The Great Treasure Revealer

The Great Vidyadhara Migyur Dorje

Just as Lord Buddha Shakyamuni was born without harming his mother or causing her even the slightest bit of pain, the Vidyadhara Migyur Dorje was painlessly born on the seventh day of the ninth month of the Wood Bird Year (1645). His right hand was marked by an extraordinary blue mole, symbolizing the single-essential nature of the Dharmakaya.

Unlike other children, as a small child he always made dharma hand gestures such as the lotus-circle mudra and threatening mudra, pressing his palms together at his heart and so forth. In addition, to the astonishment of everyone, he did secret yogic exercises.

One day he had a vision of Guru Loden Chogsed, one of the eight manifestations of Padmasambhava, and through gesture transmission, he understood how to read and write. When he was seven years old, in a state of pure vision, many Primordial Wisdom Dakinis told him of the importance of relying upon a guru. Instantly, without any obscuration he had a vision of the great scholar and siddha, Raga Ah Syei (Chagmed Rinpoche), who was in solitary retreat, and an intense desire arose to be in his presence.

In the year of the Wood Horse, on the eighth day of the ninth month, when Migyur Dorje was ten years old, he finally met, with the assistance of the dharma protectors, the great Chagmed Rinpoche. Chagmed Rinpoche gave him a purification blessing of Nam Jom and Dor Sem and carefully examined all of Migyur Dorje’s attributes. He found that he possessed all of the signs and marks of an unmistakable manifestation of Padmasambhava.

In his eleventh year, the year of the Wood Sheep, on the ninth day of the first month, Migyur Dorje entered into retreat with the Mahasiddha Chagmed Rinpoche. While practicing Terton Ratna Lingpa’s Tsedrub Sangdu and accomplishing the extensive mandala, he received continual visions of Buddha Amitayus, Padmasambhava, Red Hayagriva, the sixteen Arhats, Amitabha, Avalokiteshvara and many others meditational deities. The signs of his accomplishment of the practice arose when he stopped an eclipse of the moon by holding his vital air. Unobstructedly, he was able to know what was in the minds of others. He recalled hundreds of thousands of aeons of time and spoke specifically of each of the Buddhas who had come, their names, where they traveled and taught, their parent’s names, their activities, their difficulties and their accomplishments.

By the fruit of good virtues and merits, Migyur Dorje had a vision of the Primordial Dharmakaya Buddha. Through a sign, he gave Migyur Dorje the empowerment called Tsewang Dudtsi Gegsel. Then Avalokiteshvara appeared and, according to the tradition of Thugje Chenpo Gye-u, gave Migyur Dorje extensive empowerments. Amitabha gave him the empowerment and transmission of Drubtab Gyatso, which include some forty deities. Then Padmasambhava directly transmitted the four empowerments. In addition, the primordial wisdom and wordly dharma protectors transmitted each of their individual sadhanas and authorization empowerments. All of these were collected into thirteen great volumes called Nam Cho (Space Treasures). Then Migyur Dorje practiced, fully accomplished and realized each of these secret treasures.

Although Terton Migyur Dorje was destined to reveal earth termas, the merit of sentient beings was deficient and it was due to this that his presence in this world was cut short. In 1667, the year of the Fire Sheep, he was in his twenty-third year and while staying in a sacred place in Mugsang, he began to show signs of illness. As the third month approached, his illness grew worse and he was forced to stop giving all dharma transmissions. On the eleventh day of that month, he prayed to the meditational deities and offered many dedicational prayers. On the fourteenth day, he had a vision of all eight Herukas and their accomplishment mandalas. On the morning of the fifteenth day, he beheld the three root-peaceful and wrathful assemblies of deities and assuming the vajra asana posture he entered into meditative equipoise. On the evening of the sixteenth day, while counting mantras on his prayers beads, he passed into the empty sphere of truth and remained sitting upright in meditative equipoise for three days.

During the cremation ceremony, astonishing signs were witnessed by all. Rainbows appeared like pitched tents in a pristine clear sky.  Migyur Dorje’s heart and tongue remained intact in the fire, so that future disciples could accumulate merit. His bone relics were marked with the vowels and consonants of the Tibetan language. These precious remains of Terton Migyur Dorje’s body were placed inside numerous one-storey high golden stupas. These great stupas became the objects of refuge and circumambulation for humans and spirits in order for them to accumulate merit.