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"Earth Acupuncture," King of the Empty Plain Book Excerpt

This excerpt is adapted from King of the Empty Plain, by Cyrus Stearns, under the guidance of the Tsadra Foundation

Stupas serve as geomantic focal-points in the environment and, depending on their location and type, aid in the control of demonic intrusion, disease, warfare, and various other destructive forces. Monasteries and temples are also constructed along the same principles. Tibetan medical practice maintains that the human body contains a number of vital focal-points around which is structured the subtle body of the individual. Chinese acupuncture also employs a similar system. Ancient legends say the landscape of Tibet is the prone body of a gigantic demoness and the points on the earth corresponding to the vital focal-points in her body must be controlled in order to bring harmony to the environment, just as treatment is applied to the specific point of ailment in the body of a human patient. The Compendium of Manis contains an account of the seventh-century king Songtsen Gampo constructing 108 temples in Tibet and border lands that were situated on the focal-points of the demoness' body in order to prevent natural catastrophe and foreign invasion....

Tangtong Gyalpo was deeply interested in understanding the physical environment as an external expression of inherent psychic and divine energy. He had studied the Compendium of Manis. In this ancient text the Chinese wife of the Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo is said to have advised the king that the Lhasa area was the heart of a prone demoness, and that the subterranean Otang Lake was her heart-blood. To the west, the two mountains of Marpori and Chakhar formed her heart-bone. It was necessary to suppress these areas in order to control the environment, and so the Jokhang temple was built over the lake and the king's palace was constructed at the side to suppress the heart-bone.

Read this excerpt in the original text

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More about the book . . .

The legendary Buddhist master Tangtong Gyalpo (1361?-1485), "King of the Empty Plain," is familiar to every Tibetan, yet nearly unknown in the rest of the world. His incredible lifespan, profound teachings, unprecedented engineering feats, eccentric deeds, and creation of Tibetan opera have earned this fascinating figure a unique status in Tibetan culture. Believed to be the great Indian master Padmasambhava appearing again in the world to benefit living beings, Tangtong Gyalpo discovered techniques for achieving longevity that are still held in highest esteem and frequently taught six hundred years later. His construction of fifty-eight iron suspension bridges, sixty wooden bridges, 118 ferries, 111 stupa monuments, and countless temples and monasteries in Tibet and Bhutan remains an awe-inspiring accomplishment.

King of the Empty Plain: The Tibetan Iron-Bridge Builder Tangtong Gyalpo is a detailed study of the life and legacy of this great master. An extensive introduction discusses Tangtong Gyalpo's Dharma traditions, the question of his amazing longevity, his "crazy" activities manifested to enhance his own realization and to benefit others, and his astonishing engineering and architectural achievements. The book includes a complete translation of the most famous Tibetan biography of Tangtong Gyalpo, as well as the Tibetan text and English translation of a unique early manuscript describing his miraculous death. The text is further enriched with ten color plates and seventy-seven black and white illustrations.

"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 socioeconomic and humanitarian action."—Thupten Jinpa, translator to H.H. the Dalai Lama and author of Self, Reality and Reason in Tibetan Philosophy

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More about the author . . .

Cyrus Stearns is a scholar of Tibetan religion, literature, and history, with a Ph.D. in Buddhist studies from the University of Washington. He first began to study Buddhism with Dezhung Rinpoche (1906-87) in 1973 and has studied with and translated for numerous Tibetan teachers. Among his other publications are The Buddha from Dolpo, Hermit of Go Cliffs, Luminous Lives, and Taking the Result as the Path.

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Books by Cyrus Stearns