Zabtik Drolchok

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

Zabtik Drolchok (Tib. ཟབ་ཏིག་སྒྲོལ་ཆོག, 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. Among the seven special transmissions, it belongs to the category of mind terma. The famous Praises to the Twenty-One Taras is recited numerous times within the practice.

Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé compiled three sadhanas for Zabtik Drolchok: an outer, an inner and a secret. Amongst the three, the outer sadhana called The Essence of the Two Accumulations, The Mandala Ritual from the Mind Treasure, The Profound Essence of Tara is commonly practised in a group assembly. Jamgön Kongtrul wrote instructions on how to condense this outer sadhana into a daily practice. Tsikey Chokling Rinpoche then condensed the outer sadhana into an even briefer version, called 'the condensed daily practice'. The later two sadhanas, the inner and the secret, are mostly performed in a retreat setting. The inner sadhana is a yoga tantra practice and contains the mandala which from the eight great fears. The secret sadhana is a Highest Yoga Tantra practice that is classified as Mother Tantras, belonging to the family of Hayagriva and Vajravarahi, and is connected to Samayatara.

Pre-requites for the Practice

Ideally, one would have received wang, lung and tri before engaging in this practice. However Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche has stated that Zabtik Drolchok practice is open to everyone and no prerequisites are required. Rinpoche has said that anyone who would like to do the practice may do so.

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).
• The Garland of Utpala Flowers, A prayer to the masters of the lineage of Zabtik Drolchok, by Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo (Tib. དགོངས་གཏེར་སྒྲོལ་མའི་བརྒྱུད་འདེབས་ཨུཏྤ་ལའི་ཕྲེང་བ་, Wyl . dgongs gter sgrol ma'i brgyud 'debs ut+pa la'i phreng ba).
  • English translation: The Garland of Utpala Flowers, A prayer to the masters of the lineage of Zabtik Drolchok
• 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: The Elaborate Sādhana
  • English translation: The Concise Sādhana
• 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.

• Essence of Accomplishment: An Extremely Concise Feast-Offering to Noble Tara by Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo (Tib. འཕགས་མ་སྒྲོལ་མའི་ཚོགས་མཆོད་ཤིན་ཏུ་བསྡུས་པ་དངོས་གྲུབ་སྙིང་པོ།; Wyl. 'phags ma sgrol ma'i tshogs mchod shin tu bsdus pa dngos grub snying po)
  • English Translation: Essence of Accomplishment

• 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

Empowerments Given to the Rigpa Sangha

• Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche, Lerab Ling, 2 May 2023

External Links

• Tara Sadhana in English and Tibetan on the Khyentse Foundation website 'An On-line Altar to Tara'