Yidams of Pachik & Machik

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Palzang Jangchub
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Yidams of Pachik & Machik

Post by Palzang Jangchub »

What were the yidam deities in the Shijé and Chöd practice lineages before they were absorbed into the institutional schools? Do we know who the personal yidams of Padampa Sangye and Machik Labdrön were?

Upon perusing TBRC I've seen a few sadhanas labeled as the yidams of Padampa Sangye which seem to be supported by depictions of the Refuge Trees for Chödyul:
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Jampal Maway Senggey ('jam dpal mra ba'i seng ge) is among them, which both Mindrölling Nyingma (through Terdak Lingpa and Minling Lochen Dharmashri) and Karma Kagyu (through the 9th Karmapa and Karma Chagme) trace back to him.

According to the Sungbum of Namnang Dorje, there's a 9 deity Tröma Nakmo Dorje Phagmo also among his yidams, as seen in the rje btsun dam pa sangs rgyas kyi yi dam rdo rje phag mo khros ma nag po lha dgu'i dbang bzhi bskur ba'i sgrub thabs. This would seem to indicate one of the reasons why Chöd has been so strongly associated with Vajravarahi and Krodhikali. Can anyone read the text and tell us who the other retinue deities are? I'm guessing the four directional dakinis are in there somewhere.

Does anyone know the identities of the 12 buddha yidams arranged in the Shijé Mandala according to the zhi byed lugs kyi thugs dam bde gshegs bcu gnyis kyi dkyil 'khor?

Obviously we know that Machik is strongly connected to Yumchenmo (Prajñaparamita) and Tara. Are there any deity sadhanas authored by her or traced to her?
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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
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conebeckham
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Re: Yidams of Pachik & Machik

Post by conebeckham »

She herself received, and gave, empowerments of many yidams, including Mahamaya and Cakrasamvara, if I recall correctly.
Recommend reading Edou's book, and also Sarah Harding's "Complete Explanation." And the new Chod Volume Tsadra's published, from the Dam Ngak Dzo.
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: Yidams of Pachik & Machik

Post by Palzang Jangchub »

According to Lion of Siddhas, Padampa Sangye's yidam gurus were:
Manjushri, Avalokiteshvara, Vajrapani, Tara, Kasarpani, Yamantaka, Vairochana, Achala, Marichi, Vajra Varahi, and Samantabhadra.
Additionally:
His visions of tathagatas as numerous as constellations in the sky included yidam deities such as Vairochana, Chakrasamvara, Hevajra, and Hayagriva. He was constantly together with Manjushri Lion of Speakers, with whom he conversed just as one person with another.
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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Palzang Jangchub
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Re: Yidams of Pachik & Machik

Post by Palzang Jangchub »

conebeckham wrote:She herself received, and gave, empowerments of many yidams, including Mahamaya and Cakrasamvara, if I recall correctly.
Chakrasamvara certainly makes sense considering Vajravarahi's central importance. Without the Chakrasamvara Tantra we wouldn't know about her. Why Mahamaya, I wonder? I know precious little about her. If Machik had tendrel with her, you'd think Mahamaya's importance would've been focused on more in Chöd. Then again, since it was subsumed by the other institutional schools, their focus on the main yidams of their respective lineages would've predominated.
Recommend reading Edou's book, and also Sarah Harding's "Complete Explanation." And the new Chod Volume Tsadra's published, from the Dam Ngak Dzo.
Yeah, I'll try to get my hands on the new Chöd volume. Reading the other two now thanks to your kind suggestion.

According to Machik's Complete Explanation, Kyotön Sönam Lama bestowed upon her:
(1) the direct introduction {ngo sprad) of the four empowerments through profound absorption called “Reality Empowerment Conferred on Mind” from the sutra tradition in the lineage of Dampa; (2) “Opening the Door to the Sky” that confers blessing empowerments through exceptionally great blessing; and (3) the empowerment of Mahamaya, also from Dampa’s lineage.
And later, Machik had visionary experiences:
Then, just around midnight, she saw the five deities of Mahamaya, and the five goddesses conferred the complete four empowerments. After that, the five deities of Tröma (Wrathful Mother) conferred the full four empowerments [...] After that, the deities of Cakrasamvara, surrounded by a host of dakinls, granted her many prophecies and ritual authorizations (rjes su gnang ba). Then the Great Mother surrounded by the buddhas of the ten directions arrived and stretched out their hands, blessing her [...] At dawn Exalted Tara came and bestowed the hundred empowerments from the Tantra of the Heart’s Essence That Clears Away the Darkness of Ignorance.
Any assistance in identifying these empowerments and their sources would be appreciated. I haven't been able to read the Sarah Harding's endnotes yet. There are quite a lot of them.
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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Palzang Jangchub
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Re: Yidams of Pachik & Machik

Post by Palzang Jangchub »

According to Himalayan Art Resources, Tröma Nakmo's introduction to Tibet is illuminating:
The original practice lineage belongs to the Zhije School of Phadampa Sanggye but has now been adopted by all the Sarma Schools of Tibetan Buddhism to a greater or lesser extent. Troma Nagmo is also found in the Terma (Revealed Treasure) Tradition of the Nyingmapa School.

Lineage from India: Vajradhara, Jnana Dakini, Virupa, Brahmin Aryadeva, Pha Dampa Sanggye (11th century), etc.
Interestingly, Terdak Lingpa and Minling Lochen Dharmashri are quoted for the description of Tröma. Seems they have a strong link to the lineage of Padampa.

So before Padampa brought Shijé to Tibet, no one there was practicing his yidam, Tröma. And as Harding indicates in Complete Explanation, Machik received the four empowerments from Tröma herself in a vision. No wonder why she became integral to Chöd practice. She was there from the start!
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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