Sakya pandita biography sample

His reputation parallelled that of the great Indian masters Dharmakirti and Dignaga and the qualities of his body, speech and mind spread like a banner for all to see. Consequently, Prince Godan, the Mongol ruler of China, longing to behold his face which glowed like the moon, sent envoys to invite him to China. After concentrated prayer, Sakya Pandita decided to accept the invitation, with the benefit of his Tibetans students in mind.

Prince Godan, immensely rich and successful, was searching for a lama who would guide him on the path of liberation and omniscience. He insisted that Sakya Panditathe greatest sage in Tibet, should be invited to accomplish this task. As his own lama had prophesied, Sakya Pandita became the supreme ornament in China after his arrival there.

Through his unparallelled actions of body, speech and mind, he spread the teaching throughout numerous uncivillized lands. He delivered Prince Godan from his illness and the Prince developed great faith in him. However, one day when he was teaching the "Suvarnaparabha sutra" and had reached the line 'the tortoise has no hair', the Prince and his ministers decided to test him.

To this end, the Prince requested a Chinese magician to create a magic temple at the side of a lake and then invited Sakya Pandita to meet him there. In a state of profound meditation, Sakya Pandita blessed the temple by throwing flowers. The magician was consequently powerless to destroy the illusion.

Sakya pandita biography sample: A short biography of Sakya

The Prince and his retinue were then filled with faith and named the temple 'magical temple of the North' Byang-phyogs sPrul-pa'i Lha-khang. Sakya Pandita reached Kodan's camp inmeeting with Koden the following year. Sa-pan purportedly provided a treatment that cured the Khan's skin disease, possibly leprosy, which put him especially good standing with the Mongols.

Sa-pan and his nephew Pagpa eventually developed a script called the Pagpa script for the Mongolian, which was previously unwritten. Although they were not the only Tibetans present, and shared the religious stage with Christians, Muslims, and Chinese of various traditions, Sa-pan and his nephews' presence at the court was a key factor in the establishment of Buddhism in Mongolia, and he successfully converted many members of the ruling house.

According to Tibetan histories, in Koden appointed Sa-pan as temporal ruler of Tibet, although this likely meant very little in terms of real power. Sakya Pandita is said to have sent a letter to other leaders in Tibet urging them to submit to Mongol rule and pay tribute, but the letter seems to have been largely ignored. Nevertheless, Sakya Pandita's relationship with Koden is often cited as a model for the later development of the so-called priest-patron mchod-yon relationship between Tibet and its more militarily powerful neighbors, most famously embodied by his nephew Pagpa and Khubilai Khan at the start of the Yuan Dynasty.

Sakya pandita biography sample: Sakya Pandita is among

Sa-pan's ventures in Mongolian power also helped lay the ground for the long standing tradition of linking Buddhist authority and political rule in Tibet. Sa-pan died in Liangzhou in Sources : Davidson, Ronald. Tibetan Renaissance. New York: Columbia University Press. Grags pa 'byung gnas. Gangs can mkhas grub rim byon ming mdzod. Lanzhou: Kan su'u mi rigs dpe skrun khang, pp.

Dungkar Losang Khrinley. Dunkar Tibetological Great Dictionary Dung dkar tshig mdzod chen mo. Beijing: China Tibetology Publishing House. Gold, Jonathan. Jackson, David. Vienna: Arbeitskreis fur Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien. Weisbaden: Verlag. Even self-conceited ones such as kings ofIndia desired to receive Dharma teachings from me.

Some genuine realization inwardly arose in my mind. Based on this, countless good qualities of meditation arose in his mind. We must celebrate it fully by making offerings. On the bank of the river, my Lord of Dharma Jetsun Rinpoche Drakpa Gyaltsen sat where the bank steps down to the water, listening to secret songs of the mantrayana Dharma, sung by Loppon Sodnam Tsemo, who held his head high.

While I listened, I climbed the steps of the bank toward Sodnam Tsemo. I heard that a similar dream had occurred to Shakya Shri Badhra, and when I asked him about it later, the dream had occurred to both of us on the same night. Some disciples with pure perception, such as Podon Rinpoche and others, perceived him as inseparable from Manjushri.

My Lord was also clairvoyant. One example of this occurred when my Lord visited the north. While he was there, in the middle autumn month of the wood female snake year, and again in the last autumn month of the iron male dog year, he declared that he would depart for another realm in the iron pig sakya pandita biography sample. Some of his close disciples heard and recorded this, and it later occurred just as he had predicted.

When composed primarily to benefit others, the words and meaning of his texts are flawless, logical, clear, in harmony with the sutras and tantras, and beyond criticism, even by the most learned. Indeed, all of his writing is amazingly beautiful. Some of his works were composed primarily to demonstrate elegance in composition, such as Homage to the Sugatas, Beseeching the Compassion of the Enlightened Ones, and Elegant Speech.

All of these works are beautifully composed, the words and meaning are in balance, and the metaphors do not contradict the meaning behind them. Clear distinctions are made between the types of prose, heavy and light accents, and long and short sounds. The words and punctuation beautify and ornament the compositions. Although they are elegantly written, their meaning is clear, and the poetry is easy to recite and pleasant to hear.

Sakya pandita biography sample: Sapaṇ is one of Tibet's

All of his writings are as works of pure gold, ornamented by jeweled tassels. It could also be said that they are like a garden of perfect pearls, extremely beautiful and elegantly composed. When his compositions are read or heard by others, they delight the learned, are suitable for quotation by the intelligent, and are the object of admiration by the wise.

His words were beyond criticism, and therefore, the courage of every challenger quailed. He defeated many Tibetan masters who were known as great scholars, and outshone many Buddhist panditas of India. He also defeated masters of other religions. For instance, Harinanda was famous throughout India for his learning. When he heard of the fame of Sakya Pandita, he came to Tibet to challenge him to debate, together with six other learned Hindu masters.

Sakya Pandita thoroughly defeated all of them with his wisdom, and placed them in the right view. Until the age of 63, he engaged in study, contemplation, meditation, teaching, composition, and debate in Tibet. Through this, he served the doctrine of the Buddha, like the rising of the morning sun, and his fame pervaded the world. In the year of the male wood dragon, at the age of 63, Sakya Pandita embarked for Chinawith two nephews.

On his journey, many famous learned masters and other fortunate disciples requested empowerments, blessings, explanations of the tantra, and pith instructions. He fulfilled the requests of each of them according to their needs, and turned the wheel of Dharma in many places of Tibet. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version.

In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item. Tibetan Lama — Biography [ edit ]. Early life [ edit ]. Mongol invasion [ edit ]. See also: Mongol conquest of Tibet. The stay at the Mongol court [ edit ]. Death and inheritance [ edit ]. Work [ edit ]. List of works [ edit ]. Key personalities. Practices and attainment. Major monasteries.

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Sakya pandita biography sample: Kunga Gyeltsen became a close disciple

Selected works [ edit ]. Other works [ edit ]. Translations [ 36 ] [ edit ]. See also [ edit ].