Fearless in Tibet: The Life of the Mystic Terton Sogyal (28 page)

Many years later, after Dodrupchen had established a monastery in Golok, he was teaching to the congregation in the late afternoon when dark clouds formed overhead; thunder crashed about them as the temple roof shook. Some say that the spirit of an evil sorcerer with perverse aspirations caused the storm. As lightning struck, Dodrupchen felt ill, and by the time the storm subsided, he was paralyzed on his small wooden throne. He could barely walk for the rest of his life. The monks moved their stricken teacher to the Hermitage of Fostering Virtue, above the monastery where the surrounding pine and juniper trees of the Forest of Many Birds provided shelter from the strong Golok storms. There he began a life of seclusion among white-eared pheasants and soaring eagles. Except for his attendants, the four abbots of the monastery, and several incarnate lamas, few people were allowed to visit Dodrupchen. He described his hermitage:

Dodrupchen Rinpoche, Jikme Tenpe Nyima, was one of the most outstanding Tibetan masters of his time and collaborated with Tertön Sogyal.

When Tertön Sogyal arrived at Dodrupchen Monastery, he did not know of his Dharma brother’s paralysis. He was taken immediately to his hermitage. It was a joyful reunion, as the two had not seen each other for more than 25 years. Tertön Sogyal and his family were offered a nearby house belonging to the Puchung family, which they would use as a base for the next decade.

After Tertön Sogyal and his family settled into their new accommodations at Puchung House, he and Atrin left for the holy mountains around Amnye Machen, the abode of one of the most important Dharma protectors, Magyal Pomra. Rising steeply at the edge of a prodigiously fertile golden prairie, like a saw blade facing toward the heavens, Magyal Pomra surveys all of northeastern Tibet from the glaciated peaks of her long mountain range. Crystalline lakes in the uplands are surrounded by sparse juniper forests—this was where Tertön Sogyal was told he needed to meditate in preparation for revealing a life-force stone that was meant for the Dalai Lama, and to find additional keys to the hidden lands.

Tertön Sogyal’s life in Golok continued to be guided by visions and prophecy. He did not hesitate to enact what Padmasambhava told him, just as he had done in central Tibet during the last two decades. Signs indicated that his presence in Lhasa was no longer useful, for he had accomplished all that he could for the Dalai Lama’s court and the Tibetan government. He had performed the rituals Padmasambhava prescribed and had revealed the prophesied treasure teachings. Tertön Sogyal was undoubtedly frustrated with the lack of proactive measures taken by the Tibetan government, and without a direct representative of Padmasambhava—a tertön, or even a strong voice from the Nyingma school—in the court of the Dalai Lama, the specific ritual protection for the nation, as Padmasambhava recommended, would be likely left unaccomplished. The elements within the Lhasa establishment and Gelug leadership who scorned Tertön Sogyal’s advice had gained the upper hand. The tertön realized that for the rest of his days, his field of activity would be in the northeastern borderlands of Golok.

Even though the Qing had been expelled from Tibet, Padmasambhava still warned that an enemy from the east could rise again. Tibet was wounded and needed to restore its spiritual strength. But Tertön Sogyal saw how his countrymen were distracted from what is truly meaningful. Palden Lhamo said, “If the people of Tibet have no devotion and do not act in accordance with Padmasambhava’s prophecies, the force of the demons will be difficult to subdue. The Buddha Dharma is like a flickering butter lamp. To prevent the return of the demonic forces from overcoming Tibet in the future, it is important to discover the life-force stone.”

Tertön Sogyal had received clues about the existence of such life-force stones, but now he was being given specific directions. Life-force stones have the ability to protect and to extend one’s life. Certain stones have a connection to a particular individual’s life-force—that subtle energy within the body that is the support for a person’s consciousness. The longevity of that life-force depends on vitality and strength, for when it wanes, sickness and death are imminent. Tantric practitioners like Tertön Sogyal became adept at specific longevity practices that fortified and enriched their own vitality and life-force, often referred to as capturing the life-force. They relied upon a host of tantric practices, such as mantra recitation, directed meditative concentration, and resting in the sublime view of the ultimate nature of reality, in order to capture the life-force. Coupled with these esoteric practices, it is believed that inanimate objects such as unique rocks or trees or animals associated with one’s zodiac sign can impact the strength of one’s life-force. Tertön Sogyal was told that he needed to find a handful of life-force stones, and that one in particular was meant to be in the possession of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama to protect his life.

Tertön Sogyal felt a great resolve to find the stones, the kind of urgency not held by most of his countrymen. With the Qing no longer a threat to Tibet, many Tibetans felt they could relax. Many of those who had been asking Tertön Sogyal about the location of the hidden lands now sensed there was no longer such a need. In Lhasa and other large towns, the population was lulled into thinking they had banished the demons. Tertön Sogyal knew otherwise. Tibet must recuperate its strength. Tertön Sogyal still carried the maps and directions to the hidden valleys because he knew they would one day be needed. For now, however, Tertön Sogyal was on a mission to find the life-force stones, and in particular, the one to extend the life of the Dalai Lama. As he traveled around Golok en route to the Amnye Machen Mountains, he urged the farmers and nomads to unite behind the Dalai Lama and to express this by continually reciting the mantra of Avalokiteshvara, compassion in the form of sound:
Om Mani Padme Hum
.

“Whether you conduct elaborate rituals of offerings and pray to Avalokiteshvara, or just simply recite the six-syllable mantra,
Om Mani Padme Hum,
this is what the great populace must do,” said Tertön Sogyal.

In the Water Rat year (1912), Tertön Sogyal returned to meet with Dodrupchen. He had brought a recently discovered treasure casket with him, and Dodrupchen asked him to open it and reveal its contents. Within the casket was a guru yoga liturgy and spiritual medicine, as well as a prophecy about a companion who needed to travel with him in order to reveal the life-force stone. With Dodrupchen’s encouragement, Tertön Sogyal departed immediately to meet the life-force-giving dakini named Kangwa Ahga. Tertön Sogyal was particularly intent on finding the life-force stone, because he was given a prophecy that read:

In the first month of the Water Ox year (1913), Tertön Sogyal had a vision of a sacred cave with a graceful monk standing at the entry. The monk had a dark reddish appearance, and his robes were iridescent with red and yellow orbs of light moving in and out of the fabric. Tertön Sogyal told his son about the vision: “In his right hand he held a rosary and he spoke in cryptic language about a secret cave. In the depths of that cave there is a White Lake, and that is the actual residence of the wrathful Hayagriva and the dakini Vajravarahi—the father and mother.”

Tertön Sogyal knew the life-force stone treasure was hidden in that lake and that if he could find it, he could be empowered by the life-force of these two deities.

Tertön Sogyal was told by the graceful monk, “The yogi’s friend will appear as a normal human being with the syllables
Ah
or
Pa
in her name. The right timing to search for the stone will come when you, the yogi, have a passing meditative experience.”

Tertön Sogyal and his son Rigdzin Namgyal, Atrin, and the dakini Kangwa Ahga began a month of meditation and ritual offerings to the dakinis in order to purify any obstacles to the revelation of the life-force stone. They stayed in a shack at the base of a steep mountain, and one night Tertön Sogyal heard a voice say, “You need to make feast offerings to the dakinis in each of the four directions of the lake. When you see the life-force stone in the earth or in the lake, either you will be given it or let your friend retrieve it. You will know when the right time arises.”

The group circumambulated the mountain to petition and make offerings to the terma guardians in the cardinal directions, until one evening Tertön Sogyal and his companion both felt an intense courage rise within them during a ceremony.

You can’t trust such ephemeral experiences in meditation,
Tertön Sogyal thought, but he also knew this was the meditation experience that the graceful monk had told him would occur. Now was the time to search for the life-force stone.

In the morning, they climbed the mountain and entered a cave. Their butter lamps could not illuminate the depths of the deep cavern that dropped below them. Rigdzin Namgyal hurried back to camp to find rope and returned to the cave. Tertön Sogyal was the first to descend into the cave, climbing down the yak-hair rope. At the bottom, he found the secret White Lake. The others descended the rope.

Tertön Sogyal heard a muffled voice say from underneath the ice, “I will give you the terma.” He immediately struck the ice with a rock and told Kangwa Ahga to do the same with a hatchet. When the tool hit the surface, an enormous chunk of ice fell into the water. Tertön Sogyal’s eyes bulged with clarity as he gazed into the dark water. He put his left hand into the lake. The others looked on in devotion. From under the water, Hayagriva and Vajravarahi placed in Tertön Sogyal’s palm a life-force stone shaped like a half-moon.

“Bring me a piece of cloth.”

As Kangwa Ahga gathered a scarf from her bag, Tertön Sogyal put his other hand into the lake, hoping for another treasure.

“Here, this is a secret casket,” a terma guardian said, and handed him another treasure.

Tertön Sogyal set the life-force stone and the casket in his lap. As he inspected the stone and the casket, he noticed that the coral ring that he had worn since he was last in Marong was missing.

“I’ve taken your ring as a replacement,” the treasure guardian said from under the water.