Fearless in Tibet: The Life of the Mystic Terton Sogyal (30 page)

Tertön Sogyal was introduced to the 25-year-old Shinya, who had a natural disposition for spiritual practice. Two nights after meeting her, Tertön Sogyal had a vision of the One-Eyed Protectress, who said, “Oh, the seed of goodness and virtue has been planted since you have been able to find this companion with little effort. Such a connection is rare.” When Tertön Sogyal awoke from the vision, his wisdom mind blazed with the recognition of ultimate reality, and when he arose from that state, a wave of memory flooded his mind. He recalled profound teachings that he had received in past lives as well as the location of many termas in the area.

Tertön Sogyal stayed for two months as a guest of the large Ma family, meeting the warlord’s children, including Ma Qi’s second son, the ten-year-old Ma Bufang. Tertön Sogyal performed rituals to bring peace to the region and revealed a number of treasures with the assistance of Shinya. They traveled together to pilgrimage sites and consecrated a number of temples, leaving behind treasure statues and stones that Tertön Sogyal blessed with the life-force stone which he carried constantly on his person. Tertön Sogyal was greatly inspired by Shinya’s enthusiasm for practicing the Dharma and continually bestowed teachings and empowerments upon her.

One evening, Atrin gifted Ma Qi and Shinya with a copy of the photograph of Tertön Sogyal that Alak Gurong had taken. Ma Qi greatly appreciated the offering. Not to be outdone by Gurong in showing off technological wonders, the warlord asked Tertön Sogyal if he would perform a
chö
ceremony, because he wanted to make an audio recording of it. Tertön Sogyal did not understand what was meant by recording his voice, but he agreed to the teaching and ceremony all the same. The next morning, in front of a small gathering, Tertön Sogyal sat in his room, wrapped in his thick felt cloak, with his large hand drum and other ritual items before him. He asked Shinya to sit next to him. Ma Qi had a shellac gramophone-recording cylinder wheeled into the room and placed in front of the tertön.

Tertön Sogyal spoke to the small group about chö, a contemplative practice that progressively destroys self-cherishing, which is the source of obstructions to enlightenment. Tertön Sogyal taught the group how to visualize and meditate upon a method that destroys clinging to one’s body as something everlasting, destroys habitual addiction to harmful emotions, destroys the fear of change, and destroys craving for pleasure. By severing these obstructive forces and the self-cherishing that is at their core, Tertön Sogyal taught that the practitioner can quickly progress along the spiritual path.

Then Tertön Sogyal cleared his throat. When he started to chant, he chimed a bell rhythmically in his left hand and, in unison, slowly beat the double-sided leather drum with his right hand. As the tertön’s chant continued, a technician made sure that the cylinder continued to turn and etch the vibrations of Tertön Sogyal’s voice and the sounds of the ceremony onto the shellac. At the conclusion of the ceremony, Ma Qi and the technician adjusted the phonograph’s funnel to play back the recording. First the scratching and static sound of the 78 rpm came, and then Tertön Sogyal could hear himself coughing.

“He thinks that my clearing my throat is part of the ceremony?” Tertön Sogyal questioned Li Dan, who just smiled. Then his voice came clear:

“Phat! By abandoning all attachment to this body held so dear, the demonic forces of seduction through desire are destroyed
.”

Tertön Sogyal listened closely to the meaning of the words, as if receiving the instruction himself. The recorded teaching continued. With the final words of the liturgy, Tertön Sogyal actualized the instructions and dissolved the visualization into the vast expanse of his Dzogchen meditation with a long exhalation, “
Ahh
.” There he remained in an effortless equipoise of the ultimate nature of his mind, spacious and luminous like the clear sky.

Tertön Sogyal broke his meditative silence and spoke to Ma Qi, “Indeed that voice machine sounds like my voice. And yes, that photograph is a likeness of me. But whether you receive the blessings is not dependent upon external factors. It depends on you yourself destroying your self-cherishing, opening your heart, and recognizing that ultimately your mind is nothing other than the wisdom mind of the guru. Everything else is a fabrication.”

Tertön Sogyal knew it was time to depart Xining. The profound connection that he made with Shinya would continue, he told her, but for now, he needed to return to Golok. He and Atrin were offered mounts by Ma Qi. They rode west into the lands mostly inhabited by Mongols, toward the uninterrupted plains as vast as the ocean. They stayed in the area for some weeks, circumambulated the largest lake in all of Tibet and China, the holy Tso Ngonbo—Kokonor in Mongolia—and made smoke and feast offerings, before they turned south toward the Amnye Machen Mountains.

CHAPTER 20

LIBERATING
a
SINGLE THOUGHT

K
HEMAR
H
ERMITAGE
, G
OLOK
, E
ASTERN
T
IBET

Year of the Wood Tiger, 1914

Soon after Tertön Sogyal returned to Puchung House, his first grandchild was born. Tertön Sogyal asked Dodrupchen to bless and name the child. The boy would be known as Pema Chöpel Gyatso. Unlike his father and grandfather, Chöpel Gyatso would become a fully ordained monk.

Tertön Sogyal spent increasing amounts of time upon his return to Golok with Dodrupchen, because the One-Eyed Protectress told him it would benefit both of them if they discussed Dzogchen practice. The collaboration of the two lamas resulted in one of the definitive commentaries on the
Secret Essence Tantra
, the foundational Vajrayana scripture of the Nyingma school. For days the scholar-hermit spoke about the origin of the tantric teachings in this world, and laid bare the most sublime meaning of mantra,
mudra
, mandala, empowerment, samaya, and other elements crucial to a yogi’s practice. Tertön Sogyal sat by his side working as the scribe with a bamboo quill and rice paper. The commentary was entitled
The Key to the Precious Treasury,
and Dodrupchen would say after they finished composing the treatise that it exposed his heart.

In another of Dodrupchen’s unique expositions,
Wonder Ocean
, a book on the treasure tradition of Tibet and authenticating tertöns and termas, he relied upon Tertön Sogyal to elucidate difficult points. During their work together, Tertön Sogyal presented four dakini scripts that he had discovered but had not decoded. While Dodrupchen was not known publicly as a tertön, he and Tertön Sogyal decoded them together, with Dodrupchen serving as the scribe. In the second month of the Wood Hare year (1915), Tertön Sogyal offered Dodrupchen the empowerments and oral transmissions for all of his treasure revelations, at that time more than a dozen volumes. Their time was spent alone without any attendants. Dodrupchen infrequently allowed visitors, and only a handful of monks who stayed at the hermitage ever saw him.

One exception was a young and talented scholar-monk named Tsultrim Zangpo from nearby Shukjung Monastery. Tsultrim Zangpo, or Tsullo, was learned in the Gelug tradition, known for upholding his monk’s vows, and also an excellent scribe. He copied many texts for Dodrupchen’s personal library and used the work as an opportunity to obtain access to the teacher and to receive clarifications on esoteric practices. In Tsullo’s own scholarship, he demonstrated a unique way of explaining the ultimate truth using the different vocabularies of the Gelug and Nyingma schools. Tsullo refined his experiential-oriented understanding of the Dharma under Dodrupchen and Tertön Sogyal, whom he considered his root gurus.

Soon after he met Tertön Sogyal, Tsullo invited him to his monastery to give teachings and a series of empowerments. At the conclusion of the empowerments, Tsullo said, “I bow down to you as my guru, for having heaped compassion and the precious jewel of wisdom upon us. This is very rare. Until now, my negative karma has befallen me and I could not differentiate between what to abandon and what to adopt. Now I am beginning to cross over the ocean of samsara with your quintessential teachings. I am riding a supreme steed toward the beautiful house of enlightenment so as to release others and myself from suffering. Until then, please be my protector.”

Tsultrim Zangpo, also known as Tsullo, was Tertön Sogyal’s student and biographer.

Khandro Pumo told Tertön Sogyal that she also very much wanted to receive teachings from Dodrupchen. She rarely asked for anything, but she felt a connection to the great master. It was widely known that Dodrupchen preserved his hermitage as a monastic residence where no women were allowed. One of the reasons why Dodrupchen was strict in this regard was a vow made during his previous life when he was a married yogi; in his next life, he wanted to be a pure monk. Tertön Sogyal made the request to Dodrupchen.

“My spiritual wife strongly wishes to make a Dharma connection with you. Is this possible?”

“I guess it is all right if I don’t go beyond my retreat cabin, for no woman has ever crossed my doorstep.”

The next day, Tertön Sogyal and Tsullo assisted him to the entryway and he gave teachings to Khandro Pumo, likely the only female disciple that Dodrupchen accepted while he lived at his retreat.

While staying at Puchung House, Tertön Sogyal received additional prophecies associated with the life-force stone and a prophecy that he should build a retreat facility especially dedicated to the yogic practice of Kalachakra. He was told financing was not an issue because a benefactor would step forward. When Tertön Sogyal met Dorde, the chieftain who had originally guaranteed his safety in the region, he told him about his intention to establish the yogic retreat. They traveled together to an uninhabited valley near the Khemar Plains. Tertön Sogyal decided to build a small temple, and Dorde sponsored the construction. Wangrol nomads in the area were pleased to donate their time and energy in building the timber and earthen walls. The temple was small, with intricately carved motifs and a few simple rooms for the yogis, around which was a fenced enclosure where meditators remained undisturbed for months on end. Tertön Sogyal appointed the Dzogchen yogi Pushul Lama to be in charge as a retreat manager.

While staying at the temple, Tertön Sogyal had a pure vision of Khyentse Wangpo, who prescribed building a number of other temples and statues, reminding Tertön Sogyal, “It is important that all the upholders of our tradition who are still living strive to strengthen the Dharma now so that its practice does not diminish. You in particular have to be ready to face any and all difficulty. With strong resolve, strive to strengthen the Buddha Dharma. Do not lose hope. Be diligent!”

Tertön Sogyal stayed near the temple in a retreat cabin to carry out rituals and to write out liturgies from his recently discovered treasures. He also gave teachings and blessed four yogis to enter long-term retreats in the newly constructed temple.

From his small cabin, Tertön Sogyal could hear the yogis’ morning rituals, their drums rumbling like distant thunder. Smoke from smoldering pinesap and mustard seeds filled the one-room chapel where they chanted. A golden chalice of thick rice wine stood on the altar between chunks of barley cakes dripping blood red dye. The wide-eyed tantric yogis intoned chants to invoke Vajrakilaya to take his honorary seat for the ritual feast. Lances, chain mail, clubs, swords, and a victory banner hung from the chapel’s single pillar, reminding the deities and practitioners alike of the weapons of choice for Vajrakilaya. For the four yogis, Vajrakilaya was as present and vivid as the Amnye Machen Mountains towering on the horizon. The deity was partaking of the offerings on the shrine, and fulfilling the yogis’ requests—a tantric process of cause and effect whereby the wrathful Vajrakilaya assists yogis in liberating the negativity within their hearts.

Tertön Sogyal closed his prayer book. The words of his last prayer permeated the space like rising incense smoke: