While he was studying with Rigdzin Kumaradza, Longchen Rabjam lived under extremely austere conditions. To combat attachment to the material world, Rigdzin Kumaradza moved from place to place, never settling anywhere for long. In nine months, he and his disciples moved camp nine times, causing great hardship for Longchen Rabjam and everyone else. No sooner would he get used to a simple life in some temporary shelter-usually a cave-that protected him from the snow and freezing wind, than he would have to move again. He subsisted on very little food and slept only on a sack, which served both as his mattress and blanket. It was under such hardship that he received transmission of the most rare and precious tantras and instructions of the three divisions of Dzogpa Chenpo. At the end of two years, Rigdzin Kumaradza empowered Longchen Rabjam as the lineage holder of his teachings.
Longchen Rabjam became one of the greatest scholars and realized sages of Tibet. Crowds of disciples followed him wherever he went, but he remained a simple hermit with minimal belongings, often dwelling in caves.
He saw solitude in nature as a source of spiritual awakening. For him, nature’s peaceful and clear environment inspired peace and clarity, enabling practitioners to unite with ultimate joy, to attain the oneness of universal openness and luminous clarity.
From the Biography of Longchen Rabjam
Written by Tulku Tondhup Rinpoche
Excerpt from the Precious Treasury of the Way of Abiding