Soon after, Chokgyur Lingpa asked permission to leave the monastery and Adeu Rinpoche consented, saying, “Yes, you can go. Travel freely wherever you like and benefit beings!”
Before leaving, Chokgyur Lingpa gave a statue as an offering to the king of Nangchen and requested a mount and provisions. But the king was a hardheaded character and not happy that he was leaving.
8. Chokgyur Lingpa—the revealer of hidden treasures
“That crazy monk has given me a statue of Padmasambhava that is neither clay nor stone,” the king said, not realizing it was one of the extremely precious terma objects Chokgyur Lingpa had already discovered. “Give him an old horse and a saddle blanket.” As a result of the king’s lack of appreciation, Chokgyur Lingpa never settled in Nangchen.
My great-grandfather had not gone through any formal studies, yet Old Kongtrul later called him a true pandita, a great scholar.35 This change took place while Chokgyur Lingpa remained in a strict traditional retreat, lasting three years and three fortnights, at his residence above Karma Gön in Kham. During this retreat, he, to use his own words, “slightly unraveled the intent of the tantras, statements, and instructions,” referring to the profound three inner sections of tantra—Maha, Anu, and Ati Yoga.36
9. The lotus crown of Chokgyur Lingpa
Chokgyur Lingpa was not just an authentic tertön; his revelations are pivotal to our lineage. He was the reincarnation of Prince Murub, the second son of the great king Trisong Deutsen, who established Buddhism in Tibet. Another of his former lives was Sangye Lingpa.37 Chokgyur Lingpa was the “owner” of seven distinct transmissions and is often counted as the last of one hundred tertöns of major importance.
He is regarded as the “universal monarch of all tertöns,” in part because no other tertön has revealed a teaching that includes the Space Section of Dzogchen. There are several Mind Section revelations and all major tertöns reveal the Instruction Section; but only Chokgyur Lingpa transmitted the Space Section. This is why his Three Sections of the Great Perfection is considered the most extraordinary terma he ever revealed.38
Most of the stories I know about how Chokgyur Lingpa revealed termas I heard from my grandmother. Being Chokgyur Lingpa’s daughter, she witnessed these events as a child. My grandmother was never known to lie or overstate anything; she was an extremely truthful person who didn’t brag or slander.
She told me how Chokgyur Lingpa once revealed a terma before a crowd.39 “Often my father would take a terma out in the presence of more than a thousand people. It had to be this way, because Tibetans, especially those in the eastern province of Kham, were known to be extremely skeptical. They didn’t blindly believe everyone who claimed to be a tertön. But Chokgyur Lingpa was beyond dispute, because he repeatedly revealed termas with numerous witnesses present.
10. The Lotus Crystal Cave—sacred place of the Three Sections
11. Kala Rongo—where the Tukdrub was revealed
“The purpose of revealing a terma publicly,” she continued, “is to ensure complete trust, free from doubt or skepticism. There is no trickery involved; the terma is revealed before the eyes of everyone present. If it were just a magic trick, there would be no actual, material terma to show afterward, no representation of enlightened body or speech.40
“Otherwise, it was no simple feat to convince people that Chokgyur Lingpa was in fact an emissary of Padmasambhava. Khampas were even more hardheaded than Central Tibetans; they were much more suspicious. Among Khampas, the people from Derge were the most skeptical; there was no way in the world they would simply believe any impostor professing to be a tertön! They would only trust someone they had personally witnessed revealing a terma in public.
“We call such a revelation tromter, meaning ‘public terma,’ a terma revealed amid and witnessed by many people. When a terma treasure was about to be revealed as a tromter, it would first be announced: ‘A terma will be revealed in public!’ As word spread, a lot of people would gather to watch.
“A tertön would also miraculously receive a ‘location-list,’ which is like a key showing exactly where the terma is hidden. Such a text is necessary to be able to find the terma and take it out; and having received the location list—a mystical guidebook—the tertön can see in his mind’s eye the layout of the landscape and the location of the mountains, valleys, rocks, caves and so on. This list also contains a description of the ‘terma sign,’ a certain mark placed by Padmasambhava or Yeshe Tsogyal, for instance the syllable HUNG. The terma site could be a certain rock or cave, a place described as looking like a gaping lion, a tortoise or another animal of a particular shape indicating the character of the location. The terma sign might be found at the throat, between the eyes, at the heart or at another such place on that particular animal.
“The location list will also indicate the proper time to reveal the terma and the particulars of the spirit guarding it. Sometimes three different spirits would be involved: zhidag, neydag, and terdag. The zhidag, the lord of the land, is, for example, like Maheshvara, who guards the entire Kathmandu valley, while the neydag, the lord of the locality, is, for instance, like Tarabhir, who guards the sacred place of the female buddha Tara near Nagi Gompa. The terdag,41 the terma owner, is the particular spirit who was entrusted with the terma’s safekeeping at the time it was concealed.
“How is it possible for anyone to steal a terma? Perhaps when Guru Rinpoche was concealing the terma he was seen by birds and other animals, who then knew where it was hidden. In one of their subsequent lives, they could become a terma thief. So the command would be, ‘Don’t allow a terma thief to take this! Don’t let it fall into the hands of samaya violators! Entrust it to no one but the representative of me, Padmasambhava!’
“In this way, the guardian would already have been instructed by Padmasambhava to hand over the terma to the destined tertön. The treasure revealer however must then give a tribute in return, a kind of bribe. In addition, he must place something as a substitute, either a teaching or something precious, such as a sacred substance; he cannot just carry off the terma like a thief making off with some loot.
“As soon as the news spread that something amazing was about to take place, of course a lot of people would turn up—and why not! Sometimes five or six hundred people would be present, once even a thousand. But other times when the terma was revealed as a tromter there would only be a small group present consisting of seven, twenty-one or more people.
“On one such occasion, Chokgyur Lingpa presented a ritual drink to the guardian of the terma, accompanied by a request to release custody of the terma. He then drew a design on the surface of a rock, which opened up like the anus of a cow and the stone just poured out to reveal a cavity containing the terma. As the interior became visible, we saw that it was filled with scintillating rainbow light.