In the dark age of past, Avalokiteshvara, the
Bodhisattva of compassion, at the feet of the Buddha Amitabha made an
enlightened pledge to liberate all the beings of lower realms. The lord of
compassion wept the minute he thought that it was not possible for him to free
all beings from the deep of misery. Due to prayer of the lord, his two
teardrops incarnated as the two daughters of King Indra. One of the daughters
called Goddess Apurna on one occasion stole some blossoms, and as a price for
disrespecting the law of the heaven of the Thirty-Three, she was reborn as a
poultry woman named Jadzima in the region of Maguta of Nepal.
Jadzima
and her four sons, helped by an elephant and a donkey began to construct Boudhanath stupa in
the 5th century. After consecration of the stupa, the sons of the
deceased Jadzima made prayers of aspiration for the benefit of the beings. The
firstborn son, prayed to be reborn as a patron of Buddha's doctrine, the next eldest aspired to be reborn as a
sage who will ordain the monks, the third aspired to
be reborn from the pistil of a lotus to safeguard the doctrine, and the
youngest aspired to be reborn
as a minister who will arrange the dharma goings-on of the crowned head. During
the event, an insect stung the firstborn son's neck and was killed by accident.
He then and there prayed for the dead insect to be reborn as his heir
practicing Dharma.
In the 8th century, as per the
aspiration prayers, the eldest son of Jadzima was reborn as King Trisong Deutsen to
the northern snow land of red faced barbarians,
the second as the abbot Zhi-ba-tsho of Nalanda Mahavihara, the third as Guru
Padmakara of Oddiyana, and the youngest as the minister, Ba Trisher. The
insect that had been killed was reborn as Princess Lacham Pemasel (clear lotus), the daughter of King Trisong Deutsen and
Jomo Changchub Drolma. The princess was
trained in the lore of Buddha by Guru Padmasambhava at the age of five. However, she died
prematurely at age of eight due to karmic effect of murdering the son of a junior
queen during one of her previous life as the queen of King Bhimakutra of Makuta
kingdom. The Maha-Guru drew a red syllable
‘NRI’ on her heart, and miraculously summoned her consciousness back into
her body. On her last legs, the Guru entrusted lineage of the Great
Perfection known as ‘The Heart-Drops of the Sky farers’ (Khandro
Nyingthig) and foretold that she would reveal 108 hidden termas
(treasure-texts) in her one of the next lives.
After passing away, she experienced seven pure lives before recognizing as Orygen Pema Lingpa. She was reborn as two successive nuns known as Rikma Sanggye Khyi and Jomo Pema Drolma, a consort of Nyangrel Nyima Ozer (1st of the five Terton kings) and Guru Chowang (2nd of the five Terton kings) respectively. In her third rebirth she was Ngakchang Rinchendrakpa, the heartson of Terton Ugyenlingpa. Pema Lendreltsel was 4th in line to her rebirth who discovered Khandro Nyingthig as per the prophecy of MahaGuru and gave its empowerment to 3rd Karmapa Rangjung Dorje. Longchenpa, the lord of all doctrine knower was the most revered master all the seven. The next incarnation was short lived; Thokar, a child in Bumthang Tharpaling who was killed at the age of seven with a stone while stealing peas from other’s garden. Thereafter he stayed twenty five years at copper coloured mountain of glory before taking rebirth as Pema Lingpa . Orygen Pema Lingpa is therefore referred to as the direct incarnation of the omniscient Longchenpa.
Orygen
Pema Lingpa was born among many miraculous sign in the iron horse year (1450
AD) , on 15th day of tiger month at Tang Chel, Bumthang, to Dondrup Zangpo and Drogmo Pema Drolma. On
the tenth day of seventh month, fire monkey year (1476 AD), Guru
Rinpoche appeared as a ragged monk and presented a scroll of prophecy which
guided him to discover his first treasure text known as ‘The Essence of Secret’ (Klong-gsal gSang-ba yang-bcud) from
the Naringdrak during the full moon night. Using the scroll of prophecy as the
eyes to the riddle he then transcribed the treasure script into Tibetan
letters. During the twenty one days of initiation and empowerment of the
treasure to the community of Dechen Pelrithang, he was visited in dreams by
Khandro Yeshe Tshogyal to train him on how to perform the rites and dances of
the mentioned treasure. The second treasure hunt on the twenty fourth day of
the same month from the unchanged place, the Naringdrak, was one of his
well-known revelations where he arose from the riverine lake with a Buddha’s
statue and a treasure box of joined skulls placed under one arm, and the butter
lamp still burning in the other. The lake thereafter was known as Mebartsho.
He
revealed countless treasures of which these are few; ‘Three black teaching’ (nagpo
skor gsum) from Tselung Lhakhang in Bumthang, ‘The attainment of Longevity,
combining Jewel with the path’ (Tse sgrub norbu lam Khyer) from
Kurje Drakmar Dorje Tsekpaidrak, ‘The Unsurpassed Mind’
(dGongs-pa bla-med) and ‘Mahakaruna, the Lamp which Dispels Darkness’ (Thugs-rje
chen-po mun-sel sgron-me) from Tang Rimochen, and ‘Hayagriva, the Single
Hero’ (rTa-mgrin dpa'-bo gcig-pa) from Sengye Namdzongdrak, and ‘Gathering
of Samantabhadra’s Intention’ (Kun Bzang dgongs ‘dus) from Samye Chimphu.
He
discovered numerous treasures from Lhodark Mendo Drak Sengye Dongchen; ‘The
Lama Jewel Ocean’ (bla ma norbu rgya mtsho), ‘Kīla,
the Utterly Secret Vital Razor’ (phur ba yang gsang srog go spu
gri), ‘Indestructible Garland of Long-life Instructions’ (tshe
khrid rdo rje'i phreng ba), Red Hayagriva that Defeats Arrogance (rta
mgrin dmar po dregs pa zil gnon), ‘The Protector Maning’ (mgon po ma
ning), and Vajrapāṇi the Tamer of Spirits (phyag rdor dregs pa kun 'dul). Besides
treasure texts, Orygen Pema Lingpa also unearthed Paro Kyichu Lhakhang and
opened the door to hidden valley of Khampa Lung. At the age of seventy two, in
the third day of first lunar month, Iron snake year (1521 AD), the great Orygen
Pema Lingpa passed away into a state of peace with miraculous signs.
