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

Tertön Sogyal said quietly to Gyawo. “We must not lose our compassion. Conquer your fear, my friend, and power will rise from within.”
    They set up camp and boiled water for tea as the sun set. In hushed voices, they spoke about how the violent deaths inside the tent were certainly caused by the witch’s curse. The dead would not be left in peace but would be continually tormented, lost in the in-between bardo state before their next rebirth. Tertön Sogyal and Gyawo recited prayers into the night’s darkness for these nine dead individuals.
    A rush of air and a swirling of dust near the tent indicated the arrival of malicious spirits that eat corpses. Gyawo heard his own name being called by the spirits, as if a hundred owls were whispering in his ears.
    “Gyawo, Gyawo, you will be next.”
    Gyawo’s heart pounded. A ghostly corpse-eater dressed in rags carrying a hatchet entered the tent. Fearing for his life, Gyawo sped off on his horse without even a saddle.
    Tertön Sogyal’s equipoise was as stable as a mountain during a storm. He knew that all fear and anxiety come from an untamed mind. Neither the threats of the corpse-eating spirits nor the risk of a witch’s curse could shake his stability. The task at hand required him to wrathfully subjugate and destroy fear and its many guises. More spirits loitered around the tent as Tertön Sogyal took refuge in Padmasambhava’s teachings, visualized offerings to the Great Guru and lineage masters, and then invoked Vajrakilaya, merging his mind with the wisdom deity: Om Vajra Kila Kilaya Hum Phat .
    Tertön Sogyal approached one crazed ghoul that was chewing on a bloated corpse and stabbed the spirit with his phurba dagger, dissolving the phantom in an instant, sending its consciousness to a pure realm. The tertön then took a seat on another corpse’s bloated belly that was an arm’s length from the girl with the fearful expression. Of all the family who died in the tent, only the consciousness of the fearful girl had not departed from her body.
    Tertön Sogyal took out his ritual instruments. He remained in thought-free awareness for a few minutes and then from the meditative space that recognizes the dream-like quality of phenomena, Tertön Sogyal manifested himself as Vajrakilaya. He summoned Dharma protectors by blowing an eerie drone from a thighbone trumpet and playing a small hand drum. Visualizing himself with bone ornamentation and clothing made of flesh symbolically reminded Tertön Sogyal of the wrath needed to subjugate demonic forces. Om Vajra Kila Kilaya Hum Phat . Using a human thighbone and skull drums in rituals not only gave Tertön Sogyal a tactile connection to mortality but served as an esoteric offering to wrathful deities while scaring away worldly ghosts.
    Maintaining the inseparability of primordial awareness and the wrath of Vajrakilaya, Tertön Sogyal recited, “ Hum, Hum, Hum … ” while forcing threatening spirits outside the tent. Banshee-like spirits from around the valley had gathered around the perimeter of the tent, shrieking in the night’s darkness that the long-haired yogi Tertön Sogyal was the next to die. Then, the witch who had originally set the curse upon the family appeared as nine female spirits with matted hair. These vengeful spirits tried to distract and entice Tertön Sogyal through sexual entrapment. When unsuccessful, they turned into horrific bitches, yapping loudly and tearing at Tertön Sogyal’s arms and legs. The commotion raised by the witch and her manifestations only made Tertön Sogyal’s flames of compassion blaze higher. Unable to move his attention away from the task at hand, the bitches slowly shrank to the size of thumbnails and then disappeared, bringing to an end the witch and her curses.
    Tertön Sogyal continued to recite “ Hum, Hum, Hum …” while visualizing a protective light dome around the girl. Then, he let out an earth-shattering “ Phat!” that forcibly ejected the girl’s