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From Khyentse Lineage - A Tsadra Foundation Project
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His Holiness Penor Rinpoche (Wyl. pad nor rin po che) or Kyabjé Drubwang Pema Norbu Rinpoche (1932-2009) was the 11th throne holder of the Palyul Lineage of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. He was the supreme head of the Nyingmapa lineage from 1993 to 2001.
H.H. Penor Rinpoche was born in 1932, in the Powo region of Kham, East Tibet. Choktrul Rinpoche was his main master, although he received teachings from many lamas. Beside becoming learned in several subjects including writing, poetry, astrology and medicine, he studied the sutras with different khenpos.
Aged twelve, he received from Choktrul Rinpoche the most important transmissions and empowerments of the Nyingma School, including the great empowerment of the Kagyé and the Rinchen Terdzö empowerments. From Karma Kuchen Rinpoche he received the terma revelations of Ratna Lingpa.
At twenty one he was fully ordained by his master at Tarthang Monastery following the vinaya lineage transmitted to Tibet by Shantarakshita, receiving all the essential instructions and empowerments of the Nyingma tradition.
He also received at that time the cycle of Tendrel Nyesel, Lerab Lingpa’s great terma revelation. He then completed a Vajrakilaya retreat and, having received all the transmissions of the Kangyur and Tengyur, he entered into retreat for four years during which his master gave him all the transmissions of the Palyul tradition, following the secret oral instructions of Tertön Mingyur Dorjé’s Namchö.
Penor Rinpoche successfully completed all the stages of the practice, accomplishing the root recitations of the Three Roots (lama, yidam, and khandro), the Namchö preliminary practices, tummo and tsa-lung, and Dzogchen practices.
He fled Tibet in 1959 and subsequently established Namdroling Monastery which is located in Karnataka State, in Southern India. Namdroling has become the largest Nyingma monastery in the world, where many khenpos, monks and nuns are receiving an education. Khenpo Namdrol, among others, is one of the main senior khenpos teaching at the shedra of Namdroling.
Penor Rinpoche made his first visit to the United States in 1985.
In 1993, he was elected the Supreme Head of the Nyingmapa, succeeding Kyabjé Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. In 2001 the title passed to Kyabjé Minling Trichen Rinpoche. ([https://shakyamuni.net/lineage/his-holiness-penor-rinpoche/ Source])
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Karma Rinchen Dargye, also known as Karmé Khenpo, was a nineteenth century master recognized at an early age as the reincarnation of master of the Kagyu lineage whose seat was at the monastery of Karma Monastery in Kham. He observed monastic discipline with greatest diligence. A close disciple of Chokgyur Lingpa himself, and he was one of the main lineage holders of Chokgyur Lingpa's termas. He wrote many commentaries which have been included in the Chokling Tersar collection, as well as his own collected works constitute four volumes. (source: [https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Rinchen_Dargye Rigpa Wiki]) +
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His Holiness Kyabgon Gongma Trichen Rinpoche (The Sakya Trichen) served as the 41st head of the Sakya Order of Tibetan Buddhism until March 2017, when the throneholder duties were handed over to His Holiness Ratna Vajra Rinpoche, the 42nd Sakya Trizin, formally addressed as His Holiness Kyabgon Gongma Trizin Rinpoche.
His Holiness the Sakya Trichen is a member of Tibet‘s noble Khon family, which founded the Sakya Order in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Just as His Holiness the Dalai Lama is an emanation of Avalokiteshvara, the manifestation of all the Buddha’s great compassion, His Holiness the Sakya Trichen is the manifestation of all the Buddha’s transcendent wisdom.
In addition to his leadership of the Sakya Order for over fifty years, His Holiness Sakya Trichen is renowned throughout the world for the brilliance and clarity of his teachings and his fluency and precise command of English. Receiving teachings directly from His Holiness carries a special lineage of blessings from the founders of the Sakya Order, as well as from Manjushri himself. ([http://hhsakyatrizin.net/sakya-trichen/ Source Accessed June 26, 2020])
His Holiness was born on the 7th of September 1945, the 1st day of the 8th Lunar month in the year of the Wood Bird at the Sakya palace in Tsedong.
A complete bio and family history is available here on [http://hhsakyatrizin.net/sakya-trichen/ H.H. the Sakya Trizin's personal website]. +
He was the older brother of H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (1910-1991) and the root teacher of Ven. Kyabje Tenga Rinpoche (1932-2012) of Benchen monastery. Sangye Nyenpa was recognized and confirmed as the authentic incarnation of the previous 8th Sangye Nyenpa Tendzin Drubchog, by the 15th Karmapa Kakhyab Dorje (1871-1922). The Karmapa had had a vision of the protective deity Palden Lhamo, in which he saw a vajra appearing in her mirror and heard the name Sangye Nyenpa and his family's name "Dilgo" spoken. Also, before his birth a resident lama on the Dilgo estate dreamed repeatedly of a famous pair of cymbals kept in Benchen monastery being played in the house. This was felt to mean that the incarnation of Sangye Nyenpa would be born there. The Karmapa gave him the name Karma Geleg Drubpe Nyima Thrinle Ozer Kunkhyab Palzangpo (karma dge legs sgrub pa'i nyi ma phrin las 'od zer kun khyab dpal bzang po). From Drongpa Lama Tendzin Chögyal, Tenga Rinpoche's previous incarnation, he received many empowerments and oral transmissions, among them the Kagyu Ngagdzo and the 9th Karmapa Wangchug Dorje's (1556-1603) Chikshe Kundröl collection. In about 1904, aged eight, Sangye Nyenpa met with the omniscient Mipham Rinpoche Namgyal Gyatso (1846-1912) and received the oral transmissions of the Manjushrinamasamgiti from him. From Mipham Rinpoche's disciple Lama Ösal, he later received the transmission of all his works. Around that time he also received novice ordination from Palpung monastery's famous Khenchen Tashi Öser. Until age 20, Sangye Nyenpa attended upon many great masters of his time and received all the Kagyu and Nyingma transmissions, as well as the Jonang and Zhalu tradition's Kalacakra and much more. From the 2nd Tsike Chokling Könchok Gyurme Tenpei Gyaltsen () he received important transmissions from the Chokling Tersar and from Lama Karma Tashi Chöphel, a close disciple of Jamgon Kongtrul, the transmission of Kongtrul's works. Later, when in Tsurphu monastery in Central Tibet for six months, he received transmissions and instruction on all the major Mahamudra works of the Kagyu traditions from the 15th Karmapa, as well as the Six Doctrines of Naropa, many protector empowerments, and other teachings. In particular, he was fortunate to receive the special longevity transmission of the revelations of Surmang Tertön Zilnön Namkhai Dorje (zur mang gter ston zil gnon nam mkha'i rdo rje), when the same came to Tsurphu as well, to offer it to the Karmapa. Two other great Karma Kagyu masters who were to become two of Sangye Nyenpa's most important root teachers, were the 11th Tai Situpa Pema Wangchog Gyalpo (pad ma dbang mchog rgyal po, 1886-1952), from whom he received full monastic ordination in his twenties, and the 2nd Kongtrul, Jamgon Choktrul Palden Khyentse Özer ('jam mgon mchog sprul dpal ldan mkhyen brtse'i 'od zer, 1904-1953), commonly known as Karsey Kongtrul. From the masters of the major Nyingma monasteries in eastern Tibet, such as Khatog, Shechen and Dzogchen, Sangye Nyenpa received many Terma transmissions, such as the revelations of Ratna Lingpa, Dorje Linga and Sangye Lingpa, and much more. His outlook and practice having been completely non-sectarian, he also received and transmitted teachings from the Sakyapa and Gelugpa schools. Practicing many solitary retreats in which he trained in all the major transmissions he had received, he experienced many visionary encounters with masters of the past and received instructions and prophecies from them, as well as from yidam deities and dakinis. In 1959 he fled Eastern Tibet, first to Central Tibet, where he spent time at Tsurphu monastery with the 16th Karmapa Rangjung Rigpe Dorje (rang byung rig pa'i rdo rje, 1924-1981), and then on to Sikkim, where he spent his remaining years in the Karmapa's Rumtek monastery. He passed away on "Lhabab Düchen", the 22nd day of the 9th month of the Tibetan Water-Tiger year, 1962. In November 1964 the 10th Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche was born near the sacred site of Paro Taktsang in Bhutan.
H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche has composed a short biography of his older brother. It is entitled "sangs rgyas mnyan sprul dgu pa'i rnam thar mdor bsdus pa'i sa bon" and is included in Vol. 1, pp. 275-306 of his collected works. (Source: [https://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/9th_Sangye_Nyenpa_Rinpoche RYWiki])
Sūryagupta, also known as Ravigupta, was a Kashmiri adept that cured himself of leprosy and achieved realization through a series of pure vision encounters with Tārā. In the Tibetan tradition he is mostly known for his iconographic tradition for the ''Praises to the Twenty-One Tārās''. +
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Kyabje Trulshik Rinpoche, the teacher whose great kindness we remember with so much gratitude, was one of the last great masters to have completed a truly extensive study, training and practice of the Tibetan (Buddhist tradition within the extraordinary cultural environment of Tibet before the invasion by the Chinese communist régime. He was the close disciple of many of the greatest masters of his time including Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche and Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. Later he was himself to become a respected teacher of His Holiness the Dalai Lama himself. He was the holder of an important monastic lineage as well as of many precious instructions and transmissions.
[http://www.songtsen.org/songtsen/founding-teachers/kyabje-trulshik-rinpoche/ Longer version of Trulshik Rinpoche's bio on Songtsen.org] +
Chogyam Trungpa (1940–1987)—meditation master, teacher, and artist—founded Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, the first Buddhist-inspired university in North America; the Shambhala Training program; and an international association of meditation centers known as Shambhala International. He is the author of numerous books, including ''[https://www.shambhala.com/shambhala-the-sacred-path-of-the-warrior.html Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior]'', ''[https://www.shambhala.com/cutting-through-spiritual-materialism-458.html Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism]'', and ''[https://www.shambhala.com/the-myth-of-freedom-and-the-way-of-meditation-1073.html The Myth of Freedom]''. ([http://www.shambhala.com/authors/o-t/chogyam-trungpa.html?limit=90 Source Accessed March 20, 2019])
See also the [http://www.shambhala.org/teachers/chogyam-trungpa.php Shambhala biography online]. +
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Ghanḍḥapa was a monk of Nālandā. When the king invited him to his palace, he refused. The king schemed to disgrace Ghanḍḥapa by sending a beautiful girl to seduce him. Instead, she asked to become his patron. One day, she convinced Ghanḍḥapa to allow her to spend the night because she was afraid to travel home alone. While sleeping, their bodies joined. Rather than reporting her success to the king, the girl lived with Ghanḍḥapa, bearing a son. One day, the king encountered them,
Ghanḍḥapa carrying the child and a bottle of wine. When the king mocked him, Ghanḍḥapa threw down the child and the bottle. Water gushed from the earth, causing a flood, the child turning into a vajra and the bottle turning into a bell. Ghanḍḥapa turned into Cakrasaṃvara and the girl turned into Vajravārāhī, rising into the sky. The king and his courtiers were drowning when Avalokiteśvara appeared, stopping the flood with his foot. Ghanḍḥapa made the waters recede, declaring that a single substance can be both medicine and poison. The king became Ghanḍḥapa's disciple. (Source: Lopez Jr., Donald S. ''Seeing the Sacred in Samsara: An Illustrated Guide to the Eighty-Four Mahāsiddhas''. Boulder: Shambhala Publications, 2019: p. 147.) +
Also known by his Tibetan name of nags kyi rin chen (1384-1468), a Bengali Paṇḍita and Māhasiddha, reportedly the "last great Indian Paṇdita to visit Tibet". He was born in Sadnagara, near present-day Chittagong. At age eight he received novice ordination from Buddhaghoṣa and Sujataratna. He took up his studies and perfected them very quickly. At age 20 he received full ordination from the same two masters, and went to Shri Lanka for six years, where he spent most of his time meditating in seclusion. Upon his return to India, he was greatly praised by the famous scholar Narāditya.
At Śrī Dhānya-kaṭaka mahā-caitya he met, in a vision, with Māhasiddha Shavaripa and received from him his unique transmission of the Sadaṅga-yoga, the Six-limbed Yoga of the Kālacakra tradition. Vanaratna eventually beheld a vision of Avalokiteśvara, who advised him to go to Tibet.
Vanaratna visited Tibet in 1426, 1433 and 1453 and spread the Kālacakra lineage and instructions of Paṇḍita Vibhūti-candra there, especially the Sadaṅga-yoga according to Anupamarakṣita, and many other teachings. He also assisted in the translation of many texts and treatises. Such famous Tibetan masters as Gö Lotsawa Shönnu Pal (1392-1481) and Thrimkang Lotsawa Sönam Gyatso (1424-1482) were his close students. He also spent time in Bhutan, where even nowadays there is a temple, near Paro, with a sacred statue of his and a rock that bears his name in old Bengali script. Vanaratna spent his final years in the Gopicandra Vihara in Patan/Kathmandu, now known as Pinthu Bahal, and passed away there. (Source: [https://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/Vanaratna RY wiki]) +
Vagishvarakirti was one of the six gate keeper panditas of the university of Vikramashila. He was the guardian of the southern gate when Shantipa was guarding the eastern gate and Prajñakaramati the northern gate, at the time Drokmi Lotsawa and Taklo Shyönnu Lodrö were sent there. (Source: [https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Vagishvarakirti Rigpa Wiki]) +
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Gyalwa Yang Gönpa Gyaltsen Pal (Tib. ཡང་དགོན་པ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་དཔལ་, Wyl. yang dgon pa rgyal mtshan dpal) (1213-1258 or 1287) was a great yogin of the Drukpa Kagyü school and one of the foremost disciples of Gyalwa Götsangpa (1189-1258). He also studied with Godrakpa (1181-1261), who is considered the first great non-sectarian master of Tibet, Drikung Chenga Rinpoche (1175-1255) of the Drikung Kagyü school, Sakya Pandita (1182-1251), and Sangye Repa, and other masters. He is known as one of the 'three victorious ones', the other two being his teacher Gyalwa Götsangpa and Gyalwa Lorepa. (Source: [https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Yang_Gönpa Rigpawiki]) +
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A remarkable master who lived at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. He wrote ''The Great Medicine That Conquers Clinging to the Notion of Reality'' (''Byang chub kyi sems bsgom pa'i rim pa bdag 'dzin 'joms pa'i sman chen''). He was a disciple of the greatest luminaries of the nineteenth century, including Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thaye, and Lama Mipam Rinpoche. +
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Bari Lotsawa, also known as Rinchen Drak, was the second throne holder of Sakya school (Tib. Sakya Trizin). At the age of 63, he retained the seat of Sakya for a period of eight years (1102-1110). He is one of the main lineage figures in the transmission and translation of the White Tara practice and tantras that originate from the Indian master Vagishvarakirti. (Source: [https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Bari_Lotsawa Rigpa Wiki]) +
He was born in the upper Nyang region of Tsang. His mother died early and he was brought up by a nun who was a student of one of the great masters of this time, Tshechogling Yeshe Gyaltsen. Losal Tenkyong was then eventually recognized as the incarnation of Drubwang Losal Tsengyen (1727-1802). His education was rather eclectic and he studied with the great Gelugpa masters of his day, such as Ngulchu Dharmabhadra (1772-1851) and the masters of his own Zhalu monastery (zhwa lu) as well masters of Ngor and Sakya. He became a noted ritual expert and especially excelled in his practice of the Kalacakra. Several of his works are included in such collections as the "rgyud sde kun btus" and "sgrub thabs kun btus". In his personal practice he also emphasized the Shangpa Kagyu teachings very much. Even though he is not mentioned in any Shangpa lineage supplication, he was of instrumental importance for the survival of the Shangpa Kagyu tradition and even authored some important empowerment and instruction manuals which are still in use today. As the abbot of the famous Kadampa monastery of Zhalu in western Tibet, originally founded by the fourteenth century scholar and historian Buton Rinchen Drub (1290-1364), he eventually managed to achieve the unsealing of the printing blocks of Taranatha's works at Jonang monastery, which contain so many Shangpa materials of crucial importance. He was a close friend and associate of both Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo and Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thaye, and passed on a large number of transmissions to them, especially to Jamyang Khyentse, who received the full Shangpa Kagyu transmissions from him. (Source: [http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/Shalu_Ribug_Tulku_Losal_Tenkyong RYwiki]) +
(Chokle Namgyal) (1376-1451). The twenty-third abbot of Bo dong E monastery, founded in about 1049 by the Bka' gdams geshe (dge bshes) Mu dra pa chen po, and the founder of the Bo dong tradition. His collected works, said to number thirty-six titles, include his huge encyclopedic work ''De nyid 'dus pa'' ("Compendium of the Principles"); it alone runs to 137 volumes in the incomplete edition published by the Tibet House in Delhi. Phyogs las rnam rgyal (who is sometimes confused with Jo nang pa Phyogs las rnam rgyal who lived some fifty years earlier) was a teacher of Dge 'dun grub (retroactively named the first Dalai Lama) and Mkhas grub Dge legs dpal bzang, both students of Tsong kha pa. Among his disciples was the king of Gung thang, Lha dbang rgyal mtshan (1404–1463), whose daughter Chos kyi sgron me (1422–1455) became a nun after the death of her daughter and then the head of Bsam lding (Samding) monastery, which her father founded for her. The monastery is the only Tibetan monastery whose abbot is traditionally a woman; incarnations are said to be those of the goddess Vajravārāhī (T. Rdo rje phag mo), "Sow-Headed Goddess." (Source: "Bo dong Phyogs las rnam rgyal." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 139. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.) +
Bodong Sangye Gönpo was a Tibetan yogi adept in the practice of Siṃhamukhā. Though he initially practiced the teaching cycle of this deity associated with Bari Lotsāwa, through his practice he was able to encounter Siṃhamukhā and received empowerment for her practice from Guru Rinpoche. This became the basis for the Siṃhamukhā cycle known as the Bodong Tradition of the Aural Lineage of the Profound Secret of the Lion Faced [Ḍākinī] (''bo dong lugs zab gsang seng gdong snyan brgyud). +
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It is as of yet unclear who this figure is and there are several possibilities on BDRC, such as rdzong sngon blo gros chos kyi go cha ([http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/P7921 P7921]). His termas have also been published [http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW1KG6249 here] with authorship attributed to rdzong sngon pad+ma thugs mchog rdo rje ([http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/P7959 P7959]) +
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Bhikṣuṇī Lakṣmī, or Gelongma Palmo as she is known in the Tibetan world, was the originator of the practice of nyungne (''smyung gnas''). While some Tibetan sources identify her as a princess of Oḍḍiyana who later became a nun, the Adinath temple in the small hilltop village of Chobhar on the outskirts of Kathmandu is believed to have been either her family home or the original site in which she engaged in this practice. Based on the thousand-armed form of the deity Avalokiteśvara, nyungne involves a typically three day cycle of practice that combines long periods of prostrations with intermittent fasting and the strict observance of vows. The practice was developed by Bhikṣuṇī Lakṣmī and through it she is reported to have cured herself of leprosy. The practice continues to be popular among Himalayan Buddhists, especially among older lay people for whom it is often an annual event that they practice collectively in groups. It is also traditional to repeat the three day cycle eight times in a row. +
Though the names Vīraprakāśa or Vīraprabhāsvara are unattested in Sanskrit sources, this author is known to Tibetans as Pawo Ösel and is associated with a cycle of spiritual songs related to the famed Eighty-four Mahāsiddhas of India. +
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Karma Chakme, also known as Raga Asé (Rāgāsya), was one of the most highly realized and accomplished scholar-yogins of Tibet. An important Karma Kamtsang teacher, he was recognized by many as the incarnation of the ninth Karmapa (but not selected.) His teachers included the most famous masters of his time, both Nyingma and Kagyu. He was both the teacher and student of Tertön Mingyur Dorje. (Source: [https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Karma_Chakm%C3%A9 Rigpa Wiki]) +
