Ratnamati or Lodro Rinchen
Ratnamati or Lodro Rinchen (blo gros rin chen), as he is called in Tibetan. A Bodhisattva who is considered to be an emanation of the Dharmakaya Buddha Vajradhara. Together with the Bodhisattva Sukhanatha, considered an emanation of Vajrapani, he is responsible for bringing the Mahamudra teachings into our human world. They transmitted the teachings of Mahamudra to the Indian Mahasiddha Saraha who passed them on to his human disciples. It passed from him to Nagarjuna, Shavaripa and then to Maitripa. This is one of the two Mahamudra lineages which Marpa the translator received in India.
Bodhisattva Ratnamati is seen, in some scriptures, as being a direct emanation of the Buddha. His companion, Sukhanatha, is thought of as an emanation of bodhisattva Vajrapani, guardian of tantric Buddhism. Other scriptures consider the former more as an emanation of Manjughosa and the latter as an emanation of Avalokitesvara. Whichever the case, Ratnamati and Sukhanatha were instrumental in bringing the teachings of mahamudra to our world. They are most famous as the source's of Saraha's enlightened understanding. Ratnamati os considered more as a celestial being who inspired Saraha than as a flesh-and- blood human. This is why the bodhisattva is depicted born from a lotus. As his nature was only really known within the pure sphere of Saraha's meditation, we have little historical or textual information concerning Ratnamati. This does not belittle the enormous respect felt for him as the link between the primordial Buddha Vajradhara and Saraha, making him first in the lineage of mahamudra teachings as they were handed down though the Kagyu transmission.
