Drukchen, 4th

From Buddha-Nature


པདྨ་དཀར་པོ་
The Fourth Drukchen Pema Karpo(1527 - 1592) 
Rinchen Terdzö ChenmoDamngak Rinpoché DzöBuddhist Digital Resource Center

"After the death of 'Jam dbyangs chos kyi grags pa (the 3rd Drukchen or Gyalwang Drukpa), monks found the rebirth in the house of a minor aristocrat of Kongpo, to the disappointment of both the families of Rwa lung and Bya. This child, the sprul sku Ngag dbang nor bu, was to be the great Padma dkar po. Padma dkar po was one of those rare renaissance men. The breadth of his scholarship and learning invites comparison with the Fifth Dalai Lama. It was Padma dkar po who systematized the teaching of the 'Brug pa sect. It is no wonder that the 'Brug pa Bka' brgyud pa always refer to him as Kun mkhyen, the Omniscient, an epithet reserved for the greatest scholar of a sect. Padma dkar po was a shrewd and occasionally ruthless politician. His autobiography is one of the most important sources for the history of the sixteenth century. Padma dkar po was a monk and insisted on adherence to the vinaya rules for his monastic followers. He also held that in the administration of church affairs the claims of the rebirth and the monastic scholar took priority over those of the scion of a revered lineage. Although he preached often at both Rwa lung and Bkra shis mthong smon, the seats of his two immediate predecessors, he never exercised actual control over these monasteries and their estates. He founded his monastery at Gsang sngags chos gling in Byar po, north of Mon Rta dbang, which became the seat of the subsequent Rgyal dbang 'Brug pa incarnation." (Gene Smith, Among Tibetan Texts, 81)

Library Items

Text
The Fourth Drukchen Pema Karpo: An Exposition of Mahāmudrā: The Treasure Vault of the Victors
In his exposition of the Mahāmudrā view in the Phyag chen rgyal ba’i gan mdzod, Padma dkar po adopts Yang dgon pa’s famous distinction between the mahāmudrā in the modes of abiding (gnas lugs phyag chen) and error ( ’khrul lugs phyag chen) as an interpretive schema both for [1] clarifying the doctrine of the unity or nonduality of the two truths—which he takes as a central doctrine of the Madhyamaka, Mantrayāna and ’Brug pa Bka’ brgyud traditions—and [2] criticizing the rival Jo nang account of reality which posits the conventional and ultimate as two great kingdoms that have nothing in common. (Source: Mahamudra and the Middle Way - Vol. 2, 157.)

On the topic of this person

Video
Lopen Damcho Dorji on Buddha-Nature in Drukpa Kagyu Tradition
འབྲུག་པ་དཀར་བརྒྱུད་ལ་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོའི་དགོངས་བཞེད་ཉམས་ལེན་སྐོར།
On Understanding and Practice of Buddha-Nature in Drukpa Kagyu Tradition


Explaining the concept of spiritual gene, or gotra, in the Madhyamaka tradition in general through citations from sūtras and commentarial literature, Lopen Damcho Dorji presents Buddha-Nature in the Drukpa Kagyu school, particularly as found in the writings of Pema Karpo, as the sphere of reality which is the emptiness free from all elaborations, specifically the emptiness of the mental consciousness. Pema Karpo, he explains, considers an emptiness transcending all extremes of existence, nonexistence, both, and neither to be buddha-nature and not a mere negation of true existence.

Pema Karpo also asserted that both the naturally present spiritual gene and the acquired spiritual gene are in reality the unconditioned innate reality, given different names for being totally obscured or partially obscured. While the naturally present spiritual gene exists in all beings, the acquired spiritual gene, or the spiritual gene which has some of its obscuration removed, is only associated with the sublime Mahāyāna beings. Lopen Damcho Dorji also points out that buddha-nature in the Drukpa Kagyu tradition is not an emptiness which is a mere nonimplicative negation but rather an emptiness endowed with all qualities because the buddha-nature of sentient beings is not different from that of the Buddha. Such buddha-nature or emptiness endowed with all qualities is then only realized by Mahāyāna saints and not by other beings, as they possess the four types of defilements which obscure the buddha-nature. He goes on to discuss how the conceptual mind by nature is the dharmakāya, or the gnosis of the Buddha, according to the Kagyu tradition.
Damcho Dorji, Lopen. "Lopen Damcho Dorji at the 2023 Buddha-Nature Conference." Day 1, Talk 3. 2023 Buddha-Nature Conference, Shechen Monastery, Kathmandu. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department. Video, 1:02:54. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYCweSM0sX8.
Book
Mahāmudrā and the Middle Way
This two-volume publication explores the complex philosophy of Mahāmudrā that developed in Tibetan Dwags po Bka’ brgyud traditions between the 15th and 16th centuries CE. It examines the attempts to articulate and defend Bka’ brgyud views and practices by four leading post-classical thinkers: (1) Shākya mchog ldan (1423‒1507), a celebrated yet controversial Sa skya scholar who developed a strong affiliation with the Karma Bka’ brgyud Mahāmudrā tradition in the last half of his life, (2) Karma phrin las Phyogs las rnam rgyal (1456‒1539), a renowned Karma Bka’ brgyud scholar-yogin and tutor to the Eighth Karma pa, (3) the Eighth Karma pa himself, Mi bskyod rdo rje (1507‒1554), who was among the most erudite and influential scholar-hierarchs of his generation, (4) and Padma dkar po (1527‒1592), Fourth ’Brug chen of the ’Brug pa Bka’ brgyud lineage who is generally acknowledged as its greatest scholar and systematizer. It is an important academic work published in the Vienna series WSTB and is divided into two volumes: the first offers a detailed philosophical analysis of the authors’ principal views and justifications of Mahāmudrā against the background of Indian and Tibetan Buddhist doctrines on mind, emptiness and buddha nature; the second comprises an annotated anthology of their seminal writings on Mahāmudrā accompanied by critical editions and introductions. These two volumes are the result of research that was generously funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) from 2012 to 2015 under the supervision of Prof. Klaus-Dieter Mathes. The project was entitled “‘Emptiness of Other’ (Gzhan stong) in the Tibetan ‘Great Seal’ (Mahāmudrā) Traditions of the 15th and 16th Centuries” (FWF Project number P23826-G15). (Source: WSTB Description)
Higgins, David, and Martina Draszczyk. Mahāmudrā and the Middle Way: Post-Classical Kagyü Discourses on Mind, Emptiness and Buddha-Nature. Vol. II, Translations, Critical Texts, Bibliography and Index. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 90.2. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2016.
Book
Mind Seeing Mind
Roger Jackson's Mind Seeing Mind is the first attempt to provide both a scholarly study of the history, texts, and doctrines of Geluk mahāmudrā and translations of some of its seminal texts. It begins with a survey of the Indian sources of the teaching and goes on the discuss the place of mahāmudrā in non-Geluk Tibetan Buddhist schools, especially the Kagyü. The book then turns to a detailed survey of the history and major textual sources of Geluk mahāmudrā, from Tsongkhapa, through the First Panchen, down to the present. The final section of the study addresses critical questions, including the relation between Geluk and Kagyü mahāmudrā, the ways Gelukpa authors have interpreted the mahāsiddha Saraha, and the broader religious-studies implications raised by Tibetan debates about mahāmudrā. The translation portion of Mind Seeing Mind includes eleven texts on mahāmudrā history, ritual, and practice. Foremost among these is the First Panchen Lama's autocommentary on his root verses of Geluk Mahāmudrā, the foundation of the tradition. Also included is his ritual masterpiece Offering to the Guru, which is a staple of Geluk practice, and a selection of his songs of spiritual experience. Mind Seeing Mind adds considerably to our understanding of Geluk spirituality and shows how mahāmudrā came to be woven throughout the fabric of the tradition. (Source: Wisdom Publications)
Jackson, Roger R. Mind Seeing Mind: Mahāmudrā and the Geluk Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Studies in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2019.

Other names

  • ཀུན་མཁྱེན་པདྨ་དཀར་པོ་ · other names (Tibetan)
  • ངག་དབང་ནོར་བུ་ · other names (Tibetan)
  • ཀུན་དགའ་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་ནོར་བུ་ · other names (Tibetan)
  • མི་ཕམ་པདྨ་དཀར་པོ་ཕྱོགས་ལས་རྣམ་པར་རྒྱལ་བའི་སྡེ་ · other names (Tibetan)
  • བློ་གསལ་དབང་པོ་ · other names (Tibetan)
  • kun mkhyen pad+ma dkar po · other names (Wylie)
  • ngag dbang nor bu · other names (Wylie)
  • kun dga' rnam rgyal nor bu · other names (Wylie)
  • mi pham pad+ma dkar po phyogs las rnam par rgyal ba'i sde · other names (Wylie)
  • blo gsal dbang po · other names (Wylie)

Affiliations & relations

  • Drukpa Kagyu · religious affiliation
  • He was the fourth incarnation in the Drukchen, or Gyalwang Drukpa, incarnation line. · primary professional affiliation
  • Drukchen, 3rd · emanation of

Tertön Gyatsa Information from the Rinchen Terdzö

Text
Tibetan
Wylie

The full Tertön Gyatsa text can be found at the following page: Volume 1 (ཀ), 341-765, 1a1-213a4.

Name in Gyatsa: ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན་པ་པདྨ་དཀར་པོ་ (thams cad mkhyen pa pad+ma dkar po)

Page #s for bio of this person: 711 to 712

Folio #s for bio of this person: 186a6 to 186b3

།འབྲུག་ལུགས་དྲག་པོ་ཀཱི་ལ་ཡ་ཞེས་ཐུགས་གཙིགས་སུ་མཛད་པ་ནི། རྒྱལ་དབང་རྗེའི་རྣམ་འཕྲུལ་བྱ་འཇམ་དབྱངས་ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པའི་མཆོག་གི་སྤྲུལ་པའི་སྐུ་ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན་པ་པདྨ་དཀར་པོ་ཞེས་འཇིག་རྟེན་ན་ཉི་ཟླ་ལྟར་གྲགས་པ་དེ་ཉིད་དགུང་སྐེག་ཅིག་གི་སྐབས། དག་པའི་སྣང་བར་རྔ་ཡབ་ནས་ཨོ་རྒྱན་ཆེན་པོ་སྤྲུལ་པ་དང་བཅས་པ་ཕེབས་ནས་གདམས་ངག་བསྩལ་པ་ལྟར་ཡི་གེར་བཀོད་པ་དེང་སང་ཡང་དར་རྒྱས་ཆེ་ལ་ཁོ་བོས་ཀྱང་ལེགས་པར་ནོས། སྤྱིར་རྗེ་འདི་ཉིད་ཀྱི་སྤྲུལ་པའི་སྐུ་རྒྱལ་བ་དཔག་བསམ་དབང་པོ་ནས་ད་ལྟའི་བར་རིམ་པར་བྱོན་ཅིང་འབྲུག་རྙིང་གཉིས་ཀྱི་བསྟན་པའི་གསལ་བྱེད་ཆེན་པོར་བཞུགས་སོ།

'brug lugs drag po kI la ya zhes thugs gtsigs su mdzad pa ni/_rgyal dbang rje'i rnam 'phrul bya 'jam dbyangs chos kyi grags pa'i mchog gi sprul pa'i sku thams cad mkhyen pa pad+ma dkar po zhes 'jig rten na nyi zla ltar grags pa de nyid dgung skeg cig gi skabs/_dag pa'i snang bar rnga yab nas o rgyan chen po sprul pa dang bcas pa phebs nas gdams ngag bstsal pa ltar yi ger bkod pa deng sang yang dar rgyas che la kho bos kyang legs par nos/_spyir rje 'di nyid kyi sprul pa'i sku rgyal ba dpag bsam dbang po nas da lta'i bar rim par byon cing 'brug rnying gnyis kyi bstan pa'i gsal byed chen por bzhugs so

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