kirtu wrote:Thanks yegyal and Yudron!
I will see if I can get "Apparitions" and "Approaching the Great Perfection" from the local libraries.
Jigme Lingpa apparently became extremely popular and gained royal support at Dege as a result of his public teachings during his second retreat. But there is no hint of opposition or criticism of his terms as was recorded for Chogyur Lingpa and Pema Lingpa. I would have expected some pushback as he appears to have not had a high status as a getsul. I am reading his "Treasury of Precious Qualities" - a unique poetic exposition. While it encompasses the traditional preliminary teachings, presentation in poetic form has a different impact than that of the prose WOMPT, "The Three Visions", or "Buddhahood in the Palm of Your Hand". Did Jigme Lingpa become noted as a poet as a getsul or just after his first retreat?
Thanks!
Kirt
Jigme Lingpa, Longchenpa, Mipham and Dudjom Rinpoche are the greatest writers of the Nyingma tradition. However, I don't know whether you can separate out being noted as a poet and being noted as a great lama. Many of Longchenpa's great works were presented in verse, and as an emanation of Longchenpa one would imagine texts would come forth that way for him as well.
The queen of Dege became Jigme Lingpa's patron became aware of him possibly through his secret biographies, which were already written by the time she became his student (After his second retreat and discovery of the LN), but more likely--says Janet Gyatso--through word of mouth coming from his discussions with his lama and close disciples. The 450 page outer biography was not written until after she met him.
His lama wrote him a letter verifying the authenticity of his treasures, the regional royalty were his students. With that kind of support, people are not going to question his terma. Also, if my memory is correct, he did not do the big public treasure revealments, with crowds and so forth, the way Pema Lingpa and others did... which are always bound to raise a few eyebrows.