The Treasury of Lives

Gyelse Zopa was born in Lagong (la gong) in Kham, which makes him one of Longchenpa's (klong chen pa, 1308–1364) two main Khampa disciples, with Chodrak Zangpo (chos grags bzang po), Longchenpa's biographer. We can estimate that he was approximately of the same generation as Longchenpa, because we know that he came from Khams only in his fifteenth year, but received teachings from Yonten Gyatso (yon tan rgya mtsho, 1260–1327) of Jonang, Dolpopa Sherab Gyeltsen's (dol po pa shes rab rgyal mtshan, 1292–1361) master, who died in 1327. It is likely he was born between 1300 and 1310.

His father was called Donglupel (ldong klu 'phel) and his mother Martza Za Awo (ma tsha bza' a 'od). From his seventh or eighth year, he conceived some interest in religion and, when he was fourteen (ca. 1314–1324), he went to Drigung Monastery ('bri gung dgon), in central Tibet, where he received the minor ordination from Chengnga Dorje Gyelpo (spyan snga rdo rje rgyal po), one of Drigung Lotsāwa Norbu Pelzangpo's ('bri gung lo tsā ba nor bu dpal bzang po) masters. He was then introduced to the practice of the hundred-syllables mantra of Vajrasattva. He spent some year doing some good, giving food to beggars and inciting them to recite the maṇi mantra, which he himself recited a great number of times. In his twenty-first year (ca. 1320–1330), he had a dream in which a woman wearing all sorts of adornments, with a large retinue, told him that he would die in his twenty-fifth year if he did not practice Dharma.

Although this vision generated a great feeling of renunciation in him, he was prevented from devoting himself fully to the practice for some more years. He then took full ordination in his twenty-fifth year (ca. 1324–1334).

A bit later, he met Longchen Rabjam who "took him in his compassion." He seems to have met Longchenpa in Sangpu (gsang phu), which would mean this occurred between 1326 and 1332. If we take this statement seriously, on the basis that we have just read about his twenty fifth year and given that Longchenpa left Sangphu in 1332, this means that this occurred at the latest in 1332 and that he was at least twenty-five years old then. This suggests that Gyelse Zopa was born between 1300 and 1308 and that he was in fact slightly older than Longchenpa. 

Immediately after mentioning Longchenpa, Gyelse Zopa gives a list of teachings received from him that go far beyond what Longchenpa could have taught him already when they were both in Sangpu: all the cycle of the Heart Essence of Vimalamitra that Longchenpa is regarded as having received only ca. 1334–1335, after meeting Kumarādza (1266–1343), whom Gyelse Zopa does not mention having met; all the Heart Essence of the Ḍākinī, plus its "Quintessence" (yang tig) additions which Longchenpa composed after 1339; the Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle (theg mchog mdzod) which was composed the year following Kumarādza's death (1343); and even the Trilogy of Rest (ngal gso skor gsum) and the Treasury of Wish-Fulfilling Jewels (yid bzhin rin po che'i mdzod), which may have been composed as late as 1349.

If we want to make sense of all this without destroying what we presume we know about the chronology of Longchenpa's life, this must be understood as meaning that Gyelse Zopa originally met Longchenpa before he left from Sangpu (1332), as fellow student, so to say—and that Longchenpa later taught him all these materials.

Gyelse Zopa's autobiographical sketch is one of the very few direct, independent record of Longchen Rabjam's teaching, and it is precious because of the list of the teachings received. The list does not contain anything that would question our perception of Longchenpa regarding his field of competence and specialized interests. Gyelse Zopa mentions instructions on the Tantra of the All-Creator King (kun byed rgyal po), which may refer to Longchenpa's Jewel Nave (don khrid rin chen gru bo).[1] In the same vein, the "peaceful and wrathful Guru" surely refers to Nyangrel Nyima Wozer's (nyang ral nyi ma 'od zer, 1124–1192) terma cycle for which Longchenpa wrote practice texts.

More surprising is the mention of the "Secret Cycle" (gsang skor), a section of Dzogchen about which Longchenpa is not supposed to have written anything. There are two ways to understand what the "Secret Cycle" is, and strangely these two conceptions apply to one and the same corpus. According to one system (of which we find traces in the Fifth Dalai Lama's (ta la'i bla ma 05, 1617–1682) Record of Teachings Received in the context of a lineage passed down by Yungtonpa Dorjepel), the "Secret Cycle" must be understood in the context of the Section of Precepts (man ngag sde) of Dzogchen being divided into four sub-cycles, outer, inner, secret and arch-secret—the last one being the Heart Essences, which would imply that the "Secret Cycle" would be something slightly less profound. But Longchenpa understood it otherwise, and the second part of his Profound Quintessence (zab mo yang tig) includes all the instructions of what was referred to, in the previous generation, as "Kumarādza’s Secret Cycle," thus presenting them as a secret core of the Heart Essence of Vimalamitra.

In the list of teachings received by Gyelse Zopa from Longchenpa, the Secret Cycle is something distinct from the Profound Quintessence. This is explained by the fact that this third of Longchenpa's Quintessences is made of two originally independent parts: in the first half, Longchenpa presents, as he says himself, a synthesis of the two Heart Essences, while in the second, he presents the instructions of the Secret Cycle. This list of teachings received by Gyelse Zopa thus clearly indicates that the idea of bringing these two originally separate projects together under the single heading of Profound Quintessence must have come to Longchenpa's mind rather late. However, it cannot be said to have been invented by his editors if the catalog[2] of the entire cycle is indeed in Longchenpa's hand.

Unexpected also is the mention of Gyelse Zopa receiving from Longchenpa The Great Image (bai ro tsa na'i 'dra bag), which is, in its largest version at least, a revelation of Dorje Lingpa (rdo rje gling pa, 1346–1405; this text fills vol. 16 of his Complete Writings, BDRC W1KG2118). This must allude to some older version of that text, as it is unlikely that Longchenpa received teachings from a treasure revealer who was a teenager when he died.

Missing from the list of teachings received is a series of compositions by Longchenpa that belong to the period 1346–1354—typically, Dispelling Darkness in the Ten Directions (gsang snying 'grel pa phyogs bcu'i mun sel), written in a dragon year that, for various reasons, can be only 1352. However, Gyelse Zopa reappears in Chodrak Zangpo's biography of Longchenpa towards the end, when Longchenpa is back from exile.

It is plain that Gyelse Zopa's autobiographical sketch does not follow a fully chronological order, as, just after this list of teachings received from Longchenpa until the 1350s at least, he then moves to masters who taught him from his young age. However, this list might be somewhat chronological in another way: it features first a group of three unidentified lamas from whom he received Kagyu-oriented teachings, maybe in his youth in Khams: Lobzangpa (blo bzang pa), from who he received a Mahāmudrā system stemming from Gotsangpa called Mahāmudrā that falls like lightning (phyag chen thog bab), Gyelrongpa (rgyal rong pa) and Tsāripa (tsA ri pa). Then we find three or four Jonang masters who were active in central Tibet: Yonten Gyatso, from whom he received the Ṣaḍaṅgayoga of the Kālacakra; Dolpopa Sherab Gyeltsen; and Paṇchenpa Chokle Namgyel (paṇ chen pa phyogs las rnam rgyal, 1306–1386). The fourth, Lhakhangpa (lha khang pa), is as yet unidentified.

Additional teachers named are Rinchen Lingpa (rin chen gling pa, 1289–1368), and Tulku Lekdenpa, that is, Gyelse Lekpa or Lekpe Gyeltsen (sprul sku legs ldan pa, rgyal sras legs pa / legs pa'i rgyal mtshan, 1290–1366/7), the chief disciple of Pema Ledreltsel (padma las 'brel rtsal, 1291–1319).

From Rinchen Lingpa, Gyelse Zopa received the Heart-Essence of the Ḍākinī, plus, it seems, all of Rinchen Lingpa's own termas. This is interesting, given the atmosphere of tension that seems to have existed against Rinchen Lingpa among Longchenpa's disciples.

From Gyalse Lekpa, he received, during a one- or two-year retreat, the Heart-Essence of the Ḍākinī three times in the form of a word-by-word explanation, plus many other teachings. In fact, one of the most interesting features of the Jewel Garland of the Heart Essence of the Ḍākinī is that it presents Gyelse Zopa as Gyelse Lekpa’s heir as regards the Heart Essence of the Ḍākinī.

From this information we can speculate that, although Gyelse Zopa met Longchenpa when both were very young (sometime in the years 1326–1332), after a basic, mostly Kagyu-oriented, training in Khams, he then got involved mainly with Jonang masters for some years (ca. 1325–1340) before he became a close disciple of Longchenpa, maybe around 1340.

If Gyelse Zopa is in fact the same person as Wozer Gocha, the vision in which Longchenpa was allowed by Yudronma to teach the Heart Essence of the Ḍākinī can be dated 1339. After this, Longchenpa sends Wozer Gocha to fetch the texts of the Heart Essence of the Ḍākinī "obtained from Loro at the cost of great efforts."[3] Loro was the place where Rinchen Lingpa spent the end of his life. This would imply that it is during the period 1325–1340 that Gyelse Zopa received teachings from Rinchen Lingpa (and maybe from Gyelse Lekpa).

It can be suspected that the order in which things are told in this autobiography implies that Gyelse Zopa followed Rinchen Lingpa and Gyelse Lekpa quite late in his life, maybe even after Longchenpa's death in 1364, as both of these masters survived him by a few years.

Chodrak Zangpo's biography of Longchenpa, the Life Worth Seeing (mthong ba don ldan), includes an account of the latter's last years. This document does not mention Gyelse Zopa's nearly life-long association with Longchenpa, but presents him serving Longchenpa as a secretary and begging him not to pass away:[4]

After that he said to Gyelse Zopa: "Close the door to the stairway and let no one enter while you take down this letter," and then dictated his last testament, Stainless Light (dri ma med pa'i 'od sprad pa), as follows:

Now [I], Pema Ledreltsel, will not linger.
For I go to assume the throne of immortality of supreme bliss.
This life, my karma, and the momentum of my aspiration—all have come to an end.

When Longchenpa said this, Gyelse Zopa bowed down to him and pleaded, tears filling his voice. "Please do not say such an ill-omened thing." Longchenpa replied: "Why is it an ill-omened thing? What you do in this leisure time will be useful for you when you are busy in the future."

Gyelse Zopa seems also to be mentioned at the very end of Chodrak Zangpo's biography of Longchenpa as one of those who reviewed it thoroughly. We can thus suppose that, though older than Longchenpa, he survived him at least long enough for Chodrak Zangpo to compose this biography. However, it is extremely rare to find his name (as that of Wozer Gocha) in any account of lineages stemming from Longchenpa; this might mean that he did not survive Longchenpa long enough to train the next generation.

Biographical Sources

Neither Nyoshul Khenpo nor Guru Tashi, who are otherwise so eager to compile all that can be known about Longchenpa's disciples, present a biography of Gyelse Zopa. However, there is a short autobiographical section in a text of the Heart-Essence of the Ḍākinī,[5] in which, strangely, Gyelse Zopa, although he credits Longchenpa for most of his Dzogchen training, presents himself as the heir of Gyelse Lekpa's lineage for the Heart-Essence of the Ḍākinī. This can be complemented by mentions of him in Longchenpa's biography by Chodrak Zangpo and, as a dedicatee, in some of Longchenpa's own writings.