What about Phagmotrupa?

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passel
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What about Phagmotrupa?

Post by passel »

For a figure that supposedly spawned eight lineages, there seems to be surprisingly little information on him. No bio in English that I’ve come across, he’s rarely quoted in the manuals, tho this direct disciples (Drigingpa, Lingje Repa...) are copiously cited.
What gives? What’s Phagmotrupa’s story?
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Natan
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Re: What about Phagmotrupa?

Post by Natan »

He was a Sakya lama by the time he met Gampopa, already accomplished for the most part. But Gampopa sort of chided him and his deep questions. He redirected him into a pretty dang simple five-fold path Mahamudra. He started having new experiences and developed deep faith in the Kagyu dharma. Then he ran a monastery. His chief disciples were even bigger deal than he was. But his works exist. Drikung Kagyu and others have his texts. He wrote stuff similar to Gongchig. The Kagyu were into verses about verses. And making big hats. Lol. But awesome. The focus is on devotion and practice.
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Re: What about Phagmotrupa?

Post by Könchok Thrinley »

“Observing samaya involves to remain inseparable from the union of wisdom and compassion at all times, to sustain mindfulness, and to put into practice the guru’s instructions”. Garchen Rinpoche

For those who do virtuous actions,
goodness is what comes to pass.
For those who do non-virtuous actions,
that becomes suffering indeed.

- Arya Sanghata Sutra
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kirtu
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Re: What about Phagmotrupa?

Post by kirtu »

passel wrote: Tue Aug 21, 2018 7:32 am No bio in English that I’ve come across, he’s rarely quoted in the manuals, ....
What gives? What’s Phagmotrupa’s story?
There are several (perhaps many?) biographies of Phagmodrupa and at least within Drikung Kagyu he's discussed quite a bit.

From Treasury of Lives Pakmodrupa Dorje Gyelpo
Pakmodrupa Dorje Gyelpo (phag mo gru pa rdo rje rgyal po) was born in 1110 and brought up by poverty stricken parents in the southern Kham. According to some sources his father was named Wena Atar (we na a thar) and his mother was Tsunne (btsun ne). They died when he was a youngster of about seven years. Other sources have them named Tsangpa Peldrak (gtsang pa dpal grags) and Tsangmo Rinchen Gyen (gtsang mo rin chen rgyan). His one younger brother, (or, according to some sources, his cousin) later known by the name Dampa Deshek (dam pa bde gshegs, 1122-1192), would found a very important early Nyingma monastery in Kham called Katok (kaH thog). It is said that before he was three, Pakmodrupa could remember how he was once a monkey during the time of the past Buddha Kashyapa. He forgot about it when his parents fed him tainted meat, but recovered this past-life memory later in life.

When his parents died, Pakmodrupa was placed under the care of his paternal uncle, a monk who also had employment outside his small monastery, Chakhyi Lhakhang (bya khyi lha khang) as a household priest (mchod gnas). This uncle sponsored his noviciate, while he in turn helped his uncle by working on a number of things, such as illustrating manuscripts. He had a natural talent for art and calligraphy, mastered reading and writing with no difficulty. He then acted as a record keeper for the monastery's abbot, Khenpo Tsultrim (mkhan po tshul khrims) for whom he also scribed in silver letters one volume of Prajñāpāramitā.

When Pakmodrupa was about twenty years old, taking with him a few turquoises for financing, he made the very long journey to the central parts of Tibet. There, after his full ordination, at age twenty-five, and following several years of study in various places — at first primarily Kadampa teachers, and later teachers of practically every tantric lineage that then existed — he found a teacher to whom he would devoted about twelve years of his life. This was one of the most renowned early tantric masters of the Sakya school, Sachen Kunga Nyingpo (sa chen kun dga' snying po, 1092-1158). During his time with Sachen he primarily studied and practiced the Lamdre (lam 'bras). He composed a compendium of Lamdre teachings, which still survives, called the Pedzodma (dpe mdzod ma).

He next spent two years with Gampopa Sonam Rinchen (sgam po pa bsod nam rin chen, 1070-1153), a close disciple of Milarepa. At first, when he went to Gampopa's seat, Daklha Gampo (dwags lha sgam po) together with Zhang Yudrakpa Tsondru Drakpa (zhang g.yu brag pa brtson 'grus grags pa, 1123-1193) Gampopa was indisposed and not receiving visitors, so he spent four days carrying earth and stone for building a chorten. As a result, he was able to receive teachings and, under Gampopa he is said to have attained full realization of Mahāmudrā. His years of restlessly seeking spiritual guidance came to a decisive conclusion. Some of Pakmodrupa's dialogs with Gampopa about meditation may still be read today.

.........................
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Natan
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Re: What about Phagmotrupa?

Post by Natan »

Tony Duff has a book called “Gampopa Teaches Mahamudra.” These are conversations between him and his disciples including Phagmodrupa. Really nice.
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Re: What about Phagmotrupa?

Post by kirtu »

More bios : from RigpaWiki
from Drukpa.org
from Phiyang Monastery in Ladakh

There are many references although with the d instead of t transliteration.

Kirt
“Where do atomic bombs come from?”
Zen Master Seung Sahn said, “That’s simple. Atomic bombs come from the mind that likes this and doesn’t like that.”

"Even if you practice only for an hour a day with faith and inspiration, good qualities will steadily increase. Regular practice makes it easy to transform your mind. From seeing only relative truth, you will eventually reach a profound certainty in the meaning of absolute truth."
Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.

"Only you can make your mind beautiful."
HH Chetsang Rinpoche
passel
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Re: What about Phagmotrupa?

Post by passel »

Crazywisdom wrote: Tue Aug 21, 2018 11:12 am He wrote stuff similar to Gongchig.
Thanks.
And this sounds interesting- any translations available?
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passel
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Re: What about Phagmotrupa?

Post by passel »

Thanks for all the leads, amigos.

I didn’t realize there was such a strong Sakya influence there. Early Karma Kagyu didn’t have that, did it- makes the early divisions make a bit more sense to me.
The only story I’ve really come across was from his training w Gampopa- he interrupts his teacher eating tsampa balls (pak) at breakfast to tell him about a meditation experience he’s had. Gampopa goes on eating and says, “I prefer my pak to your nyam.”
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Re: What about Phagmotrupa?

Post by Könchok Thrinley »

passel wrote: Tue Aug 21, 2018 5:58 pm “I prefer my pak to your nyam.”
Hah! :rolling: Great masters often have a siddhi sick burns!
“Observing samaya involves to remain inseparable from the union of wisdom and compassion at all times, to sustain mindfulness, and to put into practice the guru’s instructions”. Garchen Rinpoche

For those who do virtuous actions,
goodness is what comes to pass.
For those who do non-virtuous actions,
that becomes suffering indeed.

- Arya Sanghata Sutra
passel
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Re: What about Phagmotrupa?

Post by passel »

Funny.

It’s a good line. I think I got it out of Crystal Clear? K. Thrangu’s comments on Tashi Namgyal’s short manual.

From the same if I remember correctly:
Gampopa has a vision of the sun going black in his meditation and feelings of terror. He goes to tell Mila, who just says, “Hm. Maybe your meditation belt is too tight.”
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Re: What about Phagmotrupa?

Post by Ogaf »

You can find Khenchen Konchog Gyaltsen teaching in English on one of his texts (Engaging by Stages in the Teachings of the Buddha by Phagmodrupa) here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3P-botE ... IYmCg_Gjeo

Is it only me,
or do others agree,
Khen has the coolest of voices 8-)

O
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Re: What about Phagmotrupa?

Post by Temicco »

passel wrote: Tue Aug 21, 2018 7:32 am For a figure that supposedly spawned eight lineages, there seems to be surprisingly little information on him. No bio in English that I’ve come across, he’s rarely quoted in the manuals, tho this direct disciples (Drigingpa, Lingje Repa...) are copiously cited.
What gives? What’s Phagmotrupa’s story?
There's a huge number of texts in his kambum, they just haven't been translated.
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ཚེ་འདི་ལ་ཞེན་ན་ཆོས་པ་མིན། །
འཁོར་བ་ལ་ཞེན་ན་ངེས་འབྱུང་མིན། །
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Re: What about Phagmotrupa?

Post by Palzang Jangchub »

Eric Fry-Miller has translated at least one of Phagmo Drupa's texts, The Five-fold Lattice Scroll, in his compilation entitled The Heart of Five-fold Mahamudra. You can order it here: http://www.buddhavisions.com/shop/heart ... mahamudra/
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"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
passel
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Re: What about Phagmotrupa?

Post by passel »

Palzang Jangchub wrote: Sun Sep 09, 2018 10:59 pm Eric Fry-Miller has translated at least one of Phagmo Drupa's texts, The Five-fold Lattice Scroll, in his compilation entitled The Heart of Five-fold Mahamudra. You can order it here: http://www.buddhavisions.com/shop/heart ... mahamudra/
Thanks, I’ll keep an eye out for it
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Re: What about Phagmotrupa?

Post by Palzang Jangchub »

passel wrote: Sun Sep 09, 2018 11:08 pm
Palzang Jangchub wrote: Sun Sep 09, 2018 10:59 pm Eric Fry-Miller has translated at least one of Phagmo Drupa's texts, The Five-fold Lattice Scroll, in his compilation entitled The Heart of Five-fold Mahamudra. You can order it here: http://www.buddhavisions.com/shop/heart ... mahamudra/
Thanks, I’ll keep an eye out for it
I've got a hard copy. Let me ask Eric if he'll let me post an excerpt. I'll let ya know either way.
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"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
passel
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Re: What about Phagmotrupa?

Post by passel »

:twothumbsup:
"I have made a heap of all that I have met"- Svetonious
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