..續本文上一頁 over for a long time. His Holiness, on the other hand, absolutely needed no such preparation. Whatever he wrote was done in a single stroke in a short time period. His wisdom mind is like the headstream of a brook, forever running lively.

　　I recall during a trip to India in 1990, His Holiness Jigme Phuntsok suffered an ailment in eyes and could not read any written words. Yet when he gave a discourse at a prestigious Buddhist academy, he gave copious recitations of many Buddhist scriptures like the Avatamsaka Sutra and theLotus Sutra, which were quoted almost verbatim from the sutras, as a few of us disciples confirmed later with the original texts.

　　This kind of wisdom is referred to as the “mind-stream treasure,” or ”terma” in Tibetan Buddhism, which is unattainable by ordinary people in a short time, no matter how much effort has been exerted. Have you have ever looked into it

　　 Terma is something very unique to Tibet,and it is utterly supreme. In Boston and Washington, D.C. of the United States, a number of doctorates once were engaged in a specific investigationinto it but regrettably, few Chinese archives deals with this topic.

　　In theterma tradition,Guru Padmasambhava, in order to benefit future generations, concealed with his mystic power deep teachings and sacred objects of tantra in sacred mountains, lakes, or in the sky and prophesied that certain future masters were to retrieve them later. These terma-revealers, usually realized practitioners called tertons, were to arrive at the predestined time and place to recover the hidden treasures, which usually appeared as tiny caskets. At the prompting of sparsely encoded dakini language in it, the terma concealed in the midstream of the terton was revealed and the terton spontaneously composed sadhanas and Dharma teachings that could fill dozens of book volumes by today”s standards. These teachings are completely unlike those written with a mundane discursive mind, and the practices they prescribed are equally superb. Therefore,the state reached by realized Dharma masters versus that of academia is just as different as night and day.

　　As I have just mentioned, if you really want to appreciate Tibetan tantras, the first thing to do is to practice the Preliminaries, starting from the contemplation of the rarity of having a human existence and the impermanence of all phenomena, etc. Having completed the common preliminaries, you must continue to the uncommon ones— taking refuge, generating bodhichitta, performing repentance and purification, making mandala offering, practicing guru yoga and phowa (the transference of consciousness). All these preliminaries will take you years to accomplish.Only by having established a firm foundation with the Preliminaries, then shall you move up to the practices of higher levels—the Generation Phase, the Completion Phase, Mahayoga, Anuyoga, and Atiyoga.

　　I have translated the sadhanas of these practices into Chinese and clearly stated that they should not be distributed openly. Still these texts have found their way onto the black market. Actually it doesn”t matter. In the absence of authentic transmission, especially to those devoid of faith, getting hold of a copy does nothing special—the sadhana will appear just as ordinary as the others. For instance, anyone can read the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch if they feel like it, but the experience of reading it varies vastly. Those with no karmic connection may feel the same as reading the Dao De Jing by Laozior the Bible. On the other hand, those who are karmically inclined may well attain enlightenment the moment they read the Platform Sutra

　　From my own years” of observation, the Great Perfection of the Nyingma School is indeed a practice that can directly cut off our afflictions and in…

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