540
The fifth hereditary monarch after Lha Thotori was the religious king Songtsen Gampo, an emanation of Avalokitesvara in the form of a mighty lord of men, who began to rule the kingdom at the age of thirteen.
The fifth hereditary monarch after Lha Thotori was the religious king Songtsen Gampo, an emanation of Avalokitesvara in the form of a mighty lord of men, who began to rule the kingdom at the age of thirteen.
Dudjom Rinpoche - Fundamentals and History of the Nyingmapa
He himself then dwelt in the great Siljin charnel ground and, venerated by savage spirits, became absorbed in contemplation.
At that time, in Hastisthala in western India, the householder Sukhacakra and his wife Atmaprakasa had a son called Vimalamitra; and in the eastern city of Kamaiasiia the outcaste Santihasta and his wife Kalyat:lacitta had a son called Jfianasutra. The glorious Vajrasattva actually appeared to them both and made this prophetic declaration: " 0 sons of the enlightened family! you have both been born as scholars five hundred times; and you have both practised the true doctrine. But you have not attained its fruit in past lives, nor will you in the present one [ifyou persist in the same course as before]. Ifyou wish the corrupt body to vanish and to attain enlightenment, you must go to the Bodhi Tree Temple in China. "
Atryoga) the Great Perfection 499
carr in h· .
and secret Instructions of the a l l . gIven a the Outer, inner
b k . ura meage buth .
00 s. Vlmalamitra returned cont t d ' . e was not gIVen the
V·
1·.
Ima /amItra arnved there
master SrI Simha For tw
what had happened.
, e n e ,to IndIa, and told ]fianaslltra
y g IS beggmg bowl and met the . . . entyyearshewas· 11
]fianaslltra also made great efforts to
master in the great S·l·· h
h I Jm c arnel gr
ad prophesied he would F h
.
go to Chma; and he met the d
oun , exactly as the <;iakinls
]fianasutra
serving him appropriately· years he delighted the guru by
mal). <;iala and requested the I:a : , e an . offering of a golden
r
then given the instructions ; f the gIVe . hlm mstruction. He was
books, over a period of . ural lIneage, together with the w· h mne years Whe ]-- -
that and about to return t I d . · '" _ nanasutra was contented satIsfied? " 0 n la, Sl1pha asked, "Are you quite
"Y
"Bes, I am satisfied," he replied
utIhavenotentrusted [. h .
. ]fianasiltra understood wIt :he sucCessIOn]," said the guru.
bons. His guru said "F
g , ave to him the com 1
h. en as ed for the most profound instruc- or t IS you must .
receIve empowerment," and
pete outer empowerment whO h . 1
, IC mvo ves elabora-
' The Rise o+the Secret Mantra
500 HlstOry: 'J , '
'mparted the esoteric mstructlOnS 0 tion, and then for three years 1
f h
t e
Atiyoga) the Great Perfection 501 JfUinasutra then extracted the secret books and went to the Bhasing
charnel ground in India, where he resided, turning the wheel of the doctrine of the secret Innermost Spirituality for mundane and supra- mundane gakas and gakinls.
At that time Vimalamitra adhered to the conduct [of a mantrin]. The gakinls declared to him, "Fortunate one! if you want the instructions of the Innermost Spirituality, more profound than before, you must go to the great charnel ground in Bhasing Forest. "
Arriving there, he met Jfianasutra and prayed that he might receive the most profound instructions. The master displayed various miracles, and conferred on him the elaborate and unelaborate empowerments. When, on the summit of Mount Bhaskara, Vimalamitra had performed the practice which divides sarpsara and nirva1). a, and had received the very unelaborate empowerment in its entirety, extraordinary under- standing was born in him. The white syllable A appeared at the tip of his nose, as if on the verge of melting away. Then, he was given the whole extremely unelaborate empowerment, by which he perceived the naked reality of mind. The master gave him all the instructions and books on the four cycles of the Great Perfection, which correspond to those empowerments, and for ten years Vimalamitra thoroughly refined his understanding of them. Afterwards, when Jfianasutra vanished in an aura of light, Vimalamitra cried out in distress. Then, the master's
body actually appeared, and dropped into his hand a precious casket sealed with five kinds of precious stones. Inside, he found the testament entitled Four Methods of Establishment (bzhag-thabs bzhi, NYZ bi-ma snying-thig, Pt. l, Vol. Ga, pp. 325-31), by following which he acquired an undeluded comprehension of meaning, while neither abridging, nor enlarging upon its verbal content.
Afterwards, Vimala lived in the city of Kamarupa for twenty years as the guru and priest of King Haribhadra. Then he also served as priest to King Dharmapala in the western city of Bhirya. Residing later on in the great charnel ground of Prabhaskara he observed the ascetic practice which overcomes all obstacles; and he taught the doctrine to a host of savage beings. He copied out the most secret books three times. The first copy he concealed on an island covered by golden sand in Oggiyana; the second he hid in a rocky hollow in the Suvar1). advlpa district of Kashmir; and the third he deposited in the charnel ground of Prabhaskara, to be worshipped by the gakinls. Finally the master
unsurpassedly secret cycle. _ ' lT ed cor leave to practice, SrI h J-- utra agam aS1' l'
After that, w en na? as om lete unelaborate empowerment.
Sirpha conferred on,hlm the c the disciple had performed
When on the summlt of Mount f ' , - a 526 he also conferred , ,hd' 'd samsara rommrvan ,
the practice whlc lVl es . d t ally extremely unelaborate on him the very unelabor! ! e, on those practices for six-
empowerments. Then Jnanasutra me 1
teen y e a r s . , form many special activities. Once
SrI Simha contmued to per k'
. . 'd ''tthemg
Jfianasutra was mVlte to VlSl
oun
day of his visit there were wondrousbs
" 'the sky a ove, an ,
saw the master slttmg m " h' h SrI Simha dropped mto H 'd tmdlstress,atw lC , ,
into nirva1). a, e cne ou , Nails ( zer-bu bdun, NYZ bl-ma his hand ,the testament and declared, "The
snying-thlg, Pt,l, V ,Ga, PP', f the [unsurpassedly] secret cycle of books of the esotenc ' 'de a pillar in the Auspicious
S " 1ty are hl the Innermost plntua 1
Myriad Gate Temple, Take them an
en mSl
d " ,
d
t go 0
the Bhasing charnel groun
o·
ds and great omens. Jfianasutra
Vimalamitra
f Khotan 527 On the seventh
d knew that he would pass
-
528
for some time in India. His arrival in Tibet will be described later.
Vimalamitra attained the body of supreme transformation
and lived
8 Concluding Remarks
In the same way, after the emanation Garap Dorje taught the cycle of the extremely secret Great Perfection, the books were not even re- vealed except to the most fortunate masters of the aural lineage of direct verbal instruction, because on the demise of each master the books were concealed in an invisible form. The most profound instructions were only left behind in the form of testaments. Not even a fraction of them circulated in the ordinary way. Thus, the lineages of ancient tantras like the Buddhakapala (T 424), those of the Arya cycle, and those of the Great Perfection are similar.
No one but Vajradhara himselfcan perceive all the tantras ofthe way of secret mantra. Only a portion of them appeared in the human and non- human worlds; and it is apparent that, among them, those which ap- peared in the human world were very few indeed. Most of them came to India from Oggiyana. Today Dhfimasthira, the Place of Smoke, which was the central city ofthat country, is a very small town. There is not even a trace of King Indrabhfiti's palace. The country is governed by barba- rians. No one at all upholds the Buddhist or Hindu philosophies. But be- cause the women belong to the ancient race of the gakinIs, they are still the gakinls of that locale; and they have power over the arts of the magic gaze, transformation of objects by means of certain gnostic spells, and some minor sorcery. Even the palace of Dharmagafiji, which housed the tantras of the mantra vehicle, cannot be actually perceived: people who see it just think that it is an ordinary town. But even today it contains some tantras of the way of secret mantra which have not yet appeared in India; for the gakinls have kept them secured in the invisible sphere, so that they are not ordinary objects of perception.
Moreover, in Draviga, and in other lands, there are actually many
s29
tantras that were never well known in India.
tantras appear in various human lands whose inhabitants are fit to be trained in the way of mantra. Therefore, those who try to maintain that there is exactly this or that precise number of tantras suffer from puerile conceptions. In short, we must understand that [the extent of the tantras] is inconceivable. This is also illustrated in the Tantra ofthe Emergence of Cakrasarrzvara, which says:
That the number of Yoga tantras
Is sixty million is certain.
The number of YoginI tantras
Is known to be one hundred and sixty million. Excluding the greater vehicle, so it is said,
The siUras number eight hundred million. Likewise those of the Transcendental Perfection Number four hundred and ninety-nine million.
All of these were proclaimed by the Lord of Sages, The embodiment of the three bodies.
. d
ts of the secret mantra strictly
(137. 5-143. 3] In general, the adeaPccomplishment, no one knew
U til they attame . Preserved secrecy. n t a And when they vamshed
fth wayofsecretmanr .
them to be adepts 0 e d' I ed extraordinary powers, people
in a most miraculous manner, or lSP, Hay a mantra adept. " So it was · "Ohmygoodness. ewas . d
would excIaim, ' . r This is why all those who practise that they were only some particular accomplishment.
the way of mantras attalne at _
h K·- ndCaryatantras
had been widely propagated,
Formerly, t e. nya a enl but no one practised even these op
Afterwards, when the Unsur- Yci h Kriya and Carya tantras
passed (Yoga] t. antras tu:surpassed (Yoga] tantras
seemed to . dechne y few fortunate beings had them had also eXlsted only d he would simply vanlsh. Thus, at all; and immedlately afte. rwar s and instruction. Then, at
This shows that the
there was no legacy of d' Indrabhuti the greatest ac- . f K' Ja the lnterme late ' . . .
the time 0 l n g , he dakinls of pristine cogmtlon 1U complished masters dt I . here From those places they Dhumasthira in OqC;hyana an e sew the' summarised meaning of
omplete tantras, 1 brought forth some c . d ding of a few more. Secret y,
others, and the quintessential un cipients' and in this way the they explained them to a few wort Y re t d During that period unsurpassed paths piaces. Their practices,
many accomplished app a reat deal in common; and the though, could not posslbly had b gome widespread in the manner books and treatises on mantra dld not ec
of ordinary texts. .
Let us give an example: A long a . - a volume containing
the host of his disciples had passed by Raksitapada of ;. r,,' L mp was lSCove ' . .
the text of the ClanJy! ng. _ a - t h e body of the pristine Cogmtlon Koilkana. And then Matanglpa met f these and other events had of Aryadeva in a vision. It was only a ter -' Tantra [i. e. the tradition
occurred that the Arya cycle of the stemming from Nagarjunal began to sprea .
fter the master Nagarjuna and
Concluding Remarks 503
504 History: The Rise ofthe Secret Mantra
Later in Central India the true foundation of the teaching declined. But to the east, in the border lands and in KokI, which is a collective name for many small countries,530 and in Damigodvlpa [the Tamil land], Dhanasrldvlpa and Candradvlpa to south, and in Gujarat in the north, the teachings of the greater, lesser, and secret mantra vehicles continued without decline from before, and even regenerated. Thus, at the present time,531 the teaching exists in those places in its original form. Of the adepts of the way of secret mantra, there are many who uphold the lineage ofthe great master Padmasambhava, but the majority are of the twelve orders of yogins who follow the great accomplished master And, in particular, there are a great many yogins who follow the great master of indestructible reality, Santigupta and his spiritual sons, who belong to the NaleSvara suborder of the Nathapalflhas. 532
At a later period, there was a kingdom in the district of Bharpdva in the Vindhya Mountains of South India, which was ruled by the king Balabhadra, who was accomplished in some gnostic spells, and who gained power over most of the areas of the South. He adopted Santigupta and the host of that master's disciples as his gurus; and so he revived the precious teaching of the Sugata. It is said that the Indians declare that the Buddha predicted that the true doctrine would, in the future, be revived in the Vindhya Mountains to the south.
This completes the special explanation of the development of the doc- trine of the vehicle of indestructible reality, the way of secret mantra, the second part of this book, Thunder from the Great Conquering Battle- Drum of Devendra, which is a history of the precious teaching of the vehicle of indestructible reality according to the Ancient Translation School.
Part Three
The Origin of the Conqueror's Teaching in Tibet
Introduction
[147. 2-151. 6] Now [I shall explain] how it was that the teaching of the Conqueror spread in the Land of Snows.
In Jambudvlpa there were six great countries where the true doctrine was propagated, namely, India, China, Tibet, Khotan, Shambhala, and Kailash. Among them, one might wonder when it was that the teaching of the Buddha reached Tibet, the land of snow mountains. Concerning that, there is a prophecy in the Root Tantra of Maiijusrf:
When the lake in the Land of Snows has dried, A forest of sal trees will appear.
So at first there was a lake, which gradually dried up. When the country became enveloped by dense jungle, a monkey, blessed by the Great Compassionate One [Avalokitesvara], arrived from Mount Potalaka; and from his union with an ogress of the rocks it is said that the Tibetan race evolved. Initially, the country was possessed by non- human beings. Humans developed there gradually, and were governed successively by [the lords of] twelve minor kingdoms and forty prin- cipalities. 533 Then Nyatrhi Tsenpo became the first human king to rule the whole of Tibet.
Canonical texts prove that the religious kings [of Tibet] were de- scended from the Licchavi race, and some believe Nyatrhi Tsenpo to have been the son of King Magyapa. 534 But, whatever actually occurred, a wonderful superhuman being appeared on Mount Lhari ROlpa in the Land of Snows. When he reached Tsentang Gozhi, the Ponpos called him a god because he had descended on a sky-cord. "Who are you? " they asked. To which he replied, "I am a king (tsen-po). " "Where have you come from? " they inquired. At this, he pointed to the sky.
Then the people carried him on their shoulders (nya), seated on a wooden throne (trhi). Therefore, he became known as Nyatrhi Tsenpo, the "King of the Shoulder-borne Sedan-chair". In his succession there appeared seven heavenly kings called Trhi, including his own son Mu- trhi Tsenpo; two celestial kings called Teng; six earthly kings called
. . . I' h 'TeachinginTibet
d the true doctrine will be propaga e
Two thousand and five hundre b' 536
tell 535
508 History: Qrzgzn OJ
. . and five linking kings called Tsen.
Introduction 509
By the blessing that came from worshipping and venerating them the king, a man of sixty-one years, was rejuvenated and became a sixteen- year-old youth once more. He lived on for sixty more years, and so
reached the age of one hundred and twenty. The king obtained a
prediction that the meaning ofthe Awesome Secret would be understood
after five generations. This was the beginning of the true doctrine in Tibet. 537
But there are various other aCCOUnts of how it happened: Nelpa PaJ). c;iita [in his History] said:
The Piinpos claim that the casket fell down from the sky because they adore the sky; but in reality those two books were brought by the scholar and the translator
Thilise. When they arrived in Tibet they found that the king
could neither read, nor understand the meaning. So the scholar and the translator returned.
This account appears to be true.
At a later date Ba Selnang went to Nepal, where he met the preceptor Santarak$ita. The preceptor said to him, "While the Buddba Kasyapa was teaching the doctrine, the king of Tibet, yourself, and I were the
three sons of a woman poultry-keeper. We made a vow to propagate the teaching in Tibet. As the king had not been reborn and yoU had not come of age, I have been waiting here for nine reigns. " Because this tale is said to Occur in tbe "pure" Testament of Ba (rba-bzhed
gtsang-ma),538 and because it accords with known facts, some scholars hold it to be true.
Lek' eight middle kIngs De, P" these ancient reIgns. onpos,
who relied on legends and
. . edthekmgdom.
d. rz-ma
enigmatIc govern Now, it says m the Prophecy
med-pa lung bstan-pa):
emgs. . hotori Nyentsen, the twenty-eighth heredit- Accordingly, when Lha T . f the bodhisattva Samantabhadra,
ary king, who was an °palace a casket fell down upon the was residing in the Yumbu :rang I d the Sutra ofthe Rites ofRenun- palace roof. It was opened, an e -brgya-pa'i mdo, T 267), a mould ciation and Fulfilment Gem (CintamaTJidhiira'lO, engravedWiththeDharaTJIof Avalokitefvara'sAttributes
the Sutra ofthe Cornucopw of bl M tra and a golden stupa. The ) h S' -Sylla e an , .
Addressed to Vimaladevf (lha-mo
. _
vyuhasutra, T 116 , t e IX ere but understood them to be auspI-
king did not know what they cious, and so called them the Awesome
Lha Thotori Nyentsen
ears after my finalmrvaJ). a d in the land of red-faced
Secret" (gnyan-po gsang-ba).
1 The Three Ancestral Religious Kings
h
. mao It others th 1
KING SONGTSEN GAMP0539
[151. 6-154. 4] There is a prophecy in the Root Tantra of Maiijusrf:
In the place called the divine land, Surrounded by snowy mountains,
A king called "God among Men" will be born Into the Licchavi race.
540
The fifth hereditary monarch after Lha Thotori was the religious king Songtsen Gampo, an emanation of Avalokitesvara in the form of a mighty lord of men, who began to rule the kingdom at the age of thirteen. When he was fifteen the emanational monk A-kar MatisIla brought him a self-created image of the Sublime One [Avalokitesvara]. Then, the king commanded the religious minister Gar, an emanation of VajrapaJ)i, to invite the Nepalese princess Trhitsiin, an emanation of Bhtku! I, and the Chinese princess Wen-ch'eng K'ong-jo, an emanation of Tara, both of whom were agreeable to the people, to be his two consorts. 54l This he did in order to introduce two images ofthe Teacher, representative of the Buddha himself, which were, respectively, the size of an eight-year-old, and that of a twe1ve-year-old. 542 The princesses came to be known as the two "Lotuses of the Lake".
While the Trhiilnang Temple [i. e. the Jokhang, the "Cathedral of Lhasa"] was being constructed the building-work was disrupted by non-human beings. Therefore, the king and his two consorts went into retreat in the palace known as Maru, at Nyangdren Phawongkha in the valley of the Kyicu. They attained accomplishment by propitiating their meditative deity, on whose advice the king built the Border Tam- ing, Further Taming, and District Controlling temples, which were situated on geomantic sites on the body of the supine ogress [that is
543
Tibet]; and so it was that he exorcised the malignant earth spirits. He then erected the Trhtilnang and Ramoche temples and the images they housed.
Songtsen Campo
about a h G
d
un red long-haired 0 i .
S The Three Ancestral Religious Kings 511 ongtsen Gampo invited the mast K
from India,544 the master "-Ila _. erfj usara and the brahman Sarikara
manJu romNep1 d h
sang MO-ho-yen from Ch· W· h a ,an t e master Ho-
ofthe Tripitaka and ofthe t ,. ey. trans ated many sec- to Tibet. Though no actual and thus mtroduced the teach-
hImself secretly gave instruction on the g or study took place, the king
the Great Compassionate 0 peaceful and wrathful forms of
practised these teachings Nne to many beings, who then
h " . 0 onewasordamed[
t e seven men who were tested" b . . . as a monk] prior to
reat Compassionate One at NY g ns engaged m the practices of the which formed the k Phawongkha. At that time the In three separate treasures L mg s testament were collected and hidden
master treasures were revealed by the hoday they are renowned as the C II yang, and the teacher Sakya-o. t eMantra"OmManiPadm ected. WorksoftheKingconcerning doctrinal work. ·545· e HU1? l (ma1Jz bka'-'bum), the first Tibetan
,
ut It IS SaId that there were always
512 History: Origin ofthe Teaching in Tibet _0
00 0 bhota anemanationof The king also sent Thonml Sam 0 : ' On the basis of the Indian
d mmar and wntmgo
to India to stu Y gra f the Tibetan letters, and he compose
reigns from now, in the time of my descendant, King De, the true
scripts he created the forms 0 546
eight treatises on Tibetan had been no in the
Just so, when Trhisong Detsen was thirteen he began to govern the kingdom. At twenty he made a solemn resolution to propagate the true doctrine and he invited to Tibet the Bodhisattva, the
Before Songtsen Gampo s tIm d
ccord with the doctnne, but
Land of SnoWs 0
f
a co
0
d ofcon uct edt
lOne and of theories m accor rod
d preceptor from Sahor. The latter granted the eight vows to some, but when he taught the doctrines of the ten virtues and of the eighteen
thereafter the great o
d
fthetrue oc oor 0 fi
Thus thekingmnovate 0'00
nedforthe lrsttIme
with the doctnne was ope °llustrated by the ten dIVme
psychophysical bases, the savage demons and deities of Tibet became angry. Lightning struck Marpori [the "Red Mountain", site of the present Potala Palace] and the palace at Phangtang was swept away by a flood. The harvest was destroyed and great calamities befell the coun- try. Evil ministers said, "This is due to the practice of the doctrine. The master should be banished to his own country. "
The king offered much gold to the preceptor and told him of the situation. replied, "The spirits of Tibet are displeased. I will go to Nepal for the time being. In order to subdue the savage spirits and demons of Tibet, there is a mantra adept called Padmasam- bhava, who is, at present, the most powerful in the world. I will send him an invitation, and Your Majesty should do the same. " So they sent messengers consecutively.
Master Padmasambhava, however, already knew that the delegation, which included Nanam Dorje DUjom, was speeding on its way. In an instant he travelled to Kungtang, in Mangytil, where he met the group. He scattered their offering of gold in the direction of Ngari and said, "Everything I perceive is gold. " In this way he turned Tibet into an abundant gold-producing land.
Then the Bodhisattva, set out for Tibet in advance, along with a skilled Nepali stonemason. Master Padmasambhava ad- vanced from Kyirong, whereupon the gods and demons of Tibet launched a raging storm of snow and rain, which blocked the mountain passes. The master retired to a mountain cave, imprisoned the gods and demons by the power of his contemplation, and bound them under an oath of allegiance. From that time on, by his miraculous powers, he gradually covered the whole of Tibet on foot, from Ngari, Central Tibet, and Tsang [in the west], to Dokam [Kham and Amdo in the east]. He bound all the powerful spirits under oath, among whom the foremost were the twelve goddesses of the earth, the thirteen hunting gods, and the twenty-one genyen;549 and he assumed control of their vital heart-mantras.
In the tamarisk forest of Trakmar he met the sovereign. While con- secrating the Drinzang Temple at Trakmar, he invited the images of the deities to a place of feasting. That night the temple was empty. The next morning the deities were actually seen eating the offerings and conversing in the temple. That day all the musical instruments of
the just splntua an o
1 547 In these ways, mg pure human awso
mao
oo ld temporal laws, as I KO
f TObet to become a prosperous and luxurious source of the true doctnne 0
KING TRHISONG DETSEN AND THE COMING OF P ADMASAMBHA V A
o f Son tsen Gampo, King Trhisong
[154 4-16605] In the fifth reIgn a ter g d His royal ancestor o 0 f M fijughosa, appeare 0 " 0
Detsen, an emanatIOn 0 a 0 late to the effect that, FIve had inscribed a prophecy on a copper P ,
'--c
virtues and the SIxteen
Songtsen Gampo blessed the country I
0
Trhisong Detsen
doctrine will be propagated. " He had concealed the copper plate in a d confined place. 548
The Three Ancestral Religious Kings 513
514
History: Origin ofthe Teaching in Tibet
and made a great din. At the same time worship by ht before some sensitive children who
the oracular mlrror was g d . dences of all the malignant indicated the names, conduct, an the teaching of the doctrine m .
and nagas, who had With threats of intimidation the Tibet by the preceptor, 0 lSdat v . th of allegiance and secured
b d those spirits un er an oa
o u n . ured their vital heart-mantras, an
d the
master
them in the doctnne. He proc f h . d he subdued those who
rituals for the propitiation of t and so forth. Pad-
still remained unconverted. Wlt urn masambhava did this two nmes.
,
Z· fLake Manasarovar,
After he had such He was offered four-
Padmasambhava culnvated the kmg s fr P I The Bodhisattva
f d edgoldtoerectatempe.
power P dmasambhava went to
teen mule-loads 0
inspected the land while the great o:erpowered all the local Hepori [a mountain near Samye], W. erhe e d d them to sublimate
l' VOice eorere h gods and demons. In a g d f indestructible reality in t e
their pride, and, by n lines he summoned
sky, he blessed the slte. Whlle g[ h r ] Cokro pucungmen and by contemplation the twO [splnts 0 ea mg ,
The Three Ancestral Religious Kings 515
Lhabumen, to guide the ends of the measuring thread. The foundations were laid following the model of OdantapurI Monastery, in accord with
551
Since the great master employed all of the arrogant spirits, the walls which were raised during the day by men were made even higher at night by the spirits. Thus, glorious Samye, the Temple of Unchanging Spontaneous Presence, which was designed to resemble Mount Sumeru, with its four continents, and its subcontin- ents, sun, moon, and iron perimeter, was entirely completed in about five years, along with the three shrines of the three queens. 552 During the consecration performed by the preceptor and the master, astonishing and inconceivable miracles occurred. For example, the deities enshrined
in the central shrine (dbu-rtse) went outside.
Then the sovereign decided to introduce the foundations of the sutra
and mantra teachings by translating the true doctrine [from Sanskrit into Tibetan]. Intelligent Tibetan youths were instructed in the art of translation. Trhisong Detsen invited from India great scholars, who were learned in the pi! aka - monks such as the masters Jinamitra, SarvajfHideva, and DanasIla; holders of indestructible reality such as Vimalamitra and Santigarbha; and twelve monks of the Sarvastivada order as well. 553
To test whether or not Tibetans were suitable for monastic ordination, the king at first requested that those masters ordain his faithful minister, Ba Trhizi ofthe Zhang family. Under the supervision ofthe Bodhisattva, who officiated as preceptor, of DanasIla and Jinamitra, who acted as master of ceremonies and exposer of secrets, and of ten other pa1). <;iitas, who made up the quorum, Trhizi renounced the world and was fully ordained as a monk. He received the name Pelyang, and also became known as Ba-ratna, the "Jewel of the Ba Family"; for the king had praised him thus. Through meditation he acquired five supernormal cognitive powers.
After that, Ba Selnang, Pagor Vairocana, Ngenlam Gyelwa Choyang, Ma Rincen-chok, Khon Luiwangpo Sungwa, and Lasum Gyelwa Cangcup gradually renounced the world. They were fully ordained as monks; and their names were changed to Yeshe Wangpo, and so forth. Together, they became known as the "seven men who were tested"; and they were the first monks in Tibet.
The king then decided that Tibetans were suitable for ordination. Trama, the minister of the Zhang family, and three hundred intelligent subjects were ordained. Scholars, such as the preceptor and master Padmasambhava, along with the translators Vairocana, Kawa Peltsek, Cokro Lui Gyeltsen, and Zhang Yeshe De translated the transmitted precepts of the sutra, and mantra traditions, as well as the foremost commentarial treatises, into Tibetan. Vairocana and Nam- kei Nyingpo were sent to India, where Vairocana studied the Great Perfection under SrI Si. qlha, and Namkei Nyingpo studied the doctrines
the preceptor's orders.
516 History: Origin o/the Teaching in Tibet
of Yangdak Heruka under Hllrpkara. When they had attained ac- complishment they propagated these teachings in Tibet.
Moreover, the great master Padmasambhava gave numerous em- powerments for the lower mantras, as well as the Unsurpassed [Yoga] tantras, to the king and some fortunate subjects. He taught the Hundred Thousand Verses of the Vajrakfla Tantra, the Garland of Views: A Collec- tion of Esoteric Instructions, and other works.
On one occasion the master spoke to the king as follows, "Your Majesty should make this country prosperous. You should turn the sands of Ngamsho into groves and meadows. You should irrigate the barren regions like the three districts of Tra and Tol (gra-dol-yul-gsum). You should reclaim all the swamps for cultivation. You should obtain
554
and make the country a source of wealth. You should redirect the rivers, by means of canals, and make Tibet
hold dominion over all the kings of China and Central Asia. "
To this the king replied, "I beg you to do sol"
The master remained engaged in this intention for just a morning
when water appeared in the desert of Trakmar. The sandy plain became an alpine meadow, in which was situated the so-called "Peacock Lake" (Tshomo Gtilngon) of Trakmar. In Trak Daweidong a vast forest appeared instantly. And in Zurkar, a wide, flowing river sprang up without a source.
Then, though he was certainly about to complete all the rest according to his word, the remaining works and the performance of burnt offerings to increase the power of the royal dynasty were left undone, due to the common misfortune of the populace and, as a further circumstance, due to the harmful misconduct of hostile, evil ministers, who, because they could not endure the master's miraculous and supernormal cognitive powers, persuaded [the king] to delay. The deities and nagas could not be bound under an oath of allegiance for yet a third time. At this point, Padmasambhava declared, "The result of the perverse aspirations of the ministers of Tibet will be the decline of happiness in Tibet. Although the great wheel of the doctrine will have made one complete cycle there will be great strife at an intermediate time. The nagas and Gyelpo spirits will be ill-disposed and the dynasty itself will disintegrate, due to its neglect of the law. " It is said that because he knew the future would be so, Padmasambhava suddenly departed to subdue the ogres [in Camaradvlpa], but only after he had first delivered many wrathful mantras and had concealed many books as treasures in Tibet.
Concerning the duration of Padmasambhava's stay in Tibet: Some maintain that it was but a short period, six or eighteen months. The moderate opinion holds that it was three, six or twelve years; and there are those who say that it was as long as one hundred and nine solstices, or fifty-four years and six months, altogether. The guru came to Tibet
wealth from VaisravaI). a
when King Trhiso . ' .
. ng was m
Padmakara
h'
IS twenty-first year; and the k' d
The Three Ancestral Religious Kings 517
sIxty-ninth. ? o it is evident that
mast or fIve years SIX months after the king's passing. The learned ers 0 our tradItIOn do not . .
statements. 555 see any contradIctIOn among these
PaThe Testament of Ba and other works, which tell us that
thed:asambhava stayed in Tibet for but a brief period, do so because
Then emanated a body to be seen by the evil ministers , . IS escorts saw hIm fly into the sky from the sum't .
on the frontier of India and Tibet, across the n a r r : and the clouds, with his robe fluttering, hermitagesg staff But his real body remained in solitary
elsewhere 'I n m mountam caves in ZhotO Tidro, Chimpu and he to turn the wheel ;f the At one time th doctnne for the kmg his fortunate subjects. of attainment. was perceIved dwelling in such places
wishing to w en t . at rumour the king,
the Samye M whether It was true or false, mVIted him to consecrate onastery.
518 History: Origin ofthe Teaching in Tibet
It is also said that in the interval between the lifetime of Trhisong Detsen and the reign of his son Mutrhi, the master departed into the sky, riding upon his horse from the summit of Kungtang Mountain. This is known from the lament, uttered by Mutrhi when he took leave of Padmasambhava:
My one and only royal father has died.
My guru is going to 099iyana.
o royal father! your life was too short;
The happiness ofyour Tibetan subjects has passed. Why did I, Mutrhi Tsenpo, not die,
While my father and my guru were present? 556
Furthermore, we should not think that Padmasambhava could not have completed all the bountiful acts he desired during just a short visit. He was adept at inconceivable miraculous powers, like the ability to make his body manifest in all buddha-fields simultaneously. Similarly, when the Buddha himself performed miracles at SravastI, as described in the Siltra of the Wise and the Foolish (mdo mdzangs-blun, T 341),557 and in the Transmissions of the Vinaya, some say that these miracles lasted for a few days, and some for many. In sum, whether his visit appeared to have been long or short depended upon the purity or impurity of his disciples' perception.
In this way, the master continued to consult with his patron, the king, in secret. He traversed the whole of Tibet on foot, down to the last hoof-sized patch ofground, along with Tshogyel and other fortunate companions. He inhabited each of the twenty mountain caves of Ngari; the twenty-one places of attainment in Central Tibet and in Tsang; the twenty-five great pilgrimage places of Kham and Amdo; and the secret lands of upper, lower, and central Tibet which are like three kings, along with five valleys, three districts and one parkland. 558 He blessed all of them, along with their glaciers, caves, mountains and waterways - which are as their roots, branches, flowers, and fruits - to be places of attainment. Since he knew that the teaching would be persecuted later by the king's grandson, an emanation of Mara, he gave many oracles and prophecies to the king. Then, intending that the teaching of the secret mantra should not vanish, nor the genuine blessing be weakened or adulterated by sophistry, and that disciples should gradu- ally appear, he concealed countless treasures, both named and un- named. The foremost of these treasures were the hundred treasures which were the master copies of King Trhisong, the five great mind treasures, and the twenty-five great profound treasures. . For each one, he predicted the time of revelation, the discoverer, his fortunate spiritual successors, and so forth.
In thirteen places all called "tiger dens", such as Nering Sengedzong in Manka [Bhutan], Padmasambhava assumed an awesome dis-
The Three Ancestral Religious Kings 5I9
Dorje Trolii
figured, wrathful form and bou d I
of Tibet, both great sm 11 n I the arrogant deities and demons pointed them to guard the t a , un erAoaths of allegiance; and he ap-
reasures t that t' h
renowned as Dorje TroW ( V ' p ' b t e master became
. aJra ot-elly)ToId f:. h. generatIOns the guru and h' . n Uce an In future
signs, such handprints behind countless wonderful o
Such are the imprint of h'· bOd prmts, m all the places ofattainment h· IS0YatDor'Tk. . andpnnt at Namtso Ch k Je se pa In Bumthang the
in Paro. u mo, and the footprint on the White Rock
Once, the prince Murup Tse 0 ;;s a military expedition]
and destroyed the hermitages oftb
away their property the . e ara or. When he was carrying Shingjachen. 560 pursued by the Gyelpo spirit Trakpo (Wrathful Guru) bo ava t en. the form of Guru
and commanded him to spInt under an oath ofallegiance The master founded ar t e wealth of the temples. '
a? d meditation schools C;:;lege; to teach the dialectical vehicle
hIS subjects acclaimed him h yo secret mantra. The king and all
the king established the e worshipful of renunciates; and IVlSlOn of the religious community,
520 History: Origin ofthe Teaching in Tibet
consisting of the shaven-headed followers of the siitras [the monks], and the followers of the way of mantras, who wore long, braided locks. He erected pillars [e. g. the Zhol Pillar] inscribed with the great decree
" d' 561 A h ' th concerning protocol and WIth Important e ICtS. t t at . e
kingdom of Tibet reached the zenith of its power and held dommIOn over two-thirds of eastern Jambudvlpa. Because the kingdom was pro- tected by the true doctrine, Tibet is known to have enjoyed the happiness of paradise.
When master Padmasambhava was about to leave to convert the ogres in the south-west, the king, ministers, and subjects of Tibet begged him to stay on. But he declined. To each of them he gave detailed instructions, and precepts concerning loving kindness. Then, riding on a lion, or on an excellent horse, he set out, from the of Kungtang Mountain for Camaradvlpa, in the mIdst of an mfi,nIte mass of divine offerings. In Camaradvlpa, on the peak of the glonous Copper-coloured Mountain, he "liberated" the ogre Thotreng (Skull- garlanded), the king of ogres, and entered into his corpse. He materialised the inconceivable Palace of Lotus Light; and there he resides, ruling in his eight emanations over eight ogre islands, teaching
the eight transmitted precepts concerning the eight means for attainment and other doctrines, and protecting the people of Jambudvlpa from deathly fears. He continues to dwell, even now, as the regent of the Sixth Conqueror, Vajradhara, the holder of the awareness that is the spontaneous presence of the final path; and so will he remain, without moving, until the dissolution of the universe.
Pehar
Trhi Relpacen
KING RELP ACEN
[166. 5-168. 5] The religious king, Trhisong Detsen, had three royal sons. The eldest was named Mune Tsepo, the middle one Murup Tsepo, and the youngest Mutik Tsepo, or Senalek Jingyon. They further propagated the teaching. In particular, Mune Tsepo founded the four cycles of worship (mchod-pa chen-po bzhi) at Samye during his
reIgn; three times he alleviated the hunger ofhis Tibetan subjects. Muuk Tsepo built the Temple of the Indestructible Expanse at Kar- Cung. had about five sons, among whom the most distinguished Was Trhl Relpacen, an emanation of Vajrapal). i, who was also known as Detsukten. Relpacen appointed seven householders among his SUbjects to serve each of the monks; and he is famed for having built
The Three Ancestral Religious Kings 521
522 History: Origin ofthe Teaching in Tibet
a thousand temples and shrines. He humbly honoured and venerated the two orders - those of the traditions of the sutras and mantras, with their gurus and venerable adherents - while placing at their feet the two silken ribbons which hung from his braided hair. Through these and other acts he displayed infinite veneration to the most precious teaching of the Conqueror.
In the lower valley of the Kyicu, Relpacen built the temple of On- cangdo Peme Trashi Gepel. He invited Surendrabodhi, SIlendrabodhi, DanasIla, and many other scholars from India. He commanded them, along with the Tibetan preceptors and DharmatasIla, and the translator Jfianasena, as follows:
Formerly, when the doctrine was translated by scholars and translators in the time of my paternal ancestors, many terms were used which were unknown to the Tibetan language. Replace those terms among them which contradict the texts of the doctrine and grammatical usage, as well as those which are hard to understand, by searching [for alternatives] among the familiar terms of the colloquial language. Thus, you should revise the translations according to the texts of the greater and lesser vehicles. 562
Therefore, at Kawa Namoche in Phenyul, they revised the translation of the Great Mother [the Transcendental Perfection of Discriminative Awareness in One Hundred Thousand Lines], and divided it into sixteen sections. They also established, in accord with the laws of contemporary language, the translations of most of the scriptures translated during the time of the king's paternal ancestors. But, owing to the strictness of the inner tantras of the way of secret mantra, whereby they cannot be grasped by ordinary persons who are not fit vessels for them, the translators preserved the ancient translations intact. 563
So it was that the three ancestral religious kings [Songtsen Gampo, Trhisong Detsen, and Relpacen] made the greatest impact on the teach- ing of the Conqueror in the Land of Snows, and thus were most gracious to its inhabitants. Among those kings, Songtsen Gampo and Trhisong Detsen were particularly great in their kindness. The scholars San- and Padmasambhava, and the translators Thonmi Sambhota, Vairocana, Kawa Peltsek, Cokro Lui Gyeltsen and Zhang Yeshe De were all most gracious and wonderful.
2 The Decline and Expansion of the DO,ctrine During the Intermedzate Period
At; date, Langdarma Udumtsen, the elder brother . e r. 1 Relpacen, was possessed by a demon because of
hIS aspIratIOns, and he persecuted the doctrine Not Ion afte the kIng was assassinated by Lhalung Pelgi D "564 g
r, tfe kings Osung and Pelkortsen reviv':Je;he ancient cus-
Pr an U1 t and so forth out of devotion to the Three ecIOUS Jewels.
At that time, in Hastisthala in western India, the householder Sukhacakra and his wife Atmaprakasa had a son called Vimalamitra; and in the eastern city of Kamaiasiia the outcaste Santihasta and his wife Kalyat:lacitta had a son called Jfianasutra. The glorious Vajrasattva actually appeared to them both and made this prophetic declaration: " 0 sons of the enlightened family! you have both been born as scholars five hundred times; and you have both practised the true doctrine. But you have not attained its fruit in past lives, nor will you in the present one [ifyou persist in the same course as before]. Ifyou wish the corrupt body to vanish and to attain enlightenment, you must go to the Bodhi Tree Temple in China. "
Atryoga) the Great Perfection 499
carr in h· .
and secret Instructions of the a l l . gIven a the Outer, inner
b k . ura meage buth .
00 s. Vlmalamitra returned cont t d ' . e was not gIVen the
V·
1·.
Ima /amItra arnved there
master SrI Simha For tw
what had happened.
, e n e ,to IndIa, and told ]fianaslltra
y g IS beggmg bowl and met the . . . entyyearshewas· 11
]fianaslltra also made great efforts to
master in the great S·l·· h
h I Jm c arnel gr
ad prophesied he would F h
.
go to Chma; and he met the d
oun , exactly as the <;iakinls
]fianasutra
serving him appropriately· years he delighted the guru by
mal). <;iala and requested the I:a : , e an . offering of a golden
r
then given the instructions ; f the gIVe . hlm mstruction. He was
books, over a period of . ural lIneage, together with the w· h mne years Whe ]-- -
that and about to return t I d . · '" _ nanasutra was contented satIsfied? " 0 n la, Sl1pha asked, "Are you quite
"Y
"Bes, I am satisfied," he replied
utIhavenotentrusted [. h .
. ]fianasiltra understood wIt :he sucCessIOn]," said the guru.
bons. His guru said "F
g , ave to him the com 1
h. en as ed for the most profound instruc- or t IS you must .
receIve empowerment," and
pete outer empowerment whO h . 1
, IC mvo ves elabora-
' The Rise o+the Secret Mantra
500 HlstOry: 'J , '
'mparted the esoteric mstructlOnS 0 tion, and then for three years 1
f h
t e
Atiyoga) the Great Perfection 501 JfUinasutra then extracted the secret books and went to the Bhasing
charnel ground in India, where he resided, turning the wheel of the doctrine of the secret Innermost Spirituality for mundane and supra- mundane gakas and gakinls.
At that time Vimalamitra adhered to the conduct [of a mantrin]. The gakinls declared to him, "Fortunate one! if you want the instructions of the Innermost Spirituality, more profound than before, you must go to the great charnel ground in Bhasing Forest. "
Arriving there, he met Jfianasutra and prayed that he might receive the most profound instructions. The master displayed various miracles, and conferred on him the elaborate and unelaborate empowerments. When, on the summit of Mount Bhaskara, Vimalamitra had performed the practice which divides sarpsara and nirva1). a, and had received the very unelaborate empowerment in its entirety, extraordinary under- standing was born in him. The white syllable A appeared at the tip of his nose, as if on the verge of melting away. Then, he was given the whole extremely unelaborate empowerment, by which he perceived the naked reality of mind. The master gave him all the instructions and books on the four cycles of the Great Perfection, which correspond to those empowerments, and for ten years Vimalamitra thoroughly refined his understanding of them. Afterwards, when Jfianasutra vanished in an aura of light, Vimalamitra cried out in distress. Then, the master's
body actually appeared, and dropped into his hand a precious casket sealed with five kinds of precious stones. Inside, he found the testament entitled Four Methods of Establishment (bzhag-thabs bzhi, NYZ bi-ma snying-thig, Pt. l, Vol. Ga, pp. 325-31), by following which he acquired an undeluded comprehension of meaning, while neither abridging, nor enlarging upon its verbal content.
Afterwards, Vimala lived in the city of Kamarupa for twenty years as the guru and priest of King Haribhadra. Then he also served as priest to King Dharmapala in the western city of Bhirya. Residing later on in the great charnel ground of Prabhaskara he observed the ascetic practice which overcomes all obstacles; and he taught the doctrine to a host of savage beings. He copied out the most secret books three times. The first copy he concealed on an island covered by golden sand in Oggiyana; the second he hid in a rocky hollow in the Suvar1). advlpa district of Kashmir; and the third he deposited in the charnel ground of Prabhaskara, to be worshipped by the gakinls. Finally the master
unsurpassedly secret cycle. _ ' lT ed cor leave to practice, SrI h J-- utra agam aS1' l'
After that, w en na? as om lete unelaborate empowerment.
Sirpha conferred on,hlm the c the disciple had performed
When on the summlt of Mount f ' , - a 526 he also conferred , ,hd' 'd samsara rommrvan ,
the practice whlc lVl es . d t ally extremely unelaborate on him the very unelabor! ! e, on those practices for six-
empowerments. Then Jnanasutra me 1
teen y e a r s . , form many special activities. Once
SrI Simha contmued to per k'
. . 'd ''tthemg
Jfianasutra was mVlte to VlSl
oun
day of his visit there were wondrousbs
" 'the sky a ove, an ,
saw the master slttmg m " h' h SrI Simha dropped mto H 'd tmdlstress,atw lC , ,
into nirva1). a, e cne ou , Nails ( zer-bu bdun, NYZ bl-ma his hand ,the testament and declared, "The
snying-thlg, Pt,l, V ,Ga, PP', f the [unsurpassedly] secret cycle of books of the esotenc ' 'de a pillar in the Auspicious
S " 1ty are hl the Innermost plntua 1
Myriad Gate Temple, Take them an
en mSl
d " ,
d
t go 0
the Bhasing charnel groun
o·
ds and great omens. Jfianasutra
Vimalamitra
f Khotan 527 On the seventh
d knew that he would pass
-
528
for some time in India. His arrival in Tibet will be described later.
Vimalamitra attained the body of supreme transformation
and lived
8 Concluding Remarks
In the same way, after the emanation Garap Dorje taught the cycle of the extremely secret Great Perfection, the books were not even re- vealed except to the most fortunate masters of the aural lineage of direct verbal instruction, because on the demise of each master the books were concealed in an invisible form. The most profound instructions were only left behind in the form of testaments. Not even a fraction of them circulated in the ordinary way. Thus, the lineages of ancient tantras like the Buddhakapala (T 424), those of the Arya cycle, and those of the Great Perfection are similar.
No one but Vajradhara himselfcan perceive all the tantras ofthe way of secret mantra. Only a portion of them appeared in the human and non- human worlds; and it is apparent that, among them, those which ap- peared in the human world were very few indeed. Most of them came to India from Oggiyana. Today Dhfimasthira, the Place of Smoke, which was the central city ofthat country, is a very small town. There is not even a trace of King Indrabhfiti's palace. The country is governed by barba- rians. No one at all upholds the Buddhist or Hindu philosophies. But be- cause the women belong to the ancient race of the gakinIs, they are still the gakinls of that locale; and they have power over the arts of the magic gaze, transformation of objects by means of certain gnostic spells, and some minor sorcery. Even the palace of Dharmagafiji, which housed the tantras of the mantra vehicle, cannot be actually perceived: people who see it just think that it is an ordinary town. But even today it contains some tantras of the way of secret mantra which have not yet appeared in India; for the gakinls have kept them secured in the invisible sphere, so that they are not ordinary objects of perception.
Moreover, in Draviga, and in other lands, there are actually many
s29
tantras that were never well known in India.
tantras appear in various human lands whose inhabitants are fit to be trained in the way of mantra. Therefore, those who try to maintain that there is exactly this or that precise number of tantras suffer from puerile conceptions. In short, we must understand that [the extent of the tantras] is inconceivable. This is also illustrated in the Tantra ofthe Emergence of Cakrasarrzvara, which says:
That the number of Yoga tantras
Is sixty million is certain.
The number of YoginI tantras
Is known to be one hundred and sixty million. Excluding the greater vehicle, so it is said,
The siUras number eight hundred million. Likewise those of the Transcendental Perfection Number four hundred and ninety-nine million.
All of these were proclaimed by the Lord of Sages, The embodiment of the three bodies.
. d
ts of the secret mantra strictly
(137. 5-143. 3] In general, the adeaPccomplishment, no one knew
U til they attame . Preserved secrecy. n t a And when they vamshed
fth wayofsecretmanr .
them to be adepts 0 e d' I ed extraordinary powers, people
in a most miraculous manner, or lSP, Hay a mantra adept. " So it was · "Ohmygoodness. ewas . d
would excIaim, ' . r This is why all those who practise that they were only some particular accomplishment.
the way of mantras attalne at _
h K·- ndCaryatantras
had been widely propagated,
Formerly, t e. nya a enl but no one practised even these op
Afterwards, when the Unsur- Yci h Kriya and Carya tantras
passed (Yoga] t. antras tu:surpassed (Yoga] tantras
seemed to . dechne y few fortunate beings had them had also eXlsted only d he would simply vanlsh. Thus, at all; and immedlately afte. rwar s and instruction. Then, at
This shows that the
there was no legacy of d' Indrabhuti the greatest ac- . f K' Ja the lnterme late ' . . .
the time 0 l n g , he dakinls of pristine cogmtlon 1U complished masters dt I . here From those places they Dhumasthira in OqC;hyana an e sew the' summarised meaning of
omplete tantras, 1 brought forth some c . d ding of a few more. Secret y,
others, and the quintessential un cipients' and in this way the they explained them to a few wort Y re t d During that period unsurpassed paths piaces. Their practices,
many accomplished app a reat deal in common; and the though, could not posslbly had b gome widespread in the manner books and treatises on mantra dld not ec
of ordinary texts. .
Let us give an example: A long a . - a volume containing
the host of his disciples had passed by Raksitapada of ;. r,,' L mp was lSCove ' . .
the text of the ClanJy! ng. _ a - t h e body of the pristine Cogmtlon Koilkana. And then Matanglpa met f these and other events had of Aryadeva in a vision. It was only a ter -' Tantra [i. e. the tradition
occurred that the Arya cycle of the stemming from Nagarjunal began to sprea .
fter the master Nagarjuna and
Concluding Remarks 503
504 History: The Rise ofthe Secret Mantra
Later in Central India the true foundation of the teaching declined. But to the east, in the border lands and in KokI, which is a collective name for many small countries,530 and in Damigodvlpa [the Tamil land], Dhanasrldvlpa and Candradvlpa to south, and in Gujarat in the north, the teachings of the greater, lesser, and secret mantra vehicles continued without decline from before, and even regenerated. Thus, at the present time,531 the teaching exists in those places in its original form. Of the adepts of the way of secret mantra, there are many who uphold the lineage ofthe great master Padmasambhava, but the majority are of the twelve orders of yogins who follow the great accomplished master And, in particular, there are a great many yogins who follow the great master of indestructible reality, Santigupta and his spiritual sons, who belong to the NaleSvara suborder of the Nathapalflhas. 532
At a later period, there was a kingdom in the district of Bharpdva in the Vindhya Mountains of South India, which was ruled by the king Balabhadra, who was accomplished in some gnostic spells, and who gained power over most of the areas of the South. He adopted Santigupta and the host of that master's disciples as his gurus; and so he revived the precious teaching of the Sugata. It is said that the Indians declare that the Buddha predicted that the true doctrine would, in the future, be revived in the Vindhya Mountains to the south.
This completes the special explanation of the development of the doc- trine of the vehicle of indestructible reality, the way of secret mantra, the second part of this book, Thunder from the Great Conquering Battle- Drum of Devendra, which is a history of the precious teaching of the vehicle of indestructible reality according to the Ancient Translation School.
Part Three
The Origin of the Conqueror's Teaching in Tibet
Introduction
[147. 2-151. 6] Now [I shall explain] how it was that the teaching of the Conqueror spread in the Land of Snows.
In Jambudvlpa there were six great countries where the true doctrine was propagated, namely, India, China, Tibet, Khotan, Shambhala, and Kailash. Among them, one might wonder when it was that the teaching of the Buddha reached Tibet, the land of snow mountains. Concerning that, there is a prophecy in the Root Tantra of Maiijusrf:
When the lake in the Land of Snows has dried, A forest of sal trees will appear.
So at first there was a lake, which gradually dried up. When the country became enveloped by dense jungle, a monkey, blessed by the Great Compassionate One [Avalokitesvara], arrived from Mount Potalaka; and from his union with an ogress of the rocks it is said that the Tibetan race evolved. Initially, the country was possessed by non- human beings. Humans developed there gradually, and were governed successively by [the lords of] twelve minor kingdoms and forty prin- cipalities. 533 Then Nyatrhi Tsenpo became the first human king to rule the whole of Tibet.
Canonical texts prove that the religious kings [of Tibet] were de- scended from the Licchavi race, and some believe Nyatrhi Tsenpo to have been the son of King Magyapa. 534 But, whatever actually occurred, a wonderful superhuman being appeared on Mount Lhari ROlpa in the Land of Snows. When he reached Tsentang Gozhi, the Ponpos called him a god because he had descended on a sky-cord. "Who are you? " they asked. To which he replied, "I am a king (tsen-po). " "Where have you come from? " they inquired. At this, he pointed to the sky.
Then the people carried him on their shoulders (nya), seated on a wooden throne (trhi). Therefore, he became known as Nyatrhi Tsenpo, the "King of the Shoulder-borne Sedan-chair". In his succession there appeared seven heavenly kings called Trhi, including his own son Mu- trhi Tsenpo; two celestial kings called Teng; six earthly kings called
. . . I' h 'TeachinginTibet
d the true doctrine will be propaga e
Two thousand and five hundre b' 536
tell 535
508 History: Qrzgzn OJ
. . and five linking kings called Tsen.
Introduction 509
By the blessing that came from worshipping and venerating them the king, a man of sixty-one years, was rejuvenated and became a sixteen- year-old youth once more. He lived on for sixty more years, and so
reached the age of one hundred and twenty. The king obtained a
prediction that the meaning ofthe Awesome Secret would be understood
after five generations. This was the beginning of the true doctrine in Tibet. 537
But there are various other aCCOUnts of how it happened: Nelpa PaJ). c;iita [in his History] said:
The Piinpos claim that the casket fell down from the sky because they adore the sky; but in reality those two books were brought by the scholar and the translator
Thilise. When they arrived in Tibet they found that the king
could neither read, nor understand the meaning. So the scholar and the translator returned.
This account appears to be true.
At a later date Ba Selnang went to Nepal, where he met the preceptor Santarak$ita. The preceptor said to him, "While the Buddba Kasyapa was teaching the doctrine, the king of Tibet, yourself, and I were the
three sons of a woman poultry-keeper. We made a vow to propagate the teaching in Tibet. As the king had not been reborn and yoU had not come of age, I have been waiting here for nine reigns. " Because this tale is said to Occur in tbe "pure" Testament of Ba (rba-bzhed
gtsang-ma),538 and because it accords with known facts, some scholars hold it to be true.
Lek' eight middle kIngs De, P" these ancient reIgns. onpos,
who relied on legends and
. . edthekmgdom.
d. rz-ma
enigmatIc govern Now, it says m the Prophecy
med-pa lung bstan-pa):
emgs. . hotori Nyentsen, the twenty-eighth heredit- Accordingly, when Lha T . f the bodhisattva Samantabhadra,
ary king, who was an °palace a casket fell down upon the was residing in the Yumbu :rang I d the Sutra ofthe Rites ofRenun- palace roof. It was opened, an e -brgya-pa'i mdo, T 267), a mould ciation and Fulfilment Gem (CintamaTJidhiira'lO, engravedWiththeDharaTJIof Avalokitefvara'sAttributes
the Sutra ofthe Cornucopw of bl M tra and a golden stupa. The ) h S' -Sylla e an , .
Addressed to Vimaladevf (lha-mo
. _
vyuhasutra, T 116 , t e IX ere but understood them to be auspI-
king did not know what they cious, and so called them the Awesome
Lha Thotori Nyentsen
ears after my finalmrvaJ). a d in the land of red-faced
Secret" (gnyan-po gsang-ba).
1 The Three Ancestral Religious Kings
h
. mao It others th 1
KING SONGTSEN GAMP0539
[151. 6-154. 4] There is a prophecy in the Root Tantra of Maiijusrf:
In the place called the divine land, Surrounded by snowy mountains,
A king called "God among Men" will be born Into the Licchavi race.
540
The fifth hereditary monarch after Lha Thotori was the religious king Songtsen Gampo, an emanation of Avalokitesvara in the form of a mighty lord of men, who began to rule the kingdom at the age of thirteen. When he was fifteen the emanational monk A-kar MatisIla brought him a self-created image of the Sublime One [Avalokitesvara]. Then, the king commanded the religious minister Gar, an emanation of VajrapaJ)i, to invite the Nepalese princess Trhitsiin, an emanation of Bhtku! I, and the Chinese princess Wen-ch'eng K'ong-jo, an emanation of Tara, both of whom were agreeable to the people, to be his two consorts. 54l This he did in order to introduce two images ofthe Teacher, representative of the Buddha himself, which were, respectively, the size of an eight-year-old, and that of a twe1ve-year-old. 542 The princesses came to be known as the two "Lotuses of the Lake".
While the Trhiilnang Temple [i. e. the Jokhang, the "Cathedral of Lhasa"] was being constructed the building-work was disrupted by non-human beings. Therefore, the king and his two consorts went into retreat in the palace known as Maru, at Nyangdren Phawongkha in the valley of the Kyicu. They attained accomplishment by propitiating their meditative deity, on whose advice the king built the Border Tam- ing, Further Taming, and District Controlling temples, which were situated on geomantic sites on the body of the supine ogress [that is
543
Tibet]; and so it was that he exorcised the malignant earth spirits. He then erected the Trhtilnang and Ramoche temples and the images they housed.
Songtsen Campo
about a h G
d
un red long-haired 0 i .
S The Three Ancestral Religious Kings 511 ongtsen Gampo invited the mast K
from India,544 the master "-Ila _. erfj usara and the brahman Sarikara
manJu romNep1 d h
sang MO-ho-yen from Ch· W· h a ,an t e master Ho-
ofthe Tripitaka and ofthe t ,. ey. trans ated many sec- to Tibet. Though no actual and thus mtroduced the teach-
hImself secretly gave instruction on the g or study took place, the king
the Great Compassionate 0 peaceful and wrathful forms of
practised these teachings Nne to many beings, who then
h " . 0 onewasordamed[
t e seven men who were tested" b . . . as a monk] prior to
reat Compassionate One at NY g ns engaged m the practices of the which formed the k Phawongkha. At that time the In three separate treasures L mg s testament were collected and hidden
master treasures were revealed by the hoday they are renowned as the C II yang, and the teacher Sakya-o. t eMantra"OmManiPadm ected. WorksoftheKingconcerning doctrinal work. ·545· e HU1? l (ma1Jz bka'-'bum), the first Tibetan
,
ut It IS SaId that there were always
512 History: Origin ofthe Teaching in Tibet _0
00 0 bhota anemanationof The king also sent Thonml Sam 0 : ' On the basis of the Indian
d mmar and wntmgo
to India to stu Y gra f the Tibetan letters, and he compose
reigns from now, in the time of my descendant, King De, the true
scripts he created the forms 0 546
eight treatises on Tibetan had been no in the
Just so, when Trhisong Detsen was thirteen he began to govern the kingdom. At twenty he made a solemn resolution to propagate the true doctrine and he invited to Tibet the Bodhisattva, the
Before Songtsen Gampo s tIm d
ccord with the doctnne, but
Land of SnoWs 0
f
a co
0
d ofcon uct edt
lOne and of theories m accor rod
d preceptor from Sahor. The latter granted the eight vows to some, but when he taught the doctrines of the ten virtues and of the eighteen
thereafter the great o
d
fthetrue oc oor 0 fi
Thus thekingmnovate 0'00
nedforthe lrsttIme
with the doctnne was ope °llustrated by the ten dIVme
psychophysical bases, the savage demons and deities of Tibet became angry. Lightning struck Marpori [the "Red Mountain", site of the present Potala Palace] and the palace at Phangtang was swept away by a flood. The harvest was destroyed and great calamities befell the coun- try. Evil ministers said, "This is due to the practice of the doctrine. The master should be banished to his own country. "
The king offered much gold to the preceptor and told him of the situation. replied, "The spirits of Tibet are displeased. I will go to Nepal for the time being. In order to subdue the savage spirits and demons of Tibet, there is a mantra adept called Padmasam- bhava, who is, at present, the most powerful in the world. I will send him an invitation, and Your Majesty should do the same. " So they sent messengers consecutively.
Master Padmasambhava, however, already knew that the delegation, which included Nanam Dorje DUjom, was speeding on its way. In an instant he travelled to Kungtang, in Mangytil, where he met the group. He scattered their offering of gold in the direction of Ngari and said, "Everything I perceive is gold. " In this way he turned Tibet into an abundant gold-producing land.
Then the Bodhisattva, set out for Tibet in advance, along with a skilled Nepali stonemason. Master Padmasambhava ad- vanced from Kyirong, whereupon the gods and demons of Tibet launched a raging storm of snow and rain, which blocked the mountain passes. The master retired to a mountain cave, imprisoned the gods and demons by the power of his contemplation, and bound them under an oath of allegiance. From that time on, by his miraculous powers, he gradually covered the whole of Tibet on foot, from Ngari, Central Tibet, and Tsang [in the west], to Dokam [Kham and Amdo in the east]. He bound all the powerful spirits under oath, among whom the foremost were the twelve goddesses of the earth, the thirteen hunting gods, and the twenty-one genyen;549 and he assumed control of their vital heart-mantras.
In the tamarisk forest of Trakmar he met the sovereign. While con- secrating the Drinzang Temple at Trakmar, he invited the images of the deities to a place of feasting. That night the temple was empty. The next morning the deities were actually seen eating the offerings and conversing in the temple. That day all the musical instruments of
the just splntua an o
1 547 In these ways, mg pure human awso
mao
oo ld temporal laws, as I KO
f TObet to become a prosperous and luxurious source of the true doctnne 0
KING TRHISONG DETSEN AND THE COMING OF P ADMASAMBHA V A
o f Son tsen Gampo, King Trhisong
[154 4-16605] In the fifth reIgn a ter g d His royal ancestor o 0 f M fijughosa, appeare 0 " 0
Detsen, an emanatIOn 0 a 0 late to the effect that, FIve had inscribed a prophecy on a copper P ,
'--c
virtues and the SIxteen
Songtsen Gampo blessed the country I
0
Trhisong Detsen
doctrine will be propagated. " He had concealed the copper plate in a d confined place. 548
The Three Ancestral Religious Kings 513
514
History: Origin ofthe Teaching in Tibet
and made a great din. At the same time worship by ht before some sensitive children who
the oracular mlrror was g d . dences of all the malignant indicated the names, conduct, an the teaching of the doctrine m .
and nagas, who had With threats of intimidation the Tibet by the preceptor, 0 lSdat v . th of allegiance and secured
b d those spirits un er an oa
o u n . ured their vital heart-mantras, an
d the
master
them in the doctnne. He proc f h . d he subdued those who
rituals for the propitiation of t and so forth. Pad-
still remained unconverted. Wlt urn masambhava did this two nmes.
,
Z· fLake Manasarovar,
After he had such He was offered four-
Padmasambhava culnvated the kmg s fr P I The Bodhisattva
f d edgoldtoerectatempe.
power P dmasambhava went to
teen mule-loads 0
inspected the land while the great o:erpowered all the local Hepori [a mountain near Samye], W. erhe e d d them to sublimate
l' VOice eorere h gods and demons. In a g d f indestructible reality in t e
their pride, and, by n lines he summoned
sky, he blessed the slte. Whlle g[ h r ] Cokro pucungmen and by contemplation the twO [splnts 0 ea mg ,
The Three Ancestral Religious Kings 515
Lhabumen, to guide the ends of the measuring thread. The foundations were laid following the model of OdantapurI Monastery, in accord with
551
Since the great master employed all of the arrogant spirits, the walls which were raised during the day by men were made even higher at night by the spirits. Thus, glorious Samye, the Temple of Unchanging Spontaneous Presence, which was designed to resemble Mount Sumeru, with its four continents, and its subcontin- ents, sun, moon, and iron perimeter, was entirely completed in about five years, along with the three shrines of the three queens. 552 During the consecration performed by the preceptor and the master, astonishing and inconceivable miracles occurred. For example, the deities enshrined
in the central shrine (dbu-rtse) went outside.
Then the sovereign decided to introduce the foundations of the sutra
and mantra teachings by translating the true doctrine [from Sanskrit into Tibetan]. Intelligent Tibetan youths were instructed in the art of translation. Trhisong Detsen invited from India great scholars, who were learned in the pi! aka - monks such as the masters Jinamitra, SarvajfHideva, and DanasIla; holders of indestructible reality such as Vimalamitra and Santigarbha; and twelve monks of the Sarvastivada order as well. 553
To test whether or not Tibetans were suitable for monastic ordination, the king at first requested that those masters ordain his faithful minister, Ba Trhizi ofthe Zhang family. Under the supervision ofthe Bodhisattva, who officiated as preceptor, of DanasIla and Jinamitra, who acted as master of ceremonies and exposer of secrets, and of ten other pa1). <;iitas, who made up the quorum, Trhizi renounced the world and was fully ordained as a monk. He received the name Pelyang, and also became known as Ba-ratna, the "Jewel of the Ba Family"; for the king had praised him thus. Through meditation he acquired five supernormal cognitive powers.
After that, Ba Selnang, Pagor Vairocana, Ngenlam Gyelwa Choyang, Ma Rincen-chok, Khon Luiwangpo Sungwa, and Lasum Gyelwa Cangcup gradually renounced the world. They were fully ordained as monks; and their names were changed to Yeshe Wangpo, and so forth. Together, they became known as the "seven men who were tested"; and they were the first monks in Tibet.
The king then decided that Tibetans were suitable for ordination. Trama, the minister of the Zhang family, and three hundred intelligent subjects were ordained. Scholars, such as the preceptor and master Padmasambhava, along with the translators Vairocana, Kawa Peltsek, Cokro Lui Gyeltsen, and Zhang Yeshe De translated the transmitted precepts of the sutra, and mantra traditions, as well as the foremost commentarial treatises, into Tibetan. Vairocana and Nam- kei Nyingpo were sent to India, where Vairocana studied the Great Perfection under SrI Si. qlha, and Namkei Nyingpo studied the doctrines
the preceptor's orders.
516 History: Origin o/the Teaching in Tibet
of Yangdak Heruka under Hllrpkara. When they had attained ac- complishment they propagated these teachings in Tibet.
Moreover, the great master Padmasambhava gave numerous em- powerments for the lower mantras, as well as the Unsurpassed [Yoga] tantras, to the king and some fortunate subjects. He taught the Hundred Thousand Verses of the Vajrakfla Tantra, the Garland of Views: A Collec- tion of Esoteric Instructions, and other works.
On one occasion the master spoke to the king as follows, "Your Majesty should make this country prosperous. You should turn the sands of Ngamsho into groves and meadows. You should irrigate the barren regions like the three districts of Tra and Tol (gra-dol-yul-gsum). You should reclaim all the swamps for cultivation. You should obtain
554
and make the country a source of wealth. You should redirect the rivers, by means of canals, and make Tibet
hold dominion over all the kings of China and Central Asia. "
To this the king replied, "I beg you to do sol"
The master remained engaged in this intention for just a morning
when water appeared in the desert of Trakmar. The sandy plain became an alpine meadow, in which was situated the so-called "Peacock Lake" (Tshomo Gtilngon) of Trakmar. In Trak Daweidong a vast forest appeared instantly. And in Zurkar, a wide, flowing river sprang up without a source.
Then, though he was certainly about to complete all the rest according to his word, the remaining works and the performance of burnt offerings to increase the power of the royal dynasty were left undone, due to the common misfortune of the populace and, as a further circumstance, due to the harmful misconduct of hostile, evil ministers, who, because they could not endure the master's miraculous and supernormal cognitive powers, persuaded [the king] to delay. The deities and nagas could not be bound under an oath of allegiance for yet a third time. At this point, Padmasambhava declared, "The result of the perverse aspirations of the ministers of Tibet will be the decline of happiness in Tibet. Although the great wheel of the doctrine will have made one complete cycle there will be great strife at an intermediate time. The nagas and Gyelpo spirits will be ill-disposed and the dynasty itself will disintegrate, due to its neglect of the law. " It is said that because he knew the future would be so, Padmasambhava suddenly departed to subdue the ogres [in Camaradvlpa], but only after he had first delivered many wrathful mantras and had concealed many books as treasures in Tibet.
Concerning the duration of Padmasambhava's stay in Tibet: Some maintain that it was but a short period, six or eighteen months. The moderate opinion holds that it was three, six or twelve years; and there are those who say that it was as long as one hundred and nine solstices, or fifty-four years and six months, altogether. The guru came to Tibet
wealth from VaisravaI). a
when King Trhiso . ' .
. ng was m
Padmakara
h'
IS twenty-first year; and the k' d
The Three Ancestral Religious Kings 517
sIxty-ninth. ? o it is evident that
mast or fIve years SIX months after the king's passing. The learned ers 0 our tradItIOn do not . .
statements. 555 see any contradIctIOn among these
PaThe Testament of Ba and other works, which tell us that
thed:asambhava stayed in Tibet for but a brief period, do so because
Then emanated a body to be seen by the evil ministers , . IS escorts saw hIm fly into the sky from the sum't .
on the frontier of India and Tibet, across the n a r r : and the clouds, with his robe fluttering, hermitagesg staff But his real body remained in solitary
elsewhere 'I n m mountam caves in ZhotO Tidro, Chimpu and he to turn the wheel ;f the At one time th doctnne for the kmg his fortunate subjects. of attainment. was perceIved dwelling in such places
wishing to w en t . at rumour the king,
the Samye M whether It was true or false, mVIted him to consecrate onastery.
518 History: Origin ofthe Teaching in Tibet
It is also said that in the interval between the lifetime of Trhisong Detsen and the reign of his son Mutrhi, the master departed into the sky, riding upon his horse from the summit of Kungtang Mountain. This is known from the lament, uttered by Mutrhi when he took leave of Padmasambhava:
My one and only royal father has died.
My guru is going to 099iyana.
o royal father! your life was too short;
The happiness ofyour Tibetan subjects has passed. Why did I, Mutrhi Tsenpo, not die,
While my father and my guru were present? 556
Furthermore, we should not think that Padmasambhava could not have completed all the bountiful acts he desired during just a short visit. He was adept at inconceivable miraculous powers, like the ability to make his body manifest in all buddha-fields simultaneously. Similarly, when the Buddha himself performed miracles at SravastI, as described in the Siltra of the Wise and the Foolish (mdo mdzangs-blun, T 341),557 and in the Transmissions of the Vinaya, some say that these miracles lasted for a few days, and some for many. In sum, whether his visit appeared to have been long or short depended upon the purity or impurity of his disciples' perception.
In this way, the master continued to consult with his patron, the king, in secret. He traversed the whole of Tibet on foot, down to the last hoof-sized patch ofground, along with Tshogyel and other fortunate companions. He inhabited each of the twenty mountain caves of Ngari; the twenty-one places of attainment in Central Tibet and in Tsang; the twenty-five great pilgrimage places of Kham and Amdo; and the secret lands of upper, lower, and central Tibet which are like three kings, along with five valleys, three districts and one parkland. 558 He blessed all of them, along with their glaciers, caves, mountains and waterways - which are as their roots, branches, flowers, and fruits - to be places of attainment. Since he knew that the teaching would be persecuted later by the king's grandson, an emanation of Mara, he gave many oracles and prophecies to the king. Then, intending that the teaching of the secret mantra should not vanish, nor the genuine blessing be weakened or adulterated by sophistry, and that disciples should gradu- ally appear, he concealed countless treasures, both named and un- named. The foremost of these treasures were the hundred treasures which were the master copies of King Trhisong, the five great mind treasures, and the twenty-five great profound treasures. . For each one, he predicted the time of revelation, the discoverer, his fortunate spiritual successors, and so forth.
In thirteen places all called "tiger dens", such as Nering Sengedzong in Manka [Bhutan], Padmasambhava assumed an awesome dis-
The Three Ancestral Religious Kings 5I9
Dorje Trolii
figured, wrathful form and bou d I
of Tibet, both great sm 11 n I the arrogant deities and demons pointed them to guard the t a , un erAoaths of allegiance; and he ap-
reasures t that t' h
renowned as Dorje TroW ( V ' p ' b t e master became
. aJra ot-elly)ToId f:. h. generatIOns the guru and h' . n Uce an In future
signs, such handprints behind countless wonderful o
Such are the imprint of h'· bOd prmts, m all the places ofattainment h· IS0YatDor'Tk. . andpnnt at Namtso Ch k Je se pa In Bumthang the
in Paro. u mo, and the footprint on the White Rock
Once, the prince Murup Tse 0 ;;s a military expedition]
and destroyed the hermitages oftb
away their property the . e ara or. When he was carrying Shingjachen. 560 pursued by the Gyelpo spirit Trakpo (Wrathful Guru) bo ava t en. the form of Guru
and commanded him to spInt under an oath ofallegiance The master founded ar t e wealth of the temples. '
a? d meditation schools C;:;lege; to teach the dialectical vehicle
hIS subjects acclaimed him h yo secret mantra. The king and all
the king established the e worshipful of renunciates; and IVlSlOn of the religious community,
520 History: Origin ofthe Teaching in Tibet
consisting of the shaven-headed followers of the siitras [the monks], and the followers of the way of mantras, who wore long, braided locks. He erected pillars [e. g. the Zhol Pillar] inscribed with the great decree
" d' 561 A h ' th concerning protocol and WIth Important e ICtS. t t at . e
kingdom of Tibet reached the zenith of its power and held dommIOn over two-thirds of eastern Jambudvlpa. Because the kingdom was pro- tected by the true doctrine, Tibet is known to have enjoyed the happiness of paradise.
When master Padmasambhava was about to leave to convert the ogres in the south-west, the king, ministers, and subjects of Tibet begged him to stay on. But he declined. To each of them he gave detailed instructions, and precepts concerning loving kindness. Then, riding on a lion, or on an excellent horse, he set out, from the of Kungtang Mountain for Camaradvlpa, in the mIdst of an mfi,nIte mass of divine offerings. In Camaradvlpa, on the peak of the glonous Copper-coloured Mountain, he "liberated" the ogre Thotreng (Skull- garlanded), the king of ogres, and entered into his corpse. He materialised the inconceivable Palace of Lotus Light; and there he resides, ruling in his eight emanations over eight ogre islands, teaching
the eight transmitted precepts concerning the eight means for attainment and other doctrines, and protecting the people of Jambudvlpa from deathly fears. He continues to dwell, even now, as the regent of the Sixth Conqueror, Vajradhara, the holder of the awareness that is the spontaneous presence of the final path; and so will he remain, without moving, until the dissolution of the universe.
Pehar
Trhi Relpacen
KING RELP ACEN
[166. 5-168. 5] The religious king, Trhisong Detsen, had three royal sons. The eldest was named Mune Tsepo, the middle one Murup Tsepo, and the youngest Mutik Tsepo, or Senalek Jingyon. They further propagated the teaching. In particular, Mune Tsepo founded the four cycles of worship (mchod-pa chen-po bzhi) at Samye during his
reIgn; three times he alleviated the hunger ofhis Tibetan subjects. Muuk Tsepo built the Temple of the Indestructible Expanse at Kar- Cung. had about five sons, among whom the most distinguished Was Trhl Relpacen, an emanation of Vajrapal). i, who was also known as Detsukten. Relpacen appointed seven householders among his SUbjects to serve each of the monks; and he is famed for having built
The Three Ancestral Religious Kings 521
522 History: Origin ofthe Teaching in Tibet
a thousand temples and shrines. He humbly honoured and venerated the two orders - those of the traditions of the sutras and mantras, with their gurus and venerable adherents - while placing at their feet the two silken ribbons which hung from his braided hair. Through these and other acts he displayed infinite veneration to the most precious teaching of the Conqueror.
In the lower valley of the Kyicu, Relpacen built the temple of On- cangdo Peme Trashi Gepel. He invited Surendrabodhi, SIlendrabodhi, DanasIla, and many other scholars from India. He commanded them, along with the Tibetan preceptors and DharmatasIla, and the translator Jfianasena, as follows:
Formerly, when the doctrine was translated by scholars and translators in the time of my paternal ancestors, many terms were used which were unknown to the Tibetan language. Replace those terms among them which contradict the texts of the doctrine and grammatical usage, as well as those which are hard to understand, by searching [for alternatives] among the familiar terms of the colloquial language. Thus, you should revise the translations according to the texts of the greater and lesser vehicles. 562
Therefore, at Kawa Namoche in Phenyul, they revised the translation of the Great Mother [the Transcendental Perfection of Discriminative Awareness in One Hundred Thousand Lines], and divided it into sixteen sections. They also established, in accord with the laws of contemporary language, the translations of most of the scriptures translated during the time of the king's paternal ancestors. But, owing to the strictness of the inner tantras of the way of secret mantra, whereby they cannot be grasped by ordinary persons who are not fit vessels for them, the translators preserved the ancient translations intact. 563
So it was that the three ancestral religious kings [Songtsen Gampo, Trhisong Detsen, and Relpacen] made the greatest impact on the teach- ing of the Conqueror in the Land of Snows, and thus were most gracious to its inhabitants. Among those kings, Songtsen Gampo and Trhisong Detsen were particularly great in their kindness. The scholars San- and Padmasambhava, and the translators Thonmi Sambhota, Vairocana, Kawa Peltsek, Cokro Lui Gyeltsen and Zhang Yeshe De were all most gracious and wonderful.
2 The Decline and Expansion of the DO,ctrine During the Intermedzate Period
At; date, Langdarma Udumtsen, the elder brother . e r. 1 Relpacen, was possessed by a demon because of
hIS aspIratIOns, and he persecuted the doctrine Not Ion afte the kIng was assassinated by Lhalung Pelgi D "564 g
r, tfe kings Osung and Pelkortsen reviv':Je;he ancient cus-
Pr an U1 t and so forth out of devotion to the Three ecIOUS Jewels.
