From johnc@cix.compulink.co.uk Fri Mar 15 02:11:40 1996 Received: from nova.unix.portal.com (nova.unix.portal.com [156.151.1.101]) by jobe.shell.portal.com (8.6.11/8.6.5) with ESMTP id CAA26513 for ; Fri, 15 Mar 1996 02:11:40 -0800 Received: from gold.compulink.co.uk (gold.compulink.co.uk [194.153.1.10]) by nova.unix.portal.com (8.6.11/8.6.5) with SMTP id CAA29925 for ; Fri, 15 Mar 1996 02:11:35 -0800 Received: from tom.compulink.co.uk by gold.compulink.co.uk (4.1/SMI-4.1) id AA14339; Fri, 1 Mar 96 00:44:15 GMT Received: (from root@localhost) by tom.compulink.co.uk (8.6.9/8.6.9) id AAA06810 for tyagi@HouseofKaos.Abyss.com; Fri, 1 Mar 1996 00:39:20 GMT Date: Fri, 1 Mar 96 00:37 GMT From: johnc@cix.compulink.co.uk (John Cleaver) Subject: Re: Rebirth and Tertons (Was Rebirth and Tradition (Was Re: Tibetean . To: tyagi@HouseofKaos.Abyss.com Cc: johnc@cix.compulink.co.uk Reply-To: johnc@cix.compulink.co.uk Message-Id: Status: RO In-Reply-To: <199602292037.MAA19427@jobe.shell.portal.com> Tyagi asks: >Fascinating. Are these termas left there by gods, then? Mystical >teachers? How do they get where they are before we gag them forth? The term 'fascinating' suggests to me that perhaps you are hinting at sarcasm. However, I take you at your word; this stuff is pretty hard to swallow, although not as hard to swallow as the tulku business. What follows is what I have understood from a Nyingma text. There may be other explanations. The terma is essentially an insight into a high level of realisation. The teacher gives the teaching to the student, the teaching 'takes', and the teacher sees that the teaching has taken. The teacvher sees that the teaching has value in the future, and performs the following steps: 1) Implants the teaching in the heart chakra of the pupil. The insight is buried below the cloak of karmic obscurations, and is immune to the karmic effects of any actions the implantee might perform in subsequent lives. It is preserved unchanged (unlike verbal teachings, which decay with the passing of generations). 2) Prophesys the circumstances of the rediscovery of the teaching. The prophesy is not a forecast, it has the power to change the future. 3) Entrusts the teaching to a guardian, normally a naga, dakini or dharmapala. 4) Sometimes, a 'reminder' or physical article, such as a text or rupa, is concealed, in a tree, or a rock, or a lake, or in the sky. Or in some other place. The guardian is required to guard this article also. At the time when he recieves the teaching, the terton gains the realisation embodied in the teaching. This is always at least dzog-rim realisation. The teacher must have realisation of dzog-chen to implant the teaching. In a subsequent rebirth, the student learns of the duty he/she must perform from clear visions, etc. He then performs the actions required of him. This might include uncovering a physical object, such as a text, or it might not. The original insight that he obtained at the time of implantation is aroused. This insight must then be practised by the terton until it is clear - to reveal the teaching before it is clear can destroy it. Ifg a text is involved, the text is often written in dakini writing (AFAIAA, this is like magic writing, although it looks like deva-nagari script to me - I'm no scholar of Indian literature!). It is said that sometimes the text changes, sometimes the meaning changes, and sometimes both change. The terton must keep it to himself until everything is stable. The terton inevitably realises the original insight embodied in the teaching; that is to say, the terton realises dzog-rim (completion-stage). The idea is that the teaching that is recovered is completely uncorrupted, since it was buried beyond the reach of karma, and since the realisation involved neccessarily incorporates the insight that time is imaginary. So 'fresh' termas are considered 'better' than traditional teachings, because they are not subject to the corruption that oral traditions are subject to. Jack.