(By Tsem Rinpoche)

Machig Labdron (main figure), a the famous 11th century awakened Tibetan yogini (click to enlarge)

Machig Labdrön (ma gcig labs sgron, 1055-1153) was an inspiring 11^th century Tibetan yogini whose practice of Chöd profoundly influenced Tibetan Buddhism. Chöd is literally the “severance” or “cutting through” of the existence of ego. Being a Tibetan woman during the time when Buddhist masters were normally Indian and male, her attainments were unique and fascinating. Machig Labdrön‘s story is that of a strong, committed practitioner who had gone through life as a beggar, wife, mother, effectual teacher, and founder of a powerful lineage.

Machig’s remarkable life began with her conception and birth. While her mother, Lady Lungmo Bumcam was pregnant with her, she received many auspicious dreams and signs. One of her dreams was described thus:

“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, to the left, and the right. All five were in the sky in front of Bum Cham. The central dakini was a forearm’s length taller 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.'”

Source: Allione, Tsultrim. “The Biography of Machig Labdron (1055-1145),” in Women of Wisdom. Snow Lion Publications. ISBN 1-55939-141-3, pp. 174-175

Machig Labdrön statue in her meditation cave at Zangri Khangmar (click to enlarge)

After she woke up, she felt great bliss.

At birth, there was a significant appearance of the Tibetan syllable ‘AH’ on the crown of Machig’s head, and a third eye appeared on her forehead. Her father, Chökyi, the Chief of Tsomer Village in the Labchi region of southern Tibet recognised the syllable as a sign that Machig was a dakini and supported her spiritual development at a young age under the tutelage of Drapa Ngonshe (grwa pa mngon shes, 1012 – 1090). Machig was able to recite The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines, also known as the Prajnaparamita Sutra, at the age of eight. A ruler of the region who invited Machig to a festival where she recited the Prajnaparamita Sutra was so impressed that he gave her the name Labdrön, which means “the Shining Light of Labchi”.

Prajnaparamita (click to enlarge)

At thirteen years old, with the passing of her mother, Machig and her sister, Bume, started travelling to study under the many great masters of her time. Soon Machig’s fame for her scholarly knowledge of Buddhism and her impressive recitation skills grew, even outshining some of her own teachers. She was hired by many patrons to recite this sutra in their homes, to attain blessings and spiritual merit for their families. Her popularity was due to her quick recitation of the entire text, which meant the patrons would save on meals served to her during her recitation.

Machig met Kyotön Sonam Lama (Skyo ston bsod nams bla ma), a greatly respected teacher while he was on his retreat in the mountain caves. Only in her twenties, fame of her accomplishments in reciting the Prajnaparamita Sutra had reached him. He advised Machig to stop blindly reciting with only conceptual understanding and instead to explore the sutra deeper into her own mind. It was only then that she truly attained the meaning of inherent existence while reading the chapter on demons. Beginning anew without the impediment of the ego, Machig gave up the comforts of her high societal life to live as a beggar, associating herself with the other outcasts, such as lepers, She roamed the streets directionless, eating anything, and sleeping wherever she could find.

Machig Labdrön depicted as a young girl (click to enlarge)

Another significant event in Machig Labdrön’s life was when Sonam Lama gave her an empowerment and she floated through the temple walls while in the state of deep concentration (samadhi). Floating in the air, Machig then angered a Naga King when she landed on the Tree of Serlak, which was rooted on the side of his lake. Feeling insulted, he gathered his fierce army and called upon wild nagas to attack the girl on the tree. Machig, naked and in pure equanimity, calmly offered her body as food for the nagas. Shocked by her courage and compassion, the nagas instead pledged their allegiance and promised to protect Machig eternally. This story gives relevance to the saying “Feeding your Demons” where Machig offered herself as food rather than fight the nagas.

Padampa Sangye (pha dam pa sangs rgyas), a famed Indian master, came to Tibet specifically seeking Machig with the claim that she would greatly benefit other beings. Padampa Sangye’s words of wisdom to Machig were:

“Confess all your hidden faults! Approach that which you find repulsive! Whoever you think you cannot help, help them! Anything you are attached to, let go of it! Go to places that scare you, like cemeteries! Sentient beings are as limitless like the sky, be aware! Find the Buddha inside yourself. In the future your teaching will be as bright as the sun shining in the sky!”

Source: Allione, Tsultrim. “The Biography of Machig Labdron (1055-1145),” in Women of Wisdom. Snow Lion Publications. ISBN 1-55939-141-3, pp. 181

The teachings that Machig received from Padampa Sangye had given her the foundations to later develop and formulate the Mahamudra for Chöd, a religious tradition that she became famous for establishing. Chöd is practiced in all schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

Padampa Sangye, a famous sage from India who became Machig Labdrön’s guru (click to enlarge)

As prophesied by her teachers in a series of visions, Machig met the father of her children, Töpa Bhadra, an Indian yogi, said to be the emanation of Buddhakapala, the “Skullcap of the Buddha”. Their first union set the room ablaze with a kaleidoscope of five coloured lights spraying out of the house. Their first son was born when Machig was twenty-four, and when she was twenty-five, she gave birth to another son. Consequently, Machig gave birth to a third son and two daughters.

Although previously famous and highly revered for her spiritual attainments, she was now avoided, and had to wander the streets of Tibet with her family in abject poverty. When she was thirty-five, Machig left her family and went back to living as a renunciate, and gave initiations to people.

Machig statue at Tara Mandala, Colorado, USA

A few years later at age thirty-nine, Zangri Khangmar, also known as the Red House of Copper Mountain, was established by Machig, and it became her main place of teachings and activities for the rest of her life. Her fame grew and spread throughout Tibet with many learned practitioners arrived to debate with her, and she would always prove her profound realisation flawlessly. It was at Zangri Khangmar that the Deity of Compassion, Tara and her entourage of dakinis came to Machig in a vision. She was told that she was the mind emanation of Prajnaparamita and she should teach. When Machig protested, she was admonished by Tara who said, “Don’t be timid.” With this vision, the lineage between Prajnaparamita, Tara and Machig was directly established, with Machig as the human teacher.

Machig statue at Druk Zangri Khamar, Bhutan, the seat of Machig Labdrön. Photo credit: Josh Brownlee (left) and Machig Labdrön in stone from the collection of Rubin Museum of Art (right) (click to enlarge)

Her children joined her at Zangri Khangmar and soon showed their potential as practitioners. Her younger son was cured of his mental illness, and at fifteen, she sent him to a closed-off cave for several years of retreat, armed with the many teachings and empowerments she had given him . Eventually all of her children, and their children, became key holders of her lineage teachings.

When her fame spread to India, it caused a stir amongst Indian Buddhists. Buddhist theology had only flowed from India to Tibet and not vice versa during Machig’s time. As such, three attained Indian pandits were chosen to test the validity of the practice that she had established. They used their abilities of “fast walk” to visit Machig in Tibet. They questioned and investigated her legitimacy and her Mahamudra teachings of Chöd in a public debate. Machig, in front of hundreds of thousands of people, proved her profound understanding, and clearly proclaimed herself as the reincarnation of Yeshe Tsogyal, the consort of Guru Rinpoche, and her immediate past life as Mönlam Drup.

As Mönlam Drup, she was an Indian prince who became a monk and was scholarly and spiritually accomplished. Having received many visions with repeated requests to help beings in Tibet, he retreated into a cave where his consciousness left his body and merged with a wrathful blue-black dakini to enter the womb of a woman in Tibet. This woman was Machig’s mother.

With the descriptions given, they found the male body of Machig’s previous incarnation in the Indian cave, proving her legitimacy, and she was invited by many to teach in India. Machig refused, as she wished to uphold her commitment to her people in Tibet and preserve the uniqueness of her lineage in Tibet.

As predicted by Machig herself, during her debate with the Indian Pandits, her prophetic passing came true. Machig Labdrön passed into the Land of the Dakinis at the age of ninety-nine. Her legacy was upheld and spread far by her children, their children, as well as numerous disciples, and is still being practiced within Tibetan Buddhism.

Three times with a thundering voice she spoke the syllable PHAT. Then without moving away from the essence of reality, her mind left her body through the brahmanic aperture and in a rainbow disappeared into the vastness of space. Thus, she departed into the expanse of suchness.

~ Machig Labdrön

Source: Edou, Jerome, “Machig Labdrön and the Foundations of Chöd”. Snow Lion Publications, ISBN 1-55939-039-5, pp. 170

Mahamudra Chöd, also known as “The Beggar’s Offering” or “The Cutting Off Ritual”, is a practice grounded in the Prajnaparamita Sutra and directed at the cutting through of ego-clinging and erroneous patterns of thinking. It is usually practiced in fearful places like charnel grounds for the practitioner to overcom fears, and offerings are visualised with the mind, such as offering of our own body as the mandala, in order to cut our attachments to our corporeal existence.

The Guru mantra of Machig Labdron:

OM A HUM MACHIG LABDRON MA NAMAHA

Iconographically, Machig Labdrön is the representation of enlightened female energy and often depicted with the attributes of a dakini holding a drum in her right hand and a bell in her left. With a youthful face and three eyes, Machig has a white body, stands on her left leg, bent in motion, with her right leg lifted high. In conformity to the tradition of a practicing yogini, she wears the Six Bone Ornaments of the charnel grounds. Dakinis with the attribution of the wisdom paramita are depicted as wearing five bone ornaments.

A famous prayer by Machig Labdron:

Wisdom from an Old Lady

For ninety-nine years,
I have worked for the benefit of beings.
now this work is almost complete.

I will not take birth again
in this human realm in a physical form,
nor will I leave behind any remains or relics.

But my emanations in the world will be innumerable;
and many will recognize them.
They will be perceived in different ways,
depending on karma, pure or impure.

In the same way, mind itself has no support, has no object:
let it rest in its natural expanse without any fabrication.
When the bonds (of negative thoughts) are released,
you will be free, there is no doubt.

As when gazing into space, all other visual objects disappear,
so it is for mind itself.
When mind is looking at mind,
all discursive thoughts cease and
enlightenment is attained.

As in the sky all clouds disappear into sky itself:
wherever they go, they go nowhere,
wherever they are, they are nowhere.

This is the same for thoughts in the mind:
when the mind looks at mind,
the waves of conceptual thought disappear.

This body of ours is impermanent,
like a feather on a high mountain pass.
This mind of ours is empty and
clear like the depth of space.

Relax in that natural state, free of fabrication.
When mind is without any support, that is mahamudra.
Becoming familiar with this, blending your mind with it
— that is buddhahood.

Supreme view is beyond all duality of subject and object.
Supreme meditation is without distraction.
Supreme activity is action without effort.
Supreme fruition is without hope and fear.

This old lady has no instructions more profound
than this to give you.”

– Machig Labdron

Sources:

• Rotterdam, Lopon Charlotte, Tara Mandala; Who Is Machig Labdron?, https://www.taramandala.org/introduction/our-lineage/who-is-machig-labdron/ (accessed: 9 February 2019)
• Kaufman, Asha, Tricycle: Trike Daily; Treasure of Lives; Treasury of Lives: Machik Labdron, 5 February 2013, https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/treasury-lives-machik-labdron/ (accessed 11 February 2019)
• Wikipedia; The Free Encyclopedia, Machig Labdrön, 12 September 2018, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machig_Labdr%C3%B6n (accessed 11 February 2019)
• Edou, Jerome, Machig Labdron and the Foundations of Chod, 1996, (accessed 22 February 2019)
• Brownlee, Josh, Tara Mandala; Who Is Machig Labdron?, https://www.taramandala.org/introduction/our-lineage/who-is-machig-labdron/ (accessed: 9 February 2019)
• Chinese Buddhist Encyclopedia, Machig Labdron as a Young Girl, 7 June 2013, http://www.chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com/en/index.php?title=File:Machig_Labdron_as_a_Young_Girl.jpg (accessed: 9 February 2019)
• Rotterdam, Lopon Charlotte, Tara Mandala; Who Is Machig Labdron?, https://www.taramandala.org/introduction/our-lineage/who-is-machig-labdron/ (accessed: 9 February 2019)
• Wendy, Zangri Khangmar; Machig Labdron in the Cave, 3 June 2007, https://www.flickr.com/photos/9070942@N06/719829957 (accessed: 9 February 2019)
• Tricycle, Machik Labdron. Stone. Collection of Rubin Museum of Art, https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/treasury-lives-machik-labdron/ (accessed: 10 February 2019)

For more interesting information:

• Machik Labdron
• Wisdom from Machig Labdron
• Machig Labdron – the Woman Without Fear
• Padampa Sanggye
• The Great Female Master- Jetsun Lochen Rinpoche
• His Holiness Kyabje Zong Rinpoche explains and performs Chöd
• The Samding Dorje Phagmo – The Courageous Female Incarnation Line
• Achi Chokyi Drolma – Chief Protectress of the Drikung Kagyu

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