Yungtönpa

1296 - 1376

Yungtönpa was one of the most respected Buddhist scholars of his time. He studied and practiced with incomparable endurance under many masters of the Nyingma and Kagyü tradition. 

As a young man he started a family at the request of his mother, which he left after the birth of his first child to become a Buddhist monk with the name Dorje Pal. Afterwards he met the 3rd Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje, whose successor he became. 

Yungtönpa was known for his material generosity, but above all for being a master of the distinction between sutra and tantra and for bringing benefit to many through his teachings.

He was born into a family of tantric Nyingma practitioners in Tsongdu Gurmo in Southern Tibet and was given the name Dorje Bum. When he was five years old, his mother took him to a market where he met a great scholar. The boy instantly felt great trust and at once received refuge and lay vows.

Then he began his study of the five sciences and developed incomparable knowledge of sutra and tantra. Most of his studies were at Zhalu, where he received teachings on the Mahasamadhi transmissions, Mahayoga, Anuyoga, and Atiyoga of Dzogchen, the Yamantaka cycle of teachings and empowerment, and Kalachakra. The 3rd Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje, transmitted all the key instructions and transmissions of the Karma Kagyü lineage, through which, Yungtönpa finally attained supreme realization.

Yungtönpa made great contributions of material offerings to Sakya, Trophu, Shalu, and Sangphu monasteries. He practiced in Tibet and in Paro, Bhutan for years.

He composed a text differentiating the views of buddhahood in sutra and tantra and impressed and outshone many great scholars of the time. He manifested as a hidden yogi and benefited many sentient beings. At the age of 82, he passed into parinirvana with many signs of his great realization.

Among countless students – both Nyingma and Kagyü - his main disciple and lineage holder was the 4th Karmapa, Rölpe Dorje.
 

STORY

Zurtön Jampa Senge became Yungtönpa’s first root lama. It is said that when Zurtön was later murdered by Lhakhu Bönpo, Yungtönpa used the power of Yamantaka to destroy the murder's family and fields. According to a contemporary, he sang "I am merely the subduer of my guru's mortal foe!"

During his youth he went to China on the invitation of the emperor where he performed religious dances and many other rituals in front of the emperor. At that time many villages, which had to pay tribute in grain to the emperor, were suffering from drought. The farmers requested the emperor to send someone who could cause rain to fall. Yungtönpa prayed to the Three Jewels, and rain began to fall. The emperor was greatly pleased and gave him numerous gifts.

Key Transmissions

Received Transmissions (an excerpt)

As for all future lineage holders the following four are the core transmissions of the Kagyü and later the Karma Kagyü Lineage:

  • Mahamudra
  • Six Teachings of Naropa (including Father, Mother and Non-Dual Tantras)
  • Path of Insight > Shinay/Lhaktong
  • Secret Path > Guru Yoga

 

  • complete Kagyü transmission
  • complete Nyingma transmission
  • Yamantaka
  • Kalachakra
  • Mahayoga
  • Anuyoga
  • Atiyoga Dzogchen
  • Guhyagabha (commentary; called The Clear Mirror)

Additional Special Abilities

  • Five sciences: Logic, Craftsmanship, Medicine, Language, Philosophy

  • Key-instructions how to conquer death
  • Fundamental Verses of the Middle Way (Mūlamādhyamakakārikā or Madhyamaka)
  • Mahamudra-Transmission in meditation/in a vision from Ratnamati in Southern India (where Ratnamati had lived)
  • Tripitaka-texts (Triple Basket)
  • Seventy Verses on Emptiness (Shunyatasapati)
  • Two Truths Doctrine - about relative and absolute level (= level with delusion and level without delusion)“
  • Six Collections on Reasoning (text)
  • Root Verses on the Middle Way, called "Discriminating Awareness"
  • Precious Garland
  • Refutation of Objections
  • Seventy Verses on Emptiness
  • Sutra Called “Finely Woven”
  • Sixty Verses of Reasoning
  • Collections of Praises (text)
  • Praise to the Sphere of Reality
  • Praise to the Deepest Truth
  • Praise to the Supramundane (Buddha)
  • Collections of Didactic Explanations (text)
  • A Commentary on (the Two) Bodhichittas
  • Selected text-collection of Sutras
  • Letter to a Friend
  • all Mahakali and Mahakala-Tantras
  • Guyhasamaja-Tantras

  • Della Santina, Peter: Causality and Emptiness: The Wisdom of Nāgārjuna, Singapore: Buddha Dharma Education Association, 2002
  • Garfield, Jay L. (1995), The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way.Oxford: Oxford University Press
  • Garfield, Jay L. and Graham Priest (2003), “Nāgārjuna and the Limits of Thought”, Philosophy East and West 53 (January 2003): 1-21
  • Hopkins, Jeffrey: Buddhist Advice for Living and Liberation: Nāgārjuna’s Precious Garland, Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 199
  • Jones, Richard H. (2014): Nagarjuna: Buddhism's Most Important Philosopher, 2nd ed. New York: Jackson Square Books
  • Kalupahana, David J. (1986): The Philosophy of the Middle Way. Albany: SUNY Press
  • Lindtner, Christian (1982): Nagarjuniana: Studies in the Writings and Philosophy of Nāgārjuna Akademisk forlag
  • Murty, K. Satchidananda (1971), Nagarjuna. National Book Trust, New Delhi. 2nd edition: 1978
  • Ruegg, D. Seyfort (1981): The literature of the Madhyamaka school of philosophy in India (A History of Indian literature), Harrassowitz
  • Siderits, Mark and Shōryū Katsura, 2013: Nāgārjuna’s Middle Way. Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, Boston: Wisdom Publications
  • Tuck, Andrew P. (1990), Comparative Philosophy and the Philosophy of Scholarship: on the Western Interpretation of Nāgārjuna, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  • Walser, Joseph (2005), Nāgārjuna in Context: Mahāyāna Buddhism and Early Indian Culture. New York: Columbia University Press
  • Westerhoff, Jan (2009), Nāgārjuna's Madhyamaka. A Philosophical Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press
https://www.shambala.com/nagarjuna-readers-guide https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nagarjuna/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbUzz0_Oy1k

Historical events at this time

1322 Changchub Gyaltsen (1302-1364) was the founder of the Phagmodrupa dynasty in Tibet. He became the ruler of Central Tibet after overthrowing the Mongol-backed Sakya regime around 1354. He overthrew the weakening Sakya government, reorganized and reformed it: secular administration, like fiefdoms; improved, fairer tax-system; created agricultural farms; social reforms; art and sciences flourished; peace. Changchub Gyaltsen was an admirer of the Karmapas.

1357-1419 Tsongkhapa founded the Yellow Sect (Gelug) and in 1407 he founded the Ganden monastery. At the time of his death the new Gelug School had already remarkable influence around Lhasa.

1358-1430 Central Tibet came under control of the Phagmodrubpas (a Kagyü branch-line until 1432/35). The following decades were of relative stability. The Tibetans call this period of the Phagmodrupa-reign "an old woman who carries gold"; this means Tibet was so safe and civilized that an old woman could have carried a bag of gold unscathed from one end of Tibet to the other. 

 

1368 When the Mongols' Yuan Empire fell to the Chinese Ming dynasty, Tibet reclaimed independence and refused to pay further tribute to the new Chinese Emperor. The Ming Dynasty lasted until 1688. Several emperors kept close bonds to prominent  lamas, e.g. some of the Karmapas, and supported monasteries financially.

1430 Tibet entered in a period of internal power struggles. The Rinpung-rulers expanded their power in Central-Tibet; they were close to Karmapa. 

 

1447 Gendün Drub, the 1st Dalai Lama (1391 – 1475), a nephew of Tsongkhapa, founded the famous Tashilünpo-monastery in Shigatse.  He was (posthumously) recognized as the 1st Dalai Lama. 

1470s The Gelugpas had already the force and authority in Lhasa. In many other parts of Central Tibet the Karma Kagyü Lineage was influential. The Rinpung-ruler Dönyo Dorje who had controlled wide parts of Central Tibet since 1479 was a follower of the Karmapas and a close student to the 4th Shamarpa Chökyi Dragpa. Shakabpa p. 87: “The administrative officer who supported the Gelugpa Lineage refused the permission. The monastery was finally erected outside of Lhasa. Monks of the neighboring Gelugpa monasteries raided it one night and tore it down. A Karmapa-lama, Chödrag Gyamtso, was almost killed and escaped to Lhasa”.

1487 Gendün Gyatso (1475 – 1542) became the 2nd Dalai Lama posthumously. 

 

1487 – 1499 The 4th Shamarpa took the role of a king until the deceased king Gong-ma Kunga Legpa’s son could take over. Shamar Rinpoche relegated all worldly matters and remained a spiritual advisor. Many termas (terlungs) were found in which it was predicted that the Yellow Sect (= Gelug) would invite Mongolian warlords to destroy the dharma. Although many tertöns were Nyingmas they often asked Karmapa to confirm the authenticity of the termas.

Further Information

Dorje, Gyurme and Kapstein, Matthew. (1991) “The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism: Its Fundamentals and History”, pp. 666-667. Wisdom Publications, Boston

Stein, R. A. “Tibetan Civilization”, (1972) p. 84. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California

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