Phag mo gru pa rdo rje rgyal po

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PeoplePhag mo gru pa rdo rje rgyal po


ཕག་མོ་གྲུ་པ་རྡོ་རྗེ་རྒྱལ་པོ་
Pakmodrupa Dorje Gyalpo(1110 - 1170) 
The Treasury of LivesBuddhist Digital Resource CenterHimalayan Art Resources

A Tibetan scholar and adept who is counted as one of the great disciples of the key Bka’ brgyud founder Sgam po pa Bsod nams rinchen, and is venerated as the source for many subsequent Bka’ brgyud lineages. Born in the ’Bri lung rme shod region of eastern Tibet, Phag mo gru pa’s parents died while he was still young. Receiving ordination as a novice Buddhist monk at the age of eight, he studied under a variety of teachers during the early part of his life. At eighteen, he traveled to central Tibet, receiving full ordination at the age of twenty-five. There he trained under a number of Bka’ gdams pa teachers, and later, under the great Sa skya master Sa chen Kun dga snying po, from whom he received extensive instruction in the tradition of the path and its result (lam ’bras). At the age of forty, he traveled to Dwags lha sgam po in Southern Tibet, where he met Sgam po pa, who became his principal guru. Sgam po pa famously held up a half-eaten ball of parched barley flour mixed with tea and said to Phag mo gru pa, “This is greater than the results of all your previous meditation.” After he demonstrated his humility by carrying stones to build a stūpa, Sgam po pa gave Phag mo gru pa the transmission of instructions on mahāmudrā meditation and, through their practice, is said to have attained great realization. In 1158, Phag mo gru pa established a simple meditation hut where he lived until his death in 1170; this location later served as the foundation for the influential monastery of Gdan sa mthil. Phag mo gru pa was renowned for his strict adherence to the vinaya, even going on alms rounds, a rare practice in Tibet. Several individuals among his many followers established a number of important branch lineages, the so-called “eight minor Bka’ brgyud subsects” that collectively came to be known as the Phag gru Bka’ brgyud. (Source: "Phag mo gru pa Rdo rje rgyal po." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 639. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)


Mentioned in

Video
Khenpo Tamphel at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium
Drawing on the text entitled A Mahāmudrā Investigation into Confusion: An Instruction for Identifying the Process of Confusion by Jikten Sumgon, Khenpo Tamphel explains how, according to this text, sentient beings and buddhas are related, how confusion arises that leads to saṃsāra, and how recognition of the true nature of sentient beings is the way to enlightenment.
Tamphel, Khenpo Könchok. "The Difference Between a Sentient Being and a Buddha: 'Jig rten gsum mgon’s Instruction on the Process of Confusion." Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 47:23. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GbYgx3ozDM.
Video
Martina Draszczyk at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium
Martina Draszczyk discusses the early Kagyu masters and explores how their meditation-oriented approach is based in both affirming buddha-nature as the ground and goal of Buddhist soteriology and avoiding its reification into an entity with real properties.
Draszczyk, Martina. "Buddha Nature as Seen by Early Bka’ brgyud Masters." Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 37:27. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoMUdg40Qv8.


Philosophical positions of this person

Is buddha-nature considered definitive or provisional?
 
Do all beings have buddha-nature?
 
To which "turning of the wheel" do the buddha-nature teachings belong?
 
Is buddha-nature equated with emptiness or alayavijnana?
 
Do buddha-nature teachings belong to the zhentong or rangtong view of emptiness?
 
Are there one or three vehicles on the path to buddhahood?
 
Do the author's writings belong to the analytic or meditative tradition of Uttaratantra exegesis?
 
What is Buddha-nature?
  Tathāgatagarbha as the Resultant State of Buddhahood
  1. From Śākya Chogden's summary of the main positions on buddha nature his view is included among the heading "Asserting buddha nature as the compound of natural purity and buddha qualities’ being inseparable" and with the sub-heading of "Asserting those qualities to be the qualities of the fruitional dharmakāya of realization (many Kagyüpas such as Pamo Trupa)." Brunnhölzl, K., When the Clouds Part, p. 79.
  2. A more complete translation of the above summary can be found in Mathes, K., A Direct Path to the Buddha Within, p. 34.
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Does the author advocate the Svatantrika or Prasangika view of emptiness?
 

Other names

  • ཕག་མོ་གྲུ་པ་ · other names (Tibetan)
  • phag mo gru pa · other names (Wylie)

Affiliations & relations

  • phag gru bka' brgyud · religious affiliation
  • Sa chen kun dga' snying po · teacher
  • Sgam po pa · teacher
  • Phywa pa chos kyi seng+ge · teacher
  • 'bri gung skyob pa 'jig rten mgon po · student
  • 'gro mgon ras chen · student
  • gling ras pa pad+ma rdo rje · student
  • stag lung thang pa bkra shis dpal · student
  • gyer sgom tshul khrims seng+ge · student
  • Khro phu lo tsA ba byams pa'i dpal · student
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