Fearless in Tibet: The Life of the Mystic Terton Sogyal (12 page)

Nyoshul Lungtok summoned Tertön Sogyal. He knew this was an assignment for the confident, and sometimes rowdy, mantra practitioner.

“The people in that valley need someone who can cut through the many dangers, both apparent and unseen. Go there to sort the problem out.”

Tertön Sogyal convinced his friend Gyawo to accompany him. They rode until they came upon a large black nomad tent with no signs of habitation, where not even a guard dog barked. Pulling back the entry flap, they found the tent ransacked, with kitchen utensils, sleeping blankets, and a broken stove strewn about. Nine corpses lay amid the destruction. Tertön Sogyal surveyed the massacre and looked into the eyes of one dead girl, whose fear at the time of death was frozen on her young face. It was as if the terror on her face screamed a warning to steer clear of the horrific scene.

“This is precisely why Nyoshul Lungtok sent us here,” Tertön Sogyal said quietly to Gyawo. “We must not lose our compassion. Conquer your fear, my friend, and power will rise from within.”

They set up camp and boiled water for tea as the sun set. In hushed voices, they spoke about how the violent deaths inside the tent were certainly caused by the witch’s curse. The dead would not be left in peace but would be continually tormented, lost in the in-between
bardo
state before their next rebirth. Tertön Sogyal and Gyawo recited prayers into the night’s darkness for these nine dead individuals.

A rush of air and a swirling of dust near the tent indicated the arrival of malicious spirits that eat corpses. Gyawo heard his own name being called by the spirits, as if a hundred owls were whispering in his ears.

“Gyawo, Gyawo, you will be next.”

Gyawo’s heart pounded. A ghostly corpse-eater dressed in rags carrying a hatchet entered the tent. Fearing for his life, Gyawo sped off on his horse without even a saddle.

Tertön Sogyal’s equipoise was as stable as a mountain during a storm. He knew that all fear and anxiety come from an untamed mind. Neither the threats of the corpse-eating spirits nor the risk of a witch’s curse could shake his stability. The task at hand required him to wrathfully subjugate and destroy fear and its many guises. More spirits loitered around the tent as Tertön Sogyal took refuge in Padmasambhava’s teachings, visualized offerings to the Great Guru and lineage masters, and then invoked Vajrakilaya, merging his mind with the wisdom deity:
Om Vajra Kila Kilaya Hum Phat
.

Tertön Sogyal approached one crazed ghoul that was chewing on a bloated corpse and stabbed the spirit with his phurba dagger, dissolving the phantom in an instant, sending its consciousness to a pure realm. The tertön then took a seat on another corpse’s bloated belly that was an arm’s length from the girl with the fearful expression. Of all the family who died in the tent, only the consciousness of the fearful girl had not departed from her body.

Tertön Sogyal took out his ritual instruments. He remained in thought-free awareness for a few minutes and then from the meditative space that recognizes the dream-like quality of phenomena, Tertön Sogyal manifested himself as Vajrakilaya. He summoned Dharma protectors by blowing an eerie drone from a thighbone trumpet and playing a small hand drum. Visualizing himself with bone ornamentation and clothing made of flesh symbolically reminded Tertön Sogyal of the wrath needed to subjugate demonic forces.
Om Vajra Kila Kilaya Hum Phat
. Using a human thighbone and skull drums in rituals not only gave Tertön Sogyal a tactile connection to mortality but served as an esoteric offering to wrathful deities while scaring away worldly ghosts.

Maintaining the inseparability of primordial awareness and the wrath of Vajrakilaya, Tertön Sogyal recited, “
Hum, Hum, Hum …
” while forcing threatening spirits outside the tent. Banshee-like spirits from around the valley had gathered around the perimeter of the tent, shrieking in the night’s darkness that the long-haired yogi Tertön Sogyal was the next to die. Then, the witch who had originally set the curse upon the family appeared as nine female spirits with matted hair. These vengeful spirits tried to distract and entice Tertön Sogyal through sexual entrapment. When unsuccessful, they turned into horrific bitches, yapping loudly and tearing at Tertön Sogyal’s arms and legs. The commotion raised by the witch and her manifestations only made Tertön Sogyal’s flames of compassion blaze higher. Unable to move his attention away from the task at hand, the bitches slowly shrank to the size of thumbnails and then disappeared, bringing to an end the witch and her curses.

Tertön Sogyal continued to recite “
Hum, Hum, Hum
…” while visualizing a protective light dome around the girl. Then, he let out an earth-shattering “
Phat!”
that forcibly ejected the girl’s consciousness from the corpse, out the fontanel and into a rebirth in a pure celestial realm.

Tertön Sogyal prayed throughout the night, and by the time the morning light stretched across the valley floor, all that remained in the tent were skeletons. Tertön Sogyal dissolved the visualization at the conclusion of the ritual, reminding himself that deity yoga is only a skillful means to accomplish enlightened action. Vajrakilaya is nothing other than a name and form given to the Buddha’s activity, enlightened troubleshooting.

After nearly two years, Tertön Sogyal was ready to leave the care of Nyoshul Lungtok. The master called his disciple into his tent. Nyoshul Lungtok was holding an eight-inch phurba dagger. The phurba, made of meteorite, had previously danced on its sharp point in the middle of the shrine while Nyoshul Lungtok was performing a Vajrakilaya ceremony.

“You will reveal profound cycles of Vajrakilaya treasure teachings in the future. Now take this activity phurba; wield it in the world, but do not be of the world,” he said, empowering Tertön Sogyal with the blessing of his wisdom mind.

“Use the phurba to destroy the self-cherishing ego and its many guises.”

By the time Tertön Sogyal perfected his skill in meditation with Nyoshul Lungtok, he had arrived at a place of deep conviction for his life’s mission as a treasure revealer. Tertön Sogyal said, “To revive the Dharma and inspire beings in these degenerate times, Guru Padmasambhava concealed various terma treasures. Padmasambhava gave prophecies about whom he had blessed to retrieve the treasures. Padmasambhava advised tertöns like me to never, even for a moment, delay in accomplishing the task of revealing the treasures—even at the cost of our life!”

The depth and quality of realizations that emerged from Tertön Sogyal’s years of retreat were like those of past masters of India and Tibet. He had recognized that all the Buddhist teachings were ultimately free from contradiction; that the instructions of the guru are the path by which one purifies the mind from the veils of ignorance. He understood that all of the guru’s instructions were to be actively applied to one’s mind and habits and were not merely for philosophical or intellectual speculation. And because he diligently applied his teacher’s pith instructions and swiftly realized the mind of the Buddha, he naturally refrained from deviations on the spiritual path.

Tertön Sogyal’s life continued to be led not by his own volition but by Padmasambhava’s prophecies and the direction of the Dharma protectors and treasure guardians. He had spent nearly a decade in retreat under his masters—Khyentse Wangpo, Jamgön Kongtrul, Nyoshul Lungtok, Lama Sonam Thaye, and Dza Choktrul—who understood well these prophecies for Tertön Sogyal’s life. Padmasambhava had laid out the plans for his life long ago; every move, from whom he should receive teachings, the places where he should practice, the people he should meet, what rituals to conduct, and the eventual treasure discoveries—these were all given in prophecies. One of the principal goals of a Dharma practitioner is to stop yearning for anything in this life; yet that does not imply letting go of diligence, a necessary quality if one is going to strive to accomplish great virtue. Just so, with every terma treasure and prophecy, hidden statue and sacred substance, Tertön Sogyal strove with great effort to reveal them successfully. His days and nights were now spent either finding prophecies and treasures or enacting the prophecies and practicing the treasure teachings themselves.

CHAPTER 6

A TREASURE REVEALER’S CAREER UNFOLDS

D
ERGE
R
EGION
, E
ASTERN
T
IBET

Year of the Wood Monkey to the Fire Dog, 1884–1886

As Tertön Sogyal stayed in the Derge region, spending long stretches of time in retreat and studying with his main teachers Khyentse, Kongtrul, and Nyoshul Lungtok, he began receiving frequent predictions about the future of Tibet and its Dharma practitioners. The ominous messages spoke of an age of degeneration, or
kaliyuga,
when the dark force of harmful emotions such as anger, pride, and jealousy would overcome the minds of Tibetans, leading them to fight among themselves and invite conflict from beyond their borders. And the welfare of Tibet would be especially endangered, Padmasambhava warned, if monks and lay tantric practitioners transgressed their vows and precepts and did not adhere to their gurus’ instructions.

Padmasambhava told Tertön Sogyal in one vision that, “those who have achieved the name of ‘scholar’ will do exactly what is prohibited by the Dharma; there will be sectarianism and this will destroy the Buddha Dharma. Those who have practiced little will call themselves a yogi; they will denigrate others and speak harshly to those who are actually authentic practitioners.”

Padmasambhava frequently spoke to Tertön Sogyal about the corruption of
samaya
. Samaya is a set of precepts taken during a tantric initiation—in essence, commitments to live in accordance with the truth, with the Dharma. Samaya is articulated in vows between a guru and disciples, toward the doctrine of the teachings, and among the community of practitioners with whom they have been initiated. Samaya is the spiritual thread woven through a community that secures pure intentions and harmony and propels one’s Dharma brothers and sisters toward enlightenment in a single mandala. Tertön Sogyal was acutely aware of the extreme importance of maintaining samaya and the dire consequences when it was broken.

“Beings with perverted aspirations who appear in the community will actually be demons,” Padmasambhava said in a vision to Tertön Sogyal. “There will be those who do not hold samaya but will still sit in the empowerments among the community of practitioners. They will continue to carry out ill will.”

Jamgön Kongtrul once told Tertön Sogyal, “Various ghosts and in particular the
damsi
, the samaya-breaking demon from the dark side, will possess people. People who have been touched by damsi demons will have some power, some clairvoyance, and will be able to speak partial truths; but theirs is an evil path. Many in the populace will hold them in high regard and even take refuge in those who have been touched by the damsi. These poor Tibetans! They are being deceived!”

Padmasambhava warned that internal strife among Tibetans would render them vulnerable to sickness, famine, and attacks from beyond Tibet’s borders “with an arsenal never witnessed before.”

But, there was a remedy.

“In order to reverse this trend and to restore positive virtue to Tibet, the termas I have hidden for Tertön Sogyal can be a medicine for this particular degenerate time.”

Tertön Sogyal knew that if the tantric practitioners, monks and lamas, and religious benefactors of the Dharma in Tibet lived harmoniously and avoided waging interdenominational battles, then the Dharma would be sustained.

One evening, by candlelight, Tertön Sogyal wrote, “Even someone such as myself, who is such a lowly being—who has been born in last place at the end of the queue of supreme Dharma holders who have had the fortune of being granted the power to reveal the termas of Guru Padmasambhava—if there is any virtue in my accomplishments of the past, present, or future, may this contribute to the longevity of all the traditions’ lineage holders, may it cause the Dharma to flourish, and in all my future lives may I be blessed by the gurus and dakinis. With the profound activity of these treasure revelations, I pray I fulfill my own and others’ aspirations.
Mangalam
.”