Fearless in Tibet: The Life of the Mystic Terton Sogyal (33 page)

“My travel is not so uncomfortable, but so many people and animals are coming along. We have only traveled a short distance and have already caused so much suffering to the others and especially to the animals,” Dodrupchen lamented. “Imagine how much suffering will happen if I travel as far as Lhasa. Turn around!”

By the time Tertön Sogyal received the news that Dodrupchen had returned to his hermitage in Golok, Atrin had fallen gravely ill. The auspicious circumstances for the transmission in the Potala Palace had fallen apart.

Such disappointments did not remain in Tertön Sogyal’s mind, for he focused on the task in front of him—his loyal attendant’s
imminent death. Atrin had served Tertön Sogyal for more than 25 years. Now Tertön Sogyal was sitting by his disciple’s side, guiding him through the most important moment in his life. Tertön Sogyal calmly reminded Atrin that his conceptual mind and its delusions were dying and that, upon the dissolution, he should merge his unbound awareness with the sky-like nature of mind that he would encounter. This unconditioned natural state, which Tertön Sogyal had introduced to Atrin repeatedly throughout his lifetime, was the backdrop to the whole of life and death. Atrin had trained for decades in his meditation practice for this very moment, to recognize timeless awareness that is deathless. He expelled his last breath in a state of meditation.

CHAPTER 22

RESTING INSEPARABLY
in the
GURU’S WISDOM MIND

G
OLOK
, E
ASTERN
T
IBET

Year of the Water Dog to the Wood Rat, 1922–1924

Tertön Sogyal knew that Padmasambhava’s matrix of prescriptive measures—averting practices, geomantic stupa and temple building, reconsecrating power places, making spiritual medicine, informing yogis how to perform wrathful ceremonies, and empowering and spreading life-force stones—was needed in its entirety to accomplish fully the future protection of Tibet. The repetitive frequency with which Tertön Sogyal was being told how he and others needed to work for the benefit of all Tibetans was testament to the fact that the pool of positive karma for Tibet was depleted. The menacing Dogyal worship continued in Lhasa, and some of Tertön Sogyal’s own disciples and treasure revelations were targeted by Dogyal worshipers. Stories swirled in Lhasa that the father of a prominent council minister to the Thirteenth Dalai Lama had been killed at the age of 37 by Dogyal because he practiced Tertön Sogyal’s treasure teachings alongside his Gelug meditations. Had Tertön Sogyal traveled to Lhasa, he would have confronted Phabongka face-to-face to back up the Dalai Lama’s directives to desist from promoting sectarian beliefs. While many Tibetans were relaxing in the apparent freedom from conflict with Tibet’s neighbors, Tertön Sogyal and the other treasure revealers were growing increasingly frustrated. It was as the powerful confession prayer read:

It was against a backdrop of recent disappointments that Tertön Sogyal began to streamline his activity, concentrating only on the specific goals of extending the life of the Dalai Lama and ritual protection for Tibet. He abandoned divinations and astrological calculations for the many people who came asking for worldly advice. He stopped using his own prescience for others, or relying on predictions from reading his dreams, unless they concerned the Dalai Lama, Dodrupchen, or his immediate family. When Tertön Sogyal heard that Ma Qi had sent his troops to fight Golok tribes after the warlord occupied Labrang Monastery, Tertön Sogyal merely sent a message to Shinya to encourage peace, instead of going there in person. Tertön Sogyal refrained from normal conversation or idly speaking, and he no longer visited homes of patrons. Tertön Sogyal practiced his own termas and taught from his memory and experience. And whenever he was unclear about a particular direction to travel or there was some question about his work, Tertön Sogyal invoked Noble Tara and other dakinis for guidance and protection.

Tertön Sogyal continued using the two life-force stones, for he believed that this method in particular was critical to the Dalai Lama. The tertön traveled to various pilgrimage locations associated with the two stones to continually activate their power. At caves and high peaks, he would engage in three days of silence in which he practiced yogic breathing throughout the day and night, harmonizing the movement of his breath with the mental recitation of the syllables
Om, Ah, Hum,
a method to recognize nonconceptually the innate nature of the mind. He would then perform tantric rituals and recite the appropriate mantras to capture the life-force of the deity, empowering himself and the stones. After he finished a few days of such practice, he sometimes offered an empowerment of Avalokiteshvara to the public, or blessed them by reciting the terma
Names of the Thousand and Two Buddhas of This Fortunate Age
.

As he continued his effort to purify Tibetans of their transgression against their lama’s instructions and laziness toward fulfilling the prophecies of Padmasambhava, Tertön Sogyal made feast offerings before the two life-force stones. He repeatedly recited short prayers such as “All the ocean-like buddhas and bodhisattvas, please accept this offering,” or “
Hum
. Guru, devas, dakinis, and treasure guardians, all of you, accept this offering.” While there was food and drink placed on the shrine, it was the tertön’s mind that multiplied the offerings to fill the whole of space with inexhaustible delights to enlightened beings from the past, present, and future.

Tertön Sogyal also empowered other rocks as emissaries of the two principal life-force stones. He painted or carved the names and images of the mother and father deities, Vajravarahi and Hayagriva, one on each side, and then directed the blessings and life-force of the deities toward the new stones. Spontaneously arising syllables would sometimes appear on the new rocks. At other times, with newly consecrated stones, fresh with blessing, the mother and father deities appeared in visions to Tertön Sogyal, saying, “The fortunate owner of me is you!” Tertön Sogyal took this as a significant indication that the consecration of the life-force stones was successful. There were some stones that did not take the blessings, and he simply returned those rocks to their original location lest he annoy a local spirit for disturbing the environment. As for other stones that he imbued with the life-force of the mother and father deities, Tertön Sogyal sent them by messengers across Tibet, to Lhasa and Nyarong, and Litang and Chamdo, and elsewhere. He instructed that the stones be strategically placed in temples and monasteries and given to specific lamas. Sometimes he buried the stones as offerings to the treasure guardians. Tertön Sogyal was trying to single-handedly resupply the whole of Tibet with the spiritual fortitude that it had lost.

One early spring evening in the Water Pig year (1923), Tertön Sogyal met Guru Padmasambhava in a vision. Sometimes his visions were mixed with dream-like states, so that he had to be diligent in assessing the validity of the visions. On this occasion, he believed that Padmasambhava actually appeared to him in reality. There were a host of dakinis surrounding the Great Guru, and one of them spoke for Padmasambhava, saying, “Within the expanse of rigpa’s self-manifesting clarity, the darkness of grasping ignorantly at duality is completely abolished. The means for accomplishing this is both the Peaceful Guru and the one known as the Wildly Wrathful Guru with nine heads and eighteen arms.” Tertön Sogyal then saw five teachers—Jamyang Khyentse, Jamgön Kongtrul, Nyala Pema Dündul, Tertön Rangrik, and Dudjom Lingpa—emanate into the space before him.

The dakini continued. “If you can unite all of the lamas of the past, present, and future, together, as Padmasambhava, then the blessing will be swift. In these degenerate times, this is the method to remove all obstacles; there is no other method superior to this. While you still have an ordinary physical body, you should conduct wrathful practice to accomplish your aim. You will see that this is true. The time is ripe now!”

After her quintessential instruction, the dakini dissolved into the heart of Padmasambhava. Tertön Sogyal received in his mind-stream different liturgies associated with the five lamas. As he began to write the liturgies down, Tertön Sogyal heard the sounds of the liturgies themselves resounding from the heavens:

The five lamas appeared in the sky as fully accomplished buddhas, as Tertön Sogyal heard each of their names. Each master repeated the same phrase as he appeared: “I am the great holder of all the
Complete Gathering of Teachings
. If you accomplish me, then you accomplish all the buddhas.” Then the lamas each dissolved into Padmasambhava and the retinue of dakinis dissolved into a single enriching dakini who wore green silk garments. With only the guru and the enriching dakinis left, she spoke, “The sixteen joys fuel the flame of clear realization of what to adopt and what to abandon. If you do not dispel obstacles with diligence, black magic and other harmful spirits will hurt you. If you can dispel them, at that moment good fortune will abound. As for the black magic directed toward you, the Lion-Faced Dakini is the antidote, and performing prayers to Tara. Continue doing Vajrakilaya to combat the demons and obstacles, and to purify any harm that has already befallen you from others’ contaminated views, practice the three long-life dakinis.”

Then, in an instant, the entire vision dissolved into Tertön Sogyal’s heart, and an overpowering bliss surged through his body and mind.

That evening, he wrote the liturgies by the light of a butter lamp. Just as he was passing into the sleep state, he felt as though he were in a cave, when a lama stepped forth and gave the final instructions associated with the vision: “For your own well-being, visit the Crystal Cave and do this guru yoga practice, especially this year. The next year and into the Wood Ox year [1925], concentrate on your own Vajrakilaya treasure revelation. Then, until the Fire Rat year [1927], cherish the dakini practice to purify any and all negativity.”

In his 68th year, Tertön Sogyal embarked upon what would become his last tour of Golok and the Derge regions. He was receiving invitations from monasteries and lamas in Trehor, Marong, and Dzogchen to teach and to give empowerments. There were indications that Tertön Sogyal could encounter sickness the following year, so he wanted to fulfill his disciples’ requests to teach before any health problems arose. Lama Trime and Tertön Sogyal’s son accompanied their teacher to assist him on this sojourn, as they had stepped into the role of Tertön Sogyal’s attendants after Atrin’s death. They were also doing practices to elongate Tertön Sogyal’s life and to repel any spells or black magic directed toward him. Tertön Sogyal taught extensively wherever he went, and after he bestowed empowerments, the monasteries performed long-life ceremonies for him. The teaching tour lasted six months, and upon his return to the Puchung House, exhausted from the travel, Tertön Sogyal fell ill. The most skilled doctors visited and purification ceremonies were performed, but improvements did not manifest quickly. There was a prophecy regarding this episode of sickness that said, “In order to eliminate the obstacles for everyone, Tertön Sogyal will take upon himself sickness and harm.”

In his sickened state, Tertön Sogyal practiced the instructions known as
tonglen
, or “giving and receiving.” Tonglen is training in generating great compassion for all. Using the medium of the in-breath and out-breath, the practitioner repeatedly offers his own well-being to others and takes their suffering upon himself. The practitioner trains continually to reverse the habitual tendency of cherishing only his or her own happiness. Instead, the practitioner cultivates authentic concern for others. In the case of Tertön Sogyal, a yogi who had reached the pinnacle of Dzogchen realization, he understood that from the perspective of the fundamental ground of being, there was no separation between himself and other beings. Even if there appear to be myriad types of sufferings, if the basic nature of all beings is the same, then there is only one thing called suffering. Meditating deeply on the nondual state of his own and other beings’ suffering, the realization of the highest truths dawned in Tertön Sogyal’s mind. And at that moment, he reduced the suffering of all beings. Such a practice was the ultimate antidote to sickness.

When Tertön Sogyal recovered and returned to Golok, he went to see Dodrupchen in the summer of the Wood Rat year (1924). The termas that he had revealed in the previous two years, including
Names of the Thousand and Two Buddhas of This Fortunate Age
, he offered to Dodrupchen. While he was reciting the liturgies of the terma revelations, a dakini appeared. She gave him a prophecy, but it was a riddle in numbers. Dodrupchen assisted Tertön Sogyal in deciphering the meaning, which concerned where the tertön should go to practice and who should accompany him. And there were other signs that they both understood but did not discuss. At the conclusion of their meeting, both Tertön Sogyal and Dodrupchen uncharacteristically took out long white offering scarves. Normally, such a scarf would be offered upon meeting, not at the time of departure, to mark the occasion as auspicious. But they both knew they would not see each other again in this life.