Jigten Sumgön

Jigten Sumgön or Jigten Gönpo (1143–1217) was the founder of the Drikung Kagyu lineage[1] and main disciple of Phagmo Drupa.[2] He founded Drikung Thil Monastery in 1179.[3]

Jigten Sumgön
Jigten Sumgön
Personal
Born1143
Tsungu (tsu ngu), Kham
Died1217
Resting place"Body-Essence, Ornament of the World" stupa
ReligionBuddhism
LineageFounder of the Drikung Kagyu
Other namesJigten Gönpo; Welbar Tar (dbal 'bar thar); later changed to Tsunpa Kyab (btsun pa skyabs), and later on Dorje Pel (rdo rje dpal); Drikung Kyobpa Jikten Gönpo Rinchen Päl, Drikung Kyobpa Jikten Gönpo; Drikungpa Rinchen Pel; Kyobpa Jikten Gönpo; Rinchen Pel; Kyobpa Rinpoche (Wylie: 'bri gung skyob pa 'jig rten mgon po rin chen dpal),
Monastic nameRinchen Pel
TempleDensatil; Drigung Thil Monastery
Senior posting
TeacherPhagmo Drupa Dorje Gyalpo (dpag mo gru pa rdo rje rgyal po), Tsilungpa (tsi lung pa), Lama Menyag (bla ma me nyag)
SuccessorGurawa Tsultrim Dorje (gu ra ba tshul khrims rdo rje)
PostDrikung Monastery
Part of a series on
Tibetan Buddhism
Sects
Key personalities
First dissemination
Second dissemination


Nyingma
Kagyu
Jonang
Sakya
Gelugpa
Teachings
General Buddhist
Tibetan
Nyingma
Practices and attainment
Major monasteries
Institutional roles
Festivals
Texts
Art
History and overview

Jigten Sumgön and the Drikung lineage are best known for the set of teachings known as The Five Profound Paths of Mahāmudrā (phyag chen lnga ldan). Some of Jigten Sumgön's sayings were collected by Sherab Jungne into what is known as Gongchik (Wylie transliteration: dgongs gcig, "the single intention"),[4] a profound philosophical compendium that further developed in commentarial works written in following generations.[5] Some of Jigten Sumgön's teachings were collected by another disciple into what is known as The Heart of the Great Vehicle's Teachings (theg chen bstan pa'i snying po).[6]

Family

Jigten Gönpo's great-grandmother was Achi Chökyi Drölma, who prophesied his birth and vowed to protect his lineage. Jigten Sumgön was born in 1143 into a famous clan called the Kyura (skyu ra) in the Kham (khams) region of Tibet by the name of Tsungu (tsu ngu); his mother was Rakyisa Tsunma, and his father, Naljorpa Dorje, was a devout Vajrayāna practitioner[7] (of Yamāntaka) who died when Jigten Sumgön was still a boy—at that time, Jigten Sumgön started to support his family by reciting scriptures. It is said that when he was only eight years old, he understood that all phenomena are like a reflection in a mirror.[8]

Name

The meaning of Jigten Sumgön ('jig rten gsum mgon) is "The Lord of the Triple World". Jigten Sumgön is known under various names: Drikung Kyobpa Jigten Gönpo Rinpoche, Drikung Kyobpa Jikten Gönpo Rinchen Päl, Lord Jigten Sumgön, Kyobpa Rinpoche, and many others.

Because his mother had a connection with the Bön tradition, upon his birth Jigten Sumgön was initially given a Bön name, Welbar Tar (dbal 'bar thar).

Teaching

Lord Jigten Sumgön was one of the most notable masters of Tibetan Buddhism, and his teachings had wide-reaching influence for centuries to come; up to 130,000 monks and practitioners came to his teaching at one time.[9]

The eighth Karmapa referred to Jigten Sumgön's philosophical text Gongchik as "siddhānta of the Kagyupas",[10] suggesting he considered it to be the definitive text outlining the philosophical tenets of all Kagyu schools. Seven centuries later, Dudjom Rinpoche quotes Jigten Sumgön on something else he emphasized, the significance of the preliminary practices (ngöndro):[11]

Other teachings consider the main practice profound, but here it is the preliminary practices that we consider profound.

In a praise to his guru, Sherab Jungne said about Jigten Sumgön:

He teaches according to the four kinds of proof:

First, the instructions of the holy lord lamas;

Second, the teachings of sūtra and tantra of the Sugatas;

Third, the experience of you yogins;

Fourth, the history of the Dharma of Interdependence.

Regarding Buddhist philosophical tenets, Jigten Sumgön and his followers generally held a dismissive attitude towards their usefulness. Jigten Sumgön states in Gongchik (4.13): "The truth is veiled by all [philosophical] tenets whatsoever." He also wrote:

May those who mistake the system of tenets, which is a knot of the mind, as the Buddha’s intention, realise true reality and may their mindfulness be purified in itself.[12]

Moreover, echoing the mahāsiddha Saraha, he says:

All the views starting from the Non-Buddhists’ view of permanence and nihilism and up to the Madhyamikas’ [view] are something that is a mind-made duality. Since I have not studied these views of the various tenets, I do not know them.[13]

Due to his fame, many great masters came to study and practice in Drikung Thil for many centuries after Lord Jigten Sumgön's passing into parinirvāṇa. Perhaps the most famous of these was Lama Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. While staying near Drikung Thil, Tsongkhapa received the Drikung teachings on the Six Yogas of Naropa, as well as all of the outer and inner texts by Jigten Sumgön. Many Gelugpas, including the fourteenth Dalai Lama, uphold Tsongkhapa's lineage of Naropa's yogas until today.

References
  1. Gyaltsen, pg. 269
  2. Cuevas, pg. 52
  3. Stewart, pg. 130
  4. "Kyobpa Jigten Sumgön: Gongchig". www.drikung.org. Retrieved 2017-06-19.
  5. For the Gongchik see the blog by Jan-Ulrich Sobisch (Copenhagen University) dgongs1.com.
  6. Martin, Dan (August 2008). "Jikten Gonpo Rinchen Pel". The Treasury of Lives: Biographies of Himalayan Religious Masters. Retrieved 2013-10-07.
  7. "Jikten Gonpo Rinchen Pel". The Treasury of Lives. Retrieved 2017-06-19.
  8. "Lord Jigten Sumgon - Founder of the Drikung Kagyu Lineage". Drikung Kagyu Official Website. Retrieved 2013-10-07.
  9. 1953-, Trinlay Chödron, Khenmo (2013). Opening the treasure of the profound : teachings on the songs of Jigten Sumgön and Milarepa. ISBN 9781611800708. OCLC 819383486.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  10. "Is the Single Intention a philosophy? A first glance at the 8th Karmapa's commentary". dGongs1. 2016-12-27. Retrieved 2017-06-19.
  11. Rinpoche, Dudjom. "Extracting the Quintessence of Accomplishment Oral Instructions for the Practice of Mountain Retreat Expounded Simply and Directly in Their Essential Nakedness" (PDF).
  12. Phag mo gru pa, lHan cig skyes sbyor in Schiller, Alexander (2014) Die „Vier Yoga“-Stufen der Mahāmudrā-Meditationstradition, (Indian and Tibetan Studies 2), Hamburg: Department of Indian and Tibetan Studies, Universität Hamburg. p. 454.
  13. Phag mo gru pa, lHan cig skyes sbyor in Schiller, Alexander (2014) Die „Vier Yoga“-Stufen der Mahāmudrā-Meditationstradition, (Indian and Tibetan Studies 2), Hamburg: Department of Indian and Tibetan Studies, Universität Hamburg. p. 454 sems dang rnam rtog chos sku gsum// dang po lhan cig skyes pa de// gdams pas sems su sbyor ba’i phyir// lhan cig skyes sbyor zhes su bshad//.

Bibliography
  • Cuevas, Bryan J. (2006). The Hidden History of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Oxford University Press US. ISBN 019530652X, ISBN 9780195306521
  • Dorji, Sangay (Dasho); Kinga, Sonam (translator) (2008). The Biography of Zhabdrung Nga wang Namgyal: Pal Drukpa Rinpoche. Thimphu, Bhutan: KMT Publications. pp. 146–7. ISBN 9993622400.
  • Gyaltsen, Khenpo Konchog (2006). The Great Kagyu Masters. Snow Lion Publications; 2nd edition. pp. 226–255. ISBN 1559392444
  • Stewart, Jampa Mackenzie. The Life of Gampopa, Second Edition. Snow Lion Publications (July 25, 2004). ISBN 1559392142
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.