The Alchemy of the Siddhas

Dudjom Rinpoche

The Alchemy of the Siddhas, naked instructions on how to take to heart and practise the 'Mountain Retreat' teachings, explained in a manner that is easy to understand (Tib. རི་ཆོས་བསླབ་བྱ་ཉམས་ལེན་དམར་ཁྲིད་གོ་བདེར་བརྗོད་པ་གྲུབ་པའི་བཅུད་ལེན།, Wyl. ri chos bslab bya nyams len dmar khrid go bder brjod pa grub pa'i bcud len) — Often known simply as Richö or 'Mountain Dharma', this is a famous text written by Kyabjé Dudjom Rinpoche on how to take to heart and practise the ‘Mountain Retreat’ teachings. Sogyal Rinpoche said that this text is one of the most important guides on how to do retreat and become a true chöpa, or Dharma practitioner.

Tibetan Text

The text is found in Dudjom Rinpoche's Collected Works, vol. 13 (pa) pp. 443-468.

• རི་ཆོས་བསླབ་བྱ་ཉམས་ལེན་དམར་ཁྲིད་གོ་བདེར་བརྗོད་པ་གྲུབ་པའི་བཅུད་ལེན།

Translations

• Kyabjé Dudjom Rinpoche, Richö, Rigpa Publications, 2004
• Ron Garry, Wisdom Nectar: Dudjom Rinpoche's Heart Advice (Ithaca: Snow Lion, 2005), 'Essential Advice for Solitary Meditation Practice', pages 43-59.
• Sangye Khandro, Advice for Mountain Retreat, Light of Berotsana, 2014.
• Alan Wallace, Extracting the Vital Essence of Accomplishment: Concise and Clear Advice for Practice in a Mountain Retreat in Minding Closely: The Four Applications of Mindfulness (Shambhala, 2021), page 347-362.

Further Reading

• Ron Garry, Wisdom Nectar: Dudjom Rinpoche's Heart Advice (Ithaca: Snow Lion, 2005), pages 27-42.

Teachings on The Alchemy of the Siddhas

• Dudjom Rinpoche, Dzogchen Orgyen Chöling, London, 8-11 May 1979
• Sogyal Rinpoche, Tenby, Wales, 19-23 April 1987
• Sogyal Rinpoche, Hasliberg, Switzerland, 28-30 October 1988
• Sogyal Rinpoche, Dzogchen Monastery, India, 9-10 March 1996
• Tulku Pema Rigtsal, Melbourne, Australia, 13 January 2024