Gdams ngag mdzod Shechen Printing/Volume 11/Source Scriptures of the Five Golden Dharmas

Introduction

The title for the following collection of twelve Shangpa source texts—Vajra Lines of the Six Dharmas of Niguma, Ḍākinī of Timeless Awareness: The Roots of the Golden Dharmas of the Shangpa—applies literally to only the first six that concern the Six Dharmas of Niguma. The whole work as it is reprinted in the Shechen edition of The Treasury of Precious Instructions contains six more ancient works covering the other four Golden Dharmas, yet all under this title. It is interesting that this text is missing entirely from the Kundeling printing of The Treasury, and the editor comments in his table of contents on this peculiarity, since Kongtrul clearly lists it in his Catalog. But there are a number of other sources from which it might have been retrieved to restore the order here. A source of this small collection may be in the seventy-seventh to eighty-first guidebooks of Jonang by Samdingpa Zhönu Drup.

The Six Dharmas hold a central place in the teachings of Niguma. They were given by her to Khyungpo Naljor a total of four times during his encounter with the ḍākinī and, by her own testament, were held only by herself and her master Rāhula in all of India (making them distinct from the Six Dharmas of Nāropa). Khyungpo Naljor then wrote them down, presumably in some Indian language, and brought that text back to Tibet, stopping at Toling Monastery where the great master Jowo Je Atiśa compared it to his own copy (and where did that come from?) before approving it. The great translator Rinchen Zangpo also verified it, or even edited it, as stated in the colophon.

From there the practices of the Six Dharmas were passed on in the lineage in Tibet and became known as the “roots” of the tree of the Five Golden Dharmas. Teachings on the Six Dharmas ultimately derive from the completion-phase practices (rdzogs rim) in the major yoga tantras, which concern the manipulation of the subtle energies of the body. There are any number of influences on the six as a whole and on each individual dharma, which are often attributed to separate sources. Sangye Tönpa Tsöndru Senge (1207–1278), the seventh and last “jewel” of the Shangpa one-to-one lineage, states that they are directly based on the ever-elusive source of all Shangpa teachings: the Jewel Ocean Tantra.

The Vajra Lines of the Six Dharmas, like all vajra lines (rdo rje tshig rkang), are very ancient, a millennium old or more, and sourced in oral instructions. Written down by Khyungpo Naljor or revealed in visions to such masters as Tangtong Gyalpo, they may be the original words of the ḍākinī, but they are nevertheless (or therefore) very cryptic. The quatrains are quoted here and there in many other places, but generally the practitioner must rely on later commentaries. The following five texts in this section represent the earliest attempts to clarify them, written down by Khyungpo Naljor based on Niguma’s words.

In addition to those clarifications, the vajra lines themselves have been overlaid with a jumble of interlinear notes and additions. But who wrote those notes? According to the note appended to the text (which itself has an interlinear note attached to it!), the “actual” (dngos) vajra lines are those in all editions and commentaries that we can assume are Niguma’s verses as remembered by Khyungpo Naljor. The next level seems to be the added prose clarification by Khyungpo Naljor based on Niguma’s teachings. Apparently Buddhaśrī extracted these from the original and added them to each of the Six Dharmas separately. Finally, the interlinear small print that is not included in the Tengyur edition of the text appears to be by Lochen Gyurme Dechen (1540–1615). Jamgön Kongtrul, in The Beryl Key, clarifies this colophon with one more important detail:

This text ends with, “Lotsāwa Lendarma Lodrö translated it, and later Lochen Rinchen Zangpo ascertained it.” It also says that Buddhaśrī separated out the individual notes from the source and added some notes, and again Lochen Gyurme Dechen carefully elaborated on it. These are two different [versions].

This explains the lack of the interlinear notes in the Tengyur version. Generally, interlinear notes appear as tiny ant tracks carved, no less, into the woodblocks from each randomly placed notation and leading to its relevant section. One can see from the resulting chaos of most digital versions that clarity is easily lost. Fortunately, a beautiful illuminated edition handwritten in gold on black paper is in the collected works of Lochen Gyurme Dechen. (See color plates.) It distinguishes the three layers through the use of different fonts. In the translation here, the “original” vajra lines are in regular font, the interposed “summaries” by Khyungpo Naljor that Buddhaśrī extracted are in italics, and the interlinear notes by Gyurme Dechen are in smaller font and in parentheses. And as ever, the translator’s additions appear in square brackets. Hopefully, the inspired words of Niguma will still come through all this.