Blazing Splendor. Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

Чтение книги онлайн.

5. Padmasambhava—the Lotus-Born master

      Padmasambhava possessed tremendous power, enough to subjugate all evil forces. Being the single embodiment of the activity of the buddhas, he was able to convert disciples in the dark country of Tibet as well as subjugate all the hostile forces. Because of his mystical proficiency, the temple complex of Samye was finally erected.

      Other legendary masters who helped establish the Dharma in Tibet included Vimalamitra, who was said to have attained the extraordinary “vajra body of great transformation,” beyond the reach of birth and death. There was the Tibetan translator Vairotsana, himself an emanation of a buddha. All together, 108 panditas arrived in Tibet.⁸

      A great number of Tibetans were educated as translators during this period, so that the entire body of the Buddhist teachings, including numerous sadhana practices detailing entire spiritual paths, were translated into Tibetan and accurately codified.

      During the reign of Trisong Deutsen, auspicious conditions occurred in Tibet. The king himself was an emanation of the great bodhisattva Manjushri, and some of his ministers were said to be divine emanations, as were the masters and panditas invited to Tibet and even the translators of that time. Due to these incredibly positive circumstances, the king was able to fulfill his vow of establishing Buddhism in Tibet.

      The teachings from that remarkable period are now known as the Nyingma, or the Old School of the Early Translations, as opposed to the teachings imported from India during subsequent centuries, which are called the Sarma, or the New Schools of the Later Translations.

      But all did not go smoothly. A while after King Trisong Deutsen’s death, there was a period of religious persecution, in which the evil oppressor Langdarma, who had become king, almost succeeded in eradicating Buddhism. But a subsequent revival saw the beginning of the Sarma schools, introduced chiefly by the great translators Rinchen Zangpo and Marpa. These two—and many other great teachers—journeyed all the way to India, received instructions from the Buddhist masters there, and brought them back to Tibet. One of the kings of this early period, a great religious ruler named Ralpachen, a grandson of Trisong Deutsen, also invited many masters to Tibet.

      Now, at that time there were two Sanghas, consisting of the congregation of ordained monks, recognized by their shaven heads and Dharma robes, and the congregation of ngakpas, tantric practitioners distinguished by their long braided hair, white skirts and striped shawls. As a sign of his deep appreciation for these two congregations, the king would spread his two very long braids out upon the ground, and allow the revered practitioners to tread on and sit upon his own hair. He would even take pebbles from under their feet and place them on the crown of his head to show respect. The royal patronage, in conjunction with the king’s great reverence for the teachings, created the circumstances for Buddhism to firmly take root and flourish in Tibet.

      Finally, the Dharma was fully established throughout the country. Over the centuries, through the support of such devoted kings and the efforts of all these masters and translators, eight distinct lineages of teachings translated from their sources in India came to flourish in Tibet.⁹ These eight schools are all, without a single exception, the teachings of the Buddha. Each taught without any conflict both the Sutra system, which includes Hinayana and Mahayana, and the system of Tantra which is Vajrayana.¹⁰

      During these two periods of the first flourishing of Dharma in Tibet, masters and disciples—and even the disciples’ disciples—attained a profound level of realization. Some displayed extraordinary signs of their accomplishment, such as soaring like flocks of birds through the sky. Wherever they took flight and wherever they landed, they left footprints in solid rock. This is not just a legend from the past; these imprints are visible even today, so you can go and look for yourself.

      Such was the country where I was born.

3

       Gampopa and the Early Barom Masters

      As I mentioned, according to the Tibetan tradition of storytelling, a person should not simply appear out of nowhere. The tale should begin with the person’s origins. We describe origins in two ways: family tree and spiritual lineage. So I will begin in the proper way, by telling you a bit about my family, who were often known by the lofty—and somewhat exaggerated—title “divine bloodline of Tsangsar.” Our clan was for many centuries the rulers of two kingdoms: Tsangsar and Nangchen. According to oral history, our bloodline traces back to India. The story goes that a celestial being from the Brahma realm descended to earth to produce a child with a tigress in the Forest of Black Sandalwood in northern India.¹¹

      These are unusual ancestors, but we are not unique in this: tradition holds that the first person in the Drigung family line was fathered by a god, while the mother was a goat. The goat gave birth to a boy and his divine father then returned from the heavens to collect his child. But as he picked up the boy, the goat mother, heartbroken at losing her child, let out a “Baaahhhhh!” and out of compassion the god let her keep the child.

6. Vajradhara—the dharmakaya buddha

      My ancestors are deeply connected to a spiritual lineage called Barom, one of the early Kagyu schools.¹² The word Kagyu means the teachings (ka) that are transmitted (gyu) in an unbroken lineage from the very beginning until today. It is said that this spiritual lineage traces a continuous line back to the celestial buddha Vajradhara, whose teachings passed through the Indian masters Tilopa and Naropa and then to their Tibetan successors Marpa and Milarepa. The famous yogi Milarepa had many disciples, but there is one who rose to the fore; today we know him as Gampopa, “the man from Gampo,” the root of our Barom tradition.

      Before he met Milarepa, Gampopa had studied and practiced the Buddha’s teachings for quite a while and had reached proficiency in the meditative state of samadhi. One day, a beggar happened by and began talking about Milarepa, a great guru, right outside Gampopa’s window. The moment Gampopa heard Milarepa’s name, he was overcome with emotion and called the beggar inside.

7. Gampopa—the forefather of the Kagyu masters

      “Where does this Milarepa live?” he asked.

      The beggar told the master’s life story: how he had been wronged as a child by his own relatives and suffered, how he mastered black magic and used it to take revenge, then how he had a change of heart, became a renunciate, and was now an amazing master yogi. The beggar ended by saying, “Right now he lives in the province of Ngari. I am one of his disciples.”

      “Could I meet him?” asked Gampopa.

      “Of course,” replied the beggar.

СКАЧАТЬ