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Title: Mother of Knowledge (Tibetan Translation Series) by Nam-Mkha'Is Nying-Po, Tarthang Tulku, Jane Wilhelms ISBN: 0-913546-91-7 Publisher: Dharma Publishing Pub. Date: 01 November, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95

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Summary: a sacred safari into the jungle
Comment: Mother of Knowledge: The Enlightenment of Yeshe Tsogyal Text by Nam-mkha'i snying-po. Translation by Tarthang Tulku, ed. Jane Wilhelms Dharma 1983; £12.25 p/b

My first encounter with the tantric text Mother of Knowledge was a bit like walking into a jungle. It was difficult to hold a path or to distinguish between the plants, sounds and life-forms. Often the undergrowth seemed so dense that it was impenetrable. But the jungle was bursting with rich vitality and life.

'She played a lute and sang: "... ai o au am all". After crying out "hrih! hrih! hrih! hrih! she completely disappeared. At the same time the earth trembled and rays of light criss-crossed the sky. An ear-splitting din rent the air, followed by a great rushing, clashing sound and a little spring of water near the palace grew into a small lake.'

This strange poetry, this assault on the limitations of my mind set, drew me like a magnet. I wanted very much to understand, but Mother of Knowledge has so many levels of meaning, and so many different dimensions, that I don't believe I will ever fathom them all. Having studied it continuously for seven years, I am still uncovering deeper and deeper levels. The further I go into the jungle. the more there is to see.

The text is a terma, a teaching which is traditionally understood to have been given by Padmasambhava and subsequently 'hidden' until the time was ripe for its appearance. His close disciple and consort, Yeshe Tsogyal, was responsible for hiding an enormous number of these termas, including The Life and Liberation of Padmasambhava.

Mother of Knowledge is the story of Yeshe Tsogyal's spiritual career, her struggles and progress. It is her record of the teachings she received from Padmasambhava, as well as those she herself gave as her spiritual experience deepened. It is also a beautiful and intimate record of the profound connection between disciple and teacher. In this respect it is for me a handbook on how to become the perfect disciple. As she sits meditating in a cave high up on the forest slopes. wearing only one piece of cotton cloth, her body covered with blisters from the cold, she entreats her Dharma Lord to 'look down on me with the sunlight of your compassion'. When I falter in my own practice, I recall such heroic endurance and her example revives me like a fresh fall of rain.

Really engaging with the text demands an imaginative identification. You have to wander with Yeshe Tsogyal into the land of the Orgyan Dakinis, where the trees are 'like keen razors and the earth seems made of flesh'. You need to see with her eyes the 'great castle built of three types of skull, its roof covered with a sheath of skin'. You have to feel the heat from 'the mountains of fire burning fiercely all round'.

Mother of Knowledge is not something you study in the formal sense. It is vivid experience - a strange new land to be explored and lived in. I used to dip into it every night just before going to sleep and its teaching seemed like a boat ferrying me into the unconscious, its symbols working their magic in the depths of my mind.

But it is not all in this vein; there are also traditional Buddhist teachings in their more recognizable form: on the precepts, mindfulness, impermanence, and sunyata (emptiness). And sometimes, as when Padmasambhava praises his disciple's practice of the six Perfections, one seems to enter a clearing in the jungle as the text becomes lucid in a rational way: 'Listen well, daughter... You are disciplined and ethical, patient and free from anger. With your discriminating wisdom, you have guided many beings; through your generosity, you have became totally free. Your vigour is endless, and in your meditation, you have travelled the five paths and the ten spiritual levels.'

Unremitting effort, focus and awareness are, however, essential or the path suddenly vanishes again and all sense of direction is lost. To stay alert, I ask myself questions. Why is Hayagriva (the wrathful form of the Buddha Amitabha) appearing now? Why is Tsogyal doing the purification practice at this particular point? In the process of attempting to follow the pathway through many diverse teachings, to discover and understand what is really being communicated, the shape of my mind has to change. It has to become more spacious; my thinking has to leave its narrow, habitual track, and revert to the wilderness.

All of you gathered here, listen closely Direct the power of your mind to my voice. You needn't despair, you should rejoice. Because life is composite, it is impermanent. Because objects are merely appearance, They have no real foundation. Because paths are confused, they are without truth. Because the fundamental nature or things is emptiness, Objects have no real status. Because the mind is merely dualistic concepts, It has no ground or root.

The name Yeshe Tsogyal means 'ocean of unending primordial wisdom'. If I truly engage with the text, I believe the ultimate demand will be to make my mind as fluid, unbiased, broad and deep as the ocean.

Varachitta is an artist who lives in East London