" , 0 t e c arnel ground of SosadvIpa in
of the way of secret mantra "0
shan, he studied all the mountain of Wu-t'ai-
exception, under the outcaste on mantra, without e a IftI, and he thoroughly
a so master the other tantras
498 History: The Rise ofthe Secret Mantra
mastered them.
of the way of secret mantra "0
shan, he studied all the mountain of Wu-t'ai-
exception, under the outcaste on mantra, without e a IftI, and he thoroughly
a so master the other tantras
498 History: The Rise ofthe Secret Mantra
mastered them.
Dudjom Rinpoche - Fundamentals and History of the Nyingmapa
.
the enumera 10 l'
posed a treatise exp alnlng
atreatiseentlte te un'J f d athoftheSutrawze w h i c h e x p l a i n s R i v e r , i n t h e c o u n t r y Gathers All Intentwns. On the P bhahasti and explained the
preme bliss He composed
. .
. )
(rnal-'b. . )or rig-pa'z nyz-ma ) J h· h
Anuyoga) the Perfection Stage 489
7 The Lineage ofAtiyoga, the Great Perfection
Is he . . Atiyoga) the Great Perfection 491
I h a - a G y e l p o , a T s e n o r a M u
t e ree realms, who would desire oug some gods and anti d . .
Still I see no precedent for may take dIverse forms,
For Whom does this u . h .
Al 'M . nng teous kmgdom exist
as. y conduct IS pure and I . h .
GARAP DOR]E AND MAN]USRIMITRA
[120. 2-127. 2] When the Transcendent Lord of Secrets, Vajrapa1)i, was teaching the doctrine of the secret mantra to a host of 9akas, 9akinls, accomplished masters and awareness-holders in the Blazing Fire Moun- tain charnel ground, to the north of Mount Sumeru, the island of Dhanakosa, in 099iyana in West India, was inhabited solely by crea- tures called kO$a, who had bodies like those of men, the faces of bears, ,and claws all of iron. The island was encircled by many sublime types of tree, including sandalwood. This is why it was called Dhanakosa (Treasury of Wealth), or so it is said. In that country there was a great temple called Sankarakl1ta, which was surrounded by six thousand and eight hundred small temples. It was a place perfectly endowed with splendour and wealth.
There, there was a king, Uparaja, and his queen, AlokabhasvatL They had a daughter called Sudharma. She was ordained as a novice and, shortly thereafter, as a nun. About one yojana518 from DhanakoL, on an island covered with golden sand, in a tiny thatched cottage, she practised yoga and meditation with her servant SukhasaravatL One night the nun had a dream in which an immaculate white man thrice placed a crystal vase sealed with the syllables AI:I svAHA upon the crown of her head. 519 The light radiating from the vase was such that she could clearly see the three world realms. Not long afterwards, the nun gave birth to a child, who was none other than the son of the Conqueror, Adhicitta (sems-lhag-can), the divine nation of Vajrasattva who had propagated the Great Perfection in heaven. But the nun was ashamed, and saw [his birth] as a great impropriety:
GarapDorje
To what race does this fatherless child belong?
Is he other than some mundane demon? p Is he, a devil? Brahma? or yet something else?
But I will be blamed b
WIS. to surpass the world, y perverse bemgs. What sin!
So she cried in great lame .
son of the buddhas It· . ntatIOn. But her servant said, "He is the
With . .
. out paymg any attention to her h
IS Improper to despair. "
ash PIt, and at once sounds light d' t e nun cast the child into an after three days had pass d h s, a? - other phenomena arose. Then
she knew him to be e, s e that the child was unharmed· b anemanatIOn Whe . h '
rought him forth from the . . . n, WIt. . great respect, she eXclaimed: PIt, celestIal deItIes assembled and
oMaster'0T h,
o lord of·the eac er. Lord!
world, revealmg true nature' rotect us, Celestial Vajra! .
We pray thus this day.
492 History: The Rise o/the Secret Mantra
. . - aksas and other mundane pro- Then qakas, qakmls,. gods. , provisions of worship.
tectors also honoured hIm wIt dt boy said to his mother, "Mother, When seven years had ht on the doctrine. Please give me
I would like to converse WIt sc 0 ars
your consent. " . "D h·ld you are still quite young. As the To which she rephed, ear C. l '·11 be hard for you to succeed. "
scholars are wise learned men, I t : l ld him to discuss the doctrine
But, on his perSIstent request, s e thO ·ests of the aforementioned
scholars. After lengthy discussions and critical dialogues he over- whelmed their brilliance, whereupon they bowed their heads at his feet. The scholars honoured him with great respect and gave him the name Prajfiabhava (Source of Discriminative Awareness). The king, too, was astonished and delighted, owing to which he conferred on the child the title "Great Master" and the name Garap Dorje (Vajra of Highest Delight). Previously, his mother, who had been amazed to find him unharmed after being cast into the pit of ashes, called him Sukha the "Zombie", or the "Ashen Zombie".
Then, in the northern direction, on the precipice called Siiryaprakasa, which was most fearsome, and where tormented spirits could actually be seen roaming about, Garap Dorje lived for thirty-two years in a
thatched cottage, absorbed in contemplation all the while. At that time, the earth shook seven times and a voice came from the sky, heralding the decline of extremist teachings. Hearing it, an extremist king sent an assassin to murder the master; but when they saw Garap Dorje fly off through the sky, the king and his retainers acquired supreme faith and were initiated into the Buddhist teaching.
Now, Garap Dorje's memory contained all the scriptures of the outer and inner vehicles, and, in particular, the six million four hundred thousand verses of the natural Great Perfection [NGB Vols. 1-10]. So when Vajrasattva actually appeared to him and showed him how to realize the pristine cognition of [the path of] no-more-Iearning, having conferred on him the vase empowerment of awareness, he also ordered him to write down the verbal tantras. Then, on the summit of Mount Malaya, which abounds in precious gems, the master, together with the Vajradhatu <;lakinI (the QakinI of the Indestructible Expanse), who relishes mundane bliss, as well as with the PItasankara <;lakinI (the Yellow Bliss-giving QakinI) and the AnantaguI). a <;lakinI (the QakinI of Limitless Virtues), spent three years recording these precepts in writing. They also correctly arranged them, without any error, along with the emanational writings, which were self-originated and naturally estab- lished. All of these they placed in a cave called the "Real Origin of the l;)akinIs" (mkha'-'gro-ma mngon-par-'byung-ba'i phug).
On another occasion the master went to the great SItavana charnel ground, to the north-east of Vajrasana, where there is a great stiipa, and which is inhabited by many venomous <;lakinIs and savage beings. There, he continued to teach the doctrine to the <;lakinI SiiryakiraI). a and countless other beings. At that time, the sublime declared to the master MafijusrImitra, "0 son ofthe enlightened family! if you wish to become a buddha in a single lifetime, go to the great SItavana charnel ground. "
MafijusrImitra went to the SItavana charnel ground, where he met l11aster Garap Dorje and studied the doctrine under him for seventy-five Years. After the great master Garap Dorje had given him all the instruc-
with five hundre
_. king Upara)a.
d h i s who were t e pn .
sc 0 ar , Dh a and sought an audIence
Th b then went to ana . h e oy d h· request But the kmg thoug t,
h m he repeate I S · . h
.
withthekmg,tow ? . . 11b t 0 difficultforhimtodISCUSSt e
"TheladisbutachIld,soItWI e 0 nymarksofagreatindi- . I A d yet there are ma
doctrine wIth scho ars.
. d P
' . . " haps he IS an emanatIOn.
n er
But one, who was very lea. rne dsal 'hall find out if he is, in fact, an auspicious. Send the boy m an we s
vidual upon hIS bo y.
The king consulted his is one mark that is most
emanation. " . .
When summoned mto theIr presen
ce the child prostrated before the
M aiijusrfmitra
h m there was no consensus.
Atiyoga, the Great Perfection 493
494 History: The Rise ofthe Secret Mantra
tions and further advice the master passed into nirvaJ). a in the uncor- rupted expanse, on the banks of the River Danatika. When that took place, Mafijusrlmitra cried "Alas! Alas! " in distress three times. Then, in an aura of celestial light the master's body actually appeared; and the master dropped a casket of gold the size of a fingernail into Mafi- jusrlmitra's hand. It contained his last testament, entitled Three Phrases which Penetrate the Essential (tshig-gsum gnad-du brdeg-pa, NYZ bi-ma snying-thig, Pt. l, Vol. Ga, pp. 304-18).
Afterwards, the great master Mafijusrlmitra divided the six million four hundred thousand verses ofthe Great Perfection into three classes:
The Mental Class is for those who abide in mind.
The Spatial Class is for those who are free from activity. The Esoteric Instructional Class is for those
Who are intent upon the innermost essence. 521
From among the latter, in particular, he divided the concise version, the Establishment of the Intrinsic Essential of the Innermost Spirituality (thig-le rang-gnad-du dbab-pa),522 into an aural lineage and an exegetical tradition. He annotated the aural lineage, but not finding, at that time,
a vessel worthy to be entrusted with the exegetical tradition, that is to say, with the transmitted precepts of the Innermost Spirituality (snying- thig), he concealed it under a boulder to the north-east of Vajrasana; and, sealing the boulder with a crossed-vajra (visvavajra), he made it invisible. Then he went to the Sosadvlpa charnel ground, to the west of Vajrasana, where he taught, the doctrine to ugly qakinls, countless animals, and to many practitioners who adhered to the conduct [of the secret mantra]. He remained there, absorbed in contemplation, for one hundred and nine years.
BUDDHAJNANAP ADA
Atryoga) the Great Perfection 495
[127. 2-130. 5] Mafijusrlmitra's disciple was Buddhajfianapada, a vajra
master of the great maJ). qalas. At first he served many gurus, such as
master Jalandharipa, master LIlavajra of Oqqiyana, and the yoginI
Guniru. Under them he studied many aspects of the secret mantra.
Jambhala and Vasudhara523 provided him with the necessities of life.
Once, when he had served the master of Koilkana for nine
years, and had heard the Guhyasamaja Tantra eighteen times, he told
his guru that he still did not understand reality. "Nor do I understand h
it," replied the guru.
Then, in Kupavana, a forest behind Vajrasana, he practised for eight-
een months, of which twelve were devoted to the four branches of ritual service and attainment, along with the rites for deriving the most cess,524 and six were devoted to the wrathful practice. Thereby, he
t'
0 accept It. The venerable
Buddhajfianapada
received this injunction' "If
ask the sublime you want to understand reality you must
"Very weII",he thought "b t M -' - .
shan [in China]. I must gO' anJusn resIdes on Mount Wu-t'ai-
He set out in that direction Arou d 'd
he saw Mafijusrlmitra dressed' n mi day, near a white house, his robe as a turban d as . a venerable old householder, wearing
old peasant woman. with the help of a filthy White bitch was sleeping. J napa a was dIstrustful. Nearby, an ugly
, At lunchtime, when Buddh '-- -
caught a fish fro went to ,beg for alms, Mafi-
bItch vomited up the fish gave It to the bitch. The
anJusnmItra offered it to the master
Who, thinking it to b "
e Impure
When the master h d b '
offered, and was aboutat elaten °hI1ed and curd which the woman
. 0eaveseSaId"N h ' .
WIll not reach the v'll G ' ,o w t e sun IS settIng. You
oUseholder said "Th
f'
refused
,
,e
1 eas and conceptions G' h'
rom Jab d - h
m u VIPa as a great many
man
elsewhere. . Ive 1m some good food. " And he went off
'd
1 age. 0 tomorrow. "
496 History: The Rise ofthe Secret Mantra
So he stayed there and read the Guhyasamaja Tantra. Whenever the master hesitated over a doubtful passage, the woman showed her dis- pleasure. Then, realising that she knew the minds of others, he asked her to remove his doubts. "I don't know", she said, "but that venerable householder who just left is very learned in the Guhyasamaja. He will come back late in the afternoon and will put an end to your doubts. "
Sure enough, late that afternoon the venerable householder arrived, staggering under the influence of wine. The master, knowing that he was a mantra adept, prostrated at his feet, and requested him to remove his doubts. "You must receive the empowerment," he answered.
"I have already received it from someone else. "
"But I have to empower you myself, before I can teach you my doctrine. " So saying, Mafijusrlmitra went into another room.
At twilight, when the master was called inside, he saw the venerable householder with the woman and the bitch, all beside an emanation of
525
A'
S - - _ tzyoga) the Great Perfection 497 RI SI1\1HA, ]NANASOTRA AND VIMALAMITRA
[! 30. 5-137. 5] At about the same ti . __
the nineteen-deity maJ}qala of Mafijuvajra. receive empowerment? "
"I will request it from the maJ}qala. "
"From whom will you
The master was contented by this and th "
the supreme fruit more easily I h Id Now, to understand
"Well, take it then! " replied Mafijusrlmitra as he went into another room with the woman and the dog. But the maJ}qala also vanished. Then, in dismay, the master cried out, "Oh! you are the sole father of all sentient beings. . . "
At his distressful prayer, Mafijusrlmitra rematerialised the maJ}qala and empowered him. He gave instructions on the Mental Class of the Great Perfection, whereupon Buddhajfianapada's understanding be- came as vast as the sky. He compiled a on the cultivation of the true nature of the two stages [of creation and perfection] entitled Oral Instructions of Mafijusrf [as a summary of the teaching he received].
Buddhajfianapada plumbed the profound depths of the e11tire doc- trine. It is said that because he was at first distrustful of the food which the bitch had vomited and of the conduct of the venerable householder, he did not attain supreme accomplishment in that body, but realised the level ofVajradhara during the intermediate state [immediately after his death].
A l s o , r e q u e s t e d i n s t r u c t i o n s f r o m m a s t e r B u d d h a - jfianapada and attained accomplishment.
Buddhajfianapada composed a great many treatises, for instance, the Point ofLiberation and the Means for Attainment entitled Samantabhadra (Samantabhadranamasadhana, T 1855). The esoteric instructions of this master on the stage of perfection, that were translated into the Tibetan language in ancient times, are included among the purest tenets of the Mental Class. Therefore, it is implicit that the host of his followers and
disciples belonged to the lineage of the Great Perfection. Some believe, too, that master SrI Sirpha was one and the same as this great master. This seems quite conceivable if one examines the various histories.
Sri Sirrzha
CIty of Shokyam in China th h me [as Buddhamanapada], in the h
and his wife Nan;wa Gewei Yicen (Virtuous- what IS Clearly Manifest) had a son whp ukhyenma (She who Intuits the master SrI Simha a , 0 was to become renowned as
fifteenth year he thpossde. ssor of. the ascetic virtues. From his it eor marySCIences like
or three years under master Haribhala. a ' grammar and logic, great scholar, he set out for the cit o f ' nd had become a the road, the sublime Avalokt ,y SuvarJ}advipa m the west. On
this prophetic declaration. "F 1 tesvara appeared in the sky and made h f . . orunateone'ifyou 11 . h
t e rUIt of enlightenment go t h h · rea y WIS to realise India.
" , 0 t e c arnel ground of SosadvIpa in
of the way of secret mantra "0
shan, he studied all the mountain of Wu-t'ai-
exception, under the outcaste on mantra, without e a IftI, and he thoroughly
a so master the other tantras
498 History: The Rise ofthe Secret Mantra
mastered them. He became ordained and strictly observed the Vinaya vows for thirty years, acting as a monk who was learned in the pi! aka.
Then the sublime Avalokitesvara again encouraged him by repeating his former prophecy. SrI Sirpha thought that he should acquire some miraculous powers, in order to remove the hardships of the journey to India. He practised the means for attainment for three years and attained the body of an awareness-holder. Then, travelling with his feet about one cubit above the earth, he journeyed to the SosadvIpa charnel ground, where he met the great master MafijusrImitra; and propitiated him as his guru. He prayed to be accepted as a disciple. The guru delightedly granted his prayer. After giving instructions and further advice for a period of twenty-five years, the body of the great master MafijusrImitra vanished in a mass of light. At that, SrI Sirpha cried out in distress, whereupon the master's body actually appeared in the sky and dropped into his hand a casket made of precious stones, the size of a fingernail. It contained MafijusrImitra's last testament, which was entitled the Six Experiences ofMeditation (sgom-nyams drug- pa). Thereby, the master SrI Sirpha understood the profound truth.
Later, at Suvan:tadvIpa in West India, master MafijusrImitra reincar- nated. When he had grown up, he became known as the younger MafijusrImitra. He recited all the outer and inner mantra texts to master Padmasambhava. It is also said that the corrupt body ofmaster Aryadeva vanished when he received teaching on the Great Perfection from him.
Afterwards, master SrI Sirpha extracted the tantras which had for- merly been concealed under the Indestructible Seat. He went to China and divided the Esoteric Instructional Class of the Great Perfection into four cycles: outer, inner, secret, and unsurpassedly secret. He collected the first three cycles together for those who required elaboration; and he concealed them as treasures in the balcony ofthe Bodhi Tree Temple. Then, in accordance with a prediction he received from the <;Hikinls, he concealed the unsurpassedly secret cycle in a pillar in the Auspicious Myriad Gate Temple; and he sealed it up with prayers. 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.
posed a treatise exp alnlng
atreatiseentlte te un'J f d athoftheSutrawze w h i c h e x p l a i n s R i v e r , i n t h e c o u n t r y Gathers All Intentwns. On the P bhahasti and explained the
preme bliss He composed
. .
. )
(rnal-'b. . )or rig-pa'z nyz-ma ) J h· h
Anuyoga) the Perfection Stage 489
7 The Lineage ofAtiyoga, the Great Perfection
Is he . . Atiyoga) the Great Perfection 491
I h a - a G y e l p o , a T s e n o r a M u
t e ree realms, who would desire oug some gods and anti d . .
Still I see no precedent for may take dIverse forms,
For Whom does this u . h .
Al 'M . nng teous kmgdom exist
as. y conduct IS pure and I . h .
GARAP DOR]E AND MAN]USRIMITRA
[120. 2-127. 2] When the Transcendent Lord of Secrets, Vajrapa1)i, was teaching the doctrine of the secret mantra to a host of 9akas, 9akinls, accomplished masters and awareness-holders in the Blazing Fire Moun- tain charnel ground, to the north of Mount Sumeru, the island of Dhanakosa, in 099iyana in West India, was inhabited solely by crea- tures called kO$a, who had bodies like those of men, the faces of bears, ,and claws all of iron. The island was encircled by many sublime types of tree, including sandalwood. This is why it was called Dhanakosa (Treasury of Wealth), or so it is said. In that country there was a great temple called Sankarakl1ta, which was surrounded by six thousand and eight hundred small temples. It was a place perfectly endowed with splendour and wealth.
There, there was a king, Uparaja, and his queen, AlokabhasvatL They had a daughter called Sudharma. She was ordained as a novice and, shortly thereafter, as a nun. About one yojana518 from DhanakoL, on an island covered with golden sand, in a tiny thatched cottage, she practised yoga and meditation with her servant SukhasaravatL One night the nun had a dream in which an immaculate white man thrice placed a crystal vase sealed with the syllables AI:I svAHA upon the crown of her head. 519 The light radiating from the vase was such that she could clearly see the three world realms. Not long afterwards, the nun gave birth to a child, who was none other than the son of the Conqueror, Adhicitta (sems-lhag-can), the divine nation of Vajrasattva who had propagated the Great Perfection in heaven. But the nun was ashamed, and saw [his birth] as a great impropriety:
GarapDorje
To what race does this fatherless child belong?
Is he other than some mundane demon? p Is he, a devil? Brahma? or yet something else?
But I will be blamed b
WIS. to surpass the world, y perverse bemgs. What sin!
So she cried in great lame .
son of the buddhas It· . ntatIOn. But her servant said, "He is the
With . .
. out paymg any attention to her h
IS Improper to despair. "
ash PIt, and at once sounds light d' t e nun cast the child into an after three days had pass d h s, a? - other phenomena arose. Then
she knew him to be e, s e that the child was unharmed· b anemanatIOn Whe . h '
rought him forth from the . . . n, WIt. . great respect, she eXclaimed: PIt, celestIal deItIes assembled and
oMaster'0T h,
o lord of·the eac er. Lord!
world, revealmg true nature' rotect us, Celestial Vajra! .
We pray thus this day.
492 History: The Rise o/the Secret Mantra
. . - aksas and other mundane pro- Then qakas, qakmls,. gods. , provisions of worship.
tectors also honoured hIm wIt dt boy said to his mother, "Mother, When seven years had ht on the doctrine. Please give me
I would like to converse WIt sc 0 ars
your consent. " . "D h·ld you are still quite young. As the To which she rephed, ear C. l '·11 be hard for you to succeed. "
scholars are wise learned men, I t : l ld him to discuss the doctrine
But, on his perSIstent request, s e thO ·ests of the aforementioned
scholars. After lengthy discussions and critical dialogues he over- whelmed their brilliance, whereupon they bowed their heads at his feet. The scholars honoured him with great respect and gave him the name Prajfiabhava (Source of Discriminative Awareness). The king, too, was astonished and delighted, owing to which he conferred on the child the title "Great Master" and the name Garap Dorje (Vajra of Highest Delight). Previously, his mother, who had been amazed to find him unharmed after being cast into the pit of ashes, called him Sukha the "Zombie", or the "Ashen Zombie".
Then, in the northern direction, on the precipice called Siiryaprakasa, which was most fearsome, and where tormented spirits could actually be seen roaming about, Garap Dorje lived for thirty-two years in a
thatched cottage, absorbed in contemplation all the while. At that time, the earth shook seven times and a voice came from the sky, heralding the decline of extremist teachings. Hearing it, an extremist king sent an assassin to murder the master; but when they saw Garap Dorje fly off through the sky, the king and his retainers acquired supreme faith and were initiated into the Buddhist teaching.
Now, Garap Dorje's memory contained all the scriptures of the outer and inner vehicles, and, in particular, the six million four hundred thousand verses of the natural Great Perfection [NGB Vols. 1-10]. So when Vajrasattva actually appeared to him and showed him how to realize the pristine cognition of [the path of] no-more-Iearning, having conferred on him the vase empowerment of awareness, he also ordered him to write down the verbal tantras. Then, on the summit of Mount Malaya, which abounds in precious gems, the master, together with the Vajradhatu <;lakinI (the QakinI of the Indestructible Expanse), who relishes mundane bliss, as well as with the PItasankara <;lakinI (the Yellow Bliss-giving QakinI) and the AnantaguI). a <;lakinI (the QakinI of Limitless Virtues), spent three years recording these precepts in writing. They also correctly arranged them, without any error, along with the emanational writings, which were self-originated and naturally estab- lished. All of these they placed in a cave called the "Real Origin of the l;)akinIs" (mkha'-'gro-ma mngon-par-'byung-ba'i phug).
On another occasion the master went to the great SItavana charnel ground, to the north-east of Vajrasana, where there is a great stiipa, and which is inhabited by many venomous <;lakinIs and savage beings. There, he continued to teach the doctrine to the <;lakinI SiiryakiraI). a and countless other beings. At that time, the sublime declared to the master MafijusrImitra, "0 son ofthe enlightened family! if you wish to become a buddha in a single lifetime, go to the great SItavana charnel ground. "
MafijusrImitra went to the SItavana charnel ground, where he met l11aster Garap Dorje and studied the doctrine under him for seventy-five Years. After the great master Garap Dorje had given him all the instruc-
with five hundre
_. king Upara)a.
d h i s who were t e pn .
sc 0 ar , Dh a and sought an audIence
Th b then went to ana . h e oy d h· request But the kmg thoug t,
h m he repeate I S · . h
.
withthekmg,tow ? . . 11b t 0 difficultforhimtodISCUSSt e
"TheladisbutachIld,soItWI e 0 nymarksofagreatindi- . I A d yet there are ma
doctrine wIth scho ars.
. d P
' . . " haps he IS an emanatIOn.
n er
But one, who was very lea. rne dsal 'hall find out if he is, in fact, an auspicious. Send the boy m an we s
vidual upon hIS bo y.
The king consulted his is one mark that is most
emanation. " . .
When summoned mto theIr presen
ce the child prostrated before the
M aiijusrfmitra
h m there was no consensus.
Atiyoga, the Great Perfection 493
494 History: The Rise ofthe Secret Mantra
tions and further advice the master passed into nirvaJ). a in the uncor- rupted expanse, on the banks of the River Danatika. When that took place, Mafijusrlmitra cried "Alas! Alas! " in distress three times. Then, in an aura of celestial light the master's body actually appeared; and the master dropped a casket of gold the size of a fingernail into Mafi- jusrlmitra's hand. It contained his last testament, entitled Three Phrases which Penetrate the Essential (tshig-gsum gnad-du brdeg-pa, NYZ bi-ma snying-thig, Pt. l, Vol. Ga, pp. 304-18).
Afterwards, the great master Mafijusrlmitra divided the six million four hundred thousand verses ofthe Great Perfection into three classes:
The Mental Class is for those who abide in mind.
The Spatial Class is for those who are free from activity. The Esoteric Instructional Class is for those
Who are intent upon the innermost essence. 521
From among the latter, in particular, he divided the concise version, the Establishment of the Intrinsic Essential of the Innermost Spirituality (thig-le rang-gnad-du dbab-pa),522 into an aural lineage and an exegetical tradition. He annotated the aural lineage, but not finding, at that time,
a vessel worthy to be entrusted with the exegetical tradition, that is to say, with the transmitted precepts of the Innermost Spirituality (snying- thig), he concealed it under a boulder to the north-east of Vajrasana; and, sealing the boulder with a crossed-vajra (visvavajra), he made it invisible. Then he went to the Sosadvlpa charnel ground, to the west of Vajrasana, where he taught, the doctrine to ugly qakinls, countless animals, and to many practitioners who adhered to the conduct [of the secret mantra]. He remained there, absorbed in contemplation, for one hundred and nine years.
BUDDHAJNANAP ADA
Atryoga) the Great Perfection 495
[127. 2-130. 5] Mafijusrlmitra's disciple was Buddhajfianapada, a vajra
master of the great maJ). qalas. At first he served many gurus, such as
master Jalandharipa, master LIlavajra of Oqqiyana, and the yoginI
Guniru. Under them he studied many aspects of the secret mantra.
Jambhala and Vasudhara523 provided him with the necessities of life.
Once, when he had served the master of Koilkana for nine
years, and had heard the Guhyasamaja Tantra eighteen times, he told
his guru that he still did not understand reality. "Nor do I understand h
it," replied the guru.
Then, in Kupavana, a forest behind Vajrasana, he practised for eight-
een months, of which twelve were devoted to the four branches of ritual service and attainment, along with the rites for deriving the most cess,524 and six were devoted to the wrathful practice. Thereby, he
t'
0 accept It. The venerable
Buddhajfianapada
received this injunction' "If
ask the sublime you want to understand reality you must
"Very weII",he thought "b t M -' - .
shan [in China]. I must gO' anJusn resIdes on Mount Wu-t'ai-
He set out in that direction Arou d 'd
he saw Mafijusrlmitra dressed' n mi day, near a white house, his robe as a turban d as . a venerable old householder, wearing
old peasant woman. with the help of a filthy White bitch was sleeping. J napa a was dIstrustful. Nearby, an ugly
, At lunchtime, when Buddh '-- -
caught a fish fro went to ,beg for alms, Mafi-
bItch vomited up the fish gave It to the bitch. The
anJusnmItra offered it to the master
Who, thinking it to b "
e Impure
When the master h d b '
offered, and was aboutat elaten °hI1ed and curd which the woman
. 0eaveseSaId"N h ' .
WIll not reach the v'll G ' ,o w t e sun IS settIng. You
oUseholder said "Th
f'
refused
,
,e
1 eas and conceptions G' h'
rom Jab d - h
m u VIPa as a great many
man
elsewhere. . Ive 1m some good food. " And he went off
'd
1 age. 0 tomorrow. "
496 History: The Rise ofthe Secret Mantra
So he stayed there and read the Guhyasamaja Tantra. Whenever the master hesitated over a doubtful passage, the woman showed her dis- pleasure. Then, realising that she knew the minds of others, he asked her to remove his doubts. "I don't know", she said, "but that venerable householder who just left is very learned in the Guhyasamaja. He will come back late in the afternoon and will put an end to your doubts. "
Sure enough, late that afternoon the venerable householder arrived, staggering under the influence of wine. The master, knowing that he was a mantra adept, prostrated at his feet, and requested him to remove his doubts. "You must receive the empowerment," he answered.
"I have already received it from someone else. "
"But I have to empower you myself, before I can teach you my doctrine. " So saying, Mafijusrlmitra went into another room.
At twilight, when the master was called inside, he saw the venerable householder with the woman and the bitch, all beside an emanation of
525
A'
S - - _ tzyoga) the Great Perfection 497 RI SI1\1HA, ]NANASOTRA AND VIMALAMITRA
[! 30. 5-137. 5] At about the same ti . __
the nineteen-deity maJ}qala of Mafijuvajra. receive empowerment? "
"I will request it from the maJ}qala. "
"From whom will you
The master was contented by this and th "
the supreme fruit more easily I h Id Now, to understand
"Well, take it then! " replied Mafijusrlmitra as he went into another room with the woman and the dog. But the maJ}qala also vanished. Then, in dismay, the master cried out, "Oh! you are the sole father of all sentient beings. . . "
At his distressful prayer, Mafijusrlmitra rematerialised the maJ}qala and empowered him. He gave instructions on the Mental Class of the Great Perfection, whereupon Buddhajfianapada's understanding be- came as vast as the sky. He compiled a on the cultivation of the true nature of the two stages [of creation and perfection] entitled Oral Instructions of Mafijusrf [as a summary of the teaching he received].
Buddhajfianapada plumbed the profound depths of the e11tire doc- trine. It is said that because he was at first distrustful of the food which the bitch had vomited and of the conduct of the venerable householder, he did not attain supreme accomplishment in that body, but realised the level ofVajradhara during the intermediate state [immediately after his death].
A l s o , r e q u e s t e d i n s t r u c t i o n s f r o m m a s t e r B u d d h a - jfianapada and attained accomplishment.
Buddhajfianapada composed a great many treatises, for instance, the Point ofLiberation and the Means for Attainment entitled Samantabhadra (Samantabhadranamasadhana, T 1855). The esoteric instructions of this master on the stage of perfection, that were translated into the Tibetan language in ancient times, are included among the purest tenets of the Mental Class. Therefore, it is implicit that the host of his followers and
disciples belonged to the lineage of the Great Perfection. Some believe, too, that master SrI Sirpha was one and the same as this great master. This seems quite conceivable if one examines the various histories.
Sri Sirrzha
CIty of Shokyam in China th h me [as Buddhamanapada], in the h
and his wife Nan;wa Gewei Yicen (Virtuous- what IS Clearly Manifest) had a son whp ukhyenma (She who Intuits the master SrI Simha a , 0 was to become renowned as
fifteenth year he thpossde. ssor of. the ascetic virtues. From his it eor marySCIences like
or three years under master Haribhala. a ' grammar and logic, great scholar, he set out for the cit o f ' nd had become a the road, the sublime Avalokt ,y SuvarJ}advipa m the west. On
this prophetic declaration. "F 1 tesvara appeared in the sky and made h f . . orunateone'ifyou 11 . h
t e rUIt of enlightenment go t h h · rea y WIS to realise India.
" , 0 t e c arnel ground of SosadvIpa in
of the way of secret mantra "0
shan, he studied all the mountain of Wu-t'ai-
exception, under the outcaste on mantra, without e a IftI, and he thoroughly
a so master the other tantras
498 History: The Rise ofthe Secret Mantra
mastered them. He became ordained and strictly observed the Vinaya vows for thirty years, acting as a monk who was learned in the pi! aka.
Then the sublime Avalokitesvara again encouraged him by repeating his former prophecy. SrI Sirpha thought that he should acquire some miraculous powers, in order to remove the hardships of the journey to India. He practised the means for attainment for three years and attained the body of an awareness-holder. Then, travelling with his feet about one cubit above the earth, he journeyed to the SosadvIpa charnel ground, where he met the great master MafijusrImitra; and propitiated him as his guru. He prayed to be accepted as a disciple. The guru delightedly granted his prayer. After giving instructions and further advice for a period of twenty-five years, the body of the great master MafijusrImitra vanished in a mass of light. At that, SrI Sirpha cried out in distress, whereupon the master's body actually appeared in the sky and dropped into his hand a casket made of precious stones, the size of a fingernail. It contained MafijusrImitra's last testament, which was entitled the Six Experiences ofMeditation (sgom-nyams drug- pa). Thereby, the master SrI Sirpha understood the profound truth.
Later, at Suvan:tadvIpa in West India, master MafijusrImitra reincar- nated. When he had grown up, he became known as the younger MafijusrImitra. He recited all the outer and inner mantra texts to master Padmasambhava. It is also said that the corrupt body ofmaster Aryadeva vanished when he received teaching on the Great Perfection from him.
Afterwards, master SrI Sirpha extracted the tantras which had for- merly been concealed under the Indestructible Seat. He went to China and divided the Esoteric Instructional Class of the Great Perfection into four cycles: outer, inner, secret, and unsurpassedly secret. He collected the first three cycles together for those who required elaboration; and he concealed them as treasures in the balcony ofthe Bodhi Tree Temple. Then, in accordance with a prediction he received from the <;Hikinls, he concealed the unsurpassedly secret cycle in a pillar in the Auspicious Myriad Gate Temple; and he sealed it up with prayers. 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.
