Apparitions of the Self: The Secret Autobiographies of a Tibetan Visionary

by Jigme Lingpa, Janet Gyatso (Editor)

Apparitions of the Self is a groundbreaking investigation into what is known in Tibet as "secret autobiography", an exceptional, rarely studied literary genre that presents a personal exploration of intimate religious experiences. In this volume, Janet Gyatso translates and studies the outstanding pair of secret autobiographies by the famed Tibetan Buddhist visionary, Jigme Lingpa (1730-1798). Gyatso`s translation marks the first time that works of this sort have appeared in a Western language. It is only one of the many virtues of Janet Gyatso`s Apparitions of the Self that it gives us, at last, a full portrait of a Buddhist saint in all his self-admitted complexity and ambiguity...Lucid and literate...Significant points to ponder and subtle arguments to which to respond. This exceptional volume combines concise and felicitous translation with clear commentary and insightful analysis....What lends considerable interest to this work is the comparison Gyatso....makes between Tibetan literature and Western literary theory... (Apparitions of the Self) serves as a model of innovative scholarship.

Genres: Buddhism, Biography

360 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1997

About the author

Rigdzin Jigme Lingpa Rangjung Dorje (Wylie: 'Jigs-med-gliṅ-pa Raṅ-byuṅ-rdo-rje) is regarded as one of the central figures in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism, having revealed the popular Longchen Nyingtik cycle of teaching and practice through a series of visions of the great 14th-century master Longchenpa, which he kept secret from 1757 until conferring the empowerments upon a group of fifteen disciples for the first time in 1764.

He is considered to have had three incarnations in the 19th-century Rimé (non-sectarian) movement: Do Khyentse Yeshe Dorje as the mind incarnation, Dza Patrul as the speech incarnation, and Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo as the body incarnation. Jigme Lingpa himself is held to have been the incarnation of both Vimalamitra and King Trisong Deutsen. Getse Mahāpaṇḍita was among his more prominent direct students.