Nubchen Sang-gyé Yeshé

Nubchen Sang-gyé Yeshé (gNubs chen sangs rGyas ye shes / གནུབས་ཆེན་སངས་རྒྱས་ཡེ་ཤེས་ / Anantamahavajra / 8th century). He was born into the Nub Clan in Drag Valley. His father was Sèlwa Wangchuk (gSal ba dBang phyug / གསལ་བ་དབང་ཕྱུག་) and his mother was Chhimo Tashi Tso (chhi’ mo bKra shis mTsho / ཆིའ་མོ་བཀྲ་ིས་) His consort was Rig’dzin Chödrön (rig ‘dzin chos grin. / རིག་འཛིན་ཆོས་གྲིན་).

He was one of the Jé-wang Nyér-nga (rJe 'bangs nyer lNga / རྗེ་འབངས་ཉེར་ལྔ་) 25 main disciples —— and one of the nine heart children of Guru Rinpoche’ and Yeshé Tsogyel (thugs sras sNying gi bu dGu / ཐུགས་སྲས་སྙིང་གི་བུ་དགུ).

Nubchen Sang-gyé Yeshé received numerous empowerments from Guru Rinpoche and Yeshé Tsogyel including drüpthab the Ka’gyèd (bKa' brGyad / བཀའ་བརྒྱད་) the 8 Nyingma Herukas. In this empowerment he had a special connection with Shin-jé shèd (gShin rJe gShed / གཤིན་རྗེ་གཤེད་ / Yamantaka).

As soon as he began practising this drüpthab, he had a vision of Shin-jé shèd.. He practised extensively in caves and hermitages in Tibet, Bhutan, and Nepal. He met and received teachings from Sri Simha— and lived to over a hundred years in age.

Nubchen Sang-gyé Yeshé was the Founding Father and King of the gö kar chang lo’ dé (gos dKar lCang lo’i sDe / གོས་དཀར་ལྕང་ལོའི་སྡེ་) those wearing white raiment and carry uncut hair. They are the Vajrayana Sangha of Ngakpas and Ngakmas: the non-celibate; non-renunciate; non-monastic, ordained practitioners . Due to Nubchen Sangye Yeshé’s accomplishments as a Ngakpa, he was able to prevent Vajrayana from being destroyed in Tibet in the 9th century. This Vajrayana Sangha in the Nyingma Tradition continues as his lineage to the present day.

Nubchen Sangye Yeshé composed many texts including The Sang-gyé-Tham-çad-kyi Gongpa 'Düpa Do'i Ka'drèl Munpa'i Go-cha Dé-mig Sèl-jèd Naljor Nyima (sangs rGyas thams cad kyi dGongs pa 'dus pa mDo'i dKa' 'grel mun pa'i go cha lDe mig gSal byed rNal 'byor nyi ma / སངས་རྒྱས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་དགོངས་པ་འདུས་པ་མདོའི་དཀའ་འགྲེལ་མུན་པའི་གོ་ཆ་ལྡེ་མིག་གསལ་བྱེད་རྣལ་འབྱོར་ཉི་མ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་སྨད་ཆ་བཞུགས་སོ།) the ‘Armour Against Darkness’, a commentary on ‘The Six Tantras which Clarify the Six Limits’.

Also the the Samten Migdrön (bSam-gTan mig sGron / བསམ་གཏན་མིག་སྒྲོན་) the Lamp for the Eyes in Nondual Absorbtion —— which outlines the Dzogchen meditation systems of the First Spread of Vajrayana.