The Biographies of Rechungpa: The Evolution of a Tibetan ...

The biographies 49
Dharma. 219 To give an example of the difference between a textual and oral account, I
was told by the Drukpa Kagyu tulku Chögön Rinpoche (Chos-dgon Rin-po-che) that
Rechungpa had come to visit the third Drukchen as an old man whom all others present
also saw. 220
The third Drukchen thus received a ‘direct lineage’ (nye-brgyud) of the Nyengyu, as
opposed to a ‘long lineage’ (ring-brgyud) transmitted from Rechungpa through a
succession of teachers. He compiled these teachings in his New Writings of the Rechung
Nyengyu (Ras-chung sNyan-rgyud Yig-gsar) 221 and The New Rechung
(sNyan-rgyud Ras-chung sNyan-rgyud gSar-ma). 222
He also compiled Writings on the (bDe-mchog sNyan-rgyud
kyi Yig-cha), 223 which contains A Garland of jewel-lights: The life stories of the long
lineage (bDe-mchog sNyan-rgyud las brgyud-pa ring-lugs kyi
rnam-thar Nor-bu ‘od kyi phreng-ba). 224
Unlike other Nyengyu lineage histories—which have Tilopa, Nāropa, Marpa,
Milarepa and then Rechungpa—the third Drukchen lists the lineage as Tilopa, Nāropa,
Maitripa, Tipupa and then Rechungpa. Nevertheless, the account of Rechungpa’s life is
brief, 225 with the entire lineage described without a division into separate life-stories. He
evidently used Gyadangpa (rGya-ldang-pa) as a source, for Rechungpa’s life-story
similarly ends abruptly after teaching tree-goddesses, without his last years being
described. 226
Karmapa Mikyö Dorje: An Ocean of Kagyu Songs
(bKa’-brgyud mGur-tsho) a.k.a Rain of Wisdom
(ye-shes char-‘bebs)
Author: Mikyö Dorje (Mi-bskyod rDo-rje, 1507–54). Date: compiled circa 1542.
Its full title is The Essence of the Ocean of the Definitive Meaning; self-liberating,
naturally present, brilliant bliss; a rain of wisdom; the vajra songs of the Kagyu lamas;
the swift path that manifests the supreme attainment (mChog gi dngos-grub mngon-dubyed-pa’i
myur-lam bka’-brgyud bla-ma-rnams kyi rdo-rje’i mgur-dbyangs ye-shes char-
‘bebs rang-grol lhun-grub bde-chen rab-‘bar nges-don rgya-mtsho’i snying-po).
Mikyö Dorje (1507–54) was eighth in the succession of the Karmapa incarnations, and
authored a number of texts (the only other Karmapas to have a quantitatively significant
literary output were the third and fifteenth Karmapas). This particular text is a
compilation of songs produced by figures in the Karma Kagyu lineage, the earliest being
Tilopa. Subsequent generations have enlarged the work by adding the songs of
subsequent masters down to this century. The Milarepa selection 227 does not feature
Rechungpa, but Rechungpa’s song to the King of Nepal is included. 228 The Milarepa and
Rechungpa songs are all repeated verbatim from The Life and Songs of Shepay Dorje
(bZhad-pa’i rDo-rje’i rNam-thar), which therefore still took precedence over Tsangnyön
Heruka’s The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa, some sixty years after the latter’s
publication, and in spite of the seventh Karmapa, Chödrak Gyamtso (Chos-grags rGyamtsho,
1454–1505), having composed a praise to Tsangnyön Heruka.