Dudjom Rinpoche Dorje, Jikdrell Yeshe (1904–1987)

Unique in having received the transmission of all the existing teachings of the Nyingma tradition, Dudjom Rinpoche was especially renowned as a great tertön, whose termas are now widely taught and practiced, and as the leading exponent of Dzogchen. Above all else he was regarded as the living embodiment and regent of Padmasambhava and his representative for this time. Known as the 'master of masters', he was acknowledged by the leading Tibetan teachers of his time as possessing the greatest power and blessing in communicating the nature of mind which is necessary for enlightenment as realized in Dzogchen. It was to him that the great masters sent their students when prepared for this ‘mind-direct’ or mind-to-mind transmission. In fact, Dudjom Rinpoche was the root teacher of many of today's most prominent masters.

He was no less famous as an author and a meticulous scholar. His writings are celebrated for the encyclopedic knowledge they display of all the traditional branches of Buddhist learning, including poetics, history, medicine, astrology and philosophy. A writer of inspirational poetry of compelling beauty, he had a special genius for expressing the meaning and realization of Dzogchen with a crystal-like lucidity.

After establishing Yeshe Nyingpo Dharma Centers in Kalimpong, Nepal, Europe and America, he passed away in 1987 in Dordogne, France, and was enshrined in a stupa in a monastery in Bodhanath, Kathmandu, Nepal.