Khenpo Sherab Sangpo taught on Saturday, December 18, 2021, on the Aspiration Prayer from The Wish-Fulfilling Jewel: A Sādhana of Yeshe Tsogyal as Noble Tārā by Ratna Lingpa. The video of this teaching is published on this blog post and on our YouTube channel.
Biography of Ratna Lingpa
Ratna Lingpa was born in 1403, into a wealthy family in Drushul, Lhodrak. His father was Dode Dar and his mother was Sitar Men. He was said to have been an incarnation of Langdro Konchok Jungne, one of the twenty-five disciples of Padmasambhava. A child prodigy, Ratna Lingpa learned reading and writing effortlessly and had numerous pure visions, starting from the age of ten. According to tradition, when Ratna Lingpa was twenty-seven, he experienced a vision of Padmasambhava in the form of a yogi dressed in yellow raw silk. He showed him three scrolls, a white, a red and a blue one, and asked Ratna Lingpa to choose one of them. Ratna Lingpa answered that he wanted all three. Because of the auspicious connection created by his answer, Ratna Lingpa received all three inventories, and was able to reveal in a single lifetime the termas he would have otherwise revealed in three successive lifetimes. He is therefore also known as Zhikpo Lingpa and Drodul Lingpa. Starting at the age of thirty he revealed treasure across southern Tibet, at Khyungchen Drak, Dritang Koro Drak, and Kharchu Pelgi Puk, a total of twenty-five separate revelations on diverse topics such as peaceful and wrathful guru, Dzogchen, and Mahamudra. Among the cycles that continue to be practiced are the long-life cycle of the Tsedrub Sangdu and the Purba Yangsang Lame. In response to Buton Rinchen Drub’s (1290-1364) exclusion of major Nyingma tantras from his influential Kangyur, Ratna Lingpa gathered together the tantic heritage of the Nyingma tradition, a work said to comprise forty-two volumes. It is said that this collection, no longer extant, was the basis for the Nyingma Gyubum that Jigme Lingpa (1730-1798) assembled in the 1770s. Ratna Lingpa’s lineage was continued by his own children, especially his son Rigdzin Tsewang Drakpa, and students such as Khardrung Sonam Tashi, the Second Drukchen Kunga Peljor (1428-1476) and the Sixth Karmapa, Tongwa Dondan (1416-1453).
Resources for Ratna Lingpa
- Aspiration Prayer from The Wish-Fulfilling Jewel: A Sādhana of Yeshe Tsogyal as Noble Tārā revealed by Ratna Lingpa – English Version – Khenpo Sherab Sangpo
- Ratna Lingpa Series – Lotsawa House
- Ratna Lingpa – Rigpa Wiki
- Ratna Lingpa – Himalayan Art Resources
- Ratna Lingpa – Rangjung Yeshe Wiki
- Ratna Lingpa – The Treasury of Lives