Legends of the Dzogchen Masters

Garab Dorje, The Original Tulku

In the Land of Uddiyana, on the island Dhanakosha, was a great temple called the Blissful Tower, Deje Tsekpa, surrounded by 6800 shrines. In this tower lived King Upa Raja and his consort Queen Radiance. Their daughter, Sudharma, had taken novice vows and soon after the full Bhiksuni ordination, and she lived on a small island with her maidens in meditation. One night she dreamed that an immaculate white man came to her holding a crystal vessel sealed with the mantra OM AH HUNG SVAHA, and he placed it on her head three times and light shone out from it and she perceived the threefold world clearly in its totality. Soon after the Bhiksuni Sudharma gave birth to a son, but ashamed that the baby had no father, she sought to conceal it and threw it into a pit of ashes. Light and music emanated from the ash pit and after three days the mother retrieved the baby and the gods and spirits came with offerings to honour him.  But Sudharma remained unaware that the baby's father was the Bodhisattva High Mind, Adhicitta, the emanation of Vajrasattva who had taught Dzogchen in the heavens.

    When he was seven years old, the boy defeated the five hundred panditas of the royal court in debate and they gave him the name Prajnabhava, Wisdom Being, but the king called him Acharya Garab Dorje and by that name he became renowned. It was at this time that the boy recited the sutra " The Vast Spaciousness of Vajrasattva". Garab Dorje renounced his parentage and palace and journeyed to the mountains where amongst peaks inhabited by Hungry Ghosts he spent thirty-two years meditating in the residence of a Mountain God. Here he achieved realization and a rainbow body and the earth shook seven times. The world made obeisance, but the Shakta-Dakinis proclaimed that a danger to their yoga practice had arisen. When the Hindu king sent messengers to apprehend him he ascended into the sky.

    At the completion of his period of renunciation and ascetic practices, Garab Dorje had comprehended both the outer and inner paths and most particularly he had apprehended the sixty-four hundred thousand Dzogchen verses. Then the Bodhisattva Vajrasattva gave him the initiation and empowerment of the Bestowal of Awareness and permission to write down the sixty-four hundred thousand Dzogchen verses and the oral tantras. They were written down by three Dakinis, some say on Mount Malaya.

    Garab Dorje then journeyed to Bodhgaya to the terrible Sitavana cremation ground, where he remained for the rest of his life. He met his disciple Manjushrimitra there and taught him for seventy five years. He attained his parinirvana in a mass of light and then bestowed upon Manjushrimitra a tiny golden casket containing Dzogchen verses. The text called "The Three Incisive Precepts" (Tsiksum Nedek) was amongst those verses.

Manjushrimitra: Jampel Shenyen

Born in a Brahmin family to the West of Bodhgaya, Manjushrimitra became learned in the arts and sciences. He received a prophecy from Manjushri that if he sought enlightenment he should go to the Sitavana cremation ground near Bodhgaya. There he met Garab Dorje and during their seventy five years together he received the entire Dzogchen transmission. After Garab Dorje's parinirvana he divided the sixty-four hundred thousand Dzogchen verses into three series - Mind, Space and Secret Precepts - and the latter into oral and explanatory sections. He hid the main text of the oral section in a rock to the east of Bodhgaya and sealed it with the sign of crossed diamond scepters. He then went to the Sosaling cremation ground to the west of Bodhgaya, where he taught his disciple Shri Singha, and he stayed there in meditation for nine hundred years. He attained the body of light. His quintessential testament to Sri Singha was a jewel casket containing the "Six Meditation Experiences" (Gomnyam Drukpa).

Shri Singha

Shri Singha was born into a good family in Sokhyam somewhere in Chinese Central Asia. In his youth he studied with the Acharya Haribhala and after three years he was an accomplished scholar. Then the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara appeared to him, and advised him that if he really wanted to attain Buddhahood he should go to the Sosaling cremation ground in India. But Sri Singha procrastinated, thinking that first he should study the Chinese system. So he went to Manjushri's Wutaishan abode in Szeshuan in China proper and there he became a Bhiksu for thirty years and studied the tantras. Then Avalokiteshvara again appeared to him, and gave him the same advice. By virtue of his accomplishment as an Awarene-Holder, Shri Singha then speed-walked to the Sosaling cremation ground, and there he met Manjushrimitra, who accepted him as his disciple and gave him his entire Dzogchen instruction over twenty-five years. When Manjushrimitra achieved a body of light Shri Singha received the master's final testament and meditating with those instructions he realized the essential meaning of Dzogchen.

    Shri Singha was able to withdraw the texts Manjushrimitra had hidden in the rock near Bodhgaya and divided the Secret Precept series of instruction into outer, inner, secret and uttermost secret cycles, graduated according to the heightening lack of conceptual elaboration. These four were to be accessed through the four Dzogchen empowerments - elaborate, simple, very simple and most simple. Upon his return to China he hid the first three cycles, which all had some degree of conceptual content, in the pinnacle chamber of the Bodhi Tree temple, and according to indications from the Dakinis the final cycle in a pillar in the Auspicious Temple. He then retired to the Silying cremation ground where he stayed in meditation and taught the demonic beings who honoured him.

    Shri Singha's primary meditation activity was to live in cremation grounds transforming himself into the various forms through which he could teach, fearlessly playing with the Dakinis and evil spirits. His disciples were Vimalamitra and Jnanasutra. Finally, on his way from the Bodhi Tree Temple to visit the King of Khotan he achieved rainbow body and gave his last testament to Jnanasutra.

Buddhashrijnana: Sangye Yeshe

Buddhashrijnana was born in Taxila by the River Indus. He was ordained in the great monastic academy of Nalanda. He became a scholar monk renowned in the Perfection of Wisdom (Prajnaparamita) tradition. Later, he went to Uddiyana and received many secret tantras from the Acharya Lilavajra and a yogini named Guneru, and by practising their instruction he attained deep concentration. Then in the north of Uddiyana he found a low caste consort called Jatijala with whom he lived for six months and through the blessing of Jambhala, the God of Wealth, he perfected the yoga of bliss. In Jalandhara to the east of Uddiyana he received the wisdom tantras from Balipada, who was an emanation of the great master Jalandharipa. In the south of India, in Kongkana he met the Acharya Patalipada with his eighteen yogis and yoginis and from him Buddhashrijnana received the Guhyasamaja-tantra. He practiced the Guhyasamaja-tantra in Kuva grove behind Bodhgaya and there he received a visionary injunction to approach the Bodhisattva Manjushri for ultimate realization. He set out for Manjushri's abode at Wutaishan in China.

    Buddhashrijnana walked for only half a day when he encountered an old monk with his robe piled on his head ploughing a field with a low caste woman. Hiding his disgust he begged for food and the old monk gave him a fish that his dog had vomitted up. Buddhashrijnana, hiding his disgust, rejected it and the woman kindly cooked him some fresh rice and invited him to stay the night. By the time the old monk returned, quite drunk, in the evening,  Buddhashrijnana had intuited that he was a tantric master and asked him for instruction. The old monk inscribed a mandala and the nineteen Manjuvajra deities, amongst whom were the monk, his woman and their dog, appeared, shining radiantly. Under the old monk's tutelage Buddhashrijnana, through the Mind Series precepts, realized the nature of mind. Due, however, to the lack of faith he showed in rejecting the fish he was offered, he did not attain rainbow body, but achieved the level of Vajradhara in the bardo after his death. Some say the old monk was Manjushri's emanation, Manjushrimitra.

Vimalamitra

Vimalamitra was born in Hastisthala in Western India. He was a scholar monk versed in the three approaches to buddhahood and a tantric master who attained mahamudra as a disciple of Buddhaguhya. While he was living in Bodhgaya he met a monk of similar mind called Jnanasutra and there the Bodhisattva Vajrasattva himself appeared to them both and told them that through five hundred rebirths as scholars they had achieved nothing and if they aspired to ultimate realization they should go to China and at the Bodhi Tree Temple they would find their master, Shri Singha, who would give them the instruction they required to attain Buddhahood in this lifetime. Leaving his friend behind, Vimalamitra, highly motivated, immediately set out for China and found Shri Singha as Vajrasattva had predicted and over twenty years he received instruction on the outer, inner and secret teaching of the Oral Lineage (Mangak nyingthik). Completely satisfied - although the master had not given him the texts - he returned to India. Meeting Jnanasutra, Vimalamitra related what he had received and accomplished and Jnanasutra immediately decided to go to meet  Shri Singha.

    Years later, still intent on his meditations and doing tantric practice, Vimalamitra was visited by Dakinis who instructed him to go to the Bhasing cremation ground if he wanted to receive the Dzogchen Heart Essence instructions. At Bhasing he met his old friend Jnanasutra from whom he begged for the instruction he had missed. From him he received the initiatory empowerments and meditational activities of the uttermost secret section of the Secret Teaching and after the fourth empowerment he saw the naked nature of mind. He also received the texts from him. Vimalamitra meditated on this for ten years before Jnanasutra achieved rainbow body and left him with his final legacy, a tiny jeweline casket containing the verses called "Four Profound Methods" (Zhakthab Zhi) and through this he accomplished the heart of the matter.

    Thereafter Vimalamitra wandered through northern India, staying at Kamarupa in Assam as King Haribadra's priest, to Bhirya further west where Dharmapala ruled and where he also became a royal priest, and to the Prabhaskara cremation ground where he taught demonic beings through magical activity. He made three copies of the texts: one he hid in Uddiyana on the Golden Strand Island, one he concealed beneath a rock called Serling in Kashmir and one he gave to the Dakinis in the cremation ground. He attained the rainbow body of supreme transformation.

    Later, Vimalamitra was invited to Tibet by the translators Kawa Peltsek and Chokro Lui Gyeltsen, emissaries of King Trisong Detsen, and he was welcomed in Central Tibet as a great master. The Eastern Tibetan Yudra Nyingpo became his collaborator in translation and teaching. They translated a variety of Dzogchen texts, notably thirteen Mind Series texts, the Mayajala-tantra and Secret Precept Series texts. He initiated the King, Mune Tsenpo, Nyak Tingnedzin Zangpo, Kawa Peltsek and Chokro Lui Gyeltsen. He hid the translated texts at Gegung in Chimphu. He stayed thirteen years in Tibet and then left for Riwo Tsenga (Wutaishan) where he vanished.

Jnanasutra:  Yeshe Do

Jnanasutra was born an outcaste of Chandala family in the land of Kamashila in Eastern India. Part of the duties of the Chandalas were as executioners and thus Jnanasutra's father was called Zhiwailak, Peaceful Hand. Jnanasutra became a scholar monk and traveled to Bodhgaya. There he met Vimalamitra and there Vajrasattva appeared to them both and instructed them to go to the Bodhi Tree Temple in Central Asia to meet Shri Singha. Jnanasutra obeyed Vajrasattva's injunction only after his friend Vimalamitra had returned from Central Asia with glorious news of success. Again Shri Singha taught the three outer cycles of the Secret Teaching instruction but this time he passed on the texts. After twelve years Jnanasutra prepared to leave Shri Singha, but his master exclaimed, "But I have given you nothing!" At that, Jnanasutra intuited utterly concept-free awareness and he stayed and begged the master for the entire transmission. Shri Singha taught him the uttermost secret cycle of Secret Precept instruction and gave him the increasingly unsupported initiatory empowerments and also many meditational activities like the method of separating samsara from nirvana. Finally, seven days after Shri Singha had left him to visit the King of Khotan, Jnanamitra saw Shri Singha appear in the sky and knew that the master had passed on. As his final testament from his master he received a finger-nail sized casket containing the verses called the "Seven Nails" (Zerbu Dunpa), and instruction to take out the Heart Essence Secret Precept Instruction from the Auspicious Tashi Trigo Temple pillar and to meditate in the Bhasing cremation ground in India.

    According to his master's last command Jnanasutra returned to India to the Bhasing cremation ground and taught the Heart Essence (Nyingthik) teaching on the all-embracing nature of mind to both the worldly and transcendent Dakas and Dakinis. Here he transmitted to his friend - and now disciple - Vimalamitra, the uttermost secret cycle of the Heart Essence and gave him the books of the entire Oral Tradition. Finally he achieved a body of light and vanished leaving nothing behind.

King Dza

King Dza was king of the Himalayan kingdom of Zahor. He was no military commander or politician and neither was he a sybarite. He was a yogin practitioner of the lower Buddhist tantras - Kriya and Charya tantras - and religiously performed his ritual duties at the various times of day, and on the significant days of the moon's progress, creating mandalas and yantras and reciting the mantras with faith and devotion. When the Master of Secrets, Vajrapani, taught the tantras to the vidyadhara knowledge holders of the five families on Mount Malaya, his life was transformed. He had a dream and the dream had seven episodes. He dreamed that the signs of body, speech and mind dissolved into his own; that an invaluable volume of scripture rained down; that discussion of the dharma occurred; that he was universally glorified as a saint; that a vast offering was prepared; that precious stones rained down; and that he attained Buddhahood.

   When king Dza woke up the next morning, he found that a volume of scriptures had fallen upon the Zahor palace roof. Amongst the many collections of these tantric texts was the  Sarvabuddhasamayoga-tantra, a seminal work on Dzogchen Mahayoga and also the Mayajala-tantra and the Guhyagarbha-tantra. An eighteen inch image of Vajrapani also fell with the texts. King Dza tried to read the texts but he could not decipher them. Finally, however, through the method of prayer and worship of the image of Vajrapani, he intuitively understood the chapter of the Mayajala-tantra that  vouchsafed a vision of Vajrasattva. This was The Chapter on Direct Perception. With this text to guide him, he contemplated the face of Vajrasattva for seven months and at the end of that period the Bodhisattva himself appeared and gave him awareness initiation and empowerment.

    Thereafter King Dza could understand both the words and the meanings of the tantras and he was empowered to teach them. But in order to give credence to the notion of verbal transmission, pretending that he could not understand the texts, he showed them to the Acharya Kukkuraja. It is said that Kukkuraja in the guise of a dog taught as many as a thousand dogs by day and by night maintained the commitment to enjoyment with them. Anyhow, Kukkuraja also accomplished the direct perception of Vajrasattva and after seeing the face of Vajrasattva, Vajrapani taught him the meaning of the tantras. Furthermore, through this accomplishment, Vajrapani appeared to him in reality and initiated him into the essential meaning and into all the tantras to completion and instructed him to ask the Bhikshu called Licchavi Vimalakirti who was a vidyadhara (but of whom we know nothing more) for the lexical transmission. After proceeding according to Vajrapani's instruction, the Acharya divided the tantras into eighteen groups and gave the full scholarly transmission to King Dza. Some say that King Dza was a name of Indrabhuti, the King of Uddiyana..

Kambala or Lawapa, "The Blanket"

Kambala was a prince of Uddiyana who was ordained as a bhikshu and studied the scriptures. In due course he met a tantric master. Perhaps it was King Dza himself or one of his sons, or maybe Lawapa was one of King Dza's sons. After receiving initiation and instruction he realized pure awareness.

    Once when traveling through Uddiyana, he passed through Dhumasthira, the city of the Dakinis, and there he was presented a flower garland by some Shakta-Dakinis. Later, Buddha-Dakinis came to him saying, "Accepting this rosary was a mistake. You must now follow the Shakta path and serve those yoginis who gave you the flowers." Lawapa was undismayed, even when they told him that they had agreed with the Shakta-Dakinis not to interfere in each others affairs, so that they were unable to protect him. In the evening he settled down to meditation and entered his samadhi and at midnight he heard a great noise and saw a shower of boulders thrown by the Shakta-Dakinis descending upon him. The power of his visualized creative phase circle of protection was enough to keep the boulders suspended in the air while his fulfillment meditation shattered the stones into atoms. Today in the space above this acharya's meditation cave in Uddiyana is an unsupported boulder and on the side of the rock which is as smooth as a mirror are many broken rocks and you can actually see these things.

    Kambala was also called the Sleeping Bhikshu. He received this name in the following manner. It was his habit to beg alms at the city gate and from time to time King Indrabhuti passed by and would ask him questions, but Lawapa would deign no reply. This infuriated the king who cursed him, "You foolish, ignorant monk!" he said. "It would be better if you just went to sleep!" The Acharya took the king at his word and slept at the city gate for the next twelve years. But whosoever passed him by had to salute him, otherwise they would be frozen rigid. Even the king and his retinue observed this ritual. After twelve years Lawapa awoke and when the king saw him awake he asked him why he had slept. "The king commanded me to sleep," Lawapa replied. The king was filled with faith in the Vajrayana and because of this many people took refuge in the Buddha-dharma.

    Kambala is best known as Lawapa, The Blanket, and this is how he received the epithet. He spent much of his time meditating in the cremation grounds of Uddiyana. His power, however, was well known and provided an ineluctable attraction to the local Dakinis. Their leader was a spellbinder called Mantrapada and she was a flesh-eating Dakini and skilled in uttering curses. But she was otherwise known as Sahaja which denotes a realization of the nature of mind in the mahamudra tradition. The Acharya's power seems to have become a negative obsession with Sahaja for she gathered a large number of the Uddiyana yoginis about her, some say as many as five hundred, and went in search of him. They found his seat but only an empty blanket occupying it. Believing that the blanket contained the power of the Acharya, if indeed it was not his body transformed, they cut it up into small pieces and ate it as if they were making a sacrament whereby they would receive his power and realization. At this point Lawapa appeared in his body, and furious at the loss of his sole blanket cursed them as sheep and the Dakini and her retinue were all transformed into a flock of sheep who scattered at the master's wrath. The sheep went to the Uddiyana king, Indrabhuti, and complained about the Acharya and asked him to redress the wrong done to them. When the king summoned Lawapa before him, the naked Acharya in his turn complained that the Dakinis, had stolen his one possession, a blanket, and demanded that the flock of sheep should be brought before him. The Acharya showed them the mudra of threat and the flock vomitted up the pieces of blanket which were then sewed together. A section was still missing, however, until three of the Queen's attendants came forward and retched up the last three pieces. Again covered with his blanket the Acharya turned the sheep into shaven headed women who vowed to follow the Buddha's path as nuns. Through this means King Indrabhuti was converted and the Acharya gave him empowerment and he achieved siddhi. "Lawa" means blanket, and thereafter the Acharya was known as Lawapa, The Blanket.

    Lawapa spent twelve years living in a cave on the Kotambha mountain in Uddiyana. The people of Uddiyana forgot his previous magical deeds and he acquired the reputation of a lazy hermit who slept his life away and who taught that ignorance was enlightenment itself. Meanwhile his disciple, King Indrabhuti, was apparently enjoying a sybaritic life with his five hundred female attendants in a luxurious palace, and, likewise, the people derided him, but as a libertine. Then once during a feast, when all were present, the king handed a bowl of soup to one of his women and told her to offer it, while it was still warm, to Lawapa, on far distant Kotambha mountain "Close your eyes and say these words," the King told the doubtful girl. '"If the Acharya Lawapa practices the ascesis of sleeplessness may I arrive immediately at his cave."' The girl was immediately whisked away to Lawapa's cave where she found him giving instruction to several disciples and she had to wait until the soup was almost cold. Lawapa then ate the soup leaving some remnants at the bottom of the bowl. "Take this bowl to the King while it is still warm," he ordered. "Say, 'If King Indrabhuti is a brahmacharya, may I reach his palace immediately.'" The girl was returned directly to the King's table and offered him the still warm soup bowl. In this way the people were reminded that both their King and Acharya had power and realization. Later they both taught the people and up to a thousand of them gained the same result.

Vairotsana

Vairotsana was born in Central Tibet in the Nyemo district in Jekhar. He was sent to India to bring back the Dzogchen texts and transmission by King Trisong Detsen at the behest of Nub Namkhai Nyingpo. After great hardship he arrived in Uddiyana and near the Dhanakosha Lake, in a sandalwood forest, he found Shri Singha living in a nine storied pagoda. After passing a protective yogini to whom he demonstrated his powers, Vairotsana attained audience with Shri Singha who heard his plea for the effortless Dzogchen teaching and asked for time to think about it. The next morning Vairotsana returned and Shri Singha promised him the Atiyoga doctrines. Due to the hostility of the Uddiyana king to the Dzogchen teaching he insisted that in the day time Vairotsana should join the panditas learning the causal vehicle and only at night time would he receive the Atiyoga teaching. So during the night the master Shri Singha wrote the eighteen tantras of the Mind Series in goat milk on white silk which would become visible when exposed to heat. Vairotsana was dissatisfied with the Mind Series instruction and asked for more. Shri Singha gave him the initiation and empowerment into the tantras and also all the teaching on the Space Series in the black, white and variegated modes. Still Vairotsana was not satisfied but Shri Singha would give him no more. The first of the transmission texts of the Mind Series is called "The Cuckoo: Total Presence" (Rikpai Kuchuk) otherwise known as "The Six Vajra Verses".

    Then Vairotsana found the Acharya Garab Dorje in the cremation ground called Place of Smoke, Dhumasthira, and he received the entire sixty-four hundred thousand Dzogchen verses. Simultaneously with this transmission he attained liberation and nirvana and the highest siddhi and he returned to Tibet by speed-walking.

    In Tibet Vairotsana taught the King in the same manner as Shri Singha had taught him - by day the causal approach and at night the fruition approach - Dzogchen. But political intrigue at court cut short the king's study with Vairotsana. The Indian King had got wind of the transmission of the secret doctrines to Vairotsana and assisted by one of the King's queens, Tsepong Za, who had her own political agenda, Vairotsana was slandered and then banished to the far east, to Tsawa Rong in the country of Gyelmo Rong. In Gyelmo Rong he taught Dzogchen to Yudra Nyingpo, Sangton Yeshe Lama and the old beggar Sangye Gompo.

    In central Tibet he taught Nyak Jnanakumara, and the Khotanese Queen Liza Sherab Dronma. Later he was invited to Khotan.

Nub Namkhai Nyingpo

Namkhai Nyingpo was one of the five that King Trisong Detsen of Tibet chose to send to India in search of the tantras at the behest of Guru Pema Jungnay. The five - Nub Namkhai Nyingpo, Drugu Epaksha, Lang Pelgyi Senge, Singharaja and Dre Gyelwai Lodro - were ordained by the abbot of the Samye monastery, Shantarakshita, and trained in the Sanskrit and Tibetan languages, and with gold dust for currency, they set out for India.

    Readily accepting much hardship on the way they finally reached Eastern India, and at Kamarupa, a major tantric seat in Assam, they encountered a Dakini who directed them to the master Hungkara, who lived in the Garuda Grove at Golden Rock, Serdrak Jakhyung Tsel. At the master's residence they were greeted by an attendant Saukhya Deva to whom they made a gift of some gold requesting him to facilitate an audience with the Master and they were ushered through nine successive circular concentric chambers into the master's presence. Hungkara greeted them kindly and after receiving their offering gave them initiation and instruction.

    First Hungkara revealed a series of mandalas of the Buddha-deity Yangdak Thuk, Immaculate Mind, followed by a series of mandalas of the Buddha-deity Dutsi Men, Ambrosial Panacea, for long-life practice. He also showed them Vajrasattva mandalas and the methods of conduct of the tantric yogin. Through these initiations the Tibetans saw the faces of the Buddha-deities.

    Then Hungkara gave them detailed instruction on the practice of Yangdak Thuk and instructed the Tibetan monks to stabilize their meditation in a year-long retreat, but fearful of the country and the king, four of them opted to disobey Hungkara and left Namkhai Nyingpo alone to do the retreat. The master sent off the fearful monks with a wooden phurba to protect them, carried by Lang Pelgyi Senge, with instruction to insert it into his pillow at night. One night as they slept by a lake in Nepal, Drugu Epaksha withdrew it from Pelgyi Senge's pillow and stuck it into his own. Then because of their lack of faith in their Guru's instruction, the black-devil naga called Damdzin, Mud-Holder, who lived in the lake, took the form of a black snake and bit Lang Pelgyi Senge in the small veins of his neck and killed him. Back in Tibet, the king and ministers disbelieved their story and exiled the three to distant parts of the country.

    Namkhai Nyingpo meditated for one year in the Garuda Grove at Golden Rock, before he saw the vision of the male and female Yangdak Herukas in union. Thereby he attained both ordinary magical powers and supreme realization. Then Hungkara advised him to return to Tibet.

    King Trisong Detsen received him gratefully. Expressing his accomplishment of Yangdak, Namkhai Nyingpo slit open his torso from top to bottom with a silver knife, revealing the forty-two peaceful Buddha-deities in his chest and the fifty-eight blood-drinking Herukas in his stomach. The King made Namkhai Nyingpo his high priest and received instruction from him before jealous conspiring ministers had him exiled to Iron Phurba Rock, Chakphur Drak, to the west of Kharchu in Lhodrak near the Bhutan border. There he left the imprint of his body in rock and demonstrated his realization by penetrating a boulder with his phurba. He could spontaneously ignite butter lamps and he could travel riding on the suns rays.

    The King, meanwhile, became seriously ill. The rites performed for his recovery were made to no avail. Likewise all the activity of astrologers and exorcists proved futile. But a diviner advised him to recall Namkhai Nyingpo from exile, which he did, and Namkhai Nyingpo cured him by magical means. His opponents at court continued to conspire against him. Commanded to dress the king's hair just before sunset with promise of dire punishment if he failed to complete the task before the sun set, Namkhai Nyingpo stuck his wooden phurba into the crack between light and shade, delaying sunset for half a day while he completed his task. And when he had finished he told the servants to put the animals into their byres and corals, and pulling out the phurba from the line between light and shade the sun suddenly set. When his enemies set an ambush to kill him, exclaiming "HUNG! HUNG!" in a loud wrathful voice, a thunderbolt fell out of the sky and catching it upon the tip of his index finder he kept it spinning there. Then the Bhikshu Namkhai Nyingpo flew on the rays of the sun to Kharchu in Lhodrak.