ཞིག་པོ་རིན་ཆེན་ཤེས་རབ་ནི་རོག་བན་ཤེས་རབ་འོད་ཀྱི་གཅུང་ཡིན་ལ། ཁོང་གཉིས་ཀྱིས་བླ་མ་ཏེན་ནེ་ཞེས་པ་ལས་ཐོས་བསམ་མཛད། ཕྱིས་སུ་འབྲི་གུང་དགོན་དུ་གདན་རབས་གཉིས་པ་གུ་ར་བ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་རྡོ་རྗེ་ལས་ཐོས་བསམ་མཛད་པའོ།
Zhikpo Rinchen Sherab (zhig po rin chen shes rab) was born in the iron rabbit year, 1171. His father was Tashi Drakpa (bkra shis grags pa) and his mother was Chokyi Ge (chos kyi dge). His father was a member of the Rok (rog) clan. His elder brother was the Nyingma master Rokben Sherab O (rog ban shes rab 'od, 1166-1244), and younger brother was Tsondru Sengge (P3762 brtson 'grus seng+ge, 1186-1247), also known as Mawai Sengge (smra ba'i seng ge).
According to tradition at the age of six or seven he stopped speaking, in accordance to some yogic discipline. At twelve he heard of the master Kharak Drapa Dulwa O (kha rag gra pa 'dul ba 'od) and was inspired to search him out, but was unable to meet him. At sixteen his father passed away and he began speaking again, in order to perform the funeral rites.
When he was eighteen, he went into retreat in a cave called Jamo Tretak (bya mo spre ltag). While there, his meditation was interrupted by hooting of an owl, which made him uneasy; reflecting on that unease led him to insights to the nature of mind.
Zhikpa continued his studies after coming out of this retreat. He received numerous instructions from his elder brother, Rokben Sherab O, after which he set out in search of additional teachings. According to the Blue Annals, he once preached on the Prajñapāramitāsañcayagāthā but the audience was so displeased that he had to flee.
At twenty-six, while staying at Namkha Dzong (nam mkha' rdzong) he received word from his brother than his brother's teacher Tenne (ten ne / te ne) would be in Gyab (rgyab) and that he should go there to study with him. Tenne gave him a Lojong (blo sbyong) practice and told him to meditate for twenty-three days.
When Zhikpa asked Tenne for further initiation, according to the Blue Annals Tenne tested his degree of purification with the rebuke "You don't even posses the smell of your father's marrow-bon, and the smell of your mother's fat."
In despair, Rinchen Sherab sang the following song:
O venerable precious teacher!
Be gracious to your devoted disciple!
In general there are few perfect teachers!
Ever rarer are suitable disciples!
I, a beggar of sad mood, irreligious thoughts never come to my mind,
but this time I have broken the vow of residing in a hermitage.
I grasped the foot of the precious master!
I have earnestly practiced the accumulation of merit.
During my practice of Lojong, which is the path,
I manifested the three kinds of diligence.
This time there appeared three signs of purification,
Which were difficult to remove.
All the signs of the path, described in the tantra
Were now produced without meditation.
The dream, though it is caused by the influences of former existences,
I saw six dreams about which I am afraid to even speak.
I, a beggar who had abandoned existence, writing isn't necessary to me.
O Father! Show me the presents of the oral tradition!
Moved, Tenne bestowed on him the oral tradition instructions he held, which he insisted were to be passed from a master to a single disciple only.
When he was thirty-one, Zhikpa traveled to Drigung and took ordination from Khenchen Gurawa Tsultrim Dorje (mkhan chen gu ra ba tshul khrims rdo rje, 1154-1221), the second abbot of Drigung Til Monastery ('bri gung mthil), who, together with Lopbon Tsangpa Duldzin (slob dpon gtsang pa 'dul 'dzin) and Chakripa (lcags ri pa), gave him ordination and the name Rinchen Sherab.
The Blue Annals lists fourteen additional teachers, including several other teachers of the Rok clan, and lists the teachings they gave him; none of these names appear elsewhere. He went into retreat in places such as Tsari (tsa ri), Shambu (sham lbu), Mutik (mu tig), Poma (pho ma) and Gangzang (gangs bzang).
At the age of thirty-seven, he was said to have copied all of the Drigung teachings in gold. He then traveled to Dingri Langkor Monastery (ding ri glang 'khor), where he was able to meet Padampa Sanggye (pha dam pa sangs rgyas, d.u.) and made numerous offerings. It was also at that time that he authored commentaries on the abbreviated and extensive stages of the path (lam rim che chung), as well as a collection of talks (bshad 'bum). He was asked to remain and serve as abbot of Langkhor, but he declined.
Nothing is currently known about the later life of Rinchen Sherab. He passed away at the age seventy-five on the twenty-second day of the tenth month of the wood snake year, 1245.
དཔྱད་གཞིའི་ཡིག་ཆ་ཁག།
Dkon mchog rgya mtsho. 2004. Chos rje 'jig rten mgon po'i slob ma. In 'Bri gung chos 'byung, pp. 311-343. Beijing: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, p. 345. TBRC W27020.
Dung dkar blo bzang 'phrin las. 2002. Dung dkar tshig mdzod chen mo. Beijing: Krung go'i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang, pp. 1771-1772. TBRC W26372.
Roerich, George, trans. 1996. The Blue Annals. 2nd ed. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas, pp. 949-955.