Samding Dorje Phagmo
64-517: Longchen Rabjam Drimé Özer ( Tibetan : ཀློང་ཆེན་རབ་འབྱམས་པ་དྲི་མེད་འོད་ཟེར། , Wylie : klong chen rab 'byams pa dri med 'od zer ), commonly abbreviated to Longchenpa (1308–1364, an honorific meaning "The One Who Is the Vast Cosmic Expanse") was a Tibetan scholar-yogi of the Nyingma school ('Old School') of Tibetan Buddhism . According to tibetologist David Germano , Longchenpa's work led to
128-661: A daughter and a son. He also founded a series of small monasteries in Bhutan, including Tharpa Ling , his main residence. Longchenpa's lineage survives in Bhutan. After living in Tharpa Ling for 10 years, he returned to Tibet and was reconciled with Changchub Gyaltsen, who even became Longchenpa's student. Longchenpa's writings and compilations were highly influential, especially on the Nyingma tradition. According to Germano, Longchenpa's work: had an immediate impact, and in subsequent centuries
192-526: A group of eight disciples (men and women) in order to initiate them into the Dzogchen teachings (in 1340). During this initial period of teaching, Longchenpa and his disciples experienced a series of visions of dakinis and states of possession (the possessions only happened to the women of the group) which convinced him and his disciples that Longchenpa was destined to teach the Dzogchen Nyingthig tradition of
256-493: A major innovation in and of themselves. A detailed account of Longchenpa's life and teachings is found in Buddha Mind by Tulku Thondup Rinpoche and in A Marvelous Garland of Rare Gems by Nyoshul Khenpo . Pema Lingpa , the famous terton (finder of sacred texts) of Bhutan, is regarded as the immediate reincarnation of Longchenpa. Longchenpa is widely considered the single most important writer on Dzogchen teachings. He
320-494: A result, in all modern Tibetan dialects and in particular in the Standard Tibetan of Lhasa , there is a great divergence between current spelling, which still reflects the 9th-century spoken Tibetan, and current pronunciation. This divergence is the basis of an argument in favour of spelling reform , to write Tibetan as it is pronounced ; for example, writing Kagyu instead of Bka'-rgyud . The nomadic Amdo Tibetan and
384-781: A vision of Vimalamitra which asked him to restore the temple of Zhai Lhakhang (where the Seventeen Tantras had been concealed by Nyang Tingdzin Zangpo). In the process of this work, Longchenpa took on a Drikung Kagyu student named Kunga Rinchen. Kunga Rinchen had political designs and came into conflict with the powerful Changchub Gyaltsen, who had the support of the Mongol Authorities in Beijing and attacked Kunga Rinchen's monastery. Longchenpa fled to Bumthang , Bhutan to avoid conflict. Here he relinquished his monastic vows, married and had
448-673: A young girl who promised to watch over him and grant him blessings. Afterwards, Longchenpa met his main teacher, the Ngagpa Rigdzin Kumaradza (1266-1343), from whom he received Dzogchen teachings while traveling from valley to valley with a nomadic group of about seventy students. It is said Longchenpa lived in great poverty during this period, sleeping on a sack and eating only barley. Longchenpa accompanied Kumaradza and his disciples for two years, during which time he received all of Rigdzin Kumaradza's transmissions (mainly focusing on
512-559: Is a segmental writing system, or abugida , derived from Brahmic scripts and Gupta script , and used to write certain Tibetic languages , including Tibetan , Dzongkha , Sikkimese , Ladakhi , Jirel and Balti . It was originally developed c. 620 by Tibetan minister Thonmi Sambhota for King Songtsen Gampo . The Tibetan script has also been used for some non-Tibetic languages in close cultural contact with Tibet, such as Thakali , Nepali and Old Turkic . The printed form
576-576: Is called uchen script while the hand-written cursive form used in everyday writing is called umê script . This writing system is used across the Himalayas and Tibet . The script is closely linked to a broad ethnic Tibetan identity, spanning across areas in India , Nepal , Bhutan and Tibet. The Tibetan script is of Brahmic origin from the Gupta script and is ancestral to scripts such as Lepcha , Marchen and
640-634: Is designed as a simple means for inputting Dzongkha text on computers. This keyboard layout was standardized by the Dzongkha Development Commission (DDC) and the Department of Information Technology (DIT) of the Royal Government of Bhutan in 2000. It was updated in 2009 to accommodate additional characters added to the Unicode & ISO 10646 standards since the initial version. Since
704-633: Is in the middle of the consonant and vowel, it is added as a subscript. On the other hand, when the ར /ra/ comes before the consonant and vowel, it is added as a superscript. ར /ra/ actually changes form when it is above most other consonants, thus རྐ rka. However, an exception to this is the cluster རྙ /ɲa/. Similarly, the consonants ར /ra/, and ཡ /ja/ change form when they are beneath other consonants, thus ཀྲ /ʈ ~ ʈʂa/; ཀྱ /ca/. Besides being written as subscripts and superscripts, some consonants can also be placed in prescript, postscript, or post-postscript positions. For instance,
SECTION 10
#1732854967125768-513: Is one of the two "seminal heart" ( Tibetan : སྙིང་ཐིག , Wylie : snying thig ) collections of the menngagde cycle Dzogchen, the other one being "Seminal Heart of the Dakini" ( mkha' 'gro snying thig ). Traditionally the teachings are ascribed to Vimalamitra , but they were codified and collated by their Tibetan discoverers in the 11th and 12th century. The main discoverer of the Vima Nyingthig
832-528: Is simply read as it usually is and has no effect on the pronunciation of the consonant to which it is subjoined, for example ཀ་ཝ་ཟུར་ཀྭ (IPA: /ka.wa.suː.ka/). The vowels used in the alphabet are ཨ /a/, ཨི /i/, ཨུ /u/, ཨེ /e/, and ཨོ /o/. While the vowel /a/ is included in each consonant, the other vowels are indicated by marks; thus ཀ /ka/, ཀི /ki/, ཀུ /ku/, ཀེ /ke/, ཀོ /ko/. The vowels ཨི /i/, ཨེ /e/, and ཨོ /o/ are placed above consonants as diacritics, while
896-610: Is solely for the consonants ད /tʰa/ and ས /sa/. The head ( མགོ in Tibetan, Wylie: mgo ) letter, or superscript, position above a radical is reserved for the consonants ར /ra/, ལ /la/, and ས /sa/. The subscript position under a radical can only be occupied by the consonants ཡ /ja/, ར /ra/, ལ /la/, and ཝ /wa/. In this position they are described as བཏགས (Wylie: btags , IPA: /taʔ/), in Tibetan meaning "hung on/affixed/appended", for example བ་ཡ་བཏགས་བྱ (IPA: /pʰa.ja.taʔ.t͡ʃʰa/), except for ཝ , which
960-638: Is sometimes referred to by the honorary title "Second Buddha" (Tib. rgyal ba gnyis), a term usually reserved for Guru Padmasambhava and indicative of the high regard in which he and his teachings are held. Like the Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje , Rongzompa and Jigme Lingpa , he carried the title "Kunkhyen" (Tibetan; "All-Knowing"). Various forms and spellings of Longchenpa's full name(s), in which Longchen means "great expanse", "vast space", and Rab 'byams "cosmic", "vast", "extensive", "infinite". Tibetan script The Tibetan script
1024-789: The Kun byed rgyal po , (ii) The Seventeen Tantras of the Great Perfection (including two closely affiliated tantras—the kLong gsal and Thig le kun gsal ) (iii) the Seminal Heart system of Vimalamitra ( Bi ma snying thig ) and (iv) the Seminal Heart system of the Dakini ( mKha' 'gro snying thig )." Longchenpa's Dzogchen philosophy is based on the Dzogchen view outlined in these tantric texts. This worldview sees all phenomena ( dharmas , Tib. chos) as
1088-604: The Nyingthig Yabshi (The Inner Essence in Four Parts). Longchenpa was also a terton (treasure revealer) and some of his works, like the Khadro Yangtig, are considered terma (revealed treasure texts). Longchenpa's oeuvre (of over 270 texts) encapsulates the core of Nyingma thought and praxis and is a critical link between the school's exoteric (or sutra) and esoteric (i.e. tantric) teachings. Longchenpa's work also unified
1152-597: The Vima Nyingthig and the Khandro Nyingthig ) . Longchenpa was permitted to teach after a three-year period of retreat (1336-1338) in mChims phu, not far from Samye (according to the mThong snang ’od kyi dra ba , other sources give longer periods like six years). He is said to have had various visions of different deities, including Padmasambhava, black Vajravārāhī, Guru drag po, and the goddess Adamantine Turquoise Lamp ( rDo rje gyu sgron ma ) Longchenpa then gathered
1216-464: The Esoteric Instruction series. Longchenpa also embarked on a project of compiling the main texts of the Vima Nyingthig and the Khandro Nyingthig along with a series of his own commentaries on these works. Most of Longchenpa's mature life was spent in his hermitage at Gangri Thokar, either in meditation retreat or studying and composing texts. In 1350, at the age of 42, Longchenpa had
1280-574: The Kadam monastic college of Sangpu Neutok , the most esteemed center of learning in Tibet at the time. He stayed for six years at Sangpu, mastering the entire scholastic curriculum of logical-epistemology , yogacara and madhyamaka as well as poetics. During this period, Longchenpa also received teachings and transmissions from different Tibetan Buddhist traditions, including Kadam, Sakya , Kagyu and Nyingma . Longchenpa studied under various teachers, including
1344-708: The Khandro Yangtik respectively) . Longchenpa also composed a supplementary commentary to the Nyingthig Yabshi , called the Zabmo Yangtig. According to Germano, Longchenpa's compilation "brought much needed order and organizational clarity to the at times chaotic mass of the Vimalamitra-transmitted Seminal Heart scriptures inherited from Kumaradza." Some of his other important original compositions include: 1. 2. 3. 4. 6. 7. 1. 2. 3. Apart from Longchenpa's names given below, he
SECTION 20
#17328549671251408-880: The Latin script . Multiple Romanization and transliteration systems have been created in recent years, but do not fully represent the true phonetic sound. While the Wylie transliteration system is widely used to Romanize Standard Tibetan , others include the Library of Congress system and the IPA-based transliteration (Jacques 2012). Below is a table with Tibetan letters and different Romanization and transliteration system for each letter, listed below systems are: Wylie transliteration (W), Tibetan pinyin (TP), Dzongkha phonetic (DP), ALA-LC Romanization (A) and THL Simplified Phonetic Transcription (THL). The first version of Microsoft Windows to support
1472-515: The Pabonka Hermitage . This occurred c. 620 , towards the beginning of the king's reign. There were 21 Sutra texts held by the King which were afterward translated. In the first half of the 7th century, the Tibetan script was used for the codification of these sacred Buddhist texts, for written civil laws, and for a Tibetan Constitution. A contemporary academic suggests that the script
1536-744: The Tekchok Dzö together constitute Longchenpa's primary scholastic work on the Dzogchen tradition. Longchenpa compiled various Dzogchen Menngagde scriptures (including the Seventeen Tantras ) into the collection known as the Nyingthig Yabshi ( The Inner Essence in Four Parts ). In this compilation, Longchenpa combines his editions of the Vima Nyingtig and the Khandro Nyingthig, along with his own commentaries on these cycles (the Lama Yangtik and
1600-602: The Vidyadhara " ( Tibetan : རིག་འཛིན་གྱི་འདས་རྗེས , Wylie : rig 'dzin gyi 'das-rjes ) are found in the Vima Nyingtik. These are the last testaments of the early vidyadharas: Garab Dorje , Mañjuśrīmitra , Sri Singha and Jnanasutra . These testaments are post-humous as they were delivered by the vidhyadhara to their senior disciple from within a thigle of the Five Pure Lights in their rainbow body . In this tradition,
1664-422: The "lower vehicles" cannot be fully understood or justified (just like one cannot see the entirety of a mountain unless one is at the top). In his Theg mchog mdzod , Longchenpa also provides an extensive doxography of Buddhism (based on the nine yanas ) in order to explain why Dzogchen (i.e. Atiyoga) deserves the highest rank in this doxography. Longchenpa's understanding of the relationship between Dzogchen and
1728-517: The Essential Points" or "The Three Vajra Verses" ( Tibetan : ཚིག་གསུམ་གནད་དུ་བརྡེག་པ , Wylie : tshig gsum gnad du brdeg pa ) "The Six Meditation Experiences" ( Tibetan : སྒོམ་ཉམས་དྲུག་པ , Wylie : sgom nyams drug pa ) "The Seven Nails" ( Tibetan : གཟེར་བུ་བདུན་པ , Wylie : gzer bu bdun pa ) "The Four Methods of Establishing Absorption" ( Tibetan : བཞགས་ཐབས་བཞི་པ , Wylie : bzhags thabs bzhi pa ) Scheidegger (2009: p. 43) in
1792-510: The Indian subcontinent state that the classical orthography should not be altered even when used for lay purposes. This became an obstacle for many modern Tibetic languages wishing to modernize or to introduce a written tradition. Amdo Tibetan was one of a few examples where Buddhist practitioners initiated a spelling reform. A spelling reform of the Ladakhi language was controversial in part because it
1856-720: The Tibetan keyboard layout is MS Windows Vista . The layout has been available in Linux since September 2007. In Ubuntu 12.04, one can install Tibetan language support through Dash / Language Support / Install/Remove Languages, the input method can be turned on from Dash / Keyboard Layout, adding Tibetan keyboard layout. The layout applies the similar layout as in Microsoft Windows. Mac OS -X introduced Tibetan Unicode support with OS-X version 10.5 and later, now with three different keyboard layouts available: Tibetan-Wylie, Tibetan QWERTY and Tibetan-Otani. The Dzongkha keyboard layout scheme
1920-410: The Tibetan script is that the consonants can be written either as radicals or they can be written in other forms, such as subscript and superscript forming consonant clusters . To understand how this works, one can look at the radical ཀ /ka/ and see what happens when it becomes ཀྲ /kra/ or རྐ /rka/ (pronounced /ka/). In both cases, the symbol for ཀ /ka/ is used, but when the ར /ra/
1984-401: The Tibetan script it is /a/. The letter ཨ is also the base for dependent vowel marks. Although some Tibetan dialects are tonal , the language had no tone at the time of the script's invention, and there are no dedicated symbols for tone. However, since tones developed from segmental features, they can usually be correctly predicted by the archaic spelling of Tibetan words. One aspect of
Longchenpa - Misplaced Pages Continue
2048-500: The arrangement of keys essentially follows the usual order of the Dzongkha and Tibetan alphabet, the layout can be quickly learned by anyone familiar with this alphabet. Subjoined (combining) consonants are entered using the Shift key. The Dzongkha (dz) keyboard layout is included in Microsoft Windows, Android, and most distributions of Linux as part of XFree86 . Tibetan was originally one of
2112-407: The basic Tibetan alphabet to represent different sounds. In addition to the use of supplementary graphemes, the rules for constructing consonant clusters are amended, allowing any character to occupy the superscript or subscript position, negating the need for the prescript and postscript positions. Romanization and transliteration of the Tibetan script is the representation of the Tibetan script in
2176-415: The c. 620 date of development of the original Tibetan script. Three orthographic standardisations were developed. The most important, an official orthography aimed to facilitate the translation of Buddhist scriptures emerged during the early 9th century. Standard orthography has not been altered since then, while the spoken language has changed by, for example, losing complex consonant clusters . As
2240-548: The central channel. Longchenpa sees these techniques are inferior, because they are strenuous and forceful and may lead to delusory appearances. Longchenpa contrasts these tantric techniques with those of Dzogchen in which "the winds are left to naturally calm down of their own accord, there is no insertion into the central channel." Germano describes Longchenpa's view on this topic as follows: In his Grub mtha' mdzod kLong chen rab 'byams pa also incisively criticizes these normative modernist tantric practices of forcefully inserting
2304-418: The consonants ག /kʰa/, ད /tʰa/, བ /pʰa/, མ /ma/ and འ /a/ can be used in the prescript position to the left of other radicals, while the position after a radical (the postscript position), can be held by the ten consonants ག /kʰa/, ན /na/, བ /pʰa/, ད /tʰa/, མ /ma/, འ /a/, ར /ra/, ང /ŋa/, ས /sa/, and ལ /la/. The third position, the post-postscript position
2368-415: The definitive expression of the Great Perfection with its precise terminological distinctions, systematic scope, and integration with the normative Buddhist scholasticism that became dominant in Tibet during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries." Longchenpa is known for his voluminous writings, including the highly influential Seven Treasuries and his compilation of Dzogchen scripture and commentaries,
2432-513: The dominance of the Longchen Nyingthig lineage of Dzogchen (Great Perfection) over the other Dzogchen traditions. He is also responsible for the scholastic systematization of Dzogchen thought within the context of the wider Tibetan Vajrayana tradition of philosophy which was highly developed at the time among the Sarma schools. Germano also notes that Longchenpa's work is "generally taken to be
2496-494: The emanations or expressions ( rtsal ), displays ( rol pa ), and adornments ( rgyan ) of an ultimate nature or principle ( Dharmatā , Tib. chos nyid, or Dharmadhātu , Tib. chos kyi dbyings ) This ultimate principle is described in various ways by Longchenpa, using terminology that is unique to Dzogchen, such as the basis or ground ( ghzi ) or the "nature of mind" ( sems nyid ). Longchenpa describes this fundamental basis as being primordially pure and empty while also having
2560-474: The emphasis on the body's center and light-experiences, yet undercuts the tone of control and manipulation. Longchenpa wrote over 270 works according to Tulku Thondup. The Seven Treasuries ( mdzod bdun ), which elucidate the meaning of the Nyingma school's worldview and Dzogchen, are his most influential and famous original treatises. The Seven Treasuries are: According to Germano, the Tsik Dön Dzö and
2624-405: The energy winds into the central channel in the attempt to achieve primordial gnosis . He contrasts this to Great Perfection contemplation in which the body's luminous channels are let be, and thus naturally expand outwards from their current presence as a thin thread of light at the body's center, so as to directly permeate one's entire existence and dissolve all energy blockages therein. He retains
Longchenpa - Misplaced Pages Continue
2688-528: The famous Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje (1284-1339), from whom he received the six yogas of the Kālacakra and the six dharmas of Nāropa . Longchenpa left Sangpu to practice in the solitude of the mountains, after coming into conflict with certain Khampa scholars. After leaving Sangpu, Longchenpa entered a period of retreat for eight months in complete darkness (winter 1332–1333), where he had some important visions of
2752-540: The importance of the practice of the "four ways of resting" in the nature of awareness ( cog gzhag bzhi ) and the "three samadhis" ( ting nge 'dzin gsum ), offering also detailed explanations for their practice. In the foreword to the book The Meditations of Longchen Rabjam , Thrangu Rinpoche explicitly notes: One of the most renowned presentations of Dzogchen is given in Longchen Rabjam’s Chöying Dzöd . This text gives clear instructions on how to develop
2816-400: The lower vehicles is inclusive, and he sees Dzogchen as embracing all of the eight vehicles while also sublimating and transcending them. Longchenpa categorized Dzogchen as a teaching within "secret mantra" ( Vajrayana ), and specifically, he considered it to be part of the perfection stage of secret mantra practice , defining this "great perfection phase" ( rdzogs rim chenpo ), as "resting in
2880-442: The manuscript preserved at Tingkye Gonpa Jang ( Tibetan : གཏིང་སྐྱེས་དགོན་པ་བྱང , Wylie : gting skyes dgon pa byang ) Monastery in Tibet. Rigdzin Kumaradza was a senior disciple of Melong Dorje (1243–1303). Kumaradza studied with the grand master Orgyenpa (1230–1309), who conveyed teachings of "Vimalamitra's Seminal Heart" ( Tibetan : བི་མ་སྙིང་ཐིག་ , Wylie : bi ma snying thig ) upon him. "The Posthumous Teachings of
2944-402: The multilingual ʼPhags-pa script , and is also closely related to Meitei . According to Tibetan historiography, the Tibetan script was developed during the reign of King Songtsen Gampo by his minister Thonmi Sambhota , who was sent to India with 16 other students to study Buddhism along with Sanskrit and written languages. They developed the Tibetan script from the Gupta script while at
3008-411: The nature of a subtle self-arising awareness. This empty and spontaneous primordial glow ( ye gdangs ) is the subtle basis for the arising of all phenomenal appearances. Longchenpa brought Dzogchen thought more closely into dialogue with scholastic Buddhist philosophy and the Sarma tantric systems which were normative in the Tibetan academic institutions of his time. One of Longchenpa's main motivations
3072-422: The practice of Dzogchen merely relies on a pointing out ( sems khrid ) of the mind's nature in an encounter with a teacher. In his Grub mtha' mdzod , Longchenpa describes how Dzogchen transcends the classic tantric generation and perfection stages which for him are based on effort, mental constructs and fixation. For Longchenpa, Dzogchen relies on simple ( spros med ) and more natural methods which are based on
3136-409: The pristine unfabricated enlightening-mind of awareness" (in his bSam gtan ngal gso 80.2). Furthermore, Longchenpa defended the validity of Dzogchen as a stand-alone system of formless and effortless perfection stage practice, which did not require preliminary practice of the generation stage of deity yoga (unlike other tantric systems) nor standard tantric initiation rituals. Instead, for Longchenpa,
3200-632: The protector, Ekajati . The "Seventeen tantras of the esoteric instruction cycle" ( Tibetan : མན་ངག་སྡེའི་རྒྱུད་བཅུ་བདུན , Wylie : man ngag sde'i rgyud bcu bdun ) are supports. These seventeen tantras are to be found in the Nyingma Gyubum ( Tibetan : རྙིང་མ་རྒྱུད་འབུམ , Wylie : rnying ma rgyud 'bum , "Canon of the Ancient School"), volumes 9 and 10, folio numbers 143–159 of the edition edited by Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche, commonly known as Dilgo Khyentse (Thimpu, Bhutan, 1973), reproduced from
3264-554: The recognition of the nature of the mind and the Dzogchen view ( Ita ba ) of reality. Longchenpa also argues that this Dzogchen method is "superior to that of stress-filled actualization involved in ordinary generation and perfection" ( Zab mo yang tig vol. 11, 344.2-6). In the root verses and auto-commentary to his chapter on meditation within The Treasury of the Dharmadhatu ( chos dbyings mdzod ), Longchenpa placed strong emphasis on
SECTION 50
#17328549671253328-930: The scripts in the first version of the Unicode Standard in 1991, in the Unicode block U+1000–U+104F. However, in 1993, in version 1.1, it was removed (the code points it took up would later be used for the Burmese script in version 3.0). The Tibetan script was re-added in July, 1996 with the release of version 2.0. The Unicode block for Tibetan is U+0F00–U+0FFF. It includes letters, digits and various punctuation marks and special symbols used in religious texts: Vima Nyingtik Samding Dorje Phagmo Vima Nyingthig ( Tibetan : བི་མ་སྙིང་ཐིག་ , Wylie : bi ma snying thig ), "Seminal Heart of Vimalamitra", in Tibetan Buddhism
3392-427: The thigle is understood to be comparable to a pure land or mandala . These were first compiled by Vimalamitra in his five series (which consisted of the series of: Golden Letters, Copper Letters, Variegated Letters, Conch Shell Letters and Turquoise Letters). These posthumous teaching belong to the series of the "Golden Letters" ( Tibetan : གསེར་ཡིག་ཅན , Wylie : gser yig can ). "The Three Statement That Strike
3456-455: The various Dzogchen traditions of his time into a single system. Longchenpa is known for his skill as a poet and his works are written in a unique literary voice which was widely admired and imitated by later Nyingma figures. Longchenpa was the abbot of Samye , one of Tibet 's most important monasteries and the first Buddhist monastery established in the Himalayas . However, he spent most of his life travelling or in retreat . Longchen Rabjam
3520-411: The view and practice the meditation of resting in the nature of awareness. Studying and practicing these meditations will be of great benefit to everyone who encounters these instructions. Longchenpa also critiques tantric perfection stage methods (such as the six yogas of Naropa ) which focus on manipulating the winds ( vayu ) in the channels ( nadis ) of the subtle body in order to confine them into
3584-507: The vowel ཨུ /u/ is placed underneath consonants. Old Tibetan included a reversed form of the mark for /i/, the gigu 'verso', of uncertain meaning. There is no distinction between long and short vowels in written Tibetan, except in loanwords , especially transcribed from the Sanskrit . The Tibetan alphabet, when used to write other languages such as Balti , Chinese and Sanskrit , often has additional and/or modified graphemes taken from
3648-572: The western dialects of the Ladakhi language , as well as the Balti language , come very close to the Old Tibetan spellings. Despite that, the grammar of these dialectical varieties has considerably changed. To write the modern varieties according to the orthography and grammar of Classical Tibetan would be similar to writing Italian according to Latin orthography, or to writing Hindi according to Sanskrit orthogrophy. However, modern Buddhist practitioners in
3712-489: Was Zhangtön Tashi Dorjé. The Vima Nyingthig is founded principally on the seventeen tantras and the Troma tantra. It is the teachings both for and of the panditas ( Tibetan : རྒྱ་ཆའེ་བ , Wylie : rgya che ba ), brought to Tibet by Vimalamitra. The Vima Nyingtik itself consists of three sections: The "Troma Tantra" or the "Ngagsung Tromay Tantra" otherwise known as the "Ekajaṭĭ Khros Ma'i rGyud" focuses on rites of
3776-530: Was a prolific author and scholar, as well as a compiler of Dzogchen texts. According to David Germano, Longchenpa's work systematized the Dzogchen tradition and its extensive literature while also providing it with a scholastic and philosophical structure based on the standard doctrinal structures that were becoming dominant in the Tibetan Buddhism of late tenth to thirteenth centuries. According to Germano, Longchenpa's main Dzogchen scriptural sources were: "(i)
3840-648: Was born in 1308 in a village in the Dra Valley in Yuru, U-Tsang . He was born to the Nyingma lama Lopon Tsensung , a descendent of the Rog clan. Longchenpa's mother died when he was nine and his father died two years after. After being orphaned, he entered Samye monastery in 1320 under the Abbot Sonam Rinchen and master Lopon Kunga Ozer. Longchenpa was an avid student with a great capacity for memory. In 1327, Longchenpa moved to
3904-467: Was first initiated by Christian missionaries. In the Tibetan script, the syllables are written from left to right. Syllables are separated by a tsek (་); since many Tibetan words are monosyllabic, this mark often functions almost as a space. Spaces are not used to divide words. The Tibetan alphabet has thirty basic letters, sometimes known as "radicals", for consonants. As in other Indic scripts , each consonant letter assumes an inherent vowel ; in
SECTION 60
#17328549671253968-428: Was instead developed in the second half of the 11th century. New research and writings also suggest that there were one or more Tibetan scripts in use prior to the introduction of the script by Songtsen Gampo and Thonmi Sambhota . The incomplete Dunhuang manuscripts are their key evidence for their hypothesis, while the few discovered and recorded Old Tibetan Annals manuscripts date from 650 and therefore post-date
4032-423: Was to provide a learned defense of Dzogchen thought and practice. Longchenpa's writings also intended to prove the overall superiority of the Dzogchen path over the other eight vehicles of sutra and tantra. His work also posits that this supreme Dzogchen view is not just the pinnacle of Buddhism (which Longchenpa compares the peak of a mountain), but it is in fact a keystone to the entire Buddhist Dharma, without which
4096-490: Was to serve as the explicit model for many Nyingma compositions. In particular, his Seminal Heart writings were intensely philosophical as well as contemplative, and architectonic in nature. Though on the whole their characteristic doctrines and terminology are present in the earlier literature stemming from ICe btsun seng ge dbang phyug onwards, their terminological precision, eloquent style, systematic range and structure, and integration with normative Buddhist discourse constitute
#124875