Upa Zhigpo
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དབུས་པ་ཞིག་པོ།
dbus pa zhig po
Short biography
- From the THDL's version: "Blue Annals English Translation Chapter 03", Pg.20
- x. zhig po of dbus (Chengdu 166, R 130)
zhig po of dbus: he has been a householder of yar klungs bya sa. While he was working as a clerk at the school of rje btsun sgro sbug pa, he became converted to religion. After that, he visited lha rje rgya nag pa and studied under him the three stages of the utpannakrama and sampannakrama degrees.
He then thought of going to his native place to hold the ceremony of his coming of age. In order to collect the needed requisites, such as a parasol, conch and offering utensils, he journeyed to Nepāl.
One night on the road a thought occurred to him—“though I possess a considerable knowledge of the Doctrine, I possess no precepts to practice it. If I were to die now, I possess no effective method (of spiritual realization)." He then thought that it would be better for him to obtain precepts and thus retraced his steps. [C:167]
He came to his teacher, and made his request. The teacher bestowed on him the precepts of the Precious Oral Tradition (snyan brgyud), and he journeyed to Nepāl to practice them.
After reaching gung thang in mang yul, he sat for seven days in meditation on the impartial "Great Perfection" (rdzogs chen).
Having collected the requisites for the offering, he left Nepāl, and on arrival at gung thang in mang yul fell ill with fever. Having entrusted his belongings to the villagers, [F:13b] he proceeded towards the mountains and there practiced meditation. Again an impartial concentration of mind was produced in him, and he developed the power of passing unhindered through soil, stones, mountains and rocks. Everything seemed to him to be devoid of value.
He left behind all the articles collected by him for the ceremony of his coming of age, and kept only seven altar cups for water. He recollected his teacher's grace and thought: "A thought such as this came to me through the grace of my teacher! I should present these (cups) to my teacher! " and he took them along. But the desire to leave even them behind came again to him while on the way, but he thought again about his teacher's grace, and continued the journey. On reaching the temple, he left (the cups) in the teacher's presence, with the words: "If you need them, you can keep them! O cups! For how long did you fetter me!"
After that he pursued his studies in the mountain solitude and practiced meditation. All of a sudden he understood the words of the doctrines of all the Vehicles, without leaving out even a single word.
Further, he remained unhurt by (falling) boulders, and maintained the view that the absence and presence of a visual object were not to be differentiated.
When he was residing at the pa gor cave of g.yas ru, lightning struck his hut, and appeared above his bed, but he and a boy, who had come that night, remained unhurt.
When asked: "Was it lightning?" [C:168]
He replied: "It looks as if it was the so called lightning?”
—“Well," they said, "were you hurt?"
"How can lightning possess an independent nature, when the presence and absence of a sound are not to be differentiated?" replied he. This great Master of Yoga was endowed with many similar great achievements.
Having obtained instruction in the Doctrine from the best disciples of his uncle, he became able to maintain (his own) school. He continued his meditations, and while doing so, kept a school for eighteen years.
He died at the age of seventy in the year Wood-Female-Hare (shing mo yos—1195 A.D.).
Among the disciples of the Great Soul (bdag nyid chen po) there were many learned in the exposition of the Śāstras, such as zhig po bdud rtsi, ston po bla skyabs, dbus pa jo bsod, snye ston nyi ma rdo rje and others. Further, mes ston mgon po of [R:132] la stod and dpyal kun dga' rdo rje and others came to honor him and asked for instruction.
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