The Treasury of Lives

Little is known about Parpuwa Lodro Sengge's (par/spar phu ba blo gros seng+ge) youth aside from that he was born at Dra (gra) in Yoru (g.yo ru), a child of the Ngen (rngan) clan, and that he was a prodigious student. He spent a long period of time studying with Chapa Chokyi Sengge (phya pa chos kyi seng+ge, 1109-1169) at the most prestigious center for philosophical study in Tibet of the times, Sangpu Neutok (gsang phu ne'u thog). He not only composed commentaries on the main texts by Nāgārjuna, he also gave lectures on them to the assembly of student monks.

At some point he met a teacher named Drushulwa (gru shul ba / gro shol ba) who passed on teachings he had received from Newari Asu (bal po a su) on the doha songs. Parpuwa soon mastered the tradition, and his doha expertise brought Yelpa Yeshe Tsek (yel pa ye shes brtsegs, 1134-1194) to study with him. Yelpa, however, quickly came to the conclusion that Parpuwa was incapable of giving more than the barest of explanations. So he persuaded Parpuwa to go to study with Pakmodrupa Dorje Gyelpo (phag mo gru pa rdo rje rgyal po, 1110-1170) at Densatil Monastery (gdan sa mthil dgon).

At first the exacting scholar was not very impressed by Pakmodrupa, thinking him to be a follower of the Yogācāra philosophy. Feeling he already knew all these things about Buddha's teachings, only in more detail, he returned from Densatil after attending only a few teaching assemblies. Yelpa begged him to go once more, and accompanied him there. Pakmodrupa looked into the interdependent connections and saw that Parpuwa was blocked by his pride in his intellectual understanding. So he imprinted a piece of brown sugar with a beautiful lotus design and gave it to Parpuwa. After receiving the sweet morsel, rather than eataing it Parpuwa laid it aside to admire the design. Seeing this, Yerpa jumped up and broke it in two shouting at him, “Eat it!” Pakmodrupa explained, “The Buddha's teachings in all their variety were given for no other purpose than to supply methods for realizing the true nature of mind. This knowledge may only be achieved through meditation. Meditate!” Still Parpuwa was resistant, thinking to himself, “Well what is this now? He just tells me I have to meditate without teaching any precepts at all?” but after further reflection the implicit meaning became clear to him. He even composed a devotional song in praise of his teacher entitled Wish Fulfilling Cow ('dod 'jo'i ba mo).

Later in life Parpuwa founded the monastery at Parpu (par/spar phu dgon) that gave him the title by which he is known. He is said to have beheld the visages of many divine forms of Buddha and was regarded as an accomplished one, a siddha. About five hundred students gathered for his assembly teachings. He developed a special view called the Non-generation of Realization (rtogs pa skyed med), reasoning that in their actual substance one's own realization and the realization of a buddha are indistinguishable. This involved an explanation of the four yogas of the Mahāmudrā as levels of experience rather than as levels of realization. He is said to have had one hundred and twelve students, the best known among them being Lingrepa Pema Dorje (gling ras pa pad+ma rdo rje, 1128-1188), Nyenre Gendun Bum (gnyan ras dge 'dun 'bum, d.u.), and of course, Yelpa, who is credited with establishing the Yelpa Kagyu tradition (yel pa bka' brgyud).