Padmasambhava 750-850?

Guru Padmasambhava is renowned as founder of Buddhism in Tibet and the principal guru-deity of the Nyingma school.

Guru Padmasambhava himself is emanations of Buddhas, the mind emanation of Buddha Amitabha, the body emanation of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva and speech emanation of Buddha Shakyamuni.

Padmasambhava was incarnated as an 8 year old child appearing in a lotus blossom floating in Lake Dhanakosha, in the kingdom of Uddiyana. The king of the Odiyana, Indrabodhi, brought him back to his palace and crowned him as the prince of the kingdom.

Padmasambhava perceived that since politics is contradictory to his pursuing of enlightenment, he abdicated thereafter. He then went to Bodhgaya and many places receiving teachings from many great scholars, masters and Dakinis.

He accomplished the common and uncommon siddhis, comprehended and accomplished the whole canon of the three baskets of Vinaya, Sutra and Abhidharma, as well as the teachings of the outer and inner secret mantra, oral transmissions, and the pith instructions of the highest and innermost tantra of Atiyoga. The mandalas and Buddhas displayed their forms in front of him spontaneously. Thus he showed the signs of perfect level of complete awareness.

Padmasambhava visited and stayed in many places in India, Nepal and Tibet. These places were blessed by Padmasambhava and became sacred till now. For example, he practised the Vishuda deity at the cave of Yanglashod in Nepal. And, He took his wife, Mandarava, to the mountain cave of Maratika, known as Halesha in present day in Nepal, where they performed the accomplishment rituals of longevity for three months and actualised the immortal Vajra body.

Tso Pema (Lotus Lake), Guru Rinpoche ever showed miracles here, nearby Paslpung Sherabling about 3 hours trip by car.

Padmasambhava’s activities of taming people and performing enlightened activities for the sake of sentient beings are renowned as Eight Manifestations. These activities were recorded in detail in his biography and many books.

Spread the Dharma in Tibet

Trisong Deutsen, the 38th king of Tibet (742-797), invited Padmasambhava to Tibet. Along the way, he used his tantric powers to subdue all the harmful gods and demons he encountered, and made them faithful guardians of the Dharma. In Tibet he and the king founded the first monastery in the country Samye monastery and fully furnished it with statues. In addition, they gave monk’s vows to Tibet’s first seven monks, standardized translation methods, supervised translation of most of the sutras and tantras from Sanskrit to Tibetan, and for the first time in Tibet, firmly established the tradition of study, contemplation, and meditation, thereby radiating the Buddha Dharma in Tibet like rays of the sun.

Among Padmasambhava’s disciples, there were twenty-five of them attained liberation and eighty of them attained rainbow body.

A sacred place of Guru Rinpoche at Tsandra Rinchen Drak. Near Niguma retreat center of Palpung Monastery.

Padmasambhava stayed in Tibet for 55 years. In this period, he inspired people’s faith to the Dharma, brought Buddha Dharma from India to Tibet, and transformed Tibet to be a Buddhist land. Without Padmasambhava’s activities in Tibet, there might be no Tibetan Buddha Dharma today.

For the sake of future aspirants in the future, Guru Padmasambhava concealed eighteen varieties of treasure which include treasure texts, material wealth, holy images and so forth. He gave explicit prophesies regarding the future manifestation of these treasures, including the revealer and protector of the treasure, as well as time of revelation.

Om Ah Hum Vajra Guru Padma Siddhi Hum

Padmasambhava was a historical teacher who converted Tibet to Buddhism. He was a renowned scholar, meditator, and magician, and his mantra suggests his rich and diverse nature.

Om Ah Hum, as we have seen, have no conceptual meaning. Often they are associated with body, speech, and mind respectively (i.e. the whole of ones being. So theres a suggestion that we are saluting the qualities that Padmasambhava represents with all of our hearts (and minds, and bodies).

Vajra means thunderbolt, and represents the energy of the enlightened mind. It can also mean diamond. The implication is that the diamond/thunderbolt can cut through anything. The diamond is the indestructible object, while the thunderbolt is the unstoppable force. The vajra also stands for compassion. While it may seem odd to have such a masculine object representing compassion, this makes sense in esoteric Buddhism because compassion is active, and therefore aligned with this masculine symbol. (The term masculine does not of course imply that compassion is limited to males!)

Guru, of course, means a wise teacher. It comes from a root word,garu, which means weighty. So you can think of the guru as one who is a weighty teacher. Padmasambhava is so highly regarded in Tibetan Buddhism that he is often referred to as the second Buddha.

Padma means lotus, calling to mind the purity of the enlightened mind, because the lotus flower, although growing in muddy water, is completely stainless. In the same way the enlightened mind is surrounded by the greed, hatred, and delusion that is found in the world, and yet remains untouched by it. The lotus therefore represents wisdom. Again, while westerners would tend to assume that the flower represents compassion, the receptive nature of the flower gives it a feminine status in esoteric Buddhism, and to the lotus is aligned with the feminine quality of wisdom. And once again, there is no implication that wisdom is in any way limited to those who are female. The words masculine and feminine here are used in a technical sense thats completely unrelated to biology.

And Siddhi means accomplishment or supernatural powers, suggesting the way in which those who are enlightened can act wisely, but in ways that we cant necessarily understand. Padmasambhava is a magical figure, and in his biography there are many miracles and tussles with supernatural beings.