The Treasury of Lives

Layakpa Jangchub Ngodrub (la yag pa byang chub dngos grub) was born in Layak, in Lhokha. He is sometimes called Layak Jose (la yag jo sras) or Layakpa Bawachan (la yag pa lba ba can). This last name signifies that, in addition to hailing from Layak, that he had a goiter (lba ba), a rather common medical condition in Tibet in those times.

Layakpa's childhood name was Chokyi Ngodrub (chos kyi dngos grub). His father, Tarka Pelkyi (star ka dpal skyid), was a learned man versed in Abhidharma as well as the tantras, both old and new. His grandfather Tarka Bodhirāja (star ka bo dhi rA dza) developed siddhis through his practice of the old tantras and lived to be one hundred and twelve years old. His mother, Taklo Dadron (stag lo zla sgron), was said to be a manifestation of a wisdom ḍākinī.

According to his hagiography, as a baby when there was no one to look after him, Chokyi Ngodrub was cared for by a mysterious white hand wearing ornaments. One day when he was three and his father started teaching him the alphabet, he protested saying, “Father, I know it, too!” A sensitive child who couldn't bear the thought of anyone suffering, he once fainted when a playmate burned a flea.

Chokyi Ngodrub's earlier studies focused on Prajñāpāramitā Sutras and the Chod practices, along with the treatises by Maitreya. He went at age seventeen for a brief stay in Tsang province, and when he returned two well-known disciples of the Kadampa philosopher Chapa Chokyi Sengge (phya pa chos kyi seng ge, d.u.) were there for the funeral of their teacher. He took this opportunity to further his understanding of the Prajñāpāramitā. People were very impressed by his performance in philosophical debates, and Chapa's student promised him he could be made into a master of Prajñāpāramitā in just one year of tutoring.

This was not to be, since a wandering disciple of Gampopa Sonam Rinchen (sgam po pa bsod nams rin chen, 1079-1153) persuaded him to go along with him to Daklha Gampo (dwags lha sgam po). When they arrived, Gampopa said to him, “I am an old man like a dry meadow in the setting sun, but this Lhopa (lho pa; Southerner) has a karmic connection with me like the one I had with the Jetsun [Milarepa].” Indeed, Gampopa was an elderly man in the last years of his life. He believed Layakpa was a reincarnation of one of his earlier students who had died young. He took Layakpa, who was also called Lhopa, with him into a closed retreat and gave him all the precepts. In all, Chokyi Ngodrub spent no more than four years with Gampopa, but through the blessings of this great teacher he met with the Mahāmudrā as if encountering an old friend.

When he was twenty-two Chokyi Ngodrub he took the final monastic ordination under the Dawa Gyeltsen (zla ba rgyal mtshan), one of the most active ordinators in those days. Although the sources do not seem to say so explicitly, he probably received the name Jangchub Ngodrub as part of a monastic ordination. After some years meditating in various places, all the time continuing his studies of the tantras, he went to stay with Marpa Dopa (mar pa do pa, d.u.) in order to concentrate on the Cakrasaṃvara teachings, since this had been Gampopa's wish.

Unfortunately hardly anything seems to be known about the last years of Layakpa's life. The Scholars' Feast says that he headed Tsurpu Monastery (mtshur phu dgon) for two or three years, then became the head of Gampo. They say that just hearing his name was enough to induce states of realization in people's minds, that he could subdue the insane.

For several centuries after Layakpa's death two of his works were most famous. The first was his Sadhana of Cakrasaṃvara and the other was his commentary on the Four Dharmas of Gampopa.