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Zhitro
In Tibetan Buddhism and Bön, Zhitro ( bo, ཞི་ཁྲོ) or Shitro ''zab-chos zhi khro dgongs pa rang grol'', also known as ''kar-gling zhi-khro'' refers to a cycle of teachings revealed by the terton Karma Lingpa and traditionally believed to have been written by Padmasambhava. The practices involve a mandala of 100 peaceful (''zhi'') and wrathful (''khro'') tantric deities and associated teachings and tantric practices which focus on those deities which represent the purified elements of the body and mind. These hundred peaceful and wrathful deities are believed to manifest to a deceased person following the dissolution of the body and consciousness whilst they are in the intermediate state, or bardo, between death and rebirth. The Bardo Thodol, commonly known in the West as "The Tibetan Book of the Dead", forms one section of Karma Lingpa's Zhitro cycle. The Zhitro teachings are closely related to the Guhyagarbha Tantra and are considered an Inner Tantra. Exegesis A p ...
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Bardo Thodol
The ''Bardo Thodol'' (, "Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State"), commonly known in the West as ''The Tibetan Book of the Dead'', is a terma text from a larger corpus of teachings, the ''Profound Dharma of Self-Liberation through the Intention of the Peaceful and Wrathful Ones'', revealed by Karma Lingpa (1326–1386). It is the best-known work of Nyingma literature. In 1927 the text was one of the first examples of both Tibetan and Vajrayana literature to be translated into a European language and arguably continues to this day to be the best known. The Tibetan text describes, and is intended to guide one through, the experiences that the consciousness has after death, in the bardo, the interval between death and the next rebirth. The text also includes chapters on the signs of death and rituals to undertake when death is closing in or has taken place. The text can be used as either an advanced practice for trained meditators or to support the uninitiated d ...
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Yeshe Tsogyal
Yeshe Tsogyal (c. 757 or 777 – 817 CE) , also known as "Victorious Ocean of Knowledge", "Knowledge Lake Empress" (, ཡེ་ཤེས་མཚོ་རྒྱལ), or by her Sanskrit name ''Jñānasāgara'' "Knowledge Ocean", or by her clan name "Lady Kharchen", attained enlightenment in her lifetime and is considered the Mother of Tibetan Buddhism. Yeshe Tsogyal is the highest woman in the Nyingma Vajrayana lineage. Some sources say she, as Princess of Karchen, was either a wife or consort of Tri Songdetsen, emperor of Tibet, when she began studying Buddhism with Padmasambhava, who became her main karmamudrā consort. Padmasambhava is a founder-figure of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, and is considered as a second buddha of our era. She is known to have revealed terma with Padmasambhava and was also the main scribe for these terma. Later, Yeshe Tsogyal also hid many of Padmasambhava's terma on her own, under the instructions of Padmasambhava for future generation ...
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Bardo
In some schools of Buddhism, ''bardo'' ( xct, བར་དོ་ Wylie: ''bar do'') or ''antarābhava'' (Sanskrit, Chinese and Japanese: 中有, romanized in Chinese as ''zhōng yǒu'' and in Japanese as ''chū'u'') is an intermediate, transitional, or liminal state between death and rebirth. The concept arose soon after Gautama Buddha's death, with a number of earlier Buddhist schools accepting the existence of such an intermediate state, while other schools rejected it. The concept of ''antarābhava'', an intervening state between death and rebirth, was brought into Buddhism from the Vedic-Upanishadic (later Hindu) philosophical tradition. Later Buddhism expanded the bardo concept to six or more states of consciousness covering every stage of life and death. In Tibetan Buddhism, ''bardo'' is the central theme of the ''Bardo Thodol'' (literally ''Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State''), the ''Tibetan Book of the Dead'', a text intended to both guide the recen ...
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Terma (religion)
Terma (; "hidden treasure") are various forms of hidden teachings that are key to Vajrayana and Tibetan Buddhist and Bon spiritual traditions. In the Vajrayana Nyingma school tradition, two lineages occur: an oral ''kama'' lineage and a revealed ''terma'' lineage. Tradition holds that ''terma'' teachings were originally esoterically hidden by eighth-century Vajrayana masters Padmasambhava and Yeshe Tsogyal, to be discovered at auspicious times by treasure revealers known as tertöns. As such, terma represent a tradition of continuous revelation in Vajrayana and Tibetan Buddhism. Tradition Tradition holds that terma may be a physical object such as a text or ritual implement that is buried in the ground, hidden in a rock or crystal, secreted in a herb, or a tree, hidden in water, or hidden in the sky or in space. Though a literal understanding of ''terma'' is "hidden treasure", and sometimes refers to objects that are hidden away, the teachings associated should be understood as bei ...
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Rigpa
In Dzogchen, ''rigpa'' (; Skt. vidyā; "knowledge") is knowledge of the ground. The opposite of ''rigpa'' is ''ma rigpa'' ('' avidyā'', ignorance). A practitioner who has attained the state of ''rigpa'' and is able to rest there continuously is called a ''Rigdzin'' (see Vidyadhara), which may be used as a title either pre- or post-nominally. ''Rigpa'' (knowledge) ''Rigpa'' (Sanskrit: ''vidyā'', 'knowledge') is a central concept in Dzogchen. According to Ācārya Malcolm Smith: ''Rigpa'' is the knowledge of the ground. It has also come to mean the 'pristine awareness' that is the fundamental ground itself. Erik Pema Kunsang translates a text which provides basic definitions of ''rigpa'' and ''ma rigpa'' in a Dzogchen context: Rigpa has two aspects, namely ''kadag'' and ''lhun grub''. ''Kadag'' means "purity" or specifically "primordial purity". ''Lhun grub'' in Tibetan normally implies automatic, self-caused or spontaneous actions or processes. As quality of ''rigp ...
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Inner Tantras
Classes of Tantra in Tibetan Buddhism refers to the categorization of Buddhist tantric scriptures in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism inherited numerous tantras and forms of tantric practice from medieval Indian Buddhist Tantra. There were various ways of categorizing these tantras in India. In Tibet, the Sarma (New Translation) schools categorize tantric scriptures into four classes, while the Nyingma (Ancients) school use six classes of tantra. Sarma ("New Translation") classification The Sarma, "New Translation" schools of Tibetan Buddhism (Gelug, Sakya, Kagyu, Jonang) classify tantric practices and texts into four. In this, they follow Indian Tantric Buddhists such as Abhayākara, who makes this distinction in his ''Clusters of Quintessential Instructions''. Tantras are classified according to the capacity of persons, the deities they use, the specific types of methods they employ and how they use desire (''kama'').Tsong-kha-pa, ''The Great Exposition of Secret Mant ...
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Anuyoga
Anuyoga (Skt. अनुयोग 'further yoga') is the designation of the second of the three Inner Tantras according to the Yana (Buddhism)#The nine yanas, ninefold division of practice used by the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. As with the other yanas, Anuyoga represents both a scriptural division as well as a specific emphasis of both view and practice. Position in the nine-yana schema Anuyoga is said to emphasise the completion stage of Tantra, where the preceding division, Mahayoga emphasises the generation stage. Dalton (2003: unpaginated) in introducing the literature of the Anuyoga-yana affirms the affiliation of the Anuyoga-yana with the 'completion stage' also known as the 'perfection stage': Modern-day doxographical presentations of the Nyingma school are usually based on the system of the nine vehicles (''theg pa dgu''). Emphasis is placed on the highest three vehicles in this scheme, namely Mahāyoga, Anuyoga, and Atiyoga. Generally speaking, these three “inner ...
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Atiyoga
Dzogchen (, "Great Perfection" or "Great Completion"), also known as ''atiyoga'' ( utmost yoga), is a tradition of teachings in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism and Yungdrung Bon aimed at discovering and continuing in the ultimate ground of existence. The primordial ground (''gzhi'', "basis") is said to have the qualities of purity (i.e. emptiness), spontaneity (''lhun grub'', associated with luminous clarity) and compassion (''thugs rje''). The goal of Dzogchen is knowledge of this basis, this knowledge is called ''rigpa'' (Skt. ''vidyā''). There are numerous spiritual practices taught in the various Dzogchen systems for awakening rigpa. History Dzogchen developed in the Tibetan Empire period and the Era of Fragmentation (9th-11th centuries) and continues to be practiced today both in Tibet and around the world. It is a central teaching of the Yundrung Bon tradition as well as in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. In these traditions, Dzogchen is the highest and most defi ...
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Tibetan Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majority regions surrounding the Himalayan areas of India (such as Ladakh, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, and a minority in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand), in much of Central Asia, in the southern Siberian regions such as Tuva, and in Mongolia. Tibetan Buddhism evolved as a form of Mahāyāna Buddhism stemming from the latest stages of Indian Buddhism (which also included many Vajrayāna elements). It thus preserves many Indian Buddhist tantric practices of the post-Gupta early medieval period (500 to 1200 CE), along with numerous native Tibetan developments. In the pre-modern era, Tibetan Buddhism spread outside of Tibet primarily due to the influence of the Mongol Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), founded by Kublai Khan, which had ruled China, ...
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Śūnyatā
''Śūnyatā'' ( sa, wikt:शून्यता#Sanskrit, शून्यता, śūnyatā; pi, suññatā) pronounced in English as (shoon-ya-ta), translated most often as ''emptiness'', ''vacuity'', and sometimes ''voidness'', is a Buddhism, Buddhist concept which has multiple meanings depending on its doctrinal context. It is either an ontological feature of reality, a meditative state, or a phenomenological analysis of experience. In Theravada, Theravāda Buddhism, ''Suññatā'' often refers to the Anatta, non-self (Pāli: ''anattā'', Sanskrit: ''anātman'') nature of the Skandha, five aggregates of experience and the Āyatana, six sense spheres. ''Suññatā'' is also often used to refer to a Buddhist meditation, meditative state or experience. In Mahayana, Mahāyāna Buddhism, ''śūnyatā'' refers to the tenet that "all things are empty of intrinsic existence and nature (''svabhava'')", but may also refer to the Buddha-nature teachings and primordial or empty awar ...
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Lung (Tibetan Buddhism)
Lung ( ''rlung'') means wind or breath. It is a key concept in the Vajrayana traditions of Tibetan Buddhism and has a variety of meanings. ''Lung'' is a concept that is particularly important to understandings of the subtle body and the trikaya (body, speech and mind). Traditional Tibetan medicine practitioner Dr. Tamdin Sither Bradley provides a summary: Usages Some of the different usages of the term ''lung'' include: * the psychic winds (sanskrit: ''prana'') that travel in the internal channels, or ''nadi'' (Sanskrit) of the subtle body and are manipulated in certain Vajrayana yoga practices. * specifically the five psychic winds that are a manifestation of the mahābhūta. These five are the lifeforce that animate the bodymind (Sanskrit: ''namarupa'') of all sentient beings and are key to certain tantric Buddhist and Bon sādhanās and traditional Tibetan medicine. * to the vayu and prana of ayurveda. * as a component of the term for a type of prayer flag, named after the a ...
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