In Maratika cave, Guru Rinpoche together with his consort Mandarava attained the spiritual state of “knowledge holder with power over longevity” (chimey rigzin). On the path to buddhahood this is the second of four vital stages, as explained in the Mahayoga tradition of the Vajrayana, or Secret Mantra. Guru Rinpoche explained, “As the first of all activities, the knowledge holder should achieve longevity.”
In the description of Jamgon Kongtrul the Great:
Then he captured the heart of the princess of Sahora [or Zahor], the daughter of King Arshadhara, who bore the dakini name Mandarava. He took her away to be his consort and to support his spiritual attainment, and they spent three months in Maratika Cave pursuing practice to attain longevity. The protector and buddha of infinite life, Amitayus, actually appeared to them and bestowed empowerment, granting them blessings so that they were united with him. He bestowed on them a billion tantras of longevity, and they attained the siddhi of a master of awareness with power over longevity. Having achieved birthless and deathless vajra forms, they went forth to guide the kingdom of Sahora.
"As the first of all activities,
The vidyadhara should achieve longevity !
Of all activities, the first should be long-life practice.
If life is long, it can be virtuous,
And the purpose of this life and the next can be achieved."
– Guru Padmasambhava
Longevity practices are practices for restoring vital energy that has been degenerated and dissipated, which causes illness, aging and death to occur. They are employed in order to increase one’s own or others’ lifespan.
Long-life practices are often focused on deities specifically accociated with longevity, such as Amitayus (the Buddha of Boundles Life), White Tara, and Ushnishavijaya (Tib. Namgyalma) – together these three are known as the “three deities of long life” – and Tsendali (the consort of Amitayus).
Orgyen Tobgyal Rinpoche explains why longevity practice is so important:
“All sentient beings have as the ground of their being, the sugatagarbha,1 because of which they can attain enlightenment. If there were no potential for enlightenment, there would not really be such a special point made about living a longer life.
If you are to attain enlightenment, then you require a physical form. It is said that the form of a human being is the best form among the six classes of beings. The ‘boat’ of the human body is very good for crossing the ‘river’ of suffering. This is an important point. But we will not find this boat again and again. So now that we have it, we should not waste our time in laziness and sleep.
So it is good to live a long life because we can fully accomplish the purpose of this and future lives.
In terms of the methods for prolonging life, the buddhas, who are skilled in means and possess great compassion, have taught many different ways. They have taught both common and supreme methods for extending life.
Common methods include ‘extracting the essence’ (chü len) and taking medicinal substances, and methods employing the breath and special yogic exercises. You find a lot about medicine and how to make pills for long-life and so on in the terma teachings. Among the uncommon methods, there is deity visualization, mantra recitation, and dzogrim practice.
If the common methods can be combined with supreme, uncommon methods then life will naturally be extended. So when we do long-life practice we bring together the common and uncommon techniques. If, for example, we make long-life pills, which is a common method, then we combine that with the uncommon methods of visualizing the deities and blessing the substances, so that the two levels are combined.
Since longevity is so important, there is no tertön (treasure-revealer) who has not revealed methods for long-life practice. Some revealed as many as five or six different practices, some two or three. So there are many long-life sadhanas.
Therefore, if you are a practitioner of the Dharma, someone who is putting the teachings into practice, there is great significance to doing long-life practice. If you are not a Dharma practitioner, but just someone caught up in worldly life, then there is not such great purpose to living a long time. Here we are talking from the point of view of a practitioner.
These long-life practices bring the two together: common and uncommon. We achieve longevity as the ordinary accomplishment, but in the process, we also achieve the supreme accomplishment. In the best case, we achieve the rainbow body. If not, then by living for eighty or ninety years, we become a good practitioner whose realisation is as vast as space, and who is able to work for his or her own and others’ benefit.
Every one of us needs to do long-life practice. And we need to do a practice that combines common and uncommon methods. For this you need an explanation on how to practice.”
Once that state of knowledge holder
With power over longevity is attained,
One will gain mastery and attain the supreme class
Within, six, twelve, or sixteen months.
With power over longevity is attained,
One will gain mastery and attain the supreme class
Within, six, twelve, or sixteen months.
– from a tantra
A knowledge holder, or awareness holder (vidyadhara in Sanskrit; rigzin in Tibetan), is someone who constantly abides in the pure state of awareness (rigpa). A knowledge holder is a realized master on one of the four stages on the tantric path of Mahayoga (the first of the three Inner Tantras), the tantric equivalent of the eleven levels (bhumis, or grounds) of the Sutra vehicle.
The underlying intent of using the four classes of knowledge holder found in the Mantra tradition, or Vajrayana, is to present the five paths of the Sutra tradition. The progression through the four types of knowledge holder encompasses the state of a beginner all the way up to the state of buddhahood.
The four vidyadhara levels are specific to the Dzogchen or Nyingma tradition. They are as follows:
matured vidyadhara (namin rigdzin)
vidyadhara with power over life (tsewang rigdzin)
mahamudra vidhyadhara (chakchen rigdzin)
spontaneously accomplished vidyadhara (lhundrup rigdzin)
vidyadhara with power over life (tsewang rigdzin)
mahamudra vidhyadhara (chakchen rigdzin)
spontaneously accomplished vidyadhara (lhundrup rigdzin)
The four vidyadhara levels are related to the Five Paths, or stages on the way to enlightenment, which are the path of accumulation, joining, seeing, cultivation, and no-more-learning. According to Longchenpa, the levels are related as follows:
The matured vidyadhara is on the paths of accumulation and joing, which are known collectively as the stage of aspiring conduct;
The vidyadhara with power over life has reached the path of seeing;
The mahamudra vidyadhara is on the path of meditation;
The spontaneously accomplished vidyadhara is on the path of no-more-learning.
Khenpo Ngakchung (1879-1941), one of the most influential Dzogchen masters of recent times, and one of whose main disciples is Chatral Sangye Dorje Rinpoche, states:
"Those who have not been able to purify their bodies but whose minds have ripened into the deity’s body are known as matured vidyadharas;
Those who have the ability to purify the ordianry body with the fire of concentartion and transform it into a subtle body acquire the power of immortal life and are called vidyadharas with power over life;
Those who are on the second to the ninth bhumis [grounds, or stages of the path to enlightenment] aremahamudra vidyadharas;
Then, at the end of the path, at the moment buddhahood is reached, they are spontaneously accomplished vidyadharas."
A vidyadhara with power over life is thus one of the vidyadhara levels. This stage is reached after not only the pracititioner’s mind has matured into the dharmakaya, but one also gains the power to purify the ordinary body and transform it into a subtle body, which is immortal.
Alternative names for “vidyadhara with power over life” are “knowledge holder with power over longevity”, “vidyadhara level of immortal life”, or “holder of intrinsic awareness with power over longevity”. These are all interchangeable.
Stages of the Path states:
With the attainments of accomplishing the eight collections,
The nature is seen, engaged, and perfected,
And the defilements of the body, realms,
And birthplace come to an end.
Becoming a vajra body, the class of life,
All that one sees is nirvana.
Without discarding the body,
The level of buddhahood is attained.
All fears vanish and miracles are mastered.
The nature is seen, engaged, and perfected,
And the defilements of the body, realms,
And birthplace come to an end.
Becoming a vajra body, the class of life,
All that one sees is nirvana.
Without discarding the body,
The level of buddhahood is attained.
All fears vanish and miracles are mastered.
This stage of accomplishment is similar to the great master Padmasambhava’s attainment at Maratika Cave, where Mandarava acted as his practice companion and he attained a state free from birth and death through the practice of the proximate cause, or the practice of close approach – which is connected to the path of joining, as explained above.
According to Jigme Lingpa (1729-1798): “At this stage, regardless of how one meditates, the clarity and stability of the visualization merge with reality, the nature of great bliss. Practicing in this way causes the qualities of the seven factors of enlightenment to manifest in actuality. As the mind will have reached the path of joining, the five forms of clairvoyance, the four miraculous powers, and the other factors associated with this stage will be attained. One will also be able to hear the Dharma directly from nirmanakaya buddhas. Furthermore, as the true nature of objects will have been actualized, the great, supreme state will be brought to a state of culmination and the defiled body will be transformed into a vajra body. Because this form is free from birth and death, it is referred to as the “knowledge holder with power over longevity.”
Termas are so-called "treasure teachings", that have been prophesied, hidden and stored, and will be revealed at their right time and in the right place, by a tertön master who has the karmic link to do so. This explains why these treasure teachings are so powerful: they may appear in our very own time and place, so that devoted and fortunate people may find liberation.
According to HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, HH Dudjom Rinpoche has received such a mind treasure in Maratika. That is why we feel particularly blessed: In Maratika there is not only the continued presence of Guru Rinpoche and Mandara in their enlightened wisdom bodies, but an ongoing treasure revealing by our very contemporary masters as well.
In “Blazing Splendor”, the memoirs of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, there is a very beautiful and concise explanation of what termas (treasure teachings) are:
“The Lotus-Born master, with great compassion and wisdom, ensured that each generation would have a specific teaching meant for that time. Moreover they would be guaranteed a short lineage, unpolluted by damaged samayas and with the blessed breath of the dakinis still warm.”
– Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, “Blazing Splendor”, p. 332.
And Tulku Urgyen further explains:
That is why we now have so many sadhanas from over various centuries based on the Three Roots. Some people wonder what is the point of having such variety – but there are many good reasons. One is the immediate effect at the time of revelation: it’s like having a fresh crop, rather than food from last year. In each age, there are worthy disciples ready to be brought to maturity and they must be given the proper empowerments. Other beings must be benefitted indirectly, by planting the seeds for their future liberation. And the Buddha’s teachings must be supported to ensure the happiness of beings. This was Padmasambhava’s concern and he made certain of this for many generations into the future. His was indeed an immense kindness.”
– ibid., p. 332.
In Vajra Speech, a collection of pith instructions by Tulku Urgyen Rinpche, we read:
“All great tertöns are masters who in body, speech and mind are blessed and empowered personally by Padmasambhava. Tertöns appear to reveal the hidden treasures he buried in Tibet and other countries.”
[...] “From childhood, a great tertön is unlike other children. He has pure visions of deities and realization overflows from within. Tertöns are not like us ordinary people who must follow the gradual path of study and practice. Ordinary people do not have spontaneous realization!”
[..] “When the time comes for the different terma teachings to be revealed, great tertöns appear in this world. They are able to dive into lakes, fly up to impossible locations in caves and take objects out of solid rock.”
And as such, Maratika itself forms part of a larger mandala. | |
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Not only is Maratika described as the place of the complete mandala of the Three Family Lords; but it is also described by HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche as one of the six most holy places of Vajrayana buddhism, being part of the enlightened mandala:
"On seeing this place, great astonishment arises.
Through merely hearing the name, the seed of liberation is planted.
By recalling it, accidental death is prevented.
Through making prostrations, circumambulation and offerings, great accumulation of merit is accomplished."
– from: HH Chatral Rinpoche, "The Melodious Tambura of Joy"
The local Nepali name of Maratika is Haleshi, which derives from "Ha las bshad" ("astonishing") in Tibetan. Maratika is the place called "astonishing", because inside the sacred cave, innumerable images of statues, seed-syllables and hand implements of the peaceful and wrathful deities abound – all of which are self-arisen, which means that they appear by and of themselves, not made by human hand.
In Vajrayana Buddhism, there is the notion of liberation upon seeing, upon hearing, upon smelling, upon touching, and upon tasting. In Maratika, all these liberations are present. It is very rare, even for a sacred site, to have all these liberations present in one place. The five liberations, or five swiftly liberating skillful means of Vajrayana are:
mandala: diagram which liberates upon seeing;
mantra: syllables which liberate upon hearing;
amrita: ambrosia, substances which liberate upon tasting;
mudra: a consort, the source of wisdom of united bliss and emptiness, who liberates upon touching;
phowa: practice of transference of consciousness, which liberates upon thinking.
Karma Chakme Rinpoche (1613-1678), the great master whose coming had been prophesied by Guru Rinpoche in many treasure texts, in his famous work Mountain Dharma; Oral Instructions for Mountain Retreat, teaches about the importance of doing retreat in blessed places:
"The best place to do retreat is a place that from the beginning has been blessed by the presence of dakas and dakinis, such as the dakas and dakinis spoken of in the mandala of Kalachakra and Chakrasamvara. An example of this kind of place is Tsaritra in southern Tibet, which is renowned as an abode of dakas and dakinis.
"It is especially sacred if the place has been traveled to, and preferably practiced in, by Guru Rinpoche. An example of this kind of place is the practice cave of Maratika in Nepal, which has probably been used by many other mahasiddhas as well. In other words the best place is a place that was an abode of dakas and dakinis and has been blessed by many great gurus.
(...) "In a place that bears such blessing, one day of practice will do you more good than a year's practice anywhere else. These places are the best."
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