B09-Guru Padmasambhava (536 BCE to 8th century CE)

Guru Padmasambhava (5th-6th century BCE to 8th century CE) was an Indian patriarch of the Nyingma and other Tibetan Sects. The above statue of Guru Padmasambhava (Guru Ngdra) in Samyas Gonpa, Tibet, is said to have been approved by Guru Rinpoche and is called the “Looks like me” statue and was blessed by him.

This course will use two texts: Yeshe Tsogyal’s The Lotus-Born: The Life Story of Padmasambhava to study the life and teachings of this famous guru who was born 12 years after Shakyamuni Buddha left this world and lived for many centuries in and around India and Tibet. This book tells how Padmasambhava came to embody the esoteric teachings, and his coming to Tibet to subdue the negative forces and provide the teachings and structures for the Vajrayana to unfold.

This course will also use that text and Natural Liberation: Padmasambhava’s Teachings on the Six Bardos, which includes Padmasambhava’s teachings on the Bardo and specific profound instructions given to Yeshe Tsogyal.

This course requires that “G02-Spiritual Autobiography,” “G03(A)-Evolution of Buddhism,” and “D35(A)-The 128 Evil and Erroneous Views” be completed as prerequisites to taking this course.