Ra Lotsāwa Dorje Drakpa
Ra Lotsawa Dorje Drakpa. Click on image to enlarge. Image credit: himalayanart.org
རྭ་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་རྡོ་རྗེ་གྲགས་པ།
b.1016 – d.1128?
Tradition: Ra Luk རྭ་ལུགས།
Geography: Nyang
Historical Period: 11th Century ༡༡ དུས་རབས།
Institution: Samye བསམ་ཡས།; Nalanda ནཱ་ལེནྡྲ།
Vocations: Translators ལོ་ཙཱ་བ།
Name Variants: Dorje Drak རྡོ་རྗེ་གྲགས།; Ralo Dorje Drakpa རྭ་ལོ་རྡོ་རྗེ་གྲགས་པ།
Ra Lotsāwa Dorje Drak (rwa lo tsA ba rdo rje grags) was born in 1016, in Nyenam, in a place called Nangyul (snye nam / gnya’ nang snang yul), on one of the most important Nepali-Tibetan trade routes. His father was Raton Konchok Dorje (rwa ston dkon mchog rdo rje) and his mother was Dorje Peldzom (rdo rje dpal ‘dzom). His father was a lineage holder of the Nyingma tradition Yangdak Heruka and Vajrakīla, and he passed these on to his son. According to tradition, soon after birth the goddess Remati took him into her robe and traveled across Tibet for two months.
At the age of fourteen Ralo made his first trip to Kathmandu, arriving in Patan during a period of some political social instability, but great cultural fluorescence. Despite the considerable details of his sojourn there given in the (probably) thirteenth-century hagiography, recent scholarship has shown that little of the information given can be trusted, from the name of the monastery in which he resided to the circumstances of his ordination, where he was given the name Dorje Drak.
Ra Lotsāwa attended the Fire Dragon Religious Conference (me ‘brug chos ‘khor) that convened in 1076 under the sponsorship of King Tsede (mnga ‘ bdad rtse lde, d.u.), the nephew of the famous King Jangchub O (byang chub ‘od, d.u.) of the Guge (gu ge) kingdom in western Tibet. This meeting of many of the the most important teachers or the era, both Tibetan and Indian, was dedicated to encouraging new and more accurate translation work. Following the meeting he went to Kashmir, accompanied by five other young Tibetans, including Ngok Lotsāwa Loden Sherab (rngog blo tsA ba blo ldan shes rab, 1059-1109). Another young man who went with him to India was Nyen Lotsāwa Darma Drak (gnyan lo tsA ba dar ma grags).
Ra Lotsawa is always depicted in a wrathful stare and body position. He had much opposition to the practices he brought to Tibet. As a result many tried to use supernatural devices to destroy him, which he had to defend himself against. His wrathful demeanour shows his tantric abilities to use wrathful enlightened energies to overcome hexes and obstacles hurled at him. Click to enlarge.
Ralo is said to have trained under a master named Bharo, a title given to newly influential members of the merchant class. The Blue Annals gives the teachers name as Bharo Chakdum (bha ro phyag rdum). Bharo was a specialist in the Vajravārahī and Vajrabhairava ritual systems, the transmission of which Ralo received during this first visit. According to the hagiography, during this first trip he already displayed his penchant for magical combat, engaging with a Shaivite teacher whose doctrine he insulted, driving the Shaivite to suicide. In addition he trained with a Mahakaruna, a master in Naropa’s lineage of disciples. From him he received a number of tantric initiations, including the Cakrasaṃvara and the Namasamgiti.
Returning to Tibet, Ralo quickly became enmeshed in clan feuds over property and marriage arrangements, and he used his new magical abilities to do battle with his enemies. Many of his enemies were translators and lamas propagating in competing tantric systems, and Ralo infamously engaged them in combat. Khon Shakya Lodro (‘khon shakya blo gros, d.u.), a member of the Khon family that would later initiate the Sakya tradition and a holder of the same Yangdak Heruka and Vajrakila lineages, saw in Ralo a serious rival to his influence and survival as a sought-after teacher. He accused Ralo of propagating a non-Buddhist teaching, one that would lead all Tibetans to Hell. According to the hagiography Ralo slew Shakya Lodro with the killing rite of Vajrabhairava, and witnesses saw Vajrabharava in the sky carrying the 58-deity maṇḍala of Yandak Heruka as a sign of the Vajrabhairava’s superiority. Shakya Lodro’s disciples and feudal subjects then became disciples of Ralo.
Later a similar contest arose between him and Langlab Jangchub Dorje (lang lab byang chub rdo rje, d.u.), another important Vajrakila master. Ralo had gone to pay his respects to the venerable teacher, but Langlab, like Shakya Lodro, dismissed Ralo as a purveyor of non-Buddhist magic. In the ensuing contest, however, Ralo was defeated, his disciples slain by Langlab’s superior magic. According to the hagiography Ralo then experienced a vision of Tara, who sent him to Nepal for further instructions from Bharo and other Nepali masters. Upon his return to Tibet he once again engaged Langlap, this time emerging victorious and slaying the Nyingma lama.
Solitary Yamantaka or Vajrabhairava. Click to enlarge.
It was during the second trip south than Ralo is said to have gone to India and ordained at Nalanda.
Ralo claimed to have murdered thirteen lamas. Among them were translator Gyu Monlam Drakpa (rgyus smon lam grags pa, d.u.), the translator of the Cakrasaṃvara Samvarodaya Tantra, Go Lotsāwa Khukpa Letse (‘gos lo tsA ba khug pa lhas brtses, d.u.), the translator of the Guhyasamāja, and Marpa Chokyi Lodro’s (mar pa chos kyi blo ‘gros) son Darma Dode (dar ma mdo sde).
Go Lotsāwa had questioned the legitimacy of Ralo’s teachers, and is said to have engaged in black magic against Ralo, rites drawn from the Guhyasamāja. The conflict drew in hundreds of villages, and some when residents marched against Ralo and accused him of harming them, he conquered them with his magic, leaving them vomiting blood, and Go Lotsāwa lost his life.
In addition to challenging rivals to competing tantric systems, Ralo spent his wealth renovating temples in southern Tsang and Lhato, including Samye (bsam yas), Tibet’s first monastery, which had been damaged by fire in 986. He also sponsored translations, the copying and recitations of scripture, and the installation of statues.
Teachers
- dI paM kA ra raksi ta དཱི་པཾ་ཀཱ་ར་རཀསི་ཏ།
- b+ha ro phyag rdum བྷ་རོ་ཕྱག་རྡུམ།
Students
- chos rab ཆོས་རབ།
Bibliography
- Davidson, Ronald. 2005. Tibetan Renaissance. New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 129-141.
- Decleer, Hubert. 1992. “The Melodious Drumsound All-Pervading: Sacred Biography of Rwa Lotsāwa: about early Lotsāwa rNam thar and Chos ”Byung”. In Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the 5th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Narita 1989, edited by Ihara Shoren and Yamaguchi Zuiho. Narita: Naritasan Shinshoji, pp. 13-28.
- Decleer, Hubert. 1994-5. “Bajracharya Transmission in XIth Century Chobar: Bharo ”Maimhand”s main disciple Vajrakirti, the translator from Rwa.” Buddhist Himalaya: Journal of Nāgārjuna Institute of Exact Methods, vol. 6, no. 1&2, pp. 1-17.
- Dudjom Rinpoche. 2002. The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism. Gyurme Dorje and Matthew Kapstein, trans. Boston: Wisdom, pp. 713-714.
- Grags pa ‘byung gnas and Rgyal ba blo bzang mkhas grub. 1992. Gangs can mkhas grub rim byon ming mdzod. Lanzhou: Kan su’u mi rigs dpe skrun khang, pp. 1645-1647.
- Ra Yeshé Sengé. The All-Pervading Melodious Drumbeat: The Life of Ra Lotsawa. Translated with an introduction and notes by Bryan J. Cuevas. New York: Penguin Classics, 2015.
- Roerich, George, trans. 1996. The Blue Annals. 2nd ed. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas, pp. 374-380.
- Ye shes seng ge. 1974. Rwa lo dang thar pa’i rgyal mtshan gyi rnam thar. New Delhi: N. G. Demo.
Source: Alexander Gardner, “Ra Lotsāwa Dorje Drakpa,” Treasury of Lives, accessed July 26, 2018, https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Ra-Lotsawa-Dorje-Drakpa.
Alexander Gardner is Director and Chief Editor of the Treasury of Lives. He completed his PhD in Buddhist Studies at the University of Michigan in 2007.
Published December 2009
Disclaimer: All rights are reserved by the author. The article is reproduced here for educational purposes only.
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Source: https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Ra-Lotsawa-Dorje-Drakpa. Click to enlarge.
After Thoughts
By Tsem Rinpoche
When Ra Lotsawa taught the Yamantaka series of tantra to people of his time, the famous and established leading lamas of the time, especially leading teachers from Sakya and Nyingma schools of Buddhism, heavily rejected this practice. They discouraged others from attending the initiations and teachings of Yamanataka by Ra Lotsawa. Khon Shakya Lodro, a member of the Khon family and a famous lama was vehemently against Ra Lotsawa and Yamantaka. These famous and powerful established teachers especially Khon Shakya Lodro and Nyingma lama Langlab Jangchub Dorje claimed among many reasons that Yamantaka had no authentic lineage stemming from India or an Indian teacher, therefore it was a false practice, and that Ra Lotsawa practised black magic, that Yamantaka was a demonic practice leading Tibetans to the hells, that Ra Lotsawa was a false teacher leading many astray with this Yamantaka deity.
They claimed that there was no such yidam (meditational deity) with a buffalo’s head and those were non-Buddhist teachings that would lead people to negative states of rebirth. They even teased Ra Lotsawa, asking him if Yamantaka resembles other buffaloes bathing in the muddy waters as buffaloes do, and wiggling its rear end. Being an extremely famous Sakya teacher, Khon Shakya Lodro was very wealthy and established, had great impact on other teachers and spiritual aspirants, and he was very damaging to Ra Lotsawa’s reputation.
Nevertheless, Ra Lotsawa never conceded and persistently proved Yamantaka’s tantra is Buddhist, powerful, worthwhile, authentic and had the generation and completion stages of advanced tantra practices to bring people to the pinnacle of liberation. The famous Sakya teacher Khon Shakya Lodro even challenged Ra Lotsawa to a magic contest to see whose tantric path was superior. It was said Khon Shakya Lodro lost, thus establishing the superiority of the Yamantaka lineage. Ra Lotsawa never backed down from the heavy criticisms leveled at him from famous teachers. In the end Ra Lotsawa proved Yamantaka’s authenticity and that Yamantaka is the very emanation of Manjushri. As the saying goes, the proof is in the pudding where over time when people investigated, studied and practised Yamantaka’s tantra, they can see the powerful results.
Today, Yamantaka’s practice is widespread and without doubt of its authenticity and power. It is one of the main practices of the Gelugpa school of Buddhism recommended by Lord Tsongkapa himself, and it is also practised in Sakya and Kagyu schools. This is very reminiscent of what is happening to the Dorje Shugden practice today, and as time passes many people can see that He is no other than Manjushri and the practice confers great benefits.
Ra Lotsawa Dorje Drakpa. Click on image to enlarge or click here for more beautiful thangkas.
For more interesting information:
- The Dorje Shugden category on my blog
- The Tsongkhapa category on my blog
- The Great Lamas and Masters category on my blog
- Ra Lotsawa the Yamantaka hero
- Langlab Jangchub Dorje
- The Sacred Vajrayogini of Ratsag Monastery
- Panchen Lama’s Dorje Shugden Puja text
- Dalai Lama, China & Dorje Shugden
- Dalai Lama’s sudden change of mind about China-backed Panchen Lama
- Panchen Lama sungbum
- Padmasambhava meets Tsongkhapa
- The Dalai Lama & Panchen Lama in India in 1956
- Historic First Kalachakra Initiation by the 11th Panchen Lama
- Dalai Lama: Thinking China is an enemy is naive
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Reincarnation Lineage Prayer of the Incarnate Master Dragpa Gyaltsan
This prayer also, to the incarnate master Dragpa Gyaltsan through his reincarnations, has been spoken for the benefit of all migratory beings by the Vajra Shugden who protects the holy Dharma, at the sacred abode Choling in response to requests from many devout monks and nuns and householders. Gedun Choejor was the scribe. May this serve as cause for all migratory beings swiftly attaining in one lifespan the state of Vajradhara.
May there be auspiciousness!
Lord Manjushri, the sole father of all kindhearted Victors,
Lord Tsongkhapa, whose renown fills this world,
Lord Yamantaka who has arisen to subdue the intractable:
Bless us supplicants with common and uncommon attainments!
Lord Sambhota, the best of scholars,
Loden Sherab, the savant in all classics,
Lords Naropa and Khyungpo Naljor:
Bless us supplicants with common and uncommon attainments!
Ralo Dorjedrag and master Khutoen,
Masters Sakya Shri and Choeku Woezer,
And to the Omniscient Lord Buton:
Bless us supplicants with common and uncommon attainments!
The all-pervading Tsarchen, and Sonam Dragpa;
Sonam Yeshe, prominent among saviors of beings;
Sonam Geleg, in whom merit and virtues shone like the sun:
Bless us supplicants with common and uncommon attainments!
Dragpa Gyaltsan, the master leading nyig-dhue1 beings to liberation,
Whose very name, just hearing, frees from the lower migrations,
Who leads to liberation any who supplicates single-mindedly:
To this protector of teachings and beings of three worlds we pray.
Ngawang Jinpa the emanation in saffron robes, and
Ngawang Tenzin, upholder of the victory banner of the teaching,
And Jetsun Losang Geleg, the great master:
Bless us supplicants with common and uncommon attainments!
Losang Tenzin, the victory banner of Dharma who comes
As kings, ministers and monks for beings and dharma’s sake,
In successions endless as ripple in water:
To such past and future emanations we pray.
By the truth power of the Three Jewels,
By the enlightened actions of oceanic dharmapalas
Such as the Four-faced Lord and the Dorje Shugden,
May all beings live well and in happiness.
As you embody all Three Roots2,
For us all migratory beings here, in the future, and in bardho3,
In all happy and bad times we have none but you:
Hold us, without separation, with parental love.
When in future you enact the enlightened deeds,
As attaining Enlightenment as Buddha Rabsal among others,
May we and all other beings connected with us,
Be the first to taste the nectar of your vast and profound words.
May we, and all sentient beings, in all lifetimes,
Come into contact with the Second Buddha’s teachings,
May we all take on the going forth, and take
All sentient beings across the ocean of samsara.
Footnotes
[1] ‘Degenerate times’ that is characterized by “five dregs in terms of lifespan, times, delusions, views and sentient beings.” Source: Commentary on the Abhidharmakosh by Chim Namkha Drag, also known as ‘Chim Jampalyang’ (1210-1285); folio 181 (p. 371) ); Woodblock edition, 1893; No. of folios 430 (pp. 869)
[2] The spiritual mentor, the meditational deity, and the dakas and dakinis.
[3] The intermediate state between death and next rebirth.
————————
Reincarnation Lineage Prayer of Tulku Dragpa Gyaltsan
This praise to the reincarnation lineage of the supreme incarnation Dragpa Gyaltsan has been composed by the monk Losang Choekyi Gyaltsan (The 4th Panchen Lama) at the prayer hall of Tashi Lhunpo on account of fervent requests from Legpa Gyaltsan and many other attendants of the master.
May there be auspiciousness!
The one whose renown permeates the world;
The great being holding aloft the banner,
Of the Second Buddha, happiness and wellbeing’s source:
At that great master’s feet we pray.
At the feet of the World Teacher with the ten powers,
You invoked the power of truth with pure superior intent,
Causing flowers to fall like rains.
We pray at the feet of that great master.
The Guide of all migratory beings both man and god;
The treasury of all knowledge and attainments in dharma;
The great hero who strove for the supreme liberation:
We pray at the feet of Choekyi Jhangchub.
The one whose greatness, on account of pure prayer,
Was like that of a second Buddha;
And was supreme Guide to fortunate ones of India and Tibet:
We pray at the feet of that great being.
In the sky of the great bliss of Dharmakaya,
The radiant orb of the three bodies of the Buddha is full circle,
Radiating a million rays of enlightened activities: We pray at the feet
Of that opener of a million lotuses of benefit and wellbeing.
We pray at the feet of Master Buton, the unrivalled
Amongst all those who are scholars and realized ones,
In upholding and spreading the Buddha’s teaching,
By example in teaching and practice.
With an intellect superbly trained from the past,
Your mind joyously bloomed in all profound paths.
With single-minded effort you attained supreme realization.
We pray at the feet of that supreme and realized master.
From the vast lotus gardens of phuntsog* merit,
Myriad lotuses, with hundreds of petals, of learning and practice, bloom.
The fragrant scents of good name and deed dispel the ancient sicknesses
Of migrant beings: At the feet of that master we pray.
By the wish-granting jewel of merit and wisdom,
You became a crown jewel of both man and gods,
Its hundred rays of good deed dispelling the dark ignorance
Of all migrant beings: At your feet we pray.
The vast celestial mansion of virtuous accumulation of merits,
Overflows with jewels of the good path of the three trainings.
We pray at the feet, of its dweller─a guide of all beings─
Attired in the magnificence of enlightened deeds.
In holding aloft the victory banner
Of the sutra and tantra teachings of the Second Buddha:
In this you are unrivalled in all three worlds.
We pray at the feet of this noble tutor.
The source of renown and wellbeing and happiness,
Is the Buddha’s teachings. May the chief of all who uphold this banner
Live for long for the sake of innumerable beings to be tamed!
May his phuntsog* enlightened deeds spread to the ten directions!
By the merit of praising in this manner, may we never be
Separated from the protection of noble spiritual mentors!
Progressing swiftly in the supreme vehicle’s path,
May we swiftly attain the state of the three kayas!
Footnotes
From Panchen Losang Chogyan, Collected Works, Vol Ca (5), folio 34a-35a (p. 83-85), Tashi Lhunpo woodblock print, Tibet.
*phuntsog: a compound word in Tibetan (of phun sum tsog) meaning the ideal combination of the three i.e. a good cause, its result and enjoyment of that result.
The practice of Yamantaka is not widely accepted when Ra Lotsawa first propagating it. Due to the appearance of Yamantaka who has a buffalo head, many rejected the idea of him being a fully enlightened Buddha and an emanation of Buddha Manjushri. Many lamas from different traditions challenged Ra Lotsawa in a magic battle to prove the superiority of their practice.
Ra Lotsawa was forced into magic battle with them and slain a total of 13 lamas in his time to remove obstacles to propagate his teachings on Yamantaka. Finally, he had proven the authenticity of the practice and now it is one of the most powerful and main tantras that is being practiced in Gelug.
Dorje Shugden is suffering the same fate as being rejected. With our determination and faith in his, we shall press on and soon they will realize the authenticity of his practice and
he will be accepted by everyone.
When Ra Lotsawa first introduced the Yamantaka tantra during his time in the 11th century, he was strongly opposed by High Lamas of his time of both the Sakya and Nyingma traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. As Ra Lotsawa persisted in his belief, he was challenged and he had to defend his faith in all ways he knew. To those points of defence, Ra Lotsawa was accused of being non buddhist and practising Black magic which was harmful.
Lo and Behold, today Ra Lotsawa is highly revered for his propagation of Yamantaka practice and this practice is widely practised by many schools of Tibetan traditions and was also encourage by the great Lama Tsongkhapa.
Reflect now what is happening to the propitiation of Dorje Shugden, as DS practitioners are being accused and condemned in many a similar ways.
Let us not be faint in our belief and faith in the protector of our time, Dorje Shugden. Be steadfast like Ra Lotsawa and many people will be benefitted by Dorje Shugden.
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing on Ra Lotsawa.
Ra Lotsawa is more famously remembered for propagating the Yamantaka series of tantra to the people of his time. However, in the beginning, the well-established Lamas of his time, from the Sakya and Nyingma schools of Buddhism, had heavily rejected this practice. Leading Masters from the Sakya Lineage, like Khon Shakya Lodro, were vehemently against Ra Lotsawa and Yamantaka, claiming that there were many reasons for discouraging the practice. Yamantaka had no authentic lineage stemming from India or an Indian teacher, they said.Therefore it was a false practice, and that Ra Lotsawa practised black magic. They further said that Yamantaka was a demonic practice leading Tibetans to the hells.Therefore it was a false practice, and that Ra Lotsawa was a false teacher leading many astray with this Yamantaka deity.Using their influence and power, they tried to destroy Ra Lotsawa’s reputation.
However,Ra Lotsawa never conceded and persistently proved that Yamantaka’s tantra is Buddhist, powerful, authentic and had the generation and completion stages of advanced tantra practices to bring people to the pinnacle of liberation. He defeated the famous Sakya teacher Khon Shakya Lodro who had challenged Ra Lotsawa to a contest using magic to see whose tantric path was superior.Ra Lotsawa defeated him, thus showing the superiority of Yamantaka. Ra lotsawa never backed down despite the heavy criticisms levelled at him. He proved that Yamanyaka was authentic and that he is an emanation of Manjushri.
Today, the Yamantaka practice is widely practiced in the Gelug tradition , as well as in the Sakya and Kagyu traditions. It is also well sought after. May the Dorje Shugden practice, facing a similar barrage of criticisms and condemnation as the Yamantaka practice used to face , be one day as prevalent as the Yamantaka practice. There is no reason for this not to happen as Dorje Shugden is also an emanation of Manjushri, the Buddha of Wisdom.
Yamantaka practice is one of the key tantric practices of the Gelug system. Without Ra Lotsawa having to do what he had to do, engaging in combat with lamas of other tantric systems, perhaps the Yamantaka practices would have disappeared or could not gain a foothold in Tibet. I think most important we should not judge practices based on face value, but after thorough investigation.
???Thank you Rinpoche for sharing.
The same thing happen to Dorje Shudgen and practitioners.
Nice short video of a new LED signage reminding us of who we can go to for blessings in case of need: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBwrkaKUoH0
Listening to the chanting of sacred words, melodies, mantras, sutras and prayers has a very powerful healing effect on our outer and inner environments. It clears the chakras, spiritual toxins, the paths where our ‘chi’ travels within our bodies for health as well as for clearing the mind. It is soothing and relaxing but at the same time invigorates us with positive energy. The sacred sounds invite positive beings to inhabit our environment, expels negative beings and brings the sound of growth to the land, animals, water and plants. Sacred chants bless all living beings on our land as well as inanimate objects. Do download and play while in traffic to relax, when you are about to sleep, during meditation, during stress or just anytime. Great to play for animals and children. Share with friends the blessing of a full Dorje Shugden puja performed at Kechara Forest Retreat by our puja department for the benefit of others. Tsem Rinpoche
Listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbzgskLKxT8&t=5821s