Ngala Rig’dzin Dorje
Takdröl: liberation on wearing
This portrait of Ngala Rig’dzin Dorje taken in January 2000 at the gö-kar chang-lo ordination retreat in Baarlo in the Netherlands. This was the first occasion on which Ngala Rig’dzin Dorje wore the traditional Aro gTér teaching to-nga. The white panels of the yogic waistcoat indicate that the wearer is a teacher with his or her own apprentices.
Another characteristic feature of a ngak’phang Lama’s appearance is the takdröl. Ngak’chang Rinpoche said:
Takdröl (bTag grol) means ‘liberation on wearing’. Takdröl is one of a series of methods of liberation which are connected to the sense fields. There are practices of liberation through seeing, hearing, fragrancing, tasting, touching, and cognising. This is one meaning of takdröl. Another meaning concerns one’s Lama’s validation of one’s experience and the commencement of one’s third Lama khorlo. The first khorlo is study and practice; the second is retreat and accomplishment; the third is teaching and establishing a retinue of disciples.
The takdröl can be worn anywhere on the body, but in the case of a Lama it is worn in the hair either in the form of pécha (Tibetan text), a cylinder, or a cylinder surmounted by a skull. The pécha style of takdröl is most common in the Nying-thig tradition and Kunkhyen Jig’mèd Lingpa is always shown wearing such a takdröl. In the Aro gTér tradition the cylinder surmounted with a flaming skull was used, as this form is more in the style of the mahasiddhas who would wear a single skull ornament on the crown of their heads. This was the style worn by A-Kyong Düd’dül Dorje. These takdröls contained miniature texts which related to the practice of liberation on wearing. The other type of takdröl used in Aro Gar was that of Gomchenma Künzang Rang-rig Long-tsal.This was an ivory thumb ring such as would be used by an archer. This form of hair ornament contained nothing but was a symbol of controlling the inner elements and the outer protectors. The takdröl represents one’s root Lama. This is the reason it is placed on top of one’s head. When one wears the takdröl one is continually reminded of one’s Tsawa’i Lama and all one’s actions are permeated by the sense of one’s Lama.
The takdröl which Ngala Rig’dzin Dorje is wearing was presented to him as a gift, at a certain point in his training, by Ngak’chang Rinpoche, who told him that now he should look after it. This takdröl was one which Ngak’chang Rinpoche wore for many years on the advice of his first ngak’phang teacher, the late Lama Yeshé Dorje Rinpoche. It was then publicly re-presented to him in Britain by Kyabjé Chhi’mèd Rig’dzin Rinpoche, on the occasion when he gave the empowerments of Dorje Tröllö, Seng-gé Dongma and Tröma Nakmo. Ngala Rig’dzin Dorje is still able to attach it using the original ribbon plaited for it by Ngak’chang Rinpoche over two decades previously whist he lived in the Indian Himalayas. The takdröl is filled with the appropriate text on ‘liberation on wearing’, to which Ngak’chang Rinpoche refers above. Then at a later occasion Ngak’chang Rinpoche told him that he should now wear the takdröl whenever he wore robes. Since the takdröl embodies the intimate relationship with one’s Lama, one should never be separate from it. It should always be kept about one’s person, whether one is in robes or in other forms of clothing; or at the very least in the same room.