Guru Rinpoche Padmasambhava

The Lotus Holder

Padmasambhava, Mandarava and Yeshe Tsogyal [thanks to: Digital Thangka]

Guru Rinpoche Padmasambhava is one of the most revered masters in Tibetan Buddhism. His name means “Lotus-Born”, having appeared miraculously on a lotus in the land of Oddiyana. Guru Rinpoche is the source of blessings, protection, wisdom, and spiritual power.

A great tantric master from the 8th century, Padmasambhava was invited to Tibet by King Trisong Detsen to help establish Buddhism there. He founded the Nyingma school, the oldest school of Tibetan Buddhism. Guru Rinpoche subdued negative forces in Tibet and transformed them into Protectors of the Dharma.

Regarded as a Buddha, Padmasambhava transmitted Vajrayana teachings, including Dzogchen, taught that enlightenment is possible in one lifetime, and concealed terma (hidden teachings) to be discovered later by destined masters.

Guru Rinpoche Padmasambhava's mantra: 

OM ĀH HŪṂ VAJRA GURU PEMA SIDDHI HŪṂ

Mandarava and Yeshe Tsogyal

Guru Rinpoche Padmasambhava had two principal consorts, both regarded as dakini emanations who played key roles in receiving and preserving his teachings.

Born in Zahor, Mandarava was recognised as a highly realised yogini from childhood. She became Padmasambhava's Indian consort and they are said to have attained the “rainbow body” together at Maratika. Mandarava is associated with long-life practices—especially the teaching cycles of Vajrayoginī and Chime Soktik.

Yeshe Tsogyal was a princess of Tibet and became Padmasambhava’s Tibetan consort and his foremost disciple. Known as the “Mother of Tibetan Buddhism,” Yeshe Tsogyal recorded and concealed many terma, and is viewed as an emanation of Vajravārāhī or Tārā.

Mandarava and Yeshe Tsogyal are the two primary wisdom consorts who assisted Padmasambhava in transmitting and safeguarding the Vajrayana teachings.

"Unstained by objects of perception..."

attributed to Padmasambhava

གཟུང་བའི་ཡུལ་གྱིས་མ་གོས་ཤིང༌། །

འཛིན་པའི་རྟོག་པས་མ་བསླད་པ། །

རིག་སྟོང་རྗེན་པར་བསྐྱང་བ་ནི། །

སངས་རྒྱས་ཀུན་གྱི་དགོངས་པའོ། ། 

Unstained by objects of perception,

Unspoilt by apprehending thought,

Sustaining naked, empty awareness—

This is the wisdom of all the buddhas! 

(Thanks to Lotsawa House for this translation.)