Ma Rinchen Chok is numbered as one of the twenty-five principal disciples of Padmasambhava

Padmasambhava

Padmasambhava ; Mongolian ловон Бадмажунай, lovon Badmajunai, , Means The Lotus-Born, was a sage guru from Oddiyāna who is said to have transmitted Vajrayana Buddhism to Bhutan and Tibet and neighbouring countries in the 8th century...

. Rinchen Chok was also a senior disciple of Vimalamitra

Vimalamitra

Vimalamitra ), an 8th century Indian adept, is key to the history of Tibetan Buddhist Dzogchen practice. He lived equally in China, Oddiyana and Tibet, but was known as the "Sage of Kashmir". According to tradition, he was born in Western India and travelled to China to become a disciple of Shri...

. Rinchen Chok was an important lotsawa

Lotsawa

Lotsawa is a Tibetan word used as a title to refer to the native Tibetan translators, such as Vairotsana, Rinchen Zangpo, Marpa and others, who worked alongside Indian scholars or panditas to translate the texts of the buddhist canon into Tibetan from Sanskrit, Chinese and other Asian languages...

 in the first wave of translations and was one of the first seven monks ever to be ordained in Tibet by Shantarakshita

Shantarakshita

' was a renowned 8th century Indian Buddhist Brahmin and abbot of Nalanda University. Śāntarakṣita founded the philosophical school known as Yogacara-Svatantrika-Madhyamaka, which united the Madhyamaka tradition of Nagarjuna, the Yogacara tradition of Asanga and the logical and epistemological...

, known as the 'seven men who were tested' . The ordination lineage was Sarvastivadin.

Iconography

In his hagiography

Hagiography

Hagiography is the study of saints.From the Greek and , it refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of saints and ecclesiastical leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though less common...

 Ma Rinchen Chok as a result of his empowerments is held to have gained the siddhi

Siddhi

is a Sanskrit noun that can be translated as "perfection", "accomplishment", "attainment", or "success". The term is first attested in the Mahabharata. In the Pancatantra, a siddhi may be any unusual skill or faculty or capability...

 of being able to crush and eat rocks and boulders for food and him doing so is a standard aspect of his iconography.

Translations

'Eight Sections of the Magical Net' which form the cycle of Mahayoga

Mahayoga

Mahayoga is the designation of the first of the three Inner Tantras according to the ninefold division of practice used by the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism....

 texts associated with the 'Magical Net of Vajrasattva' , the 'Secret Nucleus' which is the root of the 'Eighteen Great Tantrapitaka' were expounded by Vimalamitra to Ma Rinchen Chok and together they translated them.

Rinchen Chok and Vimalamitra together translated the Guhyagarbha Tantra

Guhyagarbha tantra

The Guhyagarbha Tantra is the main tantra of the Mahayoga class and the primary Tantric text studied in the Nyingma tradition as a key to understanding empowerment, samaya, mantras, mandalas and other Vajrayana topics....

. Rinchen Chok also translated Vimalamitra's own commentary of the Guhyagarbha. Rinchen Chook translated the Cittabindu Upadesha, a text by the three great siddhas Lilavajra, Buddhaguhya

Buddhaguhya

Buddhaguhya was a Vajrayana Buddhist scholar-monk. Vimalamitra was one of his students. Apart from his commentary on the Maha-Vairocana-Abhisambodhi Tantra, we know little of Buddhaguhya. A major commentary by Buddhaguhya of the Mahavairocana Tantra was written in 760 and is preserved in...

 and Vimalamitra

Vimalamitra

Vimalamitra ), an 8th century Indian adept, is key to the history of Tibetan Buddhist Dzogchen practice. He lived equally in China, Oddiyana and Tibet, but was known as the "Sage of Kashmir". According to tradition, he was born in Western India and travelled to China to become a disciple of Shri...

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