Manjushrimitra

Manjushrimitra (also: Jampelshenyen ; Tib . : jam dpal bshes gnyen ) was a great Mahayana scholar at the Buddhist monastery university of Nalanda . He lived around the 5th / 6th Century.

Philosophical debate with Garab Dorje

Manjushrimitra is known for being a great scholar who had studied all branches of Buddhist doctrine and who was considered one of the most knowledgeable Buddhist personalities of his time to be beaten in the philosophical debate by a seven-year-old boy named Garab Dorje . At this age, according to tradition, Garab Dorje is said to have so amazed the Buddhist scholars of the kingdom of Oddiyana with his outstanding knowledge and profound wisdom that the great Mahayana scholar Manjushrimitra traveled to Oddyana from the University of Nalanda in India Beat boys in a debate on Buddhist philosophy. In this dispute, in which Garab Dorje demonstrated the compatibility with and superiority of the doctrine of Dzogchen over the classical Mahayana teachings, Manjushrimitra could not find any starting point to refute Garab Dorje's teachings.

Student of Garab Dorje

Manjusrimitra recognized the special importance of the teaching presented by Garab Dorje and 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 the exact dates of Garab Dorjes and Manjusrimitra's life are unknown, this script, which has been preserved 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 . Manjusrimitra was also an important link in the transmission of the Mahayoga cycle via Yamantaka from India to Tibet.

Dzogchen in Tibet

The Dzogchen transmission systematized by Manjushrimitra was established in the 8th century AD 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 . In Tibet there was already a Dzogchen teaching in the Bon tradition that was independent of the transmission by Garab Dorje and is said to go back to the teacher Shenrab Miwoche . Even if the teachings of Dzogchen can historically be assigned to these two religious traditions, because of their immediacy they transcend the context of religious concepts.

literature

• 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 . ( Core text presents the above-mentioned debate or the argumentation of Garab Dorje ), Shambala Publications, Boston / London 1986 ISBN 1-57062-898-X