Phowa and death in the A-khri Dzogchen cycle

Discussion of the fifth religious tradition of Tibet.
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kalden yungdrung
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Phowa and death in the A-khri Dzogchen cycle

Post by kalden yungdrung »

There are 3 works dealing with Phowa and death in the Yeru compilation of
the A-tri teachings.

I. The first text is entitled The Transparent Wisdom (Ye shes zang thal) and is
the "real" manual for Phowa practice. It describes the gradual process of Phowa
and the instantaneous transference of consciousness. This work is a composition
by Dru Gyelwa Yungdrung (1242-1290).

II. The second text is The Clarifications on Bardos and Transference (Bar do
`pho ba'i gsal `debs). It is composed of three main sections and further
subdivisions, as follows :

1. the explanation on the arising of sounds, rays and lights
a. their arising in the present continuum
b. their arising in the continuum at the time of death
2. Instructions given according to the qualifications of the disciples
a. Clarification based on special oral instructions
a-1. instructions for higher practitioners
a-2. instructions for practitioners of median capacities
a-3. instructions for ordinary practitioners
b. Clarification according to special circumstances
3. The necessity of clarifying instructions according to the three categories
of practitioners .

This work was composed by Yorpo Mepel.

III. The third work has the strange following title : The Signs of Death of
Kuntuzangpo (Kun tu bzang po'i `chi rtags). There is indeed a genitive case
("of") in the title but, according to Yongdzin Rinpoche, this is a mistake for
an original longer title which should be : The Subjugation of the Lord of Death
by Kuntuzangpo (Kun tu bzang po `chi bdag `joms pa). As its title indicates, it
deals with the actual signs of death but also very briefly with the manner in
which Kuntuzangpo reached Buddhahood, how delusion arose, etc. The description
of the signs of death is however not very detailed, and certainly not as
detailed as a similar kind of work to be found in the Yangtse Longchen
collection.
The best meditation is no meditation
mutsuk
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Joined: Sun Aug 15, 2010 7:35 pm

Re: Phowa and death in the A-khri Dzogchen cycle

Post by mutsuk »

How come you don't credit where you took that from?
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kalden yungdrung
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Joined: Sun Aug 01, 2010 10:40 pm

Re: Phowa and death in the A-khri Dzogchen cycle

Post by kalden yungdrung »

mutsuk wrote:How come you don't credit where you took that from?

Tashi delek,

Sorry for my shortcoming, this was composed by JLA, certainly never by myself, so he did some good translation works.
Like always good work, i like it. ;)

Mutsog marro
KY
The best meditation is no meditation
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