to him as a unification of three holy beings. His outer aspect was as Je Tsongkhapa wearing the three robes of a monk and a yellow Pandit’s hat, with his right hand in the mudra of expounding Dharma and his left hand in the mudra of meditative equipoise holding a jewelled bowl filled with nectars. At his heart was Buddha Shakyamuni, and at his heart was Conqueror Vajradhara. This aspect of Je Tsongkhapa is known in Tibetan as ‘je sempa sum tseg’, which means ‘Je Tsongkhapa, the Unification of Three Holy Beings’. He is also known as ‘Lama Losang Tubwang Dorjechang’. Here, ‘Lama’ means ‘Guru’, indicating that Je Tsongkhapa is our Spiritual Guide, ‘Losang’ is short for ‘Losang Dragpa’, which is Je Tsongkhapa’s ordained name, ‘Tubwang’ is short for ‘Shakya Tubwang’, which is the Tibetan name for Buddha Shakyamuni, and ‘Dorjechang’ is Tibetan for Vajradhara.
While appearing in this form, Je Tsongkhapa transmitted to Mahasiddha Dharmavajra the instructions on Offering to the Spiritual Guide, together with the instructions on Vajrayana Mahamudra and all the other essential instructions from the Emanation Scripture. By relying upon these precious instructions, Mahasiddha Dharmavajra attained enlightenment in three years. Later, when Mahasiddha Dharmavajra’s ordinary form passed away, many local people saw five-coloured rainbow lights pouring out of his cave and illuminating the whole mountain. When they went to his cave it was completely empty. Mahasiddha Dharmavajra had attained a rainbow body and his ordinary form had totally disappeared.
Since the time when Manjushri transmitted the Emanation Scripture to Je Tsongkhapa, thousands of practitioners within the Gelugpa Tradition have attained enlightenment by practising these instructions. Moreover, because these instructions have the uncommon close lineage they are extremely blessed, and those who practise them sincerely are able to attain enlightenment in three years with considerable ease, without having to undergo the kinds of hardship experienced by Milarepa.
Before he passed away, Mahasiddha Dharmavajra checked with his clairvoyance to see to whom he should pass on the lineage of these precious instructions. He saw that a Yogi called Losang Dondrub, who was in retreat hundreds of miles away at a place called Ensa, had a very special connection with Je Tsongkhapa, and that he was a suitable recipient for this lineage. Using his miracle powers he travelled in an instant the great distance to Losang Dondrub’s cave and manifested outside it in the aspect of an old beggar monk. In those days, a beggar would wait outside reciting scriptures, indicating that he was in need of charity. Accordingly, Mahasiddha Dharmavajra began to recite Je Tsongkhapa’s Praise to Dependent Relationship.
At that time Losang Dondrub was ill, but when he heard the beggar reciting this text by Je Tsongkhapa his mind became very happy and, despite his illness, he dragged himself to the door of his cave. Immediately on seeing the beggar his mind was filled with devotion and he felt sure that he must be a holy being. He invited the beggar into his cave and offered him tea. Upon questioning the beggar, he soon realized that he was indeed a great Yogi. He fell at Mahasiddha Dharmavajra’s feet and requested him to take him into his care and give him Dharma instructions. Mahasiddha Dharmavajra replied that to receive these instructions Losang Dondrub would have to travel to his own cave at Chumo Lhari, and then he disappeared. Losang Dondrub underwent great hardship in finding Mahasiddha Dharmavajra’s cave, but when he eventually arrived he immediately made tsog offerings and requested teachings. Mahasiddha Dharmavajra transmitted to him the full lineage of the instructions of the Emanation Scripture, including the instructions on Offering to the Spiritual Guide. Losang Dondrub then returned to his cave at Ensa and put these instructions into practice, finally attaining enlightenment in three years as his Teacher had done. After he attained enlightenment he wrote in one of his many songs:
My only good qualities are that first I made single-pointed requests to my Spiritual Guide, then I practised my sadhanas as soon as I received them, and finally I attained enlightenment in three years and three months.
Losang Dondrub later became known as Gyalwa Ensapa, named after the cave where he meditated. Although he was never officially given the title, Gyalwa Ensapa is considered to be the first Panchen Lama because Losang Chokyi Gyaltsen, who is recognized as the first Panchen Lama, was in fact an emanation of Gyalwa Ensapa.
When he was a young boy Gyalwa Ensapa received many visions of Buddha Shakyamuni. He also possessed natural clairvoyance and was able to know that people were about to visit his family even when they were still many days’ journey away. Later, when he ordained as a monk, he was able to recite the entire Perfection of Wisdom Sutra in Eight Thousand Lines from memory, both in Tibetan and in Sanskrit. His fellow monks, who had never heard Sanskrit spoken, thought that he was possessed by spirits!
Since his Spiritual Guide, Mahasiddha Dharmavajra, spent his entire life in retreat, it fell to Gyalwa Ensapa to pass the lineage of the Emanation Scripture to others. He passed the lineage to Khedrub Sangye Yeshe, the root Guru of Losang Chokyi Gyaltsen, the first Panchen Lama, and it was from Khedrub Sangye Yeshe that the first Panchen Lama received this precious lineage. Since Mahasiddha Dharmavajra and his two principal disciples, Gyalwa Ensapa and Khedrub Sangye Yeshe, became known as ‘Ensapa Father and Sons’, this lineage is called the ‘Ensa Lineage’. Later Kachen Yeshe Gyaltsen wrote a book containing biographies of all these lineage Gurus. Their stories are very inspiring and I hope that one day they will be translated from Tibetan for the benefit of western practitioners.
The first Panchen Lama, Losang Chokyi Gyaltsen, was a very wise and skilful protector of Je Tsongkhapa’s doctrine. Later he became the root Guru of the fifth Dalai Lama. Until the time of the first Panchen Lama, the lineage of the Emanation Scripture had been passed directly from Teacher to disciple without being written down, and only those with great good fortune even knew of its existence, let alone had the opportunity to practise the instructions. For this reason it became known as the ‘Ensa Whispered Lineage’. However, because times were becoming more and more impure, and because sentient beings had less and less merit, the Panchen Lama worried that this precious lineage might soon be lost altogether; and so to preserve it for future generations he decided to write it down. Accordingly, he wrote a text entitled The Main Path of the Conquerors, the Root Text of the Mahamudra. This contains all the essential instructions on Mahamudra from the Emanation Scripture.
To practise Mahamudra successfully it is first necessary to complete four preliminary practices, which are known as ‘the four great preliminary guides’. These are:
(1) The great guide of going for refuge and generating bodhichitta, the gateway to the Buddhadharma and the Mahayana
(2) The great guide of making mandala offerings, the gateway to accumulating a collection of merit
(3) The great guide of meditation and recitation of Vajrasattva, the gateway to purifying negativities and downfalls
(4) The great guide of Guru yoga, the gateway to receiving blessings
So that faithful disciples could practise the fourth great guide as a preliminary to the actual Mahamudra, the first Panchen Lama also compiled Offering to the Spiritual Guide based on the instructions from the Emanation Scripture. Since then, this practice has flourished in Tibet, Mongolia, China, and India; and now it is beginning to spread in the West. We should remember the great kindness of the first Panchen Lama in compiling this sadhana and try to practise it purely and sincerely.
Although Offering to the Spiritual Guide was compiled by the first Panchen Lama, it was not invented by him. In fact all the practices contained within the sadhana were taught by Buddha in his Sutra and Tantra teachings. So as to make this clear, the first Panchen Lama wrote at the beginning of the sadhana:
I shall prepare a throat ornament, a beautiful garland of flowers,
Taken from the lotus garden of holy instructions of Sutra and Tantra,
The sole supreme method for fortunate disciples
To
