Biography of Tönpa Shenrab Miwo
Tönpa Shenrab Miwo was born c. 16,017 BCE near Mt. Kailash in Tibet. He was the son of Bön Thökar, King of Shang shung and his wife Gyalshema, an emanation of [the Bön goddess] Jamma. His father <rgya bon thodkar?> invited a Brahmin astrologer, who examined the boy and said he was an emanation dissimilar to other boys. He gave him the name “Tönpa Shenrab Miwo.” “Shen” was his clan name and “rab” implies “superior” or “protector.” “Miwo” means a person of great power. The understanding was that he was of a powerful class of men, born from the Shen clan <dmurus?>, and would be an unsurpassed teacher [Tönpa] or buddha. From when he was small his body held the position of a king, so he was renowned as “king of Shang shung.” Earlier the king had taken ten princesses as his wives, and from these were born ten royal children—eight princes and two princesses. Until age thirty-one he ruled over the large and small principalities of Shang shung (later these would be known as the thirty-eight principalities). He looked after the country based on the Bön principles of karmic cause and effect. He established the systems of the five disciplines, such as grammar, logic, craftsmanship and medicine, as the nine successive vehicles of Bön, thereby spreading the teachings of the Everlasting Bön<Buddha>. At the age of thirty-one he cut his own hair and went forth as a monastic, guarding the vows of monastic discipline. He performed austerities for nine years. He established the Four Bön Portals and the Fifth, The Treasury, externally the Vinayasutra, internally the secret mantra, and secretly Bön Dzokchen for the purpose of limitless beings striving for liberation, thereby guiding all beings of the six realms, as vast as space, in the path to happiness.
Vajrasattva
Vajrasattva is depicted seated on a lotus and sun throne, with his right leg drawn in and the left extended. His body is blue in color, with one face and two hands. In his right hand, he raises aloft a five-pronged vajra toward the sky; in his left hand, resting at his heart, he holds a bell. He possesses three rounded red eyes, and his hair, golden in color, rises upward. He is adorned with the eight great nāgas and many precious ornaments and wears a tiger-skin garment. His head is crowned with immutable awareness and blazes with the fire of wisdom at its center. Regarding his origin and benefits: The practice of Vajrasattva is said to have descended from Mount Sumeru and spread into Tibet. In particular, it was transmitted to the great master Lhodrak Drubchen Lekje Lama, who received it and, through the power of his meditation, manifested as the deity itself. From his secluded practice, the lineage spread widely. Originating within the Sakya school, this transmission subdued all classes of demons and obstructing forces. It became the supreme of both higher and common accomplishments, establishing Vajrasattva as an exalted and noble deity.
Cakrasaṃvara Lūipa
Glorious Cakrasaṃvara Lūipa is blue in colour with four faces and twelve hands. The main face is black, the left face is green, the back face is red, and the right face is yellow. Each face has three eyes. Of the twelve hands, the first two hold a vajra and bell and embrace red Mother Vārāhī, who holds a knife and skull. The lower two hands hold an elephant hide with the threatening gesture. The remaining four right hands hold a ḍamaru, battle-axe, curved knife, and trident. The remaining four left hands hold a khaṭvāṅga, skull, lasso and the Brahmā’s head. His topknot is marked with a crossed vajra. Each of his heads is adorned with five dry skulls strung with a garland of black vajras on the top and bottom. On the left side of his head is a face that is bound in the shape of a slightly tilted half-moon. He has the expression of nine dances with his four fangs bared. He wears a five hundred fresh head necklace and a tiger’s hide as his lower skirt. He is adorned with the six bone ornaments and stands with his right leg outstretched on a seat of blue Vajrabhairava and red Kālarātri. The eight heroes and heroines are on the eight spokes of the mind wheel, and the eight dakinis are at the four doors and the four intermediate directions.
Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava)
Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava), the precious teacher, was born as the son of a king in the sacred land of Uddiyana, a blessed region of India. At his birth, wise seers foretold that the child would not become a worldly ruler, but rather a great tantric master of the secret mantras. Even as a child, he mastered both the higher and lesser sciences with ease and possessed extraordinary insight. He studied under many tantric masters, practiced meditation for a long time, and attained profound realization, displaying many miraculous signs. At one point, he resided in the hermitage of Chittavana, where he taught and guided many disciples. However, some ministers became jealous and accused him before the king. The king ordered that he be executed—pierced with weapons and burned in fire—but Guru Rinpoche displayed supernatural powers and remained unharmed. After this, he went to live in cremation grounds and mountain caves, subduing countless spirits and elemental forces. Under his eight great teachers, he attained both supreme and common siddhis (spiritual accomplishments). He then traveled widely throughout India, including the regions of Magadha, the central plains, the northeast, and Nepal, conquering heretical views and taming fierce spirits, binding them under oath to protect the Dharma. In the seventh century, the Tibetan king Trisong Detsen invited him to Tibet. Upon his arrival, Guru Rinpoche subdued twelve powerful local deities and many malevolent forces that obstructed the establishment of Buddhism, appointing them as guardians of the Dharma. The king, queen, ministers, and people welcomed him with devotion at the royal palace at Red Rock (Marpo Ri) and made great offerings to him. Later, Guru Rinpoche helped found Samye Monastery, the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet. When the temple’s foundation repeatedly collapsed, he used his miraculous powers to transform the land, turning dry plains and desert regions such as Ngamshod and Drantang into verdant meadows and forests. The king’s son, Mu Khri Tsanpo, was appointed governor of Bhutan, where Guru Rinpoche helped subdue hostile forces and brought great treasures and sacred substances back to Tibet. Protectors such as Pehar were appointed as guardians of Samye. The king, queen, ministers, and seven chosen disciples received tantric empowerments from him, and through his blessings, twenty-five great siddhas arose in Tibet, known as the Twenty-Five Disciples. Guru Rinpoche resided in Tibet for about fifty-five years, spreading the Dharma widely. Later, when certain ministers who opposed the teachings became fearful of his immense power, they persuaded the king to ask him to return to his homeland. When they attempted to harm him along the way, Guru Rinpoche again manifested miraculous powers, and, unable to injure him, they witnessed him rise into the sky and depart for the land of the rākṣasas (demons), where he continued to subdue and transform them into protectors of the Dharma.
Nechung King
At the center, the Néchung King, a manifestation of exalted mind, is red in color, with one face and two hands, wearing silk robes and a bearskin coat, along with a black silk hat. In his right hand, he holds a devil’s lasso, and in his left, a sword. He rides a long-trunked elephant, a red lightning bolt as his mount's companion. In the east, King Mönbu Putra, the manifestation of the exalted body, is dark blue in color, wearing black bendri robes and black silk hat. In his right hand, he holds a vajra and cymbal stick and rides a lion with a black bear as companion. In the south, King Shing-jā-chän, the manifestation of exalted quality, is dark blue in color, wearing garments of snake and tiger skin and a garuda-headed hat. In his right hand, he holds a battle axe, and in his left, a devil’s lasso. He rides a white-heeled demon horse, accompanied by a turquoise dragon. In the west, King Drā-lhā-kyé-chíg, the manifestation of exalted speech, is red in color, wearing black silk robes and a bamboo hat. In his right hand, he holds a walking stick, and left, a large banner. He rides a white-footed black mule, accompanied by a wolf. In the north, King Pehar, the manifestation of exalted activity is white, black and red in color, with three faces and six arms, wearing white silk upper garments and tiger skin skirt, along with a pointed hat. His three right hands hold an iron hook, arrow and sword, while his three left hands hold a knife, a bow, and a stick. He rides a white lion accompanied by a whirlwind. All four are surrounded by extensive retinues that include consorts, ministers, messengers, performers, and masked dancers. This protector is said to have come to Tibet from Pehar during the reign of King Trisong Duetsen, following some sacred objects. Guru Padmasambhava subsequently bound him under oath to serve as a protector of Tibet. Many realized masters have attested that his oracular pronouncements have never been false. It is said that making offerings to, propitiating, him brings immediate benefits and removes obstacles. He is regarded as a manifestation of the exalted activities of the five Buddha families, appearing in the form of a worldly deity. On the third day of Tibetan New Year, which is celebrated as the Protector New Year, the oracle–while in trance– is consulted regarding potential obstacles to the life of the Dalai Lama and his lineage holders, and prophecies are sought concerning Tibet's religious and political affairs, accompanied by extensive ritual offerings.
Six-armed Mahākāla
Six-armed Mahākāla possesses one face with three eyes and six arms. His right front hand wields a battle axe, while his left front hand holds a sword. His remaining hands hold various ritual implements that symbolize divine power. He wears the hide of a white elephant as an upper garment and a tiger skin as a lower garment, signifying his fierce methods of protection. At the center, he dwells in great power, armed with five symbolic weapons and encircled by a protective mandala of four guardians. He abides in the central realm amid blazing flames that subdue all negative forces and obstacles. This exalted deity is a protector of the Dharma and is especially revered within the Nyingma tradition. He is regarded as an emanation that safeguards the precious teachings of the great Guru Padmasambhava. In times of danger and fear, he protects the sanctity of life and the Dharma with compassion and great power, swiftly dispelling all harm.
སློབ་དཔོན་ཤཱཀྱ་འོད།
༄༅། །སློབ་དཔོན་ཤཱཀྱ་འོད་ནི། ཕྱི་ལོའི་དུས་རབས་བདུན་པ་དང་བརྒྱད་པའི་ནང་རྒྱ་གར་ནུབ་ཕྱོགས་སུ་རྒྱལ་རིགས་སུ་འཁྲུངས། ནཱ་ལནྡཱར་མཁན་པོ་བསོད་ནམས་གྲགས་པ་ལས་རབ་ཏུ་བྱུང་ཞིང་བསྙེན་པར་རྫོགས། མ་གྷ་དྷའི་མཁན་པོ་བསོད་ནམས་གྲགས་པ་དང་སློབ་དཔོན་ཞི་བ་འོད་གཉིས་བསྟེན་ནས་སྡེ་སྣོད་གསུམ་སྦྱངས་པས་འདུལ་བའི་གཞུང་ལུགས་སྨྲ་བའི་ཁྱུ་མཆོག་ཏུ་གྱུར། སློབ་དཔོན་རྡོ་རྗེ་བཞད་པ་ལས་གསང་སྔགས་ཀྱི་གཞུང་རྣམས་གསན་པས་ཤིན་ཏུ་མཁས་པར་གྱུར་ཏེ་པྲ་བྷ་ཧ་ཏི་ཞེས་གྲགས་ཤིང་མཆོག་གི་དངོས་གྲུབ་བརྙེས། ནཱ་ལནྡཱའི་གཙུག་ལག་ཁང་དུ་འདུལ་བའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་སུམ་བརྒྱ་པ་དང་དེའི་རང་འགྲེལ་འོད་ལྡན། དགེ་ཚུལ་ཀ་རི་ཀ་སོགས་ཆོས་ཚན་ལྔ་ལྷག་མཛད་པ་རྣམས་བོད་སྐད་དུའང་བསྒྱུར་ཡོད། ཁ་ཆེའི་ཡུལ་དུ་ཕེབས་ནས་འགྲོ་དོན་རྒྱ་ཆེར་བསྐྱངས། འདུལ་བ་ཤིན་ཏུ་མཁས་པས་དགེ་འདུན་གྱི་སྡེ་སྤེལ་བ་དང་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་ཀྱི་བསླབ་པ་ལ་གནས་པའི་སློབ་མ་ཤཱཀྱ་བཤེས་གཉེན་དང་། སློབ་དཔོན་པདྨ་འབྱུང་གནས། ཛི་ན་མི་ཏྲ་སོགས་བསྟན་འགྲོར་མཛད་རྗེས་ཆེ་བའི་སྐྱེས་ཆེན་མང་དུ་འཕེལ། རྗེ་བཙུན་འཇམ་པའི་དབྱངས་ཀྱིས་ཞལ་གཟིགས། འཛམ་གླིང་མཛེས་པར་བྱེད་པའི་རྒྱན་དྲུག་དང་མཆོག་གཉིས་ཞེས་བསྔགས་པ་ལས་སློབ་དཔོན་འདི་ཡིས་སངས་རྒྱས་པའི་བསྟན་པའི་ནང་མཛོད་དམ་ཆོས་འདུལ་བའི་གཞུང་ལ་ཐོས་བསམ་སློབ་གཉེར་མཐར་ཕྱིན་གནང་བས་སངས་རྒྱས་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་ཀྱི་སྐུའི་གཡོན་དུ་བཞུགས་པར་འོས་པས་མཆོག་ཅེས་གྲགས། སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་བསྟན་པའི་གཞི་མ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་ལ་བརྩོན་པར་མཛད་བཞིན་དུ་སྐུ་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པའོ།། །།
གནས་བརྟན་ཀླུའི་སྡེ།
༄༅། །འཕགས་པ་གནས་བརྟན་ཀླུའི་སྡེ་ནི། ཕྱག་གཡས་མཁར་གསིལ། ཕྱག་གཡོན་བུམ་པ་བསྣམས་པ། འཁོར་དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ་སྟོང་དང་ཉིས་བརྒྱ་དང་ལྷན་རྒྱལ་པོའི་ཁབ་ཀྱི་རི་ཆེན་པོ་ཞིག་ལ་བཞུགས། གནས་བརྟན་འདི་རྒྱ་གར་བྱང་ཕྱོགས་སྲེག་མའི་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་རྒྱལ་རིགས་སུ་སྐུ་འཁྲུངས། རྒྱལ་པོའི་བྱ་བ་ལ་ཞུགས་ན་སྡིག་པའི་ལས་མང་པོ་ལ་འཇུག་དགོས་པར་གཟིགས་ཏེ། སངས་རྒྱས་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་དགུང་ལོ་ང་ལྔ་བཞེས་པའི་དུས་སྐུ་མདུན་ནས་བསྙེན་པར་རྫོགས་ཤིང་དགྲ་བཅོམ་ཐོབ། རྒྱལ་ཆེན་བཞིའི་ལྷ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་གཏེར་གྱི་བུམ་པ་ཕུལ་བ་གདུལ་བྱའི་དོན་དུ་ཕྱག་ཏུ་བསྣམས་པར་གྲགས། གནས་བརྟན་འདི་ལ་གསོལ་བ་བཏབ་ན་སྡིག་པ་སྟོབས་ཆེན་འདག་པ་དང་གདུལ་བྱ་ཆེ་བ་དག་ལ་ཕན་ཡོན་ནམ་བྱིན་རླབས་འབྱུང་།། །།
དཔལ་ལྡན་ཟླ་བ་གྲགས་པ།
༄༅། །དཔལ་ལྡན་ཟླ་བ་གྲགས་པ་ནི། ཕྱི་ལོའི་དུས་རབས་དྲུག་པའི་འགོར་རྒྱ་གར་ལྷོ་ཕྱོགས་ས་མན་ངྷར་(Kerala)ཞེས་པར་ཡབ་བྲམ་ཟེའི་རིགས་སུ་འཁྲུངས། མཚན་མཁན་གྱིས་སངས་རྒྱས་པའི་བསྟན་པ་ལ་ཞུགས་ན་སྐྱེས་བུ་ཆེན་པོར་འགྱུར་ཞེས་ལུང་བསྟན་པ་བཞིན་ཡབ་ཡུམ་གཉིས་ཀྱིས་ནཱ་ལནྡཱར་བཏང་། དེའི་མཁན་པོ་ཟླ་བ་མགོན་པོ་ལས་རབ་ཏུ་བྱུང་བས་ཟླ་བ་གྲགས་པ་ཞེས་གསོལ། རིམ་གྱིས་བསྙེན་པར་རྫོགས། སློབ་དཔོན་ཆོས་སྐྱོང་དང་སློབ་དཔོན་ཟླ་བ་མགོན་པོ་ལས་བཀའ་སྡེ་སྣོད་གསུམ་དང་གསང་སྔགས་རྒྱུད་སྡེ་བཞི་ལ་སྦྱངས་པ་མཐར་སོན་གནང་། སློབ་དཔོན་སངས་རྒྱས་བསྐྱངས་ཀྱི་དངོས་སློབ་ཀ་མ་ལ་བུད་དྷི་ལས་འཕགས་པ་ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་ཀྱི་དབུ་མའི་གཞུང་ལུགས་མན་ངག་དང་བཅས་པར་སྦྱངས་པ་མཐར་ཕྱིན་པར་མཛད། ཉིན་མཚན་མེད་པར་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་ལ་མཐའ་གཅིག་ཏུ་གཞོལ་བས་རིང་པོར་མ་ཐོགས་པར་རྗེ་བཙུན་འཇམ་དཔལ་དབྱངས་དང་འཕགས་པ་ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་ཀྱི་ཞལ་ཡང་གཟིགས་ཤིང་གདམས་པ་མང་དུ་གསུངས། དགེ་འདུན་པའི་ཞལ་ཏ་པ་མཛད་སྐབས་རྩིག་པར་བ་མོ་ཞིག་བྲིས་པ་དེ་ཉིད་ལས་འོ་མ་བཞོས་ཏེ་དགེ་འདུན་ལ་བསྙེན་བཀུར་ཞུས། ནཱ་ལནྡཱའི་མཁན་པོ་མཛད་ཅིང་འཕགས་པ་སྤྱན་རས་ཀྱིས་ཞལ་གཟིགས། ཙནྡྲ་གོ་མི་དང་ལོ་བདུན་རིང་རྩོད་པ་གནང་། རྗེ་བཙུན་འཇམ་དཔལ་དབྱངས་དང་སངས་རྒྱས་བསྐྱངས་ཀྱི་སྐུ་སྐྱེར་གྲགས། འཕགས་པ་ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་ཀྱི་དགོངས་པ་བཞིན་དབུ་མ་འཇུག་པ་རང་འགྲེལ་དང་། དབུ་མ་རྩ་ཤེ་འགྲེལ་པ་ཚིག་གསལ་སོགས་མཛད་ནས་དབུ་མ་ཐལ་འགྱུར་བའི་ཤིང་རྟའི་སྲོལ་ཕྱེ། གཞན་ཡང་གསང་འདུས་རྩ་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་འགྲེལ་པ་སྒྲོན་གསལ་དང་དབུ་མ་ཚིག་གསལ་གཉིས་ལ་བོད་ཀྱི་མཁས་པས། གནམ་ལ་ཉི་ཟླ་གཉིས། ས་ལ་གསལ་བ་རྣམ་གཉིས་གྲགས་པ་སོགས་ལེགས་བཤད་ཀྱི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཉི་ཤུ་ལོངས་ཙམ་བརྩམས་པ་རྣམས་བོད་སྐད་དུ་བསྒྱུར་ནས་བོད་ཀྱི་མཁས་པའི་སློབ་གཉེར་གྱི་གཞུང་ཤིག་ཏུ་གྱུར། མཆོག་གི་དངོས་གྲུབ་བརྙེས་ཤིང་དགུང་ལོ་མཐོ་ཙམ་བཞུགས་པའོ།། །།