Longde (Dzogchen)

Longdé (Wylie: klong sde , Sanskrit: abhyantaravarga) is the name of one of three scriptural divisions within Dzogchen, which is itself the pinnacle of the ninefold division of practice according to the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism.

The name "longdé" is translated as "Space Division" or "Space Series" of Dzogchen and emphasises the emptiness (Wylie: strong pa ) or spaciousness (Wylie: klong ) aspect of the Natural State.

Penor Rinpoche[1] states that due to the different approaches of various Dzogchen lineages, three sub-schools have developed, of which longdé is one. The other two divisions or schools are semde and menngagde. Penor Rinpoche refers to longdé as the Centredness School and is attributed to Dorje Zampa, Sri Singha and Vairotsana's lineage.

Background

These three divisions were introduced by the Buddhist scholar Mañjuśrīmitra. As Dzogchen texts, the texts of all three divisions are concerned with the basic primordial state; the nature of mind-itself (which is contrasted with normal conscious mind). They are related to the "Three Statements" (Wylie: tshig gsum gnad brdeg ) of Garab Dorje.

It is important to note that the three series do not represent different schools of Dzogchen practice as much as different approaches to the same goal, that being the basic, natural, and primordial state. As is common throughout much Buddhist literature, Tibetan Buddhism in particular, gradations in the faculties of practitioners are also ascribed to the three divisions, they being seen as appropriate for practitioners of low, middling, and high faculties, respectively.

Distinguishing Features of the Space Division

The Space Division is related to Garab Dorje's second statement, removing doubts. It teaches methods of meditation that enable the practitioner to get beyond any doubts he or she may have concerning the natural state.

Texts of the Space Division

"Samantabhadra’s Royal Tantra of All-Inclusive Vastness" (Sanskrit: Mahāvartta prasāraṇi rāja tantra nāma; Wylie: klong chen rab byams rgyal po’i rgyud ces bya ba bzhugs so ) is renowned as the “king” of tantras belonging to the Space Section.[2][3] list the tantric texts belonging to the Space Division thus:

'King of Infinite Vast Space' or 'Longchen Rabjam Gyalpo' (Tibetan: ཀློང་ཆེན་རབ་འབྱམས་རྒྱལ་པོ, Wylie: klong chen rab 'byams rgyal po ) Skt: mahāvartta prasāraṇi rāja tantra
'Total Space of Samantabhadra' or 'Kunto Zangpo Namkhache' (Tibetan: ཀུན་ཏུ་བཟང་པོ་ནམ་མཁའ་ཆེ, Wylie: kun tu bzang po nam mkha' che ) Skt: samanta bhadra mahā gagana mūla saṃgraha tantra
'Manifestation of the Creative Energy of Spiritual Awareness' or 'Rigpa Rangtsal Sharwa' (Tibetan: རིག་པ་རང་རྩལ་ཤར་བ, Wylie: rig pa rang rtsal shar ba ) Skt: bodhicitta samantabhadra vidyā parākramodaya tantra
'Wheel of Key Instructions' or 'Dam-ngag Natshog Khorlo' (Tibetan: གདམས་ངག་སྣ་ཚོགས་འཁོར་ལོ, Wylie: gdams ngag sna tshogs 'khor lo ) Skt:
'Array of the Exalted Path' or 'Phaglam Kodpa' (Tibetan: འཕགས་ལམ་བཀོད་པ, Wylie: 'phags lam bkod pa ) Skt: ratnārya patha vyūha tantra
'Vajrasattva Equal to the Limits of Space' or 'Dorje Sempa Namkha'i Thatang Nyampa' (Tibetan: རྡོ་རྗེ་སེམས་དཔའ་ནམ་མཁའི་མཐའ་དང་མཉམ་པ, Wylie: rdo rje sems dpa' nam mkha'i mtha' dang mnyam pa ) Skt: vajra satvākāśānta sama mahā tantra
'Secret Pristine Awareness' or 'Lamp of Secret Pristine Awareness' or 'Yeshe Sangwa Dronma' (Tibetan: ཡེ་ཤེས་གསང་བ་སྒྲོན་མ, Wylie: ye shes gsang ba sgron ma ) Skt: jñāna guhya dīpa ratnopadeśa tantra
'Wheel of Precious Gems' or 'Rinpoche Khorlo' (Tibetan: རིན་པོ་ཆེ་འཁོར་ལོ, Wylie: rin po che 'khor lo ) Skt: ratna cakra nāma tantra
'Secret Pristine Awareness' or 'Yeshe Sangwa' (Tibetan: ཡེ་ཤེས་གསང་བ, Wylie: ye shes gsang ba ) Skt: jñāna guhya nāma tantra
'Perfect Pristine Awareness' or 'Yeshe Dzogpa' (Tibetan: ཡེ་ཤེས་རྫོགས་པ, Wylie: ye shes rdzogs pa ) bodhicittāti jñāna sandhi tantra
'Total Revelation of the All-Pervasive Mind of Enlightenment' or 'Changchub Kyi Sems Kunla Jugpa Namtag Tonpa' (Tibetan: བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སེམས་ཀུན་ལ་འཇུག་པ་རྣམ་དག་སྟོན་པ, Wylie: byang chub kyi sems kun la 'jug pa rnam dag ston pa )
'Radiant Vajra of the Mind of Enlightenment' or 'Changchug Kyi Sem Dorje Odthro' (Tibetan: བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སེམས་རྡོ་རྗེ་འོད་འཕྲོ, Wylie: byang chub kyi sems rdo rje 'od 'phro ) Skt: bodhicitta vajra prabhā spharaṇa tantra paṭala

According to Thondup & Talbott (1997: p. 48) there are only seven extant texts of the Space Class and they are collected in the Nyingma Gyubum.[4]

Additionally, there is one terma text in the Space Class, which is contained in the Chokling Tersar cycle of Orgyen Chokgyur Lingpa.[5]

Notes

"Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-10-08. Retrieved 2007-02-01.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
Wellsprings of the Great Perfection by Erik Pema Kunsang. Rangjung Yeshe Publication Pg. 76
Guarisco, Elio (trans.); McLeod, Ingrid (trans., editor); Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye, Kon-Sprul Blo-Gros-Mtha-Yas (compiler) (2005). The Treasury of Knowledge: Book Six, Part Four: Systems of Buddhist Tantra. Ithaca, New York, USA: Snow Lion Publications. ISBN 1-55939-210-X, p.520
Tulku Thondup, Harold Talbott (1997). Hidden teachings of Tibet: an explanation of the Terma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Second Edition. Wisdom Publications. ISBN 0-86171-122-X, 9780861711222. Source: (accessed: Thursday April 15, 2010), p.48
Urgyen, Tulku (19 August 2005). Blazing Splendor. Rangjung Yeshe. ISBN 9627341568. …no other terton has revealed a teaching that includes the Space Section (Longde) of Dzogchen. There are several Mind Section (Semde) revelations and all major tertons have revealed the Instruction Section (Mengagde), but only Chokgyur Lingpa transmitted the Space Section. This is why the Dzogchen Desum is considered the most extraordinary terma that he ever revealed.

References

"The Practice of Dzogchen", Tulku Thondup, Harold Talbott editors, Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca NY, 1989. ISBN 1-55939-054-9
Anspal, Sten (2005). The Space Section of the Great Perfection (rDzogs-chen klong-sde): a category of philosophical and meditative teachings in Tibetan Buddhism. Thesis. The University of Oslo. Source: (accessed: Thursday April 15, 2010)

External links

Three Sections of Dzogchen

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[1] "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-10-08. Retrieved 2007-02-01.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

[2] Wellsprings of the Great Perfection by Erik Pema Kunsang. Rangjung Yeshe Publication Pg. 76

[3] Guarisco, Elio (trans.); McLeod, Ingrid (trans., editor); Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye, Kon-Sprul Blo-Gros-Mtha-Yas (compiler) (2005). The Treasury of Knowledge: Book Six, Part Four: Systems of Buddhist Tantra. Ithaca, New York, USA: Snow Lion Publications. ISBN 1-55939-210-X, p.520

[4] Tulku Thondup, Harold Talbott (1997). Hidden teachings of Tibet: an explanation of the Terma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Second Edition. Wisdom Publications. ISBN 0-86171-122-X, 9780861711222. Source: (accessed: Thursday April 15, 2010), p.48

[5] Urgyen, Tulku (19 August 2005). Blazing Splendor. Rangjung Yeshe. ISBN 9627341568. …no other terton has revealed a teaching that includes the Space Section (Longde) of Dzogchen. There are several Mind Section (Semde) revelations and all major tertons have revealed the Instruction Section (Mengagde), but only Chokgyur Lingpa transmitted the Space Section. This is why the Dzogchen Desum is considered the most extraordinary terma that he ever revealed.