Padmashambhava
Padmasambhava The Lotus Born, is said to have transmitted Tantric Buddhism to Bhutan and Tibet in the 8th century. In those lands he is better known as Guru Rinpoche (“Precious Master”) or Lopon Rinpoche, where followers of the Nyingma school regard him as the second Buddha. He said: “My father is the intrinsic awareness, Samantabhadra. My mother is the ultimate sphere of reality, Samantrabhadri. I belong to the caste of non-duality of the sphere and awareness. My name is the Glorious Lotus Born. I am from the unborn sphere of all phenomena. I consume concepts of duality as my diet. I act in the way of the Buddhas of the three times.” He was born into a monarchic Brahmin family. His Pureland Paradise is Zangdok Palri (the Copper-coloured Mountain). He is further considered an emanation of Amitabha Buddha and traditionally even venerated as “a second Buddha”.