Ngakpa Lineage Meditation

In the north-western part of the land of Oddiyana, on an island in the lake of Dhanakosha, the blessings of all the buddhas took shape in the form of a multi-coloured lotus flower. Moved by compassion at the suffering of sentient beings, the Buddha Amitabha sent out from his heart a golden vajra, marked with the syllable HRIH, which descended onto the lotus blossom. It transformed into an exquisitely beautiful eight year old child, endowed with all the major and minor marks of perfection, and holding a vajra and a lotus. At that moment all the buddhas of the ten directions, together with hundreds of thousands of dakinis from different celestial realms, invoked the blessings and the incarnation of all the buddhas for the benefit of beings and the flourishing of the secret mantra teachings. Their invocation is known as ‘The Seven Verses of the Vajra’, or ‘The Seven Line Prayer’.

Yeshe Tsogyal
the principal consort of Guru Padmasambhava. She was Vajravarahi in human form and also an emanation of Tara and Buddhalochana She was born as a princess in the clan of Kharchen. According to some accounts her father was called Namkha Yeshe and her mother was Gewa Bum.^[1] In other histories, such as the Zanglingma and the biography revealed by Taksham Nüden Dorje, her father is named as Kharchen Palgyi Wangchuk, who is otherwise said to have been her brother. Yet another version names her father as Tökar Lek and her mother as Gyalmo Tso.

She became the consort of King Trisong Detsen before being offered to Guru Rinpoche as a mandala offering during an empowerment. She specialized in the practice of Vajrakilaya and experienced visions of the deity and gained accomplishment. In Nepal, she paid a ransom for Acharya Salé and took him as her spiritual consort. Through the power of her unfailing memory, she collected all the teachings given by Guru Rinpoche in Tibet and concealed them as terma. At the end of her life, it is said, she flew through the air and went directly to Zangdokpalri.

Ngakpa (Tib. སྔགས་པ་, Wyl. sngags pa ) are both healers and practitioners of the highest levels of Tantric Buddhism in the Himalayan regions.

The origins of Ngakpas is connected to Guru Rinpoche who, in Tibet during the 8th century, divided the Sangha into two branches: the red sangha of monastics with shaven-heads and the saffron robes (Wyl. rab byung ngur smig go see) and the white sangha of Ngakpas with white clothes and long, plaited hair (Wyl. gos dkar lcang lo’I see).

A realized Ngakpa can perform ceremonies to pacify illness, disease and help in other worldly activities and be a master of the inner levels of Tantra and Dzogchen practices dealing with liberation on others. However, many people confuse them as 'shamans' or just 'lay practitioners' and often times they were be belittled by those who are unaware of their history and importance as the torchbearers of an ancient Indian tradition.

As Khetsun Sangpo Rinpoche said, “for the ngakpa the purpose and final goal is enlightenment in order to liberate others and self. Usually in the shamanic tradition no one talks of enlightenment.”

According to Kunzang Dorje Rinpoche,

There are two types of ngakpas – those of family lineage (rigs rgyud) and those of Dharma lineage (chos rgyud). Ngakpa family lineages are passed from father ngakpa to their sons from generation to generation. At present, these are family lineage holders such as the great lamas of the Nyingma tradition, Minling Trichen Rinpoche and Sakya Trizin, the throne holder of the Dharma Potrang lineage.