Blazing Splendor. Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

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      My grandmother was a very self-assured lady. It was from her that I heard most of the tales that I will tell here. My uncle Samten Gyatso had said several times, “Mother has so many stories to tell.” And she sure did!

      This remarkable lady never forgot anything; she was able to discuss events from long ago as though they had just taken place. People often wondered how such an old lady could be so lucid. She could give a detailed explanation on any topic that piqued my curiosity, and she knew an incredible number of interesting tales.

      I adored spending time with her. I was especially fond of stories about her father, Chokgyur Lingpa, many of which never found their way into his official biography.⁶ She accompanied her father, the tertön, on many of his journeys and saw with her own eyes what happened. She also knew many of his visionary experiences and personally witnessed many of the termas being revealed. With her virtually perfect recall, she could give an impeccable eyewitness account of the whole event. Whenever she told a story, it sounded as if she were still right there.

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       Tibet, a Buddhist Land

      The Buddha’s teachings were transmitted to the people of Tibet with the patronage of an ancient lineage of kings. It is said that a semi-divine being from the Punjabi royal lineage, who had descended to live among human beings, fled north into the Himalayas. Eventually, he emerged from the high mountains and entered the Yarlung region of Tibet. The people of the area believed he was a miraculous being who had fallen from the sky, and they carried him on oxen yokes placed on their shoulders to crown him as their first monarch. For this reason he became known as King Nyatri, the “yoke-throned” king.

      The first Buddhist scriptures miraculously arrived in the Land of Snow after thirty-five generations of these kings had ruled in an unbroken line from father to son. At that time, everyone was illiterate, a fact that filled the reigning king with sorrow. He prayed fervently to end his people’s ignorance. Due to the blessings of the buddhas, three scriptures of the enlightened ones fell from the sky, landing on the roof of his palace. Although no one could read them, the mere presence of these sacred texts transformed the environment so that harvests were plentiful and the evil forces in the country were somewhat pacified. It was as though the dense darkness of night had been broken by dawn’s first glimmer.

      Five generations later, Songtsen Gampo took the throne and invited the first Buddhist teachers to Tibet. Through his enormous merit, he managed to acquire two of the three main statues located in the temple in Bodhgaya, the place of the Buddha’s enlightenment in India. These statues were brought to Tibet as bridal gifts from the two foreign princesses he married. One statue accompanied the daughter of the Chinese emperor, while the second statue was brought by the daughter of the king of Nepal. To continue the analogy, the period of Songtsen Gampo’s reign was like the first sliver of the rising sun illuminating the morning sky. The Dharma was beginning its spread throughout the land.

      After another five generations King Trisong Deutsen made a great vow to fully establish Buddhism throughout Tibet, and this was like the sun finally rising high in the sky. During his reign, he invited 108 great masters to Tibet from their native countries, mainly India. In those days, spiritual guides, teachers, and masters were called panditas, learned scholars. Those who received the teachings and translated them into Tibetan were called lotsawas, translators.

2. Trisong Deutsen—the great Dharma king

      The first important master invited to Tibet during this period was the renowned Khenpo Bodhisattva, also known as Shantarakshita. The king had grand plans to build a group of temples in Central Tibet, the complex that today is known as Samye. But a powerful naga spirit loathed the bodhisattva, saying, “If these Indians start bringing Buddhism here, we will suffer. Let’s all gang up and make trouble.” All the eight classes of spirits agreed to try their best to stop Buddhism from spreading in Tibet by preventing the construction of Samye. Whatever was built during the daytime the gods and demons of the land destroyed that night.

      Now, Shantarakshita was a great bodhisattva with a tremendously loving and peaceful heart. But because of his peaceful nature, he was unable to subjugate the local spirits around Samye. It seemed Shantarakshita was going to fail in his mission so the king became increasingly depressed by the lack of progress.

      “I’m only a bodhisattva,” Shantarakshita told him. “I can’t handle all the powerful spirits of this region. But don’t despair; there is a way. In India lives a being who is exceptional in every way. He was not even born from a human womb; his name is Padmasambhava, the Lotus-Born. Any gods or demons who oppose the true teachings become terror-stricken and powerless simply from hearing his name. Invite him to Tibet, and our problems will end.”

      “How can we invite him?” the king asked.

3. Samye—the castle of the early Dharmas

4. Chimphu—a view from the caves above Samye

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