Like all other Buddhist traditions, Vajrayana or tantric Buddhism offers a way out of the terrifying and bewildering morass of human suffering and habitude that is shorthanded as Samsara (འཁོར་བ་ khorwa in Tibetan, or ‘wandering around and around’). What stands out about the tantric path of liberation from suffering, though, is that rather than insisting that we completely reject  or avoid the perceptions and experiences that can easily mire us in suffering, Vajrayana proposes that the quickest and most convenient way out is through.

In my anthropological research on ngakpa/ma, I have written about how Vajrayana provides a unique philosophical framework for thinking about (and experiencing) the relationship between different levels of reality, the ultimate and the relative, inner and outer, mundane and extraordinary, subtle and gross. A large part of what makes tantra interesting is the way in which it plays with, and attempts to resolve the contrasts between more or less subtle levels of perception and activity, between what anthropologist of Buddhism Melford Spiro long ago called ‘nirvanic, karmic, and apotropaic’ levels of Buddhist philosophy and practice (that is, the goal of ultimate liberation, improved karma for better rebirth, and a focus on the conditions of this life here and now, respectively). While the ultimate or ‘extraordinary’ ‘super-power’ in Vajrayana is Buddhahood, tantric experts can (and should) develop all kinds of other abilities along the way so as to help beings. Ngakpa/ma are distinct for how they cultivate the highest view and attainments while apparently remaining firmly grounded in the midst of ‘worldly’ life and its everyday contingencies. Ngakpa/mas double up as both master-meditator yogis cultivating spiritual attainments in retreat at a remove from worldly obligations, and as fully-engaged householders who apply their expertise and the power of their attainments to the needs and problems of their own and others’ daily lives.

Medicine, meditation and yoga, as well as ritual and magic are all distinct yet overlapping domains in Tibetan worlds. Whether or not ngakpa and ngakma are trained in Sowa Rigpa or traditional Tibetan medicine (and they frequently are), the work they do as tantric sorcerers to help manage natural and negative forces means that much of their activities are inevitably curative, protective and restorative in nature. The Yuthok Nyingthik exemplifies this combining and blurring of categories. As a cycle of revealed teachings or ‘treasures’ (གཏེར་མ་ or terma), the Yuthok Nyingthik functions as a comprehensive spiritual complement to the Gyüshi or Root-Tantras of the Tibetan medical tradition. At the same time, much of its contents – its teachings on Creation and Completion Stages, the Six Yogas or Dharmas of Naropa, the Great Perfection and so on, as well as is ritual practices

The Yuthok Nyingthik, ‘The Heart-Essence Drop of Yuthok’ was received through visions by Yuthok the Younger in 12th century Tibet. Yuthok the Younger (1126-1202) was part of a hereditary lineage of traditional Tibetan doctors and ngakpas, and the Yuthok Nyingthik mirrors his own overlapping expertise as a realized tantric sorcerer, yogi, meditation master and physician – as someone who was both a talented clinician and who through the highest practices of Dzogchen or the Great Perfection, attained the so-called rainbow body (འཇའ་ལུས་ ja lü) and dissolved into pure light at the end of his life.

In the essay below, Dr Nida explains the significance of the Yuthok Nyingthik teachings, and addresses twelve special characteristics of the text-cycle. One thing that stands out throughout his expert commentary is how the Yuthok Nyingthik’s textual corpus encompasses the full gamut of Vajrayana practices and philosophy. In many ways the textual-cycle embodies much of the fusion of everyday problems of human survival with the most rarified teachings of Tibetan religion that is captured in the figure of the ngakpa as socially-engaged yogi. Conversely, through the unique perspective of the Yuthok Nyingthik the everyday pragmatic social service of the physician is framed as part of a grander scheme of spiritual relationships and ‘labour’.

By virtue of the Yuthok Nyingthik’s focus on practicality, we can also appreciate just how much diversity there is in Tibetan organizational schemes and applications for the foundational components of tantric practice. While some people sometimes treat ngöndro (སྔོན་འགྲོ) or the preliminary practices that purify and prepare one’s body, speech, and mind for the main tantric yoga practices as a kind of generic obligation to be completed before moving onto the ‘real’ meat of meditative self-transformation, here we can plainly see that there are many different levels and styles of ngöndro that are specific to particular text-cycles and lineages, and which can be approached in different ways and may be just as profound as the ‘main event’. Likewise, in typical terma revelation fashion, the text-cycle is diverse and complex enough to allow the individual practitioner to engage with the teachings in a number of ways, as suits their needs, capacities, and ingenuity.

My homage to Yuthok and thanks to Dr Nida la. Even though this is not a very good translation, I hope it will at least encourage those who are interested to explore the complex and rich traditions of Sowa Rigpa and ngakpa lineages further.

Here follows the translation of Dr Nida’s essay:

The Importance of the Yuthok Nyingthik, or its twelve unique characteristics

Published 21 April 2015, by the Tibetan Traditional Medical Association (Tibetan Sorig Khang)

I prostrate, give offerings, and go for refuge to the King of Medicine, Yuthok!

The Yuthok Nyingthig – ‘The Heart-Essence Teachings of Yuthok’ – was taught to Yuthok Yönten Gonpo in the twelfth century by the Queen of Dakinis Palden Trengwa. Yuthok’s heart-son Sumtön Yeshe Zung made notes based on Yuthok’s direct oral instructions, which Yuthok himself then edited and these came to comprise a complete Dharma-cycle or corpus. The text’s full name is ‘The Heart Essence of Yuthok, the Dharma Cycle of the Blessings of the Guru Sadhanas, the Sunlight of Compassion that eliminates the Darkness of Suffering’. These days, the Yuthok Guru sadhana cycle is widely known because of its inclusion in the ‘Nectar of Good Qualities’ section from the Mahayoga cycle of teachings in the Rinchen Terdzö, the ‘Treasury of Precious Termas’[1]. The entire Dharma-cycle of all of the assorted rites or letsok ritual procedures, mendrup medicine empowerment rites, Creation and Completion stage and Great Perfection practices are also included as part of the original block-prints from Chagpori Dropen Ling[2]. In accordance with the wishes of the great professor of medicine Gojo Wangdu and after obtaining authorization from the great and esteemed scholar Troru Tsenam, the Ngakmang Shipjuk Khang, the Tantric Householder Community Research Institute, typed up copies of the Chagpori block printing set for the first time and everyone was able to have access to the contents.

In Yuthok’s heart-son Sumtön Yeshe Zung’s opening offering and homage we read:

“This collection of Guru [Yoga] sadhanas contains the blessing power (jinlap) of the oral lineage of transmission unknown by all. It is an easy and fast path that grants Buddhahood in a single human lifetime. Uncontaminated by any mixing in of unconfirmed assumptions and personal inventions, it embodies the true meaning of the Highest Yoga class of tantras.”

I will briefly explain the unique significance of these Guru sadhanas which encapsulate the true meaning of the Highest Yoga Tantras below, in terms of twelve special characteristics, namely:

1. The swiftness of the Yuthok Nyingthig’s blessings
   2. The ease with which its practices are accomplished
   3. The simplicity and convenience of its practices
   4. Their comprehensiveness, their inclusion of all essential points
   5. Their connection with medicine
   6. The clarity of the Yuthok Nyingthig’s sequence of practices
   7. The Yuthok Nyingthok’s non-sectarianism in terms of doctrine
   8. Its convenience and appropriateness in terms of length
   9. Its timeliness or appropriateness for the times
   10. The way it has teachings to benefit every kind of practitioner exactly as they need, ‘taming’ each person according to their specific requirements
   11. Its unique practice instructions, unlike any found in other traditions
   12. The greatness of its teachers, along with a summary of the most vital points of its teachings

Characteristic One: Swift or Speedy Blessings

One can enter into the blessings of the lineage merely by practicing its Guru Yoga practices for seven days-and-nights. This is clearly stated in the King of Medicine Yuthok’s song of realization:

“And so, if you can have confidence in me, direct your heart and mind to me,
If you can pray to me with firm, piercing, single-minded focus,
If you can give up your doubts and second thoughts,
If you place your hope in me as your Refuge in this one life,
Then, as soon as you do, the two obscurations will subside.
Meeting me in actuality, meditative visions, or in dream,
I will reveal the Supreme Path to temporary and ultimate accomplishment!”.

It is likewise explained in Kongtrül Yönten Gyatso’s commentary, ‘The Source of all Qualities – Notes on the Practices of the Outer, Inner, and Secret Guru Yogas of ‘The Blessings of the Guru Sadhana, the Sunlight of Compassion that Eliminates the Darkness of Suffering’:

“As Yuthok taught: ‘You’ll accumulate more merit from praying to me for one year than from praying to other Gurus for a whole lifetime; you’ll get more merit from praying to me for a month than from praying to others for a whole year. The blessing power from praying to me for one day-and-night, for the duration of a single meal, for just one moment will be greater and faster than praying to others for a whole month. If this isn’t true, may all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the ten directions shatter my skull into pieces like plaster for having deceived sentient beings!’”

The magical power of this aspiration prayer and Master Yuthok’s own superior blessings and Compassion for disciples in these degenerate times in general and the extremely swift blessings of his Guru Yoga practices more specifically are described of by Yuthok himself:

“When the blessings to realize practices in the moment of practicing them no longer exist, beings born in the degenerate age will be impatient, they will have little follow-through and won’t be able to practice for extended periods as a result. Yet, if individuals with faith practice this sadhana which is imbued with my very life-essence, for seven days-and-nights without distraction, I promise that I will reveal my face thoroughly to them—for the highest practitioners in actual waking life, for average practitioners during meditative experiences, and for lesser practitioners in dreams—and will instruct them and teach them further.”

Kongtrül clearly explains these extremely swift blessings as follows:

“If practitioners have no doubts about this great lion’s roar proclamation, these unerring ‘words of truth’ (i.e. densung, a binding magical pledge), if they have confidence in them and make a commitment to practice Yuthok’s practices, they will be able to accomplish benefit for themselves and for others naturally and spontaneously, without effort—the most committed practitioners, while doing Yuthok’s Creation and Completion Stage practices, those of average commitment, while doing the visualizations and mantra recitations of the Creation Stage practices, and the least committed simply by making a connection with the lineage and practices (i.e. dreljok, as in via truncated retreats) and through daily, regular Guru Yoga practice.”

In the historical chronicle called the ‘Iron Hook of Virtue’ [composed by Sumtön Yeshé Zung], it explains that after Yuthok had finished composing the four Root Tantras of the Tibetan medicine (i.e. the Gyü Zhi), he had a direct vision of the Lords of the Three Buddha Families (i.e. Avalokiteshvara, Manjushri, and Vajrapani), who told him:

“Any being, whoever they may be, who sees, hears, thinks of or has physical contact with you, all those who have faith in you and all those who hate you, will be brought from bliss to Bliss, i.e. from ordinary to ultimate happiness. You are the lineage-heir of all the Sugatas, for this reason, the moment that anyone meditates on you above the crown of their head or in the center of their heart, the blessings of all the Buddhas of the ten directions will enter in actuality into their mental continuum.”

From these extensive prophecies, we can thus see the infallibility of the swiftness of Venerable Yuthok’s blessings.

Characteristic Two: Ease of Accomplishment

Both the preliminaries – the Ngöndro – and the main practices – the Ngözhi – of the Yuthok Nyingthik are taught in an easy to accomplish way. The method for accomplishing the preliminaries that is taught in the root-text has two aspects: practice according to time and practice according to signs. Of these, practice according to time refers to practicing Yuthok’s Uncommon Ngöndro and Guru Yoga practices for seven days-and-nights or a whole week. Yuthok himself states that “(you will) attain at the same time as practicing”, and Kongtrül Yönten Gyatso says that you can also do the Ngöndro practices for four days-and-nights and [the Outer] Guru Yoga practice for three as part of a seven-day retreat to just establish a connection and enter into a relationship with the guru and lineage.

Regarding the Guru Yoga sadhanas, Kongtrül also says:

“The Outer level Guru sadhana takes the form of a Guru Yoga practice, the Inner level sadhana is a totally complete Creation-and-Completion Stage practice of Medicine Buddha, the Secret level sadhana is the Mandala that embodies all Three Roots simultaneously, and the Concise sadhana is a daily practice. Each of these is also a stand-alone practice.”

This shows how the Guru sadhanas are easy to accomplish as both a four-part system and as individual, stand-alone practices.

Characteristic Three: Convenience and Simplicity

As Master Yuthok said: “If your Compassion is great, whatever you do will be Dharma.” If you make Loving-kindness and Compassion your primary foundation, any medical work and altruistic actions for the benefit of others that you may do will also become Dharma. The ‘Routine Ngöndro’ practices of the Yuthok Nyingthig are for maintaining the welfare of others, through Compassion. We can understand these as simple, convenient practices meant to be implemented in the course of daily life.

Regardless of which Yuthok Nyingthig sadhana one is doing, there are very few chants, prayers, and other verses to recite and all the cycles of practices are simple and convenient to practice. This wonderful convenience can be seen, for example, in Yuthok’s teachings on Powa, the Yoga of the Transference of Consciousness. The preliminary visualizations, the main Powa training, the different ritual applications of Powa, and the instructions on doing Powa for others are all described completely in just one page. The seven trülkhor ‘magic wheel’ physical yoga exercises that are part of the channel and wind practices of Tummo, or Inner Heat Yoga – the first two of which purify stale wind in the channels, and the remaining five of which are for unblocking the five channel-wheels or chakras – are also laid out simply and with great precision, in a way that really drives home the essential points. The teachings on Mahamudra for meditating on the mind at rest, in motion, and when it is abiding in its basic nature or essence – are also extremely condensed and are explained in an easy and convenient way.

Characteristic Four: Comprehensiveness (includes all the essential points of practice)

All the essential points of the path of Vajrayana are contained within the thirty-five sections of teachings within the single volume of the Yuthok Nyingthig. Its practices include the preliminaries (Ngöndro) that are the foundation of the Mahayana; Guru Yoga Creation Stage practices; Creation Stages practices that are combined with Completion Stage ones; the nyendrup, ‘approach-and-accomplishing Deity Yoga visualization and recitation practices of the Three Roots of Guru, Deva, and Dakini, as well as geksel practices for resolving obstacles; Completion Stage practices; the ‘channels and winds’ trülkhor ‘ magic wheel’ physical yoga practices; the ‘Path of Skillful Means’, i.e. Karmamudra tantric sex practices; and Mahamudra and Dzogchen practices. Its collected ritual procedures or letsok include mendrup medicine empowerment rites, sungkhor protection-circles or charms, jinsek fire offering ceremonies, Dharma protector sadhanas, tra drup practices for attaining pulse divination or medical clairvoyance via the medical goddesses, sages and so on, the ‘Signs of the Path’ instructions for the resolving of mental gek or obstacles, and the medical teachings for resolving physical obstacles of the body, and so on. In short, all the most important elements of Vajrayana are taught in their entirety as part of Yuthok’s corpus of teachings.

Characteristic Five: Connection with Medicine

The Yuthok Nyingthig geksel meditation obstacle elimination practices are threefold: there are procedures for resolving secret level demonic mara obstacles, inner level mental obstacles, and outer level obstacles of the physical body. Fifteen categories of disorder, along with symptoms and treatments – disorders of the three humoral energies of loong, tripa, beken (i.e. wind, bile, and phlegm), and so on – are taught in full as part of these. Even someone who hasn’t trained in Tibetan medicine will benefit greatly from this section of the text. In later times, Zurkhar Nyamnyi Dorjé greatly expanded on Yuthok’s outer level geksel instructions in an extended commentary, which is known as ‘The Pith Instructions of the Ten Million Pearl Relics’ or just ‘The Pearl Relic’ for short and this became a very highly regarded medical text.

Characteristic Six: Clear Sequence

The Yuthok Nyingthig’s stages of practice are taught clearly and without any mixing up or conflict between them. First, there are the Ngöndro or preliminary practices, which purify one’s mind-stream. Then there are the teachings on Mahayoga or the Creation Stage practices which produce the antidote for anger. Then come the teachings on Lung Anuyoga or the Completion Stage practices, which are the antidote for desire, after which there is the Great Perfection, Ati Yoga, the antidote for ignorance.

Initially, there are the four Guru Yoga practices, which are the embodiment of all the Three Roots: the Outer, Inner, Secret, and Concise Guru Yogas. Then, in the interim, there is the practice of Tummo, the method for purifying the ordinary body into the Divine Body of the Deity, which purifies the channels through the basis of bar loong or more gentle ‘intermediate breathing’ and the seven-fold trülkhor magic wheel physical yoga practices. Then there are the instructions on the six bardo or interim states of being, also known as the Yogas or ‘Dharmas’ of Naropa, which transform ordinary speech into the Mantra of the Deity, through the basis of Vajra Recitation practice. These are taught in their entirety and in their proper order: there are the daytime Yogas of Tummo, which uses drak loong,or more intense breathing techniques and Illusory Body Yoga; the night-time Yogas of (Lucid) Dreaming and Clear Light (or deep, dreamless sleep); Powa Yoga, the Yoga of the Transference of Consciousness, which is a purification practice for the moment of death and which is known as ‘Buddhahood without meditation’, the Powa Drongjuk practices for directly transferring your consciousness into another physical body when close to death, and Bardo Yoga, which is referred to as ‘Spontaneous, Self-Liberation into The Dharmata or Ultimate Nature of Reality’.

Next, there are the methods for purifying the ordinary mind into the tiglé or vital drops of the Deity. These are the teachings of the ‘Path of the Great Bliss of the Lower Gates’, the Yoga of the Karmamudra (i.e. sexual yoga with a physical partner) and those of the ‘Path of the Complete Liberation of the Upper Gates’, i.e. the Great Seal Mahamudra. Then, finally, there is the Dzogchen or Great Perfection Pointing Out instructions of the ‘Great Self-Liberation of Samsara-Nirvana’. All these are described extensively. The ripening empowerments and liberating practice instructions, the meditation methods, the signs that emerge on the path, and the resolving of obstacles and meditation gek are all taught in their entirety and in clear succession with great precision, striking all the most vital points.

Characteristic Seven: Non-Sectarian Philosophy

The lüjin or ‘body-offering’ Kusali practice that is taught as part of the Yuthok Nyingthig Ngöndro condenses the meaning of all the Zhijé Pacification and Chöd Severance teachings. Yuthok’s Six Dharmas or Yogas are taught in accordance with Naropa’s system, completely and in sequence. Likewise, the Path of the Great Bliss of the Lower Gates method of relying on a physical consort, which is found in the Kalachakra, Chakrasamvara, and Guhyasamaja systems of Highest Yoga Tantra practice, is taught in its entirety. Condensed Mahamudra instructions and Dzogchen teachings are both also explained. Given this, whatever tradition or doctrinal system one happens to study, the Yuthok Nyingthig remains an authentic tradition.

Characteristic Eight: Appropriate Length

The empowerments, sadhanas, letsok ritual procedures, Guru Yoga practices and so on are all taught skillfully in both an elaborate and concise way. As it says in the khajang or contents list chapter of the Yuthok Nyingthik:

“The ‘Vast Expanse of Great Bliss’ elaborate empowerment ceremony ripens karmically fortunate disciples and for those of lesser capacity there is the concise dön wang, which includes all the essential meaning of the elaborate empowerment”

For more elaborate students, there is the ‘Vast Expanse of Great Bliss’ elaborate empowerment ceremony and the more unelaborated approach of the concise dön wang ‘essential meaning’ empowerment. The elaborate ceremony combines standard and torma empowerments, the four empowerments of the Highest Yoga Tantras as well as the jenang authorizations of the medical sages and goddesses, and the sokté life-entrustment rituals of the medical protector deity Shanglön. All these are represented and contained within the ceremony in their entirety.

All the Guru Yoga practices are also differentiated into elaborate and concise forms, with the very concise forms being taught as secret pith instructions, in perfect accordance with individual practitioners’ capacities. The Outer Guru Yoga practice, ‘The Wish-Fulfilling Jewel’, has an Outer Mandala level of meditation in which Yuthok is the Guru in the center of the mandala surrounded by the four goddesses. This approach is more elaborate. If you can’t manage that or don’t have time for more extensive practice, there is the very convenient and simple method of meditating on Guru Yuthok in your heart chakra and visualizing and reciting his shorter heart-essence mantra.

The Inner Guru Yoga practice is a unified Creation and Completion Stage practice for Medicine Buddha and the oral lineage instructions on this Inner Guru Yoga practice, ‘The Pool of Siddhis’ involves meditating on the Guru as the Five Buddha Families in your five chakras, which enables you to understand the meaning of all four glorious Medical Tantras. Both these practices condense all the vital points in a very essential way.

The Secret Guru Yoga practice, ‘The Swift Guide for Fortunate Disciples’ includes visualizations of Hayagriva and Vajravarahi which are a little more elaborate. It is taught (in the Secret Guru Yoga chapter) that you should do 100, 000 repetitions of the visualizations and mantra recitations, but in the ‘Supreme Oral Instruction of the Path of Bliss’ text, the meditational deity, chakra, and mantra syllable visualizations are taught in an extremely concise way. We can see from this that the Guru Yoga practices of the Yuthok Nyingthig are very moderate in length.

Characteristic Nine: Timeliness

Through his clairvoyant perception of the future, Master Yuthok made the following Vajra Oath:

“When the blessings to realize practices in the moment of practicing them no longer exist, beings born in the degenerate age will be impatient, they will have little follow-through and won’t be able to practice for extended periods as a result. Yet, if individuals with faith practice this sadhana which is imbued with my very life- essence, for seven days-and-nights without distraction, I promise that I will reveal my face thoroughly to them—for the highest practitioners in actuality, for average practitioners during meditative experiences, and for lesser practitioners in dreams—and will instruct them and teach them further.”

The majority of Yuthok’s Six Yoga practices are done during seven-day long retreats as well. As such, Yuthok’s practices accord with the psychology of today’s super-stressed and busy individuals and can be practiced by busy working doctors as well.

Characteristic Ten: ‘Tames’ or Teaches in Whatever Way is Necessary

The Yuthok Nyingthig has instructions on medical practice, the men drup medicine empowerment and medicine nectar offering practices needed by doctors; it has the letsok rituals, kangso protector deity propitiation rituals, and sungkhor protective amulets needed by ngakpa (tantric householder yogi-sorcerers); the tra drup or sadhana practices for acquiring medical clairvoyance powers needed by astrologers and diviners; the tsa loong trülkhor ‘magic wheel’ physical yoga exercises for working with the channels and winds needed by yogic practitioners; it has the Path of Passion of Great Bliss (i.e. sexual yoga practices) needed by those filled with desire; it has the Mahamudra Great Seal teachings, the Path of Complete Liberation (of the Upper Gates) needed by those who hold monastic discipline; and the pointing out instructions of Dzogchen Great Perfection which are completely indispensable to Dzogchen practitioners. It has the tsewang long life empowerment practices needed by patients; the three rites of pressing down, burning, and casting out indispensable to great sorcerers; and the aggressive mantras of the authentic Dharma Protectors which are truly needed by those who seek to preserve the teachings. It has the medicine empowerment practices and jinsek fire offering practices connected with the four tantric activities, which are needed by everybody. Practitioners of Secret Mantra, from any tradition, can practice Yuthok’s Guru Yoga sadhanas simply to form a connection with the lineage, and so on. Given this, rational, discerning people can understand that the Yuthok Nyingthig is an extremely precious and sacred tradition, a supreme path that teaches practitioners in whatever way they require.

Characteristic Eleven: Unique Oral Instructions

The sadhanas for accomplishing powers of tsa tra, pulse divination or medical clairvoyance connected with pulse reading, which are taught in the Yuthok Nyingthig corpus and which are sought out by doctors and diviners are practices that cannot easily be found elsewhere.  . ‘The Pool of Siddhis’ oral instructions connected with Yuthok’s Inner Guru Yoga sadhana, which allow one to understand the meaning of the Gyü Zhi or Four Medical Tantras through the power of meditation, are also clearly quite unique and amazing. As the great Sumtön put it:

“This collection of Guru (Yoga) sadhanas contains the jinlap—the transformative blessing power—of the oral lineage of transmission unknown by all. It is an easy and fast path that grants Buddhahood in a single human lifetime.”

When one carefully examines the core Yuthok Nyingthig teachings, one can see that they contain many vital points that are not explained clearly in other sources. For example, the Yuthok Nyingthig teaches that once one has gained some experience in Tummo practice, which is part of the section of teachings on purifying the channels to transform one’s ordinary body into the Body of the Deity, one should do Vajra Recitation practice for seven days as part of a dark retreat, in order to transform ordinary speech-energy into the Mantra of the Deity. This is an uncommon heard-lineage dark retreat teaching. In the Signs of the Path explanations for the Guru Yogas and Dzogrim practices, the meditation experiences of Bliss, Clarity, and Non-conceptuality and the ten signs of Dzogrim practices and in particular the direct manifestation of the tigle of light are explained very clearly, in a manner not found in other sources.

Also, in the section on the ‘Path of Means’ Great Bliss of the Lower Gates sexual yoga practices, there are two kinds of Yoga, one for practitioners who have already trained their loong or wind-energies and one for practitioners who have not trained them. The latter of these, the Karmamudra teachings for practitioners who haven’t trained their winds, are a really distinctive set of oral instructions, not explained elsewhere. The teaching in the Yuthok Nyingthig that one can attain the Rainbow Body through practicing sexual yoga with a partner is also quite clearly a distinctive and unique teaching.

Characteristic Twelve: The Greatness or Importance of the Teachings

According to Yuthok’s heard-lineage biography, the Yuthok Nyingthig was first taught in the Pure Land of Tanaduk by the Medicine Buddha. Then, in the interim, it was taught in Oddiyana by the Lotus-Born Master Padmasambhava, where it was requested by Yuthok the Elder, after which it was finally taught to Yuthok Yönten Gönpo the Younger by the Wisdom Dakini Palden Trengwa, through which it became known as the profound pure vision Dharma corpus it is today.

The main teachings of Sowa Rigpa also appeared in history due to Yuthok the Younger’s great Compassion. [As he himself stated to his heart-disciple Sumtön:]

“From one perspective, the medicines and treatments of Sowa Rigpa are the only things of importance when it comes to curing the four hundred and four types of disease which torment this precious human body of ours, made from the three poisons and five originating elements. For this reason, I have adopted a completely pure Bodhicitta intention on all levels and teach medicine as my sole, primary subject. I don’t teach other Dharma teachings as my primary focus.”

From this we can understand that Yuthok possessed Supreme Bodhichitta. As his legacy of expansive and completely Bodhisattva activity, he prioritized continually working on behalf of sick beings (as a doctor).
Through this profound path, Yuthok the Elder achieved the state of a rigdzin or Vidyadhara – a realized tantric saint – within his own lifetime. He lived until the age of one hundred and twenty-five at which point he and his wife and his whole household achieved the Rainbow Body of Greater Transference. Yuthok the Younger also passed into the Rainbow Body of Greater Transference in the twelfth century, in front of a great retinue (of family members and students) without any obstacles at all. So, there can be no doubt at all about the greatness of the Yuthok Nyingthig’s Guru lineage.

To summarize all the vital points, most of the unique features of the Yuthok Nyingthig described above can be gleaned from the khajang or contents list for the Yuthok Nyingthig:

[A rough translation of the khajang follows]

A Khajang or Contents List for the Blessings of the Guru Yoga sadhanas of the Yuthok Nyingthig  

Emaho! How wonderful!
In the end times, in later generations, the vital essence of the elements and the balance of the eons will be lost and through this, the fire of the five poisons will blaze and beings will indulge in evil conduct and sinful actions.
Through this, the gods and demons will be stirred up and aggravated and all kinds of different sicknesses, beyond imagining, which don’t even yet have a name, will arise.
To protect beings who have no chance of health or happiness,
Master Guna, the single embodiment of the Compassion of all the Buddhas throughout all time and space,
That most glorious of beings from Tibet, the Land of Snows, supreme in all the five fields of study,
Indivisible from Samantabhadra and Medicine Buddha, the King of Medicine who cures all disorders arising from the three poisons,
Has given this three-part, indispensable heard-lineage, which is the quintessence of all the root texts and commentaries which are themselves the distilled essence of hundreds and thousands of Sowa Rigpa teachings.
This teaching has three aspects – offerings, meditation practices, and praises of Medicine Buddha, and with this there are Outer, Inner, Secret, and Extremely Secret level sadhanas.
In the ‘Sunlight of Compassion that Dispels Suffering’, there are the pith oral instructions on both the Creation and Completion Stages in common and the cycle of practices connected with the Dharma protectors.
The historical chronicle about the origin of all the practices in common is called the ‘Iron Hook (of Virtue) which Truly Guides Disciples’.
The ‘Vast Expanse of Great Bliss’ – the elaborate empowerment ceremony – ripens karmically fortunate disciples and for those of lesser capacity, there is the concise dön wang, which includes all the essential meaning (of the elaborate empowerment).
The ‘Vajra Knot’ text is about damtsik – samaya or tantric commitments – which are very life of the Secret Mantra.
The Kyerim Creation Stage practices include the Outer, Inner, Secret, and Concise (Guru Yoga) sadhanas as well as the practices for individually accomplishing the Dakinis, the concise instructions on how to visualize (Yuthok as) the five Buddha family (Rigpé Yeshés), and the two oral instructions which are the root of the Secret Guru Yoga practice.
Then there’s the practice that accomplishes the supreme and ordinary siddhis for fortunate disciples and which accomplishes all wishes, the outer torma and letsok ritual workings texts, and supplementary medicine and torma offering practices, which satisfy all the classes of guests and are the origin of all siddhis.

The Dzogrim practices are exceedingly profound and are the very life-essence of the Dakinis – they accomplish the wishes of those fortunate disciples who desire to attain Buddhahood directly in a single lifetime.
The (Dzogchen) pointing out instructions of ‘The Self-Liberation of Samsara-Nirvana’ too, should be put into practice.
All these, along with the geksel Obstacle Elimination and clarifying lamtak Signs of the Path instructions, and the söldep invoking prayers, constitute the pith oral instructions for the Creation and Completion Stages in common, through which the (Guru’s) blessings flow.  

The supplementary practice which ‘Conquers the Mara of the Lord of Death’, the jinsek fire offering practices, the small text with the sungkhor or protective circle amulet – these are the pith oral instructions for extending one’s own and others’ lifespans and for ritually protecting oneself and others from the terrors of samsara.
The tra drup medical clairvoyance practices and the jenang empowerments of the medical sages and goddesses; the three ritual procedures for suppressing gabdré, unruly, harmful spirits; the two illustrated texts of lejor ritual applications; the dangkang sölkha protector deity propitiation and amendment invocatory rituals; the ‘Life-essence Drop’ mantra modification instructions for the protectors and practices like the ‘Poison-quenched Razor’ and the ‘Meteoric Iron’ – these are all the weapons which liberate enemies and obstructors of the teachings.
This explains the contents of the elaborated oral instructions and letsok rites.

These are the thirty-five sections of teachings of the ‘Sunlight of Compassion’, which condense the heart-essence life-force of the Three Roots into one. This teaching is the ultimate consummation of the sok drup, the vital life-force sadhana, of all the victorious Buddhas of the three times[3]. Fortunate disciples with the right residual karma should hold these teachings deep in their hearts! May the group of nine oath-bound Protector deities drink the heart-blood of whichever students and teachers steal these tantric methods and disrespect the kind gurus, who do not maintain the lineage or do the practices, and who grant these teachings to unfit recipients or those who do not maintain their tantric commitments.”   

We can see all the unique, essential points of the Yuthok Nyingthig tradition from this description of the nature of its thirty-five sections of Dharma teaching.

The above text was written in Winterthur, Switzerland on the 3^rd of April 2015 by Dr Nida, who received the wang, lung, and tri – the empowerments, reading transmissions, and practical oral instructions – for this Dharma-cycle and who has absolutely pure, unadulterated faith in it.

[1] The collection of revealed scriptures assembled by Jamgön Kongtrül Rinpoche in the late 19^th century.

[2] Literally, ‘the Center for Benefiting Beings’, the traditional Tibetan medical institute established in 1696 in Lhasa by the regent of the Great Fifth Dalai Lama, Desi Sanggyé Gyatso.

[3] I.e. the past, present, and future.