Padmasambhava: The Teacher for Our Time
BY ALEXANDER DUNCAN
PRESENTED TO THE MEMBERS OF THE BUDDHA CENTER ON SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2020 All dates refer to the Common Era, unless indicated otherwise.
Padmasambhava was a born Buddhist mystic who flourished in the 8th century. He was probably born about 732, though estimates differ. Although his hagiography is couched in symbolic allusions, he is referred to The Testament of Ba, which may be dated as early as the ninth century. It seems likely, therefore, that underneath the mythology there is a core of real historical fact, and many scholars recognize Padmasambhava as a historical person. His name means “lotus born.” He is also known as Guru Rinpoche (“Precious Teacher”). Padmasambhava introduced Buddhist Tantra to Tibet and is credited with the conversion of the Tibetan people to Buddhism. He also participated in the construction of Samye, the first Tibetan Buddhist monastery, between 787 and 791, along with Santaraksita (725-788). It appears that he was a waterworks expert, as he is reputed to have diverted streams and rivers for irrigation purposes. Statues and paintings of Padmasambhava may be recognized by his piercing gaze, facial hair, and child-like appearance, as well as a skull cup full of ambrosia that he holds in his left hand. This “ambrosia” is soma, the famous nectar of the rishis, widely regarded as an entheogen or psychedelic drug.[1]
According to tradition he originated in Oddiyana, a country conventionally identified with the Swat Valley, in Pakistan,[2] which was famous for its magicians. Perhaps these were the same magicians “from the east” who travelled west in pursuit of the star of Christ? Sixth century Chinese texts refer to missions from the Kingdom of Oddiyana to the Chinese court. Padmasambhava was a member of the Yogacara sect, which holds that “only consciousness” exists, the essential nature of which is “suchness” or emptiness. Padmasambhava attained enlightenment near Kathmandu, Nepal, after which he taught at Nalanda University in India, at a site visited by the Buddha. Padmasambhava is regarded as the teacher of the millennium of degeneration (末法), which began about the year 1000.[3]
King Trisongdetsen (r. 755-797) invited Padmasambhava to Tibet about 787, at the suggestion of Santaraksita, the abbot of Nalanda University. Indigenous shamanistic forces were said to be opposing the establishment of Buddhism in Tibet, which Padmasambhava overcame by occult means. The Nyingma, founded by Padmasambhava, is the second largest Buddhist sect in Tibet, and practises Tantric ritual, worship, and yoga, based in part on a series of inspired texts, called termas or “treasure texts.” Termas are a fourth category of revelatory text, along with sutta, sutra, and tantra. The famous Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bardo Thodol, 14th cent.) is one such terma. These were attributed to Padmasambhava and his immediate disciples. “Terma discoverers” are known as tertons. The first terton was Sangyé Lama (1000-1080).[4]
Tibetans believe that Padmasambhava, like Siddhartha Gautama (c 480-c 400 BCE), was a fully enlightened master, whose coming was predicted by nineteen different sutras and tantras, especially the Mahaparinirvana Sutra (100-220):
Impermanence is the nature of all created phenomena. Death being inevitable, the time for my passing into Nirvana has arrived. Of this you should not grieve. Twelve [hundred] years after my passing, there shall come forth a man, the Lake-born Lotus, from north-west Uddiyana, who shall be yet wiser and more powerful than myself. It shall be he who will promulgate the way of Secret Mantra.
Interestingly, Padmasambhava left Tibet about 804. 804 – 1200 = 397 BCE, a date which is only now becoming accepted by scholars as the historical date of the Buddha’s parinirvana,[5] and is also confirmed by the Lotus Sutra, and 804 + 1200 = 2004; thus, the midpoint of the Buddhist era of 5000 years is 2104. This period, the period of the 21st century of the common calendar, centred on 2059, is surely an extraordinary period of human history, characterized by climate change and scientific and technological transformation, and is also a time of Buddhist renewal corresponding to the Dharma Transmission to the West, when all Buddhist traditions will be unified in the ekayana prior to the manifestation of Shambhala some 365 years hence.
Padmasambhava is regarded as an emanation of the wisdom of the Buddha, who continues to emanate enlightened beings out of compassion for the world from his discarnate state. The highest Buddhist teaching is Dzogchen (aka Atiyoga), which was transmitted to Padmasambhava by the yogi Garab Dorje and thus transmitted to future generations through his disciples, including the yogini Yeshe Tsogyal (757-817), his consort or Shakti, who also became his spiritual heir. The termas constitute the sacred literature of Dzogchen. The essential teachings of Dzogchen are the transcendence of duality and the realization of the infinite potential of human consciousness. Padmasambhava is also believed to have attained the Rainbow body, sometimes referred to as the Body of Light, the “glorified body” of Paul.[6] Through devotion to Padmasambhava and understanding the totality of the universal flux as his display, one can remove negative obscurations, increase intelligence, develop profound knowledge, free oneself from egoistic and negative emotions, deepen spiritual growth, awaken using self-discipline and renunciation, subdue negative influences, and dispel mental and emotional obstacles. By these means, one achieves long life, good health, peace, happiness, and ultimately enlightenment.
Padmasambhava, like all Buddhas, is beyond good and evil. A story to illustrate this point is that Padmasambhava is said to have dropped, apparently intentionally, a trident on the son of a harmful minister at the age of 13. The child was on the point of dying and being reborn in the lower realms. Thus, the child was liberated and reborn in a Buddha realm. Historically true or not, this story illustrates the principle that good and evil are just another form of duality. They too must be transcended. Laozi makes exactly the same point in the Tao Te Ching.[7] The true sage has a “crazy wisdom” or morally ambiguous aspect. [8] After this, Padmasambhava was banished from Oddiyana and spent many years meditating and practising yoga in the cemeteries of northern India where he received many blessings and spiritual empowerments, as well as Bodhgaya, where the Buddha was enlightened.
Padmasambhava himself appears to have written a number of instructions with his Tibetan editor, including a commentary on a Mahayoga Tantra known as the Noose of Methods (possibly the Tantra itself), the Garland of Views, the Vajravidharana-dharani, and others. Based on these texts, Padmasambhava seems to have been interested in the Mahayoga class of Tantra, in which the universe is visualized as the play of the divine, especially the deity Vajrakila, a divine thought-form that clears obstacles and obscurations and embodies the activities of Buddha mind.
Renowned Buddhist scholar Dr. Herbert Guenther has written his own commentary on a number of old termas that he attributes to Padmasambhava, entitled The Teachings of Padmasambhava (1996). This is the only explanation of the original teachings of Padmasambhava that I know of in English.
According to Guenther, Padmasambhava was probably a refugee from the Arab incursions throughout the Middle East. After establishing a reputation as a religious scholar and adept, he became embroiled in the anti-foreign hysteria that resulted from the Samye Debate (aka Great Debate) of 792-794, and was forced to leave the country under ambiguous circumstances, whence he travelled to the southwest. Tradition says that as he crossed the border he turned towards Tibet and prophesied that great troubles would afflict Tibet in the future because he was unable to complete his work there. It is to be noted in the context of the current troubles that the anti-foreign hysteria focused on Chan Buddhism, including the expulsion of the Chinese from Tibet. Karma is ubiquitous and indefatigable.
