Padma Sambhava

Mural de Padma Sambhava, Trongsa dzong, Bhutan

Padma Sambhava é reverenciado em todos os países dos Himalaias como o “Guru Precioso”. Ele foi o fundador do Budismo tibetano e os seus seguidores veneram-no como o “segundo Buda.”

O prédio principal do Monastério Samye, Tibete

Vida de Padma Sambhava

O nome Padma Sambhava significa “Ser Nascido do Lótus”. Embora grande parte da sua vida e do seu trabalho tenham sido considerados como lendas, sabe-se que, no século oito, ele foi o maior erudito da famosa universidade monástica em Nalanda, na Índia, renomado pelos seus poderes místicos e a mestria nas ciências ocultas, especialmente o conhecimento e a aplicação das dharani (“frases místicas”). Tinha grande domínio do conhecimento mundano, desde as línguas e as artes até à ciência e à arquitetura.

Por volta do ano 750 a.D., o rei tibetano Trisong Detsen convidou Padma Sambhava para ir ao Tibete, onde ele ajudou a fundar o Budismo depois de vencer as forças da religião Bon. Também exorcizou os demônios que impediam a construção do primeiro mosteiro budista do Tibete, o Samye, construído fora de Lhasa. Padma Sambhava supervisionou a construção do edifício monumental com o seu elaborado complexo de templos desenhados em forma de mandala. Em Samye, fundou a primeira comunidade de monges budistas tibetanos.

Padma Sambhava inaugurou uma era de grande iluminação no Tibete. Sob a sua direção, um grupo de eruditos traduziu escrituras e textos budistas para o idioma tibetano, permitindo, assim, que o Budismo fosse difundido no país. Além disso, viajou por todo o território, convertendo pessoas à senda do Buda e revelando os ensinamentos dos mantras do Vajrayana, que é o Veículo Diamantino, ou Senda, uma escola de Budismo prevalente no Tibete. Uma das suas práticas principais é a concessão de poder do guru ao discípulo, por meio de certas práticas e rituais, incluindo a recitação de mantras.

Antes de deixar o Tibete, instruiu o rei e o povo durante vinte e um dias sobre ensinamentos externos e internos. Também lhes ensinou princípios da lei, da agricultura e do governo iluminado, e incentivou-os a seguir a senda da Budicidade.

Segundo a lenda, depois de tudo o que realizou, Padma Sambhava montou um magnífico cavalo alado e, envolto em uma luz irisada, subiu aos céus. Segundo a tradição, ele vive agora no seu paraíso, a sua Terra Pura, que fica na montanha Cor de Cobre.

Os tertöns

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Ainda em vida, Padma Sambhava instituiu um círculo interno de vinte e cinco discípulos, que se tornaram adeptos e transmissores dos ensinamentos. Como o povo tibetano ainda não estava preparado para receber a essência dos ensinamentos mais elevados do mestre, ele e o seus discípulos preservaram-nos, organizando-os de forma abreviada e codificada, que só poderia ser decifrada pelos que estivessem preparados adequadamente. Termas, literalmente “tesouros”, foi o nome dado a essas escrituras. Padma Sambhava e os seus discípulos esconderam as termas onde ficassem a salvo até que chegasse o tempo de serem reveladas. Ele previu que os seus vinte e cinco discípulos reencarnariam como tertöns (literalmente “reveladores do tesouro”) para descobrirem e interpretarem os ensinamentos esotéricos.

De acordo com outras tradições, os mais proeminentes tertöns foram encarnações do próprio Padma Sambhava. Os budistas tibetanos acreditam que, a partir do século onze, os tertöns começaram a recuperar e a divulgar as termas. Algumas que já foram descobertas contêm profecias de Padma Sambhava sobre o futuro do Tibete – profecias que se cumpriram no nosso tempo. Entre elas estão a invasão do Tibete pelos comunistas chineses; a destruição dos mosteiros; a profanação das escrituras, das estátuas e das pinturas sagradas; a humilhação dos monges; o massacre do povo tibetano e o estupro de monjas.

O manto do guru

Padma Sambhava concedeu à Mensageira Elizabeth Clare Prophet o manto* de guru e o título de “Guru Ma.” Guru Ma significa uma instrutora que é devota da Mãe Divina. Usando o manto de guru, a Mensageira é a serva da luz de Deus no interior do discípulo. O guru ajuda o discípulo a encontrar o caminho de volta ao Lar, para Deus.

Não existe amor maior do que o amor compartilhado entre o guru e o seu chela. Eles dão a vida um ao outro em um vínculo sagrado. Durante milhares de anos, os grandes instrutores espirituais da humanidade transmitiram o seu manto e o seu ensinamento aos discípulos que os mereciam. Ao redor de cada instrutor sucessivo reuniam-se estudantes que se dedicavam a estudar o ensinamento e a transformar-se em exemplo vivo do mesmo.

Com a transferência do manto do mestre para o discípulo, ocorre uma transferência de responsabilidade. O discípulo faz o voto de levar adiante a missão do mestre. Para que o trabalho da Grande Fraternidade Branca continue no planeta, um ser encarnado precisa usar o manto de guru. Atualmente há poucos gurus encarnados que sejam verdadeiramente patrocinados pela Grande Fraternidade Branca. Padma Sambhava faz parte de uma linhagem especial de gurus da Grande Fraternidade Branca, denominada hierarquia do raio rubi. A cadeia hierárquica dessa linhagem é a seguinte: Sanat Kumara (o Ancião de Dias), Gautama Buda, Senhor Maitreya, Jesus Cristo e Padma Sambhava.

Estátua de marfim de Padma Sambhava (Tibete Central, século dezessete)

Seu mantra

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For centuries, devotees of Padma Sambhava have received blessings by invoking his mantra, Om Ah Hum Vajra Guru Padma Siddhi Hum. It means: “Padma Sambhava, who arose from a lotus, please grant me the ordinary and supreme accomplishments, HUM!” (A “Vajra Guru” is a being who has fully mastered the path of Vajrayana.)

Padma Sambhava instructed his disciple Yeshe Tsogyal that his mantra should be used to avert the evils of a coming period of great darkness. His devotees have invoked this mantra to create peace and harmony and to antidote the confusion and turmoil of this Dark Age. It is a mantra for the era in which we live, a time of the planetary return of karma.

Lord Maitreya has urged us to let Padma Sambhava’s mantra ring in our soul and our heart:

Give the mantra of Padma Sambhava thirty-three times and celebrate your soul’s ascent each day to the secret chamber of your heart, to the altar of being. Life is empty when you do not do this. When you do not do it, you do not even know just how empty your life is. And you do not know how full it can be when and if you enter into the practice of keeping your appointment with Maitreya, with Gautama Buddha, with the bodhisattvas. Give it thirty-three times, beloved ones.

His teachings today

The ascended master Padma Sambhava has told us that he was sent by Gautama Buddha to be the incarnation of the Buddha so that all beings might have hope of becoming that Buddha. He said that following in his footsteps, we could be “the open door to souls becoming the Buddha within.” He also warned that those who choose to walk the path of the Buddha will face challenges.

He gave this key to retaining the Buddhic light:

Keep on loving in the face of the most intense anger, hatred, pride, passion, ambition, fear, death and darkness projected against the alignment of your being with the Buddhas of the light.... Remember not to identify with the counterfeit stream of the darkened ones. Their stream is this anger and all of these perversions that I have named.... These are the energies that you will tame in my name. These are the energies that will pass through your chakras without resistance from yourself. And in passing through, they will become, by the alchemy of transmutation, the great River of Life that you can claim as your own.

On April 2, 1994, Padma Sambhava called us to go back to basics and to examine our reason for being:

Remember why you are here, why you were born, and the mercies that God has extended to you. Opportunity, beloved, may knock and knock every day of your life. But when you are out of embodiment, you will sense the marking of time and even the transpiring of long aeons, some on the astral plane and some on the etheric plane, before you shall be able to return again for such opportunity as you have today.

Padma Sambhava said that he desired to tutor us for two reasons: so that we could reunite with God at the end of our lives in the ritual of the ascension, and so that we might “bear light and freely give light” to rescue other souls. “All of you are capable of this. The question is: Do you have the will? Is this your highest choice? Is this the definition of purpose in your life?”

Padma Sambhava said one of the biggest obstacles to developing our soul potential is learning to make peace with God and with other people. If you find this difficult, he said:

Consider that you may have a malady of the soul and that this malady can become a cancer of the soul, eating away at the very essence of your soul-identity. Recognize when the soul is sick and consult the doctor Lord Gautama Buddha and other Buddhas....

Please recognize the illness of the soul. It is the most dangerous illness of all. It is when you begin to have a warped view of life and of others and you imagine they have opinions of you that they do not and you begin to torment yourself with bitterness toward life, toward God. Oh yes, beloved, all of these emotional and mental attitudes are the beginning of the decay of the body itself.

In order to develop our soul potential, he said we must

... go beyond rancor.... What vast opportunity is cast aside when anger is not conquered, when resentment is not transmuted into forgiveness and love and gratitude for mercies given....

The antidotes begin in the etheric body, the mental body. The antidotes are the good humor, the good happiness, the good compassion, the good love, the good fairness and forgiveness. All of these things are the antidotes that would take away the sins of the whole world and the cancers lying deep in the psyche and then deep in the organs.

Padma Sambhava summarized all of these antidotes in two words: giving and serving. He said:

Give new life to your body and your soul by freely giving what you have.... Your aura will thus mount and increase and intensify and spread and widen and become as powerful as the seven seas.

Again, he urged, go back to basics:

Determine what is important to you from this day forward. I will tell you what my definition is of what is supremely important. It is that you satisfy the law of love, the law of wisdom, the law of the will of God. It is that you become a rock of refuge in the earth, caring not for the things of the self or the accumulation of the things of the self, but to perform your duties as best as possible, making use of the best of modern technologies and all that you require to have your victory. Serve, beloved, for service is your liberation.

The violet flame

On October 10, 1994, Padma Sambhava called us to be “interpreters of the new teaching of Saint Germain and how it relates to the ancient teachings of Hinduism and Buddhism.” Now is the hour when many souls can break the chain of karma and rebirth and reunite with God at the end of their lives in the ritual of the ascension.

“But they need a spin,” he said. “And the spin they need is the violet spinning flame. I enjoin you, then, to unveil this sacred treasure. Reveal it, beloved, to all who will listen and learn to give the violet-flame mantras. Let them know that the most sacred treasure of all is the violet-flame crystal, the violet-flame mantra, the violet flame blazing in their hearts, transmuting records of karma and cleansing all life in answer to their calls.”

Padma Sambhava and Jesus

The ascended master El Morya tells us that Padma Sambhava is a great devotee of Jesus Christ and Gautama Buddha. Seeking oneness with Jesus is important for all spiritual seekers, and we can pursue that oneness through Padma Sambhava. Padma Sambhava has spoken of his role as the one who can prepare us to be initiated under Jesus Christ. He said:

I give you the initiations of your Christhood. Do you think it odd that an Eastern Guru should teach you, a Western chela, the path of Jesus Christ? I, for one, do not. For you see, through your training and initiations under me, I bring you along on the path of chelaship to the place where it would be unthinkable for you, under any circumstances, to be an offense to your Lord....

Jesus said to his disciples: “Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” Many continue to cry, “Lord, Lord,” professing to love him, to know him and to be a Christian, but their actions belie their words....

There is more to the discipline of being a Christian than crying, “Lord, Lord.” You must be able to continually keep the flame of your emergent Christhood and to live according to God’s will.... Call to me so that you might be made whole at all levels of your being so that in that wholeness you might sit at your Lord’s feet and neither offend him nor be offended by him.

See also

Yeshe Tsogyal

Tertön

Sources

Mark L. Prophet and Elizabeth Clare Prophet, The Masters and Their Retreats, s.v. “Padma Sambhava.”