Jigdral Yeshe Dorje (2nd Dudjom Rinpoche) - Biography

Biography

Dudjom Rinpoche was born in 1904, into a noble family in the south-eastern Tibetan province of Pema Ko, which is one of the "hidden lands" of Padmasambhava. He was recognized as the incarnation of Dudjom Lingpa, a famous tertön, or discoverer of concealed "treasures" (terma) particularly those related to the practice of Vajrakilaya. Dudjom Lingpa had intended to visit southern Tibet to reveal the sacred land of Pema Ko, but as he was unable to do so, he predicted that his successor would be born there and reveal it himself.

In his youth, Dudjom Rinpoche studied with some of the most outstanding masters of the time. He began his studies with Khenpo Aten in Pema Ko, before attending some of the great monastic universities of Central Tibet—such as Mindrolling, Dorje Drak and Tarjé Tingpoling—and East Tibet—such as Kathok and Dzogchen. Mindrolling was the monastery to which Dudjom Rinpoche returned to perfect his understanding of the Nyingma tradition. Foremost among his many teachers were Phungong Tulku Gyurmé Ngedön Wangpo, Jedrung Trinlé Jampa Jungne, Gyurme Phendei Özer and Minling Dordzin Namdrol Gyatso.

Dudjom Rinpoche's main area of activity was in Central Tibet, where he maintained the Mindrolling tradition, and especially at Pema Chöling and his other seats in the Kongpo and Puwo regions of southern Tibet. He was renowned in Tibet for the depth of his realization and spiritual accomplishment, as well as for his unsurpassed scholarship.

Unique in having received the transmission of all the existing teachings of the Nyingma tradition, Dudjom Rinpoche was especially renowned as a great tertön, whose termas are now widely taught and practiced, and as a leading exponent of Dzogchen. Above all else he was regarded as the living embodiment and regent of Padmasambhava and his representative for this time. Known as the "master of masters", he was acknowledged by the leading Tibetan teachers of his time as possessing the greatest power and blessing in communicating the nature of mind which is necessary for enlightenment as realized in Dzogchen. It was to him that the great masters sent their students when prepared for this "mind-direct" or mind-to-mind transmission. Dudjom Rinpoche was the root teacher of many of today's most prominent masters.

Amongst the most widely read of his works are The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism, Its Fundamentals and History; which he composed soon after his arrival in India as an exile and which is now available in English translation. This monumental history of the Nyingma School also presents a great deal of new material on the development of Buddhism in Tibet. At the invitation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Dudjom Rinpoche also wrote a history of Tibet. Another major part of his work was the revision, correction and editing of many ancient and modern texts, including the whole of the Canonical Teachings (kama) of the Nyingma School, a venture he began at the age of 74. His own private library contained the largest collection of precious manuscripts and books outside Tibet.

After leaving Tibet, Rinpoche settled first in Kalimpong, in India. He gave extensive teachings in Kalimpong and Darjeeling. These were very popular and he became famous throughout the Tibetan community. But suddenly Dudjom Rinpoche was arrested and jailed in Siliguri, falsely accused by the Dalai Lama's Tibetan Government in Exile of being a Chinese spy. Dudjom Rinpoche was not interested in the Dalai Lama's desire for a union of all Tibetan traditions. In replying to the question 'If some people have been practising according to one lineage, is it necessary for them to change lineages in order to create unity in the community?' Dudjom Rinpoche replied:

Certainly not. Whatever practice a person is well-grounded in is what he should continue. Part of our purpose is to preserve all lineages as methods for attaining enlightenment. … as practitioners we should sustain our own tradition while respecting and rejoicing in the virtue of other traditions.

He played a key role in the renaissance of Tibetan culture amongst the refugee community, both through his teaching and his writing. He established a number of vital communities of practitioners in India and Nepal, such as Zangdok Palri in Kalimpong, Dudal Rapten Ling in Orissa, and the monasteries at Tsopema and Boudhanath. He actively encouraged the study of the Nyingma Tradition at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in Sarnath, and continued to give teachings according to his own terma tradition, as well as giving many other important empowerments and transmissions, including the Nyingma Kama, the Nyingma Tantras and the Treasury of Precious Termas (Rinchen Terdzo).

When Dudjom Rinpoche was eight years old, he began to study Shantideva's Bodhicharyavatara with his teacher Orgyen Chogyur Gyatso, a personal disciple of the great Patrul Rinpoche. When they had completed the first chapter, his teacher presented him with a conch shell and asked him to blow it towards each of the four directions. The sound it made to the East and to the North was quite short, in the South it was long, and in the West longer still. This was considered to be an indication of where his work in later times would be most effective. Kham, in the east of Tibet, had been the birthplace of Dudjom Lingpa, who had already been very active in that region. In the South, throughout the Himalayan regions of Bhutan, Sikkim, Nepal and Ladakh, Dudjom Rinpoche had many thousands of disciples; when, on one occasion, he gave teachings in Kathmandu intended only for a few lamas, between twenty-five and thirty thousand disciples came from all over India and the Himalayas.

In the final decade of his life, in spite of ill-health and advancing years, he devoted much of his time to teaching in the West, where he successfully established the Nyingma tradition in response to the growing interest amongst Westerners. He founded many major centres including Dorje Nyingpo and Orgyen Samye Chöling in France, and Yeshe Nyingpo, Urgyen Chö Dzong and others in the United States. During this period, he tirelessly gave teachings and empowerments, and under his guidance a number of Western students began to undertake long retreats. Dudjom Rinpoche also traveled in Asia, and in Hong Kong he had a large following, with a thriving center which he visited on three occasions.

In the 1970s, Dudjom Rinpoche conducted a few teachings in the United States and London and then some retreats at Urgyen Samye Chöling in France. Eventually, "the wanderer, Dudjom", as he sometimes used to sign himself, settled with his family in the Dordogne area of France, and there in August 1984 he gave his last large public teaching. He died on January 17, 1987.

Dudjom Rinpoche was considered a completely enlightened being yet every day he would rise hours before dawn in order to practice; in the mornings he would pray for all living sentient beings, and in the evenings for those who had died. Continually he prayed that all those who saw him, heard him, came in contact with him or even thought of him would be freed from suffering. It was prophesied that all who had taken refuge in him or anyone who had any sort of connection with him would be reborn in Padmasambhava's Pureland known as Zangdok Palri (the Copper-coloured Mountain).