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"Tangtong Gyalpo was a unique figure in the deeply spiritual culture of Tibet. Not only was he an important spiritual master, a source of important meditation instruction lineages, he was also a master engineer who built over a hundred iron bridges across some of the deepest gorges in the world as well as a dramatist credited with the development of the classical Tibetan opera performance. In King of the Empty Plain: The Tibetan Iron-Bridge Builder Tangtong Gyalpo Cyrus Stearns, one of the most respected translators of classical Tibetan texts, beautifully brings to life the story of one of Tibet's most inspiring and loved personalities. This book is a must for anyone who is interested in Tibetan culture and history as well as those who wish to see how the altruistic ideals of the bodhisattva path can be concretely applied in socio-economic and humanitarian action."—Thupten Jinpa, translator to H.H. the Dalai Lama, author of Self, Reality and Reason in Tibetan Philosophy

In these excerpts from King of the Empty Plain, author Cyrus Stearns takes a look at "deliberative behavior," a mode of testing and enhancing realization. Tangtong Gyalpo is well known as master of this modality, as well as an inveterate builder of iron bridges across Tibet.

Tangtong Gyalpo is said to have mastered the practices of all the religious systems in Tibet, and the transmission of his teachings reflects this eclectic approach. His own blend of the various traditions he inherited, influenced by his numerous visions of the divine, came to be known as the Chakzam, or Iron-Bridge Tradition (Lcags zam lugs).... The teachings of Tangtong Gyalpo's Iron-Bridge tradition have come down to the present day as currents found in virtually all the major Buddhist schools in Tibet.

The feigning of madness and other modes of deliberate behavior prescribed in the Buddhist tantras are always chosen in order to benefit others. The pivotal event convincing Tangtong Gyalpo that he should employ the various forceful means of tantric behavior occurred when he received the treasure teachings of Gökyi Demtruchen from Kunpang Dönyö Gyaltsen. Tangtong was still young, and as a newly ordained monk he felt some misgivings concerning the various fierce methods advocated in the teachings that had been concealed by Padmasambhava. As he pondered whether these techniques were in conflict with the lifestyle of a monk, he was graced with a terrifying vision of Padmasambhava in the sky surrounded by rainbow light and yogins and yoginis. Padmasambhava indicated the yogins to his right eating a human corpse, the yoginis to his left drinking from a skull-cup filled with beer, and finally himself in sexual union with the goddess Vajravarahi. Tangtong considered this vision to be a symbolic command that if the good of others was accomplished through reliance on the sacramental substances and deliberate behavior, he should perform even the four defeating acts. He immediately went into strict seclusion for three years, at the end of which Padmasambhava appeared again and directly urged him to assume the lifestyle and dress of a tantric yogin and engage in deliberate behavior. Before this retreat, Tangtong had dressed as a monk, but now he began to wear only a simple cloak in keeping with the yogic lifestyle, and often used the unusual techniques of deliberate behavior to heighten his own realization and to benefit others.

The following early episodes in the life of Tangtong Gyalpo are from the biography written by his disciple and close attendant Sherab Palden, who certainly learned of them directly from the great adept himself.

Most of the famous mad yogins lived during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, but few seem to have met each other. Tangtong Gyalpo and Tsang Nyön Heruka were the most important of these eccentric masters in terms of their lasting influence on Tibetan culture and religion. The account of their meeting portrays the continuity of the tradition of religious madness in Tibet and heralds the appearance of Tsang Nyön as the next great mad yogin. The year was 1476 and Tangtong was perhaps 115 years old.

Tsang Nyön had reached twenty-five years of age and with his nephew for an attendant traveled through Latö Jang in western Tsang to the foot of glorious Riwoché. The precious lord sent his nephew ahead, and following behind, arrived when the great adept Tangtong Gyalpo was performing the tenth-day ritual feast on the peak of Riwoché. He came straight in, and just in front of the great adept was an enormous bowl covered both inside and out with barley paste and filled with beer. The lord took it in his hands and drank it. All the people were stunned, and even the great adept stared at him for a moment. Then the lord grabbed and bit the great adept's beard.

The great adept jerked his head back and cried, "Ow! Ow!"

The lord remarked, "What kind of great adept is this? He cries out in pain, unable to bear even the sting of his beard."

The great adept laughed and said with embarassment, "A fine auspicious connection. Offer me that garment of yours."

The lord replied, "It's a fine auspicious connection, but since you've got a lot, I'll take this," and grabbed the great adept's cloak.

"Delightful deliberate behavior!" the great adept exclaimed, "I don't need you and you don't need me, so get out! I'll see that you have no obstacles."

Tangtong Gyalpo lived in a social environment that was willing to accept the incredible behavior of the mad yogins once it had been established that they were genuine masters putting the tantric teachings into practice, and not spurious imitators. He purposely cultivated his image as a mad yogin by emphatically signing his surviving works with the name Lungtong Nyönpa, Madman of the Empty Valley. His cultural legacy in the form of iron bridges, stupas, and monasteries is still evident today, and his religious teachings have spread throughout every lineage in Tibet.

From the force of the great Iron-Bridge Man's prayers, many different deposits of iron emerged in all the regions of Kongpo, so that boundless offerings of iron occurred.

The great adept took these and traveled to Tsagong Nesar. He told the people of Drak, "To manufacture iron links, I need iron, charcoal, and laborers with provisions."

Many different individual offerings and promises were made. He established factories for forging links at eight smitheries. The lord, the great adept, knew with clairvoyance that Drakpa the blacksmith's life was finished and that he would agree to give up this life. He went repeatedly to the smitheries and asked, "Will anyone give up this life?"

Drakpa the blacksmith replied, "I will give it up if you can promise my rebirth as the son of a rich man from Central Tibet."

"Well, you should assume the vajra position and sit with an undistracted mind!" < /p>

The great adept sat on the blacksmith's mat and performed the visualization for transference of consciousness three times. On the first, the body of the blacksmith shuddered. The second time, he stopped breathing. The third time, his body and pure awareness separated. When the great adept made prayers, the blacksmith was reborn as the son of a rich man in Yarlung who clearly remembered his past life.

The great adept was working during the day and retiring to his meditation hut at night. Foolish men who were unable to work had a discussion, saying, "Let's wait for him and throw him off the cliff."

Many men came wearing armor, and the great adept said, "Go do the required stone work!"

They stabbed his body with spears, which they thought went in one side of his body and out the other. But he snatched away the spears and broke them over his knee.

"If I died every time I was struck with a sword or a spear," he observed, "it would have happened many times."

While the great adept was digging stone in the stone quarry, the monk Dramré took a stone as large as he could lift and heaved it against a boulder. It struck the head of the great adept.

"I've killed the master," he sobbed.

But the great adept just said, "Nothing has happened."

Then, in the form of an obstacle to getting the remaining quantity of earth and stone, they were unable to quarry stone for three days, which caused a shortage for the masons. The great adept took an iron chisel that was an armspan in length and stuck it into a gap in the stone. When he leaned on it, a landslide occurred, and he was covered for three days and nights.

The compulsory laborers were happy and said, "The adept has died. Now we don't have to work!"

"We can't finish the stupa," the disciples said. "We'd better search for the body."

When they went there, offering prayers and carrying tools, the great adept was sitting on top of a large stone, even more majestic than before.

"Those on the side of the maras are causing obstacles," he declared. "If the obstacles are effective, the maras win. If they are not effective, I, Tangtong Gyalpo, win. If I, Tangtong Gyalpo win, the living beings of southern Jambudvipa win. The evil omens have been transformed into good. The landslide has opened the door to a deposit of stone. Now there will be no shortage of stone. Now, instead of me traveling around the country, if people are sent out to encourage virtue, a greater increase of disciples will occur."

From that time on, without moving for even an instant, he sat in the meditation hut of Dzamling Gyen that is like the tip of a victory banner on the peak of glorious Riwoché. When he performed life-sustaining practices for twenty-one days, he beheld the faces of the assembled deities of lord Amitayus, father and mother, who gave him five pills for immortal life, saying, "Upholder of pure awareness, by giving longevity pills like these to increase the lifespan and merit of living beings, you will free them from the fear of untimely death and increase the assemblies of merit and primordial awareness."

Thereafter, the longevity pills of the great adept have prevented the untimely deaths of infinite living beings.

More about the author . . .

Cyrus Stearns is a scholar of Tibetan religion, literature, and history. He has studied with and translated for many Tibetan teachers, and has a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from the University of Washington.

Other books in the Tsadra Foundation Series:

• The Autobiography of Jamgon Kongtrul: A Gem of Many Colors
• Guru Rinpoche: His Life and Times
• Machik's Complete Explanation: Clarifying the Meaning of Chod
• Sacred Ground: Jamgon Kongtrul on "Pilgrimage and Sacred Geography"
• Timeless Rapture: Inspired Verse of the Shangpa Masters
• Wisdom Nectar: Dudjom Rinpoche's Heart Advice