Zabtik Drolchok

Green Tara with her right hand in the gesture of bestowing protection

Zabtik Drolchok (Tib. ཟབ་ཏིག་སྒྲོལ་ཆོག, zab tik drol chok, Wyl. zab tig sgrol chog), 'The Profound Essence of Tara' — a popular practice of Green Tara revealed as a mind terma by Chokgyur Dechen Lingpa. Like the Chimé Phakmé Nyingtik, The Heart Essence of the Sublime Lady of Immortality, discovered by Jamyang Khyentsé Wangpo, the Zabtik Drolchok forms part of a larger yet to be revealed terma-cycle called Drolma Nyingtik, The Heart Essence of Tara. According to Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, while Zabtik Drolchok belongs to the kriya tantras, it applies the view of Niruttara-yoga or the Highest Yoga Tantras. Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche praised the Zabtik Drolchok as carrying the most blessings amongst all the termas of Chokgyur Lingpa.

The full name of the outer sadhana is The Essence of the Two Accumulations, The Mandala Ritual from the Mind Treasure, The Profound Essence of Tara, and among the seven special transmissions, it belongs to the category of mind terma. The Praises to the Twenty-One Taras is recited numerous times within the practice.

There is also an inner and a secret sadhana in the cycle. The inner practice is a yoga tantra practice and contains the mandala which from the eight great fears. The secret practice is a [[highest yoga tantra] practice from the Mother Tantras, belonging to the family of Hayagriva and Vajravarahi and is connected with Samayatara.

Texts of the Cycle

• The Treasure Root Text, containing the way to take care of disciples, the outer, inner and secret sadhanas, the Essential Instruction on the Triple Excellence, the puja text for the vajra guardians endowed with the certainty of the vajra words, and the various activities of the guardians (Tib. དགོངས་གཏེར་སྒྲོལ་མའི་ཟབ་ཏིག་ལས་སློབ་མ་རྗེས་སུ་བཟུང་བ་ཕྱི་ནང་གསང་བའི་སྒྲུབ་ཐབས་ལེགས་སོ་གསུམ་གྱི་དོན་ཁྲིད་རྡོ་རྗེ་ལུང་གི་ངེས་པ་རྡོ་རྗེ་སྲུང་མའི་མཆོད་བྱང་སྲུང་མའི་ལས་ཚོགས་ཟབ་མོ་བཅས་གཏེར་གཞུང་ལྡེབ, Wyl . dgongs gter sgrol ma'i zab tig las slob ma rjes su bzung ba phyi nang gsang ba'i sgrub thabs legs so gsum gyi don khrid rdo rje lung gi nges pa rdo rje srung ma'i mchod byang srung ma'i las tshogs zab mo bcas gter gzhung ldeb).
• Essence of the Two Accumulations, the Elaborate and Concise Outer Sādhanas Together with the Entrustment, from the Mind Treasure the Profound Essence of Tāra (Tib. དགོངས་གཏེར་སྒྲོལ་མའི་ཟབ་ཏིག་ལས་ཕྱི་སྒྲུབ་རྒྱས་བསྡུས་རིག་གཏད་དང་བཅས་པའི་ཚོགས་གཉིས་སྙིང་པོ།, Wyl. dgongs gter sgrol ma'i zab tig las phyi sgrub rgyas bsdus rig gtad dang bcas pa'i tshogs gnyis snying po)
  • English translation: Essence of the Two Accumulations, Mandala Ritual from the Mind Treasure of the Profound Essence of Tara, translators colophon: The main sadhana was translated according to the wish of Kyabje Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, by Erik Pema Kunsang at Nangkyi Gompa, Spring 2002, with the help of Marcia Binder Schmidt, Graham Sunstein, Michael Tweed and Shenpen Lhamo. Finalized at Rangjung Yeshe Gomdé, USA, 2007 with the help of Lama Sherab Dorje and Joanne Larson. The twenty-one verses of homage were translated from the Tibetan by Marcia Dechen Wangmo based on many existing translations and with the generous help of the Sanskrit pandit Mattia Salvini, the Upāsaka Jñānagarba and helpful advice from the Maha Lotsawa, Erik Pema Kunsang. May it benefit countless beings! Download from Siddharta's Intent
  • English translation: Essence of the Two Accumulations, The Maṇḍala Ritual from the Mind Treasure the Profound Essence of Tāra, Chokgyur Lingpa Foundation, Lhasey Lotsawa, 2014. Download from Lhasey Lotsawa Translations (PDF)
  • English translation: The Essence of the Two Accumulations: The Ritual for the Elaborate Outer Practice
  • English translation: The Essence of the Two Accumulations: The Ritual for the Condensed Outer Practice
• The Condensed Daily Practice for The Profound Essence of Tara (Tib. དགོངས་གཏེར་ཟབ་ཏིག་སྒྲོལ་མའི་རྒྱུན་ཁྱེར།, dgongs gter zab tig sgrol ma'i rgyun khyer) by Tsikey Chokling Rinpoche.
  • English translation: The Condensed Daily Practice for The Profound Essence of Tara
• The Essence of the Two Benefits, the Inner Sādhana Together with the Empowerment Ritual, from the Mind Treasure the Profound Essence of Tāra (Tib. དགོངས་གཏེར་སྒྲོལ་མའི་ཟབ་ཏིག་ལས་ནང་སྒྲུབ་དབང་བསྐུར་གྱི་ཆོ་ག་དང་བཅས་པ་དོན་གཉིས་སྙིང་པོ།, Wyl. dgongs gter sgrol ma'i zab tig las nang sgrub dbang bskur gyi cho ga dang bcas pa don gnyis snying po)
• The Essence of the Two Stages of Activity, the Secret Sādhana Together with the Conferral of Blessings, from the Mind Treasure the Profound Essence of Tāra (Tib. དགོངས་གཏེར་སྒྲོལ་མའི་ཟབ་ཏིག་ལས་གསང་སྒྲུབ་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་བཅས་པའི་ཕྲིན་ལས་རིམ་གཉིས་སྙིང་པོ།, dgongs gter sgrol ma'i zab tig las gsang sgrub byin rlabs dang bcas pa'i phrin las rim gnyis snying po)
• Taking Care of Disciples, from the Mind Treasure the Profound Essence of Tāra (Tib. དགོངས་གཏེར་སྒྲོལ་མའི་ཟབ་ཏིག་ལས་སློབ་མ་རྗེས་སུ་བཟུང་བ།. Wyl. dgongs gter sgrol ma'i zab tig las slob ma rjes su bzung ba)
• The Essential Instruction on the Threefold Excellence, from the Mind Treasure Drolma Zabtik, the Profound Essence of Tara (Tib དགོངས་གཏེར་སྒྲོལ་མའི་ཟབ་ཏིག་ལས་ལེགས་སོ་གསུམ་གྱི་དོན་ཁྲིད་ཀྱི་བསྡུས་དོན་ལྡེབ, Wyl. dgongs gter sgrol ma'i zab tig las legs so gsum gyi don khrid kyi bsdus don ldeb), by Chokgyur Dechen Lingpa.
  • English Translation: The Essential Instruction on the Threefold Excellence, from the Mind Treasure Drolma Zabtik, the Profound Essence of Tara, in Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche and Trulshik Adeu Rinpoche, Skillful Grace: Tara Practice for Our Times, translated and edited by Erik Pema Kunsang and Marcia Binder Schmidt (Rangjung Yeshe Publications, 2007), 29-36.

• Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo དགོངས་གཏེར་སྒྲོལ་མའི་ཟབ་ཏིག་ལས་ལེགས་སོ་གསུམ་གྱི་དོན་ཁྲིད་ཀྱི་བསྡུས་དོན།, dgongs gter sgrol ma'i zab tig las legs so gsum gyi don khrid kyi bsdus don
• Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé དགོངས་གཏེར་སྒྲོལ་མའི་ཟབ་ཏིག་ལས་ལེགས་སོ་གསུམ་གྱི་དོན་ཁྲིད་གསལ་བར་བཀོད་པ་གྲུབ་གཉིས་ཐིག་ལེ།།, dgongs gter sgrol ma'i zab tig las legs so gsum gyi don khrid gsal bar bkod pa grub gnyis thig le

Further Reading

• Adeu Rinpoche, Jamgon Kongtrul, and Chokgyur Lingpa. Skillful Grace: Tara Practice for Our Times. Translated and edited by Erik Pema Kunsang and Marcia Binder Schmidt. Hong Kong: Rangjung Yeshe Publications, 2007.
• Beyer, Stephan. The Cult of Tara: Magic and Ritual in Tibet. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978.
• Chokgyur Lingpa, Adeu Rinpoche, Orgyen Topgyal Rinpoche, and Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo. The Tara Compendium: Feminine Principles Discovered. Translated and edited by Erik Pema Kunsang and Marcia Binder Schmidt. Hong Kong: Rangjung Yeshe Publications, 2015.

Teachings on Zabtik Drolchok

• Orgyen Tobgyal Rinpoche, Gomde USA, 2000
• Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche has taught extensively on the terma text, which can be studied online.

External Links

• Tara Sadhana in English and Tibetan on the Khyentse Foundation website 'An On-line Altar to Tara
• Essence Of The Two Accumulations - Zabtik Drolchok, on the Lhasey Lotsawa website
• The Essence of the Two Accumulations: The Ritual for the Elaborate Outer Practice
• The Essence of the Two Accumulations: The Ritual for the Condensed Outer Practice
• The Condensed Daily Practice for The Profound Essence of Tāra
• The Garland of Utpala Flowers, A prayer to the masters of the lineage of Zabtik Drolchok