Gyurme Pema Namgyal

Shechen Gyaltsab Gyurme Pema Namgyal (T. zhe chen rgyal tshab 'gyur med padma rnam rgyal ཞེ་ཆེན་རྒྱལ་ཚབ་འགྱུར་མེད་པདྨ་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་) (1871-1926) — the fourth Shechen Gyaltsab.

A remarkable master who lived at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. [...] He was a disciple of the greatest luminaries of the nineteenth century, including Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thayé, and Lama Mipam Rinpoche.

Shechen Gyaltsap was indisputably one of the most learned and accomplished lamas of his time. The thirteen volumes of his large collection of writings contain many lucid and profound commentaries on various aspects of philosophy and practice.

Shechen Gyaltsap was also an accomplished practitioner. He spent much of his life in retreat above Shechen Monastery in eastern Tibet, and achieved many signs of accomplishment. Once he started a three-year retreat based on the Vajrakilaya practice, but to everyone's surprise after only three months he emerged saying that he had completed his intended program. The next morning, his attendant noticed an imprint of his footprint on the stone threshold of the hermitage. Shechen Gyaltsap's disciples later removed the stone and hid it during the Cultural Revolution. Today, it is possible to see it at Shechen Monastery in Tibet. The imprint was an outer sign of his inner realization of the Vajrakilaya practice. (Source: The Great Medicine, Introduction)

He was the root teacher of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and one of the main teachers of Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö.

Selected writings

• The Great Medicine That Conquers Clinging to the Notion of Reality (Byang chub kyi sems bsgom pa'i rim pa bdag 'dzin 'joms pa'i sman chen)

  Translation: Shechen Rabjam (2007), The Great Medicine That Conquers Clinging to the Notion of Reality, Shambhala. Archive version, Publishers page

• Fine Vase of Honey: Profound Instructions on the Mahayana Practice of Mind Training (T. theg pa chen po'i blo sbyong gi man ngag zab don sbrang rtsi'i bum bzang)

  Translation: Zhechen Gyaltsab Gyurmed Padma Namgyal, Path of Heroes: Birth of Enlightenment (two volumes), translated by Deborah Black, Dharma Publishing, 1995. Archive version

• A Chariot To Freedom: Guidance from the Great Masters on the Vajrayana Preliminary Practices

  Translation: Shechen Gyaltsap Gyurmé Pema Namgyal, The Padmakara Translation Group (2021), A Chariot To Freedom Guidance from the Great Masters on the Vajrayana Preliminary Practices, Shambhala Publications. Archive version

Further reading

Print publications:

• Nyoshul Khenpo, A Marvelous Garland of Rare Gems: Biographies of Masters of Awareness in the Dzogchen Lineage (Junction City: Padma Publications, 2005), pages 426-428.
• Shechen Gyaltsap IV and Rinchen Dargye, A Practice of Padmasambhava: Essential Instructions on the Path to Awakening (Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 2011).

Web publications:

• Life of Shechen Gyaltsab Rinpoche, Lotsawa House by Alak Zenkar Rinpoche
• The Fourth Shechen Gyaltsap Gyurme Pema Namgyal, Tsadra Commons
• Gyurme Pema Namgyal, Rigpa Shedra Wiki
• Shechen Gyaltsap, Guide for Readers, shambhala.com
• TBRC Profile