Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche was among Tibetan Buddhism's greatest masters of the 20th century, and was highly instrumental in bringing the practice of Dzogchen (Great Perfection) to the West. His students included well-known figures like Sogyal Rinpoche, Daniel Goleman, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, Tara Bennett-Goleman and Lama Surya Das.

"Blazing Splendor" referring to the qualities of a realized master -- is a direct translation of the name he was given by the Karmapa, the head of the Kagyu Order of Tibetan Buddhism. His was a life rich in spirituality and adventure, for not only was he a friend and personal confidant of many of the great religious figures of contemporary Tibet, but his relatives and ancestors were some of the most influential figures in Eastern Tibet over the centuries.

Tulku Urgyen was widely recognized as one of the most outstanding Tibetan lamas to survive the tragedy of the Chinese takeover. To quote Tarthang Tulku, "Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche's depth of understanding was unsurpassed, and many Tibetan masters stood in awe of his comprehensive knowledge. He had thoroughly studied and practiced the highest teachings and his exposition on Dzogchen transformed the lives of those he touched with gentle, penetrating clarity. As a meditation teacher and a vajra master, he was without peer; he used his knowledge to touch the heart of everyone he met."

With unsurpassed honesty and humility Tulku Urgyen offers an intimate glimpse into the remarkable reality of a tulku (a reincarnated master) as well as an in-depth portrait of the lost culture of old Tibet. Intimate in tone, Tulku Urgyen originally shared these tales with his closest Western students, over more than a decade. Here they have been organized into a sweeping account that describes a world where miracles, mystery, and deep insight are the order of the day. From a fresh, eye-opening perspective he describes the lives of some of the most realized and genuine spiritual practitioners of 20th century Tibet including:

• his grandmother, who raised six children, mastered art, music, herbal medicine and astrology--and was recognized as a highly realized practitioner being mentioned in a ninth century prophecy as a manifestation of a Buddhist deity;
• an old lama who chose to live in the hollow trunk of a huge tree--in the simple style of a yogi--rather than as a revered abbot of a great monastery;
• and nuns who spent their entire lives in retreat, and who once a year, in the bitter Tibetan winter, displayed their contemplative prowess in a yogic practice that allowed them to raise their body temperature so much that they could dry wet sheets wrapped around them.

The world Tulku Urgyen knew was one in which today's conventional values were turned upside-down: instead of fame, fortune or celebrity being the marks of "success", it was inner realization that counted, and the mark of a life fulfilled was leaving a spiritual legacy for others. Tulku Urgyen was uniquely positioned to know, and share with us--people who lived within this landscape of sacred values. Yet his message is not that realization is reserved for an elect few, but something that each and every one of us can attain.

Central to Blazing Splendor is the teachings known as terma a sacred teaching from a mystical source dating back a millennium which enriches the life and spirit of anyone who connects to it. Tulku Urgyen's stories cast a special light on these treasures which he carried in his heart and mind over the Himalayas during his escape from Tibet and which he eventually came to transmit to thousands of people from every walk of life throughout the world.

Blazing Splendor covers not just the years of Tulku Urgyen's life from his birth in 1920 to his death in 1996, but also the rich tapestry of his family history, as well as the contemplative lineages that he himself came to hold. The result being not just a personal memoir, but a spiritual history of Tibet itself. We hear about the teachers who brought the Buddhist teachings to Tibet in the 9th century, and the unbroken line of masters who passed its secrets on through the ages.

Blazing Splendor is of both spiritual and historical import. It provides a first-hand glimpse into what actually took place in the last decades of old Tibet, through the eyes of an insider who held little illusion about what was to transpire in his country and the life he was to lose forever. Spanning an exceptional period in Tibetan history and the impending invasion of the Red Army casts its shadow across the narrative foreshadowing the ultimate devastation of Tibetan culture and all its richness. Providing a telling, up-close look at the treachery of Lhasa politics during this endgame, Tulku Urgyen describes his days as the Karmapa's envoy to the Tibetan government. And finally, how the spiritual greatness that was once Tibet managed to resurrect itself in the world beyond, as Tulku Urgyen seeing ill augurs of what was to come flees Tibet a year before the Dalai Lama himself.

The unique lifestyle and culture of old Tibet was inexorably changed by the Communist take over in 1959 and with each passing year, the great masters who were trained under the classical spiritual system have been passing away. In an effort to keep the spirit of this tradition alive, we felt compelled to present this first-person account by one of the last of this dying breed.

Blazing Splendor is a tale of remarkable human achievement so different from the mundane contemporary world we live in a glimpse that can inspire and awaken a nobility of heart. Candid and entertaining, each story is a spiritual gem yielding the profound wisdom that Tulku Urgyen embodied. With natural humility, Tulku Urgyen does not draw attention to himself or his own stature, but lets one see the world and a fascinating pantheon of characters just as he does: with blunt, often wry, candor. Travelling through the landscape of a society whose greatest wealth was not material but spiritual, Tulku Urgyen's life story instills a renewed confidence and enthusiasm for the inner life in those who feel imprisoned in a barren, spiritually vacuous society.

In Blazing Splendor we hear an old Tibetan lama in the his last years review the highlights of his life story for one of his oldest Western students, Erik Pema Kunsang, who then translated the tales, and with his wife Marcia Schmidt, compiled them into this volume, with the editors Mich'l Tweed and Daniel Goleman.

(You are welcome to copy and use the text on this page, as long as you link back to this page: www.rangjung.com)

Blazing Splendor: Memoirs of the Dzogchen Yogi, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, Rangjung Yeshe Publications, Paperback, 432 pages, $39.95

Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche passed away on the 13th of February, 1996 at his hermitage Nagi Gompa on the southern slope of the Shivapuri mountain. He was born in eastern Tibet on the tenth day of the fourth Tibetan month in 1920. He was recognized by H.H. Khakyab Dorje, the 15th Gyalwang Karmapa, as the reincarnation of the Chowang Tulku, as well as the emanation of Nubchen Sangye Yeshe, one of the chief disciples of Padmasambhava. Guru Chowang the First (1212-70 AD) was one of the five Terton Kings, the major revealers of secret texts hidden by Guru Padmasambhava.

Tulku Urgyen's main monastery was Lachab Gompa in Nangchen, Eastern Tibet. He studied and practiced the teachings of both the Kagyu and Nyingma schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Among the four greater Kagyu Schools, his family line was the main holder of the Barom Kagyu Lineage.

In the Nyingma tradition, Tulku Urgyen held the complete teachings of the last century's three great masters: Terchen Chokgyur Lingpa, Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo and Kongtrul Lodro Thaye. He had an especially close transmission for the New Treasures, a compilation of all the empowerments, reading transmissions and instructions of Padmasambhava's teachings, which were rediscovered by Terchen Chokgyur Lingpa, his great-grandfather. Rinpoche passed on this tradition to the major regents of the Karma Kagyu lineage as well as to many other lamas and tulkus.

The close relationship between the lineage of the Karmapas and Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche came about since the 14th Gyalwang Karmapa was one of the main recipients of Chokgyur Lingpa's termas, receiving the empowerments from the terton himself. Tulku Samten Gyatso, the grandson of Chokgyur Lingpa and the root guru of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, offered the same transmission to the 15th Gyalwang Karmapa Khakyab Dorje. The Gyalwang 16th Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpey Dorje, was offered the major transmissions of the Chokling Tersar by Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche. In addition, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche also felt fortunate to pass on the transmission for the important Dzogchen Desum, the Three Sections of the Great Perfection, to both His Holiness Karmapa and Dudjom Rinpoche, as well as numerous Tulkus and lamas of the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages.

Tulku Urgyen established six monasteries and retreat centers in the Kathmandu region. The most important of these are at Boudhanath, the site of the Great Stupa, and another at the Asura Cave, where Padmasambhava manifested the Mahamudra Vidyadhara level. He lived at Nagi Gompa Hermitage above the Kathmandu Valley. Under his guidance were more than 300 monks and nuns. He stayed in retreat for more than 20 years, including four three-year retreats.

In 1980 Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, accompanied by his oldest son Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, went on a world tour through Europe, the United States and South East Asia, giving teachings on Dzogchen and Mahamudra to many people. Every year since then a seminar on Buddhist study and practice has been held at Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery in essential meditation practice, combining the view and meditation of Dzogchen, Mahamudra and the Middle Way. Less concerned with the systematic categories of topics of knowledge or with the logical steps of philosophy, Tulku Urgyen directly addressed the listener's present state of mind.

The over-all background of the teachings of Dzogchen and Mahamudra, which are tremendously vast and profound, can be condensed into simple statements of immediate relevance to our present state of mind. Tulku Urgyen was famed for his profound meditative realization and for the concise, lucid and humorous style with which he imparts the essence of the 84,000 sections of the Buddhist teachings. His method of teaching is 'instruction through one's own experience.' Using few words, this way of teaching points out the nature of mind, revealing a natural simplicity of wakefulness that enables the student to actually touch the heart of the Buddha's Wisdom Mind.

--written by Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche and Erik Pema Kunsang, New York, 1981

CONTENTS: Blazing Splendor
List of Illustrations		vii
Foreword by Sogyal Rinpoche		ix
Introduction by Daniel Goleman		xiii
Preface		xviii
Prologue
Part One: Spiritual Roots
Grandmother's Mission		3
Tibet, a Buddhist Land		6
Gampopa and the Early Barom Masters		10
The Treasure of the Lotus-Born		25
My Great-Grandfather, the Treasure Revealer		27
Two Sublime Masters		41
	Khyentse	41
	Kongtrul	49
Lord of Activity, the Fifteenth Karmapa		53
Spiritual Sons		62
	Karmey Khenpo	62
	Wangchok Dorje	66
	Tsewang Norbu	70
My Precious Grandmother		79
My Guru, Samten Gyatso		86
My Father, the Performer of Miracles		103
Two Special Uncles and Their Teachers		122
	Uncle Sang-Ngak	122
	Tersey Tulku	124
Shakya Shri, the Lord of Siddhas		129
The Master-Scholar Katok Situ		135
Part Two: Early Years
My Childhood		141
The Nunnery of Yoginis		157
Receiving My First Teachings		163
An Extraordinary Speech		166
My Previous Life		170
My Monastery and Enthronement		176
The Young Karmapa		186
Grandmother's Death		193
The Colorful Chokling of Tsikey		204
Transmission at Surmang		215
The Master in the Hollow Tree		219
An Eccentric King		226
My Last Days with Samten Gyatso		231
My Guru's Passing		234
Meetings with a Remarkable Teacher		247
Part Three: Central Tibet
At Tsurphu with the Karmapa		263
Brilliant Moon		280
My Last Visit to Central Tibet		290
Amazing Masters in Lhasa		297
	Dzongsar Khyentse	297
	Dudjom Rinpoche	303
	Shechen Kongtrul	307
Part Four: In Exile
Leaving Tibet		319
Sikkim		325
Nepal		337
The Chokling of Neten		340
The Hearing Lineage from Bomta Khenpo		347
Conclusion		354
Afterword		359
Acknowledgements		364
Art Credits		367
Appendix: The Lineage of the New Treasures		368
Endnotes		372
Glossary		398
Activities and information connected to the lineage of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche		433