SPEAKING OF PEMA KOD
by Barry Spacks

On Saturday November 5th, 2005, as a member of the Vairotsana sangha in Santa Barbara, I had the pleasure of introducing our resident dharma teacher Tulku Orgyen Phontsok Rinpoche at a fund-raiser for the restoration of retreat land in his homeplace, the sacred land of Pema Kod.

Tulku was recognized there by, among others, H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche, head of the Nyingmapa Lineage through much of the 20th century (His Holiness also born in Perna Kod) as the reincarnation of one of Dudjorn Rinpoche's key disciples, the great Dzogchen Master Togden Sithen.

After the Chinese occupation in 1959, Dudjom Rinpoche directed his disciples in Tibet to relocate in Pema Kod, instructing them to take there important sacred objects from his Tibetan monastery. Togden Sithar, Tulku Orgyen Phuntsok's former incarnation, a highly realized champion of Buddhadharma, was entrusted by Dudjorn Rinpoche with the responsibility for the sacred objects and retreat land at what was known as the very heart of the Pema K6d region. This is the task that Tulku has inherited from his former life as Togden Sithar.

The remote location of Tulku's part of Pema Kod, just below the Tibetan border in the far northeast corner of India, protects its people with their deep respect for the sacred quality of their land.

There is a tradition in Tibetan folklore of beyuls -- secret or hidden territories. Nyingmapas understand that Guru Rinpoche, who brought Vajrayana to Tibet in the 8th century, empowered 108 of these havens, places of peace and prosperity where practitioners will make particular spiritual progress.

Pema Kod, "hidden lotus land," called the "heart of the world," and the king of Padmasambhava's hidden lands, is in effect the crown jewel of this mala of 108 byyuls, often identified with James Hilton's Shangri-la. Incidentally, Zhongdian County in China has recently -- for tourism purposes -- renamed itself Shangri-la County. The power of a name!

This mystic land is associated with the great gorge of the Tsangpo River, the deepest in the world (4 times as far down as the Grand Canyon!) and a centuries-long quest for a falls there, the highest in Asia, helping to pour the Tsangpo into the low-lying Indian Bramaputra,. Behind such a cascade, Tibetan texts claim, lies the door to Yargsang, the ultimate hidden land of immortality, reachable only by those with purified hearts and minds.
The Hidden Falls of Dorge Pagmo, as Ian Baker renamed them, were "discovered" in 1998 by Baker's National Geographics sponsored team, the auspicious number 108 (the number of beads on a mala) is echoed in the 108 feet of descent of this roaring, mist-shrouded cataract.

In orienting us a bit toward the wonders of Pema Kod, I wanted to read a typical trekker-passage from Baker's riveting book The Heart of the World, but decided instead to turn from the fascinating adventuring and exploring the book offers in search of the falls to favor instead a lovely pith-teaching on the nature of Buddhist consciousness that comes up in the book in a conversation among the Western pilgrims to Perna Kod.

"Gil, to know Dorge Pagmo [the landscape is understood to be a geographical emanation of the Queen of Dakinis, Vajravaradhi or Dorge Pagmo] you have to surrender to her completely. If you try to conquer or possess her, she will always elude you. Pernako isn't a place you can seduce. The place seduces you."

"Thanks, Hamid," Cal said...

And later, really getting at it:

"Buddhist philosophy reveals that what appears as external and self-
existing is ultimately a function of consciousness: it has no inherent existence.
To say that reality is nondual doesn't mean that all is illusion, but that appear-
ances arise In conjunction with our perception. When we recognize that per-
ception dictates our reality, the forces of greed, anger, and delusion lessen and
we attain a freer responsiveness to the events around us,"

"You mean we don't get attached?"

"Right, we just recognize them as the play of consciousness, a kind of virtual reality. This isn't just artful fantasy," Hamid continued. "Science recognizes the same thing: that reality does not exist separately from our perception."

"So what's real then?" Gil asked. "Just this collective and intersecting delusion?"

"No." Hamid answered. "That's the whole point of Buddhism -- to wake up from this collective dream and to recognize that there are no inherent boundaries between external reality and the circuitrv of consciousness. If we could live in full awareness of this nondual reality, there would no longer be any basis for alienation, greed, anger, fear, and all the other mental poisons that Buddhism speaks about. We would take responsibility for our own perceptions and begin to work with them, in full consciousness of our interconnectedness with other beings."

The Dalai Lama, who wrote an introduction to Baker's book, assured this adventurer and tantric scholar that only by mastering their innermost depths could Buddhist practitioners gain true entrance to such hidden realms as Pemakod.

This land has now been assimilated into China and India. It lies in eastern Tibet toward the Indian border and is understood to be shaped as the earthly representation of the sow-head Dakini Dorje Pagmo or Vajravarahi. Each feature of the landscape is seen as a part of her bodv. The section which Tulku Orgyan Rinpoche is from is situated "in the secret place" -- we'd say "private place'-- of the Dakini's land-anatomy.

I want to add another very short passage from Baker's book. Bhaka Tulku, our teacher's uncle -- well known to us through his central involvement with the Vairotsana Foundation -- was a key guide to the explorers in Pema Kod. Here's a charming little story Bhaka Tulku passed on to Ian Baker.

"Bhaka Tulku had told me about a Tibetan nun whom he had met during his stay at Rinchenpung in 1956. The nun would disappear into the forests around Tapak Ne for davs at a time, Bhakha Tulku related, and return as if intoxicated, bearing fruits and flowers that no one had ever seen before. No one had followed her on her journeys, but all assumed that she was attending Tantric tsok feasts in the halcyon realms of the dakinis -- beyond conventional limits of time and space."

The search in the book is for the spectacular hidden waterfall, to penetrate the five miles of white space on the dakini body-map of Pema Kod, but Tibetans, Baker reminds us, view waterfalls as an interface between the physical and ethereal universes -- the worlds of body and spirit. And "some doors cannot be opened until they open in us first."

Not an inappropriate note to sound on an evening when we' were involved in supporting the restructuring of retreat land for practitioners in this famously holy area.

On an outer level Pema Kod is beautiful, with scented flowers, fruits and herbs, jungles and mountains. It has the greatest bio-diversity in all the Himalayan range. It is home to 85 types of mammals including the snow leopard, and clouded leopard, has the densest population of Bengal tigers left in the world, black bear, elephant and eight species of gibbon, as well as 500 bird species and 600 species of orchid. Many plants here have special therapeutic powers, and there are many healing streams. On an inner level countless Buddhas bless the entire landscape. There are groves of primordial wisdom, lakes of medicine and blood, and magical herbs that grant happiness, immortality, the ability to fly and intrinsic realisation.

Padmasambhava. in the Tsa-Stim Gongdus, described this sacred land, where he meditated in many mountain caves, in a wonderful passage:

"In this hidden land, all mountains are like blooming flowers. All rivers spontaneously recite mantras and flow with nectar; rainbows are arched on trees and bushes. All the oath-bound protectors watch closely and protect true practitioners and punish those who merely pretend to be. Those who practice sincerely will attain enlightenment in this lifetime. Pure samadhi will spontaneously arise just by being in this land. One session of practice in this blessed land is equal to a year of practice in other places. Those who make three prostrations here will never take lower rebirth. Those who die after seven steps taken with the intention of arriving here will definitely be reborn in this land.. Those who build stupas and temples, and perform other works of virtue in this land are my messengers. Therefore, my fortunate sons and daughters, keep devotion to this land. You will soon realize its significance."
Padmasambhava' consort and teacher, Yeshi Sogyal, wrote a beautiful and fiesty poem about attaining enlightenment. Here is a considerable excerpt:

Listen, faithful Tibetans!
I am merging with the fundamental, the ground of all that is...
the compassion of the Guru has never left me;
his manifestations fill all the world and call out to welcome me.
This wild lady has done everything;
many times have I come and gone, but now, no longer.
I am a Tibetan wife sent back to her family.
I shall now appear as the Queen, the All-good, the Dharmakaya.
This self-sufficient black lady
has shaken things up far and wide;
now the shaking will carry me away
into the southwest.
I have finished with intrigues,
with the fervent cascades of schemes and deceptions;
I am winding my way
into the expanse of the Dharma.
I have mourned many men of Tibet who have left me behind --
but now I am the one who will go to the land of the Buddhas.
(translated by Tarthang Tulku)

The great yogin Milarepa also meditated in Pema Kod.
Here is an excerpt from one of his many poems of meditative accomplishment.

RESPONSE TO A LOGICIAN

-- Milarepa (translated by Thupten Jinpa & Jas Eisner)

The best seeing is the way of "nonseeing" --
the radiance of the mind itself.
The best prize is what cannot be looked for --
the priceless treasure of the mind itself.
The most nourishing food is "noneating" --
the transcendent food of samadhi.
The most thirst-quenching drink is "nondrinking" --
the nectar of heartfelt compassion.
Oh, this self-realizing awareness
is beyond words and description!
The mind is not the world of children,
nor is it that of logicians.
Attaining the truth of "nonattainment,"
you receive the highest initiation.
Perceiving the void of high and low,
you reach the sublime stage.
Approaching the truth of "nonmovement,"
you follow the supreme path.
Knowing the end of birth and death,
the ultimate purpose is fulfilled.
Observing the truth of "nonobservation"
opens the way to meditating.
Comprehending beyond "ought" and "oughtn't"
opens the way to perfect action.
When you realize the truth of "noneffort,"
you are approaching the highest fruition.
Ignorant are those who lack this truth,
arrogant teachers intlated by learning,
scholars bewitched by mere words,
and yogis seduced by prejudice.
For though they yearn for freedom,
they find only enslavement.
Enough now of the enslavement to mere words!