Garab Dorje

Garab Dorje ( Tibetan དགའ་ རབ་ རྡོ་ རྗེ་ dga 'rab rdo rje, Sanskrit : Prahevajra or Surativajra called) was the first human master who taught Dzogchen (Atiyoga, Mahasandhi) the teachings of Great Perfection as it is in the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism taught.

Transmission of Dzogchen through Vajrasattva

Exact historical data on the life of Garab Dorje are not available, according to tradition he was born in a supernatural way. His mother, a nun in the land of Oddiyana , is said to have received him after a mystical vision. He grew up quickly and is said to have been very learned even as a child, so that the king of Oddiyana adopted him. The kingdom of Oddiyana, traceable to Buddhist texts, is believed to be in the area of ​​today's Pakistan or Afghanistan. According to tradition, Garab Dorje received the teachings of Dzogchen from the Sambhogakaya -Buddha Vajrasattva after the latter was inspired to do so by the Dharmakaya -Buddha Samantabhadra .

Philosophical debate with Manjusrimitra

Already at the age of seven Garab Dorje is said to have amazed the Buddhist scholars of the kingdom with his outstanding knowledge to such an extent that the great Mahayana scholar Manjusrimitra traveled from the University of Nalanda in India to Oddiyana specifically to meet the boy in a debate on Buddhist philosophy beat. In this dispute, in which Garab Dorje demonstrated the compatibility with and superiority of Dzogchen over the classical Mahayana teachings, Manjusrimitra could not find any starting point to refute Garab Dorje's teaching.

Student of Garab Dorje

Manjusrimitra recognized the special importance of the teaching presented by Garab Dorje and he realized that only an extraordinary being would be able to transmit such a teaching. He then regretted having challenged Garab Dorje and asked the boy to be his student. Garab Dorje fully explained the teachings of Dzogchen to him and commissioned Manjusrimitra to write a treatise on the debate. Even if Garab Dorjes and Manjusrimitra's biographical dates are unknown, this script, which has survived to this day, can be roughly dated to the 5th / 6th centuries, based on its style and the philosophical perspectives mentioned therein. Date to the 17th century AD. Furthermore, Manjushrimitra put all the teachings transmitted by Garab Dorje together in a three-part system (the three series of Dzogchen: Semde, Longde and Manngagde). As the main student of Garab Dorje, it was Manjusrimitra who continued the Dzogchen lineage initiated by Garab Dorje and transferred it to Sri Singha .

Dzogchen in Tibet

This Dzogchen transmission was established in the 8th century by Padmasambhava , Vimalamitra and Vairocana , all disciples of Sri Singha, with the introduction of Buddhism in Tibet. The Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism, in which Dzogchen is the highest and most important tantric teaching, emerged from this period .

Garab Dorje's will

At the time of his death, Garab Dorje is said to have demonstrated the result of dzogchen practice, according to tradition, by miraculously dissolving his body into its energetic components ( light ). He left his spiritual legacy in which he summarized the essence of his teaching in three short verses. These verses are also known as The Three Vajra Verses .

• • The direct introduction to the original state [...]
  • The student […] has no more doubts about what that is.
  • The student remains in this state [...]

(from Namkhai Norbu, Dzogchen the way of light, p. 43 )

literature

• Garchen Rinpoche: The Three Words of Garab Dorje The Essence of the Great Perfection Otter Verlag (March 2015) ISBN 393352931X
• Namkhai Norbu: Dzogchen - The Way of Light - The teachings of Sutra, Tantra and Ati-Yoga. Diederichs Verlag, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-424-01462-1
• Namkhai Norbu: Mirror of Consciousness - Essence of Tibetan Buddhism. Diederichs Verlag, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-424-01501-6
• John Myrdhin Reynolds: The Golden Letters. Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca NY 1996, ISBN 1-55939-050-6
• Manjusrimitra: Primordial Experience - An Introduction to rDzogs-chen Meditation. Shambala Publications, Boston / London 1986, ISBN 1-57062-898-X