Jigme Gyalwe Nyugu

A Nomad of Dzachukha

The master was born in the Wood Bird Year (1765) into the Getsé nomadic family in the Dzachukha valley of Domkham, and was given the name Pema Kunzang. Dzachukha lies on the high, cold grasslands of the Kham region, where the people are simple in their ways and deeply devoted to the Dharma; the nomadic life of following water and pasture forged in the master a resolute and hardy nature. Even in childhood the master showed a renunciation unlike that of ordinary people, regarding the splendours of the world as so many drifting clouds, drawn instead to quiet mountains and forests and to the path of practice. At around fifteen he took Getsé Lama Rigdzin Gyatso as his teacher and first received the teachings of Dzogchen, planting deep roots of virtue in the heart-essence teachings of the Old Translation school of the Nyingma. From then on he resolved to fathom the true nature of awareness and set out upon the path of seeking the Dharma.

Discipleship Under Jigme Lingpa

In quest of the ultimate pith instructions, the master journeyed far to Central Tibet and, at the retreat place of Tsering Jong, sat at the feet of Jigme Lingpa, the treasure-revealer of the Longchen Nyingtik, taking him as his root guru. Jigme Lingpa was regarded as an emanation of the Omniscient Longchenpa and as the revealer of the Longchen Nyingtik mind treasure. He bestowed the empowerments, oral transmissions, and detailed guidance of the Longchen Nyingtik in full, holding nothing back: the preliminary and main practices, the generation and completion stages, and the pith instructions of trekchö (cutting through) and tögal (direct crossing). The master practised diligently in accordance with these teachings, deeply pleasing his guru's heart, and became one of the Four Jigmes, the four great heart-sons of Jigme Lingpa. This transmission carried the heart-essence of Longchenpa's mind treasure into the Kham region and became the foundation of the master's lifelong Dharma activity.

Ascetic Retreat

Having received the complete pith instructions, the master, obeying his guru's command, went to the sacred mountain Tsari for strict retreat. During this time his food was extremely scant and his hardships severe; in a place untrodden by people he remained for as long as nine months, cutting off all distraction and abiding in practice with nothing in mind but his root guru. At last, through the blessing of his guru and the accomplishment of the deity, he directly realized the true nature of mind and transcended the subtle grasping that distinguishes a meditator from a meditation (one account says he undertook a further six-month retreat at Orgyen Ling to dissolve subtle fixation in his meditation). After this awakening in retreat, the master returned to Kham and dwelt for many years in practice in the rock caves around Dzama in the upper valley of Dzachukha, for some twenty years in all. His circumstances were extremely austere; at times he sheltered merely beneath an overhanging rock, or even lived out in the open, abiding in awareness through extreme asceticism. For this the people came to revere him as the "Hermit of Dzachukha" and the "Lama of Dzama." Such a manner of life—seeking not fame but only true realization—is the very model of a Dzogchen practitioner who gives himself wholly for the Dharma.

Writings and Spreading the Dharma

Throughout his life the master was not known for written works; his central activity was the close oral transmission of the Longchen Nyingtik preliminaries and Dzogchen from master to disciple. In the latter half of his life he devoted all his energy to spreading the true Dharma, bestowing empowerments, oral transmissions, and pith instructions, and gathering countless fortunate disciples in Kham. Through him, the heart-essence of the Longchen Nyingtik transmitted by Jigme Lingpa spread widely throughout Domkham. Later generations especially revere the fact that he transmitted the Longchen Nyingtik preliminaries to his chief heart-son, Patrul Rinpoche, no fewer than twenty-five times, along with essential instructions on the channels and winds and guidance in Dzogchen. Patrul Rinpoche later recorded this repeatedly refined oral teaching on the preliminaries and compiled it as The Words of My Perfect Teacher, the most widely circulated practice manual in Tibetan Buddhism. Although the treatise came from Patrul Rinpoche's pen, the living source of its pith instructions was the master's oral transmission.

Lineage Disciples

Many outstanding disciples emerged from the master's circle and upheld the Longchen Nyingtik without decline. His foremost heart-son was Patrul Rinpoche, known to the world as Orgyen Jigme Chökyi Wangpo, who inherited the master's pith instructions on the preliminaries and composed The Words of My Perfect Teacher. Gyalsé Shenpen Thayé also studied at his feet and contributed greatly to the spread of the teachings. Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, one of the great pillars of the later Rimé movement, received the Longchen Nyingtik transmission from him in his later years. Standing between Jigme Lingpa and Patrul Rinpoche, Jigme Gyalwe Nyugu became the crucial link through which the Longchen Nyingtik took root in Kham and continued to later generations.

Mind Dissolving into the Dharmakaya

Having directly realized the path of Dzogchen through a lifetime of asceticism, the master, in the Water Rabbit Year (1843), passed into nirvana as his "mind dissolved into the dharmakaya," serenely displaying the signs of one accomplished in Dzogchen. All his life the master hid himself in mountain caves, indifferent to glory and gain, benefiting beings solely through genuine practice and realization and through the ear-whispered transmission. The heart-essence of the Longchen Nyingtik that he guarded was carried on generation after generation by heart-sons such as Patrul Rinpoche, taking form in the words of The Words of My Perfect Teacher, and blessing immeasurable practitioners of later ages. The example of the Hermit of Dzachukha is, to this day, gazed upon with reverence and longing by Dzogchen practitioners.