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Vimalamitra
Vimalamitra (Tibetan: Drime Shenyen, དྲི་མེད་བཤེས་གཉེན་; Wylie: Dri-med
Bshes-gnyen), an 8th century Indian adept, is key to the history of Tibetan
Buddhist Dzogchen practice. He lived equally in China, Oddiyana and Tibet,
but was known as the "Sage of Kashmir". According to tradition, he was born
in Western India and travelled to China to become a disciple of Shri Singha
in China. He was also a student of Buddhaguhya. Upon his return to India, he
was invited to Tibet by emissaries of King Trisong Detsen where he
established himself as a teacher and translator of Dzogchen texts and an
important teacher within the Nyingmapa.
Vimalamitra united two disparate aspects of the Nyingtig teachings: the
explanatory lineage with scriptures, and the hearing lineage without
scriptures and elementally concealed them as terma to be revealed as the
Vima Nyingtig (bi ma snying thig) and as the Secret Heart Essence of
Vimalamitra (bi ma'i gsang ba snying thig).[1]
Vimalamitra also translated, together with Ma Rinchen Chok, important
Nyingmapa texts such as the Guhyasamaja Tantra and the Guhyagarbha (Tib.,
gSang-ba snying-po, "The Secret Heart", or "Essence of Secrets").
Vimalamitra lineague
One tradition of Dzogchen was directly transmitted to Vajrasattva, an aspect
of the Sambhogakaya, to Garab Dorje (b. 55 CE), the Nirmanakaya. Garab Dorje
transcribed this teaching which he transmitted to his disciple
Manjushrimitra. Mañjushrīmītra classified the teaching into three cycles:
* Semde (mind class/cycle);
* Longde (space class/cycle); and
* Mengagde (oral instruction class/cycle), and this classification
determined the exposition of the Dzogchen teachings in the following
centuries. Mañjushrīmītra’s student Shrisimha re-edited the oral instruction
class/cycle, and in this form the teaching was transmitted to Jñānasūtra and
Vimalamitra (sometimes Vimilamitra). Vimalamitra took the Mengagde disciplic
teaching to Tibet in the 8th Century.
Works
Vimalamitra was responsible for authoring the Vima Nyingthig or 'Secret
Heart Essence of Vimalamitra'. This cycle of texts belongs to the Secret
Instruction or Menngagde division of Atiyoga.
Notes
1. ^ http://www.yoniversum.nl/dakini/vimalamitra.html (accessed: Friday
January 19, 2007)
References
* Dowman, Keith (1984). Sky Dancer: The Secret Life and Songs of the Lady
Yeshe Tsogyel. Ithaca, New York: Snow Lion Publications, 1996. ISBN
1-55939-065-4
* Norbu, Namkhai. The Crystal and the Way of Light: Sutra, Tantra and
Dzogchen (1988). Routledge & Kegan Paul. ISBN 0140190848
* Reynolds, John Myrdhin (1996). The Golden Letters. Ithaca, New York: Snow
Lion Publications, 1996. ISBN 1-55939-050-6
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