Tendrel Nyesel

Tendrel Nyesel (Tib. རྟེན་འབྲེལ་ཉེས་སེལ་, Wyl. rten ‘brel nyes

sel) is a terma revealed by Tertön Sogyal, containing
sadhanas and teachings.[1] 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.

Thangka commissioned by Sogyal Rinpoche

Contents under the guidance of Kyabjé Trulshik Rinpoche.
History Painted by Salga.
Its Revelation
The Lineage
Texts in the Tendrel Nyesel Cycle
The Empowerment of Tendrel Nyesel Given to the Rigpa
Sangha
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
Lungs Related to Tendrel Nyesel
Teachings on Tendrel Nyesel
1990s
2000s
2010s
Edited Teachings of Sogyal Rinpoche
Notes
Further Reading
External Links
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
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,
Tertön Sogyal Lerab Lingpa 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 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 The Thirteenth Dalai Lama
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 (https://www.tbrc.org/link/?RI
D=O2DB57601%7CO2DB576012DB60927$W21809)

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

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

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

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)

Notes
1. Note that in addition to the practice revealed by Tertön Sogyal, there are other practices called Tendrel Nyesel
composed by other masters, or revealed as terma, including one by Apang Tertön

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 (http://all-otr.org/vajrayana/47-tendrel-nyesel)

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This page was last edited on 27 May 2021, at 16:01.