Karma Lingpa

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Karma Lingpa (kar ma gling pa ཀརྨ་གླིང་པ་) (1326 - 1386). A Tibetan teacher and tertön ("treasure revealer") who revealed the terma cycle known as the Profound Dharma of Self-Liberation through the Intention of the Peaceful and Wrathful Ones (Zab chos zhi khro dgongs pa rang grol).[1] This cycle includes the Bardo Thodol (the so-called Tibetan Book of the Dead).[1][2]

According to tradition, Karma Lingpa was a tulku of Chokro Lü Gyeltsen, a disciple of Padmasambhava.[3]

History

Karma Lingpa was born in southeast Tibet as the eldest son of Nyida Sanggyé (T. nyi zla sangs rgyas), a great Vajrayana practitioner.

Francesca Fremantle states:

Karma Lingpa was a devoted practitioner of the tantras, renowned for his spiritual and supernatural powers, and he evidently became a successful teacher with a large circle of students. He made his discoveries at the early age of fifteen in the mountain Gampodar, which is described as looking like a dancing deity. He brought two great cycles of teachings, as well as many other treasures, from the mountain. Both cycles are concerned with the peaceful and wrathful deities—the expressions of the awakened state whose visions lie at the heart of [the Bardo Thodol].[1]

His revelations included the terma cycle known as the Profound Dharma of Self-Liberation through the Intention of the Peaceful and Wrathful Ones (Zab chos zhi khro dgongs pa rang grol), which includes the two texts of Bardo Thodol, the so-called "Tibetan Book of the Dead".[1][2]

According to Chogyam Trungpa, Karma Lingpa was a Nyingma teacher, but all of his students belonged to the Kagyu school. His teachings were transmitted in the Surmang monasteries of the Trungpa-lineage, and from there also spread to the Nyimgma school.[4]

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Fremantle 2001, Chapter One.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Norbu 1989, p. xii.
  3. ↑ "Chokro Lui Gyaltsen". Rangjung Yeshe Wiki - Dharma Dictionary. Retrieved 2013-11-03. 
  4. ↑ Chogyam Trungpa (2010), The Collected Works of Chogyam Trungpa: Volume Six: Glimpses of Space; Orderly Chaos; Secret Beyond Thought; The Tibetan Book of the Dead: Commentary; Transcending Madness; Selected Writings, p.269

Sources

  • Fremantle, Francesca (2001), Luminous Emptiness: Understanding the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Boston: Shambhala Publications 
  • Norbu, Namkhai (1989), "Foreword", in Reynolds, John Myrdin, Self-liberation through seeing with naked awareness, Station Hill Press, Inc. 

Further reading

Print publications:

  • Reynolds, John Myrdin (1989), Self-Liberation through seeing with naked awareness, Station Hill Press, Inc. 

Web publications:

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