Machig Labdrön

Machig Labdrön
Machig Labdrön
Religion	Tibetan Buddhism
School	Mahamudra
Personal
Born	1055
Died	1149
Senior posting
Title	Yogini
Religious career
Reincarnation	Yeshe Tsogyal

Machig Labdrön (Tibetan: མ་གཅིག་ལབ་སྒྲོན, Wylie: ma gcig lab sgron (sometimes referred to as Adrön Chödron, A sgron Chos sgron), "Unique Mother Torch from Lab", 1055 - 1149) was a renowned 11th-century Tibetan tantric Buddhist practitioner, teacher and yogini who originated several Tibetan lineages of the Vajrayana practice of Chöd.

Machig Labdrön may have come from a Bön family and, according to Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, developed Chöd by combining native shamanism with the Dzogchen teachings. Other Buddhist teachers and scholars offer differing interpretations of the origins of Chöd, and not all of them agree that Chöd has Bön or shamanistic roots.

Iconographically, Machig Labdrön is often depicted with the attributes of a dakini, a representation of enlightened female energy. She holds a drum (Skt. damaru) in her right hand and a bell (Skt. ghaṇṭa) (Tibetan: དྲིལ་བུ་, Wylie: drilbu) 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. Dakinis wear five bone ornaments; they are themselves the wisdom pāramitā.

...
Wikipedia