Saraha Nyingtik Zabmo

Damaru from a painting

Saraha Nyingtik Zabmo, ‘The Heart Essence of Saraha’ (Tib. ས་ར་ཧ་པའཱི་སྙིང་ཐིག་ཟབ་མོ་, Wyl. sa ra ha pa’I snying thig zab mo), is a terma of Dudjom Lingpa and his root-commentary on the Chö practice of Tröma Nakmo.

Revelation of the terma

The Saraha Nyingtik Zabmo is part of the Chönyi Namkhai Longdzö terma cycle of Dudjom Lingpa, who received the text through a series of visions of Saraha, completed by instructions from Machik Labdrön and Padampa Sangye.

According to Sangye Khandro, "During Dudjom Lingpa’s life, Machik Labdrön appeared to him in visions, like a mother to her child, and showed great care and loving kindness while transmitting the entire lineage of chö to him. Dudjom Lingpa also had actual visions of Padampa Sangye, who not only entrusted all lineages to him, but also illuminated all the key points on the view of emptiness."

Outline

The text is structured around thirteen sections which includes:

1. Common and uncommon preliminary instructions
2. The three-kaya meditation-recitation practice
3. The pointing-out instructions for identifying the view associated with the four samayas of Mahasandhi
4. The stages of generation and completion
5. Advice for maintaining the continuity of practice in fear-provoking environments
6. Advice for recognizing a fear-provoking environment
7. Instructions for arriving upon the key points
8. Mode of diligence applied with the four feasts

And various other subjects that belong to the path of chö.

Propagation

The Saraha Nyingtik Zabmo was widely propagated during the time of Dudjom Lingpa and one of his main disciples, Pema Lungtok Gyatso, wrote an extensive commentary on it called ‘An Ambrosia Ocean of Sublime Explanations’.

According to the Fourth Katok Getse Rinpoche, Gyurme Tenpa Gyaltsen:

If this sacred instruction that is complete and unerring is practiced accordingly to the teachings, then liberation will be brought about in a single lifetime. During the lifetime of the Tertön himself, there were close to twenty disciples who actually attained he rainbow body through mastery of the four elements. Unscathed by poisons and the like, an inconceivable number of accomplished vidyadharas were produced. Over the course of three generations, they have continued to be disciples who achieved the rainbow body as this was predicted by the tertön himself:

For three generations, if the continuity of these profound transmissions remains uninterrupted, there will be some one-hundred vidyadharas who will attain the rainbow body.

Translations

• Pema Lungtok Gyatso, Dudjom Lingpa's Chöd—An Ambrosia Ocean of Sublime Explanations, translated by Lama Chönam & Sangye Khandro, Light of Berotsana, 2014, page 437-492.