Chennga Dorje Sherab (spyan snga rdo rje shes rab) was a disciple of both Jikten Gonpo Rinchen Pel ('jig rten mgon po rin chen dpal, 1143-1217), the founder of Drigung Til Monastery ('bri gung mthil), and one of his main disciples, Won Sherab Jungne (dbon shes rab 'byung gnas, 1187-1241). Details about his life are not currently available. Some sources mention an extensive biography but it appears to have been lost.
He wrote two extensive commentaries on Won Sherab Jungne's compilation of Jikten Gonpo's teachings, known as The Single Intention (dgongs gcig). These commentaries are titled The Lamp of Illuminated Wisdom (snang mdzad ye shes sgron ma) and O Gema ('od ge ma). Together they are known as the Dorshema (rdor she ma), a contraction of the name Dorje Sherab. Author: Evan Yerburgh, translator and member of Esukhia.
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Library Items
Illuminator, a Light of Gnosis
It was the Buddhist nun and travel writer Alexandra David-Néel (1868–1969) who brought the manuscript “Illuminator, a Light of Gnosis – The Great Commentary on The Single Intention” by Dorje Sherab from Asia to France. The German foundation Garchen Stiftung reproduced the precious manuscript in its original size and colors. Thus the work is available to an audience of traditional and western experts as well as students of the Tibetan language.
Dorje Sherab (rdo rje shes rab). Illuminator, a Light of Gnosis: The Great Commentary on the Single Intention (dGongs gcig 'grel chen snang mdzad ye shes sgron me). With an Introduction by Jan-Ulrich Sobisch. The Manuscript at the Musée Guimet in Paris Brought to France by Alexandra David-Néel. Reproduction of the Manuscript in Its Original Size and Colors. Munich: Edition Garchen Stiftung, 2015.
Dorje Sherab (rdo rje shes rab). Illuminator, a Light of Gnosis: The Great Commentary on the Single Intention (dGongs gcig 'grel chen snang mdzad ye shes sgron me). With an Introduction by Jan-Ulrich Sobisch. The Manuscript at the Musée Guimet in Paris Brought to France by Alexandra David-Néel. Reproduction of the Manuscript in Its Original Size and Colors. Munich: Edition Garchen Stiftung, 2015.;Illuminator, a Light of Gnosis;Drikung Kagyu;Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa;Dorje Sherab;རྡོ་རྗེ་ཤེས་རབ་;rdo rje shes rab;spyan snga rdo rje shes rab;སྤྱན་སྔ་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཤེས་རབ་; Jan-Ulrich Sobisch;Illuminator, a Light of Gnosis: The Great Commentary on the Single Intention - dGongs gcig 'grel chen snang mdzad ye shes sgron me. The Manuscript at the Musée Guimet in Paris Brought to France by Alexandra David-Néel. Reproduction of the Manuscript in Its Original Size and Colors;rdo rje shes rab
Dorje Sherab: Great Commentary on the Sacred Teaching on the Single Intention: Illuminating Wisdom Lamp
Dorje Sherab's extensive commentary on the Sacred Teaching on the Single Intention (Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa), one of the core texts of the Drikung Kagyu tradition that is reported to be the oral teachings of Jikten Gönpo that were written down and edited together by his student Sherab Jungne.
Dam pa'i chos dgongs pa gcig pa'i 'grel chen snang mdzad ye shes sgron me;Drikung Kagyu;Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa;'bri gung skyob pa 'jig rten mgon po;Dorje Sherab;རྡོ་རྗེ་ཤེས་རབ་;rdo rje shes rab;spyan snga rdo rje shes rab;སྤྱན་སྔ་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཤེས་རབ་;dam pa'i chos dgongs pa gcig pa'i 'grel chen snang mdzad ye shes sgron me;དམ་པའི་ཆོས་དགོངས་པ་གཅིག་པའི་འགྲེལ་ཆེན་སྣང་མཛད་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྒྲོན་མེ།;དམ་པའི་ཆོས་དགོངས་པ་གཅིག་པའི་འགྲེལ་ཆེན་སྣང་མཛད་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྒྲོན་མེ།
On the topic of this person
Katrin Querl at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium
Katrin Querl presents an overview of Jikten Gonpo's position on Buddha-nature as outlined in the textual corpus known as the Single Intention (Dgongs gcig) and in two of this work's earliest commentaries.
Querl, Katrin. "Preliminary Notes on the Notion of Buddha Nature in the Single Intention." Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 43:53. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp3GJz3-5DY.
Querl, Katrin. "Preliminary Notes on the Notion of Buddha Nature in the Single Intention." Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 43:53. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp3GJz3-5DY.;Katrin Querl at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium;'bri gung skyob pa 'jig rten mgon po;Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa;Mahamudra;Drikung Kagyu;Kagyu;Tsen Tradition;gotra;guṇa;'bri gung spyan snga shes rab 'byung gnas;Ngo rje ras pa;Rdo rje shes rab;Drikung Chungtsang, 1st;Rin chen byang chub;History of buddha-nature in Tibet;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Tibetan Buddhism;Buddha-nature as Emptiness;Ordinary Mind;ekayāna;Katrin Querl; Preliminary Notes on the Notion of Buddha Nature in the Single Intention
Other names
- སྤྱན་སྔ་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཤེས་རབ་ · other names (Tibetan)
- spyan snga rdo rje shes rab · other names (Wylie)
Affiliations & relations
- 'bri gung skyob pa 'jig rten mgon po · teacher
- 'bri gung spyan snga shes rab 'byung gnas · teacher
