Celebrating the Life and Legacy of the Vidyadhara Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in Tibet

The Vidyadhara was extremely prolific as a

tertön, or “treasure revealer.” He began to

discover termas at a very early age, which was

extremely unusual in Tibet. He discovered his first terma

between the age of three and four, which was a short

version of the prophetic guide for his termas, now lost. In

most cases, termas were concealed for future generations

by Guru Rinpoche or Yeshe Tsogyal to be revealed later,

often by incarnations of his twenty-five main disciples.

This has the effect of keeping the dharma fresh and

responsive to the needs of the times. As a tertön, the

Vidyadhara was an incarnation of Nyak Jnana Kumara,

one of the twenty-five disciples. The Vidyadhara’s tertön

name was Traktung Rigdzin Tsalchang.

The Vidyadhara probably revealed hundreds of termas during his youth

before leaving Tibet. He discovered most of his termas in caves in the

mountain behind Kyere Monastery, a small monastery that was part of

the Surmang group about two days journey from Dutsi Tel, and where

the Vidyadhara went several times a year to practice. Kyere Shelkar

(“White Crystal”) Mountain is a place that Guru Rinpoche visited and

blessed, calling it Ösel Namkhe Potrang (“Palace of Luminosity Sky”),

and stating that it was inseparable from other great holy sites such as

Uddiyana, Shambhala, and the Five-Peaked Mountain (Wu Tai Shan) in

China. Most of the termas the Vidyadhara discovered at Kyere Shelkar

were sa ter, or “earth terma.” One of these is the kila shown here.

On another occasion, while the Vidyadhara was doing a group drupchen

practice at Kyere Monastery, Ekajati appeared, coming in the sky from

the south and seen by everyone in the group. She placed what appeared

to be a small rock in front of the Vidyadhara, which he put on the

shrine. The next day during the feast practice, the rock spontaneously

opened, revealing itself to be a terma casket containing a blue scroll with

red dakini script. In the Crystal Cave of Vajrasattva, the Vidyadhara later

decoded these, revealing The Sadhana of Nonmeditation: A Practice of No

Activity, an Avalokiteshvara sadhana mentioned on Panel 3. Present

when the terma casket was given to the Vidyadhara by Ekajati, and the

person who gave the text and its transmission to Karma Senge

Rinpoche, was Amdo Palden, shown here with a young 17th HH

Karmapa, for whom he was his first tutor at Tsurphu monastery.

A number of the texts in “The Collected Tibetan Works of Chögyam

Trungpa Rinpoche” are termas. There are three major cycles, or

groupings by category, of termas revealed by the Vidyadhara:

• The Essence of the Embodiment of The Three Roots (Tsasum Gongdu)

• The Profound Heart Essence (Sappa Nyingtik)

• The Heart Treasure of Samantabhadra (Kunsang Tukkyi Terkha)

4. Activity as a Tertön

Kyere (“White Crystal”) Mountain and monastery (partial)

PH

OTO

: Jes

se L

itvin

The Nalanda Translation Committee is continuing the process of

translating these cycles and receiving their transmissions and teachings.

There is more information about the termas of the Vidyadhara on the

Nalanda Translation Committee website.

Interestingly, in the West the

Vidyadhara never spoke at all

about his activity in Tibet as a

tertön. There is no mention of it in

Born in Tibet, nor did he speak

about it during his numerous talks

or, to our knowledge, even privately

to his students. He talked about

“buddhadharma without

credentials,” and he clearly

embodied this even more than we

knew. He was even quite humble

about the gong ter, or “mind

terma,” he revealed while on retreat in the cave of Guru Rinpoche at

Taktsang in Bhutan in 1968, as well as the Shambhala termas he received

from1976–1981. We now know that discovering terma was a very

important aspect in the Vidyadhara’s life and manifestation as a teacher

both during his youth in Tibet and later in the West.

HH 17th Karmapa and Amdo Palden

Kila terma, Surmang Kenpo

Karma Senge Rinpoche at a cave at Kyere Shelkar Mountain

PH

OTO

: Lyn

don

Com

stoc

k

Konchok Foundation • www.konchok.org