Fearless in Tibet: The Life of the Mystic Terton Sogyal (24 page)
Read Fearless in Tibet: The Life of the Mystic Terton Sogyal Online
Authors: Matteo Pistono
Dispelling Flaws in Interdependence
is a tantric practice that deals directly with the fabric of existence, bringing about wholly auspicious circumstances conducive to spiritual realizations. In his original teaching of
Dispelling Flaws
to Yeshe Tsogyal, Padmasambhava taught that circumstances in life come about in various ways—some circumstances naturally appear, like the weather, and little can be done about them. There are other situations that can come about by someone deliberately assembling the causes and conditions. And there are those circumstances that, after they unfold, can be transformed. Padmasambhava explained that whether a circumstance unfolds auspiciously or inauspiciously has much to do with a person’s attitude, which further fuels a situation. The operating principle of
Dispelling Flaws in Interdependence
is thus: Because the nature of reality is interdependent, spiritual practitioners can affect their universe by preventing inauspiciousness from arising, eliminating inauspiciousness when it does come about, and transforming inauspiciousness into auspiciousness. Through the combination of the visualization of deities and their activities, recitation of specific mantras, and resting in the sublime view of Dzogchen, the promise of
Dispelling Flaws
is that harm can be healed, future danger can be prevented, and positive circumstances among the population can be increased.
For us and those who need protection:
May all harm and faults in outer, inner, and secret interdependent circumstances be pacified!
May all goodness increase and spread!
May all favorable circumstances come under our power and mastery!
May all negative circumstances cease to exist!
On the 25th day of the lunar calendar, Tertön Sogyal gathered a group of yogis and yoginis who maintained pure samaya. The assembly included a prophesied dakini who sat next to the tertön. Tertön Sogyal was still unable to speak. While they offered a ritual feast, Tertön Sogyal understood that the
Dispelling Flaws in Interdependence
delivery was imminent. He wrote a note informing Dza Choktrul about the forthcoming revelation, which included a medicine that would cure his muteness. Tertön Sogyal prayed fervently that there would be no obstacles to the discovery of the treasure and that its revelation would bring a great wave of benefit.
Two days later, after Tertön Sogyal had made many aspirational prayers and was resting in the profound state of meditation, a treasure guardian handed him a terma casket that contained spiritual medicine that cured him of his muteness. He showed the casket to the dakini, who said, “The treasure must be deciphered now because it is like a medicine targeting a sickness.” The next night, Padmasambhava, riding a tiger, appeared to Tertön Sogyal and made a prophecy about deciphering
Dispelling Flaws in Interdependence
. Tertön Sogyal felt more joy than when revealing any of his previous termas. With diligence and a newfound enthusiasm, Tertön Sogyal wrote out the elaborate practice text of
Dispelling Flaws in Interdependence,
which included instructions on repairing inauspicious circumstances by striking at the heart of ignorance itself.
All these momentary thoughts, perceptions, and perceiving
Arise from interdependent circumstances,
And yet they are unborn,
For they are, by their very nature, empty.
So before them, be without grasping, be without effort or striving.
The unaltered state of rigpa, natural condition of the unending innermost mind,
Is free of all conceptual thinking: indestructible and sky-like.
Rigpa is empty from the very beginning,
Radiant in and of itself,
An all-penetrating limitlessness:
Unmoving, beyond all knowledge or knowing.
Because rigpa illuminates itself,
It automatically resolves
All doubts and misconceptions.
Because it is not based on the intellectual mind,
It rests in its own natural condition, as it is.
Unbounded by time, unmoving and unchanging,
In this state, no inauspiciousness can ever exist;
Everything is self-liberated as the state of great bliss,
And right there buddhahood is accomplished, without any seeking.
Buddha is not to be sought anywhere else.
L
HASA
, C
ENTRAL
T
IBET
Year of the Iron Ox to the Wood Dragon, 1901–1904
After two years in Kham, Tertön Sogyal returned to Lhasa in the Iron Ox year (1901) with the
Dispelling Flaws in Interdependence
terma and resumed his position in the court of the Dalai Lama. It would be his last trip to central Tibet. At this time, there was no disputing the Dalai Lama’s reliance on Tertön Sogyal and the responsibilities he entrusted in him. Yet some in Lhasa, including prominent monastic leaders, continued to oppose the tertön. They resented him not only because of his unorthodox and rough character, but because of his influence on the Dalai Lama regarding religious matters. The central issue that some of the monks from Sera and Ganden monasteries raised questioned the authenticity of Padmasambhava’s concealed treasures and prophecies—the very spiritual practices to which the Dalai Lama, the Nechung Oracle, and others were devoted. While sectarian monks’ protestations persisted, the Dalai Lama still relied upon Tertön Sogyal for spiritual guidance, as well as advice on how to handle the growing political threat from British India and Tsarist Russia, as well as the Qing Manchus.
As soon as Tertön Sogyal arrived in Lhasa, he offered the empowerments and transmissions of
Dispelling Flaws in Interdependence
to the Dalai Lama, who composed a prayer of offering to the Dharma protectors of the teaching. Such treasure teachings as
Dispelling Flaws
and
The Razor
were specifically catering to Tibet’s troubles at the end of the 19th and the early 20th centuries. The
Dispelling Flaws
revelation was meant to repair the disharmony of Tibet’s political leaders and the sectarian monks through unification. One of the special qualities of treasure teachings is that revelation occurs at precisely the time when the instructions are most needed. As it says in the
Dispelling Flaws in Interdependence
liturgy:
Pacify all outer, inner and secret inauspicious circumstances: Let the past ones cease to exist! Let future ones not arise! Let present ones never harm us! And, from within the space of wisdom, transform all harm and inauspiciousness into good.
Yet the revelation of a treasure teaching and prophecy is not effective in and of itself. The instructions and meditations taught in the treasure need to be practiced in full, the rituals must be carried out to the letter, and the prophetic instructions must be heeded. Because of the many interdependent causes and conditions that make up a given threat, oftentimes a multifaceted antidote must be applied. For this reason, the Dalai Lama was following the spiritual advice of Tertön Sogyal and other highly accomplished meditation masters in his attempt to rule effectively, employing many remedies for the looming internal and external threats in Tibet.
Tertön Sogyal received news at this time that his teacher Nyoshul Lungtok had left his body at the age of 72 at his retreat in Tromthar in eastern Tibet, where he had lived for his last 12 years. Just before Nyoshul Lungtok’s mind dissolved into the primordial state of basic awareness, he gave his last testament, which described his profound realization:
To be immersed in genuine, unfettered being is to be like the sun rising at dawn.
This is the vision of the ultimate nature—how marvelous!
Tertön Sogyal was indebted to Nyoshul Lungtok for the refinement of his yogic training and the lineage of whispered instructions that he had received. Tertön Sogyal practiced guru yoga to merge his mind with the wisdom mind of his guru.
The knots of the eight worldly concerns have come untied in the state of equal taste.
The designs of ordinary consciousness have faded in the basic space of original purity.
You have directly experienced the way of abiding that is the Great Perfection.
[Nyoshul] Lungtok Tenpe Nyima, I pray to you.
Tertön Sogyal continued to reveal termas in central Tibet and, as the dakinis had advised, he kept many of the revelations secret, even from those in the Potala Palace. However, when he was given a prophecy concerning the chapels at Kalzang, Tertön Sogyal knew he would need the assistance of the Dalai Lama. Tertön Sogyal told the Tibetan leader he needed to take back to Nyarong an exceptional statue that could serve as additional protection.
“As there are not many goldsmiths in eastern Tibet,” Tertön Sogyal explained, “could Your Holiness provide me with a splendid image?”
“We have many Nyingma statues in Lhasa, but the most precious ones are in chapels in the Potala; those chapels were sealed with nails and molten bronze when we were protecting them from the Dzungar Mongol armies many centuries ago.”
The Dalai Lama had his blacksmith unseal one of the temples, and therein he found a list of the ancient contents.
“There are five images blessed by Padmasambhava himself in this temple. Although it would be a disaster for Lhasa to be without them, nonetheless I will not let you down!”
The Dalai Lama commissioned an exact replica of the most magnificent statue in the previously sealed chapel and placed inside, at the heart, an ancient hand-size image blessed by Padmasambhava. On the day that the Dalai Lama offered Tertön Sogyal the statue and ordered the governor of Nyarong to look after its transport to Kalzang, Tertön Sogyal expressed his gratitude. The Dalai Lama responded, “Now, for your son and your lineage, I will bestow upon you this glass seal so that the next generation of your family will be in good standing, along with an estate.”
“That you, a great sublime object of refuge, look upon me with compassion and bestow such kindness is truly incomparable. This is really too much,” Tertön Sogyal said. “I accept your kindness and will fulfill the aspirations of my gurus. For me, Your Holiness, I am an aging yogi who prefers to dwell in the mountains and who has no use for seals of rank or tracts of land. But I will find a way to put it to good use.”
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Russian and British empires competed for Central Asia supremacy, a rivalry known as the Great Game. Russia had steadily expanded its territory from the end of the 18th century under Peter the Great and the tsars from Alexander I to Alexander III, all of whom gained territory for Russia. By the time the trans-Siberian railway was complete, Britain was worried that Russia might extend its reach into Tibet, and farther into India. Britain, on the other hand, was consolidating control in the Indian foothills in Sikkim, and farther to the west near Ladakh. The British were intent on establishing secure trade routes with Tibet. During this period, Britain and China were negotiating trade and suzerainty agreements concerning Tibet, but without Tibetan representation. Tibetans viewed the various Anglo-Chinese and Russo-Chinese agreements as illegitimate.
In the summer of 1901, one of the assistant tutors of the Dalai Lama, a Buryatian scholar known as Dorjieff, went to Russia carrying a letter of greeting from the Dalai Lama to the Tsar. This raised considerable suspicion that the Dalai Lama was courting Russia to stand up against Britain and China. The possibility of Russia extending its sphere of influence into Tibet caused significant angst in Peking and London, for they believed Russia had goals of complete Pan-Asian dominance. The Japanese scholar-spy Ekai Kawaguchi erroneously reported seeing two waves of camel caravans from Russia entering Lhasa carrying gifts and weapons for the Dalai Lama from the Tsar. Britain’s erroneous belief in 1902 that a large cache of Russian weapons was being delivered to Lhasa was enough evidence for them to begin planning an invasion into Tibet, though in the name of a “trade mission.”
As the threats from British India continued to increase, the Dalai Lama felt it most appropriate for him to personally engage in esoteric means to avert the danger. In the fourth month of the Water Hare year (1903), the Dalai Lama decided to enter an extended meditation retreat. Tradition prescribed the Dalai Lama to enter retreat for three years. Along with the Dalai Lama’s senior tutors, Tertön Sogyal offered him instructions for the retreat. Being certain that trouble was on his doorstep, the Dalai Lama intended to perform rituals and meditate upon the deity Yamantaka, as well as the Vajrakilaya treasure teachings that Tertön Sogyal had revealed. Both Yamantaka and Vajrakilaya—two extremely wrathful deities—are believed to be not only powerful antidotes to spiritual pollution, but especially swift.
As the Dalai Lama began his meditation retreat, Tertön Sogyal departed for a few months of pilgrimage throughout central Tibet, revealing more treasure teachings and practicing esoteric rites to strengthen the Tibetan nation and push back the invaders. A few months later, the British regiment led by Francis Younghusband crossed the Indo-Tibetan border and began to increase its troop numbers. Britain had been unable to communicate directly with the Dalai Lama, who, unbeknownst to them, was in meditation retreat. Even if the Dalai Lama had not been in retreat, due to Tibet’s dismissive view of previous Anglo-Chinese trade agreements, it is unlikely that he would have responded to any communiqués. As Younghusband moved his army farther into the Land of Snows, Britain was unsure whether the Tibetans had already signed an agreement with Russia—which they had not.