Yanggonpa Gyaltsen Pal

Yanggonpa Gyaltsen Pal (yang dgon pa rgyal mtshan dpal) (1213-1258), also known as Lhadongpa Gyeltsen Pel (lha gdong pa rgyal mtshan dpal), was a great yogin of the Drukpa Kagyu school and one of the foremost disciples of Gyalwa Götsangpa (1189-1258).

After receiving full transmission of the Drukpa teachings from Gotsangpa, Yanggonpa – who was then in his mid-twenties – proceeded to meditate intensively in retreat under his guru's supervision on Shri Mountain, in a retreat cave called Namding (gnam sdings), which would eventually become his favorite and principal retreat location.

It was during this period of intensive, rigorous and solitary retreat that Yanggonpa first took up the practice of the Six Yogas of Naropa, including somatic exercises and the subtle body visualizations. He recounts that, after meditating for eleven months without breaking his vajra posture, he experienced a breakthrough and his "energy became workable." Some time after this intense retreat experience, Yanggonpa returned to his home monastery of Lhadong to practice the stages of vows (sdom rim). At that time, in his mid to late twenties, he reported having actual visionary experience of the subtle body, one that would become the basis for his influential work on tantric anatomy Description of the Hidden Vajra Body (rdo rje lus kyi sbas bshad).^[1]