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The Origins of the Dzogchen Eleven Words and Meanings

Comparing Nyima Bum, Longchenpa, and Rikzin Gödemchen

Khenpo Yeshi

Journal of Tibetan Literature (2023) 2 (2): 39-82.


Issue Section Research

Keywords Dzogchen, Great Perfection, Heart Essence, Dzogchen history, Dzogchen Nyingthik literature

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is threefold: to provide a historical overview of Dzogpa Chenpo (rdzogs pa chen po), commonly referred to as the Great Perfection; to translate and interpret Nyima Bum’s (Nyi ma ’bum, 1158-1213) seminal work, his “Introduction” to the Great Perfection: Eleven Words and Meanings (rdzogs pa chen po tshig don bcu gcig pa); and to analyze its impact on later Dzogchen thinkers like Longchen Rabjam (Klong chen rab ’byams, 1308-1364) and Rikzin Gödemchen (Rig ’dzin rGod ldem can, 1337-1408). This paper aims to contribute to the broader understanding of Buddhist literature, with a specific focus on the Dzogchen Nyingthik (Heart Essence) tradition. Dzogchen remains a relatively untapped field of academic study, and this paper aims to illuminate its early development, enriching contemporary understanding among both scholars and practitioners.

རྩོམ་ཡིག་འདི་ལ་དགོས་དོན་གསུམ་ཡོད། རྒྱུན་ལྡན་རྫོགས་ཆེན་དུ་འབོད་པའི་རྫོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ཡི་ལོ་རྒྱུས་སྤྱི་བཤད་བྱ་རྒྱུ་དང་། ཉི་མ་འབུམ་(༡༡༥༨-༡༢༡༣)གྱི་གསུང་གི་རྩ་བ་སྟེ་རྫོགས་ཆེན་ངོ་སྤྲོད་དང་རྫོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ཚིག་དོན་བཅུ་གཅིག་པ་བསྒྱུར་འགྲེལ། དེ་ཡིས་ཕྱིས་ཀྱི་རྫོགས་ཆེན་པ་ཀློང་ཆེན་རབ་འབྱམས་པ་(༡༣༠༨-༡༣༦༤)དང་རིག་འཛིན་རྒོད་ལྡེམ་(༡༣༣༧-༡༤༠༨)ལྟ་བུར་ཤུགས་རྐྱེན་ཅི་འཐེབས་ལ་དཔྱད་ཞིབ། དེ་ནས་རྫོགས་ཆེན་སྙིང་ཐིག་གི་ཕྱག་སྲོལ་གཙོར་བཟུང་གིས་སངས་རྒྱས་པའི་རྩོམ་རིགས་ཀྱི་དོན་རྒྱ་ཆེར་རྟོགས་པར་བྱ་རྒྱུ་དང་། ལྟོས་བཅས་ཀྱིས་རྫོགས་ཆེན་གྱི་གཞུང་རྣམས་ཡོངས་གྲགས་ཀྱི་སློབ་གཉེར་བྱ་ཡུལ་དུ་མ་གྱུར་བར་སོང་། རྩོམ་ཡིག་འདིས་མཁས་པ་དང་ཉམས་ལེན་པ་རྣམས་ལ་གཞུང་འདིའི་ཐོག་མའི་འཕེལ་རིམ་དང་དེང་དུས་གོ་རྟོགས་ཆེ་རུ་འགྲོ་བའི་སྐོར་གསལ་བྱེད་བྱེད་པ་བཅས་སུ་དམིགས་ཡོད།

Authors

Khenpo Yeshi

Published 2023-12-18

How to Cite

Yeshi, Khenpo. 2023. “The Origins of the Dzogchen Eleven Words and Meanings: Comparing Nyima Bum, Longchenpa, and Rikzin Gödemchen”. Journal of Tibetan Literature 2 (2):39-82. https://doi.org/10.58371/jtl.2023.69.

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