The Epic of Gesar of Ling

by Robin Kornman

  Then, while I was tirelessly supplicating, I had a dream in which a man was pointing at a horse that he said was Gesar’s divine horse Kyang-bu. He wore a jeweled saddle, and the man said I was to take the horse to the city of the northern country of Shambhala. Leading the horse by the reins, I found myself in a place I had never seen before, the mountains and dwelling places of Shambhala. I didn’t know what happened to the horse, but one man gave me a small volume of the horse race. Although it seemed to me that I had read the book, I did not know the meaning of the content. Nevertheless it seemed that the man had said that the subject of this book was the horse race.

  From that time onward, the content of the Symbolic Secret arose within my mind. Hence I understood how to place the account of the horse race into seven chapters corresponding to the seven royal signs. As I wrote them down, one by one, I was able to clarify any misconceptions concerning the meaning and accuracy of the existing epics.

  By the time I was beginning the sixth chapter, again I was at a loss as to what to write and was stuck there for about a year. I was extremely frustrated and did not know how to reconcile this.

  Previously I had received from Guru Padma Ödzer some practices from Khentsei Yeshe Dorje’s Gesar dharma cycle. At that point Guru Padma Ödzer said, “If you are able to practice this guru yoga, the dharma epic will come to you!” I responded by saying that I had completed the epic up to this point, and then he strongly insisted that I write the rest down as quickly as possible. Even the Great Dharma King of Ling told me to write it down quickly and promised several times that he would carve it into woodblocks.

  Then once again when I was single-pointedly supplicating to the Great Lion Being, I dreamed that I had found the epic, met the brethren, and that Sengtag, Zhalkar, and Denma, these three, were lining up their troops, and so forth. From this dream state, many visionary experiences arose that I wrote down as well.

  Concerning this subject it cannot be definitively determined that the life stories of buddhas and bodhisattvas occur in only one way; however, that this appeared to me in this way accomplishes the command of the guru and recalls the kindness of Great Lion, while hoping in some small way to remedy the disease, famine, and war of the world. For these reasons I have written this down.

  I have no experience, realization, or noble qualities, and in addition have spent my entire life overpowered by confused perception, so in no way am I claiming that this epic falls in the category of authorized prophetic command or revelational pure vision. Nevertheless this epic is not other than the appearance of the dynamic strength of buddha nature, the tathāgatagarbha.

  Any small virtue accumulated through this work, I dedicate to the welfare of sentient beings. Whatever mistakes have been made due to confused appearances, I confess before the assembly of deities. Since I alone know that my motivation has never become sullied by poisonous passions, may this be the cause that, throughout all my lifetimes, I am never separated from the Great Lion Being.

  KARMA YAMARADZA MAHĀDEVA TIŚTHRA.

  [Publisher’s note from the Chengdu edition:]

  This volume is based on the original woodblocks of the Ling family of Derge. Comrade Thubten Nyima [Alak Zenkar Rinpoche] and others used several manuscript versions of the horse race to add a few passages to the text of the original woodblocks of Ling province. They also edited the text and wrote a table of contents.

  NOTES

  VOLUME ONE. GESAR’S INCARNATION

  1. For clarity we have chosen to create new titles in English for the volumes. The original title in the Tibetan text for volume 1 is The Divine Land of Ling: The Nine-Squared Divination Board (Tib. lha gling: gab rtse dgu skor), so-called because it forms the basis of the epic, or is the source from which the rest of the epic emerges and the life and enlightened deeds of Gesar can gradually come to be known. In this way, the saga is similar to the divination board that is used in Tibetan astrology, whereby drawings and numbers are prepared in order to calculate a prognosis and allow one to discern the resultant situation. The number nine in Tibetan is a generic plural implying multiple numbers: this tells us that there will be many accounts concerning the Great Being’s enlightened deeds as his life story unfolds through the epic.

  2. This prologue is a piece of formal poetry written in the compact style of Sanskrit kāvya, or court poetry. Since this kind of language is distinctly unbardic, it is probably an introductory contribution by Gyurmed Thubten Jamyang Dorje, expressing an interpretive agenda and bringing out the Buddhist message seen in the epic.

  3. Dharmatā means “the ultimate nature of phenomena or reality itself” and is a word for the absolute level of reality, beyond the illusion of mere appearance. Gesar has his true or ultimate existence at the absolute level of reality as the enlightened mind of a buddha. The idea is that King Gesar, before he incarnated as a human being, dwelled, like all enlightened beings, in a state of mind where he directly saw the ultimate nature of things, the dharmatā, or the very nature of phenomena. All his actions may have expressed themselves on the relative plane, but are seen by Gesar from an ultimate, nondual point of view.

  4. “Awakened mind” (Tib. byang chub kyi sems; Skt. bodhicitta): The Tibetan literally means the “mind of enlightenment” or the “thought of enlightenment.” Here the thought of enlightenment is the experience of compassion that intends the benefit of all sentient beings. Since this compassion is based on the dharmatā, or the absolute, it is not clouded by false perceptions and does not play favorites. It is impartially directed toward all sentient beings equally.

  5. The one who can perform the magical rituals known as the four karmas possesses ultimate skillful means (Tib. thabs; Skt. upāya). These are symbolized by the vajra, the adamantine lamaic scepter. “Hundred points” is a classical epithet for the vajra. The one-hundredpointed vajra is a hand implement, the undefeatable weapon of the great god Indra. Well known among the Vedic parables, the one-hundred-point vajra scepter is a metaphor for the four enlightened activities that have the same potential.

  6. “Fourfold buddha activity” refers to the four enlightened activities of pacifying, enriching, magnetizing, and destroying. See glossary: buddha activities, fourfold.

  7. “The teaching of cause and effect” (Tib. rgyu ’bras; Skt. hetu phala) refers to the Buddhist teachings about the nature of karma that impinge on the moral life. Much of Buddhist moral philosophy is based not on absolute principle but rather on a rational understanding of the causal or karmic consequences of one’s actions. The epic will illustrate moral causality at many levels, teaching the kind of relative understanding necessary to lead an ethical life in the Buddhist religion.

  8. Each chapter of this edition includes a descriptive stanza that was added previously under the editorship of Alak Zenkar Rinpoche. Their style is reminiscent of the humorous verses at the beginning of each chapter of a Ming or Ch’ing dynasty Chinese novel and also of the argumento at the beginning of Renaissance heroic literature (such as The Faerie Queene). The argumento describes the coming chapter, but in a riddling way. Heroes are referred to not by their names but by their epithets.

  9. The five degeneracies of the dark age are those of lifespan, the passions, sentient beings, time, and view.

  10. The causal vehicle of characteristics (Tib. rgyu mtshan nyid; Skt. mahāyāna), the so-called Greater Vehicle of Buddhism, is divided by the Tibetans into two sub-yānas, or vehicles: the sūtrayāna and the mantrayāna. Sūtrayāna is the exoteric vehicle of bodhisattvas that relies on the Buddhist scriptures known as sutras. Mantrayāna is the division of mahāyāna that uses the esoteric techniques of the tantras. One of its many names is the secret mantra vehicle, because its teachings cannot be received without first receiving an empowerment. If empowerment has not been received, then the teachings must be kept “secret.”

  11. “Naturally pacify”: English does not have an exact equivalent for the Tibetan, rang sar zhi. The word naturally here actually means “in its own place.” There is a sense of
leaving something as it is while nevertheless changing it; rang sar does not evoke the existence of an absolute essence, the way the term “nature” does. The native deities were “pacified in their own place.”

  12. “Glorious gateway” (Tib. rten ’brel dpal kha), also expressed as “glorious gate of good fortune” (see glossary). This term represents the idea that a particular astrological conjunction, probably understood according to the five elements, twelve roots, and ten branches of Chinese astrology, made this the perfect moment to establish a connection between heaven and earth and create an enlightened kingdom. The “glorious gate” is a gateway to energy and good fortune. The Tibetan rten ’brel (pronounced tendrel) literally means “causal linkage,” a technical Buddhist concept. But here it is often used to indicate a positive string of causally linked events, in which case it is translated as “good fortune” or “auspicious coincidence.”

  Had Lotus Skull Garland succeeded in binding the anti-Buddhist demons of Tibet three times, the flourishing of dharma in Tibet would have begun. There would have been no effective opposition and the negative events upon which the epic is based would not have occurred.

  13. Sukhāvatī, the realm of great bliss, is the pure land or heaven of Amitābha, who is the buddha of compassion, just as Avalokiteśvara is the bodhisattva of compassion. It should be observed at this point that all of the deities thus far mentioned belong to one particular “family” among the five buddha families.

  The tantric mandala is a structure containing five buddhas facing in five directions; center, north, south, east, and west. All of the characters in this chapter of the Gesar epic are members of the Lotus (Padma) family, which presides over the western direction of this mandala. Chief among them is the Buddha Amitābha, then the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, the guru Lotus Born (Lotus Skull Garland), and then later the yidam and protector of the Lotus family, Hayagrīva, the horse-headed one, and of course the warrior protector of the Lotus family, Gesar himself. All are manifestations and emanations of the same general principle of compassion and discerning wisdom (the wisdom that allows one to be precise), that are the characteristic of the Lotus family.

  14. This brief supplication and its response are phrased in the conventional terms of Sanskrit court poetry, but the underlying metaphysical situation is odd. Avalokiteśvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, is considered an emanation of Amitābha, the buddha of compassion. On Amitābha’s command, Avalokiteśvara will go to another emanation of the same principle, the enlightened tantric yogin Padmasambhava, and request him to cause the birth of Gesar. Most of the conversations in this chapter will occur between individuals who are in essence the same person.

  15. Usually Amitābha’s name in Tibetan is ’od dpag med, Limitless Light. Here it is ’od mi ’gyur, Unchanging Light.

  16. By asking the buddha of compassion to “reveal skillful means,” Avalokiteśvara is requesting that he create and cause Gesar to incarnate. Gesar’s specialty is to use magic mischievously to benefit beings.

  17. This is a traditional figure of Buddhist kāvya. The would-be disciples are drowning in a whirlpool of delusion. The lords, who look down on them from above, the bodhisattvas such as Avalokiteśvara, offer to the disciples a stick with a hook on the end, symbolizing their compassion. If the disciples have an iron ring of faith in the buddhas, the hook will snag that ring and pull them from the ocean.

  18. The heaven of the thirty-three is the abode of gods who are practicing and studying the dharma. Divine deities abide in this realm.

  19. Evam is Sanskrit for “thus,” the first word of any Buddhist sutra—for example, “Thus have I heard.” But in tantric buddhism, Evam is a code symbol for the unification of male and female principles; of wisdom and skillful means, wisdom and compassion, and so forth.

  20. “Unfabricated compassion.” The Gantok edition has the Tibetan as mi skyod, whereas other editions have mi spyod rather than mi skyod. This would translate as “through the light rays of Akṣobhya’s compassion,” which would seem to be the wrong buddha for the occasion, since we already have Amitābha presiding as the dharmakāya principle behind events leading to the Gesar’s birth. Therefore we have chosen mi spyod, reading “unfabricated compassion.”

  21. The phrase “emanation of their blessings” refers to the style of reproduction of gods. There are five kinds of birth. For example, mammals are born from a womb, whereas snakes and birds are born from eggs, and certain kinds of bugs are thought to be born from heat and moisture. Unlike these, the method of birth for the gods is rdzus skyes, or “miraculous birth.” Thus this child is not an ordinary descendant, but a sprul, an emanation, considered to be magical.

  22. This appears in various places in the epic as Jampei Künkyab [All-Pervading Mercy], Jampei Lingchen [Great Garden of Mercy], and as Jampei Künkyab Lingchen [Great Garden of All-Pervading Mercy]. We have chosen to use the latter for uniformity.

  23. Tibetan epic ballads begin with a half-line of alliterative nonsense syllables that give the tune of the song. A literal rendering of these lines would be “Ala, this is the head of the song. / Thala, the melody goes this way.” These musical sounds are like “tra-la” in English and begin every epic song.

  24. The demon is speaking in the epic manner, like a nomad making an eloquent argument, proving his point by citing well-known proverbs. The proverbs in this case all contain a pun on the homonyms of the word pronounced dön, which when spelled don means affair, wealth, court case, meaning, and benefit. But when spelled gdon, it refers to an invisible evil spirit and the resulting evil, misfortune, madness, and disease.

  The demon minister, through these proverbs, argues that the child must have an extraordinary reason (don) for doing something so foolhardy as to visit an island of demons. His reason must be unusual, like the case of a man suddenly possessed by a dön (gdon), which would force a traveler to jump off a cliff, or force a rich man unnecessarily into court.

  25. The word sin in the name Blood Lake of Sin is a translation of the Tibetan sdig (Skt. ppa), which is often paired with sgrib, meaning “obscurations.” “Sin” does not quite have the right connotation in English and often, in order to dispense with Judeo-Christian notions of guilt and stain and innate evil, we translate sdig simply as “evil deeds.” These are simply activities that plant seeds of negative karma. The Sanskrit for obscuration is āvaraña, which literally means “veil,” since it represents the two veils that darken conventional mind and keep it from seeing reality.

  26. This proverb refers to the caravan path followed by Tibetan merchants conducting trade with China.

  27. The demon minister has asked his questions implicitly in proverbs. He has asked whether the magical child’s case is important enough to merit the danger of approaching Padmasambhava’s demon-ridden domain. Since the question was subtly implied (rang bzhin zhugs) in the proverbs rather than asked directly, he asks the demon boy if he has understood.

  28. This is the first of a series of cosmological and climactic extended similes that fill the epic. In spring the frozen earth warms, ice melts, and the earth becomes tillable. Rain falls and the thunder is like a dragon’s roar. If there were no spring, the dragon would be like a snake, silent as a frozen mouth.

  29. “Spinning head” (Tib. mgo ’khor) is an expression that refers to people who are confused and distracted by a con artist. The point of this proverbial argument is that fancy words that don’t tell you something important are just a trick to confuse naive minds.

  The extended metaphor is taken from a mixture of Indian and Far Eastern cosmology found in the worldview of the Kālacakra tantra. Mount Meru is the mythical mountain at the center of the world. The heavenly bodies all rotate around it, creating the seasons and all cycles of nature. Thus rain and sun are brought to the fields and crops can grow as the cycling of the heavens brings the seasons. This is the practical meaning to humankind of the spinning of the heavens. If this benefit did not occur, there would be no point in the ceaseless, ever-repeated
rotation of heavenly bodies, which would serve no purpose but to confuse people by their senseless spinning.

  It is the same with words that hide a point in symbols and figures of speech; if the meaning is not understood, then the speeches serve no purpose but are mere distractions for brainless dupes.

  This is a telling point in the oral culture of the Tibetan highlands, where the ability to give long, florid speeches loaded with proverbial instances and using fancy rhetorical figures is considered a powerful personal weapon and an instrument of power.

  If the continents were people, then they would be grateful for the circulation of the sun and moon, showing them due respect. The sun and the moon are the leaders and the four continents are the subjects. When the leaders increase, the subjects increase. But if the leaders were unable to bring benefit to the four continents, their subjects would not respect them.

  Although a person may try in his or her lifetime to have wealth and spiritual accomplishments, if people fail, it is probably because they have not planted the karmic seeds that would ripen into a successful life. For example, if one wants to be wealthy, the best way is to practice the Buddhist religion and to be generous. This will make wealth in the next lifetime occur naturally. When a businessman with such a karmic store creates an enterprise, it tends to be successful. But planning an enterprise without such a basis is pointless, and a person exerting him or herself that way would be merely a brainless dupe.