Fearless in Tibet: The Life of the Mystic Terton Sogyal by Matteo Pistono

Lungtok’s many disciples, they became known as his sun and moon students. They first met while studying together with Lama Sonam Thaye and continued their friendship under Nyoshul Lungtok. One of the similar qualities they developed was a mastery over philosophical and scholarly treatises with little or no study. When wise scholars from the surrounding monasteries such as Katok and Palyul met Tertön Sogyal or Lama Ngakchen, they were immediately struck with the erudition of these men who had not engaged in extended academic training. For Dzogchen yogis, who spend their time in retreat and devoutly serving their master, their meditative experience allows wisdom to unfold from within, awakening the luminous clarity of the mind. This incisive clarity can know all aspects of reality, so even yogis who have studied very little can become omniscient because they see reality as it is.
    Privately, these cordial yogi brothers would challenge each other by seeing how far they could move their teacup with telekinesis, or how long they could remain suspended in levitation. Though highly accomplished spiritually, Tertön Sogyal and Ngakchen were not beyond mischief. Once, when Nyoshul Lungtok was away at a local monastery, Tertön Sogyal and Ngakchen skipped a meditation session, led their horses down a secluded tree-lined gulch, and rode into town. They heard from a kitchen hand that a group of Chinese travelers was passing through the area. When the two yogis passed by the Chinese camp, there were two girls in the fields picking flowers.
    Tertön Sogyal asked his Dharma brother, “If I can magnetize those girls to come here, what will you give me?”
    “Whatever you want.”
    “Well, you know that copper Padmasambhava statue in your tent that you meditate on? How about that?”
    “I challenge you,” Ngakchen said with a slap on the shoulder.
    In a captivating gaze, Tertön Sogyal enticed the Chinese girls to them, hooking them with silent magnetizing mantras emanating from his heart and a majestically slow hand movement. The women walked joyfully toward the two yogis. After flirting briefly with the girls, Tertön Sogyal and Ngakchen were back at the hermitage before Nyoshul Lungtok returned from his ritual duties.
    One day Nyoshul Lungtok decided to send Tertön Sogyal on a mission close to Derge in the Tinlung Valley. In this valley there had once lived a wealthy family with large herds that grazed in the meadows above their terraced barley fields, and they had been tormented by a series of severe natural disasters and disease. The family’s yaks and sheep were decimated and their crops were ruined. The family members died one by one. One of the daughters had been reborn in the Tinlung Valley as a vicious and harsh witch. The witch was wreaking havoc in the surrounding valleys with her curses, causing even more death and destruction. Villagers had employed a local shaman to duel the witch. This only encouraged her malevolent deeds. Finally, the village leaders went to Nyoshul Lungtok to ask what should be done.
    Nyoshul Lungtok summoned Tertön Sogyal. He knew this was an assignment for the confident, and sometimes rowdy, mantra practitioner.
    “The people in that valley need someone who can cut through the many dangers, both apparent and unseen. Go there to sort the problem out.”
    Tertön Sogyal convinced his friend Gyawo to accompany him. They rode until they came upon a large black nomad tent with no signs of habitation, where not even a guard dog barked. Pulling back the entry flap, they found the tent ransacked, with kitchen utensils, sleeping blankets, and a broken stove strewn about. Nine corpses lay amid the destruction. Tertön Sogyal surveyed the massacre and looked into the eyes of one dead girl, whose fear at the time of death was frozen on her young face. It was as if the terror on her face screamed a warning to steer clear of the horrific scene.
    “This is precisely why Nyoshul Lungtok sent us here,”