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Assassination attempt of the 13th Dalai Lama (part 2)

May 14, 2014
Tags: Fearless in Tibet, Tertön Sogyal photo journey, Dalai Lama
the 13th Dalai Lama and Tibet's Cabinet of Ministers
Part 2 of SORCERER’S ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT ON THE DALAI LAMA from 'Fearless in Tibet'

When the Dalai Lama was 24 years old, he began having recurring ominous dreams. He consulted Tertön Sogyal, who interpreted the dreams as life threatening and suggested antidotes and rituals to drive away the source of the aggression. The Nechung Oracle began to warn of similar dangers to the Dalai Lama’s life. A new menace had emerged. While the Oracle often gave cryptic allegories in his counsel, on this occasion he stated plainly that measures needed to be taken to protect the Dalai Lama.

The Nechung Oracle most often delivered his prophecies and advice to the Dalai Lama and government ministers in formal ceremonies. With the Dalai Lama presiding on a throne and the officials arranged by rank, the Oracle’s medium would enter the temple in a meditative state, waiting to become possessed. As the assembly chanted invocation verses, the medium’s ritual brocade robes and circular chest plate, weighing more than 100 pounds, were securely fastened. When Nechung entered the medium’s body, the monk stomped and jerked in wrathful dances as a massive helmet-crown that weighed more than 30 pounds was tied to his head. As he hissed and jumped,  Read More 
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Assassination attempt of the 13th Dalai Lama (part 1)

May 13, 2014
Tags: Fearless in Tibet, Tertön Sogyal photo journey, Dalai Lama
Thubten Gyatso, the 13th Dalai Lama; click on photo for more images
Extract from "Fearless in Tibet"

SORCERER’S ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT ON THE DALAI LAMA (Part 1)
Lhasa, Central Tibet Year of the Earth Pig, 1899

In 1886, when the Thirteenth Dalai Lama was 11 years old, Demo became Tibet’s regent. Demo was the head of the Tengyeling Monastery, and its estate was the largest and most powerful in Lhasa at the time. Demo served the young Dalai Lama well, and thanks to his position, his monastery increased its already substantial wealth. In the Wood Sheep year (1895), Demo stepped aside and the Dalai Lama was enthroned as the spiritual and political ruler of Tibet. Many in Demo’s court were not pleased with their loss of power. In particular, Norbu Tsering, Demo’s nephew and manager of the Tengyeling estate, was distressed at the sudden reduction in Tengyeling’s political clout after the Dalai Lama ascended to the throne.

The wealth of Tengyeling in the late 1800s was a testament to Norbu Tsering’s proficiency in worldly ways. He not only employed  Read More 
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The 13th Dalai Lama and Tertön Sogyal

May 9, 2014
Tags: Fearless in Tibet, Tertön Sogyal photo journey, Dalai Lama
click here for more photos of the 13th Dalai Lama
Extract from Chapter 8 of "Fearless in Tibet"

OFFICIAL SUMMONS FROM THE DALAI LAMA
Drikok Encampment, Eastern Tibet
Year of the Earth Rat to the Earth Ox, 1888–1889

Accounts of Tertön Sogyal’s spiritual power spread throughout eastern Tibet to the marketplace and teahouses of Lhasa. Devout pilgrims arriving in central Tibet from Kham told of the emerging treasure revealer from Nyarong who was pulling termas out of granite and appearing in different villages at the same time. Traders brought stories of Tertön Sogyal’s blessed talismans that safeguarded them from the dangers of robbers and the punishing hailstorms. Even the monks and teachers in Lhasa at the great monastic universities of Sera, Drepung, and Ganden began hearing about Tertön Sogyal.

At the beginning of the Earth Rat year (1888), a messenger on horseback was dispatched from the Dalai Lama’s Potala Palace in Lhasa to eastern Tibet with a message for Tertön Sogyal. The horseman found  Read More 
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Mikel Dunham's Book Review of 'Fearless in Tibet'

May 7, 2014
Tags: Book Review, Fearless in Tibet, Mikel Dunham
Matteo Pistono’s new book, Fearless in Tibet, a biography of the great 19th century mystic Terton Sogyal, could just as easily be called Fearless in Writing.

Until the very recent past, Tibetan biographies have been strictly hagiographic in tone and content. The readership was confined to accomplished practitioners of tantric Buddhism and the books were penned in a pre-20th century timeframe, in which empirical science played no role. Buddhist manifestations of magic neither contradicted nor compromised Tibetan readers’ experience of the “real” world. Tibetans simply lived in an atmosphere of the marvelous. If someone was said to have super-human origins or skills, no one jumped through hoops to embrace the notion. A biographer’s emphasis was on the subject’s inner journey, not the dates and place-names of his or her outer life, which was regarded as mundane, if not irrelevant.

It is no easy task, then, for a Western writer with a Western readership to bridge that cultural gap, to bring to life the story of a highly realized Buddhist master – to explore the tantric’s spiritual achievement while also folding into the narrative Terton Sogyal’s political significance.

Matteo Pistono has done precisely this.

His biography not only accurately identifies Terton Sogyal as one of the diplomatic lightning rods of his time – replete with Sogyal’s profoundly crucial relationship with the 13th Dalai Lama  Read More 
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Pilgrimage in the footsteps of Jamgön Kongtrul & Tertön Sogyal

May 7, 2014
Tags: Kyoto Journal, pilgrimage
extract from Kyoto Journal, Issue 78: Time Out On The Inward Journey
by Matteo Pistono


Winter 2004, Year of the Wood Monkey
Cave That Delights the Senses, Near the Jewel Cliff of Tsadra, Eastern Tibet

When Padmasambhava began to give the vajrayana teachings in Tibet in the eighth century, one of the first instructions to his “heart disciples” was the phurba-dagger practice of the deity Vajrakilaya. One cycle of the Vajrakilaya teach¬ings that was hidden at that time is known as The Razor of the Innermost Essence. Nearly two volumes of Padmasambhava’s instructions are found in The Razor treasure, which include complex rituals believed to remove obstacles to one’s spiritual development, to thwart attack by enemy invaders, and importantly, to protect the Dalai Lama. In the autumn of 1895, Tertön Sogyal received the mnemonic key to The Razor treasure at a remote cave in eastern Tibet. Within a decade after being written in liturgies, the rituals found within The Razor were em¬ployed in the nation’s spiritual defense.

In the first months of 2004, Antonio, an Italian scholar with whom I had traveled across Tibet on numerous occasions, and I were in the vicinity where Tertön Sogyal had received the key for The Razor. Antonio and I had met years before while we both were traveling near Serthar, and after a month of grueling travel from Golok to Lhasa—where on two occasions, we had to get out of our transport and hike a wide detour around the police check posts undetected,  Read More 
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Patrul Rinpoche, Nyoshul Lungtok, and Tertön Sogyal

May 6, 2014
Tags: Fearless in Tibet, Tertön Sogyal photo journey
Matteo Pistono with a monk near Patrul Rinpoche's retreat cave; click for more photos
Tertön Sogyal spent a few years in retreat under the great Dzogchen adept, Nyoshul Lungtok Tenpai Nyima. Nyoshul Lungtok spent nearly thirty years studying under Patrul Rinpoche. At the end of Nyoshul Lungtok’s decades of experiential-oriented training with his teacher, Patrul Rinpoche announced publicly, “With respect to the view, Nyoshul Lungtok surpasses me.”

When Tertön Sogyal learned of the great Patrul Rinpoche’s declaration of Nyoshul Lungtok’s realization of wisdom, he knew he needed to study with him. Donning his tattered robes and white shawl, and carrying a few texts, his prayer beads, and a wooden bowl, Tertön Sogyal  Read More 
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Jamgön Kongtrul and Tertön Sogyal

May 5, 2014
Tags: Fearless in Tibet, Tertön Sogyal photo journey
Scroll painting of Jamgön Kongtrul with his hand and footprints; click on image for more photos from 'Fearless in Tibet'
After Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo passed away, Tertön Sogyal turned to
the remaining spiritual luminary in eastern Tibet, Jamgön Kongtrul,
as his touchstone. Tertön Sogyal had already received many
teachings and empowerments from Kongtrul. As their relationship
deepened, Kongtrul acknowledged that Tertön Sogyal was
unique among his  Read More 
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Sulak Sivaraksa and deep ecological suffering

May 1, 2014
Tags: Sulak Sivaraksa, Engaged Buddhism
Satish Kumar and the good folks at RESURGENCE asked me to write about Sulak Sivaraksa and his work on the environment and where he identifies the root of deep ecological suffering. I was happy to be part of their efforts. Click on the photo of Sulak to link to the magazine's website.

In the May/June issue of Resurgence, Satish Kumar introduces a celebration of Truth, Goodness and Beauty. The integration of this ancient trilogy into our lives is the foundation of the challenging journey for Resurgence & Ecologist, its writers, poets, artists, readers and supporters.

In an exclusive feature Germaine Greer, author of the inspirational White Beech: The Rainforest Years, argues that conservation and feminism  Read More 
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Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo and Tertön Sogyal

April 30, 2014
Tags: Fearless in Tibet, Tertön Sogyal photo journey
Scroll painting of Jamyang Khyentse Wanpgo, with his foot and hand prints; click here for more photographs
After Tertön Sogyal had spent over five years in retreat in Drikok, he went to Dzongsar to meet the greatest living master of the day, Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo. Their meeting was not by chance, as clearly found in many prophecy and predictions. During their first meeting, Jamyang Khyentse declared the young tertön  Read More 
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Why pre-order Fearless in Tibet?

April 28, 2014
'Fearless in Tibet: The Life of the Mystic Tertön Sogyal' hits the bookshelves in one month! As an author, we try to encourage pre-ordering the book!! How does this help? There is a kind of knock on effect with pre-orders! All pre-orders are calculated on the actual publication date. When libraries, bookstores and Amazon witness a steep spike in sales on that date, they jump on the talking'-about-that-book bandwagon, review & stock the book, advertise, and the like, which really helps get the word out! So thanks in advance!  Read More 
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