Fearless in Tibet: The Life of the Mystic Terton Sogyal Read Online Free PDF Page A

Demonstrating their spiritual accomplishments to the general populace in order to increase their faith in Buddhist teachings, Padmasambhava and his disciples walked in the rays of the sun, brought corpses back to life, and passed through rock walls.
    During Padmasambhava’s time in Tibet, he hid innumerable caches of treasures, or termas, throughout the land. Terma treasures are ritual objects such as statues or golden scrolls upon which mystical syllables were inscribed by dakinis. The scrolls were made of tree bark, cotton, or parchment. Together with Lady Yeshe Tsogyal, Padmasambhava prepared and buried these earth treasures in caves, mountainsides, and lakes, as well as in temple pillars and inside small stone caskets. Padmasambhava also concealed mind treasures—texts, prophecies, and lists of locations of the termas—in the mind-streams of his 25 closest disciples. Padmasambhava identified future incarnations of these 25 disciples as his own representatives, charged with discovering his earth and mind treasures. They would be known as tertöns , the treasure revealers.
    Termas serve as portals to the profound Dharma because it is through the continual revelation of such treasures, and the Dharma teachings associated with them, that the vitality and life-force of Padmasambhava’s teachings are sustained. Padmasambhava had instructions for every situation. Moreover, he used this method of concealment because he recognized that not all of his instructions would be beneficial in the 8th century in Tibet. Padmasambhava determined the time and place for the revelation of every future treasure, as well as the pre-assigned tertön. The Great Guru bound specific spirits to serve as treasure guardians whose duty was to protect the terma until the future treasure revealer arrived for its discovery.
    Tibetans are indebted to Padmasambhava for the country’s spiritual and political foundation, and for its protection. Padmasambhava departed the land after 56 years among the Tibetans. As the king and other disciples of Padmasambhava accompanied the guru to the border of Nepal, they pleaded with him to stay in Tibet. Padmasambhava declined, invoking what Shakyamuni Buddha had told his disciples before passing into nirvana: “It is the nature of all things that take form to dissolve again. Strive with your whole being to attain perfection.” Padmasambhava then gave his testament to the Tibetan people of future generations:
    Do not forget that life flickers by and then you die.
    What meets must part, so do not fight and cause strife.
    What is gathered must be abandoned, so do not crave intemperately for wealth.
    Attachment is bondage, so do not harbor unbridled clinging.
    What is born must die, so think of your next life.
    Padmasambhava then mounted a beam of sunlight and uttered these last instructions to the king, Dorje Dudjom, and others:
    Have you understood this, king and subjects?
    If you do not feel sincere faith,
    The wisdom of certainty will not dawn.
    If the wisdom of certainty does not arise,
    You will not realize the master’s instruction.
    Without realization of the instruction of the master, you will not perceive your mind as the buddha.
    Practice the master’s instruction
    With faith, devotion, and reverence.
    Padmasambhava then vanished into space. As light rays of immeasurable loving-kindness cascaded from the sky, the gathering felt blessed and had a deep confidence they could fulfill Padmasambhava’s instructions. The envoys of Padmasambhava who were tasked to carry on the Great Guru’s instructions were the incarnations of his principal disciples. Some 11 centuries later, it was time for the boy Sonam Gyalpo to revive memories from his previous life and fulfill his mission given to him when he was Dorje Dudjom.

CHAPTER 3
    SCOLDING from the PROTECTRESS
    N YARONG AND T ROMGE , E ASTERN T IBET
    Year of the Iron Sheep, 1871
    When Sonam Gyalpo was strong enough to hold a musket steady, his father taught him how