Longchenpa

Longchen Rabjam, known as Longchenpa, “the one of the vast expanse”, was born in 1308 in central Tibet into a family of Nyingma practitioners. He was ordained young and studied widely at Sangphu, the great centre of scholastic learning, mastering logic and the Mahāyāna treatises, before leaving its debates, which he found arrogant and empty, to practise in retreat.

He received the Dzogchen transmissions of the Heart Essence (Nyingtik) from his teacher Kumārāja, and spent much of his life in retreat and teaching, notably at Gangri Thökar. A conflict with the ruler of central Tibet, Tai Situ Changchub Gyaltsen, sent him into exile in Bhutan for about ten years, where he founded several monasteries. He died in 1364.

His writings are the summit of Nyingma thought. The Seven Treasuries set out the whole of Buddhist doctrine and the Great Perfection in philosophical prose and verse; the Trilogy of Natural Ease and the Trilogy of Natural Freedom are guides to practice. His style unites the precision of a scholastic with the voice of a poet, and later masters, above all Jigme Lingpa, regarded him as the tradition’s great authority.