Yukhok Jadralwa Chöying Rangdrol
- Student
- Teacher
In his youth, Yukhok Jadralwa Chöying Rangdrol was belligerent and undisciplined, Yet, in later life, he came to embody the authentic meaning of jadral—being free from worldly affairs and dualistic grasping—and devoted himself single-mindedly to the spiritual path.
Wild Beginnings
Yukhok Jadralwa Chöying Rangdröl[1] was born in the Water Monkey Year of 1872 in Yu Khok, ‘Turquoise Hollow’, a region in greater Golok located west of the Ser Chu Valley where Düdjom Lingpa had been born and later established his mountain hermitage, Lama Rung. His parents, Chöjé Tratsé and Adzi Zanwalo, presided over a large and lively household filled with children. According to lineage accounts, the male Water Monkey of that year was associated with movement, intelligence, and the spread of teachings, but also with arrogance and wit—perhaps a portent of Yukhok Jadralwa’s unusual life.
From an early age, Yukhok Jadralwa—then known as Pema Dorjé—displayed a fierce and unruly temperament. He was aggressive and domineering, beating other children when they failed to obey him and terrifying them with his violent outbursts. Even in childhood, he armed himself with a spear and knife. To ease tensions within the crowded family home, he was eventually sent to live with a tolerant and childless aunt, who raised him with patience and care.
In 1883, at the age of eleven, he entered Lhatsé Monastery, a Nyingma institution of the Palyül lineage in the lower Ser Chu Valley, approximately sixty kilometers southeast of his birthplace. Exceptionally intelligent, he made swift progress in his studies. Yet his volatile temperament remained unchanged. Despite his wild behavior, Lhatsé Kyabgön, the monastery’s head lama, recognized Yukhok Jadralwa as a reincarnation of Vimalamitra who, along with Guru Rinpoché, helped establish Dzogchen in Tibet in the eighth century. He thus bestowed upon him numerous teachings and empowerments.
But Yukhok Jadralwa found himself unsuited to monastic life. He therefore sought out a respected tertön and householder lama named Horla Shenpen, from whom he hoped to receive more personally meaningful guidance. When he arrived, Horla Shenpen was presiding over a tantric feast offering (tsok). Yukhok Jadralwa appeared at the doorway disheveled and armed with a knife, spear, and other weapons. Though he had come seeking teachings on ultimate reality, he entered as if ready for combat.
Horla Shenpen regarded him calmly and asked, ‘What’s going on? Did you kill someone?’
Yukhok Jadralwa replied sharply, ‘You are supposed to be a lama who can see the consciousness of beings. Why ask me? You should know whether or not I have killed anyone. No—I have killed no one. I came for dharma teachings.’
Unperturbed, Horla Shenpen responded, ‘If you have come to learn the dharma, you came in completely the wrong way. You cannot come in all weaponed up and then request teachings. Look at you! Go back, get rid of your weapons, get yourself cleaned up, cut your hair, make yourself clean and humble, and then come back for dharma.’
As reported to Chaktung Jikmé Wangdrak by Chöjé Dampa Jikmé Püntsok (1933–2004), a direct student of Yukhok Jadralwa and one of the most influential Nyingma lamas in twentieth-century Tibet, the would-be disciple returned properly groomed. Horla Shenpen then instructed him in the ngöndro (foundational practices) of the Vajrayana path. Through cultivating refuge and bodhicitta, purifying obscurations through the hundred-syllable mantra of Vajrasattva, accumulating merit through mandala offerings, and uniting his mind with that of the guru, his latent spiritual capacities awakened. His violent temperament gradually softened, giving way to empathy, inner stability, and visionary experiences.
One day, while traveling along a dangerous mountain path in the lower part of the Do Chu Valley to collect alms for sustaining his future studies and meditation, he was attacked by a female leopard protecting her cubs. Terrified, he averted being devoured through the power of his prayers. Though he escaped, the encounter haunted him with recurring nightmares about the dark-spotted predators. One night, he dreamed that a woman appeared, accompanied by the leopards, and said, ‘These leopards are my emanations, but you failed to recognize them.’ The animals then dissolved into the woman, who herself dissolved into a seed syllable and vanished.
When he recounted the dream, Lhatsé Kyabgön explained, ‘This experience was a long tsé, an upheaval of your hidden conceptual mind and agitated emotions. It took until this time for you to realize it. Now you have been freed from that disturbance and can progress more deeply along the path.’
When Lhatsé Kyabgön later fell gravely ill, the tertön Péma Ngödrup Rölwé Dorjé (1881–1943), a predecessor of Alak Zenkar Tubten Nyima (b. 1943), also known as Chagmo Tulku, was invited to perform healing rituals. Deeply inspired by his presence, Yukhok Jadralwa requested transmission of the Dzogchen teachings of the Longchen Nyingtik lineage. Chagmo Tulku advised him to seek these teachings from the Third Dodrubchen Jikmé Tenpé Nyima (1865–1926), the eldest son of Düdjom Lingpa. However, unwilling to lose his promising student, Lhatsé Kyabgön prevented his departure.
Chagmo Tulku therefore granted him the requested instructions himself, including teachings from the Yéshé Lama, the seminal Dzogchen manual composed by Rigdzin Jikmé Lingpa (1729–1798), containing advanced Tögal instructions based on luminous visionary appearances.
Practicing with intense dedication, Yukhok Jadralwa soon experienced profound meditative visions. Within a week, he reported that buddhas and pure lands appeared continuously as the spontaneous radiance of intrinsic awareness, ‘like the light of a lamp within a vase’. During this period, Yukhok Jadralwa also read the namthar, or life story, of the great Tibetan yogin Jetsün Milarepa (1028/40–1111/23), written by Tsangnyön Heruka (1452–1507) in the fifteenth century. Through practice and contemplation, Yukhok Jadralwa’s dualistic grasping lessened, and his mind settled into a state of non-conceptual primordial ease.
A Student of Düdjom Lingpa in Lama Rung
Despite these attainments, Yukhok Jadralwa sensed that his realization was incomplete. He continued studying with masters of both the Nyingma and Sarma traditions. One teacher advised him, ‘If you truly wish to accomplish Dzogchen, seek teachings from Traktung Düdjom Lingpa, who now resides at Lama Rung.’
In the late 1880s, following the death of Lhatsé Kyabgön, Yukhok Jadralwa traveled to Lama Rung and became a direct disciple of Düdjom Lingpa. There, he received instruction in the essential Dzogchen practice of kadak trekchö—‘cutting through to primordial purity’—as revealed in Düdjom Lingpa’s Nang Jang[2], which points out the view by means of recounting fourteen encounters with enlightened beings he had.
Although now deeply committed to spiritual practice, traces of his feral nature remained intact. As recounted by Jikmé Püntsok (1933–2004), one of Düdjom Lingpa’s students presumed himself to be quite accomplished in the Dzogchen view. One day, that student remarked in front of Yukhok Jadralwa, ‘I have realized the view of Dzogchen. I can remain in the state of Great Perfection, free of any self-clinging.’
Yukhok Jadralwa regarded him skeptically and replied, ‘Oh really? Let me see. Why don’t you sit and abide in the view of Dzogchen, and I’ll see if that’s actually the case!’
The student composed himself and began ‘abiding’ in what he believed to be rigpa, the non-dual awareness that is Dzogchen’s hallmark.
As Jikmé Püntsok later reported to one of his dharma heirs, Chakung Jikmé Wangdrak, ‘Yukhok Jadralwa suddenly hauled off and socked the student squarely in the face, declaring, ‘That is not the View!’
The student, incensed at having been hit, rushed off to tell Düdjom Lingpa what had happened. ‘Can you believe it?’, he protested. ‘This guy just punched me in the face! Please do something about it!’
Düdjom Lingpa outwardly chastised Yukhok Jadralwa for his violent action, but he privately admired his accurate assessment of the arrogant student who claimed to have fully realized the Dzochen view.
‘You clearly have exceptional qualities,’ Düdjom Lingpa told him. ‘But your destined teacher isn’t me; it is Adzom Drukpa Drödül Pawo (1842–1924), a great Dzogchen master of the Longchen Nyingtik. You need to go study with him.’
A Close Student of Adzom Drukpa in Kham
In 1886, Adzom Drukpa, a renowned tantric yogin, established Adzom Gar, a sprawling encampment of meditation tents and hermit dwellings situated along the banks of the Dzing Chu in eastern Kham, where a high-altitude river valley opens into rolling alpine grasslands beneath vast skies and snow-rimmed mountains. Adzom Drukpa had studied with many of the greatest masters of his era, including Dza Paltrül (1808–1887), Jamyang Khyentsé Wangpo (1820–1892), Nyoshul Lungtok Tenpé Nyima (1829–1901), Jü Mipham Gyatso (1846–1912), and numerous other Rimé luminaries.
Before undertaking the journey to Adzom Gar, Yukhok Jadralwa unaccountably thought to increase his merit by taking monastic ordination. At that time, a lama named Thrangu Tulku Karma Tenzin Trinley Rabgyé (1879–1932), also known simply as Thrangu Geshé Chenpo, was residing in Serta. Yukhok Jadralwa went to see him and requested, ‘Please bestow upon me the vows of a monk.’
Thrangu Geshé replied, ‘This is not the right time. You lack the necessary qualities to take on monastic vows.’
Never one to take kindly to being thwarted, Yukhok Jadralwa was deeply offended. ‘Wait a minute. Let me get this straight. You are telling me that I cannot take monk’s vows even though I do so with the motivation to abandon all non-virtue and gather all virtuous actions? All this time, I have been abandoning non-virtue in my thoughts and actions, and here you are with the gall to deny me the opportunity to increase my virtue. In that case, I am going to do the exact opposite. From now on, I will accumulate only non-virtue and avoid all virtuous actions!’
Inadvertently confirming the geshé’s accurate appraisal of his conflicted character, Yukhok Jadralwa stormed off in anger. Only afterward did he recall that his actual purpose was to meet his karmically destined teacher, Adzom Drukpa.
Nevertheless, he had become fixated on receiving monastic ordination, which he had earlier abandoned when he left Lhatsé Monastery as a rebellious adolescent. He therefore sought out a more compliant, if less discerning, lama, who ordained him as a novice monk.
With a freshly shaved head and maroon robes, Yukhok Jadralwa then set out on foot along the week-long caravan route between Serta and Adzom Gar. The journey led across open grasslands punctuated by black yak-hair tents, with smoke rising from their yak-dung cooking fires. Further yak-hair tents, strung with prayer flags, marked Adzom Drukpa’s yogic retreat settlement along the banks of the Dzing Chu, a tributary within the upper Yangtze River watershed.
When Yukhok Jadralwa arrived at the humble residence of Adzom Drukpa, he was overwhelmed with reverence and devotion and immediately burst into tears. He explained that he had been sent by Düdjom Lingpa, who had prophesied that Adzom Drukpa was his destined teacher and the one who could transmit to him the highest Dzogchen teachings.
Adzom Drukpa—renowned for his coiled and matted dreadlocks—immediately recognized Yukhok Jadralwa as a destined disciple. With kindness, he replied, ‘Well, of course I can teach you, but it seems you have made one mistake. I cannot give you these teachings as long as you are a monk. You should be a mantrika, not a monk. I cannot transmit these secret instructions until you return your monastic vows to whomever you received them from.’
Yukhok Jadralwa was thus compelled to retrace his steps, locate the lama who had ordained him, and formally return his vows and robes. Only then did he return to Adzom Gar, free from institutional obligations.
Over the ensuing weeks and months, Adzom Drukpa bestowed upon his new disciple the complete Longchen Nyingtik cycle, along with trekchö and tögal instructions from the Chétsün Nyingtik lineage of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo (1820–1892), the four streams of the Nyingtik Yabzhi, and the Gongpa Zangthal (‘Transparent Wisdom Mind’), a tantric scripture in five volumes concealed by Guru Rinpoché and later revealed by Rigdzin Gödem (1337–1408), founder of the Jangter (‘Northern Treasures’) tradition of the Nyingma school.
Rejecting Adzom Drukpa’s Daughter
Adzom Drukpa developed deep affection for Yukhok Jadralwa and cared for him with great kindness. One day, he spoke to him about the favorable circumstances of being a ngakpa, a married tantric practitioner. He expressed his wish that Yukhok Jadralwa take his daughter, Chimé, as his consort, explaining that his enlightened activities and ability to benefit beings would thereby increase and expand. Chimé herself was regarded as a dakini, a woman endowed with extraordinary spiritual qualities.
Yukhok Jadralwa replied with his customary lack of restraint. As recounted by Chakung Jikmé Wangdrak, he said, ‘Wait, wait, wait—hold on. I came here because of the prophecies of Traktüng Düdjom Lingpa to receive Dzogchen teachings. I did not come here because I could not find my own wife or consort.’
Adzom Drukpa responded calmly, ‘Very well, it is your choice. The time has come for you to accomplish the benefit of beings in your own way and through your own enlightened activities. You should now return to your homeland.’
Later, when recounting this episode to his disciple Jikmé Püntsok, Yukhok Jadralwa acknowledged that by rejecting Adzom Drukpa’s daughter he had, to some extent, weakened his samaya bond with his teacher. Nevertheless, he sought to honor Adzom Drukpa by maintaining the dress of a ngakpa—wearing a white ngakpa zen and keeping long, matted hair—even though he never married, had no children, and lived largely as a monk for the remainder of his life.
Dharma in Troubled Times
Adzom Drukpa ultimately instructed Yukhok Jadralwa to return to his homeland in the Ser Chu Valley. There, he supplemented the training he had received from Adzom Drukpa by obtaining further transmissions from the Dzogchen master Nyoshul Lungtok Tenpé Nyima (1829–1901), the attendant and foremost disciple of Dza Paltrül (1808–1887). He then spent time at Dodrubchen Tsangchen Ngödrub Palbar Ling Monastery in the upper Do Chu Valley before pursuing advanced training in the Ser Chu Valley with the renowned dreadlocked ngakpa, Tertön Sogyal Lérab Lingpa (1856–1926).
These studies included detailed teachings on the Dzökyi Demik (‘Key to the Treasury’), an overview of the Guhyagarbha Tantra composed by Düdjom Lingpa’s eldest son, the Third Dodrubchen, Jikmé Tenpé Nyima (1865–1926), and transcribed by Tertön Sogyal. Although Yukhok Jadralwa never met Dodrubchen Jikmé Tenpé Nyima in person, Tertön Sogyal Lérab Lingpa continued to visit the Third Dodrubchen to receive important transmissions, which he then conveyed directly to Yukhok Jadralwa.
These were troubled times in eastern Tibet. Dodrubchen Tsangchen Ngödrub Palbar Ling, in the upper Do Chu Valley, had been founded by the Second Dodrubchen, Dodrubchen Jikmé Püntsok Jungné, in the mid-nineteenth century, when the monks of its mother monastery, Yarlung Pémakö in Serta, fled north to escape the marauding army of Nyarong Gönpo Namgyal (1799–1865).
By the early decades of the twentieth century, the Hui warlord Ma Qi and his clan controlled territories east of Golok. Their attempts to impose taxation and exploit mineral resources—particularly gold deposits in Amnyé Machen—led to repeated armed conflicts between fourteen Hui warlord factions and the Golokpas from 1917 into the 1940s. The violence was not one-sided. Contemporary observers recorded brutal retaliations and cycles of vengeance, reflecting the harsh realities of frontier warfare in the region.
‘Tibetans will carefully slit open a living man’s abdomen and put their hand inside to squeeze his heart’, some Chinese Muslims observed. ‘Then after the Tibetans would come the Golokpas who were devils incarnate . . . They strangle their captives with rawhides, behead, drown, cut throats, slice bodies into small pieces . . . they shoot, stone to death, burn and blind their victims.’
The strong religious culture of Golok and Kham thus coexisted with a fiercely independent and often hostile stance toward outsiders, shaped by decades of political instability, resource competition, and tribal conflict. Within this volatile and often violent environment, Yukhok Jadralwa continued to pursue and transmit the Dharma, embodying a contemplative life amid profound uncertainty and upheaval.
The Encampment of Excellence
In time, Yukhok Jadralwa established a hermitage near the summit of a high, steep, conch-shaped mountain, which he named Yagé Gar, the ‘Encampment at Yagé’. Many renowned lamas and accomplished lay practitioners came there to receive teachings on Dzogchen. Numerous disciples settled nearby, living humbly in small huts and caves furnished with simple beds on which they slept, studied, and meditated. Beside these beds stood small altars, shelves for religious texts, and simple stoves fueled by wood and dried yak dung for brewing butter tea to mix with tsampa. The ceilings of these huts were generally too low to permit one to stand upright.
Later in life, Yukhok Jadralwa guided suitable disciples individually in Dzogchen practice, offering precise instructions and clarifications based on experiences arising in their meditation. Others studied the Sutras and Tantras under the guidance of his senior students. Although his disciples were generally very poor, they were known to be joyful, serene, and compassionate.
Yukhok Jadralwa came to have a large following throughout Serta and Kham. Feeling a strong wish to reconnect with his teacher, Tertön Sogyal Lérab Lingpa––who had relocated to Rebkong in Amdo—he urged his followers, ‘We must invite the lord of all victorious ones, Padmasambhava’s regent, the great tertön Sogyal Lerab Lingpa, to come to Yagé Gar!’
Praising Tertön Sogyal to his disciples, he predicted that inviting him would bring immense benefit and create auspicious conditions for the flourishing of enlightened activity in the region. His devoted followers immediately extended the invitation, which Tertön Sogyal accepted.
When Tertön Sogyal arrived at the mountain hermitage of Yagé Gar, Yukhok Jadralwa welcomed him, saying, ‘Great master, all the people of this region long to connect with you. I request that you visit the households of each of my students and sponsors. I will accompany you as your attendant. Allow them to make mandala offerings of gratitude and devotion. Then bestow blessings and instructions.’
Tertön Sogyal agreed. The local community was overjoyed at the opportunity to welcome such a great master into their homes, and they escorted him with ceremonial processions and made generous offerings.
Some of the locals lived in simple tent-like dwellings, while others resided in multi-story timber and stone houses accessible only by steep stairways fashioned from notched logs. On one occasion, Tertön Sogyal, escorted by Yukhok Jadralwa, visited a sponsor whose home stood at the top of a particularly narrow staircase with many steps. Tertön Sogyal, then in his sixties, found the ascent physically challenging.
As they climbed, he began reciting Karma Chagmé’s famous aspiration prayer to be reborn in Déwachen, the ‘Land of Great Bliss’: ‘Samsara is no cause for rejoicing … develop renunciation and disillusionment so as to be free from Samsara.’
Hearing this, Yukhok Jadralwa spontaneously altered the wording. He replaced the word Samsara (khorwa in Tibetan) with the word for ‘staircase’ and replaced ‘not to be rejoiced in’ (ma yi rang) with the Tibetan word for ‘lengthy’, transforming the verse into:
‘May sorrowful disillusionment arise in relation to this lengthy staircase!’
He then playfully modified the verse further, so that it sounded to Tertön Sogyal as though he were saying, ‘May sorrowful disillusionment arise in relation to receiving offerings from sponsors.’
This subtle remark suggested a deeper meaning that accepting offerings from students could entail assuming responsibility for their karmic burdens. Tertön Sogyal immediately took these words as profound pointing-out instructions. From that moment onward, he ceased making personal visits to students and sponsors—thus sparing himself unnecessary strain while preserving his strength for teaching.
Identifying Trülkus
When Düdjom Lingpa’s eldest son, the Third Dodrubchen (‘Great Master of the Do Valley’), Jikmé Tenpé Nyima, passed away in 1926, the senior lamas of Dodrubchen Tsangchen Monastery requested the Fifth Dzogchen Trülku Thupten Chökyi Dorjé (1872–1935), to guide them in identifying his reincarnation.
The Fifth Dzogchen Tulku’s instructions were enigmatic. He explained that there would be five incarnations corresponding to Dodrubchen’s body, speech, mind, qualities, and activities, as well as one principal tulku who would accomplish vast benefit for all beings.
He further indicated that this principal incarnation would be born in a Monkey Year—the ninth in the twelve-year Tibetan zodiac cycle—and would display specific identifying signs, appearing somewhere within the general region. These instructions proved difficult to interpret, particularly since the Third Dodrubchen had passed away in 1926, and the next Monkey Year would not occur until 1932.
In the winter of 1928, the search party traveled through heavy snow to consult Yukhok Jadralwa Chöying Rangdröl at his hermitage at Yagé Gar. Upon their arrival, he told them, ‘Do nothing more tonight. Remain here, and in the morning a sign will show you where to go.’
They followed his advice and stayed overnight at the snowbound mountain hermitage. The next morning, Yukhok Jadralwa told them, ‘There are paw prints of a dog in the freshly fallen snow. Follow them, and they will lead you to Dodrubchen’s tulku.’
Following the tracks, the search party arrived at a humble dwelling in a small village. They knocked on the door, and the residents informed them that a child had been born there the previous year, in 1927, the Year of the Rabbit. Witnessing the family’s extreme poverty, the search party doubted that such an exalted master would choose to be reborn in such conditions. Moreover, the Fifth Dzogchen Tulku had predicted a birth in a Monkey Year, not a Rabbit Year. Concluding that this child could not be the indicated reincarnation, they did not record his name and instead proceeded to more well-to-do homes in the village.
With an exhaustive list of names, they returned to Yukhok Jadralwa and presented their candidates. ‘Something is missing’, he said. ‘Are you certain you recorded every name?’
‘Well, the paw prints led us to a house where a child was born last year, but we did not bother to record his name, as we believed he could not possibly be the reincarnation.’
‘No, no’, Yukhok Jadralwa insisted. ‘Go back and record that missing name.’
They thus returned to the village in the now-melting snow, wrote the child’s name on a slip of paper separate from the list they had already compiled, and brought their findings back to the Fifth Dzogchen Tulku, asking him to select the correct candidate.
The Fifth Dzogchen Tulku examined the list and replied, ‘The correct name is not shown here. Do you have any other names?’
At last, the search committee produced the single name written on the separate slip of paper. ‘Yes—this is most likely the name of Dodrubchen Jikmé Tenpé Nyima’s reincarnation’, he said. Thus, through Yukhok Jadralwa’s decisive intervention, the Fourth Dodrubchen, Thubten Trinlé Palzang (1927–2022), was conclusively identified.[3]
Visitors at Yagé Gar
Although never formally enthroned, Yukhok Jadralwa came to be widely regarded as an incarnation of Dola Jikmé Kalzang (b.1789)––a principal disciple of the First Dodrubchen Jikmé Trinlé Özer (1745–1821)––who, by some accounts, sacrificed his life, out of compassion, to spare the suffering of an anonymous criminal in China.[4]
In the 1940s, when Yukhok Jadralwa was in his late sixties or early seventies, he fell gravely ill with a severe lung condition. At that time, the Fourth Dodrubchen Thubten Trinlé Palzang—whom Yukhok Jadralwa himself had helped identify—arrived unexpectedly at his hermitage. Within an hour of the teenaged tulku’s arrival, Yukhok Jadralwa’s condition began to improve, and after sharing a meal with him, his symptoms disappeared entirely.
Yukhok Jadralwa then insisted on personally pouring tea for the Fourth Dodrubchen, saying, ‘I am said to be an old disciple of Dodrubchen, so I should serve him’. These words were later understood as an implicit acknowledgment of his identity as an incarnation of Dola Jikmé Kalzang.
During the Fourth Dodrubchen’s visit, Yukhok Jadralwa transmitted to him the complete essence of his teachings and transmissions, ‘like pouring water from one vessel into another’. These included the First Dodrubchen’s essential summary of Dzogchen as ‘the inseparable union of space and wisdom at the heart of all phenomena . . . All that can be perceived is included within the clear light of intrinsic buddha nature, with nothing whatsoever excluded.’ [5]
Although his students lived in humble conditions, Yukhok Jadralwa’s own residence was spacious and filled with ritual objects and sacred texts. When a lama named Rinchen Dargyé once visited, he looked around in astonishment.
‘Have you lost something?’ Yukhok Jadralwa asked.
‘I heard you were a jadralwa, a renunciate’, the lama replied. ‘But you appear to be a wealthy man.’
Yukhok Jadralwa responded, ‘A jadralwa is one who has abandoned conventional obligations and remains free from worldly entanglement. It does not mean being poor.’
Another time, in the late 1940s, when Yukhok Jadralwa was already in his seventies, the teenaged Jikmé Püntsok, who had been recognized as a reincarnation of Tertön Sogyal Lérab Lingpa, visited Yukhok Jadralwa at Yagé Gar. As a child, Chakung Jikmé Wangdrak heard this story directly from him:
Although known as Jadral—‘one free of encumbrances’—Yukhok Jadralwa was surrounded by a large retinue of students and attendants. As Lama Rinchen Dargyé had noted on his earlier visit to Yagé Gar, herds of livestock offered by disciples grazed on the surrounding hillside and Yukhok Jadralwa’s quarters overflowed with offerings.
Seeing this Jikmé Püntsok remarked, ‘You are called Jadral, a free yogin. But you do not look like a Jadral to me, with all these entrapments of the material world around you. How can you be called Jadral when you have storehouses filled with belongings and such a large retinue?’
Jikmé Püntsok replied, ‘You think that being an unattached yogin means being bereft of material things? No—that is what you call a beggar, an impoverished person. Being a free yogin has nothing to do with renouncing things and being destitute. Being a Jadral means abiding in primordial wisdom, free from dualistic grasping and clinging to subject and object—not merely abandoning material objects.’ [6]
Yukhok Jadralwa was very old at that time, but he was still in possession of his sharp wit. He turned the conversation from defending his accumulation of material possessions, to Jikmé Püntsok’s alleged identity as a reincarnation of Tertön Sogyal Lerab Lingpa, who had died in 1926, and suddenly exclaimed, ‘Hey! Great Tertön Lerab Lingpa! Haven’t you downgraded from giving empowerments and teachings to the Thirteen Dalai Lama Thubten Gyatso (1876–1933) and now being in the body of a small child? Isn’t that embarrassing?’
Jikmé Püntsok didn’t miss a beat and responded with reference to Yukhok Jadralwa reputed former life as Vimalamitra, an Indian Buddhist monk who helped establish Dzogchen in Tibet in the eighth century. ‘And you great Vimalamitra’, Jikmé Püntsok said, ‘who once bestowed teachings even on Guru Rinpoché, look at you now in this aged body! If you are not embarrassed, then neither am I!’[7]
In 1951, one year before Yukhok Jadralwa’s death, Tulku Thondup (1939–2023) visited Yukhok Jadralwa at Yagé Gar along with his teacher Kyala Khenpo (1893–1957) and several others. Tulku Thondup was twelve at the time and was struck by Yukhok Jadralwa’s appearance—long hair, a wispy beard, and a presence he later described as ‘timeless and ageless’. His first thought upon seeing him was that Rigdzin Jikmé Lingpa must have looked like this.
During their meeting, Yukhok Jadralwa recalled that his teacher, Adzom Drukpa, had encouraged him to lead a tantric life and had even prophesied that he would become a tertön. Yet he explained that he did not wish to marry, feeling that such a life might lead to unnecessary complications. Nor did he wish to reveal new terma, he said, since so many authentic treasure teachings were already available.
A Compendium of Texts
Although Yukhok Jadralwa refrained from revealing terma, he left behind a trove of incisive writings. Among them is a compendium on the Longchen Nyingtik Ngöndro in which he identifies the root of all suffering as clinging to an illusory ‘I’. The remedy, he explains, is ‘cutting through (chö) that misperception within the space of absolute reality … and merging awareness with the wisdom mind of the guru.’
On Dzogchen, Yukhok Jadralwa composed a concise treatise entitled Chok Zhag Zhi, ‘The Four Ways of Leaving (the Mind) in Its Natural State.’ According to Yukhok Jadralwa, this entails: 1) View, like a mountain: leave it as it is; 2) Meditation, like an ocean: leave it as it is; 3) Conduct, oral instructions: leave them as they are; 4) Fruition, awareness: leave it as it is. In meditation, consciousness is allowed to rest naturally while ‘the five sensory objects manifest unobstructed like planets and stars reflected on the surface of the ocean. Although objects appear, they leave no stain and are not constrained by the grasping mind.’ Within the radiance of subjective awareness, he writes, ‘all appearances arise as the play of primordial wisdom—as if you were on a precious island where everything is made entirely of gold.’[8]
A Legacy of Disciples
Yukhok Jadralwa had many realized students. Notable among them were Rankhor Khenpo Drimé Özer of Getse (19th–20th c); Gyalrong Tsöndrül (19th–20th c); Khenpo Chökhyab (1920–1997); Dodrubchen Thupten Trinlé Palzang (1927–2022), Adzom Gyalsé Gyurmé Dorjé (1895–1959); Do Ngak Tenpé Nyima (1907–1959); Khenpo Nüden (19th–20th c); Lama Chupur; Gyangak Lama Jikmé Palden; Dzirong Lama Chokden; and Garwa Lama Nortra.
Death and Liberation
In 1951, at the age of eighty-one, Yukhok Jadralwa’s health declined sharply. A disciple performed a longevity ceremony (tenshug) for him and requested that he remain in this world.
Within the year, Yukhok Jadralwa remarked, ‘Now, everything I see, everything I experience, is already the Buddha’s pure land. But to inspire my followers to work equally with happiness and suffering on the path to liberation, I display the appearance of being old and sick.’
Recognizing that death was approaching, he asked his disciples to invite the Fourth Dodrubchen Thubten Trinlé Palzang from Dzogchen Monastery. Two days before the Fourth Dodrubchen arrived, Yukhok Jadralwa’s mind dissolved into the dharmadhatu—the expanse of ultimate reality—passing away on the twenty-second day of the first month of the Water Dragon Year (1952).
The Fourth Dodrubchen—whom Yukhok Jadralwa himself had helped identify—performed the necessary rites to ensure a favorable rebirth. Although the mountain sanctuary of Yagé Gar, where Yukhok Jadralwa had lived and taught for many years, almost completely dissolved within a matter of months, he left behind profound writings that continue to guide discerning followers of the Dzogchen path.
Before his death, he composed a final testament: ‘The accounts of the paths and stages, and the distinctions of views and meditations—all these eggshell-like coverings of the doubting mind are shattered. The extraordinary path is effortless, spontaneously accomplished primordial wisdom.’
His final instructions proclaimed:
‘Homage to unchanging rigpa. Let meditation settle in king-like pure awareness. As action, let duality and delusion naturally dissolve. The fruition is the already perfect three kayas, beyond samaya commitments involving acceptance and rejection. Thus, the king of nakedly seen awareness is sealed with the samayas of view, meditation, action, and fruition.’ [9]
By the end of his life, Yukhok Jadralwa fully embodied the essential meaning of his name—Jadral, freedom from all grasping—demonstrating complete realization of the luminous, unbounded nature of mind and phenomenal appearances.
Life and legacy
Yukhok Jadralwa Chöying Rangdrol’s life and legacy emerged from his early encounter with Düdjom Lingpa at Lama Rung, in the Ser Chu Valley. His congenitally violent temperament gradually transformed into one marked by wit, humor, and compassion, as he devoted himself wholeheartedly to the path of realization during a volatile period of Tibetan history. When Düdjom Jikdral Yéshé Dorjé later wrote in his treatise Richö, ‘Mountain Dharma’, that ‘Dzogchen is a path through which even the most hardened criminal can directly and speedily attain enlightenment’ [10], he may have had Yukhok Jadralwa in mind—an example of profound inner transformation grounded in the liberating power of Dzogchen.
Endnotes
- ↑ Many of the stories in this biography were recounted by Chakung Jikmé Wangdrak, who said that although he did not have the biography of Yukhok Jadralwa, which was composed by Khenchen Jikmé Phuntsok, he was fully confident that the stories in this biography are accurate.
- ↑ Zablam Nangjang Dönyi Nyamlen (‘Practice of the Profound Path of Inner Purification: Experiential Instructions on the Meaning’).
- ↑ Several people were recognized as the reincarnations of Dodrubchen Jikmé Tenpé Nyima. One was Dodrubchen Rigdzin Jalu Dorjé (1927–1961). Another was Dodrubchen Yarlung Tenpé Nyima. A third was Dodrubchen Thubten Trinlé Palzang (1927–2022), who carried the title of Fourth Dodrubchen.
- ↑ See Tulku Thondrup.
- ↑ Extracted from ‘How to Practice the Path of the Great Perfection’, by Yukhok Jadralwa Chöying Rangdrol.
- ↑ In conformity with his view of jadral as referring to freedom from dualistic grasping, Yukhok Jadralwa would sometimes accept offerings, sometimes refuse them, but always reputedly remarked that good food was ‘worth hundreds of horses and thousands of oxen.’
- ↑ Story recounted by Chakung Jikmé Wangdrak. During this same visit, Yukhok Jadralwa advised Jikmé Püntsok to go to Dzakor to receive teachings from Khenpo Thubga Yishyin Norbu (1886–1956), who was renowned as a great scholar, especially of the Guhyagarbha Tantra. He maintained that this would ensure the future flourishing of Jikmé Püntsok’s monastic tradition s well as his realization of Dzogchen. When Jikmé heard the name of Khenpo Thubga, Jikmé Püntsok’s entire perception changed. He then studied from the age of eighteen at Changma hermitage in Dzachukha.
- ↑ See Lotsawa House for the full text.
- ↑ The Final Testament of Yukhok Chatralwa, as transmitted to Lama Rigdzin Nyima (b. 1931), succinctly expresses the view, meditation, action and fruition of the Great Perfection. See Lotsawa House for full text.
- ↑ The Drubpa'i Chülen (‘Alchemy of the Siddhas’) is a short, widely known Dzogchen Trekchö instruction manual written by Düdjom Jikdral Yéshé Dorjé and best known under the alternative title Richö, ‘Mountain Dharma’.
Since the early 8th century, Tibetans and Himalayan people have treasured "Namtars" as written or spoken narratives that demonstrate the realization of the Buddhist path by exceptional practitioners. These namtars, or spiritual biographies, serve as inspirational guides on the path to enlightenment.
Today, Namtars Foundation aims to record, preserve, and freely offer the world a written and electronic treasury of the oral wisdom of Tibetan and Himalayan Buddhism.
