Table Of ContentBibliotheca lndo-Buddhica Series No. 212
A
Spiritual Biography of
Rechungpa
based on
The Radiance ofWisdom: The Life and
Liberation of the Ven.Rechung Dorje Drak
je bhun ras chung rdo rje grags pa'i nam thar rnam mkhyen
thar lam gsa/ ba'i me long ye shes snag ba bzhugs go
by
Thrangu Rinpoche
Geshe Lharampa
Translated by
Peter Roberts
Sri Satguru Publications
A Division of
Indian Books Centre
Delhi, India
Published by
Sri Satguru Publications,
Indological and Oriental Publishers
A Division of
Indian Books Centre
40/5,. Shakti Nagar,
Delhi-110007
India
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www. indianbookscentre.com
Copyright © 1999 by Khenchen Thrangu.
First Edition; Delhi, 2001
ISBN 81-7030-699-X
All rights reserved.No part of this book, either text or art, may be
reproduced in any form, electronic or otherwise, without written
permission from the Namo Buddha Seminar,l390 Kalmia
Avenue,Boulder,CO 80304,USA
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the mart'y persons who helped make this book
possible. First of all, we would like to thank Peter Roberts for trans latin!
this work. We would also like to thank Gloria Jones for transcribing the
tapes.Finally we would like to thank Jean Johnson for editing the
manuscript.
Note
Technical terms are italicized the first time that they are used to alert the
reader that they can be found in the Glossary.
Tibetan Terms are given as they are pronounced , not spelled in Tibetan.
Their actual spelling is given in the Glossary of Tibetan Terms.
We also follow the convention of using B.C.E. instead of B.C. for
"before current era" and CE for A.D. for" current era."
Published by Sunil Gupta for Sri Satguru Publications, a division of
Indian Books Centre, 40/5, Shakti'Nagar, Delhi-110007, India and.
orin ted at Chawla Offset Printers. Delhi 110 052
Contents
Introduction vii
1. Rechungpa' s Early Life 1
2. Rechungpa Returns from India 17
3. Rechungpa and the Nyamas 27
4. Rechungpa Gains Students 35
5. Rechungpa and Latchi 43
6. Rechungpa Becomes Milarepa's Student 53
7. Rechungpa in Central Tibet 59
8. Latchi Repents 65
Notes 71
Glossary of Terms 77
Glossary of Tibetan Terms 87
Index 89
Introduction
Buddhism began in India about 500 years before the birth of
Christ. Because of the vast and profound teachings taught by
the Buddha, this religion has persisted and expanded to the
entire world. Buddhism has, however, not remained static~ but
has changed and. evolved through the ages and it has also
adopted to the variou~ cultures that it has encountered.
In the seventh cent\(lry of our era Buddhism was introduced
into Tibet and became the predominate religion in this highly
isolated kingdom. From there courageous souls made the
arduous journey through infested lands and dangerous bandits
down to India to collect and take back these precious
teachings.
Just before the destruction of Buddhism in India in the
twelfth century, lil daring Tibetan Marpa made not one, but
three trips to India to get the Dharma. While in India Marpa
found Naropa, a great pandita of the predominate Buddhist
college in the world. Naropa had given up the highest position
at Nalanda University to go to living in the forest as a
penniless hermit practicing the vajrayana· teachings. From
Naropa, Marpa brought back the profound vajrayana
teachings and transmitted them to Tibet's greatest saint,
Milarepa.
Milarepa then had two great pupils-Gampopa who went
on to found the monastic branch of the Kagyu li~eage and
Rechungpa. Gampopa went on to write the Jewel Ornament of
Liberation which is a classic textbook on how to follow the
Buddhist path. From Rechungpa we have the amityus practice
and other practices and a spiritual biography which is
fascinating because it includes many of the trials a practitioner
goes through-doubt of one's teacher, not following the guru's
instructions, sexual temptation, and pride of spiritual
accomplishment. Despite all of Rechungpa's failings, he was
able to achieve enlightenment in one lifetime and this was
evidenced by his being able to achieve what is known as
"rainbow body." This practice is a high meditative practice in
which one dissolves almost all of one's body after one is
already dead.
Thrangu Rinpoche has suggested reading spiritual
biographies when one becomes discouraged with practice. He
gave these teachings at two different times. He first gave
teachings on Rechungpa in February of 1989 to the Namo
Buddha Winter Seminar in Nepal with Peter Roberts
translating. He later gave these teachings to Karma Dzong in
Boulder, USA with John Rockwell translating. Even though
Rinpoche used the same text, he emphasized many different
points. We have combined these two series of teachings into
one to give a much broader view of the life and practice of
Rechungpa.
Clark Johnson, Ph. D.
Chapter 1
Rechungpa's Early Life
INTRODUCTION
Milarepa, one of Tibet's greatest Buddhist saints, received a
prophesy from his guru as well as from his yidam that he
would have two great disciples: one who would be like the sun
and the other who would be like the moon. The disciple who
was like the sun was Gampopa and the disciple who was like
the moon was Rechungpa.
This biography of Rechungpa shows that he was very
intelligent and also that he had a great deal of faith and
devotion to the path of Buddhism. However, he didn't always
have this and this spiritual biography tells us that sometimes he
was filled with faith for his guru Milarepa and at other times
he lost faith in him. In the end Rechungpa's faith became
strong and he was able to achieve the full fruition of his
practice, Buddhahood as evidenced by the fact that at the
time of his death he did not leave a body behind.l
Spiritual biographies (Tib. namtar) are a tradition of the
vajrayana level of Buddhism and these biographies are
essentially biographies except that they are concerned with
how a realized individual first entered the Buddhist path, then
how that individual practiced on the path, and finally how
they attained Buddhahood. This biography of Rechungpa is
inspirational because it shows what one can do when one is
very intelligent and how one progresses along the path then
one has strong exertion and when one doesn't have much
exertion.
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A Spiritual Biography of Rechungpa
THE SPIRITUAL BIOGRAPHY OF RECHUNGPA
The spiritual biography of Rechungpa is quite long and is
composed of three main sections.2 The first section is quite
brief and deals with Rechungpa's past births. The second
section is composed of ten chapters and is concerned with his
present lifetime. The third section is also very brief and
concerns his future births. We will skip the first and third
sections and concern ourselves with the lifetime he lived in
Tibet when he helped establish the Kagyu lineage.
RECHUNGPA'S CHILDHOOD
The second section of this spiritual biography begins by
discussing how his birth took place, who his father and mother
was, what place he was born, and when he was born. This,
however, is not very important and will not be discussed.3
When Rechungpa was quite young his father died. This was
very hard on the family economically so Rechungpa who was
quite skilled in reading would go around and recite texts for
people and receive offerings in exchange for reciting these
texts. Then he would give these offerings to his mother and
uncle.
One day when Rechungpa was eleven years old, he noticed
that many people were gathered at a cave in the valley.
Rechungpa went up to this cave and he heard Milarepa inside
singing a spiritual song (Skt. doha). Just hearing this song
caused a transformation in him and he spoT\taneously
experienced great faith. Rechungpa entered the cave and
Milarepa was very delighted and began teaching him the
dharma. Milarepa also made a prophesy that in the future,
Rechungpa would become a great meditator. Hearing this
prophecy the people said, "Oh, it would be very good if you
could stay with Milarepa."
Rechungpa then began telling Milarepa about all the
hardships that he was undergoing and Milarepa replied,
"Actually, it seems like you have just a little suffering. I had
much greater suffering than that, but was finally able to meet
the great teacher Marpa and receive the oral instructions from
him. I then performed great austerities in my practice and
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