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Sri Simha, the Lion of Dzogchen.......Sri Samha, or Simhaprabha as he may have been known, was born in a noble family in the Cina Valley near Mt Kailas..... He lived during the 8th century..... Cina—the land from whence Sri Simha came— definitely is the Kinnaur Valley, also known as the Kunnu Valley; a Himalayan district, today within India. Suvarnadwipa lay to the north of this valley, in what now is Western Tibet. "So-khyam" is the Tibetan rendering of the name "Su-gnam", the latter a prosperous village at the nine thousand foot level, deep in the Kinnaur Valley."...The Dharma Fellowship of His Holiness Gyalwa Karmapa
"Sri Simha, or Simhaprabha as he may have been known, was born in a noble family in the "Land of Cina" near the Kinnaur Valley.......even Dudjom Rinpoche's The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism perpetuates the error of stating that Sri Simha came from China. Evans-Wentz, just as incorrectly, described Sri Simha as a Burmese guru. Dr. Hanson-Barber places Sri Simha in Central Asia, while Dowman has suggested that he was Khotanese. Tulku Thondup, author of Masters of Meditation and Miracles, describes Sri Simha birthplace as "a city called Shokyam on Sosha Island in China." None of these allocations are correct. To fully appreciate Sri Simha's background we must briefly digress into the geography of a mysterious seventh century Himalayan country called Suvarnadwipa and its southern neighbour, the Kinnaur Valley."....http://www.ogyenling.com/Lineage.aspx
The Dzogchen teachings are mainly found only in the old unreformed Tibetan schools of the Buddhist Nyingmapas and the non-Buddhist Bonpos. In both cases, these teachings are substantially the same in meaning and terminology, and both traditions claim to have an unbroken lineage coming down to the present time from the eighth century and even before. Both of these schools assert that Dzogchen did not originate in Tibet itself, but had a Central Asian origin and was subsequently brought to Central Tibet by certain masters known as Mahasiddhas or great adepts….
The tradition of Dzogchen known as the Zhang-zhung Nyan-gyud is especially important for research into the historical origins of Dzogchen because it claims to represent a continuous oral tradition (snyan-rgyud) from the earliest times coming from the Kingdom of Zhang-zhung.
Website of His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, Urgyen Trinley Dorje………."Legend reports that Vasubandhu came from the "Kingdom of Shambhala' (approximately, modern Begram, otherwise known as the ancient kingdom of Kapisha, north of Kabul) located in the Afghanistan region, north-west of Peshawar....Bagram (بگرام Bagrám), founded as Alexandria on the Caucasus and known in medieval times as Kapisa, is a small town and seat in Bagram District in Parwan Province of Afghanistan, about 60 kilometers north of the capital Kabul….in the old tradition of the 84 Mahasiddhas that the Kingdom of Uddiyana (Oḍḍiyāna…Od-i-ana) was divided between two countries, to the North and South. To the North, it bordered on the land of Shambhala (i.e., the Kingdom of Kapisa)…….….http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/pramodavajra.htm"….
"Garab Dorje was born in and taught Dzogchen in the land of Uddiyana……(Garab Dorje, Garap Dorje, Vajraprahe, Prahevajra, Pramodavajra)……he transmitted the teachings to Manjushrimitra, who was regarded as his chief disciple……Prahevajra received the empowerment and transmission of the Mahayoga teachings of the Secret Matrix Tradition (Guhyagarbha tantra) from Mahasiddha Kukuraja…Garab Dorje began Mañjuśrīmitra's re-education by instructing him as follows: "The nature of your own mind-essence is, from the very beginning, none other than buddha. This mind, in and of itself, is birthless and deathless. It is simply like the sky. If the intrinsic truth of the nonduality of all phenomena is understood in its totality, and if this view is merely sustained in faith, without making any kind of effort, then that is how one should practice meditation."…."Illuminating Sunlight", ….Eric Pema Kunsang (translator) : Wellsprings of the Great Perfection. Rangjung Yeshe Publications, Hong Kong, 2006.
"Guhyagarbha Tantra (Skt.; Tib. རྒྱུད་གསང་བ་སྙིང་པོ་, Gyü Sangwé Nyingpo; Wyl. rgyud gsang ba'i snying po), The Essence of Secrets Tantra is the main tantra of the Mahayoga. It contains twenty-two chapters….aka: Glorious Web of Magical Illusion, The Secret Essence Definitive Nature Just As It Is ."…The Guhyagarbha Tantra was translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan on four occasions"….Gyurme Dorje, Guhyagarbha Tantra: Introduction, PhD….http://www.wisdom-books.com/FocusDetail.asp?FocusRef=36
Manjushrimitra….Manjushrimitra, Jampal Shenyen….. A master in the Dzogchen lineage and the chief disciple of Garab Dorje…. Mañjuśrīmitra (fl. 55 CE)(Tibetan: Jampelshenyen, ཇམ་དཔལ་བཤེས་གཉེན་, Wylie: 'Jam-dpal-bshes-gnyen) was an Indian Buddhist scholar, the main student of Garab Dorje and a teacher of Dzogchen…..he received many teachings and empowerments from Garab Dorje, Lalitavajra, and other masters….. his chief recipients of this teaching were Hungkara, Padmasambhava, and Hanatela….During their seventy five years together, he received the entire Dzogchen transmission from Garab Dorje ….He was one of the eight Vidyadharas of India.....http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/Manjushrimitra
Lalitavajra… the Indian mahasiddha Lalitavajra …Lalitavajra's Manual of Buddhist Iconography Hardcover by Lokesh Chandra ….Manjushrimitra (jam dpal bshes gnyen, pron. Jampal Shenyen). An Indian master in the Dzogchen lineage and the chief disciple of Garab Dorje. In his role as a master in the lineage of the Sadhana Section of Mahayoga, he received the transmission of Yamantaka in the form of the Secret Wrathful Manjushri Tantra and other texts. Manjushrimitra was born in the Magadha district of India and was soon an adept in the general sciences and the conventional topics of Buddhism. After having become the most eminent among five hundred panditas, he received many teachings and empowerments from Garab Dorje & Lalitavajra….Masters of Mahamudra: Songs and Histories of the Eighty-Four Buddhist Siddhas by Abhayadatta
Padmasambhava (Skt.), or Padmakara (Skt. Padmākara; Tib. པདྨཱ་ཀ་ར་, པདྨ་འབྱུང་གནས་, Pemajungné; Wyl. pad+ma 'byung gnas, in Sanskrit transliteration པདྨ་སམྦྷ་ཝ་) means ‘Lotus-Born’, which refers to Guru Rinpoche's birth from a lotus in the land of Oddiyana, in the north-western part of the land of Oddiyan (Pakistan/Afghanistan), in the 8th century AD.,…Padmasambhava is said to have been born in a village near the present day town of Chakdara in Lower Dir District, which was then a part of Oddiyana...…Mañjuśrīmitra (fl. 55 CE)(Tibetan: Jampelshenyen, ཇམ་དཔལ་བཤེས་གཉེན་, Wylie: 'Jam-dpal-bshes-gnyen) was an Indian Buddhist scholar, the main student of Garab Dorje and a teacher of Dzogchen…. his chief recipients of this teaching were Hungkara, Padmasambhava, and Hanatela
Hungkara….Mañjuśrīmitra (fl. 55 CE)(Tibetan: Jampelshenyen, ཇམ་དཔལ་བཤེས་གཉེན་, Wylie: 'Jam-dpal-bshes-gnyen) was an Indian Buddhist scholar, the main student of Garab Dorje and a teacher of Dzogchen…. his chief recipients of this teaching were Hungkara, Padmasambhava, and Hanatela….Hungkara (hung mdzad), (hung chen ka ra). One of the Eight Vidyadharas; receiver of the tantras of Vishuddha Mind including Heruka Galpo. …..at first he was erudite in a non-Buddhist religion and gained some attainments but later awakened to faith in the Buddhist teachings, took ordination from Buddhajnana and studied both the outer and inner aspects of Secret Mantra. His name derives from the chief deity of the mandala into which he was first initiated. At some point he took an outcaste girl as consort and practiced for six months the four aspects of approach and accomplishment. Through that practice he had a vision of the entire mandala of Vajra Heruka and reached the attainment of the supreme accomplishment of mahamudra. He wrote the Golden Garland of Rulu, the Vishuddha …. He was associated with Rolang Sukhasiddhi, Kukuraja and Buddhaguhya, while his lineage was transmitted to Padmasambhava and Namkhai Nyingpo the latter of whom spread his teachings in India. Also known as Hungchen, Hungchenkara."….http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/Hungkara
Hanatela….Mañjuśrīmitra (fl. 55 CE)(Tibetan: Jampelshenyen, ཇམ་དཔལ་བཤེས་གཉེན་, Wylie: 'Jam-dpal-bshes-gnyen) was an Indian Buddhist scholar, the main student of Garab Dorje and a teacher of Dzogchen….. his chief recipients of this teaching were Hungkara, Padmasambhava, and Hanatela….http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/འཇམ་དཔལ་བཤེས་གཉེན།
Kukuraja…"Kukuraja was a mahasiddha within the lineages of Esoteric Buddhism and he was contemporaneous with Indrabhuti of Sahor in Oddiyana (also known as King Ja) and Kambalapada (also known as Lawapa)……Some sources hold that it was Kukuraja who prophesied the birth of Garab Dorje, the founder of the human lineage of the Nyingmapa Dzogchen"…. Kukuraja (ku ku ra dza / ku ku ra tsa – the Mahasiddha who lived with a cohort of dogs.) Kukuraja was one of the teachers of Marpa Lotsawa. Kukuraja—the Dog King—lived on an island in the midst of a swamp of poison. He was known also as Kukkuripa—the Dog Lover—he is famous for these lines:…"Where deliberate effort and self-conscious striving are present – Buddha is absent….In view of this all chanting, rituals, and offerings are futile….Within the peak experience of the Lama’s inspired transmission however, Buddha is ever-present – but who is there who wishes to see that?"…..http://arobuddhism.org/words/the-year-of-the-dog.html
King Dza…..According to Nyingma tradition, King Ja taught himself intuitively from "the Book" of the Tantric Way of Secret Mantra (that is Mantrayana) that magically fell from the sky along with other sacred objects and relics "upon the roof of King Ja" according to Dudjom (1904–1987), et al. (1991: p. 613 History) took place on the Tibetan calendar year of the Earth Monkey, which Dudjom et al. identify as 853 BC….. Kukuraja received instruction drawn from "the Book" on what may be understood as the Outer Tantras from King Ja, then King Ja received instruction on what may be understood as the Inner Tantras from Kukuraja (Kukkuraja taught King Ja after Kukkuraja received a direct revelation of Vajrasattva wherein Vajrasattva prophesied the imminent esoteric transmission of Vajrapani, the Lord of Secrets, to Kukuraja which was only made possible through the quickening of Kukuraja by King Ja with his intuitive knowledge drawn from "the Book") as Dudjom (1904–1987), et al. (1991: p. 460) of the principally Nyingma view relates:…."Then King Ja taught the book to master Uparaja, who was renowned as a great scholar throughout the land of Sahor, but he could not understand their symbolic conventions and meaning. The king then taught them to the master Kukkuraja. He intuitively understood the chapter on the "Vision of Vajrasattva", from the Tantra of the Magical Net of Vajrasattva [Wylie: rdo rje sems dpa' sgyu 'phrul drva ba (also known as the Guhyagarbha Tantra)], and practiced it, whereupon Vajrasattva revealed himself and predicted that the Lord of Secrets would reveal the meanings of this tantra thereafter. When he had practised more, the Lord of Secrets actually appeared and granted him [Kukkuraja] the complete empowerment of the authentic teaching and of all vehicles. Then he told him to request the verbal teaching from the Licchavi Vimalakirti. It is said that, following the transmitted precepts of the Lord of Secrets, master Kukkuraja divided [the Mahayoga tantras] into the Eighteen Great Tantrapitaka (tantra chen-po sde bco-brgyad) and taught them to King Ja."…..The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism: Its Fundamentals and History. Boston, USA: Wisdom Publications
Shenrab Miwoche (Shenrab Miwo Kunle Nampar Gyalwa) was born in the land of Olmo Lungring ('Ol mo lung ring), (otherwise known as Shambala)….Shenrab was born in the Barpo Sogye Palace to the south of Mount Yungdrung….a part of a larger country called Tazig (sTag gzigs: Central Asia). Shen rab was born in Sam bha la (sTag gzigs) in the west in the town called Yans pa can, in the dwelling place of the 33 Gods, ….situated to the west of Tibet….. Three brothers studied under a great teacher named Tobumtri Log Gi Che Chen. After completing their studies, they went to Shen Lha Odkar, the Enlightened One of Compassion, and asked how they could be of the greatest assistance in liberating sentient beings from the suffering of the cyclic world. He advised them to take human birth in three different ages so that each brother could help the sentient beings of that age achieve liberation. Following Shen Lha Odkar’s advice, the second son, Salway, was born in this present age as Tönpa Shenrab…..he manifested as a blue cuckoo and along with his two disciples, Malo and Yulo, went to the top of Mount Meru, where he deliberated as to where and to what parents he should be born. Through his wisdom, he foresaw that he would be born in the heart of Olmo Lung Ring in a place called Barpo Sogyed, located on the south side of Mount Yungdrung Gutsek…… Tonpa Shenrab taught Bon in three successive cycles of teachings. In the final cycle of teachings the secret cycle is the path of self-liberation, or dzogchen teachings…..http://bon-encyclopedia.wikispaces.com/Tonpa+Shenrab
Meu Gongjad Ritro Chenpo …..In Bon, Dzogchen has traditionally been divided in three streams known collectively as A-rdzogs-snyan-rgyud, i.e. A-krid, Dzogchen and Zhang Zhung Nyan Gyud. The first two are terma traditions based on rediscovered texts while the third is an oral tradition based on continuous transmission by an uninterrupted lineage of masters……The A-krid system was founded in the 11th century by Dampa (Holy Man) Meu Gongjad Ritro Chenpo (rMe’u dGongs-mdzod) (1038-1096), who extracted the original teachings from the Khro rgyud cycle of teaching by Tonpa Shenrab, the founding teacher of Bon.…..http://www.cstone.net/~ligmin/html/bon_dzogchen.html
"Tapihritsa was the disciple of the previous master (Tsepung Dawa Gyaltsan), ….. his father was Rasang Lugyal (Ra-sangs klu-rgyal) and his mother was Sherigsal (Shes-rig-gsal). When he was born as their son, he was given the name of Tapihritsa, which means "king" in the Zhan-zhung language just as the word rgyal-po does in the Tibetan language.. He was born in Zhang-zhung…..from the master Tsepung Dawa Gyaltsan (Tshe-spungs zla-ba rgyal-mtshan) that Tapihritsa received all four cycles of precepts from the Zhang-zhung Nyan-gyud…. form John Myrdhin Reynolds - Vajranatha....http://www.yungdrungbon.net
Gyerpung Nangzher Lodpo…..The chief disciple of the master Tapihritsa was the great Gyerpung Nangzher Lodpo. He was also born in Zhang-zhung, in the lake district of Darok. He began to study the Nine Ways of Bon became very proficient in all of these practices. Then at the age of forty-seven, he met Tsepung Dawa Gyaltsan who had previously been the master of Tapihritsa…..The third stream comprises the Dzogchen teachings of the Zhang Zhung Nyan Gyud, the Oral Transmission of Zhang Zhung, the oldest and most important Dzogchen tradition and meditation system in Bon. This series of teachings was systematized the Zhang Zhung master Gyerpung Nangzher Lodpo, who received them from his master Tapahritsa in the eighth century….http://www.cstone.net/~ligmin/html/bon_dzogchen.html
Ratna Lingpa….In the early fifteenth century, Ratna Lingpa (Ratna gling-pa) compiled the Nyingma Gyubum (rNying-ma rgyud-'bum, Lakhs of Nyingma Tantras), the collection of all dzogchen texts and all the Old Transmission translations of tantras, expanding on Longchenpa's work….Ratna Lingpa (Tib. རཏྣ་གླིང་པ་, Wyl. rat+na gling pa) (1403-1478) — a Tibetan tertön, who compiled the Nyingma Gyübum, Collected Tantras of the Nyingmapas in the fifteenth century. He is also known by the names of Shikpo Lingpa (ཞིག་པོ་གླིང་པ་, zhig po gling pa) and Drodul Lingpa (འགྲོ་འདུལ་གླིང་པ་, 'go 'dul gling pa)"……Dudjom Rinpoche, The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism, Wisdom Publications, 1991,
Jigmey Lingpa (' Jigs-med gling-pa mKhyen-brtse 'od-zer), in the late eighteenth century, revised Longchenpa's Zabmo Nyingtig and made it into Longchen Nyingtig (Klong-chen snying-thig, Longchenpa's Heart Essence Teachings), the main Nyingma dzogchen system practiced today. His disciple, the First Dodrubchen (rDo-grub chen 'Jigs-med 'phrin-las 'od-zer), wrote a ritual text of preliminary practices for it, Longchen ngondro (Klong-chen sngon-'gro)….Jikme Lingpa (Tib. འཇིགས་མེད་གླིང་པ་, Wyl. 'jigs med gling pa) (1729-1798) is regarded as one of the most important figures in the Nyingma lineage. Also known as ‘Khyentse Özer’, ‘Rays of Compassion and Wisdom’, he was a great scholar and visionary, and discovered the Longchen Nyingtik cycle of teachings and practice through a series of visions from the great fourteenth century master, Longchenpa. With the patronage of the Dergé royal family, Jikme Lingpa published the compilation of Nyingma tantras known as the Nyingma Gyübum"….http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Jikme_Lingpa
"Dza Patrul Rinpoche (Tib. རྫ་དཔལ་སྤྲུལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་, Wyl. rdza dpal sprul rin po che) aka Orgyen Jikmé Chökyi Wangpo (ཨོ་རྒྱན་འཇིགས་མེད་ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབང་པོ་, o rgyan 'jigs med chos kyi dbang po) (1808-1887) — an enlightened master, who, though he lived the life of a vagabond, was one of the most illustrious spiritual teachers of the nineteenth century. His principal teacher was Jikmé Gyalwé Nyugu, a great master who was one of the foremost students of Jikmé Lingpa. From Jikmé Gyalwé Nyugu he received no less than twenty five times the teachings on the preliminary practices of the Longchen Nyingtik, as well as many other important transmissions. From time to time he would write a text of his own and these treatises were later collected into six volumes of his writings. Among them is The Words of My Perfect Teacher, Kunzang Lama’i Shyalung…..Peltrul (rDza dPal-sprul 'O-rgyan 'jigs-med dbang-po; Patrul Rinpoche) wrote Guideline Instructions from My Totally Excellent (Samantabhadra) Spiritual Mentor (Kun-bzang bla-ma'i zhal-lung, Perfect Words of My Excellent Teacher, Kunzang Lamey Zhellung). This is the most elaborate Nyingma text on the equivalent of lam-rim (graded stages of the path) and on the preliminaries for the Longchen Nyingtig."…..Tulku Thondup, Masters of Meditation and Miracles, edited by Harold Talbott, Boston: Shambhala, 1996 …..‘Disgusting old dog’ was the epithet employed by DoKhyentsé Yeshé Dorje of Dza Paltrül and the secret name which betokened his understanding of the nature of Mind. The story behind DoKhyentsé Yeshé Dorje reviling Dza Paltrül as a disgusting old dog is usually employed to illustrate the nature of informal symbolic transmission. DoKhyentsé Yeshé Dorje takes hold of Dza Paltrül’s hair and throws him to the ground – for no apparent reason. Dza Paltrül smells alcohol on DoKhyentsé Yeshé Dorje’s breath – and conceptualises ignominiously in puritanical vein – at which DoKhyentsé Yeshé Dorje rebukes him thus: “You disgusting old dog – how does this wretched thought enter your mind!” At that moment Dza Paltrül realises his egregious error and lies exactly in the position DoKhyentsé Yeshé Dorje cast him loose. It is then that he recognises the nature of Mind. Thereafter—whenever Dza Paltrül gave transmission of the nature of Mind to his own disciples—he told them that he first realised the nature of Mind through receiving informal symbolic transmission from his Tsawa’i Lama DoKhyentsé Yeshé Dorje and that the secret name he received at that time was ’Disgusting Old Dog’."…..http://arobuddhism.org/words/the-year-of-the-dog.html
Tenzin Wangyal….…"when I received the Zhang Zhung Nyan Gyud teaching, Lopon Sangye Tenzin maintained that although keeping the Dzogchen teaching secret may have been suitable in ancient times, in our own troubled times it is better to give them more openly and freely (but without lessening their value in this way) otherwise there is the danger that they will die out….There are also many points in common between Bon and Nyingmapa Buddhism. As noted, both uphold and propagate in an official way the transmission of the Dzogchen teachings, which are found only sporadically in gifted individual practitioners of the other Tibetan traditions that do not have specific lineages of Dzogchen masters. Both worship Kuntuzangpo as the supreme primordial AdiBuddha, while the other three schools of Tibetan Buddhism worship Vajradhara as AdiBuddha; and both have a terma tradition of concealed spiritual treasures rediscovered by tertons (personages prophesied to reveal the terma in propitious times). In fact many famous tertons belongs to both traditions……Furthermore, the Nyingmapas are the only Tibetan Buddhists openly to acknowledge as Buddhist those teachings of non-Indian origin that were spread during the first introduction of Buddhism into Tibet during the reign of King Songtsen Gampo and later in the eighth century by the charismatic master Padmasambhava and his associates. These teachings include currents of Buddhist teaching coming from China and central Asia as well as from India. In the second spread of Buddhism in Tibet in the tenth and eleventh centuries, all Buddhist teachings of which an Indian origination could not be verified were excluded from the Buddhist canon rendered official by the other, later, three schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The Bonpos maintain that, as Buddha Sakyamuni was a disciple of Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche, all Buddhist teachings, whether originating in India or elsewhere, are in fact teachings of everlasting Bon"……http://www.cstone.net/~ligmin/html/bon_dzogchen.html
"The first buried Bon treasure texts were recovered by accident at Samyay in 913 AD……in the eleventh century, Nyingma and more Bon dzogchen texts were found…..Bon codified its equivalent of the Kangyur in the second half of fourteenth century, which includes dzogchen."
Email....okarresearch@gmail.com
John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….January 2014
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