Eight Manifestations of Guru Rinpoche

Part of the personal collection of Sogyal Rinpoche. Painted by Salga. ©Tertön Sogyal Trust

The Eight Manifestations of Guru Rinpoche (Tib. གུ་རུ་མཚན་བརྒྱད་, guru tsen gyé; Wyl. gu ru mtshan brgyad) are the eight principal forms assumed by Guru Rinpoche at different points in his life:

Guru Tsokyé Dorje (birth), Tib. གུ་རུ་མཚོ་སྐྱེས་རྡོ་ཇེ་, Wyl. gu ru mtsho skyes rdo rje
Guru Shakya Sengé (ordination), Tib. གུ་རུ་ཤཱཀྱ་སེང་གེ་, Wyl. gu ru shAkya seng ge
Guru Nyima Özer (subjugating demonic spirits), Tib. གུརུ་ཉི་མ་འོད་ཟེར་, Wyl. gu ru nyi ma 'od zer
Guru Padmasambhava (establishing Buddhism in Tibet), Tib. གུརུ་པདྨ་འབྱུང་གནས་, Wyl. gu ru pad+ma 'byung gnas
Guru Loden Choksé (mastery of the teachings), Tib. གུ་རུ་བློ་ལྡན་མཆོག་སྲེད་, Wyl. gu ru blo ldan mchog sred
Guru Pema Gyalpo (kingship), Tib. གུ་རུ་པདམ་རྒྱལ་པོ་, Wyl. gu ru padma rgyal po
Guru Sengé Dradrok (subjugation of non-buddhists), Tib. གུ་རུ་སེང་གེ་སྒྲ་སྒྲོག་, Wyl. gu ru seng ge sgra sgrog
Guru Dorje Drolö (concealing terma, binding spirits under oath), Tib. གུརུ་རྡོ་རྗེ་གྲོ་ལོད་, Wyl. gu ru rdo rje gro lod

The Eight Manifestations of Padmasambhava do not depict different Padmasambhavas, but reflect his ability to appear according to different needs and demands. In fact, they are called in Tibetan Guru Tsen Gyé, the eight ‘names’ of the Guru; each manifestation demonstrates a different principle that unveils the innermost nature of mind. As Guru Rinpoche said: “Mind itself is Padmasambhava; there is no practice or meditation apart from that.”^[1]

Alternative Names & Lists

Other lists include:

Orgyen Dorje Chang (Skt. Guru Vajradhara)
Pemajungné (Skt. Padmakara) (central image?)

Pema Kathang

In the Pema Kathang revealed by Orgyen Lingpa the eight manifestations are mentioned in chapter 19:

Guru Shakya Sengé (east)
Guru Pema Gyalpo (south)
Guru Padmasambhava (west)
Guru Dorje Drolö (north)
Guru Nyima Özer (southeast)
Guru Padmakara (southwest)
Guru Sengé Dradrok (northwest)
Guru Loden Choksé (northeast)

Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo

In his praise of the eight manifestations entitled A Garland of Youthful Utpalas (ut+pal gzhon nu'i do shal)^[2], Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo lists the eight as:

Guru Tsokyé Dorje
Guru Loden Choksé
Guru Pema Gyalpo
Guru Shakya Sengé
Guru Nyima Özer
Guru Sengé Dradrok
Guru Dorje Drolö
Guru Padmakara

Dungkar Lobzang Trinlé

In his Great Dictionary (p.500), Dungkar Lobzang Trinlé lists them as follows:

Guru Tsokyé Dorje
Guru Dorje Drakpo Tsal
Guru Shakya Sengé
Guru Loden Choksé
Guru Pema Tötreng Tsal
Guru Pema Gyalpo
Guru Nyima Özer
Guru Sengé Dradrok

Tukdrup Yang Nying Kundü

In the empowerment of Tukdrup Yang Nying Kundü, Guru Rinpoche and his Eight Manifestations appear as:

the master Padma Thötreng,
the vidyadhara Padmajungné,
the bhikshu Padmasambhava,
the scholar Loden Choksé,
the majestic and overpowering Padma Gyalpo,
the yogin Nyima Özer,
the bhagavan Shakya Sengé,
the great wrathful Senge Dradok and
the crazy Dorje Drolö.^[3]

Gallery

Sets of thangkas of the Eight Manifestations include a central image of Guru Pema Jungné.

Pema Jungné or Tsokyé Dorje?
Orgyen Dorje Chang
Shakya Sengé
Nyima Özer
Padmasambhava
Loden Choksé
Pema Gyalpo
Sengé Dradok
Dorje Drolö

The Empowerment of Padmasambhava and his Eight Manifestations

Tukdrup Yang Nying Kundü (Tib.), the empowerment of Padmasambhava and his Eight Manifestations according to the Sangwa Gyachen (Tib.), the Pure Visions of the Great Fifth Dalai Lama, has been given to the Rigpa sangha by His Holiness the Dalai Lama at:
- the Pagode de Vincennes in Paris, 1982,
- San Jose 1989 and
- Lerab Gar 2000.

References

↑ Adapted from Dzogchen & Padmasambhava
↑ Collected Works, Vol. ka, pages 132-4
↑ Dalai Lama, Dzogchen, page 230.

External Links

Padmasambhava: Eight Forms at Himalayan Art

[1] Adapted from Dzogchen & Padmasambhava

[2] Collected Works, Vol. ka, pages 132-4

[3] Dalai Lama, Dzogchen, page 230.

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