Requirements for bestowal of Longchen Nyingthig

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KonchogUrgyenNyima
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Requirements for bestowal of Longchen Nyingthig

Post by KonchogUrgyenNyima »

So I’m wondering what goes into the bestowing of the entire longchen Nyingthig cycle. I have the aspiration to facilitate my lama coming to bestow the empowerments, but I need to know what truly goes I to this to know how to prepare/how long the preparation will take. Some questions:

How many days does it take to transmit the entire cycle?

for anyone who has facilitated something like this in the past, how much does an event like this usually cost?

What is one expected to take care of in proposing something like this to one’s guru? There are obvious ones that I can think of like food travel and shelter, but other than that??

Thanks for any help. Would love to make this not a pipe dream.
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conebeckham
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Re: Requirements for bestowal of Longchen Nyingthig

Post by conebeckham »

I see no one has answered--it's a hard question to answer. What's involved? How long would it take? What materials are needed?

Most editions of Jigme Lingpa's Longchen Nyingthig are broken out into the GyuDe and DrupDe sorts of classifications. The former is the "tantra class" and consists of the original Tantras and the instructions, most notably Tri Yeshe Lama. That, alone, is a Big Deal. Possible a Lama may give the reading transmission, but explaining the full commentary is usually restricted to those who have completed certain pre-requisites.

There's Generic Root Vase Empowerment, then Ngondro lungs and Guru Yoga and Lama Chopa practices. These are all not associated with the specific three roots of LongChen Nyingthig.

For the DrupDe, or "Accomplishment" or "Sadhana" section there are a lot of texts. The bulk of the collection, I think....

For Generation phase, there is Rigdzin Dupa, which includes a long life practice. Yumkha Dechen Gyalmo, which has a lot fo supplemental or auxiliary practices, including a mandala offering ritual for Tara, Turning back obstacles, etc.. Senge Dongma. And Palchen Dupa has a lot of sadhanas relating to the 8 Nyingma Herukas separately and combined into one practice. Dugngal Rangdrol, a form of Chenrezig--has a few texts. There's also TaKhyung Barwa, a form of Hayagriva and Guru Drakpo combined with Garuda. And what many would consider the Ultimate sadhana practice of LaDrup Tigle Gyachen. There's also a ShiTro tradition for the Peaceful and Wrathful deities mandalas.

There are a lot of aspiration prayers, rituals for Sang, Sur, and Tagdrols, etc. as well. And then a lot of texts relating to the protectors, solkha, etc. and lots of instructions.

Altogether, in most collections there are five fairly thick volumes, so a lung of the whole thing would likely take several days--and the empowerments I would think would take at least a half day each. Maybe more. I would think the whole thing would take at least two weeks to bestow in entirety.

With regard to materials, you would need representations of the deities, probably a set of Tsakli, bumpas--maybe more than two, I dunno.... shrine offerings, mandala plates, Melong, Kapalas, stuff to make tormas.....blindfolds....many things are required.

I think, though, that my best advice is to talk to the master and see if such a transmission is appropriate, and what it would entail. Just be prepared for a major undertaking, significant time and money commitments for sure. There is no other way to prepare for such a thing, and no way anyone but the master conferring the transmission could answer your questions.
དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།


"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
PeterC
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Re: Requirements for bestowal of Longchen Nyingthig

Post by PeterC »

Cone - how are the empowerment manuals structured - if the empowerment of one of the deities is being given, is the root empowerment always given as part of that, or are there self-standing empowerments for the yidam, peaceful dakini, etc.?
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Guru Dragpo
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Re: Requirements for bestowal of Longchen Nyingthig

Post by Guru Dragpo »

HH Taklung Tsetrul Rinpoche delivered Longchen Ningtik at Khordong gonpa in Poland. I think it was for 15-20 days. In Shechen they also give it for 15 days. That's how I remember it. I don't know how many people helped make this happen.
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conebeckham
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Re: Requirements for bestowal of Longchen Nyingthig

Post by conebeckham »

PeterC wrote: Thu Mar 09, 2023 2:00 am Cone - how are the empowerment manuals structured - if the empowerment of one of the deities is being given, is the root empowerment always given as part of that, or are there self-standing empowerments for the yidam, peaceful dakini, etc.?
I am no expert. I have had only a few wangs in the LN system. I think each of the 3 root sadhanas has it's own wang--for example, Rigdzin Dupa has it's own, Dechen Gyalmo, takhyung Barwa likewise.....so I would say they are self-standing. The "Root Empowerment" I think exists on it's own, but I am not sure.
དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།


"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
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heart
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Re: Requirements for bestowal of Longchen Nyingthig

Post by heart »

Guru Dragpo wrote: Thu Mar 09, 2023 2:09 pm HH Taklung Tsetrul Rinpoche delivered Longchen Ningtik at Khordong gonpa in Poland. I think it was for 15-20 days. In Shechen they also give it for 15 days. That's how I remember it. I don't know how many people helped make this happen.
Definitely many.
"We are all here to help each other go through this thing, whatever it is."
~Kurt Vonnegut

"The principal practice is Guruyoga. But we need to understand that any secondary practice combined with Guruyoga becomes a principal practice." ChNNR (Teachings on Thun and Ganapuja)
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Guru Dragpo
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Re: Requirements for bestowal of Longchen Nyingthig

Post by Guru Dragpo »

Yes, that's right. Rigzin Dupa is a solo wang. Yumka too. Palchen Dupa is 2 days wang. I think it's usually 13 basic empowerment. Tigle Gyachen too. I'm sorry if I'm inaccurate and miss someone. Yeshe Lama also has a separate Empowerment.
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bryandavis
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Re: Requirements for bestowal of Longchen Nyingthig

Post by bryandavis »

I'm late to the convo but let me add in some money numbers.

You will need to transport, house, feed, not only the Lama bestowing the cycle but also an entourage of his crew. So at minimum four or five people.

They will need to be there at least a week before, if not more. So call it a month total. One month of the above expense.

All ritual material cost. Possible rent for venue. Maybe insurance for said venue. Possible car rentals. You will be responsible for a few mandala offerings I.e. money. Also a generous offering at the conclusion to the lama and entourage.

20k to 30k minimum conservative estimate.
Tata1
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Re: Requirements for bestowal of Longchen Nyingthig

Post by Tata1 »

KonchogUrgyenNyima wrote: Tue Jan 24, 2023 6:00 am So I’m wondering what goes into the bestowing of the entire longchen Nyingthig cycle. I have the aspiration to facilitate my lama coming to bestow the empowerments, but I need to know what truly goes I to this to know how to prepare/how long the preparation will take. Some questions:

How many days does it take to transmit the entire cycle?

for anyone who has facilitated something like this in the past, how much does an event like this usually cost?

What is one expected to take care of in proposing something like this to one’s guru? There are obvious ones that I can think of like food travel and shelter, but other than that??

Thanks for any help. Would love to make this not a pipe dream.
It took sechen rabjam like 3 weeks just the wang and lung. All tho he insertrd like 3 days if patruls rinpoches collected works lungs in there
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PaldenKunzang
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Re: Requirements for bestowal of Longchen Nyingthig

Post by PaldenKunzang »

Years ago I received the transmission of the whole Longchen Nyingthik cycle from the very high & realized Nyingma lama. It took over 3 weeks of quite intense initiations and accompanying practices, like pujas, mantra recitations, mandala creation etc.
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KonchogUrgyenNyima
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Re: Requirements for bestowal of Longchen Nyingthig

Post by KonchogUrgyenNyima »

Thanks to everyone for answering. Definitely a big undertaking, and something to aspire to. If I’m ever able to facilitate such a thing, I’ll let everyone know.
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