The Story of Khyungtrul Rinpoche
One of the Spiritual Stories from Zhang Zhung
In the Bon tradition spiritual stories are a traditional form of teaching, inspiring practitioners to develop and strengthen their faith and devotion. In the second season of online "Spiritual Stories from Zhang Zhung" hosted by Ligmincha International European sanghas and Lishu Institute in India in December 2021 and January 2022, Khyungtrul Rinpoche, a great 20th century master, was the focus of one of the three presentations.
Lishu teachers Geshe Sherap Lodoe spoke in Tibetan, and Dr. Sangmo Yangri translated into English. Real-time translation was available in Finnish, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish and Spanish. Here is an edited excerpt from the talk, prepared by Ton Bisscheroux.
Khyuntrul Rinpoche, ca. 1935 at age 38Khyungtrul Jigme Namkha Dorje (1897-1955), popularly known as Khyungtrul Rinpoche, was one of the great Bon masters of the 20th century. He was a contemporary of Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen Rinpoche, a great Bon dzogchen master who attained the rainbow body. At the end of his life, while giving instructions to his disciples, Khyungtrul Rinpoche left his body and remained in a state of thukdam (meditative state) for 49 days .Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche (born in 1961), founder and spiritual leader of Ligmincha International, is regarded as his reincarnation.
Khyungtrul Rinpoche made the enlightened teaching of Yungdrung Bon available in the northern part of Tibet, when hardly any teachings were available for the Bonpos that region and where Bonpos were tortured and looked down upon. Not only was he a great Bon master, he also was a Nyingma Buddhist master and respected in all the traditions. In a text by the great eighth century Bon master Drenpa Namkha, it was prophesied that Khyungtrul Rinpoche would be his blessed son in the future.
Photo taken by Giuseppe Tucci in 1935 at Guru Gyem caves, a site associated with Drenpa NamkhaThe birthplace of Khyungtrul Rinpoche was the Kham region called Hor in eastern Tibet. His father was one of the ministers of the king of Hor. Before Rinpoche was born, his mother had several auspicious dreams. In one, she saw a great tantric master with long hair and a robe. He went inside the family prayer room, sat down in front of the beautiful altar, and showed a card with images of deities used in tantric and dzogchen initiations. In her dream she saw the tantric master blowing a conch shell and beating on a drum, both auspicious signs.
Khyungtrul Rinpoche was the eldest child, with seven brothers and one sister. He was very peaceful and compassionate. According to Tibetan tradition the eldest son has to take care of the family. As a child Khyungtrul Rinpoche felt great liking for playing drums and ritual instruments, and he had clear visions about gods and mandalas. When he shared his visions almost nobody believed him. His father, concerned if his son would be able to take care of the family income, beat and scolded him. For a long time Khyungtrul Rinpoche did not say anything to his father about that, but finally he said it was enough. His father was proud that his son stood up for himself.
When Khyungtrul Rinpoche was 8 years old, a master named Gyalwa Tsultrim was invited to his house to perform rituals. During the ritual sessions, the master asked his family members to abstain from nonvirtuous deeds. Khyungtrul Rinpoche never forgot the master's advice and always engaged in virtuous deeds. He also received the preliminary practices, the ngondro, from this master. Later Khyungtrul Rinpoche and his father visited Gyalwa Tsultrim at the Ri Tse Druk monastery in Kham, a special region surrounded by six precious mountaintops. Khyungtrul Rinpoche was so impressed that he promised himself that in the future he would become a great hermit and practitioner just like his master. On a later pilgrimage to the monastery, he had a vision of Tulku Loden Nyingpo, a great 14th century Bon master who wrote an extensive hagiography of Buddha Tonpa Shenrap Miwoche, founder of the Bon tradition.
Holy mountain Konpo BonriWhen Khyungtrul Rinpoche made a pilgrimage to the holy mountain Konpo Bonri in southern Tibet, the fields around the mountain were filled with colors of the rainbow and he smelled the sweet fragrance of herbal and medicinal plants. At Kunzang Thugkha, near the summit of Kongpo Bonri, while reciting the Sa Le O mantra he had an extraordinary vision of Shenlha Okar, the primordial Buddha in the Bon tradition, who appeared brightly in front of him in shining colors, within a sphere of tigles and a rainbow halo.
Great visions are not only dependent on outer circumstances. The more we purify our afflictions and become free from them, the more possible it is to have pure vision. When a master has a pure vision, that is a result of a pure state of mind, because all visions are an expression of the absence of afflictions. When we have visions of mandalas or deities at the moment of dying, that is a direct fruit of being free of mental afflictions.
Rinpoche received his novice monk vows from the master Goton Niyma Gyaltsen and was given the name Khyungtrul Gyaltsen. Even when Khyungtrul Rinpoche became a monk, his father did not give up the hope that his son would become a great householder. He asked his son to go out and collect taxes. But when Khyungtrul Rinpoche heard the stories of the people about a bad harvest or suffering a great loss, their sadness and helplessness, he developed great compassion and burned the books with the tax debts. He told the people that they did not have to pay taxes anymore to his father, and he brought nothing home. His father was angry and scolded him, but Khyungtrul Rinpoche said, "Father I am your firstborn son and I will inherit your wealth and properties. I have burned the tax books, so now you don't have to give me anything anymore!"
It is said that Khyungtrul Rinpoche recognized his natural state of mind at age 13. He went to Pal Nyima Bum-Sal, a master of the Pa clan, one of the five big families in the Bon tradition, who had the power to see the future. Asking for advice on good places to practice that would bring about the right fruit, he was told to go several places if he wished to attain the rainbow body, and other places if he wanted to have great followers. "My advice is that you to go to Mount Kailash in the upper part of Tibet, and you will become beneficial in preserving the enlightened teachings of the Yungdrung Bon It is a great challenging period for Bon dharma and particularly in the Zhang Zhung Ngari territory, the upper part of Tibet. Though the place was the origin and source of the enlightened teaching of Yungdrung Bon, nowadays there is hardly any remains of Bon teachings, and Bon pilgrims are badly treated there. It would be good if you can bring positive changes in the mind of people and revive the teachings there."
At age 23, Khyungtrul Rinpoche left his homeland and did not want to return. He had no desire to take anything from his home, but his father insisted on sending an assistant, food and other things for a pleasant journey. On the way from his hometown, he experienced various auspicious signs, as if he were escorted by local spirits. He went to all the sacred places and shared his money with monasteries and with poor people he met. When a group of pilgrims from their homeland saw Khyungtrul Rinpoche carry his own backpack like a common man, they were touched that the firstborn son of high-born family was traveling this way.
At the retreat place Chukmo Palri, Khyungtrul Rinpoche took an oath that he would not leave before receiving a sign of the progress of his practice. There he did the tsa lung and tummo practices, and he experienced a great bliss of the inner heat. Even though he wore only a thin cloth, he did not feel any cold. In the tummo practice we say that the wind, the prana, flows in the central channel, and that leads to the feeling of bliss. When he experienced the signs of progress, he continued on his journey.
Rinpoche went to Driktsam Thakar, a place where Shenchen Luga had discovered a great treasure of Yungdrung Bon teachings. There is a story about a little hole in this place. Forgetting his walking cane in the cave, when he remembered it the cane flew out, creating a hole in the cave that is still there. It is said that if you look through this hole you can see the future. When Khyungtrul Rinpoche looked through this hole he had a vision of a great text in this cave, and close to this text he saw a lamp that illuminated everything. Later Khyungtrul Rinpoche realized that the vision prophesied that he would write and publish a great text that would clarify the teaching of Yungdrung Bon and revive the Bon teachings in Zhang-Zhung Ngari. Khyungtrul Rinpoche was the first master in the Tibetan tradition to publish text using the technology of the printing press, and he published several books through this technology.
At the end of Khyungtrul Rinpoche's holy journey he went to Bhutan. The king of Bhutan was so impressed his simplicity and power that he asked him to reside permanently in Bhutan, but after some time Khyungtrul Rinpoche left. There was an incident in Bhutan when people offered Khyungtrul Rinpoche poison to drink. Since he was a great practitioner, the poison did not harm him, and he purified the poison through tsa lung practices. On the border of Bhutan and Nepal, Khyungtrul Rinpoche performed a chod practice, which was so powerful that he felt spirits appear and eat his physical body.
There is a Tibetan saying: a great master is like a flower; wherever he goes, his odor is spread everywhere, and one can smell the odor even before the master arrives at a place. Through the simplicity of Khyungtrul Rinpoche's teachings and his conduct, there came a great change in the mind of the people about him and the Bonpos in general in the northern part of Tibet.
Gurgyam Monastery, in northern Tibet, thought to be the central area of the ancient kingdom of Zhang ZhungLater Khyungtrul Rinpoche built the great Gurgyam Monastery in northern Tibet. After building the monastery, he needed the kangyur (texts) and tengyur (commentaries) of the Yungdrung Bon teachings. His family was still very wealthy and they had the texts preserved at their home. So he sent two monks (one the great scholar Palden Tsultrim) to collect these texts from his family. There was a funny moment when the monks arrived, when his father said, "Now he needs something from my house! He was the one who said he didn't need anything, and now he sent you to collect the most precious property.
In general, his family was a great support for the Bon teachings.The family had printed the complete kangyur four times in wooden block. Later one of these blocks was offered to the Kham region. All the other blocks were destroyed in the Cultural Revolution, so the Bon kangyur we have now comes from this block.
Khyungtrul Rinpoche had a special connection to Palden Tsultrim. Each man called the other man his master, and there was great respect and connection between the two. Khyungtrul Rinpoche was supposed to write and complete 13 volumes of the Yungdrung Bon teachings. But he shared with Palden Tsultrim that he spent all his early years in life listening to the Bon teachings and the rest of his life practicing and spreading these teachings, so he only completed seven volumes. He gave Palden Tsultrim the responsibility and authority to complete the last six volumes, and also asked him to complete his biography. Palden Tsultrim did this. The history of Yungdrung Bon teachings was first published in Lhasa, and this book has become a great reference book for Bon and Buddhist scholars.
The life stories and achievements of Khyungtrul Rinpoche are vast and endless. Khyungtrul Rinpoche continued his journey from Bhutan to Nepal and India. After many years of traveling and visiting holy places, he returned to the upper part of Tibet, as he was advised earlier. Khyungtrul Rinpoche died in 1955 at Gurgyam Monastery. Khyungtrul Rinpoche had many disciples at Menri Monastery and nearby Dolanji in Northern India, including Sangmo Yangri's father.
