Patrul Rinpoche has received the transmission from the Minling Dorsem drupchen sadhana in Dzogchen Monastery (Tibet) from Kyabje Drukpa Tulku Rinpoche. 

Ranyak Patrul Rinpoche’s root teacher Kyabje Drukpa Tulku Rinpoche took special care of the Minling Dorsem. In the Dzogchen area when someone dies, after two days they invite ten monks to practice the Minling Dorsem. It brings tremendous benefits to the sick, the dying and the deceased. The Minling Dorsem is not really practiced as a drupchen in Dzogchen Monastery.

However, Ranyak Patrul Rinpoche recognized that it would be important and beneficial to practice it in that form. Drukpa Rinpoche used to say that if ten monks do this Vajrasattva practice on behalf of someone who passed away and accumulate 100,000 Vajrasattva mantras, that person will be 100% liberated. Therefore, this Minling Dorsem sadhana is very important, particularly practiced as an intensive drupchen for seven days. The first Vajrasattva drupchen took place in 2010 in Tbilisi, Georgia and there were wondrous signs. Thereafter, it took place every year in Dharma City, Belgium.

Carried out in accordance with the Minling Dorsem sadhana by Terchen Terdak Lingpa, the Vajrasattva drupchen is the best means of purification of all obstacles, the best antidote for ignorance and sicknesses, and the best path to achieve enlightenment quickly.

One of the organizers of the first Vajrasattva drupchen in Georgia talks about this extraordinary experience:

It was our first drupchen after Rigdzin Düpa in Belgium. I arrived one week before the beginning of the drupchen. Everything still had to be set up. We had planned to do the drupchen in a specific place (the future Dharma Centre in Tbilisi) but there were some obstacles and we had to find another location.

We found a place in the surroundings of the city, which was a former military base. It looked like a dirty playground covered with asphalt and there were ruins of former military buildings. We were just one week before the drupchen-start, nobody could believe that in such a short time we would set up a temple, a kitchen and sanitary facilities. We bought a second hand red-cross tent, some pillars and wood to make a structure covered with plastic tarps. The dining room and sanitary facilities were hastily arranged in tents and temporary cabins.

As we were putting the wooden planks for the floor of the temple the first participants started to arrive. It started to rain continuously, and we had to arrange for evacuating the water from these tents. One night it was raining so hard that the water was almost reaching the altar-mandala. We found no other way to contain it than standing under the tarp like pillars to redirect the water and had to stand there for a very long time. It was very cold at night and the recitation team was sitting with few blankets and just keeping on the recitation. But everyone was very enthusiastic and practicing with great diligence.

Rinpoche said a few times that in former times group of practitioners would do it just like this: set up a place from scratch and destroy it after the end of the practice as if nothing had ever happened in that location. And this was exactly what happened in Tbilisi: when we left there was just an empty playground there, exactly the same as before the drupchen. Rinpoche kept saying that sometimes we need heavy conditions. All participants still have a vivid memory of this particular drupchen and said that they had extraordinary experiences such as the sudden and complete cessation of chronic pain, the mantra resounding continuously in their ears, and so on. The experience of that drupchen was really that of a deep purification and a positive experience of going beyond one’s limits. Miraculously, everything worked out very well and on time.

As soon as the drupchen ended the sky cleared up and there were many rainbows. Because Patrul Rinpoche put so much energy in the preparation and during the drupchen he was completely worn out after the drupchen.

It was also the year of the volcano eruption in Iceland and many people could not depart from Tbilisi. Therefore, many stayed there, and Rinpoche taught the ‘Aspiration of Samantabhadra’, which was an incredible blessing.

The particularity of these drupchens is that Patrul Rinpoche has been the first who, year after year, taught Westerners how to perform all aspects of a drupchen sadhana. Patrul Rinpoche is the Vajra Master, often assisted by Lopön Tsering Gönpo as Vajra Assistant, while his students perform all the necessary tasks to perform the sadhana: chant leader (umze), instruments, ritual service (chopön), setting up the mandala, making tormas, etc.

With the exception of the first drupchen, all Vajrasattva Drupchens have taken place in Dharma City, Belgium.

• Dharma City, Belgium, July 2019
• Dharma City, Belgium, July 2018
• Dharma City, Belgium, July 2017
• Dharma City, Belgium, July 2016
• Dharma City, Belgium, July 2015
• Dharma City, Belgium, July 2014
• Dharma City, Belgium, July 2013
• Dharma City, Belgium, July 2012
• Dharma City, Belgium, June 2011
• Tbilissi, Georgia, April 2010