The Three Ancestral Kings

 

 

KING SONGTSEN GAMPO

 

 There is a prophecy in the Root Tantra of Manjusri:

 

In the place called the divine land,

Surrounded by snowy mountains,

A king called “God among Men” will be born

Into the Licchavi race

 

The fifth hereditary monarch after Lha Thotori was the religious king Songtsen Gampo, an emanation of Avalokitesvara in the form of a mighty lord of men, who began to rule the kingdom at the age of thirteen. When he was fifteen the emanational monk  A-kar Matisila brought him a self-created image of the Sublime One, Avalokitesvara. Then, the king commanded the religious minister Gar, an emanation of Vajrapani, to invite the Nepalese princess Trhitsun, an emanation of Bhrkuti, and the Chinese princess Wen-ch’eng K’ong-jo, an emanation of Tãrã, both of whom were agreeable to the people, to be his two consorts.  This he did in order to introduce two images of the Teacher, representative of the Buddha himself, which were, respectively, the size of an eight-year-old, and that of a twelve-year-old. The princesses came to be known as the two “Lotuses of the Lake”.

 

While the Trhulnang Temple, the Jokhang, the "Cathedral of Lhasa" was being constructed the building-work was disrupted by non-human beings. Therefore, the king and his two consorts went into retreat in the palace known as Maru, at Nyangdren Phabongkha in the valley of the Kyicu. They attained accomplishment by propitiating their meditative deity, on whose advice the king built the Border Tam­ing, Further Taming, and District Controlling temples, which were situated on geomantic sites on the body of the supine ogress, i.e. Tibet, and so it was that he exorcised the malignant earth spirits. He then erected the Truhlnang and Ramoche temples and the images they housed.

 

Songtsen Gampo invited the master Kusara and the brahman Sañkara from India,  the master Silamanju from Nepal, and the master Ho­shang Mo-ho-yen from China. With others, they translated many sec­tions of the Tripitaka and of the tantras, and thus introduced the teach­ing to Tibet. Though no actual teaching or study took place, the king himself secretly gave instruction on the peaceful and wrathful forms of the Great Compassionate One to many fortunate beings, who then practiced these teachings. No one was ordained as a monk prior to the “seven men who were tested”, but it is said that there were always about a hundred long-haired yogins engaged in the practices of the Great Compassionate One at Nyangdren Phawongkha. At that time the scriptures which formed the king’s testament were collected and hidden in three separate treasures. Later, these treasures were revealed by the accomplished master Ngodrup, Lord Nyang, and the teacher Säkya-ö. Today they are renowned as the Collected Works of the King concerning the Mantra “Oni Mami Padme Hum” (mani bka’-’bum), the first Tibetan doctrinal work.

 

The king also sent Thonmi Sambhota, an emanation of Manjughosa, to India to study grammar and writing. On the basis of the Indian scripts he created the forms of the Tibetan letters, and he composed eight treatises on Tibetan grammar. Before Songtsen Gampo’s time there had been no proponents in the Land of Snows of a code of conduct in accord with the doctrine, but thereafter the great door of the true doctrine and of theories in accord with the doctrine was opened for the first time. Thus, the king innovated the just spiritual and temporal laws, as illustrated by the ten divine virtues and the sixteen pure human laws. In these ways, King Songtsen Gampo blessed the country of Tibet to become a prosperous and luxurious source of the true doctrine.

 

 

KING TRHISONG DETSEN AND THE COMING OF PADMASAMBHAVA

 

 

 In the fifth reign after Songtsen Gampo, King Trhisong Detsen, an emanation of Manjugosa, appeared. His royal ancestor had inscribed a prophecy on a copper plate, to the effect that,”Five Reigns from now, in the time of my descendant, King De, the true doctrine will be propagated.” He had concealed the copper plate in a confined place.

 

Just so, when Trhisong Detsen was thirteen he began to govern the kingdom. At twenty he made a solemn resolution to propagate the true doctrine and he invited to Tibet the Bodhisattva, Santaraksita, the preceptor from Sahor. The latter granted the eight vows to some, but when he taught the doctrines of the ten virtues and of the eighteen psychophysical bases, the savage demons and deities of Tibet became angry. Lightning struck Marpori ‘the “Red Mountain”, site of the present Potala Palace and the palace at Phangtang was swept away by a flood. The harvest was destroyed and great calamities befell the coun­try. Evil ministers said, “This is due to the practice of the dharma. The master should be banished to his own country.”

 

The king offered much gold to the preceptor and told him of the situation. Sãntaraksita replied, “The spirits of Tibet are displeased. I will go to Nepal for the time being. In order to subdue the savage spirits and demons of Tibet, there is a mantra adept called Padmasam­bhava, who is, at present, the most powerful in the world. I will send him an invitation, and Your Majesty should do the same.” So they sent messengers consecutively.

 

Master Padmasambhava, however, already knew that the delegation, which included Nanam Dorje Düjom, was speeding on its way. In an instant he traveled to Kungtang, in Mangyul, where he met the group. He scattered their offering of gold in the direction of Ngari and said, “Everything I perceive is gold.” In this way he turned Tibet into an abundant gold-producing land.

 

Then the Bodhisattva, Säntaraksita, set out for Tibet in advance, along with a skilled Nepali stonemason. Master Padmasambhava ad­vanced from Kyirong, whereupon the gods and demons of Tibet launched a raging storm of snow and rain, which blocked the mountain passes. The master retired to a mountain cave, imprisoned the gods and demons by the power of his contemplation, and bound them under an oath of allegiance. From that time on, by his miraculous powers, he gradually covered the whole of Tibet on foot, from Ngari, Central Tibet, and Tsang , to Dokam, Kham and Amdo in the east. He bound all the powerful spirits under oath, among whom the foremost were the twelve goddesses of the earth,(Tsen-ma), the thirteen hunting gods, and the twenty-one genyen; and he assumed control of their vital heart-mantras.

 

In the tamarisk forest of Trakmar he met the sovereign. While con­secrating the Drinzang Temple at Trakmar, he invited the images of the deities to a place of feasting. That night the temple was empty. The next morning the deities were actually seen eating the offerings and conversing in the temple. That day all the musical instruments of worship played by themselves and made a great din. At the same time the oracular mirror was brought before some sensitive children who indicated the names, conduct, and residences of all the malignant gods and nagas, who had formerly opposed the teaching of the dharma in Tibet by the preceptor, Bodhisattva. With threats of intimidation the master bound those spirits under an oath of allegiance and secured them in the doctrine. He procured their vital heart-mantras, and the rituals for the propitiation of each of them; and he subdued those who still remained unconverted with burnt offerings, and so forth. Pad­masambhava did this two times.

 

After he had subdued such nagas as Zicen of Lake Manasarovar, Padmasambhava cultivated the king’s friendship. He was offered four­teen mule-loads of powdered gold to erect a temple. The Bodhisattva inspected the land while the great master Padmasambhava went to Hepori a mountain near Samye, where he overpowered all the local gods and demons. In a glorious voice he ordered them to sublimate their pride, and, by performing a dance of indestructible reality in the sky, he blessed the site. While laying the foundation lines he summoned by contemplation the two spirits of healing, Cokro Pucungmen and Lhabumen to guide the ends of the measuring thread.

 

 The foundations were laid following the model of Odantapuri Monastery, in accord with the preceptor’s orders. Since the great master employed all of the arrogant spirits, the walls which were raised during the day by men were made even higher at night by the spirits. Thus, glorious Samye, the Temple of Unchanging Spontaneous Presence, which was designed to resemble Mount Sumeru, with its four continents, and its subcontin­ents, sun, moon, and iron perimeter, was entirely completed in about five years, along with the three shrines of the three queens. During the consecration performed by the preceptor and the master, astonishing and inconceivable miracles occurred. For example, the deities enshrined in the central shrine (dbu-rtse) went outside.

 

    Then the sovereign decided to introduce the foundations of the sutra and mantra teachings by translating the true doctrine from Sanskrit into Tibetan. Intelligent Tibetan youths were instructed in the art of translation. Trhisong Detsen invited from India great scholars, who were learned in the pitaka — monks such as the masters Jinamitra, Sarvajñadeva, and Dänasi1a; holders of indestructible reality such as Vimalamitra and Santigarbha; and twelve monks of the Sarvästiväda order as well.

 

    To test whether or not Tibetans were suitable for monastic ordination, the king at first requested that those masters ordain his faithful minister, Ba Trhizi of the Zhang family. Under the supervision of the Bodhisattva, who officiated as preceptor, of Dänasila and Jinamitra, who acted as master of ceremonies and exposer of secrets, and of ten other panditas, who made up the quorum, Trhizi renounced the world and was fully ordained as a monk. He received the name Pelyang, and also became known as Ba-ratna, the “Jewel of the Ba Family”; for the king had praised him thus. Through meditation he acquired five supernormal cognitive powers.

    After that, Ba Selnang, Pagor Vairocana, Ngenlam Gyelwa Choyang, Ma Rincen-chok, Khön Luiwangpo Sungwa, and Lasum Gyelwa Cangcup gradually renounced the world. They were fully ordained as monks; and their names were changed to Yeshe Wangpo, and so forth. Together, they became known as the “seven men who were tested”; and they were the first monks in Tibet.

 

    The king then decided that Tibetans were suitable for ordination. Trama, the minister of the Zhang family, and three hundred intelligent subjects were ordained. Scholars, such as the preceptor Säntaraksita and master Padmasambhava, along with the translators Vairocana, Kawa Peltsek, Cokro Lüi Gyeltsen, and Zhang Yeshe De translated the transmitted precepts of the sutra, and mantra traditions, as well as the foremost commentarial treatises, into Tibetan. Vairocana and Nam­kei Nyingpo were sent to India, where Vairocana studied the Great Perfection under Sri Simha, and Namkei Nyingpo studied the doctrines of Yangdak Heruka under Humkara. When they had attained ac­complishment they propagated these teachings in Tibet.

 

    Moreover, the great master Padmasambhava gave numerous em­powerments for the lower mantras, as well as the Unsurpassed - yoga tantras, to the king and some fortunate subjects. He taught the Hundred Thousand Verses of the Vajrakila Tantra, the Garland of Views: A Collec­tion of Esoteric Instructions, and other works.

 

    On one occasion the master spoke to the king as follows, “Your Majesty should make this country prosperous. You should turn the sands of Ngamsho into groves and meadows. You should irrigate the barren regions like the three districts of Tra and Töl (gra-dol-yiil-gsum). You should reclaim all the swamps for cultivation. You should obtain wealth from Vaisravana, and make the country a source of wealth. You should redirect the rivers, by means of canals, and make Tibet hold dominion over all the kings of China and Central Asia.”

 

    To this the king replied, "I beg you to do so!”

 

    The master remained engaged in this intention for just a morning when water appeared in the desert of Trakmar. The sandy plain became an alpine meadow, in which was situated the so-called "Peacock Lake" (Tshomo Gulngon) of Trakmar. In Trak Daweidong a vast forest appeared instantly. And in Zurkar, a wide, flowing river sprang up without a source.

 

Then, though he was certainly about to complete all the rest according to his word, the remaining works and the performance of burnt offerings to increase the power of the royal dynasty were left undone, due to the common misfortune of the populace and, as a further circumstance, due to the harmful misconduct of hostile, evil ministers, who, because they could not endure the master’s miraculous and supernormal cognitive powers, persuaded the king to delay. The deities and Nagas could not be bound under an oath of allegiance for yet a third time. At this point, Padmasambhava declared, “The result of the perverse aspirations of the ministers of Tibet will be the decline of happiness in Tibet. Although the great wheel of the doctrine will have made one complete cycle there will be great strife at an intermediate time. The Nagas and Gyelpo spirits will be ill-disposed and the dynasty itself will disintegrate, due to its neglect of the law.” It is said that because he knew the future would be so, Padmasambhava suddenly departed to subdue the ogres, but only after he had first delivered many wrathful mantras and had concealed many books as treasures in Tibet.

 

Concerning the duration of Padmasambhava’s stay in Tibet: Some maintain that it was but a short period, six or eighteen months. The moderate opinion holds that it was three, six or twelve years; and there are those who say that it was as long as one hundred and nine solstices, or fifty-four years and six months, altogether. The guru came to Tibet when King Trhisong was in his twenty-first year; and the king passed away in his sixty-ninth. So it is evident that Padmasambhava stayed in Tibet for five years and six months after the king’s passing. The learned masters of our tradition do not see any contradiction among these statements.

 

    The Testament of Ba and other works. which tell us that Padmasambhava staved in Tibet for but a brief period, do so because the master emanated a second body to be seen by the evil ministers. Then his escorts saw him fly into the sky from the summit of the mountain on the frontier of India and Tibet, across the narrow pass of Tongbap. He departed through the clouds, with his robe fluttering. and the rings of his staff jingling. But his real body remained in solitary hermitages, and in mountain caves in Zhotö Tidro, Chimpu. and elsewhere. In these locales he continued to turn the wheel of the unsurpassed. secret doctrine for the king and his fortunate subjects.

 

    At one time the great master was perceived dwelling in such places of attainment and when that rumor became widespread, the king, wishing to discover whether it was true or false, invited him to consecrate the Samye Monastery.

 

It is also said that in the interval between the lifetime of Trhisong Detsen and the reign of his son Mutrhi, the master departed into the sky, riding upon his horse from the summit of Kungtang Mountain. This is known from the lament, uttered by Mutrhi when he took leave of Padmasambhava:

 

My one and only royal father has died.

My guru is going to Oddiyana.

         O royal father! Your life was too short;

The happiness of your Tibetan subjects has passed.

Why did I, Mutrhi Tsenpo, not die,

While my father and my guru were present?

 

Furthermore, we should not think that Padmasambhava could not have completed all the bountiful acts he desired during just a short visit. He was adept at inconceivable miraculous powers, like the ability to make his body manifest in all buddha-fields simultaneously. Similarly, when the Buddha himself performed miracles at Srãvasti, as described in the Sütra of the Wise and the Foolish (mdo mdzangs-blun,), and in the Transmissions of the Vinaya, some say that these miracles lasted for a few days, and some for many. In sum, whether his visit appeared to have been long or short depended upon the purity or impurity of his disciples’ perception.

 

In this way, the master continued to consult with his patron, the king, in secret. He traversed the whole of Tibet on foot, down to the last hoof-sized patch of ground, along with Tsogyal and other fortunate companions. He inhabited each of the twenty mountain caves of Ngari; the twenty-one places of attainment in Central Tibet and in Tsang; the twenty-five great pilgrimage places of Kham and Amdo; and the secret lands of upper, lower, and central Tibet which are like three kings, along with five valleys, three districts and one parkland.

 

    He blessed all of them, along with their glaciers, caves, mountains and waterways which are as their roots, branches, flowers, and fruits,  to be places of attainment. Since he knew that the teaching would be persecuted later by the king’s grandson Langdharma, an emanation of Mara, he gave many oracles and prophecies to the king. Then, intending that the teaching of the secret mantra should not vanish, nor the genuine blessing be weakened or adulterated by sophistry, and that disciples should gradu­ally appear, he concealed countless treasures, both named and un­named. The foremost of these treasures were the hundred treasures which were the master copies of King Trhisong, the five great mind treasures, and the twenty-five great profound treasures.. For each one, he predicted the time of revelation, the discoverer, his fortunate spiritual successors, and so forth.

 

In thirteen places all called “tiger dens”, such as Nering Sengedzong in Mönka Bhutan,  Padmasambhava assumed an awesome dis­figured, wrathful form, and bound all the arrogant deities and demons of Tibet, both great and small, under oaths of allegiance; and he ap­pointed them to guard the treasures. At that time, the master became renowned as Dorje Trolö (Vajra Pot-belly). To induce faith in future generations, the guru and his consort left behind countless wonderful signs, such as handprints and footprints, in all the places of attainment. Such are the imprint of his body at Dorje Tsekpa in Bumthang, the handprint at Namtso Chukmo, and the footprint on the White Rock in Paro.

 

    Once, the prince Murup Tsepo was sent on a military expedition and destroyed the hermitages of the Bhata Hor. When he was carrying away their property, the prince was pursued by the Gyalpo spirit Shingjachen. Padmasambhava then assumed the form of Guru Trakpo (Wrathful Guru), bound the spirit under an oath of allegiance, and commanded him to guard the wealth of the temples.

 

The master founded many colleges to teach the dialectical vehicle and meditation schools for the way of secret mantra. The king and all his subjects acclaimed him as the most worshipful of renunciates; and the king established the twofold division of the religious community, consisting of the shaven-headed followers of the sutras, the monks, and the followers of the way of mantras, who wore long, braided locks. He erected pillars, the Zhöl Pillar inscribed with the great decree concerning protocol and with important edicts. At that time the kingdom of Tibet reached the zenith of its power and held dominion over two-thirds of eastern Jambudvipa. Because the kingdom was pro­tected by the true doctrine, Tibet is known to have enjoyed the happiness of paradise.

 

When master Padmasambhava was about to leave to convert the ogres in the south-west, the king, ministers, and subjects of Tibet begged him to stay on. But he declined. To each of them he gave detailed instructions, and precepts concerning loving kindness. Then, riding on a lion, or on an excellent horse, he set out from the summit of Kungtang Mountain for Cãmaradvipa, in the midst of an infinite mass of divine offerings. In Camaradvipa, on the peak of the glorious Copper-colored Mountain, he “liberated” the ogre Thotreng (Skull­garlanded), the king of ogres, and entered into his corpse. He materialised the inconceivable Palace of Lotus Light; and there he resides, ruling in his eight emanations over eight ogre islands, teaching the eight transmitted precepts concerning the eight means for attainment and other doctrines, and protecting the people of Jambudvipa from deathly fears. He continues to dwell, even now, as the regent of the Sixth Conqueror, Vajradhara, the holder of the awareness that is the spontaneous presence of the final path; and so will he remain, without moving, until the dissolution of the universe.

 

KING RELPACEN

   

  The religious king, Trhisong Detsen, had three royal sons. The eldest was named Mune Tsepo, the middle one Murup Tsepo, and the youngest Mutik Tsepo, or Senalek Jingyon. They further propagated the teaching. In particular, Mune Tsepo founded the four great cycles of worship (mchod-pa chen-po bzhi) at Samye during his reign; and three times he alleviated the hunger of his Tibetan subjects.

 

    Mutik Tsepo built the Temple of the Indestructible Expanse at Kar­cung. He had about five sons, among whom the most distinguished was Trhi Relpacen, an emanation of Vajrapãni, who was also known as Trhi Detsukten. Relpacen appointed seven householders among his subjects to serve each of the monks; and he is famed for having built a thousand temples and shrines. He humbly honored and venerated the two orders — those of the traditions of the sutras and mantras, with their gurus and venerable adherents — while placing at their feet the two silken ribbons which hung from his braided hair. Through these and other acts he displayed infinite veneration to the most precious teaching of the Conqueror.

 

In the lower valley of the Kyicu, Relpacen built the temple of On ­cangdo Peme Trashi Gepel. He invited Surendrabodhi, Silendrabodhi, Dãnasila, and many other scholars from India. He commanded them, along with the Tibetan preceptors Ratnaraksita and Dharmatãsi1a, and the translator Jnanasena, as follows:

 

"Formerly, when the doctrine was translated by scholars and translators in the time of my paternal ancestors, many terms were used which were unknown to the Tibetan language. Replace those terms among them which contradict the texts of the doctrine and grammatical usage, as well as those which are hard to understand, by searching  among the familiar terms of the colloquial language. Thus, you should revise the translations according to the texts of the greater and lesser vehicles."

 

Therefore, at Kawa Namoche in Phenyul, they revised the translation of the Great Mother (The trancendental Perfection of Discriminative Awareness in One hundred Thousand Lines ) and divded it into sixteen sections. They also established, in accord with the laws of contemporary language, the translations of most of the scriptures translated during the time of the king’s paternal ancestors. But, owing to the strictness of the inner tantras of the way of secret mantra, whereby they cannot be grasped by ordinary persons who are not fit vessels for them, the translators preserved the ancient translations intact.

 

So it was that the three ancestral religious kings Songtsen Gampo, Trhisong Detsen, and Re1pacen made the greatest impact on the teach­ing of the Conqueror in the Land of Snows, and thus were most gracious to its inhabitants. Among those kings, Songtsen Gampo and Trhisong Detsen were particularly great in their kindness. The scholars Santaraksita and Padmasambhava, and the translators Thönmi Sambhota, Vairocana, Kawa Peltsek, Cokro Lüi Gyeltsen and Zhang Yeshe De were all most gracious and wonderful.