Fearless in Tibet: The Life of the Mystic Terton Sogyal (19 page)

The
Wish-Fulfilling Jewel Guru Statue That Liberates Upon Seeing
of Padmasambhava that was discovered as a terma by Tertön Sogyal and resides in the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa.

Tertön Sogyal did not stay long in Lhasa on his second visit—delivering the Guru Statue was his main purpose. But while in central Tibet, he was sure to connect with his close Dharma brother, Tertön Rangrik, who stayed just south of Lhasa at Mindroling Monastery. They were similar in some ways: both hailed from Nyarong, were disciples of Nyala Pema Dündul, and were revealing many of Padmasambhava’s termas. The disposition and demeanor of the two tertöns, however, could not have contrasted more. Tertön Rangrik preferred the hermit’s life and shunned contact with government officials and Lhasa’s socialites. Tertön Sogyal, on the other hand, did not mind being in the public eye and even took it upon himself to command Lhasa residents to follow the teachings of Padmasambhava and not squabble about whose worldly spirits were more powerful. Tertön Rangrik, echoing Nyoshul Lungtok’s warnings, once cautioned Tertön Sogyal not to become fond of his influential connections in Lhasa.

At one point, Tertön Rangrik and Tertön Sogyal were summoned by the Tibetan government to perform a ceremony together in the Jokhang. As Tertön Sogyal was the recognized teacher of the Dalai Lama, the monks of the temple arranged Tertön Sogyal’s throne a hand-span higher than the senior Tertön Rangrik’s carpeted seat. While Tertön Rangrik did not care if he was on a throne or on the muddy slab in the courtyard, the seating of the two lamas upset one of central Tibet’s mountain protector deities, Nyenchen Tanglha. Tanglha presided over the entire Himalayan range, was charged by Padmasambhava to protect authentic Dharma practitioners, and had a connection to Tertön Rangrik.

Tanglha was dismayed to find that Tertön Rangrik sat at a deferential height across from Tertön Sogyal’s throne. The mountain protector asked Tertön Rangrik if he could teach the younger tertön and the Jokhang monks a lesson in humility. The elderly lama, in a rare show of emotional delight, slightly grinned at Tanglha’s mischievous request.

Tanglha magically manifested himself into a large group of nomads from the northern plains of Tibet, with thick wool overcoats lined with wolf and fox fur. The illusory nomads were laden with huge sacks of offerings of dried cheese and wooden buckets of curd and butter. They rambled into the courtyard of the Jokhang and began to prostrate en masse before Tertön Rangrik, their backs to Tertön Sogyal. It surprised the monk assembly and other pilgrims and onlookers that Tertön Sogyal was being completely ignored. The nomads approached Tertön Rangrik to present the offerings and receive a blessing by touching their heads to his throne. After the first few nomads made offerings to Tertön Rangrik, they turned around to depart, without even looking at Tertön Sogyal.

The attending monks and curious onlookers encouraged the nomads to bow down to Tertön Sogyal. The monks, attendants, and pilgrims attempted to help but began bumping into one another in the confusion, with people walking in all directions. Tertön Rangrik watched the pandemonium as if it were child’s play.

Tertön Sogyal observed Tanglha’s magical display and how it played with the minds of the monks and pilgrims. Reclined into meditation, Tertön Sogyal slowly chanted the syllable “
Hum, Hum, Hum
…” and directed the syllable to weave an impenetrable dome of protection around the temple chamber. Gripping his phurba dagger, Tertön Sogyal directed the point at the nomads, freezing them in their footsteps. The temple monks, baffled by what was happening, sat in awe. Others tried to continue to push the unmoving nomads to receive a blessing.

Observing the protection dome that Tertön Sogyal had created, Tertön Rangrik felt sympathy for the immobile Tanglha and the confused people. He sat up and boldly yelled to Tertön Sogyal, “
Ta tong, ta tong
—right now, right now—let them go!”

Tertön Sogyal bowed his head toward his elder Dharma brother. With a snap of his fingers, Tertön Sogyal dissolved the dome, and at that moment Tanglha stood down from the contest and disappeared.

That evening during tea, Tertön Sogyal told Tertön Rangrik that he would soon return home. The elder tertön had cautionary words. He told Tertön Sogyal that the mother of a gifted young boy in Nyarong was trying to pass her son off as the incarnation of Nyala Pema Dündul, their teacher who had attained the rainbow body.

“As we say in Nyarong, a mother with a skilled tongue can turn any child into an incarnate lama,” said Tertön Rangrik.

Tertön Rangrik explained that a special boy had been born in Shayul village in Nyarong, not far from Tertön Sogyal’s birthplace. The boy displayed unique characteristics, and a local shaman predicted the boy’s future power and influence. However, there was caution with the prediction; the boy could acquire occult powers—and it was uncertain if he would use these powers to benefit beings or harm others.

Tertön Rangrik was certain that the boy was not the reincarnation of Pema Dündul. Before Pema Dündul dissolved into light, he had told Tertön Rangrik and other close disciples that if anyone claimed to be his reincarnation after his passing, that claimant must be buried nine body-lengths underground and a black stone monument placed on top. Tertön Rangrik certainly did not want to have to vanquish a fellow Nyarong villager, and building such a black monument would take so much effort and be a distraction from his meditation—but he would have to do so if the boy claimed to be Nyala Pema Dündul’s reincarnation.

The boy’s mother had tried to place the teenager under the tutelage and care of Tertön Rangrik a few years before. Tertön Rangrik refused because he foresaw involvement in the politics of recognizing reincarnations. The mother persisted in her attempts to gain favor for her son among other Nyarong lamas.

“When you return home, look into that young boy from Shayul,” Tertön Rangrik commanded. “We don’t want any black magicians coming from Nyarong.”

CHAPTER 11

The
RAZOR
of the
INNERMOST ESSENCE

D
ERGE
R
EGION
, E
ASTERN
T
IBET

Year of the Water Dragon to the Wood Sheep, 1892–1895

Tertön Sogyal returned to eastern Tibet and passed the next two years with his wife and child in Drikok, spent time in retreat at holy caves in the Derge and Tromthar regions, and practiced the treasure teachings he had already revealed. He was also discovering more treasures, coded maps, and prophecies.

Tertön Sogyal learned in the second month of the Water Dragon year (1892) that his teacher, the great Khyentse Wangpo, had passed away at the age of 73 at Dzongsar. Khyentse had been Tertön Sogyal’s spiritual father, and nearly everything he accomplished in his life had been influenced by the advice, guidance, and blessing of the great lama. Their bond throughout their many lifetimes together had been strengthened by their pure heart connection in their present lives, and it would continue into their future incarnations.

Now that Khyentse had passed away, Tertön Sogyal turned to the remaining spiritual luminary in eastern Tibet, Jamgön Kongtrul, as his touchstone. Tertön Sogyal had already received many teachings and empowerments from Kongtrul. As their relationship deepened, Kongtrul acknowledged that Tertön Sogyal was unique among his disciples, and that he placed great trust in the tertön and relied on his divinations to extend his life. In 1895, while Tertön Sogyal stayed with Kongtrul at Dzongshö, the two collaborated to reveal a Vajrakilaya treasure that was destined to become part of Tibet’s national defense—the treasure teaching was known as
The Razor of the Innermost Essence
.

When Padmasambhava began teaching the Vajrayana in Tibet, his first instructions to his heart-disciples had been the practice of the phurba-wielding deity, Vajrakilaya. The reason he taught Vajrakilaya practices first was to enable his students to remove obstacles on their spiritual path and to vanquish impediments to the flourishing of Buddhism in Tibet. Some of Padmasambhava’s Vajrakilaya liturgies were practiced straightaway in the 8th and 9th centuries, while others were hidden as treasure texts to be revealed in the future by tertöns when the instructions would be more effective against the prevailing spiritual malaise.

One cycle of the Vajrakilaya teachings that was hidden was known as
The Razor of the Innermost Essence
. Padmasambhava uncharacteristically entrusted
The Razor
to five of his disciple’s reincarnations, rather than to just one tertön. Padmasambhava wanted to ensure its revelation. Tertön Sogyal had discovered the coded map to
The Razor
more than eight years before in Katok, but it was only now that the right circumstances—principally Kongtrul’s blessed guidance—were coalescing that would bring it forth.

In the autumn of the Wood Sheep year (1895), Kongtrul assembled Tertön Sogyal, Lama Trime, Dza Choktrul, and others who were emanations of Padmasambhava’s heart-disciples and who were karmically connected to
The Razor,
to perform preparatory ceremonies. They conducted the rituals for a week at his hermitage at Dzongshö, set among the craggy limestone precipices. For yogic practitioners who have mastered the energies in their own bodies, an outer journey to sacred sites like Dzongshö is a catalyst to evoke their enlightened nature. Perched on a mountain ledge, the gathering of yogis saw the landscape with its forests, rivers, and mountains as a sacred mandala—the outer mirroring the inner. Every place in the sacred topography related to the yogis’ energy and vital essence. The peak above them was in the form of the Buddha of Wisdom, Manjushri; when the wind blew over the pine- and birch-covered hills, Padmasambhava’s enlightened speech could be heard. The limestone crag to the west was a jewel offering to wrathful deities, and to the east was the site of
The Razor of the Innermost Essence
treasure, concealed below the Jeweled Cliff inside a secret cave.

A scroll painting of Jamgön Kongtrul with his hand. and footprints.

Kongtrul had gone to that secret location at the Jeweled Cliff, known as the Cave That Delights the Awesome Heruka, a year before to find the treasure door. While Kongtrul was there making preparations, Tertön Sogyal was in central Tibet to conduct specified preparative rituals at the caves of Sheldrak, Drak Yerpa, and Samye Chimpu. Distance mattered little, as their enlightened intent bound their mission.

After Kongtrul and the group of yogis completed the week-long preparatory rites whereby they cleansed the external landscape of pollutants and purified their inner channels, Tertön Sogyal assisted the 82-year-old Kongtrul to the cave. Tertön Sogyal helped his mentor in the steep terrain and negotiated shallow but icy rivers. As they approached the cave, vermilion dust began to flow profusely from the edges of the treasure door. Tertön Sogyal’s mind was drawn like a magnet to the circular portal. He raised his phurba dagger in a threatening gesture and reminded the treasure guardian that he was a representative of Padmasambhava. He then hurled a stone at the red-dusted door. The earth shook with a thunderous crash. A small aperture where the rock had hit opened and a fragrant smell burst forth like rain of rose water. Tertön Sogyal plunged his hand into the opening of the granite, pulled it wider, and withdrew a statue of Padmasambhava in a striding posture holding a phurba dagger and vajra scepter. With the treasure door open, Kongtrul stepped forward and from an already opened casket withdrew a golden scroll from which the Vajrakilaya practices of
The Razor of the Innermost Essence
would be decoded.

Scroll painting of the Varjakilaya terma revelation by
Tertön Sogyal known as
The Razor of the Innermost Essence
.

“This treasure is the one and only revival of the Buddha Dharma for this degenerate time; it is the armor to protect us for all negative times; it is the weapon to avert all negative conditions.”

The trove in the rock was also full of medicinal nectar that liberates when tasted, but Tertön Sogyal said it was meant for another tertön. A dakini in the group pleaded with Tertön Sogyal for a small portion, and to avoid disappointing her, he took some and gave it to her. Tertön Sogyal set a replacement offering inside and closed the treasure door. The group performed feast offerings to the terma guardians and recited verses of dedication and prayers of auspiciousness.