Jigme Lingpa

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Jigme Lingpa.

Jigme Lingpa (T. 'jigs med gling pa འཇིགས་མེད་གླིང་པ་) (1730-1798).[1] A Tibetan scholar-yogi, renowned as one of the premier treasure revealers (terton) in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. He is regarded as a great visionary, who discovered the Longchen Nyingtik cycle of teachings and practice through a series of visions from the great fourteenth century master Longchenpa.

He is the author of the Yönten Dzö ("Treasury of Precious Qualities"), a comprehensive explanation of the tenets of the Buddhist path according to the Nyingma school.

He also published the compilation of Nyingma tantras known as the Nyingma Gyübum, and composed a catalogue to accompany it.

He is also known as ‘Khyentse Özer’, ‘Rays of Compassion and Wisdom’.

Revelation of the Longchen Nyingtik

File:Jigme Lingpa.jpg
Jigme Lingpa statue, Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art [1]

According to traditional accounts, Jikme Lingpa discovered the Longchen Nyingtik cycle of teachings as "mind ter" at the age of twenty-eight.

Tulku Thondup writes:

In the evening of the twenty-fifth day of the tenth month of the Fire Ox year of the thirteenth Rabjung cycle (1757), Jikme Lingpa went to bed with an unbearable devotion to Guru Rinpoche in his heart; a stream of tears of sadness continuously wet his face because he was not in Guru Rinpoche’s presence, and unceasing words of prayers kept singing in his breath.
He remained in the depths of that meditation experience of clear luminosity for a long time. While being absorbed in that luminous clarity, he experienced flying a long distance through the sky while riding a white lion. He finally reached a circular path, which he thought to be the circumambulation path of Jarung Khashor, now known as Boudhanath Stupa, an important Buddhist monument of giant structure in Nepal.[2]

In this vision, the wisdom dakinis gave Jikme Lingpa a casket containing five yellow scrolls and seven crystal beads. One of the scrolls contained the prophetic guide of Longchen Nyingtik, called Nechang Thukkyi Drombu. At the instruction of a dakini, he ate the yellow scrolls and crystal beads, and all the words and meaning of the Longchen Nyingtik terma were awakened in his mind.

According to traditional accounts, Jikme Lingpa kept the teachings secret for years, before revealing them to a small group of students.[2][3]

Writings

Collected works

Jigme Lingpa produced nine volumes of written teachings and discovered terma texts.[4] For a description of the nine volumes, see:

Selected texts

Jigme Lingpa's writings include the following works which have been translated into English:

Various shorter texts

Lotsawa House publishes translations of a variety of Jigme Lingpa's shorter texts, including prayers, practice texts, practice instructions, etc.

Students

File:80185.jigme lingpa.jpg
Jigme Lingpa

Jikme Lingpa's foremost disciples were known as the 'Four Jikmes'. They were

  1. Dodrupchen Jikme Trinle Özer
  2. Jikme Gyalwe Nyugu
  3. Jikme Ngotsar
  4. Jikme Kundrol Namgyal (Lopön Jikme Küntröl)

Incarnations

In his biography of Patrul Rinpoche, Khenpo Kunpal states that Jikme Lingpa had three incarnations:

Alternative names

  • Dzogchenpa Rangjung Dorjé (Wyl. rdzogs chen pa rang byung rdo rje)

Videos

Vimeo

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Selected videos:

Youtube

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Selected videos:

Notes

  1. ↑ Alternate transliteration: Jikme Lingpa
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Tulku Thondup 1999, Chapter 11. Rigdzin Jigme Lingpa.
  3. ↑ Tulku Thondup 1994
  4. ↑ Tulku Thondup 1999, Chapter 11. Rigdzin Jigme Lingpa, p. 133.
  5. ↑ Dahl 2018, Introduction.
  6. ↑ Longchen_Nyingtik#Preliminary_Practice_Instructions, Rangjung Yeshe Wiki

Sources

  • Dahl, Cortland (2018), Steps to the Great Perfection: The Mind-Training Tradition of the Dzogchen Masters, Shambhala 
  • Tulku Thondup (1999), Masters of Meditation and Miracles, Boston: Shambhala 
  • Tulku Thondup (1994), Hidden Teachings of Tibet, An Explanation of the Terma Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, Wisdom Publications

Further reading

Print publications

  • Dudjom Rinpoche, The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism, Its Fundamentals and History, trans. and ed. Gyurme Dorje (Boston: Wisdom, 1991), vol.1 pp.835-840
  • Janet Gyatso, Apparitions of the Self, Princeton: University of Princeton Press, 1998
  • Michael Aris, 'Jigs-Med-Gling-Pa's Discourse on India of 1789: A Critical Edition and Annotated Translation of the Lho-Phyogs Rgya-Gar-Gyi Gtam Brtag-Pa Brgyad-Kyi Me-Long', The International Institute for Buddhist Studies of ICABS, 1995
  • Nyoshul Khenpo, A Marvelous Garland of Rare Gems: Biographies of Masters of Awareness in the Dzogchen Lineage, Padma Publications, 2005
  • Sam van Schaik, Approaching the Great Perfection: Simultaneous and Gradual Methods of Dzogchen Practice in the Longchen Nyingtig, Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2003
  • Sam van Schaik, 'Sun and Moon Earrings: the Teachings Received by ‘Jigs med gling pa' in The Tibet Journal 25.4 (2000): 3–32. Also available online here
  • Schaeffer, Kurtis. "Notes from the Cave: 'Jigs med gling pa on Buddha-Nature." Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 37:04. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x32COWVlJ38.
  • Steven D. Goodman, 'Rig-'dzin Jigs-med gling-pa and the kLong-Chen sNying-Thig' in Tibetan Buddhism: Reason and Revelation edited by Steven D Goodman and Ronald M. Davidson, SUNY, 1992
  • Tulku Thondup, Masters of Meditation and Miracles, Boston: Shambhala, 1996, pp.118-135

Web publications

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