Dakini Teachings. Padmasambhava Guru Rinpoche
and blessed them to be inseparable from himself. They were given one billion tantras on longevity and accomplished the vidyadhara level of life mastery. Having attained the vajra body beyond birth and death, they went back to teach the kingdom of Sahor. When begging for alms, they were arrested by the king and his ministers and burned alive. The master and his consort inspired faith by displaying the miracle of transforming the pyre into a cool lake, in the center of which they sat on a lotus flower. They caused all the people to embrace Dharma practice and established them in the state beyond falling back into samsara.
Padmakara then returned to convert the people of Uddiyana. While begging for alms, he was recognized and burned in a huge pyre of sandalwood. The master and his consort again appeared unharmed on a lotus flower in the center of a lake, wearing a garland of skulls to symbolize the liberation of all sentient beings from samsara. Because of showing this miracle he was then renowned as Padma Thotreng Tsal (Powerful Lotus of the Garland of Skulls). He remained in Uddiyana for thirteen years as the king’s teacher and established the whole kingdom in Dharma practice. During this time he gave the empowerment and teachings for Kadue Chokyi Gyamtso, the Dharma Ocean Embodying All Teachings, through which the king and queen as well as all the destined ones accomplished the supreme vidyadhara level. He was then known as Padma Raja (Lotus King).
In accordance with a prophecy in the Sutra on Magical Perception, Padmakara transformed himself into the monk Wangpo Dey in order to convert King Ashoka. Having established Ashoka in unshakable faith, during a single night he erected in this world one million stupas containing the relics of the Tathagata. He also subdued several non-Buddhist teachers and was poisoned by one king but remained unharmed. When he then was thrown into the river, he made the river flow upstream and danced about in midair. Through that he became known as Powerful Garuda Youth.
Moreover, Padmakara manifested himself in the form of Acharya Padmavajra, the master who revealed the Hevajra Tantra, as well as the Brahmin Saraha, Dombi Heruka, Virupa, Kalacharya, and many other siddhas. He practiced in the great charnel grounds, where he taught the Secret Mantra to the dakinis. He subdued the outer and inner mundane spirits and named them protectors of the Dharma. At that time he became known as Nyima Oser.
When five hundred non-Buddhist teachers were about to defeat the Dharma in debate at Bodhgaya, Padmakara challenged them and was victorious. Some of the teachers resorted to evil spells, but Padmakara scattered them by means of a wrathful mantra given by the dakini Tamer of Mara. The rest converted to Buddhism, and the banner of the Dharma was raised to the skies. At that time he became known as Senge Dradrok. At this point he had exhausted the three defilements and resided on the vidyadhara level of life mastery, the stage of having fully perfected the supreme path.
Proceeding to the cave of Yanglesho, situated between India and Nepal, he met Shakya Devi, the daughter of a Nepalese king, whom he accepted as his sadhana support and consort. While he was practicing Vishuddha Heruka, three powerful spirits created obstacles, preventing rainfall for three years causing disease and famine. Padmakara sent messengers to India asking his masters for a teaching that could counteract these obstacles. Two men returned loaded with Kilaya scriptures, and the obstacles were spontaneously pacified the very moment the men arrived in Nepal. Padmakara and his consort then attained the supreme siddhi and abided on the vidyadhara level of mahamudra.
Guru Rinpoche perceived that the practice of Vishuddha Heruka brings great accomplishment. But that practice is like a traveling trader who meets with many hindrances, whereas Kilaya is like an indispensable escort. Because of this coincidence Guru Rinpoche composed many sadhanas combining the two herukas. At this place he also bound under oath the sixteen mundane protectors of Vajra Kilaya.
Padmakara visited other ancient kingdoms where he taught the Dharma: Hurmudzu in the vicinity of Uddiyana, Sikojhara, Dharmakosha, Rugma, Tirahuti, Kamarupa, and Kancha, as well as many others. It is not sure when he went to the land of Droding, but the tantric teachings he gave there on Hevajra, Guhyachandra Bindu, Vishuddha, Hayagriva, Kilaya, and Mamo are still continued in the present day.
Padmakara is generally considered to have lived in India for thirty-six hundred years benefiting the teachings and sentient beings. But it seems that learned people accept that to be half-years and simply a generalization.
In order to convert people in Mongolia and China, Padmakara emanated in the form of the King Ngonshe Chen and the yogi Tobden. Moreover, he appeared in the country of Shangshung as the miraculously born child Tavi Hricha, who gave the instructions on the hearing lineage of Dzogchen and led many worthy disciples to the attainment of the rainbow body.
In this way Padmakara’s activity for bringing people to the path of liberation by means of appearing in various places, in various forms, speaking various languages, is indeed beyond measure.
Now I will describe how Padamakara came here to the land of Tibet. When King Trisong Deutsen, himself an emanation of Manjushri, was twenty years of age, he formed a strong aspiration to spread the sacred teachings of the Dharma. He invited Khenpo Bodhisattva2 from India, who taught about dependent origination and the ten virtuous actions. A year later the foundation was laid for a huge temple, but the spirits of Tibet created obstacles and prevented the building. In accordance with the Khenpo’s prediction, the king sent five runners to invite the great master Padmakara to come. Having foreknowledge of this, Padmakara had already gone to Mangyul between Nepal and Tibet. On the way to central Tibet he went via Ngari, Tsang, and Dokham and miraculously visited all of the districts, where he bound under oath the twelve Tenma goddesses, the thirteen Gurlha and twenty-one Genyen, as well as many other powerful spirits.
At the Tamarisk Forest at Red Rock he met the king of Tibet and proceeded to the top of Hepori to bring the gods and demons under his command. He laid the foundation for Samye and saw it through to completion, employing also the gods and demons who had earlier hindered the building. In five years the work was completed for the temple complex of Glorious Samye, the Unchanging and Spontaneously Accomplished Vihara, including the three temples of the queens, which was built to resemble Mount Sumeru surrounded by the four continents, eight subcontinents, sun and moon, and the wall of iron mountains. During the consecration ceremony five wondrous signs occurred.
The king then wished to translate the scriptures and establish the Dharma, so he had many intelligent Tibetan boys study to become translators. Inviting other masters of the Tripitaka from India, he had the Khenpo ordain the first seven monks and gradually establish an ordained sangha. The Khenpo Bodhisattva and Padmakara and the other panditas, together with Vairochana, Kawa Paltseg, and Chog-ro Lui Gyaltsen and the other translators, then rendered into Tibetan all the existent Buddhist scriptures on sutra and tantra as well as most of the treatises explaining them.
Vairochana and Namkhai Nyingpo were sent to India, where Vairochana studied Dzogchen with Shri Singha while Namkhai Nyingpo received the teachings on Vishuddha Heruka from the great master Hungkara. They both attained accomplishment and spread the teachings in Tibet.
King Trisong Deutsen then requested empowerment and instruction from Padmakara. At Chimphu, the hermitage above Samye, the great master disclosed the mandala of eight heruka sadhanas, into which he initiated nine chief disciples, including the king. Each of them was entrusted with a specific transmission, and all nine attained siddhi through practicing the teachings.
Padmakara gave numberless other profound and extraordinary teachings connected with the three inner tantras to many destined students headed by the king and his sons and the twenty-five disciples in Lhodrak, Tidro, and many other places.
Guru Rinpoche remained in Tibet for fifty-five years and six months, forty-eight years while the king was alive and seven years and six months afterward. He arrived when the king was twenty-one (810 C.E.). The king passed away at the age of sixty-nine. Padmakara stayed for a few years after that before leaving for the land of the rakshas.
Padmakara visited in person the twenty snow mountains of Ngari, the twenty-one places of practice in central Tibet and Tsang, the twenty-five places of Dokham, the three hidden valleys, and numerous other places, each of which he blessed to be a sacred place of practice. Knowing that a descendant of the king would later try to destroy Buddhism in Tibet, he gave many predictions for the future. Conferring with the king and the close disciples, Padmakara