A Short Biography Jamgon Mipham Gyatso

Lama Jamgon Mipham Gyatso (1846-1912), or Lama Mipham, as he is most often simply called, was never enthroned as a reincarnate lama, but if anyone ever has been, he indeed was a true tulku, or Rinpoche.   Through study and lifelong discipline, through writing, teaching and successful yogic practice he displayed the qualities of a precious vessel of the dharma.  He fully shared and revealed the teachings not because he wanted to show off his scholastic prowess, but because he had proven worthy and dedicated enough to realize them.  From which follows that his writings are not based on hearsay or collected quotations from the scriptures, but on the yogic realization that he compassionately shared with others through teaching and his collected works.

By now, some of his original treatises have become available through translation into western languages, and a little has been written about him as well.  In addition, a good number of the Tibetan scholars and meditation teachers presently traveling and teaching throughout the world can, through their own root lamas, trace some of their lineages back to him.  This is in line with a prediction made about him during his lifetime, stating that Mipham’s popularity would eventually spread throughout the world.  He was as captivating, unorthodox and refreshingly broad-minded a character, free of prejudice.

It is indeed hard to imagine someone who would be equally well versed in the classical canonical literature of Indian Buddhism, as well as in the Great Perfection teachings and practices (dzogchen) of the Nyingma lineage, to the point that he can write precise and elucidating commentaries on all of these subjects, without exception, while simultaneously revealing himself as an expert in the theory of poetics as well as being a formal classically schooled poet of the highest order.  Lama Mipham accomplished both.  Not only did he write, among other similar works, commentaries to Chandrakirti’s Introduction to the Middle Way or to the major treatises of the Buddhist logicians Dignaga and Dharmakirti.  He also authored the definitive Tibetan commentary to one of the most famous theories of Indian poetics, Dandin’s Mirror of Poetics or Kavyadarsha.  Furthermore, although he took the vows of a Buddhist monk at the young age of twelve and remained a monk throughout his life, he did not permit the fact to prevent him from composing love poems, which are not only most elegant and refined in style but in terms of content, at least according to some, sound absolutely convincing and real.  All of which confirms Lama Mipham as a truly a remarkable man free of prejudices.

Besides, Lama Mipham showed continuous interest in a great many different traditional methods of forecasting, or divination.  When some lamas challenged this preoccupation with what in their view appeared to be worldly concerns as being unfit for a monk, he countered the criticism by authoring a concise essay shedding light on the subject from the perspective of the teachings.  With his usual eloquence and ample quotations from the sutras and tantras, he explained how well the topics of forecasting and divination actually suit the purpose of the dharma.  Therefore, Mipham continued to study the subject and did compose many shorter and longer presentations so that at the end of his life he had filled the prolific output of more than 2000 folios or Tibetan block print pages with his research and observations on oracles as well as divination and forecasting methods.

The interest started at a young age, even before Mipham Gyatso took the vows of a novice when he was still with his parents.  At the age of seven or eight, he learned what is called the basics or preliminaries for black and white astrology and later became very skilled in arithmetic, being able to solve any calculation problem.  After ordination, when he was fifteen he studied the white astrology of Svarodaya of the Kalachakra system, but encountered some difficulties, as he was unable to grasp the full meaning of the text.  To surmount the blockage he internally appealed for help until, when concentrating on Manjushri, understanding finally dawned.  This set in motion a lifelong deep bond to the bodhisattva of transcending wisdom.

The Role of the Practice of Manjushri and Its Influence

After Mipham had gained understanding he felt he owed a debt of gratitude and that he needed to repay the bodhisattva’s kindness of granting him insight through the realization of his practice.  Having thus recognized that Manjushri was his chosen deity, or yidam, at the age of only 15 years, Mipham went into a one and a half year long meditation retreat practicing Manjushri in his form as the “Lion of Speech”, or Simhanada.  Through his accumulation of mantras in the course of his long sessions many more sacred Manjushri pills (rilbu) spontaneously manifested in their container on the shrine, in addition to the ones he had prepared and put there when starting the retreat.  A miracle had occurred. 

As in all mantra accumulations when such self-manifesting and spontaneous increase in the amount of sacred pills or rilbus occurs, this is interpreted as a sign for the successful outcome of a retreat.  In this particular case it presaged that henceforth, Mipham would be able to understand the meaning of any scripture once a lineage teacher had transmitted it to him through reading, without further study and analysis.  This quick understanding and thorough grasp of all aspects of the teachings from the ground up beginning with the rules of discipline (vinaya) to the most secret transmissions of the Great Perfection (dzogchen) eventually convinced others to regard him as an emanation of the bodhisattva of wisdom himself.

A few years later one of Mipham’s mentors, the vajra master Wangchen Gyerab Dorje confirmed the connection when he told him on the occasion of their first encounter, “You are under White Manjushri’s protection.”  His main teacher Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo (1820-1892) made the same observation and thus conferred upon Mipham a different empowerment into the practice of White Manjushri, among the countless other scriptural transmissions, oral instructions and initiations that he shared with him.  Eventually, Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye (1813-1899), also an important root guru completed Lama Mipham’s practical exposure to the energy field and practice lineage of Manjushri by bestowing upon him the full empowerment of Black Manjushri, Lord of Life (Jampal Tsedag Nagpo) including the mantras and secret instructions for applying Black Manjushri’s four activities of: 1) pacifying; 2) magetizing; 3) subduing; and 4) destroying.  Black Manjushri, of course is also known as Black Yamantaka, or the “One of Black Complexion Who Puts an End to the Rule of the Lord of Death” (in Tibetan: Shinje Tsedag Nagpo). 

Mipham continuously upheld the practice of all of these forms of Manjushri, including in the course of his final 13-year long retreat at the end of his life, which lasted from some time in either later 1898 or early 1899 until 1912.  Naturally much of his devotion and previous expertise with the practice of Manjushri also flowed into the creation of this Book of Predictions.  The latter therefore provides much more than an intellectual formula but like all comparable Buddhist systems, represents the fruit of the realization of the practice on which it is based.  Because of this, besides indicating the possibility for forecasting it can inspire the fruition of similar results in those who take its advice to heart.

The Predictions Lama Mipham Made at the End of His Life

Padmasambhava’s predictions, including with regard to the “spreading like ants across the earth” of the Tibetan people, “and the dharma coming to the land of the red man” subsequently were not unknown to Lama Mipham.  He very much took them into account and occasionally commented on them.  For example when one of his main students, Khenpo Kunpal left for his homeland to the east of Kham in 1912, Mipham stated in very clear and lucid terms what was going to happen in the world and his homeland in the near future,

“Now I shall not remain for much longer in this body. After my death, in a couple of years hence (i.e. in 1914 when World War I broke out), war and darkness shall cover the earth, which will have repercussions even on our remote Land of Snows.  In thirty years time, a mad storm of hatred will billow like a black thundercloud in the lands of China (a reference to the Japanese occupation and ensuing civil war in China in the 1940s) and ten years later this evil shall spill over into Tibet.  At that time guru-lamas, scholars, disciples and yogis will be violently persecuted.  Due to the demon-king Pehar (a force of destructive materialism) usurping power in China, darkness and terror will enter our sacred land, with the result that violent death like a plague, will visit every village.  Then the three lords of materialism and their cousins will seize power in the Land of Snows, spreading strife, famine and oppression.  No one will be safe…”

This passage is self-explanatory.  In it as early as in 1912, Lama Mipham gives an astoundingly accurate time-line and preview of the coming events that, despite all predictions, no ordinary Tibetan could have foreseen in their devastating reality.  Having enjoyed freedom from all major wars for a little more than a thousand years, the Tibetan people in Lama Mipham’s time probably had no memory left of the sheer bestiality of the business.   They had no way of imagining the terror of any regime solely run by the powers of despotic egotism, fueled by the rigid concepts of the materialistic view. 

It is very difficult to practice dharma and support beings in the traditional Vajrayana way under the circumstances that Mipham himself outlined in the quote above.  Therefore, he stated at another occasion before his passing,  

…There is no point in my taking rebirth.  From now on, I will not take rebirth in contaminated places. It is stated [in the scriptures] that it is the nature of enlightened beings to stay in pure lands without interruption until the end of time, benefiting beings with miraculous emanations by the power of prayer…  Now I cannot possibly stay [in this body in Tibet], or take rebirth [here].  I have to go to Shambhala, in the north.

In as much as his own predictions of the future bear testimony of his capacity as a seer, Lama Mipham commanded the powers and qualities of a siddha, or fully realized yogi.  However, like practically all other masters of his caliber, he rarely showed them openly.  Once, as they were sitting outside his hut basking in the mild sun, one of Lama Mipham’s students asked him about the tangible results of a recent retreat, which had been devoted to the practice of Vajrakilaya.  In response, Lama Mipham smiled roguishly and pointed his ritual dagger or phurba (which is Vajrakilaya’s, or Dorje Phurba’s main implement) towards a snow covered slope on the opposite side of the valley.  In this very moment, a huge avalanche started to roll down where Mipham was pointing his phurba.

As he was interested in studying and conveying all aspects of philosophies and psychologies of the Dharma, including what are usually regarded as lesser sciences, such as grammar, poetics, mathematics and so forth, Lama Mipham throughout his life remained fully dedicated to the practice of the Maha-, Anu and Atiyoga cycles of teachings and the yogic powers (sang ngak) that they bestow.  Therefore, he passed from this earth plane as consciously as he had lived, as is stated in one of his short biographies,

“On the 29^th day of the fourth month, Dzogchen Rinpoche and I arrived early to discover Mipham Rinpoche’s remains seated upright in full meditation posture, the right hand displaying the gesture of teaching, the left hand in the gesture of meditation.  We stayed with him… [Finally], many miraculous signs appeared, as Rinpoche clearly uttered the words ‘vajra rainbow body’ three times.  He then dissolved into space like a rainbow, just as the sun dawned over the horizon.”

Lama Mipham’s enlightened energy did not vanish.  His teachings and transmissions remain in the world, today.  His books continue be read.  Some teachers presently alive have a special connection to him. 

In this way Lama Mipham, to the best of his vast abilities continues to promote the impartial view of the Buddhas.  Because of his yogic achievements, Mipham’s words carry the power and seal of realization into the future.  Because of his undeniable quality as a teacher, they have the quality to change and transform lives.