Wondrous Dance of Illusion The Autobiography of Khenpo Ngawang Palzang

Khenpo Ngawang Palzang, also known as Khenpo Ngakchung or Khenpo Ngaga, was one of the great masters in the late nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth centuries. He was an extremely influential teacher who taught some of the great lamas of the next generation, including Kyabje Chatral Rinpoche. Khenpo Ngaga was considered a living emanation of Vimalamitra and Longchenpa.

In this autobiography, Khenpo Ngaga tells his life story through memories and reflections in a way that presents the entire Buddhist path, including the renunciation of worldly pursuits, finding and attending to a qualified teacher, engaging in mind training, practicing the preliminaries, studying the sutras and tantras, engaging in the generation and completion stages, and Dzogchen. Throughout he shares stories, visionary experiences, and advice that serve as a model for the reader on the path to emulate. The great Tibetologist Gene Smith considered this autobiography so important that he devoted the first chapter of his seminal study Among Tibetan Texts to it, writing that Khenpo Ngaga’s autobiography is significant as “a treasury of authentic instruction on the essentials of Buddhism and Rdzogs chen meditation.”

Khenpo Ngawang Palzang (1879–1941) was a major teacher and abbot in the Nyingma Lineage of Buddhism in Tibet. He studied for years with a close disciple of Patrul Rinpoche, from whom he received direct instructions on how to study and practice with The Words of My Perfect Teacher.