My first encounter with Tertön Sogyal was seeing this striking photograph of him at the Rigpa meditation center in London; that evening I also met Sogyal Rinpoche for the first time. I had just arrived in England for a master’s degree program in Buddhist philosophy at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. After seeing the photograph, I started asking questions about Tertön Sogyal’s life; though I spoke with lamas, Western scholars, and Tibetan historians, no one could
tell me much about him except that Tertön Sogyal was the Thirteenth Dalai Lama’s teacher and a Vajrakilaya adept. Despite knowing so little about him, I felt an inexplicable connection to the tertön. I was also drawn to Tertön Sogyal’s teachings by observing Sogyal Rinpoche’s extraordinary embodiment and example of a Dzogchen yogi, and his immense kindness in revealing Tibet’s wisdom tradition through his own teachings.
After receiving my degree in London, I went to Tibet to follow in Tertön Sogyal’s footsteps, to sit where he meditated in hermitages and caves, and to speak to lineage holders, including Khenpo Jikme Phuntsok, who helped me to visit some of the tertön’s holy sites. From the late 1990s to 2008, I traveled to Tibet a dozen times, each trip lasting from one to three months. Riding rickety buses to Golok, Nyarong, and Rebkong; hitchhiking to Lhasa from Kham and Amdo; and walking for weeks to arrive at ancient pilgrimage sites across the Tibetan Plateau, I visited nearly every location where Tertön Sogyal had lived and taught. I carried letters of introduction, and offerings, from Sogyal Rinpoche to lamas in Tibet, which opened to me a world that I would not have otherwise had access to. In 2006 Sogyal Rinpoche encouraged me to write Tertön Sogyal’s biography.
The narrative in Fearless in Tibet is my chronicle of the life of Tertön Sogyal
based on a number of authoritative sources. My primary source was Tulku
Tsultrim Zangpo’s (Tsullo’s) lengthy spiritual biography of Tertön Sogyal
that was carved onto woodblocks in the 1940s, about 15 years after Tertön
Sogyal’s passing. Entitled The Marvelous Garland of White Lotuses, it is the only
known biography and is based upon mystical prophecies about Tertön
Sogyal by Padmasambhava and other saintly persons. Little in the way of
history in a Western sense exists in Tsullo’s traditional hagiography, though
when one reads it alongside other historical sources—Tibetan, Chinese, and
Western, some of which are in this book’s Reference section—it is clear
that Tertön Sogyal’s mystical visions and spiritual revelations occurred
during very specific episodes in the tumultuous political times in late 19thand
early 20th-century Tibet. Venerable Tenzin Choephel of Nechung
Monastery led me through Tsullo’s 725-page biography over the course of
six weeks in Dharamsala and Washington, D.C. I also benefited greatly
from Lotsawa Adam Pearcey’s unpublished outline of Tsullo’s biography
and the many conversations I had with him about Tertön Sogyal. Fearless in
Tibet would not have appeared without Venerable Tenzin Choephel’s
skillful interpretations and endless patience and Lotsawa Adam’s
scholarship.
I have incorporated into the narrative of Fearless in Tibet much of the oral
record recounted to me by great lamas and elderly hermits—some in their
Tibetan homeland and others in exile—who hold the blessing of Tertön
Sogyal. Most of the lamas in Tibet to whom I listened have since died.
Their fantastic stories of Tertön Sogyal were told over butter tea and
tsampa in Nyarong, Kandze, Golok, and Lhasa, and in sacred grottoes,
monasteries, and wooden huts. My 15-year journey to listen to accounts of
scenes from Tertön Sogyal’s life also took me to meet lamas and scholars in
China, India, Nepal, France, England, and America. A few accounts about
Tertön Sogyal by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and other masters, I found in
the Rigpa archive in Lerab Ling. I am especially indebted to the late
Nyoshul Khenpo Rinpoche and Khamtrul Rinpoche in Dharamsala, whose
writings and stories brought Tertön Sogyal’s mysticism and yogic
perseverance and grit to life.
Another thread I wove into the narrative of Fearless in Tibet is the sacred
landscape connected to Tertön Sogyal. By traveling with devout monks and
nuns and tough nomads to the most remote of power places, I learned how
the inner pilgrimage creates a shift in our perception, so that the terrain we
travel transforms from a wilderness into a sacred topography in which the
mountains and rivers, streams and glaciers, the very pebbles that our feet
touch, is part of a mandala. This was where Tertön Sogyal’s visionary world
unfolded, where protector guardians delivered hidden treasure to him, and
where the tertön imbued the environment with profound blessings that are
still palpable today despite the political upheaval of the last 60 years. Tsullo
notes in the colophon to his biography that it is nearly impossible to write
about Tertön Sogyal’s life because it is beyond any conceptual framework.
Tsullo should know—the accomplished scholar-practitioner lived and studied with Tertön Sogyal for more than 15 years. But Tsullo also reminds us that Tertön Sogyal’s life is a story that needs to be told. I carried this paradox with me while writing Fearless in Tibet. I know that who Tertön Sogyal is, is ultimately beyond words. The ultimate guru cannot be described, only realized. Inevitably, though, to write Tertön Sogyal’s story, I
had to position him against the turbulent sociopolitical backdrop, place him in a linear historical sequence, and show his apparent challenges and frustrations. Despite this, I pray that the reader still comes to know the Tertön Sogyal who is beyond concepts, to see the nonabiding mystic, and to glimpse the yogi who is deathless. For any shortcomings in Fearless in Tibet, especially if I have created any reified views of Tertön Sogyal, I take
complete responsibility, and I ask forgiveness from the masters and lineage
holders, from you the reader, and especially from the guardians of Tertön
Sogyal’s precious teachings.
On my last research trip in 2008, I went to the sparsely populated nomadic
region in Golok, to the remote valley of Nyagar, to visit the site where
Tertön Sogyal passed away. A three story-high conical-shaped stupa had
just been erected in the tertön’s memory; I wrote about this in my first
book, In the Shadow of the Buddha (2011). The stupa had been filled with
hundreds of volumes of sacred scriptures draped in brocade; statues of
Buddha, Padmasambhava, and Vajrakilaya; mantra-infused medicines; and
fragrant juniper powder. I carried with me the last items to place inside—a
collection of sacred relics that I had collected from His Holiness the Dalai
Lama, Sogyal Rinpoche, Khamtrul Rinpoche, Khenpo Namdrol Rinpoche,
and other masters. After the silkwrapped bundle was set inside the heartcenter
of the stupa, I closed a stone door, sealing in the blessings so that
they might emanate outward for generations to come. Before climbing
down the ladder, I placed a wooden sign by the portal, engraved with the
name that Sogyal Rinpoche had bestowed upon the site: The Enlightenment
Stupa of Tertön Sogyal, Lerab Lingpa, Victorious in All Directions.
In some ways, that was the last step in my decade-long pilgrimage; it was
not unlike the way writing this book has concluded a long-held aspiration of
mine to tell the life story of Tertön Sogyal. Yet, in following in the
footsteps of the master—whether retracing his steps on foot or on the
page—we return to the place we were before the journey began, to where
the master has been pointing us all along. It is that space of innate
wakefulness that is our potential for awakening, where we pray, in the
words of Tertön Sogyal’s aspiration nearly a century ago: “May I realize
directly, here and now, the face of the ultimate guru, my very own nature
of mind.”
tell me much about him except that Tertön Sogyal was the Thirteenth Dalai Lama’s teacher and a Vajrakilaya adept. Despite knowing so little about him, I felt an inexplicable connection to the tertön. I was also drawn to Tertön Sogyal’s teachings by observing Sogyal Rinpoche’s extraordinary embodiment and example of a Dzogchen yogi, and his immense kindness in revealing Tibet’s wisdom tradition through his own teachings.
After receiving my degree in London, I went to Tibet to follow in Tertön Sogyal’s footsteps, to sit where he meditated in hermitages and caves, and to speak to lineage holders, including Khenpo Jikme Phuntsok, who helped me to visit some of the tertön’s holy sites. From the late 1990s to 2008, I traveled to Tibet a dozen times, each trip lasting from one to three months. Riding rickety buses to Golok, Nyarong, and Rebkong; hitchhiking to Lhasa from Kham and Amdo; and walking for weeks to arrive at ancient pilgrimage sites across the Tibetan Plateau, I visited nearly every location where Tertön Sogyal had lived and taught. I carried letters of introduction, and offerings, from Sogyal Rinpoche to lamas in Tibet, which opened to me a world that I would not have otherwise had access to. In 2006 Sogyal Rinpoche encouraged me to write Tertön Sogyal’s biography.
The narrative in Fearless in Tibet is my chronicle of the life of Tertön Sogyal
based on a number of authoritative sources. My primary source was Tulku
Tsultrim Zangpo’s (Tsullo’s) lengthy spiritual biography of Tertön Sogyal
that was carved onto woodblocks in the 1940s, about 15 years after Tertön
Sogyal’s passing. Entitled The Marvelous Garland of White Lotuses, it is the only
known biography and is based upon mystical prophecies about Tertön
Sogyal by Padmasambhava and other saintly persons. Little in the way of
history in a Western sense exists in Tsullo’s traditional hagiography, though
when one reads it alongside other historical sources—Tibetan, Chinese, and
Western, some of which are in this book’s Reference section—it is clear
that Tertön Sogyal’s mystical visions and spiritual revelations occurred
during very specific episodes in the tumultuous political times in late 19thand
early 20th-century Tibet. Venerable Tenzin Choephel of Nechung
Monastery led me through Tsullo’s 725-page biography over the course of
six weeks in Dharamsala and Washington, D.C. I also benefited greatly
from Lotsawa Adam Pearcey’s unpublished outline of Tsullo’s biography
and the many conversations I had with him about Tertön Sogyal. Fearless in
Tibet would not have appeared without Venerable Tenzin Choephel’s
skillful interpretations and endless patience and Lotsawa Adam’s
scholarship.
I have incorporated into the narrative of Fearless in Tibet much of the oral
record recounted to me by great lamas and elderly hermits—some in their
Tibetan homeland and others in exile—who hold the blessing of Tertön
Sogyal. Most of the lamas in Tibet to whom I listened have since died.
Their fantastic stories of Tertön Sogyal were told over butter tea and
tsampa in Nyarong, Kandze, Golok, and Lhasa, and in sacred grottoes,
monasteries, and wooden huts. My 15-year journey to listen to accounts of
scenes from Tertön Sogyal’s life also took me to meet lamas and scholars in
China, India, Nepal, France, England, and America. A few accounts about
Tertön Sogyal by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and other masters, I found in
the Rigpa archive in Lerab Ling. I am especially indebted to the late
Nyoshul Khenpo Rinpoche and Khamtrul Rinpoche in Dharamsala, whose
writings and stories brought Tertön Sogyal’s mysticism and yogic
perseverance and grit to life.
Another thread I wove into the narrative of Fearless in Tibet is the sacred
landscape connected to Tertön Sogyal. By traveling with devout monks and
nuns and tough nomads to the most remote of power places, I learned how
the inner pilgrimage creates a shift in our perception, so that the terrain we
travel transforms from a wilderness into a sacred topography in which the
mountains and rivers, streams and glaciers, the very pebbles that our feet
touch, is part of a mandala. This was where Tertön Sogyal’s visionary world
unfolded, where protector guardians delivered hidden treasure to him, and
where the tertön imbued the environment with profound blessings that are
still palpable today despite the political upheaval of the last 60 years. Tsullo
notes in the colophon to his biography that it is nearly impossible to write
about Tertön Sogyal’s life because it is beyond any conceptual framework.
Tsullo should know—the accomplished scholar-practitioner lived and studied with Tertön Sogyal for more than 15 years. But Tsullo also reminds us that Tertön Sogyal’s life is a story that needs to be told. I carried this paradox with me while writing Fearless in Tibet. I know that who Tertön Sogyal is, is ultimately beyond words. The ultimate guru cannot be described, only realized. Inevitably, though, to write Tertön Sogyal’s story, I
had to position him against the turbulent sociopolitical backdrop, place him in a linear historical sequence, and show his apparent challenges and frustrations. Despite this, I pray that the reader still comes to know the Tertön Sogyal who is beyond concepts, to see the nonabiding mystic, and to glimpse the yogi who is deathless. For any shortcomings in Fearless in Tibet, especially if I have created any reified views of Tertön Sogyal, I take
complete responsibility, and I ask forgiveness from the masters and lineage
holders, from you the reader, and especially from the guardians of Tertön
Sogyal’s precious teachings.
On my last research trip in 2008, I went to the sparsely populated nomadic
region in Golok, to the remote valley of Nyagar, to visit the site where
Tertön Sogyal passed away. A three story-high conical-shaped stupa had
just been erected in the tertön’s memory; I wrote about this in my first
book, In the Shadow of the Buddha (2011). The stupa had been filled with
hundreds of volumes of sacred scriptures draped in brocade; statues of
Buddha, Padmasambhava, and Vajrakilaya; mantra-infused medicines; and
fragrant juniper powder. I carried with me the last items to place inside—a
collection of sacred relics that I had collected from His Holiness the Dalai
Lama, Sogyal Rinpoche, Khamtrul Rinpoche, Khenpo Namdrol Rinpoche,
and other masters. After the silkwrapped bundle was set inside the heartcenter
of the stupa, I closed a stone door, sealing in the blessings so that
they might emanate outward for generations to come. Before climbing
down the ladder, I placed a wooden sign by the portal, engraved with the
name that Sogyal Rinpoche had bestowed upon the site: The Enlightenment
Stupa of Tertön Sogyal, Lerab Lingpa, Victorious in All Directions.
In some ways, that was the last step in my decade-long pilgrimage; it was
not unlike the way writing this book has concluded a long-held aspiration of
mine to tell the life story of Tertön Sogyal. Yet, in following in the
footsteps of the master—whether retracing his steps on foot or on the
page—we return to the place we were before the journey began, to where
the master has been pointing us all along. It is that space of innate
wakefulness that is our potential for awakening, where we pray, in the
words of Tertön Sogyal’s aspiration nearly a century ago: “May I realize
directly, here and now, the face of the ultimate guru, my very own nature
of mind.”