Fearless in Tibet: The Life of the Mystic Terton Sogyal (18 page)

The height of the statue of Guru Padmasambhava was just longer than an arm’s length. He sat in a cross-legged posture and wore a maroon pandita’s hat with elongated ear flaps; his right hand at his heart was in a gesture of offering and his left hand held a skull cup filled with the nectar of immortality.

Tertön Sogyal explained that such sacred treasure statues were meant specifically for the degenerative times because they have the very warm breath of the dakinis on them. Because the statues and teachings were hidden with Padmasambhava’s direct blessing, the essence and power found within that blessing had not been lost nor corrupted over time by coming into contact with negative attitudes. These holy objects, whose potency has not declined, are meant to reinspire spiritual practitioners whose diligence has wavered, to reconsecrate lands that have been desecrated, and to repair corrupted samaya commitments.

“The potency of Padmasambhava’s wisdom intent has not diminished over time, even as the negative actions of beings have increased in this degenerative age. In order to revive Padmasambhava’s blessing, to increase the activity of the Dharma, to guide politics, this statue is a wise method demonstrating enlightened activity.”

After a few days of offering ceremonies and celebratory feasts, the
Wish-Fulfilling Jewel Guru Statue
was taken to Drikok encampment and for six weeks rituals were accomplished at its feet. Leaving the statue at Drikok, Tertön Sogyal went to see Khyentse Wangpo to inform him of the revelation, and while in Dzongsar, he redacted
The Guru Yoga of the Profound Path
, a powerful treasure liturgy associated with the revelation of the statue. As with all guru yoga practices, the intention is to lead the mind of the yogi or yogini to merge with the wisdom mind of the master, to gain supreme confidence that is not dependent upon anything other than recognizing one’s inherent perfection, which is the ultimate guru.
The Guru Yoga of the Profound Path
in part reads:

Although the treasure liturgy was now on paper, Tertön Sogyal knew the time to spread it had not yet arrived, so he rolled the scroll, and when Khyentse was not looking, hid it in a golden ritual container on his altar, and then returned to Drikok encampment.

At the beginning of the Iron Hare year, the Nechung Oracle informed the Dalai Lama that Tertön Sogyal had revealed the
Wish-Fulfilling Jewel Guru Statue That Liberates Upon Seeing
in eastern Tibet and that it should be housed in Lhasa. The Tibetan leader followed the Oracle’s command and wrote a letter to Tertön Sogyal:

CHAPTER 10

The
GURU RETURNS
to
LHASA

L
HASA
, C
ENTRAL
T
IBET

Year of the Iron Hare, 1891

While Tertön Sogyal prepared his return to Lhasa with the
Wish-Fulfilling Jewel Guru Statue That Liberates Upon Seeing,
Khandro Pumo gave birth to their first child. They named him Rigdzin Namgyal. Khandro Pumo knew that Tertön Sogyal had to fulfill his karmic duty for Tibet and the Dalai Lama, and she could not ask him to stay with them. Difficult though it would be to leave his family right after the birth of his son, the tertön directed his disciples to attend to his wife at Drikok encampment, and in the sixth month, Tertön Sogyal, Atrin, and others began the journey, taking the statue westward.

The Nechung Oracle had spurred the Dalai Lama’s first meeting with Tertön Sogyal in 1888. With the revelation of the
Wish-Fulfilling Jewel Guru Statue,
the Nechung’s insistence grew stronger that Tertön Sogyal meet with the Dalai Lama for a second time and bring the statue to Lhasa. The tertön’s upcoming visit would strengthen the triumvirate work of the Dalai Lama, Tertön Sogyal, and the Nechung Oracle, which lasted throughout the rest of their lives.

The Dharma protector Nechung has a unique role in service to the Dalai Lamas, Tibet, and Buddhism in general. When Padmasambhava came to Tibet and subdued local spirits in the earth and water, he assigned various spirits to protect locales, monasteries and temples, and specific Dharma activities. But to protect the entire realm of Tibet and the teachings of the Buddha, Padmasambhava knew he needed a very powerful spirit. The 25 disciples discussed the matter and asked Padmasambhava where the spirit who could fulfill such a task lived.

“Ahh, there is Pehar in the monastery in Bantahor,” Padmasambhava said.

Bantahor was a region in current-day western Mongolia. Pehar resided there in a small temple. But he was not keen to go elsewhere. When Padmasambhava magically projected his own body to Bantahor, Pehar threw a rock at the Great Guru and hit him in the head. Pehar was almost as obstinate as the Tibetans themselves; Padmasambhava thought this was not going to be easy. Padmasambhava told his disciples to organize an army to go to Bantahor, but they need not raise arms.

“Just find Pehar’s temple. Take the turquoise Buddha statue, his throne made of conch shells, and Pehar’s purple-brown leather three-eyed mask. Pehar is so attached to those objects that he will follow them all the way back here to Samye.”

Indeed, Pehar pursued his stolen objects to central Tibet. Padmasambhava met Pehar with astonishing splendor and brought him directly into his service by capturing his life-force. Imprinting the crown of Pehar’s head with a ritual dorje and anointing his tongue with immortality nectar, Padmasambhava bound the protector by oath to guard Tibet and the spiritual practitioners in Tibet. Pehar relocated during the time of the Great Fifth Dalai Lama to the small temple of Nechung near Lhasa, and since that time the two names, Pehar and Nechung, have been synonymous. Nechung’s special skill in communicating through possessing a human medium was greatly utilized, and in time Nechung became Tibet’s State Oracle, though not without competition from other oracles and spirits.

Cavalry from the Tibetan government in Lhasa arrived to meet Tertön Sogyal and to guarantee the
Wish-Fulfilling Jewel Guru Statue
’s safe journey. Shortly thereafter, an escort party of monks from Nechung Monastery met Tertön Sogyal and together they performed consecration ceremonies upon the statue. One of the monks from Nechung Monastery did not accompany the group west to Lhasa; he continued eastward to Dzongsar after having met Tertön Sogyal. The monk had a different mission. Before leaving Lhasa, the Nechung Oracle had told the monk to find the guru yoga liturgy that Tertön Sogyal had hidden in Khyentse’s room.

When the monk arrived in Dzongsar to see Khyentse, he bowed before the master and humbly requested a copy of
The Guru Yoga of the Profound Path
liturgy that Tertön Sogyal had written. Khyentse, taken aback, told the monk he did not know of such a liturgy.

“Lama, before I left Lhasa, the Nechung Oracle told me that if there are any obstacles to my returning with the liturgy, I should ask you, the great Khyentse, to bless me with the barley grains from your golden container on your prayer table.”

Khyentse opened the golden container to sprinkle blessed grains upon the monk, and said, “Ah, that Nechung and Sogyal work in stealthy ways!”

Khyentse found the liturgy that Tertön Sogyal had hidden.

“Many people in Kham think that the
Wish-Fulfilling Jewel Guru Statue
should remain here to protect us,” Khyentse said. “But as we have this guru yoga text now, it will provide what we need. Make a copy of it to leave behind in Kham before you return to Lhasa.”

The monk left Dzongsar and caught up with Tertön Sogyal and the large party from Nechung Monastery as they traveled slowly west. It took nearly twice as long to journey to Lhasa with the statue because the caravan of yogis was required to regularly stop and perform ceremonies as ordered by the Dalai Lama. When they arrived on the outskirts of Lhasa, they remained for more than a week to clean the statue of dust, adorn it with jewels, paint the face with gold, and perform ablution rituals.

Finally, in the ninth lunar month during the religious festival commemorating the Buddha’s descent to earth from the Joyous Tushita Heaven, the
Wish-Fulfilling Jewel Guru Statue That Liberates Upon Seeing
entered Lhasa. The city waited in anticipation. Thousands of nomads lined the road to Jokhang Temple as shop owners locked their doors to come out on the street, shoving one another aside to get a glimpse of the sacred image. Monk security guards with wooden staffs cleared the way, pushing back devotees, while government officials made their way to the temple. As the statue and Tertön Sogyal proceeded toward the Jokhang, led by monks twirling parasols, beating drums, and playing the
gyaling
, a high-pitched short oboe, plumes of juniper incense rose from kilns to fill the sky above the Barkhor neighborhood. Other monks carried long poles with victory banners flapping in the wind. From the temple’s rooftop boomed the drone of long horns and the crash of cymbals, and monks blew the conch shells in the ten directions to invoke the blessings of enlightened beings. It was as if Padmasambhava, in the flesh, had returned to Lhasa. The Dalai Lama and other throne holders stood as the Guru Statue was taken into the inner sanctum of the Jokhang and offered a throne to the right side of the most sacred statue in all of Tibet, the Jowo Shakyamuni Buddha. A massive ritual feast and prayers were offered that continued for ten days, and the Dalai Lama thereafter used the statue as an object of devotion in the Potala. After a month, the statue was returned to its throne in the Jokhang Temple.