Padmasambhava

What is the Absolute? Does God exist?

The ultimate is the luminous nature of mind; the deities are its display

An impersonal AbsoluteInferred from their doctrine

Almost everything read under Padmasambhava's name consists of «treasure» texts (terma) revealed centuries after his life. The best known, the so-called Tibetan Book of the Dead, brought to light by Karma Lingpa in the fourteenth century, describes how at the moment of death the clear light of the dharmakāya appears and asks that it be recognised as the very nature of one's mind. The peaceful and wrathful deities that arise afterwards are not external gods but projections of that same mind. The ultimate is thus an empty and luminous awareness, without creator and without face, of which the divine figures are expressions. The Introduction to Pure Awareness, from the same cycle, insists that one should not look outside for what is one's own awakened presence.

Who am I? Is there a true self?

Sought for, the mind is not found: empty and yet aware

There is no permanent selfInferred from their doctrine

The texts the Nyingma tradition attributes to Padmasambhava are mostly terma revealed between the twelfth and nineteenth centuries. In the Introduction to Pure Awareness, from Karma Lingpa's cycle, the enquiry is directed at the mind itself: examined, it has no shape, colour or location, and is found neither inside nor outside. What follows is not nothingness but a naked presence, empty and clear at once, which the Great Perfection calls rigpa. The self that defends itself and clings is what does not withstand this examination; what remains is not a subject but the capacity to know. The Tibetan Book of the Dead applies the same teaching: whoever recognises the visions as their own mind is freed; whoever identifies with a fleeing self goes on wandering.

Why do we suffer?

One wanders through not recognising as one's own the light that appears

Ignorance of what we areInferred from their doctrine

In the Tibetan Book of the Dead, a terma revealed by Karma Lingpa in the fourteenth century and attributed to Padmasambhava's teaching, suffering has one recurring cause: not recognising. At each stage of the intermediate state the clear light appears, and then the deities and the coloured lights; whoever recognises them as manifestations of their own mind is liberated, and whoever fears or desires them, through failing to recognise them, is dragged by karma towards a new birth. The five passions (ignorance, attachment, aversion, pride and envy) are presented as confused versions of the five wisdoms. We suffer, then, because we take ourselves for what we are not and fail to know the empty, luminous nature of mind; not because of a punishment or an external fate.

What happens after death?

After death, an intermediate state: recognition liberates, non-recognition brings rebirth

Rebirth according to karmaStated explicitly

The answer associated with Padmasambhava is the most detailed in all Buddhist literature, but it comes from a terma: the so-called Tibetan Book of the Dead, which Karma Lingpa brought to light in the fourteenth century and which the tradition ascribes to a teaching of the master. The text is read beside the dying and the deceased for forty-nine days. At the instant of death the clear light appears; whoever recognises it as their own nature is liberated. If not, the visions of the peaceful and wrathful deities follow and, lastly, the intermediate state of becoming, where karma pushes towards one of the six destinies. Even then, hearing can guide the choice of a favourable birth. Death is an opportunity for liberation, not merely a transit.

How is liberation or salvation attained?

Liberation through recognition: seeing one's own mind naked as it is

Through direct knowledgeInferred from their doctrine

The treasure texts attributed to Padmasambhava propose many paths, arranged in nine vehicles culminating in the Great Perfection, but their core is recognition. The Introduction to Pure Awareness, from Karma Lingpa's cycle, presents itself as an instruction for liberation by seeing one's own mind naked: nothing is built, what is already present is recognised. The Tibetan Book of the Dead carries the same principle to the moment of death: whoever recognises the clear light as their own nature is liberated in that instant, and the titles say so, liberation through hearing, self-liberation through seeing. Preliminary practices, deities, mantras and devotion to the master prepare and sustain that recognition, but do not replace it.

Is a teacher necessary?

The master introduces the nature of mind; without him there is no recognition

IndispensableInferred from their doctrine

In the tradition centred on Padmasambhava, the master is not an adviser but the door. The Great Perfection is transmitted through «direct introduction»: the master points out to the disciple their own pure awareness, and the text of Karma Lingpa's cycle bearing that name presents itself as such a pointing-out. Padmasambhava himself is the master par excellence, Guru Rinpoche, and many of the texts associated with him are supplications addressed to him, such as the Seven-Line Prayer or the Supplication in Seven Chapters. The Teachings to the Ḍākinīs, advice tradition says he gave Yeshe Tsogyal, insist on examining the master before following him and on not separating from him afterwards. Without transmission there is no initiation, and without initiation there is no tantric path.

Is the world real?

All that appears is the display of one's own mind, empty and luminous

Manifestation of the divineInferred from their doctrine

In the terma associated with Padmasambhava, the world is neither a creation nor a deception to be rejected: it is the spontaneous manifestation of the nature of mind. The Tibetan Book of the Dead teaches this dramatically: the lights, sounds and deities of the intermediate state are the very radiance of the deceased's mind, and recognising them is enough for them to dissolve into it. The Introduction to Pure Awareness applies the same to ordinary life: all that appears arises from the mind and is liberated in it, like waves in water. The Great Perfection speaks of primordial purity and spontaneous presence: the ground is empty from the beginning and, at the same time, unfolds ceaselessly into appearances.

What is love?

The mind of awakening, inseparable from emptiness, for the good of all beings

Boundless compassionInferred from their doctrine

The texts attributed to Padmasambhava devote no treatise to love, but they integrate it into the framework of the Great Vehicle: every practice begins by taking refuge and awakening the mind of awakening for the good of all beings, and ends by dedicating the merit to them. The Essence of Wisdom of the Stages of the Path, a terma revealed in the nineteenth century by Chokgyur Lingpa, develops this compassion as part of the gradual path towards the Great Perfection. In the hagiographies, the figure of Padmasambhava embodies a compassion that takes wrathful forms: taming Tibet's hostile spirits is, in that logic, an act of care. True compassion is described as inseparable from emptiness, free of the idea of someone who helps and someone who receives.

Are we free, or is everything determined?

Karma drives, yet in every instant one can recognise and choose

Karma and choiceInferred from their doctrine

The Tibetan Book of the Dead, a fourteenth-century terma associated with Padmasambhava's teaching, describes a process dominated by karma: in the intermediate state of becoming, the deceased is swept along by karmic winds, sees visions according to past deeds and feels drawn towards a destiny. Yet the text is read aloud precisely because at every stage a possibility of liberation remains or, at least, of choosing: recognising the clear light, not being carried off by fear, closing the door of an unfavourable womb, turning towards a propitious human birth. The past conditions strongly, but it does not close everything off: present attention, sustained by the master's instruction, can divert the course.

Why meditate or pray?

Look into one's own mind until its naked nature is recognised

Returning to the source of the IInferred from their doctrine

In the tradition that claims Padmasambhava as its source, two registers coexist. One is ritual and devotional: supplications such as the Seven-Line Prayer or the Supplication in Seven Chapters, the Vajra Guru mantra and the deity cycles revealed as treasures. The other, which the tradition regards as the summit, is the Great Perfection. The Introduction to Pure Awareness, from Karma Lingpa's cycle, describes this second register as an enquiry directed at the mind itself: searching for it, asking where it is, what colour or shape it has, until discovering that it is not found as a thing and that what searches is one's own empty, awake awareness. No state is manufactured: what is already there is recognised and rested in. Prayer prepares and sustains that recognition.

Can reason know the ultimate?

A wisdom hidden as treasure and recognised in one's own experience

Esoteric knowledgeInferred from their doctrine

The tradition associated with Padmasambhava answers this question through its mode of transmission. According to the doctrine of treasures (terma), the master and his disciples hid teachings in the eighth century that predestined revealers would discover centuries later, when they were needed. Ultimate knowledge is therefore not reached by reasoning but by transmission and initiation, and it is verified in the practitioner's experience. The Garland of Views, the most plausible attribution, arranges doctrines in a hierarchy culminating in the Great Perfection, above paths that rely on analysis. The Introduction to Pure Awareness insists that the nature of mind is not an object of thought: it is recognised directly when the master points it out.

Withdraw from the world or transform it?

Retreat caves and hidden valleys; but also taming a country

Withdraw in order to findInferred from their doctrine

The hagiographies revealed as treasures, such as The Copper Island (twelfth century) and the Chronicle of Padma (fourteenth century), present Padmasambhava practising in caves and charnel grounds in India, Nepal and Tibet, and the sacred geography of the Himalaya is full of grottoes associated with him. The advice tradition says he gave Yeshe Tsogyal insists on abandoning worldly concerns and practising in solitude. Treasure literature also developed the idea of hidden valleys, refuges for times of crisis. But the same chronicles show him acting in the world: invited by King Trisong Detsen, he subdues the hostile spirits so that the monastery of Samye can be founded. Retreat is the condition of attainment; action, its fruit.