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The Great Image: The Life Story of Vairochana the Translator
This book is the autobiography of the great scholar and translator Vairochana, as told to a group of his students near the end of his life in the eighth century. Responsible for bringing seminal Buddhist teachings to Tibet from India, his deep understanding of the Dharma was what enabled him to translate the essence of enlightened mind, conveyed in the Sanskrit texts, with great accuracy.
- GenresBuddhism
304 pages, Paperback
First published November 9, 2004
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About the author
Dilgo Khyentse
52 books84 followersHis Holiness Khyabjé Dilgo Khyentsé Rinpoché (Tib.: དིལ་མགོ་མཁྱེན་བརྩེ། Wylie: dil mgo mkhyen brtse), born Tashi Peljor (བཀྲ་ཤིས་དཔལ་འབྱོར། bkra shis dpal 'byor) and ordained a monk as Jigme Rabsel Dawa Kyenrab Tenpa Dargye (འཇིགས་མེད་ རབ་གསལ་ཟླ་བ་ མཁྱེན་རབ་ བསྟན་པ་དར་རྒྱས། 'jigs med rab gsal zla ba mkhyen rab bstan pa dar rgyas) and later Gyurme Labsum Gyeltsen (འགྱུར་མེད་ ལབ་ སུམ་ རྒྱལ་མཚན། 'gyur med lab sum rgyal mtshan), was a Vajrayana lama and 2nd Supreme Head of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism from 1987 until 1991. He was held to be the "mind emanation" of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo (1820–1892). Having escaped Tibet close behind the Dalai Lama, he settled in Bhutan in 1965, where he maintained his primary residence for the rest of his life.
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June 4, 2020
A fascinating book to read.
King Trisong Deutsen after completion of the construction of Samye monastery fervently desire for holy Dharma to flourish in Tibet. Guru Padma tells the king to train the sons of the Tibetans as translators to fulfill the objective. An 8 year old boy, Vairotsana is identified as one of the potential boys.
Vairotsana goes to India at the age of 15 accompanied by his friend Lekdrub. They go through difficult trials enduring hardships. In one of the trials, his horse looks at him and Lekdrub with eyes full of tears and dies. In another trial, Vairo and Lekdrub get ruthless beating from a village people in India thinking that foreign spies have come and they are dumped into a pit full of snakes and frogs. Vairo nearly dies of utter exhaustion 54 times.
In India, they learn precious nectar of the sacred Dharma from Shri Singha, Manjushrimitra, etc. Vairo fully comprehends the teachings while Lekdrub writes down the teachings in the waning moon light using goat’s milk. Once they go at night to obtain the pith instructions on Ati teachings which were sealed and hidden in Bodhgaya. Seven scholars in India have bad dreams that night. One of the scholar shares his dream:
“Within the nature of total evenness, uncontrived, as it is,
Carefree, non-dual, and non-arising,
Realizing the nature beyond words,
In a meditative experience I had this dream:
Two young Tibetan monks,
Exposed the support of the Buddha's body, the bodhi tree,
The source of the Dharma, the basis of the doctrine in India.
Cutting the bodhi tree at its root,
They took the whole thing to Tibet!
Maybe they took the pith instructions from Bodhgaya!”
Later the Panditas passes a law that bar anyone to take pith instructions from Bodhgaya and punish whomever might take them.
Shri Singha explains the eighteen tantras with the pointing out instructions and asks, ‘are you satisfied now?’ Lekdrub being satisfied, leaves India and gets killed by border guards on the way. Vairo on the other side yearns for something that enables him to see directly the self-liberating nature of these instructions without having to make any effort. After pleading the master Shri Singha, he receives the teachings. The master soon advises Vairo to leave for Tibet. When Vairo prepares to go to Tibet, Indian scholars have inauspicious dreams. All the flowers turn toward Tibet, all the fragrance of sandalwood and other medicinal plants drift toward Tibet on the wind, all the dogs face Tibet when they bark. The Indian king and the scholars soon find out that the two Tibetan monks had broken the seals in Bodhgaya and the marvelous heart of the doctrine, the pith instructions to attain enlightenment in this lifetime, the summit of all vehicles, the teachings of the effortless Great Perfection have been taken to Tibet. Vairo manages to escape India with a jewel of doctrines. From the age of 15 up to 57, Vairo wandered in India for the sake of sentient beings.
In Tibet, Vairo showers the king Trisong Deutseen with the nectar of Dharma and translates it along with commentaries. Soon Vairotsana is asked to leave Tibet due to the curse of the ministers.
He leaves to Tsawarong (Kham) and there he teaches nectar of Dharma to the king, ministers, and lay people, and his core disciple prince Yudra Nyingpo. He then goes to China to receive teachings from various scholars and returns back to Tsawarong. At Tibet, upon the request of the king and several masters, Vairo and other translators translate many tantra sections and teachings.
After completing all the translations and entrusting all the doctrines, Vairo transforms into a blue sphere and white syllable A in center and disappears.
Homage to the omniscient master Vairotsana.
Although a great book, there is inconsistency about the number of languages Vairotsana has learned. At times the book mentions that Vairo learned 360 languages while in one of the pages, it says that he learned around 1600 languages.
King Trisong Deutsen after completion of the construction of Samye monastery fervently desire for holy Dharma to flourish in Tibet. Guru Padma tells the king to train the sons of the Tibetans as translators to fulfill the objective. An 8 year old boy, Vairotsana is identified as one of the potential boys.
Vairotsana goes to India at the age of 15 accompanied by his friend Lekdrub. They go through difficult trials enduring hardships. In one of the trials, his horse looks at him and Lekdrub with eyes full of tears and dies. In another trial, Vairo and Lekdrub get ruthless beating from a village people in India thinking that foreign spies have come and they are dumped into a pit full of snakes and frogs. Vairo nearly dies of utter exhaustion 54 times.
In India, they learn precious nectar of the sacred Dharma from Shri Singha, Manjushrimitra, etc. Vairo fully comprehends the teachings while Lekdrub writes down the teachings in the waning moon light using goat’s milk. Once they go at night to obtain the pith instructions on Ati teachings which were sealed and hidden in Bodhgaya. Seven scholars in India have bad dreams that night. One of the scholar shares his dream:
“Within the nature of total evenness, uncontrived, as it is,
Carefree, non-dual, and non-arising,
Realizing the nature beyond words,
In a meditative experience I had this dream:
Two young Tibetan monks,
Exposed the support of the Buddha's body, the bodhi tree,
The source of the Dharma, the basis of the doctrine in India.
Cutting the bodhi tree at its root,
They took the whole thing to Tibet!
Maybe they took the pith instructions from Bodhgaya!”
Later the Panditas passes a law that bar anyone to take pith instructions from Bodhgaya and punish whomever might take them.
Shri Singha explains the eighteen tantras with the pointing out instructions and asks, ‘are you satisfied now?’ Lekdrub being satisfied, leaves India and gets killed by border guards on the way. Vairo on the other side yearns for something that enables him to see directly the self-liberating nature of these instructions without having to make any effort. After pleading the master Shri Singha, he receives the teachings. The master soon advises Vairo to leave for Tibet. When Vairo prepares to go to Tibet, Indian scholars have inauspicious dreams. All the flowers turn toward Tibet, all the fragrance of sandalwood and other medicinal plants drift toward Tibet on the wind, all the dogs face Tibet when they bark. The Indian king and the scholars soon find out that the two Tibetan monks had broken the seals in Bodhgaya and the marvelous heart of the doctrine, the pith instructions to attain enlightenment in this lifetime, the summit of all vehicles, the teachings of the effortless Great Perfection have been taken to Tibet. Vairo manages to escape India with a jewel of doctrines. From the age of 15 up to 57, Vairo wandered in India for the sake of sentient beings.
In Tibet, Vairo showers the king Trisong Deutseen with the nectar of Dharma and translates it along with commentaries. Soon Vairotsana is asked to leave Tibet due to the curse of the ministers.
He leaves to Tsawarong (Kham) and there he teaches nectar of Dharma to the king, ministers, and lay people, and his core disciple prince Yudra Nyingpo. He then goes to China to receive teachings from various scholars and returns back to Tsawarong. At Tibet, upon the request of the king and several masters, Vairo and other translators translate many tantra sections and teachings.
After completing all the translations and entrusting all the doctrines, Vairo transforms into a blue sphere and white syllable A in center and disappears.
Homage to the omniscient master Vairotsana.
Although a great book, there is inconsistency about the number of languages Vairotsana has learned. At times the book mentions that Vairo learned 360 languages while in one of the pages, it says that he learned around 1600 languages.
Displaying 1 of 1 review