A Brief Biography of the Lotus Sangha

In the lake Danakosha (Danakosha), in the territory of the Ujjain Kingdom, to the west of Bodhgaya, there was a small island on which appeared a thousand-petaled lotus flower made by the power of the Buddhas' empowerment, and from the heart of Amitabha Buddha, a golden vajra mortar and pestle signifying the word Shi (HRI) was shot out, and landed on the embryo of this lotus flower, and the mortar and pestle instantly transformed into a child of eight years of age, with the mortar, pestle, and lotus in his hands. The appearance and the accompanying solemnity. It was here that this child transmitted the profound Dharma to the courageous father and the kungfu practitioners on the island. At that time, King Inzabodhi of Ugyen, who was childless and had already made offerings to the Triple Gem and given to the poor, finally sent his minister Krishnakara to this great lake in order to find the Ruyi Jewel. On the way back, the minister Krishnakara and King Inzabadhi saw the child prodigy one after another. Believing this to be an answer to his prayer for an heir, the king took him back to his palace and named him Padmakara. Lotus Sang was placed on a throne and huge offerings were made by all his subjects.

This prince grew up to lead countless beings to maturity through sports and games. He married Prabhadhari and ruled the kingdom of Ujjain with the Dharma. However, realizing that if he continued to rule the kingdom, he would not be able to accomplish the great welfare of altruism, he asked King Inzabodhi to leave, but of course this was not granted. In the midst of a great compassionate illusion, Prince Lotus manifested the secret convenience of the Dharma of Execution and Relocation of Knowledge. The Prince pretended to miss his target, and offered his bell and pestle to destroy the son of the demonic minister who was going to cause a demonic disaster. The flying bell and pestle just hit the head of Gadama, the son of the demonic minister Gopalda, and actually shattered Gadama's head. In fact, this was the result of Prince Lotus using the bell and mortar, which represents wisdom and compassion, to transcend Gadama's divine consciousness to the Vajra Dharma realm of the colorful ultimate heaven with the wonderful method of transcendence as if it were a mirage, which ultimately enabled him to attain the achievement of supreme liberation, and caused the demonic power of the demonic ministers, to be suppressed. The Lotus Master was sentenced and exiled to the Corpse Forest. He stayed in the Cold Forest, the Pleasant Forest, and the Sasara Forest to specialize in yogic practices. During this time he received initiation and empowerment from the two Emancipated Mothers: the Devil-Subduing Mother and the Joyful Continuing Mother, and when he was able to unite all the Emancipated Mothers of the Forest of Corpses, he was called the Silent Conservator Guru (Shanatarakashita). He then returned to Ujjain and went back to the island on the lake, where he practiced Mantra Yoga and the Tantra of the Khyentse Mothers, and by doing so, commanded the Khyentse Mothers on the island. He then practiced in a gravel forest and was empowered by seeing Vajra Yogini during a purification session. He vowed that the dragons and astral spirits on the island would be endowed with supernatural powers by all the brave fathers and kung fu, and thus became known as Dorje Drakpo Tsal (Vajra Mighty Power). Then Lotus Master went to Bodhidharma's vajra seat and performed many miracles. People asked him who he was, and when he replied that he was a self-born Buddha, they did not believe him and were slanderous. For many reasons, it was necessary for him to have a teacher, so he traveled to the Sahasrara Kingdom and was ordained as a monk by Prabhahasti, who gave him the dharma name of Shakya Senge. He received the Yoga Tantra eighteen times and saw the principal monks personally. He then studied under the female guru Kungamo, who was the embodiment of Guhya Jnana, the Empty Mother of Wisdom, in the form of a nisha. Lotus Master asked her for initiation, whereupon she transformed him into a Un-word to be swallowed and then released by the Tantra. Within his body, the Lotus Master was granted the outer, inner, and tantric empowerments and purified of the three kinds of hindrances. Then he met the Eight Great Holders of Light and received the rituals of the Eight Great Sections. He received the teachings of the Maha Jala (Great Illusionary Program) from the Buddha Tantra Master (Buddha Guhya) and the Dharma of the Great Perfection from Shri Singha. In this way, Master Lotus studied and received all the teachings of the Sutras, the Continuing Sections, and the Five Minerals ...... from many learned and enlightened masters in India. He was able to master what he had learned in this way alone, and he was able to see all the principal deities in person without even practicing them. At this point he became known as Loden Choksey, and manifested the practice of perfecting and maturing the fruition of enlightenment. Then Guru Rinpoche traveled to the land of Sahasrara and accepted Mandarava, the daughter of King Vipassana and the virtuous Mother of Empty Beings. With Mandarava as the basis for his practice, he practiced for three months in the cave of Maratika***, whereupon Amitabha Buddha himself came and conferred initiation on both of them and empowered them to be indistinguishable from him. They also received a billion long-life tantras and achieved the Long-Life Holding of the Brightness Fruition. After attaining the vajra of transcendence of birth and death, the two returned to the Saha Kingdom to preach the Dharma, and were caught by the king and ministers while they were being transformed and burned alive. The king and ministers caught them alive and burned them alive. Master Lotus and Princess Ming performed a miraculous transformation, turning the pile of firewood into a cold lake, where they sat on a lotus flower, and all the people gained faith in them. They taught the people of Sahasrara to practice the Dharma, and all of them attained the fruit of anahata and did not return to the cycle of rebirth. Then Master Lotus returned to Ujjain to teach his subjects. While doing so, he was recognized and burned with a large pile of sandalwood. Once again, Master Lotus and Princess Ming sat unharmed on a lotus flower in a lake, wearing a string of skull ornaments, representing the liberation of all beings from the cycle of rebirth. Because of this miraculous transformation, Master Lotus was called Padma Thotreng Tsal (Lotus Cranial Ornament Power). He stayed in the kingdom of Ugyen for thirteen years, serving as the king's tutor and transforming the entire kingdom into a land of Dharma practice. During this period he bestowed the initiation and teachings of the Kadue Chokyi Gyamtso (The Ocean of Dharma), and the king, his consort, and his fated disciples all attained the supreme fruition of holding the light. For this reason, Guru Rinpoche was called the Lotus King (Padma Raja). According to the Sutra of Magical Perception, he transformed himself into a bhikkhu, Wangpo Dey, in order to subdue King Ashoka. When Ashoka gained non-returning faith, Master Lotus built a million stupas with Buddha's relics in the world in one night. Master Lotus also subdued several lay gurus and was poisoned by a king, but was unharmed. When he was thrown into a river, he made the whole river flow against the current and fly through the air. For this reason he was known as the Powerful Golden-winged Bird Rudraksha. In addition, Master Lotus manifested himself in the form of his guru Ajahn Chakra Lotus Vajra, who took out the Hevajra Tantra (Hevajra Sequence), the brahmin Sahara, Doppai Heiluga, Vipassana Rupa, Kalacharya, and many other great achievers. He meditated in the Great Corpse Forest, transmitted the Tantra to the Empyrean Mother, and subdued the external and internal worldly demons and spirits, ordering them to uphold the Dharma, at which point he became known as the Daylight Guru (Myima Oser). When the five hundred laymen were about to argue against the Buddha's teachings in Bodhgaya's Sutra Debate, Guru Rinpoche challenged all the laymen and won the victory. Some of the laymen cursed with evil mantras, but they were crushed by the mighty mantra taught by the Mother of Demon Subduing Mothers of the Emperors. All the remaining laymen were converted to the Dharma, and the Dharma flag was raised high into the clouds. At this point he was called Senge Dradrok (Mighty Lion's Roar). At this time he has purified the three kinds of obstacles and abides in the state of the long-lived, brightly-held fruit, i.e., he has perfected the ultimate path of excellence.

When he traveled to the caves of the Yangreya Cave, located on the border of India and Nepal, he met Shakya Devi, the princess of a certain Nepalese king, and took her as his spiritual abode and consort. While he was practicing Vishuddha Heruka, three powerful demons created a demonic obstacle that prevented rainfall for three years and caused disease and famine in the area. Guru Rinpoche sent emissaries to India to ask his guru what method should be used to cure these demonic obstacles. The two emissaries brought back the teachings of Prabhupada, and the moment they returned to Nepal, the obstacles subsided of their own accord. Guru Rinpoche and Princess Ming attained the supreme realization of abiding in the fruition of Mahamudra Holding the Light. Master Lien believed that the practice of Pure Black Lugar would lead to great attainment, but that this practice was like a traveling merchant who would encounter many obstacles; the Prabhupada Dharma seemed to be an indispensable guardian. For this reason, he wrote down a number of rituals combining the two, and also vowed sixteen worldly protectors of Prabhupāda Vajra. Master Lotus also visited other ancient countries to propagate the Dharma, such as Humuzu, Hikojaja, Dharmakosha, Ruma, Tijarhuti, Kamarupa, Kancha ......, and many others in the immediate vicinity of Ugyen. It is not known when he traveled to Chokding place, but the Dharma he transmitted there, such as the Himalayan Vajra, Guhyachandra Bindu, Pure Black Luga, Horsehead King of Brightness, Prabhupāda, and Mamo, are still in circulation today. It is generally believed that Master Lotus resided in India for 3,600 years, preaching the Dharma for the benefit of all. However, scholars seem to hold the view that half that number of years is only an approximation. In order to subdue beings in Mongolia and China, Master Lotus incarnated as King Ngonshe Chen and Yogi Tobden. He also appeared as Tavi Hricha, a child born of a divine transformation, in Xiangxiong, where he taught the oral tradition of the Great Perfection, leading many virtuous disciples to attain the Rainbow Body. In this way, the number of times that Master Lotus has appeared in various places, taken on various forms, and spoken various languages to lead living beings to the path of liberation is immeasurable.

The next section describes how Master Lotus entered Tibet. When King Trisong Deutsen, an incarnation of Manjushri, was twenty years old, he made a great wish to spread the holy teachings of the Buddha. He was invited from India to teach the Twelve Causes and the Ten Good Deeds (the more common name for the Bodhisattva Khenpo is Master Silent Guardian, an Indian master who shaved the head of the first monks to leave Tibet). A year later, when the foundation of the great temple was being laid, the demons of Tibet rebelled and prevented the construction of the temple. Based on Khenpo's prophecy, King Trisong Deutsen sent five scuds to welcome Guru Rinpoche into Tibet. Having foreseen this, Master Lotus arrived at Mangyu on the border between Tibet and Nepal, and on his way to Weizang, he traveled through Nari, Cang, and Dokang, visiting various places in a miraculous manner, and causing the twelve earthly mothers, thirteen gods of song, the twenty-one gods of the Gurus, and many powerful ghosts and deities to swear to be his protectors.

At the tamarisk forest of Red Rock, the Lotus Master met with the Tibetan king, and together they traveled to the summit of Mt. Harpo Ri, commanding all the heavenly deities and demons. Master Lotus initiated the construction of the Sangye Monastery, laying the foundation and overseeing it until its completion, and summoning the help of the demons and gods that had hindered the construction of the monastery in the first place. It took five years to complete the magnificent Sangye Monastery, the Temple of Unchanging Rengyun Achievement, a complex of temples containing the three Princess Halls and modeled after the four continents, the eight sub-continents, the sun, the moon, and the Iron Wreath Mountains around Mount Sumeru. At the grand opening ceremony, the Five Rui Phases were in full bloom.

King Chisong Dezhen then wished to translate the Buddhist scriptures and promote the Dharma. He let many intelligent Tibetan children study and become translators, and from India to extend other masters who are proficient in the three Tibetans, and by Khenpo shaved seven of the first monks, and gradually established the monastic community. Guru Shakyamuni, Rinpoche, and the Panchsitas, together with Vairochana, Kawa-Badze, Thurayog-Lokyi Gyaltsen, and other translators, translated all the sutras, tantric classics, and most of the treatises of the time into Tibetan. Vairochana and Nankai Nyingpo were sent to India to study; Vairochana studied the Great Perfection with Shri Singha, while Nankai Nyingpo received the teachings of the Pure Black Luga from Guru Hungkara. Both attained realization and spread these teachings in Tibet. King Trisong Deutsen then requested initiation and teachings from Guru Rinpoche, and at Chingpo, the retreat above Sangye Monastery, Guru Rinpoche opened the altar of the Eight Black Lugar Ceremonies, and gave teachings to the nine sons of the heart, with the King of Tibet in the midst of them. Each disciple was given a different lineage, and each one attained realization by practicing according to the law. Master Lotus also taught countless other profound non-**** teachings of the three Inner Tantra divisions to a large number of karmic disciples, including the king, the princes, and twenty-five disciples from Lhodza, Tingdrol, and other places. Of the fifty-five years and six months that Guru Rinpoche stayed in Tibet, forty-eight were during the reign of King Trisong Deutsen, and seven years and six months were during the reign of the prince who succeeded him. He arrived in Tibet in the twenty-first year of King Trisong Deutsen's life (810 A.D.), and the King died at the age of sixty-nine. He remained in Tibet for several more years until he traveled to Rakshasa. Master Lotus personally visited the twenty snow-capped mountains of Nari, the twenty-one holy places of practice in Wei-Tsang and Hou-Tsang, the twenty-five holy places of Dokhang, the three secret gorges, and many other places, all of which became holy places of practice through Master Lotus's empowerment. Because he knew that a certain Tibetan king of a later generation would seek to destroy the Buddhadharma of Tibet, he left behind many prophecies about future generations. After paying the Dharma to King Chiksong Deutsen and his close disciples, Master Lotus also buried countless vasanas of teachings, led by King Chiksong Deutsen's eight personal vasanas, the five great mind vasanas, the twenty-five very deep vasanas, and so on. The reasons for burying the vasanas were to prevent the destruction of the Mantra multiplication teachings, to avoid intellectual modification of the Vajrayana, to maintain the power of kalpa, and to benefit disciples in the next life. For each vajra, Master Lotus authorized the time of its removal, the name of the person who took it, and the person who will hold it. In thirteen places called "Tiger's Nests," he appeared in the form of the fearful and wrathful Dharma of Madhyamika, and with his vows, he called upon all the worldly spirits to serve the Dharma and instructed them to guard the vajra. At this time he was known as Dorje Drollo. In order to inspire faith in his descendants, he left his body prints in Bentang, his handprints in Namtso-Tsumo, and his footprints in Palo Zarka, as well as in countless other places. After Trisong Deutsen passed away, Master Lotus helped Muktit Tsangpo to ascend to the throne. He organized a great puja in Chamdo, where he entrusted the profound Dharma teachings to the second prince, Jasser Raj, granting that after the thirteenth generation he would benefit all sentient beings by becoming the Venerable Master of Taking Tibet. It is difficult to count the number of disciples whom Master Lotus personally conferred initiation in Tibet, but the most famous are the twenty-five first disciples, the twenty-five middle disciples, and the twenty-one disciples of the later period of time when they were regarded as such. There were eighty disciples of Master Rinpoche who attained the Rainbow Body at Yerba, 108 meditators at Ch?kyi, 30 Mantra masters at Yangzom, and 55 enlightened ones at Seetzar; and among the female disciples there were twenty-five Kumbhakaras and seven Yoginas, and many of these close disciples have a genealogy that continues to the present day.

When Master Lotus was about to leave for Rakshasa in the southwestern part of the country, the king, the ministers, and all the disciples tried to dissuade him, but to no avail. After giving many initiations and Dharma teachings one by one, Master Lotus, accompanied by countless celestial offerings, departed on a horse or a lion by the mountain path of Gutang. At the summit of Copper-colored Mountain in the Whisker Continent, Master Lotus took off the skull of the king of the Rakshasa Kingdom, Yagyu, and assumed his form. After that, the Lotus Master transformed himself into a palace of lotus light, which was magnificent and unbelievable, and at the same time, on each of the eight small continents that surrounded him, he manifested one and the same incarnation, and became the king and taught the eight great black lugar rituals.

The Lotus Master now resides in the position of the fruition of the tenacity of the mind, manifesting the Dharma heirship of Vajradhara, and remaining immovable until the cycle of rebirths is complete, manifesting incarnations for the benefit of all sentient beings due to his great compassion. Even after the disappearance of the Dharma teachings of the Rudra section, Master Lotus will still take the form of a person named Drowa Kundu and transmit the Tantra to all those who have the tools to do so.