Khenchen Ngawang Palzang Series

Tibetan Masters Khenchen Ngawang Palzang

Vimalamitra realized the maṇḍala of the supreme state,

Longchenpa revealed the dharmakāya Samantabhadra,

And you, Ngaki Wangpo, are inseparable from them both—to you I pray:

Inspire me with your blessings so that my own mind and your wisdom-mind merge as one!

Texts by and about the great Dzogchen master Khenchen Ngawang Palzang (ngag dbang dpal bzang, 1879–1941), also known as Khenpo Ngakchung:

Advice

Advice on Bending Mind Toward the Good

General advice on the common preliminaries followed by pithy instructions on the practice of the Great Perfection.

Advice Dzogchen 19 Oct 2024

Counsel for Golok Kharnang Lama Kunga

Verses of advice composed for Lama Kunga of Kharnang in Golok, which stress the importance of genuinely practising the fundamental teachings, from the outer preliminaries through to meditation on emptiness.

Advice 23 Jan 2025

Counsel for Kalgön

In these verses of general advice, Khenpo Ngaga encourages a disciple named Kalgön to prioritize sincere practice by applying the teachings of Longchenpa.

Advice 8 Jan 2025

Counsel for Vajra Friends

Verses of advice, composed at the request of the master's vajra companions, on the purity of everything that appears and exists, transcending all notions of friendliness and hostility, pleasure and pain.

Advice 15 Aug 2024

Counsel of a Degenerate Dharma Pretender

In these verses Khenchen Ngawang Palzang offers a lesson in humility as he expresses dismay at his plight and issues a heartfelt plea for the guru's guidance.

Advice 25 Jun 2024

Counsel on the Life Vein of the Path to Omniscience

In this text from his collected advice, Khenchen Ngawang Palzang warns of the dangers of "fascination with irrelevant, verbose, and exotic discourses" and encourages followers to properly scrutinize their own minds and seek buddhahood for others' sake.

Advice 26 Sep 2024

Counsel to Aka Nyima

Verses of advice that stress the importance of recollecting impermanence, training in study, contemplation and meditation, and avoiding the pitfalls of dry scholasticism.

Advice Scholasticism 8 Nov 2024

Counsel to Chödrak and Wangchuk Rabten

In these verses of pithy advice, which Khenchen Ngawang Palzang sent from his retreat hermitage of Jönpalung, he urges two disciples named Chödrak and Wangchuk Rabten to apply the teachings sincerely while emphasizing bodhicitta and devotion.

Advice 7 Feb 2025

Counsel to Chöying Wangmo

These words of advice, written for a female disciple, cover every aspect of the path, up to and including the Great Perfection. The text is included in the 53-volume Ḍākinī Treasury anthology.

Advice Ḍākinī Treasury 21 Nov 2023

Counsel to Jampa Tsultrim

Verses of advice for a sincere disciple on "the heart of the matter" and "Dharma's essence", the Dzogchen practice of Trekchö.

Advice Dzogchen 10 Oct 2024

Counsel to Tsamdowa Parong Lhawang

This blunt advice for a student called Tsamdowa Parong Lhawang includes the Tibetan syllable aṃ/ang — indicating insistence or encouragement and translated here as "hey!" — in each of its four verses.

Advice 9 Apr 2025

It's Incredible

Advice on how to transform feelings of hope and fear or strong panic by visualizing Guru Padma Tötreng Tsal and recognizing all appearances as the deity's expression. From such a perspective, in the recognition of non-duality, ordinary dualistic perception seems incredible.

Advice 3 Dec 2024

Light-Hearted Advice

Simple advice on the cause and effect of actions, the benefits of exchanging happiness for suffering, and the necessity of reciting the Seven-Line Prayer and Vajra Guru mantra.

Advice 11 Jul 2024

Like the Sweet Sound of an Echo

Verses outlining what Khenchen Ngawang Palzang says he has understood about the view of the Nyingma School of Early Translations, together with warnings about the dangers of partiality and polemicizing.

Advice Scholasticism 5 Mar 2025

Think About It

Uncompromising verses of advice, encouraging followers to consider whether or not they are on the right path of renunciation, faith, and self-sufficiency.

Advice 30 Aug 2024

Aspiration Prayers

Concise Aspiration Prayer

This short, untitled aspiration prayer is contained in a miscellaneous prayer section of Khenchen Ngawang Palzang's collected works. In the older, undated edition from which this translation is made, it appears between two other short prayers, set apart only by section marker symbols.

Aspiration Prayers 11 Aug 2025

Buddhist Philosophy

Dependent Arising

This brief text draws on the oral tradition of Patrul Rinpoche to explain three categories of dependent arising found in Longchen Rabjam's Great Chariot: 1) the dependent arising of the fundamental character (gshis) or ground (gzhi) of reality, 2) the dependent arising of saṃsāra, and 3) the dependent arising of nirvāṇa.

Dependent Origination Notes 24 Oct 2023

Seeds of the Four Philosophical Schools

In this brief text, the celebrated Dzogchen scholar and adept Khenpo Ngawang Palzang summarizes the four main Indian Buddhist tenet systems traditions (according to Tibetan doxographers): 1) Vaibhāṣika, 2) Sautrāntika, 3) Cittamātra (Mind Only) and 4) Mādhyamika (Middle Way), which is further divided into Svātantrika and Prāsaṅgika.

Tenets Two Truths 17 Mar 2018

Calling the Guru from Afar

Gyang Lu: A Song of Calling from Afar

Khenpo Ngawang Palzang adapted this devotional prayer to Longchen Rabjam from a famous song addressed to the Karmapa written by the Fifth Shamarpa, Könchok Yenlak (1525–1583).

Calling the Guru from Afar 8 Jan 2020

Dzogchen

Advice in a Single Statement (from Khenpo Ngawang Palzang)

by Nyoshul Khenpo Jamyang Dorje

Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche recalls the advice of Khenpo Ngawang Palzang, who managed to encapsulated the Dzogchen practice of Trekchö (khregs chod) in a single pithy instruction.

Advice Dzogchen 21 Nov 2014

Pointing-Out Instruction Given by Gyalwa Longchenpa in a Pure Vision

While Khenpo Ngawang Palzang was accumulating the maṇḍala offering as part of the Longchen Nyingtik preliminary practices, he received this pointing-out instruction from Longchenpa in a pure vision.

Dzogchen 29 Jan 2024

The Five Wisdoms

by Nyoshul Khenpo Jamyang Dorje

Definitions of the five wisdoms (ye shes lnga), i.e., the wisdom of dharmadhātu, mirror-like wisdom, wisdom of equality, wisdom of discernment and all-accomplishing wisdom, according to the oral tradition of Khenpo Ngawang Palzang, aka Khenpo Ngakchung.

Advice Dzogchen Notes 15 Aug 2015

Guru Rinpoche Prayers

Prayer to Pema Tötreng Tsal

A four-line prayer to Guru Padmasambhava requesting the pacification of obstacles and the bestowal of attainments.

Guru Rinpoche Prayers Guru Padmasambhava 21 Jul 2019

Prayers

Brief Succession of Lives Prayer

A three-verse prayer to the great Khenpo Ngawang Palzang—here referred to as Dorje Zijitsal—listing some of his previous incarnations and invoking his blessings.

Prayers 6 Apr 2019

Prayer for this Life, the Next and the Bardos

A four-verse prayer to attain realization and enlightenment either in the present lifetime or during the intermediate states of dying, dharmatā or becoming.

Prayers Dying & the Bardos 21 Jul 2019

Prayer to Khenpo Ngawang Palzang

by Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö

A short, two-verse supplication to the famed Dzogchen master Khenchen Ngawang Palzang (1879–1941) alias Khenpo Ngakchung, from whom Jamyang Khyentse received teachings.

Prayers 19 Oct 2020

Songs

A Song of Sadness About Others

Verses expressing sorrow at the nature of saṃsāra from an "old master of fictions" who recognizes the illusoriness of appearances.

Songs and Poems 9 Apr 2024

Primordial Purity Free from Elaborations: A Song of Experience

This undated song was composed to console fellow disciples after the passing of their Dzogchen teacher, most likely Nyoshul Lungtok (1829–1901/2) but possibly Katok Situ Chökyi Gyatso (1880–1925), the Second Pema Norbu Rinpoche (1887–1932), or some other figure.

Songs and Poems 17 Apr 2024

Tārā

Brief Homage to the Twenty-One Tārās

A short prayer invoking and praising Tārā in her twenty-one emanations and calling upon her to dispel obstacles and assist progress along the path to ultimate realization.

Tārā 29 Apr 2019

Khenchen Ngawang Palzang Series

Advice

Aspiration Prayers

Buddhist Philosophy

Calling the Guru from Afar

Dzogchen

Guru Rinpoche Prayers

Prayers

Songs

Tārā

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