Precious word empowerment

The precious word empowerment (Tib. tsik wang rinpoche; Wyl. tshig dbang rin po che) is the fourth and most important of the four empowerments. Khenpo Ngakchung writes that the goal of the precious word empowerment is to generate the spontaneously arisen innate wisdom, the absolute meaning of empowerment.

The precious word empowerment:

• purifies all defilements of body, speech and mind, and all karmic, cognitive and habitual obscurations.
• grants the blessings of vajra wisdom
• authorizes the student as a receptive vessel for the practice of trekchö
• sows the seed for the attainment of the state of a ‘spontaneously accomplished vidyadhara’
• enables the student to attain the svabhavikakaya level of realization.

Further Reading

• Tulku Thondup, Enlightened Journey (Boston: Shambhala, 1995), Chapter 9 'The Empowerments and Precepts of Esoteric Training' and Chapter 12 'Receiving the Four Empowerments of Ngöndro Meditation'.
• Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, As It Is, Vol. 2 (Hong Kong: Rangjung Yeshe Publications, 2000), page 207.