His Holiness Kyabjé Ögyen Kusum Lingpa

o rGyan sKu gSum gLing pa – a great gTértön of the Nyingma Tradition (1933–2009)

HH Ögyen Kusum Lingpa’s incarnation line began with Chamtrül Yu-laVi Tob-kyir (’byams sPrul gYu la’i sTob sTobs Kyir – he who wears armour of turquoise), one of the thirty chief warriors of Ling Gésar. Chamtrül Yu-la’i Tob-kyir had the siddhi of enormous physical strength and this has followed him throughout his incarnations. He could lift large animals into the air – and was thus one of the few not killed in the spiritual wars Ling Gésar waged on the lands of Hor and Jang. His incarnation line includes the mahasiddha Trilupa and Lhalung Palgyi Dorje, one of the twenty-five siddhas of Chhimphu. It was Lhalung Pal-gyi Dorje who slew King Langdarma(persecutor of Buddhism) with an arrow in 842 AD. He was Shang Mur-thi Nyongpa Rang’dzin(the ‘Self-Secret Madman of Shang’), one of the principal students of Ma-gÇig Labdrön (the originator of gÇod).

HH Ögyen Kusum Lingpa was born in 1933 in A-chak Dra-yu on the A-mNyi Machen Nyèn-dop mountain. This mountain is known as ‘the Kailash of Eastern Tibet’. His birth was prophesied by: the first Dodrüpchen Rinpoche, gTértön Nyima Dragpa, Ngak’chang Min’gyür Namkha’i Dorje Rinpoche, the fifth Dzogchen Rinpoche, and Jig’mèd Thrinlé ’ö-Zér Rinpoche. His other Lamas include the two emanations of the fourth Dodrüpchen Rinpoche, Thubten Thrinlé Palzangpo Rinpoche, Rig’dzin Ja-lu Dorje Rinpoche, Gyatrül Wangpo Rinpoche, Khenchen Lobsang Namtak Rinpoche (who imparted to him the Dzogchen Nying-thig, and with whom he lived for many years), and Palyül Chögtrül Rinpoche (from whom he received both Nam-chö and Ratna Lingpa transmissions).

HH Ögyen Kusum Lingpa was the son of the ngakpa and acknowledged siddha – ’a-Shi Lhundrüp Gyamtso Rinpoche, and the realised ngakma – Pema Lham-so Rinpoche. ’a-Shi Rinpoche died when HH Ögyen Kusum Lingpa was three years old.

HH Ögyen Kusum Lingpa said of himself:
I was extremely naughty as a child – as bad as three spirited children together – nonetheless I proceeded with my studies with a number of extremely kind and gentle Lamas, including my Tsa-wa’i Lama A-Kyong Khenchen Losang Dorje to whom I have been devoted for over forty years.

At the age of thirteen Ögyen Kusum Lingpa began receiving frequent visions of Padmasambhava and Yeshé Tsogyel, and they continued to transmit instructions and prophesies to him throughout his life. At the age of sixteen his mother, Ngakma Pema Lham-so, died and at that time HH Ögyen Kusum Lingpa made pilgrimages to Lhasa and Sam-yé where he had visions of all his past and future lives. He received a prophecy there that in over one hundred lifetimes he would reveal one thousand gTérmas associated with five directions. Later HH Ögyen Kusum Lingpa began revealing prosperity treasures, practices which confer wealth for the benefit of practitioners in degenerate times.

At the age of thirty-two, he revealed a gTérma of Ögyen Dzambhala. The revelation of this gTérma reversed his fortunes and since then, during his lifetime he become known as one of the greatest living gTértöns. He revealed the three classes of gTérma: those received ‘directly from the mind’; ‘crazed gTér’ (which manifest as a yogi or yogini’s unconventional behaviour); and ‘secret gTér’ (which can only be revealed by one who is a holder of all classes of gTér).

His Holiness Kyabjé Ögyen Kusum Lingpa died on 26th February 2009.