Niguma

Niguma

Niguma is considered one of the most important and influential yoginis and Vajrayana teachers of the 10th or 11th century in India. She was a dakini, and one of the founders of the Shangpa Kagyu school of Vajrayana Buddhism, along with dakini Sukhasiddhi. Like many of the mahasiddhas and Tantric practitioners of the time, Niguma was known by several names. She was also called Yogini Vimalashri, or Vajradhara Niguma, or The Sister referring to her purported relationship to the great Buddhist teacher and adept Naropa. She was also sometimes called Nigupta,[1] which is explained by the historical Buddhist scholar Taranatha as follows: "The name Nigu accords with the Indian language, which is Nigupta, and is said to mean 'truly secret' or 'truly hidden.' In fact, it is the code-language of the dakinis of timeless awareness."[2]

There is often confusion between the biographical details of Niguma's life and spiritual accomplishments and that of the renowned Vajrayana teacher and mahasiddha Naropa. While the biographical information for Niguma is scarce, what is available often offers details that are identical with the biography of Naropa.[3]

This may partially be because of genuine lack of sources from both India and Tibet as well as the nature of the dakini. One author offers this explanation:

"The elusiveness of Niguma is typical of the lore of the dakini, the very embodiment of liminal spiritual experience. Additionally the difficulty of pinpointing historical information may well be due to the lack of ancient sources from India and the lack of concern about such mundane matters by the Tibetan masters who encountered her in dreams and visions and maybe in person. After all, when confronted withe the blazing apparition of the resplendent and daunting dark dakini bestowing cryptic advice, a background check would be rendered irrelevant. Indian Buddhist hagiographies are virtually unknown, whether of men or women. In Tibet, where hagiography became a prolific genre in its own right, those of women are extremely rare, for all the usual reasons. It is in the experience of those heroes who encountered the dakini that one finds the most information, and these experiences are invested with the value of spiritual meaning."[4]

Life and History

As secret, or hidden, as her name implies, there are only a few facts known about Niguma's life. She was born into a rich Brahmin family in the town (or monastery) of Peme in Kashmir[5] in the 10th or 11th century and according to different sources was either the sister or consort of Naropa.[6]

Her family relationship with Naropa is not entirely clear from the existing sources. Harding brings forth and discusses additional evidence and concludes that Niguma was indeed Naropa's sister, not his wife or consort.[7]

A longer version of Niguma's biography can be found on the website for the Tsadra Foundation[8]

Previous Incarnations

Niguma was considered an emanation of the great dakini Mandarava, Guru Rinpoche's foremost Indian disciple.[9]

Teachers

There is almost no information about Niguma's teachers in the extant sources. As one scholar writes:

"The only specific information about Niguma's teachers that I have from my sources is her connection with a certain Lavapa, according to two accounts by Taranatha. However Lavapa is not mentioned by name in Niguma's Life Story, where it says only that 'she directly saw the truth of the nature of phenomena just by hearing some instructive advice from a few adept masters.' The only two named masters in the Life Story are Naropa and Ratnavajra, and then only as cohabitants in Kashmir." [10]

Thus, from the perspective of the spiritual lineage, it is said that Niguma's spiritual realization originates directly from the buddha Vajradhara, rather than from any living human teachers.[11]

Major students and the transmission of Niguma's lineages

Sukhasiddhi

There is some evidence that the great dakini and Vajrayana teacher Sukhasiddhi may have been a student of Niguma's. Other evidence indicates that they may never have met even while living during the same time period. Both Niguma and Sukhasiddhi were teachers of Khyungpo Neljor, and both Niguma and Sukhasiddhi are credited with the formation of the Shangpa Kagyu lineage of Vajrayana Buddhism.[12]

Thang Tong Gyalpo

The famous architect, scholar, and yogi Thang Tong Gyalpo was one of Niguma's students.[13] Thang Tong Gyalpo was instructed by Niguma in a vision. He started his own religious tradition (Wylie: thang lugs ) within the Shangpa Kagyu lineage.

Khyungpo Neljor

Niguma's main student was the Tibetan meditation master Khyungpo Neljor (Wylie: khyung po rnal 'byor ), who traveled to India to receive transmission of her teachings. Later on he became the founder of the Shangpa Kagyu lineage. On his return to Tibet, Khyungpo Neljor established a monastery at Zhangzhong in the Shang region in western Tsang. This was his main seat, and he became known as the Lama of Shang. Although he was reputed to have founded hundreds of monasteries and had thousands of students, he passed the teachings of Niguma to only one of his students, Mochok Rinchen Tsondru. The Shangpa Kagyu|Shangpa lineage is often referred to as the "secret lineage" because Niguma instructed Khyungpo Neljor to transmit the teachings to only one student for the first seven generations beginning with Vajradhara and Niguma. Niguma then passed the lineage to Khyungpo Neljor who passed it to Mokchokpa Rinchen Tsondru (1110-1170). After that, Niguma's lineage went to Wonton Kyergngpa (or Chokyi Senge, 1143-1216), Sangye Nyenton (or Rigongpa, 1175-1247/1255?), and Drogon Sangye Tonpa (1207-1278). At this point, the lineage stream was opened up and teachings and practices were given to many others.[14]

Niguma's teachings and spiritual practices

Overview

The legacy of Niguma's teachings and spiritual practices is still available today. Included in the corpus are songs and prayers (including aspiration prayers),[15] a sadhana cycle called The Six Dharmas of Niguma (see below),[16] mahamudra practices,[17] as well as unique sadhana practice cycles for Chakrasamvara,[18] and Hevajra,.[19]

Examples of songs and prayers

Like other early Indian mahasiddhas, Niguma is known for her oral teachings in the form of songs. Here are both songs to Niguma and songs by Niguma.

A Song of Niguma

When one realizes that our many thoughts of anger and desire,
which churn the ocean of Samsara,
are devoid of any self-nature,
everything becomes a land of gold, my child.
When one meditates that magiclike phenomena
are all like magical illusions,
one will attain magiclike buddhahood,
[and all of the five paths and ten stages.]*
This, through the power of devotion!

[20] [21][22]

Niguma's Song of Illusion

If you practice illusion-like meditation
On illusion-like phenomena,
Illusion-like Buddhahood will arise
Through the power of your devotion.
[23]

Songs of Female Masters
Translated by Lama Willa Miller at the Natural Dharma Fellowship

Words of Dakini Niguma

What throws you down into samsara's deep ocean
Are these thoughts of attachment and anger.
But realize they don't truly exist,
And all is an island of gold!
[24]

Vajra Verses of the Self-Liberating Great Seal

Nature of mind,
Wish-fulfilling jewel, to you I bow.
Wishing to attain perfect enlightenment,
Visualize your body clearly as the deity
To purify ordinary thoughts.
Develop a noble intention to help others
And pure devotion to your spiritual master.
Don’t dwell on your spiritual master or the deity.
Don’t bring anything to mind,
Be it real or imagined.
Rest uncontrived in the innate state.
Your own mind, uncontrived, is the body of ultimate enlightenment.
To remain undistracted within this is meditation’s essential point.
Realize the great, boundless, expansive state.
Myriad thoughts of anger and desire
Propel you within the seas of existence.
Take the sharp sword of the unborn state
And cut through them to their lack of intrinsic nature.
When you cut a tree’s root,
Its branches won’t grow
On a bright ocean,
Bubbles emerge then dissolve back into the water.
Likewise, thoughts are nothing but the nature of reality:
Don’t regard them as faults. Relax.
When you have no clinging to what appears, what arises,
It frees itself within its own ground.
Appearances, sound, and phenomena are your own mind.
There are no phenomena apart from mind.
Mind is free from birth, cessation,
And formulation.
Those who know mind’s nature
Enjoy the five senses’ pleasures
But do not stray from the nature of reality.
On an island of gold,
You search in vain for earth and stones.
In the equanimity of the great absolute expanse,
There is no acceptance or rejection,
No states of meditation or postmeditation.
When you actualize that state,
It is spontaneously present,
Fulfilling beings’ hopes
Like a wish-fulfilling jewel.
Persons of the highest, middle, and common levels of capability
Should learn this in stages suitable to their understanding.
[25]

The Six Dharmas of Niguma or The Six Yogas of Niguma?

Niguma brought forth a tantric sadhana cycle, a cohesive set of spiritual practices, referred to properly as the Vajra Lines of the Six Dharmas, sometimes also referred to as the Six Yogas of Niguma. This is a parallel to the more well known Six Yogas of Naropa. Yet, for both Niguma's and Naropa's Vajrayana sadhana cycles, it is more accurate to use the term six dharmas.

"The term yoga (sbyor ba) is never used for this set of practices in Tibetan, and they should not be confused with the Kālacaka tradition's group of six practices that are called yogas."[26]

The Six Dharmas of Niguma are classified as completion stage (rdzogs rim) practices focusing on controlling and refining the channels, winds, and energies of the subtle body.

Details of the sadhana cycle brought forth by Niguma can be found in Selected Works of the Dalai Lama: The Tantric Yogas of Sister Niguma compiled, edited, and translated by Glenn H. Mullin, 1985, Snow Lion Publications.

Additional details of the Nigh Chosdrug, or Six Yogas of Sister Niguma can be found here:http://yoniversum.nl/daktexts/niguchos.html

An interesting comparison of the The Six Dharmas of Niguma with The Six Dharmas of Naropa can be found in Niguma, Lady of Illusion by Sarah Harding, pp. 135–136.

References

  1. ↑ https://www.tbrc.org/#!rid=P47
  2. ↑ Sarah Harding. Niguma, Lady of Illusion. Snow Lion Publications. 2010. p. 7
  3. ↑ Sarah Harding. Niguma, Lady of Illusion. Snow Lion Publications. 2010. pp. 1-6
  4. ↑ Sarah Harding. Niguma, Lady of Illusion. Snow Lion Publications. 2010. pp. 1-2
  5. ↑ Sarah Harding. Niguma, Lady of Illusion. Snow Lion Publications. 2010. p. 3
  6. ↑ Sarah Harding. Niguma, Lady of Illusion. Snow Lion Publications. 2010. p. 4
  7. ↑ Sarah Harding. Niguma, Lady of Illusion. Snow Lion Publications. 2010. pp. 3-6
  8. ↑
  9. ↑ Kongtrul, Jamgon; Zangpo, Ngawang (2003). Timeless Rapture: Inspired Verses of the Shangpa Masters. Ithaca, New York, USA: Snow Lion Publications. ISBN 978-1-55939-204-4.
  10. ↑ Sarah Harding. Niguma, Lady of Illusion. Snow Lion Publications. 2010. p. 6
  11. ↑ http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Niguma
  12. ↑ http://sukhasiddhi.org/about/lineage/niguma-story/
  13. ↑ TBRC Person P2778: thang stong rgyal po, Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center
  14. ↑ Sarah Harding. Niguma, Lady of Illusion. Snow Lion Publications. 2010. p. 29
  15. ↑ Sarah Harding. Niguma, Lady of Illusion. Snow Lion Publications. 2010. pp. 193-197.
  16. ↑ Sarah Harding. Niguma, Lady of Illusion. Snow Lion Publications. 2010. pp. 135-142 and pp. 183-192.
  17. ↑ Sarah Harding. Niguma, Lady of Illusion. Snow Lion Publications. 2010. pp. 143-152.
  18. ↑ Sarah Harding. Niguma, Lady of Illusion. Snow Lion Publications. 2010. pp. 167-176.
  19. ↑ Sarah Harding. Niguma, Lady of Illusion. Snow Lion Publications. 2010. pp. 177-182
  20. ↑ Note: This extra line occurs only in a brief history of the Shangpa tradition by Jonang Jetsun Taranatha
  21. ↑ Translated from the Tibetan by Sherab Drime [TSD]
  22. ↑ http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/Niguma
  23. ↑ http://www.naturaldharma.org
  24. ↑ http://www.ktgrinpoche.org/songs/words-dakini-niguma
  25. ↑ Kongtrul, Jamgon (2003). Timeless Rapture: Inspired Verses of the Shangpa Masters. Snow Lion Publications., p.47
  26. ↑ Roberts, Peter Alan (2011). Mahamudra and Related Instructions. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications. p. 5.

Books

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, May 07, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.