30 December 2019

The Significance of Charnel Grounds

First, let me explain about charnel grounds. In a nutshell, the Nyingma tradition explains that there was an extraordinarily vicious rudra called Black Liberation who had to be annihilated and liberated. So Hayagriva and Vajravarahi appeared on top of the Blazing Meteoritic Mount Malaya and relied on the skilful means of union free of attachment and of liberation to annihilate Black Liberation. Then, they threw his body parts on the world. The places where they landed became the eight great charnel grounds, the twenty-four sacred places and the thirty-two sacred lands.

The evil beings in Black Liberation’s retinue have made these sixty-four sacred places their home – mostly the eight great charnel grounds, but also in the twenty-four sacred places and the thirty-two sacred lands. As it is said “They did not stay in the middle but protect the edges”, which means that they did not remain in the middle of the mandala but went to the edges of the mandala to offer protection. They pledged to accomplish the benefits of sentient beings as long as the Buddha’s teachings remain, by helping fortunate ones to gain accomplishment, and by punishing those who lack karmic fortune as they judge good and bad.

According to the Sarmapas, after the Bhagavan Buddha had turned the wheels of Hinayana and Mahayana teachings, the dharma kings Suchandra and Indrabhuti requested him to turn the wheel of Vajrayana. Buddha manifested in the form of Guhyasamaja, Chakrasamvara and Kalachakra for example, and turned the dharma wheel of Secret Mantra for the fortunate disciples able to attain enlightenment without abandoning the objects of desire. When he arose as Chakrasamvara, Hevajra, Guhyasamaja and so on, he placed the dakas and dakinis of the twenty-four sacred places, thirty-two sacred lands and eight great charnel grounds in the mandala, based on the mandala of his body. According to Chakrasamvara teachings for example, in each of the sixty-four sacred places resides a chief daka and a chief dakini, so there are sixty-four chief dakas and sixty-four chief dakinis. The ones who reign over the eight great charnel grounds are considered to be the main ones.

Guru Rinpoche practised mainly in the eight charnel grounds and as a result he actualized the supreme siddhi of ‘mahamudra’ (i.e. he reached enlightenment). He arose in the body of Yangdak Heruka, in whose retinue are the eight Gaurii who dwell in the eight charnel grounds.

This is how the eight charnel grounds are presented in the teachings. Although there are also other ways to explain them, Secret Mantra always considers them important and powerful places. To actualize the supreme siddhi, we must go to the charnel grounds and practise yogic conduct with the dakas and dakinis.

The most important great beings to have attained the supreme siddhi are the eight great vidyadharas in the Nyingma tradition, and the eighty-four mahasiddhas in the Sarma lineages. The special places at which all these great masters have attained the supreme accomplishment are the eight charnel grounds. After they attained this level of realization they continued to practise in the charnel grounds where they engaged in yogic practices, bringing all the dakinis under their power and keeping them around to help them.

When these great masters were staying in the great charnel grounds engaging in yogic activities, they accomplished their special deity, their yidam. Then, all the dakas and dakinis transmitted to these yogis and yoginis the tantras, sadhanas, practice instructions and ritual instructions they themselves had received in Akanishtha for the siddhas to spread them in the human world. For example, as Naropa engaged in tantric conduct in the great charnel grounds with Tilopa – who looked like a fisherman – the dakinis transmitted to them the Chakrasamvara father tantras, mother tantras and non-dual tantras. Likewise, the dakinis taught all eighty mahasiddhas of India when they stayed in the charnel grounds practising their yidam (Avalokiteshvara, Vajrapani, Akshobhya, Vajravarahi, Guhyasamaja, Yamantaka and so on). The siddhas then transmitted the teachings they received to a human student, individually; the student practised the instructions and progressively reached accomplishment, so that nowadays, these lineages of teachings have spread throughout the world and these teachings are still available to us. That is why we consider these charnel grounds to be extremely sacred. As Guru Rinpoche said,

The charnel ground, mountain hermitage, solitary snow dwelling and the like
Are the perfect places of practice…[1]From An Aspiration Prayer to Guru Rinpoche, from the cycle called Lama Ocean of Jewel revealed by Padma Lingpa. (pad+ma gling pa. bla ma nor bu rgya mtsho las ma hA gu ru'i smon lam rnam par dag pa zhig. In Rin chen gter mdzod chen mo pod drug bcu pa (The Great Treasury of Termas, Volume 60) by 'jam mgon kong sprul, page 656. New Delhi: Shechen Publications, 2007-2018.)

In charnel grounds, “people gather during the day, gods and demons gather at night, and dakinis gather at dusk and dawn”. They grant the siddhis to the fortunate ones with the right karma, while they punish the unfortunate beings with wrong views to whom they are invisible – that is how powerful and fierce they are. The great masters have said that the dakas and dakinis gather in charnel grounds like clouds and mist.

The Cool Grove Charnel Ground

The most important charnel ground is the Cool Grove. Actually, in India all charnel grounds – i.e. all places where corpses are discarded – are called sitavana, which probably translates into Tibetan as ‘silwatsal’ – cool grove in English. However, the Cool Grove near Bodhgaya, which is located “in a place similar to the hill slope near Nalanda” is very special. As testified in the accounts that have reached us, this charnel ground is the place where many of the vidyadharas of India lived and practised. They include some of the great Indian mahasiddhas famous in Tibet such as the king of vidyadharas, Hungkara, and Guru Rinpoche who spent seven years there sitting against a stupa.

I don’t know if in India the history of this place and its significance as a sacred place have been clearly preserved through the ages. However, a truly reliable source is Dorje Chang Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö, who visited it at the end of 1956.

As Khyentse Rinpoche was sitting in the cave here and his attendants were outside making some preparations for tsok, he met the glorious Shavaripa. Shavaripa was one of the greatest mahasiddhas of India known as the ‘deer carrying mahasiddha’. He was such an incredible mahasiddha that he is sometimes considered the most import of the eighty mahasiddhas. Rinpoche said that he appeared very clearly to him wearing a tiger-skin skirt and bone ornaments, and holding a bow and arrow. He also carried the carcass of a deer slung over his shoulder, which he threw in front of Rinpoche. Dorje Chang Chökyi Lodrö concentrated and focussed on the visualisation in which he was merging his mind with Shavaripa’s wisdom-mind; at that moment his body started to tremble violently. Trong Gönpo Tseten, an attendant at the Khyentse Labrang, was there arranging some offerings – Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö’s handwritten notes say “Gönpo Tseten, who was in front of me, saw this happen.”[2]See Dilgo Khyentse and Orgyen Tobgyal. The Life and Times of Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö: The Great Biography by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and Other Stories. Translated by Drubgyud Tenzin Rinpoche and Khenpo Sonam Phuntsok. Boulder, Colorado: Shambhala, 2017, page 484. When I asked Gönpo Tseten about it, he said that everyone was outside either preparing tea or cooking, while Rinpoche was alone in the meditation cave. Gönpo Tseten didn’t see Shavaripa, but he saw Rinpoche’s body tremble violently, gazing in the sky and slightly jumping up and down. Khyentse Rinpoche was not well at the time and Gönpo Tseten wondered if the lack of ventilation in the cave combined with the smoke from the numerous butter lamps and the vast amount of incense had aggra­vated Rinpoche’s condition.

In any case when Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö came here, he had a direct encounter with the glorious Shavaripa, and an exceptional realization arose in his mind. He also composed a short sadhana of Shavaripa that you can find in his collected works[3]Khyentse Rinpoche wrote in the colophon that he composed this prayer based on a vision he had in the tenth month of the Fire Monkey year (1956), when he was in the Cool Grove charnel ground in the Southeast of Magadha, at the cave of Shavaripa, at the foot of a sandalwood tree. Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö. “dpal sha wA ri'i sgrub phug gi shing tsan+dan sdong po rkang gcig gi drung du nyams snang cung zad shar bas bris pa.” In gsung 'bum. TBRC W1KG12986. Volume 10, pages 47 - 50. Bir, H.P.: Khyentse Labrang, 2012..

At that time, someone known as “Sakya Lama” who hailed from Derge was staying there doing retreat. Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö gave him a lot of money, everything he could find actually, and told him, “Build here a shrine to the Six Arm Mahakala that the glorious Shavaripa practised – it should benefit the Buddha’s teachings in general”. The lama put a lot of effort to build the protector’s shrine, or gönkhang, that we see here.

Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö came back on pilgrimage in 1958 after the protectors’ shrine had been built. There is a picture of Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö standing in this door with his hands on the door frame on both sides. The size of the door will give you an idea of Khyentse Rinpoche’s height, as it is still exactly the same today.

This tells us that this place is extremely blessed.

Later, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and Kyabje Khamtrul Rinpoche who considered this place to be extraordinarily sacred, came here and perform a group practice of Mahakala together.

The main Gelugpa protector is the glorious Swift-acting Six Arm Mahakala. Jamgön Lama Tsongkhapa considered him to be the main protector of the teachings, and a wrathful emanation of Avalokiteshvara.

This protector known as Six Arm Mahakala appeared to the siddha Shavaripa. After he met him in the cave, he composed a short praise of the protector known as ‘The short prayer of Shavaripa’. To this day, the Gelugpas often recite it, every time they have a break in the practice for example.

There is a tradition of telling the story of the encounter between Shavaripa and Mahakala according to which the protector’s presence was so overwhelming that the siddha didn’t dare to look straight at him. So he first looked down, the story goes, which is why the prayer begins with “I prostrate to you, Swift-acting Avalokiteshvara.”[4]For a translation of this prayer see Tāranātha, Condensed Ritual for the Torma Offering to the Swift-Acting Six-Armed Wisdom Gönpo, Padmakara, 2003, pages 7-11. Then his eyes went up a little and he stared at the dharmapala’s feet under which he saw Vinayaka. He progressively looked up, as reflected in the prayer that describes the deity from bottom to top, finally mentioning the sindhura mark between his eyebrows, and Akshobhya on his head he dared glancing at for a brief instant.

In any case, this Mahakala resides in the cave here.

There is also a tree by the door, it is just one tree – “a single sandalwood tree”:

…In the southeast, in the Cool Grove great charnel ground
Near a single sandalwood tree,
The swift-acting six-arm wisdom Gönpo…[5]'jam mgon kong sprul. dpal myur mdzad ye shes kyi mgon po'i byin rlabs rjes gnang gi bka' yig phyogs gcig tu bsdebs pa tsin+tA ma Ni'i phreng ba. In gdams ngag rin po che'i mdzod, Volume 12 (ན་), 625-737. New Delhi: Shechen Publications, 1999, page 633.

There was a larger tree which dried up at some point. A new one was planted which is the one we see today. The la of Six Arm Mahakala resides in this tree.

The Shangpa Kagyu still practise Six Arm Mahakala, which is the main form of Mahakala that has been transmitted to Tibet. The accounts of the transmission of this teaching say that the deity is invited from a single tree that stands by the entrance of the practice cave of glorious Shavaripa in the Cold Grove Charnel Ground in India – this is the tree.

The Chokling terma collection contains a Six Arm Mahakala practice revealed by Chokgyur Lingpa. The yellow scroll of the terma was handwritten by Guru Rinpoche on the bark of the sandal wood tree that stands by the meditation cave in the Cool Grove Charnel Ground.

Now that we have come here today, we are going to do a Sampa Lhundrup tsok, and although I have been here many times, I feel very fortunate to have this opportunity to do this practice here and offer tsok.

During a “tsok”, we must offer the outer, inner and secret offerings to all the deities of the lama, yidam, dakini and dharmapala, and all the dakas and dakinis who live in the twenty-four sacred places, thirty-two sacred lands and eight charnel grounds.

The outer tsok offerings are the five sensory stimulants – offerings that the tsok guests eat, drink, feel etc. –, the enjoyment of great bliss and so on. We offer them in the greatest possible quantity. Actual offerings and those imagined by mind are all arranged and blessed. The first portion, the intermediary fulfilment offering and the liberation offering are offered before the remainder offering is blessed and given to tsok guests.

The inner offering is based on the vajra body of the practitioner: the offerings to eat, drink, and so on, which are great bliss in nature, are offered to all the dakas and dakinis who rest on the nadi petals (the channels of the chakras) of the vajra body.

Finally, when great bliss arises, experiences and realisation grow and the secret offerings, the indivisibility of bliss and emptiness and so on, are offered.

If you offer such a ganachakra feast, you will have the great good fortune of accumulating vast amount of merit.