Minling Terchen Gyurme Dorje
Minling Terchen Gyurme Dorje (Tib. སྨིན་གླིང་གཏེར་ཆེན་འགྱུར་མེད་རྡོ་རྗེ་, Wyl. smin gling gter chen 'gyur med rdo rje) aka Terdak Lingpa (Tib. གཏེར་བདག་གླིང་པ་, Wyl. gter bdag gling pa) (1646-1714) — a great tertön and the founder of Mindroling Monastery.
Biography
His father was Sangdak Trinlé Lhundrup (1611-1662) and his mother was Yangchen Drolma. He was born on the tenth day of the second month of the Fire Dog year. Together with his brother Lochen Dharmashri, he played an important role in the transmission of the Nyingma Kama, bringing together the Rong lineage of Central Tibet and the Kham lineage of Eastern Tibet. The two brothers also compiled the terma collection known as the Döjo Bumzang, which was a precursor of the Rinchen Terdzö. Terdak Lingpa established Mindroling Monastery in 1676.
Final Words
His final words (Tib. འདའ་ཀའི་ཞལ་ཆེམས་, Wyl. 'da' ka'i zhal chems), which were quoted by Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo at the moment of his own parinirvana were:
- སྣང་གྲགས་རིག་གསུམ་ལྷ་སྔགས་ཆོས་སྐུའི་ངང༌། །
- nang drak rik sum lha ngak chökü ngang
- May appearance, sound and awareness in the state of deity, mantra and dharmakāya
- སྐུ་དང་ཡེ་ཤེས་རོལ་པར་འབྱམས་ཀླས་པས། །
- ku dang yeshe rolpar jamlepé
- Merge boundlessly as the display of kāyas and wisdoms,
- ཟབ་གསང་རྣལ་འབྱོར་ཆེན་པོའི་ཉམས་ལེན་ལ། །
- zabsang naljor chenpö nyamlen la
- In the profound and secret practice of the Great Yoga,
- དབྱེར་མེད་ཐུགས་ཀྱི་ཐིག་ལེར་རོ་གཅིག་ཤོག །
- yermé tuk kyi tikler ro chik shok
- And may they be of one taste, indivisible with the tiklé of the wisdom mind.
Students
His students included the Fifth Dalai Lama, Rigdzin Pema Trinlé of Dorje Drak, Sakya Trizin Kunga Tashi, his own younger brother Lochen Dharmashri and his own daughter Jetsün Mingyur Paldrön.
Further Reading
- Dudjom Rinpoche, The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism, Its Fundamentals and History, trans. and ed. Gyurme Dorje (Boston: Wisdom, 1991), vol.1, pp.825-834
- Nyoshul Khenpo, A Marvelous Garland of Rare Gems: Biographies of Masters of Awareness in the Dzogchen Lineage, Padma Publications, 2005
- Minling Terchen Gyurme Dorjee, The Jewel Ladder: A Preliminary Nyingma Lamrim, Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1990
