1.The reference is to a saying of Sakya Paṇḍita about how when a wise person speaks, no one listens, but when a monkey dances, everybody looks.
2.The Ganden Throneholder, or Ganden Tripa, is the highest lama in the Geluk tradition, holding the throne of its founder, Tsongkhapa (1357–1419).
3.Gungthang Könchok Tenpai Drönmé (1762–1823) was one of Tibet’s great literary figures, with a vast and diverse body of work. He was especially renowned in his home region of Amdo.
4.The autobiography of Doring Tenzin Paljor (b. 1760), a Tibetan civil servant, includes a biography of his father, Doring Paṇḍita Ngödrup Rapten (1721–92).
5.Possibly Bka’ blon rtogs brjod, an autobiographical work by scholar and political leader Dokharwa Tsering Wangyal (1697–1763).
6.The three poisons are desire, hatred, and ignorance. The eight worldly concerns are worldly motivations that undermine the practice of Dharma. They are concerns about (1–2) gain and loss, (3–4) pleasure and pain, (5–6) praise and blame, (7–8) fame and disrepute.
7.“The supreme ārya with a lotus in the hand” is an epithet for Avalokiteśvara, and the entire phrase is in reference to him as the protector of Tibet.
8.Lama Shang Yudrakpa Tsöndrü Drakpa (1122–93) founded Tsal Gungthang Monastery in 1175 just north of Lhasa and ruled over Central Tibet for a number of years. The Tsalpa Kagyü tradition no longer exists as a distinct school.
9.King Lhasang, a.k.a. Lajang Khan, was a Mongol ruler who held dominion over Tibet between the Fifth and the Seventh Dalai Lamas in the early eighteenth century.
10.Dzamling Chegu Wangdü (1855–1919) was the thirty-eighth patriarch of Phuntsok Phodrang. The Sakya Phuntsok Phodrang supplies one of the patriarchs of the Sakya school, while the other comes from Drölma Phodrang. In the past, these two patriarchs alternated as heads of the Sakya school, and until 2017, that appointment was for life. Now the throneholder position is appointed every three years from among qualified members of the two Phodrangs. The first to be enthroned under the new system is the son of the previous Sakya Trizin.
11.Tsa-tsa are small clay images of enlightened beings.
12.The day of the third-quarter moon. One of the two tshes bcu, or half-moon days, in a month; they are treated as auspicious days in the Tibetan calendar.
13.Sngags rams pa Rgyud stod Blo bzang bstan dar. The title Ngakrampa indicates that Losang Tendar was a tantric graduate, i.e., a Geluk geshé who earned a tantric degree from either of the two Geluk tantric colleges of Lhasa — Gyütö and Gyumé.
14.Ganden is not only the name of Ganden Monastery but is the name of Maitreya’s pure land (Sanskrit: Tuṣita), where Lama Tsongkhapa is said to reside.
15.One of the two principal state oracles of Tibet, the other being the Nechung oracle.
16.The Fifth Ling Rinpoché Losang Lungtok Tenzin Trinlé (1856–1902), a tutor to the Thirteenth Dalai Lama.
17.Of body, speech, mind, qualities, and activities.
18.The Great Prayer Festival (smon lam chen mo) was initiated by Tsongkhapa in 1409 to commemorate Buddha Śākyamuni’s victory over five rival teachers who challenged him in a contest of supernatural feats. Celebrated in Lhasa in the Jokhang Temple complex, the festival takes place over two weeks during the waxing moon of the first Tibetan month. The festival focuses around the chanting of praises to the Buddha and other great masters by large congregations of monks from all over Tibet. It is during the Great Prayer Festival that the geshé lharam candidates of that year sit for their final examinations.
19.Samling Mitsen is a group of Chatreng monks at Sera, Dokhang House was the late throneholder’s house at Ganden, and Shartsé College is where the late throneholder had studied.
20.The Book of Kadam consists of two distinct volumes, the Father Teachings and the Son Teachings. The Son Teachings is a collection of twenty-two stories, narrated by Atiśa, relating the past lives of his student, the Kadam school founder Dromtönpa (1005–64). The stories are reminiscent of the well-known Jātakas, which chronicle the past lives of the Buddha. For more, see the introduction to Thupten Jinpa, trans., The Book of Kadam: The Core Texts (Boston: Wisdom, 2008).
21.The First Paṇchen Lama Losang Chökyi Gyaltsen (1567–1662) was tutor to the Fifth Dalai Lama, and Kachen was also born in the sixteenth century. The text in question is likely the Lam rim khrid yig zhal shes man ngag.
22.The “pig-headed fortune teller” was a charlatan psychic who wore a pig’s head and would predict the future. Of course, some of what he said turned out to be true.
23.This is the incarnation of Ngawang Losang Trinlé Rapgyé, the Ninth Demo Rinpoché (1855–99), who was charged with plotting against the Thirteenth Dalai Lama. See Tsepon W. D. Shakabpa, Tibet: A Political History (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1967), 194–96.
24.The upper tantric college of Gyütö, established in 1474 by Jetsun Kunga Döndrup (1419–86), is one of two major tantric colleges of the Geluk tradition. Gyümé, the lower tantric college, was established in 1433 by Kunga Döndrup’s teacher Jetsun Sherap Sengé (1383–1445). The colleges are called “upper” and “lower” based on their relative locations.
25.Rinpoché contracted tuberculosis at a young age after getting his geshé lharampa degree in exile at the monastic encampment at Buxa, West Bengal. See chapter 11.
26.Radreng (or Reting) is the first monastery of the Kadam school founded by Dromtönpa, the chief Tibetan disciple of Atiśa. In 1738, the Seventh Dalai Lama offered this monastery to his teacher, Ganden Throneholder Ngawang Chokden. Since then, the reincarnations of Ngawang Chokden have been called Radreng Tulku.
27.A red ceremonial robe made of wool with “crow’s eye” designs on the back worn by high-ranking lamas and abbots while riding horses in ceremonial processions.
28.Typically, such offerings consist of a mandala base symbolizing the offering of the universe, a statue to represent the Buddha’s body, a text to represent his speech, and a stupa to represent his mind. Sometimes a small sum of money is put in a specially folded envelope, called shokchak, with “Token offering of mandala with body, speech, and mind” written in the front in ornate drutsa script.
29.The “three representations” are the representations of body, speech, and mind described in the preceding note.
30.A former kalön of the council of ministers, the kashak. The account of Shedrawa can be found in Shakabpa, Tibet: A Political History, 208.
31.The Drimé Kunden drama is a Tibetan retelling of the popular Viśvantara Jātaka, the story of how the Buddha in his past life as Prince Viśvantara perfected his practice of generosity by giving away the national treasury, then his children, and finally his own eyes.
32.Losang Gyaltsen (b. 1840) served as Ganden Throneholder for seven years in the first decade of the twentieth century and was elected by the National Assembly to rule in the absence of His Holiness.
33.’Jam dbyangs chos skor. This is a cycle of empowerments that Tsongkhapa received directly from the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī.
34.Ratö, founded in 1205, was a small but renowned monastery in Chushur known as the center for training in logic in Tibet.
35.The debate manuals called Collected Topics (bsdus grwa) are used as introductory textbooks in Geluk monasteries, and they usually begin with basic arguments about the classification of colors. Learning how to apply simple logical reasoning to these categories prepares one to study more difficult issues.
36.Khangsar Dorjé Chang Ngawang Thupten Chökyi Wangchuk (ca. 1888–1941). Phabongkha and Khangsar are together called the sun and moon of the Buddha’s teachings.
37.During this session a new monastic disciplinarian (dge bskos) is inaugurated from among the scholarly members of the monastery to ensure strict enforcement of monastic discipline as well as the study curriculum.
38.Drang nges legs bshad snying po, hereafter referred to as the Essence of Eloquence.
39.The Marvelous Array Sutra (Gaṇḍavyūhasūtra) narrates the story of Sudhana, who receives teachings from fifty-two different masters in his quest for enlightenment. This sutra illustrates many types of guru devotion.
40.Ceremonial cookies in festive shapes made of dough and deep-fried in butter or oil.
41.The Dharma masters (chos rje) Sharpa Chöjé and Jangtsé Chöjé represent the penultimate stations of ecclesiastical authority in the Geluk order. Only someone holding one of these two positions may ascend the Ganden throne. Ascension alternates between the Sharpa Chöjé and Jangtsé Chöjé.
42.The First Jamyang Shepa, Ngawang Tsöndrü (1648–1721), was the founder of Tashi Khyil Monastery and composed the textbooks for Drepung Gomang and Ganden Shartsé.
43.Lianyu was the last Qing amban stationed in Lhasa, a position he held from 1906–12. Ambans operated as Qing imperial residents in protectorate regions of the Qing state.
44.Tibet had a complex system of currency in the first half of the twentieth century, with the most common coins called the sho (zho), sang (srang), and tam (tam). These were composed of various metals depending on the minting, with shifting denominations that increased over the period. Tibet also had paper currency starting from 1913, also using tam and sang denominations. In general, ten sho was worth one sang, and fifty sang made a dotsé (rdo tshad). Gold sang, issued between 1918 and 1921, were worth twenty sang. The value of the tam, tamdo (tam rdo), tangka, or tamkar (tam dkar), the most common and longstanding form of coinage, is hard to pinpoint relative to the sang, as there were several varieties. When the sang coin, or ngulsang (dngul srang), first appeared in 1909, it was worth about seven silver tam, but the final tamkar, issued in 1953–54 for distribution to monks, was valued at five sang.
45.A wooden board covered with fine dust particles would have been used by each student as a blackboard for this practice.
46.Sna tshogs yum. This deity is the consort of Kālacakra and is particularly associated with the power to ward off sickness.
47.A popular verse of praise for Tsongkhapa, which begins with the words mikmé tsewai (“Immeasurable compassion . . .”) and so is called the miktsema for short.
48.Skt. Devīkoṭī. A form of Palden Lhamo (Skt. Śrīdevī), the principal protector goddess of Tibet.
49.Another protector goddess of Tibet who hails from Kongpo, where she encountered Padmasambhava as he traveled to Tibet, swearing an oath to protect the country and its religious practitioners from then on. According to lore, this goddess is an incarnation of Chinnamuṇḍā Vajravārāhī.
50.Bstan ma bcu gnyis. These are twelve female spirits of Tibet that Padmasambhava subjugated and converted to protectors of the Buddhist teachings.
51.When the eighteenth infantry division of the Qing dynasty’s army invaded Tibet.
52.The nationalist revolution against the reign of the emperor of the Manchu Qing dynasty.
53.Lha babs dus chen. One of the four major Buddhist holidays celebrated in Tibetan culture. It commemorates the Buddha’s return from Tuṣita heaven after journeying there to teach Dharma to his deceased mother.
54.Dga’ ldan lnga mchod. A festival of lights commemorating Jé Tsongkhapa.
55.Reading out the entire Buddhist canon is traditional means of dispelling obstacles and gathering merit.
56.Tshogs mchod. Here this refers to the great offering ceremony performed in the waning fortnight of the second Tibetan month.
57.A subject in Perfection of Wisdom studies.
58.Sri mnan. “Demons” (sri) here are interfering spirits that are ritually summoned and then buried during this rite.
59.A “birth deity” is a local god or spirit who follows you from one life to the next. If you make offerings to your birth deity, he or she will provide you with favorable conditions.
60.These two open the list of topics treated in Maitreya’s Ornament of Realization (Abhisamayālaṃkāra).
61.A vast collection of teachings covering the history and activities of the Dharma king Songtsen Gampo as well as numerous sādhanas and discourses on the practice of Avalokiteśvara and his six-syllable mantra.
62.A title denoting one who has received transmission of the teachings of the Buddha in their entirety.
63.This indicates an intensive period of study that covered in a few months material that would typically take about a year.
64.According to the Blue Annals, the siddha Tsembupa (tshem bu pa) received the lineage of the Great Compassionate One from the goddess Nairātmyā and practiced on Mount Yeru (g.yas ru).
65.The Tibetan Rdor phreng encompasses the Vajrāvalī description of the forty-two mandalas by the twelfth-century Abhayākaragupta with the accompanying Niṣpannayogāvalī, which describes how deities are added to these, and the Jyotirmañjarī description of the fire offerings for each practice.
66.The five sciences are language, crafts, medicine, logic, and Dharma.
67.These are classical texts on Tibetan language by Thönmi Sambhota. The Thirty Verses (Sum cu pa) is a work on grammar, and Introduction to Morphology (Rtags kyi ’jug pa) is a text on Tibetan word forms.
68.The six signs of longevity are a wise man, water, a cliff, a crane, a tree, and a deer. The four harmonious friends are from a story about an elephant, monkey, rabbit, and bird.
69.Rin ’byung brgya rtsa. A collection of sādhanas compiled by Tāranātha. Though called a “Hundred,” it contains more than four hundred sādhanas, or ritual deity practices.
70.Sbyor chos thub stan lhun po’i mzdes rgyan.
71.Kyergangpa Chökyi Sengé (1143–1216) was a founding member of the Shangpa Kagyü lineage.
72.Za byed mkha’ ’gro, the “devouring ḍāka,” one of nine preliminary practices of the Ganden oral tradition. In this purification rite, offerings are poured into Vajraḍāka’s mouth in the form of sesame seeds cast into a fire.
73.Dpung rgyan. The identity of this text is uncertain.
74.The ninth, nineteenth, and twenty-ninth of the lunar month.
75.’Pho ba dkar khyung mda’ ’phen.
76.A tang is a yak-skin container for storing butter.
77.Tshogs langs. An examination wherein the candidate must stand, debate, and recite in the monastic assembly. It is customary that the candidate make an offering to the assembly on such occasions.
78.Doram (rdo rams) is a rank of geshé not universally accepted by all three monastic seats. It is so called because the debates were held in front of a large stone (do) on which was placed the throne of the Dalai Lamas. The term lingsé (gling bsres), “mixing of the communities,” dates to a time when candidates were examined by more than one college within the same monastery.
79.’Bri mo, the female of a particular species of yak.
80.The five classical Indian books studied at the heart of the geshé curriculum are Dharmakīrti’s Treatise of Valid Cognition (Pramāṇavārttika), Maitreya’s Ornament of Realization (Abhisamayālaṃkāra), Candrakīrti’s Entering the Middle Way (Madhyamakāvatāra), Guṇaprabha’s Vinaya Sutra, and Vasubandhu’s Treasury of Abhidharma (Abhidharmakośa).
81.This refers to those prayer sessions where tea is served.
82.An important ceremony on the twenty-ninth day of the new year in which a sacrificial cake (gtor ma) is thrown into a bonfire to dispel obstacles.
83.Uchu Muchin Sokpo Hothokthu, mentioned above. “Hothokthu” is a title for high lamas bestowed by the Manchu emperor.
84.Daṇḍin’s Kāvyādārśa, the principal text on classical Indian poetics studied in Tibet.
85.Snyan ngag me long gi rtsa ba dang dka’ ’grel dbyangs can dgyes glu. This commentary was written by the Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Losang Gyatso.
86.Sometimes in Tibetan monastic culture the prenatal months of a person’s life (mngal shol gyi zla ba) are added to their postnatal age in order to allow their full ordination earlier than would otherwise be possible.
87.Full monastic ordination as a bhikṣu must be overseen by both a preceptor (upādhyāya) and a master (ācārya). His Holiness the Thirteenth Dalai Lama filled both of these roles for Trijang Rinpoché.
88.Assistant tutor to His Holiness from Deyang College of Drepung Monastery.
89.The interviewing master (raho’nuśāsakācārya) asks a series of standard questions to validate the ordinand’s candidacy for ordination.
90.Tsongkhapa’s collected works comprise eighteen volumes. The works of his two principal disciples, Gyaltsap Darma Rinchen (1364–1432) and Khedrup Gelek Palsangpo (1385–1438), comprise eight and twelve volumes, respectively.
91.Prajñāśataka (Shes rab brgya pa), attributed to Nāgārjuna.
92.Of the four interwoven commentaries on Guhyasamāja, the first is Candrakīrti’s Bright Lamp (Pradīpoddyotana), and the other three are commentaries by Tsongkhapa on Candrakīrti’s text: general interlinear annotations, an analysis of difficult points called the Precious Sprout (Rin chen myu gu), and a summary outline.
93.Be’u bum. A collection compiled by Khyenrap Tenpa Chöphel of ritual texts associated with the miktsema verse.
94.Sindura’i dbang bzhi byin rlabs.
95.Drug bcu ma. The sixty-four-part torma-offering ritual made to the protector Dharmarāja and the fifteen direction protectors.
96.Blo bzang thub dbang rdo rje ’chang. An epithet of Tsongkhapa Losang Drakpa as an embodiment of both the Buddha and Vajradhara.
97.The Words of Mañjuśrī, composed by the Fifth Dalai Lama, is one of the so-called eight great texts on the stages of the path (lam rim). The Quick Path, another of the eight, was composed by the Second Paṇchen Lama as a commentary on the First Paṇchen Lama’s Easy Path.
98.These teachings became the basis for the very popular text that Trijang Rinpoché compiled from notes taken on the occasion. The work is available in multiple English translations, including Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, translated by Michael Richards (Boston: Wisdom, 1991).
99.The rival candidate for the Trijang Rinpoché reincarnation from Chatreng.
100.This is in reference to the famous analogy used to exemplify the difficulty in obtaining rebirth as a human being: the chance that a blind turtle that resides on the bottom of a great ocean and surfaces only once every hundred years will poke its head through a golden yoke floating randomly upon the surface.
101.This text was composed by Tsongkhapa. It is almost half the length of the Great Exposition on the Stages of the Path and focuses more on the practical application of the stages of the path.
102.Padmavajra was his secret, tantric name.
103.Rdo tshad. See note 44 above.
104.Ba ri brgya rtsa. A set of one hundred initiations collected by Bari Lotsāwa Rinchen Drak (1040–1111), the Second Sakya Trizin.
105.Grub thabs rgya mtsho. A set of initiations collected by Kunkhyen Pema Karpo (1527–92), the Fourth Gyalwang Drukpa.
106.Nar thang brgya rtsa. A set of one hundred initiations collected by the Kadam master Chim Namkha Drak (1210–85), the seventh abbot of Narthang Monastery.
107.The main administrative body of Ganden Monastery.
108.A hilltop at Ganden where prayer flags are hung and incense is burned.
109.Rab gnas dge legs char ’bebs.
110.A tsipar is an imaginary animal used in various decorations, especially in colorful brocade banners hung on the pillars inside temples.
111.The syllables of the full name of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Losang Thupten Gyatso Jikdral Wangchuk Choklé Namgyal Dé, are woven into the poem. The verse is taking the sun as a metaphor. The sun is known as the friend of the lotus; it is a beacon, and in Vedic myth it arose from the ocean.
112.Gcod, literally “cutting through,” a practice lineage originating with the female practitioner Machik Labdrön (1055–1143), who in turn extracted it from a teaching in the Perfection of Wisdom sutras.
113.This is in reference to the Tibetan custom of placing rings in the noses of livestock to lead them. If you are not receptive (i.e., made of stone), higher beings cannot possibly lead you.
114.Rta thog ma. A consecration ceremony so brief, it is said to be possible to perform it without getting off your horse. The full consecration takes three days with elaborate rituals.
115.Rigs gsum mgon po — that is, Avalokiteśvara, Vajrapāṇi, and Mañjuśrī.
116.Kun tu rgyu, wandering ascetics. Trijang Rinpoché is referring to the story of one of Buddha’s chief disciples. Maudgalyāyana was widely known to possess supernatural powers, but when he was under attack by his assailants, his powers failed him, and he was beaten to death. Buddha later revealed that the disappearance of his powers at his moment of need was a karmic result of thinking about beating his parents in a previous life.
117.Mgon po bse khrab, the main protector of Ganden Shartsé, is also associated with Sangphu Monastery. Sangphu and Shartsé recognize Setrap as an emanation of Buddha Amitābha.
118.That is, Sera, Ganden, and Drepung monasteries.
119.Drogön Chögyal Phakpa (1235–80) was the fifth patriarch of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism and the nephew of Sakya Paṇḍita. He is known for developing an alliance with Kublai Khan of the Yuan dynasty.
120.Jampal Lhundrup’s Preliminary Practices: A Necklace for the Fortunate (Sbyor chos skal bzang mgrin rgyan).
121.Rje rigs gsum spyi sgrub.
122.Wheel of Sharp Weapons Mind Training (Blo sbyong mtshon cha ’khor lo), v. 42.
123.A thread cross, in its simplest form, is two crossed sticks woven together with thread. Thread crosses act as containers for ritual substances or effigies of victims in rites to dispel harm.
124.Prajñādaṇḍa (Shes rab sdong po). This is a collection of sayings attributed to Nāgārjuna.
125.An idiomatic phrase indicating a conspiracy behind events.
126.A dough-ball divination is performed by placing various answers to a question that you ask of a certain protector or other enlightened being inside dough balls, typically three. After a preparatory ritual, the dough balls are swirled around in a cup until one “leaps” from the cup, thus revealing the correct answer through the blessing of the particular enlightened being.
127.Gushri Tenzin Chögyal (1582–1655) was a Mongol khan who patronized the Dalai Lamas. Desi Sangyé Gyatso (1653–1705) was the regent of Tibet during the interregnum after the passing of the Fifth Dalai Lama. The town of Gyalthang was renamed Shangri-la by Chinese authorities in the mid 1990s to boost tourism.
128.Shalngo Sönam Chöphel (1595–1657), a chief minister of the Fifth Dalai Lama who helped establish the Ganden Phodrang.
129.Gcod stan thog gcig ma.
130.Dulwa Dzinpa Drakpa Gyaltsen (1374–1434) was a senior and early disciple of Jé Tsongkhapa and a specialist in the monastic discipline.
131.This refers to a ritual to request the holy essence of religious objects to depart to their respective pure lands so that the dismantling of a sacred building will not be a sacrilegious act.
132.A sweet scent reminiscent of flowers is said to exude from the bodies of highly realized beings who keep pure discipline, extending to the period in which they remain absorbed in clear-light meditation after passing away.
133.A common Tibetan greeting, which means “May it be auspicious and good!”
134.A labrang of Shartsé College.
135.Rice pudding cooked with butter and several kinds of dried fruit.
136.Twenty kilograms.
137.This is in reference to taking Dharma for granted, like a person who lives in Lhasa yet never goes to see the Buddha in the Jokhang Temple there.
138.The Ösal Buk is the room at Ganden Monastery where Lama Tsongkhapa passed away and is the residence of all subsequent Ganden Throneholders.
139.Joona Repo kindly compiled this list of the seventeen aspects from the titles of the permissions in the collected works of Phabongkha Rinpoché: (1) Mahākāla Time of Approximation: Four-Faced Lord, Robber of Strength (Stobs ’phrog dbang po gdong bzhi pa bsnyen dus mgon po), (2) Uncommon Mahākāla Time of Approximation (Bsnyen dus thun mong ma yin pa), (3) Mahākāla Time of Accomplishment: Multicolored Faces (Sgrub dus kyi mgon po zhal khra can), (4) Uncommon Mahākāla Time of Accomplishment (Sgrub dus thun mong ma yin pa), (5) Śrī Mahākāla with a Mask in the lineage of Paṇḍita Bumtrak Sumpa (Paṇḍi ta ’bum phrag gsum pa nas brgyud pa’i dpal mgon gdong brnyan can), (6) Common White Five-Deity Longevity [Mahākāla] (Dkar po tshe ’phel lha lnga thun mong ba), (7) Uncommon White Longevity [Mahākāla] (Dkar po tshe ’phel thun mong ma yin pa), (8) Yellow Five-Deity Four-Faced Śrī Mahākāla Increasing Merit (Dpal mgon zhal bzhi pa ser po bsod nams rgyas byed lha lnga), (9) Uncommon Yellow Four-Faced Śrī Mahākāla Increasing Merit (Dpal mgon zhal bzhi pa ser po rgyas byed thun mong ma yin pa), (10) Five-Deity Four-Faced Śrī Mahākāla Bringing All under His Power (Dpal mgon zhal bzhi pa dbang sdud lha lnga), (11) Four-Faced Śrī Mahākāla, principal and fourfold retinue, called Destroying Obstacles (Dpal mgon zhal bzhi pa bgegs ’joms gtso ’khor lnga), (12) Utterly Fierce and Secret Displaying Auspiciousness, or “Split Faces” and “Stacked Faces” (Shin tu gnyan cing gsang ba shis bstan pa’am gdong bkas ma dang brtsegs zhal mar grags pa), (13) Extremely Fierce Mahākāla Striking the Vital Point Practiced Like the Inner Yama (Ches shin tu gnyan pa nang gshin rje ltar sgrub pa gnad dbab kyi mgon po), (14) Utterly Secret and Fierce Commander, the Secret Accomplishment Mahākāla (Ches shin tu gsang zhing bka’ gnyan pa gsang ’khrid), (15) Four-Faced Śrī Mahākāla with the Face of a Garuḍa, or “The Mahākāla General” (Dpal mgon zhal bzhi pa khyung zhal can nam, dmag dpon mgon por grags pa), (16) Four-Faced Śrī Mahākāla Black Lion (Dpal mgon zhal bzhi pa seng+ge nag po), (17) Śrī Mahākāla Black Brahman and the Six Butchers (Dpal mgon bram gzugs bshan pa drug).
140.Jetsun Thupten Jampal Yeshé Tenpai Gyaltsen (1912–42).
141.“The vase” refers to the bulbous portion of the structure, where the body of His Holiness would be housed.
142.The Two Stainless Cycles (dri med rnam gnyis) are two cycles of instructions given by the Buddha Śākyamuni on how to build, fill, and consecrate stupas. Regardless of the outer form of a stupa, the inner consecration is identical in every case when based on these two cycles.
143.Dried yak dung was used as fuel for cooking.
144.Gzungs ’bul ’khrul spong nyin byed.
145.Shel dkar me long. That is, Changkya Ngawang Losang Chöden (1642–1714), Dpal rdo rje ’jigs byed kyi zhi ba’i sbyin sreg bya tshul gyi cho ga blo bzang dgongs rgyan shel dkar me long.
146.Khams gsum dbang du bsdu ba’i gnad yig gangga’i chu rgyun. We could not locate this title among Tsarchen’s collected works. Tsarchen Losal Gyatso (1502–66) was a Sakya master and a prolific author. The Fifth Dalai Lama wrote a biography of him, praising the quality of his writing. For more on Tsarchen, see Cyrus Stearns, Song of the Road: The Poetic Travel Journal of Tsarchen Losal Gyatso (Boston: Wisdom, 2012).
147.Dngos grub ’byung gnas.
148.Rin chen ljon shing.
149.Sgrub thabs nor bu gsal ’bar ma.
150.Dmar po ’khor gsum gyi dka’ gnad mdud grol reg gzigs utpala dmar po’i chun po.
151.’Khor lo’i gsal byed khams gsum g’ugs pa’i lcags kyu.
152.1906–81. The younger brother of His Holiness the Thirteenth Dalai Lama.
153.The thangka referred to depicts an image common in the Geluk order. The founder of the order, Jé Tsongkhapa, is depicted flanked by his two chief disciples, Gyaltsap Jé and Khedrup Jé, seated on a billowing formation of white clouds that emanate from the heart of Maitreya, who sits above delivering a Dharma discourse to the gods of Tuṣita.
154.The three ancient doctrinal centers in Tibet: Samyé Monastery, the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, and Tradruk Temple in Yarlung.
155.Rinpoché is expressing the five stages of the Guhyasamāja completion stage. This verse is the body and speech isolation, which are counted as one stage. The next verse expresses mind isolation, clear light, and the illusory body, and that is followed by a verse on the stage of union.
156.This likely refers to the fact that all Tibetan consonants have the letter a as their default vowel sound.
157.Here Trijang Rinpoché begins each couplet with the vowels represented in the Tibetan alphabet (i, u, e, o, a), repeating the vowel a at the beginning of each couplet in the last verse.
158.As the monastery of the Kagyü forefather Gampopa Sönam Rinchen (1079–1153), Daklha Gampo is effectively the mother monastery of all the various Kagyü lineages.
159.Dbus gtsang gnas yig ngo mtshar lung ston me long, the guide to the holy places of central Tibet composed in the nineteenth century by Jamyang Khyentsé Wangpo (1820–92).
160.Mchan bzhi sbrags ma; four sets of annotation interwoven into Tsongkhapa’s text — annotations by Baso Lhawang Chökyi Gyaltsen (1537–1605), the First Jamyang Shepa (1648–1721), Kharok Khenchen Ngawang Rapten (b. seventeenth century), and Trati Geshé Rinchen Döndrup of Sera Jé (b. seventeenth century).
161.Mkha’ ’gro bsu zlog.
162.The five types of offerings are flowers, incense, light, water, and ritual cakes.
163.Madhyamakahṛdaya (Dbu ma snying po) by the Indian master Bhāviviveka. In Sanskrit Buddhist literature, sandalwood is said to have special cooling powers.
164.Namo Buddha is the location where, in a previous life during his career as a bodhisattva, the Buddha is said to have fed his own body to a tigress so that she could feed her starving tiger cubs.
165.The seat on which the Buddha sat and gained enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree.
166.Three sets of prayers, smon lam rnam gsum, are the Prayer of Samantabhadra, the Prayer to Be Born in the Coming of Maitreya, and chapter 10 of Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life.
167.The three “red ones” (dmar mo) referred to are the cycles of Vajrayoginī in the system of Nāropa, Vajrayoginī in the system of Indrabhūti, and Vajrayoginī in the system of Maitripa — all derived from the Cakrasaṃvara tantras. The three “great red ones” (dmar chen) are the cycle of Kurukulle from the Hevajra Tantra and the cycles of Great Red Gaṇapati and the wrathful Kakchöl Kāmarāja on the basis of Cakrasaṃvara tantra. The three “minor red ones” (dmar chung) are Kurukulle Garbhasuvarṇasūtra Śrī, Red Vasudhārā, and the goddess Tinuma. These comprise the first nine of the Thirteen Golden Dharmas. The remaining four are Blue Siṃhamukha, Black Mañjuśrī, Vajragaruḍa, and the longevity practice of Red Jambhala.
168.The conch shell is believed to be from the time of the historical Buddha. The Black Skin Mask Guardian is a form of Mahākāla. His physical representation in the form of a dance mask was housed at Gorum, Sakya’s original temple founded by Khön Könchok Gyalpo (1034–1102).
169.The Lochen Rinpochés are said to be reincarnations of Lochen, or “great translator,” Rinchen Sangpo (958–1055). This particular incarnation, Losang Palden Rinchen Gyatso (dates unknown), had been tutor to the Ninth Paṇchen Lama Chökyi Nyima (1883–1937).
170.Dga’ ldan sprul pa’i glegs bam, a.k.a. the Ganden Emanation Scripture, is the root text of the Geluk mahāmudrā oral lineage, which tradition says was a magical revealed book that Tsongkhapa passed to his disciple Tokden Jampal Gyatso. Paṇchen Losang Chögyen received the oral lineage from his teacher, but it is said he also had access to the mystical book before he put the oral instructions down in writing. See Joona Repo, “Phabongkha Dechen Nyingpo: His Collected Works and the Guru-Deity-Protector Triad,” Revue d’Études Tibétaines 33 (October 2015): 5–72, esp. 36–37.
171.Śākya Śrībhadra (1127–1225), an Indian scholar who visited Tibet at the behest of Trophu Lotsāwa, oversaw the construction of the great Maitreya statue at Trophu Monastery, translated many Sanskrit works into Tibetan, and founded an ordination lineage.
172.A favorite place of Atiśa, where he spent the last few years of his life and passed away in 1054.
173.Gsang ’dus bskyed rim dngos grub rgya mtsho, a commentary on Guhyasamāja by Tsongkhapa’s disciple Khedrup Jé Gelek Palsang (1385–1438).
174.Jampal Lhundrup (1845–1919) of Dakpo Shedrup Ling Monastery was one of Phabongkha Rinpoché’s teachers. An eighty-three-folio biography of him appears in Phabongkha’s collected works.
175.Thuken Losang Chökyi Nyima (1737–1802), Gungthang Könchok Tenpai Drönmé (1762–1823), and Jé Sherap Gyatso (1803–75) were all born in Amdo and spent much of their lives there.
176.Chapter 4, verse 10, of Sakya Paṇḍita’s Jewel Treasury of Wise Sayings.
177.See note 22 above.
178.Patsap Nyima Drak (b. 1055) studied with Indian masters in Kashmir for twenty-three years before returning to Tibet and popularizing the study of Madhyamaka via Candrakīrti’s Entrance to the Middle Way (Madhyamakāvatāra) and Clear Words (Prasannapadā), both of which he translated into Tibetan.
179.Khamlungpa Shākya Yönten (1025–1115) was one of the principal students of Dromtönpa. See Thupten Jinpa, Wisdom of the Kadam Masters (Boston: Wisdom, 2013), 72.
180.This refers to the center of the sixty-four-petal navel cakra, and caṇḍalī alludes to the practice of “inner heat” (Tib. tumo).
181.Rdo lag brgyud ma gsum. The imagery here is of workers passing building stones from hand to hand through a construction site. It refers to the fact that the texts were transmitted through a direct transmission.
182.Sgra’i ri mo, a form of Sanskrit poetry in which the words can be arranged on the page in the form of an image. Minling Lochen is the great Nyingma polymath Dharmaśrī (1654–1717/18). Lama Lhaksam may be Lhaksam Tenpai Gyaltsen, a nineteenth-century abbot of Palpung Monastery.
183.Chapter 3, verse 1.
184.Rwa khrid mkha ’gro snyan brgyud. Ra Lotsāwa Dorjé Drak (b. 1016), or Ralo, introduced Vajrabhairava tantra to Tibet. He is reputed to have had a penchant for magical combat.
185.On Chögyal Phakpa, see note 119 above. Guardian of the Tent (gur gyi mgon po) is a two-faced form of Mahākāla that is a central protector deity of the Sakya lineage.
186.Surchen (1604–69) was an important holder of both Nyingma and Geluk lineages. He and his own teacher, Khöntön Paljor Lhundup, were the main early teachers of the Fifth Dalai Lama.
187.The Sixth Dalai Lama (1683–1706).
188.Khendé chekhak. Assistant tutors (mtshan zhabs) are the very best geshés who serve as instructors and debate partners to the young Dalai Lama. Only one is selected from each of the colleges at the three seats of learning.
189.These are Mongolian titles for high government positions of the fourth level.
190.The First Drakar Ngakrampa, Losang Tenpa Rapgyé, was born in the seventeenth century and hailed from Amdo.
191.Rdo rje’i ri rab brtsegs pa’i ’phrul ’khor.
192.Yuthok Yönten Gönpo merged Indic and indigenous Tibetan medical practices into a new edition of the Four Medical Tantras in the eleventh century and was a prolific author of medical texts. He was a descendant of another physician of the same name who lived in the time of King Trisong Detsen.
193.Because of the ill feelings of Sera Jé monks toward the government due to tensions surrounding treatment of the previous regent, Radreng Rinpoché, it was feared that some of the monks might harm Takdrak Rinpoché. Trijang Rinpoché is suggesting the lord chamberlain was being overly suspicious.
194.The Sadutshang family were not part of the ruling class but had become wealthy through trans-Himalayan trade. In an effort to redress the losses sustained by the family in the Radreng affair, a government post was offered to the family. That post was filled by Gyurmé’s cousin, Rinchen Sadutshang, whose memoir is found in A Life Unforeseen (Somerville, MA: Wisdom, 2016).
195.The four qualities are contentment with (1) clothing, (2) shelter, and (3) food and (4) enthusiasm for practice and meditation.
196.Maudgalyāyana, although a clairvoyant disciple of the Buddha, was stoned to death by a mob. Arhat Udāyin was sometimes praised by the Buddha for his intelligence, but he had a habit of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, which Buddha explained was a habit that followed him from prior lives. Ralpachen (806–38), also known as Tri Tsukdetsen, was one of the three great Dharma kings of Tibet’s imperial period. He was assassinated by ministers who placed his anti-Buddhist brother Langdarma on the throne.
197.Collection of Aphorisms (Udānavarga) 25.9–10.
198.Jewel Treasury of Wise Sayings 4.41.
199.Manmatha, “churner of hearts,” is an epithet of Māra, the incarnation of temptation in Buddhism.
200.The Fourth Kumbum Minyak Rinpoché, Ngawang Lekshé Gyatso, 1902–58.
201.Mkha’ mnyam ma, by Tsongkhapa’s teacher Rendawa Shönu Lodrö. The Six Ornaments are Nāgārjuna, Asaṅga, Āryadeva, Vasubandhu, Dignāga, and Dharmakīrti, and the Two Excellent Ones are Guṇaprabha and Śākyaprabha.
202.Bse ’bag smug chung.
203.Phabongkha Hermitage sits on the side of Mount Uduk northwest of Sera. It was originally the site of a castle of King Songtsen Gampo but was early on converted to a monastery. Tsongkhapa spent time at the monastery as a hermit, after which it eventually became a Geluk institution.
204.Within the consecration ritual is a “Celebration of the Hosts,” where the sponsors of the elaborate consecration are exalted with verses of praise by the presiding ritual master. The eight auspicious signs are the lotus, parasol, wheel, banner, golden fish, endless knot, vase, and conch. The eight substances are a mirror, yogurt, durva grass, bilva fruit, a right-spiraling conch, ghivaṃ bile medicine, vermillion powder, and white mustard seed.
205.Vaiśākha, the fourth month in the lunar calendar, is considered an extremely auspicious month, as the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and death are held to have happened in this month.
206.Likely the two works of Thönmi Sambhota mentioned above. See note 67.
207.Spyi khyab mkhan po, the chief monastic official in the government.
208.Lha mo’i las gsum rnam gzhag.
209.Mkha’ ’gro ma me lce ’bar ma’i rgyud.
210.Possibly meaning pha wang, “bat.” According to Dan Martin, “pha wang long bu seems to have literal meaning ‘bat’s anklebone.’ This is a stone said to serve as a soul stone of the btsan demons. My guess is it’s galena (lead ore).”
211.Ngo tsha bsnol ba’i skra. Meaning obscure.
212.Mtshon gru.
213.Byang dmar. Read as byad dmar.
214.Sho rde dkar nag.
215.Likely Kyishö Shapdrung Ngawang Tenzin Trinlé (1639–82).
216.The cabinet (kashak) is the council of ministers (kalöns). The secretariat (drungtsi) is the secretarial and finance committee, consisting of four monastic secretaries (drung) and four lay officials (tsi).
217.On page 152 above, Trijang Rinpoché narrates seeing the same objects on an earlier visit.
218.Ljang dgun chos. For a full description of the Jang winter session, see Geshé Lhundub Sopa, Like a Waking Dream (Boston: Wisdom, 2012), 135–37.
219.The government of the People’s Republic of China holds the Seventeen-Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet 
to be a legally binding document. Tibetans, however, hold that the document was signed under duress, and its contents have been repudiated many times by His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. The document essentially states that Tibet acknowledges that it is a part of China and wishes to be under the control of the Communist government.
220.Gsang chen slob bshad. There are two traditions for transmitting the Sakya school’s oral instructions on the Path and Fruit (lam ’bras): the explication for disciples (slob bshad), which was originally a secret oral lineage, and the explication for the masses (tshogs bshad).
221.The traditional list of ten arts and sciences is Buddhist philosophy, logic, language, medicine, crafts, kāvya poetics, prosody, lexicography, drama, and astronomy and divination.
222.Trijang Rinpoché here refers to the polymath sovereign Desi Sangyé Gyatso (1653–1705) as Buddhasāra, a Sanskrit version of his name.
223.These diagrams, mantras, and prayers commit a protector to give assistance. The eight classes of spirits (sde brgyad) are enumerated in various ways but typically include beings such as māras, tsen demons, nāgas, and yakṣas.
224.The gutor (dgu gtor) is a ritual in conjunction with Dharmarāja that lasts about one week and is generally performed at the end of the year to overcome obstacles. A central part of the ritual consists of throwing conical torma cakes made of butter and barley flour into a massive bonfire.
225.The practice of White Mañjuśrī composed by Lalitavajra and passed down from Sasang Mati Paṇchen (Sa bzang Ma ti paṇ chen, 1294–1376).
226.Maitreya, Abhisamayālaṃkāra 1.37.
227.An offering of torma, incense, butter lamps, bowls of grain, and so on, each numbering one thousand.
228.Brag gyab. In other contexts in this book, this name is rendered Drakgyab to conform with the book’s phonetic style, but the spelling here reflects the personal preference of this contemporary figure, who now lives in Germany.
229.Baiḍūrya zhun ma’i them skas. The vaiḍūrya gem, sometimes translated as lapis, is likely beryl.
230.Mkha’ spyod sgrub pa’i nye lam. The great abbot of Shalu indicated here is likely Tsarchen Losal Gyatso. See note 146 above.
231.This was to be the very first meeting of the National People’s Congress.
232.Marpa Lotsāwa (1012–97), the first Tibetan master in the Kagyü lineage, made several trips to India in his career as a translator before he became Milarepa’s guru.
233.Tsari is a pilgrimage place associated with the deity Heruka Cakrasaṃvara, situated near the border with Assam, India.
234.This refers to the guru-disciple relationship that the Dalai Lamas and Paṇchen Lamas are held to have shared over many lives.
235.These were a silver currency used by the previous Chinese regime.
236.That is, Ba Chödé Monastery, Lithang Thupchen Chökhor Ling, and Gyalthang Sumtsen Ling.
237.The Mitra Hundred is a cycle of 108 tantric practices compiled by Mitrayogin (twelfth–thirteenth century).
238.During this portion of the tsok ritual, the main portion of the tsok offering is presented to the presiding lama.
239.Spyan ras gzigs ngan song kun sgrol. A one-faced, two-armed aspect of Avalokiteśvara flanked by Tārā and Ekajaṭī originating from the Indian mahāsiddha Mitrayogin. In a vision, Mitrayogin was told by Avalokiteśvara that anyone who receives this empowerment will not be reborn in the lower realms in their next life.
240.The Sixth Karmapa (1416–53).
241.Wencheng Gongzhu, the Chinese bride of the Songtsen Gampo (d. 649), founder of the Tibetan empire. She is credited in Tibetan lore as one of the earliest people to bring Buddhism to Tibet.
242.This is a reference to Rāvaṇa, the mythical meat-eating demon king of Śrī Laṅka, who is the antagonist to King Rāma in the Indian epic the Rāmāyaṇa.
243.Gsang sgrub (Skt. Guhyasādhana) and Bram ze nag po, a.k.a. Bram gzugs (Skt. Brahmarūpa).
244.The saṅghāṭi is a large robe made of a patchwork of thirty-two pieces of cloth, usually yellow in color, that is worn as a mantle over ordinary robes on special occasions.
245.Rje bdag nyid chen po, literally, “the lord, the great being.” Rendawa Shönu Lodrö (1348–1413) was Tsongkhapa’s guru.
246.Founder of Gyümé Tantric College.
247.Sadutshang gives his own account of these events in A Life Unforeseen, 193–200.
248.Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, who served as vice president of India from 1952–62 and as president from 1962–67.
249.Rgyan drug mchog gnyis. See note 201 above. In recent times, His Holiness the Dalai Lama has expanded the list to include seventeen masters of Nālandā.
250.Rikha Ganden Shedrup Dargyé Ling. The monastery was founded in the eleventh century by Geshé Rikharwa, a student of the Kadampa master Potowa.
251.Śākya Śrībhadra. See note 171 above.
252.Chos zab bdud zab. Literally, “profound Dharma; profound devil.” The gist of this proverb is that profound evil follows profound good, causing severe hindrances.
253.Drip Tsechok Ling Monastery was founded by Kachen (a.k.a. Yongzin) Yeshé Gyaltsen (1713–93), the author of the commentary mentioned here.
254.The First Shamarpa, reputed to be the founder of Nenang Monastery.
255.Lhalung Palgyi Dorjé, the ninth-century disciple of Padmasambhava who is said to have assassinated King Langdarma.
256.The sevenfold divinity and teaching of the Kadam tradition refers to the practice of four meditational divinities (Buddha, Avalokiteśvara, Tārā, and Acala) and the teachings of the three baskets of scripture (Vinaya, Abhidharma, and Sutra).
257.See note 80.
258.A prayer about the beauty of Ganden Monastery composed by the First Dalai Lama Gendun Drup (1391–1474).
259.That is, Gnas sa ’dzin ma, by the Seventh Dalai Lama (1708–57).
260.Lha bsangs. A ritual in which juniper and other aromatic plants are burned to produce smoke offerings to remove obstacles when beginning a new endeavor as well as to remove obstacles to health and good fortune.
261.Dgra lha dpang bstod. This is a very old Tibetan custom of praising local gods and protectors from atop their mountain homes. One praises and makes smoke offerings to them in their primordial struggle against negative forces. The offerings are typically accompanied by cries of Kye kye so so! Lha gyalo! (“So be it! The gods are victorious!).
262.See note 8.
263.The story of Mahādeva appears, for instance, in Tārānātha’s history of Buddhism in India. For a book-length investigation of the many variations of the Mahādeva legend in Buddhist literature, see Jonathan Silk, Riven by Lust (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2009).
264.In this procession, a statue of Maitreya, the future buddha, is carried through the streets of Lhasa along the circumambulation circuit around the Jokhang Temple to celebrate his pending arrival in the world.
265.Because of the critical gravity of the situation for the safety of His Holiness, Trijang Rinpoché sent Ratö Chubar Rinpoché to Panglung Hermitage to consult the Shukden oracle. However, according to His Holiness in Freedom in Exile (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1990), 149, the actual decision for His Holiness’s departure was made on the prediction of the Nechung oracle, who while in trance drew a map of the exact location for the escape party to ford the Tsangpo River at the Ramagang ferry on the night of escape.
266.This reference is to a story about the famed Tibetan yogi Milarepa. A black deer pursued by a hunter finds safety by the side of the meditating yogi, who then disarms the hunter and sings a song that causes him to have a change of heart.
267.Jewel Treasury of Wise Sayings 3.30.
268.Drapa Ngönshé (1012–90) was a treasure revealer and builder of temples renowned for his revelation of the four medical tantras (rgyud bzhi) that form the basis of Tibetan medicine.
269.These are the three practices fundamental to preserving Buddhist monastic discipline: twice-monthly confession and mending of vows, observing the rainy-season retreat, and releasing restrictions at the end of the retreat.
270.See My Land and My People (New York: Potala Corporation, 1977), 206–8. His Holiness the Dalai Lama remembers this news reaching him near Chenyé Monastery via a letter that Khenchung Tara dispatched from Rawamé Monastery after fleeing the bombardment in Lhasa.
271.Yama, the Indian personification of death. The three worlds are the three realms of samsara into which beings may be born.
272.Drag po gsum bsgril. Vajrapāni, Hayagrīva, and Garuḍa combined into a single deity. Vajrapāni is the principal deity and displays Hayagrīva’s “horse head” upon his head. Above this appears Garuḍa. It is said that its practice can overcome obstacles from all types of interfering spirits.
273.This house, originally the home of the Nowrojee family, was later purchased by Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoché, two of Trijang Rinpoché’s students, and converted into Tushita Meditation Centre.
274.A festival of lights to commemorate the passing of Jé Tsongkhapa.
275.The penetrative insight into the nature of reality that distinguishes āryas from ordinary beings induces a change in behavior and perspective. The fourfold temperament is contentment with simple food, clothing, dwelling place, and possessions.
276.Bstan ’bar ma, an oft-recited prayer taken from the sutras, with the last verse added by Tibetans.
277.A ritual performed upon the completion of the consecration of a statue in a Buddhist temple, in which the eyes of the statue are either painted onto the statue or a blindfold is removed from them, symbolizing the presence of the deity inhabiting the statue itself.
278.The pratyālīḍha stance, with right leg bent and left extended, is found in the depiction of wrathful deities in particular in Buddhist iconography.
279.The two tantric colleges had been reestablished in exile in Dalhousie.
280.Lcags mkhar. A wrathful ritual that uses a torma constructed in the shape of Yama’s iron fortress, with nine or sixteen sides. It was instituted at Gyümé by Losang Tenpa Rabgyé in the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century.
281.Rdo rje’i ri rab brtsegs pa’i ’khrul ’khor.
282.Rgyal po sku lnga, “the king with five bodies.” The five emanations — Pehar, Gyajin, Mönbuputra, Shingjachen, and Dralha Kyechikbu — correspond to those of body, speech, mind, activity, and qualities. The five were originally tamed by Padmasambhava as protectors of Samyé Monastery.
283.Nyangral Nyima Öser (1124–92). For more on the life of this pivotal figure in Tibetan history, see Daniel Hirshberg, Remembering the Lotus Born (Somerville, MA: Wisdom, 2016).
284.Byang chub sems dpa’ tshul khrims kyi rnam bshad byang chub gzhung lam, Tsongkhapa’s commentary on the chapter on ethical discipline in Asaṅga’s Bodhisattvabhūmi. The work contains a ritual for conferring the bodhisattva vows.
285.Rtsa ltung gi rnam bshad, a.k.a. Cluster of Siddhis (Gsang sngags kyi tshul khrims rnam bshad dngos grub kyi snye ma), a commentary on the tantric vows.
286.Gsang ’dus yig chung nyer gcig sogs.
287.Nāgārjuna, Meditation on the Generation Stage of Glorious Guhyasamāja Mahāyoga Tantra Related to the Sutra (Śrīguhyasamājamahāyogatantrotpādakramasādhanasūtramelāpaka).
288.Mrs. Freda Bedi (née Houlston, 1911–77) was a British woman who married B. P. L. Bedi, an Indian, in 1933 and moved to India in 1934. Mrs. Bedi and her husband were active in the Indian independence movement, and she served the Indian government in a number of capacities throughout her life, primarily in the area of social welfare. In 1959 she was tasked by Jawaharlal Nehru to help the Tibetan refugees that were streaming into the country. Among other things, she founded the Young Lamas Home School, which was responsible for the early education of a number of well-known Tibetan lamas, including Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoché, Akong Rinpoché, Thubten Zopa Rinpoché, and Chökyi Nyima Rinpoché. Late in her life, Mrs. Bedi took śrāmaṇerikā ordination under the Sixteenth Gyalwang Karmapa and then traveled to receive full bhikṣuṇī ordination in Hong Kong. She is very fondly remembered by those among the first generation of Tibetan refugees in India who knew her.
289.Legs bshad ljon dbang. A grammar treatise by Yangchen Drupai Dorjé (1809–87) on Thönmi Sambhota’s Thirty Verses.
290.Sometimes months in the lunar calendar require an extra day added to stay synchronized with the moon phases.
291.This was a private enterprise organized by Tibetans in exile in which the government in Dharamsala invested. See Sadutshang, A Life Unforeseen, 241–48.
292.The former site of the Tibetan exile government opposite the new Bhagsu Hotel.
293.Sgra can. In traditional Indian astronomical lore, Rāhu is one of the nine planets, specifically related to the phenomenon of solar eclipses. Mythologically speaking, Rāhu is the severed head of a demigod that swims through space, occasionally swallowing the sun, which then reappears in the sky when it falls through its neck.
294.Śavaripa, one of the eighty-four Indian mahāsiddhas, was a hunter by trade.
295.The Mön valley straddles the border of Tibet and the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. In Tibetan literature it evokes a wild and lush place.
296.Gnyis med sengge. The lion of the analogy lacks the beautiful mane and ferocious claws of the Himalayan snow lion. This is a colloquial Tibetan way to refer to someone who lacks reasoning and learning.
297.Jé Tsongkhapa’s Yid ches gsum ldan. These six practices are inner heat, illusory body, clear light, dream yoga, intermediate state, and transference of consciousness.
298.The Bsam pa lhun grub and Bar chad lam sel.
299.Literally, “from my sambhogacakra,” which is located at the throat and connected with speech. Trijang Rinpoché uses a poetic convention that weaves the names of the people his verses refer to into the verses themselves. He identifies the first verse with himself (Trijang) and the following two with Ling Rinpoché (Thupten Lungtok Namgyal Trinlé).
300.Here again, Trijang Rinpoché weaves the name Losang Lungrik into each verse.
301.Sudhana is a youth from the Marvelous Array Sutra renowned for his reliance upon his gurus. See note 39.
302.M. C. Chagla (1900–81) was a prominent Indian statesman, well known for his time as chief justice of Bombay High Court, cabinet minister under Nehru, and member of the first Indian delegation to the United Nations.
303.Choklé Namgyal, a.k.a. Bodong Paṇchen (1375–1451), was a renowned scholar and siddha whose teachings survived as an independent lineage for a few generations before being absorbed into the Sakya and Geluk lineages. He was a teacher to Gendun Drup, the First Dalai Lama. His collected works are said to fill more than a hundred volumes. Shuchen (Zhu chen, 1697–1774) was a master of the Sakya tradition from Dergé. He edited the Tengyur there and is regarded as a major figure in the transmission lineage of literary and grammatical arts.
304.Here Trijang Rinpoché weaves His Holiness’s proper name, Ngawang Losang Yeshé Tenzin Gyatso, into his verse of praise of the same.
305.Into this self-deprecating verse about himself, Trijang Rinpoché weaves his own proper name, Losang Yeshé.
306.These are elsewhere enumerated as the “four prosperities” (phun tsog sde bzhi).
307.Tsongkhapa is here addressed as blo gter rgyal ba, literally, “conqueror who is a treasury of wisdom,” an epithet of Tsongkhapa as an emanation of Mañjuśrī.
308.Here again, into two verses about himself and His Holiness the Dalai Lama, respectively, Trijang Rinpoché weaves his own and the Dalai Lama’s proper names.
309.Bka’ brgyad bde gshegs ’dus pa, a diverse collection of practice texts centered around eight wrathful deities. It is Nyangral’s most extensive collection of rediscovered treasure texts.
310.A ninth-century translator known to have produced many of the earliest canonical translations, and his style of calligraphy has been handed down to the present day. He was said to be the chief scribe to Padmasambhava and to have written down many of his treasure teachings.
311.Gyaltsap Darma Rinchen, Essence Ornament to Haribhadra’s Clarification of the Meaning of the Ornament of Realization. Shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa’i man ngag gi bstan bcos mngon par rtogs pa’i rgyan gyi ’grel pa don gsal ba’i rnam bshad snying po’i rgyan.
312.This is the same Phalha as the lord chamberlain mentioned above.
313.Dora M. Kalff (1904–90), a Swiss woman of Dutch origin, well known as the founder of Sandplay Therapy. Mrs. Kalff hosted Geshé Losang Chödrak in her home for eight years, became a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism and Japanese Zen, and formed friendships with many Tibetan lamas throughout her life, including His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama.
314.This was the Pestalozzi Children’s Village in Trogen.
315.A private Swiss organization called the Association of Tibetan Homes (Verein Tibeter Heimstätten), in cooperation with the Swiss Red Cross and the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration, established a series of so-called Tibetan homes (Tibeter Heim) to house groups of Tibetan refugees arriving in Switzerland to ease them into Swiss life. Tibetan homes were established in Samedan in the canton of Graubünden; Buchen im Prättigau, Landquart, and Igis in the canton of Graubünden; Waldstatt in the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden; Wattwil, Lichtensteig, Ebnat-Kappel, Flawil, Rapperswil, and Wil in the canton of St. Gallen; Münchwilen in the canton of Thurgau; and Rikon, Umgebung, Turbenthal, Bauma, Rüti, Oetwil am See, and Horgen in the canton of Zürich.
316.Rakra Thubten Chödhar (1925–2012).
317.Tethong Söpal, the sister of Rakra Rinpoché, who also served as a house mother in Pestalozzi Children’s Village.
318.Arthur Bill (1916–2011) was director of the Pestalozzi Children’s Village in Trogen from 1949 to 1972 and worked in many humanitarian capacities throughout his life, including work for UNESCO and Swiss Humanitarian Aid.
319.Viśeṣastāva. This praise in verse of the qualities of the Buddha, attributed to Udbhaṭasiddhasvāmin, opens the Tengyur.
320.Likely Blais da Muottas, which has a restaurant on its slopes accessed by a funicular railway.
321.Wahlwies is the site of another Pestalozzi Children’s Village, where Losang Namdröl and his wife were house parents.
322.This was presumably BT Tower, known then as Post Office Tower, which opened to the public in 1966.
323.Westminster Abbey.
324.Marianne Winder (1918–2001), a historian of medicine, helped Rechung Rinpoché Jampal Kunsang to publish Tibetan Medicine with the University of California Press in 1976.
325.Hugh Edward Richardson (1905–2000) represented the British in Gyantsé and Lhasa from 1936–40 and again from 1946–50. Richardson was also an early Western chronicler of Tibetan history and advocate for Tibetan independence and self-determination.
326.Seminar für Sprach und Kulturwissenschaft Zentralasiens at Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn.
327.Michael Hahn (1941–2014) was a German Indologist and Tibetologist who made his career at Philipps-Universität Marburg. During this time period, Hahn would have just been beginning a period of study under Walther Heissig, who was the director of the Bonn program.
328.Klaus Sagaster is currently Professor Emeritus Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn. He had a lengthy career as a Sinologist, Mongologist, and Tibetologist in Germany.
329.That is, the hub symbolizes training in ethical conduct, which supports all the other qualities. The spokes, like those on chariot wheels with blades sticking out of them, cut, symbolizing the training in the wisdom that cuts through all the mental afflictions. And the rim, which “holds in” or “gathers together” the wheel to prevent it from falling apart, represents the training in concentration, which collects the mind and prevents it from wandering.
330.Palos was at this time involved with the community of Lama Govinda called Arya Maitreya Mandala.
331.Ludwig-Maximilian-University, Munich (LMU).
332.Rolf Stein (1911–99) was a German-born French Sinologist and Tibetologist known for his work on the Tibetan epic of Gesar.
333.This is a reference to the demon king of Laṅka, Rāvaṇa, who in the Rāmāyaṇa epic is defeated by Rāma. The story of Rāvaṇa appears in many Buddhist texts. He was said to have ten heads that he cut off to propitiate Śiva, and his palace was inconceivably large.
334.For the record, Namkhai Norbu does not consider himself a Kagyü lama. Educated in the Sakya tradition, he teaches a nonsectarian Dzokchen practice.
335.Avalokiteśvara, Mañjuśrī, and Vajrapāṇi.
336.This clay statue of Ārya Lokeśvara, an Avalokiteśvara with a thousand arms and eleven faces, was one of the statues in the Tsuklakhang Temple and one of the four ārya sibling statues (see note 338 below). Some histories report that King Songtsen Gampo dissolved into the heart of this statue at the end of his life. This was one of the many sacred historical images the Red Guards destroyed during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s. The above-mentioned faces of this statue were found in the rubble and were smuggled out of Tibet and presented to His Holiness.
337.A phurba is a ritual dagger, and the Phurba Yangsap deity is the focus of a cycle of practices.
338.All four sibling statues are renowned as having self-arisen during Tibet’s imperial period and were popular sites of pilgrimage. When deciding matters of great importance, His Holiness performs divinations before this sacred statue. The remaining two siblings, Ārya Jamali (a.k.a. Seto Macchendranath) and Ārya Ukhang (a.k.a. Rato Macchendranath), are housed in Nepal — in Kathmandu and Patan, respectively.
339.In the completion stage of tantra, basic-state experiences are “mixed” (bsre ba) with the three enlightened bodies to bring one closer to the resultant state. There are three categories of experience — sleep, death, and meditative experience — each divided into three, thereby making nine mixings.
340.This biography is the Jewel Garland Beautifying the Buddha’s Teachings (Thub bstan mdzes pa’i rgyan gcig ngo mtshar nor bu’i phreng ba) by Gyalwang Chöjé Losang Trinlé Namgyal, a tutor to both the tenth and eleventh Dalai Lamas. The bibliographic title for this volume published in Sarnath in 1967 was ’Jam mgon chos kyi rgyal po tsong kha pa chen po’i rnam thar.
341.(Rdo rje shugs ldan gyi gsang gsum rmad du byung ba’i rtogs brjod) dam can rgya mtsho dgyes pa’i rol mo.
342.The Root Tantra of Guhyasamāja has seventeen chapters, with an eighteenth chapter, the Later Tantra, often classified as a distinct work.
343.This offering verse is a praise to Tsongkhapa and his two disciples that begins Gangs can shing rta’i srol ’byed tsong kha pa.
344.Gangchen Kyishong (gangs can skyid gshongs) is below McLeod Ganj, where the Dalai Lama currently lives, and above the Indian town of Dharamsala. It is the name given to the complex that includes the offices of the Central Tibetan Administration, the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, and other buildings.
345.This is the ’Jigs byed kyi bla ma’i rnal ’byor dngos grub gter mdzod/ gshin rje rigs lnga la brten nas nyams chag gso ba/ ’jam dpal zhi drag gi bsrung ba/ dus min ’chi ba zhi ba/ bla ma’i rnal ’byor gyi sgo nas zhi rgyas kyi las sgrub tshul sogs of Thuken Chökyi Nyima.
346.Seventh Dalai Lama Kalsang Gyatso, Source of All Attainments: Instructions on the Hundred Deities of Tuṣita (Dga’ ldan lha brgya ma’i khrid yig dngos grub kun ’byung).
347.See page 268.
348.For a detailed presentation of the twelve links of dependent origination see His Holiness the Dalai Lama, The Meaning of Life from a Buddhist Perspective (Boston: Wisdom, 1992).
349.The three sweets are sugar, molasses, and honey.
350.In other words, performing the preliminary-practice ritual called Necklace for the Fortunate (see note 120). These six preliminary practices are (1) cleaning the room and arranging symbols of the buddhas’ body, speech, and mind; (2) obtaining offerings honestly and arranging them beautifully; (3) sitting in the eightfold posture of Vairocana and then taking refuge and generating bodhicitta; (4) visualizing the merit field; (5) performing the seven-limb prayer and offering a mandala; and (6) making further prayers according to the oral instructions.
351.“On that day in Bodhgaya, when the sun-like Maitreya rises above the hills, may the lotus blossom of my mind open, so that I may satisfy the bee-like fortunate ones.”
352.Einsiedeln Abbey, a Benedictine monastery.
353.One of Buddha’s first five disciples.
354.Bkra shis snye ma, by Choné Lama Drakpa Shedrup (1675–1748).
355.Bla ’gugs tshe ’gugs.
356.In Sedlescombe, Sussex, England.
357.For Ms. Taring’s memoir, written in 1969, see Daughter of Tibet (Boston: Wisdom, 1986). Taring was the first Tibetan woman to leave Tibet for an education in Darjeeling, in 1922. She was also the first director of the Tibetan Homes Foundation in Mussoorie.
358.Presumably the National Museum of Natural History in Paris.
359.’Dul ba lnga bcu pa. That is, the Śramaṇapañcāśatkārikāpadābhismaraṇa of Kamalaśīla.
360.See pages 320–21 above.
361.Dam can chos rgyal phyi sgrub la brten nas gtor chen drug cu pa’i rnam bzhag rdo rje gnam lcags ’bar ba’i phreng ba.
362.From its inception, leadership of the Sakya lineage has descended through members of the Khön family, and the Khön family in turn is said to have descended from gods. The founder of the Sakya sect was Khön Könchok Gyalpo (1034–1102), said to be a manifestation of the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī. Dakchen Rinpoché here is not the Dakchen Rinpoché of Phuntsok Phodrang who migrated to Seattle in 1960 but the Forty-First Sakya Trizin (b. 1945) of Drölma Phodrang.
363.Born in Amdo in 1762, Gyal Khenchen Drakpa Gyaltsen was a student of the Second Jamyang Shepa and studied at Drepung Gomang. He was appointed abbot of Chökhor Gyal Monastery in 1786 and later sat on the throne of Labrang Monastery. He died in 1836.
364.Dge lugs rig gzhung gces skyong lhan tshogs.
365.This mantra, actually a canonical verse that begins ye dharmā hetuprabhavā, has since ancient times figured prominently in inscriptions and elsewhere to distill the nature of the Buddha’s teachings. It is frequently recited as a dhāraṇī, especially in conjunction with consecration rituals. “All things originate from causes. The Tathāgata taught these causes. Also that which puts a stop to these causes — this too was taught by the great ascetic.”
366.In other words so that the blissful, empty essence of the enlightened deities — the wisdom beings (jñānasattva) — should come and inhabit the statues — the commitment beings (samayasattva).
367.The last four are the four regents below the Karmapa in the Karma Kagyü clerical hierarchy.
368.Zhabs brtan smon tshig drang srong bden pa’i dbyangs snyan.
369.Takphu Garwang Chökyi Wangchuk dates from the eighteenth or nineteenth century. Trijang Rinpoché later arranged the publication of a corpus of ritual texts based on Garwang’s visions. Sgrol ma’i chos skor (New Delhi: Ngawang Topgyal, 1975). See also page 78 above.
370.See page 317 above.
371.Kunga Palden was a Sakya lama of the nineteenth century. His title of Shar Lama comes from his position at Dergé Monastery, where there was an eastern (shar) master and a western (nub) master.
372.The sixteen drops, the heart practice of the Book of Kadam, are a meditation that goes from the broadest scope of the entire universe down through progressively smaller objects, ending at the drop of great awakening at the meditator’s heart. For a description of this practice, see Jinpa, Book of Kadam, especially Khenchen Nyima Gyaltsen’s Elucidation of the Heart-Drop Practice on pages 395–452.
373.This is somewhat equivalent to a leap year in the Tibetan calendar.
374.Sems ’dzin gtong ba. This is a reference to the cycle of texts and practices based on the root verse “Parting from the Four Attachments” attributed to the Sakya forefather Sachen Kunga Nyingpo (1092–1158): “If you are attached to this life, you are not practicing Dharma. If you are attached to the realms of existence, there is no renunciation. If you are attached to your own interest, you do not have bodhicitta. If grasping arises, you do not have the view.”
375.Sgra mi snyan gyi tshe grub. Kurava is the northern continent among the four continents of Buddhist cosmology.
376.Tshe sgrub tshigs bcad ma.
377.A khu ching Shes rab rgya mtsho, 1803–75.
378.Gnyan tshem bu pa’i lugs. See note 64 above and the Tshem bu pa’i lugs kyi spyan ras gzigs kyi dmar khrid in volume 3 of Changkya’s collected works.
379.Don gsum, by the Second Jamyang Shepa, Könchok Jikmé Wangpo (1728–91).
380.Phabongkha Rinpoché’s Nā ro mkha’ spyod kyi sgrub thabs thun min bde chen nye lam.
381.This initiation took place November 9–10, 1970. The Mahāvairocanābhisaṃbodhi is perhaps the oldest tantric text and is the main practice of the performance tantra (caryātantra) class. Because of its rarity, His Holiness had specially requested Ling Rinpoché to do the retreat on this deity so that he could bestow this initiation.
382.Rnam sras mdung dmar.
383.Sgrol dkar bka’ babs dgu ldan.
384.Rgyud sde kun btus. Compiled by Loter Wangpo (1847–1914), this thirty-volume compendium collects practices from all classes of tantra from all the Tibetan schools. Within the compendium, one finds such collections as the Vajrāvalī and the Mitra Hundred as well as depictions of 139 different mandalas.
385.Dpal mgon zhal sgrub dus mgon po.
386.’Khor lo sdom pa’i bshad rgyud mngon brjod ’bum pa.
387.Kun rig rnam bshad, a survey of practices related to the Sarvadurgatipariśodhana Tantra. Dulzin (1374–1434) was one of Tsongkhapa’s primary disciples.
388.See note 92 above.
389.The “three secrets” refer to his body, speech, and mind.
390.See Joona Repo, “Phabongkha and the Yoginī: The Life, Patronage and Devotion of the Lhasa Aristocrat, Lady Lhalu Lhacham Yangdzom Tsering,” Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies 9 (November 2015): 109–42.
391.On these practices, see above, page 340.
392.Stobs ’phrog dbang po.
393.Bram ze nag po mngags gtad.
394.Pema Rikzin (1625–97) was the First Dzokchen Rinpoché, and this incarnation would have been the seventh, born in 1964.
395.This is the same lunar date as his date of birth but not the same Western calendrical date. This would be May 12, 1973, whereas he was born April 30, 1901.
396.Bsnyen dus mgon po, the most commonly bestowed form of this deity.
397.Mu le, a region in eastern Tibet.
398.Lawudo Tulku is Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoché. Thubten Dönyö and Thubten Ngawang are Italian students Piero Cerri and Claudio Cipullo.
399.Jo bo mi bskyod rdo rje, the image of the Buddha as a child that Queen Bhṛkuṭī brought to Lhasa from Nepal in the seventh century.
400.Khye’u chu ’bebs, the “water bringer,” a former birth of the Buddha who in the Sutra of Golden Light saves ten thousand fish disciples from dehydration.
401.In an effigy ritual for health and long life, an effigy of the person being targeted by spirits is offered up as a substitute.
402.Anne Ansermet, daughter of the Swiss conductor Ernest Ansermet, was instrumental in the founding of Tharpa Choeling in Le Mont-Pèlerin in the 1970s, a Dharma center centered around Geshé Tamdrin Rapten. It was renamed Rabten Choeling after his passing in 1986.
403.Nang mdzod nyin mo bde legs. This ceremonial scarf comes from the ancient dynasties of China and would cost approximately US$1,000 today.
404.Nāgārjuna’s Prajñādaṇḍa, v. 167.
405.Gnod sbyin lcam dral.
406.For the full text of Kharak Gomchung’s advice, see Thupten Jinpa, Wisdom of the Kadam Masters (Boston: Wisdom, 2013), 99–108.
407.Staff of Wisdom (Prajñādaṇḍa).
408.This is from jātaka 32 of Āryaśūra’s collection. The kumuda lily is a white lotus, but the Sanskrit of this verse suggests the line is referring to a magnificent festival named for the flower.
409.See page 185 above, where Trijang Rinpoché became seriously ill while attending the Shotön summer opera performances.
410.For the full text of Shawo Gangpa’s advice, see Jinpa, Wisdom of the Kadam Masters, 92–98.
411.The Seventh Dalai Lama’s ’Phags bstod.
412.This story is from Sharpa Tulku’s firsthand experience.
413.For a complete list of Trijang Rinpoché’s previous lives see the appendix.
414.The following account was related to Sharpa Tulku by Lati Rinpoché during Rinpoché’s visit to Tushita Mahayana Meditation Center in New Delhi on August 8, 1989.
415.Kyabjé Trijang Rinpoché, Drakri (Bari) Rinpoché, Khamlung Rinpoché, and Phukhang Rinpoché were close relatives, and their reincarnations were again all related, all born to the families of brothers in the Nachuk household in Phenpo, Tibet.
416.The following letter has been lightly edited from the original.
417.Many websites claim that the current Trijang Rinpoché is the eighteenth, but only the last three on this list held the title Trijang Rinpoché, making the current Trijang Rinpoché the fourth.