Tendrel Nyesel

Thangka commissioned by Sogyal Rinpoche under the guidance of Kyabjé Trulshik Rinpoche. Painted by Salga.

Tendrel Nyesel (Tib. རྟེན་འབྲེལ་ཉེས་སེལ་, Wyl. rten ‘brel nyes sel) is a terma revealed by Tertön Sogyal, containing sadhanas and teachings. It is a special practice for eliminating (Tib. sel) flaws (Tib. nyé) in interdependent circumstances (Tib. tendrel) by invoking Guru Padmasambhava, together with the buddhas and bodhisattvas and the mandalas of the hundred peaceful and wrathful deities, Tsokchen Düpa, Lama Gongdü and Kagyé.

The terma of Tendrel Nyesel contains three practices:

• an elaborate or long one, ‘The Profound Instruction of Tendrel Nyesel’;
• a medium length one, ‘The Medium Length Practice of Tendrel Nyesel’ and
• a brief one, ‘The Brief Practice of Tendrel Nyesel’.

It is the brief one that the Rigpa sangha uses for daily practice. The medium length one is traditionally used during Tendrel Nyesel drupchös and drupchens.

History

Its Revelation

The terma of Tendrel Nyesel was revealed by Lerab Lingpa in the year 1900. His biography describes how, at night on the tenth day of the seventh Tibetan month, Guru Rinpoche and the dakinis of the five buddha families appeared to him in a dream and gave him the complete empowerment and instructions of Tendrel Nyesel. On the twenty-fifth day, he performed a tsok feast offering of Khandro Sangwa Kundü, and prayed that there be no obstacles to the discovery of the terma, and for its revelation to bring tremendous benefit. During the tsok feast, Lerab Lingpa had a clear vision of the site where the terma would be found. Two days later, he received the casket containing the Tendrel Nyesel from the terma protector in a secret cave. He said he felt happier at that moment than when revealing any other of his termas.

The next evening, Guru Rinpoche appeared to him, riding a tiger and making a prophecy concerning the decipherment of the terma. From the tenth to the twelfth day of the eighth Tibetan month, Lerab Lingpa deciphered the Tendrel Nyesel, made many fervent prayers of aspiration, and was consumed with a feeling of joy. To decipher that many folios, as he did, in just over two days with no error, omission or fault, was an extraordinary feat.

The Lineage

Tertön Sogyal Lerab Lingpa

In the following year in Lhasa, Lerab Lingpa offered the empowerments and transmission of Tendrel Nyesel to the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso, who composed a liturgy and prayer to the Tendrel Nyesel protectors. Another great master on whom Lerab Lingpa bestowed the complete transmission of Tendrel Nyesel was Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö. He in turn conferred it on Kyabjé Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, insisting that he continue the lineage of Tendrel Nyesel.

In time, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche offered the empowerment and transmission to His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, and, while teaching in various western countries, fulfilled His Holiness’s request that he compose a text with ritual instructions for granting the empowerments of Tendrel Nyesel. At the end of the empowerment text, he praises the Tendrel Nyesel: “This profound teaching, so pertinent in this age, is like a secret treasure of advice never known before, one that is easy to practise and simple to apply,” and recalls Jamyang Khyentse’s encouragement to maintain the lineage of Tendrel Nyesel. He writes:

"In keeping with his words, I offered these nectar clouds that mature and liberate—with the intention of bringing benefit and happiness to the teaching and beings of Tibet, the ‘Land of Snow-capped Mountains’—to Ngawang Lobsang Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, who is praised in the vajra prophecies of the omniscient Guru of Orgyen as a holder of this very teaching. In turn, he gave me a command which I kept as one would wear a precious diadem on the crown of one’s head, and I composed this clear arrangement with the pure intention to continue the tradition of transmission, empowerment and explanation."

The Tendrel Nyesel, which invokes the wisdom, compassion and power of all the buddhas and bodhisattvas, Guru Rinpoche and the mandalas of all the tantric deities, is famed as a practice dedicated specifically to averting the inauspiciousness of the times. With world events hanging in the balance, including the future predicament of Tibet, the empowerment of this powerful practice at this point is considered by many lamas to be particularly timely and extremely significant. There is an all-encompassing, universal quality to the Tendrel Nyesel, both in the number of buddhas and deities whose blessing is invoked, and in its reach and effect throughout the universe in eliminating, preventing, protecting against and transforming harm and conflict. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche describes it:

“Using the power of skilful means and practical instructions, it is possible to heal all such harm, to prevent it from arising, to guard against it, and to increase positive circumstances. This wonderful practice of the undeceiving and unsurpassed secret mantra is extremely powerful and effective, and combines visualization of deities, mantra, realization of the view and samadhi. What is more, it is straightforward and easy to practise, and the signs of its blessing have not diminished.

“So this practice of Tendrel Nyesel is really just like a wish-fulfilling jewel, an instruction that brings benefit and happiness to fortunate beings, given to us by the second Buddha, the Great Master Padmasambhava. Imparted to the secret consort Yeshe Tsogyal and the master Nanam Dorje Dudjom, it was concealed as a precious earth terma, and later revealed and spread by the great tertön Lerab Lingpa as a gift that would bring benefit and happiness to Tibet, the Land of Snows.”

Texts in the Tendrel Nyesel Cycle

The Thirteenth Dalai Lama

• The Profound Instruction of Tendrel Nyesel (རྟེན་འབྲེལ་ཉེས་སེལ་གྱི་གདམས་པ་ཟབ་མོ་, rten 'brel nyes sel gyi gdams pa zab mo)
• The Profound Method of Removing Spiritual Pollution Through the Practice of Tendrel Nyesel (རྟེན་འབྲེལ་ཉེས་སེལ་གྱི་སྒོ་ནས་གྲིབ་སེལ་ཟབ་མོ་, rten 'brel nyes sel gyi sgo nas grib sel zab mo)
• Additional Practices for the Fire Offering of Tendrel Nyesel (ཉེས་སེལ་གྱི་སྦྱིན་སྲེག་སྐབས་ཟུར་བྱང་, nyes sel gyi sbyin sreg skabs zur byang)
• Additional Practices for Tendrel Nyesel (ཉེས་སེལ་གྱི་ཟུར་འཛར་, nyes sel gyi zur 'dzar)
• A Method for Bringing Together the Crucial Points of the Requests to the 36 Vajradanda Protectors of Tendrel Nyesel (ཉེས་སེལ་རྡོ་རྗེ་བེ་ཅོན་གྱི་སྲུང་བ་སུམ་ཅུ་རྩ་དྲུག་གི་འདོད་གསོལ་གནད་བསྡུས་ཕྱོགས་གཅིག་ཏུ་སྦྱར་ལུགས་, nyes sel rdo rje be con gyi srung ba sum cu rtsa drug gi 'dod gsol gnad bsdus phyogs gcig tu sbyar lugs) by the Thirteenth Dalai Lama
• The Brief Practice of Tendrel Nyesel (རྟེན་འབྲེལ་ཉེས་སེལ་གྱི་དོན་བསྡུས་, rten 'brel nyes sel gyi don bsdus)
• The Medium Length Practice of Tendrel Nyesel (ཉེས་སེལ་གྱི་ཆོ་ག་འབྲིང་པོ་, nyes sel gyi cho ga 'bring po)
• Delighting The Deities of the Great Mandala of Tendrel Nyesel: The Stages of the Tsok Feast Offering (རྟེན་འབྲེལ་ཉེས་སེལ་གྱི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་ཆེན་པོའི་ལྷ་རྣམས་དགྱེས་བྱེད་ཚོགས་མཆོད་ཀྱི་རིམ་པའ་, rten 'brel nyes sel gyi dkyil 'khor chen po'i lha rnams dgyes byed tshogs mchod kyi rim pa)
• The Luminous Nectar of Virtue and Goodness That Benefits All—Bringing Together the Extensive, Medium-length and Brief Blessing and Empowerment Rituals for the Profound Practice of Tendrel Nyesel (རྟེན་འབྲེལ་ཉེས་སེལ་གྱི་ཆོ་ག་ཟབ་མོ་རྒྱས་འབྲིང་བསྡུས་གསུམ་གྱི་བྱིན་རླབས་དབང་གི་མཚམས་སྦྱོར་ཀུན་ཕན་དགེ་ལེགས་བདུད་རྩིའི་སྣང་བ་, rten 'brel nyes sel gyi cho ga zab mo rgyas 'bring bsdus gsum gyi byin rlabs dbang gi mtshams sbyor kun phan dge legs bdud rtsi'i snang ba) by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

རྟེན་འབྲེལ་ཉེས་སེལ་གྱི་ཆོ་ག་ཟབ་མོ་རྒྱས་འབྲིང་བསྡུས་གསུམ་གྱི་བྱིན་རླབས་དབང་གི་མཚམས་སྦྱོར་ཀུན་ཕན་དགེ་ལེགས་བདུད་རྩིའི་སྣང་བ་, rten 'brel nyes sel gyi cho ga zab mo rgyas 'bring bsdus gsum gyi byin rlabs dbang gi mtshams sbyor kun phan dge legs bdud rtsi'i snang ba

The Empowerment of Tendrel Nyesel Given to the Rigpa Sangha

The empowerment has been given to the Rigpa Sangha on many occasions, including:

1970s

• Kyabjé Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Orgyen Chö Ling, Chatsworth Road, London, 28 February 1976

1980s

• Kyabjé Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Paris, 1982

1990s

• Kyabjé Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Prapoutel, 16th August 1990
• Khenpo Jikmé Phuntsok, Lerab Ling, 24 August 1993
• Sogyal Rinpoche, Lerab Ling, 3rd August 1994,
• Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, Berkeley, CA, March 1995
• Kyabjé Penor Rinpoche, Lerab Ling, 17th July 1995
• Sogyal Rinpoche
  • London, 31st May 1997
  • Myall Lakes, Australia, 23rd January 1998
  • Dzogchen Monastery, 25th March 1998
• Sherab Özer Rinpoche, Lerab Ling, 3rd August 1998
• Kyabjé Trulshik Rinpoche, San Francisco, 2nd September 1999
• Kyabjé Trulshik Rinpoche, New York, 12th September 1999
• Kyabjé Trulshik Rinpoche, Lerab Ling, 14th November 1999

2000s

• Trulshik Rinpoche, Rigpa centre, Levallois, France, 7 October 2000
• Garje Khamtrul Rinpoche, London, 10 October 2000
• Sogyal Rinpoche
  • Kirchheim, 5 January 2003
  • Myall Lakes, January 2003
• His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Dharamsala, 27 March 2003 (at Sogyal Rinpoche's request)
• Kyabjé Trulshik Rinpoche, Lerab Ling, 29th June 2003
• Kyabje Trulshik Rinpoche, Kirchheim, 31st December 2003
• Sogyal Rinpoche
  • Tokyo, 2nd October 2004
  • Munich, 7th November 2004
• Kyabjé Trulshik Rinpoche, Lerab Ling, 1st December 2005 (Medium Length Practice)
• Sogyal Rinpoche
  • Lerab Ling and Clear Lake, USA, 3 December 2006
  • Lerab Ling, 11 August 2008, Essential empowerment
  • Lake Tahoe, 6th December 2009

2010s

• Sogyal Rinpoche, Kirchheim, 1st January 2010
• Sogyal Rinpoche, Myall Lakes, Australia, 25th January 2010, brief empowerment
• Sogyal Rinpoche, Haileybury, UK, 10th April 2010, world-wide transmission
• Sogyal Rinpoche, Lerab Ling, 10th July 2011, using medium and brief empowerment texts
• Sogyal Rinpoche, UK Easter Retreat, Haileybury: 8 April 2013, Brief Tendrel Nyesel empowerment.
• Sogyal Rinpoche, Lerab Ling, France, 20 July 2013: Brief Tendrel Nyesel empowerment.
• Sogyal Rinpoche, Myall Lakes, Australia, 22 January 2015: Brief Tendrel Nyesel empowerment.
• Sogyal Rinpoche, Dzogchen Beara, Ireland: 27 June 2015: Essential Tendrel Nyesel
• Sogyal Rinpoche, Lerab Ling, France, 16 July 2016: Brief Tendrel Nyesel empowerment, world-wide transmission.
• Sogyal Rinpoche, Carpinteria, USA, 1 December 2016: Brief Tendrel Nyesel empowerment (with additions from the medium-length and extensive empowerments), in a private setting
• Sogyal Rinpoche, Ventura, USA, 4 December 2016: Brief Tendrel Nyesel
• Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche, Lerab Ling, 17 August 2019, Medium Tendrel Nyesel

2020's

• Tulku Rigdzin Pema Rinpoche, Lerab Ling, France, 18 December 2022 am: Elaborate Tendrel Nyesel
• Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche, Lerab Ling, France, 6 November 2024, Medium-length & Brief Blessing of Tendrel Nyesel from: The Luminous Nectar of Virtue and Goodness That Benefits All—Bringing Together the Extensive, Medium-length and Brief Blessing and Empowerment Rituals for the Profound Practice of Tendrel Nyesel, by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Lungs Related to Tendrel Nyesel

• Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche, Lerab Ling, 17 August 2019:
  • The Profound Instruction of Tendrel Nyesel (brief sadhana)
  • The Medium Length Practice of Tendrel Nyesel
• Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche, Lerab Ling, 6 & 8 November 2024: participants can find the list of lungs in their resource page

Teachings on Tendrel Nyesel

1990s

• Garje Khamtrul Rinpoche, Lerab Ling, 9, 10 & 12th August 1992
• Sogyal Rinpoche, Lerab Ling, 25 August 1994
• Sogyal Rinpoche, Paris, 5 November 1995
• Sogyal Rinpoche, Santa Cruz, 26 November 1995
• Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche, Lerab Ling, 19 October 1996
• Sogyal Rinpoche, Lerab Ling, 19-20 October 1996
• Kyabjé Trulshik Rinpoche, New York, 12 September 1999

2000s

• Sogyal Rinpoche, 2003
  • Brookville, 25 & 29 May 2003
  • Lerab Ling, 21 June 2003
  • Lerab Ling, 29 & 31 July 2003
  • Lerab Ling, 14, 20, 29 & 31 August 2003
• Kyabje Trulshik Rinpoche, Kirchheim, 31 December 2003
• Sogyal Rinpoche, Munich, 5-7 November 2004
• Sogyal Rinpoche, Lerab Ling, 1 & 3 August 2006
• Sogyal Rinpoche, Lerab Ling & Clear Lake, USA, 30 November & 2 December 2006
• Sogyal Rinpoche, Lerab Ling, 5-6 May 2009
• Orgyen Tobgyal Rinpoche, Paris, 30 May 2009

2010s

• Sogyal Rinpoche, Kirchheim, 1st January 2010
• Sogyal Rinpoche, Haileybury, UK, 10 April 2010
• Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, Berlin Centre, 26 June 2010
• Sogyal Rinpoche, Tuncurry, Australia, 12-13 March 2011
• Sogyal Rinpoche, San Diego, U.S.A., 6 December 2013
• Sogyal Rinpoche, San Diego, U.S.A., 1 December 2014

2020s

• Patrick Gaffney, Lerab Ling, 23 August 2024

Edited Teachings of Sogyal Rinpoche

• Dzogchenlink July 2001, Teachings on Tendrel Nyesel
• Ngöndrolink August 2001, Recognising the Display of Our Wisdom Mind
• Dzogchenlink September 2004, The Actual Practice of the Brief Tendrel Nyesel-1
• Dzogchenlink November 2004, The Actual Practice of the Brief Tendrel Nyesel-2
• Dzogchenlink July 2005, Tendrel Nyesel in Action
• Dzogchenlink July 2006, The Dzogchen Instruction from Tendrel Nyesel
• Dzogchenlink January 2014, Tendrel Nyesel: Removing Inauspicious Circumstances from the World (teachings from Lerab Ling 20 July 2013, ZAM order number 292)

Further Reading

• Guide to Vajrayana Practice for the Rigpa Sangha, section 4. Tendrel Nyesel (Tertön Sogyal Trust: 2006)
• Sogyal Rinpoche, Being On Top of Things (first published in View, issue 2; republished in The Future of Buddhism)

External Links

• Commentary on Tendrel Nyesel by Orgyen Tobgyal Rinpoche