“Homage to the Great Lotsawa, Dharmamatye Master of all reality, union of emptiness and compassion Great Bliss Vajra Joy [Hevajra] of the three secrets, who Manifested directly as a great translator Inseparable from the all-pervading sign of Padma , I bow down! ན་མོ་གུ་རུ་མ་ཧཱ་ལོཙཱ་དྷ་རྨ་མ་ཏྱཻ། སྟོང་ཉིད་སྙིང་རྗེ་ཟུང་འཇུག་དངོས་ཀུན་བདག། བདེ་ཆེན་དགྱེས་པ་རྡོ་རྗེའི་གསང་བ་གསུམ། དངོས་སུ་སྣང་བ་ལོཙཱ་ཆེན་པོ་དང་། དཡེར་མེད་ཁྱབ་བདག་པདྨའི་མཚན་ལ་འདུད།” –Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye, Marpa Guru Yoga (tr. A.… Continue reading THE MEANING OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS (SIDDHIS) IN BUDDHISM: Full moon double anniversaries of Fifteen Miraculous Displays of Power (siddhis) of Shakyamuni Buddha (Cho-trul Duchen) and commemoration of the great Tibetan Marpa the Translator, explanation of the difference between ordinary siddhis/powers and the supreme one of full awakening
Tag: Marpa Chokyi Lodro
MARPA GURU YOGA AND PRAISES
"Blazing with bravery, like a great lion soaring through space,Turquoise mane of thousands of oral instructions on the tantras’ meaning,Bellowing laughter that stirs the ‘earth’ of the whispered lineage,Remembering again the supreme translator.སེང་ཆེན་མཁའ་ལ་འཕྱོ་འདྲའི་སྙིང་སྟོབས་འབར༎རྒྱུད་དོན་མན་ངག་འབུམ་གྱིས་གཡུ་རལ་གསིག༎སྙན་བརྒྱུད་ས་གཞི་གཡོ་བའི་གད་རྒྱངས་ཅན༎སྐྱེས་མཆོག་སྒྲ་བསྒྱུར་རྒྱལ་སླར་ཡང་དྲན༎། --17th Karmapa's Praise to Marpa With great courage, you travelled many times to the noble land.With great wisdom, you mentally captured all… Continue reading MARPA GURU YOGA AND PRAISES
HEVAJRA, MARPA LOTSAWA AND THE ‘GOLDEN TEACHINGS’ OF KAGYU TANTRA: Marpa the Translator and student Ngog, the Seven Ngog Mandalas, the Hevajra mandala, and Jamgon Kongtrul’s preservation of them in ‘Treasury of Kagyu Mantras’ and teaching by 17th Karmapa
"The lineage is not renownedYet it possesses the Dharma vision of ḍākinīs.The forefather is not renownedYet Tilopa is the innate face of Buddha.The guru is not renownedYet he possesses the Dharma vision of Nāropa.I, myself, am not renownedYet I am the heart son of Nāropa.The pith instructions are not renownedYet they are three wish-fulfilling gems.The… Continue reading HEVAJRA, MARPA LOTSAWA AND THE ‘GOLDEN TEACHINGS’ OF KAGYU TANTRA: Marpa the Translator and student Ngog, the Seven Ngog Mandalas, the Hevajra mandala, and Jamgon Kongtrul’s preservation of them in ‘Treasury of Kagyu Mantras’ and teaching by 17th Karmapa
HEARING ‘HER-STORY'(II): DAGMEMA. Marpa’s Wife and Milarepa’s confidante, friend and teacher, her life, textual sources, visual depictions and new translation of Praise to Marpa by 17th Karmapa
"I have decided that you are a bad person for [forcing Milarepa to do] the meaningless work [of building] a fort. Please hold the great magician with compassion and [teach] the Dharma." --Dagmema to Marpa "Marpa said, ”Great Magician, show me your back.” When he had finished examining it carefully, he said, ”My Master Naropa… Continue reading HEARING ‘HER-STORY'(II): DAGMEMA. Marpa’s Wife and Milarepa’s confidante, friend and teacher, her life, textual sources, visual depictions and new translation of Praise to Marpa by 17th Karmapa
THE EIGHT MAIN HEVAJRA LINEAGES AND ‘INNATE’ HEVAJRA OF SHANTIPA: Lineages, Texts and 2021 Teaching and Empowerment by 8th Garchen Rinpoche
"Jigten Sumgon also said that the highest practitioner (or disciple) sees the guru as the dharmakāya; the average disciple, a medium capacity disciple sees the guru as sambhogakāya; and the lowest practitioner sees the guru as nirmanakāya."--8th Garchen Rinpoche For the new moon (and Indian festival of light, Diwali) today, am happy to offer… Continue reading THE EIGHT MAIN HEVAJRA LINEAGES AND ‘INNATE’ HEVAJRA OF SHANTIPA: Lineages, Texts and 2021 Teaching and Empowerment by 8th Garchen Rinpoche
THE ‘FOUR FLOWING DESCENTS’ SOURCE OF KAGYU: MARPA’S SONG ON THE FOUR TRANSMISSIONS. 16th Karmapa’s 40th Paranirvana (Part II).
Even though the sacred oral instructions can become extremely milky nectar flowing down,Without the blessings of lineage, they are the same as a ‘hot spring’.གསུངས་པ་གདམས་པ་བདུད་རྩི་ཤིན་ཏུ་འོ་མ་མར་མང་གྱུར་ཀྱང། ་བྱིན་རླབས་བརྒྱུད་པ་མེད་ན་བཀོད་མའི་ཆུ་དང་མཚུངས། ---Marpa in his introduction to the Oral Descents of the Blessings Lineage[1] That called ‘Kagyu’ is no different from the previous teachings of the Perfect Bhagavan Buddha’s oral transmission,… Continue reading THE ‘FOUR FLOWING DESCENTS’ SOURCE OF KAGYU: MARPA’S SONG ON THE FOUR TRANSMISSIONS. 16th Karmapa’s 40th Paranirvana (Part II).
REVIVING MARPA THE TRANSLATOR’S LINEAGE AND LEGACY: Hevajra Tantra, Marpa-Ngog Lineage, Six Bone Ornaments of Nāropa, Editions and contents of Marpa’s Collected Works and Drikung Kagyu
“The lineage is not renownedYet it possesses the Dharma vision of ḍākinīs.The forefather is not renownedYet Tilopa is the innate face of Buddha.The guru is not renownedYet he possesses the Dharma vision of Nāropa.I, myself, am not renownedYet I am the heart son of Nāropa.The pith instructions are not renownedYet they are three wish-fulfilling gems.The… Continue reading REVIVING MARPA THE TRANSLATOR’S LINEAGE AND LEGACY: Hevajra Tantra, Marpa-Ngog Lineage, Six Bone Ornaments of Nāropa, Editions and contents of Marpa’s Collected Works and Drikung Kagyu
‘GOLDEN TEACHINGS’ OF KAGYU TANTRA: Marpa the Translator and student Ngog, the Seven Ngog Mandalas, Thirteen Tantras of Marpa, Kongtrul’s ‘Treasury of Kagyu Mantras’, 17th Karmapa’s birthday teaching and Drikung Kagyu ‘Mar-Ngog’ activities
བཅས་པའི་སྐོར་འདི་༣་གནང་གསུང་༔སྤོང་ཐག་ལན་༣་བྱས་པས་ཆོས་སྐོར་༣་ལས་མ་གནང་༔བླ་མ་ལ་ཆོས་ཡོད་པ་ལ་ཡིན་ཏེ་༔ང་རང་ནོར་གྱིས་དེ་ལས་མ་འདངས་གསུང༔ “I made three great surrenders, but did not receive more than three cycles of teachings–not because the master did not have teachings but because my wealth was not enough."--Ngog Choku Dorje on Marpa (Ducher, 2017:388) མར་པ་ལོ་ཙྰའི་བ་བརྒྱུད་ལ།In this lineage of Marpa Lotsawa,གཏམ་སྙན་མང་པོའི་འོང་སྒོ་ཡོད།Many good tidings will arrive at the door.མི་ལ་རས་པའི་སྙིང་རུས་ལ།In the hard-core determination of Milarepaསངས་རྒྱས་བསྟན་པའི་སྲོག་ཤིང་ཡོད། །Is the… Continue reading ‘GOLDEN TEACHINGS’ OF KAGYU TANTRA: Marpa the Translator and student Ngog, the Seven Ngog Mandalas, Thirteen Tantras of Marpa, Kongtrul’s ‘Treasury of Kagyu Mantras’, 17th Karmapa’s birthday teaching and Drikung Kagyu ‘Mar-Ngog’ activities
Anniversary of Marpa Lotsāwa: Jamgon Kongtrul’s Praise in ‘Marpa’s Guru Yoga’
Fifteen Days of Miracles Today is Chotrul Duchen (Great Day of Miraculous Manifestations), the 15th full moon day of the 1st lunar month. It is celebrated, in particular, by Tibetan Buddhists as the final day of the fifteen days of miracles, that commence on the 1st day of the new lunar year. These days celebrate… Continue reading Anniversary of Marpa Lotsāwa: Jamgon Kongtrul’s Praise in ‘Marpa’s Guru Yoga’
A ‘Kagyu Treasure’ Tradition? Marpa’s Fifteen ‘Hidden Scrolls’ from Sekhar
Recently, I have been delving into the history and works of the Karmapas and their connection to the great treasure-revealers of the Treasure tradition, such as Chogyur Lingpa and Zilnon Namkhe Dorje. It is often incorrectly assumed that treasures and their revelation are only a part of the Nyingma lineage, yet as has been shown… Continue reading A ‘Kagyu Treasure’ Tradition? Marpa’s Fifteen ‘Hidden Scrolls’ from Sekhar