Seattle Tibetan Buddhist sangha sit, reciting prayers, lead by His Holiness Dagchen Sakya Rinpoche, on pilgrimage, in the shade of the cave under Vulture Peak, Madhya Pradesh, India, 1993, a photo by Wonderlane on Flickr.
Om Svasti Siddham.
This is from the mouth of our guru, the Great Jetsun:
When I was eighteen years old, the sun was at high noon in the firmament when I fell asleep. I dreamt that I had not yet memorized the Enunciation of the Name, but that I had memorized it in a previous lifetime. I got about half way through a recitation of it when I woke from the dream. So I sat there muttering a few of the words.
When I was nineteen years old I was at sKya ba Kha gdangs, which is to the right hand side of the land where the great guru Sakyapa departed into happiness. When the sun was at high noon in the firmament I fell asleep. I dreamt that I recited the Enunciation of the Name one time.
When I was twenty years old I was squatting by the warm waters of the Tsangpo River when the sun was at high noon in the firmament. I fell asleep as I sat there. In my dream I was at Bhalendra in the Eastern part of India. To its South there was a giant mountain with forest groves. There was a small butte that had a forest grove on it. There was a monastery there. I was an old man who was a Pandita Upasaka, an adept of Mantra.
To the North of that place there was a large country at the Northern borders of which a king had built a house for the gods. I had been asked to consecrate it. I said: “I am an old man. I can’t do it.” My name was Mukha Ananta Athi, and it was written above the door [of the temple], so I set out to go there to perform the consecration, but it turned out that something was protecting the obstacles that were in my way. I told them: “In the future you must invite my student, a great Pandita, to do the rituals of consecration in full.” Then, being a very old man, I died.
Then I lived as a revered Pandita who was very old on the North side of Vulture Peak Mountain. I died.
There was a huge bolder mountain on the Northern border of the land of Odyana. A monastery was on it. Just below, there was a House of the Gods. I lived there as a revered Pandita who was very old. I managed the retinue who lived there. Then I passed away.
To the North of the upper valley in the Tibetan land of gCung I was in a wind storm that felt like ten million arrows. I climbed up from the East into a stone citadel and looked out, facing the North. Then I climbed up a stone stairway, and there was a monastery. To the South of it there was a fire alter. There was a house of worship to the North. It had a golden stupa. My bed was right in-between the upper courtyard and the lower courtyard. My pillow was turned to the East. There was an old man, a Mantra adept, there who taught me many things about Enunciating the Name.
In those days Lachen lived as a student. He worked so that he could see what was in the commentaries on The Enunciation of the Name and look into the functions of the mantras. In his head he had put together all the functions of The Enunciation of the Name, which are difficult to get hold of, along with the reasons [that they work].
I have his writings. They teach the transmission of results that are difficult to attain, the transmission of the cause that is its own cause, and the transmission of the methods by which to practice. They are the teachings on the cause, methods, and results of The Enunciation of the Name. They are presently held in this monastery. I recall that there is a manuscript written in cursive letters from vermilion ink. I think it was placed inside the corpse of the old man when he died.
The dream gave me a general remembrance of seven of my lifetimes. The Khampa sBal ston was sitting nearby, and he heard me saying these things. When I woke from my dreams sBal ston said “You were saying such things!” I said “The original manuscript has been messed up, but there is a copy of it. It is not written in verses.”
My younger brother was a grand lama named sNag ston lcu gu. He put on a magnificent Thousand Sessions devoted to logic and the Middle Way. I was one of the adepts of Mantra who was listening there. When I left, the wife of Apo Darma said “Get the manuscript and bring it to Sakya.”
When I was thirty seven years old I fell asleep at day-break, about the time Lopon Rinpoche left his body behind. Shortly thereafter a voice emerged from out of his bodily remains. It sounded like it was saying words of great portent. From out of the space before me the voice echoed forth: “When you leave this place, go to the many kingdoms that are in the North. In the kingdom of this world called Golden Hue there is a Tathagata named King of Playful Golden Light. He is teaching over there. You will become a Universal Monarch named “Endless Wonder, the child of a Universal Monarch named Endless Merit.”
When I was forty nine years old a dream came to me early in the morning when I was in my hermitage. There was a spur on a giant mountain with a large home on it. Under that home there were many people screaming out “Kucho” and “Zilong” with worn out voices, voices of lament, tortured voices. There were a lot of people in the home above them. I was myself, the Jetsun, sitting in their midst. Lachen wanted to go somewhere else. He said “I will show you a map of the road.” Then he started granting the four empowerments. He melted into Lopon Rinpoche while he continued the teachings on the four empowerments. Then he transferred himself into me. It no longer seemed that we were two people. Then I was the Lord. I said to the people there: “You who would reach the other shore of this world’s ocean, come along as my companions! I have the directions for the road!”
Suddenly I was on an outcropping on the mountain’s western face. The people stood up and said “I am going with him!” Most of them went on up to where I, the Jetsun, was. Several were left behind. Just standing up had worn them out.
There was a broad pathway. Beneath it there was a giant chasm. I looked up toward [the mountain’s] northern face. I climbed a stone stairway and said “Come up here!” About a hundred of them hiked on up. There were a few, Gung ston nyeg po among them, who said “Let’s cut across to the West, and go to Gungthang!” They left.
Many people said “We have not found freedom.” They quit right there. Among them there was a guy named Mahamudra who said “I will tumble with the landslide!” I asked him: “Are you dead?” He said “I’m just barely alive.”
Then I told them: “All of you stay right behind me. I’ll lead you up,” and started giving them the four empowerments.
Both master and servants came out on the mountain’s northern face. There was a jagged summit there. To the east there was an isolated mountain steppe. There were two paths on it. Lachen had said “The road to the north is where the Bodhisattva gave himself to the tigress. The road to the East is where supplicants give up their siddhis.” I said “If any of you want to take the northern path, go for it! There is no freedom to be found that way, so I’m taking the road to the East. If any of you want to come along, let’s go!”
Those who didn’t take the road of the Bodhisattva and the tigress came to a crossroad. I, the Jetsun, had climbed up a stone stairway and said “Come up here!” About thirty five or six joined me. About thirty of them were just about to reach freedom when we got to the crossroads. I said “Come up after me!” I had no belt or lower garment. I was dressed in a shirt and a long thin shawl. rGa ston rDo rje grags pa recognized me. There were only four others who did. They got to where I was, threw off their clothes, put on cotton, and then sat down. We thought “The top of this flat cliff would be a delightful place to settle down.”
I was moving to the flat cliff when I woke up from the dream.
Thinking about what all this means:
I get that the place under the house is the ocean of worldly life. I think that those who live up above are the general community of my retinue. I think that the ones who got up and sat down again are the ones who are there just to get the empowerments. The ones who left for Gungthang are the ones who won’t even slightly escape from Samsara. I think the guy who jumped into the landslide was someone who got angry at me and broke his samaya. When he said “I’m not dead” it means that he will heal his samaya when he is near his death and he won’t go down into a horrible rebirth. The ones who were still on the road will be the ones who put a little effort into finding the path. I think the seventy who were still there at the fork in the road will persevere somewhat in their understandings. The thirty who almost found freedom will be the ones who gain great realizations without working on it before hand. The ones who arrived as my companions will be the ones who attain that patience described in the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras. I figure that I did not sacrifice my body to some kind of tigress means that I will not have a student that reaches the highest attainment, but I will have five or six who attain the patience of a supplicant. I am just like them.”
That is what he said.
When I was sixty one years old I was living in Mang mkhar slang ra for the winter. I had a dream at dawn. In it, an umbrella was draped across the sky. There was a ladder sticking up out of the ground where I was sitting. I think it was a Dakini who said: “Climb this ladder!”
I came out on top, and she invited me to play in the sky. When I got to the place of our rendezvous she said: “The music has lyrics. If you listen you will hear the voices in the music. They are there.”
I didn’t care very much about playing in the sky. She said: “There is something more to this that is very important. Stay here!”
Outside there was a meadow, and on it there was a giant wheel with golden coils wrapped all around it. She said: “There is a soft throne on top of it. Sit there!”
I climbed onto the seat, and said “I’m going to play in the sky!”
She said: “There is something more to this that is very important. Sit right here.”
Then I woke up.
Generally, when our lord had dreams he met with his gurus. They dispelled his many doubts.
Now when I was sixty seven year sold, in the month of the Staff, the last month of autumn, at dawn on the morning after the sixth day I had a dream. I met Lachen and questioned him. He dispelled a number of my doubts about the path.
My guru said: “Which do you think is better: The Enjoyment Body or the Manifest Body?” I replied: “Generally speaking, King Pashupati appears primarily in his Manifest Body so that he can do things to help others, but Buddhas are essentially the same, so their manifestations are not better or worse. When I look at it terms of better and worse, the Manifest actually gets things done. Still, Manifestations are made, but the Enjoyment Body is good by itself, isn’t it?
He said: “What a kid! You’ve got it!”
Then at my guru’s right I saw the Hevajra mandala of nine deities. They were made of clouds and mist and rainbow light. The lama said: “You are the candidate.” I replied: “I am nearly seventy years old. I will be over eighty when it’s time for me to be master. It’s too late for me to do anything to help others, but I haven’t died yet. It may not be too late. Still, I’m not planning on being a master over students.”
Then to the lama’s left I saw the Manifest Body of Shakyamuni surrounded by Shariputra, Maugalyayana, Ananda, and five more Shravakas, including the omniscient Koond.inya. They seemed like clouds in a sky made of rainbow colors. My guru said: “If you’re going to take vows you can take them right here. If you’re not, you can still use this as a model. The Manifest Body [of Shakyamuni] and the eight faced Hevajra are essentially the same. The eight Shravakas and the eight goddesses are essentially the same. The nun, Yashodhara, the king, and Rahula are in fact the woman who plays in the sky. So you can take your vows from the mandala of nine deities anyway.” I replied: “That’s that!”
My guru said: “O Na, whose face would you rather see: your guru or the Buddha? It would be nice if you could really see that all the Buddhas of the three times are essentially your guru, but you don’t have the good fortune to see that face right now.” He said this while he was sitting right there. I thought to myself: “Is he saying that I won’t be so fortunate as to meet him face to face?”
Then my guru said: “The two of us are no different on the inside. Don’t you know how to do the job of being a candidate as well as the job of being the master?
“I do,” I replied.
He said: “O Na, when you are doing the job of being the candidate, who do you want to be the master? When you ask for empowerments, who will you get them from?”
I thought about it and replied: “If I am the candidate, you, Lachen, will be my master as well as the person I request empowerment from.”
He said: “That‘s how it is.”
I was thinking about the eight Bodhisattva Heart Children that were surrounding Lachen when I noticed that the nine deities of the Enjoyment Body and the nine deities of the Manifest Body that were to his right and left were melting into my guru. My guru had rid me of so many excessive concerns I had made up about the Dharma. He said: “Child of Noble Lineage, the truth about everything there is is just like this:” Then he disappeared.
I awoke from my dream.
He met with Lopon Rinpoche and discussed the Dharma on numerous occasions. He called it dreaming.
The Great Jetsun’s Dreams have been written down.
WORDS OF THE SAKYA MASTERS
Translation from the Tibetan by Chris Wilkinson
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