Karma Lingpa was born in southeast Tibet as the eldest son of Nyida Sanggyé,[note 2] a great Vajrayana practitioner. At an early age, Karma Lingpa engaged in esoteric practices and achieved many siddhi.
When he was fifteen years old,[3] he discovered several terma texts on top of Mount Gampodar, including a collection of teachings entitled "Profound Dharma of Self-Liberation through the Intention of the Peaceful and Wrathful Ones"[4] (zab-chos zhi khro dgongs pa rang grol, also known as kar-gling zhi-khro[3]), which includes the two texts of bar-do thos-grol, the so-called "Tibetan Book of the Dead".[1]
According to Chogyam Trungpa, Karma Lingpa was a Nyingma teacher, but all of his students belonged to the Kagyu school. His teachings were transmitted in the Surmang monasteries of the Trungpa-lineage, and from there also spread to the Nyingma school.[5]
The bar-do thos-grol was translated into English by Kazi Dawa Samdup (1868-1922), and edited and published by W.Y. Evans-Wenz. This translation became widely known and popular as "the Tibetan Book of the Dead", but contains many mistakes in translation and interpretation.[1][6]
Another text from the "Profound Dharma of Self-Liberation" is "Self-Liberation through seeing with naked awareness" (rigpa ngo-sprod[note 3]), which gives an introduction, or pointing-out instruction (ngo-spro), into rigpa, the state of presence and awareness.[7]
^Chogyam Trungpa (2010), The Collected Works of Chogyam Trungpa: Volume Six: Glimpses of Space; Orderly Chaos; Secret Beyond Thought; The Tibetan Book of the Dead: Commentary; Transcending Madness; Selected Writings, p.269
Fremantle, Francesca (2001), Luminous Emptiness: understanding the Tibetan Book of the dead, Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications, ISBN1-57062-450-X
Norbu, Namkhai (1989), "Foreword", in Reynolds, John Myrdin (ed.), Self-liberation through seeing with naked awareness, Station Hill Press, Inc.
Reynolds, John Myrdin (1989), "Appendix I: The views on Dzogchen of W.Y. Evans-Wentz and C.G. Jung", in Reynolds, John Myrdin (ed.), Self-liberation through seeing with naked awareness, Station Hill Press, Inc.
