Homage to Manjushri!
When the great master Guru Padma Jungney taught the Condensed Words of Vast Teachings on the top floor of Samye Monastery, he set forth this prophecy to his fortunate disciple Gyalwa Chogyang:
“Listen, my son:
When life spans have degenerated to the limit of thirty years,
he seven damsin sisters1 will escape to Tibet.
Owing to their evil aspirations,
The bright papers (cards), causes of the five delusions,
Will be admired by all men and women
And the custom of playing cards will be instigated.
In that period beings will become desperate.
Their luck and fortune will deteriorate,
Perverted aspirations and behaviours will proliferate
And many different diseases will spread.
Different sorts of acts will be performed,
Such as people carrying out killing and various evil practices,
Executing those who practise virtue
And esteeming evil performances.
The father will not trust his son,
The mother will not believe her daughter
And no one will be able to decide anything for themselves.
Being enslaved in this way is like being an animal;
Deprived of a protector like the beings in the intermediate state,
Their body, speech and mind will never be free.
At all times of eating and sleeping, moving and sitting,
Owing to the perverted aspirations of seven damsin sisters,
The old, young and middle-aged men and women
Will disparage the fine traditions of society and play cards.
If anybody holds those papers,
The deity who guides and protects,
The deity of one’s previous generations and the like—
In short, all deities who protect the virtuous ones—
Will be scattered off like a flock of birds when frightened by a slingshot.
More evil demons and spirits
As well as the damsins will escape.
The ghosts of the dead, the ghosts of the living and the gonpos;2
The nine types of diseases and the adversities of the degenerate time
Will cluster like flies gathering upon rotten
meat.
The eagle-headed damsin has perversely prayed thus:
‘In future when life spans fall below the limit of thirty years,
We seven sisters shall meet in Tibet
And thereby destroy the life-force of the Buddhadharma.
So that the good fortune of Tibetans comes to exhaustion,
May these prayers be thus fulfilled:
As a means for all men and women to indulge in all the five poisons simultaneously,
The game of colourful papers will flourish.
Each person has one colourful paper in his hand;
In his heart the five delusions burn like fire;
From his mouth he utters all sorts of lies, negative words and oaths.
At such times the tradition of mine will flourish.’
They will not believe in the virtuous Dharma.
Covetousness, evil-mindedness, anger and so forth—
The five poisons—will occupy their minds.
They will always hold those despicable cards,
Discarding the early traditions and moral conduct like shedding skin.
The eagle-headed damsin and the theorang3 will merge with their minds,
Different types of diseases will spread
And they will act upon various immoral styles of conduct.
All men will play,
So the protectors of village and place
And the guardian deity of the ancestors
Will be annoyed and they will inflict diseases,
Animal diseases, scandals, quarrels, resentments and so forth—
Every variety of inauspicious things.
All women will play,
And damsins and the black ghosts
Will convert the women into meat-eating demons.
Then women will passionately steal the lives of beings
And impede the prosperity of wealthy people;
They will even devour their own children.
In this way they will stray amongst the evil spirits
And become wandering ghosts in their future lives.
If the monks play,
All their spiritual experiences and attainments, together with their roots,
Will die and fade away.
The monkey-headed damsin king
Will merge with their minds and they will behave senselessly,
Diseases of madness and losing consciousness will spread
And this will endanger the lives of many beings.
Among those who hold those cards,
The gyalpos and female ghosts will merge with the cards,
Distort their minds, destroy their ten virtues,
Cause the ten non-virtues to cluster around them like clouds,
Cause them to abandon the Three Jewels
And they will take refuge in damsins and gyalpos.
The causes of those cards are the evil demons and they will incarcerate you in hell realms after death.
Even in the present you will not practise the doctrine or virtue, and
You will not be able to eat, wear clothing, move or sleep regularly.
Being distracted unconsciously is the work of demons,
And being idle you cannot achieve any outcome.
Whoever holds these cards of perverted aspirations,
The Three Jewels are far from them.
The Dharma protectors will become powerless,
The dakas and dakinis will be apathetic,
The blessings of the tutelary deity will fade,
The demons and obstacle creators will devour them,
They will seek refuge in theorang and gongpos4
And the nine demon siblings from the north will merge with their life-force.
Therefore, abandon the evil cause, these cards.
Oh, beings who have heart,
Look at yourselves with introspection!
Do not put yourselves among demons!
Do not call craving spirits for aid!
Do no flout your luck!
Do not misuse your authority!
If you wish to rely upon me, Ogyen,
Do not exchange words
With those who play the fifty-four cards.
Eat not from their homes,
And look after yourselves with sympathy.
During the latter period of the degenerate time,
Even if the opportunity to execute virtuous actions is lacking,
Do not grab onto the roots of non-virtue.
Demons will spread the cards of perverted aspirations,
Which are the causes of non-virtuous actions and distractions.
Senseless Tibetans will also spread them to other beings,
And the wealth and prosperity of those idle people will be exhausted.
The female semos5 will spread the cards
As a means for astrological calculations and divination.
The gyalpos will spread the cards of evil causes
And psychotic episodes, insanity and heart attacks will appear all over the world.
When the four types of cards spread,
Diseases, famine, weapons of destruction,
And calamities caused by wild beasts, ghosts and life-spirits will arise,
And life-force will disperse.
Earthquakes and calamities caused by fire and wind;
Calamities caused by rain and water; human-caused calamities;
Calamities affecting plants and trees, the sun and moon;
And various other such calamities will occur.
The gyalpos’ cards will be red and bear a heart shape,
The cause for psychotic episodes and ominous conduct.
The semos’ cards will be red and bear a square shape,
The cause for nerve diseases and calamities caused by life-spirits, rain and water.
The eagle-headed damsins’ cards will bear a black heart shape,
The cause for calamities by tretreho, beasts and the straying of life-force.
The damsins’ and theorangs’ cards will bear the shape of a black flower,
The cause for regional infections of tuberculosis
And calamities caused by female ghosts.
Understand that these (cards) are the causes of many calamities.
Do not hold the causes of various diseases,
Do not hurl your weapons at your own body
And do not exhaust your merit.
If you the honourable ones wish to listen to me, Ogyen,
Do not initiate the custom of playing cards.
One who sees, hears or ponders about these cards
Will not have the fortune of receiving my blessings.
To the forgetful mind,
Vajrasattva and the other Buddhas will not bestow blessings.
On the path of distraction, demonic thieves are numerous.
This is the illustration of the effects of cards
On the people who use them, an evil practice of the degenerate time.
You, Gyalwa Chogyang,
Write these words and conceal them in the vastness of the sky.
When the life span falls below thirty years of age,
When the custom of playing cards thrives,
This must be given to fortunate people,
And should be spread, read and written.
As for the people who do not respect this,
I entreat Ekazati, Rahula,6
And the nine brothers who are the lords of the life-force to have their warm heart blood as their potent feast;
The local and village deities should chastise them!
If the person who believes this after having heard it,
Either burns the cards of perverted aspirations,
Hurls them into the water or into an air,
Or promises never to hold them in his hands,
Then the village deities and local deities,
The eight classes of gods
And those who protect the virtuous ones will be pleased
And will always accompany him, bestowing help, admiration and protection.
I, Ogyen, will consider him as my great son,
And he will be reborn in the realm of
Zangdog Palri;
Undoubtedly I, Ogyen, will greet him there.
In this life he will be free of diseases and punishment from rulers;
The menace of the four elements will not threaten him.
These are Ogyen’s words of promise.
Samaya Narakan!”
Then Gyalwa Chogyang asked the Guru,
“Alas, my supreme master,
The last group of five hundred years
Will be the time when foreigners enter
the central land.
The Tibetans will undergo torments,
The custom of playing cards will
surface,
Indulging in the five delusions will
increase,
The wheel of false promises will spin,
The sanctity of the dharma will be
belittled,
And the practice of non-virtue will be
respected.
If this is so, how can the beings of Tibet
be saved?
Please, Guru, teach the ways to save
them too.”
Then the great Guru continued,
“When the life span falls below thirty years of age,
The good fortune of sentient beings will be exhausted,
And the fruits of non-virtuous actions will ripen
Through the power of fruition according to its cause.
There will be different traditions in different villages
Wherein different sorts of joys and pains will take place.
The Buddhadharma will merely be the wealth of thieves,
And whoever practices it will be punished.
At that time if just one butter lamp is offered,
Then the merit of this is equal to the merit of offering a butter lamp
That fills the three thousand-fold universe
With as much butter as would be contained in the vast ocean
And a wick as high as Mount Meru.
In the same way, if even a morsel of food is offered to a monk,
The result of such an action is beyond calculation.
Carving the Mani mantra into stones
Or circumambulating even a small tsatsa7—
The merit of these is equivalent to
Completing a clockwise circumambulation of the entire world.
If one syllable of the Mani is printed, tied onto a flag-post as tiny as your finger
And flutters in the air, the beings touched by that air will be liberated.
Therefore, however small the virtues may be, do not ignore or overlook them.
There is no way the impact of the degenerate time can be changed;
Beings and subjects of Tibet,
Do not alter your minds but be careful!
Do not change your lifestyle but follow your traditions!
Do not change your activities but preserve the old traditions!
Do not change your language but speak in your mother tongue!
Put your trust in the Three Jewels,
Assume that happiness and suffering are the results of previous karma,
Be calm whether you hear good or bad words,
Undergo joy and pain without discrimination,
Recite the Mani and Siddhi mantras in your mind,
Contemplate compassion for all beings
And practise pure vision towards everyone and everything.
I, Ogyen, and the twenty-five disciples,
In order to save the Tibetans,
Will manifest as villagers,
Kings, warlords and girls;
Butchers, female butchers and hunters;
Manifesting in as many forms as possible
And striving for the welfare of beings.
Therefore, have pure vision towards everyone and everything,
And undergo bad and good things without discrimination.
The beings of the degenerate time are not trustable;
Trust only yourself.
Remember the Three Jewels,
Rely upon them for the welfare of this life and the next
And do not forget them in all activities and conduct
Because there is no protector other than them.
Even if I, Ogyen, personally come,
There is no way beings could be saved;
My unidentified manifestations however will keep coming.
The evil substances, smoking and snuff,
The distracting habit of playing cards and the like—
If you abandon them as per my words,
I, Ogyen, and Avalokiteshvara,
Jetsun Tara, Kumara;
Sengchen (Gesar), king of the world; and the masters,
Tutelary deities, dharma protectors and the protectors of the virtuous
Will bless and bestow guidance
To those persons of pure conduct and the fortunate ones,
And clear away their adversity and obstacles.
They will be reborn in Zangdog Palri and other pure realms,
And live amongst flocks of dakas and dakinis.”
“Thus the undeceiving words are cast,” Guru Rinpoche concluded.
In the Male Iron Rabbit year, the evil custom of playing cards will spread to all lands, the men and women will be led onto the perverted path and the gyalpos, gongpos and damsins will merge with their minds and cause different sorts of diseases to spread far and wide. So, in that period, spread this prediction to everybody. It is very important that everybody should read, write and spread this message. Do not think that the words of the enlightened ones are untrue. If one acts according to these words, the Buddhadharma will be restored and advanced. But if this is ignored, then everything will be affected by evil forces. All the conduct and traditions will degrade, and all will go towards the perverted path; consequently, the Buddhadharma will be destroyed. So, I enjoin the haughty Dharmapalas to feed on the warm heart blood of those dharma destroyers: devour them! Samaya!
By Rigzod Editors
- Nine sibling spirits who have violated their commitments.
- A type of mischievous spirit, sometimes counted among the “eight classes of gods and demons”, which can cause nervous disturbances and epilepsy.
- Sky-travelling preta-demon that possesses children.
- A type of evil spirit symbolizing ego-clinging, sometimes counted among the “eight classes of gods and demons”.
- Female spirits who manifest through lust; a type of evil spirit often found in company with the gyalpo class.
- Guardians of Dharma
- Miniature conical figures moulded of clay and used as offerings.
