A Selection of Teachings from a Tibetan Buddhist Tradition

(From a teaching by Bardor Tulku Rinpoche given in Arizona in January 2010. Translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso, transcribed by Liz Summers, edited by Basia Coulter. Copyright 2010 Bardor Tulku Rinpoche and Peter O’Hearn. All rights reserved.)

In a general sense we can say that there are two parts to the Barom Kagyu lineage: the long oral lineage and the short lineage of profound vision. The long lineage is what was originally received by the dharma lord Sonam Zangpo. Sonam Zangpo was one of the two major disciples of his master, the holder of the Barom Kagyu who was called Marmo Sonam Dondrup and who founded the original monastic establishment at Kyodrak Utse. Marmo Sonam Dondrup had two main disciples who were called his disciples like the sun and the moon. Those were the dharma lord Sonam Zangpo, who spent his life in practice at Kyodrak monastery, and the dharma lord Trungmase Lodro Rinchen who founded Surmang monastery. So in a sense both of these very important Kagyu monasteries are a result of the long oral lineage of the Barom Kagyu. These monasteries were founded 700-800 years ago and since that time they have continued in their traditions enriched by the visions of Barway Dorje.

The teachings of the Barom Kagyu, like the teachings of all four primary and eight secondary divisions of the Kagyu, are the teachings of mahamudra given by Lord Gampopa. All of these teachings originally come from Lord Gampopa, we can therefore regard the four primary and eight secondary divisions as being like the four children and eight grandchildren of one family. Each of these lineages has continued down to the present day and many of them are very well known. The Barom Kagyu still exists; all four of the primary subdivisions still exist; and the eight subdivisions do as well. Among these, many are well known to you. The Karma Kagyu is one of the four primary divisions; the Drikung Kagyu and Drukpa Kagyu are the two of the eight secondary divisions that are best known worldwide. All of them are fundamentally the same in that what they are focused on, what they transmit, is the mahamudra of Lord Gampopa. This was taught by Vajradhara and so on, and in the case of the Barom Kagyu, it was passed from Vajradhara down, through the Kagyu tradition, to Marmo Sonam Dondrup and so forth. Countless siddhas have been born through these practices of mahamudra taught by Lord Gampopa.

The two volumes of visionary teachings found in the collected works of Barway Dorje are concerned with the lineage of mahamudra. The nine volumes of terma (or treasure) teachings are concerned with the other great tradition—the great perfection (or dzogchen). In these nine volumes there are many different practices, which have been used and continue to be used by practitioners to achieve the supreme attainment. Barway Dorje transmitted these teachings to his disciples who requested them, and as they practiced those teachings, many of them showed manifest signs of attainment. For example, when Kagyu Tashi of Kyodrak monastery practiced the White Khechari (or White Vajrayogini) sadhana to perfection, in the perception of others his body began to physically change into that of Vajrayogini. The standard of practice, which has been maintained in the lineage of Barway Dorje at Raktrul monastery, is recognized widely to be among the highest. There are two retreat masters currently in residence at Raktrul monastery and they and their peers are recognized throughout Tibet as having one of the best trainings possible.

The Buddha taught that his teachings consisted of two things and two things alone—the doctrine of transmission and the doctrine of realization. He said that they comprised the entirety of his teachings and they were maintained through study and practice respectively. Of these two, the aspect of the buddhadharma that actually brings its final and intended result is what we call the dharma of realization, the actual practice. It has its roots in study of the scriptures—and this is important and significant—but the point of study is to prepare the mind for practice, so that through practice one can reveal to oneself the nature of one’s own mind. By doing so one achieves liberation and subsequently liberates others through compassion. In other words, for someone to be able to bring others to liberation it is necessary that they have already achieved that liberation themselves. Once someone has recognized and fully revealed the nature of their mind then they can spark that realization in others; they can transmit it to others because they have it to transmit.

There are two traditional analogies for this. One is of a candle flame being passed from a lit candle to an unlit one. For this to happen first of all the first candle has to be already lit or it cannot light the second candle. Also when the flame is passed to the second candle, the first one stays lit; it does not lose its flame. The second analogy is that of a mold which one uses to make clay tsa-tsas (or images). If the mold is perfect and correctly made then no matter how many tsa-tsas you make with that single mold, they will all be good; they will all be perfect. But if the mold is lousy, then every single tsa-tsa that comes out of it is going to be lousy.

In the same way, one first has to liberate one’s own mind through realization of its nature and then through compassion bring others to liberation. So while both aspects—the buddhadharma of transmission and of realization—are important, it is the dharma of realization that brings the final result.

The Barom Kagyu is not well known in the West but this does not mean that it is not still widespread in Tibet. Traditionally, the Barom Kagyu has focused primarily on the intensive practice of meditation. In Eastern Tibet there have been nine three-year retreats for the Barom Kagyu teachings associated with the Kyodrak monastery alone. Five of them are for men and four for women. A tenth one—a new one for women—has just been opened. The new retreat for women focuses specifically on the White Khenchari (or White Vajrayogini) practice system. An eleventh retreat is also being created now in association with the Kyodrak monastery at the Kyodrak Peak (Kyodrak Utse). It is designed to be what we would call a postgraduate three-year retreat. To enter into that retreat the candidates must have done at least two or more three-year retreats and achieved the status of a retreat master. Thirteen such individuals will be selected and they will undertake this postgraduate retreat. The number is based upon the thirteen accomplished disciples of the dharma lord Sonam Zangpo who did retreat in the cave at Kyodrak Utse and for the sake of that auspicious connection, these thirteen postgraduate retreat masters will be in the eleventh retreat. All those retreats are connected with one monastery, the Kyodrak monastery. Also the original monastery of Lord Gampopa now has a Barom Kagyu three-year retreat, as does the original seat of the Barom Kagyu in northern Tibet. At both locations five sessions of the retreat have now been completed. Each of those three-year retreats has produced between forty and fifty graduates. There is also a growing connection between the Barom Kagyu practice system and the sacred site of the tower of Milarepa (the tower built by Milarepa for Marpa’s son, Tarma Dode). There is a practice facility for the Barom Kagyu at that site as well. In addition, there are thirty-five other branch monasteries, which are a part of the Barom Kagyu. Most of them also have a three-year retreat facility and all of them practice the Barom Kagyu tradition according to the visionary lineage of Terchen Barway Dorje. So if, as the Buddha said, we are supposed to achieve realization through practice, the Barom Kagyu is not doing too badly; we are not the worst of the Buddha’s followers.

But this obviously begs to question why nobody in the West has ever heard of the Barom Kagyu up to this point. And this is where I have to say that the buck stops here, because if you ask whose fault it is that nobody has ever heard of the Barom Kagyu, I would have to say that it is my fault. Why is it my fault? It is my fault, because I am the source of the Barom Kagyu, and therefore it is my responsibility. So it is my fault that nobody has heard of it.

You might wonder why I have never talked about the Barom Kagyu. My root guru was the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, and because of great devotion for him and great faith in him for more than thirty-six years I thought only of the service to his teachings, service to his activity, and service to his particular lineage. Out of devotion for my root guru I never mentioned the Barom Kagyu even by name. It is not that I did not care about the Barom Kagyu or that I did not know about the Barom Kagyu. It is just that first and foremost must always come our devotion for our root guru. For example, a prayer that I wrote says that I would willingly cast away even my aorta on which my life depends as heedlessly as I would a blade of grass in the service of my root guru. That is how I felt when I wrote that and that is how I feel today. My devotion for my root guru, the Gyalwang Karmapa, is unchanged. I mention this because some people might say that Bardor Rinpoche has separated from his root guru; he has gone off on his own now. This is untrue. The depth of my relationship with the Gyalwang Karmpa, and especially with the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa, will be evident to you when you read the Light of Dawn, the biography of the 2nd Barway Dorje, which will be eventually translated. In that text are recorded actual conversations between the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa and the 2nd Barway Dorje. During one of them the 16th Karmapa, Ranjung Rigpe Dorge, said to the 2nd Barway Dorje, “From now on your mind and my mind are always and forever inseparable and indivisible.” This is not a misquotation; it is an attested and verified quotation. And when His Holiness said this to my predecessor he was being very sincere. In a conversation with the 16th Karmapa myself, when he asked, “What shall our relationship be in the future?” I said to him, “For eleven generations my family has depended only on you as our guru for prayers at difficult times, for prayers for the deceased, and so. As well in my previous life, as you well remember, I depended totally on you and you alone. Therefore I will continue in this and future lives to depend only on you. I do not need anyone else. There is no one better. I need no one better. I need no other guru.” I had no doubt about this. I understand my own path and I understand my own destiny. I have no worries about my relationship with my root guru but I mention this because nowadays there are lots of rumors and gossip flying about. People say all sorts of things. I advise you, if you want to practice dharma purely and sincerely, do not listen to gossip and rumors. All you need is a clean, straightforward samaya and a relationship with your own particular root guru. If you recognize your root guru as Vajardhara, then you will receive, through your root guru, Vajradhara’s blessing. If you recognize your root guru as the embodiment of all buddhas of the past, present, and future, you will receive the blessing of all the buddhas of the past, present, and future. If you recognize your root guru as the embodiment of all buddhas and bodhisattvas and all the yidams, you will receive all their blessings and siddhis. There is no question that through such devotion, through such trust, you will achieve for your own benefit the dharmakaya. But if you doubt, if you are swayed by gossip and rumor, then obstacles will arise for you in your life and your practice. Your degree of faith, your degree of devotion does not particularly affect your root guru, but it will affect you. What happens to the guru is a function of his or her own deeds.

I care very much about all of you and that means, among other things, that I hope that everything will go very well for all of you in every way; that all of you will achieve final liberation from samsara; that all of you will attain the state of realization exemplified by the Kagyu siddhas of the past. And it is this attitude—this intention—that I learned from my guru, because it was and is his as well. So I urge you—this being my intention, this being why I care so much—I urge you not to be misled. Dharma itself is pure. It is pure in all its forms. That means not just the dharma of the Karma Kagyu, but the dharma of the Barom Kagyu, and other traditions as well. But while dharma itself is pure and unchanging, nevertheless we live amongst the dregs of time.

We live in a spiritually dark age. One of the symptoms of this is that the dharma is misused by unenlightened people. Those who misuse it cannot change the dharma itself but they can distort its presentation. Dharma itself is, of course, not a person; it is the truth. And a truth is what is true; that is not going to change. For example, the Buddha taught how he traveled the path and achieved awakening. Based on his own awakening, he gave a map leading from where we start [the path] to the state of perfect awakening. However, in reinterpreting that map, repackaging that map, some have falsified it; some have created misleading maps that keep people dependent on them by leading them in potentially endless circles. Nevertheless if we have true faith and pure samaya we will still find our way. On the other hand, if we lack faith, even if we meet an authentic spiritual master and receive an authentic map, we will not be able to follow it. Someone without faith is like a burnt seed. If you plant a burnt seed, even in the most fertile soil it is not going to grow. We need to mature. We need to lessen our kleshas. We need to achieve liberation. This is our intention; this is why we have entered the path. We share this intention with all authentic gurus. Their intention is the same—that we mature, that our kleshas diminish, and that we achieve liberation. It is important for us periodically to remind ourselves of why we are doing this, of what it is that we are really trying to do.

(From a teaching by Bardor Tulku Rinpoche given in Arizona in January 2010. Translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso, transcribed by Liz Summers, edited by Basia Coulter. Copyright 2010 Bardor Tulku Rinpoche and Peter O’Hearn. All rights reserved.)

As you know, what we now call Tibetan Buddhism, was initiated in the 8th century by the Abbot Shantarakshita; the Master Guru Rinpoche (or Padmashambava); and the dharma King Trisong Detsen. Guru Rinpoche empowered twenty-five people who constituted the first gathering or first assembly of his disciples. Among those twenty-five disciples was my predecessor Nupchen Sangye Yeshe later reborn as the dharma lord Sonam Zangpo, who was in turn reborn in the 19th century as Terchen Barway Dorje.

The collective writings of Terchen Barway Dorje consist of nine volumes of treasure  (terma); three volumes of oral and composed teachings (kama); and two volumes of visionary teachings (daknang). If these fourteen volumes of dharma comprising the essence of the treasure, oral, and visionary lineages simply existed in written form and had no effect on anyone, then there would not really be anything very remarkable about them at all. But that is not the case. To understand their significance, we need to go back a little bit and look at the history of the Barom Kagyu in particular and of the various other lineages in general during the 19th century.

After the parinirvana of the dharma lord Sonam Zangpo, the secret teachings of the Barom Kagyu seemed to have disappeared. The Barom Kagyu itself continued to exist, but by the 19th century it had become greatly diminished. In the 19th century an extraordinary being appeared who, as predicted by the Buddha, would revive all of the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism in general and especially preserve those lineages that were in danger of dying out. That person was the first Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche (Jamgon Lodro Thaye). The Buddha’s prediction regarding Jamgon Lodro Thaye can be found in the sutras in which he said, “I predict the coming of one who will be called Boundless Intelligence [which is the name Lodro Thaye] who will revive the teachings.” Jamgon Lodro Thaye, like Terchen Barway Dorje, was a rebirth of one of the twenty-five disciples [of Guru Rinpoche]. He was the rebirth of the great translator Vairochana who, having been trained as a translator, was sent by King Trisong Detsen to India to study with various Indian masters including some of the teachers of Guru Rinpoche. Vairochana remained in India for many years receiving teachings until his masters assured him that he had reached the same state of realization as theirs. With that assurance he returned to Tibet and for several years caused the vast dissemination of the teachings that he had received while in India. Eventually, because of the jealously of others, he was banished from Tibet to a southern area called Gyalmo’i Tsawarong and lived there for several years spreading the dharma until eventually he was allowed to return to Tibet. If you want to know more about the life of Vairochana, his biography has been translated into English and it is available as a book under the title the Vajra Garland and the Lotus Garden.

So Vairochana was reborn in the 19th century as Jamgon Kongtrul the Great (or Jamgon Lodro Thaye). His purpose in taking that rebirth was to protect and disseminate the Kagyu teachings and indeed the teachings of all lineages. By the time of Jamgon Kongtrul’s birth it was evident that there were going to occur cataclysm events that would cause the extinction of the teachings unless something was done that had never been done before. What Jamgon Lodro Thaye did that had never been done before was to assiduously receive and collect the teachings of all lineages. He compiled vast collections of literature of all of those teachings: the empowerment texts, the texts necessary for transmission and all of the guidance, instruction, and commentary texts. He made sure he received all of those teachings himself. He composed whatever texts were needed to supplement them and he collected all of them into what we now call The Five Great Treasuries. The significance of this is that if The Five Great Treasuries did not exist, then during the 20th century most of the teachings of the major lineages of Tibetan Buddhism would have been severely threatened by the events subsequent to the communist invasion and the Cultural Revolution. The Five Great Treasuries are: The Treasury of Precious Revelations, which includes within it many of the treasures (or terma) discovered up to the time of Jamgon Kongtrul the Great, that is before the 19th century; The Treasury of Precious Instructions, which contains the fundamental teachings of the oral lineages of the eight original practice lineages of Tibetan Buddhism; The Treasury of Kagyu Tantra, which includes within it the complete teachings and empowerments that come from Marpa the Translator; The Treasury of Vast Exposition, which consists of Jamgon Lodro Thaye’s collected writings; and finally The Treasury of All-Pervasive Knowledge, nowadays usually called The Treasury of Knowledge, which was a treatise composed by Jamgon Lodro Thaye at the request of the dakini Yeshe Tsogyal to serve as a fundamental guidebook to the view, meditation, and conduct of all forms of Tibetan Buddhism.

While Jamgon Kongtrul was composing these works, he also traveled all over Central, Eastern, and Western Tibet in order to receive every existing lineage. He mostly walked from place to place carrying whatever he had with him in a backpack. In some cases, when he visited the only person who held a minor lineage, he actually had to teach the person to read first, so that the person could give him the empowerment. While doing all this, Jamgon Lodro Thaye became aware that among the various Kagyu traditions, the Barom Kagyu was threatened with practical extinction. He, therefore, repeatedly exhorted people like Kagyu Tashi, and especially Terchen Barway Dorje who was known to be the rebirth of the dharma lord Sonam Zangpo, to do whatever could be done to preserve the Barom Kagyu.

Because of such repeated exhortation, which he had received not only from Jamgon Lodro Thaye but also from Kagyu Tashi, Terchen Barway Dorje remained in retreat for more that three years in the practice cave of dharma lord Sonam Zangpo, which is called Kyodrak Utse. While he was in that retreat, he received the previously dormant teachings of the Barom Kagyu from the dakini Yogini of Space—the wisdom body of the dakini Atroma, the consort of the dharma lord Sonam Zangpo. He recorded those teachings in their completeness in the two volumes of visionary teachings.

Since the time of Terchen Barway Dorje, these teachings have been practiced, and through their practice in many Barom Kagyu retreat facilities many practitioners have been able to pass out of this existence without leaving their bodies behind; others have achieved the rainbow body; others have come close to the achievement of the rainbow body; many—as hidden yogis—have lived their lives secretly in the mountains like those described by Jetsun Milarepa, living as children of the mountains, wearing the mountain mists as cloths, living a life of which Jetsun Milarepa himself said, “My vow is to meditate until death and to die alone in my cave of practice, so no one will mourn me.” In that way the teachings of the Barom Kagyu, which were revived through the visionary dispensation of Terchen Barway Dorje, have become very important.

(From a teaching by Bardor Tulku Rinpoche given in Arizona in January 2010. Translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso, transcribed by Liz Summers, edited by Basia Coulter. Copyright 2010 Bardor Tulku Rinpoche and Peter O’Hearn. All rights reserved.)

I have been asked to speak about the lineage and the treasures of Terchen Barway Dorje and of the treasure tradition in general, and I have consented to do so.

I have allowed a little bit of printed information about Terchen Barway Dorje to be circulated, but I have never spoken one word about my predecessor in a public setting. It is not because I am ignorant of Terchen Barway Dorje’s life or of his teachings, or that I have failed to understand their true meaning or the nature of things. It is out of respect and devotion for my root guru, the Sixteenth Gyalwang Karmapa, that I have sought in all of my teaching and traveling only to serve his activity and his teachings. I have, therefore, been extremely careful to abstain from anything that could by any stretch of the imagination be conceived as self-aggrandizement or self-promotion.

It is not that I do not know about Terchen Barway Dorje. I was born in Tibet, a country filled with dharma; I was recognized at a very early age as a nirmanakaya. Like any nirmanakaya, I am supposed to have been born with special qualities—this is something that is recognized in our tradition. There are two kinds of qualities that people can have: There are those [qualities], which come through training in any given life and there are those that are the result of previous lives. Any nirmanakaya is supposed to be born with an innate recognition of the nature of all things. And indeed we see that the great masters, such as His Holiness the Gyalwang Karmapa and others, from the moment of their birth have complete realization, and they only go through the motions of training in order to serve the needs of others. In any case, even if I lacked the qualities of an authentic nirmanakaya, I have also studied the life and teachings of my predecessor and, therefore, I will tell you a little bit about him and his teachings.

The Buddhadharma was introduced into Tibet by the three great dharma kings and especially it was during the reign of the second of these—King Trisong Detsen—that the teachings were firmly planted in the land of Tibet. It was especially during the reign of King Trisong Detsen that the vajrayana teachings were first fully brought to Tibet and that empowerment (or abhisheka) in its fullest sense was first given. Under the sponsorship and at the request of the King Trison Detsen, he and twenty-four other Tibetans received the particular empowerment from Guru Rinpoche (or Guru Padmasambhava) that is called the Empowerment of the Eight Dispensations. The eight dispensations refer to eight mandalas, which can be practiced separately but can also be combined into one super-mandala of 725 deities, including a ninth mandala.

The famous twenty-five disciples were not all of Guru Rinpoche’s disciples; they were the principal disciples of what is called the first assembly or the first time that Guru Rinpoche gathered disciples together in Tibet and taught them vajrayana [translator’s note: there were three such assemblies]. The twenty-five, who received empowerment on that day in the Caves of Chimphu, entered that mandala and as each of them threw his or her golden flower on the mandala, the flower landed on one or another of the nine areas (or realms) of the mandala. That caused Guru Rinpoche to give each of them a particular dispensation corresponding to the area of the mandala on which their flower landed. And it was that particular dispensation that they pursued in practice. Some of them, therefore, practiced Manjushri Yamantaka, others Hayagriva, others Perfect Heruka, others Amrita Qualities, others Vajrakilaya, and so on, and this was all based upon the auspicious coincidence of where their flower landed. One of those twenty-five disciples was the prime minister under King Trisong Detsen, who as a layperson was known as Dorje Tritsun. Nowadays he is better known by his dharma name, which was Sangye Yeshe. Because he came from Nup clan, he was called the Great Nup Sangye Yeshe or Nupchen Sangye Yeshe. His flower landed on the southern quadrant of the mandala and he was therefore given the dispensation (or practice) of Manjushri Yamantaka. Through that practice he achieved perfect awakening.

Nupchen Sangye Yeshe was my first very well known birth in Tibet. We know this from several sources, one of which is the Supplication to Successive Lives that was composed by Terchen Barway Dorje [editor’s note: Terchen means Great Treasure Revealer] at the request of the previous Garchen Rinpoche. The previous Garchen Rinpoche was a devoted disciple and also one of the principal dharma heirs of Terchen Barway Dorje. At one point he asked Terchen Barway Dorje to compose a supplication or prayer that would include in it at least a good selection of his previous lives. And so we have this prayer. It exists both in Tibetan and English, and the first of the Tibetan lives mentioned in it is Nupchen Sangye Yeshe. There are extensive biographies of Nupchen Sangye Yeshe, including an autobiography or auto-hagiography, which at least once existed and hopefully still does. And there are biographies of the other successive lives. We do not have time tonight to go through all of these in detail. Hopefully they will be made available and you can read them if you like. What is principally commonly known about Nupchen Sangye Yeshe is that he lived for a very long time during the reign of Langdarma, the king who was the grandson of Trisong Detsen and who attempted to destroy the Buddhadharma in Tibet. It was Nupchen Sangye Yeshe who prevented that destruction from being wholesale. At that time Nupchen was living as the leader of a large community of tantrikas (or lay tantric practitioners). In fact, he was given the title leader of thousands of kila wielding tantrikas. Nupchen was living openly in this way, which was against the king’s edict that all Buddhism be suppressed. He was, therefore, summoned into the presence of Langdarma. Langdarma said to him, “Who are you?” And Nupchen Sangye Yeshe said, “I’m a Buddhist tantrika.” Langdarma ask, “Well, what power do you have?” So Nupchen Sangye Yeshe extended the forefinger of his right hand and produced, according to some, one scorpion, and according to some, nine iron scorpions, each of which had nine heads and eighteen pincers. Each of those scorpions was the size of a mid-size yak and they shot around the room. The king was intimidated by this and said, “OK, I’ll leave you alone.” Nupchen Sangye Yeshe then said, “That’s not all.” And then he shot lightning bolts out of his finger that zoomed all around the palace, and so on. So the king said, “I’ll leave your lineage alone too.” At that point Nupchen was satisfied. There is a saying that in the beginning the teachings were held by Nyang and in-between they were protected by Nup. It refers to the fact that Nupchen Sangye Yeshe was the one teacher who was powerful enough to intimidate the king into leaving the community of practitioners alone. It is because of that, that we have the oral teachings of the ancient tantras to this day. It was not, however, Nupchen who assassinated Langdarma; that was Lhalung Palgyi Dorje.

Many of you have heard of the branches of the Kagyu tradition that are sometimes referred to as the four greater and the eight lesser lineages. The meaning of it is that there are the four primary and the eight secondary branches (or divisions). All of this comes from the lineage of Lord Gampopa; four of his disciples founded what we call the four primary divisions of Lord Gampopa’s lineage of the Kagyu. The first of these was the lineage of Gampopa’s monastery, Dakpo Gompa, that was inherited by Gampopa’s nephew, Ongom Tsultrim Nyingpo. That lineage is called [I] the Tsalpa Kagyu [editor’s note: so named after a student of Ongom Tsultrim Nyingpo, Tsalpa Tsondru Dragpa]. Another lineage was founded by Gampopa’s personal attendant, Barom Darma Wangchuk. His lineage is called after him, [II] the Barom Kagyu. Another of Gampopa’s disciples was the First Gyalwang Karmapa, Dusum Kyenpa, and his lineage is called [III] the Karma Kagyu. Yet another one was Lord Phagmo Drupa; his lineage as a whole is called [IV] the Phagmo Dru or Phagdru Kagyu and it is the source of the eight subdivisions.

The eight lesser lineages (or the eight secondary divisions) are all branches of the Phagdru Kagyu. To go through these quickly they are: the Lingre or [i] Drukpa Kagyu, [ii] the Drikung Kagyu, [iii] Taklung Kagyu, [iv] Marak Kagyu [editor’s note: also known as Martsang Kagyu], [v] Shugsep Kagyu, [vi] Yelpa Kagyu, [vii] Trophu Kagyu, and [viii] Yangpa Kagyu [editor’s note: also known as Yangzang Kagyu]. Yangpa Kagyu basically exists only in name. The Shugsep Kagyu does still exist and mostly as an abbey of female monastics. The Drukpa Kagyu and Drikung Kagyu are very well known.

How I fit into all this is that Barom Darma Wangchuk, Gampopa’s attendant and the founder of the Barom Kagyu, was the next one of my Tibetan lives that is well known. As Gampopa’s attendant he was very close to him. He saved Gampopa’s life on four occasions. And Gampopa once said of him that of all his disciples he was the most dear to him. He became the founder of the Barom Kagyu and eventually he was reborn as the Dharma Lord Sonam Zangpo who lived at Kyodrak monastery in Eastern Tibet. Kyodrak monastery was founded by Langray Drakpa Gyaltsen and is an important monastery for the Kagyu lineage in general. Sonam Zangpo and his consort, Atrom Zangmo, lived in a cave above Kyodrak monastery, which these days can only be reached by pulleys and ropes. Back in Sonam Zangpo’s times, the cave was reached by flying; Sonan Zangpo, Atroma Zangmo, and their thirteen disciples could fly.

Up until the time of the Dharma Lord Sonam Zangpo, the secret teachings of the Barom Kagyu were complete. He bestowed them on his consort, Atrom Zangmo, and upon others. After Sonam Zangpo passed away, the Barom Kagyu became somewhat diminished, less common. During Sonam Zangpo’s life, a statue was made of him of which he said, “That looks like me.” The king of Menyak, who was a patron and disciple of Sonam Zanpo’s, kept that image as the principal shrine object and support for faith. At one time, after Sonam Zanpo had passed away, the king of Menyak was making offerings to the statue and the statue spoke to him giving a prophecy, “Thirteen generations from now, my rebirth will appear with the name Lion. He will revive the secret teachings of the Barom Kagyu’s six dharmas of Naropa. At that time, you will be reborn as his principal disciple.” In accordance with that prediction, thirteen generations or thirteen lives later, Choje Sonam Zangpo [editor’s note: Choje means Dharma Lord] was reborn as the treasure revealer Barway Dorje whose personal name was Chokyi Senge or Lion of Dharma. He received the secret teachings and the previously lost teachings of the Barom Kagyu from a [wisdom] dakini called the Yogini of Space [Yeshe Khandro Namkay Namjor] who was the form taken by the dakini Atrom Zangmo. The teachings that Barway Dorje received from the Yogini of Space were those that Choje Sonam Zangpo had entrusted to his consort, dakini Atrom Zangmo, after her awakening, and she gave them back to Terchen Barway Dorje in a vision or a series of visions. Together with the remaining teachings of the long lineage of the Barom Kagyu, those teachings constitute the volumes of Barway Dorje’s visionary teachings. They include the Barom Kagyu mahamudra teachings, the six dharmas of Naropa, the physical exercises for those, and all of the other teachings of both long and short Barom lineages. The details of all this can be found in the individual biographies of the masters I have mentioned, their various lives, and to some extent in the Inner Biography of Terchen Barway Dorje, which has already been translated [into English]. The rebirth of the king of Menyak, who was predicted to become the inheritor of the Barom Kagyu teachings, was the siddha of Kyodrak monastary, Kagyu Tashi, who edited both the autobiographies and the collected songs and teachings of Barway Dorje.

I have been asked in particular to speak about the treasures of Barway Dorje. They consist of nine volumes, which comprise within them the essence of the teachings of the nine mandalas of the eight dispensations. I will go briefly through them, so that you can understand the link between the starting point of the treasure tradition, when Guru Rinpoche gave that great empowerment of the eight dispensations to the twenty-five disciples, and its culmination in the revelations of Barway Dorje and others.

[Translator’s note: although they are called the eight dispensation, they actually refer to nine mandalas.] To go through them in order:

– The first of the nine parts is the dispensation of the Vidyadhara Guru found in the first volume of the treasures of Barway Dorje. It consists of the outer, inner, secret, and very secret heart sadhanas of the Vidyadhara Guru.

– The second dispensation is that of Manjushri Yamantaka and this makes up the second volume of the treasures of Terchen Barway Dorje. It consists of the practices of both the white and orange forms of peaceful Manjushri and the practice of the various forms of Yamantaka.

– The third dispensation is that of Lotus Speech that includes both peaceful and wrathful forms. There are two peaceful forms of Lotus Speech: the Buddha Amitayus (the buddha of long life) and the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. These two teachings are found in the third volume of the treasures of Barway Dorje, which includes the outer, inner, secret, and very secret sadhanas of longevity, and the extensive sadhana cycle of Maha Karunika (or Chenrezik). The second aspect of the dispensation of Lotus Speech is the wrathful form, which is the deity Hayagriva. This is principally found in the first half of the fourth volume of the treasures of Barway Dorje, which consists of the sadhana of the wrathful-like Hayagrivakila.

– The fourth dispensation is that of Perfect Mind and this is found in the fifth volume of the treasures of Barway Dorje, which comprises the cycle of the Subtle Essence of Vajrasattva.

– The fifth dispensation is Nectar-like Qualities or Amrita Qualities that includes the peaceful and wrathful deities of the spacious expanse. Those are found in the fifth volume.

– The sixth dispensation is that of activity of Vajrakila. This makes up the bulk of the sixth volume of the treasures of Barway Dorje and consists of the two cycles: the Collar Pouch of Yeshe Tsogyal (which was the final teaching given by Guru Rinpoche to Yeshe Tsogyal before he left Tibet) and the Great Kila of Samsara and Nirvana.

– The seventh dispensation is called Inciting the Matrikas (matrikas are female deities of a certain type). This dispensation is found throughout the seventh, eighth, and ninth volumes of the treasures of Barway Dorje. All those volumes are concerned with various forms of Vajrayogini, principally the White Khenchari of Great Bliss and others.

– The eighth dispensation is called the Dispensation of Forceful Mantra, which is the cycle of the peaceful and wrathful Rishi Lokapala, a form of Vajrapani. This is found in the other half of the fourth volume.

– The ninth dispensation is called Veneration of the Mundane. It is a misleading name but it means a mandala that includes mundane spirits on the perimeter. This dispensation is found at the end of the first volume and it is a form of the wrathful Guru Rinpoche, called Dorje Trolo, surrounded by various mundane spirits.

There have been more than fourteen lives between Nupchen Sangye Yeshe and my present life; they all had different names until Terchen Barway Dorje. Since his time, the name Barway Dorje has remained the same, therefore, Terchen Barway Dorje is considered the First Barway Dorje; then there was the Second, and then the Third. If you look at the Supplication to Successive Lives, you will see that there are about fourteen in all, culminating with the First, Second, and Third Bardor Rinpoches. The person who predicted that Barway Dorje would reveal treasures was the Fourteenth Gyalwang Karmapa, Thegchog Dorje, who was one of his masters. And I think that is enough for this evening.