PREVIOUS LIFE IN INDIA
Homage to the host of lamas, yidams, and dakinis.
Bowing at the feet of the mother, the nonmortal, the dakini, I have arranged this complete explanation of casting out the body as food according to Machik’s own teachings.
First, a brief explanation of Machik’s history.
A TACHIK is the dakini of timeless wisdom, the birth mother of all past,
present, and future buddhas.
She is the vajra dakini of the mind family. With the intention to help sentient beings, she took birth
[in her previous life] as the son of King Arlsura Arya in Kapila in India. The young prince was called Monlam Drup.’ He learned to read and write all the sets of letters and all other sciences with barely any studying, just by hearing or seeing them. From the age of five he could understand everything without hindrance. Everybody said that he must be an emanation of the Buddha.
At the age of ten, he took monastic ordination with Pandita Pltibhadra and received the name Dondrup Zangpo.4 He stayed with this master for three years, during which time he became more learned in grammar, logic, paramite, vinaya, and abhidharma collections than even the master him¬the presence of his master he assiduously studied the collections of scriptures (pitakas),7 and even made many clarifications
in the Four Tantras. Most important, he ofFered the realizations that had arisen in his own mind. The master was utterly pleased and said, “Dondrup Zangpo, I am not capable of being your master any longer. Now you should go north to Zangling (Tam- radvipa). Guru Ratna lives there. He is a great adept of Chakrasamvara and is
actually able to manifest the emanated mandala. He is learned in all the scrip¬tures and is adorned with all good qualities. Go to him and work through all your doubts. Practice the Highest Secret Mantra and become an adept. You will help many sentient beings.”
The next day Dondrup Zangpo arrived before Guru Ratna. Guru Ratna could see that he was a worthy recipient and emanated the mandala of the six¬ty-four deities of Chakrasamvara in the sky in front of him. The four empowerments were bestowed in their entirety, and Dondrup Zangpo
attained supreme spiritual powers (siddhi). He could travel through the pure realms of the buddhas without obstruction. He stayed with this master for three years and resolved his misconceptions concerning all the teachings of sutra and tantra. In particular, he became learned and adept in the stages of creation and completion in Highest [[[Secret Mantra]]].
Then the master told him, “You should go north to the Vajra Seat at Bodh- gaya and convert the heretics.™ There is no one able to debate as well as you.” So when he was sixteen years old, Dondrup Zangpo went to Bodhgaya and debated with the heretics. They were defeated, and one hundred thousand of them entered the Buddhist order. Dondrup Zangpo stayed in Bodhgaya for four years.
Then Exalted Tara told him that he must go to Tibet to help the beings there. “Hurry up and get accomplished!” she said. He decided that he should visit some sacred places and set out to the north. He came to a cemetery, and as soon as he lay down to rest, a dakinl of that
charnel ground appeared. She was wearing bone ornaments and carrying a hooked knife and a trident.n She said, “Don’t you have anywhere to rest besides my cemetery?” and then con¬jured up all kinds of apparitions. But he overcame them with his meditative absorption (samadhi), and the dakinl offered her life-essence and pledged her¬self to the Dharma.
At dawn, he beheld the faces of the fifteen goddesses of Nairatmya,i who said to him, “Yogin, go to Potari and quickly become accomplished and then go on to Tibet.” Then they vanished like a rainbow. He thought to himself, “Being young, I should achieve success in practice, but I wonder what practice will bring success? And taming the wild, unruly Tibetans will be difficult. I don’t have [any idea] what it takes.”
Immediately the five deities of Great Magical Illusion, Mahamaya,™ appeared in the dim light of dawn and said, “Yogin, go to the Bhadra cavei at Potari and accomplish the heart practice of the Five Goddesses of the Black
One.15 You must soon tame the people of Tibet, so hurry up and arouse diligence!” They dissolved into light and vanished. As soon as it was daylight, the cemetery dakini announced that she would be his guide. Accompanied by the dakini, Dondrup Zangpo traveled by swift-foot16 and arrived at Bhadra cave without delay.
He practiced the Five Deities of Exalted Lady17 and after fourteen days the common spiritual powers developed. In one month, he directly perceived the Five Deities of his heart practice. • They conferred complete empowerment in the secret mandala of timeless wisdom (ye shes; jndna ) and pronounced many prophecies, such as the need to tame the people of Tibet. Finally, they dis¬solved into light and seemed to
melt into his heart. After one month, Exalted Tara appeared and made the Tibet prophecy again and then dissolved into his heart. Then on the third day of the waxing moon, the Lord Amitayus made a prophecy and granted ritual authorization! and many blessings. On the eighth
day, Avalokitesvara blessed him and made prophecies. Padmavajra with a host of dakinis appeared on the tenth day and interrogated him about the Dharma. There was nothing that he did not know. So the secret mandala of Hayagriva-Varahl opened up before him and the empowerment was conferred, after which prophecies were made about Tibet:. The dakinis made offerings to him and begged him to go to Tibet. From the tenth to the fourteenth day, one by one the dakinis urged him to go quickly to Tibet.
Before dawn on the fifteenth, the full-moon day, a very wrathful, dark-blue dakini wearing bone ornaments and brandishing a trident and hooked knife said to him, “Yogin, prepare to go to Tibet! When I kill you, quickly dissolve your consciousness into my heart.” She
flourished the hooked knife as if killing him, and his consciousness dissolved into the dakini. (He was twenty years old at this time.)20 The dakini blessed the corpse so that it would not deteriorate. So, with the dakini as his escort, [his consciousness] arrived safely in Ei Gangwa21 in the Lapchi region of Tibet and entered his mother’s womb. (That was on the fifteenth day of the fifth month of the Horse year.)22
