Shakti and Shâkta : essays and addresses on the Shâkta Tantrashâstra

CHAPTER XV MATAM RUTRA (THE RIGHT AND WRONG INTERPRETATION)

N connection with the doctrine and SadhanA just described it is apposite to site the following legend from Thibet, which shows how, according to its Sadhakas, it may be either rightly or wrongly interpreted and how in the latter case

it leads to terrible evils and their punishment.

Guru Padma-sambhava, the so-called founder of “ Lamaism,” had five women disciples who compiled several accounts of the teachings of their Master and hid them in various places for the benefit of future believers. One of these disciples—Khandro Y eshe Tsogyal—was a Tibetan lady who is said to have possessed such a wonderful power of memory thatif she was told a thing only once she remembered it for ever, She gathered what she had heard from her Guru into a book called the Padma Thangying Serteng or Golden Rosary of the history of her Guru who was entitled the Lotus-born (Padma-sambhava). The book was hidden away and was subsequently under inspiration revealed some five hundred years ago by Terton.

The first Chapter of the Work deals with Sukhavati the realm of Buddha Amitabha. In the second the Buddha emanates a ray which is incarnated for the welfare of the Universe. In Chapter III it is said that there have been a Buddha anda Guru working together in various worlds and at various times, the former preaching the Sttras and the latter the Tantras. The fourth Chapter speaks of the Mantras and the five Dhyani Buddhas (as to which see Shrichakra-sambhfra Tantra edited by Arthur Avalon), and in

the fifth we find the subject of the present chapter, an account 378

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