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Vima Nyingthig or "Vimalamitra's Seminal Heart" (Tibetan: བི་མ་སྙིང་ཐིག་; Wylie: bi ma snying thig) is a practice lineage of Mantrayana. It is one of the nyingthig or seminal heart (Tibetan: སྙིང་ཐིག, Wylie: snying thig) teachings of the Mennagde cycle of Dzogchen and was codified and collated by Longchenpa (1308–1364?) in the fourteenth century. The Mennagde all convey teachings and practices on Trekcho in a largely comparable manner but it is in their presentation of Togal that they greatly differ.
The Vima Nyingtik itself consists of tantras (rgyud), agamas (lung), and upadeshas (man ngag).[1] The tantras here refer to the Seventeen Tantras. Namkhai (1991) & Vajranatha (1996: p.18) hold that agamas that pertain to the Vima Nyingtik were compiled by Vimalamitra (fl. 8th century) and are known as the "five series" (W: sde tshan lnga), are the "Golden Letters" (W: gser yig can), the "Turquoise Letters" (W: gyu yig can), the "Copper Letters" (W: zangs yig can), the "Conch Shell Letters" (dung yig can) and the "Variagated Letters" (phra yig can).[2] The upadeshas of the Vima Nyingtik refer to 119 treatises of pith advice.
The Vima Nyingthig is founded principally on the "Seventeen Tantras" and the "Troma Tantra".[3]
The Vima Nyingthig denotes the teachings both for and of the scholars or pandita (Tibetan: རྒྱ་ཆའེ་བ, Wylie: rgya ch'e ba), brought to Tibet by Vimalamitra.[3]
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The "Troma Tantra" or the "Ngagsung Tromay Tantra" otherwise known as the "Ekajaṭĭ Khros Ma'i rGyud" focuses on rites of the protector, Ekajati.[4]
The "Seventeen tantras of the esoteric instruction cycle" (Tibetan: མན་ངག་སྡེའི་རྒྱུད་བཅུ་བདུན, Wylie: man ngag sde'i rgyud bcu bdun ) which are supports for the Vima Nyingthig are as follows (in no particular order):
These Seventeen Tantras are to be found in the Canon of the Ancient School, the Nyingma Gyubum (Tibetan: རྙིང་མ་རྒྱུད་འབུམ, Wylie: rnying ma rgyud 'bum), volumes 9 and 10, folio numbers 143–159 of the edition edited by Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche commonly known as Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (Thimpu, Bhutan, 1973), reproduced from the manuscript preserved at Tingkye Gonpa Jang (Tibetan: གཏིང་སྐྱེས་དགོན་པ་བྱང, Wylie: gting skyes dgon pa byang) Monastery in Tibet.
Kumaradza was a senior disciple of Melong Dorje (1243–1303). Kumaradza studied with the grand master Orgyenpa (1230–1309), who conveyed teachings of "Vimalamitra's Seminal Heart" (Tibetan: བི་མ་སྙིང་ཐིག་; Wylie: bi ma snying thig) upon him.
"The Posthumous Teachings of the Vidyadhara" (Tibetan: རིག་འཛིན་གྱི་འདས་རྗེས, Wylie: rig 'dzin gyi 'das-rjes) are found in the Vima Nyingtik. These are the last testaments of the early vidyadharas: Garab Dorje, Manjushrimitra, Shri Singha and Jnanasutra. These testaments are post-humous as they were delivered by the vidhyadhara to their senior disciple from within a thigle of the Five Pure Lights in their Rainbow Body of Light. In this tradition, the thigle is understood to be comparable to a pure dimension or mandala. These were first compiled by Vimalamitra in his five series (which consisted of the series of: Golden Letters, Copper Letters, Variegated Letters, Conch Shell Letters and Turquoise Letters). These posthumous teaching belong to the series of the "Golden Letters" (Tibetan: གསེར་ཡིག་ཅན, Wylie: gser yig can).
"The Three Statement That Strike the Essential Points" or "The Three Vajra Verses" (Tibetan: ཚིག་གསུམ་གནད་དུ་བརྡེག་པ, Wylie: tshig gsum gnad du brdeg pa)
"The Six Meditation Experiences" (Tibetan: སྒོམ་ཉམས་དྲུག་པ, Wylie: sgom nyams drug pa)
"The Seven Nails" (Tibetan: གཟེར་བུ་བདུན་པ, Wylie: gzer bu bdun pa)
"The Four Methods of Establishing Absorption" (Tibetan: བཞགས་ཐབས་བཞི་པ, Wylie: bzhags thabs bzhi pa)
Scheidegger (2009: p.43) in a recent work discusses the first four of "The Eleven Themes" (Tibetan: ཚིག་དོན་བཅུ་གཅིག་པ, Wylie: tshig don bcu gcig pa) a work composed by Longchenpa contained in the fourth volume of the Vima Nyingtik.[5]