Fearless in Tibet: The Life of the Mystic Terton Sogyal (15 page)

The institution of the Dalai Lama rose to religious and political prominence after the reformist Gelug school, one of the four major schools in Tibetan Buddhism, came to power in the middle of the 17th century. In the previous four centuries, the Sakya, Karma Kagyu, and Gelug schools competed for rule in Tibet by gaining the patronage of the Mongol Yuan (1271–1368) and Chinese Ming (1368–1644) dynasties. These foreign patrons of Tibetan Buddhism, to varying degrees, provided monetary support and military backing. The Tibetan lamas in turn provided spiritual legitimacy to their rule. This “lama-patron” relationship was reciprocal where the lay community supported the ordained community and the spiritual body endorsed the political rulers. Tibet used this lama-patron bond as the foundation of their international relations with eastern neighbors.

Tibetan Buddhism has never treated politics and religion separately. Tibetan nationalism, as understood during Tertön Sogyal’s life, had commenced in the 8th century when King Trisong Detsen gained rule of the Tibetan Plateau through the esoteric achievements of Padmasambhava. From the Tibetan nation’s inception, politics and religion have been inseparable, and any notion that rule of the country should not flow from Buddhist principles is thought to be foolish. Buddha’s teachings on impermanence, causality and karma, and compassion are the very foundation upon which Tibet’s leaders are meant to govern, whether ordained monks or lay officials. It is from these fundamental Buddhist principles that leaders glean the needed wisdom to rule effectively. And the embodiment of the merging of politics and spirituality is found in the institution of the Dalai Lama.

The incarnation lineage of the Dalai Lama began in the 15th century. The first four Dalai Lamas were scholar-meditators who did not exercise significant political power. However, in the 17th century, the Great Fifth Dalai Lama rose to consolidate secular and religious power over the nation—he was the first Tibetan ruler to do so since the imperial period of the 7th and 8th centuries. Tibetans nostalgically heralded the Fifth’s rule as a return to the grand era when King Trisong Detsen ruled through Buddhist decree and his control extended throughout China and central Asia.

The Great Fifth is remembered for his mysticism, poetry, and prose; his architectural aptitude, of which the Potala Palace was the result; and his statesmanship. It is no coincidence that the Great Fifth achieved political and religious dominion because of his strong devotion to Padmasambhava and his spiritual relationship with the Dzogchen master Chöying Rangdrol and the white-bearded tertön of Mindroling, Terdak Lingpa, who, like all tertöns, were envoys of Padmasambhava. As the successive incarnations of the Dalai Lamas are spiritual descendants of the imperial kings of Tibet, when a bond is made with the representatives of Padmasambhava, the treasure revealers, then the Dalai Lama’s success is considered secured. The First, Second, and Sixth through the Twelfth Dalai Lamas’ spiritual and political activities were limited, and indeed the lives of some of them were shortened because they were not protected by, nor did they receive teachings and empowerments from, tertöns. It was now the Thirteenth Dalai Lama’s turn to connect with his karmically connected treasure revealer—Tertön Sogyal.

Government representatives in full regalia and the Medium of the Nechung Oracle formally greeted Tertön Sogyal a few hours outside of Lhasa and escorted him toward the Potala Palace. As they rode on horseback, Tertön Sogyal could see the towering white and red Potala Palace in the far distance. With more than a thousand rooms of living quarters, chanting halls, reliquaries, shrines, libraries, ceremonial reception areas, and government chambers, this was the most spectacular of all structures in Tibet. It was home to all the Dalai Lamas since the time of the Great Fifth, more than 300 years before.

As the small procession with honor guard escorted Tertön Sogyal into Lhasa, residents of the Shol neighborhood below the Potala Palace stopped chitchatting and bartering to take notice. It was infrequent that the Dalai Lama summoned a lay tantric yogi to the Potala, and even more unusual that monastic prelates of the Tibetan government received a layman en route. Necks stretched through the window frames of whitewashed buildings to watch as Tertön Sogyal rode tall in the mount that the government provided—a ceremonial stallion instead of the sure-footed mountain ponies to which he was accustomed. His confidence as a treasure revealer was apparent, not because of arrogance but because, as Padmasambhava’s emissary, he rejoiced that he was reestablishing a spiritual bond with the ruler of Tibet.

Tertön Sogyal, Atrin, and others in the small group were ushered up the hundreds of stone-carved steps to the Potala and into an ornate reception room where they were served fine tea and sweet rice unlike anything they had ever tasted. Golden statues and exquisite murals were in every room they passed, as if proceeding through different Buddha realms. Tertön Sogyal was then shown to his quarters in the palace, and Atrin and the others went to stay in the neighborhood below. Tertön Sogyal had hardly dusted himself off when he was called to meet the refined and regal Ngawang Lobsang Trinley Rabgye, the Demo incarnation from Tengyeling Monastery. Demo was the powerful regent of Tibet.

The Thirteenth Dalai Lama was nearly 20 years Tertön Sogyal’s junior and had yet to assume political rule of Tibet. With succession by reincarnation, there was always an interim period when the Dalai Lamas were not of age to rule. The Dalai Lama’s political duties were carried out by his regent until he attained a majority. The regents came from prominent and historically influential aristocratic households in central Tibet—Tengyeling, Reting, Tshomoling, and Kundeling—and they were selected by Tibetan government ministers and senior monastic hierarchs. Though charged with overseeing the nation with the same Buddhist principles that the Dalai Lamas embodied, some of the regents of the past were the cause of religious sectarianism, corrupt cronyism, and in some cases, it is believed, the premature death of the Dalai Lama.

Demo, the ninth incarnation of his lineage and head of the prominent and wealthy Tengyeling Monastery in Lhasa, was the Dalai Lama’s regent when Tertön Sogyal arrived in Lhasa. He was competent in directing the young Dalai Lama’s early studies so that he simultaneously developed his spiritual and political acumen. Demo took the State Oracle’s pronouncements very seriously, including how critical it was that the Dalai Lama establish a deep relationship with his karmically connected tertön. For the regent, the State Oracle, and the tertön, the highest priorities were to prevent obstacles to the Dalai Lama’s long life and secure the nation’s borders so that the teachings of the Buddha in Tibet would flourish into the 20th century.

Regent Demo welcomed Tertön Sogyal on behalf of the Tibetan government, offered him a new set of woolen robes, and told him that he would meet with the Dalai Lama the next day. Tertön Sogyal shared with the regent one of Padmasambhava’s prophecies from the Avalokiteshvara treasure cycle that he had just discovered in eastern Tibet.

“The holder of the lotus, manifestation of all Buddha’s compassion and wisdom, the emanation of the previous Dharma Kings, incarnation of the Great Fifth, the unsurpassable Lord of Refuge of the present and future for the Land of Snows and the Dharma, is the one known as Thubten Gyatso, the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, born in the Fire Rat year,” Tertön Sogyal read the prophecy to Regent Demo. “If the auspicious conditions ripen, in his thirteenth year, Thubten Gyatso will meet the tertön and become the holder of Padmasambhava’s treasure teachings, and the doors to the Dharma will effortlessly open, and from then onward their wisdom minds will be inseparable.”

Tertön Sogyal awoke early on his first morning in Lhasa. He prepared his offerings to present to the Dalai Lama—a treasure statue, holy substances that he had discovered, and a number of treasure texts he had written from his revelations. After he wrapped them in silk, he sat alone in his room.

When the knock on his door sounded, he took the meditative equipoise with him into the world just as a warrior would secure his armor.

Tertön Sogyal was escorted in the predawn hours through cold stone hallways illuminated by torches. Weaving through this maze of endless hallways in the Potala Palace, they passed small niches where single butter lamps illuminated the wide-eyed gaze of figures in ancient statues and scroll paintings. Deep chanting resounded from various chapels where monks paid daily obeisance to the array of Tibet’s Dharma protectors. They walked past larger halls with tall stupas housing bone relics of yogis and masters from the past millennium. Monks passed them walking in the opposite direction, holding torma offerings to place on the hundreds of shrines throughout the Potala. Here the walls were permeated with blessings, resonant with prayers.

When they arrived at the reception hall, brocaded woolen hangings were pulled back from the door and Tertön Sogyal entered to see the Dalai Lama, Avalokiteshvara, the Buddha of Compassion in person, sitting on a high throne. Regent Demo and the Dalai Lama’s Lord Chamberlain were standing on either side of the throne. The monk who served as the Medium of the State Oracle, Nechung—with whom Tertön Sogyal would soon work closely—was also present to complete the mandala gathering. Tertön Sogyal prostrated on the floor three times, unrolled a white silken offering scarf, and approached the Dalai Lama. The young monk accepted the offering scarf and touched his forehead to Tertön Sogyal’s in an act of mutual benediction.

Demo stepped forth and, speaking in a soft tone, requested that Tertön Sogyal explain the circumstances of the treasure revelations and related prophecies. Attendants unwrapped the silk from the statues and manuscripts, and Tertön Sogyal spoke of each item’s significance. A translator was sometimes needed because the Dalai Lama was not familiar with Tertön Sogyal’s Nyarong dialect, nor did the tertön use the customary formal and refined parlance of Lhasa. Linguistic limitations mattered little. The Dalai Lama and Tertön Sogyal connected at the deepest and most profound level.

The Dalai Lama took great interest with the recounting of terma revelations, in particular the Avalokiteshvara treasure from Gonjo and other prophecies Tertön Sogyal had received. Guru Padmasambhava’s prophecies concerning Tertön Sogyal, given in two different treasure revelations, stated, “I [Padmasambhava] have limitless profound treasure and they are all the essence of the Dharma. Of those beings who will reveal them in the future, there will be one from eastern Tibet who is the emanation of Dorje Dudjom, who was born in the Fire Dragon year, whose body will be short and he will have a bold character, who is wise with few attachments to worldly possessions, and who will have great devotion to me. Although he will comport himself with an unconventional character, his heart carries my blessings. If he is not overpowered by the demon of obstacles, he will live beyond seventy years.” The prophecy went on to identify Thubten Gyatso as the principal upholder and guardian of Tertön Sogyal’s terma revelations.

“The emanation of the King, born in the Fire Rat year in the land of Dakpo; if he [Thubten Gyatso] and the emanation of Dorje Dudjom [Tertön Sogyal] meet and have pure samaya heart connection that is never corrupted, then the treasure teachings of Padmasambhava will flow effortlessly. Specifically, the treasure teachings of the three inner cycles, treasure statues and substances, and in particular the life-force stone will reach the hands [of Thubten Gyatso]. If the auspiciousness is well connected for the accomplishment of this and the spreading of the terma teachings, then he [Thubten Gyatso], Tibet, and living beings will live in happiness.”

The Dalai Lama was overjoyed. There and then he requested that Tertön Sogyal become his guru and asked for tantric empowerments and oral transmissions for Padmasambhava’s treasure teachings. Tertön Sogyal wasted no time in bestowing them upon the Dalai Lama, and, as if water were being poured into water, the wisdom minds of these two great masters merged as one.