Rechungpa biography of alberta

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INTRODUCTION

Tibetan accounts of the life of Rechungpa (Ras-chung-pa) (1084–161) and of his teacher Milarepa (Mi-la Ras-pa) (1040–123) climaxed in 1488 with Tsangnyön Heruka’s (gTsang-smyon He-ru-ka) The Life of Milarepa¹ and The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa,² and in the sixteenth century with The Life of Rechungpa³ by Tsangnyön Heruka’s pupil, Götsang Repa.⁴

Rechungpa was a successor to the lineage of Marpa Chökyi Lodrö (Mar-pa Chos-kyi Blo-gros) (eleventh century) which was transmitted to him via Milarepa.

Marpa had received teachings in India primarily from Nāropa who had been a pupil of Tilopa. According to Karṇatantra history, Tilopa went to Oḍḍiyāna, the land of the ḍākinis where he gained access to their queen from whom he received there the Karṇatantra or Nyengyu (sNyan-rgyud), which means ‘The Aural Tantra’ or literally ‘Ear Tantra’.

It is so called because the body of the dākinī queen disappeared and T