Mipham Rinpoche

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Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche
Kunkhyen Jamyang Mipham Rinpoche

མི་ཕམ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ།
mi pham rin po che
Jamgon Ju Mipham Namgyal
འཇམ་མགོན་འཇུ་མི་ཕམ་རྣམ་རྒྱལ།
'jam mgon 'ju mi pham rnam rgyal

Short Biography

Repository of the four aspects of perfect intelligence,
Lord of the kingdom of dharma,
You were the greatest pandita of your generation:
Homage to Jamgon Mipham.


Jamyang Mipham Namgyal Gyatso Rinpoche (1846-1912) ranks alongside Longchen Rabjam and Tsongkhapa as one of Tibet's most prolific and influential masters. His presentation of the Nyingma School's unique approach to the view and practice of Buddhism, and in particular the relationship between Madhyamaka and the Great Perfection, has had an enormous impact on the past few generations of Tibetan Buddhist scholars and practitioners. Namdrolling Monastic College, currently the largest functioning Nyingma educational institution, includes twenty of his texts in its curriculum. By comparison, only five texts by Longchenpa are included and only one by Rongzom Mahapandita.

Mipham's primary teachers were Patrul Rinpoche and Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, both incarnations of the tertön Rigdzin Jigme Lingpa. Khyentsé Rinpoche requested Mipham to preserve the Nyingma teachings through teaching, debate, and composition—a task in which he admirably succeeded. About his remarkable student, Khyentsé remarked: “In this time, there is no one else on earth more learned than Lama Mipham.”

He excelled not only in study and teaching, however, but in practice as well. The numerous retreats he completed were always accompanied by miraculous signs of accomplishment.

Mipham Rinpoche’s collected writings comprise twenty-seven volumes and cover a vast array of topics. Among his most influential writings are The Speech of Delight—a commentary on Shantarakshita's Ornament of the Middle Way, Gateway to Knowledge—which provides an overview of the Buddha’s teachings, and Beacon of Certainty—an elucidation of the view of the Great Perfection and its relationship to the Middle Way teachings.

Mipham’s most important students were Dodrupchen Rinpoche, the Fifth Dzogchen Rinpoche, Gemang Kyabgon, Khenpo Padmavajra, Palyul Gyaltrul, Karma Yangtrul, Palpung Situ Rinpoche, Ling Jetrung, Adzom Drukpa, Tokden Shakya Shri, Ngor Ponlob, and others. The great tulkus of Sechen Monastery, Dzogchen Monastery, Kathok Monastery, Palyul Monastery, Palpung Monastery, Dege Gonchen, Repkong and others of all lineages, Sakya, Gelug, Kagyu, and Nyingma, all became his disciples.

Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche was also instrumental in training some of last century’s most important Nyingma teachers. His most prominent students include Khenpo Kunpal, Katok Situ, Sechen Rabjam Rinpoche, Khenpo Pema Dorje, and the terton Lerab Lingpa.

Verses by Ju Mipham


Whenever there is focus or reference on something, that is poison to the view.
Whenever there is contrivance or effort, that is a fault of meditation.
Whenever there is some reification of adopting and rejecting, conduct is lost.
May we realize pure reality, free of pain.


Supplicational Prayers


སྨྲ་བའི་སེང་གེའི་མཁྱེན་རབ་སྙིང་ལ་ཞུགས། །
The wisdom of Manjushri, Lion of Speech, arose in your heart,
ཀུན་ཏུ་བཟང་པོའི་སྨོན་ལམ་རྣམ་པར་སྦྱར། །
And you trained in the infinite aspirations of Samantabhadra,
སྲས་བཅས་རྒྱལ་བའི་ཕྲིན་ལས་སྒྲུབ་མཛད་པ། །
Performing the enlightened actions of the buddhas and their heirs:
འཇམ་དཔལ་དགྱེས་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེར་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས།། །།
Jampal Gyepé Dorje, to you I pray!


རིག་སྟོང་འཇམ་དཔལ་གཞོན་ནུའི་བྱིན་བརླབས་ལས། །
Through the blessings of ever-youthful Manjushri, who is awareness-emptiness,
དགོངས་པའི་ཀློང་ལས་སྤོབས་པའི་གཏེར་ཆེན་རྡོལ། །
You released the eight treasures of confidence from the space of the wisdom mind.
ལུང་རྟོགས་ཆོས་མཛོད་རྒྱ་མཚོར་མངའ་དབང་བསྒྱུར། །
Supreme master of the vast treasure of the dharma of scripture and realization,
མི་ཕམ་འཇམ་དབྱངས་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་ལ་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས།། །།
I supplicate you, Mipham Namgyal.

Literary Works

See Writings of Mipham

Main Teachers

Main Students

Main Lineages

Alternate Names & Spellings

Other Reference Sources

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