Machig Labdrön

Machig Labdrön (Tibetan: མ་གཅིག་ལབ་སྒྲོན་, Wylie: Ma-gcig Lab-sgron, English translation: Unique Mother Torch of Lab) (1055 - 1149*Norbu, Namkhai (1986). The Crystal and the Way of Light. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. ISBN 0140290848) was a renowned 11th century Tibetan Tantric Buddhist practitioner and teacher. 
Machig Lapdrön was a great Tibetan yogini who originated several Tibetan lineages of the Indian tantric practice of Chöd. Machig may have came from a Bönpo family and, according to Chogyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, developed Chöd by combining native Tibetan Bönpo shamanism with the Dzogchen teachings. 
==Iconography==
Iconographically, Machig Labdrön is often depicted with the attributes of a dakini, a representation of enlightened female energy. She holds a drum (damaru) in her right hand and a bell in her left. Her right leg is often lifted and the standing left leg is bent in motion. Machig is white in color with three eyes and wears the Six Bone Ornaments of the charnel grounds, which is traditional for a practicing yogini.
==Predictions of her birth==
In the Life of Yeshe Tsogyel, Padmasambhava predicted that Yeshe Tsogyel would be reborn as Machig Lapdron; her consort, Atsara Sale,some information on Atsara Sahle from Nepal The Website of the Darma Fellowship of His Holiness the Gyalwa Karmapa would become Topabhadra, Machig's husband; her assistant and Padmasambhava's secondary consort, Tashi Khyidren, would be reborn as Machig's only daughter, and so on. All of the important figures in Tsogyel's life were to be reborn in the life of Machig Lapdron, including Padmasambhava himself, who would become Phadampa Sangye.Women of Wisdom, Extract: MACHIG LAPDRON by Tsültrim Allione
==Biography==
Machig was the mindstream emanation (tulku) of another great yogini, Yeshe Tsogyal, as well as "an emanation of the 'Great Mother of Wisdom,' Yum Chenmo, and of Arya Tara, who transmitted to her [Machig] teachings and initiations."*Edou, Jérôme. Machig Labdrön and the Foundations of Chöd. ISBN 1559390395, p.6 This pattern of reincarnations and emanations continued into the life just before her birth as Machig Labdrön. In the lifetime before, she was the Indian yogi, Mönlam Drub. After his death, the body of the twenty-year-old Mönlam Drub is said to have remained "alive" in the cave of Potari in Southern India. 
According to tradition, it was Mönlam Drub's mindstream which entered the womb of Bum Cham ("Great Noble Woman"), who lived in the area of Labchi Eli Gangwar in Tibet, which caused the birth of Machig. According to the biography of Machig that appears in Tsultrim Allione's work Women of Wisdom, her mother experienced auspicious dreams of dakinis shortly after conception, dreams which contained the vase and the conch of the Ashtamangala:
When consciousness entered the womb of the mother on the fifteenth day, she dreamt that four white dakinis carrying four white vases poured water on her head and afterwards she felt purified. Then seven dakinis, red, yellow, green, etc., were around her making offerings, saying “Honor the mother, stay well our mother to be.”
After that, a wrathful dark-blue dakini wearing bone ornaments and carrying a hooked knife and a retinue of four blue dakinis carrying hooked knives and skull cups, surrounded her, in front of her, behind her, and to the left and right. All five were in the sky in front of Bum Cham. The central dakini was a forearm’s length higher than the rest.
She raised her hooked knife and said to the mother: “Now I will take out this ignorant heart.”
She took her knife and plunged it into the mother’s heart, took out the heart and put it in the skull cup of the dakini in front of her, and they all ate it. Then the central dakini took a conch which spiraled to the right and blew it. The sound resounded all over the world. In the middle of the conch was a luminous white “A”.
She said” “Now I will replace your heart with this white conch shell”...
Even after she woke up she felt great bliss.*Allione, Tsultrim. "The Biography of Machig Labdron (1055-1145)," in Women of Wisdom. Snow Lion Publications. ISBN 1559391413, pp. 174-175
As a child and young woman, Machig made a living as a liturgy reader. She was fortunate to be literate and patrons would hire her to read the Prajna Paramita Sutra or 'The Perfection of Wisdom', a Mahayana Sutra, in their homes as a form of blessing and to gain merit. Machig was known to be a fast reader and so was in much demand as this meant that she could complete the entire text quickly and her patrons would have to pay for fewer meals for her while she read.
The namthar entitled Secret Biography of Machig LabdronThe Secret Biography of Machig Labdron relates the struggles that she underwent in order to avoid traditional marriage and eventually left home to practice the Dharma as her life's calling. After leaving the monastic order in Yuchong, she married Indian Pandita Topa Draya. (thod-pa gra-ya), also a Buddhist practitioner, who supported Machig in her practices. Together, they had two sons and one daughter (or three sons and two daughters by some accounts). Her second son, Tonyon Samdru (thod-smyon bsam-grub), became one of her main successors and a propagator of Machig Labdron's teachings. He became a monk at the age of 15 under the tutorship of Pha Dampa Sangye. Pha Dampa Sangye's original name was Dampa Sangye. Tonyon Samdru treated him as stepfather and called him Pha Dampa Sangye, with "Pha" meaning "father" and many Tibetans call him Phadampa Sangye to this day. 
Some say that Machig received instructions from Pha Dampa Sangye, as her Guru and the reincarnation of Padmasambhava which led to profound realizations. However, for several years Machig's main practice was one of tantric union with her spiritual consort and husband, Topabhadra, an emanation of Buddha Shakyamuni (according to a prediction given to Machig by Arya Tara), with whom she raised a family, living the "Red & White essence."Short Biography
Even though Machig spent some time living with monastics, she was not a celibate nun; she partnered and had both daughters and sons who became lineage holders. One of her sons even started out as a thief. Machig was eventually able to bring him to the Dharma and became his teacher: "You may think that Gods are the one's who give you benefits, and Demons cause damage; but it may be the other way round. Those who cause pain teach you to be patient, and those who give you presents may keep you from practising the Dharma. So it depends on their effect on you if they are Gods or Demons," she said. Machig also had female disciples and the four main women disciples were called Machig's Gyen, or Ornaments.See Harding for more on these female disciples
During Machig's lifetime, the Buddhist teachings that came from India were considered authentic and there were none that originated in Tibet. As one of Machig's biographies states:
All the Dharmas originated in India
And later spread to Tibet
Only Machig's teaching, born in Tibet,
Was later introduced in India and practiced there.The Marvelous Life of Machig Labdron, as quoted in Edou, p. 1
As a result, there was so much controversy over Machig's teachings that a delegation of Brahmins was sent from India to Tibet to assess Machig's qualifications and teachings. After her students gathered with her at Zangri Khangmar (Machig's home in Tibet from the age of 39 until her death at the age of 99),Zangri Kangmar: Machig's Main seat (photo) Machig taught and debated with the pandits. In addition, a delegation was sent to southern India to find the relics of Mönlam Drub as Machig instructed, thus adding further validity to her status as a teacher and lineage holder. As a result, of these and other events, it was determined that Machig's teachings were indeed authentic and established that the Chöd teachings were the first Buddhist teachings to emerge in Tibet.Harding and Allione One source says: "Word of the widespread practice of Mahāmudra Chö in Tibet and Nepal was first viewed in India with great scepticism. A delegation of ācāryas was sent from Bodh Gayā to Tibet to test Machig Labrön and her teaching resulted in the acceptance of Mahāmudrā Chö as a valid and authentic Mahāyāna tradition. Thereafter its practice spread even to India."Chö/Chöd - Lineages associated with Machig Labdrön
===Third Karmapa: systematizer of chod===
Chod, the historical nature of the practice, was a marginal and peripheral sadhana, practiced outside traditional Tibetan Buddhist and Indian Tantric institutions with a contraindication as caveat of praxis upon all but the most advanced practitioners. The Third Karmapa (1284 – 1339) was a very important systematizer of Chod teachings and significantly assisted in their promulgation within the literary and practice lineages of Kagyupa, Nyingmapa and particularly Dzogchen. It is in this transition from the outer charnel ground to the institutions of Tibetan Buddhism that the rite of the Chod becomes more imaginal, an inner practice. That is, the charnel ground becomes an internal imaginal environment. Schaeffer (1995: p. 15) conveys that the Third Karmapa was a systematizer of the Chöd developed by Machig Labdrön and lists a number of his works on Chod consisting of redactions, outlines and commentaries amongst others:
"Rang byung was renowned as a systematizer of the Gcod teachings developed by Ma gcig lab sgron. His texts on Gcod include the Gcod kyi khrid yig; the Gcod bka' tshoms chen mo'i sa bcad which consists of a topical outline of and commentary on Ma gcig lab sgron's Shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa zab mo gcod kyi man ngag gi gzhung bka' tshoms chen mo ; the Tshogs las yon tan kun 'byung ; the lengthy Gcod kyi tshogs las rin po che'i phrenb ba 'don bsgrigs bltas chog tu bdod pa gcod kyi lugs sor bzhag; the Ma lab sgron la gsol ba 'deb pa'i mgur ma; the Zab mo bdud kyi gcod yil kyi khrid yig, and finally the Gcod kyi nyams len."Schaeffer, Kurtis R. (1995). The Englightened Heart of Buddhahood: A Study and Translation of the Third Karma pa Rang byung rdo rje's Work on Tathagatagarbha. (Wylie: de bzhin pa'i snying po gtan la dbab pa). University of Washington. Source: (accessed: Friday February 12, 2010), p.15.
Machig's Chöd is still practiced today in Tibet, India, the west, and other parts of the world.
Vajrayoginī is a key figure in the advanced Tibetan Buddhist practice of Chöd, where she appears in her Kālikā (Tibetan: Khros ma nag mo) or Vajravārāhī (Tibetan:rDo rje phag mo) forms. The practices of Tröma Nagmo (The Extremely Wrathful Black Mother) associated with the Dakini Troma Nagmo (the black form of Vajrayogini), were also propagated by the great Machig Labdron, who became the most famous female practitioner in Tibet and attained complete enlightenment by this method. "The particular transmission which His Holiness will give descends from Dudjom Lingpa, who received it in a direct vision of the Indian Mahasiddha, Saraha. This practice emphasizes cutting through grasping at the dualistic mind to realize complete selfless compassion.
It is said that one of Machig's children has been her dharma heir. This information says, "Her son Tönyön Samdrup was the holder of her lineage and was ordained by Dampa Sangyé."see Disciples
===Names===
Apart from the name Machig Labdrön used here, one also finds the following spellings and transliterations, although all refer to the same woman:
Machik Lapkyi Drönma (ma gcig lab kyi sgron ma), Machig Lapdrönme (ma gcig lab sgron ma), Machik Labdron (ma gcig lab sgron), Maji Lab Dran (ma gcig lab sgron). Last not least, the version ma-gcig la-phyi sgron-ma refers to her place of birth, La-phyi in Tsang." The Yoniverse
Sonam Lama gave her the tantric name of Dorje Wangchuma(rdo-rje dbang-phyug-ma), which means "Diamond Independent Goddess."Nuns of the unique Joyul (gcod-yul)Sect of Tibetan Buddhism see "2. Yogini Macik Labdron (ma-ciglab-sgron) and the Formation of Joyul Sect"
==Later emanations==
It is said that Machg Labdrön took incarnation as Jomo Menmo (1248-1283)Jomo Menmo The famous female gTértön called ‘The Lady Demoness’ and later as Khyungchen Aro Lingma (1886-1923).Ma-gÇig Labdrön originator of gÇod108 Female Siddhas, see no. 77 According to the information given by the website the Gyalwa Karmapa, Jomo Menmo was born as a karmic emanation of Yeshe Tsogyal.Site of the Gyalwa Karmapa
In more recent history, Machig Labdrön has incarnated and emanated both in Tibet and in the West. In Tibet, the great yogini Jetsun Rigdzin Chönyi Zangmo (1852-1953)SHUKSEP LOCHEN CHÖNYI ZANGMO 1835-1953—also called Ani Lochen and Shugseb Jetsun RinpocheANI LOCHEN (c. 1865–1951):"ANI LOCHEN (c. 1865–1951) came to achieve the most treasured status of Tibetan culture, that of a religious master, and her devotees regard her as an emanation (sprul sku) of the the famous eleventh-century yoginī Machig Labdron."—was a recognized incarnation of Machig.(Edou, p. 4) Shugsheb Jetsun Rinpoche—also called the great female master, Lochen Chönyi Zangmo—founded the Shuksep or Shugsep (shug gseb) nunnery located thirty miles from Lhasa on the slopes of Mount Gangri Thökar.Shuksep NunneryLochen Chönyi Zangmo
In the west, Lama Tsultrim Allione (1947- ) was recently recognized as an emanation of Machig Labdrön at Zangri Khangmar, Tibet, the place where Machig Labdrön lived from ages 37 to 99, and where she passed away, by the resident Lama, Karma Nyitön Kunkhyab Chökyi Dorje. Lama Karma Nyitön Kunkhyab Chökyi Dorje offered Lama Tsultrim a self-arisen golden crystal phurba (ceremonial dagger), the only remaining tsa tsa made from the ashes of Machig's body (a mixture of clay and ash imprinted with an image of Machig dancing), texts of Machig's teachings, a hat with symbolic meaning designed by Machig, and various other treasures.THE SNOW LION NEWSLETTERTHE SNOW LION NEWSLETTER
==Chod==
Machig's Chod, also known as Mahamudra Chod, has been widespread in Tibet since Machig's lifetime. It is also called "The Beggars' Offering" or the "The Cutting-Off-Ritual." Chöd is a visionary Buddhist practice of cutting attachment to one's corporeal form (in terms of the dualistic proclivity to relate to one's corporeal form as a reference-point that proves one's existence). This means that a practitioner offers the mandala of their own body in a ganacakra rite. The practitioner works entirely with their own mind, visualizing the offering, and—by practicing in lonely and dreaded places, like cemeteries—works to overcome all fear. This is also why Chöd was often used to overcome sickness in order to heal oneself and others. In some lineages of the Chöd practice, chodpas and chodmas (practitioners of Chod) use a bell, small drum (a Chöd damaru), and a thigh-bone trumpet (kangling) made of human bone (often obtained from the charnal ground of sky burials).
===Demons in Machig Labdron's Chöd===
Although they are referred to as demons, it is clear from Machig Labdron's writings that the entities being dealt with in Chod practices are formulations of the human mind, rather than supernatural beings. Tsultrim Allione has worked with Labdron's practice since 1973, and in 2007 was herself recognised as an emanation of Machig Labdron. She quotes from Machig Labdrön's teachings on Chöd:
===Tselha Namsum meditation caves===
The Tselha Namsum meditation caves near Gyamda are associated with her.
==See also==
*Incarnation
*Pha Dampa Sangye
*Lineage (Buddhism)
*Tsultrim Allione
*Women in Buddhism
==Notes==
==References==
*Allione, Tsultrim. "The Biography of Machig Labdron (1055-1145)," in Women of Wisdom. Snow Lion Publications. ISBN 1559391413
*Tsultrim Allione: Tibets Weise Frauen, Zeugnisse Weiblichen Erwachens, Theseus Verlag, 2001, ISBN 3-89620-162-X
*Allione, Tsultrim (1998). "Feeding the Demons." in Buddhism in America. Brian D. Hotchkiss, ed. Pp. 344-363. Rutland, VT; Boston, MA; Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Co., Inc.
*Allione, Tsultrim (2008). "Feeding Your Demons: Ancient Wisdom for Resolving Inner Conflict." Little Brown and Company;. ISBN 978-0316013130.
*Benard, Elisabeth Anne (1990). "Ma Chig Lab Dron.” Chos Yang 3:43-51.
*Beyer, Stephen (1973). The Cult of Tara. University of California Press. ISBN 0520036352
*Edou, Jérôme. Machig Labdrön and the Foundations of Chöd. ISBN 1559390395, , Contents in detail
*Harding, Sarah (editor and translator). Machik's Complete Explanation: Clarifying the Meaning of Chöd, a translation of a Tibetan Text with this name, along with a scholarly introduction and commentaries, 2003, Snow Lion Publications. ISBN 1559391820
*Kollmar-Paulenz, Karenina (1998). “Ma gcig Lab sgrn ma—The Life of a Tibetan Woman Mystic between Adaptation and Rebellion.” The Tibet Journal 23(2):11-32.
*Machik Labdron: Machik's Complete Explanation: Clarifying the Meaning of Chod (Tsadra Foundation), Snow Lion Publications (June 25, 2003), ISBN 1559391820 (10), ISBN 978-1559391825 (13), Translation by Sarah Harding (Review by Michelle Sorensen)
==External links==
*TBRC
*Yogini Macik Labdron and the Formation of Chod Sect - Section 2 of China Tibetology article: "Nuns of the unique Joyul (gcod-yul) Sect of Tibetan Buddhism" 
*Nuns of the unique Joyul (gcod-yul)Sect of Tibetan Buddhism
*Summary of Machig's life from Jerome Edou's book 
*The Mother Essence Lineage, Part 2 – Ma-gÇig Labdrön and Jomo Menmo
*Chö/Chöd/Lineages associated with Machig Labdrön
*Extract of Machig Labdron's biography by Tsultrim Allione
*Machik Labdrön's Prayer to All Lineages
*Prayer To The Lineage of Chö by Rangjung Dorje, Karmapa III
* see: T'hröma Nagmo*, A Practice Cycle for the Realization of the Wrathful Black Dakini
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