Tendrel Nyesel Background
The Historical Background
from The Profound Instruction of Tendrel Nyesel
revealed by Tertön Sogyal Lerab Lingpa
The strength and power of all the buddhas, past, present and future,
Are gathered and embodied in the perfect form of the warrior,
The vidyādhara who is beyond both birth and death—
Padmākara, to you I pay homage!
“The skilful means for helping those in future generations with fortunate karma is this profound mengak for transforming all negative interdependent circumstances into positive ones. I, the woman Tsogyal have stated down here, just as it was spoken by the great guru Padmasambhava.”
“Samaya! It was in Samye's Three-Storey Central Temple, that I, Tsogyal, once made this request to the Guru of Orgyen himself.
“Among the terma teachings to be revealed in the future, at the crucial point in time, what is it that will cause them to be different in the way they benefit beings?”
This is what he replied: “Tsogyal, listen! The difference lies in the different interdependent circumstances: tendrel. For although the sun is not partial about where it shines, it is because of the clouds that its rays still fall in a certain direction.”
Then I asked: “What are these interdependent circumstances like?”
He replied: “Interdependent circumstances are by nature spontaneously arising or can be deliberately created, or else they can change because of secondary conditions. This is how all good and bad arise.”
Then I, asked: “How exactly is it that they are spontaneously arising or can be deliberately created, or transformed by circumstances?”
He replied: “Those that arise spontaneously cannot be deliberately arranged. Those that are created involve striving to direct them in the way you desire. Those that are changed by conditions are for example: by working with such things as illness and negative influences in your life, they can be transformed into a condition for removing obstacles and purifying obscurations. Or by allowing pride to creep in when you have signs of having accomplished the practice of a deity, this transforms into an immediate condition and eventually an obscuration.”
I asked again: “What are the benefits and the dangers of interdependent circumstances that are fitting or not fitting?”
He replied: “If they are fitting, then just like the sun shining free of clouds all positive circumstances for helping beings will grow, without any effort. If they are not fitting, then just as the sun may shine, but cannot be felt on account of the clouds, so no matter how much prayers and past actions may mature, any benefit to beings will be blocked.”
I asked: “How do good and bad interdependent circumstances show themselves in this Dark Age, this degenerate time?”
He replied: “In this degenerate age, because sentient beings are extremely unruly and deranged, and obsessed with all kinds of wrong thoughts and actions, they mindlessly, irresponsibly disrupt even the four elements, and all kinds of negative interdependent circumstances arise automatically. All good interdependent circumstances are blocked. They are many that seem excellent, but are in fact negative. Those that at first are good do not last more than a moment and change into bad. People with wrong intentions and desires, as well as non-human beings bent on evil, deliberately create all kinds of distorted projects, actions and words, both directly and indirectly. Because of the force with which they rise, the inauspicious interdependent circumstances are vast in the number.”
I asked: “Can the obstacles caused by different kinds of demonic influences (māras) affect your emanations?”
He replied: “Obstacles are exceptionally great in the case of supreme beings and profound teaching; so if they do not possess the skilful means, yes, they will be affected.”
I asked: “But there are no emanations of you, the guru of Orgyen, who have not mastered the View. ‘If you have realized the View, māras and gods and demons cannot touch you’; so it is said. So, how can this happen?”
He replied: “My emanations will appear and be perceived in so many ways; there will be those who appear not to have mastered the View; those who appear to have weak discriminating awareness, little compassion, and no devotion; and those appear to be lazy, and full of negative emotions.”
I asked: “But how is it possible that there can seem to be such differences of good and bad like this in the emanations of the one guru of Orgyen, who embodies all the buddhas?”
He replied: “From the single dharmakāya of the buddhas, arise all kinds of different form bodies, yet, it is only because of those who need to be taught. Even all these phenomena that appear in such a variety in the minds of those with dualistic perceptions are never anything other than the manifestation of me, and yet I have never deliberately manifested in any of them.”
I asked: “But the buddhas are not prey to any kind of fault at all. If it is not accepted that a buddha can be affected by the faults of sentient beings, then how is this so?”
He replied: “The buddhas never stray from the dharmakāya state and none of the faults of self and other have any sway over them. Yet all of the particular appearances of their form bodies arise in the perceptions of beings. Though the form bodies of the buddhas have no faults at all, they appear differently to different beings, and just as with the sunlight its benefit or harm is determined by the clouds, so all depends entirely on the interdependent circumstances.” I asked: “If someone possesses the skillful means, are they then immune to obstacles?”
He replied: "Obstacles are powerless to harm them, just as with the truth of the words of the buddhas, you cannot be harmed by fire, water, poison or weapons, or with a good medicine you cannot be harmed by illness.”
I asked: “What are these skilful means?”
He replied: “Generally for each inauspicious interdependent circumstance, there must be specific skilful means, so there is nothing which needs to be abandoned that does not have its remedy. In particular, however, since the secret mantrayāna is a vehicle in which the skilful means are many and not difficult, the range of different means cannot be calculated or expressed in words.
It is impossible to teach them all to each sentient being, as there is no one who would have the capacity to contain them all. If you essentialize them though, then it is not difficult to teach them.”
This is what he said, and then I, Tsogyal, prostrating in devotion and offering a maṇḍala, made this request:
“Alas! Guru Rinpoche! So that there may be help and happiness for future generations in this degenerate age, I pray that you teach this profound method for protection against the negative interdependent circumstances, caused by harmful causes and conditions in the environment and amongst beings!”
So I pleaded, and so he replied: “Tsogyal, listen, and listen with devotion! To essentialize and explain the meaning of the many different skilful means, they fall into four categories:
- The skilful means for eliminating flaws and defects in interdependent circumstances
- The skilful means for preventing them from rising
- The skilful means for protecting against them
- The skilful means for transforming them.
Now, ‘eliminating’ is the skilful means for removing all the inauspicious (nyépa) interdependent circumstances of the past. ‘Preventing them from arising’ is the skilful means for ensuring that no bad interdependent circumstances occur from now on. ‘Protecting’ is the skilful means whereby, even if bad interdependent circumstances do happen, they will be unable to do any harm. ‘Transforming’ is the skilful means for transmuting all bad interdependent circumstances into good ones.”
“Listen Tsogyal! A skilful method, a mengak, as profound and rare as this is exceptionally rare and precious. Its qualities are quite unique. It is truly like a wish-granting gem! “If a yogin who has obtained this instruction takes it to heart by practising it, and teaches it correctly to others, then all their true aspirations will swiftly be fulfilled.
“And in particular, in the final five-hundred-year period of this dark age, those fortunate ones who have been empowered with the profound termas of Padma, when faults in interdependence endanger their lives, when the door of Dharma is closed and the need for termas ignored, if they take these instructions to heart and practise them, it will be of enormous benefit. Then their power to benefit beings will increase, and their lives will reach their natural span. This is my promise, the promise of Padma.”
| Translated by Rigpa Translations. First published on Lotsawa House, 2025.
Bibliography
Tibetan Editions
"rten ʼbrel nyes sel gyi gdams pa zab mo." In las rab gling paʼi gter chos. Bylakuppe: Pema Norbu Rinpoche, 1985. Vol. 1: 745–883.
Mangala Sribhuti, "rten 'brel nyes sel gyi cho ga zab mo rgyas 'bring bsdus gsum gyi byin rlabs dbang gi mtshams sbyor kun phan dge legs bdud rtsi'i snang ba" in gsung ʼbum rab gsal zla ba. Delhi: Shechen Publications, 1994. Vol. 13: 84a–104b
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