Differences between Vajravarahi practice in Kagyupa schools

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conebeckham
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Re: Differences between Vajravarahi practice in Kagyupa schools

Post by conebeckham »

I believe you can find Virupa in the lineage histories of Troma Nagmo, Aside from Troma's function in Chod, of course there's a lot of practices relating to her, Dudjom Tersar's being the most well-known and widespread. There are numerous terma lineages, as well, going all the way back to Nyangral Nyima Ozer.
དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།


"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
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Palzang Jangchub
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Re: Differences between Vajravarahi practice in Kagyupa schools

Post by Palzang Jangchub »

Phadampa (d.1117) and Nyang Ral (1124-1192) were roughly contemporary, though they can't have met physically due to the former's death preceding the latter's birth (at least according to Rigpa Wiki's dates). One could argue that since Nyang Ral was recovering terma hidden by Guru Rinpoche that those practices predate Phadampa's dispensation, but either way it seems that Tibet wasn't ripe for Tröma until the 12th century.

Here's the relevant quote from Himalayan Art Resources, which does indeed mention Virupa:
Lineage from India: Vajradhara, Jnana Dakini, Virupa, Brahmin Aryadeva, Pha Dampa Sanggye (11th century), etc.
It's really the "etc." bit there that has me curious, along with wanting to know how she's practiced within Kagyu specifically.

The vast majority of info on her is quite naturally from the cycle found in the Dudjom Tersar due to their special emphasis, but I wonder about the differences in mantra and visualization.

The one sadhana I have from the Yangzab terma in Drikung seems to assume some familiarity with her precise implements already...
Image

"The Sutras, Tantras, and Philosophical Scriptures are great in number. However life is short, and intelligence is limited, so it's hard to cover them completely. You may know a lot, but if you don't put it into practice, it's like dying of thirst on the shore of a great lake. Likewise, a common corpse is found in the bed of a great scholar." ~ Karma Chagme

དྲིན་ཆེན་རྩ་བའི་བླ་མ་སྐྱབས་རྗེ་མགར་ཆེན་ཁྲི་སྤྲུལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ཁྱེད་མཁྱེན་ནོ།།
རྗེ་བཙུན་བླ་མ་མཁས་གྲུབ་ཀརྨ་ཆགས་མེད་མཁྱེན་ནོ། ཀརྨ་པ་མཁྱེན་ནོཿ
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Lingpupa
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Re: Differences between Vajravarahi practice in Kagyupa schools

Post by Lingpupa »

I hope this isn't veering too far of the official topic, but since Troma Nakmo has been mentioned, does anyone know anything about the more distant roots of Khandro Thugtig, for whose popularity I think Dudjom Lingpa is again responsible? All I know is that Sera Khandro promoted Khandro Thugtig a lot, but she had her first experiences of Khandro Thugtig before meeting Drime Ozer (Dudjom Lingpa's son and heir, so to speak). The suggestion is that some form of a Khandro Thugtig cycle was in some form of cirulation already - and that's where my knowledge finishes.
All best wishes

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