kunga Drolchok and his successor Jonang Tāranātha. As well as the two texts here, he authored the short Supplementary Prayer to the Lineage of the One Hundred and Eight Guidebooks and Methods for the Conferral of the Empowerments, which are contained in volume 18 of The Treasury. That lineage passed from him to his student and also the requester of the prayer, Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo (1820–1892), and thence to Kongtrul himself.

But even more crucial was Losal Tenkyong’s role in reviving Tāranātha’s corpus of work. For centuries the printing press at Takten Puntsok Ling Monastery had been shut down and Tāranātha’s works suppressed. Established in the year 1615 by Tāranātha himself, Takten Puntsok Ling was the largest monastic establishment of the Jonangpa in Central Tibet. It contained a Buddhist studies college, retreat facilities, sixteen temples, and the printing press. After Tāranātha’s passing in 1650, it was forcefully seized by the fifth Dalai Lama’s government and converted into a Gelukpa monastery in 1658, renamed Ganden Puntsok Ling. It was Losal Tenkyong who facilitated the reopening of the printery so many years later and subsequently published the works of Tāranātha and others, including the Shangpa. We owe him a great debt of gratitude, as this whole volume would likely not exist without him. Moreover, Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo received the entire Shangpa transmission from him.

The first text here, A Garland of Grain Ears of Great Bliss, written by Losal Tenkyong in 1849, contains ten “permissions” (bka’ bcu). In this case, the first syllable of this word (bka’, or “precept,” “command,” “Buddha’s word,” etc.) refers to a particular ritual of empowerment (dbang bskur), more or less interchangeable (as occurs here) with blessing (byin rlabs) or authorization (gnang ba or rjes gnang). Tāranātha discusses the various systems of empowerment at the end of his exhaustive instruction on Niguma’s Six Dharmas known as Tangdalma. Of the four empowerment styles, ranging from extensive to extremely concise, these ten permissions constitute the extensive style. He names them as “two permissions that open the door to blessings, two permissions that establish a framework for blessings, and six permissions that are the main support of blessings.” Tāranātha discusses at some length when and how to confer them and the various misunderstandings on this subject. In particular, there seems to have been confusion around the first two all-important empowerments: the Five-Deity Cakrasaṃvara empowerment and Five-Deity Cakrasaṃvara absorption empowerment, which must always precede other instructions in the Shangpa tradition. In fact, we recall that in Tāranātha’s Five-Deity Cakrasaṃvara Mandala Ritual in this volume, he states, “The extensive mandala ritual of this Five-Deity Cakrasaṃvara in the Tradition of Niguma is only available in the Indian source texts; a complete and clear version in Tibetan has never surfaced.”

Losal Tenkyong, on the other hand, does not pursue those matters much. Notably, however, he does not explain the missing first permission, other than to recommend looking elsewhere for it. By this he perhaps means Tāranātha’s mandala ritual, which in any case is the one used now for this purpose. The various successions of transmission are listed by the author at the end of this text, most of them tracing to Kunga Drolchok and Tāranātha. He cites his own guru, Lobzang Tutop (fl. late 18th–early 19th centuries), whom he calls Avadhūtipa, as his direct source.

These ten (really nine) permissions are quite repetitive, both in organization and in liturgy, and constantly refer the preceptor back to previous passages to recite, especially those in the Cakrasaṃvara and Five Tantras empowerments. For the sake of space, this translation does not repeat those passages each time, but rather follows the author’s style of simply writing “et cetera” (la sogs pa). Anyone wishing to confer these empowerments must either memorize vast tracts or else do a lot of cutting and pasting.

The second text, A Sheaf of Grain Ears of Great Bliss, is a collection of the latter source permissions, including most of the original teachings of the lineage. The word latter (phyi ma) here seems to mean the practices other than the Six Dharmas of Niguma, which were covered in the previous text, rather than conveying some chronological sense. Mahāmudrā, the Three Integrations, and others all stem from original vajra lines attributed to Niguma, so there is no question of their ancient origins. The organization may be unfamiliar, such as including Immortal Body and Mind under Mahāmudrā, and so forth. Also, there are several practices that are rarely seen now, such as Yellow Cakrasaṃvara and Vidāraṇa. But many of the practices associated with these permissions are not in this volume and will be found in volume 12 of The Treasury of Precious Instructions. Losal Tenkyong also seems concerned with maintaining a complete outline, even if all those mentioned are not actually explicated. Such is the case for Rejoicing, Niguma’s Aspiration Prayer of the Sealed Word, the added two secret sādhanas, and four out of the five permissions for Six-Armed Mahākāla.