THE SNOW LION NEWSLETTER

Interview with Sarah Harding Sarah Harding spent a year in Bhutan working on her book on Pema Lingpa, who found texts that were hidden in the landscape, for future generations, by Padmasambhava. She teaches at Naropa University, and has completed a 3-year retreat under the guidance of Kalu Rinpoche.

You were in Bhutan in part due to the good graces of the king. How did that come about?

H.E. Gangteng Tulku Rinpoche requested permission from the king, who graciously gave it. The reason I needed special permission was that foreigners may not live there unless they work for non-governmental agencies or other specific jobs. I was an unusual case. Part of the reason that the king gave permission was that the project was about Pema Lingpa, and would help bring his teachings and legacy to life.

You brought your children with you. How was the experience for them?

They had an excellent experience, but there were some adjustments. They had a hard time with certain aspects of life that we don't see here- people with diseases and so on- but they got used to it. Also, at the time TV was not allowed, so there was no weapon of mass distraction. What was hard for them was returning to this country— seeing the sickening overabundance in the supermarkets.

My daughter went to the public high school, the same as the crown prince and princesses, and 1200 Bhutanese children. Since the classes are conducted in English for the most part, there wasn't much of a problem.

The king sends his kids to the public school?

Sure. That's the only school there is. We were happy to be living in a place like that. For instance, a field trip from that high school was to go see the great Je Khenpo who had passed away and whose body wasn't degenerating. The history classes consisted mostly of the history of Padmasambhava and other great masters- a history worth learning.

Every place in Bhutan is a sacred place; it has a history of being blessed by saints and various spirits living there. To be in contact with those places all the time, especially the places where Pema Lingpa himself  visited, the environment that I was writing about, was important for the work.

Explain a little about termas, the treasures hidden in the landscape.

The teachings given by Guru Rinpoche in the 8th century were often written down by Yeshe Tsogyal, one of the queens of Tibet, and then hidden in various places for future generations. There would be some time in the future that would be the exact right moment for them to be found. They could be physical scrolls, or statues or other holy objects, or the information could be hidden in the mindstream of his disciples to surface in a future lifetime of those disciples. These are all called termas. Pema Lingpa is one of the most famous of the treasure-discoverers. The discoveries don't happen by random, not by somebody bumping into a terma somewhere. Padmasambhava predicted very specifically who it would be who would find each of them.

Pema Lingpa is particularly important to Bhutan because much of his activity took place in Bhutan or southern Tibet near the Bhutanese border. His treasures have affected the whole culture of Bhutan as well as the religious life. For instance, the dances of Bhutan come mostly from him. The whole story of Pema Lingpa is deeply connected with the country.

I was struck by the story in your book about him jumping into deep water and pulling up a terma.

That was the first treasure that he found. It was at a really magnificent power place at a large river with swirling eddies and cliff sides. It's very deep. I was sorely tempted to jump in myself but I was told that people had died because the water is so powerful, so I didn't try. I think you need to be a treasure-discoverer to do that. It's called The Burning Lake- that's one of the names- and that's because he was holding a butterlamp at the time. He said, "If I'm a fake then this butterlamp will be extinguished in the water." So he dove in and retrieved a casket full of scrolls and statues, and then propelled himself back out. The butterlamp was still burning, and the whole crowd witnessed it.

These termas are written in Dakini Language- a certain kind of a script. Why a script, why not in the language of the time?

Because it's a communication that's not on a regular level. Yeshe Tsogyal and the dakinis are symbolically in charge of that level of communication. It's a sublime language that isn't for everybody; only the right people can decipher it.

There are parallels in other traditions. For example, the language that came through the Delphic oracle was in a form that had to be interpreted. Only a few people had that capacity.

What does Dakini Script look like?

It looks a little bit similar to Sanskrit or Tibetan, but characters I couldn't decipher. The treasures are written on scrolls and then are transcribed by the treasure-revealers. You don't ever see the originals. You see copies of those transcriptions, made over the centuries. So they look like any other Tibetan texts- and now they look digital- they look like the rest of the Matrix.

One of the reasons Gangteng Tulku wanted these translated into English is because so many of the modern Bhutanese people are fluent in English and in a way it would be more accessible in English. It is for the benefit of the Bhutanese as well as Westerners.

Do you think that these newly translated Pema Lingpa termas reveal something about Padmasambhava that was not widely known before, at least here in the West?

Definitely, because a lot of them are interviews with people who were in the court of the King Trisong Detsen in Tibet during a time that was seminal for Buddhism in Tibet. And also because these are mostly conversations with women who are in the court. This gives us some different aspects of Guru Rinpoche- his responses to the lives of women trying to practice dharma is something we haven't seen before, except for Yeshe Tsogyal who is the only Tibetan woman of that period that we know anything about.

What particularly interested you?

The women are always bemoaning their terrible situations. The responses from Guru Rinpoche are very interesting, pointing to dharma as a liberation of women. He responds, "Yeah, it really is a bad situation and you should leave your husband, and be free, and practice dharma." He gives them a choice and opportunity. It's really quite a radical suggestion.

Pema Lingpa is said to be incarnating in several people currently, one of whom is Gangteng Tulku. Why not one person?

Yes, it can be confusing. There's the issue not only of incarnation, but of genealogical descendants. We probably take the whole idea of an incarnation a little too solidly-the idea of one to one; even though there are massive teachings on non-self we still think it's one guy that's going to come back as basically the same guy.  There are various manifestations of that enlightened principle that were represented by Pema Lingpa originally. Gangteng Tulku is said to be the body incarnation. Sungtrul Rinpoche is the speech incarnation and Tukse Rinpoche is the mind. There are others as well. The Gangteng Gompa is the biggest of the Pema Lingpa monasteries in Bhutan.

Do you feel like you have a past connection to the Pema Lingpa tradition?

I must have. Even my teacher Kalu Rinpoche came through Bhutan and established a monastery there.

What drew you to take on this project?

Mainly it was Gangteng Tulku's wish to undertake this project. But also Bhutan itself was a big draw. I wanted to live in a place that has this power that all of the people hold. And I mean all of them- not just the remnants of an indigenous culture. Everybody recognizes the sacred places of Bhutan. It's a much-blessed land.

H.E. Gangteng Tulku Rinpoche has a temple and Dharma center in Crestone, Colorado, and is giving teachings around the country this summer. For information, go to www.yeshekhorlo.org.