Teachings
A Brief Account of the Life
of the Dharma Lord
Nyäntse Pönlob Dorje Chang
The holy master known as
‘Nyäntse’ was born of Nomadic Golog descent, during the eleventh
sixty-year cycle, in the year of the female wood bull (1685).
At a young age he went to Lhasa and entered Gaden Shartse
Monastery to study the great treatises. Six-Armed Wisdom
Mahakala accompanied him like his shadow and always assisted
him. When he recited scriptures at night Mahakala would
manifest as a frightening black dog to guard and protect him.
Everyone saw this.
He studied Sutra and
Tantra extensively with the master known as the ‘Renunciate of
Amdo’, Trichen Gedün Phüntsog also known as Trichen Gungtangpa.
That great master even presented him with a gift of the bone
ornaments that he himself had worn.
When the Jungar
Mongols made Trichen Rinpoche debate with the most learned
masters of the monastic seats, the debate which was conducted in
accordance with his instructions was victorious. He was
appointed abbot of Gaden Shartse. He did not want to become
abbot, however, and ran away from the monastery that night. He
traveled to sacred sites such as Mt.Kailash and Tsari.
When he again returned to
Gaden, the Jungar Mongols had returned to their homeland but
they had left a letter saying that if Nyäntse Pönlob did not
become abbot of Gaden, they would no longer have faith and
respect for Je Tsongkhapa’s teachings. He therefore agreed to
the terms of the letter and ascended to the throne of Gaden
Shartse.
He received many initiations
and teachings from Dükorwa Yöntän Dhargyä. Going home, he
established about thirteen monasteries in the upper and lower
parts of Ngawa.
There were many Bönpos in
Ngawa at that time and the Buddhists were losing bouts of
magical power. Then Nyäntse Pönlob had one of his disciples
named Sakya Pagyäl Lama throw a torma projectile. The earth
split open and a spring emerged! The next day the main Bönpo
master cried in sorrow and died!
Detri Rinpoche Lozang Döndrup
came to study with Nyäntse Pönlob. He was so impressed with one
of his attendants, Rabtän Gyatso’s, conduct, that he said, ‘It
is a bit unseemly that these Geshes have brought such highly
learned people with them as their attendant!
Nyäntse Pönlob also told
Detri Rinpoche to do something about the fact that there was a
medium named Pänshül Tengän who was causing the teachings to
decline by giving bikshu ordination with a torma and many other
improper things. Detri Rinpoche agreed to his Guru’s
instructions, but as he was thinking he should make the Sixty-Torma
offering to Dharmaraja Kalarupa, Tengän’s oracular deity entered
Tengän and said, ‘There is a Yamantaka yogi who is being
harmed! Do a ritual! Detri Rinpoche interpreted this as
request from Tengän for help and performed a ritual on his
behalf. After that, he forgot about it and let the matter rest
for some time.
But later, when Nyäntse
Pönlob was leading the great congregation, Tengän had put on
monk’s robes in order to collect offerings from the Mongolians.
He had already obtained vast wealth of grain, horses, and the
like, when he ran into Detri Rinpoche. Detri Rinpoche was once
again reminded of what his Guru had instructed and performed the
Sixty-Torma offering. Tengän immediately died.
Nyäntse Pönlob gave Trichen
Gungtangpa’s tulku, Ngawang Tänpay Gyältsän, novice and full
ordinations, and many teachings such as the Heruka and
Guyasamaja initiations. He also gave him the bone ornaments
that the previous Trichen Rinpoche had given to him.
Nyäntse Pönlob came to have
many other learned and accomplished disciples such as Kirti
Lozang Tänpay Gyältsän and Wampa Geshe Ngawang Püntsog. When he
passed away he left the land filled, not with monks in name
only, but with fully ordained bikshus living in pure conduct.
The transmission of reading
Bardo Tödröl for the deceased had been interrupted by that time
but Nyäntse Pönlob said that he would make recitation of Künrig
ritual serve the same purpose. He passed away to the pure lands
at the age of seventy-two, without the slightest illness, on the
full moon of the third month of the fire rat year (1696).
Nyäntse Pönlob’s next
recognized tulku incarnation, Ngawang Tenzin Trinle, was born in
the Lamo community of Mongolia in the year of the fire-rat
(1756). He took novice ordination with Tsamtsa Geshe Ngawang
Sherab and received many teachings and initiations from him. He
entered the Dharma courtyard of Lhogön monastery of southern
Amdo and distinguished himself in the eyes of the Gurus and
Deities. He was especially cared for by the Goddess Shramana
who gave him many teachings in dreams and took care of his
practice community. He passed away when he was sixty-two during
the fourteenth sixty-year cycle in the year of the fire bull
(1817).
His third tulku incarnation
took birth as Ngawang Lozang Tsultrim Gyatso, the son of Amchog
Rako Chöjor. He took ordination from Geshe Jampa and went to
Lhasa where he continued to study and teach at Gaden Shartse
Monastery.
(The seventh incarnation,
Ngawang Tsöndru Gyatso, died in Tibet in a Chinese prison. At
present the eighth incarnation is about twenty years old, living
at Nyentse Monastery in Tibet, looking after the three or four
monasteries that survived the destruction out of the original
thirteen monasteries that he founded. He is also the political
head of the region.)
Translation from Tibetan
by David Molk, July 10, 2006
More Teachings
The
four signs
1 Mirage
(it is like an appearance of water
when the light of the sun strikes a desert in the summer)
2
Smoke
(Which is like blue puffs of smoke. It is similar to smoke
billowing from a chimney in the midst of a mass of smoke.)
3 Fireflies
(It is like burning red sparks
seen within puffs of smoke from a chimney, or like red sparks on
the soot on the bottom of a pan used for parching grain.)
4
Flame of a Butter lamp
(It is like the sputtering point of a butter-lamp's flame when
it is about to go out.)
The four empties
1 Radiant
white appearance (It is call like
moonlight dawns) and the empty. The knot at the top of
the head is loosened, and, since the white drop obtained from
the father, which has the aspect of the syllable hum
upside-down, has the nature of water.
2 Radiant red
increase (It is called like sunlight) and the
very empty.
All the winds in the right and light channels below
the heart have entered the central channel through its lower
opening {at the base of the spine or in the sexual organ} and
the
knot of the channel-wheel at the navel gradually loosen.
thereby,
the red drop that is obtained from the mother, comes upward,
because it is nature of fire.
3
Radiant black near-attainment
(it is call the darkness) and
the great
empty.
4
Clear light
(it is call the clear light of death) and the all empty.
(2) The Stages of
Achieving the Intermediate state
or bardo state
1. The
stages of Achieving the Intermediate State
Description of the Intermediate state. The entity of such an
intermediate being has five features.
A). It
has all sense faculties. ( it has
all five senses)
B). Since
it has been born spontaneously (on its own ), all its major
and
secondary limbs are simultaneously completed.
(the whole
body is completed all at once)
C).
Since it
has a subtle body (Since it has a
body of no substance
it
cannot be destroyed even by a diamond.
D). Except
for birthplaces. such as the mother's womb, it is not
obstructed
even by mountains, fences and so forth.
(Since it has a body of no substance, it cannot be obstructed
by any thing such as mountains, walls, fences and so forth.)
E.)
Through the force of karmic
powers it can in an instant go
wherever
it wants and not even a Buddha can stop it.
(Because of the karma that has already been created, it goes
where it must go and no one and nothing can stop it.)
2. Changing type.
It does not change to another type of migrator [among the
six
types of migrators: god, demigod, human, animal, hungry ghost
and hell-being]
(Asanga
says that is not certain that, once an intermediate state
of a particular type of being has been achieved, it will
necessarily
be born that way, there being reversals into another type of
migration)
3. Synonyms. (different
names for bardo)
Vasubandhu's
Treasury of Knowledge, notes these other names
for bardo:
A). Mind-Arisen
B). Seeker of Existence
C). Smell-Eater
D). Intermediate State
E). Establishing Existence
4. Length of Life
The longest is seven days, there is no certainty. if within
seven
days the causes of birth do not happen, at the end of the
seventh
day a small death occurs whereupon an other intermediate state
is achieved.
Asanga
says bardo will last no longer than seven weeks and
rebirth will occur within that time
5. Seeing the former body
Asanga says: even when
an intermediate being sees its former
body
(physical support), due to the force of having cut off any
relationship with that body, it does not think, "that is my
body" and
it
does not wish to enter its former body.
6. Manner (Mode) of exit
from the body after death.
A).
One who is to be reborn as a hell-being exits from the anus;
B).
As a hungry ghost, exits from the mouth;
C).
As an animal, exits from the urinary passage;
D).
As a human, exits from the eye;
E).
As a god of the desire realm, exits from the navel;
F).
If one is to be reborn in the form realm, the exit is from
middle of the brow,
G).
If one is to be reborn in the formless realm, it is from the
crown of the head.
7. Perception
Vasubandhu's Treasury of
Knowledge, explains that intermediate
beings are seen by others of similar type and by those with a
pure
divine eye. intermediate being of higher type perceive lower
ones,
but lower ones do not see higher beings.
8. Size
Vasubandhu's
Commentary on the ' Treasury of
Knowledge'
explains that an
intermediate being of a human of this world is the
size of a five-or six year-old child. However, not everyone
agrees
with that belief (it is said that such is not one-pointedly
certain).
9. Aspect.
Asanga's Actuality of the Levels
says that , to
an intermediate
being of a bad migration (animal, hungry ghost, or hell-being
there is a black flag, or a very dark night (pervaded by
darkness);
to an intermediate being of a happy migration (human, demigod
or god) there appears a(n outstretched) white cloth, or
bright,
moonlit night (pervaded by moonlight).
10. Color
-
The body's color in the
intermediate state of a hell-being is
-
like a log burned by
fire;
-
Of a hungry ghost, like water;
-
Of a an animal, like smoke;
-
Of a god of the desire realm or
human, like gold;
-
Of a god of the from realm,
like white.
11. Shape
Vasubandhu's
' Treasury of Knowledge'
Says that an
intermediate being has the fleshy aspect or physical shape of
the "prior state" of that migrator
as which it will be reborn.]
There are four states:
-
Birth state: the first moment
of connecting to the new life.
-
Prior state or live state:
existence from the moment after connecting to the new life until
the death state.
-
Death state: existence during
the last period of death or at the time of experiencing the
clear light of death.
-
Intermediate state: existence
that occurs between the death state and birth state.
Asanga's
explanation is that the bardo being has
the physical shape of the next life.
12. Mode of movement
Asanga
says
-
that an intermediate being of a god
goes upwards;
-
Of a human goes straight forward;
-
Of a bad migration goes downwards,
head first.
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