In 1992 Karen Liljenberg decided to look into Tibetan Buddhism, and began learning Tibetan. Attracted right away to Dzogchen, she soon became a student of Sogyal Rinpoche founder of Rigpa who she accompanied on a group pilgrimage to India and Sikkim in 1994.
Advice to Kunzang Chögyal
This succinct and down-to-earth piece of advice was written by Dza Patrul Rinpoche (1808-1887) for a student and friend who had asked him how he should practise. It sums up what real Dharma practice means - training our own minds, so that we can experience its results for ourselves, not to impress others.
The Cuckoo of Awareness
The Small Hidden Grain (sBas pa'i rGum Chung) by Buddhagupta is one of the very early Dzogchen texts among the Dunhuang documents at the British Library. The main theme of the text is the Enlightened Mind. It is composed of three elements: an introduction, the main text (written in red ink in the Tibetan) and interlinear notes.
Nine Considerations and Criteria for Benefiting Beings
Practical advice on how a Bodhisattva should decide on the best course of action, in a succinct and memorable piece written by the famous Dzogchen Master Dza Patrul Rinpoche, never before translated into English
The Chöd Practice, entitled "The Loud Laugh of the Dakini", is from the Longchen Nyingthig cycle of terma teachings revealed by the master Jigme Lingpa (1729-1798). Chöd means "cutting", and is a powerful, dramatic practice of cutting through ego-attachment and delusion by visualising offering up one's body to malevolent spirits and karmic creditors. Machig Labdrön, who lived in the eleventh century AD, is probably Tibet's most famous female practitioner of Chöd.
A Yearning Song of Faith
This is a reverential petition (gsol 'debs) to the Dakini Yeshe Tsogyal, pleading for aid in facing dark times. It was written (I believe) by Jigme Trinle Öser, the first Dodrupchen Rinpoche, a close disciple of Jigme Lingpa. It often accompanies the practice of Yumka Dechen Gyalmo, the Longchen Nyingthig Dakini sadhana, in which Yeshe Tsogyal is the principal meditational "deity".
These prayers were written down by the fourteenth century tertön Karma Lingpa, and are traditionally recited as guidance to the dead and dying. The "Prayer Requesting Assistance from the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas," requests all enlightened beings to comfort those who are dying or who are suffering in the intermediate states after death
The Queen of Great Bliss
[NOTE: Traditionally, empowerment, reading transmission, and explanatory teaching from a qualified teacher are necessary in order for such a sadhana to be fully understood and practised.]
This is the Dakini practice from the famous Longchen Nyingthig Cycle, written down by Jigme Lingpa. Although as a sadhana it is a Tantric practice, it is imbued throughout with the Dzogchen perspective.
Two prayers by Dza Patrul Rinpoche
Two short prayers written by the great Dzogchen master Dza Patrul Rinpoche.
Dakini cave, Sikkim The Dakini Prayer which spontaneously accomplishes the two goals
Written by Jigme Trinle Oser, the first Dodrupchen Rinpoche, a close disciple of Jigme Lingpa. This prayer invokes the dakinis and the masters of the Longchen Nyingthig lineage, to grant the practitioner supreme and ordinary accomplishments ("supreme accomplishment" being a synonym for enlightenment).