Patrul Rinpoche

Patrul Rinpoche (Tibetan: དཔལ་སྤྲུལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ, Wylie: dpal sprul rin po che) (1808–1887)^[1] was a teacher and author from the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism.

Biography

Patrul Rinpoche was born in

new translation

schools.

He received instruction on the

tsa-lung practice and Dzogchen, and studied many of the cycles of practice found in the canonical scriptures (kama) of the Nyingma Vajrayana. Do Khyentse Yeshe Dorje introduced him to the pure awareness of rigpa while exhibiting wild and eccentric behaviour.^[4]

He trained for a long time in the Longchen Nyingtik tsa-lung practices, and he received many teachings from Dzogchen Rinpoche Mingyur Namkhé Dorje and other masters.

While remaining for long periods near Dzogchen Monastery in the isolated hermitages of Rudam, such as the Yamantaka Cave and the Long Life cave, he put his energy into the practice of meditation and, it is said, attained a realization that was as vast as space.^[5]

From the age of thirty, he travelled to

Minyak, where he had extensive discussions with Dra Geshe Tsultrim Namgyal on the prajnaparamita

and other topics.

In Shri Singha college at Dzogchen Monastery and at Pemé Thang and other places, he turned the wheel of Dharma uninterruptedly, teaching on the treatises of Maitreya, the Middle Way, Abhidharma, Secret Essence Tantra, Treasury of Precious Qualities, Ascertainment of the Three Vows and other topics. In particular, when he taught on The Way of the Bodhisattva in the vicinity of Dzogchen Shri Singha for several years in succession, large numbers of flowers called Serchen, with between thirty and fifty petals, blossomed all of a sudden, and they became known as ‘bodhicharyavatara flowers.’^[5]

He went to Kathok Dorje Den, where he offered

prostrations and 'circumambulated

' (Wylie: skor ba) the reliquaries of the three great masters Dampa Deshek, Tsangtön Dorje and Jampa Bum. At the request of Situ Choktrul Chökyi Lodrö and others, he gave extensive explanations on The Way of the Bodhisattva to the whole assembly of monks. He went to major monasteries of the Riwo Gendenpa tradition such as Sershul, Labtridu, Chuhor and others and taught elaborately on The Way of the Bodhisattva and other topics.

Patrul Rinpoche established a teaching centre in the vicinity of Dzagyal Monastery and he repaired the large complex of walls of ‘mani stones' (Wylie: do-bum) built by his previous incarnation Palge Samten Phuntsok, which thereafter became known as the Patrul Dobum. His disciples included masters of the

Jamgon Ju Mipham Gyatso, Khenpo Pema Vajra

, Nyoshul Lungtok, Alak Dongak Gyatso and others. In addition, his disciples included many masters of the Sakya, Gelugpa and Kagyü schools, such as Sershul Lharampa Thubten, Palpung Lama Tashi Özer and Ju Lama Drakpa Gyaltsen.

Patrul Rinpoche died on the eighteenth day of the fourth lunar month in the Fire Pig year of the fifteenth calendrical cycle (1887).

Patrul Rinpoche's writings were not collected by the master himself or by his attendants, and thus many of them were never carved into printing blocks. Those which were printed and which are now to be found comprise six volumes. These include works of various styles and genres, including commentaries on and structural outlines (sa bcad) for the treatises of Maitreya, The Way of the Bodhisattva, Treasury of Precious Qualities and other texts, such as The Words of My Perfect Teacher, and miscellaneous writings including The Drama in the Lotus Garden, which was written to console a young nobleman from Derge called Trashi Deleg whose young bride had been killed in an epidemic.