“(From my inner spiritual visions, it was truly a time when magical power was widely prevalent. The legends of King Gesar subduing monsters and evil spirits are true, even though many legendary scenes would be totally inconceivable in modern times.)”
Tibet, also known as the Land of the Snows, is a place filled with magic, miracles, and the spiritual energy left behind by many enlightened Saints. One of those venerated Beings was King Gesar, who lived around the 11th century AD. Also known as Sengchen Norbu Dradul, King Gesar was the benevolent “Great Lion” ruler of the Ling Kingdom on the Tibetan Plateau. For centuries, His miraculous life has been eulogized by people in Tibet and greater central Asia, both orally and in writing. This developed into “The Epic of King Gesar,” the world’s oldest and longest epic poem that is still performed today, with some 20 million words.
The Epic’s stories are not fables or myths; they are actually what Tibetans call “terma,” hidden spiritual treasures that are to be revealed to future generations through predestined individuals. Thus, while some Gesar reciters chant by reading a book, others amazingly gain the gift to recite the stories through dreams or inner visions. Overnight, an uneducated, even illiterate person who never learned the Epic, is able to recite eloquent verses without any repetition for hours at a time, over months on end! There are only a handful of these miraculous singers living today.
Let’s now turn to the real treasure trove of miracles that is King Gesar’s life itself. At a time when Tibet was filled with turmoil, anguish and despair, King Gesar was sent down by the Buddhas from the Heavenly Realm and had a magical birth. As a child, He was an outcast prince. But at age 13, after winning a horse race against many generals and His wicked uncle, He won the throne of Ling and thus became King Gesar. He then proceeded to achieve victory upon victory in the battlefield against evil demons, thus eliminating the source of suffering and suppression of people. In King Gesar’s own words: “Except for the enemies of the Buddha’s doctrine and those who bring harm to sentient beings, I, Gesar, have no enemies.”
Although to our modern society, such stories about fighting demons seem like fiction, we believe that they are actually true. As Supreme Master Ching Hai has explained: “The zealous spirits, they are so bad. And they are very not peaceful. They always try to make trouble because that is their job. If they don’t make trouble in the world, they don’t cause war or trouble between people, between animals, then there will be no trouble, and no fighting. Nobody will die or suffer. Then they’ll have no job.”
Testifying to the truth about King Gesar, one of our Chinese Association members saw during her meditation events from His life, as though watching a movie – similar to how some of the Gesar singers first received their inspired knowledge.
“(From my inner spiritual visions, it was truly a time when magical power was widely prevalent. The legends of King Gesar subduing monsters and evil spirits are true, even though many legendary scenes would be totally inconceivable in modern times.
Once, due to an erroneous judgment and decision by a general of King Gesar, the inhabitants of a whole village were massacred by bandits. Mutilated bodies were scattered everywhere. The general had failed in his rescue mission. Witnessing the devastation of the villagers, King Gesar was extremely grieved and enraged. He roared and scolded the general in the tent and burst into a heart-stricken cry [very similar to how Master cries for the helpless human victims of war and injustice, or the animals!!!].)”
“Even though I am not there with you physically, but I send my love to all of you – you, the beautiful beings, teacher of humans, helpers of the planet, blessing of the world, who are tortured and imprisoned for no cause of your fault! Oh, please know I love you! I cry every day, every time I remember you in suffering and helplessness. I send you my love. Please remember you are loved, at least you remember that. Please, be… Please have faith in God Almighty. Please remember my name. I cannot keep crying forever, but I love you forever. I have so much work to do. I have to go now. But you are in my love, always and forever. Please pray in your last hours. Please try to pray. Please remember my love, so you’ll feel comforted. I’ll be there for you.”
“(King Gesar personally and severely punished the officer, to help cleanse the general of the deep and heavy bad karma incurred from his error. King Gesar also questioned him loudly and furiously: “How can you make up for your mistake?! Will you ever be able to compensate for it at all?!” Greatly terrified and repentant, the general kneeled on his right knee. King Gesar was so overcome with grief that His flogging lacerated also His own face. He could not stop crying in sorrow. Seeing the inner scene at the time, I felt as though I was experiencing it in person and wept in sorrow [that is, I shared King Gesar’s feelings I shared King Gesar’s feelings as if He and I were one]. From this, we can see King Gesar’s benevolence and love for His people. My personal guess and inference: King Gesar was an enlightened Master at that time, who would help His disciples and subordinates to settle their deep and heavy bad karma. Those experiences of mine were followed by some notes [revealed to me from inside, which could serve as verses for storytellers]. ‘Heroes can also be helpless at times, Amidst streams of blood and scattered limbs. The mountains high above the clouds weep with grief, What can a king do but cry in despair!’
From my experience, I came to realize the reason why the small and precious number of storytellers and singing artists about King Gesar of Tibet always said that their stories came from what they had seen and received from inside. As inner experiences would reveal to them how to tell and sing the stories, [including the vocals which I cannot mimic with my vocal range], the legends of King Gesar would also be shown to them. That is why the number of stories about King Gesar has continued to increase over the past millennium, becoming the longest poem in the world. Indeed, the stories are not fabricated by the narrators or singers.)”
It is said that King Gesar had extraordinary supernatural powers, as well as help from Divine beings – including 12 animal attendants called Werma. Tibetan paintings often depict King Gesar with these special animal gods. But did the Werma really exist? Our Association member saw in her vision:
“(The Falcon: King Gesar often sent him out to scout enemy forces. He’s powerful. His silvery talons are long and sharp, and can perforate the heads of monsters and evil spirits. He punctures their heads and destroys them. The Falcon can also overcome time and spatial constraints. When he soars high into the sky, he uses his explosive movement to break the time and space barriers, and shorten the journey for the entire army. [This is similar to the art of space shrinkage.]
The White Tiger: With a snow-white coat and brown stripes, the White Tiger normally stands like a human but resumes his form when on a mission. He runs fast and moves nimbly and forcefully.
The Bear: He’s a giant, black bear and normally stands upright like a human. His majestic build makes him a very mighty guard for King Gesar.
The Rabbit: The Rabbit wears a belt that looks like cut out clothing. The belt is inlaid with a Tibetan-style round jewel symbolizing the rabbit’s high position. The Rabbit represents nimbleness and thoughtfulness.
Giangyipeibu, King Gesar’s Divine horse, with only one horn: In my inner experience I saw that the horse was magnificent, generally of silvery-white color which sometimes changed, looking like the horse statue in the King Gesar Cultural Expo Garden in the Maduo area. In my inner experience, when the Divine horse leaped and soared into the sky, it’s exactly like what we see in the portrait.
I think painters in Tibet drew pictures of King Gesar also according to what they saw in their inner experiences, with Werma – the King’s animal guards – around Him. In my inner experience, Master’s picture from a long time ago suddenly appeared, with Her fists clenched and showing an awe-inspiring demeanor that resembled the appearance of King Gesar.)”
Wow! Perhaps by now, we are no longer surprised that such a great and compassionate ancient sovereign as King Gesar was one of the past manifestations of Supreme Master Ching Hai. Like King Gesar, Supreme Master Ching Hai has amazing, Divine animal helpers again in this lifetime.
“The snake tried to bite me. But before he can, the bird already killed him. (Oh, wow.) Remember one time I told you guys I’d seen a bird and he kept walking around me all the time? (Yes.) He’s grown big now. Wow. About four sizes bigger than before. Bigger than that in the photo. (Oh, wow.) I thought he was an eagle. And he’s so majestic. He flew in from nowhere and just terminated that snake. And just to make sure nothing, no magic can revive him, he came back and forth to keep eating the dead snake. He’s like dividing it into many parts so that they cannot revive him again even with demons’ magic.”
“I said, ‘If you kill the snake like that, is there any karma for you, so bad?’ He said, ‘No. No.’ (Wow.) ‘No. It’s my job to protect. He’s a bad one, so…’ ‘He reincarnated this time as a bird to protect me. That’s his sole purpose, for love.’ So I said, ‘Thanks, De. Bless you.’”
“When I first came to the New Land (Ashram), they had a place for me and these negative ghosts had been there before because there was nobody living there for ten-something years. And so they think we invaded their territory, so they make trouble. So, the birds came. I never saw so many birds who came at one time like that. And sing so loud, so beautiful. They told me they were doing some secret – I can’t tell you – but they were secretly doing some formula to protect me from these demons. And the squirrel came and said they wish me well. They wish me freedom, happiness, safety and peace. And they told me, “Because You are the Worthy One.” I said, “Who told you that?” They said, “We know.” (All the animals know. All the animals know, Master.) It’s getting better now because the spiders, they wove a web around to protect my peace. That’s what they said. (Yes, Master.) I thank them no end.”
“I owe my life to all the animals, the wild animals. They keep telling me all day. And then even the bees, they come out at night to warn me. (Wow.) I’m lucky that the animals warn me, because the bee just goes straight to my face and stands still like a helicopter, stands in mid-air and tells me that, in the dark, midnight already. (Oh, wow.)”
“I told my assistant, “Take care of my dogs as if you take care of me. They are very high level.” And then they doubt in their mind. One day they said straight to me, “How come a dog high level is acting like that? So stupid.” I said, “Oh, you don’t know. They just act like that.” And then one day she meditated in the dogs’ quarter. The next day she told me, she said, “Oh, Master, this boy, oh, so much magical power, so much. I can’t believe he’s so incredibly powerful.” I said, “Yes, I told you, I told you.” They use it sometimes to help me invisibly. I’m very grateful to them.”
“Actually, all my dogs are protecting me in one way or another, more powerful or less powerful, because each of them has a different degree of power, just like us. And they do all their best to protect me. And they come back again and again just for that.”
Master also confirmed that animals do have magical powers.
“All the animals – they have magical power. They can transform themselves into humans sometimes, if they need to, to help you or to help someone, or to do something. They can contact Heaven and hell. They don’t show it in front of you, but they have magical power. That’s why sometimes maybe you adopted a dog, and suddenly your sickness is gone, and your family becomes more rich, or your … some problems are gone away. They do it quietly to help you, to repay your kindness, or because they love you, because you’re kind to them. Or cats even – they could die for you too, so that your son lives, something like that. Some of you know or maybe you notice the change so fast, before a dog and after the dog, or before cats, before birds, before chickens even, before cows, before pigs…”
“They are a tremendous help to mankind. It’s a very pity that people don’t know about it, just go on killing them. You kill your helpers! It's really a pity. They are like the physical angels for humankind. We have angels running all over the planet in the form of all kinds of animals.”
After winning numerous campaigns to clear up the demonic presence from the lands, King Gesar left the human realm at the age of 88. The Tibetan people believe that He went to reside in the hidden spiritual land of Shambhala and will return someday with an invincible army to establish lasting peace and justice. We’ll find out more about this prediction when our series continues.
