pride | Tibetan Buddhist Altar

Pride: Advice From His Holiness Penor Rinpoche

September 3, 2018 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

It’s important to get rid of all arrogance and become humble, noble, and free of pride about your practice and accomplishments. You might have certain experiences and realizations that you would like to tell others about, but there is nothing special about such experiences, and you should keep them to yourself. One of the four maras is the devaputra mara, the demon of the divine child, which refers to pride and distraction. Whether lamas, monks, nuns, or lay practitioners, we are all deceived by pride and distraction. When good thoughts or signs appear, such as rainbows in the sky or visions of deities, we give rise to pride and attachment about them. We may also have good dreams about seeing deities and going to buddha fields, so we feel very joyful and excited, but when practicing the yidam deity and having good experiences and realization, we shouldn’t get carried away by pride, thinking, “I have such a good practice!” Since we are worldly people, of course we will have such emotions, but if we get attached to these things, we are still bound—but with golden chains. Instead, we should just keep doing our practice and rest within the nature of awareness, without holding on to these experiences. Otherwise, our practice will not improve and we won’t make any progress. Whatever good experience you have, you should develop faith and devotion; then your experience and realization will develop and your good qualities will unfold. The moment you have dualistic concepts of subject and object, that itself is the worst obscuration that blocks good qualities. Whatever thought arises, good or bad, you should be free of doubt and not hold on to it.

Rinpoche, Penor. An Ocean of Blessings: Heart Teachings of Drubwang Penor Rinpoche (pp. 55-56). Shambhala. Kindle Edition.

Pick Your Poison

February 3, 2018 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

An excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo on October 18, 1995

We have made many offerings to the Guru. Mostly what we have offered the Guru are five cups: five cups of poison. We have offered the Guru hatred, because there in the presence of the primordial nature, there in the presence of the display of the Bodhicitta, there in that non-dual pristine purity, we have shamelessly hated, abused, and neglected. We have committed horrible sins against others who are innocent — against motherly sentient beings — not only in this lifetime, but previously as well. And we have done this bold-faced in the presence of that which is so holy as to be indescribable.

We have offered the cup of greed and grasping. Every single day in the presence of our own mind, the face of the Guru, in the great silent sound of primordial emptiness, there in the great quiet light of the display of luminosity, right there in the place of Bodhicitta, from our mouth, we have offered the cup of greed instead of the speech of comfort. This is what we have offered to the Guru. This is the offering that we have made. Without shame we grasp. We are filled with greed. We do nothing but think about me, me, me, and “What I can have?” and “What I can do?” and “How great I am!” and “Don’t you want to give me some more approval?” “Don’t you want to give me some more?” This is what we do in the face of the Guru.

And then the third cup that we offer to the face of the Guru is our ignorance. Not only do we begin with ignorance — which is forgivable, in the sense that we are born; we wake up; at five or six years old we come to consciousness. Later on, we figure out that we’re as dumb as posts. We just don’t know. We are ignorant. We don’t have the teaching yet. But now we have come to the point where we have received the teaching. We have received enough of the teaching where you could say that while we still abide in samsara, we are moving away from ignorance. We are bringing down, or quelling, the poison of ignorance. Yet, in the face of the Guru, in the face of the primordial empty nature that is our nature, in the face of the very display of Bodhicitta, we have willfully remained ignorant. Willfully. We have not accomplished our practice. We have turned away from our practice. We have not tried very hard. We have not listened to the teachings. We have not taken the advice of our Gurus. We continue to listen to the teaching as though it was water rolling off of our back

Imagine that you had one chance to listen to Guru Rinpoche and that was the only contact with Dharma that you were ever going to have in your whole life, and Guru Rinpoche offered to give you the keys to liberation, everything that you need. What would that listening look like? Hopefully, if you are not dumber than a post, you would listen to the Guru as though it were your very breath. You would listen with your whole heart and every word would be like food, like nectar to you. You would take every bit of it home and work with it all the time. If that were the only opportunity you would ever receive and you were receiving these teachings from Guru Rinpoche, maybe you might think like that.

But in the face of our root Guru that’s not what we do. We report dutifully for class and we hear the teachings. I used to walk around and ask students, “What was the teaching about that I taught the other night?” But I stopped that because that used to break my heart, when there was no answer.

We are faulted in the way that we make offerings. We cling to our ignorance. We have heard the method, we have heard the teachings, and yet we do not practice accordingly, to the best of our abilities. And so, we have offered the cup of ignorance to our Guru. And that has been the best that we could do.

The next cup that we have offered to the Guru is jealousy. Bold faced, in the face of our very nature, in the very display of Bodhicitta we have looked at the accomplishments of others, and we have said, I can do that. We have competed and we have been jealous. We have looked to other’s belongings and we have said, “I wish I had that instead of you.” We try to make ourselves feel better, to practice self-aggrandizement, by lifting ourselves up and putting others down. These things we have done in the very face of the Guru who is indistinguishable from us and from our nature, and indistinguishable from the nature of all beings. There is only nature. It is not divided into pigeon holes. Its not like an ice-cube tray where its all divided into sections. So when we look into the face of any other sentient being, any motherly sentient being, and perform our usual ritual of jealousy and competitiveness, then this is the game that we are actually playing with the root Guru. We have, therefore in truth, been jealous and competitive toward the root Guru, because there is no distinction. And if we think that it’s okay to be that way in front of other sentient beings but not okay to be that way in front of the Guru, then we are holding up the cup of ignorance as well. By now we should know better than that. We have been taught more than that. By now we know that all sentient beings have within them the Buddha nature, the Buddha seed, and that is inseparable from the Guru’s nature. So, if we harm, or ignore, or treat badly or abuse others, this is what we have done to the Guru. We have held up the cup of jealousy.

And the last wonderful offering that we have made to the Guru is the cup of pride. In front of the Guru, that nature which is all-pervasive, fundamentally undifferentiated, free of any kind of conjecture, or contrivance, or distinction; in front of that pure display, we have held ourselves up as great, special and superior. We have held ourselves up as that which requires special attention. We have held ourselves up as that which requires approval because we are so wonderful. And we have not been ashamed, in front of the face of the Guru, to indicate that we are superior to others. We have not been ashamed to do that. Strangely, we feel shame and embarrassment at the idea of surrender in devotion, but we have no shame about showing our stinking nasty pride in front of the face of the Guru. That doesn’t bother us at all. Our thinking is completely backwards.

Now, this is not good news. We like hear good inspiring things. We like to be entertained. This is not the kind of thing that we like to hear. But you know, if you really are honest with yourself, if you really examine yourself, you know that what I am saying is true.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

Letting Go of Pride

November 7, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

An excerpt from a teaching called How to Pray by Being by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

In order to really pray we have to let go of our pride, of our clinging to self. We have to let go of our self-importance, of that part that says, “Look at me, I’m praying” or the one that says, “Maybe if I recite mantra, it will go over there to that person.” That’s not awakened; that’s dualistic. So pride is the main obstacle to our true prayer—pride and its twin, doubt.

There is a Christian teaching that explains why. Although I am not a Christian minister, I do very much value the teachings of Jesus and know that he was a great and realized bodhisattva.

Jesus once gave a teaching in which he said, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” What did he mean? In ancient Jerusalem there was one gate that went into the city (it was known as “the eye of a needle”), and that gate was very low and very small. In order for a camel to get through it, it had to get down on its knees and crawl. But a rich person is often too proud to kneel. So that teaching explains that pride is the obstacle. Pride is the enemy.

When we have prideful thoughts, we are clinging to self-nature as being inherently real, and we are always in a state of judgment. If we are high, others are low. So the most important element in learning to pray is to let go of pride—the idea that I am a practitioner, that I am praying, that I am doing some good. Instead of that pride, we need to develop an awareness that everyone is the same in their nature. All of us are expressions of the infinite possibility of the primordial uncontrived wisdom state—like white light going into a crystal and breaking into different colors, into beautiful reflections. Do we cling to the colors and no longer look at the light? Do we only look at the display and not look at the foundation? No. What would be the benefit of that?

So when we get ready to pray, we should do like the camel did in Jerusalem: we should get down on our knees. Our inner posture should be a heartfelt awareness of our interconnectedness. We should pray, “Here are my brothers and sisters, some of them swept off the face of the earth (by a giant wave, an earthquake, a plane crash, an act of war or some other tragedy…). Some of them are hungry. Many of them have died. Many have lost their families and loved ones.” We think with that kind of compassion and consider the situation of other sentient beings rather than just worrying so much about ourselves.

We simply consider their suffering. We keep our ears open to their calls, and we recognize that we are the same as they—not higher, not lower, but the same in our nature. We all have the seed of awakening. There is no difference. The haughtiness that we have, the games that we play, all have to go.

Instead, we adopt a posture of clear hearing. We have to hear the cries of sentient beings and then remember that they are the same as us. We have to think, “I hear you. I am not separate from you.” And we remember the Three Precious Jewels. It could easily be that in our next life, we are in their position and they are in ours.

By untangling our pride, we realize that it is our privilege to benefit them. Pride is like a constricting force around our heart. It keeps us from opening up. It keeps us separate. It keeps us miserable, and it affirms samsara every day. When we are prideful, we are praying for suffering. We are praying to continue in the land of lost ones.

So we are taught to drop that prideful stance and to connect and wire up to the Three Precious Jewels. We take refuge because we realize that in samsara there is only samsara no matter what it looks like or how dynamic it appears. Samsara will dance and seduce. Samsara will say, “Drink me.” Samsara will say, “Eat me.” Samsara will say, “Come and play. Be free.” Samsara is a seductress who will make us suffer even more than we thought possible.

Commitment

July 27, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Love Now, Dzogchen Later”

If you can’t be bothered to join and give some help, some support through having given rise to the bodhicitta, and having habituated oneself towards understanding the nature of samsara, which is also your responsibility, and habituating oneself towards deeply understanding the suffering of all sentient beings, which is also your responsibility, then there’s not much hope for good practice, no matter what practice you do. You can’t get away from it, no matter how wonderful you are. Compassion is in the mix. And there’s not much time. None of us knows how long we will live. It is not appropriate to say I’m going to wait, wait, wait, wait, wait until I get my stuff ironed out, and then, THEN I’ll try the bodhicitta. You’ll never get the chance. Believe me, my friend. I’ve seen it time and time again. You will never have the opportunity.

When you accept the path of the Dharma, and you commit yourself to the idea of liberation, at that point, you have to accept what has actually been taught. You can’t pick and choose what you want. You can’t make up your own little gig and call it Buddhism. Because all of the Buddhist teachings, every one, from the simplest level in the Deer Park when Lord Buddha was actually alive to this very day and whatever terma revelations may even be realized in this time, the heart beat, the essence, the blood and spirit and truth of Dharma is the bodhicitta, the great compassion. That is the way.

If you think you can simply muster up great pride in your accomplishment by keeping your ordinary qualities—pride, self-absorption, slothfulness—and yet somehow do a very high practice, and magically give rise to the perfect awakening, it won’t be so. Time and time again, we have been taught that the way of the Buddha Dharma is the way of the bodhicitta. So it is easy to say, ‘I graduated last year. I’m going to graduate this year, too.’ It is easy to say, ‘Well, I didn’t do this, and I didn’t do this, and I didn’t accomplish a bhum [one hundred thousand repetitions] of this, and I didn’t accomplish a million of that, but I’m practicing Dzogchen.’ That’s very easy to do. But it behooves us to go back and see what we’ve missed.

You are not too advanced to love. You are not too advanced to get off your duff and help somebody. You are not too sanctified to look at other beings on this planet and say, ‘I know that you are wandering in samsara. I know that we are basically human and that we share many of the same sufferings, and I find that unbearable. I wish to help.’ You are not too holy to care that there is war, that there is hunger, that there is suffering. And shame on you if all you do to honor Guru Rinpoche’s teachings is to sit on your little cushion and have it be all. Yeah, you can dedicate your practice. That’s right. You can also help. It wouldn’t kill you. Do you see what I’m saying?

It’s good to go all the way. It’s very good to get these precious inconceivable teachings, but since you are not in that perfect situation where you will be constantly reminded except by maybe me… And how much do you listen to me? Unless you are in that perfect situation, it is up to you to make up the difference. This is the karma of our times. And you find yourself here at 18400 River Road. You can’t skip anything. You should accomplish your Ngӧndro. You should finish it even if you’re working on Togyal. You should accomplish your Ngӧndro. And that means finishing it, not just saying, ‘I did a lot of it so I accomplished it.’ And you should accomplish your Three Roots. And most especially you should give rise to the precious bodhicitta.

Read the lives of the saints. Read what they went through in order to give rise to compassion. And that in any case, in every case, no real progress was ever made unless there was compassion, unless there was bodhicitta.

The Long Life Gods – Is It the Good Life?

June 15, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “The Foundation of Bodhicitta”

Now there is the long life gods realm. It is hard not to pray for rebirth in the long life god realm. First of all, it lasts a very long time, maybe two or three thousand years. Three thousand years of total bliss sounds like a nice vacation to me. That sounds better than three weeks at the beach in the summer, but I can’t figure out where to buy the ticket. There are problems with this realm, actually. There is a suffering to that realm and the suffering of that realm is that it is impermanent. In the realm itself, while it exists, there is no suffering. Water is like the elixir of life; it can cure all ills. Music when heard doesn’t sound like music to us. Music to us is either good or bad; we either like it or don’t like it. It helps, it hurts; it depends on what kind of music it is. If we are in the long life gods realm, one note can cure any ill, can result in bliss. Just one sound, one touch, brings about waves of bliss. I can’t think of a better word. Ecstasy! Everything that happens is ecstasy.

The gods and goddesses are beautiful beyond compare. Take the most gorgeous person you can imagine in the physical realm. Think of the most gorgeous movie star or person that you have ever seen and think that in the god realm they would be dogs. They would look like fish mongers. People in the god realm would look at them and would go yeck, stinko—literally stinko—because in the god realm the fragrance that is given off of the body is like perfume coming from every pore,but sweet perfume. Estee Lauder would be nothing compared to this. It would be the perfume of virtue.

In order to be reborn in this gods realm, you have to have a lot of virtue stored up, but it is a particular kind of virtue. It is the kind of virtue where maybe you help others become rich, or help others to become full of food. You see what I am saying? It is virtue, but it is not associated with philosophical or religious ideals. It is just a different kind of more materialistic virtue. So this kind of virtue can result in this wonderful life in which you are so beautiful you just can’t believe it. There is not a flaw on your body. You never have b.o. Your b.o. will heal all sentient beings if they just catch one whiff of it. I don’t care what beautiful movie star you have imagined to be your person to compare them with, but they have b.o. sometimes. You may not believe this but everybody smells sometimes, but in the long life god realm everybody is perfect.

Everything that you see is color, not like color you see here. It looks very colorful in this room, right? You go outside and you see beautiful greens and you see beautiful blue sky. Color in the long life god realm is so gorgeous, you just look at it and you experience ecstasy. Wouldn’t you like to go there? No, you wouldn’t because the problem is that when you are born in this long life god realm, it takes so much virtue , to be reborn there, accumulated virtue over eons and eons of cyclic existence, that when you are reborn there you begin to use up your virtue like an eight cylinder car going up a mountain. You use it up so fast. Admittedly, it is often a couple of thousand years, but in terms of cyclic existence, which is eons and eons of endless cyclic existence, that is a short time. And also while you are in the long life god realm, to a human it may seem like two thousand years, but to you it might seem like a short life time because there is so much pleasure that one’s whole experience of that pleasure becomes completely expanded. So in the same way a fun day goes by faster than a long and tedious day, it’s kind of like that, but so much greater than that.

So the long life god realm is very difficult in that at the end of that life, what happens to them is they begin to smell funny. That is how the other gods and goddesses know that their time is up. They don’t begin to age as we know aging, because aging is not one of the sufferings of that realm. They begin to lose some of their perfume. It’s not that they smell funny, it’s just that they lose some of their perfume. They have a little less of that gorgeousness, and the other gods and goddesses begin to move away because no one can bear the idea of bliss ending. . They don’t want to think about that. And the god or goddess that is experiencing the end of their time there calls out to them and says, “Please help me. Give me some of your virtue. Help me.” And the others go, “No, I can’t, I can’t deal with the fact that I’m going to lose what I have now, so I’m going to move over here.” What happens at that point is the karma is used up and so the rebirth in the god realm begins to decay and at some point ,because they even have the quality of clairvoyance, they are able to see the realms of cyclic existence and they are able to understand that they just finished up all of their virtue and the only place to go is down, real far down. That is the great and horrible suffering of the god realm.

This suffering is so intense because having used up all of their virtue now they have to begin from scratch. How horrible to think that you had accumulated so much virtue and could have achieved realization, but somehow missed the boat due to the kind of virtue that you have and due to the one quality that does produce rebirth as a long-life god. The one quality that does produce rebirth as a long-life god is pride. Have you seen people with lives like that? Have you seen people who have beautiful families and beautiful homes and beautiful cars, and they are beautiful people. And it seems that everything is easy for them; and they hold themselves with a sense of pride as though they were different from the rest of us peasants. There is a lot of pridefulness about that. I even knew of a person who had a great body and didn’t have to work out; they had a gorgeous wife and didn’t have to be faithful to her in order to keep her; they had so many different things that you just want to say to them, “Why? I work like a dog.” You look at that person and you just want to slap them upside the head because they don’t seem to produce any virtue. They are not virtuous at all. Things just ripened in such a way. They just say, “I can do what I want to because I am not going to catch hell from anybody.” Well, that is the attitude and the mind state that would produce rebirth as a long life god—lots of virtue tied in with that kind of pridefulness.

The Basis of Pride

May 24, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is respectfully quoted from “Naked Awareness” by Karma Chagme with commentary by Gyaltrul Rinpoche:

If you are a genuine practitioner, you are in the process of transmuting your five poisons into the five types of primordial wisdom. Once that transformation is complete, you’ve become a buddha. Upon attaining this, is there anything to be proud of? Having transmuted even the mental affliction of pride into primordial wisdom, there is absolutely no ground for the quality of pride or conceit. If you are not yet a buddha, there is no basis either, and if you are in between, there is no ground for pride. So really there is no ground for arrogance or conceit at any stage where you are a sentient being or a buddha.

Examining Our Aspirations

May 22, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is respectfully quoted from “Naked Awareness” by Karma Chagme with commentary by Gyaltrul Rinpoche:

Even if you have been born as a cakravartin, you still remain in samsára, so you have not been liberated from the cycle of existence. Whether you are a king or queen of the world, whether you are rick or have immense power, you are still within the domain of suffering; you still are not liberated. So why would you aspire to such a state when it’s simply just more of the same–suffering? Moreover, we tend to be proud of our various qualities–wealth, power, intelligence and good looks. What really is the basis for this pride, when conceited and arrogant people remain in the midst of suffering? If these mundane qualities were truly beneficial, we would expect people who have them to become buddhas by now. Instead these people are just coming closer to death.

What is Your Refuge?

June 22, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Antidoting the Mantra of Samsara”

When we practice prostrations we are applying the antidote to pride. Well, you think to yourself, if that’s what we’re doing, I’ll just stop being proud! And how long do you think that’s going to work because you know what you’ve already done? You’ve already said I could figure out how to do this better than the Buddha did! You don’t think there’s a little pride in that? Hm? Hm? I do. There’s pride in that already. Instead of being oriented towards engaging in non-virtuous activity and creating non-virtuous habitual tendency and continuing our delusions, instead we should make prostrations. And how do we make prostrations? We say, “I take refuge in the Buddha, in the Dharma and in the Sangha.” The Three Precious Jewels—the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. Now why is it necessary to do that 100,000 times and to bend our bodies when we do that? Because inside ourselves we are constantly saying “I take refuge in what-I-want, what-I’m-gonna-get, and what-I’ll-have-in-the-future. I take refuge in you-love-me, you-take-care-of-me, you-give-me-stuff.” We are constantly taking refuge in stereo, TV, CD player. We are taking refuge in chocolate. What else? What do you like? Cake? Ice cream! I mean, these are the ways that we think! We don’t realize that, but when you go for something, what do you go for? You go for something else! You don’t go for the Buddha, the Dharma or the Sangha. You go for ice cream! You go for a new car! You go for anything but the Buddha the Dharma and the Sangha!

Paying Homage

September 2, 2015 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

An excerpt from a teaching called The Seven Limb Puja: Viewing the Guru by Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo on October 18, 1995

Since we find that we are, in fact, in the presence of the primordial Guru at every single moment, what is the posture that we should take? You should refer to the practice called the Seven Limb Puja. The Seven Limb Puja appears in many different practices in slightly different variations, but it has certain common denominators, and these should be studied and looked at as a guide of how one should practice now that one is coming to understand that the eyes of the Guru are our eyes; that the heart of the Guru is our heart; that in our nature, that is the nature. That is the nature, and we are indistinguishable in our nature from that.

Practicing in that way we should think like this. First of all, in the face of the Guru, knowing that the face of the Guru is always with us, we should practice paying homage constantly. Constantly paying homage to the Guru, this will antidote our pride, our ego, that habit that says, “Oh, well, look at that! The Guru has faults. He or she must be human.” And, of course, that is the statement that keeps you from practicing pure devotion and pure surrender, and the same statement that prevents you from achieving realization. So this is the antidote that helps you to give rise to that spiritual posture that makes it possible for you recognize the nature of the Guruas the absolute non-dual display of emptiness and luminosity; and to give rise to profound devotion at last, rather than the superficial stuff that we’ve been passing out as devotion.

We practice paying homage. We pay homage to the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas; the Lamas are in that number. The Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are all represented in the Lama. We should think that we pay homage to the Buddhas because they have crossed the ocean of suffering. Therefore, they are capable of captaining us across the ocean of suffering. So we pay homage with that kind of regard, as though we needed to cross an ocean of suffering and the trip is scary and long and hazardous and difficult and so a qualified captain is required. Otherwise, we can’t make it. So that is the kind of recognition of the superior quality of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, of the Lama. Recognize every moment, this is a vajra command, that when we think of ourselves in our samsaric state and then we think of the Guru, we should think that the Guru is like a precious diamond, beyond compare, because the Guru is capable of helping us cross the ocean of suffering. We cannot do that ourselves. That will antidote the kind of pride that we have when we try to put ourselves above everything, in subtle or gross ways, whatever it happens to be.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

Subduing the King with Miracles: From the Lives and Liberation of Princess Mandarava

June 13, 2012 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is respectfully quoted from “The Lives and Liberation of Princess Mandarava” translated by Lama Chonam and Sangye Khandro:

Then, just as teh vajra master was extremely pleased with the progress of the teachings being given to the princess and her retinue, and ominous sign occurred. A very unsavory, antagonistic cowherd caught sight of them while they were in a state of complete joy, receiving teachings from Guru Padmasambhava and celebrating the occasion. While the cowherd was returning home he heard many of the villagers praising Princess Mandarava and her female followers. Then he began gossiping slanderously about what he had witnessed, which of course gave rise to more gossip. The rumor spread, eventually reaching the ears of the outer ministers of the king’s palace. Then it passed to the inner ministers who, in turn, mentioned it to the queen. The youngest queen then went to the king and said, “Your daughter Mandarava is now living with an ordinary laymen with a shaved head.”

Upon hearing this, the king became very angry and scolded the younger queen for her slanderous words: “What you have said is idiotic and crazy. Your mouth is like a storehouse of negativity. A woman like you, who yearns to whisper such deceitful rhetoric, is nothing less than a demoness. My daughter, Princess Mandarava, was ordained in the presence of the great abbot. She had no attachment to any of the kings who came for her hand from every direction. It is impossible that she would care to stay in the company of an ordinary man. This talk is incredible! Even if it were a consideration, it is physically impossible because she lives in the center of a five-winged enclosure with five rings of five hundred attendants residing there. Who could pass by them without being noticed? Even if one of them kept such an intrusion a secret, surely not all of the many attendants would be able to remain silent! I demand to know who started this rumor! See to it that this person is brought to me!”

The queen returned to the seven inner ministers. They went to the outer ministers from whom they had heard the rumor. In vain they sought the source of this vicious slander. The principle ministers then returned to the king, unable to fulfill his wish. The king was furious. He reprimanded them and cautioned them to keep their thoughts silent in the future. Reminding them that many important people had great desire for the princess and that the kings of the surrounding directions would become upset, he them them all behind bars.

Gathering together much wealth, he ordered all the people of the kingdom of Zahor to congregate. Then, in the presence of all the subjects, he made the following announcement: “Kye ho! Inhabitants of the kingdom of Zahor, listen closely! Princess Mandarava has abandoned ordinary life to pursue the path of Dharma. It has been said that she is staying with a young monk. Whoever claims to have witnessed this should come forward, and this bounty of gathered wealth will be his or her reward.” Despite this amazing offer, not a single person came forward to claim the reward. News of this public announcement spread far and wide. The kings of the surrounding countries sent spies to find out if this was true, each inquiring as to the whereabouts of the princess. Unable to discover anything unusual, they eventually returned to their own countries.

Then the wives of the imprisoned men went to the cowherd and offered him a great deal of money to speak up. Offering to tend his herd, they encouraged him to tell the king immediately that he was the one who had seen the young man with the princess. The cowherd set out for town. Along the way, he encountered nine unpleasant signs. Upon arriving in the marketplace, he loudly addressed the townsfolk, “Kye! Listen to me, all you citizens of the kingdom! I am the one who will receive the reward offered by our king! I am the one who saw Mandarava in the company of a young man. You may check and see for yourselves if my words are true or false.” With that, he collected his reward and returned home to his herd.

Hearing the news, the king ordered his ministers to go to Mandarava’s palace and investigate. The queen, however, insisted that she should go instead — and so it was decided. When the queen arrived, she was refused entrance and fainted on the spot. News of this was then taken to the king. Outraged, he ordered that the queen return to him and that they break down the door to Mandarava’s quarters and bring the man in her presence to him immediately.

The ministers complied, yet when they entered the inner chambers, much to their amazement, they saw a magnificent young man seated upon a jeweled throne. His body was the very picture of dignity, blazing with luminous light. Princess Mandarava and her assembly were all seated on the floor before him, their palms pressed together in reverence as they carefully absorbed every word. Unable to accomplish the king’s command, the ministers returned to report what they had seen: “Kye ma! The bhikshu man in the company of the princess and her assembly is not of the ranks of ordinary men! Either he is a son of the god of wealth or the son of the god Brahma, the king of the gods. Otherwise, he must be a buddha who has emanated into the world of human beings. When we saw that he was the spiritual teacher of the princess, we were unable to disturb them. It is important to examine him carefully before reacting. It is possible that if a mistake is made concerning his being, irreversible negative karma may be accrued. Such an accumulation could be difficult to purify or confess.”

Hearing their words, the king was outraged. He jumped up unexpectedly from his throne. “You ministers are willing to break the law that I have enforced! Any ordinary man who would dishonor my daughter like this must be punished accordingly. Seize this lowly vagabond, bind him, and burn him alive in a pyre of tala wood. As for Mandarava, she refused to go into a family of honor according to my wishes, and now she stays with a common vagrant. Throw her into a pit of thorns, where she shall remain for twenty-five human years without seeing the light of day. Place her two main attendants in darkness and the remaining five hundred servants in confinement! Make certain that they never even hear the sound of a male voice.” After this command, the ministers who had been put behind bars were released.

News of all this spread to the bordering countries. They were angry that the king of Zahor had deceived them and began to prepare their armies for battle. Princess Mandarava and her two main attendants were captured and punished according to the king’s command. The princess was so distraught over what the ministers were doing to the precious guru that she shamed them in front of all her servants: “Are you not afraid of such intensely negative karmic accumulations, which cause unlimited rebirths in the lowest hell realms?” But there was nothing that they could do.

Meanwhile, the vajra master displayed his enlightened miraculous pwoers. Numerous deities appeared in space, and rain showers suddenly fell. The pyre became like a lake of sesame oil. In its center bloomed a marvelous, huge lotus flower surrounded by rainbows and lofty, massing clouds. The king, ministers, and all the people in the kingdom could clearly hear auspicious words and songs resounding throughout space. The entire lake and its flower were now surrounded by a ring of fire. Seated on the very center of the lotus was the Vajra Guru Padmasambhava as an eight-year-old-youth, with all the marks of perfection. A normal fire would have burned out in seven days, leaving no trace of smoke. But what a display of fire remained! The air was filled with rainbows, the sound of instruments, and the scent of pure incense.

Everyone then knew beyond a trace of doubt that this young man was indeed a nirmanakaya buddha. The king met with all his ministers. Then he sent the head minister Choden to the scene, where this minister astonishingly beheld the transformed fire and the magnificent lake with its lotus in full bloom. Upon it sat the great vajra master, whose amazing, sublime appearance was like Buddha Amitabha. Surrounding him were five maidens, each as beautiful as Mandarava, holding the five offerings. Imbued with profound faith, the minister ran back to report all of this to the king.

The king went immediately with his entourage to see for himself. Wherever he gazed in the four directions, all he could see was clear light. His astonishment left him speechless. At that moment, the amazing youth, Padmasambhava, spoke to him: “Has the negative king finally come? He who attempts to burn alive the guru who is the nature of the buddhas of the three times? Has the king with tremendous attachment to the deceptions of this world, who imposes laws that are based on meaningless delusion, finally arrived? Has the king with the greatest sense of inflated pride, who wages war on his innocent daughter, finally joined us? The root of the five passions is ignorance. Has the negative king who lacks recognition now and in the future finally come? Has the king with the intention to deceive sentient beings, the king of non-virtue — the evil king and his minister of non-virtue — finally come?”

After the guru had thus spoken, the king was so distraught with remorse that he fell to the ground unconscious. Then, coming to his senses, he lamented: “How could I have thought of accumulating such negative karma as this? Although my daughter has found a living buddha, I perceived with such wrong view! Oh, how could I think to be so negative? Kye ma! Kye hu!” He cried in despair and began pulling his hair out, scratching and marring his face while rolling and thrashing on the ground in an emotional uproar.

The principle ministers were filled with remorse and began proclaiming their deep regret. In their duress, they supplicated their leader, the king: “Listen, great king, lord of men! Although we cautioned you to examine this young man more closely, it was to no avail. Now you must offer confession, offerings, and supplication prayers.” This time, the king took their advice to heart. The people of Zahor were asked to assemble, regardless of race, class, age or creed. Countless in number they arrived to bear witness. The king stood up among them and began offering many full-length prostrations to Guru Padmasambhava. With the sound of strong remorse in his trembling voice, he offered this supplication prayer:

“Kye ma! O buddha of the three times, please listen to me! The remorse I now feel in my heart is unbearable. When I attempt to burn one such as you in the hottest of fires, you transformed the flames into a lake of sesame oil. Then, in the center of this magnificent lake, you appeared in full glory, seated upon the stamen of a lotus flower in full bloom. O faultlessly pure one, master of transformation, I prostrate and render praise to you, the self-originating immortal Padmasambhava! I openly confess with deep remorse and regret any harm I have brought upon your sacred, enlightened body, and I beg your forbearance for my misdeeds! I humbly offer you my kingdom, and I pray you will accept it now. I, King Indra Viharadhara, will remain as your follower, and I pray that you will dispel the ignorance in the minds of beings! Please come now to take your seat in the palace.”

As the king made this offering and request, everyone present could see the gods, nagas, dakinis, emanations of the guru, and the buddhas within the massing clouds and rainbows. Then the lovely sound of a fine vina could be heard, accompanying the verses of praise: “Hrih! Praise to the body of the great Padmasambhava, unattached and untainted by impurity!” Many such verses of praise could be clearly heard. Then everything dissolved into space, and the people of the kingdom were overcome with devotion and faith.

The great vajra master himself spoke again: “E ma ho! O great king and your hosts of subjects, please pay heed! I am the nature of the buddhas of the three times! Unstained by the womb, I have self-originated from a lotus. My background is like the nature of space, unaffected by happiness or displeasure. My body, stainless in nature, cannot be harmed by elements of fire. The workings of positive and negative karmic accumulations do not affect me in the slightest, but sentient beings will surely make mistakes because of confused perception. Your noble qualities, O king, are like the greatest of mountains, Mount Meru. All of this has occurred in order to guide you to the path of the Buddha. O king, do not despair; I accept your offer. Now I shall go to the palace as you have requested.”

The king was overwhelmed with joy. He ordered all the ministers to depart at once for the palace and to bring his newest and finest brocade silk cloak, articles of clothing, and crown. He also ordered that they return with seven of the finest carriages, adorned with various flags and victory banners. They quickly departed to accomplish his wishes. When they returned, a silk brocade throne was prepared on the most splendid carriage, and the vajra master took his seat, surrounded by silken flags and banners of victory and good fortune. The king then offered each of his royal articles of brocade clothing to the master, who carefully put on each one. He also donned the crown and boots of the king. Then the king himself hung the yoke of the carriage around his own neck and, replacing the horses, began pulling the carriage to the palace. This was witnessed by all the people of the kingdom, who surrounded the carriage in a great parade, offering unceasing prostrations and prayers with fervent faith and devotion. Upon arriving at the palace, the great vajra master entered the inner chambers and took his seat upon the throne of seven precious jewels.

Then the king asked that Princess Mandarava be brought to him. When the ministers went to open the pit into which she had been thrown, they told her of the miracles that the great vajra master had performed. Showing her the king’s golden parchment letter requesting her to come to the palace, they begged her over and over to respond. She remained silent.

When the ministers returned without success, the king then told the queen to go and convince Mandarava to come and join them. The queen gathered the silken garments of the princess, hoping that she would wear them and return. When she met her daughter and begged her to reconsider, Mandarava replied: “No matter what happens, I intend to remain here for the duration of twenty-five human years. I shall never disobey the command of my father the king. However, you and my father have only one daughter like me. How could you do what you did to my guru, who is the actual buddha of the three times?” Mandarava then broke down in tears and fell into the arms of her mother. They both wept uncontrollably.

In a short time, all the women in the country of Zahor began to weep, and the king feared that the princess had passed away. He rushed to the pit. To his relief, he found her still alive, and he begged her to return to the palace to see for herself what had transpired. Breaking down in tears, he said, “O daughter, I never intended to create such an obstacles to your Dharma. This father of yours feels deep regret for what he has done. Thinking myself so high, I have now fallen so low. My meaningless behavior has brought you such grief. Please forgive me.” Then he took her hands and kissed her, and her mother caressed her.

As she consented to join them and return to the palace, both the king and queen were crying. Mandarava was reunited with the vajra master, to whom she prostrated as he wiped away her tears. She praised him with this song of heartfelt devotion:

“You, the enlightened one, came to this continent of nonvirtue. Fearlessly powerful, you came with neither expectation nor apprehension. Embodiment of miraculous enlightened activities, may there be the good fortune of the unceasing radiance of your enlightened display! Born from the lotus, your body is a radiant hue of white and red. You are adorned with the sublime marks of excellence, and your thirty-two major marks are resplendent to behold. The noble qualities of the lotus-born buddha of the three times are beyond the limits of the mind. With faith I bow down to you, the embodiment who is one with the buddhas of the three times. As the embodiment of rapture with major and minor marks, your form is as great and perfectly proportioned as Mount Meru. Shaped like the king of all mountains, you have a head round as a vase; your hair is lovely as the blooming udumbara flower. Your nose is perfectly proportioned; your upper and lower lips are like the petals of a lotus flower. Your tongue is long, thick, and red like a lotus. Your array of fifty-eight teeth glow white, like a range of snow mountains. Your face is peaceful. Your neck and chin are endowed with the richness of youth. The sound of your voice is as resplendent as the kalapanga bird. Your black mustache and beard are like the fur of a magnificent black bear. Your coloring is like a white conch shell that has been delicately painted with vermillion. Your perfect neck is shaped like a lovely vase. Praise to your presence! You are like a grand snow lion poised in full glory. Your shoulders are broad and arched in perfect proportion. Your toes and fingers are long and webbed. Your nails are the color of copper-red crystal, your navel attractive, like the stem of the lotus. Your male organ is drawn in and contracted, completely concealed like that of an elephant or horse. Your calves are like the legs of a deer, and your lotus feet are rich and fleshy. You pass through space in the flash of an instant, like a rainbow. Your ever-youthful presence supports limbs that are full and strong. When you smile, you are so attractive that not a fault can be found. Your presence is so pleasing that one cannot gaze upon you enough. your radiance blazes like an orb of light. To touch your skin brings unique vajra-bliss to everyone. You, Padmaasambhava, are the one who displays these marks of sublime excellence. Praise to the body of the buddhas that displays the thirty-two major marks.” Thus she offered prostrations and rendered praise with great devotion.

The vajra master was very pleased, and he offered the princess this response: “E ma! Your present relatives cannot be called loving relatives. The truly loving relative is the precious spiritual guide who leads one upon the true path, revealing the virtuous path and causing one to turn from the harmful path. Your present blood relatives are now objects of compassion and mercy, and ordinary relatives will only encourage you to pursue that which is other than the spiritual path. Count the many examples of this, and you will clearly see that this is indeed the cycle of existence.

“Unable to satisfy their endless needs and desires, beings suffer unceasingly. This is not the meaning of wealth and endowment at all. What you have finally found is the treasure of true wealth. The seven-fold wealth of the aryas is wealth that cannot be found externally. Except for that, all other attempts to acquire and maintain ordinary wealth are the cause of suffering. That which we call wealth is not found in existence or quiescence — it is instead your indwelling precious buddha nature. This is not widely recognized, and not recognizing it causes it to be wasted. Even if it is recognized, it is wasted if it is not sustained. The time has come to understand that negative circumstances can be transformed into spiritual power and attainment, and to make use of this truth. Utilize adversities and obstacles as the path!” Just by hearing these words, Princess Mandarava was naturally liberated.

King Viharadhara then offered to his daughter the flesh of a holy man, a wish-fulfilling jewel, and the wealth of the kingdom without exception. he supplicated the guru to transmit his noble qualities to him until the end of his life. He requested the vajra master to stay in the land of Zahor until all the people were led to fruition. For the next three years the vajra master turned the wheel of the vast ocean of the Buddha’s teachings.

When the kings of all directions heard the news that Mandarava had been offered to the vajra master, they felt deceived and angrily prepared their armies for war, aggressively advancing on the kingdom of Zahor from the four directions. The general Mahabala entered Zahor through a narrow ravine and captured some small villages. The vajra master intervened, using his miraculous powers against the enemies. In particular, he released the mandalas of the eight herukas, turning the aggressors back so that they all returned to their countries.

The vajra master gathered together the three hundred and sixty ministers of the king, the five queens, the five hundred servants of Mandarava, and one hundred and eight monks in his assembly, and turned the Dharma wheel for them. He taught the eight volumes on the sacred utterance and guardians, the five tantras on the condensed utterance of the Great Perfection, four volumes on the Heart Essence doctrine, five other titles, twenty tantras, and forty-two volumes of esoteric instructions.

Each and every one of his disciples was brought to fruition, and twelve becamemahasiddhas. All were established irreversibly on the spiritual path. The doctrine of Avalokiteshvara spread throughout the land of Zahor, and all its inhabitants were brought to fruition. The king eliminated all heretics from the kingdom, and his heir, the Vajra Guru Padmasambhava, took his seat on the throne to govern the entire kingdom thereafter.

Samaya