~ Thoughts on ~

Mingyur

In the oral of the teachings, there are two main lineages, those of Rinpoche and . Of course, in Dzogchen, there are three lineages, which together we call “Dzogchen De Sum.” In , most people practice Dzogchen Me Ngak De. The three lineages are Sem De, Long De, Me Ngak De.

In Sem De, a lot of teachings come from and Vairotsana's student . They were also brothers before, and then, later, Yudra Nyingpo was a student of Vairotsana.

Sem De and Long De mainly come from Vairotsana. Of course, Guru Rinpoche taught a little bit, and Vimalamitra also taught a little bit. And in the past, there was a strong lineage of the Sem De, meaning “mind”: Dzogchen mainly based on the mind. Very strong lineages of the Sem De existed in Tibet.

And in Long De, the main thing is about what we call the “ying,” meaning the "," or “the expanse of reality.” The main focus is on the emptiness aspect. The first one, Sem De, mainly focuses on clarity — clarity especially related with the mind, thoughts coming and going. This is the movement of the mind aspect. And the second, the Long De, is about the empty aspect of the mind. But later, these two lineages of Dzogchen were no longer particularly separate lineages; they almost dissolved into the other lineage.

What was stronger later was the Me Ngak De, meaning “the pith instruction ” of the Dzogchen lineage. That lineage has continued to be very strong in Tibet. And within this Me Ngak De, there are two main lineages. One comes from Guru Rinpoche, and the other comes from Vimalamitra. Guru Rinpoche's lineage is called “Pema Khandro Nyingtik,” The Lotus Heart Essence of the . And the lineage from Vimalamitra is called “Osel Sangwa Nyingtik,” meaning “The Luminous Secret Heart Essence” — something like that. I might not be

1 | DZOGCHEN | THE DZOGCHEN LINEAGE translating it correctly, but the meaning is something like that. Vimalamitra taught this lineage to Nyang Tingdzin Zangpo, who was King ’s first teacher, and it continued as an unbroken lineage up to Longchenpa.

Longchenpa was a great scholar in Tibet. He was a genius and also a great meditation practitioner, and his main guru was Rigdzin Kumaradza. He received the Dzogchen teachings from Rigdzin Kumaradza, in Vimalamitra's style, Sangwa Nyingtik.

Then, Guru Rinpoche taught the Lotus lineage teachings a lot in Tibet. But he gave the complete teaching to and asked her to put it in treasure form. She sealed it inside the rocks as a treasure. Then, later, the treasure revealer Pema Ledreltsal took out this treasure. And from there, this lineage also came to Longchenpa.

Longchenpa is really important in the Dzogchen lineage because all the other Dzogchen lineages came to Longchenpa in the end. The Sem De and Long De also came to Longchenpa, and especially the Me Ngak De pith instruction style of Dzogchen lineage came to Longchenpa. And then Longchenpa put all these Dzogchen lineages together in what is called “Nyingtik Yabshi,” The Fourfold Heart Essence of the Dzogchen lineage. Normally, among these four, we say there are two “parents” and two “children.” Of the two parent lineages, one is from Vimalamitra's lineage, and the other is from Guru Rinpoche's lineage. These two are the parent Dzogchen teachings. Then, Longchen Rabjam put them together and also made his own commentaries on each, which are the two children Dzogchen teaching texts. And all these four together are the Nyingtik Yabshi, the fourfold Dzogchen practice.

This is how the Dzogchen teachings became really available and one of the four major lineages of Tibet, . In Tibet there are four lineages: Nyingma, , , and . Nyingma, meaning "the early translation," is the one that holds the Dzogchen lineage. But the real practice, the pith instruction style, is still hidden. It is not time yet to teach it because what Guru Rinpoche and Vimalamitra both said was that when the real degeneration time comes, the Dzogchen teaching will completely manifest. Until then, there is no need to have all these complete Dzogchen teachings, because there are a lot of other

2 | DZOGCHEN | THE DZOGCHEN LINEAGE lineages of practice, and a lot of other Dzogchen teachings are available in Tibet. These are beneficial for the mentalities and personalities of people during these times.

But in the degeneration time, the other teachings sometimes does not help because we have a lot of "," we have a lot of conceptual mind, and we have a lot of . What Guru Rinpoche said was that when strong kleshas, strong concepts, and negative emotions come, then these Dzogchen teachings will be really beneficial. Therefore, this lineage continues to be passed down privately, with only one teacher giving the teaching to one student at a time. I will tell you about this in the next video.

Thank you!

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