Thursday, January 3, 2013

Padmasambhava's Dorje Drollo footprints in Rock

Around Tibetan New Years (Lotsar) in 1986 we stayed at Rewalsar, India. It had been recommended we go there by Two  Tibetan Lamas and a friend who had been a monk until he had to take care of his parents and work as a mountain climbing Guide in the Himalayas who went with us with his American Tibetan Buddhist Wife to be whose name was Tara.

The first night I stayed at the Nyingma Gompa (Lamasery) ( one of the lineage Tibetan Buddhist Temple's) there, I listened all night to the monks chant the Dorje Drollod  Puja there to invoke Padmasambhava.

I realized I had the same footware size as Padmasambhava later that week which made more sense of people calling me the Tibetan or Hindi words for either "King" or something scary because of their superstitious nature. Someone 6 foot 5 inches tall did not exist (that I ever saw) in Nepal or Tibet among native people. So, I was constantly hitting my head on 6 foot tall doorjams above my head when I wasn't being quite aware of my smaller than normal doorways and hallways for me as an American. Eventually I was taken up to Padmasambhava's footprints that were protected by building a stone hut around them and by guarding them from people either defacing them or chipping them out and taking them away (which happens a lot at unprotected holy sites in Asia).

So, when  monk who was with the local Kagyu Monastery that guarded them unlocked the door so I could go in as a pilgrim, I walked up to the obviously melted footprints in the rock and was amazed that the footprints were exactly the same size as my Vasques Cascade size 14 boots. (Padmasambhava must have been very tall like me). The monks eyes got very big as I laughed and put my right boot into the melted footprints into the rock. Then he took me to the Kagyu Lama and we had tea with the Lama. The Lama eventually came to Mt. Shasta and gave about 100 of my friends and my family and I a Dzogchen Initiation which is the Highest Initiation given along with only one other.

This was a couple of years later and amazed me in some ways even more than what happened later that day after tea with the Lama. When I put my foot into the footprint Lightning struck outside. Geshe Lobsang Gyatso waited outside and seemed to Expect something was going to happen. Then the skies started to turn violet and Purple as clouds and lightning began to strike with violet Lightning. I had asked Saint Germain if he was also Padmasambhava. This was his answer to me, "Yes!" Then I went down and using my Amethyst Prayer beads I did the Dorje Drollo mantra that I had been given in Berkeley across from UC Berkeley in a church there by Lama Gonpo a very powerful Tibetan Lama of the Nyingma lineage that returned deep into Tibet to his Lamasery after he gave this initiation to My family and about 200 or more people from around San Francisco along with the Hayagriva Initiation (Horse headed one) which my wife felt a very strong connection to. Hayagriva is connected to especially the Mongolian Tibetan Buddhists who ride horseback a lot for hundreds and maybe thousands of years.

From the Time I asked a Tibetan Lama whether I should study with him telepathically and instead he showed me to pick up a hitch hiker who was an initiated and very powerful Tibetan Buddhist my life has been a really amazing experience. The man I picked up hitchiking became a family friend and he introduced me to some of the most powerful Lamas then in California and Oregon that I had a personal multi-life connection to. I think my life has gone amazingly well since I realized a path of compassion and more specifically Tibetan Buddhism was the direction I needed to go in to help the most sentient beings in the universe including myself. Really amazing Darshan (spiritual blessings) experiences began to happen after my first initiation in 1980 in Ashland, Oregon and continued like this ongoing in amazingness unabated from then on in my life. Though it wasn't easy to experience so very much spiritually powerful goings on throughout California, Oregon, India, Nepal, Thailand, and Japan still it all happened and I haven't been the same since. It was a little like being taken to another planet while still being on Earth and staying like that. I realize now that God wanted me to write of all these experiences to inspire the next generation of truth seekers, and the next and the next and so on. And so I AM.

Note: if you click on the photo above you can see in the upper photo two little red spots. That was Geshe Lobsang Gyatso and another monk praying and waiting for me to come out of the Padmasambhava holy place while the sky turned violet and purple and so did the lightning and rain for several hours.

Later: One thing I do know is that this is a place sacred to Tibetans, Hindus, Sikhs and possibly other religious and spiritual groups too. So, I would say it is safe to say it is a sacred power point like many amazing places on earth.
Likely the Princess Mandhrava who was being taught and initiated by Padmasambhava at the time was drawn to this place as it was a sacred Feminine place of Shakti as well. I also saw where she  melted her fingers into the rock so her father the King of the area couldn't take her away from Padmasambhava. It seems the King thought Padmasambhava was having his way with the princess when instead she was becoming a tantric adept who could melt rock with her hands when she needed to. I put my hands also in these finger holes left by Mandhrava when she melted the rock with her hands so the soldiers couldn't drag her away. It was guarded by a Tibetan Buddhist Ani(Lady Monk) when I went there so no one could deface or harm the place of darshan(living spiritual blessing) of Mandhrava's melted fingers into the rock. So this is a sacred place not only for Padmasambhava but also for the devotees of Princess Mandhrava as well who became a master from being Padmasambhava's student.

Here is part of what Wikipedia says about Padmasambhava and Mandhrava:
According to tradition, Padmasambhava was incarnated as an eight-year-old child appearing in a lotus blossom floating in Lake Dhanakosha, in the kingdom of Oḍḍiyāna in Ancient India and in modern times identified with the Swat Valley of South Asia present-day Pakistan.[6] His special nature was recognized by the childless local king of Oḍḍiyāna and was chosen to take over the kingdom but he left Oḍḍiyāna for northern parts of India. In Rewalsar, known as Tso Pema in Tibetan, he secretly taught tantric teachings to Mandarava who was the local king's daughter. The king found out and tried to burn him but it is believed when the smoke cleared he was intact and in meditation. The king offered Padmasambhava his kingdom and Mandarava. He left with Mandarava and later in Maratika Cave in Nepal
begin quote regarding Maratika Cave in Nepal:

Maratika Cave

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Maratika Cave and Maratika Monastery (Maratika is also known as Haleshi or Halase, 27.19006°N 86.622391°ECoordinates: 27.19006°N 86.622391°E) are located in Khotang District in Nepal, circa 185 km south west of Mount Everest. It is a venerated site of pilgrimage associated with Mandarava, Padmasambhava and longevity.
Mandarava and Padmasambhava realised a number of terma that had been elementally encoded as terma in Maratika Cave by Dakini Sangwa Yeshe, terma that number among the longevity teachings of Buddha Amitabha and given at the behest of Bodhisattva Avalokiteswara. At Maratika Cave, Mandarava and Padmasambhava attained the Vidyadhara of longevity or long life.

Original sources

According to current scholarship, the caves of Maratika are referred to in Himalayan literature from the 12th century. Kathang Zanglingma, a biography of Padmasambhava, a terma revealed and transmitted by Nyangrel Nyima Ozer, describes the original events which made the Maratika caves a sacred place for Vajrayana practitioners.
Haleshi Mahadeva or Maratika Cave- The famous natural cave in Khotang District, said to be the abode of Mahadeva while hiding away from the monster Bhasmasur. It is famous pilgrimage centre in east Nepal for both Hindus and Buddhist and is also nicknamed as 'the Pashupatinath of the east'. Huge religious fairs are observed here on Shivaratri and Bala Chaturdashi.
end quote regarding Maratika Cave in Nepal from Wikipedia.
Also, lattitude and longitude location at:
http://toolserver.org/~geohack/geohack.php?pagename=Maratika_Cave&params=27.19006_N_86.622391_E_region:NP_source:Wikimapia_scale:5000_type:landmark

end quote.



, after practicing secret tantric consort rituals, Amitayus appeared and they both achieved immortal bodies in the form of the living rainbow body of the Great Transference (Wylie 'pho ba chen po, pronounced Phowa Chenpo) which is completely different and much rarer than a dead body dissolving into light or the more usual rainbow body of a living yet mortal human (Wylie: 'ja' lus, pronounced Jalü.) as sometimes still achieved by Dzogchen practitioners of Padmasambhava's terma. So both Padmasambhava and Mandarava are still believed to be alive and active in Phowa Chenpo form by their followers. She and Padmasambhava's other main consort, Yeshe Tsogyal who was responsible for hiding his numerous terma later in Tibet became fully enlightened. Many thangkas and paintings show Padmasambhava in between them.

Entrance to Dawa Puk, Guru Rinpoche's cave, Yerpa, 1993.
His fame became known to Trisong Detsen, the 38th king of the Yarlung dynasty, and the first Emperor of Tibet (742–797), whose kingdom was beset by evil mountain deities. The king invited Padmasambhava to Tibet where he used his tantric powers to subdue the evil deities he encountered along the way, eventually receiving the Emperor's wife, identified with the dakini Yeshe Tsogyal, as a consort. This was in accordance with the tantric principle of not eliminating negative forces but redirecting them to fuel the journey toward spiritual awakening. In Tibet he founded the first monastery in the country, Samye Gompa,[7] initiated the first monks, and introduced the people to the practice of Tantric Buddhism.

end quote from:
Wikipedia under the heading "Padmasambhava"

What is called here redirection is a major component of Tibetan Buddhism. Imagine you are having problems with someone and they are harming people. In the U.S. we might eliminate such a person. But in Tibetan Buddhism you might say, "If you serve me then I will tolerate you but if you don't serve me and all beings then we can't let you live or not go to prison. So, beings doing harm are supernaturally subjagated and become protectors of the dharma. So, it is sort of like this point of view, "Serve life or die!" to beings doing harm or wrong. So, they are given a chance to change their lives or they face the full consequences of their actions and are no more.

Part of this is allowing beings to create good karma in place of bad. In this way the beings begin to earn and create good karma through their good actions and no longer have to visit hells in between lifetimes. So, literally one is saving beings from the hell realms by doing this and allowing them to do good rather than executing them on the spot. Also, it is possible by executing them on the spot the person doing the executing might go to hell if their motivations were imperfect in taking that life. So, the executioner might also be being saved from hells as well by showing wise right mindful compassion in this way to both himself and the other being or herself and the other being.












3 comments:

  1. rewalsar is also famous as a shakti peetha both in hindu and tibetan tantra lineage.

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  2. Since I'm from California and didn't know what a Shakti Peetha was I looked it up on Wikipedia. Here it is:
    The Shakti Peethas (Sanskrit: शक्ति पीठ, Bengali: শক্তিপীঠ, Śakti Pīṭha, seat of Shakti[1]) are places of worship consecrated to the goddess Shakti or Sati, the female principal of Hinduism and the main deity of the Shakta sect. They are sprinkled throughout the Indian subcontinent.[2]

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  3. Such a nice and informative post. Thanks for sharing and keep it up.
    Annapurna Panorama Trek 10 Days

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