Adam Pearcey's Blog

As a follow-up to the previous post, here are some thoughts about another (relatively) recently discovered text by Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö.

A Guide to the Vairotsana Practice Place in Dzamnang (ཛཾ་ནང་བཻ་རོའི་སྒྲུབ་གནས་ཀྱི་དཀར་ཆག) concerns the sacred place of Pema Shelpuk (པདྨ་ཤེལ་ཕུག), or Lotus Crystal Cave, near Dzongsar Monastery.1 This is counted as one of the twenty-five great sites of Kham—indeed, it is described as the most exalte...

In July a post appeared on WeChat entitled “A Manuscript in Dzongsar Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö’s Own Handwriting” (རྫོང་སར་མཁྱེན་བརྩེ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་བློ་གྲོས་ཀྱི་ཕྱག་བྲིས་ཕྱག་བསྟར་མ།).1 The text in question is an aspiration, composed in the vicinity of the Jokhang in Lhasa for a Sakya monk named Jamyang Tsultrim from Tsedong (rtse gdong) Monastery, possibly in 1955. It consists of six verses and is general in theme but clearly written from a Sakya perspective—in which the view is the recognition of saṃ...

Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö writes in his own autobiography that he was born in the female Water Snake year. He is unsure of the precise date, but says that it was during the autumn. This means it was certainly 1893. The Water Snake began in February 1893 and continued until the following February, but the reference to autumn precludes 1894.

I was born […] in the female Water Snake year—
during the autumn months, I heard it said.
My parents had little concern...

This post is no more than a quick note to provide the dates of Rogza Sönam Palge (rog bza’ bsod nams dpal dge), who is known primarily as a teacher of yogic practices (tsa-lung) to Patrul Rinpoche (1808–1887) and also as one of the gurus of Orgyen Tendzin Norbu (1841–1900). As far as I’m aware, his dates have never appeared in any English-language publication. Indeed, he doesn’t even have an entry on tbrc.org

Matthieu Ricard’s Enlightened Vagabond includes a brief summary (pp. 219–220) of the ma...

[image error]Several times in recent years, I have received queries about a text attributed to Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö (18931959) that has circulated in various forms[1] (and forums) online. The text in question, Ma ongs lung bstan gsal byed sgron me, was translated into English by the late Stephen Aldridge (Ka-rma gSung-rab rgya-mtsho) under the title The Light That Makes Things Clear: A Prophecy of Things to Come. It has garnered...

This is merely a brief note, a sort of expanded footnote, on the dates of Katok Situ Chökyi Gyatso, who is best known for his guide to the pilgrimage places of Central Tibet.

Several publications in recent years have treated his dates, and that of his death in particular, as uncertain, or else they have diverged from what was once the standard chronology. This is...

[image error]Who gets to be omniscient in Tibetan Buddhism? More to the point, who gets to be called omniscient or all-knowing (kun mkhyen), an epithet more readily associated with the Buddha himself?[1] This question surfaced while reading Achim Bayer’s carefully researched, recently published monograph on Khenpo Shenpen Nangwa, alias Khenpo Shenga—The Life and Works of mKhan-po gZhan-dga’ (1871–1927).

Bayer introduces a citation (p.108) that appears in Shenga’s treatise The Mirror that Clearly Reveals the Knowable (Shes bya gsal ba’i me long) where it is credi...(Shes

In his excellent and highly readable new biography of Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thaye (‘jam mgon kong sprul blo gros mtha’ yas, 1813–1899), Alexander Gardner states (p.275) that Kongtrul never met Dza Patrul Rinpoche (rdza dpal sprul, 1808–1887). For this, he relies on the following statement from Joshua Schapiro’s thesis:

“There is, to my knowledge, however, no evidence in the biographical archive that Patrul had a relationship with Kongtrul […]. Kongtrul does not appear in Patrul’s biographie...

[image error]For English-reading fans of Dza Patrul Rinpoche (rdza dpal sprul rin po che, 1808–1887) these are bountiful times. July saw the publication of Matthieu Ricard’s collection of stories and texts, Enlightened Vagabond, after some three or four decades of research and preparation. This month’s A Gathering of Brilliant Moons includes translations of no less than four texts from the master (by Holly Gayley, Joshua Schapiro and Sarah Harding), and The Essential Jewel of Holy Practice will be release...

[image error]In an earlier post, I mentioned that a text commonly attributed to Do Khyentse Yeshe Dorje (mDo mkhyen brtse ye shes rdo rje, 1800–1866) is actually the work of Dola Jigme Kalzang (rdo bla ‘jigs med skal bzang, b. 1789). The purpose of that post was to discuss the nature of authorship more generally, so I did not go into detail as to why the text might have been misattributed. Now that my biography of Dola Jigme Kalzang is online at Treasury of Lives, it might be a good time to return to this...