A Brief History of the Troma Nagmo practice from the Dudjom Lineage

 

The teachings of the New Treasures of Dudjom include the entirety of treasures revealed by the Tibetan master Tragtung Dudjom Lingpa, between one hundred sixty to one hundred seventy years ago, and the entirety of treasures revealed by Dudjom Rinpoche, Jigdral Yeshe Dorje. These collections of treasures combined together are called the New Treasures of Dudjom. Tragtung Dudjom Lingpa was a representative of Guru Rinpoche, predicted by Guru Rinpoche himself who said, after being requested by many dakinis, “A manifestation of me will take an embodied form in future dark times when degeneration can be seen in five ways. This treasure-revealing master will uncover my teachings, and will lead many to attaining the level of awareness-holder through practicing this lineage.” Thus, Tragtung Dudjom Lingpa was born in Tibet in the beginning of nineteen century exactly in accord with past predictions by Guru Rinpoche and other Tibetan masters such as Dodrup Kunzang Shenphen.

The treasures revealed by Tragtung Dudjom Lingpa have brought powerful merit and benefit to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Contained within them are dozens of yidam teachings, key instruction practices and sadhanas. Among these, the most effective and vastly beneficial practice for enabling practitioners to realize the attainment of a rainbow body is the teaching of Troma, the Black Wrathful Mother. The Troma cycle includes the distant lineage, the close lineage and the pure vision lineage. It contains key practices of the traditions of Great-Madhyamika, Mahamudra and Great Perfection (Dzogchen).

The origin of the ancient lineage of Troma is traced back to the time of Buddha Sakyamuni. Tragtung Dudjom Lingpa was a reincarnation of Noble Sariputra, one of the two principal disciples of Buddha Sakyamuni. Sariputra received the teachings on emptiness, which are the view and practice of Great Madhyamika, when Buddha Sakyamuni taught on emptiness, wisdom, three doors of liberation and other teachings. Guru Rinpoche came into this world eight years after Buddha Sakyamuni entered nirvana, and he practiced the Dharma in many holy places in the land of India. When Guru Rinpoche was practicing at the Self-Occurring Cool Charnel Ground, many dakinis visited him. One named Dakini Yeshe Chöying offered a tantra to Guru Rinpoche, and then Vajra Yogini bestowed the empowerment and sadhana of the secret lineage of Troma, which was an unwritten oral transmission. So Guru Rinpoche then received the complete teachings of the generation and completion stage practice of Troma.

When the eighty-four mahasiddhas where living in India, the first, Saraha, was well known as a Mahamudra master. Tragtung Dudjom Lingpa was considered to be a reincarnation of Saraha. The essence of Troma practice was combined with the key point of the Mahamudra practice of Saraha at that time and was sealed in the formless infinity of space. Thus, Troma also contains key practice instructions of Mahamudra.

During the time Guru Rinpoche was in Tibet, many Tibetan students and translators requested empowerments and teachings from him. One of his twenty-five major disciples named Drokben Khye’u Chung Lotsawa later reincarnated as Tragtung Dudjom Lingpa. He also received the teachings on the stages of generation, completion and Great Perfection practice for this treasure lineage directly from Guru Rinpoche.

Several hundred years later when chöd practice founder Machig Labdrön was in Tibet, most of the teachings in the tradition of Tibetan Buddhism had been propagated and translated from India to Tibet. Yet it was only the Zhije chöd tradition from Machig Labdron that spread from Tibet to India. The main philosophy of the Zhije chöd tradition combines the view of Great Madhyamika with practice methods from the tantras to enable the practitioner to sever attachment to the body. Tragtung Dudjom Linpa is also considered to be the reincarnation of Machig Labdron’s son – Gyalwa Dondrub. Since it is sure that Gyalwa Dondrup received the Zhije chöd lineage, the Troma treasures revealed by Dudjom Lingpa also include the key instructions on Great Madhyamika from the Zhije tradition.

When the time came for Tragtung Dudjom Lingpa to reveal the Troma treasures, he beheld Zangdok Palri (the pure land of Copper-Colored Mountain) in a pure vision, and brought forth the wish to reveal all the teachings of chöd. Then he met Saraha and requested from him many key instructions on Mahamudra and tantric practice. However, he also thought at that time, “I don’t need the chöd teachings that are mixed with Saraha’s Mahamudra instructions.” Just as soon as this thought arose in Dudjom Lingpa’s mind, Saraha vanished and Guru Rinpoche appeared. Dudjom Lingpa requested Guru Rinpoche to bestow his treasure lineages and clearly stated to Guru Rinpoche that he didn’t need the Zhije chöd tradition nor the Mahamudra chöd. Dudjom Lingpa requested Guru Rinpoche to bestow a chöd practice combined with Great Perfection teaching that never been taught in Tibet in the past. So Guru Rinpoche revealed the Troma teaching that is combined with Dzogchen for Tragtung Dudjom Lingpa, and this is part of the history of this treasure lineage.

When it came time for Dudjom Lingpa to transcribe the Troma treasure after he received it, he realized that he was unable to decode the dakini script. Again, he dreamt of Saraha and Machig Labdrön’s teacher, Padampa Sangye of the Zhije tradition. After praying to the lineage masters, Padampa Sangye told Dudjom Lingpa, “Chöd is a teaching from Zhije tradition. It’s not allowed to write a chöd practice that excludes key instructions from the Zhije tradition.” Then Dudjom Lingpa realized the reason he was unable to write down the treasure. He thought, “I should also write down key instructions from Padampa Sangye when writing down the treasure.” Saraha then bestowed all of his teachings on Troma from the Vast Expanse of the Nature of Reality, which were combined with Mahamudra, to Dudjom Lingpa. Yet when Dudjom Lingpa wanted to write down the treasure, he only wrote the beginning of the dakini’s text. Again, he was unable to keep writing it down, though he had already realized all the contents and teachings from the Vast Expanse of the Nature of Reality. Still he required full the authorization for unsealing the dakini script in order to write them down and so he prayed to the lineage masters again. Then he dreamt that Machig Labdrön told him, “You were my child and you practiced the teachings from my lineage, so I expect you to keep propagating them.” The lineage masters then bestowed their practice methods to Dudjom Lingpa again in this dream, and afterward he was able to write down the teachings successfully since he had received the authorization of the pure vision lineage from them.

Troma practice discovered by other treasure-revealing masters in the past contained generation stage as the main practice along with completion stage. Dudjom Lingpa’s Troma is the only chöd practice that combines development and completion stage with Dzogchen. In fact, Dudjom Lingpa’s Troma combines the extraordinary key instruction of teachings from Great Madhyamika, Mahamudra and Dzogchen. The lineage includes the distant lineage, the close lineage and the pure vision lineage. The treasure itself predicts that its practitioners will achieve the level of awareness-holders through practicing the two stages properly. There were thirteen people who attained rainbow body along with Tragtung Dudjom Lingpa himself at Larung in Sertar (Larung Ngarik Nangten Lopling now). There were also many disciples in the lineage who attained rainbow body when Dudjom Lingpa was still alive, clearly recorded. Additionally, it is said there were dozens or hundreds of Troma practitioners who attained rainbow body in far areas such Ngari, Nyingchi in Tibet, Co Ngoingbo, Rebgong and Maniganggo…etc. The treasure also predicts that hundreds of thousands of practitioners will achieve the level of awareness holders by practicing this teaching in the future.

The reincarnation of H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche,
Sangye Pema Shepa

SOURCE:

H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche Sangye Pema Shepa, “A Brief History of the Troma Nagmo Practice from the Dudjom Lineage.” Dudjom New Treasure (敦珠新寶藏)